news20090814bil

[Biography of the Day] from [Britannica]
August 14
Halle Berry
Born this day in 1966, Halle Berry in 2002 became the first African American to win the Academy Award for best actress, earning the honour for her nuanced portrayal of Leticia Musgrove in Monster's Ball (2001).

[On This Day] from [Britannica]
August 14
1880: Cologne Cathedral completed
Originally started in 1248, construction of the cathedral (Kölner Dom) in Cologne, Germany—the largest Gothic church in northern Europe and the city's major landmark—was finally completed on this day in 1880.

1959: American basketball player Magic Johnson, who led the National Basketball Association (NBA) Los Angeles Lakers to five championships, was born in Lansing, Michigan.

1947: Pakistan became a sovereign state, bringing an end to British rule there.

1941: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued the Atlantic Charter, a joint declaration that stated, among other points, that they desired no territorial changes without the free assent of the peoples concerned.

1935: The U.S. Congress enacted the Social Security Act, establishing a permanent national old-age pension system through employer and employee contributions.

1917: China declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary during World War I.

1900: An international force seized Beijing to crush the Boxer Rebellion.

1457: The first book printed in Europe with a colophon bearing the name of the printer was completed in Mainz, Germany.


[Today's Word] from [Dr. Kazuo Iwata]
August 14
If I should meet with God in the dusk of a street,
I would ask Him to give me a strong will not to trust in Him.
    Jhon Glasworthy (born this day in 1867)

われもし巷の夕暮れに神にあわば、かくは祈らん。
Ware moshi chimata-no yugure-ni kami-ni awa-ba kaku-wa inoran.
我に神を頼まざる強き心を与えたまえと。
Ware-ni kami-wo tanoma-zaru tsuyoki kokoro-wo atae-tamae-to.


[日英混文稿]

news20090814jt1

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

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Friday, Aug. 14, 2009
Few hazard maps for the Big One
Kyodo News

Most municipal governments have failed to issue hazard maps that could help residents avoid dangerous areas following a major earthquake, land ministry data showed Thursday.

The data, compiled by the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry, indicate 59 percent of 1,800 cities, towns and villages decided to skip the maps because of financial difficulties. Tokyo's 23 wards are included in the total.

In 2006, the ministry urged all municipal governments to compile hazard maps by March 31, 2009, after powerful quakes ravaged Niigata Prefecture in 2004 and Fukuoka Prefecture in 2005.

The ministry is pushing municipalities to issue the maps soon, saying disaster prevention is based, among other things, on residents using such maps to deepen their awareness of the dangers around them.

There are two kinds of quake maps. One shows the largest expected earthquake intensity for each 50-sq.-meter area in a region, while the other indicates areas susceptible to liquefaction and fire damage. The ministry surveyed all municipalities. Of the 1,800 municipal governments, only 739, or 41 percent, said they had prepared either or both types of maps.

The slowest municipalities are in Toyama, Fukui, Shimane, Yamaguchi, Akita, Fukushima and Yamanashi prefectures, while the fastest and most thorough are in Miyagi, Tochigi and Shiga prefectures, the data show.

In Shizuoka Prefecture, where a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck Tuesday, 59 percent of the municipalities had compiled quake hazard maps.

Seismologists think that a magnitude 8 quake, referred to variously as the Tokai earthquake and the Big One, could strike Shizuoka and adjacent areas soon.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Friday, Aug. 14, 2009
DPJ flattering to deceive: Hosoda
By MASAMI ITO
Staff writer

The policy platform unveiled by the Democratic Party of Japan is full of pledges simply to woo voters ahead of the Aug. 30 Lower House election, Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Hiroyuki Hosoda lamented Thursday.

The DPJ "is just talking off the top of its head with attractive (policies) for the election to collect votes," Hosoda said in an interview with The Japan Times. "It is not good to flatter the people to win their favor with policies that are just for show, although slowly, I think the public is beginning to realize that."

The LDP-New Komeito ruling bloc is in for a tough time in the Aug. 30 poll and many critics speculate it could lose power to the DPJ. However, Hosoda said he is certain the coalition will be able to maintain a majority in the lower chamber.

"This election is turning out to be very difficult for the LDP, but the LDP-New Komeito ruling coalition will get a majority," Hosoda said. Winning a majority "is our goal and I am convinced we will be able to collect enough" seats.

Among the DPJ's pledges are a \26,000 per child monthly allowance and toll-free expressways, but Hosoda slammed them as "haphazard" policies that lack concrete financial support. The DPJ has stressed that it would cut wasteful spending by the current ruling bloc-led government and use that money for other purposes.

"When I asked how the DPJ intends to implement these pledges that are based on giving out money without straining the nation's financial conditions, (its members) said they would save money through administrative reform," Hosoda said. "But if they can't save enough money, they would just increase deficits . . . and that's irresponsible."

He played up the ruling bloc, pointing out that it has come up with more "realistic" measures, including providing free nurseries and kindergartens and an across-the-board freeway toll of \1,000 on weekends and holidays. In addition, it has suggested the possibility of raising the consumption tax in the near future — an idea not popular with the public, particularly amid the current recession.

The DPJ, on the other hand, has said it won't raise the consumption tax for at least four years.

"The DPJ is just seeking popularity through launching haphazard policies and avoiding a consumption tax hike," Hosoda said. "If by chance the DPJ should take power, it is the public who would end up paying for the tragedy, and I am just hoping they come to realize that in the next 17 days" before the election, he said.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Friday, Aug. 14, 2009
Party vows to nationalize expressways if it wins
Kyodo News

A government led by the Democratic Party of Japan would nationalize all expressways around 2012 to achieve the party's campaign promise to scrap expressway tolls, DPJ sources said Thursday.

Under a rough timetable drawn up to implement one of the main planks in the largest opposition party's election platform, the Japan Expressway Holding and Debt Repayment Agency would be abolished, possibly in April 2012, the sources said.

The abolition of the independent administrative agency, created in 2005 as part of the privatization of the nation's highway public corporations, would be followed by the nationalization of expressways.

Tolls would then be scrapped, except for some congested expressways, including the Metropolitan Expressway network in and around Tokyo.

Of the roughly \37 trillion debt the agency assumed from the highway firms, about \31 trillion had yet to be repaid as of the end of March and would be carried over to the government, the sources said.

The remaining debt would be paid back over 60 years with long-term government bonds, according to the timetable. But this method could spur criticism that it goes against the idea that those who benefit from expressway use should repay the debt.

Toll-free expressways are one of the pillars of the DPJ campaign platform for the Aug. 30 general election, along with monthly child allowances and income support for households engaged in agriculture.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Friday, Aug. 14, 2009
Man sent up in first lay judge trial to appeal
Kyodo News

The 72-year-old man convicted last week in the first lay judge trial has filed an appeal, sources said Thursday.

The Tokyo High Court appeal won't involve lay judges.

Katsuyoshi Fujii was sentenced to 15 years by the panel of six citizen and three professional judges in a four-day trial at the Tokyo District Court earlier this month for stabbing and murdering a 66-year-old neighbor in Tokyo in May.

His lawyers sought leniency, claiming the incident occurred accidentally after a quarrel between the defendant and victim, while prosecutors demanded he receive 16 years in prison.

Whether professional judges at the high court will overturn the ruling or reduce Fujii's sentence, in which lay judges had a hand, will be the focus of the appeal.

In November, the Legal Training and Research Institute of the Supreme Court said in a report that a high court should respect a lay judge trial ruling unless the facts and the prison term decided by the district court were "extremely unreasonable."

Recommendations in the report are unbinding but are expected to influence judgments at high courts.

At the district court, the panel of judges rejected Fujii's side of the argument that the victim had engaged in provocative behavior that led him to stab her to death, giving him a sentence just one year shorter than demanded.

Under the lay judge system, six citizens randomly chosen from the voters sit together with three professional judges to decide the facts about a case based on the evidence presented. Should they find the accused guilty, they will also decide the sentence.

The vote is decided on a conditional majority, where at least one professional judge must be included in the majority decision. The lay judges are prohibited from revealing the details of the deliberations, including their vote count.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Friday, Aug. 14, 2009
Happiness party denies poll exit
Kyodo News

The newly founded Happiness Realization Party denied Thursday it would withdraw from the Aug. 30 general election, apparently reversing a decision to cancel the fielding of 347 candidates nationwide.

At a news conference, however, officials from the party, which was founded by the Happy Science religion, said they would be unable to field some of the candidates who initially intended to run. They didn't elaborate.

According to sources, Ryuho Okawa, the leader of Happiness Realization, told some candidates the party planned to withdraw from the election. But some of them apparently opposed the move, and party executives were discussing their options, the sources said.

"A responsible department of the party headquarters told us the party will not run in the election," a source at Happiness Realization's local branch in Kyoto Prefecture said before Thursday's denial.

"What the top leader is said to be thinking was conveyed to me. I think the party will withdraw from the election," a candidate planning to run in Tokyo said.

The party has said it planned to field candidates in all 300 single-seat and 11 proportional-representation constituencies.

Okawa said last month that he himself would run in the election, placing himself at the head of the list of party candidates in the Tokyo proportional-representation block.

news20090814jt2

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

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Friday, Aug. 14, 2009
Specialty match shop opens in Kobe, ex-home to industry

KOBE (Kyodo) A specialty shop has recently opened in Kobe selling various matches in the port city once known for what was one of Japan's leading exports.

Among the products on sale at Match-bo are matches in boxes of old-fashioned design from the Meiji and Taisho eras and moisture-proof matches for use in emergencies.

Customers can also ask the shop to print messages on a matchbox, and paint the boxes themselves.

The Japan Match Manufacturers' Association opened the shop in Kobe's Kitano district to publicize the historical background of the match industry.

