Campbell Soup Company (NYSE:CPB – News) today announced the national availability of new Campbell’s® condensed Harvest Orange Tomato soup, an artisanal transformation of a classic favorite. Campbell’s Harvest Orange Tomato soup is one of the 35 new products. Campbell is introducing in its U.S. Soup and Simple Meals business this fall.

The new recipe was created by Campbell’s culinary team, led by Thomas Griffiths, CMC, Senior Executive Chef and Director of Campbell’s Culinary and Baking Institute. Chef Griffiths developed the unique recipe using orange tomatoes grown from proprietary seeds cultivated at Campbell’s Agricultural Research Center in Davis, Calif. These are among
several unique colored tomato varieties that Campbell uses in its products.

Campbell first made the Harvest Orange Tomato soup recipe available last year in select markets. Based on the overwhelmingly positive response, the company decided to expand distribution nationwide.

“It’s easy to create a new classic when we begin with an iconic soup like Tomato, which is enjoyed by more than 25 million people each week,” said Chef Griffiths. “We set out to create a distinct and vibrant soup that offers a uniquely-delicious taste — a more sophisticated version of an American favorite. Now, people can enjoy both tomato soups each week.”

Chef Griffiths blended a perfect balance of herbs and spices for Harvest Orange Tomato soup, bringing out the natural flavors of the orange tomatoes with sage and rosemary and a touch of roasted garlic.

 About Campbell Soup Company

Campbell Soup Company is a global manufacturer and marketer of high-quality foods and simple meals, including soup and sauces, baked snacks and healthy beverages. Founded in 1869, the company has a portfolio of market-leading brands, including “Campbell’s,” “Pepperidge Farm,” “Arnott’s” and “V8.” Through its corporate social responsibility program, the company strives to make a positive impact in the workplace,
in the marketplace and in the communities in which it operates. Campbell is a member of the Standard Poor’s 500 and the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes.

By Miriam Rubin

A rainbow of tomatoes no longer grows in my garden. Some still droop from the vines, but most have fallen to the ground, soft and spotted. We need to get into the garden with gloves and rakes and shovels and garden tubs and clean it all up. Flowers still carry on, though it’s been damp and chilly, so that display might be waning. Soon there will be a frost and then it will be time to plant garlic, and maybe put in some leek seeds. After that, we’ll wait for the first snow.

This all sounds depressing but I would find it uninspiring to live where the seasons do not change. I don’t want to live where the sky is the same blue each day, though I would certainly visit — maybe January? I like needing to put on a sweater or my down vest. I am invigorated when I look out my office window onto a flame-yellow illuminated backdrop.

Yet as much as I enjoy fall, it’s still hard letting go of summer. Like last weekend, when we ate one of the remaining ‘Brandywines.’ Pretty darn wonderful. I carved up the precious tomato, amazed at the quality, while David nibbled away.

The other day, I drove over to Jeanne Williams’ farm to get most of what was left of her red, yellow and green tomatoes. “I’m so sick of tomatoes,” she said as we crouched on her porch, filling baskets and bushels. I had to agree. I added one of her ‘Queensland Blue’ pumpkins and a deep-purple eggplant to my bounty.

But then I went home and fried up a mess of green and pink tomatoes dipped in beaten egg and rolled in saltine cracker crumbs. To go with the fried tomatoes, I whipped together, what else? A tomato salad. Slices of yellow-red and all-red tomatoes showered with thin curls of red onion and salty calamatas, drizzled with homemade buttermilk-black pepper dressing. I ate way too much of all this waiting for David to come back from visiting the neighbors to “borrow” some of the hay they had baled in our fields.

Hay is for horses and guess what showed up the other day, after a few tense conversations between husband and me: A horse, of course, starving and rail-thin, with shallow cuts on his head and chest.

Years ago David put his name on a list for a horse-rescue program sponsored by the Humane Society. The other day, they called. They had a horse, badly in need of a new home and loving care. I had thought we’d long ago agreed No More Large Animals. But I guess only I agreed.

Out for a drive on a color-perfect fall day, we ran into the local country vet. She and her niece were in a Jeep, holding one small dog apiece. She was out checking on her own horses, giving them a new salt block. David asked about the health of the rescue horse, as she had examined him previously. The young gelding would be fine, she said, if he were cared for and well fed.

Horse (he doesn’t yet have a name), was transported by two women, a mother and daughter, who run Save A Horse Riding Stable.

They talked with David about bathing the horse and feeding him, confining him in the barn so he cannot eat too much rich grass right away. That could make him ill.

