news20090926gdn1

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[News > World news > France]
UK warned as plague of bee-eating hornets spreads north in France
> Pesticides and traps fail to halt steady colonisation
> British summer could be their downfall, says expert
Lizzy Davies in Paris
guardian.co.uk, Friday 25 September 2009 21.35 BST Article history

For five years they have wreaked havoc in the fields of south-western France, scaring locals with their venomous stings and ravaging the bee population to feed their rapacious appetites. Now, according to French beekeepers, Asian predatory hornets have been sighted in Paris for the first time, raising the prospect of a nationwide invasion which entomologists fear could eventually reach Britain.

Claude Cohen, president of the Parisian region's apiculture development agency, said a hornet nest had been found this week in the centre of Blanc Mesnil, north-east of the capital.

If confirmed by further testing, the find will raise fears that the spread of the bee-eating Vespa velutina is no longer limited to the Aquitaine region near Bordeaux, where it is believed to have arrived on board container ships from China in 2004, and the surrounding south-west.

Denis Thiery, a specialist at the National Institute for Agricultural Research, said the hornets were likely to push on with a relentless colonisation of their adopted country until they become a common sight in vast swaths of France – and ultimately in other European states.

"We are seeing a real geographical expansion," he said, adding that an eventual invasion of southern England, which has a relatively mild climate the hornets would enjoy, could not be ruled out.

Biologists insist that this variety of Asian hornet, which can grow to an inch long, is no more ferocious than its European counterpart, although its stings, which contain more poison than those of wasps, can be very painful and can require hospital attention.

This summer swarms of the insects were reported to have attacked a mother and baby in the Lot-et-Garonne department, as well as pursuing passersby and tourists on bikes.

But the hornet's menace to human beings pales into insignificance in comparison with the destruction it wreaks on its chosen habitat. In south-western France, where its population surges each year, beleaguered beekeepers claim that they are being driven into the ground by the insect's destructive eating habits.

"We have literally been invaded," said Raymond Saunier, president of the Gironde department's beekeeping union. "In the past two to four years we have lost 30% of our hives. All it takes is two or three hornets near your hive and you've had it."

He added: "It's not just about us trying to make honey. What's even more serious is the effect they have on the pollination process [by killing so many bees]. It's really a disaster."

Faced with a demographic explosion which Thiery said had seen thousands of nests documented last year in the city of Bordeaux alone, entomologists are unsure of the best way to halt the hornets' seemingly unstoppable advance. Neither pesticides nor traps have proved particularly effective, largely because the creatures nest high off the ground in trees. The Vespa velutina has no natural predator on European soil.

Because of this, and a gradual shift in climate which experts believe could encourage the hornets to move north, many experts are adamant that the French scourge will at some point cross the Channel.

But the threat is not immediate, said Stuart Hind, head of the Natural History Museum's centre for biodiversity in London. "[A UK invasion] is very likely," he said. "It is entirely plausible. But it could be 10 to 15 years before they come knocking on our door."

But, he added, "If anything were to stop them it would be the good, old-fashioned British summers. They wouldn't cope well with heavy rain."

Insect invasions

March 2002

The pelargonium brown, a butterfly native to South Africa, was found to be eating its way through France by environmental research group Cemagref. It was considered a harmless addition to French insect life, although experts worried that it could oust local species. Thought to have ventured north because of warmer winters.

July 2005

Huge swarms of locusts ravaged the southern French region of Aveyron after a drought helped thousands of eggs to hatch. They wreaked havoc on hundreds of farms.

September 2009

In Britain's south-west, environmentalists were delighted by a surge in the population of one of the UK's most endangered butterflies. Experts recorded the second highest count of marsh fritillaries since weekly recording began in 1994.


[Environment > Copenhagen climate change summit 2009]
Barack Obama plays down the need to finalise a deal on climate change
Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Friday 25 September 2009 19.56 BST Article history

Barack Obama has talked down the importance of sealing a global deal on climate change before the end of the year, world leaders said yesterday.

Obama's comments, made in private talks at the G20 summit, downplay the need to reach a strong deal at UN talks in Copenhagen in December and contradict the United Nations and others, who have billed the meeting as a crucial moment for the world to avoid catastrophic global warming. The president did win a partial victory on his signature climate issue at this G20 summit – removing fossil fuel subsidies – but there was no headway on the much bigger issue of climate finance, which Obama had taken up as his issue at the last G20.

Barring small but significant steps forward from China and India, there has been little progress this week at a UN summit or the G20 towards a deal at Copenhagen. Obama's remarks yesterday resonated among world leaders, who have been looking to America – as historically the world's greatest polluter – to lead on climate change.

"I would cite what President Obama said to us at our meetings and that is that while Copenhagen is a very important meeting we should not view it as a make or break on climate change. It will be a step, an ongoing step, in an important world process to deal with this critical issue," Canada's prime minister, Stephen Harper, said yesterday. Harper cited the comments when he said he was not inclined to take up Gordon Brown's challenge to attend the meeting himself, in order to add political weight to the negotiations.

South Korea's Lee Myung-bak also referenced Obama's remarks. "The Copenhagen climate summit meeting is not the end, but it is going to be the start of a new beginning, and having that kind of perception is more realistic," he said. There was no immediate comment from the White House on Obama's remarks.

It is accepted that the Copenhagen negotiations will not be able to finalise all details of a treaty to get the world to act together on global warming. But Obama's comments could jeopardise efforts to get the most comprehensive agreement possible, said observers. "What is causing increasing concern is the continuing deadlock in political action to deal with this challenge," said Rajendra Pachauri, the UN top climate scientist who shared a Nobel peace prize with Al Gore. The G20 did agree to back Obama's efforts to end the world's $300bn of annual subsidies on fossil fuel, which encourage the burning of polluting fuels. However, the leaders failed to agree on Obama's five-year time frame for phasing out subsidies, agreeing only on "medium term" action.

The subsidy deal will do little to advance the Copenhagen negotiations, said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "It's clearly a victory for Obama to get something meaningful on this," he said. "But it is not going to help us get a deal at Copenhagen."

The issue that could have unlocked negotiations – finance for developing countries to cope with global warming impacts and pay for green energy technology – got pushed to the sidelines at Pittsburgh. Although Obama had wanted this G20 to produce hard figures on climate finance, world leaders decided instead to postpone the issue to a finance ministers' meeting in November.

news20090926gdn2

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Carbon emissions]
India offers UN annual update on carbon emissions
Delhi follows China's lead on climate change by proposing non-binding annual report on greenhouse gas emissions
Randeep Ramesh in Delhi
guardian.co.uk, Friday 25 September 2009 16.10 BST Article history

India's environment minister, Jairam Ramesh, has offered to report once a year to the United Nations on how successfully the country is curbing greenhouse gas emissions – another concession to the demands by developed nations ahead of the Copenhagen climate change summit talks in December.

With the Kyoto protocol due to expire in 2012, negotiations for a new treaty to fight global warming have foundered amid disagreements over how to share reductions in carbon emissions. Developing nations say their emissions must rise to fuel the economic growth that will alleviate poverty for billions of their citizens. However, developed nations say that without some restrictions on the developing world's emissions, they cannot commit to their own deep cuts.

The new move from India comes in the same week that China took a significant step towards lower emissions by saying it would set a carbon intensity target, the rate at which fossil fuels are used compared with GDP. At the same UN summit, President Obama offered strong rhetoric but little substance as he faces fierce domestic opposition to proposed carbon cuts.

India has been working to overcome its reputation for prickliness after repeatedly refusing to accept the possibility of any binding cuts. Delhi argued that emissions needed to grow in order to provide electricity to 400 million poor people, and pointed out that the average Indian has a carbon footprint one twentieth the size of the average American, and one tenth that of a Briton.

The country has been at the forefront of a campaign to force the developed world to come up with the funding and technology necessary to prevent global warming and adapt to its consequences. In July, Ramesh was involved with a public spat with US secretary of state Hilary Clinton during her trip to Delhi.

India has appeared to become less abrasive in recent weeks towards developed countries, especially the US. Ramesh was previously involved with a public spat with US secretary of state Hilary Clinton in July during a trip to Delhi.

Ramesh, who had been at the UN to hear Obama's stirring address to the general assembly, said: "The US is making small steps [on climate change]. Remember, without the US there will be no international agreement. So there is no point in hectoring or beating up on them like the Europeans seem to be doing."

Ramesh set out the details of the new Indian initiative today, proposing the publication of a "national communication" to the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change which would chart the progress of its green action plan. The report would spell out whether India was on track to meet its "domestic targets" on curbing emissions growth without being enforceable under a new treaty.

The minister said India had already announced a number of green goals, without setting any method for monitoring and verifying progress. Targets include increasing the renewable share of energy output to 20% by 2020, and ensuring that 10% of annual greenhouse gas emissions are "sequestered by forests" before 2030.

"An annual communication to the UN will say what we are doing, what the results are, how is it being implemented, the impact," said Ramesh. "We want to be transparent to the international community but domestically accountable to our voters."

A similar communication is already published once every six years and quickly forgotten. Ramesh said that, as India is unilaterally taking action to tackle global warming, an annual public statement would demonstrate "international commitment" on climate change.

He added that Obama's call at the G20 for the phasing out of fossil fuel subsidies was complicated in India by the dependence of poor families on fossil fuels to heat and light their homes.

"There may be a case for better monitoring of who is enjoying these subsidies because the middle class tends to suck these up," he said. "But in a developing country there will be a place for subsidies for poorer sections of society."

Ramesh also said it was important to be realistic about what was possible in Copenhagen, saying the talks would be "starting point, not the final destination" for climate change negotiations.

"We may have to come back to Copenhagen six months later," he said. "No harm done. I am saying: let's clinch agreement on those issues where there is consensus such as forestry, technological co-operation and finance for the poorest nations. Let's not make these hostage to the idea that unless we have emission cuts we have nothing. Let's instead start moving."


[News > World news > Animals]
Spider survey set to record bumper cropAnecdotal reports are piling up of unusually high numbers of spiders this autumn
Martin Wainwright
guardian.co.uk, Friday 25 September 2009 16.02 BST Article history

After months of gloom about the environment and Britain's embattled wildlife, reassurance may be on its way from a creepy and often-unloved source.

Scientists and conservationists are optimistic that an annual survey will record a bumper crop of the country's spiders – more than 650 species which variously weave, jump, hunt and have up to six eyes.

