news.notes20090518a

[Biography of the Day] from [Britannica]

Monday, May 18, 2009
John Paul II
Born this day in Poland in 1920, Pope John Paul II traveled widely during his pontificate (1978–2005), campaigning for human rights and world peace, and played a key role in the dissolution of the Soviet Union (1991).

[On This Day] from [Britannica]

Monday, May 18, 2009
1980: Eruption of Mount St. Helens
On this day in 1980, following an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.1 on the Richter scale, Mount St. Helens in Washington erupted in one of the greatest volcanic explosions ever recorded in North America.


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

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Monday, May 18, 2009
Domestic H1N1 flu cases increase to 42
Large outbreak hits schools in Osaka, Hyogo

By ERIC JOHNSTON
Staff writer

The number of domestic swine flu cases hit 42 on Sunday after 34 high school and college students as well as their family members and teachers in Osaka and Hyogo prefectures were confirmed to have been infected.

The confirmations followed the discovery Saturday of Japan's first eight domestic infections of the new H1N1 flu in Hyogo. A World Health Organization expert said community-level transmission may have begun in Japan, which could lead the WHO to raise its new flu pandemic alert to the highest level of 6 from the current 5.

"We need to be fully prepared to prevent the further spread of infections," Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said.

Of the 34 newly confirmed infections, 11 were detected in Osaka and 23 in Hyogo. Local authorities said more than 1,000 schools ranging from kindergartens to high schools in the two prefectures have decided to suspend classes for varying periods.

In Osaka, 20 prefecture-run high schools in the cities of Suita, Toyonaka and Ibaraki, where infected high school students live, will be closed through Saturday.

The 42 infections exclude the four cases discovered earlier during onboard quarantine inspections at Narita International Airport among a group of students and teachers returning from a school trip to Canada. Of those four, two students and a teacher have been declared free of the flu and have been discharged from hospitals.

Local authorities in Osaka said the 11 cases detected there were connected to Kansai Okura Senior High School in the city of Ibaraki and none of the students had traveled overseas recently.

A total of 143 students of that school have been absent this month due to flulike symptoms such as fever. The private school said it will be closed from Monday through Saturday.

Many of the cases in Hyogo were linked to Kobe High School and Hyogo High School.

Osaka Gov. Toru Hashimoto, speaking at a hastily arranged meeting Sunday morning of local health officials, warned more confirmed cases were likely to follow.

"A lot of people were infected in a short period of time, and the virus is predicted to spread further," he said.

The students at Kansai Okura High School developed a high fever between last Wednesday and Friday, just a few days after students in Kobe began feeling ill.

Officials are investigating a connection between the two schools that might explain why students at two locations some distance from each other became sick at roughly the same time.

Local officials urged all facilities that attract large groups of people to shut down.

In Osaka's Umeda Station area, the Hankyu, Hanshin, and Damairu department stores remained open Sunday, although there were fewer customers than normal and many people wore masks.

Several convenience and drug stores in and around JR Osaka Station said they quickly sold out of flu masks. The white masks, despite questions among medical professionals about how effective they really are, have become a necessary purchase for many of those concerned about the spread of the virus.

Workers at several stores, including FamilyMart and Seven-Eleven outlets, in the Umeda and Honmachi areas of Osaka were wearing masks Sunday. Seven-Eleven Japan Co. said it was requiring employees at its 95 Kobe stores to wear masks, and FamilyMart is requiring employees at its 140 stores in the Kansai region to also don masks.

At Hankyu Umeda Station, conductors and ticket attendants were all wearing masks and some were passing out fliers to commuters, especially those on the Kyoto line, which stops at Ibaraki Station, asking them to put on masks. Workers on the Hankyu line between Kobe and Osaka have all been instructed to wear masks, Hankyu officials said.

At the domestic-only Itami airport, a spokeswoman said that while some passengers were wearing masks as they boarded planes, airport officials were not yet taking any special health measures.

There was no sense of panic on the streets of Osaka, just concern, although several people said they plan to stay home from work this week or would keep their children home from school even though they did not live in the affected area.

"No sense in taking a chance. I think my child can afford to miss a day or two of school, although I hope it's not for too long," said Ayako Ito, 33, an Osaka resident.

The prefectural request to shut down areas where large groups of people gather had local businesses worried the large venues would be ordered to close down and were concerned what that would mean for smaller businesses.

A city official said that depending on how the virus spreads, it's possible that the Universal Studios Japan theme park could be closed, and that baseball games and concerts in the city of Osaka could be canceled.

Information from Kyodo added

The city of Osaka has set up a hotline service for non-Japanese speakers with questions and concerns about swine flu. Call (06) 6943-8530 between 9 a.m. and 5:45 p.m. weekdays for language assistance in English, Korean, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Indonesian and Thai.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Monday, May 18, 2009
Okada to get DPJ's No. 2 post: Hatoyama

(Kyodo News) Yukio Hatoyama, the new president of the Democratic Party of Japan, said Sunday he will appoint DPJ Vice President Katsuya Okada as secretary general and former leader Ichiro Ozawa as "acting" president in charge of election strategy.

