news20091024gdn1

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[News > World news > Madagascar]
Ravaged by drought, Madagascar feels the full effect of climate change
A 10% increase in temperature and a 10% decrease in rainfall sees Indian Ocean island struggle to feed its children
David Smith
guardian.co.uk, Friday 23 October 2009 19.09 BST Article history

Remanonjona Feroce founded the village of Anjamahavelo – meaning At the Lucky Baobab – in Madagascar a generation ago. With memories of a flood still fresh, he chose a spot far from the nearest river. He cleared the wild forest and sacrificed a sheep in the hope that it would make the owls, lemurs and snakes go away.

"Animals can't live together with little children and young girls," explained Feroce, an 85-year-old great-grandfather. "They don't want snakes to be here because they have bad spirits. They strangle children by curling around the neck. Owls are bad birds. If one hoots, it means somebody will die."

The animals did go away, but so did the luck of Anjamahavelo, a cluster of wooden houses. Southern Madagascar has had three years of crop failure in five years, resulting in chronic hunger for tens of thousands of families and soaring rates of malnutrition, stunted growth and death among children.

Three forces are combining with deadly effect on the Indian Ocean island, which is incalculably rich in wildlife but impoverished in basic infrastructure. Climate change is widely blamed for playing havoc with the seasons and destroying agricultural harvests. This is exacerbated by local deforestation, which has altered the microclimate and reduced rainfall.

Finally, a bloody political coup earlier this year paralysed essential services and led to the crippling suspension of several foreign aid programmes. The UN says that nearly half of households in the south have severe food shortages.

To feed her five children in Anjamahavelo, Tinalisy – her only name – works as a prostitute at the end of each month, when the local men, mostly in the police, have been paid. The unmarried 27-year-old has slept with men for sex since she was 17. "If the men don't want to marry, that is not really a problem. We have to survive."

Tinalisy says her 20-month-old daughter, Vany Lentine, suffers a fever each evening. "We eat once or twice a day – always cassava. I'm worried but what I can do? There is no money. People here are unhappy because their children do not eat. There is nothing to be happy about."

Other villagers say that the fierce competition for dwindling resources has led to lawlessness and violence. Valiotaky, 56, the village chief, supplies an explanation for the drought. "When we plant trees we don't have rain and nothing grows," he said. "I think God is angry. Young people don't respect the traditions."

Perversely, people in the south are so starved of water that they crave the increasingly fierce cyclones that pound the north three times a year. Two separate dry seasons have progressively expanded until they meet to form one long hot season, hitting crops such as maize, manioc and sweet potato.

Tovoheryzo Raobijaona, director of a food insecurity early warning system in nearby Ambovombe, said: "Before, people spoke about the cycle of drought every 10 years. Now it's every five years, or every three years. After a bad year like 2009, people need two to three years to get back to standard."

Unicef, the UN's children's agency, said that in the past six months 8,632 children had been treated for severe acute malnutrition in three southern regions – more than double the expected number. The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) warns that 150,000 children could be affected this year.

There are reports of people resorting to eating lemurs and turtles, even though these are culturally taboo. They have also resumed cutting down trees for firewood or to make space for rice fields, inadvertently adding to the drought problem by reducing the capacity of forests to capture water that will evaporate into clouds and become rain.

The added impact of global climate change is difficult to quantify. The World Bank says that only one thing is certain: in the past half century Madagascar has seen a 10% increase in temperature and 10% decrease in rainfall. Experts say it is not a question of whether this trend will continue, but by how much.

Silvia Caruso, deputy country director of the WFP, said: "Environmental degradation and climate change are building on each other. The results are dramatic in Madagascar."

This has been compounded by political instability. In March Andry Rajoelina, a city mayor, businessman and former DJ, seized power from president Marc Ravalomanana after clashes that left dozens dead. The fallout has been political deadlock, economic downturn, job losses, price inflation, collapsing public services, a flight of investors and international sanctions on a country that relies on foreign aid for half its budget.

Caruso added: "The coup has paralysed services that we need to work with in the provinces. It has made the response to drought more complex. We had to fill the gaps at regional level."

Bruno Maes, Unicef's representative for Madagascar, described the coup as "a disaster for children", adding: "Madagascar was on the road to take-off. They understood it was time to make reforms in health and education, so that all children can have access. Now all this is frozen. Nothing is moving."

Unicef has provided medicine and training to all regional health clinics for acute malnutrition cases, supported food distribution and worked to improve sanitation. The WFP has begun programmes to provide school meals to 215,000 children, help 8,000 households mitigate against environmental change and supply supplementary feeding to around 70,000 children under two and pregnant and lactating women.

Maes said Unicef was also negotiating with the World Bank to directly administer money earmarked for teachers' salaries. "Children's rights should be addressed in any situation – whatever the crisis."

Case-study: 'Lack of food is eating us up'
Zanasoa Relais Anjado, 38, has 11 children. Her husband, a former plantation worker, is unemployed. They live in Anjado village in southern Madagascar.

"Lack of food is eating us up every day. We often go through very hard moments – in the most difficult we ate only tamarinds [fruit] mixed with ashes. We were hungry and tired and had to beg for something to eat. We were like famine victims … I have 11 children and I don't know how to feed them. Sometimes we have one meal a day, sometimes two. One of my children was sick. He managed to survive and recover, but I know people in the community who are still very weak. The river is 5km from here and we walk for hours to get there … With rainwater we would cook food and diversify agriculture. We'd plant cabbages, green leaves, corn and beans. What we planted so far dried and failed … It will be really difficult and we will suffer. That is why I am asking the government for help, directly and immediately. Without it, we risk dying here. I don't care about the political situation in the country. The only thing that concerns me is that I'm eating."

news20091024gdn2

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Copenhagen climate change conference 2009]
Artists to use public money to fund Copenhagan summit protest
Bristol-based project may use installation made from old bikes and funded by Arts Council to blockade streets in Copenhagen
Steven Morris
guardian.co.uk, Friday 23 October 2009 19.14 BST Article history

Artists and activists have been given public money that could be used to take part in civil disobedience at the Copenhagen climate change conference.

They are working together at the Arnolfini art gallery in Bristol before the Cop15 conference, which is expected to attract thousands of demonstrators. Most are producing work intended to draw attention to climate change issues, such as inviting people to bring in unwanted trees that will be planted in a community wood or perhaps along a cycle route.

But many will be travelling to Copenhagen, and some admit that they will take part in acts of civil disobedience.

One of the most striking projects is being organised by a group called the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination – Lab of ii.

It will be designing a huge "carnivalesque" installation out of old bikes that it may use to blockade the streets in Copenhagen or to trap fossil fuel lobbyists in their hotel.

"We're not sure exactly how we will use it. It just depends how it turns out," said one of the Lab technicians, John Jordan. "It will certainly be used in some act of civil disobedience."

The Lab of ii will build a prototype of their work in Bristol and then put together the real thing in Denmark. Jordan said: "As far as we are concerned history changes through disobedience. Freedoms we take for granted happened because people broke the rules."

Jordan said the exciting thing about the Arnolfini project was getting artists and activists together. "Artists are imaginative but don't have much real courage or involvement in the real world but bringing the two together is magic. For me art is now about showing life to people, it's about changing everyday life."

Jane Trowell, of the eco-artist group Platform, which is curating the project, called C Words: Carbon, Climate, Capital, Culture, agreed. "A lot of environmental art is being made. It's beautiful, touching, engaging but can be a way of just commenting on rather than provoking discussion and action on climate change.

"We're hoping to say it's not just enough to make work about it or comment or describe it, let's do something," she said.

The Arts Council is funding the project and the Arnolfini is also supported by Bristol city council. In effect, taxpayers' money is being used to help artists and activists, some of whom are vowing to take part in civil disobedience.

Tom Trevor, the director of the Arnolfini, said that 10 years ago public money would not have been used for such a project – and it might be well different after the next election.

"But for now the state is funding anti-state activity, which is very interesting," he said. Trevor also conceded that if the conference was taking place in Bristol, the gallery would almost certainly not support direct action so overtly. "It would be difficult to keep all our stakeholders on board," he said.

Another group taking part in the project is the Anderson family – parents Gary and Lena and their sons, Neal, Gabriel and Sid, aged from two to nine. They go under the name the Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent and Home.

The family, from Liverpool, are spending half term living on a boat moored in the harbour outside the Arnolfini, and running activities including an anti-capitalist Halloween.

