news20100104jt1

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

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Monday, Jan. 4, 2010
Transportation clogged as return travel peaks
Kyodo News

The New Year's return rush peaked Sunday with trains, airports and roads all packed with travelers coming back from hometowns or resorts in the early morning.

According to Japan Railway companies, reserved seats on Tokyo-bound bullet trains on the Tokaido Shinkansen Line were almost fully booked throughout the day, while all nonreserved seats were occupied on some of the Nozomi bullet trains from Fukuoka to Tokyo.

"I saw some passengers (without reserved seats) standing the entire way," office worker Yuta Ogawa said after his bullet train arrived at Tokyo Station. "But the situation this year seems less worse compared with the last time.

"I'm refreshed and ready to get back to work tomorrow," he added.

Japan Airlines Corp. said domestic flights to Tokyo's Haneda airport were booked at 99 percent of capacity, while All Nippon Airways Co. said its planes were 93 percent full.

At Narita International Airport in Chiba Prefecture, around 44,000 people returned from overseas on Sunday alone.

On Saturday, air traffic to and from Hokkaido was severely disrupted by heavy snow that forced the cancellation of 37 flights at New Chitose Airport near Sapporo.

Motorists heading toward Tokyo also faced headaches. On the Tomei Expressway, traffic was backed up 18 km at 9:30 a.m. around the Hamamatsu interchange, while a 13-km jam developed near the Yui rest area, both in Shizuoka Prefecture, the Japan Road Traffic Information Center said.

Backups were expected to be even worse in the afternoon and the evening, the center said, predicting traffic jams stretching 45 km long at several points on the Tomei and Kyushu expressways.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Monday, Jan. 4, 2010
Blizzard traps seven climbers on Gifu peak

GIFU (Kyodo) Seven climbers were caught in a blizzard on 1,996-meter Mount Terachi in Hida, Gifu Prefecture, but a rescue attempt had to wait until Monday morning at the earliest, police said.

The party of five men and two women were reportedly unable to move Sunday due to heavy snow and called for help by cell phone. They are believed to be near the summit of the peak, which is part of the Northern Japan Alps, the police said.

The climbers, in their 30s to 50s, were apparently in good health, the police said without elaborating.

They were identified as Tetsuya Yamada, 55, Yoshinobu Ando, 39, Tatsuya Iguchi, 48, Yohiko Kaneuchi, 36, Noboru Kawai, 42, Jun Koyano, 33, and Junko Hongo, 50. Yamada is a trekking guide.

The party set out Tuesday with plans to return Saturday.

The incident is the latest in a string of mountain-climbing mishaps that took place over the New Year's holidays.

On Saturday, three climbers went missing on 3,190-meter Mount Okuhotakadake, Japan's third-highest peak. The mountain straddles Gifu and Nagano prefectures and is also part of the Northern alps.

Bad weather forced the Gifu police to suspend rescue operations, and they are waiting for conditions to improve.

The police identified the three as Mitsuru Honjyo, 59, Mikio Zenitani, 52, and Aiko Irie, 58, all of Kobe.

They started climbing Tuesday and were scheduled to descend Thursday, the police said.

An alpine club in Kobe said it had lost contact with the three climbers.

Meanwhile, a married couple from the city of Shizuoka climbing in the Southern Japan Alps requested help Saturday afternoon by radio, the Shizuoka Prefectural Police said.

Yoshitaka Kakegawa, 44, is believed to have suffered minor frostbite and his wife, Hiroyo, 45, couldn't move due to exhaustion, the police said. They began searching for the couple Sunday morning.

A Saitama Prefecture climber who was with them safely descended the Nagano side on Saturday, the police said.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Monday, Jan. 4, 2010
Tokyo shelter takes in 833 displaced people
Kyodo News

The number of out-of-work people taking shelter at a facility provided by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government for the New Year's holidays rose Sunday to 833, officials said.

Although the shelter at the National Olympics Memorial Youth Center in Shibuya Ward will close Monday morning, the city plans to continue offering food and accommodations at capsule hotels and other facilities, the officials said.

Tokyo is also continuing to help them apply for welfare benefits or find work, they said.

The shelter was opened Dec. 28 at the expense of the central government. A year ago, antipoverty campaigners felt compelled to set up a tent village in Tokyo's Hibiya Park that ended up sheltering around 500 unemployed people who had lost their homes amid the recession that started in fall 2008, prompting criticism of government inaction.

On Friday, the city only expected about 500 people to show.

Last year's tent village spotlighted the social problem of temporary workers who were being ousted from company dormitories after their employers suddenly terminated their contracts to cut costs.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Monday, Jan. 4, 2010
Boyle scores big ratings for NHK
Kyodo News

"Kohaku Utagassen," ("Red and White Yearend Song Festival"), the annual TV music extravaganza shown by NHK on New Year's Eve, drew 40.8 percent of viewers in the Kanto region when British talent show upstart Susan Boyle appeared, according to rating firm Video Research Ltd.

Boyle, the breakout star of "Britain's Got Talent," appeared as a special guest for the show's 60th installment, singing her hit "I Dreamed a Dream" in the 9 p.m. to 11:45 p.m. portion of the two-part program.

Although the second segment of the show secured more than 40 percent of viewers for the second year in a row, viewership was down 1.3 points from last year.

The first segment, which started at 7:15 p.m., secured a 37.1 percent rating, up 1.4 points to secure its third consecutive year of gain.

news20100104jt2

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

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Monday, Jan. 4, 2010
LOOMING CHALLENGES
Universities must look abroad to reverse Japan's brain drain
By NATSUKO FUKUE
Staff writer

Japan appears to be suffering from brain drain. Examples include chemist Osamu Shimomura and physicist Yoichiro Nambu, both of whom won Nobel Prizes in 2008 for research conducted in U.S. universities.

