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Take the generic drug clonidine for high blood pressure? Double-check that you didn’t leave the drugstore with Klonopin for seizures, or the gout medicine colchicine.

Mixing up drug names because they look or sound alike — like this trio — is among the most common types of medical mistakes, and it can be deadly. Now new efforts are aiming to stem the confusion, and make patients more aware of the risk.

Nearly 1,500 commonly used drugs have names so similar to at least one other medication that they’ve already caused mix-ups, says a major study by the U.S. Pharmacopeia, which helps set drug standards and promote patient safety.

Last week the influential group opened a Web-based tool to let consumers and doctors easily check if they’re using or prescribing any of these error-prone drugs, and what they might confuse it with. Try to spell or pronounce a few on the site — http://www.usp.org — and it’s easy to see how mistakes can happen. Did you mean the painkiller Celebrex or the antidepressant Celexa?

Due out later this fall is a more patient-oriented Web site, a partnership of the nonprofit Institute for Safe Medication Practices and online health service iGuard.org, that will send users e-mail alerts about drug-name confusion.

And the Food and Drug Administration — which currently rejects more than a third of proposed names for new drugs because they’re too similar to old ones — is preparing a pilot program that would shift more responsibility to manufacturers to guard against name confusion. The goal is to spell out how to better test for potential mix-ups before companies seek approval to sell their products.

“There are so many new drugs approved each year, this problem can only get worse,” warns USP vice president Diane Cousins.

At least 1.5 million Americans are estimated to be harmed each year from a variety of medication errors, and name mix-ups are blamed for a quarter of them.

Rarely does a company change a drug’s name after it hits the market, although it’s happened twice since 2005. The Alzheimer’s drug Reminyl now is named Razadyne, after mix-ups, including two reported deaths, with the old diabetes drug Amaryl. The cholesterol pill Omacor is now named Lovaza, after mix-ups with blood-clotting Amicar.

Doctors’ notoriously bad handwriting isn’t the only culprit. A hurried pharmacist faced with alphabetized bottles on a shelf might grab the wrong one.

Nor are computerized prescriptions a panacea. A doctor who e-prescribes still can click the wrong row on the alphabetized screen, picking the bone drug Actonel instead of the diabetes drug Actos.

Phone or fax a prescription, and static or smudged ink can turn the epilepsy drug Lamictal into the antifungal pill Lamisil.

Harder to measure but perhaps more common: A doctor means to prescribe a new drug but spells out a similar-sounding old one out of habit. Or the patient misspells or mispronounces one of his drugs, and a health worker assumes it’s the schizophrenia drug Zyprexa, not the antihistamine Zyrtec.

“We’ve had cases where a health care professional repeats what they think the patient’s on, and the patient thinks they must know what they’re talking about and agrees,” says USP’s Cousins.

Enter the new Web tool. Cousins advises consumers to check it against their current medications, so they know to pay more attention to confusing ones at refill time.

Question the pharmacist if the tablets look different than last time — it might just be a new generic, or it might be the wrong drug altogether, says pharmacist Marjorie Phillips, medication safety coordinator at MCGHealth, the Medical College of Georgia’s health system.

Patients also can ask their doctors to write the diagnosis on the prescription, a step that pharmacists told the Institute for Safe Medication Practices would help them prevent errors.

“What they consider most important is knowing why the medication is used,” says institute president Michael Cohen. “It would go a long way to interrupt a lot of these mix-ups.”

Write “for heart” next to “clonipine,” for example, and a pharmacist is less likely to grab similar-sounding gout pills.

But specialists are urging more research on another widely touted solution: Writing drug names in an eye-catching mix of upper- and lower-case letters. It sometimes helps but can backfire, warns Dr. Ruth S. Day, director of Duke University’s medical cognition laboratory. She found users of a heart drug got even more confused with it was written NIFEdepine — because the change made them pronounce it “KNIFE-duh-peen” instead of “nie-FEH-duh-peen.”

Schoolgirls in Scotland became the first in the country to get a jab against cervical cancer on Monday.

Pupils aged 12 and 13 in several areas are being offered the vaccine from this week, as part of a nationwide programme announced last October.

The programme will eventually see all girls in Britain up to the age of 18 receive the jab — although it is not compulsory.

