HARTFORD, Conn. -- An industrial chemical blamed for sickening thousands of infants in China was found in candy in four Connecticut stores this week, a state official said yesterday.

Days after contaminated White Rabbit Creamy Candy was found in California, Connecticut Consumer Protection Commissioner Jerry Farrell Jr. said tests found melamine in bags of the candy sold at two New Haven stores, a West Hartford market and an East Haven store.

In China, contamination from melamine has been blamed for the deaths of four children and kidney ailments among 54,000 others. More than 13,000 children have been hospitalized and 27 people arrested in connection with the tainting.

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael O. Leavitt yesterday proposed a solution to one of the bigger challenges in responding to an anthrax bioterror attack -- how to deliver protective antibiotics to tens of thousands of people overnight.

The tentative answer: Have the mailman (and woman) do the job.

As an incentive to the letter carriers -- who would be volunteers -- the government would issue them in advance an antibiotic supply large enough to treat themselves and their families. They would also be accompanied by police officers on their rounds.

Boston, Philadelphia and Seattle held experimental runs of the distribution strategy in 2006 and 2007, said William Raub, Mr. Leavitt's science advisor. In Philadelphia, 50 carriers, each accompanied by a city police officer, reached 55,000 households in less than eight hours.

In an about-face, officials at Yellowstone National Park said yesterday that they would quickly craft a plan to allow snowmobiles and snow coaches into the park in time for the winter season.

After a federal judge ruled two weeks ago that Yellowstone's snowmobile use-proposal was unacceptable because it would put the health of visitors and park animals at risk, officials said they would not be able to hammer out a new plan before the season starts Dec. 15. The impasse had threatened to shut down much of Yellowstone's winter operations for the first time in decades.

CLEVELAND -- A man already in prison on drug and weapons charges was indicted yesteray in a 2005 house fire that killed nine people, including eight children at a birthday sleepover.

Antun Lewis, 24, of Cleveland, was charged with arson in the house fire in May 2005 in a poor neighborhood that outraged residents across Cleveland. Mr. Lewis could face the death penalty if convicted.

OMAHA, Neb. -- Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is investing $3 billion in General Electric Co., a huge vote of confidence for an iconic American company battered by the financial crisis.

For the second time in just over a week, Berkshire Hathaway has moved to shore up a company long known for its ironclad fiscal health. Mr. Buffett's company invested $5 billion in Goldman Sachs last week after the famed investment bank's shares had slumped. Investors feared Goldman could face similar funding squeezes as Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers.

For GE, the cash infusion marks another dramatic turn in a turbulent 2008. It has announced a reorganization and unveiled plans to spin off or sell its famed appliances unit.