In the Meiji Era, Chinese residents of Kobe started exporting matches, thus turning Hyogo Prefecture into the main match production center in Japan. Even now, about 80 percent of domestic production is based in the prefecture.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Friday, Aug. 14, 2009
Wartime photos taken by army press officer in China discovered

FUKUOKA (Kyodo) A large collection of wartime photos taken in China mostly by a press officer in the Imperial army has been found, his relatives said Thursday.

The seven albums of some 780 photos had been stored by Eiichi Kashihara, who died in July at the age of 95.

Kashihara is believed to have taken most of the photos himself in Hankou and its vicinity from around 1940 to 1942, when Japan was at war with China. Hankou is now part of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province.

The photos show Japanese troops marching on roads, firing at enemy forces at the front and relaxing between fighting. Shots of Chinese selling tobacco and peanuts on the street are also in the albums.

Among the albums is a photo that shows a group of soldiers placing a "mochi" rice cake on a fighter plane on New Year's Day.

A shot of a Japanese soldier holding hands with two Chinese kids is apparently aimed at spreading the propaganda of friendship with the Chinese.

Also among the albums were photos of sumo yokozuna Futabayama, popular actor Ken Uehara, and novelists Hiroshi Muneta and Juran Hisao, all of whom visited the front lines during the war to entertain Japanese troops.

Kashihara wrote his own comments on the albums, saying the soldiers were taken to China and farther the south and only soldiers could understand the bitterness of war.

Noboru Umetani, 88, a historian and professor emeritus at Osaka University, called Kashihara's wartime photos precious portrayals of the realities of war.

Umetani, a friend of Kashihara from childhood, also has experiences as a soldier of the Imperial army in Japanese-controlled Manchuria. He was taken to Siberia as a prisoner of war by the Soviet Union.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Friday, Aug. 14, 2009
China opens probe into organ transplants

BEIJING (Kyodo) The Chinese Health Ministry is launching an "overhaul" of organ transplants carried out in mainland hospitals as a result of an investigation into the illegal organ trade following Japanese media reports, state media reported Thursday.

The state-run newspaper China Daily said the ministry's ongoing investigation has already identified 16 mainland hospitals that "failed to comply with regulations" on organ transplants.

They are among 164 medical institutions that are permitted to carry out organ transplants in the country, the newspaper said.

A team led by the ministry together with the National Organ Transplantation Committee will carry out a "final evaluation" of the remaining authorized organ transplant institutions to see if they comply with regulations.

Those that fail will have their licenses revoked, the paper said.

China in May 2007 passed laws governing organ transplants that prohibited organ-trafficking and "transplant tourism" for foreigners because of a huge shortfall of organs in the country.

Some 2 million Chinese are estimated to be in need of organ transplants each year, but only 20,000 operations are performed due to a shortage of donors, the China Daily said.

Japanese news media reported earlier this year that 17 Japanese tourists had paid up to 595,000 yuan (about $87,000) for organ transplants in Guangzhou, southern China.

The price included transport and 20 days of treatment at the unidentified hospital. Such procedures usually cost 100,000 yuan (or $14,600) if carried out legally in qualified hospitals.

To avoid detection, some of the tourists had registered under Chinese names.

The reports also said the organs had been harvested from executed prisoners. China says written consent of the prisoners or their family members is required before such organs are used in transplants.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Friday, Aug. 14, 2009
Ishihara off to lobby for Olympics
Kyodo News

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara left Thursday for Berlin, the venue for the world athletics championships that start Saturday, to promote Tokyo's bid to host the 2016 Olympics.

In a related move, the Tokyo 2016 bid committee held an event at Tokyo International Forum to draw public attention, 50 days before the International Olympic Committee picks the host city on Oct. 2 in Copenhagen. Popular badminton player Reiko Shiota and former swimmer Junichi Miyashita, who both competed in the Beijing Olympics, attended the event.

"In Berlin, there will be a lot of chances (to appeal to IOC members), so I feel a strong need to be there. Lobbying is the key," Ishihara said before his departure from Narita airport.

The outspoken governor plans to meet with IOC officials during his visit through Aug. 24.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Friday, Aug. 14, 2009
Suspect charged in Chiba slaying

CHIBA (Kyodo) A man arrested last month for allegedly killing a Chiba woman and abducting her daughter to Okinawa, by air, was charged Thursday with murder and violating weapons law.

Hiroyuki Nakada, 28, stands accused of bludgeoning to death Aiko Toyoda, 61, with a sledge hammer in a Chiba apartment on July 18. He had dated Toyoda's daughter, Tomomi, 22, and, according to an investigation, took her by car to Tochigi Prefecture that day. The two then flew from Tokyo's Haneda airport to Naha, Okinawa, the following day and visited an aquarium and a beach.

Prosecutors did not reveal whether Nakada has confessed, and are continuing to probe the alleged abduction. Nakada was arrested in Naha on July 23.

Chiba police say Nakada and the daughter began to go out after meeting through an online dating service around January. They broke up around June, but Nakada took her to Aichi Prefecture against her will in July and she consulted the police twice afterward, claiming she was being stalked.


[BUSINESS NEWS]
Friday, Aug. 14, 2009
New Toyota hybrid to outdo Prius

NAGOYA (Kyodo) Toyota Motor Corp. plans to release a cheaper compact hybrid with better fuel-efficiency than the new best-selling Prius hybrid as early as 2011, sources said Thursday.

The compact gas-electric hybrid will have a fuel efficiency of more than 40 km per liter and will be priced around ¥1.5 million, which is lower than the ¥2 million price range of the Prius and Honda Motor Co.'s Insight hybrid, the sources said.

The price competition is likely to intensify with rival Honda, Japan's second-largest automaker, which is also planning to release a hybrid version of its Fit compact in 2010.

Toyota's compact hybrid will be based on its Vitz model, which will be powered by a hybrid system that will be smaller than the current combined system of the gasoline engine and electric motor.

Fully electric zero-emission cars, already rolled out by Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., are also considered another competitive alternative to hybrids, especially as Nissan Motor Co. is preparing to launch its hatchback-type electric vehicle next year.

But with EV prices still high, Toyota President Akio Toyoda has said the automaker will focus on expanding its lineup of hybrid cars, especially with the Prius and the hybrid version of its luxury Lexus sedan receiving robust orders on the back of recent government subsidies and tax breaks for energy-saving cars.

news20090814jt3

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

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Friday, Aug. 14, 2009
WITNESS TO WAR
For vet, Soviet labor camp as bad as war
By NATSUKO FUKUE
Staff writer

24th in a series

One of the phrases Tokuro Inokuma, 80, first learned to write in school was "Forward, forward, the army goes forward." One of the first songs went "I love soldiers. When I grow up, I will ride a horse, bearing a gun and a sword."

So it was natural for Inokuma, who was born in Tokyo in 1928, to enlist in the Imperial army air corps at age 15.

"I had dreamed of becoming a soldier and devoting my life to my country," he said. "My generation wasn't forced to go to war. The atmosphere around that time made us think it was a natural thing to do."

But looking back, Inokuma believes he had been brainwashed, just like the other youngsters who believed in the state's militarist propaganda.

Marching off to war "is even more scary" as a volunteer than as a draftee, he remarked.

"I participated in the war believing it was the right thing to do. This is horrible because I truly believed in it, and it wasn't just me and my friends, but a lot of children believed it was a just war."

Inokuma was only 9 when the 1937 Marco Polo Bridge Incident happened. Japanese and Chinese soldiers exchanged fire when the local Chinese forces were alarmed by Japanese night maneuvers carried out without prior notice. The incident triggered the Second Sino-Japanese War and four years later Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, resulting in a full-scale war with the United States and its allies.

But what prompted the young Inokuma to sign up was the news that the Japanese army was withdrawing from the key island of Guadalcanal in the Solomons.

Looking at an army recruitment ad in the newspaper, Inokuma did not hesitate to volunteer — a decision he would forever regret.

His father was against it.

With Inokuma's three older brothers already drafted, his father did not want to send his youngest son, who was only 15, to the battlefield. He tried to persuade Inokuma to go to a military academy instead.

But for Inokuma, studying for four or five years at a military school would be a waste of time while others were actually fighting at the front.

After arguing for four days, his father finally gave in and told him to take care of himself.

"I still remember my father's expression. He was so reluctant," said Inokuma, adding he himself was happy he had swayed his father.

"My older sister asked quietly, 'Are you going?' " he said, calling her question a subtle expression of opposition to his choice because overt disapproval in that climate was impossible. "This is a great regret in my life."

For Inokuma, going to war was not about dying for the Emperor. It was about protecting his hometown and family.

"No matter what happens, even if I die, I thought I have to protect my family."

So he joined the army in Mito, Ibaraki Prefecture, in 1944, a year before Japan's defeat.

Military life turned out entirely different from what he had imagined.

The training he could bear, learning Morse code and how to use communications equipment, and building telegraph poles. But the bullying by senior soldiers was unbearable.

In the morning, trainees had to fold their blanket, get dressed and line up outside the barracks within three minutes. If they were late, a senior soldier would beat them with a bamboo sword.

"A senior soldier would say I'm slacking off if I put my hand in my pocket, and force me to put it in cold water in freezing winter, for example," he said. "There was not one day we were not mistreated."

Some recruits committed suicide.

"There was one guy who jumped into a plane's propeller. But we couldn't tell his parents he committed suicide."

In April 1945, Inokuma joined an air corps unit in Changchun, the capital of Jilin Province in northeastern China.

Fortunately for Inokuma, the war ended that summer before he saw any fighting.

But that was when his real nightmare began.

The end of the war brought chaos to the city, with Chinese out for revenge attacking Japanese soldiers.

"I was only thinking about how to survive each day. I couldn't think about anything else," he said.