Scotland is the first to start the campaign as schools there started the autumn term earlier than elsewhere in Britain.

The Cervarix vaccination works by targeting the human papillomavirus, which causes around 70 percent of cases of cervical cancer.

More than 1,000 women in the UK die every year from cervical cancer.

The vaccine costs around 300 pounds and will be offered in three doses over a six-month period.

Jeanette Cairns, a school nurse co-ordinator with NHS Tayside, one of the first areas to carry out vaccinations, said: “Girls should not feel nervous about coming for the vaccination.

“It is just a small injection into the arm that will protect them for many years against cervical cancer.”

Hurricane Hanna stalled for hours over the southeastern Bahamas on Monday, lashing the islands with fierce winds and rain. Forecasters said it could threaten the southeast United States by midweek.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Ike emerged as a new threat in the open sea, as the National Hurricane Center in Miami monitored three weaker weather systems moving westward across the Atlantic.

Hanna, with maximum sustained winds near 80 mph (130 kmh), lingered for much of the day near Mayaguana and nearby islands in the southeast Bahamas.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or major damage, but emergency teams were standing by and would begin assessing the situation once the storm has cleared, said Stephen Russell, interim director of the Bahamas National Emergency Management Agency.

“I’m quite certain there is going to be damage, particularly in Mayaguana,” he said.

Hanna also was bringing strong winds, heavy rain and pounding surf to nearby islands, including Inagua and Crooked Island, and Turks and Caicos Islands to the south. It was expected to hit the southeastern U.S. later in the week.

“Right now, the uncertainty is such that it could hit anywhere from Miami to the outer banks of North Carolina,” said Jessica Schauer Clark, a meteorologist at the U.S. National Hurricane Center. “So people really need to keep an eye on it.”

Ike was approaching behind Hanna — still about 1,400 miles (2,250 kilometers) out in the Atlantic Ocean, but expected to become a hurricane in the next 36 hours as it too approaches the Bahamas.

NASA was not taking any chances — it announced a delay of at least a day in the planned move of the space shuttle Atlantis from an assembly building at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center to the launch pad. The move had been scheduled for Tuesday in preparation for an October mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.

Florida state officials also were keeping nervous watch on Hanna and the weather behind it, careful not to overextend the assistance it provides to other Gulf Coast states dealing with Gustav.

Hanna’s center was near the Caicos Islands on Monday evening. It was nearly stationary.

“The storm’s on top of us right now and it’s blowing really hard,” said Miguel Campbell, a mechanic with the Bahamas Electricity Corp. on Mayaguana, where some 300 people were hunkered down.

Hanna’s winds and rain reached all the way to Haiti, where thousands remain homeless in the wake of Gustav, which was downgraded to a tropical storm as it moved over central Louisiana late Monday.

In Puerto Rico, authorities said one man from Colombia was killed and a woman from Brazil was missing after they were swept away in a river swollen with rain from Hanna. The two were students at the University of Puerto Rico on a trip to the island’s east.

Hanna was expected to bring up to 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain to the Turks chain, a popular tourist destination with about 22,000 people.

Tourists Jason and Carolina Volpi were out of luck as they tried to leave. The Providenciales airport was shut down and all flights were canceled. They couldn’t get seats out until Thursday, too late to attend business meetings back in Italy.

“The situation is very frustrating,” Jason Volpi, 36, said as they waited under darkening skies for a taxi back to their hotel.

The European Union said Monday it would give euro2 million (US$2.9 million) to help the recovery from Gustav, which killed 94 people. The money will pay for clean water, food, medical care, shelter and basic household items in Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. In Haiti, 8,000 people are in temporary housing after high winds and floods destroyed homes and farms.

Offensive tackle Willie Anderson and running back Rudi Johnson lost their starting jobs with the Cincinnati Bengals during training camp. Now they’ve lost their roster spots, too.

The Bengals released Anderson and Johnson on Saturday as part of their moves to get to the 53-man roster limit.

The 33-year-old Anderson was the most tenured Bengal at 12 seasons. Injuries limited him to seven games last season, ending his streak of four consecutive Pro Bowl appearances. He became a backup to Stacy Andrews in training camp, and declined to take a pay cut to stay with the team.