Hatoyama was the DPJ's secretary general before defeating Okada in the party's presidential election Saturday.

Naoto Kan and Azuma Koshiishi, two other "acting" presidents — a title for what are effectively deputy chiefs — will remain in their posts, Hatoyama said.

Before he made the announcement, Hatoyama met separately with Ozawa, Kan and Okada to see if they would accept the posts.

Hatoyama promised that the party's new leadership will knock the Liberal Democratic Party out of power.

A senior DPJ Diet member described the new leadership, which is to be approved at a general meeting of DPJ lawmakers on Monday, as an "expanded troika."

"Mr. Okada put up a good fight in the presidential election," Hatoyama said. "It is important to secure party unity because many DPJ supporters nationwide and lawmakers favor Mr. Okada.

"Mr. Ozawa has won one election after another to enhance the basis of the DPJ," Hatoyama added. "I expect him to continue assuming the role in overseeing elections."


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Monday, May 18, 2009
Hayami, BOJ chief who cut interest to zero, dies

(Kyodo News) Masaru Hayami, who as governor of the Bank of Japan employed unprecedented zero-interest-rate policies and brought quantitative monetary easing to the fore to address financial crises, died Saturday, his family said Sunday. He was 84.

Hayami served as the 28th BOJ chief between March 1998 and March 2003 during a time when the economy was jolted by the collapse of a number of financial institutions brought down by bad loans.

His family did not disclose the cause of death.

Hayami was the first central bank chief to serve under the new Bank of Japan Law, which came into force in 1998 and gave the BOJ more independence from the government.

As the financial crisis deepened following the nationalization of such major banks as the Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan, now Shinsei Bank, and Nippon Credit Bank, now Aozora Bank, Hayami adopted a policy in February 1999 of guiding key interest rates to near zero.

Judging that uneasiness over the financial system had receded, he put an end to the zero-interest-rate policy in August 2000, although the government remained cautious about lifting the 18-month-old, ultra-easy monetary policy.

As the economy worsened due to the downfall of the information technology bubble, Hayami introduced quantitative monetary easing in March 2001, providing financial markets with ample liquidity.

Under the new policy, the BOJ targeted the balance of current accounts held by financial institutions at the central bank, instead of the conventional policy of targeting interest-rate levels.

Under Hayami's leadership, the BOJ implemented purchases of shares held by banks, also an unprecedented step for a central bank.

CONTINUED ON news.notes20090518b

news.notes20090518b

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

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Monday, May 18, 2009
Hayami, BOJ chief who cut interest to zero, dies

CONTINUED FROM news.notes20090518a

Hayami, known as an advocate of a strong yen, sometimes came under criticism by those who believe a strong yen is detrimental to Japan's export-dependent economy. But he stressed the need for Japan to promote structural economic reform.

Hayami, who hailed from Kobe, joined the BOJ in 1947. After holding such posts as chief of the BOJ's Nagoya branch, he moved to Nissho Iwai Corp., predecessor of Sojitz Corp., in 1981 and became president in 1984.


[BUSINESS NEWS]
Monday, May 18, 2009
JAPANESE PERSPECTIVES
Will second wave of 'price destruction' finally spur change?

By TERUHIKO MANO

A major wave of what could perhaps be called the second round of "price destruction" is accelerating in Japan.

As corporate bankruptcies rise and companies pursue mergers and integrations, the recent closure of a department store that established a new business model during the Edo Period on the principle of "no overcharging and no sales on credit" proves that this model has become obsolete in today's rapidly changing world.

The first wave of price destruction struck in the 1990s after the cross-border movement of cheap labor and land ownership, facilitated by transfers of goods, money and technology that sped up after the end of the Cold War, boosted manufacturing outside the industrialized powers.

Japanese consumers have been drawn to cheap, private-brand goods produced overseas for large retailers, leaving many of the small stores that typically populate shopping streets near train stations to go out of business.

Today, there probably aren't many young people who have heard of COCOM or CHINCOM, the entities that were tasked with regulating exports of sensitive goods to communist-bloc nations.

What are the differences between the first wave and the current wave of price destruction?

First of all, protectionism is rising in many countries due to the global recession. But this has not reversed the trend of globalization, or the cross-border movement of goods, money, people and land — the key elements of production.

This is because economies around the world today are so interdependent that reversing globalization is impossible.

While several structural problems need to be addressed, including the excess consumption in the United States, which used to be called the "consumer of last resort," and the heavy dependence on external demand seen in countries like Japan and China, these factors mean that international competition can only increase in the coming years.

The second difference is that while overseas production by Japanese manufacturers played a key role in the first wave, Japan today is being inundated by goods mass-produced by foreign competitors who are doing the same thing in regions where they can make goods cheaply.

This has actually been great for Japan's consumers, who think nothing of making long lines in front of foreign department stores early in the morning to get the best bargains when the doors open.

But what's different this time is that consumers aren't simply looking only for low prices, they're being more selective and hunting for higher quality and more fashionable products.

