news20100101jt

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

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Friday, Jan. 1, 2010
Population probably shrank even more in 2009, ministry estimates
Kyodo News

Japan's population probably shrank further in 2009 as births fell by roughly 22,000 to about 1,069,000, the health ministry said in estimates released Thursday.

Births fell after rising slightly in 2008 — a leap year.

Deaths meanwhile were estimated to have risen for a ninth consecutive year, climbing by roughly 2,000 from last year to hit 1,144,000 — the highest since comparable data were compiled in 1947, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said.

Thus the natural population decrease, calculated by deducting deaths from births, is estimated to have reached 75,000 in 2009, about 1.46 times higher than in 2008.

"The trend of increasing population decline is expected to continue in the future as the number of deaths rises due to the aging of the population, while the number of women at childbearing age is decreasing," a ministry official said.

Births are expected to come to the second-lowest level since 1947. The lowest number was set in 2005, when only 1,062,530 Japanese babies were born, the ministry said.

Although the national fertility rate — the number of children a woman would have if she followed the birthrate of each generation in a given year — rose for three consecutive years until 2008, past data suggest the rate in 2009 was around 1.37 — the same as 2008.


[BASEBALL]
Friday, Jan. 1, 2010
Matsui eager for upcoming season
Kyodo News

Hideki Matsui, who signed with the Los Angeles Angels in a free agent deal after being named the World Series MVP with the New York Yankees, is looking forward to next season with a mixed sense of excitement and unease.

Making the comments at a news conference at a hotel near Narita airport after returning to Japan on Wednesday, Matsui said he had attained an important career objective after seven years in New York pinstripes.

"Winning a world championship carries a lot of weight. It took a little long but I was able to achieve an important goal," Matsui said. "Although I am somewhat anxious, there is also a lot to look forward to. I want to be able to use to the fullest all of what I have worked on until now."

Despite his struggle to maintain healthy knees, Matsui said he hopes to prove he can play the outfield for the Angels next year. He will train in Japan before his scheduled departure to the United States in early February.

"First of all, I would like to prove that I can play defense at spring training. It will be difficult to play defense every day like in the past but I would like to reach the point where I am able to play defense once every few games," he said.


[INTERNATIONAL SOCCER]
Friday, Jan. 1, 2010
Okada stands firm on goal of reaching World Cup semis in S. Africa
By ANDREW McKIRDY
Staff writer

For all the charges leveled at Takeshi Okada, no one could ever accuse him of lacking confidence.

Over the past 12 months, the national team manager has been telling anyone who will listen that Japan is targeting a semifinal appearance at next year's World Cup, a claim many have dismissed as hopeful grandstanding at best and suicidal pressure at worst.

But still Okada continues to repeat his mantra. Having secured safe passage to South Africa with a 1-0 win in Uzbekistan in June, the time is approaching for the 53-year-old to put his money where his mouth is.

A tough first-round assignment against the Netherlands, Cameroon and Denmark has further upped the ante, but Okada is in no mood to back down six months ahead of the tournament.

"I was interviewed by FIFA and they asked me where my confidence was coming from," he told reporters last month. "It's not just coming from within me. Everyone, the staff, the players, feels that we can do it. It's just a feeling, so I can't really explain it.

"We have come pretty far, I'm sure, but we haven't gone beyond a certain line. I feel that after we have had six months more to prepare we will be ready to make it through the group.

"If you look at the group, it's obvious we're perceived to be the weakest. If we played these teams 10 times, we would probably only win three. We have to improve to a level that we would win five, and we're not there yet."

Japan's qualification campaign was not always pretty, but the team's appearance at a fourth consecutive World Cup never seriously looked in doubt. With a berth in South Africa duly secured, Okada began preparing for the task ahead with two friendly matches in the Netherlands against the Dutch and Ghana.

A 3-0 defeat to the hosts before a spirited 4-3 win over the Africans showed how much work was still to be done, but for Okada the experience was priceless.

"It's often said that Japan can't perform away from home, so to play two top teams on the road was a big help for us," he said. "I wanted to see if we were capable of doing it. We put the Dutch under pressure, but to win the game we could see we had to do more. That wasn't just something that I saw, but something that the players learned from the experience.

"That was the biggest turning point. Now that our World Cup opponents have been decided we are at the second turning point. We don't want to change the direction we are going in, but I want this to be the moment when the players begin to raise their level even further."

But if Okada was hoping to follow up the Dutch tour with more big-game hunting on the road to South Africa, he was soon to be disappointed. A three-game home series in October, starting with an Asian Cup qualifier against Hong Kong before friendlies against Scotland and Togo, descended into farce when the Scots and Togolese arrived with shadow squads.

"My plan was to pick my best players to play Scotland and send out a B team against Hong Kong, but there's a difference between official games and friendlies," Okada said. "There's something at stake in an official game.

"After that we wanted to play a friendly against Italy, but we couldn't because we had another Asian Cup qualifier against Hong Kong scheduled for that day. But we knew the Italian players would be tired from playing in the middle of their season, so rather than facing a team just going through the motions for 90 minutes it was better to go up against a team with a lot of energy and will to win."

Okada should have no problems finding strong opposition in the weeks leading up to the World Cup, however, with a friendly against England in Austria in the pipeline for the end of May. Japan's 2-2 warmup draw with Germany stoked expectations ahead of the 2006 tournament, but the manager is under no illusions that one-off success counts for anything once the action gets under way for real.

"Warmup games and the World Cup itself are completely different things," he said. "People said Japan got slack after doing well against Germany, and if that was the case then I would say it's because we don't play those kind of games enough.

"When I was in the Japanese League we played against high school teams as part of their preparations for the national high school championship. They played really hard against us and then got really excited if they did well because it was a special occasion for them. But those teams wouldn't do well in the tournament itself.

"Strong teams like Teikyo play those kind of games every week, so it's nothing special for them. If you don't play strong teams regularly, you get excited if you do well. But if you play these teams all the time it becomes a natural environment."

If Okada's philosophy suggests there is no place for emotion in his squad, however, the manager recognizes his players are only human.

"They have their own individual characters," he said. "Some are strong mentally but have limited technique, and some are not so strong but are important on the pitch. It would be ideal to have 23 players who have all these qualities but you won't find that anywhere in the world.

"Of course players who don't have the motivation needed to play in the World Cup won't make the squad. We only want players who are serious about giving it their best shot and trying to reach the semifinals."

And so Okada again returns to that same manifesto of reaching the semifinals. But having raised the bar so far beyond anything Japan has cleared in the past, why not aim to win the whole thing?

"Initially I said I wanted to shock the world, and that if South Korea could get to the semifinals then why couldn't we?" he said. "I didn't say specifically that we would get to the semis, but after that it was in all the headlines so I kept my mouth shut.

"But after we lost to Uruguay in a friendly last summer I thought that if we didn't have a specific goal to strive for, the players would just go home after every game and forget about it. Raising the quality of the team takes a lot of time, but it helps if you have something to aim for. If a player passes too slowly in training I tell him, 'Do you think you can get to the semifinals passing like that?'

"If I set a specific target to win the tournament, then the players wouldn't buy it. I thought reaching the final four was an attainable target."

news20100101gdn1

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Business > Financial Services Authority (FSA)]
Government must 'green economy and create jobs' FSA chief says>
> Lord Turner champions environmental taxes
> Investment in renewable energy would boost employment
Ashley Seager
guardian.co.uk, Friday 1 January 2010 Article history

Adair Turner, the outspoken head of the City regulator, believes that, whichever party wins the next election, the government should embark on a tax and spend programme to green the economy and create jobs.

Lord Turner, head of the Financial Services Authority, created a stir last year when he said that much of the City's activities were "socially useless". He could find himself on a collision course with the Conservatives, who have pledged to take an axe to public spending immediately after the election, if they win it.

