news20100102lat1

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

[Environment]
Scientists find details of tumors killing off Tasmanian devils
The facial cancer devastating the species is a nerve tumor that escaped its original host, and is passed from one devil to another through bites. Researchers hope the discovery will lead to a vaccine.
By Thomas H. Maugh II
January 1, 2010

The facial cancers that are devastating populations of Tasmanian devils in Australia are a nerve tumor that escaped its original host and became a parasite of the cultural icon, passing from one devil to the next by bites when the animals are fighting or mating, researchers reported Thursday.

A genetic analysis of tumors from Tasmanian devils widely separated geographically shows that all the tumors are virtually identical and distinct from the animals' own genomes, researchers in the United States and Australia reported in the journal Science. The tumors probably arose from Schwann cells, which normally play a role in protecting and cushioning nerves.

The analysis provides clues to a way to diagnose the disease early and represents a major step toward the development of a vaccine that could protect the remaining animals in the wild, said biologist Elizabeth P. Murchison of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., and the Australian National University in Canberra, lead author of the paper.

Tasmania is the only natural habitat of the fox-sized creatures, the world's largest marsupial carnivore. The animals release a foul odor under stress, and they screech and scream when they feed, a behavior that led to their name. Their powerful jaws enable them to eat entire cows, including bones and fur.

But beginning more than a decade ago, biologists noticed the appearance of the facial tumors, a condition now known as devil facial tumor disease. Confined primarily to the face and jaw, the tumors prevent the animals from eating, and they can also attack internal organs. The disease, which is invariably fatal, is one of only two types of cancers in animals that are transferred from animal to animal by tumor cells. The other occurs in dogs.

The population of devils in the wild has already dropped by 60%, and experts predict that unless something is done, the tumors could force the animals into extinction in 20 to 25 years. One possibility under consideration is the construction of 3-foot-high fences across broad parts of Tasmania that would keep infected animals isolated from healthy ones.

Analyzing the genetic code of the tumors as well as the complete set of genes that are turned on or off in a cancer cell, the researchers concluded that the tumors probably arose in a Schwann cell in a single Tasmanian devil, then began spreading through the population. How and where the first tumor developed, however, is still a mystery, but the team hopes the genetic analysis may provide some insight.

The researchers also found a protein called periaxin in the tumors. This protein, which is normally found in Schwann cells, could be a marker for early stages of the disease when it's present in the animals in high levels, they speculated.

Meanwhile, they are looking for genes that might influence the pathology and transmission of the tumor in the hope that they might provide a good lead on a vaccine.


[Environment]
Federal agencies may have to consider climate before they act
The Obama administration may issue an order that would expand the National Environmental Policy Act's scope to prevent global warming. The move could open up new avenues to challenge projects.
By Jim Tankersley
January 1, 2010

Reporting from Washington - The White House is poised to order all federal agencies to evaluate any major actions they take, such as building highways or logging national forests, to determine how they would contribute to and be affected by climate change, a step long sought by environmentalists.

Environmentalists say the move would provide new incentives for the government to minimize the heat-trapping gas emissions scientists blame for global warming. Republicans have opposed it as potentially inhibiting economic growth.

The new order would expand the scope of the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, a landmark statute that turns 40 today. The act already requires federal agencies to consider environmental impacts such as land use, species health and air and water quality when approving projects.

By formalizing a requirement to consider effects on climate -- a step some agencies already take -- the administration would introduce a broad new spectrum of issues to be considered. It could also open up new avenues for environmentalists to attack, delay or halt proposed government actions. The environmental impact statements originally required by the act have become routine battlegrounds for environmentalists, developers and others.

Under the order, agencies would need to account for whether such factors as predicted rises in sea levels would affect proposed new roads along shorelines; or whether, because of temperature changes and species migration, clear-cutting a patch of forest would result in new types of trees replacing the originals.

California lawmakers mandated in 2007 that state-level environmental assessments take climate change into account.

"People will think longer and harder and smarter about what they build when they understand that the environment around them is changing," said David Bookbinder, chief climate counsel for the Sierra Club. Bookbinder was one of several environmental lawyers who petitioned the White House in 2008 to formally recognize climate considerations under the act.

The head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Nancy Sutley, said in an interview this week that federal agencies "should think about both the effect of greenhouse gas emissions, and the effects of climate change, on decisions they make."

She added that the administration's decision was not yet final.

Business groups and many Republicans say that federal environmental reviews already hamstring economic development with red tape and they've warned that adding climate to the process would just make things worse.

"Requiring analysis of climate change impacts during the NEPA process . . . will slow our economic recovery while providing no meaningful environmental benefits," Sens. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), wrote in a letter to Sutley in October.

"Projects across the nation are already experiencing delays or being canceled due to inappropriate and inefficient implementation and litigation from existing environmental regulations," the letter said.

In a letter responding to Inhofe and Barrasso, Sutley said the act "cannot be used to regulate greenhouse gas emissions," suggesting that the administration would not block projects simply because they would add carbon dioxide to the air.

She also said that the act had not slowed any projects from being approved under the $787-billion economic stimulus package passed last year. In the interview, Sutley said that wouldn't change even if climate considerations were included in the process.

"I don't think that we have much to fear in terms of NEPA being a barrier to getting things done," she said.

news20100102lat2

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

[Environment]
Eastside park sits unfinished
Ground was broken at Ascot Hills Park in 2005, but only limited areas of the nature preserve northeast of downtown L.A. are open to the public.
By Louis Sahagun
January 2, 2010

Against a backdrop of smiling children, cheering officials and rolling grasslands, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa savored a groundbreaking ceremony on Nov. 1, 2005, for a nature preserve just northeast of downtown, declaring it "a historic moment for this community."

"The effort was a great example of what can be accomplished when the community and elected officials work toward a common goal -- in this case, preserving green, open space for the public to enjoy," said Villaraigosa, wearing a white hard hat and clutching a shovel to turn the first spadeful of dirt at Ascot Hills Park.

Today, the property tucked in the working-class communities of Lincoln Heights and Hillside Village stands as an emblem of what has not been accomplished. Scant areas of the 140-acre park are open to the public. Its most panoramic hilltops and largest patches of remnant native plants remain locked up behind "no trespassing" signs.