Anecdotal reports of high numbers of spiders, from amateur enthusiasts as well as specialists, are already piling up at the campaigning charity Buglife and the British Arachnological Society (BAS). Temperate weather since the end of winter, with few very hot or cold spells, has suited the animals, which emerge at this time of the year to mate.

Monitors also expect an increase in the number of craneflies, or daddy-longlegs, which like the spiders are significant indicators of the ecosystem's wider health. Buglife, whose motto is "conserving the small things that run the world", said that a rise in arachnid numbers would benefit not just spiders but their many predators.

It also has implications for good housekeeping. "One house spider will catch and dispose of 20 or so flies for you," said Matt Shardlow, director of Buglife.

The survey is partly designed to end the instinctive "zap it" reaction of many people confronted with a spider or a web. It is hoped that as well as recording numbers, the exercise will increase understanding of species that still have much to teach humankind.

"If you don't like them, just leave them alone and they will leave you alone," said John Partridge, secretary of BAS. "But if you can, get up close and have a look at how beautifully coloured they are."In between commandeering friends' gardens today for TV photo opportunities for spiders, Shardlow said "lots of fantastic spiders" were around at the moment.

The six types of house spider, which can grow to a legspan of a couple of inches, are familiar. Others include the jumping zebra spider, which leaps on to its prey rather than bothering to make a web, and the pink prowler, which has six eyes.

"If you move furniture around and look underneath, or poke about in the garden, you should make some good finds," Shardlow said. "But we're particularly interested in numbers overall. The BAS spider recording scheme does a very good job of marking where particular species have been found, but we need a lot more data on how many spiders of all kinds there are.

"We know that numbers have fluctuated in recent years, and almost certainly went down badly in 2007, which was one of the worst years in living memory for butterflies and moths, which are much more widely recorded. Recent cold and wet summers have been bad news for all bugs."

The survey was welcomed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, which sees the spider population from the point of view of food. Ian Dawson of the RSPB said: "It's debatable whether some of our resident insect-eating birds, like the wren, would be able to survive the winter without a plentiful supply of spiders in leaf litter and under shrubbery. Let's hope the suggestion of an increase is correct."

Cranefly larvae also have a role in maintaining soil health and breaking down leaf litter and compost.

"They are very important for biodiversity, without which we would not last very long, Shardlow said. "And if it weren't for spiders, we would be overrun with flies and other pests which make our life unbearable."

Handling spiders is not recommended, partly because they probably do not enjoy it, but no one has died in Britain from the small number of bites needing treatment - about 10 a year - recorded by the Natural History Museum in London.

Dangerously venomous foreign species are occasionally found in imported fruit, usually at the docks or wholesale markets.

A deadly Black Widow is now in Bristol zoo after arriving in a hosepipe brought back from San Francisco by a family from Newport, South Wales in June.

Most spider-related injuries stem from arachnophobia. A German woman who lost a £5,200 compensation case for a broken wrist in July. She panicked after seeing a large but harmless spider, and fell over.

news20090926nn1

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 25 September 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.952
News
Mountains may be cradles of evolution
Tectonics seem to fuel the appearance of new species.
By Matt Kaplan

Growing mountains may give rise to new species — and not simply provide a refuge to species whose traditional habitats have been lost, US scientists suggest.

"The major times of [species] diversification directly coincide with times of large tectonic events," says Catherine Badgley, a palaeontologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, who presented the findings this week at the annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Bristol, UK.

Mountainous regions are known to harbour higher levels of species richness than other areas. The reason, ecologists argue, is because mountains offer many different habitats in a relatively small geographical area. For example, whereas ten square kilometres of plains offer just one habitat, the same area of mountain landscape can provide sloping meadows, peaks and cliffs, all with different temperatures, rainfall and vegetation.

The long-standing view among ecologists has been that mountainous areas act as refuges for species that have been driven out of their normal habitat by difficult environmental conditions. A typical example could be a species dwelling in plains near the base of mountains — a change in conditions on the plains might mean that mountain areas begin to suit the needs of the species better, causing it to migrate.

{{“We had never thought of mountains as the birthplaces of species before.”}
Russell Graham
Pennsylvania State University}}

"Mountains have always been considered the places for species to make their last stands because they offer such diverse terrain," notes Russell Graham, a palaeoecologist at Pennsylvania State University in University Park.

Curious about the mechanisms responsible for making mountains so rich in diversity, Badgley and her collaborator John Finarelli, also at the University of Michigan, studied mountain and lowland speciation rates and species richness using the fossil record of the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains in North America. The fossils they inspected date to the Miocene period, which began around 23 million years ago and ended about 5 million years ago. They found that there were bursts of speciation that took place only in the mountains during times of tectonic activity. During all other times, they discovered that speciation rates in the two regions were moderate and similar.

Isolating incident

Although the highly varied terrain of mountains helps to explain why so many different species can live there, the question of where the species richness actually comes from has never been addressed, explains Badgely. She and Finarelli now propose that as mountains are lifted up by the tectonic processes of the Earth's crust, mountain-dwelling species become isolated from other members of the same species living at lower altitudes. This isolation ultimately leads to the two groups breaking apart to form individual species.

"We had never thought of mountains as the birthplaces of species before," says Graham.

However, mountains might not be the only areas where speciation is taking place, explains Elizabeth Hadly, a palaeoecologist at Stanford University in California. It is also possible for mountains to have risen up from plains where there were once just, say, 10 species, she explains. The division created by the newly formed mountains could result in 20 unique species in the plains — 10 on either side of the mountains. Some of these species may ultimately find their way into the mountains to contribute to the increased diversity that is observed following tectonic activity. Indeed, adds Hadly, it is difficult to tell whether the evolution of new species happens in the plains, in the mountains, or both.


[naturenews]
Published online 25 September 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.951
News: Briefing
Melting memory chips in mass production
Phase-change memory's 40-year journey from bright idea to mobile phone.
By Geoff Brumfiel

Is phase-change memory about to appear in your mobile phone?SamsungSouth Korean manufacturer Samsung Electronics announced this week that it has begun mass production of a new kind of memory chip that stores information by melting and freezing tiny crystals. Known as phase-change memory (PCM), the idea was first proposed by physicists in the 1960s. Here, Nature explains how PCM works, why it has taken so long to develop and how it could change your mobile phone forever.

What's the big idea behind PCM?

PCM was first proposed by physicist and inventor Stanford Ovshinsky in 1968¹. It rests on a simple concept: atoms that are neatly arranged in crystals conduct electrons better than those jumbled up in a glass. Using the crystal form as a binary '1' and the glass form as '0' it is possible to store electronic information in a crystalline cell. Many such cells, Ovshinsky reasoned, could be used to create computer memory.

Unlike conventional memory, which involves moving electrons around a chip, PCM data would literally be frozen in place, even when the machine is off. That means these devices could switch on nearly instantaneously.

So why haven't PCM chips been available before?

PCM is simple in principle, but it is much harder to implement, says Matthias Wuttig, a physicist at RWTH Aachen University in Germany. The main problem is with writing the information into the material. To write in a one or a zero, the crystalline material has to be heated to high temperatures and refrozen, either in a crystal or glassy form. In the 1960s, most of the materials that physicists tried for PCM required high currents and temperatures to crystallize.

What was the big breakthrough?

In the 1970s and 1980s, scientists developed new classes of crystalline materials in which the atoms were held together by very weak bonds. As a result, the materials could shift from crystal to glass very quickly.

But turning that breakthrough into a working device was not easy. "At the time, the industry was still exploring basic transistors," says Gregory Atwood, a senior fellow at Numonyx Memory Solutions in Rolle, Switzerland, another company that produces PCM memory. As a result, other kinds of transistor-based memory, such as the flash memory currently installed in most mobile phones and mp3 players, were closer to the market. The crystalline materials, notably germanium antimony telluride (Ge²Sb²Tes⁵), were instead used to develop read-write optical discs, and they are still used in these discs today.

So why is PCM becoming more popular now?

Flash memory, and other solid-state memory, stores information as small regions of charge — effectively a little cluster of electrons — on a transistor. As the size of devices shrinks further, fewer and fewer electrons can fit, making flash and similar memories less stable at very tiny scales. At transistor sizes of a few tens of nanometres, Wuttig says that a quantum mechanical phenomenon called 'tunnelling' begins to come into play. Tunnelling allows electrons to leak out of the transistor, effectively destroying the memory. Because PCM memory doesn't rely on charge, it can theoretically be used to create ever smaller devices.

In fact, because the speed of PCM memory depends on how long it takes to melt and refreeze the crystal, the smaller each crystal cell in the device, the faster it becomes. Wuttig's group has recently conducted experiments with cells just 20 nanometres across. These cells can be switched in just 16 nanoseconds — far faster than existing technology².

Proponents hope that PCM could eventually take a substantial share of the flash memory market, worth more than $20 billion in 2008.

When will these memory chips start appearing in my mobile phone?

Very soon. Numonyx began mass-producing 128-megabyte (MB) PCM memory in December 2008. Although the chips are useable, they are still less powerful than the current generation of flash, and Atwood says that he thinks they will be used largely to build new prototype servers, cell phones and digital video recorders. Samsung's memory chip is 512MB, but that is still smaller than the current generation of flash memory.

However, the technology is developing quickly, and given the advantages of PCM and the increasing difficulties of shrinking flash, Atwood says that he thinks crystal memory will become commonplace in just a few years. "We believe it is the next generation," he says.

References
1. Ovshinsky, S. R. Phys. Rev. Lett. 21, 1450-1453 (1968).
2. Bruns, G. et al. App. Phys. Lett. 95, 043108 (2009).

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[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 25 September 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.949
News
Oldest feathered dinosaur found
Chinese fossil find sheds light on evolution of birds.
By Rex Dalton

Chinese scientists have discovered a near-complete fossil of the oldest bird-like dinosaur, and their find suggests such feathered animals were present on Earth more than 150 million years ago.

The fossil of the four-winged species, Anchiornis huxleyi is dated to the Late Jurassic period, 151-161 million years ago. This eclipses the previous oldest such species, the 150-million-year-old Archaeopteryx lithographica, found more than a century ago in Germany. The report is seen as wiping out the last vestige of an argument by a handful of scientists that birds couldn't have evolved from such two-legged dinosaurs.

The four-winged dinosaurs also had feathers on their feet and wing-like attachments on the arms and legs. But they could probably only glide, as their plumage was insufficient for powered flight.

"This fossil shows how widespread feathers were among such species," says Mark Norell, curator of vertebrate palaeontology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

The discovery is to be published in Nature next week¹, but the team presented the find and several similar species at the annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology this week in Bristol, UK.

