news20090626BRT

[Biography of the Day] from [Britannica]
June 26



[On This Day] from [Britannica]
June 26



[Today's Word] from [Dr. Kazuo Iwata]
June 26
I don't wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work.
Pearl Buck (born this day in 1892)
（私は気分が出るのを待ってなどいない。そんなことをとしていたら、何ごとも成就できない。自らの心は働きださねばならないことを知っているに違いない。）

news20090626JT

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

[BUSINESS NEWS]
Friday, June 26, 2009
Shinsei, Aozora agree to merge
Troubled U.S.-led bank will be No. 6 by assets

(Kyodo News) Shinsei Bank and Aozora Bank have reached a basic agreement to merge next year and create Japan's sixth-largest banking group in terms of assets, sources said Thursday.

The Tokyo-based banks decided on the merger to help improve their financial standing and profitability, which have been badly hurt due to their aggressive investment in high-risk financial instruments overseas that crumbled in the global financial crisis, the sources said.

The banks will formally announce the merger early next month, the sources said.

Shinsei and Aozora tried to make up for their weak domestic operations with the heavy overseas investments. With the stunning failure of that strategy, they now plan to shift their focus to primary banking operations for domestic corporate clients and individuals, the sources said.

The merger will create an institution with more than 18 trillion in assets, topping Chuo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. as the sixth-largest Japanese commercial banking group.

Both banks were formerly providers of long-term credit to businesses and are owned chiefly by U.S. investment firms.

J.C. Flowers & Co. owns 33 percent of Shinsei's outstanding shares, while Cerberus Capital Management L.P. has a stake of more than 50 percent in Aozora in terms of voting rights.

Both were temporarily nationalized during the banking crisis in 1998 before returning largely to private ownership in 2000. Since then they have been revamping their operations under the guidance of the U.S. shareholders and others.

The government still owns a part of each. Shinsei still has to pay back about 220 billion in public money, while Aozora owes taxpayers 180 billion.

The two banks are considering applying for an injection of more public money in the face of their slack business performance, the sources said.

In the business year that ended last March 31, Shinsei fell into the red with a group net loss of 143.0 billion, while Aozora suffered 242.5 billion in net loss.

Both are at high risk of receiving business improvement orders from the Financial Services Agency.

J.C. Flowers and Cerberus initially appeared to disagree on which should take leadership after the merger, but their differences have been overcome, the sources said.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Friday, June 26, 2009
Residential streets to get cop cameras
Neighborhood groups to be in charge: NPA

(Kyodo News) The National Police Agency said Thursday that security camera networks will be installed in 15 residential areas in 14 prefectures as part of efforts to prevent crime and better protect children.

The announcement, however, prompted some citizen groups to complain that the move is an attempt by the police to boost surveillance of the public.

The police plan to launch the first such domestic residential network around next January, according to NPA officials.

They will entrust volunteer groups of residents to operate and manage the equipment and image data, they said.

The nation's police forces "will help residents to secure safety by themselves," an official at the agency said.

It will be the first time for the police to entrust such monitoring duties to residents groups.

The police currently have 363 security cameras in operation at busy shopping and entertainment urban districts across the country.

The NPA, which coordinates the prefectural police forces, said the police will discuss the details of operating the network with volunteer groups.

The agency has already earmarked 597 million in the government's supplementary budget for the installation of the security camera networks and for the consultations with residents groups.

According to the agency's plan, networks of 25 cameras will be installed mainly on streets used by children going to school.

Under the plan, video monitors and recorders will be installed in nonpolice facilities, including community centers, and residents groups will check screens when children are walking to and from school.

The 15 locations include the prefectural capitals of Otsu, Okayama, Hiroshima, Tokushima and Fukuoka.

The 10 other areas are in Higashimatsushima, Miyagi Prefecture; Oyama, Tochigi Prefecture; Toda, Saitama Prefecture; Higashiyamato and Musashimurayama, both suburban Tokyo; Fujieda, Shizuoka Prefecture; Neyagawa, Osaka Prefecture; Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture; Iwade, Wakayama Prefecture; and Amami, Kagoshima Prefecture.

However, in some of the 15 locations no residents groups have so far been picked to take charge of the security networks.

Some citizen groups are critical of the plan, saying the government intends to strengthen surveillance on residents.

The police have told residents groups that they will put up notices that indicate the locations of security cameras. They have also pledged to use data collected only for the investigation of crimes and vowed to help protect citizens' privacy.

Yasuhiko Tajima, professor of journalism at Sophia University who heads a citizens group against a so-called surveillance society, accused the government of trying to have residents keep watch on each other through the planned installation of security cameras.

The Musashimurayama Municipal Government in western Tokyo said a city official was called in to a nearby police station and asked to join the security camera network plan on June 11.

The city said it has yet to decide on the location for the cameras or on a resident group to operate and manage the network.


[BUSINESS NEWS]
Friday, June 26, 2009
Toyota to focus on regions
By HIROKO NAKATA
Staff writer

The new president of Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday he will review his company's aggressive global expansion and focus more on strategies based on each region around the world.

Each of Toyota's five executive vice presidents will be assigned to four regions — Japan, North America, Europe and emerging markets — and overall product development, Akio Toyoda said in his first news conference since officially taking over the world's biggest automaker the day before.

Toyoda, 53, criticized Toyota's past strategy of aggressive growth overseas, referring to it as "growth that is larger than the size of the company."

"We will place more emphasize on each market," he said. "We tried to make full lineups in every region, but from now on we're going to focus more on necessary lineups for each."

Toyoda replaced Katsuaki Watanabe, who in leading Toyota since 2005 aggressively launched overseas production plants until the global economy started to crumble late last year.

Toyoda said the business environment remains severe.

"It will be sailing amid troubled waters for me and the new management team," he said. "The tough conditions may continue for two years."

He stressed that he will do his utmost to get the automaker back into the black in fiscal 2010.

Toyota said May 9 it logged a 461.01 billion group operating loss and a 436.94 billion net loss, the biggest ever for the automaker, which was founded in 1937. Toyota is expecting a group operating loss of 850 billion and a net loss 550 billion for the year ending next March — its second straight year of red ink.

Because of the losses, Toyoda said he will return bonuses and 30 percent of his monthly salary for one year starting in July. The old president and former executive vice presidents will return their bonuses and part of their monthly salaries, he said.

Turning to Toyota's ongoing negotiations over the plant in Fremont, Calif., shared with debt-ridden U.S. rival General Motors Corp., Toyoda said nothing has been decided except that the Pontiac Vibe will no longer be produced there.

Under the new strategy, the executive vice president assigned to the specific market will pick the products to be pulled and allocate management resources.

Executive Vice President Atsushi Niimi will be in charge of North America, will eventually recover, Toyoda said, adding, "The strategy centering on large pickups will change."

In Europe, which will be overseen by Executive Vice President Shinichi Sasaki, hybrids will gradually take center stage, Toyoda said.

Emerging markets, including rapidly growing China, will need a new low-priced car that meets demand in the region, he said. Executive Vice President Yukitoshi Funo will be in charge of emerging markets.

news20090626LAT1

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

[Obituaries]
OBITUARY
Michael Jackson's life was infused with fantasy and tragedy
He owned a statue of Marilyn, studied Chaplin and married Elvis' daughter. It seemed the perennial man-child would cease to exist if the applause ever stopped.
By Geoff Boucher and Elaine Woo
June 26, 2009

Michael Jackson was fascinated by celebrity tragedy. He had a statue of Marilyn Monroe in his home and studied the sad Hollywood exile of Charlie Chaplin. He married the daughter of Elvis Presley.

Jackson met his own untimely death Thursday at age 50, and more than any of those past icons, he left a complicated legacy. As a child star, he was so talented he seemed lit from within; as a middle-aged man, he was viewed as something akin to a visiting alien who, like Tinkerbell, would cease to exist if the applause ever stopped.

It was impossible in the early 1980s to imagine the surreal final chapters of Jackson's life. In that decade, he became the world's most popular entertainer thanks to a series of hit records -- “Beat It,” "Billie Jean," “Thriller” -- and dazzling music videos. Perhaps the best dancer of his generation, he created his own iconography: the single shiny glove, the Moonwalk, the signature red jacket and the Neverland Ranch.

In recent years, he inspired fascination for reasons that had nothing to do with music. Years of plastic surgery had made his face a bizarre landscape. He was deeply in debt and had lost his way as a musician. He had not toured since 1997 or released new songs since 2001. Instead of music videos, the images of Jackson beamed around the world were tabloid reports about his strange personal behavior, including allegations of child molestation, or the latest failed relaunch of his career.

A frail-looking Jackson had spent his last weeks in rehearsal for an ambitious comeback attempt and 50 already-sold-out shows at London's O2 Arena. A major motivation was the $300 million in debt run up by a star who lived like royalty even though his self-declared title of King of Pop was more about the past than the present.

It was impossible in the early 1980s to imagine the surreal final chapters of Jackson's life. In that decade, he became the world's most popular entertainer thanks to a series of hit records -- “Beat It,” "Billie Jean," “Thriller” -- and dazzling music videos. Perhaps the best dancer of his generation, he created his own iconography: the single shiny glove, the Moonwalk, the signature red jacket and the Neverland Ranch.

In recent years, he inspired fascination for reasons that had nothing to do with music. Years of plastic surgery had made his face a bizarre landscape. He was deeply in debt and had lost his way as a musician. He had not toured since 1997 or released new songs since 2001. Instead of music videos, the images of Jackson beamed around the world were tabloid reports about his strange personal behavior, including allegations of child molestation, or the latest failed relaunch of his career.

A frail-looking Jackson had spent his last weeks in rehearsal for an ambitious comeback attempt and 50 already-sold-out shows at London's O2 Arena. A major motivation was the $300 million in debt run up by a star who lived like royalty even though his self-declared title of King of Pop was more about the past than the present.

"It's one of the greatest losses," said Tommy Mottola, former president of Sony Music, which released Jackson's music for 16 years. "In pop history, there's a triumvirate of pop icons: Sinatra, Elvis and Michael, that define the whole culture. . . . His music bridged races and ages and absolutely defined the video age. Nothing that came before him or that has come after him will ever be as big as he was."

Jackson "had it all. . . . talent, grace, professionalism and dedication," said Quincy Jones, Jackson's collaborator on his most important albums and the movie "The Wiz." "He was the consummate entertainer, and his contributions and legacy will be felt upon the world forever. I've lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him."

Jackson was born Aug. 29, 1958, in Gary, Ind. His mother, Katherine, would say that there was something special about the fifth of her nine children. "I don't believe in reincarnation," she said, "but you know how babies move uncoordinated? He never moved that way. When he danced, it was like he was an older person."