The park was scheduled to be completed by June 2007, according to an analysis of park documents conducted by the City Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating more public open space.

"Instead, we have padlocks, no trespassing signs and broken promises -- and no good explanation for it," said attorney Robert Garcia, executive director of the City Project, which has begun the process to file a suit against the city.

Surveying the land recently from a road blocked by a locked gate, he shook his head and said, "These locks and signs are symbols of bureaucratic incompetence and political indifference toward our rights to open space."

Joe Edmiston, executive director of the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, a joint powers authority under contract to design and manage the park, would not go that far. But he was only half-kidding when he said in an interview, "I hope Mayor Villaraigosa's New Year's resolution is to finish Ascot Hills Park in 2010."

City officials acknowledge that the project is behind schedule, but blame the delay on the state. In 2008, $3 million in state bond funds allocated for development of the park were frozen because of the state budget crisis.

The funds recently became available, officials said, provided the money could be spent by March 2011. Unable to arrange construction contracts and building plans in time to meet that deadline, the city requested an extension. City officials said they were told by the state that extension requests must be submitted during the same year as the impending deadline, which has led to further delays.

City officials now hope to complete the park by 2013. Critics, however, have begun to wonder whether the park will ever become a reality.

Villaraigosa, who once represented the district that includes Ascot Hills while on the City Council, was unavailable for comment. But Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar, who won Villaraigosa's seat on the council, said, "We've got to find ways to make up for the delays and get it done sooner than 2013, if possible. We owe it to the community to get this park back on track, and expedite it."

In early December, the City Project urged the city to alleviate park and recreation disparities in communities including Lincoln Heights, as called for by the city controller in several audits, or face a lawsuit.

"I requested a meeting with city officials including the mayor and the heads of the Department of Recreation and Parks to discuss the matter," Garcia said. "I got no response."

Community groups and conservationists have long feuded over plans for Ascot Hills, which was first proposed as a city park in 1930. Students at adjacent Wilson High School, for example, in 2000 helped thwart a proposal that would have flattened some hilltops for soccer fields and baseball diamonds. But many of those groups unified in 2004 under a proposal to have a local conservancy manage the city-owned land and develop nature trails and habitat restoration programs.

Ascot Hills received its name from the former Legion Ascot Speedway, which was Los Angeles' most popular auto racetrack during the 1920s and '30s. Today, the small portion of the site open to the public is operated by the city parks department. The rest is controlled by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

Just a 10-minute drive northeast of downtown, Ascot Hills supports a surprisingly diverse array of plants and animals. On a recent cold and rainy weekday, hawks soared over its steep slopes in search of rodents. White-crowned sparrows, blue-gray gnatcatchers and brown towhees flitted from one branch to another in tall brush.

Dan Cooper, president of the Los Angeles biological consulting firm Cooper Ecological Monitoring Inc., described the site's high country habitat as "echoes of native Los Angeles."

"One of the neatest things about the Ascot Hills Park site," Cooper said, "is that many of its slopes are too steep for city heavy equipment operators to plow for fire control. As a result, fascinating native species are found there, such as the white-tailed kite, which is a bird of prey that hovers while hunting, and beautiful rare flowers called golden stars."

"The wildlife of Ascot Hills Park may not be endangered or threatened," he added, "but you are not likely to run across it in your neighborhood."

news20100102jt

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

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Saturday, Jan. 2, 2010
Japan Post group to be streamlined into three companies
Kyodo News

Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Kazuhiro Haraguchi revealed a plan Friday to reorganize the Japan Post group through a merger between group companies in a move seen as a regression in postal privatization.

Streamlining of the group structure would be centered on a merger between state-owned Japan Post Holdings Co., the holding company for the group, struggling mail and parcel delivery unit Japan Post Service Co. and post office operator Japan Post Network Co., according to Haraguchi.

The group's banking and insurance units, Japan Post Bank Co. and Japan Post Insurance Co., will operate under the wing of the merged company as the plan envisions trimming the number of group firms from five to three.

Haraguchi and state minister Shizuka Kamei, who is in charge of postal issues, will work out the details of the realignment before submitting relevant bills to the upcoming Diet session to be convened later this month.

"Combining Japan Post Holdings, post office operations and mail delivery services will enable the group to provide varied services as one unit, along with two financial services companies under its umbrella," Haraguchi said.

The reorganization move was prompted by worries that Japan Post Service may not stay afloat given the frail business environment surrounding its mail and parcel delivery services. Japan Post Bank and Japan Post Insurance generate the bulk of profits for the group.

The original plan called for Japan Post Holdings to sell all stakes in the two financial companies. Haraguchi declined to comment on the stakes the government-owned firm would hold in them after the planned merger.

The government led by the Democratic Party of Japan, launched in September, has been pushing for a review of the postal privatization reforms spearheaded by former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of the Liberal Democratic Party.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Saturday, Jan. 2, 2010
Hatoyama shows support, sympathy at homeless shelter
Kyodo News

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Friday visited a temporary shelter for people who have lost their jobs and homes and said he felt he could share the frustration spreading among the unemployed and needy.

"I felt that they are frustrated in that they are not getting the information they really want," Hatoyama told reporters after visiting the facility set up in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward to provide meals and accommodation during the year-end and New Year holidays.

Hatoyama referred to local authorities' generally slow responses to applications for a health ministry program aimed at providing living expenses for unemployed workers undergoing job training.

"Apparently, they have been told by local bureaucrats that they will have to wait until May or June, but it is extremely cruel to keep people who are in need waiting half a year," he said.

Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan, Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Akira Nagatsuma, and Social Democratic Party leader Mizuho Fukushima accompanied Hatoyama on the visit to the shelter at the National Olympics Memorial Youth Center, which will remain open until Monday morning.

The Tokyo metropolitan government set up the shelter a year after a tent village for similar purposes was built by antipoverty campaigners in Hibiya Park in central Tokyo, drawing criticism against inaction by the authorities. About 800 people were staying there on New Year's Day.

While concerns are growing among them over their post-shelter lives, Nagatsuma announced over the PA system that the government is preparing replacement facilities that can be used after the New Year holidays.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Saturday, Jan. 2, 2010
Ozawa urges DPJ lawmakers to focus on upper house dominance
Kyodo News

Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa urged party colleagues Friday to intensify their efforts to score a resounding victory in this summer's upper house election.