Some recruits wanted to march to the coast and make their way back to Japan to avoid capture by the Soviet Red Army, which was driving into China, he said. He and other soldiers talked for three days about whether to stay or join them. In the end, the original group took food and guns and left in the night.

"The rest of us saw them off from the second floor of our barracks. I saw them salute us. We saluted back, crying," Inokuma said. "Nobody in that group made it back to Japan."

Weeks later, the worst fears of Inokuma and 10 other recruits came true when the Soviet forces took them prisoner.

On Sept. 16, 1945, he was ferried across the Amur River.

"I remember it well because it was my 17th birthday. I wondered if I would survive and thought about why I became a soldier. And I remembered my father's face when he approved my decision to go to war."

At that moment, he steeled himself to survive and return to Tokyo no matter what.

"I couldn't die. I had to go back home and wanted to do something good for my father," he said.

Inokuma spent two years as a slave laborer in a prison camp in Sivaki, just across the border from northeast China in the Amur region, where life was just as tough as wartime. He estimates about one in six of his fellow inmates died of malnutrition, typhus or exposure.

"People held prisoner in Russia don't want to talk about their experience because they didn't help each other survive," he said, adding they were even happy when someone died so they could steal his food and belongings.

Inokuma was one of the few Japanese who survived, but by the time he managed to return to Tokyo at age 19, his father had passed away.

"That was the saddest thing," he said. "I couldn't get to see him. I really regretted it. Because of the war, I couldn't do anything good for my father. I cannot describe how sad that is."

The war took away not only his youth but also his future.

As a returnee, he was regarded as a communist because he had been freed from a Soviet labor camp. He changed jobs 14 times, working as a plumber, mechanic and even an accountant.

After 64 years, Inokuma is worried that both conservative and liberal politicians, most not even born until after the war, are leaning toward revising the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution.

"I want politicians to think about the foundation of the Constitution, which states we will never participate in wars, and maintain it," he said.

"It's horrible that you can kill thousands of people by pushing a button, and do so without feeling," he said.

As long as he lives, Inokuma is determined to hand down his war memories to younger people. "I don't want them to make the same mistake I did."

In this series, we interview witnesses of Japan's march to war and its crushing defeat who wish to pass on their experiences to younger generations.


[BUSINESS NEWS]
Friday, Aug. 14, 2009
21,066 firms more than century old
Kyodo News

Japan has 21,066 firms founded more than a century ago and they reflect the merits of the nation's management style, a private credit research agency said Wednesday.

There were eight firms founded more than 1,000 years ago, with Osaka-based construction company Kongo Gumi topping the list with 1,431 years of history, Tokyo Shoko Research Ltd. said based on its survey.

The second-oldest company is Kyoto-based Ikenobo Kadokai, operating classes of ikebana. It was founded in 587.

It said companies that managed to survive all these years "reflect good things about the Japanese style of management, such as being realistic and employee-oriented."

The survey was conducted in May among 1,975,620 firms with a record of when they were founded registered in the agency's database.

Firms aged over a century made up 1 percent of the surveyed firms, with 82 percent of them founded in the Meiji Era (1868-1912), and most of them in the Kinki region, with 4,618.

By business category, wholesalers or retailers held the most such businesses, with 9,960 firms.

news20090814jt4

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

[BUSINESS NEWS]
Friday, Aug. 14, 2009
Vouchers for clunkers plan draws fire

WASHINGTON (AP) Japanese automakers objected Wednesday to a request from lawmakers to change the $3 billion Cash for Clunkers program to allow consumers to get vouchers even if a car isn't in stock at dealerships.

Toyota Motor Corp. said it opposed the proposal from Republican Reps. Candice Miller and Fred Upton of Michigan, saying it would "create considerable confusion for consumers and dealers that is not warranted."

Honda Motor Co. said it questioned whether changes to the popular Car Allowance Rebate System incentives were needed and the president of a trade group representing Toyota, Honda and 11 other foreign manufacturers said changing the car rebate midstream would create more complications.

"It's another whole level of complexity in a very complex program already," said Mike Stanton, president and chief executive of the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers.

Congress approved a $2 billion extension to the car rebate program last week, a move that could let consumers take advantage of the vouchers of up to $4,500 until Labor Day. Through early Wednesday, $1.32 billion had been spent on the program, leading to the sale of 316,189 new vehicles.

Miller and Upton wrote Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood earlier this week asking that consumers be allowed to receive vouchers from the manufacturers for vehicles that have yet to arrive at dealerships. The current rules require the vehicles to be at dealerships to qualify.

The lawmakers said the clunkers program has led to a scarcity of certain fuel-efficient vehicles, and reduced production levels have made it difficult for car companies to replenish their inventories. "The inventories of some auto makers and dealers have been so depleted that the program's extension may be limited in its effectiveness," Miller and Upton wrote.

The Transportation Department has been reviewing the lawmakers' request. Domestic automakers, meanwhile, have been more open to the potential changes.

Chrysler said in a statement Wednesday that because of declining inventories, "a consumer currently may have to settle for less than their first choice to lock in the benefits of the CARS program." Chrysler said it continues to "look for ways to ensure the consumer can obtain the vehicle of their choice."

General Motors Co. spokesman Greg Martin said, "a voucher idea might be worth a closer look" as vehicle inventory levels dwindle. Ford Motor Co. spokesman Mike Moran said the automaker had worked hard to ensure adequate vehicle supply at dealerships but would support the measure if it would "help consumers get the vehicles they want."


[BUSINESS NEWS]
Friday, Aug. 14, 2009
TAKING A CHANCE
High quality proves key ingredient to success
Soup Stock Tokyo founder eschews tried-and-true fast-food formulas
By TAKAHIRO FUKADA
Staff writer

High-priced but good-quality products will win the hearts of customers every time. This is the belief of Masamichi Toyama, founder of Soup Stock Tokyo, and so far he has proved it.

Contrary to the garish exteriors of most fast-food chains, Toyama opened outlets with simpler designs. They have been popular with women who might otherwise have a difficult time finding a place where they feel comfortable dining alone.

Ten years after its launch, Soup Stock Tokyo now has 53 outlets in central and eastern Japan, the 47-year-old Toyama said.

The chain had annual sales of \4.2 billion in the last business year, up from \3.9 billion the year before. Sales have increased about 20 times since the 2000 business year, consistently rising on an annual basis.

Toyama declined to disclose the company's profits.

"Since we believe we have good quality, we have been confident even though our prices are high," said Toyama, president of Tokyo-based Smiles Co., which operates Soup Stock Tokyo with 130 full-time and 1,000 part-time employees.

"Although we still sometimes receive complaints about our service from customers, we rarely get such complaints about the taste," Toyama said in a recent interview with The Japan Times.

A regular cup of soup costs \610, much higher than the \150 or so charged by other fast-food chains and nearly equivalent to the competition's full hamburger sets.

The company procures lobsters from Canada that are crushed and cooked with VSOP brandy to make its popular deluxe lobster soup.

Toyama said the chain uses no artificial flavoring, coloring, sweeteners or preservatives in its soup products.

"My wife insisted there must be some need for outside food that people can eat with ease," Toyama said. His daughter had atopy, an allergic disease, and his wife, who breast-fed her, had to be careful not to eat food with unidentified ingredients.

This experience led Toyama to opt for additive-free products.

After graduating from Keio University in Tokyo, Toyama went to work in 1985 at Mitsubishi Corp.

After he was sent to group company Kentucky Fried Chicken Japan in 1997, he got to wondering why so many fast-food outlets had huge electric signs with big lettering and colorful menus.

Even though those chains might claim their exterior designs make it easy for customers to find them, Toyama felt they were only profit-hungry and couldn't care less if their outlets were eyesores.

Toyama kept Soup Stock Tokyo's logo and interior design simple. Contrary to the perceived wisdom that black is unacceptable for eateries, he went with a predominantly black logo that uses Times New Roman font. Toyama said he chose black because he wanted the color of the soups to stand out.

Toyama also avoided using excessive color in each outlet's interior or in leaflets, and he uses white cups adorned with just the black logo.

He said the idea of a soup business came to him suddenly while he was dining with a friend. He had an image, which he described as one from "heaven," of a woman looking very relaxed sipping a cup of hot, thick white soup.

Toyama compiled a proposal in 1997 for a soup-chain business that he submitted to KFC executives. The president approved it and the project got under way.

The first outlet opened in 1999 in Tokyo's Odaiba district, and Smiles was established the following year with \120 million in capital. Mitsubishi provided most of the funding, but Toyama invested \20 million of his own money, a 16.7 percent stake. He said he wanted to make his firm unique by becoming its owner.

Oriental Land Co., operator of Tokyo Disney Resort, later joined in as an investor, but Toyama last year obtained all of Smiles' shares held by Mitsubishi and Oriental Land, becoming its 100 percent owner.

Apart from the high quality of his soups, Toyama said entrusting the business to his junior colleagues contributed to its success as he had no special knowledge in financial or accounting affairs.

Toyama said his deputy president is taking good care of managing the company and the head of the sales division is working hard. Each employee performs well and this is translating into profits.

It hasn't all been smooth for Toyama, however. An outlet in Tokyo's Tameike-sanno district remains one of his nightmares.

The area is home to numerous foreign corporations and embassies, and Toyama had high expectations that health-conscious customers would flock to his new shop.

But a harsh reality soon reared its head. Few people even walked by the shop at night or on weekends, and the shop, which covered three floors, sometimes ran up a monthly deficit of \3 million.

"That was the first time I got scared about the money," Toyama said, noting the experience prompted him to close down the outlet and change his strategy to open smaller shops.

At that time, he remembered the concept of "Light investment and high sensitivity" that he had written in his initial Soup Stock Tokyo prospectus.

