Global Networks

5:51 pm

#China regulator says food supplier forged production dates: #Xinhua

#GNN - #Regulators in #Shanghai have found that a scandal-hit China-based food supplier forged production dates on some of its products and sold them after their expiry, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday.

Shanghai Husi Food, which is owned by Illinois-based OSI Group, is at the center of China's latest food scandal, which has spread to Hong Kong and Japan, over allegations it mixed expired meat with fresh meat.

Police have detained five people as part of their investigation.

Shanghai Municipal Food and Drug Administration has found that Shanghai Husi forged the production dates on smoked beef patties produced in May 2013 and sold them as being made in January 2014, Xinhua said. The processed meat had a shelf life of nine months, it added.

Xinhua said there were 4,396 batches with forged dates, of which 3,030 had been sold.

Officials at Shanghai Husi and OSI in China could not be reached for comment. OSI has apologized to its Chinese consumers, calling what happened at the Shanghai plant "completely unacceptable".

The scandal, which has dragged in global food chains including McDonald's Corp, KFC-parent Yum Brands Inc and Starbucks Corp, was prompted by a local TV report on Sunday which showed staff at Shanghai Husi using long-expired meat and picking up food from the floor to add back to the mix. It also alleged the firm of forging production dates.

Reuters reported on Friday that Shanghai Husi won a court case earlier this year against a former quality control officer whose claims included that he was made to forge meat production dates.

The former worker told a court last year he was unwilling to illegally forge dates at the plant, adding that he repeatedly urged his employer to change a practice which he said violated food safety laws and hurt consumer interests, according to court documents seen by Reuters. He said Shanghai Husi ignored his pleas. The judge dismissed the allegation due to lack of evidence.

So far, there have been no reports of consumers falling sick in the latest food scare.

Food safety is one of the top issues for Chinese consumers after a scandal in 2008 where dairy products tainted with the industrial chemical melamine led to the deaths of six infants and made many thousands sick.

(GNN)(Reuters)(AIP)(Reporting by Kazunori Takada; Editing by Richard Borsuk)

5:47 pm

#Israel extends #Gaza #humanitarian ceasefire for another 24 hours: #government official

#GNN - Israel's security cabinet approved extending the humanitarian ceasefire begun early on Saturday until midnight local time (1700 EST) on Sunday, an Israeli government official said.

"At the request of the United Nations, the cabinet has approved a humanitarian hiatus until tomorrow (Sunday) at 24:00. The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) will act against any breach of the ceasefire," the official, who was not named, said in a statement.

Late on Saturday, militants ignored an Israeli announcement that it would extend the truce by four hours and resumed firing rockets into Israel from Gaza around two hours after the end of the initial 12-hour ceasefire period. It began at 8 a.m. (0100 EST) on Saturday.

After the ceasefire began early on Saturday, Gazans took advantage of the lull in fighting to retrieve their dead and stock up on food, flooding into the streets to discover scenes of massive destruction in some areas.

At least 1,033 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in the fighting since July 8 when Israel launched its offensive, aimed at ending rocket fire by Islamist militants out of Gaza.

Israel said five more of its soldiers were killed in pre-truce fighting in Gaza and two others died of their wounds in hospital, bringing the army death toll to 42 as troops battled militants in the tiny Mediterranean enclave that is home to 1.8 million Palestinians.

Three civilians, including two Israeli citizens and a Thai laborer, have been killed by rockets fired from Gaza.

Israel's and Hamas's positions remained far apart regarding a long-lasting halt to hostilities.

Hamas said it would only endorse the ceasefire if Israel removes its troops from the areas into which it has entered in the Gaza Strip.

"Any humanitarian calm that does not include the withdrawal of occupation soldiers from the Gaza Strip and enable the people to return to their houses and to evacuate the wounded is not acceptable," said Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas spokesman.

