news20090921wsj

[Today's News] from [THE WALL STREET JOURNAL]

[Asia]
Japan Lawmaker Pushes to Scale Back U.S. Bases
Son of an American Serviceman Seeks to Reduce Military Presence in Okinawa, Highlighting Ruling Party's Policy Review
By YUKA HAYASHI

OKINAWA, Japan -- As Japan's new ruling party begins to question its military alliance with the U.S., one freshman lawmaker whose personal history reflects the longstanding ties between the two nations is already pressing the issue.

Denny Tamaki, a newly elected member of the Democratic Party of Japan, is the son of a local woman and a U.S. serviceman. His main goal is to sharply shrink the U.S. military presence in Okinawa, a remote southern island that hosts roughly half of some 45,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan.

"It's about time the Japanese government let Okinawa go back to its original self," says the former radio talk-show host, 49 years old. Despite his fondness for American music and movies, Mr. Tamaki argues it is time the two grew more distant. "I am an embodiment of Okinawa's postwar history," he says. "No one is more qualified to tackle the base issues."

Mr. Tamaki represents the complexities behind altering an agreement that has extended the umbrella of U.S. military might over Japan for more than six decades. The DPJ, which scored a landslide victory over the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party in national elections on Aug. 30, has promised to make Japan's relationship with the U.S. "equal," and to review an existing agreement to realign U.S. forces in Japan.

The DPJ had softened its stance ahead of the elections, but since then it has made it clear that Okinawa is a priority. Katsuya Okada, the DPJ's new foreign minister, said last week that the issue of one base, the U.S. Marine helicopter facility in Futenma, Okinawa, needs to be discussed by year-end.

Still, in his recent phone conversation with U.S. President Barack Obama, new prime minister Yukio Hatoyama said the bilateral relationship with the U.S. would continue to be the "foundation" of Japan's foreign policy and that the DPJ won't seek drastic changes rapidly.

"We're not going to prejudge where they are until we begin to sit down with them," said Geoff Morrell, a U.S. Defense Department spokesman, in a briefing this month. It isn't clear if the base issue will be discussed when Messrs. Hatoyama and Obama meet on Wednesday.

If the DPJ is serious, says Masaaki Gabe, professor of international relations at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, the party will start reducing spending related to the U.S. military realignment in the fiscal year starting April 1.

Determining the future of the Futenma air station, amid urban sprawl in central Okinawa, is an immediate challenge. A 2006 agreement calls on the U.S. to move 8,000 Marines to Guam by 2014 and move the helicopter facility to another part of the island. Critics want to move it completely off the island, if not from Japan itself.

Many Okinawans worry the departure of U.S. personnel could worsen Okinawa's economy. "Of course, we all wish the bases weren't here," says Kiyomitsu Nakama, the 60-year-old owner of a motorcycle shop near Kadena Air Base. "But so many people depend on the bases for our living, and our economy would crumble without them."

The U.S. has used Japan as a primary host for its military presence in East Asia. The Japanese government spends roughly $2 billion a year to help cover the costs. The presence of U.S. forces let Japan keep its own military small and focused on self-defense, freeing up resources to help fuel its postwar boom.

Mr. Tamaki and allies believe the bases limit economic development because their presence spurs government aid, but local industries haven't grown. "We need to wean our economy from its dependence on the bases," Mr. Tamaki says. He wants to build a railway on the land to help ease rural joblessness.

Mr. Tamaki was raised by his mother in Okinawa and knows little about his father. As a child, he was often teased by strangers for his reddish hair and hazel eyes. They called him "Americaah," an often derogatory term, and some threw rocks at him, he said. That didn't keep him from adoring American culture, glimpsed through open-base Fourth of July parties and later the music of Aerosmith and Kiss played at local bars.

As he grew more involved in politics, he became increasingly aware of the hard feelings caused by the bases. Okinawa's main island hosts 34 U.S. facilities that together take up about 20% of its land, leading to occasional clashes. A military helicopter crashed on a college campus near Futenma in 2004, and a series of attacks on local women by American soldiers caused an uproar.

Despite his stance, Mr. Tamaki is convinced his job in parliament will soon give him an opportunity to visit the U.S. for the first time. "Deep down, I always knew I would someday go to the States to look for my father," he says.

news20090921usat

[Today's News] from [USA TODAY]

[Technology > Science & Space]
Mysterious ruins may help explain Mayan collapse
By Dan Vergano, USA TODAY
09/21/2009 - Updated 10:43 AM ET

Ringing two abandoned pyramids are nine palaces "frozen in time" that may help unravel the mystery of the ancient Maya, reports an archaeological team.
Hidden in the hilly jungle, the ancient site of Kiuic (KIE-yuk) was one of dozens of ancient Maya centers abandoned in the Puuc region of Mexico's Yucatan about 10 centuries ago. The latest discoveries from the site may capture the moment of departure.

"The people just walked away and left everything in place," says archaeologist George Bey of Millsaps College in Jackson Miss., co-director of the Labna-Kiuic Regional Archaeological Project. "Until now, we had little evidence from the actual moment of abandonment, it's a frozen moment in time."

The ancient, or "classic" Maya were part of a Central American civilization best known for stepped pyramids, beautiful carvings and murals and the widespread abandonment of cities around 900 A.D. in southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and El Salvador. They headed for the northern Yucatan, where Spanish conquistadors met their descendants in the 1500s (6 million modern Maya still live in Central America today).

Past work by the team, led by Bey and Tomas Gallareta of Mexico's National Institute of Archaeology and History, shows the Maya had inhabited the Puuc region since 500 B.C. So why they headed for the coast with their brethren is just part of the mystery of the Maya collapse.

New clues may come from Kiuic, where the archaeologists explored two pyramids and, most intriguingly, plantation palaces on the ridges ringing the center. Of particular interst: a hilltop complex nicknamed "Stairway to Heaven" by Gallareta (that's "Escalera al Cieloa" for Spanish-speaking Led Zeppelin fans) because of a long staircase leading from Kiuic to a central plaza nearly a mile away.

Both the pyramids and the palaces look like latter-day additions to Kiuic, built in the 9th century, just as Maya centers farther south were being abandoned. "The influx of wealth (at Kiuic) may spring from immigration," Bey says, as Maya headed north. One pyramid was built atop what was originally a palace, allowing the rulers of Kiuic to simultaneously celebrate their forebears and move to fancier digs in the hills.

When the team started exploring the hilltop palaces, five vaulted homes to the south of the hilltop plaza and four to the north, the archaeologists found tools, stone knives and axes, corn-grinder stones called metates (muh-TAH-taze) and pots still sitting in place. "It was completely unexpected," Bey says. "It looks like they just turned the metates on their sides and left things waiting for them to come back."

"Their finds look very interesting and promising," says archaeologist Takeshi Inomata of the University of Arizona, who is not part of the project. "If it indeed represents rapid abandonment, it provides important implications about the social circumstance at that time and promises detailed data on the way people lived."

Inomata is part of a team exploring Aguateca, an abandoned Maya center in Guatemala renowned for its preservation. "I should add that the identification of rapid abandonment is not easy. There are other types of deposits — particularly ritual deposits — that result in very similar kinds of artifact assemblages," Inomata cautions, by email.