Ozawa told an annual New Year gathering of lawmakers held at his home in Tokyo that winning the majority of House of Councillors seats is crucial for the ruling party, which currently needs help from small coalition partners to ensure smooth passage of legislation.

"It's very important to go through crucial policymaking processes and get (legislation) passed in parliament with our own power," Ozawa said.

The upper house election will be the first national poll since the launch of the DPJ-led coalition government in September 2009 following the party's landslide victory in the general election for the powerful lower house in late August.

Half of the 242 upper house seats come up for election every three years — 73 in constituencies and 48 in the proportional representation segment. The DPJ plans to field multiple candidates in many of the 12 constituencies from which two lawmakers will be elected.

"It's going to be very tough for us because our candidates will compete against each other there," Ozawa said. "But we will not be able to secure a majority unless we overcome this hardship as long as the current election system is in place."

Ozawa reiterated that a DPJ victory in the upper house poll would not necessarily mean the party will abandon its coalition partnership with the Social Democratic Party and the People's New Party.

Friday's meeting was attended by more than 150 lawmakers, including Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Saturday, Jan. 2, 2010
Emperor, empress receive New Year's greetings at Imperial Palace
Kyodo News

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko on Friday received New Year's greetings from other Imperial family members and government leaders at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko receive New Year's greetings from Imperial family members and government leaders at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. KYODO PHOTO

Among the well-wishers were Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako, Prince Akishino and his wife Princess Kiko, Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, heads of the Diet's two chambers and the chief justice of the Supreme Court.

"It is certainly a pleasure to celebrate the New Year together," Emperor Akihito told his guests. "At the beginning of the year, I pray for the development of the nation and happiness of the people."

In the afternoon, ambassadors and proxies from about 120 countries — some of them dressed in national costumes — visited the emperor, empress and other imperial family members at the palace to exchange greetings.


[BUSINESS NEWS]
Saturday, Jan. 2, 2010
Toyota plans hybrid production at new Miyagi plant

NAGOYA (Kyodo) Toyota Motor Corp. plans to produce hybrid vehicles at a new assembly plant that will start operating in 2011 in northeastern Japan, sources familiar with the move said Friday.

Toyota intends to manufacture a Vitz-class subcompact hybrid model at the plant in Ohira, Miyagi Prefecture, which would be one of the automaker's key domestic production hubs for gasoline-electric cars along with its Aichi and Kyushu factories.

Central Motor Co., a Toyota subsidiary, will run the Miyagi plant by transferring its head office and manufacturing plant from Sagamihara, Kanagawa Prefecture. Hybrids to be assembled in Miyagi are likely to go on sale in 2011 at around 1.5 million yen and with gas mileage of over 40 km a liter — a better performance than the popular Prius.

Another Toyota unit, Panasonic EV Energy Co., is expected to produce and supply batteries for the new hybrid at a new plant scheduled to start operating later this month in Taiwa, Miyagi Prefecture.

Several other Toyota group companies are also scheduled to manufacture auto parts near the new Miyagi plant.

Toyota currently produces its Prius hybrid in the city of Toyota in Aichi Prefecture, where its headquarters are located. Toyota Motor Kyushu Inc., a subsidiary based in southwestern Japan, manufactures another hybrid SAI at its plant in Miyawaka, Fukuoka Prefecture.

news20100102gdn

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[News> UK news > Crime]
Deer poaching figures treble but police accused of failing to act
Wildlife groups and gamekeepers say problem is out of hand with thousands of incidents going unreported
James Sturcke
guardian.co.uk, Friday 1 January 2010 18.44 GMT Article history

Deer poaching has trebled in the last year, according to new figures, as gamekeepers said the problem was out of hand and agencies admitted they were tackling only a tiny proportion of cases.

The number of deer poaching incidents reported to the police in England and Wales rose to 335 in the 12 months to October, up from 106 the previous year. But wildlife and countryside groups say thousands of cases go unreported, largely because few believe the police would take it seriously, despite fines of up to £5,000.

"It is an increasing problem," said Gareth Cole, England's only dedicated poaching officer who took up the newly created post at the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NCWU) in September.

"The image of a poacher as a wily man taking a couple of pheasants for the family pot is certainly not true. Modern poachers are professional, organised criminals, who travel round the country and are often involved in other types of crime. Deer are killed by dogs in a barbaric manner and the poachers have no interest in the condition of the meat which they sell on the black market to the back doors of pubs or hotels," he said.

Higher unemployment rates due to the recession, a surge in the UK's deer population and improved record-keeping are believed to have contributed to the higher figures, with poaching intensifying in the run up to Christmas and the new year when there is an increased demand for game.

The British Deer Society believes up to 50,000 deer may be poached annually and Simon Clarke, of the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, agreed. With black market venison selling for about £1 a lb, deer poaching was worth up to £5m a year, he said. "Not all police forces report the figures to the wildlife crime unit. There is great disillusionment from gamekeepers about how police will respond to reports, so many do not bother. The police do not always know the right way to handle these calls. It depends who is in the control room on the night and who is sent out."

Most poaching is thought to take place in parkland, where access is easy, but in the countryside and on shooting estates dry stone walls are being destroyed, and diesel, quad bikes and other equipment taken. Farmers or gamekeepers can be attacked or intimidated.

Malcolm Cook, a gamekeeper for 30 years in Lancashire, said he had confronted 28 poachers since March. "They are becoming more brazen and now come during the day as well as night. None of them have been convicted. I feel like I am wasting my time and the police's time reporting it. [The police] don't seem to see it as an offence and it is only a matter of time before someone gets hurt trying to stop the poachers."

John Pratt, a gamekeeper in the Ribble Valley, said: "It is the same ones who keep coming back. They know the police don't do anything and they laugh at us. Or come back and break our window and slash our tyres. It is out of hand."

The NWCU maintains the problem is being taken seriously. Last month 50 officers arrested five men in East Sussex in connection with a suspected commercial deer poaching outfit. A large number of firearms, deer carcasses and venison were seized in an operation involving 50 officers.