Fossil gold mine

The Chinese team say that the quarry in the northeastern province of Liaoning where the A. huxleyi fossil was found contained several other species of theropod dinosaur, which share some links with modern-day birds. "This quarry may be the most important geological formation for understanding this critical evolutionary period for the diversity of theropod dinosaurs," says Xu Xing, a palaeontologist from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing and an author of the Nature article.

As is often the case in China, where many feathered dinosaur specimens have been discovered, linking the A. huxleyi specimen to its sediments of origin required scientific detective work.

Earlier this year, the group reported the type specimen of A. huxleyi, which was based on a partial fossil that a farmer had found sandwiched between sediment layers2.

But the actual location that produced that specimen was unknown when the first report was prepared, Xu said. Then the group received the new near-complete fossil that is the basis for the Nature article from another farmer, who led the team to the important quarry.

Fossils that had previously been found in this quarry, in the locality of Daxishan in Jianchang County, Liaoning, had been dated to the Late Jurassic period, so the team knew they were onto something big.

Since then, Xu said the group has scoured Chinese museums for specimens from this geological formation and have found more than 200. The team also is scrutinizing specimens from another quarry that is dated to 158-164 million years ago.

With this wealth of fossils for analysis, a fuller picture of the meat-eating feathered creatures from the Late Jurassic seems to be on the horizon.

References
1. Hu, D. , Hou, L. , Zhang, L. & Xu, X. Nature 461, 640-643 (2009).
2. Xu, X. et al. Chin. Sci. Bull. 54, 430-435 (2009).

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

[Middle East]
Page last updated at 12:08 GMT, Saturday, 26 September 2009 13:08 UK
Israel calls for action on Iran
Israel says the disclosure that Iran is building a second nuclear enrichment facility proves it "wants to equip itself with nuclear weapons".

{Iran's nuclear enrichment programme has raised concern around the world}

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Israel wanted to see an "unequivocal" Western response to the development.

Tehran insists that the site, under construction near the city of Qom, is being built in line with United Nations regulations, though this is contested.

Iran says it wants atomic power only for the production of electricity.

But the new revelations have raised tension days before talks between Iran and six global powers negotiating over Tehran's atomic programme.

"The revelations of this second nuclear enrichment site... prove beyond any doubt that this country wants to equip itself with nuclear weapons," Mr Lieberman told Israeli public radio.

"We hope that an unequivocal answer is given on 1 October," he added, referring to the forthcoming talks.

"We are not surprised... because we have been saying that Iran is developing its nuclear activities for military purposes, and the facts prove it now.

{{IRAN'S NUCLEAR SITES}
> Iran insists that all its nuclear facilities are for energy, not military purposes
> Bushehr: Nuclear power plant
> Isfahan: Uranium conversion plant
> Natanz: Uranium enrichment plant, 4,592 working centrifuges, with 3,716 more installed
> Second enrichment plant: Existence revealed to IAEA in Sept 2009. Separate reports say it is near Qom, and not yet operational
> Arak: Heavy water plant}}

The BBC's Paul Wood says Israel is now looking for tough international sanctions against Iran and hoping that Russia and China will be brought on board by news of the second facility.

In his weekly address on Saturday, US President Barack Obama said the discovery continued a disturbing pattern of evasion by Iran.

"My offer of a serious, meaningful dialogue to resolve this issue remains open," he said. "But Iran must now co-operate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and take action to demonstrate its peaceful intentions."

On Friday, President Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown demanded that Iran allow UN inspectors into the second site.

In response, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he had no problem with the plant being inspected, and denied it was "secret".

"According to IAEA rules, countries must inform the agency six months ahead of the gas injection in their uranium enrichment plants," he said. "We have done it 18 months ahead and this should be appreciated not condemned."

But the BBC's Paul Reynolds says there is a dispute about the amount of notice that Iran is required to give the IAEA before a new nuclear facility becomes operational.

In 2003, Iran agreed on what is called a Subsidiary Arrangement, under which it is required to tell the IAEA at the preliminary design stage. Iran later announced that it had repudiated this agreement, but the IAEA says that no such unilateral repudiation is allowed.

On Saturday, the chief of staff for Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the second enrichment plant "will become operational soon".

"God willing this new plant will become operational soon and make the enemy blind," Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency.

Also speaking on Saturday, UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband told the BBC that the UK was "100% committed" to finding a diplomatic solution to the Iran issue, but refused to rule out military action altogether.

Israel, widely held to be the only nuclear power in the Middle East, has also refused to rule out the possibility of attacking Iran's nuclear facilities.

Israel has never officially admitted having nuclear weapons, but is widely recognised to possess at least 75 warheads.


[South Asia]
Page last updated at 09:47 GMT, Saturday, 26 September 2009 10:47 UK
Blasts rock north-west Pakistan
At least 16 people have been killed in two suicide car bomb attacks in north-western Pakistan.

Ten people are reported to have been killed and scores injured in a bombing in the city of Peshawar.

Earlier, a suicide car bomb in the town of Bannu killed at least six people, police said.

The BBC's Aleem Maqbool, in Islamabad, says the attacks show the Taliban appear to be reasserting themselves after a series of setbacks.

In Peshawar, police said the bomb had exploded in the car park of a bank in a commercial area. Witnesses said the blast was heard across the city.

"It was a very big explosion. I could see smoke rising from the scene," Asad Ali, a resident, told Reuters by telephone.

More than 70 people are reported to have been injured, some critically, and officials say the death toll could rise.

Police targeted

In the attack in Bannu, the bomber detonated his vehicle outside a police station.

Reports say the police building and several neighbouring houses collapsed in the blast. A number of people are thought to be trapped in the rubble.

Bannu is close to the tribal region of North Waziristan, a Taliban stronghold.

The attacks come after a period of relative quiet from the Taliban, our correspondent says, after insurgents suffered a series of setbacks.

In August, the then leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed after a US missile strike.

After his death, Hakimullah Mehsud took over as the group's leader.

Earlier this month, the Taliban suffered another blow when Pakistani police arrested Muslim Khan, one of the highest ranking Taliban officials in the country, along with four other senior militants.

｛We have broken the silence... and from now there will be an increase in the number of suicide bombings
Taliban spokesman Qari Hussain｝

The Taliban have also vowed to strike back after being ousted from the Swat valley in a huge offensive by the Pakistani army.

The head of the Taliban in Swat, Maulana Fazlullah, was reported to have been seriously injured in an air strike in July.

A Taliban commander, who trains suicide bombers, claimed responsibility for the Bannu attack in a call to the Associated Press on Saturday.

"We have broken the silence as the government did not understand the pause in attacks, and from now there will be an increase in the number of suicide bombings," said Qari Hussain.

Pakistan's mountainous north-west region, near the Afghan border, is a favoured area for insurgents planning attacks on US and Nato troops in Afghanistan.


[Americas]
Page last updated at 09:11 GMT, Saturday, 26 September 2009 10:11 UK
Embryo mix-up woman gives birth
A US woman who was implanted with the wrong embryo in a fertility treatment mix-up has given birth to a boy.

Carolyn Savage and her husband Sean said in a statement that the baby was delivered at St Vincent Mercy Medical Center in Toledo, Ohio.

Mrs Savage, who had been told about the mix-up in February, said the family was "going through a very difficult time".

The Savages have decided to give the baby to his biological parents, Shannon and Paul Morell from Michigan.

The Savages, who have three children, offered their "heartfelt congratulations" to the Morells.

'Nightmare'

"Our family is deeply grateful for the support and prayers of so many people from around the world," the Savage statement said.

"We also would like to thank the medical professionals who provided superior care and treatment throughout the pregnancy and delivery."

Mrs Savage, 40, said earlier this week that her husband told her the news of the mix-up in February, after receiving a phone call from the clinic that had implanted the embryo.

"I don't think I've ever cried so much in my life. It was such a nightmare and, in a way, I felt violated," Carolyn was quoted as saying by CNN.

The Savages have declined to name the fertility clinic involved.

news20090926bcc2

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

[South Asia]
Page last updated at 07:11 GMT, Friday, 25 September 2009 08:11 UK
India hails Moon mission 'find'
India's inaugural Moon mission has been hailed as a "grand success" by the head of India's space agency, after helping find evidence of water on the Moon.

Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) chief G Madhavan Nair said a spacecraft probe found more water on the Moon "than was expected."

The mission was terminated last month after communication was lost with the orbiting spacecraft.

The craft was launched last October for a two-year mission of exploration.

Data from three spacecraft, including India's Chandrayaan probe, has shown that very fine films of H2O coat the particles that make up the lunar dirt, US space agency Nasa announced.

The quantity is tiny but could become a useful resource for astronauts wishing to live on the Moon, scientists say.

"We truly believe it is a path-breaking finding. But this is just the beginning," Mr Nair said.

"Indians should be proud of the fact that the Chandrayaan enabled the discovery of water on the Moon," he said.

Indian scientists have welcomed the discovery and said more studies needed to be done to find out how much water was available and whether it was fit for human consumption.

'Significant'

"The results suggest that frost rather than water is present in the form of a thin film on the lunar surface. The quantity and its distribution across the Moon is still an open question," K Kasturirangan, a former chief of Isro told the Press Trust of India press agency.

"Ultimately, in the long run if humankind has to go and inhabit the Moon, one of the important requirements is that you should have adequate water for survival," he said.

An Indian scientist working in Nasa said it was a "significant discovery"
"It is a very significant finding if we ever are to venture out to set up a base anywhere in the solar system, the Moon is the nearest destination," Amitabha Ghosh said.

The Indian media has also hailed the role of Chandrayaan in the finding.

One Big Step for India, A Giant Leap for Mankind, headlined The Times Of India newspaper.

"[The finding] has helped shake off the failure tag from the Chandrayaan project that was aborted last month," the paper said.

The mission was expected to cost 3.8bn rupees (£45m; $78m), considerably less than Japanese and Chinese probes sent to the Moon last year.

But the Indian government's space efforts have not been welcomed by all.

Some critics regard the space programme as a waste of resources in a country where millions still lack basic services.


[South Asia]
Page last updated at 14:43 GMT, Friday, 25 September 2009 15:43 UK
India prepares for Maoist assault
The Indian Home Minister, P Chidambaram, says the government will extend "every support" to states battling left-wing Maoist extremism.

Mr Chidambaram was assessing state security in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand as the government prepares for what it says will be an all-out assault.

About 20,000 troops are being sent to the two states to join 35,000 already stationed there ahead of the offensive.