Bey and colleagues presented some of their findings earlier this year at the Society for American Archaeology meeting in Atlanta. The team hopes to publish its results and dig further at Kiuic to prove their finding of rapid abandonment there. "I think you could compare it to Pompeii, where people locked their doors and fled, taking some things but leaving others," Bey says.

So far, what drove people to leave the site remains a mystery, as it is for the rest of the ancient Maya. The only sign of warfare is a collection of spear points found in the central plaza of Kiuic. There are signs that construction halted there — a stucco-floored plaza sits half-complete, for example. "Drought seems more likely, that would halt construction," Bey says.

Having climbed the "Stairway to Heaven" a few times, Bey can answer one minor mystery, however. Why weren't the palace sites looted as so many other Maya sites have been? "The hills are a good climb," he says. "People just didn't bother to climb the hills to search the rooms."

news20090921gdn1

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Copenhagen climate change summit 2009]
Gordon Brown urges world leaders to attend Copenhagen climate change talks
> Extra effort needed to end climate talks deadlock
> Negotiations are so slow 'deal is in grave danger'
Patrick Wintour, political editor
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 20 September 2009 22.31 BST Article history

Gordon Brown is to urge his fellow world leaders to agree to go personally to the vital UN climate change talks in Copenhagen in December in an attempt to break what is rapidly becoming a dangerous deadlock.

Brown will make his proposals when he joins world leaders in New York and Pittsburgh next week to discuss climate change talks and the world economy.

The UN Copenhagen talks are due to be attended only by environment ministers, but Brown believes the issues are so momentous, so complex and so likely to determine the shape of national economies that the meeting will require the attendance of world leaders in the final set of negotiations in mid-December.

Green groups and his own climate change secretary, Ed Miliband, have been pressing Brown to take the lead and say he is willing to attend the talks.

Writing in Newsweek tomorrow, Brown warns: "The negotiations are proceeding so slowly that a deal is in grave danger." He ups the ante by becoming the first head of government to say he will go to Copenhagen to try to agree a framework on climate change for the post-2012 era when the Kyoto protocol expires.

He writes: "Securing an agreement in Copenhagen will require world leaders to bridge our remaining differences and seize these opportunities. But I believe it can be done. And if it is necessary to clinch the deal, I will personally go to Copenhagen to achieve it."

It is understood he has already been in touch with some world leaders to urge them to make similar pledges.

Brown argues the negotiations are not simply about environmental regulations, saying that "the UN talks are not just about safeguarding the environment, but also about stimulating economic demand and investment".

A No 10 source said tonight: "The talks are not yet deadlocked, but they are not going fast enough. These talks cannot be just left to the official negotiators, and given the consequences of what will be decided for energy prices and economies, they cannot be left only to environment ministers.

"In some countries they simply do not have the authority to make a deal. It is going to need big figures with the authority to direct the talks. None of this can be settled at three in the morning barter."

Rolling negotiations are already underway in the run-up to Copenhagen, including a special session at the UN tomorrow. The developing countries are still demanding the developed countries commit themselves to a large interim carbon emission cuts of 40% by 2020 on 1990 levels, something neither the EU or the Americans have been willing to agree. The new Japanese government has pledged to cut emissions by 25% by 2020.

The developed countries are in turn seeking commitments that countries such as China and India will say what they will do in the medium term to cut their emissions. By 2020, two-thirds of emissions will come from countries now considered developing nations, such as China and India. China counters that it is not a big emitter in per capita terms.

No 10 is hoping that President Hu Jintao of China will make an important statement at the UN on Tuesday in New York at a meeting convened by the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon.

Developing countries are also demanding more green technology cash than the $100bn (£62bn) a year by 2020 from public and private sources that has so far been proposed by the EU on Brown's initiative. Few industrialised countries have said how much they are willing to contribute to this fund. The developed countries are also demanding to know how the money will be spent. There are also issues of how the post-2012 framework is going to be governed.

Ruth Davis, the RSPB's head of climate change, said: "The prime minister's personal attendance at the Copenhagen summit is extremely welcome news, and shows the necessary commitment world leaders need to display if we are to tackle the greatest threat faced by mankind and the environment."


[News > World news > Afghanistan]
Nato commander in Afghanistan warns of 'mission failure'
General Stanley McChrystal says more troops and new tactics needed if defeating insurgency is to remain possible
Peter Walker
guardian.co.uk, Monday 21 September 2009 11.42 BST Article history

The new Nato commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, has warned of possible "mission failure" unless more international forces, coupled with new tactics to win local support, are deployed immediately.

In a blunt assessment of the situation to the US defence secretary, Robert Gates – a copy of which has been obtained by US newspapers – McChrystal was scathing about corruption within the Afghan government and the tactics used by International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) troops, of which he took command in June.

"Failure to provide adequate resources ... risks a longer conflict, greater casualties, higher overall costs and, ultimately, a critical loss of political support," he wrote in a 66-page document, details of which were reported by the Washington Post and the New York Times.

"Any of these risks, in turn, are likely to result in mission failure."

McChrystal wrote that "Isaf requires more forces", mentioning "previously validated, yet unsourced, requirements" – seemingly a reference to a request for 10,000 extra troops made by his predecessor, General David McKiernan.

"Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near term (next 12 months) – while Afghan security capacity matures – risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible," he warned.

Coupled with this was a requirement for new tactics, like training more Nato troops in local languages so they would be "seen as guests of the Afghan people and their government, not an occupying army".

"Preoccupied with protection of our own forces, we have operated in a manner that distances us – physically and psychologically – from the people we seek to protect ... the insurgents cannot defeat us militarily, but we can defeat ourselves."

McChrystal said Nato forces should spend "as little time as possible in armoured vehicles or behind the walls of forward operating bases", warning that in the short term this meant it was "realistic to expect that Afghan and coalition casualties will increase".

In a series of television interviews broadcast yesterday, the US president, Barack Obama, said he was still considering whether more troops should be sent to Afghanistan.

"I just want to make sure that everybody understands that you don't make decisions about resources before you have the strategy ready," he said on ABC's This Week programme.

Obama told NBC's Meet the Press it was a difficult decision to send more US forces into a conflict zone.

"I'm the one who's answerable to their parents if they don't come home," he said. "So I have to ask some very hard questions any time I send our troops in."

Nato sources told the Guardian last week that any extra troops for Afghanistan would have to come from the UK or other European nations because the US military remained heavily committed in Iraq.

"The Germans have more capacity, as do the French, the Italians and the United Kingdom," one Nato source said.

In his report, McChrystal warned that a combination of muddled Nato tactics and corruption within Afghanistan's government and officialdom had left Afghans "reluctant to align with us against the insurgents".

"The weakness of state institutions, malign actions of powerbrokers, widespread corruption and abuse of power by various officials, and ISAF's own errors have given Afghans little reason to support their government.

"Afghan social, political, economic, and cultural affairs are complex and poorly understood.

"Isaf does not sufficiently appreciate the dynamics in local communities, nor how the insurgency, corruption, incompetent officials, powerbrokers and criminality all combine to affect the Afghan population."

