Absolute majority of Americans want GMO food to be labeled

Polling suggests that an absolute majority of Americans favor laws forcing foods containing genetically modified ingredients to be labeled as such. Despite the support, however, states continue to reject these initiatives.

Late last month, advocates in Colorado filed the preliminary paperwork necessary to land a GMO labeling bill on the ballot in 2014. If voters there agree to mandate appropriate labels on lab-made food products, Colorado will join Connecticut and Maine as being the only locales within the United States to approve such efforts. But while polls conducted during the last several years suggest an overwhelming majority of Americans — close to 100 percent, in some cases — are pro GMO labeling, initiatives across the country have already failed, and supporters of these measures believe it’s because their opponents are investing big bucks to buy the outcome.

A poll conducted by the New York Times this year found that 93 percent of respondents want GMO ingredients to be properly labeled, and a similar survey done by the Washington Post in 2010 clocked in with 94 percent support.

"Surveys have always found 80 to 95 percent of people wanting labeling," Consumers Union senior scientist Michael Hansen told Rodale News back in April." People are paying attention to food, and because of that they're more interested in GMO issues and buying food that's more local and food without pesticides and other added ingredients."

Even with polling results backing up Hansen’s assumption, time and time again GMO labeling initiatives up for vote in the US have failed in recent months, even in instances when those measures were previously all but expected to pass.

Last year, for example, a GMO-labeling initiative up for vote in California was favored by 66.9 of likely voters according to a late September poll. As election day neared, however, a high-priced “Vote No” campaign sponsored by the likes of biotech giants Monsanto and Dupont — as well as Pepsico, Bayer, Dow and Syngenta — pulled in a total of $45 million worth of contributions used to power an ad blitz that ultimately allowed the labeling bill to be shot down by a single-digit margin of percentage points.

Then in Washington last month, voters decided by barely a 10 percentage point margin to reject an initiative requiring GMO labeling there that USA Today called “the most expensive” in state history. One month prior to election day, a poll determined that 66 percent of Washingtonians supported that bill, but that number dwindled by 20 percentage points within weeks as Monsanto and company again raised millions towards fighting off the measure.

Meanwhile, the recently-passed labeling laws in Connecticut and Maine might not officially end up on the books anytime soon — if at all — according to Maxx Chatsko at The Motley Fool. As he noted in a report last week, that legislation requires that four other northeastern states with a combined population of at least 20 million enact similar laws first in order for the already-passed measures to be enforced.

“Even if all nine Northeastern states pass GMO labeling laws, the total population of states involved will only represent 18 percent of all United States residents,” Chatsko wrote. “Now, that could very well open the door to a national conversation on GMO labeling, but food manufacturers would likely take issue with such legislation. We could very well see this debate end up in a courtroom.”

‘Radical political party’: The new face of the Left launches in the UK

A political party styling itself as the “new radical force on the left” has launched in the UK. The Left Unity seeks to revive the working class ideal of the Labour party which, it claims, is failing Britain’s poorest communities in the “class war”.

Around 400 people gathered at the new party’s launch conference in Bloomsbury, London on Friday. It was decided at the meeting that the party would represent the “broad left” and be a viable alternative to the Labour Party. 

“The Conservatives and their Lib Dem stooges are launching an all-out class war on the poorest people in this country and Labour is doing nothing about it,” Salman Shaheen, Left Unity National Coordinating Group, told RT correspondent, Tesa Arcilla. 

In addition, Ken Loach, one of the party’s co-founders, told RT that Britain needed a party to represent the values and interests of the Left.  

“Britain is different to Europe in that most European countries have a party on the left. If that’s the best they can do then we can think of a better way,” said Loach.

Left Unity believes that in the light of the financial crisis, drastic action is required to defend the interests of the working classes in the UK. Citing the appearance of new political formations in “Greece, France, Germany and elsewhere,” the party’s founders say a political force needs to challenge the“capitulation of social democracy to neo-liberalism”.

