Thumbs down/Perilous Polly partsA toy company is recalling 4.4 million Polly Pocket play sets worldwide after children in the US suffered internal injuries from eating loose magnetic parts.
The recall was sparked after the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) received about 170 reports of small magnets coming loose from the toys. Three children needed surgery due to intestinal perforations caused by the swallowed magnets. No incidents have been reported here and all Polly Pocket products currently on sale are safe, according to the manufacturer. The recalled goods, which were made in China, went on sale between 2003 and 2005.
Thumbsup/Nintendo crescendoAn online retailer sold out of reserve orders for the new Nintendo console in just seven minutes last week. Amazon.co.uk said a rush of buyers for the Wii - pronounced "we" - made it the site's fastest selling pre-order item. The website's available reserves sold out faster than its previous pre-order copies of the Harry Potter books and the Coldplay album.
The Nintendo Wii console will arrive in stores in Ireland on December 8th.
Thumbs up/Protection for petsWe may not have known it existed but we're suddenly very glad it's to be outlawed. A ban on the "unacceptable" trade in cat and dog fur across the EU has been proposed by the European Commission.
EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou said he was acting for ethical reasons and in response to the public outcry over the barbaric treatment of the animals to provide fur for everything from rugs and coats to figurines.
Apparently there is evidence of a thriving cat and dog fur trade in many European countries including France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark.
An estimated two million cats and dogs are being killed each year in China to fuel the trade, which is currently not illegal in the EU.
