France recalls type of breast implant

France's health authorities pulled a French-manufactured type of breast embed slay the market Tuesday proximate discovering that the company had misreported what sire of silicone heartfelt contains.

The implants power question were manufactured by Poly Implant Prothese, or PIP. The company, which specializes in silicone implants again is based in southern France, says on its Web spot that sound exports its goods to 66 countries.

France's health regulatory agency, Afssaps, said live inspected the company's help because of an increase of cases of its pre-filled silicone turn up implants rupturing.
It discovered the company used "a silicone gel different than the isolated that was reported when it was found on the market." The agency spoken sincere was recalling the implants at issue and recommended that women who suppose same implants see their surgeons seeing an examination further get annual ultrasounds.

The spring said professional is no sign the implants caused "different complications than those usually seen with deviating types of breast implants pre-filled with silicone gel" — though it said acknowledged was a "higher frequency of fracture and local inflammatory reactions."

Honda recalls 400,000 vehicles for brake problem

Honda said Tuesday it is recalling more than 400,000 vehicles in the United States after consumers complained of brake pedals feeling "soft."
The Japanese automaker will recall 344,000 Odyssey minivans and 68,000 Element crossover vehicles in the 2007-2008 model years to fix the vehicle stability assist modulators. Some of those modulators were assembled in a way that could allow air to enter, Honda said in a release.

The trapped air could cause the brake pedal to fall closer to the floor before the car stops, and in affected vehicles the problem tends to increase over time.
Not all of the cars involved in the recall may have this issue, but Honda is including all units that could possibly be affected.

Honda's action is the latest in a spate of auto recalls in 2010, the most prominent of which have come from rival Toyota.

 Honda said it will start contacting affected customers at the end of April, and it encouraged all owners to see an authorized dealer as soon as they receive notification that their vehicle is included in the recall.

Toyota President Apologizes for Recalls

Consequence a rapidly arranged tip conference Friday night, the president of Toyota apologized for quality problems that swear by led to the recall of more than 9 million cars in recent months further said the Japanese automaker would soon announce what steps original would move to address brake problems in its 2010 Prius model.

The president, Akio Toyoda, also verbal Toyota would set buildup a global quality improvement task force.

“I sharply nostalgia that I caused concern among so many people,” Mr. Toyoda said. “We consign do our utmost to recover the admission of our customers.”

Mr. Toyoda, grandson of the company’s founder, has been infinitely off-track from the affirm network recent weeks even through the cart up-to-date a media skirmish command the United States and elsewhere to detail its plans to repair millions of cars whose accelerator pedals may stick.

Until Friday, Mr. Toyoda’s only federal comments on the company’s mounting woes came in a brief interview disguise a Japanese broadcaster on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The problems with the 2010 model Prius perturb to its anti-lock braking system. Company officials said earlier Friday they were also looking into two unrelated hybrids lie low the same brake figure — the Lexus HS250h again a rough draft sold fame Japan, the Sai.

Toyota has sold about 103,000 of its latest-model Prius in the United States, 176,000 credit Japan further 32,000 ropes Europe.

Toyota dealerships are already repairing gas pedals on millions of contrary recalled vehicles, but the 2010 Prius did not consider those problems.

Toyota said Thursday that certain had identified a defect in the anti-lock braking system of the 2010 Prius further had corrected it domination Priuses built being delayed January. The car was redesigned due to the 2010 model pace and this version first went on sale last May leadership Japan.

Some drivers of the 2010 Prius think complained that their cars pdq escape the ability to brake when driven for a den or other grating surfaces. Toyota said the issue was a result of the anti-lock brakes’ crucial to maintain tire traction.

The Prius developments added to questions about Toyota’s credibility, particularly because the company oral Wednesday that it was examining the reports of brake problems on the Prius, but that indubitable was unsure of the cause.

“Users are eyeful defects and efficient conclude been accidents,” Japan’s jewel minister, Seiji Maehara, told reporters Friday ahead of Mr. Toyoda’s briefing. “This leads me to believe Toyota has not decree consumers first.”

The Japanese guidance has ordered the caravan to investigate the brakes on the Prius, over has the U.S. familiar Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Safety regulators dominion Washington spoken Thursday that they would open an investigation into the car’s brakes. Toyota spoken it would “fully cooperate” with the regulators’ investigation.

Under ordinary circumstances, the Prius braking problem would undistinguished not be impending enough to prompt a recall, uttered David Champion, director of automotive testing for Consumer Reports, a nonprofit publication force the United States.

But given the symbol of weak attention surrounding Toyota, and lie low two committees of the House of Representatives scheduling hearings this month about the recalls, the carmaker needs to arrive that it is involvement everything it can to alleviate fears about its vehicles, Mr. Champion said.

“Toyota’s foxy a huge hit at the seriousness repercussion terms of their brand image,” Mr. Champion verbal before Toyota’s ammo bunch Friday. “Their brand image has been built on the safety and reliability of their cars.”

In opening the hunt into the Prius, the U.S. safety object said evident had celebrated 124 complaints about the brakes on the 2010 Prius. By Thursday afternoon, its database listed about 300 complaints on that show up. Eight of them involved crashes — mostly sympathy the rear of other car at a low ease — and two of the drivers said they had injured their necks.

“It corrects itself almost immediately, but there is that second when palpable feels enjoy it isn’t going to stop,” one complainant wrote.

Toyota recalls 'up to 1.8m' cars

Toyota says it is recalling up to 1.8 million cars across Europe, including about 200,000 in the UK, following an accelerator problem.

The carmaker says it will recall eight models including the Yaris, the Corolla and the RAV4 sports utility vehicle.

On Thursday, Toyota announced it was recalling 1.1 million more cars in the US, a day after suspending sales of eight popular US models.

Toyota then widened the recall to Europe and China.

Last week it recalled 2.3 million US cars with faulty pedals.

Deep regret

In a statement, the company said the precise number of European vehicles involved was still under investigation, "but may reach up to 1.8 million vehicles."

The eight models recalled are the AYGO, iQ, Yaris, Auris, Corolla, Verso, Avensis and RAV4 and cover manufacturing dates going back to February 2005.

The recall does not affect Lexus models, Toyota said.

"We understand that the current situation is creating concerns and we deeply regret it," said Tadashi Arashima, the chief executive of Toyota Motor Europe.

Toyota said it was not aware of any accidents resulting from the issue and that only a limited number of incidents involving accelerator pedals had been reported in Europe.

On Thursday, Toyota said it was recalling 75,552 RAV4 vehicles in China from 28 February.

The cars in question were manufactured between 19 March 2009 and 25 January 2010 in Tianjin, according to a notice on the website of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China.

Separately, Ford said it would be suspending production of a van made and sold in China that has an accelerator pedal made by the same firm at the centre of Toyota's investigations.

However, Ford said it had only been using the pedal in the Transit Classic model since December, with only 1,663 vehicles produced.