They will create performances from what they learn and will stage them in Copenhagen. "We won't want to get into any trouble but we do want to create an activist cell as a family unit," said Gary Anderson.


[Environment > Activism]
London Eye rally one of 4,600 climate actions for 350 campaign
Campaign calls for world to return to 'safe levels' of CO2 before 'overconsumption turns planet into one vast coffin'
Alok Jha
guardian.co.uk, Friday 23 October 2009 18.17 BST Article history

Campaigners in 172 countries around the world will come together for one of the biggest ever mass climate change protests events tomorrow.

Over 4,600 events including actions in Sydney, Delhi, Copenhagen, Washington DC, Quito and London will focus on the figure 350 — the amount of CO2 in parts per million in the atmosphere that scientists say the atmosphere can safely hold. By burning fossil fuels, humankind has already pushed this beyond 380ppm.

"350 is the most important number in the world," said author and veteran environmental campaigner Bill McKibben, who is also founder of 350.org. "It's an arcane scientific data point — and that hasn't stopped people from making it the centre of an enormous, linked, global movement to call on governments to match the hard science with effective policy."

Events around the world include thousands of people coming together to form giant 3s, 5s and zeros. Londoners, for example, will gather under the iconic London Eye tomorrow to create a giant 5 with their bodies. "It's a kind of planet-scale Scrabble — it'll take the BBC and CNN and the rest to solve the puzzle, to make the point that you have to work across borders to solve these problems," said McKibben. "There are Olympic champions leading 350 people on bike rides, and thousands of churches ringing their bells 350 times. It's happening everywhere — 300 big rallies in China alone, which is not a place where political organising usually takes place. 150 across India. More than a thousand across the US, the heart of the problem."

Organiser of the London event, computer programmer Nicholas Smit, said he had the idea two months ago. "The London Eye is iconic, Big Ben behind it is perfect. When we started collaborating with 350 more directly and they said they needed a big 5 to team up with big threes and big zeros coming in from around the world."

London's Big 5 event will also form part of the Bigger Picture festival at the city's South Bank on Saturday organised by the think tank, the New Economics Foundation. Andrew Simms, the foundation's policy director and head of the climate change programme, said: "Like the safe load-line on a boat, the global economy has an environmental water line created by climate change. We're already crossing it, raising the risk of sinking. But instead of lightening the load to get back to safe levels, we're still piling more stuff on board. Our overconsumption is turning the planet into one vast coffin ship. To travel safely, we must urgently return to 350ppm carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere."

news20091024gdn3

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Conservation]
Conservationists laud Poland's move to re-route controversial motorwayOriginal Via Baltica route would have heavily impacted on important sites for biodiversity including the Biebrza marshes, and the Knyszyn and Augustow forests
Juliette Jowit
guardian.co.uk, Friday 23 October 2009 16.42 BST Article history

Some of Europe's most important wildlife sites appear to have been saved after an international campaign succeeded in preventing a motorway from being built through an area of ancient forest and marshland.

Dozens of protected species including the lynx, wolf, beaver, aquatic warbler and greater spotted eagle are expected to benefit from the Polish government's U-turn. After years of pressure from environmentalists, it has decided to re-route part of a proposed international road corridor linking Helsinki in Finland and Prague in the Czech Republic via Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

The original route would have heavily impacted on important sites for biodiversity including the Biebrza marshes, and the Knyszyn and Augustow primeval forests.

Campaigners against the scheme also hope the decision to adopt a more environmentally sensitive route for the Via Baltica road will deter other governments in the region from going ahead with a boom in infrastructure building that would threaten some of the most natural landscapes in Europe.

The RSPB called the decision "a major victory that represents a significant step towards the proper implementation of Polish and European environmental laws."

Adam Wajrak, a Polish environmental journalist and campaigner, said: "For Poland it's an important decision because it's the first time they are using [an independent] strategic assessment to decide where the roads should be; up to now it was just the decision of some politicians."

However opponents also warned that, despite the Polish council of ministers' announcement, some local authorities wanted to push ahead with the road under a new name, the Via Carpathia.

"With the new route for the Via Baltica corridor settled there is no need to continue with these large scale projects on the old route which will needlessly damage Natura 2000 [European Union] protected sites," said Malgorzata Gorska of OTOP, the Polish Society for the Protection of Birds.

Earlier this year the Polish government previously agreed to re-route a smaller part of the Polish section of the Via Baltica away from the Rospuda valley, believed to be Europe's last 'pristine' fen.

In a petition organised by Wajrak, 450 Polish scientists called that project "a destruction catastrophe unparalleled in the civilised world in the last decades".

The Polish national roads agency, which says new and improved links are vital to boost the economy, especially in remote areas, plans to announce a €17.7bn scheme this year, of which nearly half will be spent in 2010.

news20091024nn

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 23 October 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.1038
News
Sudden moves spark brain battle
Neurons compete in a royal rumble for the brain's attention.
By Lizzie Buchen

Sudden movements and sounds can trigger a battle between neurons in the brain, and the winners get to decide where an animal will look, according to new research.

Working with barn owls, neuroscientists at Stanford University in California found that neurons in the midbrain, which acts as a relay for sensory information, engage in a 'winner takes all' battle with one another. To the victors go the owl's gaze and attention. The findings, presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Chicago, Illinois, could explain how the brain decides where to look in an emergency^1,2.

The senses detect everything around them, but the brain can only focus on one part of the world at a time. In everyday life, the conscious mind decides what this should be. But when confronted with a loud noise or fast-moving object, the urge to look becomes automatic. That response makes sense, says principal investigator Eric Knudsen. "When there are features in the environment signalling something that could be life-or-death, we'd want to know about it," he says.

Let's get ready to rumble

What is less clear is how this head-turning decision happens on a cellular level. To find out, Knudsen's team used barn owls, which have neatly arranged midbrains that are easy to study. Research focused on a circuit in the midbrain known as the isthmotectal network, which receives sensory information and tells the eyes where to look.

To prevent the animals from controlling their own gaze, the researchers began by sedating them with nitrous oxide. The scientists then presented a fast-approaching dot in the owls' visual field, positioning the dot so that it would stimulate a particular region of the isthmotectal network. A subset of neurons in the region responded to the dot by firing at a high rate, which — had the animal been awake — might have directed its eyes and attention towards the potentially menacing dot. They found the same result when they recorded from another region of the network.

The authors then presented a second looming dot, this time outside the field of view of the neurons they were studying. The neurons began slowing down. The faster the competing dot approached, the slower the neurons became, and when the competing dot moved faster than the first dot, the neurons switched to a low-firing rate. That switch suggests that they had lost the battle with other neurons in the region that had been signalling the competing dot.

The authors found similar results when the competing stimulus was an increasingly loud auditory tone: at a certain decibel level the neurons responding to the dot switched from high to low activity, suggesting that the sound had become more important.

Intriguingly, the neurons in the network fired in bursts, primarily at 30–40 hertz. This frequency is meaningful for attention — similar frequencies has been seen in primates when they attend to stimuli³.

Competing for attention

The findings suggest that neurons in the isthmotectal network engage in a constant battle to decide which ones are sensing the most important stimulus. Usually nothing in the environment will be arresting enough to trigger the system, but when something does come along — a flash of light, a shotgun's crack — the responding neurons will switch on, sending a strong signal that usurps the animal's attention.

Neuroscientist Richard Krauzlis at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, thinks the switch-like behaviour is intriguing. "This could be part of a mechanism for helping to select the relevant stimulus, and this is a very interesting possibility," he says. Further studies are needed to prove that neurons in the network actually compete, he says, and that neurons in awake animals behave in the same way.

References
1. Mysore, S. P. , Asadollahi, A. & Knudsen, E. I. Poster 758.17/AA16 (Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, 2009).
2. Asadollahi, A. & Knudsen, E. I. Poster 758.15/AA14 (Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, 2009).
3. Fries, P., Reynolds, J. H., Rorie, A. E. & Desimone, R. Science 291, 1560-1563 (2001).


[naturenews]
Published online 23 October 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.1039
News: Q&A
Making a cellular menagerie
Molecular biologist Caroline Kane talks about a new image library of the cell.
By Katharine Sanderson

A US$2.5-million stimulus grant has been awarded to the American Society for Cell Biology in Bethesda, Maryland, to establish an online open-access database called 'The Cell: An Image Library'. The society is using the money to hire eight part-time annotators, who will help to compile images and videos for the site. Nature caught up with molecular biologist Caroline Kane, from the University of California, Berkeley, who is delaying her retirement to be principal investigator on the project.