The third and most important development in the new wave of price destruction is the fact that average wage levels have dropped over 5 percent since the turn of the century. To rebuild their effective purchasing power, consumers are looking even more strongly than before for cheaper goods.

The fall in the consumer price index has raised concerns that Japan is once again falling into the clutches of deflation. But declining prices will be a blessing for consumers. The new flat rate for expressway tolls boosted family travel during the Golden Week holidays, thereby proving lower prices benefit households.

It's important to discuss price fluctuations, but it is also important to realize that prices in Japan — particularly in farm products and certain kinds of real estate — remain fairly high by international standards.

The government led by the Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling coalition has compiled a huge extra budget to stimulate the economy out of recession, but consumers know that it will eventually come back to haunt them in the form of higher taxes.

Meanwhile, the economic and foreign policies of the opposition camp, which is facing its first realistic chance of taking power in decades, may be in flux following the resignation of Democratic Party of Japan President Ichiro Ozawa.

Decisions have been made to cut public servants' pay at both the national and municipal levels to match the decline in salaries affecting their private-sector counterparts.

Therefore, the tax-funded salaries of Diet members and local assemblymen should be similarly reduced so they can better understand the pain of the public and formulate policies that more effectively reflect consumer sentiment.

news.notes20090518c

[Today's Paper] from [Los Angeles Times]

At Notre Dame, Obama tackles abortion debate
The president's commencement speech calls for greater understanding and for each side to stop dehumanizing the other. On and off campus, antiabortion protests are staged.

By John McCormick and Manya A. Brachear
May 18, 2009

Reporting from South Bend, Ind. -- Confronting the nation's deep schism over abortion, President Obama on Sunday called for greater understanding on all sides and "open hearts, open minds, fair-minded words" on the issue as he spoke to graduates at one of America's premier Catholic universities.

Obama emphasized the importance of common ground as opponents of abortion rights protested his appearance and the honorary degree he received from the University of Notre Dame.

"I do not suggest that the debate surrounding abortion can or should go away," he said. "At some level, the views of the two camps are irreconcilable. Each side will continue to make its case to the public with passion and conviction. But surely we can do so without reducing those with differing views to caricature."

Speaking before about 12,000 people inside the university's basketball arena, Obama borrowed a page from former President Clinton, who supported abortion rights but spoke often of the need to reduce unwanted pregnancies and encourage adoptions -- language that both sides can generally agree with.

Displaying his well-established rhetorical ability and history of reaching out to people of faith -- techniques that have helped him confront more contentious situations, such as when a controversial former pastor threatened his candidacy in 2008 -- Obama called for each side to stop dehumanizing the other.

Since his March acceptance of the university's invitation, a national furor has brewed over whether such a prominent supporter of abortion rights and embryonic stem cell research should be honored by the school. His speech, however, won strong reviews both inside and outside the arena.

"President Obama did exactly what he needed to do," said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a senior fellow at Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. "He challenged the students to take on the problems of the day; he spoke beyond them to the wider audience of Catholic citizens and presented a demeanor that contrasted with those who tried to paint him as a demonic, anti-life fanatic."

Michael McNaught, assistant director of Loyola Marymount University's Center for Religion and Spirituality in Los Angeles, said: "As a practicing Catholic, I found his speech inspiring and hopeful. . . . I suspect that one of his motivations is to kind of hit this issue head-on. He's not hiding from the controversy."

As a candidate and president, Obama has promoted policies popular with abortion rights supporters, while also suggesting that he wants to rise above the rhetoric that often surrounds the issue.

Since taking office, he has tried to send assuring signals to both sides, directing his aides to meet with abortion foes while also taking steps to ease restrictions on embryonic stem cell research and reversing a Bush administration ban on funding international groups that perform or advocate abortions.

"When we open up our hearts and our minds to those who may not think precisely like we do or believe precisely what we believe, that's when we discover at least the possibility of common ground," he said.

Obama also pointed to his days as a community organizer on Chicago's South Side and Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, the deceased longtime archbishop of Chicago.


In seeking to ease tensions on abortion, Obama is trying to neutralize a key issue used by Republicans to galvanize conservative voters -- particularly in GOP-leaning places such as Indiana, a state that he won in last year's election.

But there is also a more immediate political benefit for Obama and his Democratic allies in finding ways to tamp down the emotions on abortion: softening a rallying point for conservative groups that want to influence the replacement for retiring Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter.

The White House also has sought to quell any controversy over morality matters as it seeks to keep Obama's new presidency from being diverted from the pressing problems he faces over the economy and military conflicts overseas.

The president’s speech was interrupted briefly three times by shouts from protesters inside the Joyce Center, as hundreds of others protested on campus and outside the school's gates.

"Abortion is murder," one man yelled. "Stop killing our children," another said. The protesters were booed and escorted from the arena.

Outside, small groups of protesters gathered at intersections near the school, as cargo trucks with pictures of bloodied fetuses circled campus. About two dozen seniors boycotted their commencement as a show of protest.

Notre Dame spokesman Dennis Brown said 38 people were arrested on campus, mostly for trespassing. South Bend police said they made no arrests off campus.

