Buy 'funny fruit' to help feed the world

MAKE a shopping list and buy "funny fruit" to cut food waste and help the world "shape a sustainable future," two UN agencies have urged.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and partners on Tuesday unveiled a campaign dubbed Think-Eat-Save Reduce Your Foodprint to change global practices that result in the loss of 1.3 billion tonnes of food each year.

The program is aimed primarily at consumers, food retailers and the hotel and restaurant industry, and is based on three recommended actions: think, eat, and save.

"In a world of seven billion people, set to grow to nine billion by 2050, wasting food makes no sense - economically, environmentally and ethically," a statement quoted UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner as saying.

"We're doing something that is completely irrational," he lamented to reporters in Geneva, before adding that he hoped the campaign would "literally mobilise tens of millions of people to become part of the solution."

FAO Director General Jose Graziano da Silva pointed out that in industrialised nations, around 300 million tonnes of food are wasted each year, "because producers, retailers and consumers discard food that is still fit for consumption."

That is more food than is produced in sub-Saharan Africa, and is enough to feed the estimated 830 million people who now go hungry worldwide, he added.

The program estimates the overall cost of wasted food at about $US1.0 trillion ($A955.61 billion) per year, with most losses occurring in production stages - such as harvesting and distribution - and blamed on problems from storing food in difficult climatic conditions to unreliable harvests.

It is retailers and consumers, whoever, who are usually guilty of wasting food.

Consumers can participate in a global effort by respecting a few simple recommendations, the UN agencies said.

Planning meals, making shopping lists and avoiding impulse buying helps, as does staying alert "to marketing tricks that lead you to buy more food than you need."

Another good idea is to "buy funny fruit" or vegetables that would otherwise be thrown out because their size, shape or colour do not meet market standards.

Tristram Stuart of the Feeding the 5000 campaign told reporters in Geneva: "Wonky fruit and vegetables are very often left on farms across Europe and North America simply because they don't meet the cosmetic standards of retailers, and they are left on fields to rot."

People, he insisted, must "adopt the value that food is simply too good to waste."

Paying attention to expiry dates and "zeroing down your fridge" with recipes that use up food set to go bad helps, the UN agencies said, as does freezing food, asking restaurants for smaller portions, eating leftovers, composting food or donating it to food banks, soup kitchens and shelters.

Retailers can offer discounts for food that is nearing its sell-by date, standardise labels and donate more food.

Restaurants were urged to "limit menu choices and introduce flexible portioning," to audit how much food they waste, and to set up "staff engagement programs."

Finally, an internet site, thinkeatsave.org is to serve as a global platform for sharing information on other initiatives that people come up with.

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Mozilla unveils preview smartphones

THE Mozilla Foundation has unveiled two preview smartphones as it invited developers to try its new open-source mobile operating system challenging Apple's iOS and Google's Android.

The announcement on Tuesday marked a major step forward for the new Firefox OS mobile operating system which is being built using open web standards, like its Firefox web browser.

The two preview phones being offered come from the small Spanish-based manufacturer GeeksPhone, the first in what the nonprofit group hopes will be a series of low-cost smartphones which can be sold around the world.

"This week we are announcing our new Firefox OS developer preview phones because we believe that developers will help bring the power of the web to mobile," said a blog posting from Stormy Peters, head of websites and developer engagement at Mozilla.

The developer phones are being made by GeeksPhone in partnership with the Spanish carrier Telefonica.

"If you're a developer interested in web technologies and mobile, now is the time to try out Firefox OS," Peters said.

The operating system, she said, is an effort to "keep the web open" and "help make sure the power of the web is available to everyone - even on mobile devices."

By using the open platform, she said, "you're not locked in to a vendor-controlled ecosystem. You can distribute your app through the Firefox Marketplace, your own website, or any other store based on Mozilla's open app store technology."

The non-profit group's so-called Boot to Gecko project will go after Google's Android or Apple's iOS, to create an alternative which could generate smartphones that are less expensive than an iPhone while offering similar experiences to those running on other platforms.

GeeksPhone said on its website that the two new phones were named Keon, with a 3.5 inch display, and Peak, with a larger 4.3 inch screen. Both will use Qualcomm Snapdragon chips.

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French stench reaches England

FRANCE insists a major gas leak - whose stench hit millions, reached the shores of England and caused a major soccer match to be cancelled - is entirely harmless.

Headaches and nausea were among the complaints in calls made to emergency lines in Paris by more than 10,000 people worried by the stench of rotten eggs that had invaded their streets and homes.

