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ISE, Japan, Oct. 26 — It was supposed to be a celebratory year for Akafuku, a confectioner that had been selling bean-jam sweets here since 1707. On its 300th anniversary, its top-selling sweets were still indispensable gifts to bring back home or to the office after a trip to Ise Shrine here, Japan's holiest religious site. Instead, Akafuku has become the latest Japanese food company to be exposed for lying about the contents of its products, tampering with expiration-date labels and recycling ingredients. For only the second time in its history, Akafuku, which was forced to halt production during World...

OAKLAND - Four people were charged in Oakland federal court today with growing marijuana that became the not-so-secret ingredient in treats resembling popular candy bars and other packaged food, including barbecue sauce. Authorities say the four were connected with an operation known as Tainted Inc. that made marijuana-laced candies, cookies, ice cream, peanut butter, barbecue sauce, granola bars and brownies. "Tainting candy and other products with marijuana is not sweet, it is criminal," said Javier Pena, special agent in charge of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration in San Francisco. "These items could have harmful effects on a user, especially the...

Senator Hillary Clinton (D-New York) has found herself in yet another fundraising scandal. This time she's under fire for receiving thousands of dollars from a Democratic donor who, after being a fugitive from justice for 15 years, turned himself on Friday.   The head of a Washington-based group that fights government corruption says political fundraising scandals involving Senator Clinton are "continuing at breakneck speed." For her 2000 Senate campaign, Senator Clinton's fundraising operation was fined $35,000 for underreporting and misreporting contributions. Now in the midst of her White House bid, Clinton is in hot water over her ties to Norman...

This is why he did it. This is, ironically, what he wanted: all eyes on him, urgent cut-ins, the undivided attention of the world. He saw all the love and adoration that was heaped upon Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa nine years ago, and he reacted in typical Barry Bonds fashion. Like a petty, selfish, spoiled child. In the end, there is no mystery to this crime story. We know what Bonds did - he admitted it to a grand jury, after placing his hand on the Bible - and we know why he did it. For the most juvenile,...

When Barry Bonds breaks Henry Aaron's career home-run record, he will receive a mixed reaction from baseball fans, his peers in the major leagues, and the men governing our national pastime. Although Bonds has never tested positive for performance enhancing drugs, allegations of steroid use emerged during the BALCO investigation. San Francisco Chronicle reporters used leaked grand jury testimony and painted a disturbing picture of his training methods. This controversy will forever taint Bonds' epic power surge. His record won't come with an asterisk, but it will join the list of dubious achievements earned by athletes under suspicious circumstances. Here...

Hogs that ate tainted pet food to be destroyed By Mary Ann Fergus Tribune staff reporter Published April 26, 2007, 8:38 PM CDT Federal officials alerted authorities in seven states Thursday that swine fed tainted pet food will not be approved to enter the human food supply. Officials at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration expect that approximately 6,000 hogs, now under quarantine, will be euthanized even as they announced that the likelihood of illness after eating pork from the animals is very low. The affected hogs are in California, North Carolina, South Carolina, New...

Hutton Gibson has been making a three-hour drive each week for the past year from his home in Summersville, W.Va., to rural Westmoreland County, a round trip of more than 300 miles, just to attend Sunday Mass. Now, the 87-year-old Gibson plans to have his own church in Mt. Pleasant Township. The church is St. Michael the Archangel Chapel, now located in a ranch-style brick home along Route 982 South between the villages of Lycippus and Weltytown. Gibson is no ordinary parishioner. Gibson is the father of actor-director Mel Gibson and a follower of an ultraconservative branch of Catholicism that...

Barry Bonds was in Milwaukee recently and the commissioner of baseball wouldn’t make the 10-minute drive from his house to watch him. So it follows that Bud Selig wasn’t in when Bonds moved past Babe Ruth on the home run list. Nor were any of Ruth’s children. Nor any high-level officials. Nor anybody whose presence screamed, “I’m important, so I’m here.” Barry Bonds hit his 715th home run Sunday. But every overblown ESPN news break-in couldn’t drown out the sad reality of the moment. It was as awkward as it was historical. Some wanted to watch. Most wanted to cover...

Yes Babe you are #3

Just mentioned on Fox coverage of Yanks-Mets. Finally...

Bad memory... Part 1 On September 29, 1982, 12-year-old Mary Kellerman of Elk Grove Village, Illinois, woke up at dawn and went into her parents' bedroom. She did not feel well and complained of having a sore throat and a runny nose. To ease her discomfort, her parents gave her one Extra-Strength Tylenol capsule. At 7 a.m. they found Mary on the bathroom floor. She was immediately taken to the hospital where she was later pronounced dead. Doctors initially suspected that Mary died from a stroke, but evidence later pointed to a more sinister diagnosis. That same day, paramedics were...