The company now has a strategy of opening three to four new shops a year instead of opening numerous shops indiscriminately, and to develop soup products for infants and elderly people who require nursing care.

Toyama's horizons stretch beyond restaurants.

In September, he plans to open a secondhand shop named PASS THE BATON in Tokyo's Marunouchi business district and on the Web. The shop will handle antique, vintage secondhand goods as well as new products, including ties.

Whether it has to do with food or not, Toyama's business principle will be the same: "To enrich the value of life."

In this occasional series, we interview entrepreneurs whose spirit may hold the key to a more competitive Japan.

Masamichi Toyama career highlights
1985 — Joins Mitsubishi Corp.

1997 — Transfers to its group company, Kentucky Fried Chicken Japan, and compiles a soup business proposal.

1999 — Opens the first Soup Stock Tokyo outlet in the Odaiba waterfront district.

2000 — Establishes Smiles Co. as a startup venture under Mitsubishi.

2008 — Obtains all shares in Smiles held by Mitsubishi and Oriental Land Co., and becomes the company's sole investor.

September 2009 — Plans to open a secondhand shop, PASS THE BATON, in Tokyo's Marunouchi district and on the Web.

news20090814jt5

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

[BUSINESS NEWS]
Friday, Aug. 14, 2009
Bucking trend, Honda backs hydrogen
By ALAN OHNSMAN and MAKIKO KITAMURA
Bloomberg

Honda Motor Co. believes hydrogen will power the cars of the future, a stance at odds with the Obama administration's decision to drop automotive fuel-cell technology in favor of battery-run vehicles.

"Fuel-cell cars will become necessary," said Takashi Moriya, head of Tokyo-based Honda's group developing the technology. "We're positioning it as the ultimate zero-emission car."

Honda, the only carmaker leasing fuel-cell autos to individuals, opened a production line last year in Tochigi Prefecture to make 200 FCX Clarity sedans. The U.S. Energy Department sought to eliminate hydrogen-station funding and instead lend $1.6 billion to Nissan Motor Co. and $465 million to Tesla Motors Inc. to build electric cars, and give $2.4 billion in grants to lithium-ion battery makers.

"Honda has a propensity to think very long-term," said Ed Kim, an analyst at AutoPacific Inc. in Tustin, Calif. "It's also part of the company culture that if they've made a decision they think is correct, they'll really stick with it."

Honda isn't alone. Toyota Motor Corp., Daimler AG, General Motors Corp. and Hyundai Motor Co. say hydrogen, the universe's most abundant element, is among the few options to replace oil as a low-carbon transportation fuel.

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in May his department would "be moving away" from hydrogen as it's unlikely the U.S. can convert to the fuel even after 20 years. Nissan Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn predicts battery cars may grab 10 percent of global auto sales by 2020. Honda hasn't announced plans for a battery-electric car.

Honda's American depositary receipts fell 3 cents to $31.93 at 4:02 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They have risen 50 percent this year.

Hydrogen, made mainly for industrial use from natural gas, costs about $5 to $10 per kg for vehicles in California, more than double an equivalent amount of gasoline. Fuel-cell cars also have at least double the efficiency of gasoline models, with Clarity averaging 96 km per kg.

The Energy Department estimates future prices for hydrogen will fall to $2 to $3 a kg, Toyota said Aug. 6.

The fuel can also be made from solar and wind power and even human waste.

Toyota President Akio Toyoda said Aug. 5 his company plans consumer sales of fuel-cell cars within six years. Toyota, like Honda, is making "exponential progress" with the technology, Justin Ward, manager of Toyota's U.S. advanced power train program, said in an interview.

Battery cars are further along in the market. Mitsubishi Motors Corp. started selling the i-MiEV last month. Tesla sells the $109,000 Roadster and Nissan unveiled its electric Leaf this month, with sales to start in Japan and the U.S. next year.

Honda says hydrogen vehicles match the refueling style drivers are used to: filling up in minutes at a service station. Nissan's Leaf recharges fully in 30 minutes with a fast-charger, or up to 16 hours on a household outlet, said Tetsuro Sasaki, senior manager of Nissan's battery test group.

A budget crisis slowed plans for more hydrogen stations in California, home to the biggest fleet of cars using the fuel. At the federal level, Chu sought $333.3 million in May for battery and advanced gasoline autos in the 2010 budget, up 22 percent. Hydrogen funds were cut 60 percent to $68 million, slashing money that would have gone to transportation projects.

The Clarity is available in the U.S. only in Los Angeles, where drivers can use as many as 16 hydrogen stations. The car, which seats five, has a top speed of 160 kph and goes 386 km, more than double the 160-km range of Nissan's compact electric car. Through July, Honda leased cars to 10 drivers for $600 a month.

The need for a network of hydrogen filling stations is a problem.

"We cannot do infrastructure alone," said Moriya. "We've been developing the cars on our own without government support."

The Senate and House voted in July to restore the funds. President Barack Obama must approve the final budget.

Honda and Toyota will have to reduce production costs to win over consumers. Fuel cells need platinum — a precious metal that costs more than $1,200 an ounce (28 grams) — and current durability is half that of gasoline engines, according to Moriya.

Honda plans to offer hydrogen-fuel cars at prices comparable to midsize gasoline autos by 2020, down from a company estimate that Clarity's hand-built predecessor cost about $1 million. Moriya wouldn't discuss the Clarity's price.

Honda engineers in Tochigi are trying to trim costs. For 13 months, technicians have worked in a semiconductor-style clean room, coating rolls of plastic film for fuel-cell membranes. Nearby, a press stamps stainless-steel plates that will grip the material. Hundreds of the cells are then sealed in a metal case, forming the fuel-cell stack.

Honda's hydrogen push has been undermined by plunging sales in the U.S. Funds for fuel cells were cut and some spending shifted to other "priorities," Moriya said, without elaborating.


[SPORTS]
Friday, Aug. 14, 2009
Sprint queen Fukushima looking forward to challenge at worlds
By ED ODEVEN
Staff writer

How quickly things can change.

A year ago, sprinter Chisato Fukushima was a relatively unknown figure on the international stage. She now has the valuable experience of Olympic competition to draw lessons from and a renewed desire for success against the world's best.

Representing Japan in the women's 100- and 200-meter races and the 4×100-meter relay, Fukushima brings her speed and athleticism to Berlin for the 2009 IAAF World Athletics Championships. Her first event, the 100, begins on Sunday.

From Fukushima's perspective, Sunday will be a unique anniversary she's eagerly anticipating.

"My first race was on the 16th in last year's Olympics," the 21-year-old said, "so it'll have been exactly a year since then. I hope that I will be able to show what I've done in this past year."

And this is what the Hokkaido Prefecture native has shown in the past year: She's the nation's elite female sprinter, as evidenced by her record-breaking times in the 100 (11.24 seconds) and the 200 (23.0 seconds) at the national championships in June in Hiroshima.

"I was able to accelerate right out of the blocks. (But) I think I can go a little faster," Fukushima told reporters after her triumph in the 200.

Victories provide tangible evidence for athletes, reminding them that their training routines have produced quality results. The memory of competition serves another purpose: It enables them to see the big picture and analyze their successes and failures.

Just ask Fukushima.

"Technically, I've not changed much, but I've earned so much experience and grown up," said the Hokkaido High-Tech Athletic Club member.

Some things remain the same, though. Fukushima's flair — a small reminder of flamboyant sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner's sense of style at the 1988 Seoul Summer Games — will be exhibited in Berlin. Eleven days before the start of the world championships, Fukushima cheerfully spoke about her colorful, new press-on nails.

"I made them in the color of Germany (national flags)," she said. "I asked my sensei's daughter to do this."

Are the nails a symbol of a festive mood Fukushima will carry into worlds?

"I don't know (if I'm excited) until I actually get over there," Fukushima admitted. "(But) I'm going to perform my best with confidence and show what I've done in the nation."

Fukushima isn't the first athlete to offer an honest dose of uncertainty during a conversation before a major international competition. Furthermore, she's not the first to remind reporters that a teammate's presence can have a calming effect on them.

Asked if she'll be nervous in Berlin, Fukushima responded by saying, "No, because this time I'll be with my teammate (Asuka Terada)."

Terada, 19, also competes for the Hokkaido club and is one of Japan's young top-level sprinters. She ran Japan's third-fastest ever time (23.05) in the 200 at nationals.

Fukushima is now in the prime of her athletic career. With one Olympic experience in the books — she placed fifth in the second heat in the 100 in China — she sums up her current goals with a clear, concise message.

"I would like to do my best," she said, before adding that the 2009 IAAF World Championships is a springboard to her future goals.

"I've been training for this, looking ahead to London (the 2012 Olympics).

"My objective is to run as many races as I can and break my personal records. So it's pretty simple — run as many races and as (quickly) as I can."

news20090814lat

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

[Local News]
U.S. probes Orange County's jail system
If the Justice Department sees a pattern of civil rights abuses in deputies' treatment of prisoners, U.S. oversight is possible.
{An inmate was fatally beaten by fellow prisoners at the Theo Lacy Jail in Orange after a sheriff's deputy erroneously told them that he was child molester. (Los Angeles Times)}
By Tami Abdollah
August 14, 2009

The U.S. Department of Justice is conducting an investigation into Orange County's troubled jail system, examining a decade's worth of allegations that deputies mistreated inmates and used excessive force to keep control.

Officials from the department's Civil Rights Division are seeking to determine whether incidents of violence by jail personnel amount to a pattern of violating inmates' rights, the Sheriff's Department confirmed.

The Orange County district attorney criticized deputies earlier this year for a "code of silence" that he said hampered prosecutors' ability to investigate possible criminal activities.