Wearing the blue gown of the university, Obama said the Notre Dame controversy reminded him of a letter he received from a doctor who voted for him in the 2004 U.S. Senate primary in Illinois. He said the man complained about language on his campaign website that suggested "right-wing ideologues" wanted to take away a woman's right to choose.

"The doctor said he had assumed I was a reasonable person," he said. "But that if I truly believed that every pro-life individual was simply an ideologue who wanted to inflict suffering on women, then I was not very reasonable."

Obama said he did not change his position on the issue but did instruct his staff to change the language on his website. He also said a prayer that night to ask that he might extend the same presumption of good faith to others.

"When we open up our hearts and our minds to those who may not think precisely like we do or believe precisely what we believe, that's when we discover at least the possibility of common ground," he said.

Obama also pointed to his days as a community organizer on Chicago's South Side and Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, the deceased longtime archbishop of Chicago.

"He was a kind and good and wise man. A saintly man," he said. "He stood as both a lighthouse and a crossroads -- unafraid to speak his mind on moral issues ranging from poverty, AIDS and abortion to the death penalty and nuclear war. And yet, he was congenial and gentle in his persuasion, always trying to bring people together, always trying to find common ground."

By speaking at the university, Reese said, Obama was acknowledging that Catholics form "an essential part of this country -- and voters."

"He has to reach out to them in a convincing way that shows he's sensitive to the same issues they're concerned about," he said.

A few graduates wore mortarboards decorated with yellow crosses and tiny footprints to show their opposition to abortion, while others wore caps displaying Obama's campaign logo.

Most of Obama's address focused on the roughly 2,900 graduates, rather than the controversy swirling outside.

"Now, you, class of 2009, are about to enter the next phase of your life at a time of great uncertainty," he said. "You'll be called to help restore a free market that's also fair to all who are willing to work. You'll be called to seek new sources of energy that can save our planet."

Notre Dame's president, the Rev. John Jenkins, praised Obama for accepting the school's invitation, despite knowledge that his views differed from many of those taught by the Roman Catholic Church.

"Others might have avoided this venue for that reason," Jenkins said. "But President Obama is not someone who stops talking with those who differ with him."

news.notes20090518d

[Today's Paper] from [The New York Times]

Pakistan Is Rapidly Adding Nuclear Arms, U.S. Says

By THOM SHANKER and DAVID E. SANGER
Published: May 17, 2009

WASHINGTON — Members of Congress have been told in confidential briefings that Pakistan is rapidly adding to its nuclear arsenal even while racked by insurgency, raising questions on Capitol Hill about whether billions of dollars in proposed military aid might be diverted to Pakistan’s nuclear program.

Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed the assessment of the expanded arsenal in a one-word answer to a question on Thursday in the midst of lengthy Senate testimony. Sitting beside Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, he was asked whether he had seen evidence of an increase in the size of the Pakistani nuclear arsenal.

“Yes,” he said quickly, adding nothing, clearly cognizant of Pakistan’s sensitivity to any discussion about the country’s nuclear strategy or security.

Inside the Obama administration, some officials say, Pakistan’s drive to spend heavily on new nuclear arms has been a source of growing concern, because the country is producing more nuclear material at a time when Washington is increasingly focused on trying to assure the security of an arsenal of 80 to 100 weapons so that they will never fall into the hands of Islamic insurgents.

The administration’s effort is complicated by the fact that Pakistan is producing an unknown amount of new bomb-grade uranium and, once a series of new reactors is completed, bomb-grade plutonium for a new generation of weapons. President Obama has called for passage of a treaty that would stop all nations from producing more fissile material — the hardest part of making a nuclear weapon — but so far has said nothing in public about Pakistan’s activities.

Bruce Riedel, the Brookings Institution scholar who served as the co-author of Mr. Obama’s review of Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy, reflected the administration’s concern in a recent interview, saying that Pakistan “has more terrorists per square mile than anyplace else on earth, and it has a nuclear weapons program that is growing faster than anyplace else on earth.”

Obama administration officials said that they had communicated to Congress that their intent was to assure that military aid to Pakistan was directed toward counterterrorism and not diverted. But Admiral Mullen’s public confirmation that the arsenal is increasing — a view widely held in both classified and unclassified analyses — seems certain to aggravate Congress’s discomfort.

Whether that discomfort might result in a delay or reduction in aid to Pakistan is still unclear.

The Congressional briefings have taken place in recent weeks as Pakistan has descended into further chaos and as Congress has considered proposals to spend $3 billion over the next five years to train and equip Pakistan’s military for counterinsurgency warfare. That aid would come on top of $7.5 billion in civilian assistance.

None of the proposed military assistance is directed at the nuclear program. So far, America’s aid to Pakistan’s nuclear infrastructure has been limited to a $100 million classified program to help Pakistan secure its weapons and materials from seizure by Al Qaeda, the Taliban or “insiders” with insurgent loyalties.