The Maoists say they are fighting for the rights of the poor.

They operate in a large swathe of territory across central and eastern India.

More than 6,000 people have been killed during their 20-year fight for a communist state.

"The centre is committed to fight Naxalism [Maoism]," Mr Chidambaram said. "We will provide all possible help to... eradicate the left-wing extremists completely," he told reporters here.

The home minister hailed the Chhattisgarh government's efforts to fight Maoists and said all steps to provide "succour to kin of security men killed in the fight against Naxalism" have been taken.

Correspondents say any offensive is not expected to be launched before October.

On Friday Mr Chidambaram met Chhattisgarh Governor ESL Narsimhan to discuss the Maoist threat.

Last week a fierce gun battle between Maoists and the security forces took place in Chhattisgarh. At least seven Maoists were killed and one paramilitary soldier.

India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said earlier this month that his country was losing the battle against the rebels.

Mr Singh told a meeting of police chiefs from different states that rebel violence was increasing and the Maoists' appeal was growing.

The rebels operate in 182 districts in India.


[South Asia]
Page last updated at 15:23 GMT, Friday, 25 September 2009 16:23 UK
Afghan 'suspect votes' recounted
Some votes cast in Afghanistan's presidential election are being re-counted as officials seek to clear up allegations of ballot fraud.

The final preliminary results from the 20 August election showed President Hamid Karzai won 54.6% of the vote, but the result has not been made official.

Officials have now begun to recount 10% of votes from 12% of suspect polling stations.

A run-off could still be held if voting irregularities were discovered.

If the result stands, Mr Karzai will not have to face a run-off because he took more than 50% of the vote.

Mr Karzai's main challenger Abdullah Abdullah received 27.8% of the vote, according to the preliminary result.


[South Asia]
Page last updated at 17:43 GMT, Friday, 25 September 2009 18:43 UK
'Bin Laden' urges Afghan pull-out
Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden has purportedly urged European nations to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan, in a new tape posted on the internet.

He said that "an intelligent man does not waste his money and sons for a gang of criminals in Washington".

The audio message, the authenticity of which cannot be verified, was contained in a video posted on Friday.

It had German and English subtitles. Germans go to the polls in federal elections on Sunday.

"It is shameful to be part of an alliance whose leader does not care about spilling the blood of human beings by bombing villages intentionally," he said, referring to civilian deaths in missile attacks against Taliban fighters in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"If you had seen [the mass killings] of your American allies and their helpers in northern Afghanistan ... then you would understand the bloody events in Madrid and London," Bin Laden said, referring to attacks in the two cities in 2004 and 2005 respectively.

Attacks threatened

Meanwhile, in a separate development, police in Germany say they have arrested a 25-year-old Turkish man suspected of posting an al-Qaeda video on the internet.

The video threatened attacks in Germany unless it withdraws its troops from Afghanistan.

Security in Germany is already tight ahead of the election after three separate al-Qaeda messages in German emerged in the past week.

Germany has 4,200 troops serving with Nato-led forces in Afghanistan.

A recent poll suggested 55% per cent of Germans wanted their troops to be withdrawn.

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[Top stories] from [CNN.com]

[World]
September 26, 2009
Guantanamo prison not likely to close in January, officials say
Story Highlights
> U.S. detention center won't close by Obama deadline, senior officials say
> Legal complications blamed for delay; closure should come soon, they say
> Missed deadline could be political setback for Obama
From Ed Henry and Elise Labott
CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. military prison at Guantanamo in Cuba is unlikely to close by the Obama administration's deadline of January 2010, two senior administration officials said late Friday.

They cited legal complications for the delay, but said they were still optimistic about shutting the facility soon.

The announcement represents a blow to the president, who signed an executive order and set the deadline with great fanfare in January during his first week in office.

The delay may provide fodder for Republicans such as former Vice President Dick Cheney, who has argued that shutting the Guantanamo prison would make the United States less safe. He said Obama should have had a detailed plan in place before signing the order.

"Even White House officials are now acknowledging that there is still no alternative that will keep Americans as safe as housing detainees at that secure facility off our shores," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said in a written statement.

"Americans and a bipartisan majority in Congress will continue to reject any effort to close Guantanamo until there is a plan that keeps Americans as safe or safer than keeping detainees in the secure detention center," McConnell's statement said.

The senior administration officials insisted the White House is making progress in finding third-party countries to accept the remaining detainees.


[World]
September 26, 2009
Death row Iraqis among 8 escapees recaptured
Story Highlights
> Eight of 16 insurgents who escaped from a Tikrit prison are recaptured
> Three of the recaptured prisoners had been sentenced to death
> Prisoners fled through air vent and then climbed over concrete prison wall

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Eight of the 16 members of al Qaeda in Iraq who escaped Wednesday night from a Tikrit prison north of Baghdad have been recaptured, security officials in Samarra told CNN Saturday.

Two of the prisoners were captured Saturday morning in Samarra by security forces conducting house-to-house searches.

U.S. forces have provided military working dogs at the request of the local Emergency Response Unit to search the compound near the jail from which the escapes occurred.

Multi-national forces searched the city and outlying areas from the air.

Three of the eight recaptured prisoners had previously been sentenced to death for crimes that include killing and kidnapping, officials said.

Police launched the manhunt after the prisoners fled through an air vent and then climbed over a concrete prison wall. Iraqi special forces have been called into the search and border guards have been alerted to ensure the men don't cross into a neighboring country, police said.

Police have distributed pictures of the fugitives throughout Salaheddin province, where Tikrit is located.

The Iraqi Interior Ministry has taken charge of the investigation and all prison guards at Tikrit are being investigated, police said. The prison holds more than 400 inmates.

Al Qaeda in Iraq is an insurgent group that pledged its allegiance to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network in 2004, after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Its members largely are native Iraqis, but they also include foreign fighters, and foreigners have been the group's prominent leaders.

Tikrit, the hometown of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, is about 160 km (99 miles) north of Baghdad.


[Asia]
September 26, 2009
August deadliest month of 2009 for Afghan civilians, UN says
Story Highlights
> Figure for month not released, but 1,500 have died this year, report says
> Deadly trend related to election violence, according to report
> Violence could flare again when results are certified, report warns
>Report of U.S. deaths from earlier in week revised from five to four

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- August had the most fatalities this year for civilians in Afghanistan because of the country's disputed election, and violence could rise again when the final results are released, a U.N. report warns.

About 1,500 people died in Afghanistan from the beginning of the year to August, according to the U.N. report released this week.

The report did not say what the death toll was for August.

"August (was) the deadliest month since the beginning of 2009," the report said. "These figures reflect an increasing trend in insecurity over recent months and in elections-related violence."

Almost 70 percent of the civilian deaths this year were blamed on what the report called anti-government elements. More than 20 percent of the civilian deaths were attributed to pro-government forces, the report said.

The winner of Afghanistan's presidential election has been in dispute since the August 20 election. Results of the completed count, announced September 16, gave incumbent Hamid Karzai 54 percent of the vote, but the numbers won't be certified until authorities investigate allegations of irregularities.

More than 200,000 of the nearly 5.7 million votes cast have been thrown out because of these allegations.

Meanwhile, four U.S. service members, not five as previously reported, were killed in fighting in southern Afghanistan earlier this week, military officials said Saturday.

The fifth death was an interpreter who was working with NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan and died of wounds incurred in an insurgent attack, the military said in a statement.

No other details were immediately available.

So far this month, 34 U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan, according to CNN figures compiled from military reports.

news20090926cnn2

[Top stories] from [CNN.com]

[World]
Iran's president rejects Obama accusations about nuclear efforts
Story Highlights
> NEW: Ahmadinejad says he didn't expect Obama to make such "baseless" remarks
>Iranian president says nation has complied with IAEA regulations
> Iran tells IAEA it has a second nuclear enrichment plant
>Iran told IAEA there is no nuclear material at the site, IAEA spokesman said
September 26, 2009 -- Updated 0413 GMT (1213 HKT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama's accusations that Iran's nuclear program runs afoul of international agreements are "baseless," the Islamic republic's president told CNN's Larry King on Friday.

"We did not expect Mr. Obama within less than 48 hours, to basically violate the commitment that he spoke of at the United Nations," said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The Iranian leader was referring to Obama's Wednesday speech to the U.N. General Assembly, where Obama called for international unity in attacking the world's challenges.

Asked if he was expressing disappointment in the U.S. president, Ahmadinejad responded, "We simply didn't expect him to say something that was ... was baseless."

Earlier Friday evening Obama said "Iran is on notice" regarding its nuclear efforts, and that the international community is united in its opposition to Tehran's nuclear program.

"They are going to have to make a choice: Are they willing to go down the path to greater prosperity and security for Iran, giving up the acquisition of nuclear weapons ... or will they continue down a path that is going to lead to confrontation," he said at a news conference at the G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Obama's comments came hours after Iran acknowledged the existence of a second uranium enrichment facility and ahead of next week's planned meeting between Iran and the five permanent United Nations Security Council members, plus Germany. The October 1 meeting will take place in Geneva, Switzerland.

Obama said he would not speculate on any course of action absent a satisfactory response from Iran.

"Even countries who a year ago or six months ago might have been reluctant to even discuss things like sanctions," are starting to become concerned, Obama said.

Obama said his "preferred course of action is to resolve this in a diplomatic fashion. It's up to the Iranians to respond."

The U.S. president said the conclusions about Iran's nuclear ambitions came as a result of the work of three intelligence agencies -- those of Britain, France and the United States. The work, Obama said, was done "to make sure that we were absolutely confident about the situation there."

The United States has known about the unfinished site since the Bush administration, according to senior U.S. officials who declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the negotiations. French intelligence officials were also aware of the facility for several months at least, a U.S. diplomatic source said.

It wasn't until Monday that Iran wrote a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency, revealing the existence of the underground facility on a military base near the Shia Muslim holy city of Qom.

The facility is thought to be capable of housing 3,000 centrifuges, which is not enough to produce nuclear fuel to power a reactor but is sufficient to manufacture bomb-making material, according to a U.S. diplomatic source who read the letter.

Iran told the IAEA there is no nuclear material at the site, an agency spokesman said.

Once Iran alerted the IAEA, Obama began sharing U.S. intelligence on the nuclear site with allies, particularly with Russia and China in an effort to get those countries on board with new sanctions against Iran, the officials said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed Friday that Iran admitted the existence of the "new pilot fuel enrichment plant," prompting Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy to respond at the G-20 economic summit.

