news20090614BRT

[Biography of the Day] from [Britannica]
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Steffi Graf
Born this day in 1969 was German tennis star Steffi Graf, who dominated women's tennis in the late 1980s and '90s, winning singles titles at each grand slam event multiple times—including seven at Wimbledon.

[On This Day] from [Britannica]
Sunday, June 14, 2009
1940: First prisoners at Auschwitz
On this day in 1940, the first transport of Polish political prisoners arrived at Auschwitz, which became Nazi Germany's largest concentration, extermination, and slave-labour camp, where more than one million people died.

1807: Napoleon won the Battle of Friedland, leading to a treaty with Alexander I of Russia

news20090614JT

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

[BUSINESS NEWS]
Sunday, June 14, 2009
G8 finance chiefs seek exit plan for recovery
（G8財務相会合 安定化への出口戦略を討議）
Compiled from AP, Kyodo

LECCE, Italy — The Group of Eight industrialized nations have begun preparing for an economic recovery, acknowledging on Saturday "signs of stabilization in our economies" and agreeing to ask the International Monetary Fund to investigate ways to unwind hefty stimulus packages.

In a communique released at the end of a two-day meeting here, the group's finance officials said that so-called exit strategies from monetary and fiscal stimulus measures — like tax cuts and lower interest rates — were "essential to promote a sustainable recovery over the long term."

The ministers said they had asked the IMF to begin analyzing potential strategies to assist with the process.

However, ministers from the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada, Russia and the European Union also agreed not to relax their ongoing efforts until the global economy moves back onto a self-sustained recovery track and stressed a commitment to provide any more stimulus the economy might need — as long as it does not threaten to spur inflation or push state budgets further into deficit.

"We must remain vigilant to ensure that consumer and investor confidence is fully restored and that growth is underpinned by stable financial markets and strong fundamentals," they said in the statement.

"We will continue working with others in taking the necessary steps to put the global economy on a strong, stable and sustainable growth path, including by continuing to provide macroeconomic stimulus consistent with price stability and medium-term fiscal sustainability," they added.

The ministers also agreed on the need for a set of common principles and standards for propriety, integrity and transparency regarding the conduct of international business and finance.

They agreed on the objectives of a strategy, dubbed the Lecce Framework, to identify and fill regulatory gaps and foster the international consensus needed to rapidly implement new rules.

As the ministers met in a medieval castle in Lecce, about a thousand antiglobalization demonstrators marched peacefully through the historic center of the southern Italian town to protest the meeting, shouting slogans including "G-8, economy, lies," and carrying banners urging debt cancellation.

The economic backdrop to the meeting was significantly different from the last time the G-8 ministers gathered as part of the wider Group of 20 in England in April.

Financial markets have rallied strongly over the last three months largely on better-than-expected economic data, as well as hopes that the financial sector is stabilizing. Ten of the largest U.S. banks were ruled strong enough to repay $68 billion in government bailout money.

But there are worries in the U.S. and Britain that continental Europe has not done enough to deal with the recession. And the World Bank forecast on Thursday the global economy will contract 3.0 percent this year, far worse than a previous estimate of minus 1.75 percent.

The somewhat conflicting signs had left ministers divided over the importance of exit strategies, with the U.S., Britain and France warning against any premature steps that could hurt the fledgling economic recovery.

Germany, meanwhile, has been a strong critic of the lower interest rates, tax cuts and steps to boost the money supply that have been used by countries including Britain and the U.S.

In response to a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted Friday over North Korea's second nuclear test in May, the G-8 finance ministers included a paragraph about the issue in their statement.

"We are committed to the effective and timely implementation of financial measures against North Korea as set out, among other measures, in U.N. Security Council resolution N. 1874," it said.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Sunday, June 14, 2009

Ax school, baby checkup fees, LDP report says
（自民案件 学費大削減 妊産婦検診の無料回数を14に）

(Kyodo News) Reducing education expenses and using more public money to pay for health checkups for pregnant women are necessary to counter the declining birthrate, according to a report by a Liberal Democratic Party panel made available Saturday.