But the billions in new proposed American aid, officials acknowledge, could free other money for Pakistan’s nuclear infrastructure, at a time when Pakistani officials have expressed concern that their nuclear program is facing a budget crunch for the first time, worsened by the global economic downturn. The program employs tens of thousands of Pakistanis, including about 2,000 believed to possess “critical knowledge” about how to produce a weapon.

The dimensions of the Pakistani buildup are not fully understood. “We see them scaling up their centrifuge facilities,” said David Albright, the president of the Institute for Science and International Security, which has been monitoring Pakistan’s continued efforts to buy materials on the black market, and analyzing satellite photographs of two new plutonium reactors less than 100 miles from where Pakistani forces are currently fighting the Taliban.

“The Bush administration turned a blind eye to how this is being ramped up,” he said. “And of course, with enough pressure, all this could be preventable.”

As a matter of diplomacy, however, the buildup presents Mr. Obama with a potential conflict between two national security priorities, some aides concede. One is to win passage of a global agreement to stop the production of fissile material — the uranium or plutonium used to produce weapons. Pakistan has never agreed to any limits and is one of three countries, along with India and Israel, that never signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Yet the other imperative is a huge infusion of financial assistance into Afghanistan and Pakistan, money considered crucial to helping stabilize governments with tenuous holds on power in the face of terrorist and insurgent violence.

Senior members of Congress were already pressing for assurances from Pakistan that the American military assistance would be used to fight the insurgency, and not be siphoned off for more conventional military programs to counter Pakistan’s historic adversary, India. Official confirmation that Pakistan has accelerated expansion of its nuclear program only added to the consternation of those in Congress who were already voicing serious concern about the security of those warheads.

During a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Senator Jim Webb, a Virginia Democrat, veered from the budget proposal under debate to ask Admiral Mullen about public reports “that Pakistan is, at the moment, increasing its nuclear program — that it may be actually adding on to weapons systems and warheads. Do you have any evidence of that?”

It was then that Admiral Mullen responded with his one-word confirmation. Mr. Webb said Pakistan’s decision was a matter of “enormous concern,” and he added, “Do we have any type of control factors that would be built in, in terms of where future American money would be going, as it addresses what I just asked about?”

Similar concerns about seeking guarantees that American military assistance to Pakistan would be focused on battling insurgents also were expressed by Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the committee chairman.

“Unless Pakistan’s leaders commit, in deeds and words, their country’s armed forces and security personnel to eliminating the threat from militant extremists, and unless they make it clear that they are doing so, for the sake of their own future, then no amount of assistance will be effective,” Mr. Levin said.

A spokesman for the Pakistani government contacted Friday declined to comment on whether his nation was expanding its nuclear weapons program, but said the government was “maintaining the minimum, credible deterrence capability.” He warned against linking American financial assistance to Pakistan’s actions on its weapons program.

“Conditions or sanctions on this issue did not work in the past, and this will not send a positive message to the people of Pakistan,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because his country’s nuclear program is classified.

news.notes20090518e

[Today's Newspaper] fom [The Washington Post]

Cheers, Protests At Notre Dame
Obama Calls for 'Open Minds' Amid Abortion Debate

By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 18, 2009

SOUTH BEND, Ind., May 17 -- Amid a scattering of angry protests over his support for abortion rights, President Obama addressed the issue head-on Sunday at the University of Notre Dame, calling for "open hearts, open minds, fair-minded words" in the pursuit of "common ground."

Since becoming president, and before that for nearly two years on the campaign trail, Obama has sought to skirt the emotional anger that surrounds the debate over abortion. But his decision to speak to graduating Notre Dame students made that approach impossible Sunday.

The invitation from one of America's best-known Catholic universities ignited a firestorm of discussion over whether an institution that adheres to the Roman Catholic Church's condemnation of abortion should confer an honorary law degree on a president who is committed to safeguarding abortion rights.

Obama appeared energized by the controversy over his appearance, and he addressed the debate over abortion with relish. He pleaded for courtesy in the dialogue even as he acknowledged that "at some level, the views of the two camps are irreconcilable."

"Is it possible for us to join hands in common effort?" he said. "As citizens of a vibrant and varied democracy, how do we engage in vigorous debate? How does each of us remain firm in our principles, and fight for what we consider right, without demonizing those with just as strongly held convictions on the other side?"

He added: "Let us work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions. Let's reduce unintended pregnancies. Let's make adoption more available. . . . Let's honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion, and draft a sensible conscience clause."

The vast majority of the 12,000 in attendance at the Joyce Center basketball arena gave the president several loud, sustained ovations, and the crowd rallied to his defense when people attempted to interrupt him at the start. One protester yelled "Abortion is murder!" "Baby killer!" and "You have blood on your hands." Another shouted, "Stop killing our children." The crowd responded with boos and then chants of "Yes, we can" and "We are N.D."