Katherine Jackson, who worked for Sears, Roebuck and Co., taught her children folk songs. Her husband, Joseph, a crane operator who once played with the R&B band the Falcons, played guitar and coached his sons. The boys were soon performing at local benefits. Michael took command of the group even as a chubby-cheeked kindergartner.

"He was so energetic that at 5 years old he was like a leader," brother Jackie once told Rolling Stone magazine. "We saw that. So we said, 'Hey, Michael, you be the lead guy.' The audience ate it up."

By 1968, the Jacksons had cut singles for a local Indiana label called Steeltown. At an engagement that year at Harlem's famed Apollo Theater, singer Gladys Knight and pianist Billy Taylor saw their act and recommended them to Motown founder Berry Gordy. So did Diana Ross after sharing a stage with the quintet at a "Soul Weekend" in Gary.

Ross said later that she saw herself in the talented and driven Michael. "He could be my son," she said. Another Motown legend, Smokey Robinson, would describe the young performer as "a strange and lovely child, an old soul in the body of a boy."

Motown moved the Jacksons to California, and in August 1968 they gave a breakthrough performance at a Beverly Hills club called The Daisy. Their first album, "Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5," was released in December 1969, and it yielded the No. 1 hit "I Want You Back," with 11-year-old Michael on the lead vocals. "ABC," “I’ll Be There” and other hits followed, and the group soon had their own television series, a Saturday morning cartoon and an array of licensed merchandise aimed at youngsters.

There was a price: childhood.

"I never had the chance to do the fun things kids do," Jackson once explained. "There was no Christmas, no holiday celebrating. So now you try to compensate for some of that loss."

Joseph Jackson ruled the family, by most accounts, with his fists and a bellowing rage. In a 2003 documentary by British journalist Martin Bashir, Jackson said his father often brandished a belt during rehearsals and hit his sons or shoved them into walls if they made a misstep.

"We were terrified of him," Jackson said.

In the Bashir interviews, the singer said his father ridiculed him for his pug nose and adolescent acne. He also described, with obvious discomfort, having to listen to an older brother have sex with a woman in the hotel bedroom they shared.

Onstage, Jackson seemed to know no fear.

"When we sang, people would throw all this money on the floor, tons of dollars, 10s, 20s, lots of change," an adult Jackson once told Newsweek. "I remember my pockets being so full of money that I couldn't keep my pants up. I'd wear a real tight belt. And I'd buy candy like crazy."

By 1972, Jackson had his first solo album, "Got to Be There," which included the title hit as well as "Rockin' Robin." His first solo No. 1 single came the same year -- the forlorn theme song from the movie “Ben.”

He struggled to understand a world that he saw mostly while staring into spotlights and flashbulbs. Standing ovations greeted him onstage; parental slaps awaited him in the dressing room. Like his mother, he became a Jehovah's Witness, forswearing alcohol, cigarettes and foul language. He fasted on Saturdays and went door-to-door, wearing a disguise, to spread the faith. (He ended his association with the religion in the late 1980s.)

In 1978, Michael made his film debut as the Scarecrow in "The Wiz," a black-cast adaptation of "The Wizard of Oz." The movie launched a creative and commercial partnership with "Wiz" music director Quincy Jones.

The first fruit of their collaboration was "Off the Wall" (1979), Jackson's debut album on the Epic label. It sold 5 million copies in the United States and 2 million abroad and generated four Top 10 singles.

It was with Jones (as well as often-overlooked songwriter Rod Temperton) that Jackson shaped "Thriller," which was released near the end of 1982 and became the best-selling studio album in history and a cultural landmark. Its effect on the music industry and the music videos that came to define the then-nascent MTV was huge.

In a Motown TV special in 1983, Jackson, then 24, electrified the nation with his Moonwalk, a dance step that created the illusion of levitation. He took the stage in a black sequined jacket, silver shirt, black fedora and black trousers that skimmed the tops of his white socks. The final touch was a single white glove, studded with rhinestones.

Times critic Robert Hilburn, who observed the performance live at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, said the broadcast marked Jackson's "unofficial coronation as the King of Pop. Within months, he changed the way people would hear and see pop music, unleashing an influence that rivaled that of Elvis Presley and the Beatles."

His dance style combined the robotic moves of break-dancers, the quicksilver spins and slides of James Brown and the grace of Fred Astaire, whose routines he studied. The aging Astaire called him "a wonderful mover."

CONTINUED ON newsLAT2

news20090626LAT2

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

[Obituaries]
OBITUARY
Michael Jackson's life was infused with fantasy and tragedy
He owned a statue of Marilyn, studied Chaplin and married Elvis' daughter. It seemed the perennial man-child would cease to exist if the applause ever stopped.
By Geoff Boucher and Elaine Woo
June 26, 2009

CONTINUED FROM newsLAT1

Not only did "Thriller" smash sales records as the bestselling album of 1983, but it made Jackson the first artist to top four charts simultaneously: It was the No. 1 pop single, pop album, R&B single and R&B album. It earned five Grammy Awards. Jay Cocks wrote in Time magazine that Jackson "just may be the most popular black singer ever."

The "Thriller" success enabled Jackson to negotiate what were believed to be the highest royalty rates ever earned by a recording artist. But it also put him in a cage of his own anxieties and obsession.

Jackson bonded with past pop-music royalty by marrying Lisa Marie Presley in 1994 and grabbing a major interest in the Beatles' catalog, an asset worth $500 million. The marriage was short-lived, however, and his wealth was imperiled by an extravagant lifestyle that included the 2,700-acre Neverland Ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley, where he lived with a menagerie of exotic pets.

Jackson became a prisoner of his own celebrity. He became so accustomed to bodyguards and assistants that he once admitted that he trembled if he had to open his own front door. He compared himself to "a hemophiliac who can't afford to be scratched in any way."

Notoriously shy offstage, onstage he was electric and acutely attuned to what his fans craved. Commenting once on a sotto voce note at the end of a ballad, he said: "That note will touch the whole audience. What they're throwing out at you, you're grabbing. You hold it, you touch it and you whip it back -- it's like a Frisbee."

"I hate to admit it, but I feel strange around everyday people," he said on another occasion. "See, my whole life has been onstage, and the impression I get of people is applause, standing ovations and running after you. In a crowd, I'm afraid. Onstage, I feel safe. If I could, I would sleep on the stage. I'm serious."

In better days, his wealth allowed him to fulfill personal fantasies -- including building his own amusement park -- and bankroll charities, particularly those involving children. Then came the dark whispers about the nature of his relationship with boys.

He was often seen with youngsters, both famous and those plucked from the mundane world to visit his playground estate. In 1993, he was accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy who was a frequent overnight guest in his home. On tour in Asia when the charges were filed, he canceled his performances, citing exhaustion and addiction to painkillers as the reasons.

Jackson's attorney charged that the boy's father, a would-be screenwriter who had tried to obtain Jackson's backing for a project, was trying to extort money. The criminal investigation was closed after the boy refused to testify. A civil lawsuit was settled for a reported $20 million.

"I am not guilty of these allegations," Jackson, then 35, said after the settlement was reached. "But if I am guilty of anything, it is of giving all that I have to give to help children all over the world. It is of loving children of all ages and races. It is of gaining sheer joy from seeing children with their innocent and smiling faces. It is of enjoying through them the childhood that I missed myself."

He lost a Pepsi endorsement as well as a deal to develop several films. The Jackson-themed Captain EO attraction at Disneyland was scrapped.

A second case unfolded in November 2003, when Santa Barbara authorities, acting on accusations by a 13-year-old cancer patient who had stayed at Jackson's ranch, arrested the star. The 14-week trial featured celebrity witnesses such as Jay Leno and Macaulay Culkin and Jackson's own bizarre antics, such as showing up for court in pajama pants and a tuxedo jacket. It ended June 13, 2005, with his acquittal on all counts.

Jackson acknowledged in the interview with Bashir that, despite the earlier cases, he still invited children to share his bedroom and saw nothing wrong with it.

"It's not sexual," he insisted. "I tuck them in, have hot milk, give them cookies. It's very charming, it's very sweet."

He added that his own children "sleep with other people all the time."

By then, Jackson was a figure of pop music's past, not its present. When The Times, in 2001, asked top recording executives to name the most valuable acts in the business, Jackson failed to make the top 20.

In 2003, he settled a lawsuit by his former financial advisors after legal documents portrayed the singer as near bankruptcy.

At the same time, he was waging legal battles against his 1970s recording label, Motown Records, and his current label, Sony's Epic Records. He stirred speculation about his mental state when he contended that the latter company, and in particular Mottola, had inadequately promoted his work because of racism.

He celebrated his 45th birthday in August 2003 at a curious public event that seemed to underscore the decline of his career. Hundreds of fans paid $30 each or more for admission to an old downtown Los Angeles movie palace, where largely amateur or obscure performers sang, lip-synced or danced to the fallen idol's hits. Most of the seats reserved for A-list guests went begging.

When the honoree took the stage at the end to join in a rendition of "We Are the World," he was flanked not by the likes of Bob Dylan and Stevie Wonder, as he was when the famous song was first recorded, but by several Jackson impersonators.

Such impersonators usually model themselves on his "Thriller" persona, but the singer himself looked nothing like that in recent years.

There was intense public curiosity about his physical metamorphosis. Jackson often insisted that his wan complexion was the result of treatment for a skin disorder called vitiligo, but that did not explain why his once-broad nose became long, sleek and pertly tipped.

He publicly admitted to two nose operations, but cosmetic surgeons who studied his photographs surmised that he had undergone far more, possibly so many that he had destroyed the cartilage.

In 1996, Jackson married his former nurse, Debbie Rowe, who bore two of his three children, Prince Michael Jr. and Paris Michael Katherine. He did not disclose the identity of the mother of his third child, Prince Michael II.

He raised the children without their mothers and had them wear elaborate masks whenever they went out with him. Several months after Prince Michael II's birth, Jackson dangled the baby outside an upper-story hotel window in Berlin to show the child to fans assembled below. The incident led to accusations that the singer was an unfit father. He later acknowledged that he had shown poor judgment.

He is survived by his children; his parents; and siblings Maureen, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, Randy, LaToya and Janet.

news20090626NYT1

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

[Music]
Michael Jackson, Pop Icon, Is Dead at 50
By BROOKS BARNES
Published: June 25, 2009

LOS ANGELES — For his legions of fans, he was the Peter Pan of pop music: the little boy who refused to grow up. But on the verge of another attempted comeback, he is suddenly gone, this time for good.

Michael Jackson, whose quintessentially American tale of celebrity and excess took him from musical boy wonder to global pop superstar to sad figure haunted by lawsuits, paparazzi and failed plastic surgery, was pronounced dead on Thursday afternoon at U.C.L.A. Medical Center after arriving in a coma, a city official said. Mr. Jackson was 50, having spent 40 of those years in the public eye he loved.