(GNN)(Reuters)(Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and David Gregorio)

5:44 pm

U.S. evacuates #Libya #embassy after 'free-wheeling #militia violence'

#GNN - The United States evacuated its embassy in Libya on Saturday, driving diplomats across the border into Tunisia under heavy military escort after escalating clashes broke out between rival militias in Tripoli.

Security in the Libyan capital has deteriorated following two weeks of clashes between brigades of former rebel fighters who have pounded each other with rockets and artillery fire in southern Tripoli near the embassy compound.

The violence is the worst seen in Tripoli and in eastern Benghazi since the 2011 fall of Muammar Gaddafi. Western governments fear Libya is teetering toward becoming a failed state just three years after the NATO-backed war ended his one-man rule.

Three F-16 fighters provided air support and Osprey aircraft carrying Marines flew overhead the U.S. convoy as a precaution, but there were no incidents during the five-hour drive from Tripoli to Tunisia, U.S. officials said.

"Security has to come first. Regrettably, we had to take this step because the location of our embassy is in very close proximity to intense fighting and ongoing violence between armed Libyan factions," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement.

U.S. sources familiar with the matter said there were about eight U.S. diplomats and 200 or more U.S. security personnel in Libya and all had been evacuated.

A Reuters reporter outside the embassy later saw no sign of movement or personnel on the perimeter gate of the compound, which lies a few kilometers from the airport.

Since one militia attacked Tripoli airport two weeks ago, fighting has killed at least 50 people in the capital, shut down most international flights and forced the United Nations and Turkey to pull out their diplomatic staff.

Tripoli was quieter after the evacuation. But at least 25 people were also killed in a day of clashes between Libyan special forces and Islamist militants who are entrenched in the eastern city of Benghazi, security and hospital sources said.

Speaking to reporters in Paris before holding talks on the Middle East, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry described Libya's situation of "free-wheeling militia violence" as a real risk to U.S. staff with clashes around the embassy.

Britain's foreign office on Saturday also urged British nationals to leave by commercial means, due to "ongoing and greater intensity fighting in Tripoli and wider instability throughout Libya."

The battle for control of Tripoli International Airport is the latest eruption in a rivalry among bands of ex-fighters who once battled side by side against Gaddafi. Since then, they have turned against each other in the scramble for control.

Since the 2011 fall of Tripoli, fighters from the western town of Zintan and allies have controlled the area including the international airport, while rivals loyal to the port city of Misrata entrenched themselves in other parts of the capital.

SENSITIVE ISSUE
The State Department spokeswoman said embassy staff would return to Tripoli once it was deemed safe. Until then, embassy operations would be conducted from elsewhere in the region and Washington. Security in Libya is an especially sensitive subject for the United States because of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, in which militants killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

The attack also brought political fallout for President Barack Obama, with Republicans saying his administration did not provide sufficient overall security, did not respond quickly to the attack and then tried to cover up its shortcomings.

Ed Royce, Republican chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, told CNN on Saturday the administration needed to get "more engaged on the ground with the factions in Libya" to help bring the violence under control.

"I think they're on the right track (now) but late into the game in terms of trying to bring factions together and use U.S. leverage in order to try to work this out," Royce said.

A Libyan militant suspected of involvement in the 2012 attack, Ahmed Abu Khatallah, was captured in Libya last month and brought to the United States. He has pleaded not guilty.

But three years after Gaddafi's demise, Libya's transition to democracy is faltering, and its fragile government and nascent armed forces are unable to impose authority over the brigades of former fighters.

Many ex-fighters on the government payroll as semi-official security forces, but often pay little heed to the central government, each brigade claiming to be a legitimate force and the successors of the 2011 revolution.

Heavily armed, they have sided with competing political forces vying to shape the future of Libya in the messy steps since the end of Gaddafi's four-decade rule.

Libya's Western partners fear the OPEC oil-producing country is becoming increasingly polarized between two main groupings of competing militia brigades and their political allies.