"If we have to raise taxes – and we will to some extent – we can deliberately design those to tax bad environmental things, like overuse of fossil fuels, rather than good welfare-enhancing things, like employment for people," says Turner, who also heads the government's committee on climate change, in an interview with BBC Radio 4 to be broadcast tonight.

"There is therefore a very strong argument whenever one is in the environment of tax rises for trying to make them skewed as much as possible to things that make sense in the long-term."

He goes on to say that spending should be carefully targeted, rather than cut sharply. "In the expenditure side, obviously it is the case that some expenditures are particularly valuable at this time in the cycle, in particular ones where the leakage into imports is least.

"So, things like insulating peoples' homes [thereby] employing people from the construction industry, which has been hit particularly hard by the recession."

Turner's comments echo those of the chancellor, Alistair Darling, who wrote in the Guardian that green industries as a whole could add half a million jobs to the economy. He added that the Conservatives' plans to reduce the budget deficit "further and faster" than Labour could wreck the economic recovery.

On the World Tonight programme, Turner will also tell Andrew Simms, of the New Economics Foundation, that when it comes to investing in the low-carbon and energy-saving technologies of tomorrow, the government may have to take a direct role because the market cannot be relied upon to deliver what is needed.

"I don't think we should exclude the possibility ... that we may need to think about whether we need more direct, public supported or investments in low-carbon electricity generation if we find that the market isn't directly delivering that," Turner says.

"So concepts like investment banks or elements of guarantee, or particular categories of bond finance, I think are within the set of things that we should think about."

Turner's ideas chime with those of the NEF, which, with other campaigners, has been calling for a "Green New Deal", to push huge investments into renewables and energy-saving technologies, which it says would create thousands of jobs and boost tax receipts, as well as saving billions of pounds in imports of carbon energy sources, such as coal and gas.

In a report last month, the group argued that the fledgling economic recovery in Britain was supported only by low interest rates and a fiscal easing, and would tip back into recession this year (2010) if public spending is slashed in response to the government's ballooning budget deficit.

If £10bn of the Bank of England's £200bn of quantitative easing were invested in offshore wind energy, it could easily create over 100,000 new jobs, the group says.

Turner says he is concerned that the swing during the 1970s and 1980s towards the idea the private sector would always deliver outcomes better and cheaper than the public sector, which he used to agree with, had gone too far.

Turner adds that the government should avoid pursuing economic growth. "If you spend your time thinking that the most important objective of public policy is to get growth up from 1.9% to 2% and even better 2.1% we're pursuing a sort of false god.

"We're pursuing it, first of all, because if we accept that we will do things to the climate that will be harmful, but also because all the evidence shows that beyond the sort of standard of living which Britain has now achieved, extra growth does not automatically translate into human welfare and happiness."

news20100101gdn2

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Carbon emissions]
Hospitals and prisons rank bottom in public buildings CO2 audit
> Emissions are much worse than previously estimated
> Government urged to start refurbishment programme
Robert Booth
The Guardian, Friday 1 January 2010 Article history

Public buildings, you may think, exist to serve the greater good: places we hope will protect, cure and educate us. But an audit of emissions from hospitals, prisons, police offices and museums has laid bare the toll they are taking on the environment.

The government survey of greenhouse gases emitted by the public estate in England and Wales shines a spotlight on the emissions of some of the country's most famous buildings – with embarrassing results. It also finds that hospitals and prisons are, in general, the worst offenders.

In all, 28,000 buildings in public ownership emit almost 14m tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, the audit of emissions from public buildings in England and Wales found. Scotland Yard, Tate Modern and the Palace of Westminster are among the high-profile buildings with the worst environmental records.

The findings come from the most comprehensive assessment yet of the role of the public sector in contributing to global warming, and the total emissions represents a 27% increase on previous estimates of the impact of the public estate.

"Our public building stock is leaking like a sieve, with an enormous carbon footprint and energy bills to match," said Paul King, chief executive of the UK Green Building Council, which campaigns for more efficient architecture. "Government, as the biggest user and procurer of buildings in the UK, needs to lead by example and roll out a massive programme of refurbishment. We have the technology and we know this can be done cost-effectively, we just need to get on with it."

Since October 2008, the occupants of all public buildings have been obliged under law to display a certificate of their carbon dioxide emissions which places them in a colour-coded band ranking from A to G with A being the best and G, the worst. Only 151 public buildings are ranked A while more than 5,000 are ranked G.

The data was released by the communities and local government department and has been analysed by the Guardian. Eight of the 10 most polluting buildings are hospitals. The worst performing was the Royal London in Whitechapel which emitted 46,218 tonnes of CO2 in a year, the equivalent of 7,700 households, and has a G rating. Next most polluting was Addenbrooke's hospital in Cambridge (F), and Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham (F). The worst prisons were The Grove young offenders institute on Portland in Dorset and Pentonville prison in north London which together emitted more than 16,500 tonnes of CO2 in a year.

Campaigners say government is not acting fast enough to tackle energy waste which leads to the public sector spending £4bn a year on energy bills, according to the Carbon Trust. Ed Miliband, the energy and climate change secretary, has set government departments a target of a 30% reduction in estate and operations emissions by 2020 from 1999 levels.

The Prison Service said it was spending £4.5m on initiatives such as automatic meter reading, insulation, voltage correction and more efficient boilers in a bid to shave 3% a year off emissions for the next five years. David Pencheon, director of the Department of Health's sustainability unit, admitted emissions from hospitals were rising but said work was under way to reverse the trend.

Worst offenders: Scotland Yard and the high court

For many, New Scotland Yard is a beacon of law and order in the heart of the capital, but the sight of its lights burning through the night has now taken on a different meaning. Staff at the headquarters of the Metropolitan police use so much lighting, heating, cooling and electricity that the tower pumps out 13,491 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year – the equivalent of about 2,200 households. It makes it the most polluting police station in England and Wales and one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gases of any public building.

The data emerges from one of around 28,000 energy assessments conducted across the public estate as part of a system bringing new levels of transparency to the pollution caused by our buildings. It means the officers at places such as Whetstone police station, which emerged as one of the most energy efficient buildings in the country, can for once claim bragging rights over their big city colleagues, but more importantly it places increased pressure on building owners to reduce their energy use.

Among the worst ranking institutions where the buildings are more than 100 years old, including the National Gallery, which emits 8,472 tonnes of CO2, the British Museum (10,181 tonnes) and the Royal Courts of Justice (1,682 tonnes). They all ranked as G, on a scale of A to G where G denotes the highest carbon emissions.

But modern buildings have also proved to be big polluters. Eland House, the 12-year-old headquarters of the communities department, which is responsible for collating the emissions data, ranked as an F and emitted 3,494 tonnes of CO2, while Tate Modern, which was built from the disused Bankside power station in 2000, was ranked as a G. It emitted 8,606 tonnes of CO2, more than the National Gallery, which was built in the 1830s.

While hospitals and prisons emerge as the biggest polluters on average, schools are relatively energy-efficient. The average school emits 168 tonnes of CO2 a year, with only the offices of the Citizens Advice Bureau and tourist information offices less polluting.

The data, released under the Freedom of Information Act, shows that more than 22,000 buildings are rated D or worse while just 5,741 are C or better. The Swindon branch of the Science Museum, which emitted just 13 tonnes of CO2 in a year, was one of the 151 buildings to be given an "A".

news20100101nn1

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 31 December 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.1169
News
Hopes of a tumour test for Tasmanian devils
Pinpointing nerve-insulating cells as the origin of devil facial cancer could aid diagnosis and vaccination.
Brendan Borrell

Researchers have identified the cellular origin of the contagious cancer threatening Australia's Tasmanian devils, paving the way for a new diagnostic test and hopefully an effective vaccine.

