News in Brief

Blackburn to attend: Speaker John Boehner says he’s sending a three-member House delegation to London for the funeral of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Boehner said in a statement on Monday that Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn will lead the delegation. Joining the Tennessee lawmaker will be fellow Republican Reps. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and George Holding of North Carolina.

The speaker called Thatcher one of the greatest champions of freedom that the world has ever known. The funeral for Thatcher, who died last week, will take place Wednesday at St. Paul’s Cathedral.

The House delegation will fly commercial to London. In February, Boehner suspended the use of military aircraft for official trips by House members, part of the belt-tightening by Congress in response to automatic, across-theboard spending cuts that kicked in March 1. (AP) Britain launches review: The British government said Monday it was launching a wideranging review into the horsemeat scandal in a bid to restore consumer confidence.

Food Minister David Heath said the review would look for any weaknesses in the food chain that could be exploited by unscrupulous traders.

The move comes after revelations that beef products sold across Europe contained large quantities of horsemeat.

The scandal began in Ireland and Britain in January before spreading across the continent.

“Consumers have a right to expect that food is exactly what it says on the label,” said Heath.

“We are establishing a wideranging review to help restore consumer confidence by looking at our whole food system, identifying weaknesses and looking at what food businesses, regulators and government are responsible for.”

European governments have scrambled to figure out how and where the mislabelling happened in a sprawling chain of abattoirs and meat suppliers across the continent.

In Britain, the scandal began to unfold when it was found that frozen burgers supplied to several supermarkets including Tesco contained horse DNA. (AFP)