The draft, which outlines a long-term policy for tackling the declining birthrate, calls for free education and day care for toddlers and incentives that would give families with preferential financial terms for pursuing higher education.

The draft also calls for devoting 1 percent of the consumption tax revenue to steps to cope with the graying society.

The panel envisions cutting admission and tuition fees for families with multiple children to zero or half the normal rate through high school and university.

It also says that it is necessary to create a system to publicly fund the entire health checkup process for pregnant women. Under a supplementary fiscal 2008 budget enacted in March, no personal spending is required for up to 14 regular checkups, but that should be made permanent, it says.

The panel plans to submit its proposals to LDP Policy Research Council Chairman Kosuke Hori on Tuesday so they can be reflected in its 2009 policy agenda to be adopted on June 23.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Sunday, June 14, 2009

High-school teen held in Osaka slaying
（大阪高１殺害事件で高校生を逮捕）

OSAKA (Kyodo) A 17-year-old high school student was arrested Saturday on suspicion of killing and abandoning the body of a 15-year-old from a different school who was found dead early Friday in a river in Tondabayashi, Osaka Prefecture.

The suspect, whose identity is being withheld because he is a minor, has admitted to the allegations, police said. The youth said he killed the other boy after growing close to the victim's girlfriend, who was coming to him for advice on their apparently sour relationship, because he thought that was only way he could help her.

The senior, who lives in Tondabayashi, told the police that he couldn't forgive the boy for troubling the girl, they said.

The 15-year-old victim was identified as Koki Okubo, a student at Chiyoda High School, a private school in Kawachinagano, Osaka Prefecture. The suspect allegedly killed Okubo by battering him around the head and face with a wooden hammer and a bat near the river, leaving his body there between Thursday evening and early Friday.

An autopsy showed Okubo died of a brain contusion, the police said.

According to the police, the suspect asked Okubo to meet him to talk about his girlfriend, and they met at around 7:30 p.m. Thursday at a train station. The suspect then took him out to the river area on his bicycle, the police said.

Near the river, the suspect told Okubo to close his eyes and sit down, saying he would give him a psychological test. Instead, he allegedly beat him to death and kicked his body into the river, they said.

Later in the day, many of Okubo's friends visited the site by the river and left flowers in his memory.

"I can't believe what happened. As the killer was arrested, I prayed for him to rest in peace," said Shuhei Mihara, 16.

news20090614LAT

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

[World]
Iran election result makes a U.S. overture more difficult
With Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reelected, critics in the U.S. are expected to press Obama to quickly try to engage Iran in talks and then move on to economic sanctions and military action if necessary.
By Paul Richter
June 14, 2009

Reporting from Washington -- The reelection of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered a stinging setback to the Obama administration's hopes of cultivating a better relationship with the Islamic Republic.

U.S. officials insisted Saturday that they intended to press forward with their effort to engage Iran, despite their misgivings about the outcome of the election. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said U.S. officials were "watching and waiting," and hoping that "the outcome reflects the will of the Iranian people."

Yet the disputed victory by Ahmadinejad was clearly a disappointment for the administration, coming one day after President Obama hailed the public debate in Iran as a sign that its people were open to "new possibilities."

Former U.S. officials and other experts said the outcome could make it even harder for the United States to work with Iran.

Bruce Riedel, a veteran U.S. intelligence official now at the Brookings Institution think tank, said that if the divisions from the election lingered, Iran would be less able to begin diplomacy.

"Iran in turmoil will not be ready to engage Obama," he said.

If the world comes to see Iran's government as illegitimate, diplomatic outreach and new incentives from the United States will come to look like a questionable idea.

Congress and pro-Israel conservatives, already strongly critical of Ahmadinejad, will undoubtedly press Obama to put a tight deadline on his overture to Iran. They are expected to urge him to move on to tougher measures, such as economic sanctions or military action, to try to compel Tehran to give up its nuclear ambitions.