Had you always wanted to pursue this project? Or was it just a case of finding a use for stimulus money?

The society started a project like this two years ago, and we had to stop it in December 2008 because of cost. We had only generated about 900 movies and images at the time.

When the National Institute of General Medical Sciences [in Bethesda, Maryland] came up with this grant opportunity, one of the categories was to establish an image library. The institute contacted our executive director and said "we noticed your society was trying to establish a library like this, why don't you please consider applying for this grant".

What's the need for this kind of image bank?

The existing cell image databases (all that we know of) have a limited focus — on a particular cell type or a particular cell process. You would have to go to that specific database to learn about how your favourite organelle, or cell mutant, looked.

The vision is that the library will be as useful to researchers as the genetic sequence databases are now. That means populating it with cells of all different types as well as images and movies of what's happening inside the cell.

Are the owners of existing databases worried about a super database usurping their work?

Of the people that have some of the larger projects that we've talked to in the United States, the only one that we didn't hear back from in a very positive way we didn't hear back from at all. Everyone else has been very positive about wanting to collaborate, primarily, I think, because it will advance their science too.

So how is it going to help working scientist?

I like to use this analogy: my laboratory works on transcriptional regulation so when I image the cell, I'm interested in what's happening in the nucleus. But the rest of the cell is still there. I work with yeast cells, so if somebody is looking at protein transport or is interested in what happens in a particular mutant series that I have generated, they can look at the structure of the golgi in those cells and see if anything interesting has happened. I don't care about the golgi.

Robert Murphy who's also one of our collaborators, at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is developing image-recognition software that if you say 'centriole' can give you a whole list of images of cells where you can visualize the centriole even if the centriole wasn't the primary focus of the person doing the imaging.

How can individual researchers contribute to the databank?

We're going to set up a Flickr account that will enable anybody anywhere to upload images, which will drop into our annotation directory where the annotators can then look at them.

So the annotators will review each entry? That sounds like it's going to take a lot of effort.

Because of my age I'm probably thinking that there will always be human eyes involved. But I think that down the road as the image-recognition software is developed the computer will be able to do some of that initial vetting.

This stimulus grant lasts for just two years. What happens after that?

The word from the National Institutes of Health is that if all goes well then at the end of two years there is the possibility of applying for a contract for five years to continue to develop and expand the database.

news20091024cnn1

[Hot Topics] from [CNN.com]

[World]
Iran to decide on nuke deal 'next week'
Story Highlights
> Iran mulling over draft agreement reached at U.N. nuclear watchdog HQ
> Tehran "will announce its final decision on the deal next week," Press TV says
> If Iran agree proposal it could help resolve ongoing international showdown
> Tehran says its nuclear program is intended solely for peaceful purposes
October 23, 2009 -- Updated 1958 GMT (0358 HKT)

VIENNA, Austria (CNN) -- Iran said Friday it needs more time to decide whether to sign onto a deal that could help end the international showdown over its nuclear activities.

{Iranian negotiator Ali Asghar Soltanieh addresses the media in Vienna on Wednesday.}

Tehran is "studying the draft proposal" and will have an answer next week, said Iranian diplomat Ali Asghar Soltanieh, on state-run Press TV.

Soltanieh is Iran's representative for meetings with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog. It was at IAEA headquarters in Vienna on Wednesday that representatives from the United States, France, Russia, the United Nations and Iran settled on the draft proposal.

IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei gave all the representatives until Friday to say whether they would sign the document, which he called "a balanced approach to the problem."

The other parties have expressed support for the deal.

In a statement released Friday, ElBaradei said Iran had informed him "it is considering the proposal in depth and in a favorable light, but it needs time until the middle of next week to provide a response. The director general hopes that Iran's response will equally be positive, since approval of this agreement will signal a new era of cooperation."

The proposal calls for low-enriched uranium produced in Iran to be sent abroad for further enrichment and then returned for use in medical research and treatment.

"This is a real opportunity for Iran to help address some of the real concerns of the international community about its nuclear program and at the same time still provide for the humanitarian needs of the Iranian people," U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters Friday.

Asked about the deadline, Kelly responded, "Obviously we would have preferred to have had a response today." He added that the United States approaches the issue "with a sense of urgency. The international community's been waiting a long time for Iran to address some of our real concerns about their intentions."

Tehran says its nuclear program is intended solely for peaceful purposes, but many in the West believe Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons capabilities.

Low-enriched nuclear fuel can be further enriched into weapons-grade material.

Israel, which views the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran as a threat, opposes the Vienna plan. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Thursday: "The cessation of enrichment by Iran is needed and not just the removal of the enriched material."

Soltanieh, the Iranian diplomat, spoke approvingly Friday of the three-day meeting in Vienna, calling it "positive and constructive," according to state-run news agency IRNA.

He added that the IAEA "is finally on its correct path and, based on its charter, is playing the role of a facilitator enabling nations to cooperate with each other toward achieving nuclear energy for peaceful purposes."

But Iran also pushed a separate proposal. "Iran says it prefers to buy nuclear fuel for the research reactor under the supervision of the U.N. nuclear watchdog rather than ship uranium abroad," Press TV reported.

Soltanieh, speaking to Press TV, said that while Iran considers the Vienna proposal, it wants the other parties in the talks to weigh in on that proposal.


[World]
Mexican cartel leader pleads guilty to drug charges
Story Highlights
> Miguel Angel Caro-Quintero pleads guilty on drug trafficking charges
> Caro-Quintero faces up to 20 years in prison
> Caro-Quintero's brother, Rafael, currently in prison for death of DEA agent
October 24, 2009 -- Updated 0514 GMT (1314 HKT)
By Terry Frieden
CNN Justice Producer

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A Mexican cartel leader, best known as the brother of the man who killed DEA Agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena, pleaded guilty in Denver, Colorado, to drug trafficking charges on Friday.

Nearly 20 years after his indictment, Miguel Angel Caro-Quintero, 46, admitted trafficking more than 100 tons of marijuana, and sending more than $100 million to Mexico. Caro-Quintero, who faces between 10 to 20 years, is scheduled for sentencing on February 4.

He faces up to five more years for drug charges in Arizona, stemming from a 1994 indictment.

Caro-Quintero was arrested in Sinaloa, Mexico, in 2001 and extradited to Colorado in February after spending eight years in custody for weapons crimes in Mexico.

"Today's guilty plea demonstrates the Justice Department's willingness to pursue drug kingpins no matter how long ago they were charged with a crime," said U.S. Attorney David Gaoette in Denver.

Rafael Caro-Quintero, the defendant's older brother, is serving a 40-year prison sentence in Mexico for Camarena's murder in 1985.


[Asia]
Karzai challenger prefers opposition to coalition
Story Highlights
> Runoff against President Hamid Karzai will take place November 7
> Abdullah and others charged massive fraud in the August 20 vote
> Abdullah served as foreign minister in Karzai's government until four years ago
October 24, 2009 -- Updated 0408 GMT (1208 HKT)

(CNN) -- The candidate who will face Afghan President Hamid Karzai in a runoff election next month said Friday that he won't join Karzai's government if the incumbent wins another term, but instead will remain in opposition.

{Initial results gave President Hamid Karzai the poll win, but a U.N.-backed panel subsequently disputed it.}

Abdullah Abdullah, who served as foreign minister in Karzai's government until quitting nearly four years ago, said he would congratulate Karzai if he "is elected through a transparent and credible process."

"My trust in becoming a candidate was not to be part of the same government, part of the same deteriorating situation," told CNN's John King in an interview taped for broadcast on Sunday's "State of the Union."

"Mine was for a change in this country. Mine was for bringing hopes for the people of this country, and making the people of Afghanistan true participants in their politics, in the governance, in the developmental process, in the security situation and as a whole."

Abdullah and others charged massive fraud in the August 20 vote. The initial results gave Karzai the win, but a subsequent review by a U.N.-backed panel of election monitors threw out nearly one-third of Karzai's votes because of "clear and convincing evidence of fraud."

The result left Karzai short of the 50 percent need to avoid a runoff. After a flurry of meetings with U.S. and U.N. officials, the Afghan president agreed to the November 7 vote.

In a separate CNN interview to be broadcast Sunday on "Fareed Zakaria GPS," Karzai insisted that while there were "mistakes" and "some incidents of fraud" in the election, "the election as a whole was clean."

Abdullah rejected that notion.