Left Unity has called on its 1,000-odd followers to reject the “rightwards move of Labour” and reject austerity and war.

“Europe is plunging deeper and deeper into crisis. Its governments are continuing with their failed austerity policies which are destroying the social and economic gains working people have made over many decades,” writes the party in its mission statement.

The UK’s coalition government, headed by the Conservative party, has implemented massive austerity measures on public services in the UK. Prime Minister David Cameron hailed the success of the austerity measures and said that they should be a permanent measure rather than a way out of the financial crisis.

“It also means something more profound, it means building a leaner, more efficient state.  We need to do more with less. Not just now, but permanently,” the Prime Minister said at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet in London’s Guildhall.

Cameron’s austerity measures have made him unpopular among the British working classes who have accused the
Conservative government of being out of touch with the majority.

The 2013 British Social Attitudes Survey revealed that support for the government has plummeted, with around 75 percent saying they do not believe in the British political system. Additionally, the amount of people who approve of the UK’s coalition government has plummeted from 40 percent in 2010 to 28 percent.

The launch of the Left Unity party goes against the recent European trend, where right-wing parties are turning the tide on the continent. The euro skeptical UK Independence Party (UKIP) is currently considered the legitimate third party in Britain.

The Alternative for Germany party nearly made it to the country’s parliament, the Bundestag, this September. In Austria, the far-right Freedom Party gained over one-fifth of the votes in September’s general election.

Norway's current conservative government came to power with tough immigration promises and there have also been far-right gains in Sweden and Finland. 

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US veteran held in North Korea 'confesses' to crimes

A US citizen detained for more than a month in North Korea has confessed to committing "indelible crimes" against the state, say state media.

The official Korean Central News Agency said Merrill Newman had ordered the deaths of North Korean soldiers and civilians in the 1950-53 Korean War.

It published what it described as a "statement of apology" by Mr Newman.

Mr Newman, now 85, did serve during the Korean War but his family say he is the victim of mistaken identity.

Mr Newman was shown reading his alleged apology in video released by North Korean authorities

Pyongyang's state media has routinely publicised alleged apologies from previous American detainees, which cannot be independently verified, says the BBC's Lucy Williamson in Seoul.

Authorities have previously been accused of coercing confessions from detainees.

Some observers say Mr Newman's alleged confession could allow North Korea to release him without formal legal proceedings.

Video

Mr Newman - a retiree from Palo Alto, California - has been held in North Korea since being taken off a plane as he prepared to leave the country on 26 October, following a 10-day tourist visit.

In video released by North Korean authorities, Mr Newman is shown reading his alleged apology, dated 9 November.

"Please forgive me," Mr Newman asks in his four-page statement, titled "Apology"

"During the Korean War, I have been guilty of a long list of indelible crimes against DPRK government and Korean people," the four-page statement reads, referring to North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

It claims he was an "adviser of the Kuwol Unit of the UN Korea 6th Partisan Regiment part of the Intelligence Bureau of the Far East Command" - an apparent reference to one of the special operations units acting against the North.

Mr Newman apparently confesses to trying to contact surviving soldiers during his trip as a tourist.

The statement adds: "Please forgive me."

But Mr Newman's family has said there must have been "some dreadful misunderstanding" and have appealed for his release, saying he may need medication.

Another veteran, also named Merrill Newman, was awarded a Silver Star medal for his efforts during the Korean War.

He has previously told Reuters news agency he thought it was possible there had been "a case of mistaken identity".

Another US citizen, Kenneth Bae, has been detained since November 2012.

US troops backed South Korea in the 1950-53 Korean War, which killed at least two million people.

US carriers urged to comply with China air zone rules

US aircraft may follow several regional carriers complying with China's new rules

The US says it expects its civilian aircraft to observe China's rules in an air defence zone in the East China Sea.

A US statement said this did not mean the US accepted China's requirements in the zone covering territory claimed by China, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.

China wants all aircraft there to file flight plans and identify themselves.

The US, Japan and South Korea say they have flown military aircraft in the area unannounced. But China said it scrambled fighter jets on Friday.