[Business > Technology sector]
Green technology to be used by top firms to overhaul UK homes
> Sustainability scheme could create tens of thousands of jobs
> 'Retrofitting' homes could make Britain a pioneer in field
Nick Mathiason
guardian.co.uk, Friday 1 January 2010 18.32 GMT Article history

Some of Britain's leading firms are partnering top academic institutions to develop projects that will overhaul household energy, water, transport and waste provision to drastically cut carbon emissions.

The groundbreaking partnership, led by Arup's global planning chief, Peter Head, involves 25 international companies including GE (the world's biggest company, according to Forbes). HSBC, French energy firm EDF, Thames Water, Marks & Spencer and waste management firm Biffa are also behind the plan.

Politicians and regulators are calling for a "green new deal" to help lift the economy out of recession. "Green industries alone could support a further half a million jobs over the next decade," Alistair Darling wrote in the Guardian last week.

The companies involved hope that in five years their work could create tens of thousands of jobs and push Britain into the vanguard of environmental technology. They are working with Imperial College and University College London to "retrofit" hundreds of thousands of homes, using the latest clean technology to transform energy and water efficiency.

Head, who will become chairman of a new charity, the Thames Gateway Institute of Sustainability, said: "We want to connect new developments with retrofitting technology combining energy, water and waste, improvements to recycling and the introduction of electric cars and better cycling facilities… there are tremendous advantages and business opportunities."

The "retrofitting" of Britain is the focus of the new institute, which will open a research centre this year in Dagenham, east London, as part of a 24-hectare sustainable technology business park. The centre will focus on green technology breakthroughs that can be cheaply "scaled up" to industrial proportions. "We need to move to a new industrial model. And we genuinely need this institute to power demonstration projects," said Head.

Part of the plan is to develop new financing for green projects and the group is in advanced talks with pension funds. Financiers at international investment bank Sustainable Development Capital want to see part of household and business energy and water bills ringfenced in a special fund for green developments that will be matched by pension funds.

The plan aims to take advantage of savings for firms when consumers use less energy. It implies households utility bills will not come down in spite of the savings envisaged from the scheme. The model assumes that it will cost £1bn to convert 200,000 new homes, into which communities will be divided. They could then see their neighbourhoods converted street-by-street into sustainable communities complete with energy-from-waste facilities, electric car power points and advanced water capture technology.

The Institute of Sustainability has been building up for a year as a shadow operation but has now completed the formation of a 12-strong board. Other than Head, it includes Professor Malcolm Grant, president and provost of UCL, and Keith Riley, managing director of Veolia Environmental Services. Ian Short, deputy chief executive at the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation, will be the Institute's interim chief executive.

Focusing on close-to-market environmental technology projects that are now ready to be applied on housing developments, the institute will use the huge building programme on the Thames Gateway – a 40-mile ribbon of land either side of the Thames in east London, where tens of thousands of new homes are planned – to be its worldwide showcase. Two major housing developments in north Kent are likely to be pilots for the new plan.

It will also draw on lessons learned from the 2012 east London Olympics, where a number of facilities are using the latest environmental technology to reduce emissions as well as a "soil hospital" to clean and re-use contaminated soil.

Head was the principal planning adviser on the Chinese sustainable city project at Dongtan. Though the project has stalled for internal political reasons, it has inspired the launch of the new institute in Britain, which is forging links with the Chinese authorities in what Head hopes will provide huge business opportunities.

news20100102bbc1

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

[Science & Environment]
Page last updated at 13:17 GMT, Thursday, 31 December 2009
Advancing through a decade
{Science shed light on mysteries of evolution, dark matter and the deep ocean}
The noughties saw the discovery of key characters in the story of our own evolution, the full catalogue of the human genome and an enhanced understanding of mysterious dark matter.
The biggest physics experiment in the world switched on, broke down, and got up and running once again.
Here, some of the leading scientists at the forefront of the past decade's most significant research tell us what it all really means.

> Martin Rees: the search for planets
> Tim Hubbard: the Human Genome Project
> Richard Massey: a glimpse of dark matter?
> Dr Ron O'Dor: the Census of Marine Life
> Chris Stringer: the 'Hobbit'
> Michele Dougherty: life in our Solar System?
> Alvaro De Rujula and Tejinder Virdee: the Large Hadron Collider
> Joyce Tait: biofuels grow up

SEARCHING FOR PLANETS
Martin Rees is president of the UK's Royal Society and professor of cosmology at the University of Cambridge. He says what we have learned in the last decade has made the night sky far more interesting:

{{There are probably many billions of planets in our galaxy}
Martin Rees}

"Many stars are orbited by retinues of planets - just as the Earth orbits our Sun.

The first "extra-solar" planet was discovered in the 1990s. But in the last few years the pace of research has accelerated, and now more than 400 have been detected.

Up to half of the stars like the Sun may have planets; there are probably many billions of planets in our galaxy.

So far, the detected planets have resembled Jupiter and Saturn, the giants of our own Solar System, rather than the Earth.

But the Kepler spacecraft, launched in March this year, should reveal planets no bigger than our Earth by detecting a slight "shadowing" effect when one of them passes in front of its parent star.

It may be the end of the next decade before we have telescopes powerful enough to directly image Earth-like planets, and reveal whether they have continents and oceans.

{The search for planets is restricted to our own Milky Way}

If we understood better how life emerged here on Earth - and there is now a real chance of progress on that front - we would be able to lay firmer odds on the likelihood of life elsewhere.

While, by cosmic standards, our study of planets around other stars is parochial, with our gaze is restricted to our own Milky Way, my second highlight is undoubtedly part of the big picture.

Measurements of the faint "afterglow" from the Big Bang, and of very distant galaxies, have greatly firmed up our picture of how our cosmos transformed from a dense and mysterious beginning 13.7 billion years ago into the panorama of stars and galaxies we see around us."

THE 'HOBBIT'
Professor Chris Stringer is the research leader in human origins at London's Natural History Museum. He explains that a remarkable and controversial human-like skeleton was one of the decade's most valuable scientific discoveries:

{{From the beginning, the find was enveloped in controversy}
Chris Stringer}

"A partial human-like skeleton from the Liang Bua Cave on Flores, found alongside stone tools and the remains of an extinct elephant-like creature called Stegodon, is still one of the most challenging finds to science, six years after its discovery.