Horses need to chew, to ruminate much of the time they’re awake, because that’s what they do. That’s how they keep warm, and grow furry, like our other horses, Harold and Cherokee, both who lived out their years here. They’re buried in the field, in graves dug by hand by David, who dreams about horses and the way they smell. Who for many years missed seeing a horse in our fields. More than I understood. More than I miss the high-rises and canyons of New York City.

But some of New York stopped by the other week. They admired the log cabins and the changing leaves and the absolute quiet at night. They loved Lark, our Norwegian elkhound, who plopped herself down on Nach’s feet and turned and prompted so he could properly scratch each part of her chubby self.

The New Yorkers loved the fading garden. Maron got giddy about picking the raspberries, which still tasted pretty good. We sent them off to explore Pittsburgh, which they also loved. And we gave them roots: the black radishes I’d grown specially and several nice pieces of horseradish.

The other week, on a day with dramatic light, evocative clouds, and instant downpours that cleared out just as fast, there was the most perfect rainbow. With a faint double rainbow outlining it along one edge. It was some kind of thanks, I believe. To anyone who took the time to look.

Crunchy Cornmeal and Berry Muffins

PG tested

I made these from our berries, preserved safely in the freezer. The muffins are not super-sweet and the berries contribute a perfect tart bite. If you don’t have your own berries, use frozen ones from the supermarket. The crunch comes from Bob’s Red Mill coarse- or medium-grind cornmeal, from the natural foods section. Please don’t use fine-grind cornmeal — the texture won’t be right. Leftovers freeze beautifully.

• 1 3/4 cups coarse- or medium-grind stone-ground cornmeal
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1/3 cup buttermilk or plain yogurt (not Greek-style), or milk
• 3/4 cup frozen unsweetened raspberries, unthawed
• 1/2 cup frozen unsweetened blueberries, unthawed, or make your own combination, but you’ll need 1 1/4 cups total frozen berries

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease 12-cup muffin tin or line with foil or paper baking cups.

In large bowl, stir together cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. In medium bowl, whisk eggs until well blended. Whisk in brown sugar, butter and buttermilk or yogurt until no lumps remain. Add egg mixture to dry ingredients; stir just until mixed. Fold in berries. Spoon evenly into prepared muffin cups, filling each quite full.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until browned, springy to the touch and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand in pan 5 minutes, then unmold onto wire rack. You may need to loosen the sides with a knife. Serve warm or at room temperature, or reheat.

Makes 12 muffins. — Miriam Rubin

End-of-Season Tomato Salad with Buttermilk-Black Pepper Dressing

PG tested

From the last of the last, delicious tomatoes. If your tomatoes are mushy, keep them for another use, like a sauce, where texture won’t matter. Of course you don’t have to make this with the last of the tomatoes — you can tuck the recipe away until next summer and make it with the first of the tomatoes.

• 2 to 3 large, flavorful tomatoes (I used a ‘Brandywine’ and a red-and-yellow slicing tomato)
• 3 to 4 tablespoons coarsely chopped pitted calamata olives (optional but good)
• 2 to 3 tablespoons thinly sliced or chopped red onion
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons plain Greek yogurt or sour cream
• 2 tablespoons buttermilk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons white wine or cider vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon each kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Slice tomatoes thinly and arrange on platter. Sprinkle with olives and red onion.

In medium bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, yogurt or sour cream, buttermilk, vinegar, salt and pepper. Spoon some of dressing over salad, serve remainder on side or save for another salad. Makes 3 or 4 servings.

Though the colorful salads of summer (remember tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers?) are justly loved, a salad in autumn — or any cold season — is a thrill. Leafy salads have their place, yes, but so do salads with no leaves or minimal leaves. Cooked vegetables make fine salads this time of year, bathed with oil and vinegar. Think beets, potatoes, carrots, artichokes. But raw vegetables can make salads that are fresh and crisp.

Which brings us to a favorite salad vegetable, at least for this writer. It’s the pale green bulb with the feathery fronds: fennel. Italians have long adored it, and are mostly responsible for cultivating it in the United States.

Though we see (and welcome) fennel in the spring and summer, now is the time to enjoy it, when it is piled high at farmers’ markets. Planted in warm earth, it likes a spell of cool weather to achieve the sweet anise-licorice flavor for which it is famous.

Of course you can cook fennel, and should, or add it to soups, or chop the fronds for a fish marinade. But the easiest and perhaps best preparation is to slice it thinly and dress it lightly.

