‘Lifeless’ prions can ‘evolve’ (BBC News) Scientists show for the first time that 'lifeless' prion proteins, devoid of DNA and RNA, can evolve like higher forms of life. [News Source]

Customers back ammonia-treated beef after report (AP via Yahoo! News) Restaurant chains and beef processors defended their products' safety Thursday after a report that an ammonia treatment thought to kill harmful germs in meat isn't as effective as the industry and regulators believed. [News Source]

Customers back ammonia-treated beef after report (San Francisco Chronicle) Restaurant chains and beef processors defended their products' safety Thursday after a report that an ammonia treatment thought to kill harmful germs in meat isn't as effective as the industry and regulators believed. The New York Times reported Thursday,... Meat - Beef - New York Times - Business - Food and Related Products [News Source]

Customers back ammonia-treated beef after report (AP via Yahoo! News) Restaurant chains and beef processors defended their products' safety Thursday after a report that an ammonia treatment thought to kill harmful germs in meat isn't as effective as the industry and regulators believed. [News Source]

John Gummer to quit as MP to focus on international climate change campaign. John Gummer, a former Conservative cabinet minister and one of the party's most staunch environmentalists, has announced he is to quit the Commons to join a new international campaign to combat climate change. [News Source]

Taiwan to restore partial ban on US beef (Jefferson City News Tribune) TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- Taiwan's two main political parties agreed Tuesday to reinstate a ban on some kinds of U.S. beef imports amid growing public concern that the government lacks adequate safeguards against mad cow disease. [News Source]

John Gummer, the MP who fed his daughter a hamburger during the mad cow disease crisis, quits Parliament (Daily Mail) Nine years after he was infamously photographed feeding his daughter a hamburger at the height of the mad cow disease scare, John Gummer is to quit the Commons. [News Source]

EDITORIAL : US beef as an ECFA litmus test (Taipei Times) Defying the executive branch once again, the legislative caucuses of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on Tuesday reached a consensus to ban “risky” beef products, including bone-in beef, offal and ground beef, from areas where cases of mad cow disease have been documented in the past 10 years. [News Source]

Taiwan Restores Partial Ban On U.S. Beef (Manufacturing.net) Amid growing public concern that the government lacks adequate safeguards against mad cow disease, Taiwan agreed to reinstate a ban on some kinds of U.S. beef imports. [News Source]

Taiwan seeks to limit fallout from US beef ban (AFP via Yahoo! News) Taiwan will send a government delegation to the United States as it seeks to limit the fallout from controversial parliamentary plans to resume a ban on some US beef imports, a top official said Wednesday. [News Source]