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Nearly 600 pets have died and more than 3,600 have been sickened in an ongoing, mysterious outbreak of illnesses tied to jerky treats made in China, federal animal health officials said Tuesday. Most of the cases have been in dogs of all breeds, ages and sizes, although 10 cats have been sickened, too. The pace of the reported illnesses appears to have slowed, but federal Food and Drug Administration officials are now seeking extra help from veterinarians and pet owners in solving the ongoing puzzle.“To date, testing for contaminants in jerky treats has not revealed a cause for the illnesses,” Martine...

At least 30 of the giant bolts that hold together the new, $6.4 billion eastern span of the Bay Bridge have snapped. As a result, Caltrans is considering replacing all 288 of the bolts on the new bridge before it opens, The Chronicle has learned. Caltrans insists the new span is safe and that plans to open it the day after Labor Day are still on track. However, officials say it's too early to determine how long it will take to fix the problem - or the cost. Toll Bridge Program Manager Tony Anziano said engineers are "pretty confident" the...

BEIJING—The head of Yum Brands Inc.'s China operations made a rare appearance to take aim at the country's food-safety issues and win back customers after allegations of quality oversights at the company's KFC restaurants caused consumer confidence and sales to tumble in its largest market. Yum is aiming to prevent food-safety problems by cutting its ties with suppliers that source their chicken from small farms that are hard to regulate, said Sam Su, the chairman and chief executive of Yum's China division, in a press briefing Monday. But the fundamental problems that sparked consumer concern over the quality of the...

TAIPEI — Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group, which assembles Apple’s iPhones and makes components for top global electronics companies, closed a plant in China on Monday after about 2,000 workers were involved in a brawl at a company dormitory. It was not clear how long the shutdown would last at the plant, which employs about 79,000 people in the northern Chinese city of Taiyuan, while police and company officials investigate the cause of the disturbance. Foxconn said the trouble started with a personal row that blew up into a brawl. But some people posting messages on a Twitter-like site said factory...

At least 360 dogs and one cat reportedly have died in the U.S. after eating chicken jerky pet treats made in China, even as claims of illnesses tied to the products have topped 2,200, federal veterinary health officials said.

A company in Shanghai which collects "gutter" oil. (Photo/Xinhua) Joincare Pharmaceutical Group, which is listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, has been accused of using recycled waste cooking oil as an ingredient in antibiotics, reports the Shanghai Securities News. Citing the indictment filed by prosecutors with the Ningbo Intermediate People's Court in Zhejiang province, the newspaper said Joincare was the largest user of the "gutter" oil produced by Gelin Biology Company in Jinan, Shandong province. Gutter oil refers to waste oil collected from restaurants and illegally reused. The prosecutors said Gelin sold its gutter oil to a company called...

Several lawmakers expressed their ire after it was reported that the Ralph Lauren-designed outfits were manufactured mostly in China.

PYONGYANG, North Korea — Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh took the stage in North Korea during a concert for new leader Kim Jong Un, in an unusual performance featuring Disney characters. Performers dressed as Minnie Mouse, Tigger and others danced and pranced as footage from “Snow White,” “Dumbo,” “Beauty and the Beast” and other Disney movies played on a massive backdrop, according to still photos shown on state TV. The inclusion of characters popular in the West — particularly from the United States, North Korea’s wartime enemy — is a notable change in direction for performances in Pyongyang. Actors...

Crammed into tiny cages, unable to stand and deprived of food and water, these dogs endured terrible suffering on a truck bound for a chain of restaurants. The harrowing pictures show the cruel conditions in which 1,500 of the animals were found when the truck was stopped at a toll gate by highway police and animal rescue volunteers in Chongqing, south-west China. ... The animals were moved to a nearby farm by volunteers from the Chongqing Animal Protection Association who gave them food, water and emergency treatment. ...

Reports of illnesses in dogs given chicken jerky treats have spiked dramatically following a new government warning about pet snacThe federal Food and Drug Administration has logged at least 353 reports this year of illnesses tied to imported chicken jerky products, also sold as chicken tenders, chicken strips or chicken treats, a spokeswoman said. That’s up from 70 reports of illnesses -- and some deaths -- received in 2011 before the Center for Veterinary Medicine issued an updated warning on Nov. 18. Dog owners and veterinarians are reporting that animals have been stricken with a range of symptoms within hours...

