news/notes20090509a

[Biography of the Day] from [Britannica]

Howard Carter
British archaeologist Howard Carter, who made one of the richest and most celebrated contributions to Egyptology—the discovery (1922) of the largely intact tomb of King Tutankhamen—was born this day in 1873.

[On This Day] from [Britannica]

1502: Fourth and final voyage of Christopher Columbus launched
On this day in 1502, master navigator and admiral Christopher Columbus, long considered the “discoverer” of the New World, set sail from Cádiz, Spain, on his fourth and final voyage, hoping to find a passage to Asia.


[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]

[BUSINESS NEWS]

Saturday, May 9, 2009
Toyota expects 850 billion loss
Auto giant sees more bleeding before main markets recover

By HIROKO NAKATA
Staff writer

Toyota Motor Corp. said Friday it expects a 850 billion group operating loss and a 550 billion net loss for the year ending next March — its biggest losses ever and its second straight year of red ink — as the global economy shrinks and the yen muscles up against other currencies.

The auto giant said group sales for the year are expected to drop to 6.5 million units from 7.57 million a year earlier.

"We should expect the harsh business environment to continue," Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe told a news conference in Tokyo. "China and India are showing some improvement, but it will take time for the U.S. and European markets to go back to normal."

For the year that ended on March 31, Toyota logged a 461.01 billion group operating loss and a 436.94 billion net loss. The results were worse than its Feb. 6 forecast of a 450 billion group operating loss and a 350 billion net loss.

Friday's figures are the biggest ever for the automaker, which was founded in 1937, and the first since 59 years ago, when it posted a 76 million pretax loss for the year that ended in March 1950.

They also contrast sharply with the 2.27 trillion group operating profit and 1.72 trillion net profit Toyota posted in March 2008, underlining how fast global demand has dried up.

Global demand, which has been dragged down by the U.S. financial and economic crisis, has rapidly tanked and driven debt-ridden U.S. rivals General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC to the edge of bankruptcy. Meanwhile, the yen's rise against the dollar and euro is eroding Toyota's overseas profits. Higher prices for raw materials also weighed on its earnings.

To improve the bottom line, Watanabe said Toyota will slash manufacturing costs and fixed costs, mainly capital investment, by 800 billion for the year to next March.

Toyota meanwhile plans to reinforce development of small and less-polluting vehicles, which it views as the key to its future.

"I believe the market will recover for sure in the future. The main products will be eco-friendly and compact cars," Watanabe said, noting emerging markets will play a bigger role in the global market.

Watanabe said the auto giant will launch four new hybrid models in Japan, including versions of the Prius and Lexus, and three new hybrids overseas this year. It will unveil the so-called third-generation Prius hybrid on May 18 and the Lexus HS250h in July.

Analysts said Toyota's earnings were hit hard because it expanded its lineup to include large pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles, which have been shunned amid soaring gasoline prices and rapidly declining demand.

Another reason is that Toyota was overextending itself to expand global supply to meet higher demand just before the financial crisis erupted and spooked consumers.


[NATIONAL NEWS]

Saturday, May 9, 2009
Retrial, based on new DNA test, may clear man sent up for '90 child killing

(Kyodo News) The man sentenced to life for a high-profile 1990 child murder may be cleared in a retrial, now that a DNA sample taken from him did not match body fluid found on the victim's clothing, contrary to findings at the time of his conviction.

The Tokyo High Court notified both the prosecution and defense that recent DNA tests showed a sample from Toshikazu Sugaya, who is serving a life term for the murder of the 4-year-old girl in Tochigi Prefecture, differed from the one used as evidence that helped convict him, his lawyers said.

This is the first time DNA tests were performed for a case where the convict is seeking retrial, the defense said.

"This is proof that he is innocent," said defense attorney Hiroshi Sato at a press conference, stressing the initial DNA test results were wrong. "We really want the prosecution to follow the results. This is clear evidence."

Sato said Sugaya broke down in tears Friday at the Chiba prison when he visited him to inform him of the test results.