The singer was rushed to the hospital, a six-minute drive from the rented Bel-Air home in which he was living, shortly after noon by paramedics for the Los Angeles Fire Department. A hospital spokesman would not confirm reports of cardiac arrest. He was pronounced dead at 2:26 pm.

As with Elvis Presley or the Beatles, it is impossible to calculate the full effect Mr. Jackson had on the world of music. At the height of his career, he was indisputably the biggest star in the world; he has sold more than 750 million albums. Radio stations across the country reacted to his death with marathon sessions of his songs. MTV, which grew successful in part as a result of Mr. Jackson’s groundbreaking videos, reprised its early days as a music channel by showing his biggest hits.

From his days as the youngest brother in the Jackson 5 to his solo career in the 1980s and early 1990s, Mr. Jackson was responsible for a string of hits like “I Want You Back,” “I’ll Be There” “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” “Billie Jean” and “Black or White” that exploited his high voice, infectious energy and ear for irresistible hooks.

As a solo performer, Mr. Jackson ushered in the age of pop as a global product — not to mention an age of spectacle and pop culture celebrity. He became more character than singer: his sequined glove, his whitened face, his moonwalk dance move became embedded in the cultural firmament.

His entertainment career hit high-water marks with the release of “Thriller,” from 1982, which has been certified 28 times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, and with the “Victory” world tour that reunited him with his brothers in 1984.

But soon afterward, his career started a bizarre disintegration. His darkest moment undoubtedly came in 2003, when he was indicted on child molesting charges. A young cancer patient claimed the singer had befriended him and then groped him at his Neverland estate near Santa Barbara, Calif., but Mr. Jackson was acquitted on all charges.

Reaction to his death started trickling in from the entertainment community late Thursday.

“I am absolutely devastated at this tragic and unexpected news,” the music producer Quincy Jones said in a statement. “I’ve lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him.”

Berry Gordy, the Motown founder who helped develop the Jackson 5, told CNN that Mr. Jackson, as a boy, “always wanted to be the best, and he was willing to work as hard as it took to be that. And we could all see that he was a winner at that age.

Tommy Mottola, a former head of Sony Music, called Mr. Jackson “the cornerstone to the entire music business.”

“He bridged the gap between rhythm and blues and pop music and made it into a global culture,” said Mr. Mottola, who worked with Mr. Jackson until the singer cut his ties with Sony in 2001.

Impromptu vigils broke out around the world, from Portland, Ore., where fans organized a one-gloved bike ride (“glittery costumes strongly encouraged”) to Hong Kong, where fans gathered with candles and sang his songs.

In Los Angeles, hundreds of fans — some chanting Mr. Jackson’s name, some doing the “Thriller” dance — descended on the hospital and on the hillside house where he was staying.

Jeremy Vargas, 38, hoisted his wife, Erica Renaud, 38, on his shoulders and they danced and bopped to “Man in the Mirror” playing from an onlooker’s iPod connected to external speakers — the boom boxes of Mr. Jackson’s heyday long past their day.

“I am in shock and awe,” said Ms. Renaud, who was visiting from Red Hook, Brooklyn, with her family. “He was like a family member to me.”

Dreams of a Comeback

Mr. Jackson was an object of fascination for the news media since the Jackson 5’s first hit, “I Want You Back,” in 1969. His public image wavered between that of the musical naif, who wanted only to recapture his youth by riding on roller-coasters and having sleepovers with his friends, to the calculated mogul who carefully constructed his persona around his often-baffling public behavior.

Mr. Jackson had been scheduled to perform 50 concerts at the O2 arena in London beginning next month and continuing into 2010. The shows, which quickly sold out, were positioned as a comeback, with the potential to earn him up to $50 million, according to some reports.

But there had also been worry and speculation that Mr. Jackson was not physically ready for such an arduous run of concerts, and his postponement of the first of those shows to July 13 from July 8 fueled new rounds of gossip about his health. Nevertheless, he was rehearsing Wednesday night at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. “The primary reason for the concerts wasn’t so much that he was wanting to generate money as much as it was that he wanted to perform for his kids,” said J. Randy Taraborrelli, whose biography, “Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness,” was first published by Citadel in 1991. “They had never seen him perform before.”

Mr. Jackson’s brothers, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Randy, have all had performing careers, with varying success, since they stopped performing together. (Randy, the youngest, replaced Jermaine when the Jackson 5 left Motown.) His sisters, Rebbie, La Toya and Janet, are also singers, and Janet Jackson has been a major star in her own right for two decades. They all survive him, as do his parents, Joseph and Katherine Jackson, of Las Vegas, and three children: Michael Joseph Jackson Jr., Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, born to Mr. Jackson’s second wife, Deborah Jeanne Rowe, and Prince Michael Jackson II, the son of a surrogate mother. Mr. Jackson was also briefly married to Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis Presley.

A spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department said the department assigned its robbery and homicide division to investigate the death, but the spokesman said that was because of Mr. Jackson’s celebrity.

“Don’t read into anything,” the spokesman told reporters gathered outside the Bel-Air house. He said the coroner had taken possession of the body and would conduct an investigation.

At a news conference at the hospital, Jermaine Jackson spoke to reporters about his brother. “It is believed he suffered cardiac arrest at his home,” he said softly. A personal physician first tried to resuscitate Michael Jackson at his home before paramedics arrived. A team of doctors then tried to resuscitate him for more than an hour, his brother said.

“May our love be with you always,” Jermaine Jackson concluded, his gaze aloft.

In Gary, Ind., hundreds of people descended upon the squat clapboard house were Mr. Jackson spent his earliest years. There were tears, loud wails, and quiet prayers as old neighbors joined hands with people who had driven in from Chicago and other nearby towns to pay their respects.

“Just continue to glorify the man, Lord,” said Ida Boyd-King, a local pastor who led the crowd in prayer. “Let’s give God praise for Michael.”

Shelletta Hinton, 40, drove to Gary from Chicago with her two young children. She said they had met Mr. Jackson in Gary a couple of years ago when he received a key to the city. “We felt like we were close to Michael,” she said. “This is a sad day.”

As dusk set in, mourners lighted candles and placed them on the concrete doorstep. Some left teddy bears and personal notes. Doris Darrington, 77, said she remembered seeing the Jackson 5 so many times around Gary that she got sick of them. But she, too, was feeling hurt by the sudden news of Mr. Jackson’s death.

“He has always been a source of pride for Gary, even though he wasn’t around much,” she said. “The older person, that’s not the Michael we knew. We knew the little bitty boy with the big Afro and the brown skin. That’s how I’ll always remember Michael.”

Michael Joseph Jackson was born in Gary on Aug. 29, 1958. The second youngest of six brothers, he began performing professionally with four of them at the age of 5 in a group that their father, Joe, a steelworker, had organized the previous year. In 1968, the group, originally called the Jackson Brothers, was signed by Motown Records. The Jackson 5 was an instant phenomenon. The group’s first four singles — “I Want You Back,” “ABC,” “The Love You Save” and “I’ll Be There” — all reached No. 1 on the pop charts in 1970, a feat no group had accomplished before. And young Michael was the center of attention: he handled virtually all the lead vocals, danced with energy and finesse, and displayed a degree of showmanship rare in a performer of any age.

CONTINUED ON newsNYT2

news20090626NYT2

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

[Music]
Michael Jackson, Pop Icon, Is Dead at 50
By BROOKS BARNES
Published: June 25, 2009

CONTINUED FROM newsNYT1

n 1971, Mr. Jackson began recording under his own name, while continuing to perform with his brothers. His recording of “Ben,” the title song from a movie about a boy and his homicidal pet rat, was a No. 1 hit in 1972.

The brothers (minus Michael’s older brother Jermaine, who was married to the daughter of Berry Gordy, Motown’s founder and chief executive) left Motown in 1975 and, rechristened the Jacksons, signed to Epic, a unit of CBS Records. Three years later, Michael made his movie debut as the Scarecrow in the screen version of the hit Broadway musical “The Wiz.” But movie stardom proved not to be his destiny.

A Solo Sensation

Music stardom on an unprecedented level, however, was. Mr. Jackson’s first solo album for Epic, “Off the Wall,” released in 1979, yielded four No. 1 singles and sold seven million copies, but it was a mere prologue to what came next. His follow-up, “Thriller,” released in 1982, became the best-selling album of all time and helped usher in the music video age. The video for title track, directed by John Landis, was an elaborate horror-movie pastiche that was more of a mini-movie than a promotional clip.

Seven of the nine tracks on “Thriller” were released as singles and reached the Top 10. The album spent two years on the Billboard album chart and sold an estimated 100 million copies worldwide. It also won eight Grammy Awards.

The choreographer and director Vincent Paterson, who directed Mr. Jackson in several videos, recalled watching him rehearse a dance sequence for four hours in front of a mirror until it felt like second nature.

“That’s how he developed the moonwalk, working on it for days if not weeks until it was organic,” he said. “He took an idea that he had seen some street kids doing and perfected it.”

Mr. Jackson’s next album, “Bad,” released in 1987, sold eight million copies and produced five No. 1 singles and another state-of-the-art video, this one directed by Martin Scorsese. It was a huge hit by almost anyone else’s standards, but an inevitable letdown after “Thriller.”

It was at this point that Mr. Jackson’s bizarre private life began to overshadow his music. He would go on to release several more albums and, from time to time, to stage elaborate concert tours. And he would never be too far from the public eye. But it would never again be his music that kept him there.

Even with the millions Mr. Jackson earned, his eccentric lifestyle took a severe financial toll. In 1988 Mr. Jackson paid about $17 million for a 2,600-acre ranch in Los Olivos, Calif., 125 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Calling it Neverland after the mythical island of Peter Pan, he outfitted the property with amusement-park rides, a zoo and a 50-seat theater, at a cost of $35 million, according to reports, and the ranch became his sanctum.

But Neverland, and Mr. Jackson’s lifestyle, were expensive to maintain. A forensic accountant who testified at Mr. Jackson’s molesting trial in 2005 said Mr. Jackson’s annual budget in 1999 included $7.5 million for personal expenses and $5 million to maintain Neverland. By at least the late 1990s, he began to take out huge loans to support himself and pay debts. In 1998, he took out a loan for $140 million from Bank of America, which two years later was increased to $200 million. Further loans of hundreds of millions followed.

The collateral for the loans was Mr. Jackson’s 50 percent share in Sony/ATV Music Publishing, a portfolio of thousands of songs, including rights to 259 songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, considered some of the most valuable properties in music.