"To call this as clean elections, I think this, with all due respect to Mr. Karzai, it's a bit of ignorance," he told King, adding that "unfortunately, the government was involved."

"Yes, it was a step forward that the people of Afghanistan participated in the elections," he said.

"One chapter is behind us," he said. "It led to the runoff. And we need to get it corrected in order to open the door for the new chapter. So denying it is not a solution. Rather admitting it and correcting it, that will be responsible leadership."

Karzai said the second round of voting must take place or else "we would be insulting democracy." But he also said he had decided after agreeing to the runoff that "all that was said (about fraud in the election) was mostly wrong."

"There were some mistakes. There were some instances of fraud, but the nation as a whole was clean and the result was clear. I decided for peace, for stability and for the future of democracy in Afghanistan and for the future of institutional order in Afghanistan to call for a runoff," he said.

Meanwhile, in Washington, U.S. President Barack Obama's special representative to Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, said that the election process had worked as it was supposed to.

"From the beginning ... I said publicly that this election would be imperfect," Holbrooke said. "I said it on the record. And there were many irregularities. But in the end, the process worked, and I want to stress that. The Election Complaints Commission declared that neither candidate got 50 percent, although one came very close, and that the top two candidates were President Karzai and Dr. Abdullah and they should have a runoff."

Holbrooke added that it was "reasonable to hope" for fewer irregularities in a runoff.

news20091024cnn2

[Hot Topics] from [CNN.com]

[Asia]
Zakaria: Karzai likely to win again
Story Highlights
> Zakaria says he expects Karzai to win the runoff
> In the interview Karzai assured Zakaria that the runoff would take place
> Zakaria says Karzai favors increased military presence in Afghanistan
> But, he says Karzai wants the troops to only act as a security, not occupying force
October 23, 2009 -- Updated 1335 GMT (2135 HKT)

{Editor's note: Fareed Zakaria is an author and foreign affairs analyst who hosts "Fareed Zakaria: GPS" on CNN on Sundays at 1 and 5 p.m. ET.}

{Fareed Zakaria says he believes Hamid Karzai will win the runoff in Afghanistan, but he may have to expand his government.}

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Afghanistan's president is downplaying accusations of widespread fraud in his country's recent elections, but he's emphasizing the importance of a runoff for the sake of ensuring peace and stability in his nascent and war-torn democracy.

"We must have a second round," said Afghan President Hamid Karzai, speaking in a taped and exclusive interview for the Fareed Zakaria GPS show that airs Sunday on CNN. "If we don't do that, we would be insulting democracy. And I pledge to respect the vote of the people."

In the first interview since a runoff was announced, Karzai said there were so many claims of widespread corruption in the election two months ago that he started to believe that the voting was fraud-laden. In fact, he said, he too began to doubt the results.

Fareed Zakaria spoke to CNN about his exclusive interview.

CNN: So was Karzai out of options -- is that why he finally accepted a runoff?

Fareed Zakaria: In my interview he disputed the notion he was forced into a corner and he gave a little insight into what he says was his decision-making process. He told me he needed to support a runoff election to prevent civil tensions within Afghanistan from escalating.

"Afghanistan had gone through so many years of difficulty, so many years of internal strife backed by foreign players, and I felt as if Afghanistan was entering that period again. I felt as if Afghans were pitching one against the other, and for that reason, and for the reason of safety and security of the Afghan people and as I mentioned earlier, cementing democratic traditions in Afghanistan, I went to agree to a second round, which I believe is good for Afghanistan, which will eventually be good for all of us."

CNN: So now that Karzai has signed off on the plan, will the runoff really happen in two weeks?

Zakaria: There has been a lot of concern that Karzai will be a spoiler in the process. His main rival, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, has been amongst critics very vocal in wondering if Karzai will allow the runoffs to proceed -- will he either cite security concerns or delay the process so long that Afghanistan's harsh winter would make the logistics of an election impossible?

I talked with the president and he assured me that the election will definitely take place. "We must have a second round if we don't do that, we'll be insulting democracy and a pledge to respecting the vote of the people."

CNN: Is there any talk of President Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah working together?

Zakaria: There have been calls for a national unity government that would bring in other parties. You may remember something similar happened in Kenya and we discussed the process with Kenyan PM Odinga on GPS earlier this year. President Karzai has indicated he would work with Abdullah after the election: "If he wants to come and work in my government, he is most welcome."

However, the phrasing does make it seem he would welcome Abdullah in a support role, rather than as an equal in a coalition government.

CNN: Do you think President Karzai will win the second election?

Zakaria: It is difficult to imagine a scenario where he does not. However, President Karzai may need to expand his government to include other challengers. Especially if Abdullah Abdullah performs strongly in the runoff.

The president mentioned that after the first election, he had a good meeting with one of his challengers, Ashraf Ghani. Ghani was very critical of the president on the campaign trail and I asked Presient Karzai if he would invite Ghani to serve in his government following their cordial meeting. He responded, " Any Afghan who wants to come and work in Afghanistan and do it patriotically is welcome." If the United States and other governments exert pressure again to create a national unity coalition, President Karzai has left the door open for bringing in his presidential rivals.

CNN: The other big issue in Afghanistan is Gen. McChyrstal's request for more U.S. troops there. How does President Karzai feel about the prospect of increased military forces in his country?

Zakaria: He was the astute politician and was cagey in his response. He was very supportive of increased troops for providing increased security within the country but simultaneously aware they should not appear as though they are occupying the country. "The arrival of forces must enhance the sense of protection of the Afghan people, and must give protection to the Afghan people. It must not be a capture and kill pursuit of the Taliban, it must be one that provides protection to the country, and must also lead to the enhancement of the abilities of the Afghan military and security forces. Therefore they have to come as liberators as they did in 2002 and not otherwise."

CNN:What struck you most about the interview you had with President Karzai?

Zakaria: That he knows that the heart of the trouble facing Afghanistan is the disenfranchisement of the Pashtun population. They are 50 percent of the country's population and makeup 100 percent of the insurgency. This is not to say all Pashtuns are participating in the insurgency, but the members of the insurgency come from this ethnic group. A military strategy against them is not sufficient, a political situation is needed. Whether President Karzai will be able to solve it remains an issue. However, since he knows this is the key issue, I hope he will focus his energies on finding a political strategy to engage the Pashtun population. It is the root to success in the country.

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[Hot Topics] from [CNN.com]

[World]
Puerto Rico firefighters work to contain massive fuel blaze
Story Highlights
> Crews battled into the night to contain a massive fuel depot fire in Puerto Rico
> Complex sits near San Juan's bay, causing worries the water could be affected
> One person injured, 350 evacuated near San Juan, Puerto Rico
> iReport.com: Are you there? Send photos, videos of the flames
October 24, 2009 -- Updated 0216 GMT (1016 HKT)

(CNN) -- A raging blaze at a fuel storage complex in Puerto Rico lit up the night sky Friday near San Juan as firefighters battled to keep it from spreading further.

{iReporter Maria Marquez photographed the flames early Friday from the 17th floor of her San Juan condominium.}

Fifteen of the 40 tanks at the Caribbean Petroleum Corp. facility in the city of Bayamon were ablaze more than 19 hours after an explosion of unknown origin rocked the complex, Gov. Luis Fortuno said at an evening news conference. The governor had put the tally at 11 a few hours earlier.

"I don't think there's ever been a fire like this in Puerto Rico," Fire Lt. Jose Atorre told CNN affiliate WLII-TV.

The fire started shortly after midnight, when at least one fuel tank exploded. Residents described a surreal scene after the blast woke them from their sleep and shattered windows miles away.

"I was in bed and all of a sudden heard this really horrible sound, so I ran upstairs and thought the whole town had blown up," said Teo Freytes, who filed an iReport for CNN.

"The explosion blew out windows here in Old San Juan," he said. "It's still burning outrageously."

Others woke up Friday morning to an extremely unusual sight.

"I didn't expect to see a mushroom cloud from my house," said Justin Gehrke, a U.S. Army civilian employee who also filed an iReport.

Fortuno said he declared a state of emergency for the area so Puerto Rico can get aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The storage and refinery complex sits near San Juan's bay, and Fortuno said officials are working to protect the water from being affected.

"We have serious worries that the bay or other bodies of water could be contaminated," he said.

Caribbean Petroleum's Web site says the complex has storage facilities for gasoline and gasoline-related products.

"We have been monitoring the water visually and we have installed preventive pads and other material to contain a spill," said Pedro Nieves, chairman of the Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board. "No oil has reached the water."