Fennel, good olive oil, lemon, garlic, salt and pepper. How can such simple ingredients taste so good? You could stop right there, or include a few more flourishes. Radish and curls of Parmesan add interest, as do a few parsley or arugula leaves.

The ordinary cultivated white mushroom is another surprisingly good raw salad vegetable, and can be quite glorious in fennel’s company. Choose firm young specimens that are still tightly closed and without gills. (Older, darker, more open mushrooms are better cooked.) Raw mushrooms eaten this way taste floral, almost truffle-like.

Gather the components carefully. The fresher the produce, the better the salad. You can wash and trim the fennel and radishes in advance, and have the mushrooms wiped and ready. But wait to slice them all until just before the meal. Then sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper, and add the lemony dressing.

FENNEL, MUSHROOM AND RADISH SALAD

Time: About 20 minutes

Yield: 4 servings

1 garlic clove, smashed to a paste with a little salt

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

½ teaspoon grated lemon zest

Salt and pepper

4 tablespoons olive oil

3 fennel bulbs, trimmed

4 ounces firm white mushrooms, wiped clean

6 radishes

A chunk of Parmesan, for shaving

Parsley leaves, optional

Arugula leaves, optional

1. Put the garlic in a small bowl. Add the lemon juice and zest, a good pinch of salt and a little freshly ground pepper. Whisk in the olive oil.

2. Thinly slice the fennel bulbs, mushrooms and radishes. Put them in a salad bowl and season lightly with salt and pepper. Add about ¾ of the dressing and toss gently.

3. With a vegetable peeler, shave curls of Parmesan over the salad. Garnish with a few arugula and parsley leaves, if you like. Drizzle with the remaining dressing.

As much as I enjoy reading Greg Patent’s weekly food columns, it seems that he shares the same mistaken idea with many others I know that once a green tomato is picked, it will never ripen.

For decades I have been growing large numbers of tomatoes, and for decades weather has forced me to pick most of them while still green and ripen them in my basement. Over the years at least 90 percent of the tomatoes that I ripen this way do just fine. As I write this, there are a half-dozen boxes of green tomatoes beginning to turn red in my basement. Variety, shape, size or degree of greenness does not seem to matter.

And lest you think that my basement has some sort of magical power, each year I mail a box of green tomatoes to my brother in Colorado who ripens them in his garage. I realize that this is not “cost effective,” but my brother has a silly notion that I am the only
member of our family capable of growing good tasting tomatoes.

So I suggest that you try ripening your late tomatoes off the vine. Hey, if it doesn’t work, you can always use some of Patent’s great recipes for green tomatoes!

By Don Spritzer, Missoula

I live in the northern Italian city of Turin, but my mother-in-law is from the south, the Naples hinterland, so this time of year is obligatory tomato-sauce bottling time. As Maria is nearing 80, I was wondering if she even felt like doing the conserva, but she rang me up two days ago demanding that I present myself at dawn the next day. She had already gone to the big markets and bought 100kg of the firm, pulpy San Marzano tomatoes trucked up from Puglia and Sicily. I was lucky in not having to deal with Maria’s bargaining: she always manages to lower the price. This year’s tomatoes were just 47 cents a kilo.

The bottling occurs in the big garage of the family home. Maria was already there when I arrived, washing tomatoes. I set up the pulping machine, and once we had sorted out tables for bottles and cut and dried basil from her garden we put the first load of tomatoes on to boil. Once the tomatoes are “cooked”, they are drained in plastic containers lined with a piece of clean old curtain. I place a clean, dry basil leaf in each bottle and Maria keeps on washing the next batch. I then start pushing the cooked tomatoes through the pulping machine and the first conserva starts to pour out. This is the moment of truth: Maria has to pronounce on whether she was ripped off or not. Looks to me as if the sauce will be thick and delicious as always.

As we worked silently side by side, I recalled my first year in Italy when I offered to help do the tomatoes. Maria’s sister came and the two of them talked non-stop about family. I tried to understand their southern dialect and connect the stories, and every now and then asked a question. It came to me slowly that in my new neighbourhood I was surrounded by cousins and uncles who had all followed Maria’s husband north after the second world war to work in the Fiat factories. I hadn’t realised that all these people who greeted me on the streets were family. They had left their land and their subsistence farming lives behind, but in the annual ritual returned to those times of preparing for winter.

