Hong Kong tests for tainted Taiwan cooking oil
Hong Kong (AFP) Sept 08, 2014 -
Sweet buns and dumplings were pulled from the shelves in Hong Kong as authorities checked Monday whether they contained the recycled Taiwanese cooking oil that has sparked a growing regional food safety scare.
An investigation was launched after the oil from a Taiwanese company accused of using illegally recycled products - including fat collected from cookers, fryers and grease traps - wa ...
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China's graft crackdown hits France's wine, spirits exports
Paris (AFP) Sept 09, 2014 -
China's anti-corruption and frugality drive has hit France's wine and spirits industry hard as exports dropped more than 7 percent in the first semester, a leading trade body warned Tuesday.
The Middle Kingdom may have shot up to fifth place in France's list of best foreign clients, but its purchases - which are usually in the high-end range - suddenly melted away in the first six months o ...
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Paraguay Indians threaten pot growers with arrows
Asuncion (AFP) Sept 09, 2014 -
The indigenous Ache people in Paraguay threatened Tuesday to open fire with bows and arrows on farmers who invade their land to plant marijuana or cut down trees.
"This is the last warning. They need to understand the gravity of the situation," Ache leader Martin Achipurangi told AFP by phone from the eastern-central department of Canindeyu.
The Ache live on about 6,400 hectares (16,000 ...
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McDonald's sales hit by China meat scandal
New York (AFP) Sept 09, 2014 -
Sales at McDonald's restaurants dropped in August, hurt by a food-safety scandal in China and heavy competition in the US, the company said Tuesday.
The US fast-food giant said global comparable sales fell 3.7 percent in August, bigger than the 2.5 percent decline in July.
"During August, McDonald's global business faced several headwinds that impacted sales performance," said chief exec ...
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Hard times for 'red gold' divers in Morocco's El Dorado
El Jadida, Morocco (AFP) Sept 09, 2014 -
Harvesting mineral-rich seaweed on Morocco's Atlantic coast, Attibari Lemkhanter worries that the plant known locally as "red gold" is becoming increasingly scarce.
"There are more and more divers and less and less red seaweed," Lemkhanter sighed as he worked on a beach in El Jadida, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) southwest of Casablanca.
Collected during three months of summer on a na ...
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Taiwan oil supplier fined $1.67 mn over gutter oil
Taipei (AFP) Sept 09, 2014 -
Taiwan on Tuesday fined a leading supplier more than $1.6 million for selling hundreds of tonnes of "gutter oil" and sparking a food safety scare that gripped the island and spread to Hong Kong and Macau.
The Tw$50 million ($1.67 million) fine was slapped on Chang Guann Co by the the Kaohsiung city government in the south where the company is headquartered.
"Chang Guann is now fined Tw$5 ...
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Dietary recommendations may be tied to increased greenhouse gas emissions
Ann Arbor MI (SPX) Sep 10, 2014 -
If Americans altered their menus to conform to federal dietary recommendations, emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases tied to agricultural production could increase significantly, according to a new study by University of Michigan researchers.
Martin Heller and Gregory Keoleian of U-M's Center for Sustainable Systems looked at the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the producti ...
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