A handful of graduates engaged in a silent protest, having taped a yellow cross and yellow images of baby feet to the top of their mortarboards. Twenty-six of the 2,900 graduates elected to skip the ceremony to protest the school's decision to honor Obama, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Meanwhile, hundreds of antiabortion protesters gathered Sunday outside the front gate of the university, beyond the view of the presidential motorcade; police arrested more than three dozen for trespassing, including Norma McCorvey, the woman at the center of the landmark Supreme Court abortion case Roe v. Wade, who is now an antiabortion activist. Billboards on the nearby Indiana Toll Road read: "Notre Dame: Obama is pro abortion choice. How dare you honor him."

Obama did not engage in the debate over when life begins, nor did he attempt to justify his beliefs about abortion or embryonic stem cell research, positions that some said should have disqualified him from Notre Dame's honorary degree. Instead, the president took aim at the loud and angry rhetoric that he said too often dominates the discussion.

The failure of both sides to use "fair-minded words," he said, overly inflames an important debate. As an example, he described his own 2004 campaign Web site, which at one point referred to "right-wing ideologues who want to take away a woman's right to choose."

It was not until a doctor e-mailed him about the phrase that Obama ordered it taken down, he said.

"I didn't change my underlying position, but I did tell my staff to change the words on my Web site," he told the crowd. "And I said a prayer that night that I might extend the same presumption of good faith to others that the doctor had extended to me. Because when we do that . . . that's when we discover at least the possibility of common ground."

Obama's call was echoed by the university's president, the Rev. John I. Jenkins, who chided those who had spoken angrily about the president's visit. He urged the Notre Dame community to appeal to both "faith and reason."

The university seeks "to foster dialogue with all people of good will, regardless of faith, background or perspective," Jenkins said. He praised Obama for accepting the invitation to speak despite the controversy.

"President Obama has come to Notre Dame, though he knows full well that we are fully supportive of the church's teaching on the sanctity of life," Jenkins said. "Others might have avoided this venue for that reason."

More than 70 Catholic bishops criticized Jenkins for inviting the president, and more than 360,000 people signed a petition calling for the invitation to be rescinded.

Obama's speech marked the second time in a week that he had used a commencement address to recast a discussion about him into a broader context.

At Arizona State University's graduation Wednesday, Obama talked directly about the school's decision to deny him an honorary degree on the basis that he lacks the accomplishments to justify the accolade. "His body of work is yet to come," university officials had said.

"Your own body of work is also yet to come," he told 60,000 people at the stadium. "Building a body of work is all about . . . the daily labor, the many individual acts, the choices large and small that add up over time, over a lifetime, to a lasting legacy. That's what you want on your tombstone. It's about not being satisfied with the latest achievement, the latest gold star -- because the one thing I know about a body of work is that it's never finished."

In similar fashion, Obama did not shy away from the abortion controversy Sunday. He stressed the need for cooperation and goodwill even among those who disagree about the most morally weighted issues.

"Remember, too, that the ultimate irony of faith is that it necessarily admits doubt," he said. "This doubt should not push us away from our faith. But it should humble us. It should temper our passions and cause us to be wary of too much self-righteousness."

As president, Obama has sidestepped some of the most sensitive questions about life and when it begins. He loosened Bush-era rules governing embryonic stem cell research but left it to the National Institutes of Health to devise new regulations for such research. And Obama has resisted calls from abortion rights activists to push for passage of the Freedom of Choice Act, which would make abortions legal in all cases. In his most recent news conference, he said the measure was "not my highest priority."

Obama's upcoming nomination of a new Supreme Court justice is likely to spark an even more heated abortion debate. Antiabortion activists have vowed to loudly oppose any nominee for the court who supports abortion rights.

news.notes20090518f

[Today's Papers] from [Slate Magazine]

Obama and the Fighting Irish

by Joshua Kucera
Posted Monday, May 18, 2009, at 6:00 AM ET

The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times lead with President Obama's speech at Notre Dame University's graduation ceremony, at which he addressed the issue of abortion directly while several anti-abortion protesters attempted to disrupt the event. The story also tops the Wall Street Journal 's world-wide news box. The New York Times leads with U.S. officials' increasing concern that Pakistan is adding to its nuclear arsenal even as it struggles against an insurgency that threatens to topple the government. USA Today leads with news that local law enforcement agencies are cutting back services, merging or even shutting down altogether because of the recession.

Obama's speech was an attempt to bridge the gap between both sides of the abortion debate by calling on each side to respect the other with "open hearts, open minds, fair-minded words," as he said in a much-quoted part of his address. "Mr. Obama did not engage on the merits of the debate on abortion; he instead made an appeal to each side of the issue," the NYT wrote. Those on the anti-abortion side of the issue were not impressed: An anti-abortion mass was held in response to his presence, a small group protested outside (some were arrested, "nearly 40" according to the NYT), and some students registered their objection by skipping the ceremony.

When he accepted the invitation to speak at Notre Dame, Obama originally planned to skirt the controversy around abortion, the NYT said. "But ultimately, he decided to devote most of his address to bridging the chasm over abortion and other moral issues," the paper wrote. The Post said he "relished" the task, and "appeared energized by the controversy."

