news20100103jt

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

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Sunday, Jan. 3, 2010
Shoppers in rush for 'lucky bags'
Kyodo News

Major department stores across the country kicked off business for 2010 on Saturday, with "lucky bags" at low prices gaining in popularity as consumers search out bargains amid the economic downturn.

Mitsukoshi Ltd.'s flagship store in Tokyo's Nihonbashi district in Chuo Ward opened at 9:45 a.m., 15 minutes earlier than scheduled, as about 8,000 people were lined up in front of the store.

The Mitsukoshi store said it prepared a total of 50,000 lucky bags. Among them, bags which were sold for 10,500 were especially popular. Each bag contained a down coat, a sweater and other items, and most of the 1,200 bags sold out in the morning, Mitsukoshi said.

"I'm usually careful about spending money, so reasonably priced lucky bags with items that are in good quality are helpful," said a 50-year-old housewife who was shopping at the store.

At Takashimaya Co.'s flagship Nihonbashi store, some customers lined up before dawn and rushed to buy lucky bags on the food floor after the store opened.

"Practical lucky bags and items are very popular," a Takashimaya official said. "Consumers are expected to continue limiting their budget."


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Sunday, Jan. 3, 2010
Double-dip recession forecast by big firms
Kyodo News

Nearly 40 percent of major companies in a survey said that the economy is "highly likely" or "likely" to fall into a double-dip recession, according to results compiled Saturday.

The survey of 109 leading companies, conducted from late November through mid-December, found that 40 firms, or 37 percent of those surveyed, anticipate a further downturn in economic activity. The survey covered companies including Canon Inc., Nippon Steel Corp., Nippon Oil Corp., Sony Corp., Toyota Motor Corp. and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc.

In reply to a multiple response question about their reasons for the pessimistic outlook, 26 of the 40 companies attributed it to the yen's appreciation. In addition, 24 firms replied that the effects of stimulus measures adopted by the government will wane, while 23 referred to deepening deflation.

Asked when they expect a double-dip recession to strike, 21 companies responded between January and March, while 16 replied between April and June.

However, 56 of the 109 companies, or about 51 percent, said they expect the domestic economy to stage a full-scale rally in the second half of 2010.

With regard to the economic policy of the Democratic Party of Japan-led government, 48 companies want to see a clear road map toward medium and long-term growth.

Among other survey findings, 20 companies are planning to cut back on capital spending in fiscal 2010, while 33 firms are considering workforce reductions.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Sunday, Jan. 3, 2010
Watches worth 300 million stolen in Ginza
Kyodo News

Some 200 high-end watches worth around 300 million in total were stolen from a jewelry store in Tokyo's Ginza shopping district, police said Saturday.

An opening had been made in the first floor wall of the building housing the Tenshodo jewelry store, leading to a staircase going down to the store's basement, where the watches were kept.

Security cameras recorded two intruders carrying flashlights at around 4:50 a.m. Saturday. The infrared sensors in the basement did not go off.

Police said the broken showcases were in an area not covered by the sensors, leading them to suspect someone familiar with the store's security system may have been involved.

The opening was apparently dug from the outside, even though the neighboring building is only 70 cm away. Both the concrete outer wall and plaster inner wall had openings 50 cm high and 80 cm wide, police said.

Inside the store, the showcases displaying Rolex and other luxury brand watches were found broken into, they said. A male employee who came to the store Saturday morning found the break-in and alerted the police.

The building employs security guards who are stationed 24 hours a day. Police said a guard had patrolled the store at 4:20 p.m. Friday.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Sunday, Jan. 3, 2010
DPJ set to streamline Japan Post group firm
Kyodo News

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

Streamlining 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., would operate under the wing of the merged company as the plan envisions trimming the number of group firms from five to three.

Haraguchi and Shizuka Kamei, state minister for 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 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.