First, it was found on an island 500km beyond the known range of ancient humans in South East Asia, and second, dating evidence suggests the creature was alive only about 18,000 years ago.

Third, the skeleton displayed a remarkable combination of features - it was adult but only about a metre tall, and its skull indicated a brain size similar to that of a chimpanzee. Because of its small stature the find, which is officially known as Homo floresiensis, acquired the nickname of the "Hobbit".

It had human-like teeth, and its hipbones indicated that it walked upright, but showed some primitive features which hark back to early human and pre-human forms that are 2 million or more years old. So what was this strange creature, which was still alive some 12,000 years after the Neanderthals had gone extinct in Europe?

From the beginning, the find was enveloped in controversy. Some refused to accept that it was anything other than a small modern human, suffering from microcephaly, Laron Syndrome, cretinism, or some other pathology.

But more fragments of skeletons have been found since, with the same unusual features. These ranged in date from about 15,000 down to about 90,000 years.

I am convinced that this is a primitive, rather than a modern, human-like form.

But what it really is, how and when it got to Flores, where it came from, and what led to its extinction, all remain to be determined.

And the fact that this creature with an ape-sized brain was apparently making and using a range of stone tools, and eating the flesh of Stegodon, only adds to the mystery of this extraordinary discovery."


A HUMAN CODE
Dr Tim Hubbard is the head of informatics at the UK's Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. He played a key role in the Human Genome Project and here he explains just how great an achievement this venture was:

"The draft human genome sequence was announced in June 2000, available to all on the internet. Its determination was profound and a decade of dramatic progress by scientists across the world is built upon it.

{{The challenge now is to make the most of all of this information}
Tim Hubbard}

Maps of variation between our individual genomes have allowed us to compare genomes of those with a disease to those without and identify many of the genes involved.

The investigation of thousands of patients has opened up new, unexpected directions for research towards medical treatments.

In existing studies just one million points out of the three billion letter human genome are checked. But with the rapidly falling cost of genome sequencing, it is becoming possible to check the whole genome.

We can look forward to medicine in the next decade where, particularly for cancer, sequencing and analysis of an individual's genome becomes part of diagnosis and progress towards personalised treatments.

{Analysis of a patient's genome could soon become part of medical diagnosis}

The scale of biological data being collected in genome sequencing is vast and comparable to the biggest physics experiments. The challenge now is to make the most of all of this information.

Genome projects have changed scientific culture towards greater data sharing. Fragments of the human genome were made freely available to all within just 24 hours of their generation, to maximise their use by other scientists.

This radical approach enabled rapid progress and has become the norm for biology projects that are on a similar scale."

THE INGREDIENTS FOR LIFE?
Dr Michele Dougherty is professor of space physics at Imperial College London. She led the team that designed the magnetic field instrument aboard the Cassini spacecraft. This experiment was responsible for what she says is one of the most significant discoveries in our Solar System:

{{This has made it one of our Solar System's prime candidates in the search for life}
Michele Dougherty}

"The Cassini spacecraft completed its four-year mission to explore the Saturn system in 2008. It continues to thrive and is now working overtime.

Its most important discovery was that of a dynamic atmosphere at one of Saturn's small moons, Enceladus.

At the dawn of a new decade, this finding is still driving discussions for future missions to Enceladus, to search for life in our Solar System.

Our team's instrument revealed outgassing of water vapour at Enceladus. On a distant flyby of this moon in 2005, perturbations in the magnetic field data led us to conclude that Enceladus had an atmosphere made up of water vapour constituents that were acting as an obstacle to the plasma flow.

{Saturn's small, icy moon has a dynamic atmosphere}

The implications of these results were so critical that our team convinced the Cassini project to move a follow-on Enceladus flyby - three months later - much closer in to the moon.

This eventually skimmed just 173km above Enceladus' surface, allowing detailed exploration of this potential atmosphere.

The flyby confirmed that a plume filled with water vapour, dust and hydrocarbons was emanating from cracks on the icy south polar surface.

The existence of water and hydrocarbons on this icy moon has made it one of our Solar System's prime candidates in the search for life.

CONTINUED ON newsbbc2

news20100102bbc2

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

CONTINUED FROM newsbbc1

MOST MYSTERIOUS MATTER
Dr Richard Massey is a fellow in astronomy at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh. He explains why this has been a key decade in the search for the mysterious matter that pervades our Universe:

{{The race is on for direct detections}
Richard Massey}

"This decade has seen the first, dramatic glimpses of dark matter. As the most common stuff in the Universe but in a parallel world of its own, it has long been the elephant in the laboratory.

Billions of dark matter particles whizz through your outstretched hand every second, blithely ignoring it. Only a few dozen ethereal particles might bounce off your hand in a lifetime.

Astronomer Fritz Zwicky noticed in 1933 that most of galaxies' mass is invisible. He suggested it could be mapped via gravitational lensing - the bending of light around anything heavy.

Gravitational lensing has since been measured with the Hubble telescope, revealing invisible tendrils of dark matter around and between every galaxy.

Its unique properties were best demonstrated in 2004, when the periodic table was seen piling up during a galactic car crash - while the dark matter nonchalantly swept through unawares.

Now, a particle accelerator that took the whole decade to build - the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) - is making the fastest ever collisions in a lab. These may create a few particles of dark matter for closer study over the next decade.

But tentative evidence is mounting from other experiments, and the race is on for direct detections. Occasional interactions of dark matter at the centre of our Milky Way may have been seen as a faint glow of microwave light in 2008 and gamma-rays in 2009.

Just this month, reports of two suspected dark matter particles surfaced from the Soudan mine in Minnesota. Tragically, this was announced in the same week as funding cuts leading to the closure of its competitor in the UK."

THE MOTHER OF ALL MACHINES
Alvaro De Rujula is a theoretical physicist at Cern - the European Organization for Nuclear Research - that hosts the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). He says it is on its way to answering fundamental questions about our Universe:

{{ It is a time of elation and hope for significant steps in our understanding of the fundamental laws of nature}
Alvaro De Rujula}

"The LHC and its particle detectors will explore the collisions between two beams of protons, or atomic nuclei, up to energies seven times higher than ever reached in a laboratory on this planet. It is the largest, most complex project ever - the mother of all machines.