First documented in 1996, devil facial tumour disease is a fatal cancer that spreads from animal to animal through biting, which scientists think could wipe out the wild devil population in 25–35 years. Researchers hope to combat the cancer through a vaccination programme and by establishing uninfected, captive 'insurance' populations. But both efforts have been stymied by a lack of understanding of the cancer's origins.

In a genetic study published this week in Science¹, an international research team shows that the tumours arise from cells that insulate nerves, and that these cells' characteristic proteins can be used as markers for the disease.

"It's a very neat piece of work," says Vanessa Hayes, a geneticist at the Children's Cancer Institute Australia in Sydney, who was not involved in the research. Her team is sequencing the genomes of Tasmanian devils to identify gene variants that confer resistance to the cancer (see 'Genome scans may save Tasmanian devils from cancer'). "It is very complementary to what we are doing," she says.

Devils' disease

The research team, led by Elizabeth Murchison while she was working at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, and at the Australian National University in Canberra, compared gene expression in cancerous cells with that in normal testis cells taken from Tasmanian devils.

The team identified gene networks that may play a role in tumour transmission and development, and also found that tumours strongly express a gene for myelin basic protein — a key constituent of the sheaths that protect nerve fibres, formed by Schwann cells in the peripheral nervous system. Furthermore, out of the 20 other tumour-specific genes identified by the team, 9 were involved in the myelination pathway. Murchison and her colleagues then found that devil facial tumours, along with cancerous cells that had spread to other organs, tested positive for a Schwann-cell protein called periaxin. Other tumour types from devils did not test positive for this protein, suggesting that periaxin could be a suitable diagnostic marker for the disease.

{{Devil facial tumours spread between animals through biting.}
Save the Tasmanian Devil Programme}

"Devils are particularly susceptible to cancers," says Anthony Papenfuss, a geneticist at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne, and part of the research team. "Differentiating between the devil facial tumour disease and some other tumour is particularly important, especially when it comes to the insurance population programme." Currently, a captive population of less than 200 uninfected Tasmanian devils is held at zoos and parks in Tasmania and mainland Australia, and conservationists hope to increase that population to at least 500.

"The biggest problem at the moment is there is no test to see if an animal is carrying the disease," says Tamara Keeley, a reproductive biologist at the Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo in New South Wales, Australia. To prevent disease spread in the wild, conservation workers kill devils that have signs of the disease, but many sick animals can go undetected. "If we had a blood test, we could remove disease carriers in the hopes of managing the wild population," she says. Although the insurance programme has not captured wild devils since 2008, future efforts would make use of such a diagnostic test.

The latest results also shed light on how the tumours evade the immune system, says Alexandre Kreiss, one of the research team who is working on a vaccination programme at the University of Tasmania's Menzies Research Institute in Hobart. Tasmanian devils are all genetically very similar to one another, and scientists had previously suspected that cancer cells from another devil were not recognized as foreign when they infected a new host.

But the connection with the peripheral nervous system may suggest an alternative explanation. "The immune system doesn't usually attack the peripheral nerves," Kreiss explains, which may allow cancer cells from there to proliferate freely. That may be one reason why vaccination experiments with irradiated cancer cells at the Menzies Research Institute have been disappointing so far, he suggests. Only one out of six devils mounted an immune response following recent vaccinations, he says.

Papenfuss says that although a vaccine against devil facial tumours is still a long way off, "now we have a good start on a set of genomic tools we can move forward with".

References
1. Murchison, E. P. et al. Science 327, 84-87 (2009).


[naturenews]
Published online 30 December 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.1168
News
Soils give clean look at past carbon dioxide
It could take less of the greenhouse gas to reach a particular level of warming.
Richard A. Lovett

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels may have been lower in warm eras of the Earth's distant past than once believed, scientists reported this week.

{{Carbon dioxide coming from modern soils provides a glimpse into past climate.}
Mike T. Friggens/Sevilleta LTER site}

The finding raises concern that carbon dioxide levels from fossil fuel burning may, in the near future, be closer to those associated with ancient hothouse climates.

More immediately, the work brings one line of palaeoclimate evidence — that deduced from ancient soils — into agreement with other techniques for studying past climate.

"It makes a major revision to one of the most popular methods for reconstructing palaeo-CO2," says Dana Royer, a palaeobotanist at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, who was not involved in the work. "This increases our confidence that we have a decent understanding of palaeo-CO2 patterns."

Dirty job

In a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences¹, Dan Breecker, a soil chemist from the University of Texas, Austin, and colleagues report studying modern soils from Saskatchewan to New Mexico², to determine the conditions under which the mineral calcite forms.

Calcite occurs in limestone and can be produced by the action of carbon dioxide in arid soils. Scientists trying to puzzle out ancient climate conditions often use it as an indicator of amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Previous studies had concluded that calcite formation indicates atmospheric carbon dioxide levels as high as 3,000 to 4,000 parts per million. The new study, however, lowers the calcite-formation threshold in soil to about 1,000 parts per million.

Breecker's team reached the conclusion by studying the outgassing of carbon dioxide from modern soils during times when calcite minerals are forming. "You can just put a box on top of the soil and let it fill up with carbon dioxide," he says. "The rate at which the concentration increases gives you the flux into the atmosphere." That information, in turn, can be used to determine the conditions under which calcite forms.

The team then looked at what the new estimates of calcite formation would mean for fossil soils from warmer eras over the past 450 million years. "We plugged in our new conditions and out come new atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations that are decreased by as much as four times," Breecker says.

The new result, he says, brings carbon dioxide calculated from fossil soils into line with results obtained from other methods, such as measuring the spacing of pores on fossil leaves. Estimates based on these other techniques have generally produced lower carbon dioxide concentrations than those derived from carbonate levels in fossil soils, Breecker says. But the higher levels derived from soil carbonates were thought to be more accurate, especially from eras when atmospheric carbon dioxide was high.

"I think they've made a persuasive enough case," comments Neil Tabor, a sedimentary geochemist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. "What is encouraging about it is that it comes in line with the other estimates."

Future steps

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are rising today, and the new finding suggests that climate might be considerably more sensitive to changes in carbon dioxide than previously thought. "This may have implications for near-future climate change," Royer says.

Breecker cautions that fossil soils reflect the Earth's adjustment to long-term climate changes, on scales of millions of years, rather than the more rapid, and possibly shorter-lived, changes likely to result from fossil-fuel burning. But, he notes, his study still indicates that the difference in carbon dioxide levels between ice ages and hothouse climates is less than previously believed.

"That's what makes this important," he says.

Re ferences
1.Breecker, D. O. et al. PNAS doi: 10.1073/pnas.0902323106 (2009).
2. Breecker, D., Sharp, Z. D. & McFadden, L. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 121, 630-640 (2009). | ChemPort |

news20100101nn2

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 31 December 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.1167
News
Mosquitoes mate in perfect harmony
Is matching wing beats the key to maintaining genetic diversity in malarial mosquitoes?
Brendan Borrell

{{Those beating wings may sound like an annoying whine to you, but it's the music of love to this little fellow.}
CDC}

Mosquitoes can impress potential mates by harmonizing the high-pitched whine of their tiny wings. Now, scientists have discovered how this musical matchmaking helps the insects to pick their perfect partner.

Research on one of the main malaria carriers in Africa, Anopheles gambiae, shows that the insects use subtle differences in tone to distinguish between forms of mosquito that appear to be physically identical.

The preference for harmony is so strong that it seems to be causing two forms of mosquito living in the same region to become separate species. This strict mating policy may be a key factor in maintaining the genetic diversity that makes the insect so adaptable to different environments, and could point to other ways to disrupt mosquito reproduction in malaria-ridden countries.

A. gambiae is actually a complex of seven species that are physically indistinguishable but with slightly different behavioural traits. In Burkina Faso, one of these species includes two forms — Mopti (M) and Savannah (S) — and additional forms exist in other parts of Africa.