In 1985, Mr. Jackson paid $47.5 million for ATV, which included the Beatles songs — a move that estranged him from Mr. McCartney, who had advised him to invest in music rights — and 10 years later, Mr. Jackson sold 50 percent of his interest to Sony for $90 million, creating a joint venture, Sony/ATV. Estimates of the catalog’s value exceed $1 billion.

Last year, Neverland narrowly escaped foreclosure after Mr. Jackson defaulted on $24.5 million he owed on the property. A Los Angeles real estate investment company, Colony Capital L.L.C., bought the note, and put the title for the property into a joint venture with Mr. Jackson.

A Scandal’s Heavy Toll

In many ways, Mr. Jackson never recovered from the child molesting trial, a lurid affair that attracted media from around the world to watch as Mr. Jackson, wearing a different costume each day, appeared in a small courtroom in Santa Maria, Calif., to listen as a parade of witnesses spun a sometimes-incredible tale.

The case ultimately turned on the credibility of Mr. Jackson’s accuser, a 15-year-old cancer survivor who said the defendant had gotten him drunk and molested him several times. The boy’s younger brother testified that he had seen Mr. Jackson groping his brother on two other occasions.

After 14 weeks of such testimony and seven days of deliberations, the jury returned not-guilty verdicts on all 14 counts against Mr. Jackson: four charges of child molesting, one charge of attempted child molesting, one conspiracy charge and eight possible counts of providing alcohol to minors. Conviction could have brought Mr. Jackson 20 years in prison. Instead, he walked away a free man to try to reclaim a career that at the time had already been in decline for years.

After his trial, Mr. Jackson largely left the United States for Bahrain, the island nation in the Persian Gulf, where he was the guest of Sheik Abdullah, a son of the ruler of the country, King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa. Mr. Jackson would never return to live at his ranch. Instead he remained in Bahrain, Dubai and Ireland for the next several years, managing his increasingly unstable finances. He remained an avid shopper, however, and was spotted at shopping malls in the black robes and veils traditionally worn by Bahraini women.

Despite the public relations blow of his trial, Mr. Jackson and his ever-changing retinue of managers, lawyers and advisers never stopped plotting his return.

By early this year, Mr. Jackson was living in a $100,000-a-month mansion in Bel-Air, to be closer to “where all the action is” in the entertainment business, his manager at the time, Tohme Tohme, told The Los Angeles Times. He was also preparing for his upcoming London shows.

”He was just so excited about having an opportunity to come back,” said Mr. Paterson, the director and choreographer.

Despite his troubles, the press and the public never abandoned the star. A crowd of paparazzi and onlookers lined the street outside Mr. Jackson’s home as the ambulance took him to the hospital.

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

[Entertainment News]
MICHAEL JACKSON 1958-2009
Object of Acclaim, Curiosity, The 'King of Pop' Dies in L.A.
By Hank Stuever and Matt Schudel
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, June 26, 2009

Michael Jackson, 50, died yesterday in Los Angeles as sensationally as he lived, as famous as a human being can get. He was a child Motown phenomenon who grew into a moonwalking megastar, the self-anointed King of Pop who sold 750 million records over his career and enjoyed worldwide adoration.

But with that came the world's relentless curiosity, and Mr. Jackson was eventually regarded as one of show business's legendary oddities, hopping from one public relations crisis to another.

In the end there were two sides to the record: The tabloid caricature and the provocative, genre-changing musical genius that his fans will always treasure. There were those whose devotion knew no bounds, who visited the gates of his private ranch north of Santa Barbara, Calif., arriving at Neverland on pilgrimages from Europe and Asia, and who were among the first to flock to UCLA Medical Center as news of his death spread yesterday afternoon. Those were the same kind of fans who camped out at the Santa Barbara Superior Courthouse, to show their support during his 2005 trial. They released doves and wept when he was acquitted.

Then there was the other kind of fan, who preferred to keep memories of the singer locked firmly in his 1980s prime: Today's young adults all have memories of being toddlers and grade-schoolers who moonwalked across their mother's just mopped kitchen floors. Even the hardest rockers will easily confess to the first album they ever bought: "Thriller."

"I am just dev-as-tated," said Bridgette Cooper, 44, of Mitchellville, who was driving her children to math tutoring when her 12-year-old got the news by text. "I don't ever remember not loving him. I have been a fan forever. Even through the turmoil and the public spectacle, I still loved him and his music."

Mr. Jackson's death set off an instant media frenzy befitting the later chapters of his celebrityhood. The singer suffered an apparent heart attack at one of his residences in Bel-Air. Paramedics said Jackson was not breathing when they arrived at 12:26 p.m. Pacific time. The singer was brought to the UCLA Medical Center at 1:14 p.m. PDT and pronounced dead at 2:26 (5:26 Eastern).

Web sites began reporting that the singer had been taken to the hospital. Soon, streets in the Westwood neighborhoods around the hospital were clogged with traffic as crowds of onlookers formed, much as they did wherever the singer had appeared. Soon enough, they were dancing and playing Mr. Jackson's music, as a helicopter flew away with his body, en route to the coroner. All around the world, from Los Angeles to Adams Morgan to Times Square to Tokyo and beyond, people cued up Mr. Jackson's songs -- some digging out cassettes and LPs.

Mr. Jackson's brother, Jermaine, told reporters that "it is believed [Mr. Jackson] suffered cardiac arrest" and that the star's personal physician had tried to revive him. Jermaine Jackson then asked for something his family is unlikely to get in the next several days: privacy. "And may Allah be with you, Michael, always," he said.

"For Michael to be taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age, I just don't have the words," producer Quincy Jones said. "To this day, the music we created together on 'Off the Wall,' 'Thriller' and 'Bad' is played in every corner of the world and the reason for that is because he had it all . . . talent, grace, professionalism and dedication. He was the consummate entertainer and his contributions and legacy will be felt upon the world forever. I've lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him."

"On the one hand, it's shocking," said Alan Light, a journalist who has edited Spin and Vibe magazines. "On the other, everybody had the sense that there was not going to be a happy ending to this story. I don't know what other final chapter there was going to be. . . . It's almost impossible to overstate the impact he had on popular music and popular culture. He really defined what the music video could be. He was the ultimate crossover figure, bringing black music and rock-and-roll together. He is someone who will be remembered as an absolute superstar. He may have lost some of his popularity in the United States, but he remained a superstar in corners of the world not visited by other artists."

Mr. Jackson's career began as a family business in Gary, Ind. As the Jackson 5, the group moved in a comparatively short time from local talent contests to national stardom, with the encouragement of established artists including Gladys Knight. Driven by their father in a borrowed Volkswagen van, the Jackson 5 appeared in Chicago, at New York's Apollo Theater and as the opening act for the Temptations and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. At Knight's urging, Motown owner Berry Gordy signed the group to a contract in 1968.

Two years later, when Michael was 12, the Jackson 5 had four No. 1 hits, including "ABC" (which won a Grammy Award as best pop song) "I Want You Back" and "I'll Be There." Under Gordy's intensive grooming, the Jackson 5 achieved an astounding degree of mass popularity among black and white audiences. Their concerts caused near-riots, with young Michael becoming an unlikely prepubescent sex symbol and a Saturday morning cartoon.

Mr. Jackson began to emerge as a solo artist with the album "Got to Be There" (1971), which included the hit song "Rockin' Robin."

At 15, his voice broke, giving him a range from soprano to tenor. At the same time, the Jacksons began to chafe under the strict artistic control of Gordy and demanded greater artistic freedom. In 1975, the Jacksons left Motown for CBS's Epic label, but Gordy managed to keep the rights to the Jackson 5 name. Michael and his brothers continued performing as the Jacksons, and in 1978 Michael sang and danced as the Scarecrow in the film "The Wiz," an all-black remake "The Wizard of Oz" starring one of Jackson's idols, Diana Ross.

Jones, who produced "The Wiz's" soundtrack, agreed to produce Mr. Jackson's next solo album. Their first collaboration, "Off the Wall" (1979), sold 9 million copies and had four Top 10 hits. In 1982, Mr. Jackson released his next, "Thriller," which was also produced by Jones. It became an instant phenomenon, selling more than 40 million copies globally and yielding seven Top 10 hits, including "Billie Jean," "Beat It" and the title track.

"Thriller" won eight Grammy Awards, but it was Mr. Jackson's breathtaking performances on music videos accompanying the album that became instantly memorable. He choreographed the exciting dance routines, which featured his showstopping moonwalk, acrobatic moves and uncanny precision. He started wearing a white glove on one hand, which became one of his sartorial signatures. Several guest stars, including Paul McCartney, Eddie Van Halen and Vincent Price, appeared on videos from the album.

His 1987 album, "Bad," sold 30 million copies and produced five No. 1 singles, including the title track, "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" and "Man in the Mirror." Videos from the album dominated MTV. By the time of his 1991 album, "Dangerous," Mr. Jackson had parted ways with producer Jones. Although the album sold 32 million copies, it was seen as something of an artistic letdown.

In his 30s, Mr. Jackson started to become more enigma than entertainer. He straightened his hair and nose, beginning a process of almost surreal self-reconstruction. In time, Jackson's skin turned from brown to a pale, ghostly white, his nose shrank from repeated plastic surgery, and his frame remained painfully gaunt. He wore outlandish costumes in public, spoke in an airy, high-pitched whisper.

His world devolved into a series of tabloid headlines that reported rumors or facts about everything from his curious pet ownership to the plastic surgeries that drastically changed him. He built a private playland, the sprawling Neverland, replete with an amusement park and zoo, to which he invited scores of underprivileged children. He was accused of abusing a child in the 1990s (a case which was settled out of court in 1994 for a reported amount between $15 million and $24 million).

For all his impact on popular music, Mr. Jackson's life seemed to play out as a metaphor on the delusions and cruelty of fame. He was unlucky in the art of public relations, and sometimes he was just unlucky, as when pyrotechnics set his hair on fire during the filming of a Pepsi commercial.

Other misfortunes he seemed to bring on himself -- and theories about his behavior were never in short supply. People loved to think they had cracked the mystery of Michael: He wanted his face to resemble Liz Taylor's. He hated his appearance because his father and brothers used to tease him. He was repressed, he was asexual, he was an addict, he was a pervert, he was from outer space, he was a genius, he was stupid, he was insane. The truth was never known and Jackson recoiled from media scrutiny, and largely thwarted the assistance of image experts, who displeased him.

CONTINUED ON newsWP2

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

[Entertainment News]
MICHAEL JACKSON 1958-2009
Object of Acclaim, Curiosity, The 'King of Pop' Dies in L.A.
By Hank Stuever and Matt Schudel
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, June 26, 2009

CONTINUED FROM newsWP1

In the early 2000s his fortunes and recording contracts waned, and an album, 2001's "Invincible," essentially tanked, selling only 10 million copies worldwide. Mr. Jackson lashed out at his record label and claimed, at an appearance with the Rev. Al Sharpton, that he was the victim of racism. The hits kept not coming, but the headlines did: In November 2002, Jackson appeared to dangle his blanketed infant son over a Berlin hotel balcony while greeting fans and paparazzi below, which brought outrage.