"Iran's decision to build yet another nuclear facility without notifying the IAEA represents a direct challenge to the basic compact at the center of the nonproliferation regime," Obama said, with Brown and Sarkozy standing at his side.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did not mention the Qom plant during his visit to New York this week for the U.N. General Assembly sessions. He reiterated earlier claims that Iran has fully cooperated with nuclear inspectors.

He emphasized this again Friday afternoon at a news conference, where he said Iran complied with IAEA regulations requiring it be informed at least six months before an enrichment facility becomes operational.

"We still have a year left before that six months kicks in," Ahmadinejad said.

"I thought we were supposed to be encouraged for taking this action," he said.

Iran's revelation of a new nuclear site could actually "strengthen their hand" as Tehran heads into next week's talks, according to Paul Ingram, an analyst who studies Iran and nuclear nonproliferation.

"It will be seen as an indication that they are willing to play by the rules," said Ingram, the executive director of the British American Security Information Council in London, England.

He said the timing of Iran's revelation, between the U.N. General Assembly sessions and the October 1 meeting, is deliberate on Iran's part.

"This will make it more difficult to persuade them to abandon enrichment," Ingram said.

Iran claims its nuclear enrichment program is intended for peaceful purposes, but the international community accuses it of continuing to try to develop nuclear weapons capability. iReport.com: Dissidents discuss Iran enrichment plants

Iran had acknowledged only a uranium enrichment plant in Natanz, which nuclear inspectors visited recently. Iran also has an unfinished nuclear research reactor in Arak, and U.N. nuclear inspectors were allowed access to that facility this month.

Other important nuclear sites in Iran include its Bushehr nuclear power plant and the Isfahan uranium conversion plant.

Washington became aware of the covert facility near Qom several years ago, but a clearer picture about the facility emerged later, a U.S. counter-proliferation official said. The enrichment facility would probably not be operational for another year, the official said.

The official said the newly unveiled facility "doesn't really change the baseline" conclusion of the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, which concluded that Iran could manufacture a nuclear weapons between 2010 and 2015.

The official added that there are suspicions about other possible hidden or undeclared nuclear-related facilities.

news20090926reut1

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
EU delays van emissions clampdown
Mon Sep 14, 2009 12:44pm EDT
By Pete Harrison

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The auto industry will have to cut carbon dioxide emissions from new vans sold in the European Union by 14 percent by July 2013 or face fines, a draft EU document shows.

The ban would be a year later than first envisaged.

The European Commission's new proposal -- due out in October -- looks set to mirror last year's clampdown on cars, which was weakened by a range of concessions and softer fines after a successful challenge by the powerful auto industry.

The plan is likely to spark an intense battle in Europe as member states shield their national champions in the midst of an economic downturn.

Van makers face fines of 120 euros ($175) per vehicle if they fail to meet the targets, according to the draft document, obtained by Reuters. Those that miss by less than 3 grams will receive softer penalties.

The proposal is part of EU efforts to lead the way on battling climate change as it heads into global negotiations on finding a successor to the Kyoto protocol.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has pledged that if re-elected he will take "radical" action to tackle emissions from transport, which have grown by about 35 percent in Europe since 1990.

The proposal on vans will be central to that initiative.

Carbon dioxide emissions from commercial vehicles of less than 2.6 tons will be capped at 175 grams from July 2013, a year later than the original plan to cap them from 2012.

PHASE-IN

EU sources say van makers are already pushing hard for the target to be phased in slowly and for a softening of a separate long-term target of 135 grams by 2020.

"In a depressed market, the effect could be a 10 percent price penalty in the showroom," industry group ACEA said in its September newsletter.

Environmentalists said the industry has already adapted quickly to last year's caps on car emissions, after years of exaggerating the impact on costs, and vans will be no different.

Barroso will have to resist sustained lobbying if he is to fulfill his pledge to decarbonizes the European transport system, they added.

The draft proposal foresees exemptions for niche makers of vehicles whose annual production amounts to fewer than 1,000 units.

Land Rover is expected to push hard in coming months for a wider exemption that would cover its rugged Defender model, which is less suited to emissions cuts as it needs to remain low-tech for easy off-road repairs.

The proposal also allows manufacturers to fulfill 3 grams of the cuts through "innovative technologies," such as solar panels on vehicle roofs.

(Reporting by Pete Harrison; Editing by Dale Hudson, editing by Anthony Barker)


[Green Business]
Green Economy = More Jobs
Fri Sep 25, 2009 8:52am EDT
By Cleantechnica - Cleantechnica
By Zachary Shahan

Earlier this week, Tony Blair (former prime minister of the UK) and the Climate Group reported that if we worked to avoid climate change we'd create 10 million new jobs by 2020 - worldwide. Another recent study by Greenpeace and the European Renewable Energy Council says that such a shift could increase employment in the EU by 2.7 million jobs by 2030.

One more report, released today by the Global Climate Network (an alliance of nine influential think tanks) comes to similar conclusions.

"Creating Opportunity" is the name of the report, which is about findings from an international study to be published in October. Conducted in nine countries, it finds that "creating markets for low?carbon technologies will in turn create new job opportunities and that these will be greater than the number of jobs lost in carbon?intensive sectors."

Creating renewable electricity generation markets and prioritizing low-carbon sectors in China could create 30 million additional jobs by 2020.

Going full-throttle on wind energy development in India could create 243,000+ jobs by 2020.

In Nigeria, 273,500 extra jobs could be created from the development of small scale hydro and gas technologies.

International Interconnections

Another major finding, echoing Tony Blair and the Climate Group's findings, is that there will more benefits if there is global cooperation.

Those 243,000+ jobs in India (above) could jump to 288,000+ jobs if there is strong global development of wind energy.

Overall, more global investment equals more benefit because we live in a global economy now with global supply and demand.

Careful with the Numbers

The report states that we all need to be careful not to get caught up in numbers. Jobs will increase, but in new technology markets there is always a lot of variation in the growth over time. The report says, "politicians should adopt a guarded approach to predictions of job numbers and targets and focus on measures to stimulate low?carbon technology markets. All such data is highly uncertain and is based on sets of assumptions that, as technologies and technology markets mature, may prove errant."

This kind of thing has happened in the information and communication technology sectors already and "teaches us that the dynamism of technology is inherently unpredictable and that numbers of jobs created by prioritising technology could be many times greater than current predictions are likely to suggest."

The positive thing, is that in most cases the estimates will be lower than the actual number of jobs created.

Strong Governmental Polices

One of the most important factors in this new job creation is strong governmental policies. The report builds on earlier findings from the UN Environment Programme that "active government policy to trigger the wholesale expansion of clean?energy industries is a key driver of low?carbon employment opportunities." In particular, some important policies reiterated in this study are "setting ambitious renewable energy targets, increasing funding for R&D, creating technology testing facilities and centres of excellence, introducing economic support mechanisms such as feed?in tariffs, phasing out subsidies for carbon?intensive industries, and putting a price on carbon emissions."

The market has responded in countries that are implementing such policies (i.e. Germany and the UK). If these countries and others implement stronger policies, the job growth is expected to increase much further.

The studies keep coming - if we put more money into emerging clean technology, especially renewable energy, more jobs will be created all around the world.

This is a global and a local matter, and action on both levels will create greater benefits for all.

Image: princesspinkvampire via flickr under a Creative Commons license

Reprinted with permission from Cleantechnica


[Green Business]
MSI Netbook Gets 15-Hour Battery Life
Thu Sep 24, 2009 7:51pm EDT
By Chris Brandrick - PC World

Earlier this week hardware manufacturer MSI announced additional details regarding its now-available Wind U110 Eco netbook, including an improved nine-cell battery.

MSI revealed the U110 Eco netbook back in March, and the initial listed specifications caused some confusion. At first the spec sheet listed the U110 Eco as having an ATI Mobility Radeon HD320, although it was quickly established that this was not the case. Instead, the netbook uses the Intel GMA 500 integrated graphics chipset. The earlier spec also listed that the device contained a six-cell battery, but MSI now also offers a nine-cell battery as an option.

Several sources claim that, with the right settings, the new nine-cell battery can provide up to fifteen hours of power, however MSI's website states that the XP and Vista capable netbook can last for around nine hours on battery. In either case, it's still an impressive number.

Beyond the appealing battery performance the ten-inch, lightweight (3.2 pounds) netbook also packs in a 160GB hard drive, 1GB of memory, 3 USB ports, Bluetooth, and a built-in webcam.

You can get the Wind U110 Eco now for just under $400.

Follow Geek Tech and Chris Brandrick on Twitter.

news20090926reut2

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
NYMEX Green Exchange's new CEO thinks global
Fri Sep 25, 2009 1:38pm EDT
By Michael Szabo

LONDON (Reuters) - Less than two weeks after taking the helm of NYMEX's struggling Green Exchange, Tom Lewis is wasting no time preparing to battle for supremacy in the $126 billion global emissions market. "We've got many arrows in our quiver. Our goal is to go at this from all fronts," he told Reuters in an interview, adding that Green Exchange has the backing of major investment banks.

"We intend on becoming the largest global platform for emissions trading."

Green Exchange Holdings appointed the former Ameritrade head as its first CEO on Sept 15 after months of lackluster volumes in greenhouse gas permit trading.

NYMEX launched the environmental exchange in early 2008, shortly before it was bought by CME Group.

Green Exchange opened amid market expectations that it would coast on NYMEX's strength in the energy markets to displace the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), becoming the main U.S. marketplace for carbon dioxide trading.

But those hopes faded as legislation to set U.S. emissions targets and establish a nationwide carbon market stalled.

"We're not focusing on the daily ups and downs right now ... but my expectation is that we will garner significant market share over the next few years," Lewis said.

"My priorities right now are bringing in talented staff and completing our DCM (Designated Contract Market) application."

DCM status is required to become a stand-alone exchange under the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

This move prompted several firms including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley, as well as hedge funds RNK Capital and Tudor, to step forward as financial partners and liquidity providers.

"DCM status is very significant for us because ... it allows us to operate in these markets under our own regulatory banner," he said, adding that he had no timeline for its completion.

Lewis said also he has recruiters scouring the company's member firms and competitors in search of potential top-level executives, adding that a number of candidates are former bankers, casualties of the economic downturn.

OFFSET PLANS

Analysts expect trade in U.S. emissions to stay muted until the country enacts a regulatory framework for greenhouse gases.

In June, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a climate bill that would see large companies reduce their 2005 emissions levels by 17 percent by 2020 and by 83 percent by 2050.

