Nation briefs 5/2/07

FDA: Tainted animal feed not threat to humans

WASHINGTON -- Federal health investigators suspect that they will find more farms that received tainted animal feed but stressed Tuesday that the threat to people is minimal. The investigators are trying to get a handle on just how much pet food tainted with an industrial chemical called melamine made its way into products consumed by pets as well as by hogs and chickens. On Monday, they announced that byproducts from tainted pet food had been used in chicken feed on some farms in Indiana. A few days earlier, they said that hog farms in six states may have received tainted pet food for use as feed. The pet food in question could be to blame for a wave of dog and cat deaths in March due to kidney failure. However, Dr. David Acheson, an assistant commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration, said the threat level to pets is greater than to livestock or humans.

News Corp. makes $5 billion bid for Dow Jones

NEW YORK -- Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, said Tuesday it received an unsolicited bid from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. to buy the company for $5 billion, but the family that controls the company said it would oppose the deal. Dow Jones said its board had received the offer from News Corp. to buy the company at $60 a share, either in cash or a combination of cash and News Corp. stock. News of the offer, which was first reported on CNBC, sent Dow Jones' shares soaring, and also lifted those of other newspaper publishers. However Dow Jones said later Tuesday that the Bancroft family, the company's controlling shareholders, intended to vote shares representing just more than 50 percent of the voting power of Dow Jones against the deal.

-- From wire reports