The sheer diversity of the mosquito has puzzled scientists. "People studying this mosquito have wondered how it manages to speciate so quickly," says sensory physiologist Gabriella Gibson at the University of Greenwich, UK. Also unclear is how two forms that swarm together can avoid mating with one another, thereby preventing their genetic diversity from being diluted.

In 2006, Gibson and Ian Russell of the University of Sussex, UK, showed that the hum of the mosquitoes' wings might hold the answer. They found that Toxorhynchites brevipalpis mosquitoes change the frequency of their wing beats to match that of potential mates, yet diverge from that of members of the same sex¹.

Both Gibson's team² and a group led by Ron Hoy³ at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, later found that in species in which the males and females have very different wing-beat frequencies — owing to size differences — mates tune their wing beats to the nearest harmonic frequency, usually a multiple of the slower wing-beat's frequency.

Now, Gibson and her colleagues have shown that this tuning can help mosquitoes to distinguish between the M and S forms of A. gambiae — the first directly observable behaviour that can tell the two apart. "There's always been a question of how they sort each other out," says Hoy. "What these acoustic studies are doing is opening a new window on the mosquito's sexual behaviour." The research is published this week in Current Biology⁴.

Singing wings

Gibson and her colleagues conducted their research at a field station in Burkina Faso. The M and S forms of A. gambiae coexist there, yet hybrids of the two are very rare, suggesting that they do not usually interbreed. The scientists captured mosquitoes of both types and glued them to the ends of pins. The tethered insects continued to beat their wings at frequencies close to those used in free flight. The team then used a microphone to measure the frequency both alone and in combination with potential mates.

Males of both forms are slightly smaller than females, and consequently fly with a higher wing-beat frequency of about 690 hertz, compared with females' 460 hertz. In both sexes, M mosquitoes beat their wings slightly faster than S.

When either sex of mosquito was placed within 2 centimetres of members of the opposite sex they sped up their wing beats and shifted up and down in pitch. If their partner was the same type of mosquito, the two insects would settle on wing-beat frequencies that were a ratio of 3:2, and together produced a harmonic tone at about 1,500 hertz. "It's like two singers trying to harmonize with each other, and if one goes sharp or flat the other one goes with them so they sound the same," Gibson says. Different types of mosquito, however, simply didn't harmonize.

Mosquitoes mate in flight, and Gibson speculates that this harmonizing behaviour helps to minimize turbulence as the male approaches the female.

Although Hoy's research has suggested that mosquitoes can hear up to 2,000 hertz, Gibson contends that the male and female mosquitoes cannot actually hear the high-pitched harmonic tone. Instead, they converge on the right note by minimizing the pulsing sound — or 'difference tones' — produced when the two notes are slightly off key. In A. gambiae, these difference tones were less than 22 hertz, and produced a characteristic electrical response in the antennae, the researchers found.

As Hoy and Gibson have studied different mosquito species, Hoy now hopes that they can work together to come to a firm conclusion about the auditory range of the insects. "It's an honest disagreement," he says, "and at some point I'd like them to come over for experiments in my lab."

References
1. Gibson, G. & Russell, I. Curr. Biol. 16, 1311-1316 (2006).
2. Warren, B. , Gibson, G. & Russell, I. J. Curr. Biol. 19, 485-491 (2009).
3. Cator, L. J. , Arthur, B. J. , Harrington, L. C. & Hoy, R. R. Science 323, 1077-1079 (2009).
4. Pennetier, C. , Warren, B. , Dabire, R. , Russell, I. J. & Gibson, G . Curr. Biol. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2009.11.040 (2009).

news20100101bbc1

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

[Science & Environment]
Page last updated at 03:34 GMT, Friday, 1 January 2010
By Mark Kinver
Science and environment reporter, BBC News
Tasmanian devil facial cancer origins 'identified'
{Since the mid-1990s, Tasmanian devil numbers have crashed}
Researchers believe they have identified the source of fatal tumours that threaten to wipe out the wild population of Tasmanian devils.

Writing in Science, an international team of scientists suggest cells that protect nerves are the likely origin of devil facial tumour disease (DFTD).

The disease is a transmissible cancer that is spread by physical contact, and quickly kills the animals.

DFTD has caused the devil population to collapse by 60% in the past decade.

"To look more closely at the tumours' origin, we sequenced the genes that are expressed in this devil cancer and compared them with other genes that are expressed in other devil tissues," explained lead author Elizabeth Murchison, from the Australian National University in Canberra.

She told the Science podcast the team's findings delivered surprising results.

"We found that the tumours expressed genes that were normally only expressed by Schwann cells, which are cells that are found in the peripheral nervous system that protect nerves."

'Genetically distinct'

The researchers sampled 25 different tumours from all over Tasmania, the only place on the planet where the world's largest carnivorous marsupials are found.

{{DEVILS IN DETAIL}
> Scientific name: Sarcophilus harrisii
> Devils were given their common name by early settlers, who were haunted by "demonic growls"
> Largest living carnivorous marsupial
> Now only found in Tasmania
> Can live up to five years in wild
> Weight: male 10-12kg; female 6-8kg
>They favour habitats where they can shelter by day and scavenge by night}

They found that the growths were genetically distinct from their hosts, but were identical to one another.

Dr Murchison, who is also a researcher at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, US, said the teams findings had a number of positive outcomes: "Most importantly, this has led to the development of a diagnostic test for the disease.

"Devils are susceptible to a number of different types of cancer. Just like humans, they can get breast cancer, leukaemia, etc - especially in their old age.

"Sometimes it can be difficult to tell the difference between these types of cancer and the transmissible disease.

"Now that we know that these very specific Schwann genes are expressed in the cancer, we can use these genes as diagnostic markers."

DFTD was first described in the mid-1990s, when devils with large facial tumours were photographed in north-eastern Tasmania.

By the end of 2008, the disease - which kills infected animals within nine weeks - had been confirmed at 64 locations, covering more than 60% of the Australian island state's mainland.

Experts warn that without intervention, the disease could wipe out the wild population of the world's largest carnivorous marsupial within decades.

Dr Murchison hoped identifying the catalogue of genes associated with DFTD would lead to the development of vaccines, or possibly therapies.

{The disease usually kills infected devils within nine weeks}

"As yet, unfortunately, there is nothing we can do to help the devils that have the disease," she said.

"This devil facial cancer is very unusual as it is an infection cancer; it is a little bit like an organ transplant," she said.

"In an organ transplant, you have an organ that is transplanted into an unrelated individual. In the case of the devil cancer, you have a cancer that is transplanted into another unrelated devil through biting.

"One of the big questions about this cancer is why it is not being rejected or being recognised as a foreign graft.

"If we could understand that... we could perhaps use this data to develop a vaccine that could help the devils' immune system reject the cancer before it takes hold."

news20100101cnn

[Top stories] from [CNN.com]

[World]
January 1, 2010 -- Updated 0936 GMT (1736 HKT)
North Korea makes peace pledge in New Year column
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
> Some analysts say North Korea might be trying to buy time with new outreach
> Analysts say North Korea also desperate to break out of diplomatic isolation
> Pyongyang had declared six-party talks "dead" in April

(CNN) -- North Korea stated its commitment to lasting peace and a nuclear-free Korean peninsula in an editorial published on New Year's Day, state-run media reported.

"The Workers' Party of Korea and the government ... will strive to develop relations of good-neighborliness and friendship with other countries and achieve global independence under the unfurled banner of independence, peace and friendship," KCNA reported.

The editorial may be a hopeful sign as the international community tries to coax Pyongyang back to six-party negotiations aimed at ending its nuclear program.

North Korea has refused to return to the talks conducted by the United States, Russia, China, South Korea and Japan, insisting that it wants to talk directly with the U.S. government.