The move was to monitor US and Japanese aircraft in the zone.

'Firm but calm'

The air defence identification zone (ADIZ) covers a vast area of the East China Sea, including a group of islands claimed by Japan, China and Taiwan.

South Korea claims a submerged rock, known as Ieodo, also within the zone.

The establishment of the ADIZ has caused widespread anger, with the US state department calling it "an attempt to unilaterally change the status quo in the East China Sea" which will "raise regional tensions and increase the risk of miscalculation, confrontation and accidents".

But on Friday, the state department said the US government "generally expects that US carriers operating internationally will operate consistent with Notams [Notices to Airmen] issued by foreign countries".

Continue reading the main story

Air defence identification zones

• Zones do not necessarily overlap with airspace, sovereign territory or territorial claims
• States define zones, and stipulate rules that aircraft must obey; legal basis is unclear
• During WW2, US established an air perimeter and now maintains four separate zones - Guam, Hawaii, Alaska, and a contiguous mainland zone
• UK, Norway, Japan and Canada also maintain zones

Source: aviationdevelopment.org

• Q&A: China-Japan islands row
• Viewpoints: China air zone tensions

It added: "Our expectation of operations by US carriers consistent with NOTAMs does not indicate U.S. government acceptance of China's requirements for operating in the newly declared ADIZ."

Japan has instructed its aircraft not to observe China's rules. But a number of regional commercial airlines - including Singapore Airlines, Qantas and Korean Air - have said they will comply.

China announced on Thursday it was deploying warplanes in the area for surveillance and defence.

Then on Friday, Air Force spokesman Col Shen Jinke said warplanes had been scrambled that morning to monitor two US surveillance aircraft and 10 Japanese planes - including early warning aircraft, surveillance aircraft and fighter jets - crossing through the ADIZ.

Col Shen said the jets had tracked the flights and identified the planes, state media reports.

Japanese officials gave no details of the flights, but said they were continuing to conduct routine operations in the region and had encountered no "abnormal instances so far".

Earlier, China's foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said China had a right to patrol the region and that the ADIZ was not aimed at any specific country.

"If some worry has emerged about the situation, it's agitated by some individual countries," he told a regular briefing.

If disputes existed, China wanted to solve them through "peaceful means via friendly negotiation," he said.

China, Japan and Taiwan all claim islands lying within the air defence zone

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Friday that Japan would respond "firmly but in a calm manner" to China's move, the Kyodo news agency reports.

Foreign Minister Fumio Kushida said the issue would be discussed with US Vice-President Joe Biden, who is due to begin a three-day visit to Japan on Monday.

The disputed group of uninhabited islands in the zone are known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in Chinese.

They are controlled by Japan, but have been the subject of rising tensions in recent years because of their proximity to important shipping lanes, fishing grounds and potential fossil fuel reserves.

South Korea has complained to China that the ADIZ also overlaps its own similar defence zone, and encompasses the Ieodo rock.

UK Snooker Championship 2013: Ding Junhui's road to stardom

UK CHAMPIONSHIP

• Venue: Barbican Centre, York
 
• Date: 26 November to 8 December

Coverage: Live coverage and daily highlights on BBC Two and the BBC Red Button from 13:00 on Saturday 30 November. Latest scores and updates across the BBC Sport website

It's Christmas Day. You're 16 years old and stuck on your own in a small bedroom in a small flat in a small provincial town halfway across the globe. No phone, just five channels on your telly spouting gibberish.

Now imagine your family gathered back home. Tearing into presents, pulling crackers, carving up the turkey while you're weeping into a Pot Noodle.

This, pretty much, is what Ding Junhui had to go through, albeit in reverse. The kid must have been tough as old boots.

This is what Ding had to go through to prove that maybe - only maybe - he was among the best on the planet at a game involving a felt-covered table, a bunch of different coloured balls and a stick called a cue. And there you were thinking your life was odd.

