8 theSun | MONDAY MARCH 2 2009

news without borders

China acts to wipe out tainted food scandals

BEIJING: China’s nominal parliament on
Saturday approved a new food safety law
designed to stem a recent tide of scandals over
tainted food products.
The Standing Committee of the annual
National People’s Congress, which approves
policies and laws proposed by the ruling
Communist Party, said the new law would
help ensure food safety “from the production
line to dining table”.
The law provides for a new monitoring
and supervision system, a set of national
standards, a recall system and “severe punish-
ment for offenders”, the government’s official
Xinhua news agency reported.
The approval of the law follows “a spate of
food scandals”, the agency said.
In the biggest recent scandal, two men
were sentenced to death and four others to life
in prison last month for their involvement in
the production of melamine-tainted milk that
caused the death of six infants and sickened
almost 300,000.
The milk powder scandal was hushed up
for several months during last year’s Beijing
Olympics and only became public in Septem-
ber, when hospitals were overcrowded with
sick infants.
This month, more than 80 people in the
southern province of Guangdong were sick-
ened after consuming pig offal contaminated
with an illegal feed additive.
“Repeated food safety accidents, such as
milk contaminated by melamine and problem-
atic duck eggs, have made urgent a sound law
regulating the entire process of food production
– from growing crops and raising stock and
poultry to the manufacturing of food products,”
the official China Daily newspaper said.
“For consumers, such a law will hopefully
stop farmers from using too much fertiliser,
pesticides or other chemicals that may pro-
mote the growth of crops and vegetables at the
risk of adverse health effects,” the newspaper
said.
The law also targets advertising, after
several celebrities had appeared in television
commercials or milk powder sold by Sanlu,
the main company involved in last year’s
scandal.
But it could increase food prices because
of the cost of stricter tests on raw materials
and tighter control of manufacturing, the
newspaper said.
“It is unrealistic to hope that the adoption
of this law will immediately change the land-
scape of food safety,” it said. – dpa

Activists protest immigration raids

PHOENIX: Thousands of people protesting a
sweeping crackdown on illegal immigrants by
an Arizona sheriff marched through Phoenix on
Saturday, toting placards reading “We Are Hu-
man” and “Stop the Raids”.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has dis-
patched deputies into Hispanic communities in
the Phoenix area where they stop people and
arrest anyone who cannot prove he or she is a
legal US resident.
Under a deal allowing them to enforce federal
immigration laws, the deputies have arrested
more than 1,500 people whom they determined
were in Arizona illegally.
Latino activists and lawmakers call Arpaio ‘s
programme a clear case of racial profiling because
only people who look Hispanic are targeted.
Arpaio steadfastly denies the charge.
Earlier this month, he stirred more contro-
versy when he marched 220 illegal immigrants in
shackles and striped prison garb through Phoenix
under armed guard.
“Walking people through the streets in chains,
public shaming, it’s medieval,” said Veronica
Perez, 32, an archeologist carrying signs reading
“No Human Is Illegal” and “Stop the Raids.”
“Isn’t cruel and unusual punishment against
the US Constitution?” she asked.
The event was organised by activists from the
National Day Labourer Organising Network and a
group called El Puente Arizona. Estimates of the
number of participants ranged from 1,000 to 3,000.
Preparing for the march at a park in central
Phoenix, school district coordinator Sylvia Air-
ington, 47, slammed Arpaio’s policies. “Racial
profiling, targeting the Hispanic community – it’s
an embarrassment to America,” she said.
What to do about an estimated 12 million il-
legal immigrants in the US is an explosive political
issue. But it has largely dropped out of the debate
as concerns turn to the economic crisis.
A bid to push comprehensive immigration
reform through Congress was rejected by Re-
publican lawmakers two years ago. President
Barack Obama, who supported the measure, has
yet to address the matter.
“I voted for Obama for change,” said welder
Oscar Camacho, 45. “But with respect to immigra-
tion, I see no change at all.”
Around 100 counter-demonstrators waving
American flags turned out to support Arpaio on
Saturday. Some carried holstered pistols.
“He is the only one to uphold illegal immigration
laws,” said Dina Rose, 52, standing on sidewalk by
the sheriff’s office in downtown Phoenix. “The
county sheriff is America’s last hope of protecting
our freedoms.” – Reuters

Kansas governor for The 60-year-old governor, a rising

star of the Democratic Party, was an
health secretary job early supporter of Obama’s presi-
WASHINGTON:
US President
dential bid. She was also said to be
in the running for vice-president.
Barack Obama She served as Kansas insurance
has tapped commissioner for nearly a decade
Kansas Governor before taking office as governor in
Kathleen Se- 2003. She is currently serving her
belius to be his second term. – AFP
health secretary
to carry out his Paris Tamils protest
ambitious health
care reform pro- Sri Lankan offensive
gramme, the White House said. PARIS: Thousands of Tamils
A senior administration official marched in Paris on Saturday
told AFP Saturday Sebelius had to denounce what they termed
accepted the offer to serve as the Sri Lankan government’s
secretary of health and human genocide of the island’s ethnic
services – a position Obama had minority in its bid to wipe out
first offered to former Senate Tamil Tiger rebels.
Democratic leader Tom Daschle, Police put the number of
who withdrew over tax questions. marchers at 2,500 while organis-
Obama will make the announce- ers said some 3,000 participated
ment Monday at the White House, in the demonstration.
the official said. The marchers shouted slogans
such “EU impose a truce”, and
“The Sri Lankan president is a
murderer”, and “Stop the Tamil
genocide”.
Sri Lankan troops entered
the last urban area held by the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTEE), Sri Lanka’s defence minis-
try said Saturday.– AFP
‘Iran has enough nuke
material for bomb’
WASHINGTON: Iran has enough
fissile material to build a nuclear
bomb, top US military officer Ad-
miral Mike Mullen told CNN yes-
terday.
“We think they do, quite frankly,”
Mullen said when asked if Iran had
enough nuclear material to manu-
facture an atomic bomb.
“And Iran having a nuclear
weapon, I’ve believed for a long
time, is a very, very bad outcome
for the region and for the world,”
said Mullen, the chairman of the US
Joint Chiefs of Staff. – AFP
Japan emperor mulls
Pearl Harbour visit
TOKYO: Japanese Emperor Aki-
hito and Empress Michiko will
visit Pearl Harbour this summer,
the site of Japan’s surprise at-
tack on the United States during
World War II, the Kyodo news
agency reported yesterday.
If realised, it would be the
first visit by the royal couple to
the spot where the Japanese
bombardment of the US fleet
heralded the declaration of war
between the two countries.
Akihito is the son of war-time
Emperor Hirohito, under whom
the Japanese military carried
out the December 1941 attack
in Hawaii, which killed around
2,500 people, mostly American
soldiers. – AFP