NEWS,25.02.2013

Obama: Time to start governing

US President Barack Obama warned warring politicians on Monday it was time to start governing as Washington headed into another manufactured crisis threatening the fragile economy. Obama told an annual meeting of state governors at the White House that huge budget cuts due to hit on 1 March would "slow our economy, eliminate good jobs" and leave Americans with "thinly stretched" budgets wondering what to do.The president is demanding that congressional Republicans stave off a set of arbitrary, automatic spending cuts known as the sequester by closing tax loopholes that benefit the rich and corporations."We can't just cut our way to prosperity. Cutting alone is not an economic policy," Obama told Democratic and Republican governors in the State Dining Room of the White House.Many Republicans agree that the sequester, which imposes across the board cuts of $85bn this year from government programme, is a bad way to cut spending and reduce the deficit.But they argue that Obama is not serious about reining in spending and warn the president that his success in getting higher income tax rates on the rich late last year is the last time they will permit him to raise more revenue.Obama, who no longer has to worry about answering to voters, warned Washington had to "get past its obsession with focusing on the next election instead of the next generation”."All of us are concerned about our politics, both in our own party as well as the other party. But at some point we've got to do some governing."What we can't do is keep careening from manufactured crisis to manufactured crisis. "The American people have worked hard and long to dig themselves out of one crisis. They don't need us creating another one."

World powers have 'good offer' for Iran

World powers will present Iran with an updated and "good" offer at talks this week on its nuclear programme, an EU official said on Monday, although hopes for a breakthrough were slim. Talks aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear drive start in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, with the so-called 5+1 world powers represented by the EU sitting down with an Iranian team led by its top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili."We have prepared a good and updated offer for the talks, which we believe is balanced and a fair basis for constructive talks," said the spokesperson for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton."The offer addresses international concerns... on the nature of the Iranian nuclear programme, but is also responsive to Iranian ideas," said the spokesperson, Michael Mann."We hope that Iran will seize this opportunity and come to the talks with flexibility and commitment to make concrete progress towards a confidence-building step."A source close to the negotiations said the offer would still insist that Iran halts enriching uranium to 20%, shuts down its controversial Fordo uranium enrichment plant and sends abroad all uranium already enriched to 20%."This still forms the basis of the demands of the 5+1 group," said the source who asked not to be identified.Reports have said that Iran could in return be offered a softening of sanctions imposed against it, possibly starting with a lifting of measures against its gold industry.However, Jalili said at the weekend that Tehran would not go beyond its obligations or accept anything outside its rights under the non-proliferation treaty (NPT)."We don't expect any breakthrough. The Iranians have made different declarations in the last days. It depends if you take the positive or the negative ones," said one Western official who asked not to be identified.The 5+1 world powers are Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the US.

China manufacturing growth falls

China's manufacturing growth hit a four-month low in February but remained positive, British banking giant HSBC said Monday, noting that the world's second-biggest economy was still recovering slowly.The bank's seasonally adjusted preliminary purchasing managers' index (PMI) stood at 50.4 for the month, down from a final 52.3 in January, it said in a statement.A reading above 50 indicates expansion and it was the fourth consecutive month of growth, after 12 months of contraction."The Chinese economy is still on track for a gradual recovery," Qu Hongbin, a Hong Kong-based economist with HSBC, said in the statement, downplaying the fall in PMI."The underlying strength of Chinese growth recovery remains intact, as indicated by the still expanding employment and the recent pick-up of credit growth," he added.Chinese banks more than doubled their lending in January from December, granting 1.07 trillion yuan ($171.7bn) worth of new loans, official data showed earlier this month, as Beijing seeks to boost economic growth.The domestic economy expanded at 7.8% last year, its slowest pace in 13 years, in the face of weakness at home and in key overseas markets.Policymakers cut interest rates twice in 2012 and have trimmed the amount of cash banks must place in reserve three times since December 2011 to encourage lending and pump up growth.The PMI figure, compiled by information services provider Markit and released by HSBC, tracks manufacturing activity and is a closely watched barometer of the health of China's economy.Liao Qun, a Hong Kong-based economist with Citic Bank International, said weaker manufacturing activity in February may have suggested the domestic rebound was unstable, but the overall recovery trend remained intact."The figure, after being seasonally adjusted, might indicate a weaker economic rebound in February due to the uncertainty in overseas economies and a lack of clarity in China's fiscal and monetary policies ahead of the two sessions," Liao said.The "two sessions" is a Chinese reference to the annual meetings of the country's top legislative and political advisory bodies in March, which will set the tone for the country's economic policies."Given the HSBC PMI index is just preliminary, we'll have to wait for the official PMI to gauge the momentum of China's growth recovery," Liao added. The official PMI, released by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing and the National Bureau of Statistics on a monthly basis, focuses more on large and medium companies, while the HSBC PMI covers mostly small firms.