ANC leader tainted by trial By Christopher Munnion in Johannesburg (Filed: 03/06/2005) South Africa's establishment was thrown into disarray yesterday after Jacob Zuma, an ANC leader tipped to succeed President Thabo Mbeki, was implicated in the corruption trial of a flamboyant businessman. A close friend and financial adviser to Mr Zuma was found guilty in Durban High Court of soliciting bribes from a French company to pay the deputy president to help win a contract for business with the South African navy. Judge Hilary Squires said he found "convincing and overwhelming evidence of a corrupt relationship" between the convicted man,...

HAMILTON (CP) - Tens of thousands of Canadians infected with AIDS or hepatitis C got an apology from the Canadian Red Cross on Monday after the charity pleaded guilty to distributing tainted blood in exchange for dropped criminal charges. "The Canadian Red Cross Society is deeply sorry for the injury and death caused to those who were infected . . . and for the suffering caused to families and loved ones of those who were harmed," Dr. Pierre Duplessis, the organization's secretary general, told the Ontario Superior Court in a video-taped apology as tearful victims looked on. "We accept responsibility...

Tainted blood deals raise international furor --------------------------------------------------------- Reprinted under the fair use doctrine of international copyright law: Austria investigates allegations of tainted-blood exports Lancet 2000; 356: 919 - 922 (9 September) The trail of blood plasma infected with HIV, hepatitis, and syphilis exported from South Africa to European companies is being investigated by the police and health authorities in Austria, Switzerland, and the UK. There are apprehensions that unscrupulous brokers relabelled these contaminated products before selling them off to China and India, while earning millions of dollars, and endangering many lives. A confidential investigation by Wilbert Bannenberg of the South...

by Craig E. Richardson    Kerry’s Catholic Supporters 10/29/04 There has been much discussion about whether Catholics in good standing can support Senator John Kerry for president because of his extreme views on abortion. His voting record and public statements on life issues clearly contradict the Church’s teaching and many Catholics are insistent that this disqualifies him for consideration. There are Catholics, however, who are actively supporting Kerry’s presidential bid and they are not shy about expressing their opinions. One such group is Pax Christi USA (peace of Christ), an organization calling itself “the national Catholic peace movement.” Auxiliary Bishop...

2004 GOP Primary EndorsementsU.S. Senate - John McCain sure has a lot of sympathies for liberal and Democrat causes and office holders. He has opposed almost everything conservatives hold dear. This summer alone, he has defended Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and has sided with homosexual activists over those who would defend traditional marriage. Recommendation: NONE

the Clearchannel radio station in Los Angeles KFI640.com news department is doing some very interesting coverage on this Gerber baby food case. Here is an article from MSN http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5539918/ What the MSN article doesnt mention is that, according to KFI news, the notes in the baby food accused an Irvine police officer of having an affair with married women. Eric Leonard of KFI news dept. talked with John and Ken today and said that tainted baby food jars were found in June, yet the information about the tainted food was not released to the public until several weeks later, in...

CHICAGO (AFP) - The Tribune Company announced a shake-up in the leadership ranks of its Newsday and Hoy newspapers in the wake of a circulation scandal. The media titan, the second-largest US media group, said it is replacing the publishers of its Long Island paper Newsday and its Spanish-language counterpart as it moves to restore credibility in the titles. Newsday COO Timothy Knight will take over as chief executive officer (CEO) and publisher of the newspaper effective August 15. He suceeds Raymond Jansen, who has served as Newsday publisher since 1994, and who moved up his retirement date in light...

Two Men, Business Sentenced for Causing Meat to Become Tainted Mar 26, 2004 By Cheryl Wittenauer Associated Press Writer ST. LOUIS (AP) - A food retailer, its owner and a manager were sentenced Friday on charges that they caused meat in their store to become tainted with rodent feces, mold and other contaminants. P&S Foods, of suburban St. Louis, was placed on three years of probation and ordered to pay a $95,000 fine after pleading guilty last December to two counts of causing federally inspected meat to become adulterated, U.S. Attorney Ray Gruender said. From 1999 through last year, federal...

WILBRAHAM, Mass. — Friendly Ice Cream Corp. said Friday that it is recalling one lot of half-gallon packages of "Apple Pie a la Mode, Limited Edition" ice cream because it may contain small pieces of a soft, beige, rubber-like material that could pose a choking hazard. The Wilbraham-based company said it has received one report of an incident of choking and cautioned that people should not consume the recalled ice cream. The voluntary recall affects half-gallon packages of the ice cream flavor marked with the lot code "25-26 WC5 SEP 22 04." The code appears just above the "Nutrition Facts"...