EU sets out post-horsemeat food standards

THE European Commission has set out what it says will be a revolution in food safety from farm to fork, drawn up in response to the scandal of horsemeat sold as beef.

But the EU executive was careful to underline that the new rules would not in and of themselves prevent willful future mis-selling.

The agri-food industry is the European Union's second biggest, in the world's largest tariff-free market of half a billion consumers.

It is worth, the Commission says, some 750 billion euros per year and employs nearly 50 million people across Europe.

If passed by EU member governments and the European Parliament, the proposed revamp, boiling down existing legislation and sharpening testing regimes, will introduce:

-- financial penalties directly related to profits from "fraud";

-- and mandatory spot-check testing, as opposed to the power only to recommend inspections, as now.

In a departure, national authorities will be encouraged to publish league tables where consumers can check food data from everything from big-brand producers to individual restaurants, the Commission's proposals said.

But the changes will not affect, in the main, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or "micro-businesses," a large part of the post-industrial food chain.

Neither will stipulations governing the important seed sector be applied to "private gardeners," who will still be able to buy seeds "in small quantities" on open markets.

"The recent horsemeat scandal has shown that there is room for improvement," said EU Health and Consumer Commissioner Tonio Borg, in announcing the rulebook rewrite.

He said the changes "take on board" some of the lessons of a scandal that stunned consumers in large part due to links to organised crime.

Borg's office spelled out that the labelling of food, as seen in the horsemeat scandal, is a problem of fraud, not origin -- already covered in legislation due to take effect from December 2014.

"This fraud could have occurred, even if there was mandatory origin labelling in place," it said of the equine scandal.

The Commission is to report to the European Parliament by December on whether or not it is desirable or feasible to extend origin labelling to meat provenance, it added.

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Hollande marks unhappy victory anniversary

BELEAGUERED French President Francois Hollande marked the first anniversary of his election win with a promise to launch a major investment programme that will transform the country.

Under fire from right and left, Hollande outlined what amounts to a comeback strategy constructed around a ten-year programme of investment in digital and other new technologies, alternative energy, health and infrastructure.

"We have achieved a lot in a year, but there remains a considerable amount to do," Hollande told his ministers, asserting that "the coming year will be a year of results."

"The reforms undertaken will change the face of France - profoundly."

Hollande marked the anniversary of his May 6, 2012 win over right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy as the most unpopular president in modern French history.

The Socialist leader has paid a heavy political price for his failure to revive a flagging economy and prevent unemployment rising to a 16-year high.

Newspapers marked Monday's anniversary with harsh criticism, with even the left-wing daily Liberation's front-page headline depicting the president as "A Man Alone".

"A year after the election of Francois Hollande, France is in crisis -- political, economic, social and moral," Liberation wrote, saying Hollande "has not been able, for the moment, to win the confidence of his countrymen."

Right-wing daily Le Figaro said: "The Socialist Party is in hiding for the first anniversary".

With criticism of the government mounting, some are predicting a cabinet reshuffle before the summer. Polls suggest voters would support the widening of the government to include some prominent centrist figures.

But that is unlikely to go down well with the left, both inside and outside of the Socialist Party.

Tens of thousands of left-wing protesters took to the streets of Paris on Sunday to accuse Hollande of turning his back on Socialist principles, while thousands more demonstrated across the country against a government bill legalising gay marriage.

Hollande's opponents rounded on him again on Monday, with the head of the right-wing UMP's parliamentary faction, Christian Jacob, telling France Info radio: "Simply put, right now the boat is sinking and we have a president who is incapable of taking action."

Since his election, Hollande's approval rating has fallen faster and further than any other president's since the founding of France's Fifth Republic in 1958.

His popularity has been especially dented by two recent crises -- a tax-fraud scandal involving his ex-budget minister Jerome Cahuzac and the deeply divisive debate on gay marriage.

