Many years ago, inspired by Chinese-American contributor RR, we owned a dairy and baby-milk-powder stock, American Dairy, which despite its name produced milk on the plains of Inner Mongolia. It is now renamed Fiehe but still uses the ticker symbol ADY. It went private via a bunch of Cayman Islands companies funded by Morgan Stanley last year.

Shazaam. Now Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba Group, the Chinese e-commerce site whose ipo is eagerly awaited, via a sub has taken a stake in Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group, a dairy firm. Yili 2 years ago had to recall its branded mercury-tainted infant formula. I am not quite sure how the businesses connect. Maybe Chinese parents can buy on-line formula guaranteed by Alibaba to not be contaminated with mercury or (an earlier scandal) melamine. It will be delivered to their homes not with a drone but with a magic carpet.

Inspired by the yachts on the East River, we walked a mile north via the riverside esplanade yesterday to an Italian grocery formerly in our East Midtown neighborhood but now in the Upper East Side. Then, laden with fresh produce, we walked back home along hospital row. First we saw a woman in full hijab buying halal food from a street vendor, and I wondered how she would be able to eat it; then a woman in a gorgeous pink and yellow sari; and then a bearded rabbi in full kit. All par for the course.

But next a surprise: a duck and a drake high-stepping it in shrubs along the edge of the sidewalk beside a high-rise apartment house, over 3 blocks from the river. They seemed okay so we walked on. Wildlife in Manhattan.

More follows from Canada, Britain, Israel, Qatar, Pakistan, China, Mexico, Spain, The Netherlands, Africa, Ethiopia, and Russia.

*Teva's Parkinson's disease drug Azilect/Agilect won US FDA okay for expanded use. From being used alone or with levodopa, it now can be used as an adjunct to dopamine agonists as well as with other meds. This expands its brain and neurological drug franchise well beyond multiple sclerosis.

Israel yesterday allowed TEVA's MS drug, Copaxone, to be double-dosed to 40-milligrams and injected 3x a week rather than 5x, following our FDA.

*Pure Technology today announced winning a 3-yr $4 mn leak and tapping detection contract for Kahramaa's large-diameter pipes delivering desalinated water in Qatar (United Arab Emirates) to be filled via its Abu Dhabi sub. PPEHF will use its SmartBall technology, a free-swimming ball in the pipeline looking for leaks, gas pockets, or structural defects, to prevent flooding, failures, and service disruptions. PPEHF is a Canadian small-cap which developed its floating balls to link up Sahara desert water to Libyan cities under a contract with the former Qaddafi regime.

*A Reckitt Benckiser director, Amedeo Fasano, bought ~$250,000 worth of its shares according to the LSE. Insiders sell stock for many reasons, but they buy mainly because they know something that will pay. RBGLY reported the trade to the exchange and our Martin Ferera spotted it.

*Less excitingly, a director of Royal Bank of Scotland bought GBP 85,000 worth of its common stock. We own the prefs only. This may be linked to the imminent privatization of Lloyd's Bank, another bank taken over during the GFC. US investors are not allowed to buy new issues in Britain until 90 days have “seasoned” them.

*Hadassah Hospital under its medico deal with creditors and government ministries, has named a new CEO, Prof. Tamar Peretz, anoncologist, replacing the venerable and rich Avigdor Kaplan, the 3^rd director general in 4 years at the troubled health center. Having a woman head the hospital will appear to its largest donor group, US Jewish women donors. We care because we own a sub developing start-up treatments discovered by Hadassah medicos, Hadassit Bio Holdings, HADSY. For now I consider the stock a write-off.

*Delek Group has completed the accord to sell 100% of European assets held by its Dutch holding co. Delek Europe BV. It owns French BP and Benelux Texaco gas stations and convenience stores to an unnamed foreign fund for euros 355 mn, half for cash and half for a 5-yr loan at 5% interest. DGRLY is selling assets for funding development of its major offshore Israeli gasfield, Leviathan.

*Allana Potash reports on its earnings after the market closes today. Its share is up 4.6% on hope. Canada's ALLRF is developing potash mines in Ethiopia and has no earnings.

*Cameco Corp. is up on news that Denison Mines has taken a minority share in eastern Athabasca (Alberta Canada) uranium mines in which CCJ is operator.

*Ho-hum. Another 52-wk high for Banco Santander, SAN.

*Ho-hum. Another 52-wk high for Schlumberger Ltd., SLB.

Fund notes:

*China, India, and central banks are “on track to absorb the equivalent of 90% of all mined gold production in 2014” writes ETF Securities, a weekly. The report says that gold's move toward $1200/oz was reversed after the European Central Bank monetary easing, including negative interest rates, was announced last week. In 2013, China, India, and CB's took 80% of mine output. The new buyers are likely to be from India as import taxes are removed, but China also has a keen appetite for the yellow metal. We own SPDR Gold, an exchange-traded fund, GLD.

*The Karachi stock market barely budged despite the Taliban attack on the city's airport only a few miles away. However, foreign investors in XDB MSCI Pakistan Investment Fund HK:3106 may panic. So far the price is flat.

*We failed to forecast a surprise drop of Mexican reference rates to 3% imposed by its central bank last week. The move should help our closed-end Mexican Equity and Income Fund, MXE, and our REIT, Fibra Uno, FBASF. Both can benefit from yield-seeking and cheaper money.

*The Investor's Chronicle today wrote up an AIM-traded property company operating in the former Soviet Union. It is valued at the cash on its balance sheet with the real estate carried at 0. The stock may be Raven Rus, RUS:LSE.

*Africa Opportunity Fund fell 0.42% in UK trading and the US price followed. Closed-end fund AROFF (or AOF in Britain) invests in sub-Saharan Africa seeking value, special situations, and arbitraging opportunities. It recently issued options on a new convertible “C” share which may tempt UK institutions. NB: South Africans are not allowed to own this stock trading at under 4.5x NAV.