That bill is incubating in the Senate as President Barack Obama presses to get his healthcare reforms passed.

"I would guess we'll see a bill passed sometime in 2010, then another year for the rules and infrastructure to be aligned, then we'll probably see trading in 2012," Lewis said.

The proposed bill could see carbon offsets account for up to 2 billion tons of emissions cuts per year, meaning there would big money to be made in offset trading.

CCX, owned by Britain's Climate Exchange Plc, is currently the main marketplace for U.S. offsets.

"We have plans to trade offsets, but there is questionable value in 25 cent carbon as to what that does to benefit capital markets or assist environmental goals," he said, referring to the current market price for CCX's offsets.

Lewis said Europe and the U.S. are the limit of Green Exchange's immediate horizon, adding that it would consider mergers or acquisitions as a way of entering other markets.

(Editing by William Hardy)


[Green Business]
G20 agrees on phase-out of fossil fuel subsidies
Fri Sep 25, 2009 9:38pm EDT
By Jeff Mason and Darren Ennis

PITTSBURGH (Reuters) - The world's largest economies agreed on Friday to phase out subsidies for oil and other carbon dioxide-spewing fossil fuels in the "medium term" as part of efforts to combat global warming.

But Group of 20 leaders at a two-day summit meeting here did not advance discussions about financial aid for developing nations dealing with climate change, exacerbating concerns that U.N. talks to form a new climate pact are in peril.

Some $300 billion a year is spent worldwide to subsidize fuel prices, boosting demand in many nations by keeping prices artificially low and, thus, leading to more emissions.

The agreement -- backed by all of the G20 including Russia, India and China -- was a victory for U.S. President Barack Obama, whose credentials for fighting climate change have been marred by dimming prospects that the U.S. Senate will pass a bill to reduce emissions before the December U.N. meeting.

"This reform will increase our energy security ... and it will help us combat the threat posed by climate change," Obama told reporters at the close of the meeting.

"All nations have a responsibility to meet this challenge, and together we have taken a substantial step forward in meeting that responsibility," he said.

Eliminating such subsidies by 2020 would reduce greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming by 10 percent by 2050, leaders said, citing data from the International Energy Agency and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The statement from the G20, comprised of major rich and emerging economies, said energy and finance ministers would develop timeframes and strategies for implementing the subsidies phase-out and report back at the next G20 summit.

Environmental activists welcomed the move, though they expressed disappointment in the lack of a firm timetable and the failure to make progress on financing for poor countries.

"Removing fossil fuel subsidies could be an important step toward cutting CO2 emissions," said David Waskow, climate adviser for development group Oxfam International.

"But it should not be allowed to distract from the failure of rich countries to offer poor countries the help they need."

WORRIES AHEAD OF COPENHAGEN

The G20 committed to intensify efforts to reach a U.N. deal on climate change later this year, a joint statement said. Leaders agreed to keep in touch about the issue, and some Europeans suggested another meeting would happen soon.

"I do not hide my concern at the slow rate of progress. Negotiations cannot be an open-ended process. It's time to get serious now, not later," said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, referring to climate negotiations.

The leaders will ask their finance ministers to come up with a range of options for climate finance -- payments from rich countries to poor countries dealing with global warming -- at their next meeting.

Energy producers were not enthused by the subsidy phase-out plan. The American Petroleum Institute, which represents the U.S. petroleum and natural gas industry, said Washington must clarify how the policy would affect the United States.

"The Obama administration and Congress now face many difficult choices if they choose to comply with the G20 commitment to phase-out fossil fuel subsidies," the API said.

"Above all else, the president and Congress should not use this commitment as an excuse to raise energy taxes on American consumers and businesses."

A U.S. official said the policy was not likely to have a big effect on large oil companies but could have an impact on independent producers.

The G20 statement also called on big institutions such as the International Energy Agency and OPEC to analyze the scope of energy subsidies and make suggestions at the next G20 summit for implementing the subsidy phase-out.

Asking for OPEC input may have been a way of bringing Saudi Arabia, a major oil producer, on board.

The group agreed to increase energy market transparency with regular reports on oil production, consumption, refining and stock levels.

(Editing by Frances Kerry)

news20090926reut3

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Silicon Valley fund to invest $100 million in green cos
Fri Sep 25, 2009 5:26pm EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Silicon Valley venture fund CMEA Capital said on Friday it will invest an additional $100 million in alternative energy companies over the next three years.

The San Francisco-based fund, an early stage investor in many green companies including battery maker A123 Systems, biofuel firm Codexis and solar manufacturer Solyndra, has already invested in 14 alternative energy companies over the past seven years.

"The alternative energy sector is finally ready to take off," CMEA Founder and Managing Director Tom Baruch said in a statement. "For the first time in history, environmentally friendly methods for producing energy like solar and wind power are becoming inexpensive."

"With the right financing, this sector has the potential to get our economy out of the doldrums," he added.

CMEA's portfolio company, A123, which makes lithium-ion batteries for the automotive market, had a smash-hit debut on Nasdaq on Thursday, and has a market cap over $1.9 billion.

Another of CMEA's high-profile investments is Solyndra, which is building a second factory in Fremont, CA, after it was awarded $535 million loan guarantee from the U.S. government.

In total, the firm manages seven funds representing investments over $1 billion.

(Reporting by Poornima Gupta; Editing by Richard Chang)


[Green Business]
California sets biggest energy efficiency plan
Thu Sep 24, 2009 7:10pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California said it had approved the most aggressive energy efficiency plan among U.S. states on Thursday, earmarking $3.1 billion to retrofit homes and other programs that will cut power needs equivalent to three medium-sized power plants.

Conservation and efficiency have become national buzzwords as the economy has failed, since such investments have some of the quickest paybacks of any in 'green' industries.

The California Public Utilities Commission set a three-year budget for utilities 42 percent higher than the previous plan. The state pioneered the concept of letting utilities raise rates as they spurred conservation, which still is not the case in many U.S. states.

Edison International's unit Southern California Edison, PG&E Corp's main unit Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Sempra Energy's San Diego Gas & Electric Co and its Southern California Gas Company will funnel the money into a dozen statewide programs and some extra smaller initiatives.

The energy saved through the programs would be the same amount of power produced by three 500 megawatt power plants, according the California Public Utilities.

The programs will also avoid 3 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions and create between 15,000 and 18,000 jobs.

The move by regulators follows California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's order earlier this month that the state get a third of its electricity from renewable resources by 2020.

The most populous state is also the biggest U.S. alternative energy market, and its environmental standards, including car pollution rules and green building regulations, are models for national and international policies.

To reach California's goals, however, broader programs that have "holistic approaches" to energy efficiency are key, said Michael Peevey, the commission's president, in a statement.

"Capturing the full energy efficiency potential in the state requires more than simply providing rebates to support the installation of the latest and greatest widget," Peevey said.

The funds will kick off the largest residential retrofit effort in the United States. Called CalSPREE, the program aims to cut energy use by 20 percent for up to 130,000 homes in the state by 2012.

The budget also includes $175 million for innovative programs to make zero net energy homes and commercial buildings; $260 million for local efforts to retrofit public sector buildings and save energy; and more than $100 million for education and training programs.

It also phases down subsidies for basic compact fluorescent lamps, shifting to solid state lighting and other efficient light technologies.

(Reporting by Laura Isensee, editing by Marguerita Choy)


[Green Business]
Barclays pension fund eyes clean energy
Fri Sep 25, 2009 11:32am EDT
By Cecilia Valente

LONDON (Reuters) - The 15 billion pound ($24 billion) defined-benefit pension scheme of UK banking group Barclays Plc is poised to make a foray into clean energy investments, its chief investment officer said.

Tony Broccardo said the pension scheme was considering alternative energy investments, including via private equity firms which finance green energy projects.

"Clean technology is an area that could be a big allocation for us in the future," Broccardo told Reuters.

Broccardo, appointed last year as the fund's first chief investment officer, said the fund will seek exposure to alternative energy as part of its "opportunistic" investment program.

Last year, the strategy prompted allocations to corporate credit in the United States and Europe, which increased its overall risk profile but netted 20 percent returns.

Broccardo said the fund had about 500 million pounds annually to investing opportunistically. Combined with emerging markets and technology, he said the pension scheme could allocate over 10 percent in clean technology.

The scheme is also poised to increase its investments in active management. "We have had good experience with hedge funds and more active management. Skilled managers will do quite well," he said.

(Reporting by Cecilia Valente, Editing by David Holmes)

($1=.6255 Pound)


[Green Business]
China energy chief wants market to set wind tariffs
Fri Sep 25, 2009 1:45am EDT
By David Stanway

BEIJING (Reuters) - Prices for electricity produced by China's fast-growing wind power sector should be set by the market, Zhang Guobao, head of the National Energy Agency, told a news conference on Friday.

"Demand for higher tariffs comes mainly from investors but the higher the price, the harder it is to develop the industry on a wide scale," he said, responding to widespread criticism of the Chinese system.

Many critics have called for a set feed-in tariff that would encourage wind power development by ensuring a fixed price.

But Zhang argued that such fixed tariffs could hold back development if prices were too high.

Subsidies for renewable energy should come in a different form, Zhang said, with tax relief rather than high prices giving support to wind generators.

That implies China could ditch the system of benchmark on-grid tariffs that aims to give wind generators a leg-up over dirty coal, which provides the vast majority of China's electricity.

When electricity grids buy wind power, they pay a premium over coal but get compensated by electricity surcharges levied nationwide.

While big projects are likely to use the benchmark tariff, smaller projects are still subject to fierce competition in a tendering process that can erode margins.

"At first (the tendering system) led to individual companies slashing prices to below cost, but they can't sustain those losses and the market will find the right price," Zhang said.

Wind power is set to overtake nuclear as a source of electricity in China during the next 10 years, thanks to a massive roll-out being encouraged by the government, which expects wind generating capacity to hit 100 gigawatts by 2020.

China is expected to unveil a "new energy" plan by the end of the year, raising its targets for wind, solar and nuclear output.

(Reporting by David Stanway, Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Jonathan Hopfner)

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[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Senate Democrats to unveil climate bill Sept 30
Thu Sep 24, 2009 5:11pm EDT
By Ayesha Rascoe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Democrats will unveil legislation to cut greenhouse gas emissions next Wednesday, kicking off what is likely to be a battle in Congress as lawmakers tussle over the economic impact of controlling global warming.

The bill has not been released formally but will be coauthored by Massachusetts Senator John Kerry and California Senator Barbara Boxer, a Congressional source said on Thursday.