He was briefly married to Elvis Presley progeny Lisa Marie Presley -- a largely symbolic union of pop dynasties. After that marriage was over, he became a father to three children, whose paternal and maternal origins created much speculation: Prince Michael I, who is now 12, and Paris Michael, 11. His youngest child, Prince Michael II (nicknamed Blanket as a baby), is 7. (He is also survived by his siblings and his parents, Joe and Katherine Jackson.)

"I must confess I am not surprised by today's tragic news," Michael Levine, a Los Angeles publicist who represented Mr. Jackson when the singer was accused of child molestation in the 1990s, said in a statement. "Michael has been on an impossibly difficult and often self-destructive journey for years. His talent was unquestionable but so too was his discomfort with the norms of the world. A human simply can not withstand this level of prolonged stress."

Mr. Jackson was planning to appear in a sold-out series of concerts in London next month that would have run until March. Promoters of the concerts had recently said that the singer had passed a physical examination to assuage any doubts he was ready for a comeback.

But what sort of comeback? It seemed increasingly futile. Michael Jackson's many observers (a media cottage industry all its own) generally regard a 2003 television interview he gave as the beginning of his end. In that interview, with British journalist Martin Bashir, Mr. Jackson appeared holding hands with a young boy who had cancer. Something seemed weird. Something always seemed weird.

That particular weirdness eventually led Mr. Jackson back to court in the spring of 2005, after the boy accused the pop star of molesting him. Mr. Jackson's fragility was never more pronounced than in that Santa Maria courthouse. Here at last was the daily, up-close look at a withered man in a mirror, under the courtroom's fluorescent lights. He was always polite, and always sad. Mr. Jackson was acquitted and spent the rest of his days on the move, on jets and in hotels, dodging bankruptcy proceedings, as if he were on the run from not only what he was, but what the world made him.


[Music]
The Culture: Long Before 'Thriller,' Jackson Shattered Racial Barriers
By Wil Haygood
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 26, 2009

In 1972, when the movie "Ben" premiered and sent that falsetto voice of little Michael Jackson soaring across movie screens, the joy inside black America was palpable. It wasn't just that the song raced to No. 1 on the charts, it was that it flowed from the magic of film. And black America, long kept away from mainstream movies, kept a close eye on -- and a keen interest in -- the world of Tinseltown.

Little Michael had come upon this particular movie only 18 years after the collapse of legal segregation in the United States. And many of the movie houses that showed "Ben" had once been theaters where blacks could not gain admittance. In urban America, the reality of the times had hardly gone unnoticed. The '60s may have been over, but the battles it took to shape them still hung in the air.

In the '70s, groups of middle-aged black Americans could still reminisce about the chitlin circuit and the world of vaudeville, two popular venues for gifted black performers. Maybe they had seen Moms Mabley out there on the circuit; maybe they had seen Redd Foxx in some pungent-smelling juke joint in Atlantic City; maybe they had even seen the high-stepping Nicholas brothers -- Fayard and Harold -- soaring over chairs on a stage over in Baltimore.

Before politics took a more defiant tone, and before the arrival of wonderful-sounding black ministers (Gardner Taylor, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Martin Luther King Jr.), it was music that black America offered to mainstream society as a kind of plea for acceptance. There were Scott Joplin and Louis Armstrong; Duke Ellington and Lena Horne. Of course, Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker.

Still, the only black musicians to have made a mark on the soundtracks of mainstream movies in the 1960s were Quincy Jones and Duke Ellington.

Little Michael landed upon the mindset of film-hungry black America when its citizenry was starved for identity on the big screen.

He was but a 14-year-old child in 1972, and black mothers and aunts and big sisters in the ghettos of the nation seemed to pull that child to their bosoms. He was a little brother; he was a precious boy; he was like the prodigy in your own church. There he was on "American Bandstand" and on "Soul Train." The early '70s actually represented some beautiful times in America -- freedom rising, integration building and little Michael singing on the hand-held radio. Little Michael with the prettiest and fluffiest Afro in the land.

Throughout the years, he claimed covers of Ebony and Jet magazines. And even when his life had begun to take on tawdry dimensions, black America refused to abandon him. It was as if they knew the pain that had greeted so many child performers, black or white.

The famed pianist and singer Bobby Short had been a child performer. "One day when you're in show business and are a child, something clicks and you realize what you do is important to a lot of adults around you," Short once said. "You are emboldened, and your childhood is over. It's not a happy circumstance. If you don't go on, you're going to hurt a lot of people."

There were those in America, especially in black America, who imagined linkages between Sammy Davis Jr. -- himself a onetime vaudeville performer -- and Michael Jackson. Both had seemed eternally childlike. Both had a love affair with "The Wizard of Oz." There's no place like home, there's no place like home.

How many black hepcats in barbershops talked of Michael's private jetting around the globe? That was economic power! How many women in hair salons in South Central L.A. wondered: Who does his hair?

It seemed as if he could snap his finger and make something happen, make animals appear in his back yard. The Wizard of Odd, yes, but in black America, Michael was a pioneer. Michael was a kid, and allowances must be made for kids.

And, of course, there was that skin dynamic. His complexion went from a beautiful and sweet nutmeg brown to an alabaster white. The tabloids might have gone into a spasm, but that wasn't quite the reaction in black America. To be sure, there were cackles, but more often than not, sympathy. Leave Michael alone became a popular refrain in the black community. Just leave him alone.

And, of course, he was pretty much left alone.

Black America always considered Michael Jackson, his voice shooting out over them, to be at home among them. He'd be at one of those NAACP Image Awards shows, and he'd be standing among folk who had watched him grow up. He accepted the joyful tears of the old and young and moved into their hearts.

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

[Iran]
Ahmadinejad Demands Apology From Obama
Iranian Warns Against Further Criticism
By Thomas Erdbrink and William Branigin
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, June 26, 2009

TEHRAN, June 25 -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lashed out at President Obama on Thursday, warning him against "interfering" in Iranian affairs and demanding an apology for criticism of a government crackdown on demonstrators protesting alleged electoral fraud.

Despite an increasingly harsh response to the protests, opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi pledged to continue challenging official results that showed a landslide victory for Ahmadinejad in Iran's June 12 presidential election. He vowed to resist growing pressure to end his campaign and said he remains determined to prove that those who rigged the election are also responsible for the violence unleashed on opposition protesters.

The two rivals issued their dueling statements -- neither mentioning the other by name -- a day after security forces broke up the latest demonstrations, then temporarily detained university professors who had met with Mousavi.

Two grand ayatollahs, leading figures in Iran's predominant Shiite Muslim faith, also waded into the fray, as did European foreign ministers from the Group of Eight world powers at a meeting in Italy.

In a speech at a petrochemical plant in southern Iran, Ahmadinejad said Obama was behaving like his predecessor, George W. Bush, and suggested that talks with the United States on Iran's nuclear program would be pointless if Obama kept up his criticism. Obama, who has expressed interest in talking to the Iranian leadership about the nuclear issue, said at a news conference Tuesday that he was "appalled and outraged" by recent violence against demonstrators, and he accused the Iranian government of trying to "distract people" by blaming the unrest on the United States and other Western nations.

"Do you want to speak with this tone?" Ahmadinejad responded Thursday, addressing Obama. "If that is your stance, then what is left to talk about?"

He added: "I hope you avoid interfering in Iran's affairs and express your regret in a way that the Iranian nation is informed of it." He asked why Obama "has fallen into this trap and repeated the comments that Bush used to make" and told the U.S. president that such an attitude "will only make you another Bush in the eyes of the people."

Ahmadinejad also praised Iran's election as demonstrating "the great capabilities and grandeur of the Iranian nation" and declared that his country is practicing true "freedom," as opposed to "this unpopular democracy which is governing America and Europe." Americans and Europeans "have no right to choose and are restricted to . . . two or three parties" in voting for their leaders, he said.

In Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs dismissed Ahmadinejad's criticism. Obama has said "that there are people in Iran who want to make this not about a debate among Iranians in Iran, but about the West and the United States," Gibbs said. "And I would add President Ahmadinejad to that list of people trying to make this about the United States."

Iran's government has declared that Ahmadinejad decisively won the election with nearly 63 percent of the vote, while Mousavi received less than 34 percent and two other candidates trailed far behind. Mousavi immediately challenged the results, charging that massive fraud "reversed" the outcome and cheated him of victory.

The 67-year-old former prime minister posted a statement on his Web site Thursday saying he was being pressed to withdraw his challenge and had been severely restricted in his ability to communicate with supporters.

"However, I am not prepared to give up under the pressure of threats or personal interest," he said.

"The truth . . . is that a major fraud has taken place in these elections, and the people who tried to show their dismay with this event were attacked, killed and arrested," Mousavi said. "Not only am I not scared of responding to their false accusations, but I'm ready to show how the people responsible for the presidential fraud" are also to blame for having "spilled the blood of the people." Mousavi asked his followers to "continue your legal and responsible protest, which is born out of the Islamic revolution, with calm and by avoiding trouble."

His Web site also said 70 academics were arrested Wednesday night and early Thursday after meeting with him. It said that authorities released all but four and that those still detained included Mousavi's former campaign manager.

The pro-government Fars News Agency denied the account. Quoting an "informed source," it said that prosecutors questioned "certain participants" after Mousavi's meeting with members of the Islamic Association of University Lecturers but that "none of the said people were arrested."

A senior Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi, called for the election dispute to be settled through "national reconciliation," saying in a statement Thursday that recent events "have caused deep regret and sorrow in all Iranians loyal to the Islamic establishment and revolution . . . and have gladdened the enemy," state-run Press TV reported. "Definitively, something must be done to ensure that there are no embers burning under the ashes" and to turn "hostilities, antagonism and rivalries . . . into amity and cooperation" he said.

But a leading dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, said an "impartial" committee should resolve the election dispute, which he warned could ultimately undermine the government if it is not addressed. "If Iranians cannot talk about their legitimate rights at peaceful gatherings and are instead suppressed, complexities will build up which could possibly uproot the foundations of the government, no matter how powerful," Agence France-Presse quoted him as saying.

At a G-8 meeting in Trieste, Italy, foreign ministers sought to forge a united stand against the Iranian crackdown but ran into opposition from Russia. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Iran "must now choose whether or not it wants to keep the door open to dialogue with the international community, because the open hand from the United States, that we supported, must not be greeted with a hand covered in blood."

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband deplored a "profound clampdown" in Iran and said a "crisis of credibility" is dividing Iran's government from its people.