Kamei, who also heads the DPJ's coalition partner, Kokumin Shinto (People's New Party), has been a staunch opponent of the privatization process Koizumi led and has been keen on reshaping the Japan Post group.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Sunday, Jan. 3, 2010
Toyota eyes hybrid production at new Miyagi plant from 2011

NAGOYA (Kyodo) Toyota Motor Corp. plans to produce hybrid vehicles at a new assembly plant in Miyagi Prefecture that will start operating in 2011, sources said Friday.

Toyota intends to manufacture a Vitz-class subcompact hybrid model at the Miyagi plant in Ohira, which would become a key domestic production hub for gasoline-electric cars, along with its factories in Aichi and Fukuoka prefectures.

Central Motor Co., a Toyota subsidiary, will run the Ohira 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 and boast 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.

news20100103gdn

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Business]
Gordon Brown to launch £100bn wind energy programme
Crown Estate to announce which consortia will develop the nine zones cited for the project
Tim Webb
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 3 January 2010 15.08 GMT Article history

Gordon Brown will this week launch a £100bn programme to build thousands of offshore wind turbines that could power most of Britain's households during strong winds and are crucial to meeting the country's renewable targets.

The Crown Estate will announce which consortia have been successful in bidding to develop the nine zones, mostly in the North Sea, in the project, which is the most ambitious of its kind in the world. The prime minister is expected to use the event to promote the potential economic benefits of the massive building works.

Bidders, which include the UK's big six energy suppliers, are being judged on their financial resources, expertise and safety record.

Many developers are privately sceptical about whether all the projects will be built by 2020 as planned because of the huge logistical and financial challenges involved. Dozens of smaller projects – including the London Array – have been delayed because of funding problems in recent years.

The projects will be bigger than anything which exists today in the UK or elsewhere. They will be further away from the coast and in deeper waters than existing offshore projects, making them more difficult and expensive to build and operate.

The biggest zone is at Dogger Bank, about 100km off the north east coast, where wind farms with a capacity of 10gw – enough to power 10m homes – are planned, at an estimated cost of more than £30bn.

Successful applicants will carry out further scoping work to decide where exactly to build the farms before submitting planning applications. Construction is not expected to start until 2014 at the earliest.

But the Crown Estate will not require developers to source a proportion of the turbines and other components from domestic manufacturers unlike other countries, including Spain and China.

The paucity of Britain's low carbon industry was exposed last year, when Dutch firm Vestas closed England's only turbine manufacturing plant.

A spokeswoman for the Crown Estate said the government body, which owns the UK's seabed, was holding a supply chain roadshow for British manufacturers around the country, starting later this month. Working with regional development authorities, companies will be informed what components will be needed by the energy companies to help British industry benefit from the construction programme.


[Environment > Endangered species]
Battle will be stepped up this year to save the tigerTigers top WWF list of 10 important endangered species as biodiversity campaign is launched
Robin McKie, science editor
The Observer, Sunday 3 January 2010 Article history

Scientists and conservationists are to intensify their efforts this year to save one of Earth's most powerful, and threatened, creatures: the tiger.

Biologists have placed Panthera tigris at the top of a list of 10 key animals facing extinction, which should become the focus for major conservation efforts in 2010, they say.

"This year has been designated the International Year of Biodiversity by the United Nations and so we have created a list of 10 critically important endangered animals that we believe will need special monitoring over the next 12 months," said Diane Walkington, head of species programme for the WWF in the UK. Animals on the WWF list include the polar bear and the giant panda.

"This year will also be the Chinese Year of the Tiger, and so we have put it at the top of our list," added Walkington. "It will have special iconic importance."

Over the past century, the world's population of tigers has been reduced by 95% as a result of hunting and poaching for their body parts, which are used in traditional Asian medicine. There are only around 3,200 tigers left on the planet.