But Nieves said that Caribbean Petroleum has a history of spills and "there was potential that it had contaminated ground water." He said he did not have any specifics on hand and that his organization was more focused on containing the current problem of fire and smoke. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency did not immediately return calls about the company's environmental history.

Newspaper and TV reports said a 4-inch pipe from a lagoon on the complex was broken, preventing firefighters from using 2 million gallons of water from the lake to battle the blaze. About 150 area firefighters and 215 National Guard personnel were battling to keep the blaze from spreading.

One person suffered smoke inhalation and was taken to a hospital, Fortuno said. At least 350 people were evacuated to a nearby stadium. iReport.com: See, share, send images of the explosion

The smoke can be toxic for people with breathing conditions and officials have asked nearby residents to stay away, the governor said.

"This is a tremendous amount of smoke, and fire contains all kinds of irritants and this is oil that is burning," said Mary Mears, spokeswoman for the Environmental Protection Agency region that includes Puerto Rico. "It's smoke, so you're going to notice coughing, tearing, maybe a sore throat."

The wind shifted to the north Friday morning, blowing most of the smoke over less-populated areas and the Atlantic Ocean. The smoke plume also is rising 5,000 feet straight up before starting to drift, which keeps it away from people on the ground.

"The average air quality for Puerto Rico is still good," Nieves said.

But the wind was expected to change Saturday morning, blowing the smoke over a large part of the island west of the fire.

Officials also are concerned that rain mixed with the smoke could lead to acid rain. Authorities urged residents to bring in animals and their food and for people not to go out during or after any precipitation.

The National Guard Combat Support Team was helping to monitor air quality and local environmental officials were working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to install monitors near the blaze.

Officials will investigate the cause of the blaze. Puerto Rico is a U.S. protectorate, which means federal officials are involved. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms sent a team of fire investigators, but have yet to determine whether the fire was an accident or set deliberately, said Orlando Felix, ATF Resident Agent in Charge of the Puerto Rico office.

The FBI confirmed it is investigating graffiti found on two San Juan tunnels that referred to a fire. A spray-painted message on the two tunnels, less than three miles apart, said: "Boom, fire, RIP, Gulf, Soul, ACNF."

"We have found graffiti in two different locations," FBI Special Agent Harry Rodriguez told CNN. "We are looking into the matter as part of this investigation with respect to the fire at the fuel-holding facility."

Rodriguez and San Juan police spokeswoman Maria Del Pilar Bon said they did not know what or who ACNF is.

Caribbean Petroleum owns the Gulf Oil brand in Puerto Rico.

Speaking at a news conference Friday afternoon, Fortuno said all leads must be followed.

"There could be many reasons [for the fire]," he said. "We're not going to guess. But there has to be an investigation."

Caribbean Petroleum, which owns 200 gas stations in Puerto Rico and several inland distribution facilities, supplies much of the island's fuel. But Department of Consumer Affairs Secretary Luis Rivera Marin said there is enough fuel on hand for 24 days, and 16 million gallons of gasoline were in transit to the island. He also froze prices at the level they were at 8:06 a.m.

Officials transferred 295 inmates from a high-security prison in the area to other facilities, which they declined to identify for security purposes. Another 1,600 prisoners were moved from another nearby facility. Some 200 extra prison officials were brought in to handle the transfers, Fortuno said.

Video on WLII showed a caravan of white vans with sirens blaring transferring the prisoners,

San Juan police said they activated all units: explosives, transit, tactical operations and SWAT.

Schools in Bayamon, San Juan, Toa Baja and Catano were closed, as was Puerto Rico Road 28. Roads 5 and 22 were partially closed.

Flights in and out of Luis Munoz Marin International Airport in San Juan were not affected, an airport official told CNN.

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[Hot Topics] from [CNN.com]

[Asia]
Farmers sell wives to pay debts in rural India
Story Highlights
> Sometimes poor men sell their wives to pay debts
> Social group: Exploitation of women common in some northern states
> Government: Area prone to "atrocities," including buying and selling of women
>Government, charities trying to help but the status of women remains low
October 23, 2009 -- Updated 1911 GMT (0311 HKT)
By Sara Sidner
CNN

BUNDELKHAND, India (CNN) -- The cattle slowly drag the old-fashioned plow as a bone-thin farmer walks behind, encouraging them to move faster with a series of yelps.

{Drought, debt and desperation have pushed some farmers in rural India to sell their wives.}

It is a scene from times of old, but still the way many farmers operate in rural India, where the harvest often determines feast or famine.

The region is called Bundelkhand, spanning the two northern Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. It is here that drought, debt and desperation have pushed people to extremes.

To survive the bad years, some farmers say they turn to the "Paisawalla" -- Hindi for the rich man who lends money. Farmers say the loans from these unofficial lenders usually come with very high interest.

When the interest mounts up, lenders demand payment. Some farmers work as bonded laborers for a lifetime to pay off their debts. Others here say because of years of little rain and bad harvests they are forced to give money lenders whatever they ask for.

Sometimes that includes their wives.

"It happens sometimes when somebody borrows money," says a farmer's wife who did not want to be identified. She should know, considering what police say she told them. She said a rich man bought her from her husband.

"He did buy me," she says. "That's why he told me he bought me."

For 30 days she says the man forced her to live with him.

When her case drew public attention, she retracted her police report and her husband took her back.

Ranjana Kumari with India's Center for Social Research says the exploitation of women is common in the region. And, she says, there is little support for women in India who have the courage to file a case with authorities.

"Nobody's going to support or help them," Kumari says. "If a family decides not to help them, the system is already not so sensitized towards them, whether it is police, judiciary, whether the legal system. So the women themselves tend to withdraw these cases."

In another village, another story involving another farmer, and money lender.

"I sold my water engine and land and gave back his 30,000 rupees," the farmer says, describing his $600 loan payment.

The farmer, whom CNN is not identifying to protect his wife and children, says the lender then asked him to send his wife to help with chores while the lender's wife was sick. The farmer says he complied, and his children -- including his daughter -- went too.

But the mother never returned. The farmer says he believes she was stolen from him. The daughter says the lender sold her mother to another man.

State authorities say they have investigated the matter and found that the mother denies she was sold and has simply gone to live with a lover.

The daughter says that's not true, and claims that she and her father were told to keep quiet by some of the village leaders. During CNN's interview with the family, officials with the state magistrate's office barged into the farmer's home and began videotaping.

An Indian government report completed in 1998 says the region is prone to what it calls "atrocities," including the buying and selling of women.

However no one can say just how common these kinds of incidents are.

Social workers say this isn't just about poverty, but also an indication of the low social status of women in poverty-stricken areas such as Bundelkhand.

"Those women are very vulnerable to all kinds of physical and sexual exploitation." Kumari says. "Also there is much higher level of violence against women in that area."

The government and charities have been trying to help but the status of women and girls, often illiterate and seen as a financial burden, remains low. Nevertheless, attitudes are slowly beginning to change, Kumari says.

A farmer's wife in yet another village in the region said she was sold by her own parents 14 years ago.

"My mother and father got 10,000 rupees (about $200)," she says. "That's why they sold me."

She says she was 12 years old at the time her husband bought her. She never considered going to authorities because she says she had no where else to go. She accepted it as her destiny.

But now she has a daughter of her own and her perspective has changed.

Would she allow her daughter to be sold?

She looked up and shook her head firmly.

"No," she said, "I would not want this for her. Let her marry however she wants."

news20091024cnn5

[Hot Topics] from [CNN.com]

[Travel]
Crew of wayward airliner cooperative, sober, police sayStory Highlights
> Airport police report identifies pilot and first officer
> NORAD reviewing procedures after delay in learning of wayward airliner
> Northwest Airlines flight overshot Minneapolis airport by about 150 miles
> NTSB: Crew said they were in "heated discussion" and "lost situational awareness"
October 24, 2009 -- Updated 0144 GMT (0944 HKT)

(CNN) -- Police met a wayward jet that overshot the runway by 150 miles -- while not responding to control tower communications -- and said the pilots were "cooperative, apologetic and appreciative."

{Authorities are reviewing the plane's cockpit voice recorder as well as its flight data recorder.}

The Minneapolis-St. Paul [Minnesota] Airport Police report on the incident, released Friday, said officers asked flight attendants to keep passengers in their seats while they checked out the cockpit, where, they said, "the door was standing open."

The police report identified the pilot as Timothy B. Cheney and the first officer as Richard I. Cole.