One side is grouped around Zintan and their Tripoli allies, the Qaaqaa and al-Sawaiq brigades, which are loosely tied to the National Forces Alliance political movement in the parliament.

Opposing them is a faction centered around the more Islamist-leaning Misrata brigades and allied militias who side with the Justice and Construction Party, a wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.

(GNN)(Reuters)(AIP)(Additional reporting by Bill Trott and Phil Stewart in Washington, Arshad Mohammed in Paris; Editing by Gareth Jones, David Gregorio and Lisa Shumaker)

5:39 pm

Thousands ignore ban in Paris to protest Israeli offensive in Gaza

#GNN - #Pro-Palestinian protesters clashed with police in central Paris on Saturday when thousands of marchers defied a ban by French authorities to rally against Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip.

French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve warned organizers in a television address that they would be held responsible for any clashes and could be prosecuted for ignoring a ban that was confirmed by the country's top administrative court.

TV footage showed a minority of demonstrators wearing balaclavas and traditional Arab keffiyeh headdresses throwing projectiles at riot officers after two hours of peaceful protest.

By 1700 GMT (13:00 EST), most demonstrators had been evacuated from the square and order restored. Paris police said they had made about 50 arrests.

French authorities have refused to permit several pro-Palestinian protests because they feared violence. Marchers clashed with riot police in and around Paris in recent weeks, with some targeting synagogues and Jewish shops.

"Anti-Semitic violence exists: we must face it head on," Cazeneuve said.

Some protesters, NGOs and even ruling Socialist politicians have criticized the bans on the rallies as counter-productive.

Cazeneuve noted that over the last two weeks, five marches had been banned, out of about 300 such protests across the country.

"Freedom of protest was thus the rule, and bans the exception," he said.

According to the interior ministry, some 2,000 police were sent to the Place de la Republique to surround the demonstrators, which numbered about 5,000.

Reuters photographers saw one police officer slightly injured, the front windows of the Crowne Plaza hotel smashed and a bus shelter wrecked.

PALESTINIAN FLAGS
Organizers denied accusations of anti-Semitism.

"Our goal is not to attack the Jews, it is to condemn the policies of a government," Tarek Ben Hiba, a local politician and head of one of the 20 associations organizing the protest told Reuters.

Protesters were seen waiving Palestinian flags, chanting "We are all Palestinians" and carrying placards reading: "Zionists, terrorists". At least one Israeli flag was burned, a Reuters photographer said.

"It's a scandal that they're banning protests. It's our right. We were attacked with tear gas even though we didn't do anything," said 24-year old temp worker Sabrina, who declined to give her full name.

In the Mediterranean port city of Marseilles, some 2,000 people marched peacefully on Saturday in an authorized demonstration.

France has both the largest Jewish and Muslim populations in Europe and flare-ups in the Middle East have often in the past added to tensions between the two communities.

Israel began its offensive earlier this month, citing a surge in rocket attacks launched from Hamas militants in the Gaza strip.

Israel will extend a humanitarian truce in Gaza by a further four hours, a government source said on Saturday, as the number of Palestinian deaths in the 19-day war topped 1,000.

(GNN)(Reuters)(Reporting by Emmanuel Jarry, Benoit Tessier, Gonzalo Fuentes and Ingrid Melander in Paris, Francois Revilla in Marseilles; Writing by Michel Rose; Editing by Toby Chopra)

5:33 pm

Rocket kills four children in #Egypt near #Gaza border: sources

#GNN - Four children were killed and five other people were injured when a rocket landed near their homes in Rafah, an Egyptian town in Sinai near the border with Gaza, security officials said on Saturday.
Three security sources said the rocket was likely fired by Islamist militants operating in the Sinai peninsula, which borders Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

The state news agency MENA said security officials were still investigating where the rocket had come from.

Egyptian security forces have been struggling for years to quell an Islamist insurgency that has killed scores of soldiers and policemen in Sinai. The attacks surged after the army overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Mursi last year and the militants extended their reach to Egypt's mainland with a series of bombings, prompting the army to intensify its attacks on them in Sinai.