Of its nine main sub-species, three – the Bali, Caspian and Java tigers – are now extinct, while there has been no reliable siting of a fourth, the South China tiger, for 25 years. This leaves the Bengal, Amur, Indochinese, Sumatran and Malayan tigers, the numbers of which, with the exception of the Bengal and Indochinese, have been reduced to a few hundred per species.

In recent years conservationists have achieved some noticeable success in halting the decline in tiger numbers. For example, they helped to halt hunting of the Amur tiger, which lives in eastern Russia. Its numbers had dropped to a few dozen. Today there are around 500 Amur tigers, thanks to conservation measures introduced by the Russian government.

"It showed we could help the tiger," said Walkington.

However, over the past two or three years, levels of poaching have risen again while habitat problems have added to the stress on tiger numbers.

For example, sea level rises – caused by climate change – are now threatening the mangrove homes of tigers in the Sunderbans regions of Bangladesh and India. Hence the international decision to redouble efforts to save the tiger this year. "Of course, there are thousands of other species on the endangered list," added Walkington. "However, there is particular importance in selecting a creature such as the tiger for special attention.

"To save the tiger, we have to save its habitat – which is also home to many other threatened species.

"So if we get things right and save the tiger, we will also save many other species at the same time."


[Environment > Endangered species]
Sweden's wolf hunting ban lifted
Associated Press
The Observer, Sunday 3 January 2010 Article history

For the first time since 1966, Sweden has licensed the hunting of wolves to keep their population down at a controllable level. The month-long hunt began yesterday and allows the killing of 27 animals following a parliamentary decision to keep their numbers below 210. Sweden stopped issuing hunting licences when the predator was near extinction, but numbers have subsequently recovered and there are now believed to be between 182 and 217 wolves in the country.

news20100103reut

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Maxim Duncan
BEIJING
Sun Jan 3, 2010 8:28am EST
Heavy snow brings Beijing to standstill
BEIJING (Reuters) - Heavy snow hit Beijing on Sunday, stranding thousands of passengers at the main airport and casting an unusual quiet over normally busy streets as people stayed out of the freezing weather.

More than 90 percent of flights at Beijing's Capital International Airport, the country's busiest, were canceled or delayed, state television said, with only one of its three runways open.

Airports in the nearby cities of Tianjin, Hohhot and Dalian closed, the report added.

Many of the highways out of Beijing were shut, with several centimeters of snow blanketing roads and temperatures expected to touch lows of -16 Celsius (3.20F).

The last time northern China was hit by a spell of snow storms in November food prices spiked due to delivery difficulties, driving up inflation unexpectedly that month.

The latest snowstorm and the likelihood roads may stay backlogged for several days could fuel fresh worries about inflation. State radio said some vegetable prices had begun to rise following the snow.

Long lines formed at the airport terminal in Beijing as passengers waited to rearrange their flights or get taxis or buses out. On the Tarmac, workers in orange jackets shoveled snow and ice from around grounded aircraft.

Passengers expressed resignation.

"I came very early to catch my plane because I knew it was going to snow," said Xiao Guo. "I hoped to come early and get through the check-in process and see what time the plane would leave, but according to the airport it will not leave today."

Schools in Beijing will be closed on Monday. The city set 300,000 people to work clearing away snow.

HEAVIER SNOW

On one highway into Beijing from Hebei province police stopped trucks on the roadside, causing lengthy queues. Several had jack-knifed off the road.

The government mobilized almost 200 snow-clearing vehicles to keep traffic flowing downtown, Xinhua news agency said, and upgraded the snowstorm alert from blue to yellow.

"The yellow alert means that the snowfall is going to turn heavier," Xinhua quoted Guo Hu, Beijing's chief meteorologist, as saying.

The snow is expected to stop falling in Beijing on Monday, but temperatures are likely to drop further, with lows of around -20 Celsius, forecasters said.

Beijing, which over the past few years has seen little winter snow, has experienced several falls so far this season, including at least one man-made snowstorm to help ease a prolonged drought.