Ahmadinejad's victory "could well mean more pressure to limit the timeline" for engagement, a senior U.S. official acknowledged before the election results were in.

Obama has contended since the beginning of his presidential campaign two years ago that the United States should offer an "unclenched" hand to Iran to try to overcome 30 years of hostility and mistrust. U.S. officials have been pressing for Tehran to open a new dialogue on its disputed nuclear program, and has been trying separately to open talks on the countries' joint interests in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Ahmadinejad has given mixed signals on engagement, but Iranian officials made it clear that no serious conversations could be held until the presidential campaign was concluded.

Leading members of Congress, Israeli officials and others have contended that an Iranian government headed by Ahmadinejad was not likely to take any U.S. overture seriously, and would instead stall and use the time to move ahead with its nuclear program.

With Ahmadinejad's victory, "you're going to see more pressure for sanctions, and for quick results from the engagement," said Trita Parsi, president of the Washington-based National Iranian American Council. But he said that because any successful negotiation would take some time, the pressure "could have a crippling effect on the diplomacy."

Because of the hostility to Ahmadinejad, it would be very difficult for any American president to negotiate a deal with Iran that would entitle the country to continue with even a small uranium enrichment program, analysts say.

One much-discussed compromise would allow Iran to have a limited enrichment program in return for closer international scrutiny of its nuclear program.

Lawmakers this year introduced legislation that would have imposed new sanctions, including provisions to halt gasoline sales to Iran, and to force international energy firms to stop doing business there. Clinton told the Senate last month that such legislation undermined the administration's efforts to reach out to Iran, because it created the impression that the United States was not sincere.

Some American hawks have contended that Ahmadinejad's reelection would be preferable because it would clarify the issues and help keep the administration from wasting time waiting to see whether the new Iranian government would move on the U.S. proposal for negotiations.

Elliott Abrams, one of President George W. Bush's top officials on the Middle East, wrote in an article in the New York Times last week that the election of a reform candidate might have led the United States and its Western allies to the "delusion" that they could negotiate an end to Iran's nuclear program and persuaded them to make "preemptive concessions" to Iran.

Ahmadinejad and his reformist rival Mir-Hossein Mousavi have said they are committed to Iran's right to enrich uranium. Iran says the program is intended only for peaceful purposes, but the United States and many other world powers fear the goal is to gain nuclear weapons know-how.

Mousavi, like Ahmadinejad, also is believed to have been committed to continuing Iran's support for the militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas, another point of friction with the United States.

Yet Mousavi contended that the Iranian government's confrontational approach to the West had hurt the country, and said he intended to reduce those frictions.

Most key national security issues in Iran are decided not by the president, but by the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Nevertheless, the president has influence, and if Mousavi had won, he probably would have brought into the government's senior councils a substantial group of allies who might have moderated foreign policy approach, analysts say.

The senior U.S. official, while acknowledging that Ahmadinejad's victory was likely to intensify pressure for an end to the U.S. overture to Iran, said it remained unclear what course the Iranian president would take. He said that although Ahmadinejad might continue his hard-line approach, he might also feel more secure in a second term.

"He could feel stronger, and that he now has a mandate to engage the United States," said the official, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the diplomacy.

Ahmadinejad's victory seems likely to put to rest claims that Obama's conciliatory approach was opening the way to sweeping reform in the Middle East.

When moderate forces won new seats in Lebanon's parliamentary elections this month, some analysts suggested that in part it was because of enthusiasm about the new U.S. president. And there has been speculation that the seeming surge of support for Mousavi was partly an "Obama effect" in Iran.

But Parsi, though a supporter of Obama's outreach program, said the issue of U.S.-Iranian relations was only a minor factor in the election, far behind economic concerns and the incumbent's management.

"The argument is a little far-fetched," he said.

news20090614NYT

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

[Middle East]
Protests Flare in Tehran as Opposition Disputes Vote
By ROBERT F. WORTH and NAZILA FATHI
Published: June 14, 2009

TEHRAN — The streets of Iran’s capital erupted in the most intense protests in a decade on Saturday, with riot police officers using batons and tear gas against opposition demonstrators who claimed that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had stolen the presidential election.