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov opposed any condemnation of Tehran, saying after talks with Frattini that "isolating Iran is the wrong approach."

The streets of Tehran were largely quiet Thursday after another opposition presidential candidate, Mehdi Karroubi, postponed plans for a demonstration to mourn protesters killed by security forces. Karroubi said he has not "succeeded in booking a particular location" for a mourning ceremony, apparently because the government has banned demonstrations. He said he still wants to organize a gathering that would "match the dignity of the martyrs of the past few days."

Karroubi also charged that the government has acted illegally in banning demonstrations and arresting political activists. He called for the immediate release of political detainees, and he challenged the Interior Ministry to allow separate but simultaneous demonstrations by Ahmadinejad supporters and the opposition to see which side would draw more people.

At least 17 people have been reported killed in violence after the presidential election, state-run media have reported. But Press TV, an English-language version of state television, put the death toll at 20 and quoted "informed sources" as saying that eight of the dead were members of the pro-government Basij militia. There was no independent confirmation of the claim, which marked the first mention in official media of deaths among security forces in the recent violence.

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

[Middle East]
The View From Egypt
Arab Activists Watch Iran And Wonder: 'Why Not Us?'
By Sudarsan Raghavan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, June 26, 2009

CAIRO, June 25 -- Mohamed Sharkawy bears the scars of his devotion to Egypt's democracy movement. He has endured beatings in a Cairo police station, he said, and last year spent more than two weeks in an insect-ridden jail for organizing a protest.

But watching tens of thousands of Iranians take to the streets of Tehran this month, the 27-year-old pro-democracy activist has grown disillusioned. In 10 days, he said, the Iranians have achieved far more than his movement has ever accomplished in Egypt.

"We sacrificed a lot, but we have gotten nowhere," Sharkawy said.

Across the Arab world, Iran's massive opposition protests have triggered a wave of soul-searching and conflicting emotions. Many question why their own reform movements are unable to rally people to rise up against unpopular authoritarian regimes. In Egypt, the cradle of what was once the Arab world's most ambitious push for democracy, Iran's protests have served as a reminder of how much the notion has unraveled under President Hosni Mubarak, who has ruled the country for 30 years.

"I am extremely jealous," said Nayra El Sheikh, 28, a blogger and Sharkawy's wife. "I can't help but think: Why not us? What do they have that we don't have? Do they have more guts?"

The frustration comes against a backdrop of deep-rooted skepticism among pro-democracy activists that U.S. policies under President Obama will help transform the region, despite his vow to engage the Muslim world in a highly publicized speech here last month. Some view Obama's response to Iran's protests, muted until Tuesday, as a harbinger of U.S. attitudes toward their own efforts to reform their political systems. The Egyptian government, they note, is a key American ally, and U.S. pressure on Egypt for reforms began subsiding in the last years of the Bush administration.

"When Obama does not take a stance, the very next day these oppressive regimes will regard this as a signal. This is a test for his government," said Ayman Nour, a noted Egyptian opposition politician who was recently released from jail. "If they can turn a blind eye to their enemy, they can turn a blind eye to any action here in Egypt."

news20090626GDC1

[Environment] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Climate Change]
Democrats confident as US climate change bill vote looms
Sweeping energy and climate change bill would deliver key Obama administration promise to cut US carbon emissions
Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 25 June 2009 12.10 BST
Article history

Democrats say they are confident of delivering on one of Barack Obama's defining promises tomorrow, by calling a vote in Congress on a sweeping energy and climate change bill.

The bill, produced with hands-on involvement from the White House and surrounded by an intense lobbying and PR offensive, would see the US commit for the first time to cutting back the carbon emissions that cause global warming.

After weeks of attack from Republicans, the energy reform package got an important boost yesterday when its most formidable opponent in Congress – the Democratic chair of the house agricultural committee – said he would now push for its passage.

"We think we have something here now that can work with agriculture," Collin Peterson, who led the Democratic opposition to the bill, told a conference call yesterday. "I think we will be able to get the votes to pass this."

Within the White House and in Congress, the vote is seen as a historic moment, both for Obama's political agenda and international efforts to reach a climate change treaty at Copenhagen at the end of the year.

"This legislation is a game changer of historic proportions," said Ed Markey, the Massachusetts Democrat who is one of the authors of the bill. "The whole world is waiting to see if Barack Obama can arrive in Copenhagen as a leader of attempts to reduce green house gas emissions."

The importance of the bill was underlined by the deep involvement from the White House. Obama earlier this week urged Congress to pass the bill, and aides have been closely involved in efforts to reach yesterday's compromise. The Democratic House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, took a gamble on moving up the date for a vote on the bill to tomorrow.

The gamble appeared to have paid off, with the Democratic leadership putting on a high-profile meeting yesterday with environmental, labour, war veterans and religious groups to talk up the bill's prospects.

"We are going to get this done," said Chris van Hollen, a member of the Democratic leadership in the house of representatives. "It's long overdue."


The bill, now swollen to about 1,200 pages, would bind the US to reduce the carbon emissions from burning oil and coal by 17% from 2005 levels by 2020 and more than 80% by 2050.

It also envisages a range of measures to promote clean energy – from a development bank for new technology to new, greener building codes and targets for expanding the use of solar and wind power.

The Democratic leadership is now hoping to pass the bill by a comfortable margin. Some environmental organisations have suggested that the bill might even win over a small number of Republicans, which would mean an important victory for Obama.

For the most part, however, Republicans have almost uniformly opposed the bill, and say it amounts to a hidden energy tax. They have also argued that the bill would drastically raise electricity prices – a claim debunked with the release of a cost-analysis by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office showing it would cost the average family $175 (£107) by 2020, and would save poor families about $40.

The study – together with the compromises won by Peterson – have made the bill more palatable to Democrats from coal and oil states and from the old manufacturing areas.

"We have been taking people out of the 'no' column, into the 'undecided' column, into the 'yes' column," said Mike Doyle, a Democratic member from a former steel industry town in Pennsylvania. "The momentum is coming to 'yes'."

But Peterson's support appears to have come only after wringing a number of key concessions on the bill over several days of bargaining, overseen by the White House energy and climate advisor, Carol Browner, and other Obama administration officials.

The most significant concession would give the US Department of Agriculture – and not the Environmental Protection Agency – control over a programme that would reward farmers for practices that reduce carbon emissions.

Peterson also forced a four-year delay in a separate environmental regulation that would have cut the profits of corn-based ethanol, and encouraged the development of non-food biofuels instead.

Those concessions have deepened the concerns of some environmental organisations that the bill is not aggressive enough in cutting emissions. However, Henry Waxman, who has been leading the bill through Congress, argued that the most important element of the bill had come through the hard bargaining process intact.

"We have not given away the essentials of the bill because the essentials are the reduction of carbon emissions," he said.


[Carbon Emissions]
Growth of global carbon emissions halved in 2008, say Dutch researchers
Recession and oil price main drivers behind fall in consumption as developing world emissions rise above 50% for first time
Duncan Clark
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 25 June 2009 17.12 BST
Article history

The growth of global carbon dioxide emissions fell by half in 2008, according to data released today. The global recession and high oil prices played a major role in reducing the rate of emissions. But measures to tackle global warming by cutting emissions such as renewable energy were only partly responsible. The data from the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (NEAA) also show that, for the first time, CO2 emissions from the developing world account for more than half of the global total.

Analysis from the NEAA draws on fossil fuel consumption figures published last week by BP. It shows that the rise in the world's emissions from fossil fuel burning and cement production in 2008 was just 1.7%, compared with 3.3% in 2007.

The slowdown in emissions growth was caused primarily by a 0.6% fall in the consumption of oil – the first decline in global oil use since 1992. This trend was unevenly distributed around the world. In China oil use continued to rise, but at only 3%, down from an average of 8% since 2001. In the US, oil consumption fell by a massive 7%.

The falling global demand reflects high prices for oil in the first half of 2008 and the economic slowdown in the second half of the year. Increasing biofuel production also helped displace a substantial volume of fossil-fuel petrol and diesel.

Jos Olivier, the NEAA researcher responsible for the new data, acknowledged that the environmental benefits of biofuels would look "less favourable" in a broader analysis considering the impact of all greenhouses gases, rather than CO2 alone. Furthermore, the data does not take into account the CO2 released by deforestation, which accounts for almost 20% of all greenhouse gas emissions and takes place overwhelmingly in the developing world.

Increasing renewable energy capacity and improving energy efficiency in many countries will also have contributed to the reduced rise in CO2 emissions. Olivier said: "The impact of energy and climate policy is hard to distinguish from those of fuel prices and the recession, but policies encouraging renewable electricity generation will have helped avoid around 500 million tonnes of CO2 from fossil-fuel power stations."

Coal consumption continued to creep up at a slower rate than in previous years, but the rise in the consumption of natural gas remained unchanged.

It is too early to determine whether the recession will lead to global emissions flattening off entirely this year. But policymakers are likely to be particularly struck by the second revelation in the NEAA analysis.

In 2008, the developing-world accounted for 50.3% of CO2 emissions, exceeding developed nations and international travel combined for the first time. With crucial UN climate negotiations over a successor to the Kyoto protocol now less than six months away, this new data will provide useful ammunition for those arguing for binding emissions targets for all nations.

news20090626GDC2

[Environment] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Fishing]
€4.4bn EU subsidies have boosted overfishing, figures show
Spain benefits most from fisheries payments which Brussels admits have been a failure
Ian Traynor in Brussels uardian.co.uk, Thursday 25 June 2009 07.00 BST
Article history

Spain has raked in more than €2.7bn (£2.29bn) in EU subsidies for its fishing industry over 12 years as part of a spending policy that Brussels admits has been a failure, according to data revealed today.

The figures suggest tens of millions have been spent subsidising vessels and practices exacerbating illegal fishing, increasing EU fleet over-capacity, and compounding overfishing in European waters.

Out of 27 countries in the EU, Spain got 48% of the subsidies dispensed, while the percentages for the other big fishing powers – France, Britain and Denmark – are only in single figures.

Two NGOs, the Pew Environment Group and EU Transparency, spent almost two years trying to obtain figures for the EU's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) subsidies. A website – fishsubsidy.org – launched by them today analyses data obtained from the European Commission and member governments. Of €4.4bn in EU handouts to the fishing industry in 1994-2006, Spain got more than €2.7bn and Britain, where the Scottish fleets make up around 70% of the industry, was given €225m – a 12th of the Spanish total.

In the current EU budget period of 2007-13, Brussels is doling out a similar level of subsidies, €4.3bn – or €837m a year.