China communists lament spoiled generation

The mouthpiece of China's ruling Communist Party on Monday lamented a generation who had never tasted "hard work" after the son of a general was detained on suspicion of involvement in a gang rape.Li Guanfeng, the teenage son of general Li Shuangjiang - a popular military singer and household name in the country - was held last Thursday in the latest allegation against privileged children of officials to spark public outrage.The news has dominated internet message boards, online news portals and state-run newspapers in China, where crimes by the offspring of the country's elite cause particular anger among ordinary people."Family education" among successful, well-known figures in China needs to be "cautious", said the People's Daily, the ruling party's official organ, in an editorial on the case."Many of these children have not experienced the hard work needed in the struggle to achieve success, but are shown the results of this success."Used to getting everything they want and having all their problems handled, they will use their father's name as an excuse, take flaunting wealth for granted and regard defying the law as brave behaviour."AssaultLi is among five suspects detained over allegations of a sexual assault on 17 February, the state-run China Daily said.The newspaper quoted an unnamed Beijing police source saying the group were accused of gang-raping a woman in a hotel room after a night of drinking.It is not the first time the 17-year-old has come to public attention.He was sent to a government correctional facility for one year in 2011 for beating a couple while their young child looked on. Domestic media reports said his parents changed his name from Li Tianyi to Li Guanfeng on his release.Hundreds of thousands of people went online to express their outrage at the time, and the general apologised for his son's actions.

Horsemeat found in Swedish meatballs

Czech authorities said on Monday they have detected horsemeat in meatballs labelled as beef and pork for Swedish furniture retailer giant Ikea, while EU officials met to discuss tougher food labelling rules to counter the developing scandal.The horsemeat was found in 1kg packs of frozen meatballs made in Sweden and shipped to the Czech Republic for sale in Ikea stores there, the State Veterinary Administration said. A total of 760kg of the meatballs were stopped from reaching the shelves.Ikea's furniture stores feature restaurants and also sell typical Swedish food, including the so-called Kottbullar meatballs.It was not immediately clear whether Ikea exported the same product to other countries. Calls seeking comment from Ikea in Sweden were not immediately returned on Monday.The Czech authority also found horsemeat in beef burgers imported from Poland during random tests of food products.Authorities across Europe have started doing random DNA checks after traces of horsemeat turned up in frozen supermarket meals such as burgers and lasagne beginning last month.The EU's agriculture ministers gathered in Brussels on Monday to discuss the widening scandal's fallout, with some member states pressing for tougher rules to regain consumer confidence.The 27-nation bloc must agree on binding origin disclosures for food product ingredients, starting with a better labelling of meat products, German Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner said."Consumers have every right to the greatest-possible transparency," she insisted.Austria backs the German initiative; but others like Ireland say existing rules are sufficient although Europe-wide controls must be strengthened to address the problem of fraudulent labelling.The scandal has created a split between nations like Britain who see further rules as a protectionist hindrance of free trade under the bloc's single market, and those calling for tougher regulation.Processed food products - a business segment with traditionally low margins that often leads producers to hunt for the cheapest suppliers - often contain ingredients from multiple suppliers in different countries, who themselves at time subcontract production to others, making it hard to monitor every link in the production chain.Standardised DNA checks with meat suppliers and more stringent labelling rules will add costs that producers will most likely hand down to consumers, making food more expensive.The startThe scandal began in Ireland in mid-January when the country's announced the results of its first-ever DNA tests on beef products. It tested frozen beef burgers taken from store shelves and found that more than a third of brands at five supermarkets contained at least a trace of horse. The sample of one brand sold by British supermarket kingpin Tesco was more than a quarter horse.Such discoveries have spread like wildfire across Europe as governments, supermarkets, meat traders and processors began their own DNA testing of products labelled beef and have been forced to withdraw tens of millions of products from store shelves.More than a dozen nations have detected horse flesh in processed products such as factory-made burger patties, lasagnes, meat pies and meat-filled pastas. The investigations have been complicated by elaborate supply chains involving multiple cross-border middlemen.

Ikea pulls meatballs from 14 countries

Swedish furniture giant Ikea has withdrawn some of its company-branded meatballs in 14 European countries after horsemeat was found in the product by Czech authorities, the company said on Monday."We take this very seriously and have withdrawn one-kilo bags of frozen meatballs from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, France, Britain, Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Cyprus, Greece and Ireland," in addition to Sweden, said company spokesperson Ylva Magnusson.