Dozens of reformist politicians were said to have been arrested at their homes overnight, according to news reports on Sunday and a witness who worked with the politicians. There were also reports of politicians and clerics being placed under house arrest.

Reuters quoted a judiciary spokesman on Sunday as saying that the reformists had not been arrested but had been summoned, “warned not to increase tension” and released.

Meanwhile, some foreign journalists were apparently being told to leave the country.

Witnesses reported that at least one person had been shot dead on Saturday in clashes with the police in Vanak Square in Tehran. Smoke from burning vehicles and tires hung over the city late Saturday.

The Interior Ministry said Saturday afternoon that Mr. Ahmadinejad had won 62.6 percent of the vote, with Mir Hussein Moussavi, the top challenger, taking just under 34 percent. Turnout was a record 85 percent.

Mr. Moussavi, a former prime minister who had promised to reverse Mr. Ahmadinejad’s hard-line policies, declared himself the winner by a wide margin Friday night, charged widespread election irregularities and called on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, to intervene.

The landslide victory for Mr. Ahmadinejad, an intensely divisive figure here and abroad, came as a powerful shock to opposition supporters, who had cited polls showing that Mr. Moussavi had a strong lead in the final days of the campaign.

Interior Minister Sadegh Mahsouli said Saturday that such a lead was a misimpression based on Mr. Moussavi’s higher levels of support in the capital, and that he had less backing elsewhere.

Mr. Moussavi made clear in statements on Saturday that he rejected the results and called on supporters and fellow clerics to fight them. But there were no reports of any public appearances by him through the day, leading to rumors that he might have been arrested or placed under house arrest.

In a statement posted on his campaign Web site, Mr. Moussavi said: “Today the people’s will has been faced with an amazing incident of lies, hypocrisy and fraud. I call on my Iranian compatriots to remain calm and patient.”

But Ayatollah Khamenei closed the door to any appeals for intervention in a statement issued on state television on Saturday afternoon, congratulating Mr. Ahmadinejad on his victory and pointedly urging the other candidates to support him.

In a televised address to the nation Saturday night, Mr. Ahmadinejad called on the public to respect the results, and he denounced foreign diplomatic and journalistic criticism.

“All political and propaganda machines abroad and sections inside the country have been mobilized against the nation,” he said.

Mr. Ahmadinejad scheduled a news conference for Sunday afternoon, and his supporters planned celebrations Sunday in Tehran.

Mr. Moussavi’s defiance seemed to fuel street resistance by his supporters — a coalition including women, young people, intellectuals and members of the moderate clerical establishment — who had united in opposition to Mr. Ahmadinejad’s erratic economic stewardship, confrontational foreign policy and crackdown on social freedoms.

“Death to the coup d’état!” chanted a surging crowd of several thousand protesters, many of whom wore Mr. Moussavi’s signature bright green campaign colors, as they marched in central Tehran on Saturday afternoon. “Death to the dictator!”

Farther down the street, clusters of young men hurled rocks at a phalanx of riot police officers, and the police used their batons to beat back protesters. There were reports of demonstrations in other major Iranian cities as well.

The authorities closed universities in Tehran, blocked cellphone transmissions and access to Facebook and some other Web sites, and for a second day shut down text-messaging services.

As night settled in, the streets in northern Tehran that recently had been the scene of pre-election euphoria were lit by the flames of trash fires and blocked by tipped trash bins and at least one charred bus. Young men ran through the streets throwing paving stones at shop windows, and the police pursued them.

Earlier in the day, hurried meetings were reported among Iran’s leading political figures and clerics; some were said to be trying to influence Ayatollah Khamenei to intervene in a situation that could stain public confidence in the integrity of Iran’s elections.

But Saeed Leylaz, an economist and political analyst, said he believed that Ayatollah Khamenei’s statement would bring a resolution, even if demonstrations persisted for a few days. “This has put an end to political negotiations from above,” Mr. Leylaz said.