In a separate section, he warned that the Afghan prison system had been turned into "a sanctuary and base" for insurgents to plan and to recruit among criminals.

He identified three main insurgent groups, saying they were "clearly supported from Pakistan".

"The insurgents control or contest a significant portion of the country, although it is difficult to assess precisely how much due to a lack of Isaf presence."

news20090921gdn2

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Business > Food & drink industry]
Organic firms harness the power of superfoods to boost flagging fortunes
> Industry hit by recession as sales fall 13% in a year
> Ambitious campaign aims for growth of 50%, or £1bn
Zoe Wood
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 20 September 2009 22.36 BST Article

It will be wellies at dawn in London tomorrow as the big names of the organic food and farming business launch a bid to reverse their sales, which have tumbled during the recession.

Top organic food firms including Green & Blacks, Rachel's and Yeo Valley are holding a summit in the City of London to launch a campaign with the goal of boosting organic sales by 50%, or £1bn.

It is a big ask for an industry which has been badly battered. The latest data from analysts TNS – which monitors sales through supermarkets – shows the market for organic food was down 13% in the year to 9 August. Sales of organic vegetables are down more than a third in the last year, and demand for fertiliser-free fruit has fallen nearly 16%. While organic milk is now the fastest growing organic foodstuff, sales were up only 2% over the last 12 months.

The fightback is being organised by the Organic Trade Board (OTB), and is the first show of solidarity by an industry riven by passionate individualism. "We had to get the industry to 'own' the problem, it is very principled but quite fragmented," said Huw Bowles, the OTB's chairman and an organic milk producer, of the need to get the sector back into growth.

The trend towards organic eating was expanding rapidly until the recession set in. Three years ago, Tesco boss Sir Terry Leahy declared the UK was turning into a nation of foodies as shoppers traded up and put more emphasis on food quality, provenance and environmental issues. Organic food had moved into the mainstream and sales were motoring up 30% a year, while cheaper value ranges were in the doldrums. Asda doubled its organic range and Tesco's sales of organic produce hit £1bn in 2007. Leahy grumbled that Tesco had to source 70% of its organic food from abroad because UK farmers were not expanding fast enough to meet the new demand.

Then the recession hit, and in the space of just a few months shopping habits changed as consumers once again made price their top priority. Suddenly the fastest growing grocers were the discount chains, such as Aldi and Lidl, and the big supermarkets were forced to emphasise price in a bid to halt the exodus of shoppers to cheaper rivals. By Christmas last year, organic sales at the major supermarkets – which account for three-quarters of all organic sales – had gone into reverse. Some organic food was cleared off supermarket shelves to make room for more economy lines. "The organic industry hasn't done a good enough job of informing consumers about the benefits, so it was vulnerable in recession when the choices we make are based on price," said Andrew Baker, chief executive of Duchy Originals, the Prince of Wales's food brand, which recently signed a major licensing deal with Waitrose.

Organic farms and organic box schemes have been hit by a sharp increase in the number of consumers choosing to cut their costs by growing their own fertiliser-free food. Demand for allotments has soared, and last week DIY chain B&Q reported a 19% increase in sales of vegetable seeds.

In July, the organics business suffered another blow when a study funded by the Food Standards Agency concluded that organic food is no healthier than non-organic. The report, conducted by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said "there's no good evidence that consumption of organic food is beneficial to health based on the nutrient content".

Now the industry is putting on a united front for the first time. At the City summit, Bowles will pitch a plan to grow the £2.1bn market by 50% over the next five years.

A national consumer campaign is planned to spell out what organic means for ordinary shoppers. It is estimated that 10% of organic shoppers account for 57% of sales: the movement has a hardcore following, but most consumers do not understand its principles, which go beyond health to sustainability, animal husbandry and pesticide-free production, said Bowles.

Analyst TNS divides organic shoppers into three categories: evangelists, dabblers and accidentals. Evangelists "fully understand the message", while accidentals "don't think they buy organic but we have electronic evidence that they have". Dabblers buy organic, sometimes, for "what it implies in terms of taste, safety, sustainability" – and they are the sector the OTB wants to convert to regular organic shoppers.

The OTB is also applying for match-funding from the EU to assist with its marketing of the brand "Organic", in what would be the first European campaign led by the industry rather than government. Officials are currently thrashing out the claims it can make with the Advertising Standards Authority.

Big organic brands such as Green & Blacks, baby-food maker Organix and drinks firm Rocks Organic all insist they are bucking the downward trend. Kellie Fernandes, global marketing director at Green & Blacks, where sales are up 4% this year, said: "We have very loyal customers."

And Duchy boss Baker insists the recent downturn is only a blip. "Organic, sustainable food won't go away – the day is coming when alternatives to intensive farming methods, with their reliance on oil, will have to be found."


[Environment > Wind power]
Gordon Brown bids to secure Siemens wind turbine plant
Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson want Siemens involvement to boost Britain's green revolution after Vestas fiasco
Terry Macalister
The Observer, Sunday 20 September 2009 Article history

Gordon Brown is wooing the boss of Europe's largest engineering group in a desperate attempt to secure a major new wind turbine plant and reinvigorate the UK's stuttering "green" energy strategy.

The prime minister will meet Peter Löscher, chief executive of Siemens, in the next two weeks to reassure him that Britain can offer an attractive financial package and genuine market growth.

Last week, the UK government gave Siemens £1.1m to help it develop a new offshore wind power "converter" alongside a £4.5m grant to smaller rival, Clipper Wind Power, which is researching new prototype blades for the North Sea.

But a greater commitment from Siemens is a much larger prize because the company is the world leader in offshore turbine manufacture. Siemens is one of a number of companies, including GE and Mitsubishi, to have been linked with a possible new British wind factory.

Brown and Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, want to bring in a big name in the wake of losing the Vestas plant on the Isle of Wight, a public relations disaster that undermined UK claims to be leading the clean energy revolution.

Siemens confirmed the Löscher meeting, while the head of its wind division made clear that Britain would need to meet various conditions before it was chosen over alternative locations.

René Umlauft, chief executive of Siemens Offshore Wind, said one of the most important aspects was seeing what came out of the Round 3 deep water licensing, which is expected to be announced shortly.

He denied any factory was dependent on Siemens being awarded a licence, for which its financial arm has applied, but it needed to know there would be plenty of new customers.

"We are looking at two locations [for factories] in the UK, one in Denmark and one in Germany. Great Britain has the advantage of Round 3, which could result in a huge market," he explained.

The two factory sites in Britain, include one in the north east – ringfenced as a "low carbon economic area", while a second plant is thought to be in East Anglia.

Umlauf says he has at least 12 months to make up his mind, but insiders said they expected to see a decision much earlier if the company got what it wanted out of government.

news20090921abc

[Top Headlines] from [abcNEWS]

[Money]
World's Most Expensive Cars
These Cars Have All the Perks but Cost $500,000 to Well Over $1 million
By HANNAH ELLIOTT
Forbes.com
Sept. 21, 2009

Hate the smell of exhaust or the skunk you just passed on the highway? If you buy the Maybach 62 Zeppelin, your nose will never have to suffer again. The car comes with a built-in, illuminated atomizer that gently diffuses the fragrance of your choice throughout the cabin.