The figures show some of the biggest cash windfalls went to ships and firms notorious for their questionable operations. A huge Spanish trawler named by Greenpeace as the most egregious offender against vulnerable stocks of Mediterranean blue fin tuna enjoyed EU subsidies of more than €4m, and more from the Spanish government. Three vessels blacklisted by Greenpeace were given handouts believed to run into millions.

The CFP falls under the authority of Brussels and the commission, not national governments. The EU fisheries commissioner, Joe Borg, this year admitted the policy was a failure.

"The large majority of subsidies are spent on vessels fishing stock that are already overfished," said Marcus Knigge of Pew. The researchers found the subsidies policy was making over-capacity worse. In Spain, most of the funding went to building new boats, while in the other countries the bulk went towards scrapping vessels. At least seven vessels notionally scrapped under subsidy received further payments. The data indicates the names of the vessels, but not the actual beneficiaries of the payments, the owners and firms, since the official suppliers of the information refused to disclose that information.

"Vessels themselves are not the recipients of EU funds. It is the owner of the vessel who receives the funds," the researchers noted. "Record-keeping by members states is not good enough," said Jack Thurston of EU Transparency.


[Engineeering]
James Dyson calls on UK government to back environmental engineering projects
At the launch of his latest innovation, Dyson accuses UK ministers of being more interested in bailing out banks than fostering entrepreneurs and engineers
Alok Jha, green technology correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 25 June 2009 16.55 BST
Article history

Sir James Dyson today criticised the UK government for its lack of support for entrepreneurs and engineers, accusing ministers of being more interested in bailing out banks than fostering companies that could create money and high-tech jobs.

The entrepreneur behind the bagless vacuum cleaner said ministers should be backing large projects that could help tackle environmental problems and also encourage young people to take up engineering.

Dyson made the comments at the launch of his latest innovation, an electric motor that spins faster than a jet engine, which will be used in the latest models of Dyson's handheld vacumn cleaners. During the launch, he pointed out that the motor had been developed by his engineers over a decade without any public funds.

"[The government] supports banks, they don't support wealth-creators," he said. "Instead of giving money to the bankers, give it to engineers, give it to science in universities, encourage children in schools to take up science and engineering and not become bankers and lawyers. It's a matter of refocusing ourselves on people and institutions that can solve our environmental problems and our wealth and trading problems in the process."

Ignoring engineering sends out wrong message to bright young people, he said. "Instead of using their hands and brains to solve real problems, they're lured by the media or the city. The irony is that engineers are said to be among the most content when it comes to job satisfaction."

Many of the world's environmental problems - and in the process the global economy - could be fixed by engineers, said Dyson. "This really is a time to back our engineers, fund them and set them the challenges."

He said the government should think big, backing large scale engineering projects. "Look at the French rail network and its nuclear power programme. They work, they're impressive and as a consequence the French revere engineers, unlike Brits. Instead of just throwing money at bankers, government should be looking at our long-term future."

Dyson's newest vacuum cleaner discards the standard electric motor, which has remained essentially unchanged since it was invented by the physicist Michael Faraday more than 150 years ago. "The advantages of our high-speed motor is that it's a third of the size of the conventional brushed motor it replaces, a third of the weight and it's twice as efficient. It can produce twice the power or it can run twice as long for a given amount of battery."

Modern electric motors use carbon brushes inside their mechanism but these can cause friction, meaning the motor wastes electricity. Dyson's computer-controlled V2 motor dispenses with the brushes and uses powerful magnets made from neodymium, a rare earth metal, to create far more movement with the same power input. At top speed, it can spin at more than 106,000 revolutions per minute, three times faster than a conventional motor, and 10 times faster than a jet engine. "The advantage of speed is that you can make it smaller and use less materials and it's more efficient."

An earlier version of the V2 motor has been on sale in handheld vacuum cleaners in Japan for four years and a larger version is used in Dyson's Airblade hand dryers.

Dyson said it was an exciting time to be an engineer or a scientist. "In the past it was about making things faster or bigger or making something in a more dramatic fashion. Now is the time to solve the very difficult [environmental] problems but I know we can do it. The technology is there and scientists are there with the means to do it and the government should realise this."

news20090626GDC3

[Environment] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Wind Power]
Offshore wind farms could meet a quarter of the UK's electricity needs
Offshore wind has the potential to power every home in the UK and provide up to 70,000 jobs, according to the government
Press Association
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 25 June 2009 10.48 BST
Article history

The UK's seas could provide enough extra wind energy to power the equivalent of 19m homes, according to an assessment by the government.

The government's strategic environmental assessment (Sea) confirmed projections that an extra 25GW of electricity generation capacity could be accommodated in UK waters.

This would be in addition to the 8GW of wind power already built or planned offshore, bringing the potential total electricity capacity of offshore wind to 33GW – enough to power every household in the UK.

According to the government, offshore wind has the potential to meet more than a quarter of the UK's electricity needs, provide the UK with up to 70,000 new jobs and generate £8bn a year in revenue.

The findings of the Sea mean the crown estate can push ahead with round three of leasing UK waters for offshore wind farms.

Under round three, the estate has earmarked 11 areas which have the potential to be viable offshore wind sites, due to the levels of wind, water depth and potential connection to the grid, and taking in shipping and environmental concerns.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) and energy regulator Ofgem also announced today they were opening the tendering process to companies to provide the £15bn of new cabling needed to connect new wind farms.

The energy and climate change minister, Lord Hunt, said: "Offshore wind is fundamental to delivering our target of 15% renewable energy by 2020, and looking ahead to reducing our carbon emissions by 80%."

He said wind power presented a "huge opportunity" for the UK industry.

"We're already the world's number one offshore wind power. With the right support, we can grow the industry even further, supporting tens of thousands of high-value, green manufacturing jobs."

A report on offshore wind construction by the British Wind Energy Association suggests that 9GW of wind power capacity will be built by 2015, with wind overtaking nuclear in terms of installed capacity in the next four to five years.

The BWEA said the government still needed to create a policy framework for wind, facilitate grid connections and ease supply chain pressures – some of the hurdles offshore wind farms face.

If annual deployment of wind capacity hit 4GW to 5GW a year Europe-wide, prices for installing wind farms could fall by 20%.

Doug Parr, Greenpeace chief scientist, said: "Offshore wind farms must be a key part of the UK's future energy supply.

"And they won't just generate electricity, they'll also generate thousands of British jobs and help tackle energy security.

"But, if Britain is to get all the benefits that offshore wind will provide, the government must do more to support the industry."

The Green party leader, Caroline Lucas, said wind power was one of the major tools for tackling climate change, and called for "urgent government commitment and serious government funding" to make sure the UK's wind industry could reach its full potential.


[Climate Change]
Politicians must champion the 'age of sensible', says science museum boss
People more likely to act on climate change if offered positive vision of low-carbon future, says Chris Rapley
James Randerson
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 25 June 2009 12.45 BST
Article history

Politicians and scientists must adopt a more positive and aspirational message on climate change and "re-think" the current "hair shirt" approach if they are to persuade more people of the importance of action, according to the head of the Science Museum in London.

On the eve of the museum's centenary, Professor Chris Rapley, said that people needed to be shown a positive picture of low-carbon future rather than focus on how difficult the global warming problem is. "We have to believe that that's possible otherwise we might as well all give up," he said.

In a reference to the title of the hit climate change film The Age of Stupid - which he called "very thought-provoking and very valuable" - he said the museum's climate change exhibit planned for 2011 will incorporate a section entitled Age of Sensible which provides a positive image of the future.

In the film, Pete Postlethwaite plays a 2050 archivist who looks back from a dystopic future on documentary footage shot at the beginning of the century and asks why humanity did not save itself from climate change while it had the chance. Rapley wants to subvert that device and offer a positive future.

"One of the key facets of that will be a vision of the future where we've got it right," he said. "My role at the Science Museum tells me that human ingenuity knows almost no bounds so that gives me hope."

He said that negative messages risked turning the public off. "If you offer a cold, grey hair shirt, miserable vision of the future nobody's going to be motivated to pursue that," he said.

But Rapley, a leading climate scientist who was previously head of the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, confessed that current progress on climate change is slow. "What worries me is that the evidence up to now is that the nose of the oil tanker is continuing to go in the wrong direction," he said. "We've got to reach our peak of annual emissions very soon. Because if we don't, the latest calculations suggest that the rate at which we would have to reduce our emissions becomes impractical by anybody's optimistic standards."

Rapley's call for a more positive message echoes that by the former government chief economist Nicholas Stern and the New Labour thinker Anthony Giddens.


[Green Building]
Sears Tower to install wind turbines, solar panels and gardensAmerica's tallest building to undergo $350m green renovation
Associated Press
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 25 June 2009 10.27 BST
Article history

Wind turbines, roof gardens and solar panels will join the pair of antennas atop the Sears Tower's staggered rooftops in Chicago, said building officials who announced on Wednesday that the skyscraper would undergo a $350m green renovation.

The five-year project would reduce the tower's electricity use by 80% and save 24 million gallons of water a year, building owners and architects said.

Separately, a 50-storey, 500-room privately funded luxury hotel with its own green components would be built next to the skyscraper within five years.

"Our plans are very ambitious," said John Huston of American Landmark Properties, who represents the building ownership. "Our plans to modernise and transform this icon will re-establish Sears Tower as a leader, a pioneer."

The environmental upgrades are the latest changes affecting Sears Tower.

In March, London-based Willis Group Holdings announced that the Sears Tower would be renamed Willis Tower later this summer after the company has moved 500 employees into the building. And construction is under way on the tower's Skydeck to add four enclosed glass-bottomed balconies.

The green project includes the installation of solar panels on the tower's 90th floor roof to heat water used in the building. Different types of wind turbines will be positioned on the tower's tiered roofs and tested for efficiency. And between 30,000 square feet (2,787 square meters) and 35,000 square feet (3,250 square meters) of roof gardens will be planted.

"This endeavour is incredibly important as a role model for others to follow," architect Adrian Smith said. "We see this as a groundbreaking opportunity."

Other changes to the 110-storey skyscraper, the tallest building in the United States, include improvements to the 16,000 window pieces along the outside of the tower to save heating energy; mechanical system upgrades; updates to the building's 104 elevators; an advanced lighting control system and restroom renovations aimed at saving water.

Officials dispelled rumors the building's black exterior would be painted silver to increase energy efficiency.

"We don't have any plans to change colors at this time," Huston said.

The project should create 3,600 jobs, officials said, and will include a learning centre on the ground floor showcasing green efforts to the public.

Sears Tower first opened in 1973, designed by the architecture firm Skidmore, Owings and Merril, the same firm that designed the city's John Hancock Tower.

Sears Roebuck and Co was the building's original tenant before the department store moved its headquarters to the Chicago suburb of Hoffman Estates in 1992. A real estate investment group formed in 2004 now owns the 1,451-foot (442-metre) skyscraper.