"The pilot ... indicated they had become involved in conversation and had not heard radio communications," the report said. "They indicated there had been no involvement from anyone in the cabin."

"Both volunteered to a preliminary breath test with the result being .000 for both parties," the report said.

The lead flight attendant, the report said, told officers that she was unaware there had been an incident aboard.

Northwest Flight 188 -- carrying 144 people and five crew members -- flew past the Minneapolis airport during a mysterious 78 minutes of radio silence beginning about 7:56 p.m. ET Wednesday night.

The Airbus A320 was carrying 147 passengers and an unknown number of crew members, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

Air traffic controllers re-established radio contact after the plane had flown about 150 miles past its destination. Watch how Flight 188 drama unfolded »

The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the incident, is hoping the plane's cockpit voice recorder will either confirm the pilot's account or provide evidence of another possible explanation, including whether the captain and first officer had fallen asleep.

However, approached outside his home Friday, the first officer told CNN affiliate KGW that "nobody was asleep in the cockpit and no arguments took place." Cole was referring to NTSB's earlier statement that said, "The crew stated they were in a heated discussion over airline policy and they lost situational awareness."

"There's a lot of misinterpretation going on," Cole said, though he refused to comment further.

The voice recorder is capable of recording only 30 minutes of audio, federal accident investigators said Friday. The plane was in the air for another 45 minutes after radio contact was restored, meaning that if the recorder was working properly, anything the pilots would have said during the time they were not answering radio calls would have been recorded over.

But a former accident investigator told CNN the voice recorder may still provide valuable information, because the pilots could have discussed the earlier events on the way back to Minneapolis.

The separate flight data recorder also could prove valuable because it would have recorded actions taken by the pilots during the 78 minutes they did not respond to repeated calls from air traffic controllers, the former accident investigator said.

The safety board said Friday afternoon that experts were reviewing the solid-state voice recorder. It said only that the recorder "captured a portion of the flight that is being analyzed," and added there would be no further comment. Watch as former NTSB official calls long silence "unacceptable" »

Meanwhile, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which scrambled fighter jets for the wayward plane did not launch them, said it was reviewing procedures for launching the fighters to track potentially hijacked or suspicious aircraft.

At issue, according to a senior U.S. official directly familiar with the timeline of the incident, is the FAA's apparent delay in notifying NORAD that the Northwest jet was not in contact with controllers.

The official, who declined to be identified because both the military and the FAA are reviewing the entire incident, said that the FAA's request for military involvement came after the plane passed the Minneapolis airport. NORAD scrambled fighter jets at two locations. But as they approached the runway for takeoff, the FAA reported being back in contact with the Northwest flight, and the fighters stayed on the ground.

"My real question is why we did not know of the 'radio out' situation from the FAA sooner," the officials said. "The FAA is also looking into that," the official told CNN.

Since the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, NORAD has regularly launched fighter jets to track aircraft in unusual situations such as when they deviate from flight plans, lose radio contact or enter restricted airspace.

According to a second U.S. official, NORAD is in constant contact with the FAA so it can respond when situations arise.

Reported instances of two pilots falling asleep are rare. In August, the safety board concluded its investigation into a February 13, 2008, incident in which two pilots aboard a Go airlines flight fell asleep and traveled 26 miles beyond the destination of Hilo, Hawaii, before waking and contacting air traffic controllers.

Northwest Airlines is part of Delta Air Lines, which issued a statement Thursday, saying it is "cooperating with the FAA and NTSB in their investigation, as well as conducting our own internal investigation. The pilots have been relieved from active flying pending the completion of these investigations."

It said Flight 188 landed safely in Minneapolis just after 9 p.m.

Delta suffered another major embarrassment this week when a Delta pilot landed a passenger jet on a taxiway at Atlanta-Hartsfield International Airport instead of the runway. The NTSB is investigating that case as well.

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[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Investment risks could maim Kyoto emissions scheme
Fri Oct 23, 2009 7:02am EDT
By Michael Szabo - Analysis

LONDON (Reuters) - A combination of investment risks threatens to obstruct an already stumbling U.N.-backed $6.5 billion market in clean energy projects in emerging nations, years before the scheme's first phase is due to end.

Under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), companies or governments can outsource mandatory cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by buying offsets, called Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs), from projects such as wind farms or hydro dams in developing nations.

But with the economic downturn having already dented global investment in clean energy, a mix of political risk in the least developed nations, worries over counter-party credit and growing uncertainty over the scheme's future after Kyoto expires in 2012 could halt CDM funding in the next few years.

After peaking at $7.4 billion in 2007, investment in the CDM dipped by 12 percent last year, according to the World Bank, and observers expect it to fall further this year.

Some CER buyers have moved to the sidelines over worries that a large portion of CERs generated by projects in China will not be fungible in most emissions trading markets after 2012.

"If I had a pot of money to invest in projects, they wouldn't be in China," said Michael Berends, a manager of carbon emissions origination at Dutch utility Nuon.

"I don't think the CDM in China, in its current state, will survive post-2012," said another project origination manager from a major European investment bank, requesting anonymity.

About 35 percent of the near 1,900 registered projects are in China, making it the biggest player in the CDM, U.N. data show.

Over 136 million, or 40 percent of the 336 million CERs issued so far by the United Nations went to Chinese cheap-to-install industrial gas projects, so-called 'low-hanging fruit', resulting in enormous profits for their owners.

This has raised concerns that polluters are being heavily rewarded for making a minimal investment in cutting emissions.

As a result, the European Union said it will bar low-quality CERs from its emissions trading scheme from 2013, a move which many say targets industrial gas CERs, and the United States is likely to follow suit in any cap-and-trade scheme of its own.

"Industrial gas projects in China are probably the most risky (but) we don't know which market will accept any post-2012 CERs from China. That's the problem," said Berends, adding that projects in India, Brazil and Mexico faced similar risks.

U.N.-sponsored climate talks in Copenhagen this December are slated to tackle post-2012 CDM reform by ironing out inefficiencies, but with major nations deadlocked over big picture issues like emissions targets and financing, many expect the CDM to be pushed down the agenda.

Some say the CDM could even be dismantled completely by 2013 if a new deal is not reached or if major emitters such as China and India do not sign up for emissions targets, and this has left investors guessing what types of offsets, if any, will be accepted in trading schemes.

POLITICAL & CREDIT RISK

"African CERs are a good hedge against post-Kyoto uncertainty," said Deven Pillay, head of the South African state-owned Central Energy Fund's carbon finance division.

"You're not going to tell Africa 'we don't want your offsets'," Berends said. "Renewable energy in the least developed nations, like a Senegalese wind farm, are the safest bet, but then you have other risks that come with Africa."

In contrast to China, Africa is home to only 2 percent of registered CDM projects, according to U.N. data.

Although the increased chance of post-2012 eligibility make African CERs tempting, buyers cite political risk as their main deterrents to investing in Africa.

"Many buyers are not able to invest in Africa unless they have another angle, like assets in, or links to, certain countries," said Lucy Mortimer, global manager of CDM origination at brokers TFS Green.

"While a few investors are very keen, willing to pay a premium for African offsets, not many are pushing forward."

But those project owners with CERs considered a safe bet in 2013 are not willing to sell to just anyone.

A year after the collapse of investments banks Lehman Bros and Merrill Lynch, buyers say many owners are showing a reluctance to sign contracts with some banks and offset aggregators over credit concerns.

"Five years ago, no one questioned if CER buyers were able to pay. Now sellers look for good credit ratings," Berends said. "Utilities or government buyers will always rank above most banks at the moment," another origination manager said.

Many large utilities have weathered the recession and their CER origination desks are playing on this strength.

"It makes more sense for CER sellers to deal directly with compliance buyers. That's our selling point," Berends said.

The lack of regulatory clarity could ultimately freeze the CDM, preventing anyone from signing CER deals past 2012.

"It's hard to buy anything right now. My credit, risk and legal departments would never let me sign a post-2012 contract amid all this uncertainty," Berends added.

(Additional Reporting by Catherine Hornby in Amsterdam; editing by Christopher Johnson)


[Green Business]
Solar recovery to start, but 2010 outlook dim
Fri Oct 23, 2009 9:31am EDT
By Christoph Steitz

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - European solar equipment makers are slowly emerging from the crisis that has hit the sector, quarterly results will show, but the outlook beyond 2009 will be uncertain due to tight credit and oversupply.

Europe's solar companies are expected to show signs of recovery when third-quarter earnings kick off next week, with analysts expecting capacity adjustments and the shift of production abroad to benefit companies.