But France's Ecology Minister Delphine Batho, who cut short an official trip to Berlin to rush to the site of the leak at a chemical plant in the picturesque city of Rouen in Normandy, said there was no health risk.

The leak began early Monday at a Lubrizol plant.

Winds carried the foul-smelling invisible gas down the densely-populated Seine river valley to Paris, and later northwards over the Channel and into England, where it even reached south London.

"South Kent residents are being asked to keep doors and windows closed due to a gas cloud that is believed to have come across from France," the fire and rescue service in the southeastern English region said.

The offending odour came from a gas called mercaptan, which, among other uses, is added to municipal gas because its sulfureous smell alerts people to gas leaks.

The Lubrizol plant, which makes additives for industrial lubricants and paint, shut down production as they battled to plug the leak which company executives hoped would be done later Tuesday.

Regional authorities ordered the postponement of a French Cup tie match in Rouen between the city's football team and Marseille on Tuesday evening.

"We didn't want to be in a situation where we have 10,000 spectators two kilometres away from the plant without any capacity for confining or evacuating them if that were necessary," said senior local official Florence Gouache.

Snow had already threatened the game - a sellout - although a pitch inspection on Monday had led to the match being given the go-ahead prior to the gas leak.

Despite the official insistence that there was no danger, French social media were awash with people in the affected regions complaining of headaches and nausea from the gas that smelled like rotten eggs.

"They're all saying not to panic, but they said the same thing about the cloud from Chernobyl," said mother-of-four Patricia Cousteau, referring to radioactive fallout that spread across Europe in 1986 after an explosion at a Ukrainian nuclear plant.

Authorities said in an earlier statement that a chemical substance at the Lubrizol plant became unstable and caused odours that are similar to those of town gas.

"The gas has an unpleasant smell but is not toxic," it said.

The concentration of the gas was also "very low", the statement said, adding that "a large number of people have been inconvenienced".

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Remains of last king returned to Serbia

THE remains of Yugoslavia's last king - Peter II Karadjordjevic, who died in the US in 1970 - have been flown back to Serbia in a solemn ceremony despite protests by Serb royalists in America.

The former king fled the Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia at the start of World War II and never returned, as Communists took over at the end of the war.

He died in exile and was buried at a Serbian Orthodox monastery in Libertyville, Illinois - the only European monarch buried on US soil.

His son, Crown Prince Alexander who lives in Belgrade, wanted the remains to be returned to Serbia.

That had upset some Serbian-American groups, which claimed Peter's explicit desire in his will was to remain buried in the US.

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Assange protesters to push on

THE organiser of a peaceful protest against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will push ahead with rally plans despite widespread criticism and alleged authoritarian links.

British university student Simone Webb is the driving force behind a gathering on Wednesday which will coincide with a televised address by the 41-year-old Australian.

"On the internet ... Assangists have been increasingly vitriolic," Ms Webb told AAP of the response she faced on sites such as twitter, since launching her protest plans.

"They have looked up personal information about me and accused me of being involved in some way with the Ministry of Defence."

Assange has been invited by the Oxford Union to speak at the university society's annual Sam Adams Award, which recognises an individual who has displayed "courage, persistence and devotion to the truth" in the name of the former CIA analyst.

A past recipient of the award, Assange will make Wednesday's address from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he is avoiding arrest by UK authorities after being granted asylum by the Latin American nation.

Assange is wanted in Sweden for questioning over allegations of sexual assault against two women. He denies the claims and said his extradition to Sweden would be the first step in him being handed to US authorities, who are investigating the operations of his secret-leaking website.

"I am holding the protest for a number of reasons. Primarily to highlight the inappropriateness and irony of having someone speak at an awards ceremony supposed to celebrate integrity, justice, courage and truth-seeking who is himself evading the justice process by hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy," Ms Webb said.

"Secondly, this is about challenging society's treatment of rape allegations, and the way they are minimised and ignored."

Ms Webb said more than 100 people will gather, wave placards and chant in a peaceful protest against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

"I anticipate no disturbances," she said.

A second group of protesters is also expected outside the embassy in London, where Assange supporters are also being rallied.

Assange's Brisbane-based mother, Christine Assange, asked that supporters gather in silent counter-protest, holding placards with facts about the case of her son and WikiLeaks.

The speech is due to be made at 7.30pm Wednesday (6.30am Thursday AEDT).

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US begins transporting French troops

THE US military has started airlifting French troops and equipment into Mali to assist their operation against Al-Qaeda-linked rebels, the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) says.