In April, Pyongyang declared the talks "dead" in anger over international criticism of its nuclear and missile tests last year. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton previously said the United States was willing to meet bilaterally with North Korea but only within the framework of the six-party talks. She also has warned that the United States will not normalize ties with Pyongyang or lift sanctions unless North Korea takes irreversible steps toward dismantling its nuclear program.

"The fundamental task for ensuring peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the rest of Asia is to put an end to the hostile relationship between (North Korea) and the U.S.A.," Friday's editorial said. "It is the consistent stand of (North Korea) to establish a lasting peace system on the Korean Peninsula and make it nuclear-free through dialogue and negotiations."

Some analysts have said that North Korea might be trying to buy time with its new outreach to the United States. Recent reports in Seoul, South Korea, have claimed North Korea is in the final stages of restoring its Yongbyon nuclear plant, which Pyongyang had begun to disable before walking away from the six-party talks.

Given the secrecy of the North, those reports could not be verified.

Analysts said North Korea is also desperate to break out of its diplomatic isolation and ease its economic pain, especially after the U.N. Security Council imposed tougher sanctions on the country in response to Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests during 2009.


[World]
January 1, 2010 -- Updated 1122 GMT (1922 HKT)
Freed Iraq hostage expected to return home soon
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
> British hostage Peter Moore expected to return to the UK Friday
> He was freed on Wednesday after being held captive in Iraq since May 2007
> Group called The Islamic Shiite Resistance of Iraq claimed to have been behind Moore's kidnapping
> The Computer expert was one of five Britons seized along with four security guards; bodies of 3 guards recovered

London, England (CNN) -- It is likely that former British hostage Peter Moore, freed this week after two-and-a-half years in Iraq, will return to Britain on Friday, the British Foreign Office said.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said it didn't have the final details of Moore's return yet, and it couldn't confirm whether he had already left Baghdad. It was also unclear whether Moore would fly into London or elsewhere.

Moore, a computer expert held by Shiite Muslim insurgents in Iraq since May 2007, was freed Wednesday in good health, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said.

A little known-group calling itself The Islamic Shiite Resistance of Iraq claimed to have been behind Moore's kidnapping. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said government officials were not involved in the talks that led to Moore's release, but added that the decision to free him "is part of the national reconciliation program" aimed at persuading Iraq's remaining armed factions to lay down their arms.

Al-Dabbagh said the goal is to persuade those factions still taking up arms against the U.S.-backed Iraqi government to "give up all violence and to be part of the political process through the normal rule of law here in Iraq."

Moore, a computer expert for U.S.-based consulting firm BearingPoint, was kidnapped amid the sectarian warfare and insurgent attacks that ravaged Iraq in the years following the U.S. invasion in 2003.

He was one of five Britons seized in May 2007 from the Iraqi finance ministry by people posing as security forces and government workers on official business. The other four men were guards working for the Canadian security firm GardaWorld.

The bodies of security guards Jason Creswell and Jason Swindlehurst were handed over in June 2007, while Alec MacLachlan's body was returned in September 2009. Miliband said the fourth guard, Alan McMenemy, is thought dead.

Moore's father, Graeme Moore, told CNN from the English city of Leicester that he was "absolutely overjoyed" at his son's release.

"When I saw the breaking news on the television, I went through the ceiling with joy," he said.

Moore's kidnappers released at least three videos allegedly showing the hostages.

In December 2007, the Arabic language TV station Al-Arabiya showed a video of a man who identified himself as Jason. The hostage-takers demanded in the video that all British troops be withdrawn from Iraq within 10 days or they would "kill the hostage ... as an initial warning."

In February 2008, a video showed Moore pleading with the British government to agree to a prisoner swap.

"It's a simple exchange -- release those that they want so we can go home," he said. "It's as simple as that. It is a simple exchange of people. This is all they want, just have their people released."

The British Embassy in Iraq received a third video in March, but it has not disclosed its contents.

The United States has been awaiting the release of almost a dozen of its citizens listed as missing in Iraq, some for as many as six years, U.S. State Department spokesman Darby Holladay said in an e-mail to CNN.

Though the U.S. government has called for their release and information on their status, Holladay said, the government's policy is to not make concessions to terrorists or hostage-takers, including concessions such as prisoner release or ransom.


[World]
January 1, 2010 -- Updated 0815 GMT (1615 HKT)
Deadly strike in Pakistan targets car
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
> Missile strike on car follows strike on a house
> Attacks take place in largely autonomous tribal district of North Waziristan
> U.S. military routinely offers no comment on reported drone attacks

(CNN) -- A missile strike killed two people Friday in northwest Pakistan, the latest in a string of suspected U.S. drone attacks on the region, a Pakistani intelligence official said.

A guided missile was fired at a car carrying militants at 8:50 a.m. local time in the village of Naurak, about 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) east of Miran Shah in North Waziristan, according to an official from the political administration and an intelligence official.

Three other people were injured in the attack. It was not immediately clear whether those killed and injured were militants.

The attack comes after another missile strike late Thursday in North Waziristan on a house believed to be housing Islamic militants, killing three and wounding two, a Pakistani intelligence official told CNN.

The largely autonomous tribal region is near the rugged border with Afghanistan. The border area has been the scene of heavy fighting between Pakistani forces and the Taliban, the Islamic militia that also is battling U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

The U.S. military routinely offers no comment on reported drone attacks. However, it is the only country operating in the region known to have the ability to launch missiles from remote-controlled aircraft.

news20100101bbc2

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

[Science & Environment]
Page last updated at 03:40 GMT, Friday, 1 January 2010
By Paul Rincon
Science reporter, BBC News
DNA analysed from early European
{Distinguishing ancient DNA from modern has been difficult until now}
Scientists have analysed DNA extracted from the remains of a 30,000-year-old European hunter-gatherer.

Studying the DNA of long-dead humans can open up a window into the evolution of our species (Homo sapiens).

But previous studies of this kind have been hampered by scientists' inability to distinguish between the ancient human DNA and modern contamination.

In Current Biology journal, a German-Russian team details how it was possible to overcome this hurdle.

Svante Paabo, from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and colleagues used the latest DNA sequencing techniques to study genetic information from human remains unearthed in 1954 at Kostenki, Russia.

Excavations at Kostenki, on the banks of the river Don in southern Russia, have yielded large concentrations of archaeological finds from the Palaeolithic (roughly 40,000 years ago to 10,000 years ago). Some of the finds date back as far as 45,000 years.

{{The ironic thing is that our group has been one of those that raised this issue}
Professor Svante Paabo, Max Planck Institue}

The DNA analysed in this study comes from a male aged 20-25 who was deliberately buried in an oval pit some 30,000 years ago.

Known as the Markina Gora skeleton, it was found lying in a crouched position with fists reaching upwards and a face orientated down towards the dirt. The bones were covered in a pigment called red ochre, thought to have been used in prehistoric funeral rites.

The type of DNA extracted and analysed is that stored in mitochondria - the "powerhouses" of cells. This mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is passed down from a mother to her offspring, providing a unique record of maternal inheritance.

Using technology pioneered in the study of DNA from Neanderthal bones, they were able to distinguish between ancient genetic material from the Kostenki male and contamination from modern people who handled the bones, or whose DNA reached the remains by some other means.

{{The ancient skeleton was unearthed in 1954 at Kostenki in Russia}
Courtesy of Vladimir Gorodnyanskiy}

The new approach, developed by Professor Paabo and his colleagues, exploits three features which tend to distinguish ancient DNA from modern contamination. One of these is size; fragments of ancient DNA are often shorter than those from modern sources.

Previous ancient DNA studies used the widespread polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology. PCR amplifies a few pieces of genetic material, generating thousands to millions of copies of a sequence. But the researchers found many fragments of ancient DNA were too small to be amplified by PCR.

A second characteristic of ancient DNA was its tendency to show particular changes, or mutations, in the genetic sequence at the ends of DNA molecules.

A third feature was a characteristic breakage of molecules at particular positions in the DNA strand.

