Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell to a record low for the second straight week, causing refinancing applications to surge to the highest level in more than five years.

Freddie Mac reported Wednesday that average rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages dropped to 5.14 percent this week. The average rate on a 15-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped to 4.91 percent from 4.92 percent last week, Freddie Mac said.

Rates on five-year, adjustable-rate mortgages fell to 5.49 percent, compared with 5.6 percent last week.

But jumbo mortgage shoppers in the most expensive U.S. housing markets aren't getting much relief from lower borrowing costs.

The average 30-year fixed rate for home loans of more than $729,750 remains almost 2 percentage points above conforming rates and the spread between them may set a record this month, according to financial data firm BanxQuote.

The Associated Press

Melamine in Chinese-produced milk powder has sickened hundreds of thousands of children and added to a growing list of made-in-China foods banned across the globe. Now, some scientists and consumer advocates are raising concerns that fish from China might also be contaminated with the industrial chemical.

China is the world's largest producer of farm-raised seafood, exporting billions of dollars worth of shrimp, catfish, tilapia, salmon and other fish. The U.S. imported about $2 billion of seafood products from China in 2007, almost double the volume from four years earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

But industry experts and businesspeople in China that say melamine has been routinely added into fish and animal feed to boost protein readings. And new research suggests that, unlike in cows and pigs, the edible flesh in fish that have been fed melamine contains residue of the nitrogen-rich substance.

The Los Angeles Times