Granted, that peace of mind will cost you--to the tune of $506,500. But that's the low end when looking at the limits of what money can buy at the dealership. For a whopping $1.8 million you can get the Cinque Roadster, which features a stunning 678 horsepower V12 engine, carbon fiber racing seats, a titanium suspension and a 0-60

In Depth: World's Most Expensive Cars

But those who still don't want to be outdone should consider the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport or the Koenigsegg CCXR, both of which cost more than $2 million.

The auto industry may have fallen considerably this year, but that doesn't mean those who can afford to spend six- or seven-figure sums on a luxury vehicle are lacking options.

Behind the Numbers
To compile our list of the most expensive cars this year, we reviewed price lists from all the ultra-luxury automakers that had the potential to produce a contender this year for the top spot, including Bentley, Bugatti, Ferrari, Koenigsegg, Lamborghini, Leblanc, Maserati, Maybach, Mercedes-Benz, Pagani, Saleen, Shelby SuperCars and Spyker.

We narrowed our terms for the list by choosing only cars that are currently in production and street legal, which eliminated the discontinued $653,000 Enzo Ferrari, $585,000 Saleen S7 and $500,000 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster, among others. Prices do not include taxes; some prices have been converted from euros to dollars. And not all of the vehicles on our list are sold in the U.S.

news20090921bbc1

[One-Minute World News] from [BBC NEWS]

[South Asia]
Page last updated at 11:02 GMT, Monday, 21 September 2009 12:02 UK
US in Afghanistan failure warning
The US mission in Afghanistan will "likely result in failure" unless troops are increased within a year, the top general there has said in a report.

Gen Stanley McChrystal made his assessment in a copy of a confidential report obtained by the Washington Post.

He recently called for a revised military strategy in Afghanistan, suggesting the current one is failing.

More than 30,000 extra US troops have been sent to Afghanistan since May - almost doubling the US contingent.

The number of US troops in Afghanistan is already set to rise to 68,000 by the end of the year.

But in his latest assessment, Gen McChrystal is quoted by the Washington Post newspaper as saying: "Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near-term (next 12 months)... risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible."

{ANALYSIS
Paul Reynolds, BBC World Affairs Correspondent
General McChrystal has dared to use the F-word 'failure'. He wants a super-surge of troops to try to avoid that. Reinforcements are already being sent, almost doubling US troops by the end of this year.
Now, the general wants perhaps tens of thousands more. Yet the request is in contrast to the stated goal of handing over operations more and more to the Afghan army.
With the situation so critical, how can that happen? Answer - it cannot for the time being. And will President Obama agree?
He is reluctant just to add to the numbers but without numbers, how can the US and its allies win? And will the Nato allies give more help? This must be doubtful.}

He warned that "inadequate resources will likely result in failure".

"Additional resources are required," the general states in the summary of the report.

Gen McChrystal is expected to make a separate request for tens of thousands of extra forces to be deployed. He also says that training for Afghan forces needs to be speeded up.

He said that failure to provide adequate resources "also risks a longer conflict, greater casualties, higher overall costs, and ultimately, a critical loss of political support".

"Any of these risks, in turn, are likely to result in mission failure."

'Crisis of confidence'

But Gen McChrystal adds that the increase in troop numbers must come in the context of a revised military strategy in the country.

He has consistently called for a strategy which makes its top priority the protection of the Afghan people.

In the report Gen McChrystal also:

> Provides new details about the sophisticated nature of the Taliban insurgency
> Criticises Nato forces for focusing more on tackling insurgents than protecting Afghan civilians
>Censures the Afghan government for lack of action on widespread corruption
> Warns that Afghanistan's prisons have become a sanctuary for active insurgents
> All of these factors, he claims, have led to a "crisis of confidence among Afghans" in the face of a resilient insurgency.

{ MCCHRYSTAL'S AFGHAN STRATEGY
> Focus on protecting civilians when fighting insurgents
> Interact more closely with local populations
> More troops needed for effective counter-insurgency
> Better training for Afghan forces to operate independently
> Government and NGOs to provide services after military action
> More constructive engagement with Taliban fighters willing to talk}

The increase in troop numbers would provide security for the Afghan people and create a space in which good governance can take root, Gen McChrystal argues.

In a blunt evaluation, he says that both the Afghan government and international forces face losing credibility among the Afghan population.

"Pre-occupied with protection of our own forces, we have operated in a manner that distances us - physically and psychologically - from the people we seek to protect," he says.

But 2009 has been the deadliest year for foreign troops in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

Italy is holding a day of mourning for six soldiers killed in a Kabul bomb attack last week. And the future of German troops in Afghanistan has become a central issue in Germany's election campaign.

The Washington Post says that the report has been presented to US Defence Secretary Robert Gates.

A recent opinion poll showed that a narrow majority of Americans now oppose the conflict.

Last week the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm Mike Mullen, told the US Senate Armed Services Committee that more troops might be required to tackle the mounting Taliban insurgency.

But President Obama later said there was "no immediate decision pending" on sending more troops to Afghanistan.

"You have to get the strategy right and then make the determination about resources," Mr Obama said.

The BBC's security correspondent Nick Childs says the timing of this leak, and the stark language contained in it, is certain to pile the pressure on the Obama administration, particularly when the president has just said he is not ready to make a final decision.

This is largely because the issue has become so politically charged in Washington, our correspondent says.


[South Asia]
Page last updated at 11:06 GMT, Monday, 21 September 2009 12:06 UK
Pakistan curbs on Mumbai accused
Police in Pakistan are restricting the movement of an Islamic charity leader accused of involvement in the 2008 Mumbai (Bombay) attacks.

Jamaat-ud-Dawa founder Hafiz Mohammad Saeed has also been barred from leading Eid prayers in Lahore, reports say.

Mr Saeed founded Lashkar-e-Taiba, the group India accuses of carrying out the attacks. Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Mr Saeed deny they are linked to the attacks.

India wants Mr Saeed questioned about his "role" in last November's violence.

"If this is a face saving technique I have no objection. My demand is that he be interrogated on the Mumbai attacks... on his role in the Mumbai attacks," India's home minister P Chidambaram said.

More than 170 people, including nine gunmen, were killed in the attacks.

Pakistan detained Mr Saeed last year. He was freed in June after a court ruled there was insufficient evidence to prosecute him.

'Security risks'

Police have been deployed outside Mr Saeed's house in the Johar Town area of Lahore.

{ HAFIZ SAEED IN CUSTODY
> December 2001-March 2002: Arrested and released three times after Lashkar-e-Taiba was accused of attacking Indian parliament
> August - October 2006: Detained after Lashkar-e-Taiba was linked to multiple train bombs in Mumbai
> December 2008 - June 2009: Placed under house arrest after Lashkar-e-Taiba was blamed for Mumbai attacks}

Mumbai: A Pakistan militant link?
His son in law, Khalid Walid, told BBC Urdu that Mr Saeed had been told not to leave his house because of "security risks".