"The overall architecture of the Senate bill is going to be very similar to the House version of the bill," a separate source at an environmental group said via telephone from the G20 summit in Pittsburgh.

The proposal will add to an already full plate for lawmakers in Congress who are still working to hammer out details on healthcare and financial reforms.

The House narrowly passed a climate change bill in June that called for a 17 percent cut in carbon emissions below 2005 levels by 2020, and about an 80 percent reduction by 2050.

It would also require companies to acquire permits for the right to emit carbon. Initially about 85 percent of the carbon permits would be provided to companies for free.

Another source said the Senators are contemplating requiring a 20 percent cut in greenhouse gases by 2020.

Any climate legislation in the Senate likely faces an uphill battle, as lawmakers from heavy industrial states in both parties have raised concerns about burdening companies with additional energy costs.

Republicans, in particular, have characterized so-called cap and trade legislation as a massive energy tax that will kill jobs and dampen economic recovery.

If the Senate is able to pass its version of the climate bill, then lawmakers will have to hammer out any differences before the bill becomes law.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said he hopes to bring this legislation to the floor for a vote by the end of this year. He has also said he plans to combine the bill, with a comprehensive energy package that was approved by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee earlier this year.

The announcement comes as U.S. President Barack Obama hosts a meeting of major economies in Pittsburgh where they are expected to discuss how industrialized nations could provide support to developing nations dealing with climate change.

This summit is a precursor to negotiations over an international climate accord in Copenhagen in December.

David Hunter, director of U.S. policy for the International Emissions Trading Association, said "odds are slim" that the Senate will be able pass a climate bill before the Copenhagen meeting.

Representative Mike Doyle, speaking to Reuters Television at the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, said "it's going to be tough" for the Senate to clear a climate change bill this year.


[Green Business]
Recession slows U.S. wind power growth rate
Thu Sep 24, 2009 4:31pm EDT
By Laura Isensee

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The United States will add 6,000 megawatts in wind power this year, down nearly 30 percent from last year as the credit crisis slowed expansion of the renewable energy source, an industry group said on Thursday.

Wind power has been one of the fastest growing sources of power generation, and the 2009 additions are equivalent to about six coal-fired power plants.

"The lion's share of that was commissioned on or before the economy went south," Denise Bode, head of the American Wind Energy Association told a news conference.

Globally, the wind power industry will grow about 12 percent this year, said Steve Sawyer, secretary general at the Global Wind Energy Council.

The U.S. wind power additions in 2008 pushed the country ahead of Germany as the world's leading wind power generator. Still, at 25,000 MW, wind power is only about 1 percent of the U.S. total power supply.

China will overtake the United States as the No. 1 wind power market in 2009, said Sawyer, with an estimated 10,000 MW of turbines expected to come on line there this year.

The trade groups and executives from wind companies reiterated calls for the United States to set stable long-term policies to help support the renewable energy sector.

The U.S. Congress this year extended until 2012 tax credits for the wind industry that help make new projects economically viable, although manufacturers have been lobbying for longer-terms supports.

"This is not a way to maintain many local jobs and also make the investments by investors like us in a sustainable way," Peter Brun, director of government affairs for Danish wind turbine maker Vestas Wind Systems.

Vestas, which earlier this year reduced its U.S. workforce because of declining orders, plans to increase the number of jobs in the United States to 4,500 from the current 2,000 jobs, Brun said.

Similarly, Iberdrola plans to invest more than $6 billion in the United States over the next three years, said Carlos Gasco, head of Iberdrola Renewables' prospective unit. Iberdrola Renewables is a unit of Spain's Iberdrola SA.

Others like Suzlon Energy Ltd and Nordex USA, a unit of Germany's Nordex AG, have invested in setting up U.S. manufacturing plants for wind turbine parts.

(Reporting by Laura Isensee, editing by Matt Daily and David Gregorio)

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

[World]
ISLAMABAD, Sept. 26, 2009
Pakistan Suicide Bombs Kill 16, Wound 150
Security Officials Tell CBS News Blasts in Northwest Demonstrate Taliban's Determination to Resume Bloody Bombing Campaign

(CBS/AP) Two suicide car bombs killed 16 people and wounded about 150 others in separate attacks in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, just days after the Taliban warned suicide strikes were coming if the military pressed forward with an offensive. A third bomb injured four in the restive region.

A suicide bomb was detonated outside a bank affiliated with the army in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province (NWFP), police said. Ten people were killed and 79 wounded, said Sahibzada Mohammed Anis, a senior government official.

An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw vehicles overturned by the blast, buildings gutted and glass scattered everywhere. Most of the casualties were customers in the bank or people outside.

"We saw body parts in the car and our investigation confirms it was a suicide attack," said Malik Shafqat, a police official in Peshawar. He said the attacker also threw a hand grenade before detonating the bomb but it didn't explode.

A suicide blast also hit a police station in the province's Bannu district earlier Saturday, killing at least six people and wounding nearly 70 others, police said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for that attack.

A third bomb exploded in the northern town of Gilgit, wounding four people, Pakistan's SAMA news channel quoted local police Chief Ali Sher as saying. He described it as a "low-intensity bomb" but provided no further details.

Security officials warned the attacks demonstrated the revival of the Taliban's determination to resume a bloody bombing campaign.

?We have stepped up security considerably in the past few months. There are checkposts at different locations. For someone to be able to drive through these (checkposts) and strike is a matter of concern? one senior Pakistani official told CBS News' Farhan Bokhari on condition of anonymity. ?The security arrangements will be reviewed but there will also be a review of how these people exactly planned and carried out these attacks? he said.

The attacks came after last month?s death of Baitullah Mehsud, the strongest leader of the Taliban movement in Pakistan, who was killed in a suspected missile strike by a U.S.-operated pilot-less drone.

Mehsud?s death was followed by a blood feud to nominate a successor in which by some accounts at least 50 people were killed. ?It is clear that the Taliban have overcome the loss of Baitullah Mehsud, and are willing to strike anywhere with impunity? the security official told Bokhari.

Two days ago, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan said it was ready to stage more suicide attacks in the region after it was ousted from the Swat Valley in July by an army offensive.

Qari Hussain Mehsud - known for training Taliban suicide bombers - warned of more attacks in an AP interview at a secret location in North Waziristan on Thursday, just hours before U.S. missiles hit the area and killed 12 people.

"We have enough suicide bombers and they are asking me to let them sacrifice their lives in the name of Islam, but we will send suicide bombers only if the government acts against us," he said in the interview.

The U.S. has fired dozens of missiles from unmanned drones to take out top Taliban and al Qaeda leaders in the northwest over the past year. Although Pakistan routinely protests the strikes, it is widely believed to secretly cooperate with them.

A CIA drone attack felled former Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud on Aug. 5.

Qari Hussain Mehsud phoned the AP to claim responsibility for the police station attack Saturday. "We have broken the silence as the government did not understand the pause in attacks, and from now there will be an increase in the number of suicide bombings," he said.

He urged civilians to stay away from police and security force installations.

Taliban attacks surged in the region last week. Militants ambushed a convoy of prominent anti-Taliban tribal elders in Bannu district on Thursday, spraying their cars with gunfire and killing nine people. Pakistani authorities have urged tribal elders to speak out against the Taliban, and in turn the militants have killed scores of local leaders.

North West Frontier Province's information minister, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, said the attacks would not deter the government from fighting militants. He said security forces had arrested 40 would-be suicide bombers in recent months in the northwest, thwarting efforts by the Taliban to create chaos.

"It is not only our duty ... to fight this menace of terrorism, it is a responsibility of the whole world," Hussain told reporters in Peshawar. "We are on the front line today, that's why our blood is being shed."

On Thursday Pakistan?s President Asif Ali Zardari co-chaired (with U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown) a gathering of Pakistan?s main donors in New York, trying to persuade them to provide more financial assistance to the country as it claims to battle the Taliban and al Qaeda.

Pakistani leaders have said that Pakistan needs billions of dollars in assistance to overcome high levels of poverty. Some of the poorest Pakistanis are believed to have been driven by their extreme impoverishment to join the Taliban.

On Saturday, a senior Western diplomat based in Islamabad, speaking on condition of anonymity after the two attacks in NWFP, warned that forcing back the Taliban from the Swat Valley did not appear to have begun breaking down the militant movement.

?These two attacks have brought back a long established lesson: Blocking these militants from Swat did not mean, every one of the Taliban and their sympathizers are out of business,? the diplomat told CBS News' Bokhari. ?The Taliban are mostly from the NWFP and they are part of the local population. Eliminating them will take time."

news20090926cbs2

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

[Politics]
Sept. 25, 2009
White House Regroups on Guantanamo
Washington Post: White House Counsel Replaced as Point Man on Issue as Deadline for Closing Looms

(Washington Post) Even before the inauguration, President Obama's top advisers settled on a course of action they were counseled against: announcing that they would close the facility within one year. Today, officials are acknowledging that they will be hard-pressed to meet that goal.

The White House has faltered in part because of the legal, political and diplomatic complexities involved in determining what to do with more than 200 terrorism suspects at the prison. But senior advisers privately acknowledge not devising a concrete plan for where to move the detainees and mishandling Congress.

To address these setbacks, the administration has shifted its leadership team on the issue. White House Counsel Gregory B. Craig, who initially guided the effort to close the prison and who was an advocate of setting the deadline, is no longer in charge of the project, two senior administration officials said this week.

Craig said Thursday that some of his early assumptions were based on miscalculations, in part because Bush administration officials and senior Republicans in Congress had spoken publicly about closing the facility. "I thought there was, in fact, and I may have been wrong, a broad consensus about the importance to our national security objectives to close Guantanamo and how keeping Guantanamo open actually did damage to our national security objectives," he said.

In May, one of the senior officials said, Obama tapped Pete Rouse -- a top adviser and former congressional aide who is not an expert on national security but is often called in to fix significant problems -- to oversee the process. Senior adviser David Axelrod and deputy communications director Dan Pfeiffer were brought in to craft a more effective message around detainee policy, the official said.

"It was never going to be easy, but we have worked through some of the early challenges and are on a strong course," Pfeiffer said.

To empty the prison, the administration will need to find facilities to house 50 to 60 prisoners who cannot be released and who cannot be tried because of legal impediments, according to an administration official. The administration must also win congressional funding for the closure process, find host countries for detainees cleared for release, and transfer dozens of inmates to federal and military courts for prosecution.