Over the years everyone seems to have dropped out: my Italian sisters-in-law prefer to buy tinned tomatoes, but I love the flavour of the sun-ripened fruit and we have a year’s supply of rich tomato sauce. I confess, though, that I mostly do it out of the sense of carrying on a tradition. Kind of weird, given that I’m the foreigner here. But I just love it.

We have a recipe for green tomato pickles for Catherine in Santa Fe Springs – we hope she has enough green tomatoes to make it!

 PORTLAND GREEN TOMATO PICKLES

1 peck (about 12 1/2 pounds) green tomatoes, sliced

12 white onions, sliced

Salt

Distilled white vinegar

(about 4 cups)

2 tablespoons celery seed

1 tablespoon mustard seed

1 cup mixed pickle spices

4 shredded red pepper pods

Arrange tomatoes and onions in layers, sprinkling each layer moderately with salt; let stand overnight. Drain and place in kettle, cover with vinegar, add remaining ingredients and simmer 10 minutes. Pour into clean hot jars and seal at once.

Yield: 8 quart jars.

Note: Do not use aluminum kettles.

– From Cecilia in Bellflower

Oct 12, 2011 (Agriculture Department Documents and Publications/ContentWorks via COMTEX) –
SUMMARY: We are amending the fruits and vegetables regulations to allow, under certain conditions, the importation into the United States of commercial consignments of tomatoes with stems from the Republic of Korea. The conditions for the importation of tomatoes with stems from the Republic of Korea will include requirements for pest exclusion at the production site, fruit fly trapping inside and outside the production site, and pest-excluding packinghouse procedures. The tomatoes will also be required to be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate issued by the national plant protection organization of the Republic of Korea with an additional declaration confirming that the tomatoes have been produced in accordance with the requirements. This action will allow for the importation of tomatoes with stems from the Republic of Korea while continuing to provide protection against the introduction of injurious plant pests into the United States.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Effective Date: November 14, 2011.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Phillip B. Grove, Regulatory Coordination Specialist, Regulatory Coordination and Compliance, PPQ, APHIS, 4700 River Road, Unit 156, Riverdale, MD 20737; (301) 734-6280.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The regulations in “Subpart–Fruits and Vegetables” (7 CFR 319.56-1 through 319.56-51, referred to below as the regulations) prohibit or restrict the importation of fruits and vegetables into the United States from certain parts of the world to prevent the introduction and dissemination of plant pests.

On March 15, 2011, we published in the Federal Register (76 FR 13892-13896, Docket No. APHIS-2010-0020) a proposal /1/ to amend the regulations to allow the importation of commercial consignments of tomatoes with stems from the Republic of Korea (South Korea) into the United States if produced under a systems approach. The proposed systems approach included requirements for pest-exclusionary structures, trapping and monitoring inside and outside the pest-exclusionary structures for the fruit fly Bactrocera depressa, and packinghouse procedures designed to exclude the quarantine pests. We further proposed to require that consignments of tomatoes with stems from South Korea be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate with an additional declaration stating that the tomatoes were grown in approved pest-exclusionary structures and were inspected and found free from quarantine pests of concern to the United States.

FOOTNOTE 1 To view the proposed rule and the comments we received, go to http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocketDetaild=APHIS-2010-0020. END FOOTNOTE

We solicited comments concerning our proposal for 60 days ending May 16, 2011. We received six comments by that date. They were from private citizens and a State department of agriculture. Four commenters supported the proposed rule. Two commenters were opposed to the proposed rule.

Eggs, tomatoes, late rescue as US envoy fields Syrian anger for visit to opposition Bahrain sentences protester to death

