AMSTERDAM (AP) — The European Food Safety Authority has found that the artificial sweetener aspartame is safe for people to consume at the levels currently used in diet soft drinks.

After conducting a major review of evidence, the agency said Tuesday it has ruled out any “potential risk of aspartame causing damage to genes and inducing cancer.”

The finding will be welcome news to Coca Cola Co., which recently launched an advertising campaign to dispel fears about Diet Coke after other studies showed that aspartame might be dangerous, leading to a fall in sales.

Aspartame, the sweetener used in Diet Coke, is also known under the brand name NutraSweet.

The ESFA, the European Union’s food risk assessment agency, is based in Parma, Italy.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — An avalanche that was caught on video dragged a backcountry skier into a Utah ravine and buried her in snow, but the woman survived because she deployed a special air bag and other skiers were able to quickly dig her out.

It was the first time this season that a person has been caught in an avalanche in the state.

Video of Monday’s slide shows the skier turning into a steep ravine and triggering the avalanche in Grizzly Gulch, just outside the Alta ski area east of Salt Lake City. A detailed report (https://bit.ly/1gWDMq6) on the Utah Avalanche Center’s website says the woman was dragged 100 feet.

Other skiers were on hand to rescue the woman from under several feet of snow. They say she could’ve been trapped longer under much deeper snow without the air bag.

The woman pulled a ripcord on an air bag-equipped backpack — a European-style safety device that is becoming more common in the Rocky Mountain backcountry.

VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) — A Washington state woman who regularly monitors police scanner traffic unknowingly live-tweeted about her husband’s death in a freeway crash.

In a series of gut-wrenching tweets on Wednesday that grew more frantic, the Vancouver, Wash., mother first tweeted how horrible it was when she learned someone had died on Interstate 205 near the Oregon border.

Caran Johnson, who uses the handle @ScanCouver, then tweeted that she was trying not to panic because her husband uses that freeway but wasn’t picking up his phone.

She later said she’s a basket case and was worried because her husband has epilepsy. She wondered on the social media site how long she should wait before calling police.

Washington State Patrol spokesman Will Finn said troopers went to Johnson’s home to inform her that her husband, 47-year-old Craig Johnson, died in the collision.

She then tweeted: “It’s him. He died.”

ATLANTA (AP) — A Wendy’s employee who dropped a partially smoked blunt in a customer’s cheeseburger has been fired and charged with marijuana possession.

Police in the city of Lovejoy, Ga., about 25 miles south of downtown Atlanta, say a customer drove home with her food on Nov. 1, took a bite out of the burger and noticed a strange smell wafting from it. Police say the woman pulled the bun off and saw a partially smoked blunt inside. A blunt is marijuana rolled into a hollowed-out cigar.

In an incident report released Thursday, police say 32-year-old Amy Elizabeth Seiber admitted the marijuana was hers and that she had misplaced it.

Clayton County court officials did not know if Seiber has an attorney. A telephone number listed for her was out of service.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Recordings of 911 calls from the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting show town dispatchers calmly responding to a janitor, a teacher and others and assuring them help is coming.

The operators urge the people inside the school to take cover as they reach out to town officials and state police for help. The operators also ask about the welfare of the children.

A gunman shot his way into the school on the morning of Dec. 14 and gunned down 20 children and six educators with a semi-automatic rifle. He committed suicide as police arrived.

The calls to Newtown police were posted Wednesday on a town website. A court ordered the release of the tapes last week, despite the objections of prosecutors, after a legal challenge by The Associated Press.

LISTEN TO THE TAPES HERE-WARNING GRAPHIC AUDIO

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — The University of Notre Dame is suing the Obama administration over a federal mandate that its health insurance plans for students and employees cover birth control.

The university filed its lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in South Bend. It claims the mandate violates Notre Dame’s freedom to practice religion without government interference.

The Roman Catholic university says the birth control mandate violates the church’s teaching prohibiting contraception.

The Obama administration promotes the law’s provision of a range of preventive care, free of charge, as a key benefit of the health care overhaul. Contraception is included in the package of cost-free benefits

The U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to consider two cases in which business have objected to covering birth control for employees on religious grounds.

GETTYSBURG, Pa. (AP) — Police in Pennsylvania are investigating a complaint concerning a ghost hunt that went bust after a police officer mistakenly thought it was a burglary in progress.

The Gettysburg Times reported Tuesday that the Thanksgiving night ghost tour ended with two tourists and their guide being detained at gunpoint.

A patrolman passing a closed store in Gettysburg says he saw flashlights inside, so he went in and handcuffed and searched the three ghost hunters.

Police called the owner, who confirmed the tour operator had permission to use the allegedly haunted Civil War-era building. The first Union general killed in the Battle of Gettysburg was brought to the building after being fatally wounded.

The owner of the Victorian-style photography studio that occupies the building and permitted the tour has declined to comment.

MCMINNVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Officials say four Tennessee high school seniors were killed in a single-car crash over the weekend, and the mother of one of the teens says the group was returning to a game of zombie tag when they died.

Kimberly Dykes is the mother of Kaimen Collins. She says her son as well as Dominique Pinegar, Christopher Frazier and Shanna Seiderer had left the game to make a run to McDonald’s when they crashed. They attended Warren County High School.

Dykes called her son an “awesome kid.” She says he’d just been accepted to Middle Tennessee State University and planned to study computer science.

County Director of Schools Bobby Cox confirmed the teens’ identities, calling them “good kids” looking forward to college.

The Tennessee Highway Patrol is investigating the crash’s cause.

BOSTON (AP) — Doctors are reporting an epidemic — of twins. New federal numbers show that nearly half of all babies born with advanced fertility help are multiple births, the vast majority of them twins.

In the five years since the “Octomom” case, big multiple births have gone way down but the twin rate has barely budged. Twins aren’t always twice as nice; they have much higher risks of prematurity and serious health problems.

Now fertility experts are pushing a new goal: One. A growing number of couples are attempting pregnancy with just a single embryo, helped by new ways to pick the ones most likely to succeed. New guidelines urge doctors to stress this approach.

The trend was discussed at a recent American Society for Reproductive Medicine conference in Boston.

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon.com says it’s considering using drone aircraft for deliveries.

The online retailer says it’s working on its Prime Air project in its research and development labs. It says the idea is that the delivery system would be able to get purchases to customers in less than 30 minutes through the use of the unmanned aircraft.

The project was first reported Sunday by CBS’ “60 Minutes.”

But Amazon.com Inc. says it will take years to advance the needed technology and for the needed federal Aviation Administration rules and regulations to be created.