Pentagon officials recently have acknowledged that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is growing and experts say Pakistan is buying nuclear materials on the black market and building two new plutonium reactors. Members of Congress are concerned that the substantial amount of military aid that the country receives from Washington could be diverted into the nuclear program, but a Pakistani official quoted in the story said that conditioning U.S. military aid on the nuclear issue—as was done in the 1990s—"will not send a positive message to the people of Pakistan."

All the papers front the apparent end to the war in Sri Lanka, where the Tamil Tigers rebel group announced on its Web site that it was laying down arms. The Post—the only paper to have a Sri Lanka dateline—called the news a "stunning and unprecedented admission of defeat in Asia's longest-running war." The government announced that the bodies of four senior rebels had been found, but the group's reclusive leader was not accounted for. (Early morning reports, however, said that he, too was dead.) While the government planned to declare victory on Tuesday, a government military official quoted in the LAT said he didn't believe the Tigers were truly giving up.

Several of the papers, in particular the LAT, have post mortems of the Tigers. "The Tamil Tigers, which at one point had a small navy and air force, were among the most innovative rebel groups in the world. They pioneered the use of suicide vests and refined them so that if the wearer lifted his arms in surrender, the device would detonate. They aggressively recruited female fighters and suicide bombers, and developed innovative financing methods," the LAT wrote. The NYT says the Tigers were forced to give up because of strategic errors that weakened them, and also because of "war on terror"-related financing restrictions that made it more difficult to raise money abroad.

China's auto industry is growing and is quietly looking at picking up some of the pieces of the collapsing U.S. carmakers, reports the Post on the front page: "Chinese companies have tried to dampen speculation, issuing regulatory filings that deny bids to buy Ford's Volvo or General Motor's Saab. But there's little doubt among analysts that Chinese automakers are interested in the United States and that Detroit's automakers are interested in them."

Also in the papers: Islamist rebels in Somalia are on a 10-day offensive that has threatened Somalia's weak central government, the Post reports. Large industry is starting to get behind the Obama administration's climate change goals and is working with members of Congress to help shape the bill that will eventually come up, the LAT reports. In Juneau, global warming is not only causing the sea to rise but causing the land to rise as well, the NYT reports on the front page. As the glaciers melt, the land rises "much as a cushion regains its shape after someone gets up from a couch."

The power of positive thinking: The Wall Street Journal gets a hold of some confidential court filings in the defamation suit that Donald Trump filed against a writer who said The Donald was not as rich as he claimed to be. Trump claims he's a multibillionaire, but a book by a New York Times editor says the real figure is somewhere under $250 million. In a deposition for the defamation case, Trump says that he estimates his net worth in part by "mental projection." He goes on: "My net worth fluctuates, and it goes up and down with markets and with attitudes and with feelings, even my own feeling."

news.notes20090518g

[News & Politics] from [Double X, Slate's magazine for women]

The Erotic House of Peter Saville

Posted: May 18, 2009 at 7:43 AM
By Susannah Breslin

In case you haven't heard, magazines are dying right and left. Who knows which one will be next? One day, that may be the sound of Anna Wintour's head rolling across the floor. Not unlike the adult movie industry, which thought it was so ahead of the curve, technologically-speaking, that it neglected to jump on the Internet bandwagon until its product had gotten away from them and it was far, far too late, magazines and newspapers have failed to exploit the Web to their advantage. Now, they're suffering for it.

No one will ever say so of Nick Knight, the British fashion photographer who created SHOWStudio.com, a website dedicated to closing the gap between high fashion and aspirational fashionistas. Most recently, Knight pulled back the curtain on a provocative shoot for Wallpaper* magazine's sex-themed July issue. On a set art directed by designer Peter Saville, Knight shot model Mariacarla Boscono et al. for a stripped-down, hyper-sexualized layout that, according to the site, "fetishis[ed] furniture, fashion and flesh alike." But rather than play the engimatic editorial game in which readers have to wait months to see by-then bygone fashions, SHOWStudio live-streamed the whole thing so you could peek behind the scenes at life live on a fashion shoot. And they tweeted it, too.

Now, the full series of clips from the shoot are available online. Be forewarned, the videos, which can be found here, feature more than one female breast and at least one not-turned-on sex machine. In other words, they're NSFW—unless you work for a bondage gear manufacturer in Karachi, Pakistan, that is.

news.notes20090518h

[Today's News] from [The Guardian]

Rise in use of drug tests to sack staff without redundancy pay

Diane Taylor
The Guardian, Monday 18 May 2009
Article history

Employers are increasingly using drug testing to get rid of staff without having to make redundancy payouts, as a way of ­cutting costs during the recession, a ­charity has said.

Release, which focuses on drugs, the law and human rights, reported a four-fold increase in calls to its drugs team about problems with workplace testing in the first three months of 2009 compared with the same period last year.

In the first quarter of 2008, the team received 493 calls, with just 31 (6.2%) related to testing at work. In the first three months of this year, 548 calls were received with 145 (26.4%) about this issue.

In many cases callers have been getting in touch in a state of distress, having been tested for the first time after years in the same job. Often a programme of voluntary redundancies was announced, followed by workplace medicals for the remaining staff, including a drug test.