The three security sources said the rocket fired on Saturday had been targeting an army compound or check point but had fallen instead by mistake near civilian homes.

The rocket was fired from al-Gorah city, which is 10 kilometers away from the Gaza border, one security source said. The Egyptian army said earlier on Saturday it had killed 12 militants in its most recent operation in Sinai.

Across the border in the coastal enclave of Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas Islamists, the number of Palestinians killed in a 19-day war with Israel topped 1,000 on Saturday.

(GNN)(Reuters)(Reporting by Ali Abdelaty and Yusri Mohamed and Yasmine Saleh; Editing by Gareth Jones)

5:30 pm

Egypt summons Turkish envoy for second time over Erdogan #comments

#GNN - #Egypt summoned the #Turkish charge d'affaires on Saturday for the second time in a month to complain about comments by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan deemed insulting to the leadership in Cairo, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said.

In an interview with broadcaster CNN, Erdogan repeated the phrase that caused offense last time, calling Egypt's president, former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a "tyrant". He also accused Egypt of not being "sincere" over the Gaza crisis.

"The Arab republic of Egypt expresses its deep rejection of the latest comments made by the Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan," the foreign ministry said.

It said Erdogan's comments included "insults to the president and an issuing of general verdicts that lacked evidence, not objective but based on personal considerations."

Relations between Egypt and Turkey have soured since the Egyptian army last year ousted the governing Muslim Brotherhood, which Erdogan supports. Last year, Egypt expelled the Turkish ambassador, accusing him of undermining the country. Ankara responded in kind.

When asked if he still stands by his previous comment that Sisi was an “illegitimate tyrant”, Erdogan said: “Well, he is right now a tyrant, I don't have any doubts about that,” according to a transcript published on CNN’s website.

As head of the army, Sisi orchestrated the ouster of elected Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, a senior member of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood in reaction to protests against him.

He resigned from the army to run for election, which he won in a landslide. The Brotherhood was, by then, a banned group. Cairo has cracked down hard on Islamists, jailing thousands and killing hundreds of street protesters.

On the Palestinian crisis, Erdogan said Egypt "at this moment does not have a sincere approach to the Palestine issue."

Erdogan is a vocal supporter of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which Egypt sees as a security threat because it is an offshoot of the Brotherhood.

Egypt had proposed a truce initiative to end the Palestinian-Israeli fighting that failed, mainly because it was rejected by Hamas, which rules the Gaza strip that borders Egypt.

Foreign ministers from the United States, Europe and the Middle East including Turkey but not Egypt met in Paris on Saturday and called for an extension of a 12-hour ceasefire.

(GNN)(Reuters)(Reporting by Yasmine Saleh; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

5:25 pm

#International #players urge extension of #Gaza ceasefire

#GNN - U.S., #European and regional powers seeking to mediate an end to the conflict in Gaza called on Israel and Hamas on Saturday to extend their 12-hour ceasefire in a bid to win time and discuss each side's grievances.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has pushed efforts to end 19 days of conflict in which 940 Palestinians, many of them civilians, have been killed. He met counterparts from Europe and Qatar and Turkey - prime interlocutors with Hamas - at French-hosted talks in Paris.

"All of us call on the parties to extend the humanitarian ceasefire that is currently underway," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said after the meeting, which also included the foreign ministers of Britain, Germany and Italy.

"All of us want to obtain, as quickly as possible, a durable, negotiated ceasefire that responds both to Israeli needs in terms of security and to Palestinian needs in terms of the social-economic development (of Gaza) and access to the territory of Gaza," Fabius said.

The ministers, along with senior EU diplomat Pierre Vimont, met on the same day that Israel began a 12-hour ceasefire during which it said it would press on searching for tunnels used by militants. The Islamist group Hamas, which rules Gaza, said all Palestinian factions would abide by the brief truce.