Mr Saeed was prevented from going to Lahore's Gadaffi stadium to lead Eid prayers at the end of the Ramadan fasting month because of the restrictions, his aides say.

A senior police officer told reporters that Mr Saeed's movements had been curbed for security reasons, but denied he was under house arrest, Reuters news agency reports.

The move to restrict Mr Saeed's movements comes days after Pakistani authorities filed two cases against him for giving speeches allegedly "glorifying" jihad.

Some Indian analysts read a pattern into Pakistani actions just before more talks are due between India and Pakistan in New York, says BBC Hindi editor Amit Baruah.

He says a quick trial and conviction of seven suspects in custody in Pakistan in connection with the Mumbai attacks would go a long way to convince Indian public opinion that Pakistan is serious about tackling terrorism.

Feared militants

Indian authorities say there is evidence to show that the Mumbai attacks were planned and financed by Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan.

Pakistan has admitted that they had been partly planned from its soil.

Founded in the late 1980s, Lashkar-e-Taiba is one of most feared groups fighting against Indian control in Kashmir.

After it was banned in Pakistan in 2002, the organisation divided itself into Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Lashkar-e-Taiba, correspondents say.

Jamaat-ud-Dawa works as an Islamic charity all over Pakistan.

news20090921bcc2

[One-Minute World News] from [BBC NEWS]

[Americas]
Page last updated at 07:59 GMT, Sunday, 20 September 2009 08:59 UK
Three Afghans held over US 'plot'
Three men have been arrested in connection with an alleged plot to launch an attack in the United States, the US Justice Department says.

Two Afghan-born men, a father and son, were arrested in Denver, Colorado.

A third man, also from Afghanistan, was later detained in New York, the department said.

The men are accused of making false statements related to "a matter involving international and domestic terrorism", the statement said.

The FBI was investigating several people "in the United States, Pakistan and elsewhere, relating to a plot to detonate improvised explosive devices in the United States", the Justice Department said in court documents related to the arrests.

US media have reported that the investigation was focusing on a possible plan to attack a public area in New York.

David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security, said the arrests were part of "an ongoing and fast-paced investigation".

"It is important to note that we have no specific information regarding the timing, location or target of any planned attack," AFP news agency quoted him as saying.

'Not true'

The arrests followed three days of questioning by federal authorities of Najibullah Zazi, the Colorado-based son.

Officials questioned Mr Zazi for three days prior to his arrest
Earlier this week officials searched the Denver home of Mr Zazi, a 24-year-old airport shuttle driver.

He and his father, Mohammed Zazi, 53, will appear in court in Colorado on Monday. Ahmad Wais Afzali, 37, will appear in court in New York the same day.

In a telephone interview with the Denver Post newspaper on Saturday, Najibullah Zazi denied media reports that he had admitted any link to al-Qaeda or involvement in terrorism.

"It's not true," Mr Zazi said. "I have nothing to hide. It's all media publications reporting whatever they want. They have been reporting all this nonsense."


[South Asia]
Page last updated at 01:08 GMT, Monday, 21 September 2009 02:08 UK
Climate deal in peril, says Brown
The climate deal planned for Copenhagen in 10 weeks' time is in grave danger of failure, the prime minister has said.
By Roger Harrabin
BBC Environment Analyst

Gordon Brown has become the first world leader to offer to go to the Danish capital to help seal the deal.

He told Newsweek magazine there was no second chance to undo "catastrophic damage" to the environment if "we miss the opportunity to protect the planet".

This year's talks are vital as they aim to produce a successor to the Kyoto Climate Protocol on global warming.

Mr Brown also warned that consumers would have to pay more for energy in the future, whether the UK opts for high or low carbon energy sources.

Green revolution

The annual climate negotiations are normally done by environment ministers, but they lack the political muscle to make the big spending decisions which underpin the talks.

The vast majority of climate scientists say there must be no further delay in emissions cuts.

Mr Brown said a deal was also essential to help kick-start a global low-carbon economy as a route out of recession.

Gordon Brown has injected a note of urgency into the Copenhagen talks by agreeing to attend

John Sauven
Greenpeace
"What has now become clear is that the push toward decarbonisation will be one of the major drivers of global and national economic growth over the next decade," he said.

"And the economies which embrace the green revolution earliest will reap the greatest economic rewards."

Mr Brown said, if necessary, he would go to Copenhagen himself, and his staff said he would urge other leaders to follow suit at the UN this week.

It's almost inconceivable that this sort of initiative will not be necessary.

Mr Brown also said clean energy investment would put up costs for consumers - but by less than would happen if the UK stuck with fossil fuels.

The costs will be affordable as the economy grows and as energy efficiency improves, he says.


The climate conference gets under way in Copenhagen on 7 December
He is following a lead set by Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, who was first to break with the political spin that it was possible to decarbonise the economy without putting up prices.

Some will be sceptical about Mr Brown's comments on green investment.

Britain's leaders have been promising a green economy for many years but Germany, Denmark, the US - and now increasingly China and India - are taking a market lead.

Mr Brown's cash give-away for old cars did not include any environmental conditions.

Critics will also point out that as chancellor, Mr Brown blocked many green policies, and some may question this latest initiative.

But he has already taken an international lead by suggesting rich nations should pay $100bn (£62bn) a year to help poor nations with the changing climate.

This helped kick-start the EU into a position more acceptable to developing nations.

Greenpeace welcomed the prime minister's initiative to go to Copenhagen.

Director John Sauven said: "Gordon Brown has injected a note of urgency into the Copenhagen talks by agreeing to attend. At the moment there is a huge gap between what needs to be done and what world leaders are promising to do."

But for all Mr Brown's promise of leadership, the UK has not yet committed to the 40% CO2 cuts most scientists say are needed from rich nations by 2020 to contain climate change.

news20090921reut1

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
European companies ahead of U.S. on carbon disclosure
Mon Sep 21, 2009 1:11am EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - European companies outnumbered North American companies on a list of how well global corporations were disclosing their emissions of greenhouse gasses and plans to guard themselves against financial risks associated with climate change, a survey showed on Monday.

European companies had seven companies in the Carbon Disclosure Project's (CDP) list of top 12 global climate performers. Oil company Royal Dutch Shell, the reinsurer group Swiss Re, and phone maker Nokia Group were some of the seven on the list.

North American companies had five on the list, including jet maker Boeing Co, power utility Consolidated Edison, and top U.S. network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc.

"European countries do score highly. Of course, they are subject to a lot more regulation on greenhouse gases so they are more advanced than other places in terms of being able to report complete data," Zoe Riddell, who produces the annual CDP report, said ahead of its release.

The European Union has had mandatory greenhouse emissions caps since 2005, while the United States, the world's second biggest greenhouse gas polluter after China, has no federal limits on the gases blamed for warming the planet.

The CDP asks 500 global companies on behalf of institutional investors to measure and report their emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for warming the planet. It also asks them to assess how climate change would affect their future financial health.

The global response rose this year to 82 percent up from 77 percent last year. The CDP also surveys 500 of the top companies traded in the United States. Of those, 66 percent responded to the 2009 survey, a gain of 2 percentage points from last year.

