Terrorism drill takes aim at foreign animal diseases. Terrorism came to Philadelphia and Chester County yesterday. Or at least authorities acted like it had. [News Source]

It’s not a criticism, it’s an observation. (Columbia Star) I first spent the night in a hospital in 1956. My brother Rick had been there for a couple of days when I arrived. Together, we weighed maybe 100 pounds. Ears and gigantic brown eyes compiled most of that. We had a stomach virus; a scary thing in the 50s. Rabies and polio were pretty frightening, too. So was Undertoad, but he only lived near the beach. [News Source]

Farm & Garden Briefs (The Hendersonville Times-News) Money to help preserve farm landRALEIGH - County governments and nonprofit groups pursuing farmland preservation projects can apply for funding assistance from the N.C. Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation Trust Fund beginning today, Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler announced. [News Source]

Nelson Urges Administration To Ratchet Up Efforts To Open Markets To U.S. Beef (Yankton Press & Dakotan) Nebraska’s Sen. Ben Nelson today called on the Administration to ratchet up its efforts to re-open important foreign markets for U.S. beef in light of a new report from the International Trade Commission (ITC). The report shows that U.S. beef producers lost nearly $11 billion between 2004 and 2007 due to barriers on U.S. beef exports not warranted under the World Animal Health Organization (OIE) ... [News Source]

Mad-Cow Testing May Be Eased as Disease Wanes, U.K. Agency Says (Bloomberg) Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K.'s food-safety regulator said it supports a proposal to limit tests for mad cow disease following a plunge in the number of cattle with the lethal brain- wasting disease. [News Source]

Mad-Cow Testing May Be Eased as Disease Wanes, U.K. Agency Says (Bloomberg) Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K.'s food-safety regulator said it supports a proposal to limit tests for mad cow disease following a plunge in the number of cattle with the lethal brain- wasting disease. [News Source]

Terrorism drill takes aim at foreign animal diseases (The Philadelphia Inquirer) Terrorism came to Philadelphia and Chester County yesterday. Or at least authorities acted like it had. In an exercise that was more than a year in planning, the FBI and other law-enforcement agencies said, they conducted an "agroterrorism" test to see how the region might react to introduction of a "foreign animal disease" in livestock. [News Source]

South Korea: Improve policing practices during protests (Amnesty International) South Korean police used excessive force in some instances against demonstrators protesting earlier this year against the government’s decision to resume beef imports from the US, Amnesty International concluded in a report released today. [News Source]

Nelson Urges Administration To Ratchet Up Efforts To Open Markets To U.S. Beef (Yankton Press & Dakotan) Nebraska’s Sen. Ben Nelson today called on the Administration to ratchet up its efforts to re-open important foreign markets for U.S. beef in light of a new report from the International Trade Commission (ITC). The report shows that U.S. beef producers lost nearly $11 billion between 2004 and 2007 due to barriers on U.S. beef exports not warranted under the World Animal Health Organization (OIE) ... [News Source]