“This wasn’t a decision based on my play, I want to make that clear,” Anderson said. “They weren’t comfortable with two guys making big salaries at the same position. I’m not mad or bitter about this, but I am disappointed in the timing.”

Lewis said the decision to release Anderson was “very tough.”

“He has been significant to me,” Lewis said. “He has been significant to this organization, beyond me. We’ll see what happens. It may not be over.”

The 28-year-old Johnson missed most of camp because of a hamstring injury, making him expendable. Chris Perry, a first-round pick in 2004, moves into the starting job after having a healthy preseason.

Johnson ran for a club-record 1,458 yards in 2005. Hamstring problems limited him to nine starts and a 2.9-yard average last season.

“I’ve seen Rudi practice very few times, and cut it loose very few times,” Lewis said. “I thought he had a great spring and was doing everything, but unfortunately, he seemed to suffer from the hamstring.”

As expected, Tampa Bay cut Chris Simms, their former starting quarterback, who missed all of last season after a serious spleen injury and asked to be released. They also cut Ryan Nece, a former starter at linebacker.

Nece and Simms are the sons of former NFL stars — Nece of Hall of Fame safety Ronnie Lott and Simms of former Super Bowl MVP and current broadcaster Phil Simms.

Atlanta released quarterback Joey Harrington, the third overall pick in the 2002 draft by the Lions and a starter in 10 games for the Falcons last season. Harrington had been third on the depth chart behind rookie Matt Ryan, the third overall choice this year, and Chris Redman.

And there were actions in addition to the cuts.

Kevin Faulk, the veteran third-down back for the Patriots, was suspended for one game and will forfeit two paychecks, the result of a no contest plea in July to misdemeanor marijuana charges in Lafayette, La. Faulk had been issued a summons for possession of marijuana at a Li’l Wayne concert in February.

The same penalty was leveled on Baltimore cornerback Derrick Martin. According to a police report, Martin was cited and charged in July with possession of three small bags of marijuana at the Cleveland airport during a random TSA screening while attempting to board a flight.

And veteran running back Jesse Chatman, now with the New York Jets, was suspended for four games for violating the league’s steroid policy.

The New York Giants signed 44-year-old John Carney while Lawrence Tynes recovers from a knee injury, meaning they will have two kickers on the roster. They also kept just two quarterbacks, Eli Manning and David Carr, placing Anthony Wright on injured reserve with a back injury and cutting rookie Andre Woodson.

Pittsburgh placed backup quarterback Charlie Batch on injured reserve. He broke his collarbone in the exhibition opener, and the Steelers signed veteran Byron Leftwich to take his place.

Tennessee cut Roydell Williams, the Titans’ co-leader in receptions last year, after he struggled to recover from breaking an ankle days before a playoff game in January. He had 55 catches last year along with Justin Gage, who signed a contract extension in February.

Philadelphia released defensive end Jerome McDougle, a one-time first-rounder plagued by injuries on and off the field. The Eagles also released veteran defensive tackle Montae Reagor and tight end Kris Wilson.

The Redskins cut punter Derrick Frost, choosing to keep sixth-round draft choice Durant Brooks. Among the other veterans let go by Washington were wide receiver Billy McMullen and offensive tackle Todd Wade, who spent four years with Miami and two each with Houston and the Redskins.

Baltimore cut quarterback Casey Bramlet, signed last week as insurance when Troy Smith was ill and Kyle Boller injured. The Ravens also released special teams ace Gary Stills.

Houston, which made most of its cuts on Friday, placed running back Chris Brown on injured reserve with back problems. That leaves the Texans with Ahman Green, Chris Taylor and rookie Steve Slaton.

Drew Henson, the former Michigan quarterback and New York Yankees prospect, was cut by Detroit. He signed last week when quarterback Drew Stanton injured a hand.

Also, Minnesota placed safety Michael Boulware on injured reserve. Boulware apparently injured a wrist Thursday night in the final exhibition game.

That leaves Eric Frampton and undrafted rookie Husain Abdullah as the backups at safety to Darren Sharper and rookie Tyrell Johnson. Madieu Williams has a neck injury and is out for perhaps another month.