AMMAN, Sept 29, (Agencies): Supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad hurled rocks, eggs and tomatoes at US Ambassador Robert Ford’s convoy as he visited an opposition figure in Damascus on Thursday and Syria accused Washington of inciting violence and meddling in its affairs.
Washington condemned the attack, calling it an attempt to intimidate a diplomat witnessing the “brutality” of the government.
“These kinds of assaults against diplomatic personnel, including our ambassador, are unwarranted and unjustifiable,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told a daily news briefing.
Assad’s crackdown on six months of pro-democracy protests has envenomed relations with the United States, which has imposed fresh sanctions and rallied world pressure on Syria.
President Barack Obama took office in 2009 pledging to engage in dialogue with Damascus and named Ford as ambassador.
“Two embassy cars were damaged,” said a witness, who asked not to be identified, adding that the demonstrators were chanting “Abu Hafez (father of Hafez)”, a nickname for Assad.
The diplomats were visiting Hassan Abdelazim, a centrist politician who has demanded an end to Assad’s crackdown as a condition for any opposition dialogue with the president.
Ford was already inside the building when about 200 Assad supporters attacked the embassy vehicles with large rocks and street signs with concrete bases. Embassy staff inside the vehicles were not harmed. Police later extracted the convoy.
The Syrian government said that once they were alerted to the confrontation, authorities “took all necessary procedures to protect the ambassador and his team and secure their return to their place of work.” There was no immediate comment from the State Department in Washington.
Soon after the incident, the Syrian Foreign Ministry issued a statement accusing the United States of “encouraging armed groups to practice violence against the Syrian Arab Army”.
The attack was the second on US diplomats since protests erupted in March. Assad supporters assaulted the US embassy in July after Ford visited the flashpoint city of Hama, winning cheers from protesters who later faced a tank-led crackdown.
Ford, who has angered Syria’s rulers by cultivating links with the grassroots opposition, has also visited a protest hotspot in the southern province of Deraa, ignoring a new ban on Western diplomats travelling outside the Damascus area.
Two weeks ago he and several other Western envoys attended the wake of a prominent activist.
Ford arrived in Damascus in January, filling a diplomatic vacuum since Washington withdrew his predecessor in 2005. Obama had hoped the gesture would help convince Assad to reconsider his alliance with Iran and with Islamist militant groups.
Western powers are pushing for a United Nations resolution condemning Syria, although opposition from Russia and China means this is unlikely to impose immediate sanctions.
“The UN Security Council cannot stay quiet any longer facing the daily crimes being committed against the population by the Syrian regime,” French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said. “We want to warn the Syrian regime. We want it stop the terror and repression.”
Haitham al-Maleh, a Syrian opposition leader who is visiting France and meeting French government officials, said that during a stop in Geneva this week he had urged the UN Human Rights Council to prepare a file on Assad and his aides for a possible prosecution by the International Criminal Court.
“How can the international community continue to have a connection with this regime? The regime is using all types of weapons and if the international community continues to wait, you won’t find anybody left but the children,” the veteran human rights lawyer told reporters in Paris.
The United Nations says Assad’s crackdown has killed at least 2,700 Syrians, including more than 100 children. Syrian authorities blame the violence on “armed terrorist gangs”, which they say have killed 700 members of the security forces.
Maleh put the death toll at 5,250, saying 5,000 people had disappeared, more than 100,000 had been arrested and 20,000 had fled to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. He called for UN military protection zones for civilians to be set up on the borders.
France’s human rights ambassador Francois Zimeray said his country was committed to bringing those responsible for abuses in Syria to justice. “It may take years, but the perpetrators will be judged,” he told reporters.
Armed resistance has emerged in Syria after months of mostly peaceful protests, with battles in the last few days in the town of Rastan, 180 kms (112 miles) north of Damascus.
Army deserters backed by armed villagers were holding out against tank fire, but Rastan was running short of supplies, activists and residents said.
“The more they (Assad loyalists) take casualties, the more they fire at civilians,” said one resident, who gave his name as Sami, adding that defenders were holding up the tanks with boobytraps and rocket-propelled grenades.
“The wounded are not being taken to hospital because it is at the front line. Makeshift clinics in homes are running out of medical supplies,” he added.
The Syrian Revolution General Commission, an umbrella for several activist groups, said the army assault had killed 41 people in Rastan in the last 72 hours, but that the figure was an estimate, with communications cut with the besieged town
Maleh said he opposed taking up weapons against the security forces, but said it was now inevitable, estimating that out of Syria’s 300,000-strong army, only the 60,000 men in a brigade commanded by Assad’s brother were fully loyal.
Bahrain
Bahrain jailed 20 doctors on Thursday for between five and 15 years on theft and other charges, the state news agency said, in what critics claimed was reprisal for treating protesters during unrest in the Gulf kingdom this year.
A security court also sentenced a man to death for killing a policeman by driving his car over him several times and joining illegal gatherings for “terrorist goals”, the BNA news agency said. Another man was handed a life term for his involvement.
The doctors, who denied the charges, were among dozens of medical staff arrested during protests led by the island’s Shi’ite majority demanding an end to sectarian discrimination and a greater say in government.
Bahrain’s Sunni Muslim rulers quashed the protests in March, with the help of troops from fellow Sunni neighbours Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. At least 30 people were killed, hundreds wounded and more than 1,000 detained — mostly Shi’ites — in the crackdown.