For the moment, Ayatollah Khamenei’s admonition did nothing to calm the opposition’s rage.

“The results of the 10th presidential election are so ridiculous and so unbelievable that one cannot write or talk about it in a statement,” said Mehdi Karroubi, a reformist cleric and candidate.

Mr. Karroubi came in last with 300,000 votes — far fewer than analysts had predicted. “It is amazing that the people’s vote has turned into an instrument for the government to stabilize itself,” he said.

The other candidate, Mohsen Rezai, got 680,000 votes, Interior Ministry officials said.

In 2005, when Mr. Karroubi was also a candidate for president, he accused the government of rigging the vote in Mr. Ahmadinejad’s favor. In that election, the government announced when polls closed that there would probably be a runoff between two of three candidates, a reform candidate and a former police chief.

But by 7 a.m. the next day, a spokesman for the Guardian Council, a clerical oversight panel that is not supposed to be involved in vote counting, announced that Mr. Ahmadinejad was in first place. Mr. Karroubi’s charges were never investigated.

The turmoil on Saturday followed an extraordinary night in which the Iranian state news agency announced that Mr. Ahmadinejad had won by a vast margin just two hours after the polls closed. The timing alone provoked deep suspicion here, because the authorities have never before announced election results until the following morning. Mr. Moussavi also announced Friday night that he believed he had won by a wide margin.

Mr. Moussavi also complained about irregularities and unfairness in the election, saying there had been a lack of ballots in many areas and that some of his campaign offices had been attacked and his Web sites shut down.

The official results prompted further skepticism, in part because Mr. Ahmadinejad was said to have won by large margins even in his opponents’ hometowns. Mr. Rezai’s hometown, for example, gave him less than a tenth of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s total there, the Interior Ministry said.

The issue of vote-rigging has often been raised in Iranian elections, but analysts have generally said the authorities can manipulate the results by only a few percentage points, leaving room for genuine democratic movements.

Iran’s clerical leaders often point to past reformist victories as proof of the Islamic Republic’s democratic legitimacy. Many reformists have boycotted votes in the past to avoid giving the clerics that satisfaction. Those reformists voted in large numbers this time, inspired by a vast popular movement that rose up to support Mr. Moussavi.

Their bitterness on Saturday at the unexpected results was correspondingly severe.

“We are not disposable things to be thrown away,” said Mahshid, 20, a student who declined to give her last name because she feared repercussions from the authorities. “From now on, we won’t vote. They have insulted our feelings of patriotism.”

Meanwhile, the working-class areas of southern Tehran where Mr. Ahmadinejad is popular were largely quiet, despite rumors of wild victory celebrations.

“There might be some manipulation in what the government has done,” said Maliheh Afrouz, 55, a supporter of Mr. Ahmadinejad clad in a black chador. “But the other side is exaggerating, making it seem worse than it really is.”

news20090614WP

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

[Iran]
Ahmadinejad Vows New Start As Clashes Flare
U.S. Waits for 'What the . . . People Decide'
By Thomas Erdbrink
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, June 14, 2009

TEHRAN, June 13 -- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared a "new beginning" for Iran late Saturday after he was declared victor in the presidential election, but as he spoke on national television violent demonstrations rolled through several areas of Tehran. Supporters of defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi burned dumpsters, threw stones and clashed with police in the worst rioting in Tehran in many years.

The Interior Ministry, controlled by Ahmadinejad, announced that he had been elected in the first round with 62.6 percent of the vote, compared with less than 34 percent for Mousavi, who was the leading challenger. Turnout was a record 86 percent of the 46.2 million eligible voters.

Announcement of the results triggered protests throughout the day. Families lined the streets in the middle-class neighborhood of Saadat Abad, cheering on the demonstration and shouting, "Death to the dictator!"

Ahmadinejad's reelection will pose fresh challenges to the United States. It has pressed Iran to halt a nuclear program that critics say could be used for weapons, but Iran says it is for civilian purposes. Ahmadinejad has also taken a sharply confrontational approach in foreign affairs.