A new TNS Sofres poll for i-Tele released Monday showed more than 76 of respondents saying they were disappointed with Hollande's performance and 56 percent of those who voted for him considering his record negative.

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Bangladesh building collapse murder probe

BANGLADESHI police are considering murder charges against the owner of a shoddily built factory that collapsed nearly two weeks ago, after the wife of a garment worker crushed in the accident filed a complaint.

The development comes as officials said on Monday that the death toll from the country's worst industrial disaster had reached 675.

Sheuli Akter, the wife of Jahangir Alam, filed the complaint with Dhaka magistrate Wasim Sheikh, saying her husband and other workers were "pushed toward death" by building owner Mohammed Sohel Rana and two others.

Alam was employed in New Wave Styles Ltd, one of the five garment factories housed in the eight-story Rana Plaza that collapsed on April 24 as workers started their morning shift even though cracks had developed in the building.

New Wave Styles owner Bazlul Adnan and local government engineer Imtemam Hossain were the two others accused in the case.

Magistrate Sheikh has ordered police to investigate the complaints, and local police chief Mohammed Asaduzzman said on Monday that they would now investigate possible murder charges.

A conviction for murder can result in a death sentence in Bangladesh.

Nine people, including Rana and Adanan, have already been arrested on other charges. Rana faces charges such as negligence and illegal construction, which are punishable by a maximum of seven years in jail.

By Monday evening, the death toll had reached 675, according to the police control room at the scene. It is not known how many people are still missing, as workers use heavy equipment to search through the rubble. There is a stench around the collapse site from decomposing bodies.

An architect whose firm designed the initial floors of the building said on Sunday it had not been designed for heavy industrial work. Masood Reza, an architect with Vastukalpa Consultants, said they designed the building in 2004 as a shopping mall and not for industrial purposes.

Officials say Rana illegally added three floors and allowed the garment factories to install generators. Vibrations from garment machines and from the generators are thought to have contributed to the collapse.

The disaster is the worst ever in the garment sector, surpassing the 1911 garment disaster in New York's Triangle Shirtwaist factory, which killed 146 workers, and more recent tragedies such as a 2012 fire that killed about 260 people in Pakistan and one in Bangladesh that killed 112, also in 2012.

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Germany arrests 'Auschwitz guard'

GERMAN authorities have arrested a 93-year-old alleged former guard at the Nazi death camp Auschwitz on charges of complicity in the mass murder of prisoners.

Prosecutors in the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg said the man was believed to have worked at the camp between autumn 1941 and its closure in 1945.

Authorities declined to release the suspect's name but media reports indicated it was Hans Lipschis, who figures among the Simon Wiesenthal Center's most-wanted Nazis and is said to have served in the SS "Death's Head" battalion.

The man, who was detained at his home, "appeared before a judge and was taken into custody", the prosecutor's office in the state capital Stuttgart said in a statement.

"The indictment against him is currently being prepared."

Stuttgart prosecutors confirmed to AFP last month that they were working on a probe launched late last year against a suspect who had worked at Auschwitz.

Lipschis has been living in the Baden-Wuerttemberg town of Aalen and reportedly told the authorities that he worked as a cook, not a guard, in the camp in occupied Poland.

However prosecutors said the evidence pointed to the fact that the suspect in question had broader responsibilities.

"He took on supervisory duties although he did not only work as a guard," a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office told AFP.

"We will try to determined concretely when and what he did at Auschwitz."

She said the suspect was not believed to have killed prisoners himself but rather "that he abetted the actions of the perpetrators".

Despite his advanced age, the suspect underwent a medical examination and was determined fit to be taken into custody.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, in its 2013 report, lists Lipschis as its fourth most-wanted Nazi, saying he served in the SS-Totenkopf Sturmbann (Death's Head Battalion) from 1941 until 1945 at Auschwitz and "participated in the mass murder and persecution of innocent civilians, primarily Jews".

