North Korea 'creates super drink'

North Korea has claimed it has developed a "super drink" that can multiply brain cells and stop skin ageing.

The anti-oxidation drink contains 60 kinds of "microelements" extracted from more than 30 species of plants, according to the communist state's official news agency KCNA.

"It, with effects of both preventive and curative treatment, helps improve mental and retentive faculties by multiplying brain cells," KCNA said.

The drink can also protect skin from wrinkles and black spots, and prevent common conditions such as heart disease by removing "acid effete matters", it said.

Man charged with eat and run at top restaurants

LONDON - An unemployed man has been charged with wining and dining at a series of London's top restaurants, running up massive bills and then disappearing without paying, police said on Wednesday.

Latvian Janis Nords, 27, is accused of carrying out the scam on three occasions between October 14 and November 15.

He is accused of running off after amassing a 349-pound bill at the Glass House restaurant in Richmond, southwest London, and a 965-pound bill at the Connaught Hotel in central London.

The largest unpaid bill was at L'Oranger French restaurant in central London where he is accused of failing to pay for 1,021 pounds worth of food and drink.

Nords was due to appear in court later on Wednesday.

China milk campaigner 'forced to sack lawyers'

HONG KONG (AFP) - – A Chinese father jailed for "inciting social disorder" after campaigning for victims of melamine-tainted milk may have been forced to sack his lawyers, a rights group said Monday.

Zhao Lianhai, whose child was one of 300,000 sickened in the scandal in 2008, when six died, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison earlier this month.

The China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group, a Hong Kong-based organisation, said his two lawyers had tried to visit him at the Daxing detention centre, near Beijing, on Monday, but were not allowed to meet him.

In a statement the CHRLCG said his pair "suddenly received a note, with Zhao's signature and fingerprint, indicating to dismiss them as his lawyers" from the chief of the detention centre.

Pointing out that Zhao had stated his intention to appeal and Monday was the last day for him to do so, the CHRLCG said it was "strange" for him to sack the lawyers at that point and the note "might not represent Zhao's own wish".

"It was suspected that the Chinese government has been aggressively applying every measure to stop Zhao from lodging an appeal," the group said, adding that the move was "seriously violating the two lawyers' right to represent their client.

"We are very concerned whether Zhao has been coerced and faced any torture in the detention centre," it said, adding that Zhao's wife had given them a similar note.

The development came as state media said that authorities in central China were searching for a batch of dairy products containing high levels of melamine, the chemical involved in the scandal.

The government in Hubei province's Xiangfan city has asked all local businesses to look for 50 packages of a corn-flavoured dairy drink, the official China Daily newspaper reported.

Tests showed the melamine levels in the drinks were high, suggesting that the chemical -- which is normally used in making plastics -- was deliberately added during the production process, the report said.

It was not clear how many individual drinks were in one package.

The report said the company that made the drinks being sought in Hubei had bought milk powder as a raw material from a supplier in another province without knowing it was tainted with melamine.

China's dairy industry was rocked in 2008 by revelations that melamine was added to powdered milk to make it appear higher in protein content, sickening babies and causing worldwide recalls of products containing Chinese dairy ingredients.

The government said at the time it had destroyed all tainted milk powder and gave the all-clear, but reports of melamine-laced products have regularly re-emerged since then.

In July, authorities in China said they found 25,000 tonnes of milk powder tainted with melamine earlier this year.

The human rights group Amnesty International has condemned Zhao's conviction and imprisonment, saying it was "appalled".

High-caffeine energy drinks linked to alcohol abuse: study

WASHINGTON (AFP) - – Regularly consuming high-caffeine energy drinks significantly increases the risk of becoming alcohol-dependent and engaging in bouts of heavy drinking, a study published Tuesday found.

The study of more than 1,000 students at a US university found that those who consumed the caffeinated drinks on a weekly or daily basis drank alcohol more often and in greater quantities, and were more likely to become alcohol dependent than students who used energy drinks occasionally or not at all.

High consumers of energy drinks also had greater risk for alcohol-related problems such as blackouts or missing class because they were hung over, and were more susceptible to self-injury than non- or light users of energy drinks, said the study led by University of Maryland researcher Amelia Arria.

The study, which was released online ahead of publication next year in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, adds to earlier research that found links between heavy energy drink consumption and substance abuse and high-risk behavior.

The energy drinks, including Red Bull, Monster and Rockstar, deliver the equivalent caffeine dose of a cup and a half of brewed coffee but do not have to disclose their caffeine content on their label, which could lead to consumers of the drinks taking in more caffeine than they realize.

The researchers also noted that youngsters are tending more and more to mix energy drinks with alcohol, thinking that the caffeine, which keeps them awake, is counteracting the effects of the alcohol.

"They're under the misguided notion that they're not impaired when they are just as impaired as a person with the same blood-alcohol concentration. It's their subjective perception of drunkenness that is impaired," Arria told AFP.

Arria and her co-authors on the study called for greater regulation of caffeine-containing beverages to safeguard public health, and for consumers to be more aware of the dangers of the drinks.

"These drinks are distributed widely and the consequences of using them cost everyone, economically and socially. This doesn't affect a minority -- these things are pretty popular," Arria told AFP.