Talks between Iran and the United States are still a possibility with Ahmadinejad at the helm. On several occasions, he has said he wants such talks. His oft-repeated verbal attacks on Israel are not expected to change.

After the results were announced, the Obama administration said it was examining the charges of election fraud. "We are monitoring the situation as it unfolds in Iran, but we, like the rest of the world, are waiting and watching to see what the Iranian people decide," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said.

The White House released a two-sentence statement praising "the vigorous debate and enthusiasm that this election generated, particularly among young Iranians," but it expressed concern about "reports of irregularities," the Associated Press reported.

In Tehran, Mousavi's whereabouts were unknown. Reporters on their way to a news conference by the former candidate were stopped by security personnel, who said the meeting had been canceled. Several journalists were beaten.

In his speech from the garden of the presidential palace, Ahmadinejad, who campaigned as a champion of the working class, lauded the high turnout in the voting, which he described as free and fair.

"There were two options," he said. "Either to return to the old days or continue our leap forward towards high peaks . . . and progress. Fortunately, the people voted for that last option." He said the Iranian people had chosen a program over a personality, and he promised to continue his policies "only with more energy." He also attacked foreign media coverage of the campaign, saying "they have launched the heaviest propaganda and psychological war against the Iranian nation."

Mousavi, who had said on Friday that he won, posted a statement on his Web site rejecting the vote tally as rigged.

"I'm warning that I won't surrender to this manipulation," he said. "The outcome of what we've seen from the performance of officials . . . is nothing but shaking the pillars of the Islamic Republic of Iran's sacred system and governance of lies and dictatorship."

He warned that "people won't respect those who take power through fraud." The headline on the Web site declared, "I won't give in to this dangerous manipulation," the AP reported.

Mousavi appealed to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to intervene. But Khamenei had already issued a televised statement that declared Ahmadinejad the victor, and he appealed to Iranians and the defeated candidates to support the president. Khamenei's statement made it unlikely the election results will be overturned.

In his address, Ahmadinejad criticized his opponents, particularly the influential clerics and former officials behind Mousavi who have ties to the 1979 Islamic revolution. He said it did not matter what they had done at the time of the revolution. "It matters what they do now," he insisted, suggesting that his opponents were not working for the people.

Tensions enveloped Tehran early Saturday after Ahmadinejad had been declared the victor. Youths, families and young women in traditional black chadors gathered around the heavily fortified Interior Ministry, where the votes had been counted.

Fights erupted in several locations across Tehran soon after Khamenei's televised statement.

On Mottahari Street, protesters set three buses on fire. Riot police appeared in full protective clothing and helmets, wielding batons as they raced through the streets in two-man teams on red motorcycles. Others stood in lines between three burned city buses.

Hundreds of protesters rained stones at the police. Thick black smoke filled the air. Loud thuds could be heard in the distance.

"We want freedom!" protesters shouted. Many covered their faces with green cloth, the color of their candidate, Mousavi. About a dozen ran after someone they thought was an undercover policeman. Dressed in a checkered shirt, wearing a backpack, he had stood between the mostly younger protesters, trying to film them.

"You are without honor!" two girls covered in traditional chadors shouted at police.

Traffic sign poles that had been ripped from the ground lined the streets. "Fight them!" one man shouted. "Death to the dictatorship!" others yelled at they ran toward the riot police.

In other locations, demonstrators threw policemen to the ground, who were then beaten and kicked by bystanders. "They have insulted us with this result," said Mehrdad, a student who refused to give his family name. "We want Mousavi," the men around him said.

"Commando troops are beating the people. I even saw they beat an old lady," said Morteza Alviri, a former major from Tehran, now a campaign official for Mehdi Karroubi, a former candidate. He was trapped in his car by the protests and spoke by phone. "They were beating her to a pulp," he shouted.

The demonstrations continued into Saturday night, with riot police receiving support from Iran's voluntary paramilitary force, the baseej.

