Daily Archives: February 6, 2013

Kate and Gerry McCann hold an age-progressed police image of their daughter during a news conference to mark the 5th anniversary of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, on May 2, 2012. Photo: Getty

New Zealand police have obtained a DNA sample from a young girl people had thought to be Madeleine McCann, at the request of Scotland Yard.

The request follows a New Year's Eve sighting of the girl in Queenstown. It was not the first time her striking resemblance to the missing young British girl had been reported to police.

Detective Senior Sergeant Kallum Croudis, of Dunedin, confirmed police would be sending a DNA profile of the girl to British police investigating Madeleine's disappearance.

"Police will be sending a DNA profile to British police . . . to confirm the identity of a girl who has been mistaken for Madeleine by a member of the public," Mr Croudis said.

DNA sampling was a conclusive way to establish identity, he said.

The DNA profile was given voluntarily to police. The results of the test are not expected to be available for weeks.

"The results of this process will not be known for some time," he said.

Madeleine McCann went missing from the Ocean Club complex in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007 just before her fourth birthday. She was on holiday with her parents Kate and Gerry and siblings Sean and Amelie.

Queenstown hit international headlines after a retailer reported serving a man, and a girl who bore a striking resemblance to the missing Madeleine, on New Year's Eve.

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DNA of Maddie lookalike sent from NZ

4 February 2013 Last updated at 06:56 ET

A leader of Ireland's Muslims has warned that the discovery of pork DNA in halal products could damage the reputation of Irish meat.

Tyrone food company McColgan's and distributors 3663 withdrew products after pork traces were found in pies meant for English and Irish jails.

Pork is strictly forbidden by Islamic dietary rules.

Dr Ali Saleem said on RTE's Morning Ireland that for a Muslim, eating pork was "equivalent to taking drugs".

He said Irish beef had a "wonderful reputation among Muslims in Britain and Ireland" but it would now have to be tested by the Muslim community's own agencies.

The Food Standards Agency NI, however, said no pork meat was found in halal products meant for prisons in England and Wales.

County Tyrone food company McColgan's and distributors 3663 withdrew products after traces of pork DNA were found.

The tests were carried out following the discovery of horse meat in beefburgers produced in County Monaghan.

The burgers had been on sale in the UK and the Republic of Ireland.

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Muslim leader warns on pork DNA

The bones of King Richard III have been found in England. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

Experts say DNA analysis supports their claim that the bones dug up last year under a parking lot in the English city of Leicester are the last mortal remains of England's King Richard III.

"It's the academic conclusion of the University of Leicester that beyond reasonable doubt the individual exhumed at Greyfriars in September 2012 is indeed Richard III, the last Plantagenet king of England," Richard Buckley, the project's lead archaeologist, said during a Monday news briefing in Leicester.

The project used 21st-century forensic science to solve a 500-year-old mystery surrounding one of William Shakespeare's best-known villains. Shakespeare's play, "Richard III," made the king out to be a scheming monster who killed children to get to the English throne. The bard gave Richard III dramatic lines that are still evoked today, ranging from "the winter of our discontent" to "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!"

In real life, Richard III's battlefield death in 1485 marked the end of England's Wars of the Roses, a decades-long conflict between the houses of York and Lancaster. Tradition held that he was buried in the choir of Leicester's Greyfriars Church, but the precise location of his remains was lost in the mists of time. Some even speculated that Richard's bones were thrown into the River Soar during Henry VIII's reign.

It was only in the past few years that archaeologists have been able to zero in on the location of the Greyfriars site again. Last year, a team led by the University of Leicester excavated a city parking lot and found a wealth of intriguing evidence including a skeleton with a battle-scarred skullanda spine that was curved due to scoliosis. There was no evidence of a coffin, a shroud or clothing that was buried with the body.

All those clues suggested that the skeleton could have been that of the historical Richard III, but to firm up the connection, scientists put the bones through genetic tests, radiocarbon dating and more detailed osteological analysis.