Among recent cases: An inmate was stomped to death by fellow prisoners after a deputy allegedly told them falsely that the man was a child molester. A county grand jury later criticized the Sheriff's Department for trying to impede the investigation into the death and concluded that there was evidence of rampant abuse at the Theo Lacy Jail in Orange.

The department has also been criticized for using Taser stun guns on handcuffed or restrained inmates, a practice Sheriff Sandra Hutchens ended earlier this year. In 2007 and 2008, inmates died after being stunned. That change is one of several that Hutchens has made in jail policy in just over a year as sheriff.

The Justice Department investigation began at the end of December and may take more than a year to complete.

If a pattern of misconduct is found, U.S. officials could seek a court-ordered federal consent decree similar to the one that the Los Angeles Police Department had to operate under after the Rampart corruption scandal. It took nearly a decade for the LAPD to have federal oversight lifted.

For Orange County officials, that oversight would be an unwelcome prospect because it can raise costs and shift control over the jails to a court-appointed monitor.

"We do have an open and ongoing investigation into the Orange County, Calif., jails," said Alejandro Miyar, a spokesman for the Justice Department. "I can confirm that, as well as that the jurisdiction is cooperating." Miyar declined to provide additional details on the inquiry.

Under the federal law protecting the rights of the institutionalized, the department can begin an investigation if officials have reasonable cause to believe that people are subject to "egregious" conditions that deprive them of legal rights.

Orange County's jail system houses about 6,000 inmates in four facilities. The women's jail was recently closed for budgetary reasons.

The probe has already generated thousands of pages of paper as well as a weeklong visit and inspection in April of the five facilities by a team from the Justice Department, sheriff's officials said. The team included a "strategic health professional," a clinical professor of psychiatry, a corrections expert, a doctor and Justice Department staff members, according to Assistant Sheriff Mike James, who is in charge of the county's jails.

The team requested information on nearly every detail of jail life but seemed most interested in inmates' medical care and the use of force by deputies in the jails, Hutchens said.

On April 17, the federal inspectors sat down with Hutchens, James and other senior officials and told them they needed to reexamine their use of force on inmates and provide better guidelines for handling inmates who are intoxicated or withdrawing from drugs, James said.

"We have a lot of incidents where we end up using force on inmates because they are uncooperative," he said. "They want to look more into that procedure."

Federal officials have also asked for information about Taser use on inmates, including those who are already restrained or in a "prone position."

Some of the issues being raised by the federal investigation have previously come up in grand jury probes that have criticized the jail system.

Grand jury testimony on the 2006 killing of John Derek Chamberlain, the man allegedly pegged falsely as a molester, revealed that a ranking deputy was watching TV and text-messaging friends while inmates assaulted Chamberlain for about 50 minutes. Cameras have since been placed in the Theo Lacy barracks.

In June 2008, a second grand jury released a report recommending that deputies no longer use Tasers when other means to control inmates are available. One inmate died in October 2007 at the Central Men's Jail and a second died in April 2008 at the Intake Release Center after each was Tasered.

Many of the issues raised by federal investigators are being dealt with already, James said.

"Even though it's been burdensome, we've cooperated fully, given them all they asked for and made changes where appropriate," he added.

Hector Villagra, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Orange County office, which was involved in shaping the department's new Taser policy, said he hoped the federal inquiry would give Hutchens additional clout in making needed changes. She "inherited a lot of this, and I think she's making moves in the right direction," Villagra said.

Hutchens, who assumed her post in June 2008, was brought in to reform the department after the resignation of Sheriff Michael S. Carona, who was later convicted of felony witness tampering.

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

[Research]
New Screening Could Lead to More Potent Cancer Drugs
By NICHOLAS WADE
Published: August 13, 2009

Researchers have discovered a way to identify drugs that can specifically attack and kill cancer stem cells, a finding that could lead to a new generation of anticancer medicines and a new strategy of treatment.

Many researchers believe that tumor growth is driven by cancerous stem cells that, for reasons not understood, are highly resistant to standard treatments. Chemotherapy agents may kill off 99 percent of cells in a tumor, but the stem cells that remain can make the cancer recur, the theory holds, or spread to other tissues to cause new cancers. Stem cells, unlike mature cells, can constantly renew themselves and are thought to be the source of cancers when, through mutations in their DNA, they throw off their natural restraints.

A practical test of this theory has been difficult because cancer stem cells are hard to recognize and have proved elusive targets. But a team at the Broad Institute, a Harvard-M.I.T. collaborative for genomics research, has devised a way of screening for drugs that attack cancer stem cells but leave ordinary cells unharmed.

Cancer stem cells are hard to maintain in sufficient numbers, but the Broad Institute team devised a genetic manipulation to keep breast cancer stem cells trapped in the stem cell state.

The team, led by Piyush B. Gupta, screened 16,000 chemicals, including all known chemotherapeutic agents approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The team reported in the Thursday issue of Cell that 32 of the chemicals selectively went after cancer stem cells. These particular chemicals may or may not make good drugs, but the screening system proves, the researchers say, that it is possible to single out cancer stem cells with drugs that leave ordinary cells alone. Only one of the 32 chemicals is approved as a drug for cancer.

Another approach to concentrating on cancer stem cells, based on the use of antibodies, was reported this month by OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, a company founded by Michael F. Clarke, a Stanford researcher who in 2003 discovered cancer stem cells in breast tumors.

If effective drugs against cancer stem cells can be developed, one obvious strategy would be to use them in combination with standard chemotherapeutic agents, so that all types of cells in a tumor could be attacked. That way, cancer would be attacked as AIDS is now — with a cocktail of chemicals that blocks all escape paths. Both the AIDS virus and cancer cells can change DNA to dodge an effective drug, but are thought to perish if confronted with many drugs at once.

Standard chemotherapy is effective because the chemicals are applied in such large doses that they kill all cells. But this approach is stressful for the patient.

“You could probably lower the doses considerably with a combination of drugs that attacked specific types of cell,” Dr. Gupta said.

Eric S. Lander, director of the Broad Institute, said: “If we make a drug that kills 99.9 percent of the cells in a tumor but fails to kill the 0.1 percent, that is the real problem. It’s a pyrrhic victory.”

Dr. Lander said that given the new screening system and the idea of using combinations of drugs against cancer, there was “a potential for a real renaissance in cancer therapeutics.”

“We have not been able to do that yet with cancer,” he added, “but if we could, it’s a numbers game, and we win.”

The cancer stem cell theory has been thrust into the spotlight in recent years with the discovery of stem cells in many types of solid tumors, including those of the breast, brain, prostate, colon and pancreas. This month, a Stanford team led by Irving Weissman reported finding the stem cells of bladder cancer.

But the theory is not without critics.

“The cancer stem cell hypothesis has in the past year been challenged on many fronts,” said Bert Vogelstein, a leading cancer geneticist at Johns Hopkins University. “For example, a paper on melanomas last year showed that 100 percent of melanoma cancer cells were cancer stem cells.”

If many of a tumor’s cells are stem cells, then existing chemotherapy agents are clearly killing them, Dr. Vogelstein said, and the cancer stem cell theory is not an effective guide to finding new drugs.

The theory has also aroused opposition because, in its extreme, it implies that standard chemotherapy goes after the wrong targets and is ineffective.

“It’s the most amazing polarity that I’ve seen,” Dr. Clarke, the Stanford researcher, said of the debate over stem cells among cancer researchers. “It’s like two religions fighting.”

Some advocates of the idea believe that to dissolve tumors, it would be necessary to go after only cancer stem cells, if such drugs existed. But the Broad Institute team and others take the view that a combination of drugs attacking each of the types of cells in a tumor would be best.

One reason for using a combination of drugs is the suspicion that mature cancer cells may be able to convert themselves back into stem cells, a route that is apparently prohibited to normal mature cells.

“The possibility is that the nonstem cells in a tumor may regenerate de novo new stem cells,” said Robert Weinberg, a leading cancer biologist at M.I.T. and, a co-author with Dr. Lander of the Cell report. “If one had ways of treating both the stem cells and the nonstem cells, then the de novo generation of stem cells would be dealt with.”

The basic insight of the cancer stem cell theory is that there is a hierarchy of cells in a tumor, with the stem cells at the top generating the mature cells that are the majority. Most researchers accept that this is a good description of leukemias because Gleevec, a highly effective drug for chronic myelogenous leukemia, does not kill stem cells, and the leukemia returns if the treatment is stopped.

But with solid tumors, Dr. Vogelstein said, “the jury is out.” If stem cells are common in solid tumors, not just a small resistant reservoir of cells, “then there’s no difference between the stem cells and the bulk cancer — so a screen for drugs to kill melanoma cells is by definition also going to kill the melanoma’s cancer stem cells.”

Still, in Dr. Vogelstein’s view, the Broad Institute’s new screening method is important whether or not the cancer stem cell theory is correct. “Because most of the compounds in use now clearly aren’t doing the job we’d all like,” he said, “then novel methods for screening could be extremely valuable.”

The Broad Institute researchers hope that pharmaceutical companies will use their screening method to begin to develop drugs against cancer stem cells.

news20090814wp

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

[World Bisiness]
France, Germany Fend Off Recession
Modest Growth Is Latest Sign of Global Comeback
By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 14, 2009

Fresh signs of a nascent economic recovery came from hard-hit Europe on Thursday, with Germany and France unexpectedly becoming the first major industrialized nations to officially pull out of the global recession.

Though their recoveries were modest by virtually any standard and may yet stall in the months ahead, the surprising bounce back to growth in Europe's largest economies comes on the heels of steadily rising economic optimism across the globe.