The doctors were charged with stealing medicine, stockpiling weapons and occupying a hospital during the unrest and in addition were jailed for forcibly occupying a hospital, spreading lies and false news, withholding treatment, inciting hatred of Bahrain’s rulers and calling for their overthrow.
“We were shocked by the verdicts because we were expecting the doctors would be proved innocent of the crime of occupying the Salmaniya medical complex,” defence lawyer Mohsen al-Alawi said, adding the hearing had lasted no more than 10 minutes.
The doctors say the charges were invented by the authorities to punish medical staff for treating people who took part in anti-government protests.
“Those doctors who have been found guilty were charged with abusing the hospital for political purposes. Nobody is above the law,” a spokesman for the government’s Information Affairs Authority (IAA) said.
Ten of the doctors, including senior physician Ali Al-Ekri, were given 15-year terms, two were sentenced to 10 years in prison and the rest to five.
“After today’s verdict and those issued yesterday we feel pessimism,” Alawi said, adding they would appeal against the decision.
On Wednesday a military court upheld life sentences against Shi’ite opposition leaders for organising protests in a trial described as a “sham” by Amnesty International, which also called the latest proceedings a “travesty of justice”.
The British government voiced concern over the sentences.
“These sentences appear disproportionate to the charges brought,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Thursday.
“These are worrying developments that could undermine the Bahraini government’s moves towards dialogue and the reform needed for long-term stability in Bahrain.”
A senior Bahraini official said the government was still prepared to hold more talks with all opposition parties on political reforms to try to end protests that threaten to hold up the economy and scratch its business-friendly image.
Sheikh Abdul-Aziz bin Mubarak al-Khalifa, a senior adviser at the IAA, also said Bahrain had begun receiving some of the $10 billion in economic aid promised by fellow Gulf Arab nations.
“Everything is open for discussion except regime change. That doesn’t mean it has to be discussed today (but) the king said reforms are not going to stop,” he said. “Other issues can be brought to the table — when and how, I’m not sure.”
Libya
Libya’s new rulers on Thursday stepped up the hunt for Muammar Gaddafi’s inner circle, seeking the arrest of one of his sons, Saadi, and announcing the capture of his spokesman Mussa Ibrahim.
They also said another Gaddafi son, Mutassim, was in the deposed despot’s birthplace of Sirte, where old regime loyalists fought pitched battles with combatants loyal to the ruling National Transitional Council.
“Misrata fighters contacted us and gave us the information that Mussa Ibrahim has been captured,” said Mustafa bin Dardef, of the National Transitional Council’s Zintan Brigade.
Another commander, Mohammed al-Marimi, said: “Mussa Ibrahim was captured while driving outside Sirte by fighters from Misrata.”
He said there were reports that Ibrahim was dressed as a woman, but could not immediately confirm that.
Libya’s Al-Hurra Misrata television also said Ibrahim had been caught outside Sirte and that he had been in a car and veiled, adding that it would soon broadcast footage of his capture.
Ibrahim had been the public voice of the Gaddafi regime until NTC fighters overran Tripoli on August 23.
Despite fleeing the capital along with the deposed despot, he has continued to issue statements through Syrian-based Arrai television from an unknown location, although not as frequently.
On Friday, Ibrahim had appealed for resolve against “agents and traitors,” denounced what he called “genocide” by NATO and its “Libyan agents,” and criticised the world community for “inaction.”
Global police agency Interpol said, meanwhile, the NTC had requested an arrest notice against Saadi, who is believed to be in Niger.
The Libyan authorities, it said in a statement, wanted him “for allegedly misappropriating properties through force and armed intimidation when he headed the Libyan Football Federation.”
Saadi, 38, was last seen in Niger and the red notice calls particularly on countries in the region to help locate and arrest him “with a view to returning him to Libya where an arrest warrant for him has been issued,” Interpol said.
However, Niger’s Prime Minister Brigi Rafini said later Thursday that his country has no plans to send Saadi home to face justice.
“Saadi Gaddafi is in safety, in security in Niamey, in the hands of the Niger government. There’s no question of him being extradited to Libya for the moment,” Rafini told AFP in France.
“We need to be sure he will be allowed a fair defence,” he said. “Are those conditions in place today? No.”
While the fugitive Gaddafi’s whereabouts remain unknown, Libya’s defence ministry spokesman Ahmed Bani said in Tripoli that his most prominent son, Seif al-Islam, was in Bani Walid and also said that Mutassim was in Sirte.
An NTC field commander in Sirte also told AFP that Mutassim was in the Mediterranean city, which lies some 360 kilometres (225 miles) east of Tripoli.
“Mutassim is inside and he is commanding his forces. They are using heavy guns as well as snipers which is making it difficult for us.”
Along with his father and former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, Seif is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity.
On the battlefront in Sirte, meanwhile, anti-Gaddafi fighters returned to the fray after being forced to retreat during ferocious fighting on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean city that had raged through the night.
An AFP correspondent said the two sides shelled each other and trading heavy machinegun fire around the port as well as near the Mahari Hotel.
The firefight intensified, with NTC tanks firing barrage after barrage of shells towards loyalist positions and pro-Gaddafi snipers firing on the NTC fighters from rooftops, the reporter said.
NTC military chiefs said their forces remained in control of the hotel and the port, which they overran on Tuesday, but that the situation was fluid.
“The battle is fierce,” said an NTC field commander who asked not to be identified.
Senators
Four Republican senators traveled to Libya on Thursday to meet with the nation’s new rulers, the highest-profile American delegation to visit the country since the ouster of longtime leader Moammar Gaddafi.