The United States refuses to deal with Hamas because it regards the Palestinian faction as a terrorist group.

"The necessity right now is to stop the loss of life," British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond told reporters.

"And we stop the loss of life by getting this ceasefire to roll over for 12 hours, 24 hours or 48 hours - and then again until we have established the level of confidence that allows the parties to sit round a table to talk about the substantive issues."

Israel on Friday rejected international proposals for an extended ceasefire, a government source said. Kerry said no formal proposals had been put forward but acknowledged there were still disagreements on the terminology to be used.

"For now the agenda is about getting the ceasefire extended without further preconditions... Once we start going into the demands of the different parties, and the underlying grievances, we run into problems," Hammond noted.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said a ceasefire would only last if Gaza "no longer serves as weapons depot for Hamas and living conditions of the people improve".

(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed, Mark John and Henri-Pierre Andre; editing by Michel Rose and Angus MacSwan)

5:22 pm

Refugees return to destroyed neighborhoods during #Gaza truce

#GNN - #Palestinian #refugees from Israel's Gaza offensive emerged from shelters as a brief truce began on Saturday to find many neighborhoods destroyed and animals roaming the streets unattended.

The Kefarneh family trudged back to Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip along with other refugees sheltering in United Nations schools to see if their homes still stood.

Like many others, their was flattened into a twisted heap of concrete and flames still flickered from the rubble. One by one, family members arrived, witnessed what was left and wept.

"Pull yourself together, be strong, aren't you used to this by now!" one man barked at a sobbing younger relative, only to break down himself. "God help us!" he moaned, covering his face.

The 12-hour humanitarian truce agreed by Israel and Palestinian militants came as the United States and regional powers urgently sought a way to end almost three weeks of conflict that has killed almost a thousand Palestinians, most of them civilians, and 39 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

Palestinian medics said 85 bodies had so far been pulled from the rubble on Saturday in border areas of the Gaza Strip, where Israeli forces appeared to have largely withdrawn.

"GOD BLESS THE RESISTANCE!"

Israeli tank treads left their imprint in the concrete of the main road, which was smashed in places by artillery shells and ripped down the middle in a straight line hundreds of meters long, apparently by Israeli demolition equipment.

Piles of spent shell casings and emptied boxes of cigarettes with Hebrew writing attested to their recent presence.

Blanched and looking faint, Rehab Zaneen wandered through what was once her street, now covered in gray dust and ruins.

"It's all gone, our whole lives were in that house, home to 18 people!" screamed Zaneen, a small woman in a black robe and purple headscarf.

"Where will we go now, where will they all go, are we to scatter here and there and never be together and happy again? My God, we want peace, peace and for all this to stop!"

Israel says its ground incursion launched on July 17 aimed to destroy militant tunnels and it takes pains to avoid civilian deaths, having warned hundreds of thousands of people in the endangered areas to flee their advance.

In Beit Hanoun, scene of some fierce fighting, residents cursed the Israeli forces.

A woman pulled the trademark Palestinian black-and-white scarf from the rubble, dusted it off and put it over her head: "They won't take away our pride. We'll wear this to Jerusalem and the day of victory is close."

Another woman, struggling over the wreckage and twisted metal on her street, shouted out: "God bless the resistance! We stand by them and may God make steady their feet!"

GRIEF

Many families, arriving with empty bags to stock up on clothes before the fighting is set to resume, reacted with horror at their loss and found quiet corners to grieve.

A weeping boy stood bent over his skinny horse, tears streaming from its eyes as a fresh wound on its rump dripped blood.

Standing on the rubble of his home, one man telephoned relatives: "I'm here. It's gone, the whole house is gone."

Rescue workers and relatives worked frantically to excavate another home, where women and men wailed as three crushed and dust-covered bodies were pulled from the concrete.

"Yahya is alive!" one man rejoiced when a fourth body came out breathing. Tears of grief turned joyful as women shot to their feet, clapped and embraced.