European solars, along with their U.S. and Chinese peers, have to deal with a toxic mix of oversupply of cells and modules as well as a credit squeeze that has triggered a wave of quarterly losses and outlook cuts in the funding-hungry sector.

In addition, Asian competitors that are producing at much lower prices have put heat on their European peers, which are burdened by high labor costs.

But the worst could be over for Europe after companies wrote down the value of their inventories, slashed jobs and shifted production abroad in a bid to stay competitive.

"Q3 reporting should give a strong indication for a recovery of the European solar manufacturing industry, which has been hit over-proportionately hard during the latest crisis," Oppenheim Research analysts wrote.

Analysts say this will be reflected in short-term outlooks of companies such as Norway's Renewable Energy Corp (REC), which will report on October 27, as well as German solar cell maker Q-Cells, SolarWorld and module maker Solon, all due to report in mid-November.

"An expected year-end rally and stable pricing for German players should lead to a stronger quarter and therefore positive outlook statements for Q4 2009," UniCredit analyst Michael Tappeiner wrote.

This contrasts with U.S. peers such as SunPower Corp and Akeena Solar Inc that disappointed investors on Thursday by offering little hope for a market recovery this year at the same time as they topped Wall Street estimates.

Eyes will also be on U.S. solar company First Solar -- expected to become the world's biggest maker of solar cells this year -- which is scheduled to report results on October 28.

PRESSURE THROUGH 2011

European solars such as Q-Cells and REC have set up production plants in Asia or are in the process of doing so, to cope with high labor costs vis-a-vis their Asian peers.

"We thus see the pendulum starting to swing back into the direction of the Europeans," Oppenheim Research analysts wrote.

But outlooks for European players beyond 2009 are expected to be cautious as Germany, the world's largest solar market, is considering cutting feed-in tariffs -- the lifeline for solar companies until grid-parity is reached -- for some solar systems.

"End market trends for the solar PV (photovoltaic) industry indicate ASP (average selling prices for solar systems) pressure through 2011 ... We believe that producers need to drive down production costs significantly to preserve margins and stay in business," Deutsche Bank analysts wrote in a note.

Although all European solar companies are expected to deliver some good news, whether it be in earnings, outlook or both, analysts believe that the third quarter went better for solar downstream players compared with their upstream peers.

Solar downstream players -- installers and sellers of solar systems and those with direct customer access such as Phoenix Solar and Aleo Solar -- have already performed better than upstream players, the makers of modules and cells such as Q-Cells and REC, that were hit harder by price decreases.

Phoenix Solar, which reports Q3 results on November 12, is expected "to show a strong pick-up in demand, especially in the residential market, and a return to profitability after breakeven Q2," Goldman Sachs analysts wrote.

"Downstream players will, in our view, show the best quarter-on-quarter improvement driven by a healthy volume rebound," UniCredit's Tappeiner said.

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)

news20091024reut2

[Top News] from [REUTERS]


[Green Business]
Japan may cut emissions by less than 25 percent
Fri Oct 23, 2009 10:34am EDT
By Chisa Fujioka

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan cautioned on Friday that it could water down planned 2020 cuts in greenhouse gas emissions if other rich nations fail to make deep reductions as part of a U.N. deal due in Copenhagen in December.

In Brussels, a draft report showed that European Union states were preparing to endorse an estimate by the European Commission that developing countries will need about 100 billion euros ($150.1 billion) annually by 2020 to tackle climate change.

Disputes over 2020 emissions cuts by developed nations and the amounts of cash to help developing nations combat global warming are among the main sticking points in sluggish U.N. talks meant to end in Denmark on December 18 with a new treaty.

"The possibility is not zero," Japanese Environment Minister Sakihito Ozawa told Reuters when asked if Japan could change its 2020 target of cutting emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels if Copenhagen falls short on ambition.

He declined to say what alternative target Japan, the world's fifth biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, had in mind for cutting emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels.

Japan's 25 percent offer made last month is tougher than that put forward by the previous government and among the deepest by any rich nation.

"As environment minister, I want to go ahead with this pledge, but the government announced it with a precondition at the United Nations (climate change summit last month) so of course it could change," he said.

Many other nations have offered a range of cuts, hinging on Copenhagen's outcome, but Tokyo has not given a fallback position. Its offer is premised on an ambitious goals by all major emitters, including China and the United States.

The U.S. Senate has not yet agreed a 2020 goal and is running short of time before Copenhagen.

CHINA, INDIA

Developing nations led by China and India say the rich need to make cuts averaging at least 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 to avoid the worst of climate change.

A draft EU report, seen by Reuters ahead of an EU summit on October 29-30, warned of mounting climate risks.

"The climate is changing faster than expected and the risks this poses can already be seen," said the draft.

"We experience widespread melting of ice, rising global sea levels and increased frequency, intensity and duration of floods, droughts and heatwaves," it said.

It said that 22-50 billion euros of that estimated 100 billion euros funding for developing nations from 2020 might have to come from the public purse, of which the EU would pay its fair share.

That would imply an EU contribution of 2-15 billion, but the draft stopped short of naming that key figure. Much could change in the text before the summit.

In Thailand, leaders of Asia-Pacific nations meet in Hua Hin for a weekend summit which is aiming to adopt a declaration on climate change alongside goals of a regional free trade pact.

And in Kenya, experts are planning to use satellites to measure the greenness of vegetation from space as a step to insure livestock herders against droughts that may become more common because of global warming.

"This is a new approach to tackle an old problem," said Carlos Sere, head of the International Livestock Research Institute. If the landscape turns brown, farmers will get payouts for assumed deaths of cattle from drought.


[Green Business]
Ireland exiting peat power, faces hurdles
Fri Oct 23, 2009 12:16pm EDT
By Andras Gergely

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland will stop using peat to produce electricity by about 2025 to 2030 as it moves toward renewable sources, although it faces infrastructure and financing hurdles, the state-owned peat energy company said.

Production of peat, partially decayed plant matter which is also used in gardening and often called turf, has long been a traditional feature of the boggy Irish countryside, making the country one of the top industrial producers along with Finland.

State-owned company Bord Na Mona, the only industrial-scale producer in Ireland, is not planning to open any new bogs however as it shifts its profile to renewable energy sources, and existing bogs will run out in about two decades.

"It's an important part of our history," Bord Na Mona Finance Director Michael Barry said in an interview. "It's not the cleanest fuel."

Bord Na Mona, which operates a 128 MW peat-fired power plant in Edenderry, west of Dublin, is increasingly focusing on renewable sources of energy such as wind and biomass as it phases out peat.

"We have one of the best wind regimes in Europe, the wind blows a lot here," Barry said. "One of the key obstacles is to do with the electricity grid and the resilience and ability of the grid to absorb new wind energy."

The best wind farm locations are often in remote areas where the grid is especially underdeveloped, he added.

Getting financing is also a limiting factor for many would-be wind farm owners, especially smaller players, Barry said.

"The credit conditions are difficult," he said. "The focus on banking is on shorter-term financing, they are maxing out at three years typically."

Bord Na Mona, which is 95 percent owned by the state and 5 percent by employees, but whose debt is not guaranteed by the state, has recently raised $205 million through a private placement, with average maturities of eight years, to help fund its move into renewables.

Wave energy in Ireland has also got a boost from several deals in recent weeks but Barry said wave and tidal would not be in focus for Bord Na Mona.

"Within the timeframe of 2009-2020 wave and tidal are not going to really deal with this issue, wind is hugely important," he said.

Ireland, which has few domestic fossil fuel sources, has a target to source 40 percent of the country's electricity from renewable sources by 2020, which Barry said would be challenging."

"The electricity grid is the key limiting factor," he said.

(Editing by Sue Thomas)


[Green Business]
Obama sees consensus growing on climate change bill
Fri Oct 23, 2009 4:05pm EDT
By Jeff Mason

CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday he saw consensus building in the U.S. Congress on climate change and energy legislation that is considered critical to international talks on a new global warming pact.

Obama, who supports a bill to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, promoted the legislation during a visit to Massachusetts, saying it would transform the U.S. energy system and spur the United States to lead the world on developing technology for "clean" types of fuel.

"Everybody in America should have a stake in legislation that can transform our energy system into one that's far more efficient, far cleaner, and provide energy independence for America," he told an audience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, urging bipartisan support for a new law.

Obama has said he wants the United States to lead the world on climate change, but his focus on healthcare reform has dominated his and lawmakers' legislative focus for several months. A bill is unlikely to reach his desk by the time U.N. talks on an new global warming agreement begin in December.