"The skull was in good condition, although fragile, and was able to give us detailed information about this individual," University of Leicester archaeologist Jo Appleby reported Sunday in a news release. During Monday's news briefing, Appleby said experts identified 10 injuries to the bones, including eight wounds to the skull and "postmortem humiliation injuries." Such wounds are "highly consistent" with the accounts of Richard III's death, she said.

"Historical sources tell us that Richard's body was stripped," hacked and put on public display after the battle, Appleby noted.

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DNA verdict on skeleton: It's King Richard III

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Burgers containing horse DNA have been discovered at a second plant in Ireland, the country's agriculture department said on Monday, again pointing the finger at Poland as the country of origin for the raw materials.

Major food companies like Tesco and Burger King last month found that beef products supplied by an Irish firm contained horse DNA, a scandal that has hit retailers with a wave of bad publicity and left Ireland's 2 billion euro ($2.7 billion) beef industry reeling.

Results of tests on a Polish meat ingredient at Ireland's Rangeland Foods, a supplier of frozen burgers to restaurants, caterers and pubs including local fast food chain Supermac's, contained 75 percent horse DNA, the agriculture department in a statement.

It said Rangeland has suspended production pending the outcome of an investigation and that the company has indicated that none of the products, which were imported through a meat trader based in Ireland, had entered the food chain.

Rangeland, based in the northern county of Monaghan, exports burgers to Britain, Sweden, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece and Cyprus.

The minister of agriculture has also asked the police to join in the investigation, the department added.

The first supplier to be implicated, Silvercrest - a subsidiary of Europe's largest beef exporter ABP Foods - has lost its contract to supply both Tesco and Burger King with burgers.

Burger King, one of the most popular fast-food chains in Britain and Ireland, said last week that its affected burgers never reached any eateries. Tesco withdrew a number of products from its shelves, including one sample where horse meat accounted for about 29 percent of content.

Smaller retail chains Aldi, Lidl and Iceland have also sold beef products found to contain horse DNA.

Poland's veterinary authority found no signs of horse meat in samples from five slaughterhouses that were sending beef to Ireland and is awaiting results from the sixth, state news agency PAP reported on Friday.

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Horse DNA found in burgers at second Irish plant

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Burgers containing horse DNA have been discovered at a second major plant in Ireland, the country's agriculture department said on Monday, again pointing the finger at Poland as the country of origin for the raw materials.

Food companies such as Tesco and Burger King last month found that beef products supplied by an Irish firm contained horse DNA, a scandal that has hit retailers with a wave of bad publicity and left Ireland's 2 billion euro ($2.7 billion) beef industry reeling.

Results of tests on a Polish meat ingredient at Ireland's Rangeland Foods, a supplier of frozen burgers to restaurants, caterers and pubs including local fast food chain Supermac's, contained 75 percent horse DNA, the agriculture department said in a statement.

"This isn't a huge surprise, it's another depressing saga that has put Irish food in the headlines for all the wrong reasons," Irish Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney told national broadcaster RTE.

"It's not a surprise to me because this is the same product that has been going into Silvercrest," he said, referring to the plant run by Ireland's most powerful beef baron Larry Goodman, the first whose burgers were found to contain horsemeat.

Coveney's department said Rangeland has suspended production pending the outcome of an investigation and the company has indicated that none of the products, which were imported through a meat trader based in Ireland, had entered the food chain.

Rangeland, based in the northern county of Monaghan, exports burgers to Britain, Sweden, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece and Cyprus. Coveney said the product containing the horse DNA was destined for the catering industry outside Ireland.

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Initial tests on burgers produced by another Irish company, Liffey Meats, also tested positive for low traces of horse DNA, although further tests came back clear.

The minister said the only two other burger manufacturers in the country had both confirmed they have not used any Polish products, and that their products are 100 percent Irish sourced.

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Horse DNA found in burgers at second major Irish plant