The four lawmakers — John McCain of Arizona, Mark Kirk of Illinois, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Marco Rubio of Florida — met with the head of the National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, and other high-ranking officials of the group that is now governing Libya after revolutionary forces ousted Gaddafi from power.
The senators toured Martyrs’ Square and planned a news conference later Thursday. They traveled from Malta, where they met with Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi on Wednesday.
Yemen
Two tribesmen were killed in fierce clashes on Thursday in Yemen’s capital between troops loyal to embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh and rival tribesmen and military forces that have defected.
In Geneva, meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Council slammed violations in Yemen but did not say if they were committed by troops loyal to Saleh or rival tribesmen and renegade troops.
Thursday’s firefights erupted in northern Sanaa between the elite Republican Guard, led by Saleh’s son Ahmed, and soldiers of the First Armoured Division which is headed by dissident General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar and provides protection for anti-Saleh protesters, witnesses said.
Guard forces based in Amran Street were locked in a heavy exchange of fire with dissident troops deployed in Thalathine Street near Change Square where protesters demanding Saleh’s ouster have camped for months, witnesses said.
They said heavy shelling believed to be coming from Republican Guard bases was targeting a residential neighbourhood near state television, with residents pleading for help and to be spared.
Loyalist troops had earlier clashed with Ahmar tribesmen in Al-Hasaba, in renewed fighting with the influential tribe whose leader Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar has sided with the protesters.
Two tribesmen were killed and five others wounded, tribal sources said.
The gunbattle erupted a day after other tribesmen fighting the Republican Guard north of Sanaa shot down a fighter jet.
The military held opposition leaders responsible for downing the Sukhoi SU-22 near Arhab, 40 kilometres (26 miles) north of Sanaa, a region that is the northern gateway into the capital.
It also follows a large protest on Wednesday when hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated near Change Square, demanding Saleh’s ouster and trial.
Youth groups had said on Wednesday they planned to march from Change Square in north Sanaa to the south of the city where Saleh’s residence is located.
“There will be an escalation during the coming two days. The youths will march… to Hedda Street, where the president’s residence is,” Walid al-Amari, a leading activist from the youth revolution committee, told AFP.
He said protesters want a peaceful march and have asked the leadership of the defected First Armoured Division not to provide any armed protection that could provoke Saleh loyalists.
But the groups appear to have backed off, as demonstrations on Thursday were confined to areas controlled by Ahmar’s first division.
Tens of thousands of people marched from Change Square through neighbouring streets before returning to their camp.
“Peaceful. Peaceful. No to civil war,” they chanted, an AFP correspondent reported.
Egypt
Political parties from across Egypt’s political spectrum threatened to boycott elections scheduled to start in November unless the country’s military rulers amend the election law.
Parties made their boycott threat in a joint statement late on Wednesday as some activists prepared a protest in Cairo for Friday. They hope it will attract thousands of people unhappy with the generals who took over from veteran president Hosni Mubarak when he was forced out by popular protests in February.
But some Islamists, including the powerful Muslim Brotherhood, said they would not protest, giving the army time to respond. The army urged protesters to keep order.
The United States also put pressure on the interim government, saying it hoped Egypt’s emergency law — widely seen as a tool of repression under Mubarak — would be scrapped sooner than the military foresees next year.
About 60 political parties and groups, including the political wing of the Brotherhood, have set a deadline of Sunday for the military council to meet their demands. These include approving a law that would effectively prevent many of those who supported Mubarak while he was in power from running for office.
Without it, the parties said they would not take part in the elections: “We will boycott if they have not responded positively to our demands by Sunday,” Sayyid al-Badawi, the head of the Wafd party, told Reuters.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party is now the largest and best organised party in Egypt, since Mubarak’s National Democratic Party was dissolved by court order.
The military council said on Tuesday that parliamentary elections would start in stages from Nov 28, and invited candidates to start registering for the poll from Oct 12.
Under rules approved by the council, which took over after Mubarak’s overthrow, party lists may compete for two thirds of seats in parliament, to be allocated regionally by proportional representation, while the rest are constituency seats reserved for unaffiliated individual candidates.
Badawi said all the parties had agreed to the demands in the statement to allow parties to field candidates on both regional party lists and for individual constituency seats.
Egypt’s military rulers said last week that the emergency law would remain in place until June next year, in keeping with a timeline set by Mubarak while he was trying to hold on to power in the face of mass demonstrations.
However, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for a faster end to the law, which was reactivated two days after a Sept 9 attack by protesters on the Israeli embassy in Cairo.
“We hope to see the law lifted sooner than that because we think that is an important step on the way to the rule of law and to the kind of system of checks and balances that are important in protecting the rights of the Egyptian people,” she said in Washington on Wednesday.
“We want to see this as soon as possible,” she told a news conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr.
Egyptian parties want the military council to activate a “Treason Law” issued in the 1950s to fight political corruption and abuse of office. In August, the government revived an amended version of the law, state news agency MENA reported. It was sent to the military council but has yet to be approved.