The U.S. House passed a climate bill in June and Democratic leaders in the Senate hope to pass their version of the legislation later this year. The future of that bill is uncertain.

Companies were listed alphabetically and not in order of finish.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by David Gregorio)


[Green Business]
Silicon Valley reinvents the lowly brick
Mon Sep 21, 2009 3:07pm EDT
By David Lawsky

NEWARK, California (Reuters) - Forget microchips.

Silicon Valley sees a profitable future in the humble brick thanks to a low-energy production process that illustrates the greening of the U.S. technology capital.

Brick maker Calstar Products is heavy on PhDs and backed by venture capitalists whose vision is to create buildings less expensively and in a way that saves energy.

"We think it is time for a second industrial revolution," said Paul Holland, a partner at Foundation Capital, which invested $7 million in Calstar. EnerTech Capital led another round that raised $8 million for the business.

"We and dozens of others are trying to create green alternatives for all the things that happen in the building industry," Holland said.

Currently about 40 percent of U.S. energy use goes toward the heating, cooling and general operation of buildings.

Silicon Valley is finding high-tech ways to make age-old materials, pursuing carbon dioxide-eating concrete, windows that insulate better than walls, and wood substitutes.

The field is still new. Venture investments in green buildings have waxed and waned with the recession, but involved 45 deals worth about $350 million the past year, according to Cleantech Group LLC.

3,000-YEAR WAIT

Bricks have been made pretty much the same way for 3,000 years, until Calstar's scientists came up with their new technique, said Chief Executive Michael Kane.

Ordinary bricks are fired for 24 hours at 2,000 degrees F (1,093 C) as part of a process that can last a week, while Calstar bricks are baked at temperatures below 212 F (100 C) and take only 10 hours from start to finish, Kane said.

The recipe incorporates large amounts of fly ash -- a fluffy, powdery residue of burned coal at electric plants, that can otherwise wind up as a troublesome pollutant.

"Ours is a precise product" that relies on getting the chemistry right, said Amitabha Kumar, Calstar's director of research and development.

The process of making the bricks, which look and feel like any other brick, requires 80 to 90 percent less energy and emits 85 percent less greenhouse gas than ordinary bricks, according to Calstar.

Lower energy costs mean higher profit, allowing the company to pay for its research and compete against large companies that have economies of scale. The new bricks -- which the Brick Industry Association says are not actually bricks -- will sell for the same price as traditional clay-based ones. The Brick Industry Association says there is also no proof that products using fly ash will last as well as traditional brick.

BRICKS FOR CHINA?

The low-carbon footprint in the production process also gives the bricks a strong environmental cachet, and Calstar is targeting the "green materials" market with the goal of competing against traditional clay brick makers like Glen-Gery of Pennsylvania and Endicott of Nebraska.

The company's headquarters and research facility is based in a warehouse on the shores of San Francisco Bay but its first plant is under construction in Caledonia, Wisconsin, the heartland of brick-using country. It is near a Wisconsin Energy Corp plant that can supply calcium-rich fly ash.

The plant is to be running before year's end. At first, the company will make only "facing brick," used on the outside of buildings, a $2 billion annual U.S. market. It plans to branch out into paving stones, roofing tile and other brick markets.

The company has signed 16 distributors to sell 12 million or more bricks the first year, and plans to make 100 million bricks for sale throughout the Midwest and South, Kane said.

After that, fast-growing markets like China beckon.

(Reporting by David Lawsky, editing by Matthew Lewis)


[Green Business]
Applied Materials sees solar unit profit in 2010
Mon Sep 21, 2009 3:24pm EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Applied Materials Inc said on Monday it plans to improve efficiency to cut the cost of producing solar panels below $1 per watt in three years and is on track to post profits at its environmental unit next year.

The world's largest producer of chipmaking gear also said it is seeing "substantial progress in the global industrialization of the solar industry."

"We continue to make progress in every aspect of the SunFab lines and are well on our way to delivering 10 percent efficient SunFab panels and $1 per watt production costs in 2010," said Mark Pinto, chief technology officer and general manager of Applied's Energy and Environmental Solutions group, which includes solar.

Pinto, whose remarks at an industry conference in Germany were released to the media, also laid out plans for SunFab panels with 12 percent conversion efficiency and module costs below 70 cents per watt by 2012.

Conversion efficiency is the amount of sunlight that can be turned into electricity.

Applied Materials is relying on its solar equipment arm to bolster sales and growth as its traditional chip business falters.

Applied Materials's SunFab line of equipment anchors the thin-film photovoltaic portion of its business. Thin-film equipment, a crucial segment of the burgeoning solar equipment market, has been walloped by tightening credit and cutbacks in some government subsidies.

Thin-film panels are less efficient than crystalline at converting sunlight into electricity but are typically cheaper to manufacture because they use less silicon.

In an update on its overall solar and environmental services unit, Applied Materials said it expects the business to lead to increasing revenue and profitability as the global economy recovers and governments around the world look to technologies like photovoltaic solar panels and energy-efficient glass to help produce and conserve energy.

The company said its crystalline silicon business is already generating positive returns and the Energy and Environmental Solutions segment is on track to operating profitability in 2010, excluding charges.

Applied Materials, which has registered three consecutive quarters of losses, posted sharply narrower losses for its third fiscal quarter.

Last week Applied Materials shuffled several senior management positions, including naming Pinto to head its solar unit while he remains the company's chief technology officer.

J.P. Morgan analyst Christopher Blansett said in a note to clients that the changes in management are not likely to affect the company's semiconductor equipment business in the short term.

"What we are concerned about in general is what appears to be a continuing change in the leadership of AMAT's solar business," Blansett wrote.

"This division has undergone a number of changes over the past few years, which is generally not a good environment for fostering stability," the analyst added.

Applied Materials shares were down 33 cents or 2.5 percent at $12.70 in afternoon Nasdaq trading.

(Reporting by Poornima Gupta, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

news20090921reut2

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
U.S. leadership needed on Doha, climate change: EU
Mon Sep 21, 2009 7:30pm EDT
By Doug Palmer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. action is needed in coming months to help propel world trade talks and climate change negotiations to a successful conclusion, a European Union official said on Monday.

"I think now is the time to move forward" in the Doha round of world trade talks, John Bruton, the EU's ambassador to the United States told Reuters in an interview ahead of the Group of 20 leaders meeting this week in Pittsburgh. "We've reached the stage where we need to get down to the details."

The Doha round was launched nearly eight years ago with the goal of helping poor countries prosper through trade.

But negotiators have missed deadline after deadline as they fought over the details of cutting industrial and agricultural tariffs and farm subsidies.

A new working paper from the Peterson Institute for International Economics estimated the boost to global economic growth from a successful Doha agreement in the range of $300 billion to $700 billion annually and said it would be well balanced between developed and developing countries.

After more than a year of inaction, a recent meeting of trade ministers in New Delhi has raised hopes of progress in the long-running trade round. G20 leaders are also expected to discuss the round when they meet on Thursday and Friday.

President Barack Obama should seize the moment by pushing the Senate to quickly approve his nominees for two key slots in the U.S. Trade Representative's office, including the job of chief WTO negotiator in Geneva, said Bruton, who was prime minister of Ireland from 1994 to 1997.

