Senator on Toyota: Should U.S. consider ban on Japanese cars? (USA Today) A U.S. Senator said Tuesday that the U.S. should consider banning Japanese-made cars until Japan's government guarantees the vehicles have no defects. [News Source]

Farmers worried about import risk (Northern Star) THE North Coast’s $140 million-a-year cattle industry is being put at risk by the Rudd Government’s decision to lift beef import restrictions from mad cow-affected countries, Page National candidate Kevin Hogan said yesterday. [News Source]

Labor to axe drought relief. Agriculture Minister Tony Burke will scrap taxpayer-funded subsidies for drought-affected farmers to meet interest payments on their bank debts as part of a shake-up of drought policy. [News Source]

Beyond the Haiti and Chile Disasters: Ten Scenarios Every Business Should Plan For (PR Newswire via Yahoo! Finance) The once-predictable business cycle has become highly disrupted. Could any business have anticipated Y2K, 9/11, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Asian Financial Crises , Hurricane Katrina, tsunamis, Mad Cow, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the U.S. liquidity crisis, and triple-digit fluctuations in energy and raw materials prices? [News Source]

Oxtail soup first beef import (The Australian) British oxtail soup may be the first beef product from a mad cow disease-affected country to arrive here since the ban on such imports was lifted [News Source]