POMONA – Hundreds of people gathered on Saturday to get a pretty close experience to being a human French fry.

The Pomona Fairplex hosted the Tomato Fight, where gaggles of tomatoes were given to groups of eager produce warriors to splatter, squish, and toss as vine-ripened weapons at friends and enemies alike.

The afternoon event was flanked by live entertainment, a costume contest and beer garden celebrating Oktoberfest.

Those who think this saucy war was a waste of perfectly good tomatoes that could have otherwise been used in a Caprese salad or on some rigatoni need not worry. All the tomatoes used in the fight are past ripe and would have otherwise been thrown away.

A sponsor of the event was the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank.

While the Tomato Fight is over, the Fairplex will host its Oktoberfest from 6 p.m. to midnight on Oct. 28-29. The festivities include German beer and food, and a live Oom Pah Pah band. Admission is $5.

Tomatoes are New Zealand’s favourite fruit, with over a million plants grown by home gardeners all over the country every year. They are grown at home for their flavour … no store-bought tomato tastes anywhere near as good.

tomatoes are high in vitamin C and and are good sources of fibre. They love the sun, need protection from the wind, and to be given plenty of water and tomato fertiliser for strong plant and root growth. They are also frost tender.

Tips for success

* Choose a warm position in full sun away from strong winds in either the garden or in a pot. Cultivate soil, blend in Tui Tomato Food and compost before planting.

* For pots, simply choose a container at least two to three times the size of a kitchen bucket (20-30 litres) or use a Haxnicks tomato planter and fill with Tui Tomato Mix. This mix already has all the goodies in it to produce a bumper crop. You can even poke a few holes in the bottom of the potting mix bag for drainage and plant straight into the mix if time, space and the inclination takes you.

* Seeds take about a month to germinate and to be ready for transplanting. If you miss sowing seeds before the end of October, forget about it and get seedlings from the garden store. Buying single plants allows you to grow a range of varieties and types.

Depending on the variety, plants produce 3-6kgs of fruit on average.

* New tomato variety for 2011: Campari is a vibrant gourmet variety with the most intensely juicy and flavoursome fruit. Its striking intense red colour simply adds to its appeal. If planting in rows, plant 60cm-80cm apart to allow plenty of air movement.

* Most varieties, other than the dwarf, require staking. It’s safest to put the stake in the ground prior to planting to make sure you don’t snap off the root ball when inserting the stake. Tie the stems to the stake to give the plant support and to keep the fruit clean. Keep soil or potting mix moist, but not wet, at all times. Regular applications of Tui Tomato Food for the garden or Maxfeed tomatoes liquid feed for containers will boost growth and fruiting capacity.

* Allow fruit to ripen on the plant. Although tomatoes do ripen further once picked, the flavour is always at its best when the fruit has been allowed to ripen fully on the plant.