The U.S. team also needs "clearer instructions to engage in details" of the Doha round talks, he said.

But "it would not be correct to say that the U.S. is the main obstacle" to an agreement, Bruton said, noting that India and some other emerging economies "are not as forthcoming as they ought to be" in terms of offering new market openings.

As countries attempt to relaunch global economic growth, now is the time for intense sector-by-sector talks that will help the White House identify enough new export opportunities to sell a Doha deal in Congress, Bruton said.

Bruton, who is nearing the end of his term in Washington, said he has been concerned by a rise in protectionist sentiment in the United States over the past several years.

But as the United States transforms itself into a country that saves more and consumes less, exports will be key to economic growth, Bruton said.

"The U.S., to my mind, has more of an interest now in opening up export markets, more of an interest now in freer trade than it had two years ago. The challenge is to convey that to the electorate," he said.

EU FEARS CLIMATE CHANGE DEADLOCK

Meanwhile, the outgoing EU ambassador expressed frustration the Senate still has not acted on climate change legislation, despite a deadline that has been looming for years for countries to reach a new treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions this December in Copenhagen.

"If you've brought people from around the world at great expense, at great expenditure of greenhouse gases and they sit there for two weeks and have to go home without agreeing ... that's going to send a very negative signal to businesses that were hoping to invest in green technologies," Bruton said.

Those remarks came just hours after European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso warned the climate change negotiations were "dangerously close to deadlock."

"The reality is that negotiations are not going fast enough. And that is why, worryingly, some people are already speaking about plan B. And my suggestion is, let's concentrate on plan A," Barroso told reporters after a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

While Obama has hoped to get climate change legislation through Congress this year, work on the massive and controversial bill has been put on the back burner while lawmakers debate healthcare reform.

Congress needs to "recognize it is important to deal with more than one issue at a time," Bruton said, adding he felt the need to be vocal on the issue because of "many forces in Washington working in favor of inertia on climate change."

(Additional reporting by Walter Brandimarte in New York; Editing by Eric Walsh)


[Green Business]
BA CEO to pledge aviation sector C02 cuts to U.N.
Mon Sep 21, 2009 7:34pm EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh will tell world leaders at the U.N. climate summit on Tuesday the aviation industry could halve its carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, a spokesman for the airline said on Monday.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) agreed to the ambitious target to cut sector emissions to 50 percent below 2005 levels by 2050 at its annual general meeting in June.

Britain's Committee on Climate Change said this month flights could produce up to a fifth of all global carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, from about 2 percent now, without urgent and drastic action.

IATA says a global carbon emissions permit trading system should be introduced to encourage cuts, rather than slapping more taxes on air travel.

"Carbon trading gives airlines a direct incentive to reduce their emissions. Flight taxes, such as Air Passenger Duty, do not," British Airways said in a statement.

"Taxation guarantees no emissions reductions whatever, and does not necessarily provide any revenue for environmental objectives."

World leaders are to meet in New York on Tuesday for a one-day summit to try to unlock 190-nation negotiations on a new deal to combat global warming due to be hammered out in Copenhagen in December.

IATA also agreed in June to cap carbon emissions from aviation from 2020, and aim for an average improvement in fuel efficiency of 1.5 percent per year from 2009 to 2020.

(Reporting by Daniel Fineren; editing by Andrew Roche)

news20090921cbs1

[Today's News] from [CBS News.com]

[World]
WASHINGTON, Sept. 21, 2009
Report: More Troops Needed in Afghanistan
Washington Post Publishes Secret Report from Top U.S. Commander Saying More Forces Essential for Victory

(CBS/AP) Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, said in a confidential report that without additional forces, the war against insurgents there will end in failure, The Washington Post reported Monday.

McChrystal's grim assessment of the war was published on the Post's Web site, with some portions withheld at the government's request.

"Although considerable effort and sacrifice have resulted in some progress, many indicators suggest the overall effort is deteriorating," McChrystal wrote in his summary.

The report was sent to Defense Secretary Robert Gates in August and is now under review by President Obama, who is trying to decide whether to send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan.

While asking for more troops, McChrystal also pointed out "the urgent need for a significant change to our strategy." The U.S. needs to interact better with the Afghan people, McChrystal said, and better organize its efforts with NATO allies.

The Pentagon and the White House are awaiting a separate, more detailed request for additional troops and resources. Media reports Friday and Saturday said McChrystal has finished it but was told to pocket it, partly because of the charged politics surrounding the decision. McChrystal's senior spokesman, Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, told The Associated Press on Sunday that the report is not complete.

"The resource request is being finalized and will be sent forward to the chain of command at some point in the near future," Smith said from Afghanistan.

Mr. Obama denied asking McChrystal to sit on the request, but he gave no deadline for making a decision about whether to send more Americans into harm's way.

Mr. Obama said in a series of television interviews broadcast Sunday that he will not allow politics to govern his decision.

The president would not tell Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer whether he would approve a potential recommendation from Gen. McChrystal to send tens of thousands more American troops into that Afghanistan.

"I'm not considering it at this point because I haven't received the request," the president said during a taped interview.

Mr. Obama left little doubt in the interviews for Sunday morning's news magazine programs that he is re-evaluating whether more forces will do any good.

"The first question is, 'Are we doing the right thing?"' Mr. Obama said. "Are we pursuing the right strategy?"

Schieffer asked the president whether it would be difficult for him to deny a request for more troops from McChrystal.

"The only reason I send a single young man or woman in uniform anywhere in the world is because I think it is necessary to keep us safe," Mr. Obama replied.

"Didn't you say on March 27th that you have announced a comprehensive new strategy for Afghanistan?" Schieffer asked. "I thought you already had a strategy."

"We did," the president explained, "but what I also said was that we were going to review that review that every six months."

The war has taken on a highly partisan edge. Senate Republicans are demanding an influx of forces to turn around a war that soon will enter its ninth year, while members of Mr. Obama's own party are trying to put on the brakes.

"No, no, no, no," Mr. Obama responded when asked whether he or aides had directed McChrystal to temporarily withhold a request for additional U.S. forces and other resources.

"The only thing I've said to my folks is, 'A, I want an unvarnished assessment, but, B, I don't want to put the resource question before the strategy question,"' Mr. Obama said. "Because there is a natural inclination to say, 'If I get more, then I can do more."'

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress last week he expected McChrystal's request for additional forces and other resources "in the very near future."

Other military officials had said the request would go to McChrystal's boss, Gen. David Petraeus (at left), and up the chain of command in a matter of weeks. The White House discounted that timeline, but has remained vague about how long it would take to receive the report and act on it.

McChrystal found security worse than he expected when he took command this summer to lead what Mr. Obama described as a narrowed, intensive campaign to uproot al Qaeda and prevent the terrorist group from again using Afghanistan as a safe haven.

In the interviews taped Friday at the White House, Mr. Obama said he's asking these questions of the military: "How does this advance America's national security interests? How does it make sure that al Qaeda and its extremist allies cannot attack the United States homeland, our allies, our troops who are based in Europe?"