Analysts are pointing to improving indicators in the United States, China and even Japan, the world's second-largest economy, which some observers predict is set to announce its own return to growth in the coming days. Though a host of other European economies -- including Britain, Italy and Spain -- are still mired in one of the worst recessions in generations, contractions are moderating even in many of those nations, an indication that they too may be close to rebounding. It underscores, analysts say, how ramped-up government stimulus spending around the globe appears to be having at least some of its desired effects.

A significant rebound in the global economy could both help and hurt the United States. Growth abroad could fuel an eagerly anticipated uptick in U.S. exports, boosting the manufacturing sector and potentially channeling more investment into U.S. soil. Yet too quick an increase in global demand could spark a painful price spike for commodities such as oil, driving up inflation before the United States and other nations have fully emerged from recession.

In the United States, the Federal Reserve this week signaled that it sees the American recession easing. The central bank said that it will begin pulling back from two years of unprecedented intervention in the economy this October. Even countries that were spiraling downward only a few months ago, such as South Korea, appear to be on more stable ground. The International Monetary Fund this week predicted that the South Korean recession, while severe, may not be as deep this year as originally thought.

The turnaround in Germany and France drove up major stock indexes from Seoul to Paris to Moscow on Thursday, while the euro gained more ground against the dollar. The Dow Jones closed up 36.58 points, to 9398.19.

"We don't know whether these numbers are going to hold out in the long run, but they do seem to indicate that we're reaching a bottom a lot sooner than we thought," said Raj Badiani, senior economist for IHS Global Insight in London. "It looks like the worst might be over."

Yet analysts including Badiani caution that it is still far too early, and that the indicators remain too weak, to declare the global recession dead. Recent gains, particularly in Europe, mask the still-ample threat of more pain ahead.

In Germany, economic activity jumped 0.3 percent from April to June compared with the previous three months after a 3.5 percent quarterly contraction in the beginning of the year. Though detailed economic data have yet to be released, the rebound in the second quarter there, analysts said, came partly from consumer spending related to government-sponsored programs, such as a cash for clunkers plan, that are set to expire soon.

In addition, the German government so far has cushioned job losses through state-sponsored corporate incentives that are also due to run out, leading many analysts to predict a further surge in the unemployment rate there in months ahead.

France also reported growth of 0.3 percent in the quarter.

Economists also do not discount a fresh wave of bank rescues in Europe, where financial officials are still under pressure to do more to force the cleanup of balance sheets at ailing institutions. Recent signs of recovery will also be tested if, as many observers predict, unemployment rates across Europe continue to edge higher.

With many analysts also predicting a "jobless recovery" in the United States, such as the one following the 2001 recession, a projected global turnaround later this year may be more visible in statistical calculations than in consumer pocketbooks around the world.

Though Germany and France may have exited their yearlong recessions, Europe as a whole is still struggling. Economic activity across the 16 member nations that use the euro fell by 0.1 percent in the second quarter, the European statistical office reported Thursday. The drop was less than predicted by most economists, but it signals that the deep recession that started in Europe in the first half of 2008 continues. Just Wednesday, the European statistical office also reported that June industrial production fell 0.6 percent from a month earlier while the unemployment rate climbed to a 10-year high of 9.4 percent.

Yet optimists were taking heart on signs that Germany and France -- now statistically ahead of the United States in the race toward recovery -- were aided in the quarter from April to June by recovering global demand for everything from German-made power plants to French cheese. In both nations, exports, which had fallen off a cliff in recent months, either ceased their precipitous fall or edged upward.

Those are among the strongest signs yet, analysts say, that robust growth in China and a budding recovery in the United States may finally be pumping life back into world trade, which suffered its worst declines since World War II recently.

"They are good signs, but not yet conclusive," said Janet Henry, chief European economist for HSBC in London. "We still have to wait and see."

news20090814wsj

[Today's Paper] from [The Wall Street Journal]

[Asia News]
AUGUST 13, 2009
Europe Recovers as U.S. Lags
Germany, France Escape Recession Even as Consumer Weakness Hobbles America
BY MARCUS WALKER IN BERLIN AND DAVID GAUTHIER-VILLARS IN PARIS

Germany and France have escaped from recession surprisingly quickly, outpacing the U.S. in returning to growth thanks in part to government stimulus efforts and consumer spending.

Germany, Europe's biggest economy, grew at an annualized pace of 1.3% in the second quarter, while France, the region's second-biggest economy, expanded at an annualized rate of 1.4%. Both countries recorded contractions for the previous four quarters, and bounced back earlier than other advanced economies including the U.S. and the U.K.

The news that Europe's economic engine is rebounding suggests the region is joining the recovery under way in China and increasingly elsewhere in ...

news20090814usat

[Today's Paper] from [USA TODAY]

[News > Nation]
Town halls too heated for some
By Kathy Kiely, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The contentious health care debate is forcing some Congress members to rethink an August tradition: town-hall-style meetings.
Eager to avoid the kind of shouting — and, in some cases shoving — confrontations that have turned the health care debate into a cable television and YouTube sensation, some lawmakers are opting out of the free-wheeling forums.

"I'm not going to give people a stage to perform," Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, told the El Paso Times. Like a number of his Democratic colleagues, he's holding telephone town halls instead.

Others, such as Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, are hosting smaller roundtables with community leaders. "I won't be doing sucker-punch town-hall meetings," Durbin said.

Much of the hostility has come from opponents of President Obama's health care plan. But his critics aren't the only ones forcing lawmakers to change schedules.

Local officials canceled a meeting to discuss plans for a visitors' center in Longview, Wash., after Obama's campaign group, Organizing for America, urged members to show support at the meeting for Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and Rep. Brian Baird, all Democrats, on health care.

In a letter, Mayor Kurt Anagnostou and City Manager Bob Gregory fretted about paying $2,600 in police overtime to control an estimated crowd of 900. "We are concerned about our ability to provide adequate security," they wrote county officials.

Capitol Hill police are working overtime to ensure that the lawmakers who are holding town meetings remain secure. Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance Gainer says it's the busiest August in memory. "It's not a budget-buster — yet," he said.

Brendan Daly of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office says lawmakers are not letting protesters deter them. Since early August, House Democrats have held more than 500 health care events, he said. "They like to be able to speak firsthand to their constituents, and they will continue to do so," he said.

news20090814slt1

[Today's Paper: A summary of what's in the major U.S. newspapers] from [Slate Magazine]

Europe Bids Adieu to Recession
By Daniel Politi
Posted Friday, Aug. 14, 2009, at 5:02 AM ET

The Washington Post (WP) leads, and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) goes high, with news that Europe's two largest economies have surprisingly escaped from the recession, raising hopes that the worldwide downturn may be on its final legs. Germany and France both reported modest recoveries that put them ahead of other industrialized economies, including the United States and the United Kingdom. The New York Times (NYT) leads with news that researchers may have opened a new strategy to treat cancer by identifying drugs that can kill cancer stem cells. Many believe that cancerous stem cells, which are very resistant to treatment and can constantly renew themselves, cause tumors to grow back after chemotherapy. Now this latest research has found there are certain drugs that can attack the cancer stem cells without harming ordinary cells.

The WSJ leads its online world-wide newsbox with a look at how the Obama administration is changing the strategy to deal with the poppy fields in Afghanistan. Eradication programs, which have been hugely unpopular and haven't really hurt the drug trade, will be pretty much abandoned, and the administration will instead focus on helping farmers make a living through other ways. It is spending $300 million—six times more than in 2008—in the effort that, among other things, will give micro-grants and sell heavily discounted seeds and livestock. USA Today (USAT) leads with a look at how some federal lawmakers are abandoning the town-hall-style meetings that have become an August tradition in order to avoid being in the middle of fights over health care. A number of Democrats have decided to hold telephone town halls and smaller meetings with community leaders. "I'm not going to give people a stage to perform," Rep. Silvestre Reyes from Texas said. The Los Angeles Times (LAT) leads locally, with news that the Department of Justice has been investigating Orange County's jail system since December. Officials are trying to determine whether there is a pattern of jail personnel violating inmates' rights. The investigation could take more than a year.

While Europe as a whole continues to go through a sharp recession, there are signs that several of them could bounce back like France and Germany. Several countries in Asia have also shown marked improvement lately. Analysts are pointing to these recoveries as examples that the large increase in government stimulus spending has worked as intended. But others are quick to caution that just because France and Germany reported good numbers, it doesn't mean they are out of the woods just yet. As for the United States, things might be getting a bit better, but there's still a long way to go, exemplified by the news that retail sales unexpectedly fell last month.


The WSJ points out that this time around it seems the American consumer won't be as crucial to a global economic rebound as in the past. Lagging behind could help the United States by boosting exports. At the same time, if the recovery is too quick elsewhere it could lead to a spike in the price of commodities, meaning that the United States and other countries could be hit with inflation before they get a chance to fully get out of the recession. Some analysts say we shouldn't worry about the United States lagging behind for too long because "just as it was a synchronized recession, it will largely be a synchronized upturn," as one put it.

The NYT notes that if the latest research on cancer stem cells can lead to new drugs it could mean that cancer would be fought through a cocktail of chemicals. That's the way the AIDS virus is attacked now, which, just like cancer cells, "can change DNA to dodge an effective drug, but are thought to perish if confronted with many drugs at once," explains the paper. Effective drugs could also mean that chemotherapy might not have to be given in such large doses, potentially making cancer treatment much less painful for the patient. But some aren't even convinced of the theory that cancerous stem cells are behind the growth of tumors. "It's the most amazing polarity that I've seen," a Stanford researcher said of the debate. "It's like two religions fighting."