"I am innocent, and I'm grateful that the testing was done again," Sato quoted Sugaya as saying, and adding: "I am really touched. I want to get out of this prison and pay a visit to my parent's grave."

Both the prosecution and defense will submit written opinions on the results of the new tests to the court by June 12.

According to the defense, the DNA test was performed by the authority of the high court. Two experts, each recommended by both sides, performed the tests using different methods. Both tests showed there was no match between Sugaya's DNA and the sample found on the girl's clothing.

Sugaya, 62, was arrested in December 1991 on suspicion of kidnapping and killing the girl at a river in Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture, in May 1990. He initially confessed but later withdrew the admission and denied being the culprit.

An initial test done shortly after the murder matched Sugaya's DNA with that from body fluid found on the girl's clothing.

The Utsunomiya District Court sentenced him to life in prison in 1993, as sought by prosecutors. The Tokyo High Court and the Supreme Court dismissed appeals in 1996 and 2000, although the credibility of the DNA test conducted in the case was questioned.

Sugaya's case marked the first time the credibility of a DNA test was upheld. His counsel, however, filed with the district court for a retrial in December 2002 with new evidence regarding DNA test analysis.


[NATIONAL NEWS]

Saturday, May 9, 2009
Lawmakers urged to act now to revise organ transplant law

By KAZUAKI NAGATA
Staff writer

People in need of organ transplants and their supporters urged lawmakers Friday to revise the transplant law during the current Diet session, despite the World Health Organization's decision to delay until next year enacting a resolution to restrict overseas travel for transplants.

The group faced reporters in Tokyo to share their experiences in a bid to address the need to improve the organ transplant situation in a nation where donors are scarce, children are not part of the equation and the determination of brain death for the sake of donor eligibility is still a point of heated debate.

Naoki Kogure, 37, a dilated cardiomyopathy patient, received an artificial heart in 2006 and has since been waiting for a real heart.

"It's been 2 1/2 years, but my name has not been listed," he said, voicing his worries.

Namie Nakazawa, whose 1-year-old son died while awaiting a heart in the United States, said she hopes the current Diet session can remedy the problem.

"I want children to have the same rights and hopes as adults," Nakazawa said.

In Geneva on Thursday, diplomatic and WHO sources said the global health body plans to delay setting new guidelines on organ transplants because it is preoccupied with the new swine flu epidemic rapidly spreading worldwide.

Representatives of WHO member countries have agreed on a one-year postponement in establishing the guidelines, which had been scheduled at the WHO's general assembly meeting beginning May 18, the sources said.

WHO guidelines have been considered one of the reasons for Japan to speed up debate on revising the law, which bans anyone under 15 from being a donor, thus forcing many children who need transplants to go overseas in search of donors.

Diet members have been working to ease the minimum age of organ donors.

news/notes20090509

[Today's Papers] from [Slate Magazine]

Obama: Look on the Bright Side

By Kara Hadge
Posted Saturday, May 9, 2009, at 6:18 AM ET

The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times lead, and the Washington Post off-leads, with word that the U.S. lost fewer jobs than expected last month, as the unemployment rate rose to 8.9 percent in April. The NYT notes that stock prices were up yesterday as a result, and the LAT points out that consumer spending and pending home sales were on the uptick for the second month in a row. However, economists expect unemployment will surpass 10 percent before the recession ends. If discouraged workers, who have stopped looking for jobs, were included, the current unemployment rate would rise to 15.8 percent. The prevailing attitude in the papers is that utter doom and despair have given way to more tempered feelings: the NYT calls the present job market "dreadful," but less so than "the stomach-churning events of recent months," while the WP says the recession is "pulling away from an economic abyss into a period of steep, but orderly, decline."

