Newsbites

Bush personally signed off on Khatami visit. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush personally signed off on a visa allowing former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami to visit the United States because he wanted hear his views, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

Cindy Sheehan mission accomplished. Lying here in my motel room recovering from my fourth trip to the emergency room in a little over two weeks, I found out from a Trib news story that I have become “irrelevant” to the anti-war movement.

Coke Cola opens plant in Afghanistan. "This is another step forward for economic growth, self-sufficiency and better living standards for Afghanistan," Karzai said in a speech inside the plant, where 350 people had new jobs.

Chicago bellies up to designer beef. Today, diners at a handful of restaurants can select a steak that in its cow days ate nothing but sweet, tall grass. They can sit down in a restaurant where every steak comes from cattle that shared the same father. Or they can enjoy a piece of beef that is exactly like one designer Ralph Lauren dines on at his Colorado ranch.

FDA fines American Red Cross $4.2M. The violations include failing to reject donors who had traveled to malarial areas and allowing blood and related products to be distributed without proper testing, said Margaret Glavin, the Food and Drug Administration's associate commissioner for regulatory affairs.