Ahmad Zeidabadi, a political dissident, was arrested Saturday evening, his wife, Mandieh Mohammadi, confirmed. There were reports that 11 other prominent opponents were also arrested. Mobile telephones services were cut and social network sites Facebook and Twitter were filtered. Internet connections as a whole were down part of Saturday. Iranian media remained silent on the riots. State television showed voters saying it was time to move forward and accept the result.

Mousavi was not seen Saturday. In the afternoon, Ali Reza Adeli, a senior official in Mousavi's campaign, denied reports that his candidate was under house arrest. Zahra Rahnavard, Mousavi's wife, told the BBC by phone that she and her husband will continue to fight to achieve the "rights of Iranian voters."

Ahmadinejad announced a "victory party" on Sunday at a central square that Mousavi supporters used in recent weeks to stage their election rallies.

"We are hopeful," the president said during his speech. "Now it's time to move on and continue to build our great Iran."

news20090614GDN

[Environment] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Carbon Emissions]
ACarbon emissions
We hear about emissions all the time and they seem to be the number one climate change issue, but what exactly are they?
By David Adam
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 21 May 2009 11.01 BST
Article history

What are carbon emissions?

Carbon emissions usually refer to the man-made production of a series of gases that accumulate in the atmosphere and help to warm it. Strictly speaking, not all of these so-called greenhouse gases contain carbon so some – including New York Times journalist Andrew Revkin – have labelled the phrase misleading. Some use the phrase as shorthand for emissions of carbon dioxide, which is the most important greenhouse gas produced. Often the emissions of other greenhouse gases are measured by converting them to the equivalent quantity of carbon dioxide needed to produce a similar warming effect – denoted as CO2[eq].

Why do they matter?

They trap heat sent from the Earth's surface in a physical trick discovered by Svante Arrhenius in 1896 known as the greenhouse effect. Sunlight, either direct from the sun or reflected back from shiny parts of the Earth, can pass straight through. But sunlight absorbed by the Earth and then re-emitted as thermal energy – such as from a tarmac road on a sunny day – is absorbed. As carbon emissions build up in the atmosphere, so the amount of heat they trap and send back to the surface increases. This steadily increases the temperature of the Earth's surface and drives global warming.

Where do they come from?

Mostly from energy use: fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal have driven the world's economies since the industrial revolution and have released carbon emissions in the process. Almost all aspects of our lifestyles rely on access to cheap energy – from transport to central heating, which, in turn, rely on fossil fuels. Energy-intensive industries such as steel and cement have particularly high carbon emissions. Besides energy use, activities such as agriculture produce greenhouse gas emissions, either directly through changes in land-use or indirectly from fertilisers.


How much is produced?

About 26 billion tons of carbon dioxide every year, and rising. World emissions have increased sharply since 2000 mainly driven by the coal-driven economic boom in China. Carbon emissions are closely tied to GDP, so as the economy grows, so do emissions. The 2008/9 recession may reduce emissions slightly, but is not expected to have a significant impact in the long term.

Can they be reduced?

Only by the world using less energy, or making the switch to renewable energy such as wind power, which does not produce carbon pollution. Both are proving hard. Demand for energy is expected to soar over the next few decades and efforts to develop and introduce renewable alternatives are patchy at best. Another possible solution is to trap emissions underground, but the technology required is unproven on a large scale.

What about the Kyoto Protocol?

The 1997 Kyoto agreement is the world's only attempt to regulate carbon emissions. It set targets for rich countries, who collectively were supposed to reduce emissions by about 5%. While some countries such as Britain are likely to meet their 2012 target, many are way over budget. The US famously refused to participate in Kyoto, which significantly weakened its impact. The first phase of Kyoto expires in 2012, and the world is still trying to agree a successor.

news20090614SLT

[Today's Paper] from [Slate Magazine]

Tehran Down the House
By Jesse Stanchak
Posted Sunday, June 14, 2009, at 5:14 AM ET

