- An internal audit done by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) says that between 1999 and 2001, the agency allowed into the United States 823,632 pounds of potentially unsafe meat from foreign plants.
Overseas meat processors often are barred from shipping meat to the US if they do not comply with food safety laws here, or if an animal disease has broken out in their country of origin. In some of the cases cited by the audit, there as meat brought into the US from four countries where there had been foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks -- Argentina, Uruguay, the United Kingdom and Italy.
- The Associated Press reports that two former Kmart Corp. vice presidents, Enio A. "Tony" Montini Jr. and Joseph Hofmeister, facing federal securities fraud have waived an initial court appearance at their arraignment.
Both men are accused on inflating Kmart’s earnings before the company declared bankruptcy, and charged last month with securities fraud, making false statements to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and conspiracy to commit those offenses.
- Supervalu's motion for summary dismissal of as age discrimination case against the company was rejected Monday, and the case will go to trial.
The company is being sued by five former middle managers, aged 51 to 57, who charged age discrimination when they were replaced by younger, less expensive employees when Supervalu installed a new technology system.
The court also denied class action certification for the case.
Supervalu has promised a “vigorous defense.”
- Procter & Gamble reportedly will take over German hair-care firm Wella for a total of more than $7 billion (US), after it agreed to buy more than three quarters of the company’s voting stock held by the family that controls the company.
Just last week, Henkel KGaA of Germany bought a seven percent stake in Wella, but its informal bid for the entire company last year had been rejected as too low. Among the other companies said to be interested were Unilever and L'Oreal.