But the mood darkened again when the man wrenched from the rubble appeared to be grievously injured.

"There is nothing called Israel! This is our land! Whatever they do we will not be defeated. Even if no one but a small child remains, the land of Palestine will be liberated!" shouted Intisar Al-Shinbari, an aunt of the three dead men.

Zaki al-Masri, noting quietly that his house and his son's were destroyed, appeared to be in no mood for slogans.

"The Israelis will withdraw - tomorrow or the day after - and we'll be left in this awful situation, as usual. We don't need a truce for just twelve hours, but for all time," he said.

(Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

2:10 pm

On the 60-year summit #anniversary, first #Pakistani team scales K-2

#GNN - #GILGIT: #Six #mountaineers from Gilgit-Baltistan became the first Pakistani team to reach K-2′s summit (8,611m) on Saturday afternoon, to mark 60 years since K-2, the second tallest mountain in the world, was first scaled. Over a dozen other climbers also reached the summit today.

The six Pakistanis including Hassan Jan, Ali Durani, Rahmat Ullah Baig, Ghulam Mehdi, Ali and Muhammad Sadiq managed to reach summit shortly after lunch on Saturday, four of them without supplemental oxygen. They are part of a Pakistan-Italian team that was attempting the summit to mark 60 years since Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli first scaled the ‘savage mountain’.

A total of 60 climbers in seven teams are currently attempting to summit K-2 in two waves over 48 hours as the mountain afforded a rare extended weather window.

“Muhammad Sadiq is part of the six member team that has made it to K2,” tour operator Hasan Khan, confirmed on Saturday, soon after the conquest. They were among the first of the climbers to reach the top on Saturday.

Sadiq is a resident of Gilgit-Baltistan and younger brother of famous mountaineer Hasan Sadpara. Four of the mountaineers hail from Hushe valley of Baltistan, while one is from Shimshal of Gojal.

“Another 30 mountaineers in another group are following and soon will make it to the summit,” said Khan.

Two Italian mountaineers, Michele Cucchi and Simone Origone, and a documentary-filmmaker and climber, Daniele Nardi, are also accompanying the climbers. Though Origone returned to camp-4 due to a headache.

However, only eight members of the team attempted the summit on Saturday.

The venture is supported by the Gilgit-Baltistan government and sponsored by the Italian organisation Ev-K2-CNR.

However, that was not the end of the good news.

At least 10 other climbers managed to reach the summit on Saturday.

Among the climbers was Czech mountaineer Radek Jaros at the head of his own team. This was reportedly Jaros’ 14th summit over 8,000m, thereby becoming the 31st person to complete all eight thousanders and the first Czech to do so. Czech Trávníček also managed to summit right after him.

Members of a Nepali women team also managed to reach the summit on Saturday.

The groups who managed to summit today are: International expedition (Adrian Hayes, Al Hancock), Chris Burke and Lhakpa Sherpa, Italian expedition (Giuseppe Pompili, Tamara Lunger, Nikolaus Gruber and Amin Baig), Czech Expedition led by Radek Jaros, Greek Duo (Alexandros Aravidis and Panagiotis Athanasiadis), Ferran Latorre, Pakistani-Italian Expedition (10 members, eight summited) and a Nepalese All Female Expedition.

The savage mountain
K-2 is located on the border between Baltistan, in the Gilgit–Baltistan region of northern Pakistan, and the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County of Xinjiang, China.

The first attempt on K-2 was in 1902 by Aleister Crowley and Oscar Eckenstein. They led a team of six climbers and tried to climb the northeast ridge. They failed after 68 days. It was a very bold climb when high-altitude climbing was still getting started.

However in 1954 two Italians – Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli – reached the top of K-2 on 31 July 1954, making K-2 an all time attractive back in Italy.

