WASHINGTON – The Department of Agriculture has failed to enforce penalties against some who falsely marketed foods as organic, according to an internal department investigation.

A report by the agency’s inspector general says the agency needs to step up enforcement of those who sell products under the “USDA Organic” label but do not meet government standards to do so. The report says the department has made improvements in maintaining the integrity of the organic program in recent years, but needs to better handle complaints about potential violators.

Oversight of the organic program has become more important and more scrutinized as the industry has exploded in popularity over the last decade, growing 14 to 21 percent annually with sales of $24.6 billion in 2008. As more companies have vied to be part of the business, critics have charged that the government has not been restrictive enough in what it allows to be labeled as organic.

The internal report says the department has failed to monitor some companies it had already identified as improperly marketing their products as organic. In one case, the department never issued enforcement action against an operation that had marketed non-organic mint under the department’s label for two years.

Enforcement action can simply be an agreement to correct the problem or can be more severe, including revocation of an operation’s organic certification or cash penalties. In some cases, the report said, it took more than two years for the department to issue enforcement action while the companies continued to falsely market their products.

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BEIJING (AFP) –
China on Thursday lashed out at a US House of Representatives resolution that urged Beijing to end its “persecution” of the outlawed Falungong spiritual group.

The House voted nearly unanimously on Tuesday to call on China to free thousands of members of the movement who are said to be imprisoned and to abolish a government office tasked with fighting the movement.

“The US House of Representatives passed a so-called resolution on Falungong which made groundless accusations and confuses right and wrong,” foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters.

“China is firmly against such a resolution.”

The resolution, which is not legally binding, asked China to “immediately cease and desist from its campaign to persecute, intimidate, imprison and torture Falungong practitioners”.

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LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) –
“Diary of a Wimpy Kid” is a likable movie for kids that will make adults chuckle as well because of the movie’s key ingredient — wit. This usually gets left off the To Do list by most filmmakers who aim at young audiences.

However, director Thor Freudenthal and multiple writers have retained from their source material — a “cartoon novel” by Jeff Kinney — the sly, painfully observant perspective of its pint-size protagonist. His commentary recalls for most adults our ambivalent memories of middle school, an era over which no one suffers from any nostalgia.

If indeed Kinney’s book sold 28 million copies and was translated into 33 languages, then clearly this Fox release, which bows Friday, has name recognition. So the studio can expect above-average box-office results for a PG-rated film.

Zachary Gordon plays the Wimpy Kid, aka Greg Heffley, who keeps a journal — don’t call it a diary because that’s so-o-o-o-o wimpy — of his middle-school career so that when he is famous he won’t have to answer questions about his early years. What he charts is his luckless engagement with a class system more stratified and unyielding than those in medieval times.

It’s a world divided among the cool, moronic, bullying and wimpy, where lunchtime seating is rigidly controlled and an invisible list of where one fits in the hierarchy of popularity is carried in every child’s head. In his first year, Greg plummets to the bottom of that list.

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JOHANNESBURG – Police used rubber bullets and water cannons Wednesday to disperse thousands of high school students protesting a bail hearing for a South African hip-hop artist accused of killing four children while drag racing on drugs.

Molemo Maarohanye — who is known as “Jub Jub,” which means Marshmallow — faces four murder charges and two charges of attempted murder along with co-defendant Themba Tshabalala. Authorities say the children were run down by a Mini Cooper but it is unknown who was driving the vehicle at the time.

The case has prompted an outcry in South Africa, and some 2,000 rioting youths and children, many in school uniform, gathered outside the courthouse Wednesday.

Some threatened to use mob justice if the hip-hop artist is granted bail.

Rioters hurled bricks and stones at police and chanted calls to kill the musician and Tshabalala because “they killed our friends.”

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BANGKOK – Thai protesters seeking a change of government planned more shock tactics Wednesday, saying they would pour gallons (liters) of their own blood at the prime minister’s house in an upscale neighborhood of the Thai capital.

This followed similar “blood sacrifices” Tuesday at Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s office and the headquarters of his Democrat Party. The dramatic acts grabbed attention but put the “Red Shirt” protest movement no closer to its goal of forcing new elections.

Protest leaders said they planned to march Wednesday to Abhisit’s house in the Sukhumvit Road area, home to many rich Thais and expatriates. Abhisit has been sleeping at an army headquarters and taking trips out of the city since the demonstrations began.

More than 100,000 demonstrators from all over the country gathered in Bangkok on Sunday, vowing to continue their protest until victory. But Abhisit has rejected their demands to dissolve Parliament, saying only that he will listen to the protesters’ point of view and leaving the situation in a stalemate.

Reporters asked one of the protest leaders, Veera Musikapong, what their next move would be, and he replied, “I want to know that myself.” He said the group maps strategy on a day-by-day basis.

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