Three administration officials said they expect Craig to leave his current post in the near future, and one said he is on the short list for a seat on the bench or a diplomatic position. Craig has long made clear his desire to be involved in foreign policy, but he declined to comment on his plans.

Several White House officials remain involved in Guantanamo Bay, including Thomas E. Donilon, the deputy national security adviser; John O. Brennan, the counterterrorism adviser; and David Rapallo, an official on the National Security Council.

"Guantanamo was everyone's part-time job," said a senior official, one of several interviewed for this article who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Now, the official added, Rouse is coordinating them.

Setting a Deadline
Before the election, Craig met privately with a group of top national security lawyers who had served in Democratic and Republican administrations to discuss Guantanamo Bay. During the transition, he met with members of the outgoing administration, some of whom warned him against issuing a deadline to close the facility without first finding alternative locations for the prisoners.

Craig oversaw the drafting of the executive order that set Jan. 22, 2010, as the date by which the prison must be closed.

"It seemed like a bold move at the time, to lay out a time frame that to us seemed sufficient to meet the goal," one senior official said. "In retrospect, it invited a fight with the Hill and left us constantly looking at the clock."

"The entire civil service counseled him not to set a deadline" to close Guantanamo, according to one senior government lawyer.

In those early months, Craig was unquestionably the central figure in the effort to shut Guantanamo Bay. In an interview with The Washington Post in February, he said he was managing the closure "on a day-to-day basis."

Craig began reviewing the cases of each detainee at the facility, and was one of the first senior officials to travel to the prison, visiting on Feb. 18, ahead of Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.

But as time wore on, congressional staff members said, they stopped hearing from Craig. Although there were periodic briefings with members of the Justice Department's task forces, there was no longer a point person from the White House who appeared to be shepherding the issue, according to one Republican aide. Craig became involved in other matters, such as vetting, ethics and the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.

Obstacles and Setbacks
Senior administration officials said the central roadblock during those early months was the condition of the detainee files, which had been left in disarray by the previous administration.

"We assumed that for each detainee there was going to be a file somewhere," one senior administration official said. "Some of the intelligence files were not even organized by detainee. You had to go into a mainframe database and search the name of the detainee to put together a file. So there were weeks, if not months, of putting together the files of detainees that then could be reviewed by the fresh eyes that we wanted."

As the process was getting underway in the spring, the administration began losing support for shutting the facility, in part, officials now say, because the White House did not present a concrete plan for what it would do with the remaining terrorism suspects.

After news reports that some detainees -- Chinese Muslims known as Uighurs -- were going to be moved to the Virginia suburbs, lawmakers balked.

Then in May, the Senate decided, by an overwhelming vote of 90 to 6, to block funding for shutting Guantanamo Bay -- Obama's first major legislative setback as president.

Public displeasure with the decision to close the prison grew. Fifty percent of those surveyed in June said they disapproved of closing the facility, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll, up significantly from a Pew poll in February.

Republicans pounced on the closure, alleging that it would make the United States "less safe." Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said Democrats would "under no circumstances" move forward without more specifics.

The following month, Congress passed an appropriations bill that required the administration to report its plans before moving any detainee out of Guantanamo Bay and prevented it from using available money to move detainees onto U.S. soil.

Six pending pieces of legislation would make it harder for Obama to close the prison and transfer detainees to the United States or foreign countries.

After the congressional setbacks, Craig orchestrated the release of four of the Uighurs, flying with them and a State Department official from Guantanamo Bay to Bermuda, a self-governing British territory whose international relations are administered by Britain.

The transfer produced a diplomatic rift. British and U.S. officials said the Obama administration gave Britain two hours' notice that the Uighurs were being sent to Bermuda. "They essentially snuck them in, and we were furious," said a senior British official.

The move also caused friction between Britain and China, which seeks the Uighurs for waging an insurgency against the Chinese government.

Late Thursday, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel offered a defense of Craig, saying he "played a critical role in pursuing the president's goal of ensuring that we protect our nation's security interests in a manner that is consistent with our laws and our values."

One administration official was more effusive. "Greg Craig is a hero," the official said. "He took responsibility for this policy from the beginning, and he has guts and character. If we can't get it done by the deadline, then at least we'll have done as much as we can as smoothly as we could have."

In coming weeks, officials say, they expect to complete the initial review of all the files of those held at Guantanamo Bay.

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

[U.S.]
NEW YORK, Sept. 26, 2009 0066ff
Prosecutor: Attack Was to Mark 9/11 Anniv.
Says Suspect Planned to Unleash WMD Attack on Sept. 11; Attorney Says Feds Cannot Link Client to Explosives

(CBS/AP) An Afghan immigrant allegedly on the verge of a massive terror attack in New York City was transported to New York last night to faces charges.

A federal prosecutor argued that Najibullah Zazi of Denver was planning an attack to coincide with the 9/11 anniversary.

"The evidence suggests a chilling, disturbing sequence of events showing the defendant was intent on making a bomb and being in New York on 9/11, for purposes of perhaps using such items," prosecutor Tim Neff told U.S. Magistrate Judge Craig Shaffer.

Zazi is charged with conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction in a plot authorities say was aimed at commuter trains.

His attorney said that claims the Afghan immigrant was on the verge of unleashing a terrorist attack on New York City are missing a key element: explosives or the chemicals allegedly used to make them.

FBI agents have yet to find those elements and connect them to Zazi, attorney Arthur Folsom told a federal judge in Denver Friday.

"No traces of any kind of chemical was found in his vehicle," Folsom said of an FBI search of Zazi's car.

Shaffer ultimately ordered Zazi's transfer to New York, and Zazi was taken there by federal marshals.

Read more about Zazi's indictment

Zazi was stopped by police on Sept. 10 as he entered New York, and he dropped his plans for an attack once he realized that law enforcement was on to him, prosecutors allege.

Prosecutors said Zazi received explosives training from al Qaeda in Pakistan and returned to the U.S. bent on building a bomb.

CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports that surveillance videotapes and receipts from a Denver area beauty supply shop show terror suspect Najibullah Zazi twice bought large amounts of hydrogen peroxide - a key ingredient in the kind of homemade explosives that, sources claim, Zazi hoped to unleash on New York.

"When the FBI asked if we had anybody purchasing large volumes, all we had to do was go through our transaction history and those two popped up," Karan Hoss of Beauty Supply Warehouse told CBS News.

At least three and possibly more of his accomplices remain at large, and investigators have fanned out across New York in pursuit of suspects. Authorities also issued a flurry of terrorism warnings for sports complexes, hotels and transit systems.

A law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation said associates of Zazi visited Colorado to help him buy the chemicals using stolen credit cards before returning to New York.

Another law enforcement official said that authorities had been especially worried about Zazi's Sept. 10 visit to the city because it coincided with a visit by President Barack Obama. Police considered arresting him right away. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation continues.

Police have been especially active in the neighborhood in Queens where Zazi visited during his New York trip, staying at an apartment with a group of cab drivers and food cart operators he knows.

Zazi's attorney Folsom said prosecutors lack direct evidence that Zazi was involved in bomb-making, finding none of those materials in Zazi's car, his Aurora, Colo., apartment or apartments Zazi visited in New York. FBI agents said they found Zazi's fingerprints on a scale and batteries during a search in Queens, but Folsom said those items have no connection to the alleged plot.

"I think they were hoping that people would just jump to conclusions," Folsom said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Zazi ran a coffee cart in Manhattan before moving to Denver this year and getting a job as an airport shuttle driver.

FBI raids beginning Sept. 14 rattled a quiet, predominantly Asian neighborhood in Queens. Muslim men said dozens of FBI agents ransacked their homes and questioned them for hours, sometimes taking DNA samples and prints from their shoes.

The FBI has also been visiting beauty shops and home-improvement stores in Colorado and New York for details about the alleged bomb-making purchases.

Court papers say that during the summer, Zazi and three unidentified associates bought "unusually large quantities" of hydrogen peroxide and acetone - a flammable solvent found in nail-polish remover - from Denver-area beauty supply stores. The products had names such as Ion Sensitive Scalp Developer and Ms. K Liquid 40 Volume.

Zazi also searched the Web site of a Queens home-improvement store for another ingredient needed to make a compound called TATP (triacetone triperoxide), the explosives used by shoe bomber Richard Reid and the terrorists who carried out the London bombings that killed more than 50 people, according to court papers.

Zazi intensified his bomb-making experiments this month, cooking up substances in a Colorado hotel suite he rented on Sept. 6-7 before driving 1,600 miles to New York over the course of about two days. He became aware that law enforcement was onto him when he was stopped entering the city on Sept. 10, causing the plot to unravel.

Neff said Zazi "was in the throes of making a bomb and attempting to perfect his formulation" and seeking information on how to use flour to make the explosive suitable for transporting.

"He was asking for information on flour and how to get the contents right," Neff said in court.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority - which runs New York City's subway system, buses and commuter rails - declined to comment on the revelation of a Sept. 11-timed plot. It reissued a statement from earlier in the week that it has boosted its police presence at "key commuter rail locations" since the terror threat became public.

Federal agents and police officers in New York visited up to 200 locations a day in the area during the probe, including beauty-supply stores, extended-stay hotels that have rooms with kitchens, hardware stores, truck rental agencies and storage facilities.

Zazi was scheduled to appear in federal court Tuesday in Brooklyn.

A government request to deny bail laid out a chronology of the alleged scheme, which prosecutors said had been in the works for more than a year.

On Sept. 6 and 7, Zazi checked into a suite at a Colorado hotel with a kitchen and a stove, government papers say, and tried to contact an unidentified associate "seeking to correct mixtures of ingredients to make explosives."

"Zazi repeatedly emphasized in the communications that he needed the answers right away," the papers said, adding that each communication was "more urgent than the last."

Beauty supply store employees in New York and the Denver suburbs said authorities had been asking whether anyone had come in buying a lot of hydrogen peroxide or acetone.

While FBI agents continue to press Zazi's associates and search for possible hidden explosives, two other would-be terrorists are also in jail - charged in separate schemes unrelated to Zazi's alleged plot.

Nineteen-year old Hosam Smadi is accused of attempting to blow up a Dallas high-rise; and Michael Finton is charged with trying to bomb the federal courthouse in Springfield, Illinois.

Both men were caught in FBI stings this week, with undercover agents acting as fellow terrorists and providing dummy bombs. Officials say that, unlike Zazi, the men presented no real danger.

But they underscore the ongoing threat from homegrown radicals.

"There are people living in the United States who may be U.S. citizens or legal residents who want to carry out violent acts, said CBS News national security analyst Paul Kurtz.