On Friday the president urged speed in the broader shift in U.S. energy priorities and said he believed lawmakers -- many of whom are skeptical of the energy bill -- are following.

"It is a transformation that will be made as swiftly and as carefully as possible, to ensure that we are doing what it takes to grow this economy in the short, medium, and long term," Obama said.

"I do believe that a consensus is growing to achieve exactly that."

Earlier this year, the House of Representatives narrowly passed a bill aimed at cutting carbon emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020, and about 80 percent by 2050.

In the Senate, Democrats have unveiled a bill with a stronger target to reduce emissions blamed for global warming by 20 percent by 2020.

Both the House and Senate bills include a cap-and-trade system that limits carbon emissions, similar to the European Union's.

Companies would need permits for every ton of carbon pollution they release into the atmosphere. Utilities and factories that don't use all their permits could trade, or sell them, to companies that need more.

The Senate Environment and Public Works committee is set to release an updated version of the climate bill late on Friday, a committee aide said. The committee will also release the Environmental Protection Agency's analysis on costs of the legislation for consumers and the impact on the U.S. economy.

In addition, the Senate committee will hold a series of hearings on the bill next week.

(Additional reporting by Ayesha Rascoe and Patricia Zengerle in Washington)

news20091024reut3

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Suncor aims to use new tailings reclamation method
Fri Oct 23, 2009 1:28pm EDT

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Suncor Energy Inc has applied to regulators to use new technology that it said on Friday will allow it to speed up reclamation of its toxic oil sands waste ponds in northern Alberta.

Suncor, Canada's biggest oil company, said the method involves converting the liquid tailings into a solid material by adding a polymer, then depositing the material in thin layers over sand.

The technology will help the company meet tighter regulatory standards in Alberta for tailings, a byproduct of oil sands extraction that consists of clay, sand, water and residual oil.

Tailings became the focus of international attention in the spring of 2008, when 1,600 ducks were killed after landing on such a pond at Syncrude Canada Ltd's nearby oil sands site.

Suncor said that, under its new process, the tailings can be reclaimed in place or moved for final reclamation. The material dries in a matter of weeks, it said.

(Reporting by Jeffrey Jones; editing by Rob Wilson)


[Green Business]
Schlumberger CEO sees new gas drilling regulation
Fri Oct 23, 2009 5:36pm EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Schlumberger Ltd, the world's largest oilfield services company, expects new U.S. regulations for a key natural gas drilling process because of public fears about water pollution, its CEO said on Friday.

Asked by an analyst why Schlumberger supported disclosure of "hydrofacturing" fluid ingredients, Chief Executive Andrew Gould said he recognized the concerns of regulators and the public and wanted to be involved in the discussions early on.

"I'm pretty sure that there will be some form of new regulation in order to satisfy the authorities and the public's desire to know that what is being done is safe," Gould said on a conference call on Friday to discuss third-quarter earnings. "And that seems to me a perfectly natural thing to want."

People in gas-drilling areas say their well water has become discolored or foul-smelling, killing pets and farm animals who drink it and causing illness among children.

Last month, two top U.S. natural gas producers called on the industry to release data about the chemicals they use in the fast-growing Marcellus shale development to counter fears it was polluting water supplies.

Another leader in hydrofracturing, Halliburton Co, has said that 99 percent of the fluid is made up of sand and water, while the remaining chemicals complied with state and federal regulations.

The technology enables drillers to tap into rock deposits and release natural gas by injecting water and chemicals. The Marcellus is only one of the large U.S. shale formations that the industry expects will supply huge amounts of natural gas.

Gould said it was no accident that shale gas was first exploited in Texas and Louisiana because of extensive oilfield service infrastructure in the region, as well as the regulatory regime compared with other parts of the world.

"Pakistan has a huge amount of shale gas," Gould said by way of example. "But, you know, there is not the infrastructure in Pakistan to exploit it today."

He also pointed out that the number of wells dotted around the greater Dallas area, which includes part of the Barnett shale, would simply never be allowed in a place like Germany.

Gould said he expected to see more shale gas drilling in other parts of the world, but it would take longer than many people expected and would be more expensive than in the United States.

(Reporting by Braden Reddall; editing by Carol Bishopric)


[Green Business]
Toshiba, others developing small nuclear reactors: report
Fri Oct 23, 2009 10:41pm

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp, Hitachi Ltd and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are looking to develop small nuclear reactors for use by developing nations, among others, the Nikkei business daily said on Saturday.

The move hopes to take advantage of a likely shift toward nuclear power in hopes of cutting CO2 production in a market previously dominated by larger, more expensive reactors.

Toshiba is developing a nuclear reactor with output of 10,000 kilowatts and hopes to seek approval for its plans from a United States regulatory board as early as the autumn of 2010, the Nikkei said. Mitsubishi Heavy has begun developing a reactor with output of around 350,000 kw, it said.

Hitachi is developing reactors with output of 400,000-600,000 kw in conjunction with General Electric, the paper said.

(Reporting by Elaine Lies; Editing by Paul Tait)


[Green Business]
Senate Democrats set climate bill industry permits
Sat Oct 24, 2009 1:16am EDT
By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats in the U.S. Senate will push climate change legislation that would grant, initially at no cost, pollution permits to an array of industries, similar to legislation passed by the House of Representatives last June.

Details unveiled by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee show the Democratic bill would allocate about 30 percent of the free pollution permits to local electric distribution companies and another 5 percent to merchant coal firms. The grants are intended to smooth their transition to cleaner fuels while protecting consumers against price increases, and would mostly phase out by 2030.

An analysis by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said that under the Senate bill, consumers would be hit with only "slightly" higher costs than the House bill's impact, which has been estimated at $80 to $111 per year.

"We've reached another milestone as we move to a clean energy future," said Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer.

Boxer is working with Senator John Kerry to advance the legislation in the Senate, where it faces staunch opposition from most Republicans and many moderate Democrats.

Other free industry permits outlined by the Senate Democrats include: 9 percent for local natural gas distribution companies; and 4 percent for energy-intensive manufacturers in the steel, cement, paper, glass and other industries in 2012 and 2013, rising to 15 percent in 2014 and 2015.

Electric utility customers would get about 35 percent of the free allowances to help compensate them for the higher costs of energy as utilities move away from burning cheap and highly polluting fossil fuels like coal.

The Alliance to Save Energy applauded the provisions, saying they put needed resources into energy efficiency as part of a broad program to reduce U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases associated with global warming.

COST TO CONSUMERS

Kerry and Boxer, both Democrats, introduced their legislation on September 30, but some key details were just now being unveiled, including how carbon pollution permits would be allocated to industry and EPA's assessment of the cost to consumers when industry is forced to curtail its use of fossil fuels like oil and coal.

At the core of the Senate and House bills is the creation of a "cap and trade" system that would lower carbon emissions from smokestacks over the next four decades.

Companies would be allowed to trade on the open market an ever-dwindling number of pollution permits for each ton of carbon they release into the atmosphere.

The House-passed bill calls for a 17 percent emissions cut by 2020, from 2005 levels, while the Senate bill is more ambitious at 20 percent. Neither bill is as aggressive as some passed by other developed countries, including the EU.

Some of the new Senate provisions were aimed at picking up support from senators representing coal-producing and farm states. For example, the committee said the bill would now stimulate the development of technologies that would allow the burning of less-polluting coal.

When the initial legislation was unveiled nearly a month ago, it drew a quick rebuke from Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, a leading coal-producing state.

President Barack Obama wants significant progress in Congress on climate legislation ahead of an international meeting on the environment in December in Copenhagen.

But with Congress mostly focused on a controversial healthcare reform effort and support for climate change legislation uncertain in the Senate, the Copenhagen summit is likely to start without clear carbon-reduction goalposts in the United States.

The United States is among the world's top producers of carbon emissions and its progress setting pollution-reduction goals is seen as key to success in Copenhagen.

Most U.S. Republicans have criticized legislation mandating cuts in carbon emissions, saying it would eliminate jobs, encourage more companies to relocate factories abroad and significantly raise consumer prices.

The EPA analysis, however, said both the House and Senate bills would have a relatively small cost impact on consumers.

The Environment and Public Works Committee will hold three days of hearings next week on the bill and will attempt to approve the measure sometime in November.

Several other Senate committees are also reviewing climate change legislation and might not finish this year.

(Editing by Todd Eastham)