China executes two over tainted milk: state media

Two men were executed in China on Tuesday for their roles in a scandal over contaminated milk powder that led to the deaths of at least six infants and sickened up to 300,000, state media said.The men had been sentenced to death earlier this year by a court in the northern city of Shijiazhuang for producing and selling toxic ingredients that ended up in the infant milk powder, Xinhua news agency said.Zhang Yujun and Geng Jinping were put to death following execution orders issued by China's high court and after their appeals were turned down in March, Xinhua said.

China's Sanlu Group, the company at the centre of an international crisis involving milk tainted with melamine, has filed for bankruptcy. The contaminated milk and milk products sickened almost 300,000 children and resulted in six deaths.

Chinese authorities have seized 76 tonnes of milk powder tainted with melamine, the same chemical responsible for the deaths of six babies two years ago, state media said Friday.The powder was seized in northwestern China's Gansu province after tests showed it contained up to 500 times the allowed level of the toxic industrial chemical, Xinhua news agency reported.The Beijing News said tainted powder has also been detected in Jilin province in China's northeast and that two officials from the dairy company at the centre of the latest discovery in Gansu had been detained.

Chinese authorities have seized 76 tonnes of milk powder tainted with the same chemical responsible for the deaths of six babies two years ago, state media said Friday.The powder was seized in northwestern China's Gansu province after tests showed it contained up to 500 times the allowed level of the toxic industrial chemical melamine, Xinhua news agency reported.The Beijing News said tainted powder has also been detected in Jilin province in China's northeast and that two officials from the dairy company at the centre of the latest discovery in Gansu had been detained.

The companies whose tainted milk products sickened nearly 300,000 children and were blamed in the deaths of six will likely pay 1.1 billion yuan in compensation to victims' families, a state-run newspaper said Tuesday.

For border officials in Hong Kong, baby formula trumps heroin. Since the former British colony on March 1 restricted outbound travelers to two 2-pound cans each, a syndicate has been cracked and more people have been arrested for smuggling milk powder than were detained all of last year for carrying heroin.

Nine people went on trial Monday in connection with China's tainted milk scandal, state media reported, following the announcement of steps to compensate the families of hundreds of thousands of children harmed by contaminated infant formula.

Even under the best circumstances, unpasteurized milk can make people sick, a new report concludes.