After a severe accident in 2008, the LHC has been repaired and it began to function by the end of 2009. It has already produced the highest-energy man-made collisions, and these are still far from what it is capable of.

The technological achievement of having protons accelerated and their collisions neatly recorded, all in a few weeks - following 20 years of work by thousands of scientists and engineers - is enormous.

It is a time of elation and hope for significant steps in our understanding of the fundamental laws of nature.

{The bets are on as to whether the LHC will reveal the Higgs boson}

The LHC is looking for microscopic space dimensions, for particles of a mysterious dark matter that populate the Universe. It is searching for surprises.

But, above all, it is trying to find "the Higgs".

Physicists argue that a vacuum is not empty. Once you take everything out of a vessel and cool it to absolute zero, you might expect nothing to remain inside.

But the vacuum may still be a substance, permeated by a "Higgs field". Different particles would "feel" this field differently, leading to their different masses. Physicists want to check whether this strange idea is true.

If the vacuum is a substance, one can make it vibrate. The vibrations of a field are particles.

A vibration of the vacuum would be the most-coveted Higgs boson. And the LHC is so powerful, it should be able to shake the vacuum hard enough to make them.

So will the Higgs boson be found? The bets are on and mine is a halfway wager. I think we will find something like it, but not quite what we expected."

Tejinder Virdee, a professor of high energy physics at Imperial College London, who is also based at Cern, says that new technologies had to be invented to complete the LHC:

"The end of the noughties marks the start of the second half of this incredible journey to understand how the Universe works at a deeper level.

{{ LHC experiments are designed to discover whatever nature has in store}
Tejinder Virdee}

The current theory of particle physics, one of the crowning achievements of 20th Century science and underpinning much scientific knowledge, has been experimentally verified to exquisite detail.

But we know that it has many shortcomings at the energies to be probed by the LHC. Currently favoured solutions involve the existence of new phenomena, such as the Higgs mechanism.

Nature may have addressed the shortcomings differently and may well hold surprises, revealing phenomena we have not yet thought of. To find out is why we do experiments. The LHC experiments are designed to discover whatever nature has in store at this special energy."

A CENSUS OF THE SEA
Dr Ron O'Dor, senior scientist at the Census for Marine Life, says that this unprecedented global programme has discovered new habitats as well as new species:

{{Census projects have created a transparent ocean}
Ron D'Or}

In the 1990s, a panel representing the US National Research Council reported that no nation in the world had a catalogue of the life in its marine economic zone. This was a condition of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

To rectify this, the Alfred P Sloan Foundation agreed to fund a decade-long Census of Marine Life. It evolved into a three-quarter billion dollar programme involving thousands of scientists from 82 countries.

Researchers took samples from the Arctic to the Antarctic, from the seafloor to the surface, near-shore to mid-ocean and microbes to mammals.

This was and continues to be an unprecedented global collaboration.

{The census has provided 20 million records records of marine species}

A global database now provides over 20 million records of species in the waters of all nations, as well as the deep sea. And beyond this, the census has already discovered some 6,000 new species and new habitats, from boiling fish to giant microbes.

Experimental technologies have become routine observational tools that will allow us to understand the impacts of climate change and human activity on the over 90% of the biosphere that lies beneath the waves.

Census projects have created a transparent ocean where DNA barcodes allow species to be identified in hours instead of months and where the migrations of animals from 20 grams to 20 mega-tonnes can be followed between countries and between oceans.

One record-setting bluefin tuna crossed the Pacific three times, averaging over 100 km per day.

With this incredible dataset, we can now directly monitor endangered species and establish protected areas. This information is vital for conservation and sustainable fisheries.

BIOFUELS - FRIEND OR FOE?
Joyce Tait is a professor at Edinburgh University and chair of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics Working Party on Biofuels. Among the controversy and food price hikes, she says research during the past decade has made it possible to produce a new, improved generation of sustainable fuels:

{{Investment is now being directed at developing improved biofuels using algae, trees, the inedible 'woody' parts of plants}
Joyce Tait}

"Biofuels (derived from microorganisms, plant or animal material) were pioneered in the very early days of car manufacturing - Henry Ford's 1908 Model T engine ran on bioethanol. But cheap fossil fuels soon replaced them.

However, in the last decade increasing concerns about climate change and greenhouse gas emissions have brought them back into the picture.

Scientists hoped biofuels would provide a renewable and sustainable source of energy. However "first generation" biofuels were produced mainly from food crops such as corn, soy bean and wheat.

In most cases their net greenhouse gas emissions were not much better than those of fossil fuels.

{A new generation of biofuels is being developed using organisms such as algae}
Many also had negative environmental impacts, caused food prices to rise, or caused problems for farmers in developing countries. There were riots in Mexico in 2007 after the price of corn tortillas rose 400% because of the high demand for corn to produce ethanol in the US.

Investment is now being directed at developing improved biofuels using algae, trees, the inedible "woody" parts of plants, and agricultural waste.

We can now use new chemical and biotechnology processes, such as advanced plant breeding, genetic modification and synthetic biology, to improve biofuel production from these new sources.

This could considerably reduce the net CO2 emissions from fuel. But we need to give more consideration this time to how the technology will be developed and what will be the costs and benefits across the whole fuel cycle."

news20100102cnn

[Top stories] from [CNN.com]

[World]
January 2, 2010
Afghan Parliament starts voting on Cabinet nominees
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
> Afghan Parliament begins vote on nominees for President Hamid Karzai's Cabinet
> Some lawmakers expect Parliament to reject nearly half of Karzai's nominees
> Eleven nominees are ministers from Karzai's current administration

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Afghanistan's Parliament started voting Saturday on President Hamid Karzai's Cabinet nominees, making decisions that will be crucial to his fight against corruption and his administration's legitimacy in the eyes of the nation and world.

Voting was expected to continue into Saturday evening, and some lawmakers expected Parliament to reject nearly 50 percent of Karzai's nominees.

The president presented Parliament with 23 nominees on December 19. Eleven of them are ministers from Karzai's current administration, including Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak and Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar. Those two jobs will be key in building up Afghan security forces, in preparation for the withdrawal of American troops.