Sacking employees who test positive for illicit drugs allows employers to avoid making redundancy payouts. Cannabis, which can remain detectable for several weeks after use, is the substance causing the biggest problems for employees.

While drug testing in the workplace has been routine for many years in safety critical jobs, such as driving and machine operation, Release reports that many calls are coming from sectors they had comparatively few dealings with before such as office work, banking and commerce.

Previously the charity received regular calls from employers about how best to support staff with drug problems. These calls have dwindled to almost zero.

The expansion of drug testing into non-traditional areas could breach employees' human rights and entitlement to a private life, while offering few enhancements to workplace performance, Release said.

Forty per cent of the workforce under 40 have used illicit drugs, according to Frank, the government's drug awareness campaign. It is unclear how many users are impaired by drugs during working hours.

Frank's literature states that while some workplaces may benefit from drug testing there are also many drawbacks, such as a negative impact on employer/employee relations.

The independent inquiry into drug testing at work in 2004 said "good management, education and support for staff is more useful, effective and less costly [than drug testing] in dealing with drug problems".

Concateno, a group of companies that between them have approximately 60% of the UK workplace drug testing market, reported a 13.2% increase in testing between 2007 and 2008. In 2007, 159,000 workplace drug tests were carried out and in 2008, 180,000 tests were done.

news.notes20090518i

[News From Space and Beyond] from [ABCNEWS]

Atlantis Astronauts Take Final Hubble Spacewalk
Astronauts Fix Hubble in Space for the Last Time

By GINA SUNSERI, NED POTTER and KI MAE HEUSSNER
May 18, 2009

For the last time ever, NASA spacewalkers floated out this morning to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.

Atlantis astronauts John Grunsfeld and Drew Feustal started work an hour early on the fifth and final spacewalk of the mission to repair the aging space telescope. Once they finish performing repairs on the 19-year-old Hubble, it will never again undergo a servicing mission in space.

"OK, Drew, let's go be productive," Grunsfeld said to his partner as the team started the spacewalk.

Earlier this morning, the duo installed a new set of batteries. After a bit of a struggle, they also replaced a Fine Guidance Sensor that helps aim the telescope.

Now they are installing steel-foil sheets on the telescope's exterior.

Astronauts Mike Massimino and Mike Good were tasked with installing the steel New Outer Blanket Layer Sunday, but were unable to accomplish it because the spacewalk fell three hours behind.

The team was asked to fix a spectrograph that can, among other things, measure the chemical composition of distant objects in the cosmos. To accomplish this, Massimino had to remove more than 110 small screws which, with huge space gloves, proved to be a tedious, time-consuming task.

At one point, Houston sent Massimino back to the space shuttle's airlock to refill the oxygen in his backpack. In the end, the astronauts wrapped up what was scheduled as a 6½-hour spacewalk after eight hours.

NASA expects today's spacewalk to last five hours and 45 minutes. The astronauts will release the Hubble Space Telescope Tuesday and, after additional tests and preparations, are scheduled to return on Friday.

Previous Spacewalk More Successful

On Saturday, astronauts John Grunsfeld and Drew Feustel whipped through what was supposed to be the toughest spacewalk of the mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope with remarkable ease.

The two replaced an old instrument with the new Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, and then repaired a broken camera deep inside the telescope, removing blown circuit boards that were never meant to be taken off in orbit.

Hubble chief scientist Dave Leckrone said Grunsfeld and Feustel were throwing down the gauntlet for the astronauts tasked with the today's spacewalk -- the fourth of the mission.

"Mike and Mike are probably feeling pretty competitive today," Leckrone said. "If I were Mike Massimino tonight I would have my work cut out to show them up. I predict this spacewalk will be successful."

Massimino and Good were working on the telescope's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, or STIS. They had the very challenging task of replacing a low-voltage power supply board, which contains a failed power converter. That meant taking out the 110-plus very small screws -- and not letting any of those screws float away -- to accomplish the repair.

STIS has been in "safe mode" since August 2004, when its power supply failed. Massimino, during training on the ground, managed to perform the task in 40 minutes.

The spacewalkers also were scheduled to install one of two new protective thermal insulation panels to protect Hubble from space junk.

Spacewalking Is Hard Work

Spacewalking to fix the Hubble Space Telescope is hard work, especially when the shoe doesn't fit. If your feet hurt nothing is fun. Ask any woman who has to smile while wearing 4-inch heels.

Good struggled with an ill-fitting boot on his first spacewalk last week, and a team on the ground at Mission Control sent up suggestions to adjust the fit.

"Once pressurized, you should be able to pull your foot back in the boot away from the pressure point on the top of the foot," wrote astronaut Rex Walheim to Good.

Walheim said he has chased boot pain issues in spacesuits for more than seven years.

A fifth and final spacewalk is set for Monday, and the Hubble telescope will be released Tuesday from Atlantis, with a landing planned, if weather cooperates at the Kennedy Space Center Friday.

The new discoveries from the improved Hubble Space Telescope won't be revealed for months. This last mission to Hubble cost more than $1 billion.