San Francisco released underachieving receiver Ashley Lelie, who was going into the second year of a two-year, $4.3 million deal that included a $2 million signing bonus. He had just 10 receptions for 115 yards last season while struggling with injuries.

The 49ers also waived fullback Moran Norris, a two-year starter who lost his job to Zak Keasey during training camp.

AFC champion New England released quarterback Matt Gutierrez and kept Matt Cassel as Tom Brady’s backup for a fourth season. Cassel’s roster spot appeared to be in jeopardy after he failed to lead the Patriots to a touchdown in 17 series during their winless exhibition season.

Other noteworthy Patriots cuts were veterans Fernando Bryant, their starting cornerback for most of the exhibition season, and Victor Hobson, a linebacker who spent all five of his NFL seasons with the New York Jets.

Carolina placed star receiver Steve Smith on the reserve-suspended list while he serves a two-game ban for punching cornerback Ken Lucas during training camp.

The Panthers’ veteran cuts included safety Terrence Holt and defensive end Stanley McClover, while cornerback-kick returner Ricardo Colclough was let go hours after he was arrested and charged with driving while impaired.

Pakistan said Sunday it was suspending a military operation against insurgents in a tribal region for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan but warned any provocations in the area would bring immediate retaliation.

A Taliban spokesman welcomed the decision to halt the strikes in the Bajur tribal region, a rumored hide-out of Osama bin Laden near the border with Afghanistan.

In another part of the northwest, a blast blamed on a missile reportedly killed four suspected foreign militants. Residents said they saw a drone in the air shortly before the explosion, raising suspicion the U.S. was behind the strike.

Pakistan’s five-month-old government at first tried peace talks with militants, but those efforts bore little fruit. It has turned to force in recent weeks, including using helicopter gunships and jets to strike suspected insurgent hide-outs.

The operation in Bajur began in early August. Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said Sunday the operation has killed more than 560 people the government says were Islamist insurgents and has displaced more than 300,000 people. Malik did not commit to a formal end to the operation but said people displaced from Bajur could return to the region “without any fear.”

American officials have pressed Pakistan to crack down on militants in its tribal regions, fearing Taliban and al-Qaida-linked fighters involved in attacks on U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan use those border areas as safe zones. The U.S. is suspected of launching a series of missile strikes targeting alleged militant compounds in Pakistan’s rugged and lawless tribal region along the border.

Malik said the suspension of operations in Bajur would take effect by early Monday and army spokesman Maj. Murad Khan said by late Sunday, the military had halted its activities.

Bajur has been the primary focus of military operations against insurgents, though there have also been clashes in the northwestern Swat Valley.

The numbers and scope of the operations have been almost impossible to confirm because of the remote, dangerous nature of the regions. The Pakistani Taliban have claimed responsibility for a string of recent suicide attacks, calling them revenge for the offensives.

As the crackdown has proceeded, Pakistan’s government has become increasingly embroiled in political turbulence.

A short-lived ruling coalition forced Pervez Musharraf — the longtime U.S. ally in the war on terror — to quit the presidency on Aug. 18. The coalition then rapidly fell apart over disputes about Musharraf’s successor and how to reinstate judges he fired last year.

Asif Ali Zardari, the head of the main ruling Pakistan People’s Party and the widower of slain ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, is considered the favorite to win lawmakers’ votes for the presidency on Sept. 6.

The PPP is considered generally in line with U.S. goals in fighting extremists, but because of deep anti-American sentiment in Pakistan, it has to tread carefully. Many Pakistanis blame the violence in their country on Musharraf’s decision to support the U.S.

Malik insisted Pakistan was not taking American orders on how to fight extremists in its midst.

“We are fighting this war. This is our war. There is no question of America’s dictation,” Malik said.

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Maulvi Umar said the suspension of the operation in Bajur was welcome, and he reiterated an offer to negotiate with the government. However, he said militants would not lay down their arms as the government has demanded.

Umar also said that, as a gesture of goodwill, the militants would release six paramilitary troops out of 30 they claim to have in captivity.

It was not immediately clear whether authorities were also suspending military operations in Swat.

Muslim Khan, a Taliban spokesman in Swat, said militants would not halt their activities during Ramadan despite any suspension of an army operation.

“This is not a war, but jihad, and this is our faith that rewards for good deeds and that is multiplied during the holy month,” Khan said.