The administration of U.S. President Obama has said American forces will start withdrawing in July 2011.

First Vice President Marshal Fahim also was nominated December 19, even though many Afghans consider him a warlord responsible for the death of thousands during decades of fighting.

Two ministers' positions -- foreign minister and minister for the martyred and disabled-- remain un-nominated. Karzai said at a December 20 news conference that he wants to persuade current Foreign Minister Rangin Spanta to stay on.

Karzai's Cabinet nominees include one woman, current Minister of Women's Affairs Husn Bano Ghazanfar.

The president said he expects more women in all levels of government by the end of confirmation process.


[World]
January 2, 2010
Death toll rises in Pakistan game blast
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
> Police chief: More than 200 people were watching the game when bomb went off
> Blast also collapsed at least eight homes
> Militants made threats to the community, member of local peace committee says

(CNN) -- The death toll climbed to 93 on Saturday after a suicide car bomb exploded Friday in the middle of a group of men playing volleyball in northwest Pakistan, police said.

Thirty-four others who were injured in the attack remained hospitalized Saturday, said Mohammed Ayub Khan, police chief of the Lakki Marwat district. Those killed included at least six children, and most of the other victims were teenagers who were watching the volleyball game, he added. People who lived near the volleyball court also were among the casualties.

The attack happened in a residential neighborhood in the village of Shah Hassan Khel -- also called Lakki Marwat -- in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, said district police officer Asmat Ullah. The village is about 16 kilometers (10 miles) south of the district capital.

Eight houses in the neighborhood collapsed, and the blast was felt 11 miles (18 kilometers) away, the police chief said.

Volleyball is a popular sport in the area, and more than 200 people were watching the game when the bomb went off, the chief said.

Authorities thought a pickup was loaded with more than 600 pounds of explosives (300 kilograms), Khan said.

The area used to be a hub for militants before the military flushed them out about two months ago, the chief said. Since then, militants have been threatening the community, Mushtaq Marwatt, a member of a local peace committee, said on a local TV channel.

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


[World]
January 2, 2010
Somali pirates hijack fourth vessel in a week
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
> UK Foreign Office: No British nationals aboard British-flagged Asian Glory
> Somali pirates seized Singaporean-flagged chemical tanker M/V Pramoni Friday
> Two other vessels -- one British-flagged, the other Greek-owned -- taken in past week

(CNN) -- Pirates off Somalia have hijacked two more vessels in the Gulf of Aden, the European Union naval force said Saturday -- the third and fourth vessels they have captured this week.

The British-flagged Asian Glory was seized off Somalia late Friday, the naval force said. The nationality of the pirates was unclear, because the hijacking happened outside of the force's operations area, it said.

The British Foreign Office would not confirm the hijacking, but said no British nationals were aboard.

Also Friday, Somali pirates seized the Singaporean-flagged chemical tanker M/V Pramoni, also in the Gulf of Aden, the naval force said. The 20,000-ton chemical tanker was carrying a crew of 24 and was heading to Kandla, India, when attacked, the naval force said.

The crew consists of 17 Indonesians, five Chinese, one Nigerian and one Vietnamese, the naval force said. The ship's master reported all the crew were well after the hijacking, the naval force said.

The ship was heading toward Somalia after the hijacking, the naval force said.

The Asian Glory is owned by London-based Zodiac Maritime Agencies, according to Lloyd's Register of Ships. Zodiac also owns another vessel that was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden, the British-flagged chemical tanker St. James Park, according to the company's Web site.

The St. James Park has a crew of 26, consisting of Bulgarians, Filipinos, Georgians, Indians, Poles, Romanians, Russians, Turks and Ukrainians, the EU naval force said.

The vessel had arrived at the Somali port of Hobyo, a pirate stronghold, the naval force said Saturday.

Monday, pirates also hijacked the Greek-owned carrier Navios Apollon, the naval force said.

It had been heading for Thailand, but was on its way to the Somali coast after the hijacking, it said.


[World]
January 2, 2010
Suspect in cartoonist attack appears in court
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
> Police say they shot suspect outside home of cartoonist Kurt Westergaard
> Westergaard known for controversial cartoons of Muslim prophet Mohammed
> Danish officials say suspect connected to al Qaeda ally in Africa

(CNN) -- The suspect in a break-in at the home of a controversial Danish political cartoonist appeared in court Saturday, charged with attempted assassination, the Danish Intelligence and Security Service said.

Danish police say they shot a man Friday night he tried to enter the Aarhus, Denmark, home of Kurt Westergaard, who is known for his controversial depictions of the Muslim prophet Mohammed.

The suspect was shot in the right leg and left hand and hospitalized after the incident, police said. Video showed him appearing at court strapped onto a stretcher on Saturday.

Authorities did not identify the suspect because the judge decided it would be illegal to disclose his name, said Chief Superintendent Ole Madsen with the East Jutland Police. Authorities said he was a 28-year-old Somali who has legal residency in Denmark and lives in Sjaelland, near Copenhagen.

The suspect was charged with the attempted assassination of Westergaard and a police officer on duty, the intelligence service said. He was allegedly armed with an ax and a knife.

The judge ordered the suspect held for four weeks while the investigation proceeds.

Madsen said the man is the only suspect in the case, and he would not say whether police were investigating anyone else.

Police had no indication that an attack was being planned on Westergaard, Madsen said, though the intelligence service said the suspect had been under surveillance because of his terrorist links.

Police said the suspect managed to crack the glass front door of Westergaard's home. A home alarm alerted police to the scene at 10 p.m. (4 p.m. ET), and they were attacked by the suspect, authorities said.

Danish intelligence officials said the suspect is connected to al-Shabaab, al Qaeda's ally in east Africa.

The incident "once again confirms the terrorist threat that is directed against Denmark and against cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, in particular," said Jakob Scharf, spokesman for the Danish Security and Intelligence Service.

Westergaard's caricature of Mohammed -- showing the prophet wearing a bomb as a turban with a lit fuse -- sparked an uproar among Muslims in early 2006 after newspapers reprinted the images months later as a matter of free speech. The cartoon was first published by the Danish newspaper Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten in September 2005.