Lithuanian-born Lipschis was granted "ethnic German" status by the Nazis. He moved to the United States in 1956 but was deported to Germany in 1983, Welt am Sonntag newspaper reported last month.

More than one million people, mostly European Jews, perished at Auschwitz-Birkenau, operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland from 1940 until it was liberated by the Soviet Red Army on January 27, 1945.

Germany has broadened the scope of its pursuit of Nazi war criminals since the 2011 conviction of Ukraine-born John Demjanjuk, a former guard at the Sobibor death camp in Poland.

In that case, the court ruled that any role at a death camp amounted to accessory to murder, widening culpability from those found to have personally ordered or committed murders and atrocities.

Demjanjuk was sentenced to five years' prison for complicity in some 28,000 murders. He died at a nursing home last year while free awaiting an appeal.

Lipschis is among 50 surviving Auschwitz staff who are being investigated in Germany under the broadened culpability rules.

Renowned French Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld said he had mixed feelings about the news from Germany.

"I am torn between my idea of justice and the necessity to chase down war criminals until they take their last breath," he told AFP.

"You need evidence and documents to incriminate them and I think there won't be any more eyewitnesses to implicate them."

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European stocks close lower

EUROPE'S leading stock markets closed with small losses on Monday, with London shut for a bank holiday.

In Frankfurt the DAX 30 index of leading German shares eased back from a new record on Friday, giving up 0.13 percent to 8,112.08 points, while in Paris the CAC 40 was 0.15 percent lower at 3,907.04 points.

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RBA's cash rate 'likely to stay on hold'

THE Reserve Bank of Australia is expected to keep the cash rate unchanged at three per cent on Tuesday.

None of the 13 economists surveyed by AAP last week expect the RBA to cut its interest rate at its board meeting, though most say rate cuts are on the cards this year.

Expectations of further rate cuts have grown in the past month following a rise in the unemployment rate and disappointing home building approvals figures, as well as news inflation remains under control.

National Australia Bank senior economist David de Garis believes the RBA will do more to stimulate the economy this year and is expecting two rate cuts by December.

But he thinks the central bank is likely to wait until June to cut again.

That would allow them to see another round of employment and retail sales figures as well as key capital expenditure figures for the March quarter - a key indicator on when investment in the mining industry will peak.

"There's quite a lot of water to flow under the bridge before June, it doesn't sound like they are in a super hurry right now so they might be inclined to hold off for another month," he said.

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Vic budget aimed at growing economy

VICTORIANS can expect a budget custom-made for growing the economy, growing employment and growing surpluses, state treasurer Michael O'Brien says.

Mr O'Brien is expected to deliver a $225 million surplus for 2013/14 when he hands down his first budget in state parliament on Tuesday.

He says the figure is based on a revised Australian accounting standard for the reporting of superannuation obligations but once the accounting change is stripped out the prediction is $817 million, slightly down on the $835 million forecast in the December budget update.

"This budget is one which builds for growth in Victoria," he says.

"It's a budget which delivers a growing economy, growing employment, growing surpluses and major new infrastructure.

"We have seen governments around the country plunge into debt and deficit and Victoria has avoided that path."

The state's budget surpluses over the next four years are forecast to grow to $2.5 billion by 2016/17.

Among pre-budget announcements in recent weeks the government will give $238 million to train more doctors and nurses, $224 million for disability support, $170 million in extra road maintenance funding over three years and a $100 million boost for the southeastern Frankston train line.

Shadow treasurer Tim Pallas says the coalition owes it to Victorians not to increase basic daily expenses.

"The most important thing they can do is not increase the cost of living for Victorians," he says.

AAP mj/jxt/

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New PM vows to save Italy from austerity

ITALY'S new Prime Minister Enrico Letta says his coalition government will act fast to reverse an austerity policy he argues is killing Italy and has called on Europe to become a motor for growth.