Trust issues

The apparent ease with which modern DNA can infiltrate ancient remains has led many researchers to doubt even those studies employing the most rigorous methods to weed out contamination by modern genetic material.

"The ironic thing is that our group has been one of those that raised this issue," Professor Paabo told BBC News.

"To take animal studies on cave bears, for example, if we use PCR primers specific for human DNA on cave bear bones, we can retrieve modern human DNA on almost every one. That has made me think: 'how can I trust anything on this'."

{Large concentrations of Palaeolithic finds have come from Kostenki}

Using the new techniques, the researchers were able to sequence the entire mitochondrial genome of the Markina Gora individual.

Future studies like the one in Current Biology could help shed light on whether the humans living in Europe 30,000 years ago are the direct ancestors of modern populations or whether they were replaced by immigrants who introduced farming to the continent several thousand years ago.

The modern gene pool contains a wide variety of mtDNA lineages. Studying these maternal lineages provides scientists with clues to the origins and histories of human populations.

Scientists look for known genetic signatures in order to classify an individual's mtDNA into different types, or "haplogroups". These haplogroups represent major branches on the family tree of Homo sapiens.

Early arrival

The researchers were able to assign the Kostenki individual to haplogroup "U2", which is relatively uncommon among modern populations.

U2 appears to be scattered at low frequencies in populations from South and Western Asia, Europe and North Africa.

Despite its rarity, the very presence of this haplogroup in today's Europeans suggests some continuity between Palaeolithic hunters and the continent's present-day inhabitants, argue the authors of the latest study.

U2, along with closely related haplogroups such as U5, are among those which could plausibly have arrived in Europe during the Palaeolithic.

Geneticists use well-established techniques to "date" particular genetic events, such as when a haplogroup first diversified. The "U" branch (comprising haplogroups U1, U2, U3 and so on) appears to be more ancient than many other genetic lineages found in Europe.

A recent study found a very high percentage of U types in the skeletal remains of ancient hunter-gatherers from Central Europe compared with later farming immigrants and modern people from the region.

Meanwhile, an analysis last year of mtDNA from 28,000-year-old remains unearthed at Paglicci Cave in Italy showed this individual belonged to haplogroup "H" - the most common type found in modern Europeans.

news20100101bbc3

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

[Science & Environment]
Page last updated at 00:06 GMT, Friday, 1 January 2010
'Lifeless' prion proteins are 'capable of evolution'
{Abnormal prion proteins cause at least 20 fatal diseases}
Scientists have shown for the first time that "lifeless" prion proteins, devoid of all genetic material, can evolve just like higher forms of life.

The Scripps Research Institute in the US says the prions can change to suit their environment and go on to develop drug resistance.

Prions are associated with 20 different brain diseases in humans and animals.

The scientists say their work suggests new approaches might be necessary to develop therapies for these diseases.

In the study, published in the journal Science, the scientists transferred prion populations from brain cells to other cells in culture and observed the prions that adapted to the new cellular environment out-competed their brain-adapted counterparts.

When returned to the brain cells, the brain-adapted prions again took over the population.

Charles Weissmann, head of Scripps Florida's department of infectology who led the study, said: "On the face of it, you have exactly the same process of mutation and adaptive change in prions as you see in viruses.

{{This is a timely reminder that prion concerns are not going away and that controls to stop abnormal prions being transmitted to humans through the food system or through blood transfusions must be vigorously maintained}
Professor John Collinge, Medical Research Council Prion Unit}

"This means that this pattern of Darwinian evolution appears to be universally active.

"In viruses, mutation is linked to changes in nucleic acid sequence that leads to resistance.

"Now, this adaptability has moved one level down- to prions and protein folding - and it's clear that you do not need nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) for the process of evolution."

Mammalian cells normally produce cellular prion protein or PrPC.

During infections, such as the human form of mad cow disease known as vCJD, abnormal or misfolded proteins convert the normal host prion protein into its toxic form by changing its conformation or shape.

"It was generally thought that once cellular prion protein was converted into the abnormal form, there was no further change", Mr Weissmann said.

"But there have been hints that something was happening.

"When you transmit prions from sheep to mice, they become more virulent over time.

{{PRION DISEASES}
> Human prion diseases such as Creutzfeldt Jakob disease (CJD) can arise sporadically, be acquired by infection or be inherited because of a mutant gene coding for the prion protein
> They are relatively rare but have occurred in epidemic form in Papua New Guinea as a result of brain cannibalism
> Animal prion diseases include scrapie in sheep and goats, chronic wasting disease in deer and elk and transmissible mink encephalopathy
> Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) first appeared in UK in mid-1980s
> It is estimated that more than two million UK cattle were infected
> Variant CJD (vCJD) caused by the same prion strain as BSE was first recognised in the mid-1990s}

"Now we know that the abnormal prions replicate, and create variants, perhaps at a low level initially.

"But once they are transferred to a new host, natural selection will eventually choose the more virulent and aggressive variants."

Professor John Collinge, of the Medical Research Council's (MRC) Prion Unit, described the research as exciting confirmation of a hypothesis that he had proposed two years ago, that there could be a "cloud" or whole array of prion proteins in the body.

He called it the cloud hypothesis.

He said: "The prion protein is not a clone, it is a quasi-species that can create different protein strains even in the same animal.

"The abnormal prion proteins multiply by converting normal prion proteins.

"The implication of Charles Weissmann's work is that it would be better to cut off that supply of normal prion proteins rather than risk the abnormal prion adapting to a drug and evolving into a new more virulent form.

"You would do this by trying to block the sites on the normal prion protein that the abnormal form locks on to to do its conversion.

"We know there is an antibody that can do this in mice and the Medical Research Council's Prion Unit have managed to engineer a human antibody to do this.

Chemical libraries

"It is currently undergoing safety tests and we hope to move to clinical trials by the end of 2011"

Professor Collinge said the MRC was also trying to find more conventional chemical compounds to do this and has been collaborating with the chemical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

He said: "They have given us access to their chemical libraries, which contain millions of compounds, and we have already identified some that may work well.

"This is a timely reminder that prion concerns are not going away and that controls to stop abnormal prions being transmitted to humans through the food system or through blood transfusions must be vigorously maintained."

news20100101reut1

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Edward McAllister
NEW YORK
Thu Dec 31, 2009 3:33pm EST
Oil ends 2009 78 percent above year-ago level
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil finished the year above $79 a barrel on Thursday, climbing a whopping 78 percent in 2009 and notching the biggest annual gain in a decade.

The market roared back from depressed levels seen at the end of 2008 that came as the global economic crisis sapped demand.

U.S. crude for February delivery settled up 8 cents at $79.36 a barrel, compared with a close of $44.60 on December 31, 2008. London Brent crude fell 10 cents on Thursday to settle at $77.93.

This year's rise in U.S. oil futures is the sharpest annual percentage gain since 1999, when output cuts by producers helped revive prices from lows near $10 a barrel.

Oil on Thursday was still almost half the all-time high of $147.27 hit in July 2008.

After sliding to a five-year low under $33 at the end of 2008, oil prices staged a steady climb to a high of $82 in October this year. The annual average 2009 price was $62, broadly in line with analysts' predictions at the end of 2008 of $58.48.

Crude was supported on Thursday by data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) that showed declines in crude oil stockpiles last week, boosting expectations of demand recovery in the world's largest energy user.

"Momentum seems to run out near $80 as market participants ponder the conundrum of whether or not a sustainable recovery is actually underway," Mike Fitzpatrick, vice president at MF Global in New York, said in a note.

Oil's rise of nearly 80 percent this year was part of a broad-based rally across commodities and equities as investment returned to markets drained by the global economic recession.

"While it was nominally a very strong year for commodities, it was a relative weak year for passive investors," said Olivier Jakob, oil analyst at Petromatrix.