1:29 am

#China regulator says scandal-hit food supplier forged production dates- Xinhua

#GNN #Regulators in Shanghai have found that scandal-hit China-based food supplier forged production dates on some of its products and sold them after their expiry, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday.

Shanghai Husi Food, which is owned by Illinois-based OSI Group, is at the centre of China's latest food scandal, which has spread to Hong Kong and Japan, over allegations it mixed expired meat with fresh meat.

Police have detained five people as part of their investigation.

Shanghai Municipal Food and Drug Administration has found that Shanghai Husi forged the production dates on smoked beef patties produced in May 2013 and sold them as being made in January 2014, Xinhua said. The processed meat had a shelf life of nine months, it added.

Xinhua said there were 4,396 batches with forged dates, of which 3,030 had been sold.

Officials at Shanghai Husi and OSI in China could not be reached for comment. OSI has apologised to its Chinese consumers, calling what happened at the Shanghai plant "completely unacceptable".

The scandal, which has dragged in global food chains including McDonald's Corp, KFC-parent Yum Brands Inc and Starbucks Corp, was prompted by a local TV report on Sunday which showed staff at Shanghai Husi using long-expired meat and picking up food from the floor to add back to the mix. It also alleged the firm of forging production dates.

Reuters reported on Friday that Shanghai Husi won a court case earlier this year against a former quality control officer whose claims included that he was made to forge meat production dates.

The former worker told a court last year he was unwilling to illegally forge dates at the plant, adding that he repeatedly urged his employer to change a practice which he said violated food safety laws and hurt consumer interests, according to court documents seen by Reuters. He said Shanghai Husi ignored his pleas. The judge dismissed the allegation due to lack of evidence.

So far, there have been no reports of consumers falling sick in the latest food scare.

Food safety is one of the top issues for Chinese consumers after a scandal in 2008 where dairy products tainted with the industrial chemical melamine led to the deaths of six infants and made many thousands sick. (Reporting by Kazunori Takada; Editing by Richard Borsuk)

1:15 am

Grieving Dutch minister made Europe re-think #Russia sanctions

#GNN - When #Dutch Foreign #Minister Frans Timmermans spoke to his #European Union peers of his grief and anger over the downing of a Malaysia Airlines airliner over eastern Ukraine, it was a turning point in Europe's approach to Russia.

Several ministers had tears in their eyes when Timmermans said he had known personally some of the 194 Dutch passengers among the 298 people who died on the plane, which Washington believes pro-Russian separatists shot down in error.

"To my dying day I will not understand that it took so much time for the rescue workers to be allowed to do their difficult job, and that human remains should be used in a political game," Timmermans told the U.N. Security Council hours earlier, before flying overnight to Brussels for the crucial EU session.

Until that meeting on Tuesday, Europe had trailed the United States in imposing economic sanctions to pressure Moscow into working to defuse the eight-month crisis in Ukraine in which hundreds of people have been killed.

Many governments were reluctant to antagonize a major energy supplier. Concern over the cost to Europe's convalescent economy of fraying the vast network of industrial and business links with Russia also weighed heavily.

Intense lobbying by Washington, including a warning by President Barack Obama that the plane downing should be "a wake up call for Europe", had done little to change that mentality.

But like a supportive family, EU partners rallied around the bereaved Dutch, putting national economic interests aside and for the first time going beyond asset freezes and visa bans on individuals to envisage curbs on entire sectors of the Russian economy that could turn the screw on President Vladimir Putin.

Gruesome images of bodies strewn across fields after the downing of flight MH17 appear to have persuaded some of the opponents of sanctions to take a more decisive, if painful, stand against Russian detribalization of Ukraine.

Within days of Timmermans' address, senior EU diplomats had agreed the broad outlines of potential sanctions on Russian access to EU capital markets, defense and energy technology.

Final decisions await more deliberations next week - but diplomats said on Friday an initial package was now virtually a done deal.

"It is fair to say we are heading in the direction," one EU diplomat told Reuters.