"If supporting the Afghan national government and building capacity for their army and securing certain provinces advances that strategy, then we'll move forward," the president continued. "But if it doesn't, then I'm not interested in just being in Afghanistan for the sake of being in Afghanistan."

Mr. Obama has ordered 21,000 more troops to Afghanistan, increasing the number of U.S. forces there to a record 68,000, and watched as Marines pushed deep into Taliban-controlled districts ahead of Afghanistan's national elections in August.

The disappointing outcome of the voting - no definitive winner weeks later and mounting allegations that the incumbent President Hamid Karzai rigged the election - is coloring both Mr. Obama's view of the conflict and the partisan debate.

Sen. Carl Levin, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has told Mr. Obama he wants no new troop requests - at least until the United States makes a bolder effort to expand and train Afghanistan's own armed forces.

On Sunday, Levin addressed the give-and-take over McChrystal's report.

"I think what's going on here is that there is a number of questions which are being asked to Gen. McChrystal about some of the assumptions which have been previously made in the strategy, including that there would be an election which would be a stabilizing influence instead of a destabilizing influence," said Levin.

The Senate's Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said Mr. Obama should follow the military's advice. McConnell said Petraeus "did a great job with the surge in Iraq. I think he knows what he's doing. Gen. McChrystal is a part of that. We have a lot of confidence in those two generals. I think the president does as well."

news20090921cbs2

[Today's News] from [CBS News.com]

[World]
TOKYO, Sept. 21, 2009
Japan PM, Obama to Discuss Afghan Support
In Early Test for Key U.S. Ally's New Left-Leaning Leader, Hatoyama May Seek Independence, But Reaffirm Ties

(AP) Just five days in office, Japan's prime minister was leaving Monday for his debut on the world stage, where he is to meet with the leaders of the U.S., China and Russia and promote his ambitious plan to cut greenhouse gases in a speech at the U.N.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama was scheduled to hold talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao after arriving in New York late Monday, then attend a climate summit at the U.N. that starts Tuesday.

But Hatoyama, whose left-leaning party defeated the long-ruling conservatives in last month's elections, faces his biggest diplomatic test Wednesday, when he meets with President Obama.

Japan has long been one of Washington's closest allies, but Hatoyama's new government has said it wants to pursue a more independent relationship with the U.S., and will not extend the refueling operations in the Indian Ocean in support of American troops in Afghanistan beyond January.

The U.S. is boosting troop levels in Afghanistan even as international support for the coalition wanes, and is loathe to lose the backing of an ally.

Hatoyama also has said he wants to review the U.S. military presence in Japan, where 50,000 American troops are stationed. But that will wait and he said he doesn't plan to bring up the contentious topic during his initial meeting with Mr. Obama, preferring to build "a relationship of trust" with the U.S. president.

Hatoyama is also planning to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in New York on Wednesday.

Discussion topics will include climate change, the global economy and North Korea's nuclear program, a Foreign Ministry official said.

At the United Nations on Thursday, Hatoyama is to address his government's goal of a 25 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 - among the most ambitious cuts proposed by an economic power.

He will then travel to Pittsburgh to attend the Group of 20 economic summit.

While Hatoyama has said he wants Japan to take a less passive role in its ties with the U.S., its main military ally and major trading partner, he also has been careful to reassure Japanese and Americans alike that the U.S. will remain the "cornerstone" of his government's foreign policy.

Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said Sunday that Japan is considering sending more financial aid to Afghanistan after the refueling mission ends. During an interview on TV Asahi, Okada said it was unlikely that Japan would send troops, even for a noncombat role as it did in Iraq. Japan's pacifist constitution prohibits offensive military operations.

Okada also was departing for New York to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton later Monday. He wants to reconfirm the importance of the U.S.-Japan alliance during that meeting, the foreign ministry official said.

Last week, Clinton played down differences with Hatoyama's government, saying she expects new policies in Tokyo, just as the Obama administration has forged different approaches than the Bush administration.


[Politics]
WASHINGTON, Sept. 21, 2009
Emergency Unemployment Bill hits House
Lawmakers Expected to Pass Legislation Extending Benefits 13 Weeks

(AP) Despite predictions the Great Recession is running out of steam, the House is taking up emergency legislation this week to help the millions of Americans who see no immediate end to their economic miseries.

A bill offered by Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., and expected to pass easily would provide 13 weeks of extended unemployment benefits for more than 300,000 jobless people who live in states with unemployment rates of at least 8.5 percent and who are scheduled to run out of benefits by the end of September.

The 13-week extension would supplement the 26 weeks of benefits most states offer and the federally funded extensions of up to 53 weeks that Congress approved in legislation last year and in the stimulus bill enacted last February.

People from North Carolina to California "have been calling my office to tell me they still cannot find work a year or more after becoming unemployed, and they need some additional help to keep their heads above water," McDermott said.

Critics of unemployment insurance argue that it can be a disincentive to looking for work, and that extending benefits at a time the economy is showing signs of recovery could be counterproductive.

But this recession has been particularly pernicious to the job market, others say.

Some 5 million people, about one-third of those on the unemployment list, have been without a job for six months or more, a record since data started being recorded in 1948, according to the research and advocacy group National Employment Law Project.

"It smashes any other figure we have ever seen. It is an unthinkable number," said Andrew Stettner, NELP's deputy director. He said there are currently about six jobless people for every job opening, so it's unlikely people are purposefully living off unemployment insurance while waiting for something better to come along.

The current state unemployment check is about $300 a month, supplemented by $25 included in the stimulus act.

That doesn't go very far when a loaf of bread can cost $2.79 and a gallon of milk $2.72, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said at a hearing last week on the unemployment insurance issue.

"We need to keep our unemployed neighbors from falling into poverty. We need to figure out how best to make our safety net work," Baucus said.

The jobless rate currently stands at 9.7 percent and is likely to hover above 10 percent for much of 2010. Gary Burtless, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said at the Finance Committee hearing that, according to Labor Department figures, 51 percent of unemployment insurance claimants exhausted their regular benefits in July, the highest rate ever.

"It is likely the exhaustion rate will continue to increase in coming months" as the unemployment rate continues to rise, he said.

Stettner predicted that Congress will likely have to continue extending jobless benefits through 2011.

McDermott in July introduced a more ambitious bill that would have extended through 2010 the compensation programs included in the stimulus act. Those benefits are now scheduled to expire at the end of this year.

But with a price tag of up to $70 billion, that bill would have been far more difficult to pass. McDermott instead decided to offer the scaled-down 13-week extension to meet the urgent needs of those seeing their benefits disappear this year.

McDermott said his bill would not add to the deficit because it would extend for a year a federal unemployment tax of $14 per employee per year that employers have been paying for more than 30 years. It would also require better reporting on newly hired employees to reduce unemployment insurance overpayments.

Three-fourths of the 400,000 workers projected to exhaust their benefits this month live in high unemployment states that would qualify for the additional 13 weeks of benefits under his bill, McDermott said.
They include Alabama, Arizona, California, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Washington, Wisconsin and West Virginia.

Other states could qualify for more benefits if their unemployment rates are approaching the 8.5 percent threshold.