Nearly two thirds of the more than 1,000 students interviewed for the study used energy drinks at some time in the past year, and 10 percent consumed them on a weekly or daily basis.

Italian giant truffle sold for 105,000 euros

ALBA, Italy (AFP) – A giant white truffle was sold off on Sunday to a Hong Kong buyer for 105,000 euros (144,000 dollars) at a lavish auction near the town of Alba in northern Italy, organisers said.

The truffle weighed 900 grammes and the auction was held at the medieval Castello di Grinzane in a part of Italy famous for its wine and truffles.

The price per gramme for the truffle was therefore 117 euros -- lower than the rate of 133 euros per gramme paid at the same auction last year.

Last year's truffle also went to a buyer from Hong Kong.

Proceeds from the auction will go to scholarships for Italian students, a children's charity in Hong Kong and local charities in Alba.

"Truffle allows gourmets and gourmands from around the world to meet up in this corner of the Piemonte region to give life to an event with a big following," said Tomaso Zanoletti, a senator and one of the organisers.

Supermarket blasted for selling reindeer meat in UK

LONDON (AFP) - – A supermarket chain was under fire on Monday for selling reindeer meat in its British stores in the run-up to Christmas.

German discount chain Lidl is selling frozen Siberian reindeer leg steaks at six pounds (9.60 dollars, seven euros) for a 350-gramme pack as part of its deluxe range.

Reindeer are traditionally associated with the festive season -- the story going that Father Christmas travels around the world delivering presents on a sleigh pulled by a team of flying reindeer.

Animal rights campaigners blasted Lidl, which defended its decision to sell the unusual meat by saying the reindeer had been well treated.

"Lidl is destroying the magic of Christmas by selling dead reindeer," said Justin Kerswell, the campaigns manager for Vegetarians International Voice for Animals.

"What they term 'luxury cuisine' belies the truth behind an industry that exists to exploit wild animals," he told trade magazine The Grocer.

Siberian reindeer were often herded by snowmobiles and in some cases by helicopters and motorbikes, Kerswell said.

"This and lassoing them cause huge stress. They can become so distraught their muscle can waste away."

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said: "The idea of 'Rudolph' being slaughtered and sliced into steaks for a novelty Christmas dinner is revolting.

"Christmas is supposed to remind us of peace and goodwill -- and the rest of the animal kingdom could do with a taste of it, rather than being tasted."

Lidl, which has more than 530 stores in Britain, said the reindeer were fed on "local aromatic herbs and grass.

"They live in their natural habitat and have plenty of space to move around," a spokeswoman said.

The supermarket is also selling pheasant, venison and springbok in the Christmas build-up.

Non-stick cookware may boost cholesterol: study

WASHINGTON (AFP) - – Exposure to chemicals used to make non-stick cookware and which are found in microwave popcorn may raise blood cholesterol levels in children, a study says.

Researchers led by Stephanie Frisbee of West Virginia University School of Medicine assessed blood lipid levels in 12,476 children and teens aged one to 18 years for the study published in Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, a journal of the American Medical Association.

The children who took part in the study were part of a health project that began after a lawsuit was settled in 2002 after perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) was found in the water supply in the mid-Ohio River Valley.

To be part of the project, children had to have been exposed for at least a year to the contaminated drinking water.

For the study, believed to be the first to look at the link between perfluoroalkyl acids and serum lipids in youngsters, blood samples were taken from the children and teens in 2005 and 2006.

The average PFOA concentration in their blood was found to be 69.2 ng/mL and the average perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) concentration was 22.7 ng/mL -- both much higher than the national median.

PFOA and PFOS are part of the family of manmade compounds called perfluoroalkyl acids, which humans are exposed to through everything from dust to food packaging to microwave popcorn and non-stick pots and pans.

Among 12- to 19-year-old study participants who had drunk water from the contaminated supply for at least a year, PFOA concentrations were found to be substantially higher than those found nationally in kids -- 29.3 ng/mL for the study group and 3.9 ng/mL for the others.

Kids with higher PFOA levels had higher total cholesterol -- the most common measurement of blood cholesterol -- as well as increased levels of LDL or "bad" cholesterol.

Higher levels of PFOS, meanwhile, were associated with increased total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and HDL, or "good," cholesterol.

"PFOA and PFOS specifically, and possibly perfluoroalkyl acids as a general class, appear to be associated with serum lipids, and the association seems to exist at levels of PFOA and PFOS exposure that are in the range characterized by nationally representative studies," the authors of the study said.

High blood cholesterol is a major risk factor for coronary heart disease and stroke.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, claiming more than 600,000 lives a year, and stroke is the third-biggest, killing 136,000 people a year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Total cholesterol levels should be less than 200 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL), according to the American Heart Association.

The study found an average difference of 8.5 mg/dL in total cholesterol levels between the one-fifth of participants with the highest and the fifth with the lowest PFOS levels.

Up to now, few studies have been conducted into the effects of long-term exposure to perfluoroalkyl acids and how they might affect health and development in humans, and the authors of the study called for more research into exposure to the family of chemicals.