Airbus A340 grounded in Boston Large protective panel had to be screwed into place Air France blames mechanics in China An Air France jet flew for five days before ground crews noticed that 30 screws were missing from one of its wings. The Airbus A340 plane had undergone routine maintenance in China, before flying to Paris and then on to the US before the potentially disastrous blunder was finally spotted. The plane, which can carry up to 440 passengers, was grounded in Boston while a 'large protective panel' was screwed back into place. The gaffe was revealed in an internal...

Chicken jerky treats may be to blame for dozens of new reports of mysterious illnesses and some deaths in dogs, prompting a renewed warning for pet owners by the Food and Drug Administration. At least 70 dogs have been sickened so far this year after reportedly eating chicken jerky products imported from China, FDA officials said. That’s up from 54 reports of illness in 2010. Some of the dogs have died, according to the anecdotal reports from pet owners and veterinarians. FDA officials say they have not been able to find a cause for the illnesses. Extensive chemical and microbiological...

(CNN) – If you're dissatisfied with the economy, or unemployed, Herman Cain thinks you should take a long, hard look in the mirror. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal posted Wednesday, the up-and-coming GOP 2012 contender and former CEO of Godfather's Pizza summed up his bewilderment about recent demonstrations on Wall Street.

September 13, 2011, 7:36 PM HKT. Arrests Made in China ‘Gutter Oil’ Scandal Police have arrested 32 people suspected of producing and selling old cooking oil that has been illegally collected from restaurant gutters, according to a Ministry of Public Security statement Tuesday (in Chinese). The statement said officials seized 100 tons of the recycled oil, which can contain carcinogens and other toxins that are harmful when consumed by humans. It said they also broke up a criminal network operating in 14 provinces and shut production sites where the oil is repurposed. The suspects were caught in a swill-oil crackdown...

Post Columnist Says King Monument is Stalin-like A Washington Post columnist has criticized the new Martin Luther King, Jr. monument, while his paper is publishing a 24-page special supplement hailing the unveiling of the “Stone of Hope” in the memorial that includes the 30-foot tall statue of the civil rights leader. Black columnist Courtland Milloy writes, “Let’s face it: There really is something peculiar about having an artist from communist China sculpt the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial statue. And, yes, it would have been fantastic had an African American sculptor been chosen instead.” He adds, “The sculpture is based...

The 30ft-tall statue, which forms the centrepiece of a $120 million (£73 million), four-acre memorial to Dr King, opened to the public on Monday on the National Mall in Washington. It is the only memorial on the Mall that does not honour a president or fallen soldiers. Standing in the shadow of the Washington Monument, the statue shows Dr King emerging from a mountain of Chinese granite with his arms crossed and is called The Stone of Hope. However, there has been controversy over the choice of Lei Yixin, a 57-year-old master sculptor from Changsha in Hunan province, to carry...

The memorial sits on the National Mall near the Tidal Basin, between memorials honoring Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson. It includes a 30-foot-tall sculpture of King and a 450-foot-long granite wall inscribed with 14 quotations from the civil rights leader. The Chinese sculptor Lei Yixin: The Location on The Mall:

An analysis just released by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco concludes that most of what Americans spend on consumer goods, electronics, clothing, sneakers and the like, stays in America. Surprisingly little comes from China after all. Say the authors: Goods and services from China accounted for only 2.7% of U.S. personal consumption expenditures (PCE) in 2010…Chinese imports make up only a small share of total U.S. consumer spending… Athough globalization is widely recognized these days, the U.S. economy actually remains relatively closed. The vast majority of goods and services sold in the United States is produced here. In...

China’s New Lucrative Business: Dead Babies Turn into Stamina Booster Pills August 5, 2011 6:51 PM EDT A South Korean SBS TV documentary team accuses Chinese pharmaceutical companies of selling dead baby pills as stamina boosters. (Photo: SBS) The ground baby powder is put in the capsule, ready to be sold as stamina enhancer, according to the SBS team. The team reveals that the truth behind the dead baby pill is horrific and disturbing. Chinese hospitals and abortion clinics that are connected to the business immediately notify pharmaceutical companies when a baby dies, mostly because of a still birth or...

"Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, Mao Zedong and Chevrolet." That could be GM's new slogan if recent comments by CEO Dan Akerson are taken to heart. Akerson shared a somewhat bizarre vision for GM in an interview with the Detroit News when he stated, "Whoever comes after me; it's going to be a more important appointment than mine because he or she will have to carry on a cultural revolution here. It's just like the Communist Party in China in the 1960s, there has to be a cultural revolution here." These comments come just weeks after the Washington Times...