Next year, analysts expected oil prices to consolidate this year's gains as demand continues its gradual recovery.

"TRANSITION" IN 2010

"We expect 2010 to be a year of transition between the demand concerns of 2009 and the supply concerns of 2011, with in addition geopolitical developments having a heightened importance," Barclays Capital said in a research note.

U.S. crude stockpiles fell by 1.5 million barrels in the week to December 25, just off an expected 2 million-barrel decline, while gasoline inventories showed a surprise decline, data from the EIA showed on Wednesday.

Crude inventories have slid by 19.5 million barrels in the past four weeks, eroding the excess supply to 50.1 million barrels, although stocks were still far above normal levels.

There were signs on Thursday that crude oil supplies from some areas were on the rise as OPEC output hit a 2009 high in December, led by increases in Nigeria and smaller rises elsewhere, a Reuters survey showed.

For a graphic showing how the 19 commodities that make up the CRB index have performed, see :

http:/graphics.thomsonreuters.com/129/CMD_RCRB1209.gif

(Additional reporting by Joe Brock in London and Ramthan Hussain in Singapore; Editing by Christian Wiessner)


[Green Business]
MADRID
Thu Dec 31, 2009 1:53pm EST
Iberian spot power hovers near all-time lows
MADRID (Reuters) - Iberian spot power prices recovered slightly from prior all-time lows on Thursday after strong winds abated, but were still unusually low due to weak demand and a surge in hydroelectric output, dealers said.

Apart from Wednesday's historic minimum, the day-ahead price was the lowest fixed by Spanish-based Omel exchange since it published a rate of 5.47 euros per megawatt-hour for December 31, 2002.

A year ago, Omel set the day-ahead price for Spain at 47.23 euros/MWh.

The power market was very quiet and many traders went home at midday, when many businesses closed their doors ahead of the New Year holiday.

Wind power in Spain -- the world's third-largest producer -- was providing 28.2 percent of Spain's electricity needs, down from a record level of 54.1 percent set on Wednesday, according to grid operator REE.

But hydroelectricity accounted for 21.9 percent of the generating mix, far above an average of 9 percent for the year, as utilities drained reservoirs which are brim-full after two weeks of heavy rainfall.

REE data showed that output from gas-fired generators, usually the biggest providers of electricity, dipped to as low as 278 Megawatts early on Thursday, or 1.4 percent of demand.

In over-the-counter dealing, forwards were little changed and shrugged off gains by oil as they have done since September due to low gas prices and slack demand for power.

Calendar-year 2010 was heard changing hands at 38.80 euros/MWh, down 0.20 on its last day of trading. The "cal" opened 2009 at 52.60 euros.

Dealers have said prices are unlikely to recover in the New year because two nuclear power plants are due back on line.

The Asco I plant is due to finish maintenance in January and the Almaraz I plant is preparing to expand its output of thermal power after refueling.

Together, both plants produce 2,000 megawatts, or about 7 percent of average demand for power.

Spanish power stations were meanwhile emitting 2,878 tonnes per hour of carbon dioxide, an unusually low amount for a weekday.

(Reporting by Martin Roberts)


[Green Business]
LOS ANGELES
Thu Dec 31, 2009 8:24am EST
Clean tech venture capital off 36 percent in '09: report
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Venture capital investors spent 36 percent less this year on clean technology for a total of nearly $5 billion, an industry group reported on Wednesday.

The solar power sector continued to pull in the most investment, with 84 deals worth $1.4 billion -- more than a quarter of the total $4.85 billion invested in clean technology in 2009, Greentech Media said in a year-end report. Last year's total was $7.6 billion.

Biofuel companies followed with $976 million in 44 rounds, while investment in water tallied more than $130 million.

The volume of deals -- 356 -- rose slightly from the previous year's total of 350 deals, the report said.

Among the sizable venture capital deals in 2009, the group noted the $198 million venture capital investment led by Argonaut Private Equity for solar thin film player Solyndra, which filed in December for an initial public offering.

The group also noted key acquisitions and initial public offerings in the clean technology sector, such as German conglomerate Siemens' purchase of solar thermal player Solel for $418 million and battery maker A123 Systems Inc's strong IPO debut. (Reporting by Laura Isensee; Editing by Gary Hill)


[Green Business]
Sophie Hardach
PARIS
Thu Dec 31, 2009 10:14am EST
France to propose new carbon tax: minister
PARIS (Reuters) - France's government wants to salvage a carbon tax, scrapped on constitutional concerns, by closing loopholes for some businesses, Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said on Thursday.

The French Constitutional Council annulled the tax, hailed by President Nicolas Sarkozy as a ground-breaking tool to fight climate change, on Tuesday on the grounds that it offered too many exemptions.

After the Constitutional Council complained that some 93 percent of industrial emissions were exempt from the tax, Lagarde told French radio this would change in a reworked version to be presented next year.

"We are going to review the law for industrial sectors that are already part of the market for emission quotas," she said on RTL radio. Such businesses were previously given a free ride.

The law's many loopholes were needed to win over critics who feared business competitiveness, people in rural areas and workers whose livelihood depended on cars or boats would be unfairly punished.

Others accused the government of inventing new taxes to bolster depleted public finances.

France's politically influential farmers and fishermen in particular were granted tax relief under the law, and Lagarde promised they would keep that special status after the revision.

Business daily Les Echo reported on Thursday that the government wanted to bring businesses under the carbon tax regime without harming competitiveness, for example by applying a lower tax rate.

France's junior minister for ecology, Chantal Joanno, has announced the new version will be proposed to parliament in February and could come into force in April.

But Sarkozy might find it difficult to persuade lawmakers to revive the project so close to regional elections in March.

Sarkozy's defeat over the carbon tax follows the disappointing Copenhagen summit on climate change, dealing a double blow to his efforts to project himself as a "green" reformer.

(Reporting by Sophie Hardach)

news20100101reut2

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
LONDON
Thu Dec 31, 2009 10:14am EST
EU carbon slips to end 2009 down 21 percent for year
LONDON (Reuters) - European Union carbon futures slipped in light trading on Thursday to end the year down 21 percent from 2008 closing prices.

Dec-10 futures for EU Allowances closed down 17 cents or 1.3 percent at 12.53 euros a tonne in an abbreviated trading session on London's European Climate Exchange (ECX).

Dec-10 volume was quiet at 725 lots traded by the exchange's midday close.

Spot EUAs trading on France's BlueNext finished the year at 12.33 euros per tonne of carbon dioxide.

Benchmark EUA futures averaged 13.13 euros a tonne in 2009, ending the year up 56 percent from an all-time low of 8.05 euros touched in February

"We've seen some utility selling today, but it's been completely dead since Monday," said one emissions trader.

"The market's been in a bad mood since Copenhagen so we'll have to see what happens on Monday, whether anyone wants to buy at these levels."

Traders and analysts became more bearish after UN-backed climate talks earlier this month failed to agree a legally binding successor to the Kyoto Protocol.

Lower emissions from European companies in the wake of the global economic downturn and the specter of industrial firms selling more excess EUAs to raise cash have weighed heavily on permit prices this year, analysts said.

Dampened energy prices in 2009 have also added pressure.

German Calendar 2010 baseload power shed 0.17 cents at 51.55 euros per megawatt hour while British natural gas for delivery in January 2010 traded down 0.6 pence or 1.8 percent at 33.60 pence per therm.

U.S. crude oil futures rose toward $80, poised for the biggest annual climb in a decade, a year after posting huge losses as the global economic crisis sapped demand.

Oil was supported on Thursday after data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed declines in crude oil stockpiles last week, boosting expectations of demand recovery in the world's largest energy user.

Dec-10 CER prices trading on the ECX settled down 6 cents or 0.5 percent at 10.98 euros a tonne.

Only 13 lots of Dec-10 and 12 lots of Dec-12 contracts were traded in Thursday's shortened session.

