China seizes 20 tonnes of out-of-date meat including chicken feet 46 YEARS past sell-by-date

A police raid of an illegal food store in southern China has exposed tonnes of rancid, decades-old chicken feet being 'processed' to be sold to unassuming customers.

The decaying feet, some dating back to 1967, were being 'cleaned up', plumped up and whitened at the 'foul-smelling' plant using bleach and other chemicals, before being prepared for sale.

Police, who raided the criminal operation in May, said they also found beef tripe, cartilage and other out-of-date animal organs - all of which had been smuggled across the border from neighbouring Vietnam. In total 20 tonnes of illegal meat was seized.

According to local media, the gang, based in Nanning, the capital city of south China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, was able to make up to 16,000 yuan (£1,750) profit on every tonne of the putrid meat, by injecting it with chemicals, increasing its weight by 50 per cent.

Among the seized meats over the last 12 months, police have found hundreds of bears' paws - another bizarre food sought after by Chinese chefs.

SOURCE

Teenage boy abused 4-yr-old sister after watching porn

A teenage boy who sexually abused his little sister while babysitting had been watching online porn, a court has heard.

The 17-year-old repeatedly seriously abused the four-year-old child until the victim eventually told their mother what he had been doing.

She reported her son to the police and when interviewed the boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, admitted his behaviour had been 'disgusting and loathsome'.

Sentencing the youth, who is now 18, to three and a half years detention Judge Mark Brown described him as an intelligent young man who had known what he was doing was wrong.

He said that the youth had treated her in a 'most appalling and dreadful fashion' because he had been sexually aroused.

The defendant had pleaded guilty to attempted rape and five offences of sexual assault. He said that the boy, who had been bullied at school, largely because of his weight, was socially isolated.
Following the death of his father he had become even less outgoing and when he was 16 was convicted of indecent exposure. SOURCE

Unseen epidemic: Beauty lotions and other household products blamed for skin allergy surge

Everyday beauty and cleaning products are being blamed for an epidemic of skin allergies.

Preservatives used in Nivea skin lotion, some L’Oreal creams and Wet Ones cleaning wipes are being linked to an outbreak of acute allergic contact dermatitis, mostly in women over 40.

The ingredients – MI and MCI – are also found in mascara, shower gels and washing up liquids.

Dermatologists say there has been a surge in allergic reactions –including facial swelling, itching, hives and redness – caused by exposure to the preservatives.

Dr John McFadden, consultant dermatologist at St Thomas’ Hospital, London, is urging the cosmetics industry to take action.

A team at the Leeds Centre for Dermatology also discovered a sharp rise of 6.2 per cent in sensitivity in contact allergy to the ingredients over the past three years.

They suspect the legal limit of 0.01 per cent of MI in personal care products is too high.
Specialists presenting research to the British Association of Dermatologists’ conference in Liverpool this week say the levels should be cut further, or eliminated.

In the US, the American Contact Dermatitis Society named MI ‘contact allergen of the year’ for 2013 to draw attention to its potential for triggering reactions.

Source

Australian Facebook cash image leads to robbery

Hours after a 17-year-old posted photo of a large sum of cash on Facebook, a gang of masked men, armed with knives and clubs, broke into the home of the girl's mother in the country town of Bundanoon, south-eastern Australia.


According to the police, the thieves, who had probably "liked" the picture on Facebook, came to the house of the girl's mother.


They wore dark-colored clothing, gloves and had their faces covered. They said they wanted to speak to the girl about the cash on her Facebook page.


But the girl's mother told them they had broken into the wrong house.


The girl was not living with her mother. She had taken the photo at her grandmother's house in Sydney the same day.


The girl posted on her Facebook page, a picture of a "large sum of cash" she had helped her 72-year-old grandmother count in her home in Sydney, 120 kilometers (75 miles) north-east of Bundanoon.


The Australian reports the men, unwilling to believe the girl's mother, searched the house and took some cash and a few personal belongings before they left.

Woman blows herself up and 2 officials after they forced her to sign for demolition of her house

CHINA -- A woman has blown herself up in protest over the demolition of her house in southern China, killing two people and injuring 14.

The suicide blast took place Thursday morning near Zhaotong, a small city in China's remote Yunnan province.

The woman had been meeting with a small group of low-level community officials to sign an agreement over her the demolition of her home and the compensation.

This incident is a reminder of the tensions in China over the country's rapid development where home owners are forced to make way for development.
Local governments often demolish houses - or confiscate land - but offer little or no compensation to those affected, while officials resell their land to companies for huge prices.

Home demolitions are a frequent occurrence throughout the country, as urban areas expand and land developers move quickly to snatch land from rural areas. Although all demolitions and new developments are supposed to be subject to government review, and farmers are guaranteed fair compensation for land by law, numerous examples also demonstrate corruption and collusion of local administrators with property developers, sometimes backed by local thugs.

Opposition to relocation and home destruction by residents, who sometimes refuse to leave homes even in the face of physical intimidation.