Officials say they'd like the tower to achieve "LEED" status, otherwise known as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a standard monitored by the US Green Building Council.

news20090626NTC1

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 25 June 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.600
News: Q&A
A helping hand for addicts
A neuropsychologist talks about the challenges of studying the addicted brain.
Erik Vance

Vincent Clark, of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, thinks he has something like a crystal ball for drug addicts. By applying traditional psychiatric evaluation and modern fMRI brain imaging to people recovering from drug addiction, he claims to be able to spot who is likely to relapse — months before the relapse actually happens.

Clark puts people recovering from cocaine and methamphetamine addiction in an fMRI machine, then asks them to play a game called 'oddball task' which is common in addiction research. Participants hit a button when they see an 'X' on a screen, but not when they see a 'T'. Mixed in are a few distracting 'C's: when these appear, they trigger activity in the posterior cingulate region of the brain in some addicts. Clark later meticulously tracks the volunteers, taking hair and urine samples, to see if they have begun using drugs again.

With more than 80% accuracy, Clark says, the test predicted who would relapse (those whose posterior cingulate did not light up) and who would stay straight (those whose posterior cingulate did) over the next six months. Combined with a simple test for a history of mania, it was 89% accurate, he says.

Clark presented the results during the annual meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping in San Francisco, California, on 19 June. Nature News talked to him about how he keeps such research going.

Would it be crass to call this measuring willpower?

It's kind of the highest level of the same constellation. When people do the task and they see the 'distracter' they tend to get very annoyed — all they are supposed to do is press when they see the 'X', and the 'C' comes up. These brain areas are involved in your emotional response. But in this case there is just a transient kind of … not depression, but more annoyance.

The relapsing group really didn't show any response. One hypothesis about addiction relapse is that individuals who don't react strongly to their environment get in situations that are much more disruptive to themselves. They kind of wander into it blindly.

What's the significance of a history of mania?

Mania, chemically, is probably very similar to what stimulants do to you. Drugs really just mimic what you already have. So these people who have evidence of a potentially overactive internal stimulant system have this possibility of relapse that's higher later.

But that in itself isn't enough for these people to relapse.

No, not at all. But that combined with imaging gives you this close-to-90% [predictive power].

So you envision someone checking into a clinic, playing this game in the scanner and getting tested for mania in their past. If both come out positive, then they would get more intensive care.

It would suggest that this person needs more attention. Up to half of our population of addicts is not being that well served by treatments that are available. We've looked at a number of different populations. Individuals in drug court, they do a crime and the judge says, "You go get treatment and if you use again you are going to jail." In that group, at six months, about 50% use [drugs]. They know they are going to get caught and they do it anyway. Residential treatment centres, where they are living in a special environment and getting treated every day – that's [also] about 50% at six months. We recruited for this study at outpatient treatment, where they were living at home and getting some kind of treatment a couple of times a week – that's 50% [too]. It suggests that there is this native property in these people that results in relapse which isn't being touched all that well by treatment.

I understand putting together subjects was the most difficult part.

It was pretty difficult. A lot of things have to happen.

Seventy-two people were in this study. Is that a lot?

We started with 400. We could probably have done it with half as many.

Getting more than that together would be difficult?

But not impossible. What we would like to propose to the National Institute on Drug Abuse — which funded this originally — is to go into local prisons in New Mexico, scan people in prison and then monitor them after they are released. The Mind Research Network [that I work with] has the world's first mobile MRI system that can do functional brain mapping.

Did the patients know what this study was about?

Absolutely. We said we were looking for ways to predict who is going to relapse. They do care. These people want to be a part of the solution.

Did you catch those who relapsed through drug testing, or did they confess?

Many people came back and said, "Sorry, I relapsed." In the worst cases, we could not find them and we called their families or friends.

Predicting relapse is not the same as targeting the part of the brain that is causing it, though, is it?

It could be. If we find a brain network that is causal, then learn how to affect its behaviour, we can help keep people sober longer. Maybe even cure [the addiction].

I know you were working on this for some time.

Yeah. A decade is a long time to wait on one question.


[naturenews]
Published online 25 June 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.598
News
Female promiscuity may not benefit offspring
'Higher quality' male seed beetles lose post-copulatory battle.
Daniel Cressey

Mating takes time and energy and it is unclear why a female would choose to mate more than once if she could fertilize her eggs with a single mating.

A common explanation for females mating with more than one male — polyandry — is that there is a genetic benefit for the offspring, which outweighs the costs to the female of additional sexual encounters. But a study published in Science casts doubt on this theory.

"This is a long-standing and quite widely accepted hypothesis," says Arnqvist. "Ours is the first direct test of this hypothesis."

Expecting to find weak effects in favour of the existing theory, Goran Arnqvist, an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Uppsala in Sweden, and his colleagues studied post-mating sexual selection in seed beetles (Callosobruchus maculatus). The team found that 'higher-quality' males actually had consistently lower post-mating success than 'lower-quality' males¹.

Beetle breeding

The researchers established a population of beetles in which they knew, for a given female, which males were 'high' or 'low' quality — good or bad mates.

To do this they looked at the average number of adult offspring the males had over their lifetimes. Males that produced a large number of progeny were considered high quality, males that fathered fewer offspring were deemed low quality.

They then mated females first with a sterile male and then with either a high or low quality male. The fertilization success of the second male was calculated from the number of eggs that hatched compared with the total number of eggs produced.

Surprisingly, the lower-quality males were responsible for a greater proportion of the eggs produced in these experiments than the higher-quality males.

"One prediction is that females should bias paternity towards males with genes that elevate offspring fitness. The current study is fascinating because it shows the opposite pattern," says Michael Jennions, a biologist at the Australian National University in Canberra.

Promiscuity pays?

There are reasons other than gaining good genes that females may mate with males, Arnqvist notes. They may gain access to territory or resources, or they may simply put an end to harassment by amorous suitors.

His preferred explanation for why females do not appear to benefit from multiple matings, and for the success of poor-quality males, is sexually antagonistic genes: "genes that have opposite effects on fitness in the two sexes. The same gene being good for one sex is bad for the other. The results are consistent with that."

Arnqvist says that these kinds of effects are much more common than is generally thought.

Jennions adds, "The general problem of why females mate multiply remains, but this new study places greater pressure on those who invoke explanations based on genetic benefits to produce supporting data."

References
1. Bilde, T. , Foged, A. , Schilling, N. & Arnqvist, G. Science 324, 1705-1706 (2009).

news20090626NTC2

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 25 June 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.601
News
Climate refugee fears questioned
Few figures to back up prophecies of mass migration to rich countries.
Natasha Gilbert

There's huge uncertainty over the numbers that will migrate to other countries as a result of climate change.Associated PressAssumptions that up to a billion people will permanently migrate from poor to rich countries to escape the effects of climate change are "alarmist" and false, a meeting of population and climate experts in London heard yesterday.

Cecilia Tacoli, a migration researcher at the Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), a not-for-profit research body based in London, called on policy-makers to change their view of migration. It is not so much a "problematic consequence of climate change" that needs to be prevented, she said, as one of the solutions for adaptation to climate change.

The meeting, which continues today, is organized by the United Nations Population Fund and the IIED. Intergovernmental bodies such as the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and representatives from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are also attending.

The aim is to agree how to deal with the humanitarian outcomes of climate change, including migration. The meeting also aims to boost discussions of the issue higher up political agendas, in an attempt to get them included in the negotiations on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December.

Unquestioned orthodoxy?

Tacoli warned the meeting against frequently cited estimates of the number of people who will migrate because of climate change, which range from 200 million to 1 billion people by 2050.

In a paper Tacoli presented to the meeting, to be published later this year in the journal Environment and Urbanization, she says it is "surprising" that these figures have "become an unquestioned orthodoxy, especially amongst natural scientists concerned with climate change". She told Nature News that the figures are "based on assumptions that are simplistic, if not outright dodgy", and add to the alarmist view of migration that is rife among policy-makers.

For example, The Economics of Climate Change, the 2006 review commissioned by the UK government from Nicholas Stern, a former chief economist at the World Bank, quoted the most frequently cited estimate of 200 million environmental refugees by 2050.

Tacoli says this figure is an estimate of the number of people at risk — those living in areas most likely to be affected by climate change — rather than the number of those who will move as a result.

(“The only thing we have to go on is small-scale case studies.”
Philippe Boncour
International Organization for Migration)

Policy-makers have a "negative perception of migration", Tacoli believes. They see migration as a problem because they think it will be permanent, and that the majority of movement will be from rural areas in poor countries to urban areas in rich ones.

Poor people are unlikely to have the financial resources needed to migrate long-distances to international destinations, the study says.

The evidence also shows that temporary migration is far more common than permanent moves, with people predominantly moving from one rural area to another within national borders, Tacoli says. For example, a 1999 census in Vietnam mentioned in her study found that 37% of migration was between rural areas, compared with 26% between urban centres and 27% in rural-to-urban movement.

There may be large scale migrations, Tacoli says, but just not in the "ways and numbers predicted": a lack of reliable data and the interplay of other factors, such as poverty, currently make it difficult to produce reliable figures.

She says a "radical change in thinking" about migration is needed to view it as part of the solution in adapting to climate change. "Those people who cannot use it as part of the solution will be at a disadvantage," she says.

Unheeded warning

Norman Myers, an expert in the environment and sustainability at the University of Oxford, originally came up with the 200 million estimate. He told Nature News, it is "difficult to demonstrate definitively" that the numbers of people who will migrate will fall in the 200 million to 1 billion range. His estimates were based on anecdotal evidence on migration from all over the world, including Africa, Central America and India.

But he said that climate change presents an "unprecedented challenge" for migration and that the available evidence suggests numbers of people forced to move as a result will fall within the range.

Despite warnings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its first report in 1990 that "the gravest effects of climate change may be those on human migration", the UNFCCC and its Kyoto Protocol are silent on the issue. The issue also received very little attention in the discussions on Kyoto's successor until the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, a forum bringing together UN agencies and other non-governmental organizations working on humanitarian issues, raised it at the climate change summit in Poznań, Poland, in December last year.

On 30 April, in a move unprecedented in its 17-year history, the committee issued a joint statement to Yvo de Boer, the executive secretary of the UNFCCC, calling for the humanitarian implications of climate change, including migration, "to be acknowledged and addressed in the successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol".

Philippe Boncour, head of the International Dialogue on Migration division at the IOM, says the IOM has made some progress lobbying countries — he would not say which — to encourage them to include a statement on humanitarian issues, including migration, to be included in the text of the climate change deal to be negotiated at Copenhagen.

He told Nature News that here is a "great need" for additional research into environmental migration. "The only thing we have to go on is small-scale case studies," he says. "We need to upgrade this to regional and country level."