At the time, Westergaard said he wanted his cartoon to say that some people exploited the prophet to legitimize terrorism. However, many in the Muslim world interpreted the drawing as depicting their prophet as a terrorist.

Over the years, Danish authorities have arrested other suspects who allegedly plotted against Westergaard's life.

After three such arrests in February 2008, Westergaard issued a statement, saying, "Of course I fear for my life after the Danish Security and Intelligence Service informed me of the concrete plans of certain people to kill me. However, I have turned fear into anger and indignation. It has made me angry that a perfectly normal everyday activity which I used to do by the thousand was abused to set off such madness."

Scharf said authorities have taken measures to ensure Westergaard's safety, and that the protection has "proven effective."

news20100102reut

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Alberto Alerigi Jr.
SAO PAULO
Fri Jan 1, 2010 2:44pm EST
Brazil mudslides, floods kill 44 after heavy rain
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Mudslides and flooding killed at least 44 people in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro state and authorities said on Friday that the death toll could climb with more heavy rains in the forecast.

Twenty-two people were found dead on Friday after a small hotel and surrounding homes collapsed in the beach resort of Angra dos Reis, one of Brazil's most exclusive tourism destinations, the Rio de Janeiro state's civil defense said.

Television footage showed the Sankay hotel and a number of homes in Angra buried under a mountain of mud. Rescue teams, aided by helicopters and navy boats, were struggling to reach the area where the hotel collapsed, Pedro Machado, head of the firefighters' corps, told GloboNews television.

Civil defense authorities said about 40 people were registered at the hotel. They told Reuters heavy rains forecast for the coming days could make rescue work harder and trigger more mudslides.

"Rescue crews told us there is just so much mud and water there which, coupled with that fact that the site is one of very difficult access, force them to remove all the mud manually basically, without the aid of heavy equipment," a civil defense spokeswoman said in a phone interview.

On Thursday, a heavy downpour that triggered mudslides and floods killed as many as 19 people across Rio state, Brazil's third most populous.

Rio has Brazil's biggest oil reserves and is a top tourism destination. Angra, the Ilha Grande island and other cities on the coast are often visited by foreigners at this time of the year.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva offered Rio state authorities immediate assistance from navy patrols to help speed up rescue efforts, state Vice Governor Luiz Fernando Pezao told GloboNews.

Local media said most of the deaths in prior days occurred as shacks located in some poor areas collapsed. Heavy rain was forecast for greater Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's second-largest city.

Intense rainfall also triggered mudslides along some points of the Rio-Santos highway, with traffic halted near the historic city of Paraty, authorities said.

(Reporting by Alberto Alerigi Jr.; Writing by Guillermo Parra-Bernal; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Eric Beech)


[Green Business]
VATICAN CITY
Fri Jan 1, 2010 1:17pm EST
Pope urges lifestyle changes to save environment
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict used his traditional New Year address on Friday to call on people to change their lifestyles to save the planet, saying environmental responsibility was essential for global peace.

Recalling that world leaders had gathered in Copenhagen last month for the U.N. climate conference, the pope said action at a personal and community level was just as important to safeguard the environment.

"Nevertheless, in this moment, I would like to underline the importance of the choices of individuals, families and local administrations in preserving the environment," the Pope told the thousands of faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square.

"An objective shared by all, an indispensable condition for peace, is that of overseeing the earth's natural resources with justice and wisdom."

The pope, who had a scare last week when a woman with a history of mental problems knocked him down during Christmas Eve mass, also said "ecological responsibility" should be taught as part of the education syllabus.

The pope and his predecessor John Paul have put the Vatican firmly on an environmentalist footing. Last month, in a message sent to heads of state and international organizations, the pope called on rich nations to acknowledge responsibility for the environmental crisis and shed consumerism.

(Writing by Deepa Babington, editing by Tim Pearce)


[Green Business]
Pedro Fonseca
RIO DE JANEIRO
Sat Jan 2, 2010 10:26am EST
Brazil death toll from floods, mudslides rises to 64
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Rescue crews on Saturday intensified the search for victims at a plush Brazilian beach resort ravaged by mudslides and flooding that have killed at least 64 people in three states.

Firefighters waded through mountains of mud and sifted through the remains of a lodge and homes that were destroyed in the early hours of Friday when a hillside collapsed in the luxury beach resort of Angra dos Reis, removing 35 bodies, authorities said.

Angra dos Reis, the nearby island of Ilha Grande and other towns on the southern coast of Rio de Janeiro state are a magnet for local and foreign tourists over the New Year's holiday.

Heavy rain also left several cities without power in the state of Sao Paulo, where six tourists died in a mudslide in the town of Cunha.

At least three people died because of mudslides in Juiz de Fora, a city in Minas Gerais state.

In Rio de Janeiro state, where Brazil has most of its oil reserves and has long been the nation's flagship tourist destination, the death toll climbed to 55, authorities said.

"The weather is improving, which helps us with the search, but we won't rest as long as we suspect that there are more bodies underneath the remains," said Colonel Jerri Andrade of Angra's firefighters corps and who is overseeing the search.

Television footage showed the Sankay lodge and surrounding homes in Angra buried under a mountain of reddish-brown mud. Access to the area, known as Praia do Bananal, remained difficult as roads and the beach were covered with mud and trees from the collapsed hillside.

The lodge, which can accommodate up to 50 people, was reportedly full at the time of the disaster. Victims included the 18-year-old daughter of the lodge's owners, according to O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper.

So far, there have been no reports of any foreign victims.

Earlier in the day, rainfall subsided and rescue teams, aided by helicopters and navy vessels, managed to reach the area to remove more bodies, Andrade said.

Despite the break in the weather, heavy rains are forecast for the coming days, which could make rescue work harder and trigger more mudslides, authorities said. One state that could be hit by a lengthy downpour is Parana in Brazil's south, O Globo newspaper reported on Saturday.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pledged federal assistance to Rio state Governor Sergio Cabral, who flew over the region early on Saturday to assess the damage.

Intense rainfall triggered mudslides along some points of the Rio-Santos highway, with traffic halted near the historic city of Paraty.

In some parts of Rio state, it rained more in the last four days than it normally does in a month.

(Additional reporting and writing by Guillermo Parra-Bernal; Editing by Todd Benson and Eric Beech)