"I first came to England from China in 2003," says Ding, who recently became the first man since Stephen Hendry in 1993 to win three ranking events in a row and plays Middlesbrough's Antony Parsons in the first round of the UK Championship on Saturday.

Ding Junhui

• Born: Yixing, China, 1 April 1987
• Lives: Sheffield, England
• Turned pro: 2003
• Highest ranking: 3 (current)
• Highest break: 147 (five times)
• Ranking titles: Nine (2005 - China Open, UK; 2006 - NI Trophy; 2009 - UK; 2012 - Welsh Open; 2013 - PTC Finals, Shanghai Masters, Indian Open, International Championship
• Career winnings: £1,587,150
• Hobbies: Cars, action films, Man Utd

"I lived with two Chinese snooker players for a week before they left. Then it was just me and some Thai players. I was scared. Nobody came with me. I was so far away from home and I didn't speak English. I couldn't even watch TV.

"But Chinese New Year was when I'd really miss home.

"The first few years, it was just me in a little room. No phone calls. Nothing. It felt like the world wasn't bothered about me so I played and played and played on my own."

Ding played and played and played not only because the snooker hall became his sanctuary but because he owed his family so much.

"My parents sold their house when I was 12 and we moved to the other end of China," says Ding, who first picked up a cue only three years earlier. "We moved to the south, where I could learn snooker properly. They didn't tell me at the time because parents worry, so I didn't feel the pressure."

Ding practised eight hours a day, day after day after day, and was soon making great strides on the Asian circuit. Then, in 2003, Ding packed up his cue and set out on his curious odyssey. Zai jian Shanghai, hello Wellingborough.

"I like that little place," says Ding of the small market town in Northamptonshire. "The people were very good to me. But what I remember most about Wellingborough was the fish and chips. They had the best fish and chips, especially with mushy peas.

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Ding feels like best in the world

"But I didn't talk a lot. I just played. That was all. My father had done so much for me I needed to earn money to keep everything going."

In 2004 Ding received an invitation to the prestigious Masters tournament, where the 16-year-old lost 6-5 to Stephen Lee in the second round. But Ding showed enough to have wise heads tipping him as a future world champion. And so the tap turned and the drip-drip of pressure became a steady trickle.

Ding remained dry and continued to thrive. In 2005 he celebrated his 18th birthday bybeating seven-time world champion Hendry in the final of the China Open.  An estimated 110 million of his countrymen and women watched the game on television - more than twice the population of England.

That same year, Ding beat Steve Davis in the final of the UK Championship, becoming the first player from outside the UK and Ireland to win it.

And when Ding dispatched Ronnie O'Sullivan in the final of the 2006 Northern Ireland Trophy, he became only the third player - after O'Sullivan and John Higgins - to win three ranking titles before his 20th birthday.

Next stop greatness? If only sport were that simple.

"At the start I felt fresh," says Ding, who boasts three million followers on Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter. "But year after year the pressure got bigger. Especially in China. They don't just want you to win, they think you will win."

Ding was reduced to tears by a brilliant Ronnie O'Sullivan in the final of the 2007 Masters

As his form waxed and waned, the media back home started asking the inevitable question: "What's gone wrong with wonder kid Ding?" When he reached the final of the Masters in 2007, O'Sullivan walloped him 10-3.  Ding - scared, far away from home - was in tears before the end came.

Ding continued to rattle in big breaks and win major tournaments - the UK again in 2009, the Masters in 2011 - but the questions over his temperament remained.

Over four years from 2007 to 2010, Ding failed to make it past the second round of the World Championship in Sheffield. He reached the semi-finals in 2011 but lost the last three frames against Judd Trump to go out 17-15.

After losing 10-9 to Ryan Day in the first round in 2012, having led 9-6,Ding looked like he wanted to pack it all in. "I don't think the tables were right," he said. "I don't think the fans were right. It was all rubbish."