Benchmark CER futures averaged 11.35 euros in 2009, ending the year up 54 percent from February's record low of 7.15 euros.

The EUA-CER spread closed 2009 at 1.43 euros a tonne.


[Green Business]
Jeffrey Jones
CALGARY, Alberta
Thu Dec 31, 2009 3:51pm EST
Canada pipeline report may help unlock federal funds
CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - A regulatory panel's conditional support for the Mackenzie gas pipeline in Canada's Far North could kick-start plodding talks between Ottawa and the project's backers over an expensive fiscal support package, a top Northwest Territories minister said on Thursday.

Those discussions have dragged on for nearly a year since Canadian Environment Minister Jim Prentice made a funding offer to the pipeline's proponents aimed at making the C$16.2 billion ($15.4 billion) project viable.

The Joint Review Panel's report, released Wednesday after more than two years of work, said the project could bring lasting benefits to Canada's North if pipeline backers, led by Imperial Oil Ltd, and governments follow the panel's 176 recommendations.

"The entire focus has been on the JRP getting that piece done and everything else was secondary until that was actually before us, we knew which way they were going to go and if there was going to be clarity," Michael Miltenberger, the territory's environment and natural resources minister, told Reuters.

"I anticipate that work will begin anew to deal with that particular issue."

The JRP assessed environmental and socioeconomic impacts of the 1,220 km (760 mile) pipeline, which would run along the Mackenzie River Valley in the Northwest Territories from reserves near the Beaufort Sea Coast in the Arctic to Alberta and markets beyond.

The panel's recommendations for governments and the companies backing the pipeline are as diverse as analyzing the impact of climate change on facilities in permafrost and assessing if alcohol and drug abuse programs in the sparsely populated region are adequate.

A media report in October cast doubt on Prime Minister Stephen Harper's cabinet backing a fiscal package, estimated to be worth billions of dollars, for the pipeline. However, top executives with the energy companies have said they were assured that talks were still on.

Prentice was not available for comment.

Imperial filed an applications in 2004 aimed at getting the line running this year. However, it has been beset with cost increases, regulatory delays and a transformation of gas markets due to the recession as well as development of massive shale gas reserves located close to major U.S. markets.

The territorial and aboriginal governments are looking to the project's potential to create jobs and spinoff businesses.

Miltenberger said the 679-page panel report contained no big surprises, at least not on first read. The government will pore over it in detail over the coming weeks so it can prepare a response, he said.

The panel had been criticized for the time and cost to complete its assessment.

"There's conditional support for the project with a host of recommendations. We have to focus on that," he said. "We've been waiting a long time to do that and now we have to apply ourselves thoroughly over the next few months to keep this process moving at a much more timely pace."

Canada's National Energy Board will use the report to help make its decision on whether the pipeline can proceed. That decision is expected in September 2010.

Some environmental groups that opposed the project, or aspects of it, praised the JRP for its work.

"We didn't get everything that we had wanted," said Kevin O'Reilly, director of Alternatives North, which was concerned about the impact on land and people. "The panel recommended that the full environmental management system for the Northwest Territories should be implemented as it was negotiated in land claims agreements and federal legislation. That's something that people have been fighting for."

In its report, the JRP said it was not persuaded that the gas would be used specifically to fuel oil sands development in Alberta. But it did recommend that Canada's climate change policies include provisions for using gas as a transition fuel to a low-carbon economy.

($1=$1.05 Canadian)

(Reporting by Jeffrey Jones; editing by Peter Galloway)

news20100101reut3

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Jon Hurdle
PHILADELPHIA
Thu Dec 31, 2009 3:05pm EST
EPA questions New York state plan to drill for shale gas
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has "serious reservations" about allowing shale gas drilling in New York City's watershed, warning of a threat to the drinking water for 9 million people.

An EPA report on the divisive issue is the latest potential roadblock for energy companies seeking to exploit the Marcellus Shale formation, which state officials say may contain enough natural gas to satisfy U.S. demand for more than a decade.

"We have concerns regarding potential impacts to human health and the environment that we believe warrant further scientific and regulatory analysis," wrote John Filippelli, chief of the agency's Strategic Planning and Programs Branch.

"EPA has serious reservations about whether gas drilling in the New York City watershed is consistent with the vision of high-quality unfiltered water supply," he wrote in the agency's report, dated Wednesday.

Last week, New York City asked the state to ban shale gas drilling in the city's watershed.

At issue is the controversial process of shale gas extraction known as hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," in which a combination of chemicals, sand and water are blasted through rock to free trapped gas. Fracking is exempted from regulation under the U.S. Clean Water Act.

The natural gas industry argues that drilling poses no risk to drinking water, saying the chemicals are injected through layers of steel and concrete thousands of feet below aquifers.

But opponents argue that toxic fracking chemicals are contaminating drinking water, citing numerous reports of private wells near gas installations having water that is discolored, foul tasting, or even flammable because of methane that has escaped from drilling operations.

Theo Colborn, a researcher with the Endocrine Disruption Exchange who has drawn links between fracturing chemicals and a range of illnesses including cancer, said the EPA report indicates the agency was taking a new look at fracturing in light of growing public concern and media coverage.

"The natural gas industry can't keep saying it's clean," she said.

TO DRILL OR NOT TO DRILL

The EPA was reacting to an environmental impact statement by the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation that recommended in September that energy companies be permitted to drill in the Marcellus.

"We're pleased to see that the EPA recognizes what the state so far has not, that gas drilling is entirely inappropriate with in the drinking supply for 9 million people," said James Simpson, a staff attorney for Riverkeeper, a New York environmental group.

Eric Goldstein, a senior lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the state's proposal "will require a dramatic rethinking and revamping if it is going to pass muster with federal guardians of water quality.

The EPA has allowed New York City to draw from an unfiltered watershed provided there are adequate protections, and officials have warned the city could be forced to build a $10 billion filtration system if drilling is allowed.

Last spring, the EPA conducted its first water tests in response to growing public concern over possible water contamination from gas drilling. The tests, in Wyoming, found some private water wells were tainted with chemicals that may have come from gas drilling, but the agency did not reach a conclusion about the source of the contamination.

(Additional reporting by Edith Honan in New York; Editing by Daniel Trotta and Steve Gutterman)


[Green Business]
Robert Evans
GENEVA
Thu Dec 31, 2009 9:55am EST
Endangered species to get daily web spot in 2010
GENEVA (Reuters) - Endangered species from polar bears to giant salamanders, great white sharks to beluga whales and Namibian quiver trees to Cuban crocodiles will have their day on the Internet throughout 2010.

Green Business | Cuba | COP15

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said on Thursday it would issue throughout the coming year an extensive daily portrait of each of the 365 animals, birds and plants most under threat of disappearance.

"It is time for governments to get serious about saving species and making sure it is high on their agenda for next year, as we're really running out of time," said Jane Smart, a biodiversity expert at the Swiss-based IUCN.

"The scientific evidence of a serious extinction crisis is mounting," Smart said. A third of the some 1.8 million identified species were under growing threat.

Experts believe there could be as many as 6 to 12 million more species as yet unknown to science.

From January 1 2010, declared the U.N. Year of Biodiversity, IUCN will draw on latest research for its annual Red List of endangered wildlife to portray in detail the possibly doomed species of the day.

The material will be posted on the IUCN website (www.iucn.org).

"We will start with some better known species before moving to cover plants, fungi, invertebrates, and more, including less charismatic ones," the inter-governmental body said.

The polar bear, whose fate as the arctic ice-shelf melts has been widely recognized, will have star billing on January 1.

Before December's U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, IUCN said inaction would put the future of some of the world's best-known creatures at risk.

These also included the emperor penguin, the arctic fox, clownfish which were popularized by the hit film "Finding Nemo," Australia's koala bear and almost every species of salmon, both marine and freshwater.

(Editing by Alison Williams)