In the North Waziristan tribal region, witnesses and a local intelligence official said a blast Sunday destroyed a house and a missile strike was suspected.

At least four people were reported killed and two injured in the blast in Tapi village, said the intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of his job. He said all six were believed to be foreigners.

Local militants immediately surrounded the site, said area residents Mohammad Ayaz and Noor Rehman. Both said they saw a drone in the air before the explosion at about 3 p.m.

Capt. Christian Patterson, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, said its troops had not fired any missiles into Pakistan on Sunday. Past missile strikes are believed to have been conducted by the CIA using Predator drones.

If confirmed, it would be the second missile strike in two days in a tribal region.

Also Sunday, a tribal council in the Salarzai area of Bajur warned Taliban militants they would be shot on sight and told residents not to shelter insurgents or risk loss of money and property, two elders told The Associated Press.

Tribal leaders oversaw the burning and destruction of about a dozen homes and centers of suspected militants, said the elders, Malik Manasib Khan and Malik Bakhtawar Khan.

Cubans returned from shelters to find flooded homes and washed-out roads Sunday, but no deaths were reported after a monstrous Hurricane Gustav roared across the island and into the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico.

Gustav hit the Isla de la Juventud south of the Cuban mainland just short of a top-scale Category 5 hurricane with screaming 140 mph (220 kph) winds that toppled telephone poles and fruit trees, shattered windows and leveled some homes.

Authorities evacuated 250,000 residents nationwide. In Pinar del Rio, the western tobacco-producing region, highways were blocked by fallen trees and downed power lines, and all public transportation ground to a halt.

Officials measured gusts of 212 mph (340 kph) in the western town of Paso Real del San Diego — a new national record for maximum wind speed in a country often hit by major hurricanes, said Miguel Angel Hernandez of the Cuban Institute of Meteorology.

A Cuban television reporter on the Isla de la Juventud said the storm had felt like “the blast wave from a bomb.”

“Buildings without windows, without doors,” he said. “Few trees remain standing.”

Cuban Civil defense chief Ana Isa Delgado said there were “many people injured” on the Isla de la Juventud, an island of 87,000 people whose name means Isle of Youth. Nearly all of its roads were washed out, and some regions were heavily flooded.

Gustav earlier killed 94 people by triggering floods and landslides in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica. Jamaica’s Emergency Management office on Sunday raised Gustav’s death toll there to 10 from seven, and Haiti upped its count from 66 to 76.

But in Cuba, none of the reported injuries were life-threatening.

In the fishing town of Batabano, 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of Havana, evacuees with children and dogs in tow returned to their pastel-colored, wooden homes to find many surrounded by knee-deep water.

“My house is full of water,” said Aldo Tomas, 43, pulling palm branches from his living room. “But we expected more. We expected worse.”

Gustav weakened slightly after crossing Cuba to a Category 3 status Sunday. But it still packed top winds near 115 mph (185 kph), and forecasters predicted it would increase to a Category 4 before making landfall Monday along the U.S. Gulf coast.

More than 1 million Americans made wary by Hurricane Katrina took buses, trains, planes and cars out of New Orleans and other coastal cities, where Katrina killed about 1,600 people in 2005.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Hanna weakened slightly as it swirled toward the Turks and Caicos Islands and southeastern Bahamas on Sunday.

As it traveled over open waters, Hanna sustained winds of 45 mph (75 kph).

Oh, the terrible things we come home to from vacation. While everyone else seems obsessed with how we will — or won’t — spend our summer, does anyone care what happens when it’s over?

Well, I do. I’ve experienced almost every non-Hollywood ending to a vacation you can imagine. They feature death, destruction and a couple of pink slips from my clients. I’ll get to those in a second.

But first, let’s hear about your unhappy endings.

Cliff Woodrick returned from a four-week vacation in Quebec to a gruesome sight and an even more unpleasant smell: the corpses of more than two dozen fish bobbing up and down in his algae-coated aquarium.

“We had a storm that knocked out the power while I was gone,” he remembers. “The three pump filters went offline, and some of the electrical connections in the house were fried.”

Yuck.