The New York Times (NYT), the Washington Post (WP) and the Los Angeles Times (LAT) all lead with reports of rioting in Tehran after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced he had won Friday's election by a landside 62.6 percent of the vote. Meanwhile, reform candidate and second-place finisher Mir Hossein Mousavi is still insisting that he won, even though official results show him garnering just 34 percent of the vote. Ayatollah Khamenei says he won't get involved in the election, meaning there's no way Mousavi can challenge the results. Following the controversial announcement, police and protesters fought, journalists were harassed, and several political opponents, possibly including Mousavi, were arrested. Why are voters so suspicious of the results? The LAT explains that during the last 6 Iranian presidential elections, conservative candidates have only won in elections with low turnout—like the 2005 election that swept Ahmadinejad to power. That year just 48 percent of Iranians voted, compared with up to 86 percent this year. Analysts say they think it's unlikely that so many more people would turn out just to support the incumbent.

In a news-analysis column, NYT Executive Editor Bill Keller writes that Ahmadinejad's victory will hobble reform efforts in Iran. Keller notes Ahmadinejad shows none of Mousavi's concern about human rights issues and he isn't likely to reverse his frosty stance toward the West suddenly. This leaves President Barack Obama in the uncomfortable position of trying to work for peace with a belligerent leader who may have rigged his re-election. Yet the election is good news for right-wing governments, Keller writes, since the outcome makes it easier for them to continue taking a hard-line stance on Iran.

North Korea has dropped all pretenses about its nuclear program and is now publicly proclaiming its intention to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, the WP reports. North Korea says the announcement is payback after the U.N. Security Council voted to condemn North Korea's recent nuclear tests and approve harsher sanctions.

An African fungus known as "stem rust" has the potential destroy 80 percent of the world's wheat, writes the LAT. U.S. scientists are working to develop resistant wheat strains before the blight goes global. Researchers say they've already discovered which genes make a plant resistant to the fungus, but it could still take nine to 12 years to integrate those traits fully into the world's wheat crops.

President Barack Obama's spending record may hurt Democratic candidates in the 2010 elections, reports the WP. While Obama still enjoys fairly healthy public support, the paper says Republican candidates may be able to make inroads with voters by criticizing the $9 trillion in deficit spending Obama is proposing between 2010 and 2020— provided that GOP candidates can sidestep the party's own spending record from the George W. Bush administration.

And where's all that money going? The White House says its $787 billion stimulus package will jump start the economy while acting as a booster for things like renewable energy intiatives. Not only is the money being spent quite slowly, the LAT reports; critics are saying that many of the projects getting funding aren't all that useful. The paper points to the Minneapolis City Council's recent decision to spent $2 million on a dance theater instead of a solar power plant.

Improving bank regulation isn't just a question of how, writes the NYT— it's also a matter of who gets to do the regulating. The paper takes a look at the public feud between Comptroller of the Currency John C. Dugan and FDIC Chairwoman Sheila C. Bair as each maneuvers for more regulatory territory. The two have a personal and professional rivalry that goes back years, the paper reports, and the fighting is only going to intensify if President Barack Obama goes through with his plan to broaden banking oversight.

Residents of the Republic of Palau are upset by their government's recent decision to take in 13 Chinese Muslim inmates from Guantanamo Bay. The LAT reports that the U.S. claims the inmates are harmless, but they can't be sent back to China, because as Uighur separatists, they would probaby face execution. The paper notes that the tiny nation may have been reluctant to say no to the prisoner transfer because Palau relies so heavily on the U.S. for aid and tourism.

The WP writes that Washington, D.C.-area families are getting much choosier when it comes to hiring nannies. While child care was traditionally a seller's market in Washington, the recession prompted many area families to let their nannies go, resulting in a glut of qualified candidates for the job openings that remain.

Girls' sports programs have made great strides in suburban areas, according to the NYT, but the change hasn't taken hold in cities. A combination of shoestring budgets and concerned parents make it difficult for urban schools to offer girls robust athletic programs.

The NYT notes that many of the lawmakers with the most input on health care overhaul legislation have enormous financial stakes in health care companies.

Six Flags has declared bankruptcy, according to the WP.