"Italy is dying from austerity alone. Growth policies cannot wait," Letta said during his inaugural speech to parliament on Monday, under the watchful gaze of European partners.

The recession-hit country, effectively rudderless since an inconclusive election in February, is under pressure to act fast to tackle social, economic and institutional ills.

The leftist moderate, who was sworn in with his cabinet on Sunday, promised to have results in 18 months or "take the consequences".

He said the economic situation in Italy - one of the first countries to fall prey to the eurozone debt crisis - "is still serious" and its two trillion euro ($A2.5 trillion) debt "weighs heavily" on ordinary Italians.

But he also looked to Europe, saying it was suffering from "a crisis of legitimacy and ... must become once more a motor of sustainable growth" - a reference to his aim to persuade Europe to reverse its disputed austerity policy.

The 46-year-old moderate from the centre-left Democratic Party said he wants to deal quickly with the social fallout of the longest economic slump in 20 years.

Investors appeared buoyed by the new leadership, with Italy performing well at its first market test, paying significantly lower rates to raise 6.0 billion euros at a five- and ten-year bond auction

Letta said the political class had to react to the growing anti-establishment voice in Italy, which was driven by anger over politicians' perks at a time of widespread financial difficulties.

The government's first act would be to cut the salaries of ministers who are also members of parliament, and are therefore currently eligible for two salaries, he said.

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Google pushes personal assistant on Apple

GOOGLE has announced it will offer its personal assistant app Google Now to users of Apple devices, stepping up its challenge to its rival's Siri program.

"Google Now is about giving you just the right information at just the right time," Google's Andrea Huey said in a blog announcement.

"It can show you the day's weather as you get dressed in the morning, or alert you that there's heavy traffic between you and your butterfly-inducing date - so you'd better leave now!

"It can also share news updates on a story you've been following, remind you to leave for the airport so you can make your flight and much more."

Google Now, which like Siri is a voice-activated software program - will be available to users of Apple iPhones and iPads, which use the iOS operating system.

"Today, with the launch of Google Now on iPhone and iPad, your smartphone will become even smarter," Huey said.

The move comes with the two California tech giants in a fierce battle for domination of mobile operating platforms. Google's Android has taken the lead in smartphones and is gaining rapidly in the tablet market.

Google meanwhile has argued that Apple's Siri is a potential threat to its core search engine by allowing smartphone users to bypass Google for many searches, which can generate ad revenue.

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UN appeals for Syria chemical arms inquiry

UN leader Ban Ki-moon has made a new plea to Syria to stop blocking an international inquiry into the alleged use of chemical weapons in the country's conflict.

Ban met the head of the investigation team, Ake Sellstrom, as international suspicions about the use of the weapons grow and on the day designated to remember the victims of chemical weapons attacks.

Ban told reporters he "takes seriously" US reports about the weapons and said "I again urge the Syrian authorities to allow the investigation to proceed without delay and without any conditions".

Sellstrom and an advanced team now in Cyprus can deploy to Syria "within 24 to 48 hours", the UN secretary-general said on Monday.

President Bashar al-Assad's government asked for a UN inquiry but has refused to let investigators into the country, demanding they be limited to its claims that opposition rebels used chemical weapons near Aleppo on March 19.

Britain and France have asked that the inquiry also look at opposition claims that chemical arms also had been used in Homs and near Damascus.

Ban wrote a new letter to Assad on Thursday seeking access as the United States revealed its suspicions that chemical arms have been used. Diplomats said the Syrian government is barely communicating with UN and other international bodies.

"I take seriously the recent intelligence report of the United States about the use of chemical weapons in Syria," Ban said. "On-site activities are essential if the United Nations is to be able to establish the facts and clear up all the doubts surrounding this issue.

"A credible and comprehensive inquiry requires full access to the sites where chemical weapons are alleged to have been used," he added.

"I encourage all involved to uphold their responsibilities in enabling us to properly police these heinous weapons of massive destruction."

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