The NYT takes a front-page look at how the rumors that Obama's plan for health care overhaul include "death panels" that would decide who gets to live and who gets to die got started. It gathered the most steam since Sarah Palin mentioned it, and now has even been picked up by Sen. Charles Grassley from Iowa, who is part of the "gang of six" negotiating a bipartisan health care bill in the finance committee. But the seeds to the idea were planted months ago, and carried by many of the same people and media outlets that were instrumental to defeating reform under President Clinton. The editorial page of the Washington Times started writing around the issue mere weeks after Obama was elected, and the idea was picked up by several prominent conservative commentators. But it didn't blow up until this summer, when critics seized on one part of the legislation to say they had been right all along, even if it just isn't true.

The NYT's Paul Krugman writes that those who were skeptical of the post-partisan vision Barack Obama peddled on the campaign trail have now officially been proven right with the rise of the angry right wing during the current health care debate. And the truth is, there's nothing Obama can do about it since the attacks on his presidency have nothing to do with what he is doing or wants to do. So far, the administration's response "has had a deer-in-the-headlights quality," writes Krugman. "It's as if officials still can't wrap their minds around the fact that things like this can happen to people who aren't named Clinton, as if they keep expecting the nonsense to just go away."

In the LAT's op-ed page, Nancy Altman writes that the rhetoric Obama has to face from critics of health care reform is surprisingly similar to what Franklin D. Roosevelt faced when he was pushing for legislation to create Social Security. Of course, there was no talk of "death panels" but plenty about socialism. And opponents warned Social Security would "establish a bureaucracy in the field of insurance in competition with private business," which sounds eerily familiar. But despite the fact that almost every Republican in Congress was against Social security, "Roosevelt prevented them from controlling the debate," explains Altman. Obama could learn a thing or two from FDR, who anticipated opposition and neutralized it while framing the debate on his terms.

The LAT goes high with news that Bruce Lisker was released from prison more than twenty-six years after being arrested. In 2005, the LAT published the results of a seven-month investigation that vividly illustrated the shortcomings in much of the evidence and arguments used to convict Lisker of killing his mother. Last week, a judge declared that he was convicted on "false evidence" and was poorly represented. The LAT's Matt Lait, one of the authors of the 2005 investigation, describes how "little things amused and confused" Lisker yesterday as he adjusted to life outside of prison. He was baffled by a motion sensor in a sink, and when it came time to pick what kind of sandwich he wanted, the number of choices were "overwhelming."

The NYT notes that over the past decade appeals court judges in capital cases have increasingly been writing opinions that criticize Congress and the Supreme Court for making it practically impossible for death row prisoners to appeal their convictions. Some of the judges writing these passionate opinions have ruled in favor of the death penalty many times, but often feel frustrated they can do nothing to stop what they see as a miscarriage of justice. The most frequent target of their complaints is the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 that was passed by lawmakers who felt prisoners were abusing the appeals system. Although these kinds of dissents usually have no practical effect on a case, judges often write them with colleagues, lawmakers, and academics in mind.

The WP takes a look at the mystery surrounding the Arctic Sea, a cargo ship registered in Malta and owned by Russians that disappeared two weeks ago with a crew of 15 Siberian sailors. The ship, carrying $1.7 million of timber, simply dropped off the map after clearing the English Channel, despite the fact that it's equipped with lots of modern tracking equipment. Some suggest the ship could have been attacked by pirates, or maybe sunk, but the pieces don't quite add up, which has left many speculating that perhaps there was contraband on board or the captain could be trying to steal the cargo.

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news20090814slt2

[Today's Paper: A summary of what's in the major U.S. newspapers] from [Slate Magazine]

Europe Bids Adieu to Recession
By Daniel Politi
Posted Friday, Aug. 14, 2009, at 5:02 AM ET

CONTINUED FROM newsslt1

As the 40th anniversary of Woodstock approaches tomorrow, there have been plenty of retrospectives, and there are likely more to come. But the WSJ's Jim Fusilli writes that people often prefer to forget that in terms of music, the festival really wasn't so great. Promoters couldn't get some of the biggest names of the time and managers packed the schedule with unknown artists in exchange for their famous clients. The proliferation of drugs also meant that many of the musicians weren't really at the top of their game. Some forgot lyrics and were too disoriented to play. Others simply weren't very good, including Jimi Hendrix. The Who had no idea their drinks had been spiked with LSD and Roger Daltrey later said it was "the worst performance we ever did."

The LAT reports that Elsie Poncher has put the crypt currently occupied by her husband on EBay with a starting price of $500,000. Why would anyone pay that much? It's right above Marilyn Monroe's final resting place. Apparently, Richard Poncher bought the crypt from Joe DiMaggio during his divorce from Monroe. But it won't be the first time Richard's "long sleep has been disturbed," as the LAT puts it. When he was dying, Richard had a request for Elsie: "He said, 'If I croak, if you don't put me upside down over Marilyn, I'll haunt you the rest of my life.' " After the funeral, Elsie told the funeral director about her husband's dying wish. "I was standing right there, and he turned him over."

news20090814gc1

[Environment] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Energy Efficiency]
US marines in Afghanistan launch first energy efficiency audit in war zone
Commandant calls for 10,000-strong contingent to be more energy efficient to save lives and money
Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 13 August 2009 18.07 BST Article history

The US Marines Corps ordered the first ever energy audit in a war zone todayto try to reduce the enormous fuel costs of keeping troops on the ground in Afghanistan.

General James T Conway, the Marines Corps Commandant, said he wanted a team of energy experts in place in Afghanistan by the end of the month to find ways to cut back on the fuel bills for the 10,000 strong marine contingent.

US marines in Afghanistan run through some 800,000 gallons of fuel a day. That's a higher burn rate than during an initial invasion, and reflects the logistical challenges of running counter-insurgency and other operations in the extreme weather conditions of Afghanistan.

"We need to understand where the fuel goes," Conway told a Marines Corps energy summit today. "The largest growing demand on the battlefield today is for electricity and how we create that."

He added: "We are going to more efficient. We have got to be."

Conway's announcement — and the summit itself, which is the first of its kind — were seen yesterday as a dramatic shift in the US military's approach to energy consumption and climate change.

The Pentagon began to acknowledge America's reliance on fossil fuels and climate change as a national security concern in 2002. A report from the Pentagon's military advisory board last May called on military bases to work to lower their carbon footprint. A number of bases inside the US have begun to tap into renewable fuel sources including wind and solar energy.

But the Marine Corps are the first service to try to put those policies into action on the battlefield.

Conway, who led the marine invasion of Iraq in 2003, said he was motivated by the high costs — as well as the risks to troops – of getting oil and water to combat zones. For land-locked Afghanistan, the nearest port at Karachi in Pakistan is more than 400 miles away from marine bases, and maintaining those long supply lines has become an increasingly dangerous proposition.

Some 80% of US military casualties in Afghanistan are due to improvised explosive devices (IEDS), and many of those placed in the path of supply convoys.

The costs of shipping water and fuel to the troops is also becoming unsustainable. The price of a gallon of petrol in a war zone can cost up to $100. "It is a shocking figure to compute what it costs by the time you pour that gallon of gas into a Humvee or an aircraft in the place you are operating," Conway said.

He said he was looking to his energy auditors to find ways of cutting back energy consumption at operating bases, and also to pare down the equipment carried by each individual marine. An average marine carries about 9lbs of disposable batteries in their kit to power equipment such as night vision goggles and radios.

One immediate target of the auditors is likely to be climate control. Some 448,000 gallons alone are used to keep tents cool in the Afghan summer, where temperatures reach well over 40C, and warm in the winter, said Michael Boyd, an energy adviser to the Marine Corps.

The marines have been exploring ways to reduce that consumption by spraying tents with a foam coating.

"That's a huge saving and you are no longer putting trucks on those roads, and tanker drivers in harm's way and everyone else involved on the way," Boyd said.


[Plants]
Could a tiny insect halt the invasion of Japanese knotweed?
The government believes it has found a way to stop the spread of Japanese knotweed in Britain
Patrick Barkham
The Guardian, Friday 14 August 2009 Article history

Close to where the green twist of Kenidjack Valley gives way to the Atlantic Ocean there rises an old stone chimney and the ruins of a mine. Women and children once dug arsenic from the Cornish earth here so the deadly poison could be sold to American cotton farmers to kill the boll weevil, a migrant beetle that threatened to destroy the cotton industry. Long after the mining ceased, this verdant valley has been threatened with an invasive migrant of its own: Japanese knotweed.

Introduced into Britain in the 19th century as an ornamental plant, Japanese knotweed is terrifyingly tenacious. The nearest living thing to a triffid, it will grow a metre high in four weeks, push through concrete and tarmac and quickly create an impenetrable thicket 3m high. Its roots can spread at least 7m horizontally underground and 5m deep and the plant can lie dormant – but very much alive – underground for a decade. Its unusually deep leaf litter smothers rival plants. And its best weapon of all? It can reproduce from a fragment of stem or leaf the size of a drawing pin.

Japanese knotweed is infesting the countryside and cities alike, and appears to relish our warming climate. The cost of eradicating the plant from Britain was put at £1.56bn in 2003. Today, faced by estimates that its clearance would cost £2.6bn, the government has unveiled a tiny – and unprecedented – new solution, just 2mm in size: a species of jumping plant lice.

It is claimed that this Japanese psyllid, an insect called aphalara itadori, could bring down the mighty knotweed by guzzling its sap. If released to do its worst, it would be the first ever "biological control" deliberately introduced into Britain. But many people are decidedly twitchy about biological controls. What else might this exotic insect eat after it has devoured the Japanese knotweed? Could it trigger an environmental catastrophe comparable to that of the cane toad in Australia?

According to the scientists studying invasive species and biological controls, there is no comparison between toxic cane toads, which have rapidly colonised most of northern Australia, living at densities of up to 2,000 toads a hectare, and this tiny psyllid. The Centre for Agricultural Bioscience International (Cabi), an independent research group specialising in invasive species, points out that the cane toads were an exception: of more than 1,000 releases of biological controls around the world, they say only eight have had an impact on species other than their targets and all bar one of these had been predicted by scientists before their release.