Government hires of census workers helped offset the unemployment numbers last month, and the WP leads with predictions that the Obama administration will have to spend tens of billions of dollars more to jolt the U.S. financial system out of the recession. The government seems to have the resources to do it, though. After yesterday's positive "stress test" results, officials expect some of the better-off banks to return some $35 billion in bailout money, which would leave the Treasury with $145 billion to prop up the auto industry, offer better rates to local governments and agencies seeking loans, and possibly aid some of the larger life insurance companies. The Wall Street Journal leads with a follow-up to yesterday's news, revealing the caveat that the Federal Reserve "significantly scaled back the size of the capital hole facing some of the nation's biggest banks" in conducting the "stress tests."

Although two of the banks proclaimed healthy in the "stress tests" already have new investors, not all the nation's banks are doing well. Fannie Mae reported yesterday that it lost $23 billion in the first three months of 2009. The domino effect caused by an increasing number of mortgage defaults—the most toxic kind of loan and the one that accounts for the majority of Fannie Mae's business—has left the company in the hands of government aid once again; keeping Fannie afloat will require an additional $19 billion in government funding, on top of the $15 billion it received from taxpayers in the fall.

The tough job market may have lasting effects on the earning potential of this year's college grads, the WSJ reports. Drawing on recession data from the early 1980s, the article explains that the earnings of those who finish college when unemployment is high take a hit for up to 15 years after graduation. Instead of moving straight into top jobs in their preferred field and gaining experience early on, grads struggle to find unrelated or less prestigious positions. Those who went to graduate school soon after earning their bachelor's degree in the '80s tended to be at less of a disadvantage.

Losing your job may also be detrimental to your health. A Harvard School of Public Health study shows that people who are laid off have a one in ten chance of developing ailments like diabetes or high blood pressure in the ensuing year and a half, regardless of whether or not they find a new job right away.

So what's President Obama's grand plan to get the country on its feet again? Be optimistic. The NYT suggests that the President and his aides have been trying harder than usual this week to look for the silver lining amidst discouraging economic news.

Inside the A section, General David Petraeus affirms that Pakistan has become the "global base" for Al Qaeda's efforts "to plan new terror attacks and funnel money, manpower and guidance to affiliates around the world," according to the WSJ, replacing Afghanistan. At the same time, the Pakistani government is stepping up their fight against Taliban insurgents in the northwestern part of the country, near the Afghan border. This week's NYT Saturday Profile is on Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S., Husain Haqqani, whose "high-minded analysis and street corner gossip" provide fodder to American journalists covering these developments.

In Somalia, meanwhile, local efforts to deter piracy are growing. Islamic communities where pirates once found financial and even governmental support have begun to form "grass-roots, anti-pirate militias," according to the NYT. While local leaders are hesitant to go after the top players among the region's pirates, they have at least begun speaking out against them. Some of the pirates, quick to name their price, say they'll change their ways if certain conditions are met, including employing them to police Somalia's waters as a kind of coast guard.

The WP fronts news that the Obama administration is still planning to revive military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, as was suggested last week, after the President's 120-day moratorium set in January expires. Meanwhile, another front-page story asserts that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi knew about the Bush administration's use of waterboarding in 2003 from one of her aides, who was privy to that information. Pelosi has said that she was never "directly briefed" by Bush administration officials on the practice. The WSJ goes one step further and says Pelosi and the Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence were jointly briefed on the use of torture by the CIA in 2002.

The NYT fronts the latest details on the murder of a 21-year-old Wesleyan University student earlier this week, revealing that the suspect in her murder, Stephen P. Morgan, who was arraigned yesterday, had had a privileged upbringing in an affluent Massachusetts suburb, graduated from prep school, and completed a stint in the Navy.

In California over 30,000 people, one-third of Santa Barbara's population, have been evacuated due to the fire still raging there, seeking shelter in schools, hotels, and with friends, some already at their second refuge after being evacuated from the first.

And in South Africa, the election of President Jacob Zuma has raised an unusual dilemma: which of the President's three wives will be the First Lady? There still has been no decision about how to handle the complication of electing the country's first polygamist president. Who will be his date to today's inaugural balls? And will the state have to provide medical care and security for the entire family, 19 children included? Local pundits wait for the drama to unfold.