Reader Stacey Udell came back from a weeklong California getaway to find a thousand unwelcome visitors. “Black flies everywhere,” she says. “Water had accumulated on the floor in the basement near a window, and the flies must have come in and multiplied. It was so totally gross and shocking. We couldn’t even let the kids in the house.”

How about getting fired after coming home from a vacation? I’ve been there so often — why do they always wait until you’re away to decide you’re history? — that I’m reluctant to go on vacation. That, and maybe the fact that the last time I took a real break my house was hit by a hurricane.

It could be worse. A British couple recently came home from a trip to find that their pet tortoise had burned down their residence. I’m not making this up. A few weeks ago, the Grahn family of Hugo, Minnesota, returned from a weekend getaway to discover their house had been flattened by a tornado.

Here are five ways to prevent a bad homecoming.

Don’t try to control what you can’t

There’s a certain randomness to travel. In a sense, you never really know what you’re going to come home to. Alice Argento returned from a vacation in Belize to see her Cranbury, New Jersey, apartment in flames. “We jumped out of the car and ran toward the apartment to find our roommate, who had been watching the house and my dog, on fire,” she remembers. It turns out her roommate was making French fries, and had left the hot oil unattended for a minute. They were able to extinguish the fire, but her roommate had to go to the hospital with second- and third-degree burns. “What a night!” she says. And really, there was nothing she could have done to prevent it — except maybe to tell her roommate to stay away from deep-fried foods.

Be prepared for a power failure

That would have saved Woodrick’s fish and possibly the contents of Naoma Foreman’s refrigerator. The power went out in her Phoenix home while she was out on vacation recently. “All food was spoiled, and everything had to be hauled away — including the refrigerator,” she recalls. Don’t stock up on groceries — particularly perishable groceries — before heading off for the weekend. Power failures can happen, and if they last for more than a few hours, you’ll have a mess on your hands.

Don’t cut corners on pet care

The folks whose turtle burned their house down already know that. And so do I. A few weeks ago, while I was away on assignment, one of my beloved cats was run over by a car. Instead of putting my kitties in a kennel, as I should have, I asked a friend to come by twice a day to feed them. I’m still grieving the loss of my companion. I can’t read the comments on my own blog without losing it. Lesson learned? Make sure your pets are safe before you go on vacation.

Take extra precautions when you see trouble coming

Remember the 2004 hurricane season? Florida resident Evelyn Fine does. She was having her Orlando home remodeled during the middle of the summer and thought it might be a good time to go on vacation. If you’ll recall that summer, there were storms lined up one after the other at several points, taking aim at the Sunshine State. Wouldn’t you know it, one of them took out her air conditioner and Fine’s irreplaceable wine collection was, in her words, “cooked.” “Much was corked and the balance was barely drinkable,” she says. It might have been a good time to move them to a nearby wine storage facility, where the bottles could be stored safely.

Stay home

Back in 1995, when I lived on Long Key, Florida — a remote island between Islamorada and Marathon in the Florida Keys, I watched Hurricane Opal approaching. I was scheduled to fly to Albuquerque, New Mexico, for a family reunion. But with the storm on a direct path for the Keys, I decided to call off my trip and take my family to the mainland instead. What made me change my mind? Maybe it was the Monroe County sheriff who stopped by our house and asked for our names and whether or not we were staying in the house. He needed to know how many bodies to look for if the hurricane hit. Fortunately, it didn’t. Sometimes the best way to prevent a vacation tragedy is to not go in the first place.

Dell Inc. unveiled four low-cost computer models for China, India and other emerging economies Wednesday in a new bid to tap the potential of high-growth markets outside the United States.

The two notebook and two desktop PCs are the first Dell models designed especially for emerging markets, said Steve Felice, the U.S. computer maker’s president for the Asia-Pacific.

They are meant for small-business users and are to be sold in 20 countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Strong sales in Asia helped Dell turn in better-than-expected results in the last quarter despite a slowing U.S. economy. It is due to report its latest quarterly results after the U.S. markets close Thursday, and analysts are watching whether it can maintain its growth pace.

“Our success is going to be largely dependent on our ability to expand globally,” Felice said in an interview.

Dell and rivals Hewlett-Packard Co., Taiwan-based Acer Inc. and China’s Lenovo Group are expanding aggressively in emerging economies as sales growth in the United States and other developed markets slows.

