Washington, D.C. - The U.S. regulators have revised their earlier recommendations and suggested that the domestic supply of infant formula is safe.

The Food and Drug Administration said that consumers can continue using U.S. manufactured infant formulas as the rpresent level of industrial chemical melamine in the products is safe.

"FDA has concluded that levels of melamine alone or cyanuric acid alone, at or below 1 part per million (ppm) in infant formula do not raise public health concerns. FDA has updated its interim risk assessment, issued in early October," the regulator said.

The FDA said it has been gathering and analyzing samples of domestically manufactured infant formula for the presence of melamine and melamine-related compounds.

It said, "To date, FDA tests have found extremely low levels of melamine in one infant formula sample and extremely low levels of cyanuric acid in another. The levels were so low (well below 1 ppm) that they do not pose a health risk to infants."

The U.S. regulators have stopped the import of Chinese milk products early this month after reports emerged that more than 50,000 infants have fallen sick on consuming melamine-tainted milk in the last few months.

The industrial chemical melamine, which is a chemical used in plastics and fertilizer, was also found in Chinese eggs, chocolate and some other products. Consumption of the chemical can cause damage to kidney or even death. At least four infants in China died after consuming the products.

According to the FDA, melamine is approved for use as part of certain food contact substances. While, low levels of melamine are present in the environment and trace amounts may occur in certain food commodities as a result of approved uses.


FDA’s Warnings/Advisories

The FDA is advising consumers not to consume the following products because of possible melamine contamination:
Fresh and Crispy Jacobina Biscuits
Koala’s March Crème filled Cookies
YILI Brand Sour Milk Drink
YILI Brand Pure Milk Drink
Blue Cat Flavored Drinks
White Rabbit Candies
Mr. Brown Mandehling Blend Instant Coffee (3-in-1)
Mr. Brown Arabica Instant Coffee (3-in-1)
Mr. Brown Blue Mountain Blend Instant Coffee (3-in-1)
Mr. Brown Caramel Macchiato Instant Coffee (3-in-1)
Mr. Brown French Vanilla Instant Coffee (3-in-1)
Mr. Brown Mandheling Blend instant Coffee (2-in-1)
Mr. Brown Milk Tea (3-in-1)
Infant formula manufactured in China

Production Sites Of ArcelorMittal

New York, NY - ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT) is today meeting with its European Works Council to present voluntary separation programs to be launched across the group.

This is to help achieve the company’s stated aim of reducing SG&A (Selling, General and Administrative) expenditure by $1 billion in response to the current economic situation.

The focus is primarily on non-production employees, in particular those in SG&A functions across the globe. These programs may involve up to 9,000 employees, approximately 3% of the total global work force. ArcelorMittal is the world's leading steel company, with over 326,000 employees in more than 60 countries.

The processes will be run in close collaboration with stakeholders and in accordance with the appropriate social considerations of the respective countries involved.

“This has been a very difficult decision for the company to take as all of our employees are extremely important to us. Sadly however the global economic reality means that it is only sensible to adopt such measures," Bernard Fontana, executive vice president and member of ArcelorMittal’s management committee with responsibility for human resources, said in a statement.

"Our priority is now to meet with all our stakeholders to explain the reasons for this decision and to reassure them that the process will be carried out in accordance with all social considerations. We are very grateful for the professionalism and dedication of our employees, all of whom have played an important role in building ArcelorMittal."

In 2007, ArcelorMittal had revenues of $105.2 billion and crude steel production of 116 million tonnes, representing around 10 per cent of world steel output.

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OSAKA, Japan - Panasonic Corp. (NYSE:PC) today announced a revision of its consolidated financial results forecast for the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2009 (fiscal 2009).

The current financial crisis originated in the United States has spread across the world and the business sentiment in Japan and overseas has significantly worsened. Under these circumstances, the company’s business conditions are deteriorating sharply, due mainly to the rapid appreciation of the yen, sluggish consumer spending and ever-intensified price competition.

In addition, there are negative factors such as a write-down of investment securities as a result of the decline in stock prices and business restructuring expenses. Accordingly, Panasonic today announced a downward revision of the consolidated financial forecast for the full fiscal year 2009, ending March 31, 2009 from the previous forecast announced on April 28, 2008.

Regarding net sales on a consolidated basis, the company has revised its previous forecast of 9,200 billion yen downward to 8,500 billion yen. Consolidated operating profit1 is expected to amount to 340 billion yen, down from the previous forecast of 560 billion yen.

Consolidated income before income taxes is forecast to be 100 billion yen, down from the previously announced 500 billion yen. Net income is now expected to decrease from the previous forecast of 310 billion yen to 30 billion yen.

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Washington, D.C. - Is the Fed finally figuring it out?

Early Tuesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Treasury have decided to step up their efforts to unfreeze credit for the consumers and home buyers by providing up to $800 billion, which is more than what Congress authorized in October.

But the news reports seemed to consider the billion-dollar plan as a backstop for the asset-backed-securities program originating entirely from its Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

Secretary Henry Paulson announced the measure today "to finance the issuance of non-mortgage asset-backed paper in order to support lending to consumers and small businesses that is vital to our economy."

The consumer asset backed securities market is a source of liquidity to financial institutions that provide federally-guaranteed small business loans and consumer lending such as auto loans, student loans and credit cards.

The central bank of the country is prepared to purchase $600 billion in debt issued or backed by government-chartered housing-finance companies, according to Bloomberg News.

The remaining, issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, will be used to aid consumer and small-business loans under Term Asset Backed Securities Loan Facility.

"By providing liquidity to issuers of consumer asset backed paper, the Federal Reserve facility will enable a broad range of institutions to step up their lending, enabling borrowers to have access to lower cost consumer finance and small business loans," Paulson said.

The statement from Paulson indicated that issuance of such securities in these areas reached $240 billion in 2007, "but credit market stresses led to a steep decline in the third quarter of 2008, and the market essentially came to a halt in October."