* Chinese provinces report additional 10,000 cases * Tainted milk products spread to Japan * Heinz <HNZ.N> recalls baby food in Hong Kong By Chris Buckley BEIJING, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Chinese provinces have reported nearly 10,000 additional cases of children who have developed kidney illnesses after drinking toxic milk formula in recent days, local media reported on Friday. The problem was confirmed to have spread to neighbouring Japan on Friday, when Marudai Food Co. said melamine had been found in some of its recalled products made with Chinese milk, including "Cream Panda" buns, which appeal to children. Beijing continues to battle public alarm and international dismay after thousands of Chinese children were hospitalised, sick from milk formula tainted with melamine, a cheap industrial chemical that can be used to cheat quality checks. Four have died. In Hong Kong, Heinz <HNZ.N>, the world's largest ketchup maker, recalled a batch of baby food due to trace levels of melamine. Heinz said it was recalling one batch of only one variety of baby food as a precautionary measure and no other Heinz products were affected. Heinz's recalled product was made in China for distribution in China only, a company spokesman said. Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety said apart from the Heinz product, a batch of crackers from another brand had been found to contain trace elements of melamine and shops had been asked to stop selling the products. But in China, attention to the growing milk scandal was at least temporarily diverted to the launch late on Thursday of the country's third manned space mission, set to include this weekend the technologically ambitious nation's first space walk. China's Ministry of Health has not issued a fresh count of infants suffering kidney problems and complications since Sunday. It said then that 12,892 were in hospital, 104 with serious illness, and close to 40,000 others were affected but did not need major treatment. More recent counts from province-level health authority numbers across China showed at least another 9,959 cases have been diagnosed this week with illnesses linked to the toxic milk. Much of that rise was in Hebei, the northern province that is home to Sanlu Dairy group, which made the contaminated formula that sparked the broader milk scandal. The Hebei Daily (hbrb.hebnews.cn) said Hebei province alone had diagnosed 13,773 cases up to Thursday, an increase of 4,794 on four days earlier. Shao Mingli, head of the State Food and Drug Administration, warned his staff the government would not tolerate cover-ups or reporting delays, after local officials sat on news for at least a month -- if not longer -- that Sanlu's milk was suspect. "Under no circumstances turn a deaf ear to people's complaints and pretend they do not exist," he told a meeting, according to the transcript of a speech on the watchdog's website (www.sda.gov.cn). CONTAMINATED POWDER Millions across China watched the launch of the Shenzhou VII spacecraft on live television on Thursday and images of the rocket blasting off dominated official newspapers. But the health and political fallout from children poisoned with melamine is not likely to disappear soon. There are no numbers available yet for China's big commercial hub, Shanghai, but state media said many infants there may have been affected. The count of recent provincial-level numbers indicated 1,019 additional children were hospitalised this week. But the statistics did not make clear if those cases were included in or separate from the larger number diagnosed with kidney damage. The count from provincial sources showed no new deaths. The World Health Organisation (WHO) representative in China said effective medical help made many more deaths unlikely. "We don't expect a large increase in the number of deaths, because we have to remember that a child usually doesn't die from a kidney stone itself, but from its complications," WHO representative Hans Troedsson told a news conference in Beijing. "... the treatment has been shown (to be) effective in China," he said. The Maldives became the latest country to pull Chinese dairy products from its shelves. "Our inspectors have gone out, plus we are warning the public on TV and radio," said Moosa Anwar, director-general at the Maldives Food and Drug Authority. Hong Kong's government set up a taskforce on Friday that will find ways to manage the huge numbers of children turning up for kidney examinations and to cope with mainland Chinese who are travelling to Hong Kong to have their children checked. Five cases of children made sick by drinking tainted milk have been reported in Hong Kong. Taiwan media reported three cases involving four children and an adult with kidney stones or signs of calcification in the kidneys. The European Commission proposed on Thursday tests and restrictions on Chinese food products containing powdered milk. In Shanghai, the producer of China's popular White Rabbit Creamy Candies said it would stop domestic sales of such sweets, Xinhua news agency quoted an official as saying. The candy's producer, Guanshengyuan, had earlier recalled its exports to more than 50 countries. Nitrogen-rich melamine can be added to substandard or watered-down milk to fool quality checks, which often use nitrogen levels to measure the amount of protein in milk. The chemical is used in pesticides and in making plastics. (Additional reporting by James Pomfret and Tan Ee Lyn in Hong Kong, Judith Evans in Male, Gina Chang in Taipei and Liu Zhen, Yu Le and Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Isabel Reynolds in Tokyo, Ben Klayman in Chicago; Writing by Valerie Lee; Editing by Jerry Norton)
Children struggle with their umbrellas against strong winds as typhoon Hagupit hit Dianbai County of Maoming, Guangdong province September 24, 2008. A powerful typhoon ploughed into a densely populated area of ...
