Health authorities groped in the dark in search of the source of the E coli infection with suspicions about bean sprouts being a potential carrier yet to be substantiated, as the death toll in Germany

The German government came under increased criticism on Tuesday at home and abroad, accused of mismanaging the crisis surrounding an E. coli outbreak that has killed more than 20 people.

German officials, however, reported a slight fall in the rate of newly reported infections.

The European Commission said Tuesday it will ask EU states to release 150 million euros in aid to European vegetable producers whose sales have been decimated by a deadly bacteria outbreak.
European agriculture commissioner Dacian Ciolos also urged German authorities to quickly find the source of the lethal strain of E.

The European Commission said on Tuesday it would ask EU states to release

Cucumbers may be out of favour on earth, but a Japanese astronaut said on Monday that he plans to harvest the vegetable on board the International Space Station.
Satoshi Furukawa is set to blast off on Wednesday for a half-year stint in orbit along with Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov and Nasa astronaut Michael Fossum.
Speaking about experiments scheduled for the next few months, Furukaw

The area under organic farming is increasing in Punjab with more farmers adopting this method to grow vegetables, fruits and cereals.

Officials of the Organic Farming Council of Punjab said they had registered farmers practicing organic farming on more than 5,000 acres in the state.

German agricultural authorities on Sunday identified locally grown bean sprouts as the likely cause of the deadly E coli outbreak that has killed 22 people and sickened over 2,200 others in Europe.

The Lower Saxony agriculture ministry sent an alert on Sunday warning people to stop eating the sprouts, Ministry Spokesman Gert Hahne said.

Geneva: Escherichia coli, a deadly foodborne bacteria, has infected over 1600 people in 11 European nations, including Germany and Spain, even as experts are working to find out the source of the malady.
World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday said

A strain of E. coli spreading across Europe is a previously unseen variant of the bacterium, and one that is more virulent than seen before, health officials say.

Scientists also said the new strain appeared likely to be resistant to common antibiotics.

By June 2, 18 people had died and more than 2,000 had become infected from eating contaminated vegetables.

SEVENTEEN deaths, some 1,500 confirmed or suspected cases and hundreds of millions of euros in losses: the outbreak of E. coli infections in northern Germany is causing havoc across Europe.