Dead rodents, excrement in peanut butter plant lead to recall

The Texas Department of State Health Services on Thursday ordered the recall of all products ever shipped from the Peanut Corporation of America’s plant in Plainview, Texas, after discovering dead rodents, rodent excrement and bird feathers in the plant. The order, which applies to products shipped since the plant opened nearly four years ago, came a day after the discovery of filth in a crawl space above a production area during a health services inspection, the department said in a news release. Inspectors also reported that the plant’s ventilation system was pulling debris “from the infested crawl space into production areas of the plant resulting in the adulteration of exposed food products,” the release said.

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Arsonists start new bushfires in Australia

New fires blamed on arsonists hit Australia Wednesday as the toll from deadly blazes was likely to rise on the macabre discovery that charred remains initially identified as single bodies were in fact couples fused together by the heat. The latest fires broke out Tuesday night, even as emergency workers were struggling with the aftermath of bushfires that have so far killed 181 people and burned huge tracts of the countryside in southeastern Australia. John Brumby, the premier of the hard-hit state of Victoria, said many of 20 fires burning Wednesday were suspected to have been started by arsonists — an act described earlier by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd as “mass murder.” “There seems little doubt these were deliberately lit — a number of them last night,” Brumby said on national television

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