AP News - 05/16/07
WASHINGTON

While oil companies blame soaring gasoline prices on unexpected refinery shutdowns, Congress is questioning whether industry mergers and investment decisions have erased a supply cushion. The House Judiciary Committee�s antitrust task force Wednesday opened the first of a number of hearings on oil industry concentration with its chairman noting that gasoline prices have soared well above $3 a gallon and asking, �How did we get into this mess?�. �Oil companies today are enjoying record profits, and while they could use those profits to invest in more production capacity, instead they use the money to buy back shares in the markets,� complained Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., the panel�s chairman.

NEWSWEEK International Version - 05/20/07

Farm-raised pigs are dirty, smelly animals that get no respect. They're also an environmental hazard. Their manure contains phosphorus, which, when it rains, runs off into lakes and estuaries, depleting oxygen, killing fish, stimulating algae overgrowth and emitting greenhouse gases. During the 1980s, phosphorus pollution killed all aquatic life in the 42km-long Mariager Fjord of Denmark�an ecological disaster that prompted European governments to impose strict regulations on pig farming. It didn't solve the problem. Doing away with the pig is not an option. Pigs provide more dietary protein, more cheaply, to more people than any other animal. Northern Europe still maintains the highest pig-to-human ratio in the world (2-1 in Denmark), but East Asia is catching up. During the 1990s, pork production doubled in Vietnam and grew by 70 percent in China�along densely populated coastlines, pig density exceeds 100 animals per square kilometer. The resulting pollution is "threatening fragile coastal marine habitats including mangroves, coral reefs and sea grasses," according to a report released in February by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

OTTAWA - Reuters - 05/15/07

Canada's probe into its ninth case of mad cow disease since 2003 shows the case was consistent with previous ones and does not change Canada's overall risk for the disease, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said on Monday. "The detection of this case does not change any of Canada's BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) risk parameters," CFIA said in a statement. The agency said it could not rule out the possibility of cross-contamination of some cattle feed, either during the manufacturing process or in transport, due to lack of records to verify proper rules were followed. "In essence, the case confirms what was already known about an extremely low level of BSE infectivity having existed in Canada's feed system during the late 1990s and early 2000s within a previously determined geographic area and time interval," it said.