Cattle gallstones are valuable due to their use in Chinese medicine. Some stones sell for twice the price of gold.

A prized ingredient in China’s multibillion-dollar industry for traditional medicine, gallstones have become the must-have item among underground traders and armed robbers in Brazil.

To show what lengths I’ll go to for winter column fodder, I’ve turned to  gallstones as both subject matter and a last gasp retirement plan. I speak not of human “stones,” made of bad cholesterol, but ...

Recently, the price of cow gallstones is trading at prices higher than gold, becoming the center of smuggling and crime. This ...

BARRETOS, Brazil—In the dead of night at a slaughterhouse in Brazil’s southeastern farming belt, a group of men splattered in blood gathered around the entrails of a cow to see if they had hit ...