"At the request of the French government, we have begun flying equipment and personnel from France to Mali," an AFRICOM spokesman, Chuck Prichard, said on Tuesday.

"We expect the mission to last for the next several days. As of yet we've had two flights that have landed and we anticipate more in the coming days."

He said the flights had started on Monday but declined to provide further details, referring queries to the French defence ministry.

"We have worked out a schedule that meets the needs of the French," Prichard said. "Over the next several days there will be several flights."

AFRICOM is based in the southwestern German city of Stuttgart.

A spokesman for the French military in Paris, Thierry Burkhard, said the planes were mainly carrying equipment.

"It began yesterday (Monday) and is continuing today with three American C-17 (military transport aircraft) doing rotations between Istres and Bamako," Burkhard said, referring to an air force base in southern France and the Malian capital.

"The priority is to move heavy, bulky things" such as armoured vehicles, he said.

The French military had already said that the US would provide planes primarily to ferry African troops from their own countries into Mali.

France came to Mali's aid 10 months after it lost over half its territory to Islamists who have enforced an extreme form of Islamic law in northern towns, amid rising fears that the vast area could become a new haven for Al-Qaeda.

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Indonesia sentences UK drug gran to death

A 56-YEAR-OLD British grandmother was sentenced to death for smuggling cocaine into the Indonesian island of Bali, in a shock verdict after prosecutors recommended 15 years imprisonment.

Lindsay Sandiford sobbed on Tuesday as the court in Bali's capital Denpasar handed down the sentence, over a drugs haul worth $US2.4 million ($A2.29 million) found in her suitcase as she arrived on a flight from Bangkok last May.

"We found Lindsay Sandiford convincingly and legally guilty for importing narcotics... and sentenced the defendant to death," Judge Amser Simanjuntak told Denpasar district court.

Indonesian police said she was at the centre of a drugs importing ring involving three other Britons and an Indian who have also been arrested.

Sandiford argued that she was forced into transporting the 4.79 kilos of cocaine in order to protect her children whose safety was at stake, and the prosecution had recommended a lenient sentence.

But the court ruled that she had not admitted her crime and had damaged Indonesia's hardline stance on drugs as well as Bali's reputation as a tourism destination.

As she was led back to jail, hiding her face behind a sarong, her stunned lawyers said she would likely launch an appeal.

"We object to the sentence. We never expected that our client would get the death penalty," said counsel Esra Karokaro. "We will discuss it first with her, most likely we will appeal."

Sandiford, in spectacles and with her hair tied back, hung her head low, turned pale and cried as the verdict was read out, while her sister Hillary Parson who attended the trial also sobbed.

The court rejected the argument that Sandiford had acted to protect her children, and said there were "no mitigating circumstances" to allow for leniency.

"Her action was against the government's effort to combat drug use in the country and she insisted that she never committed the crime," said another judge, Amser Simanjuntak.

"What the defendant has done could tarnish Bali image as a tourism destination," he added.

British human rights charity Reprieve said last month that Sandiford "was exploited by drug traffickers, who targeted her because of her vulnerability and her fear for the safety of her children".

Britain's junior foreign minister Hugo Swire said on Tuesday: "We strongly object to the death penalty and continue to provide consular assistance to Lindsay and her family during this difficult time."

He told parliament it was his understanding that Sandiford has at least two further avenues of appeal and an opportunity to apply for presidential clemency if those failed.

Two other Britons arrested in connection with the case received light sentences last month.

Rachel Dougall was sentenced to 12 months for failing to report Sandiford's crime and Paul Beales received four years for possession of 3.6 grams of hashish but was cleared of drug trafficking.

A fourth Briton, Julian Ponder, is expected to hear his sentence at the end of this month after prosecutors recommended a seven-year jail term.

Indonesia enforces stiff penalties for drug trafficking, but death penalty sentences are commonly commuted to long jail sentences.

Gandjar Laksamana, a criminal law expert from the University of Indonesia, said that although the severe penalty shocked the defence, the prosecution's light recommendation was more surprising.

"The law regulates that the maximum penalty for such crime is death. So the question should be why the prosecutor did not ask for the maximum penalty," he told AFP.

Two members of an Australian drug smuggling gang known as the Bali Nine who were arrested in 2005 are currently on death row, while the seven others face lengthy jail terms. A French man has also been on death row since May 2007.

Executions in Indonesia are carried out by firing squad, usually at night in isolated and undisclosed locations. The last one was in June 2008, when two Nigerian drug traffickers were shot.

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