PETALING JAYA: The health ministry has found 21 food products involving 16 brands containing controlled poisons such as sildenafil and tadalafil, and warned vendors against selling them.

Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said legal action has been taken against the producers and distributors of four brands, while the 12 others were found to have false or incomplete company names and addresses.

Under Section 13 of Food Act 1983, he said, any person who prepares or sells any food that has in or upon it any substance which is poisonous, harmful or otherwise injurious to health, may be fined up to RM100,000 or face a maximum jail sentence of 10 years or both.

“All traders, including online traders, who still have stock of the products are instructed to immediately stop selling them and to contact the nearest district health office for them to be seized.


“Members of the public who consume these products are encouraged to immediately seek advice and treatment from health professionals,” Noor Hisham said in a statement today.

The ministry’s food safety and quality division had surveyed 849 products from 2019 until August this year.

The 21 products found to contain controlled poisons include health drinks, candies and premix coffee.

The list of the products can be found in the director-general’s full statement here.


Source: FMT

Democratic nominee Joe Biden said he expects to defeat President Donald Trump when all the votes are counted and delivered a call for healing and unity in the wake of the brutal election.

“We are not enemies,” Biden said in a speech delivered from Wilmington, Delaware, on Wednesday afternoon.

“We’ve faced hard times before. So once this election is finalized and behind us, it will be time for us to do what we’ve always done as Americans: to put the harsh rhetoric of the campaign behind us, to lower the temperature, to see each other again, to listen to one another, to hear each other again,” Biden said.

“To unite, to heal, to come together as a nation. I know this won’t be easy. I’m not naive, neither of us are,” Biden said. “But I know this as well: To make progress, we have to stop treating our opponents as enemies. We are not enemies.”

“We are campaigning as Democrats, but I will govern as an American president,” he said.

• More than 1,100 new mutual funds in China have launched this year, for a scale of issuance that’s topped 2.5 trillion yuan ($373.1 billion) as of Friday, according to data from the Wind financial information database.
  
• Lower interest rates, new regulations and changes in Chinese investor preferences helped drive the growth, analysts said.
  
• ″(It’s) a clear opportunity for most mutual fund companies and managers, especially for those with (a) good track record, strong distribution network and established brand name,” said Cliff Sheng, partner leading the capital market service line of McKinsey in greater China.
  

KUALA LUMPUR: DAP’s Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii has questioned the government’s lack of urgency in repealing a provision in criminal law punishing those attempting suicide.

He said the written reply he received from Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of legal affairs Takiyuddin Hassan on decriminalising attempted suicide was “similar” to the one he received few months ago.

“Since the movement control order was imposed, we have seen an increase in the number of mental health cases as many people are unable to cope with the poor economic situation.

“A total of 78 attempted suicide cases were reported between March and June this year, compared with 64 cases during the same period last year,” Yii said at a press conference at Parliament today.


- More -

Ant Group’s world record-setting initial public offering in Shanghai and Hong Kong has been suspended.
The Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges made the announcement Tuesday.

Ant Group’s controller Jack Ma, executive chairman Eric Jing and CEO Simon Hu were summoned and interviewed by regulators in China.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange said Ant Group reported “significant issues,” which means it may not meet the conditions for listing or “information disclosure requirements.”


- More -

• The U.S. deficit is burgeoning and it’s set to grow much bigger with a planned second stimulus package to beat the pandemic fallout.
  
• The additional costs of funding the package will have to come from issuing more U.S. Treasurys — but that raises the question of who will buy them, given that China, previously the top purchaser of the Treasurys, is cutting its holdings.