The weather is also affecting large swathes of the rest of northern and northeastern China, with snow and plunging temperatures expected to continue into the first full week of the new year, according to weather forecasts.

(Additional reporting by James Tong, Simon Rabinovitch and Li Jiansheng; Writing by Ben Blanchard)


[Green Business]
SAO PAULO
Sun Jan 3, 2010 9:00am EST
Death toll from Brazil mudslides rises to 76
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - At least 76 people have died in flooding and mudslides in Brazil's three largest states over the past four days, O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper reported on Sunday.

The death toll in the state of Rio de Janeiro rose to 63. Firefighters and rescue workers removed 18 bodies from 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, the newspaper said, citing authorities.

Ten people died in Sao Paulo state, the country's most populous. Three people died in Minas Gerais as heavy rains triggered flooding and landslides.

Rescue crews spent Saturday and early Sunday searching for victims in Angra, where up to 41 people have been found dead, Estado said. The government is advising tourists to leave Angra, the nearby island of Ilha Grande and other tourist towns on the southern coast of Rio state.

Television footage showed rescue workers removing mud around the Sankay lodge and surrounding homes that were buried under a mountain of reddish-brown mud.

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

After an early break in the weather on Sunday, heavy rains are forecast for the coming days.

(Reporting by Guillermo Parra-Bernal in Sao Paulo and Isabel Versiani in Brasilia, editing by Alan Elsner)


[Green Business]
BOGOTA
Sat Jan 2, 2010 11:34pm EST
Colombian volcano erupts, evacuation ordered
BOGOTA (Reuters) - The Galeras volcano in southern Colombia erupted on Saturday, shooting rock and ash and prompting authorities to order the evacuation of about 8,000 people.

No one was killed or injured in the eruption. But officials warned that the volcano could remain volatile.

Galeras, located in the Andes mountains near Colombia's border with Ecuador, erupted 10 times in 2009. Most people living in the vicinity have grown used to the alerts and refuse to evacuate when ordered to by local authorities.

Thousands of revelers celebrating the annual Black and White Carnival in the nearby city of Pasto were startled by Saturday's eruption but the festivities carried on.

A massive eruption of the Galeras volcano killed 10 people in 1993.

(Reporting by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Doina Chiacu)


[Green Business]
BEIJING
Sun Jan 3, 2010 9:43am EST
China battles to stop diesel polluting Yellow River
BEIJING (Reuters) - More than 700 people are battling to prevent up a leak of around 150,000 liters of diesel oil spilled into a Chinese river from reaching the Yellow River 70 kilometers away, state media said on Sunday.

The leak, from a pipeline owned by China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) in northwestern Shaanxi province, was discovered on Wednesday, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The company immediately closed the pipeline when the accident happened, the report added, but not before some of the diesel ended up in the Weihe River, a tributary of the Yellow River, a major water source for millions of people.

"The company has built 23 blocking belts on the rivers and the local government built three more dams to prevent leaked oil from flowing into the Yellow River," Xinhua said.

"A 700-people crew has been working on the clean-up. So far, much of the leaked oil and polluted silt has already been taken away," it added, citing the company as its source.

But diesel has been detected in the water 33 km from the leak, Xinhua said, and residents have been warned against using any of the river water.

"Preliminary investigation showed that the pipeline damage was caused by construction work of a third party," it further quoted the company as saying, without elaborating.

China periodically faces spills into rivers that result in water supplies being cut off, most seriously in 2005 when an explosion at an industrial plant sent toxic chemicals streaming into the Songhua river in northeastern city of Harbin, forcing the shutdown of water supplies to nearly 4 million people.

Run-off from heavy fertilizer use, industrial waste and untreated sewage also caused a foul-smelling algae bloom on a lake in the southern province of Jiangsu in 2007 that left tap water undrinkable in a city of more than 2 million.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Louise Ireland)