Dell’s first-quarter sales in China, India, Russia and Brazil — markets known collectively as BRIC — grew by 58 percent, about 10 times the U.S. rate, Felice said. He said Dell expects 20-30 percent annual growth in those markets in coming years.

Prices for the new Vestro notebooks will start at 3,299 yuan ($475) and for the desktop PCs at 2,999 yuan ($440).

Dell, based in Round Rock, Texas, broke with its usual development and marketing strategy for its latest products, Felice said.

“We used to design products for global requirements and distribute the same product globally,” he said. “In this situation, we started with talking to emerging country customers, designing a product for emerging countries, and our initial launch of the product is only in emerging countries. That’s a big departure in our strategy.”

The new Dell models were created by a Shanghai design center set up to focus on emerging markets, Felice said.

The move reflects a growing focus by global computer, automobile, consumer goods and other companies on creating products for increasingly prosperous customers in China, India and other emerging economies.

Beijing-based Lenovo, which acquired IBM Corp.’s PC unit in 2005, is targeting China’s vast but poor rural market with a basic PC released last year and priced as low as 1,499 yuan ($220).

According to Felice, industry forecasts say China’s computer sales should grow from 50 million units last year to 500 million by 2015, or double that year’s projected U.S. sales.

Dell built its U.S. business with Internet- and phone-based direct sales but has added retail distribution in China and elsewhere to reach more buyers.

In China, its computers are sold in 2,700 outlets of the Gome and Suning electronics store chains, which Felice said account for about half of Dell’s Chinese sales. He said Dell has a total of about 13,000 retail outlets worldwide.

“These economies are growing so fast that we don’t want to miss out on the opportunity,” Felice said. “But if we just use the direct model, it might take too long to get there.”

Dell is trying to expand its presence in China outside Beijing, Shanghai and other big eastern cities and sees 50 percent of potential sales in small, inland cities, Felice said.

“We’re getting out there as fast as we can,” he said

US President George W. Bush on Friday declared a state of emergency in Louisiana and Texas in the face of killer Hurricane Gustav, freeing up aid from Washington three years after Hurricane Katrina.

The move empowers federal authorities to lead all disaster relief efforts “to save lives, protect property and public health and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe” in the states, the White House said.

Bush’s decision came three years after Katrina devastated New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf coast, killing 1,800 people.

The botched Washington response swamped the president’s approval ratings amid widespread criticism that he paid too little attention to the storm.

Gustav is forecast to slam the Gulf coast early Tuesday as a powerful Category Three hurricane with wind speeds of up to 130 miles (209 kilometers) per hour — the same force as Katrina when it slammed New Orleans in 2005.

eople taking antipsychotic drugs are nearly twice as likely to have a stroke compared to those not on the treatment, British researchers reported on Friday.

The risk is even higher — about 3.5 times — for men and women with dementia, which means doctors should only prescribe such medicine to these patients as a last resort, the researchers said.

Previously, stroke risk associated with older antipsychotic drugs was unclear but the study published in the British Medical Journal showed both old and new treatments carry increased risk.

“The risks associated with antipsychotic use in patients with dementia generally outweigh the potential benefits, and in this patient group, use of antipsychotic drugs should be avoided whenever possible,” Ian Douglas and colleagues at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine wrote.”

The researchers looked at the medical records of nearly 7,000 men and women and recorded the incidence of stroke among those who at some point had taken antipsychotic drugs.

They found that they were 1.7 times more likely to have a stroke and that the risk was much higher if people had dementia.

The most common older treatments included a drug class called phenothiazine and the generic medicines haloperidol and benperidol. The most widely used newer drug in the study was Johnson & Johnson’s Risperdal, known generically as risperidone, the researchers said.

Other newer drugs in the study included Eli Lilly and Co’s Zyprexa, or olanzapine, Sanofi-Aventis‘ Solian, or amisulpride and AstraZeneca Plc’s Seroquel, known generically as quetiapine.

The researchers did not look at why people with dementia are at greater risk but one possibility may be that vascular causes of certain types of dementia may be involved, said Douglas, an epidemiologist.

“We don’t know why this extra risk associated with antipsychotics is even greater in people with dementia,” he said in a telephone interview.