Ranking event* and European Tour winners this season

John Higgins: European Tour 1

Neil Robertson: Wuxi Classic*

Marco Fu: Australian Open*

Mark Williams: European Tour 2

Ricky Walden: European Tour 3

Ronnie O'Sullivan: European Tour 4

Ding Junhui: Shanghai Masters*, Indian Open*, International Championship*

Mark Allen: European Tour 5, European Tour 6

Mark Selby: European Tour 7

"The Crucible has caused me a lot of pressure, the biggest pressure ever," says Ding, now based at the Star Snooker Academy in Sheffield, with its large Chinese student community and its authentic Chinese food on West Street.

"This year I felt rushed against Barry Hawkins [who beat him in the quarter-finals] - my concentration wasn't right. I don't remember anything about that game.

"I'd love to have a coach for the World Championship and I'd like to talk to legendary players about their experiences. But I'm still young. I've got time to learn how to win the World Championship, like Stephen Hendry, seven times."

With O'Sullivan playing only sporadically around his Crucible heroics over the past two years, snooker could do with a commanding presence.

No man is likely to dominate snooker in its cluttered modern form but every sport is better off with a pre-eminent figure, someone the rest of the field can aim at and whom the public want to see dazzle or shot down.

Ding's recent triple suggests he can become that man. That two of his title victories - the Shanghai Masters and the International Championship - were achieved in China further suggests he has learned to remain dry even when that trickle of expectation becomes a torrent.

And should Ding win even one world title, snooker supporters in this country should celebrate his triumph as one of their own. For while his blood is 100% Chinese, Ding's heart beats English.

"I feel half and half," says Ding, an almost apologetic smile appearing on his face. "When I stay in England for a few months, I want to go back to China. But when I stay in China for a few months, I want to come back to England.

"English people are very gentle, very polite. In England, I obey the rules very carefully. In China, nobody seems to care. Everyone wants to go first - quick, quick, quick. I feel like I have to be like that as well and it makes me unhappy."

Let's hope all this time in England hasn't softened the old boot up too much, because Ding is dreaming on behalf of many millions. But, as with most of us, it's the folks he wants to please most.

"Before I turned pro, my father would tell everyone how good I was going to be," says Ding. "And my mum likes to tell everyone: 'This is my son.' They'd love to see me win a world title. That's their biggest dream."

Tehelka's Tarun Tejpal back in court over assault claims

Tarun Tejpal denies allegations that he sexually assaulted a female colleague

The editor of a prominent Indian news magazine has appeared in court seeking fresh bail amid accusations he sexually assaulted a former colleague.

Tarun Tejpal had been granted "pre-bail", temporarily relieving him from the threat of arrest, and the Goa court is deciding whether to extend this.

Mr Tejpal has not been formally charged but denies the accusations against him.

His unnamed accuser has said what he did "falls within the legal definition of rape".

She initially levelled claims against Mr Tejpal in the media following the alleged incident at an event organised by the Tehelka magazine in Goa earlier this month.

This prompted police to launch an investigation with which she is now co-operating.

Six journalists, including the managing editor of the publication, have resigned over the controversy.

No 'easy battle'

In the court in Panaji, Goa, on Saturday, the prosecution argued Mr Tejpal should be taken into custody so he could be properly interrogated and his version of events cross-checked, said Indian media reports.

But his lawyer is said to have argued that Mr Tejpal had agreed to abide by court-dictated conditions including the surrender of his passport if pre-bail was extended.

Geeta Luthra is said to have argued that Mr Tejpal was at risk of "humiliation and disgrace" if arrested.

The scandal has been dominating headlines in India, with critics accusing Tehelka magazine - one of India's top investigative titles, which has exposed gender inequality and officially sanctioned misogyny - of hypocrisy and double standards, say correspondents.

The case has resonated with particular force following the emotive case of a woman who was brutally gang raped and murdered in Delhi last year.

In a statement released to media, Mr Tejpal's accuser rejected claims her complaint was part of a "pre-election political conspiracy".

"By filing my complaint, I have lost not just a job that I loved, but much-needed financial security and the independence of my salary. I have also opened myself to personal and slanderous attack.

"This will not be an easy battle," she said.