In the run up to Friday's discussions, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte had a series of phone calls with his EU counterparts, near daily calls with Obama and six conversations with Putin.

"We want, as a country that has acquired a certain moral obligation as a result of this tragedy, to promote Europe taking a common line on this," Rutte told parliament in The Hague.

The Dutch are a trading nation with outsized commercial ties to Russia and are often reluctant to let politics get in the way of a good deal. But an opinion poll this week found 78 percent back economic sanctions even if it hurts their own economy.

LAST STRAW
Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, long an advocate of harsher sanctions, said the plane crash was the "last straw that broke the camel's back".

"The behavior of the separatists ... the scandalous plundering of the luggage and the bodies themselves - all this made an enormous impression on the Netherlands ... and on all of us," he told reporters after Tuesday's meeting.

The EU turnaround became possible when key players shifted their positions. Timmermans' impassioned speech, several diplomats said, made it difficult for others to hold a firm line against sanctions at Tuesday's meeting.

"The Dutch minister gave a very effective, emotional lead... saying we have got to move on beyond just naming individuals. No one found it possible to speak against that," one senior European diplomat said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who felt personally misled by Putin after months of intense dialogue, joined the drive for broader measures against Moscow even before the plane crash. Berlin has by far the biggest trade with Russia.

After the downing of the airliner, Britain too agreed to restrictions on Russian access to capital markets largely based in its City of London financial center which it had previously resisted.

German government sources said Berlin, which had been hesitant on sanctions for months, demanded that senior EU diplomats meet as soon as last Monday to work out a more effective sanctions package. To their annoyance, a holiday at EU headquarters for Belgium's national day got in the way.

EU leaders had agreed at a July 16 summit that more Russian people and companies should be targeted with asset freezes by the end of the month but that was suddenly not enough.

"It is true that the European Council had set a deadline of the end of the month, but after the plane crash everybody should have understood the situation was far more urgent", one Berlin source said. "We were losing time when time was precious."

ITALY CHANGES TONE
Another notable change of tone came from Italy, which along with Germany is the biggest consumer of Russian gas in Europe.

Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini, who had drawn criticism for making her first visit in the EU's rotating president to Moscow at the start of July, now said repeatedly she wanted to see additional sanctions imposed on Russia.

"The Malaysian air disaster weighed heavily on everyone," an Italian source said. "Timmermans spoke for half an hour. It was a very emotional speech where he described the pain and anger of the Dutch. An airplane with 300 people in it was shot down and that changed everything."

Some diplomats suggested Mogherini's change of tone might have more to do with her push to become the next EU foreign policy chief after Catherine Ashton's mandate ends in October. Several central European leaders expressed opposition to her at the summit because of her emollience towards Russia.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite summed up their mood by saying she would not back a "pro-Kremlin" candidate.

The final shape of the sanctions package may hinge on a tug of war between Britain and France over who bears the brunt of economic pain of such decisions.

Diplomats said the French dug their heels in after British Prime Minister David Cameron publicly criticized Paris' decision to deliver the first of two Mistral helicopter carriers it is building for Moscow under a 2011 contract.

"The estimates are that in the current package the pain for the UK would probably be greater than for anyone else," said one senior diplomat, referring to the potential damage to London's City banks if financial restrictions are imposed.

Recognizing the shift, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, Anthony Gardner, said his impression was the mood towards Russia had changed this week.

"Our impression is that several countries now believe that the choice that they thought was on the table of taking the bitter medicine today and not taking the bitter medicine tomorrow was a false choice," he told reporters.

"That choice never existed. Now the choice is either taking the bitter medicine today or taking an even more bitter medicine tomorrow."

(GNN - AIP)(Reuters)(Additional reporting by Paul Taylor in Paris, Adrian Croft, Jan Strupczewski and Martin Santa in Brussels, Thomas Escritt in Amsterdam, Andreas Rinke in Berlin and Steven Scherer in Rome; Editing by Paul Taylor)