- LONDON. McDonald?s rapped for ?simple fries? UK campaign. Fast food corporation McDonald?s has been rapped by British advertising watchdogs for a campaign that trumpeted the brilliant simplicity of their recipe for fries ? the humble potato and nothing else. Adverts showed a potato in a fries box alongside the text: ?The story of our fries (end of story)?. But the public and campaigners objected, saying that often the chips were part-fried in one country, sometimes in beef tallow; flown halfway round the world; soaked in dextrose; often contaminated with gluten and finally drenched in excessive levels of salt. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said McDonald?s argued the advert was ?not intended to be a literal and comprehensive statement of all the processes involved?. It accepted the burger giant?s case that it had not used beef tallow in Britain since 1993 and that there was no gluten contamination.

However, the ASA concluded the claim ?we peel them, slice them, fry them and that?s it? was misleading and told McDonalds to stop the adverts.

- BRUSSELS. EU Ministers pick French site for fusion project. European Union Ministers chose a French site yesterday as their candidate for the world?s biggest nuclear fusion reactor. ?There has been an agreement between all Member States to promote the site at Cadarache,? a diplomatic source said. Spain dropped out of the contest to build the project to strengthen the European position against contenders Canada and Japan, he added.

- ATHENS. Greece authorises forced feeding of hunger strikers. Greek authorities authorised yesterday the forced feeding of five imprisoned anti-globalisation protesters who have been on hunger strike in Greece for up to two months, the fiancée of one of the protesters said. The five ? two Spaniards, a Syrian, a Briton and a Greek ? are refusing to eat as a protest against their imprisonment since being arrested during riots at a European Union summit in Greece in June. They are awaiting trial on charges of possession of explosives and weapons.