The psyllid could be released next spring – if a public consultation begun last month is successful. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) cites five years' research by Cabi, during which the insect was tested on 87 other types of plant, including flora closely related to Japanese knotweed. Only a few, non-native knotweeds might be threatened, they found. "We definitely want to stop Japanese knotweed and all the research suggests this [insect] is a good way of doing it," says a Defra spokeswoman. If introduced, it would be tested on specific sites before being released more widely across the country.

Back at the Kenidjack Valley, Cornwall, the plant has been beaten down without the insect's aid. Ten years ago, all but the tower of the ruined mine was hidden by its smothering growth, which threatened to demolish the historic building. "It was just completely lost to the knotweed," says National Trust warden Bob Robinson.

Every Japanese Knotweed plant in Britain is female and reproduces through its rhizomes or fragments of its own vegetation. Strimming it is the worst thing you can do: it creates millions of tiny pieces, each of which can sprout into a new plant. In Kenidjack, the weed quickly spread down the valley: when local residents hacked it from their gardens, tiny fragments fell into the stream and seeded along the bank. For the past three years, local landowners, the county council, the National Trust and other agencies have worked together on an incredibly pain- staking and expensive clearance programme: cutting the knotweed by hand, carefully disposing of the waste and injecting each individual stump with specialist weedkiller. This summer, the valley has been returned to a native normality, with bluebells and bracken.

The Japanese knotweed is not defeated, however; it still lies dormant underground. "Rather than killing it stone dead, it puts it into hibernation," says Robinson of their efforts. Each year, workers must scour the valley for regrowth, which is sprayed back. Walking around, Robinson and I find plenty of tiny but ominous sprouts of red twigs with small leaves that quickly turn from red to green as the plant shoots up: if Kenidjack was left untreated by chemicals it would be smothered in knotweed again in a few summers.

People who have fought Japanese knotweed lower their voice to a reverent whisper when they talk of James MacFarlane, vegetation adviser for Cornwall County Council. Know thine enemy seems to be MacFarlane's theory; he has studied it for years, growing plants himself to see how it forces through concrete. Japanese knotweed, he explains, gets its superpowers from the fact that it is a primary volcanic coloniser in Japan, one of the first plants to sprout up immediately after a volcanic eruption. It can survive being covered by ash. It can tolerate sulphur, heavy metals and toxic gases. "One certainly has respect for it," he says. "It will go through tarmac for a treat."

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[Environment] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Plants]
Could a tiny insect halt the invasion of Japanese knotweed?
The government believes it has found a way to stop the spread of Japanese knotweed in Britain
Patrick Barkham
The Guardian, Friday 14 August 2009 Article history

CONTINUED FROM newsgc1

MacFarlane has found it growing out of a drainpipe in Redruth and pushing through roads. He knows it will reproduce from a 0.7g fragment but he suspects it can grow from something even smaller. It even appears capable of surviving being washed out to sea, bobbing in the ocean and then taking root when it is washed ashore again.

It was as long ago as 1906 that Japanese knotweed was first recorded in Cornwall growing in the wild. But it only really became a problem in the last few deades, surging across entire valleys and infesting brownfield sites. MacFarlane believes the real accelerator has been the moving of topsoil and building material around the country for big building projects and motorways. He now monitors 1,800 Japanese knotweed sites in the county. On one earmarked for development close to Camborne, it cost £2m to remove the plant. But Japanese knotweed is not just a Cornish problem. MacFarlane sees it wherever he travels: London, Sheffield, and particularly on building sites in urban areas. A serious knotweed infestation had to be cleared from the Olympic park in east London.

"I rarely go through a city in this country without seeing it. It's the lack of knowledge that results in a greater spread," he says. "Ireland has a tremendous problem and they haven't yet realised it." Officials from France and Switzerland have visited Cornwall to see how the council has tackled it.

Cornwall, according to MacFarlane, has got on top of Japanese knotweed using orthodox chemicals but also by education and cajoling developers to save money in the long term by eradicating it from brownfield sites before they start building. Advocates of biological control such as the psyllid point out that it is more environmentally friendly than chemicals and MacFarlane admits he is "broadly in favour" of the insect. But he argues it is just one tool.

"If people consider it is the answer, that is unrealistic. It's not going to be an instant solution," he says. He believes the insect will not wipe out Japanese knotweed and, at best, it might reduce it to the unproblematic shrub it is in Japan, where natural predators including the psyllid keep it from becoming an infestation when it pops up in gardens and on roadsides. "Hopefully if it works well there will be a balance between the plant and the predator and they will live in coexistence."

MacFarlane has another fear: that the release of this insect will encourage people to complacently believe we can find a biological magic bullet for every invasive foreign species that is accidentally – or stupidly – introduced into Britain. "It does not mean someone will find a solution to every problem we introduce," he says. According to Simon Ford, a nature conservation adviser for the National Trust who spearheaded its fight against Japanese knotweed, the UK is "understandably and rightly" very cautious about biological controls such as the knotweed-eating psyllid.

"I do have reservations but that doesn't mean to say I'm against the idea. I'm really impressed by the science behind it. We've got to be sure any work will be on initial small trial sites so we can see how it goes without just throwing it into the world," he says. One danger is that Japanese knotweed is a member of the dock family and so the insect might develop a taste for eating rare native relatives such as the shore dock.

Of course we have long allowed foreign plants to take root in Britain. From buddleia to sycamore, many are much loved and considered almost native now. But new arrivals are more likely to reach plague proportions as our climate warms. Cotoneaster, holm oak and turkey oak are spreaing more rapidly now, while montbretia, the hottentot fig and the three-cornered leek are also cited as problem species. Other introduced plants have brought new diseases with them that imperil native plants: rhododendrons have been responsible for the arrival of sudden oak death, for example.

"It's becoming much more of a problem fighting these invasion plants. The National Trust is putting a lot of time, energy and money into it," says Robinson. "If the psyllid proves to be a success then I'm all for it but it is that worry – has it been tested enough to make sure it's not going to become a hazard in itself?"

How to spot Japanese knotweed
In the spring, Japanese knotweed shoots are dark red in colour. They can grow 4cms in a day and quickly form bamboo-like stems from which sprout green leaves, shaped rather like shields. It can quickly reach up to three metres in height and in high summer is not unattractive, displaying spikes of small, creamy white flowers. It sheds its leaves in autumn to leave dead, light-brown hollow stalks that look similar to bamboo. Its roots, or rhizome, are dark brown with a bright-orange inside and can snap easily, like a carrot. Japanese knotweed is a particularly common sight on derelict ground in cities.

And how to tackle it
• Don't ignore it. A small Japanese knotweed plant quickly becomes a major infestation.

• Do not strim, flail or chip it. It can reproduce from tiny fragments of rhizome, twig or even leaf. It is extremely unlikely you can eradicate it by digging it out, because the roots stretch down so deep into the soil.

• Herbicides can check its growth but only the most powerful chemical treatments will eventually clear it. These are unsuitable for spraying near water. One approach is to allow the weed to grow to about 1m, in early summer, and spray then. You will need to re-spray regrowth in midsummer and again in September if necessary. Another approach is to cut it back and apply to the stumps a powerful weedkiller such as Roundup's treatment for tree stumps and roots.

• Be careful not to allow cuttings into any drains, streams or waterways.

• Do not compost cuttings or put them in the rubbish bin. It is an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act to cause Japanese knotweed to grow in the wild so if you dispose of it carelessly you will be breaking the law. Do not dump it in the garden waste bin of your local recycling centre. Japanese knotweed (and contaminated soil) is classed as "controlled waste", which means you must only dispose of it at certain, licensed landfill sites: check with your local council. If you are allowed to have a fire, burning the waste on site is another way to dispose of it. There are also commercial companies that specialise in the eradication of Japanese knotweed.


[Guardian Environment Network]
Obama's science adviser urges leadership on climate
John Holdren, the president's top science adviser, is playing a key role in shaping the Obama administration's strategy to combat global warming. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Holdren discusses the prospects for achieving breakthroughs on climate change, both in Congress and at upcoming talks in Copenhagen. From Yale Environment 360, part of the Guardian Environment Network
From Yale Environment 360, part of the Guardian Environment Network
guardian.co.uk, Friday 14 August 2009 10.42 BST Article history

Six weeks after he was elected, President Obama nominated John Holdren to be his chief science adviser and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Many scientists hailed the timing of the nomination — George W. Bush waited almost a year before naming Holdren's predecessor — and the choice of Holdren, too, was seen as encouraging: He was trained in plasma physics, is the Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy at Harvard, is a past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, served as director of the Woods Hole Research Center, and is a recipient of a MacArthur "genius" award.

The New York Times called Holdren's nomination an affirmation of "Mr. Obama's commitment to aggressively address the challenges of energy independence and global warming." Now, Holdren is one of several high-ranking Obama administration officials moving aggressively to combat global warming and to wean the country off fossil fuels. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, conducted by New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert, Holdren talked about the cap-and-trade bill that recently passed the House, the crucial role America and China will play in the upcoming climate negotiations in Copenhagen, and how the administration plans to convert the U.S. "from the laggard that it has been in this domain" into "the leader that the world needs" on global warming.

Yale Environment 360: The issues that are on your plate right now — energy consumption, the environmental consequences of energy consumption — you've been thinking about them your whole career. I'm wondering if you could just talk about what you think is the most important thing that the administration could do — on its own — about energy use.

John Holdren: Clearly in the energy domain, both the use side and the supply side are very important. They're important from the standpoint of environment, from the standpoint of economy, from the standpoint of national/international security. Clearly we have to provide the energy goods and services that people need and that the economy needs.

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