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OSI group to fund food safety campaign

US-based OSI Group, owner of the Shanghai food company accused of selling expired meat, said it would invest 10 million yuan ($1.62 million) on a three-year food safety education campaign in China and establish an Asia Quality Control Center to regain market confidence.

Shanghai Husi Food, a food supplier for a number of global brands such as McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut and Starbucks, was accused by a television station recently of using expired meat as well as forging production dates to extend shelf time.

The case soon spread from the Chinese mainland to Hong Kong and Japan, and also provoked wide public anger.

David G. McDonald, president and chief operating officer of OSI Group, said the company is conducting an internal investigation, and that issues had already been found that are inconsistent with its internal product requirements and policies.

"We will fully cooperate with Shanghai FDA on the investigation," he said.

Uygur extremists 'training in Middle East'

Muslim extremists from the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region have traveled to the Middle East for training and some may have crossed into Iraq to take part in the upsurge of violence there, according to China's special envoy for the Middle East, Wu Sike.

China has repeatedly expressed concern about the upsurge in violence in Iraq and the march of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which has seized much of the north of the country as Baghdad's forces there collapsed.

ISIL, alternately translated as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, has proclaimed the establishment of a caliphate on land it has captured in Syria and Iraq.

Wu, who has just returned from the region, said China is extremely worried about the role of extremist groups in the fighting in Syria and Iraq.

Tough accountability code issued for officials

Auditors nationwide are to keep a close eye on officials in three key areas of accountability: government debt, natural resources and implementation of the central government's frugality campaign, according to a guideline released on July 27.

Officials will be held accountable for decisions that result in grave economic losses, massive spending of state assets, serious damage to the environment, and serious harm to public interests, the guidelines said.

Jointly drafted by seven commissions and departments, including the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, China's top anti-graft watchdog, it said it will hold responsible officials from all public sectors, including Party and government agencies, state-owned enterprises, and public institutes.

US visa delays likely to continue, says embassy

Delays issuing United States visas are likely to persist as the computer problems causing them have not yet been resolved, according to Nolan Barkhouse, a spokesman for the US embassy in Beijing.

"Our records system has been experiencing significant performance problems, including outages, since July 19," he said.

Barkhouse added the visa service returned to working online July 23, but it is still operating at a significantly reduced capacity.

"The delay will continue until the document backlog is cleared," he said.

Problems affecting the US State Department's central visa and passport database mean applicants around the world face delays.

China Daily

(China Daily European Weekly 08/01/2014 page3)