Japan is not the ideal place to seek employment for some postdoctoral researchers. According to a study conducted by Masako Asano of Osaka Prefecture University, 41 percent of postdocs in particle physics leave Japan to get jobs because there aren't enough here to go around.

But Japan's public universities rate quite well internationally, according to the evaluation committee on national universities, part of the education ministry.

Six universities were ranked among the world's best by Quacquarelli Symonds Ltd. in 2009, including the University of Tokyo (22nd) and Kyoto University (25th).

"Japanese universities are greatly advanced, particularly in natural science research," said Motohisa Kaneko, an education professor at the University of Tokyo, otherwise known as Todai.

"For example, the number of papers (in the natural sciences) submitted for publication to academic journals is the second most after Harvard," he said, adding he thinks Todai got a lower ranking than it deserves.

According to Norimichi Kojima, an executive vice president at the University of Tokyo, scientific research there gets high marks overseas. Although its work in the humanities is also highly rated, Todai isn't as well-recognized in this field because some publications are issued only in Japanese.

"The University of Tokyo is one of the top research-oriented universities, and we educate what we call elites in the country," said Akihiko Tanaka, another executive vice president there. "Forty-four percent of the (current) DPJ Cabinet came from our university. Sometimes we're also criticized for this, but many of our graduates also work in the ministries and courthouses."

Despite the wide recognition, Todai is still struggling to bring in more undergraduate female and international students.

"Female students account for only 20 percent of the university," said Kojima. "More female students are entering the humanities, but not the physics or mathematics departments."

Among 2,550 foreign students, more than 2,000 are doing postgraduate work because some postgraduate studies are conducted in English.

Tanaka, part of the Global 30 project to bring more foreign students to Japan, said postgraduate students from overseas are more common in research-oriented universities. To lure more international students to its undergraduate programs, the University of Tokyo will start a program in two years conducted solely in English, he said.

Tanaka said Chinese and Korean students have relatively high incentives to come to Todai, but more scholarships are needed to attract students from all over the world. "That's what American universities are doing, so students with excellent academic backgrounds tend to go there," he said.

Meanwhile, the University of Hong Kong, which ranked 24th in the QS list of top universities, has been providing major financial assistance to both undergraduate and postgraduate students.

"The chances of scholarship are high compared with other universities around the world," John Spinks, chairman of the admissions committee at Hong Kong University, said in a recent interview with The Japan Times.

"Scholarship provision is good. We have at least two major sources. One is government. We also have a number of private donors who are very keen to see their donations used directly for students," he added.

All research students at Hong Kong University receive a grant that includes fees for daily necessities. According to pro-vice chancellor Paul Tam, funding for postgraduate students comes from the government, and "HKU has been most successful among local institutions in obtaining external competitive research funding for projects and large programs."

However, he says research and development funds in Hong Kong are low, reaching only 0.79 percent of GDP, compared with an average of 2 percent to 4 percent in developed countries. "An increase of funding is much needed," he said in an e-mail message.

While its academic and research achievement ranked much lower than Todai, Hong Kong University succeeds in creating a more international environment for students.

Including students from mainland China, international students occupy 26.2 percent at the school, more than double the percentage at the University of Tokyo.

In 1999, Hong Kong University began sending faculty staff to China to raise its visibility and to interview candidates. From 2005 onward, they started working in neighboring countries like Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, and then went to Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to get information out this year, Spinks said.

The university is also using YouTube and Facebook to reach potential candidates over the Internet.

"(The international campus environment) helps students develop more global competences, a set of skills required in today's world," Spinks said.

In Japan, although universities are trying to promote "internationalization," the number of outbound exchange students has fallen in recent years, according to Kaneko of the University of Tokyo.

"I think a one-year exchange program has an educational effect on students," but only 3 percent of undergraduate students at Todai study abroad, he said.

Kaneko also thinks Japanese universities don't rank high partly because professors lack international networks with other researchers around the world and aren't quoted very much.

{{Highest-rated schools in '09}
1. Harvard University
2. University of Cambridge
3. Yale University
4. University College London
5. Imperial College London
6.University of Oxford
7. University of Chicago
8. Princeton University
3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
10.California Institute of Technology
SOURCE: Quacquarelli Symonds Ltd.}

"While professors in EU countries have their network, Japan and other East Asian countries don't really have regional networks," Kaneko said.

But he believes the current concept of higher education itself is the major problem now facing Japanese universities.

"It's becoming more difficult for young people to have prospects for the future," he said. "They don't know what they want to do. I think we should redefine the concept of university education."

According to him, university education in Japan is targeted at students who want to pursue postgraduate studies and gives them autonomy for doing what they want to do. But there has been a great mismatch between students and the labor market recently, he said.

"Companies used to train university graduates, saying university education isn't particularly useful, but they don't anymore," he said. "Business people complain about university education, but they themselves don't know what kind of competences students need."

Kaneko argues that it is convenient for employers to criticize university graduates because they can control the starting salaries.

"The starting salary for university graduates (in Japan) is one of the lowest in developed countries. That for science majors is about half of that in the U.S.," he said.

news20100104jt3

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

[BUSINESS NEWS]
Sunday, Jan. 3, 2010
LOOMING CHALLENGES
Makers take local approach in global markets
By KAZUAKI NAGATA
Staff writer
Second in a series

Although Japanese electronics enjoy a widespread reputation for high quality and stylish design, electronics makers no longer seem able to maintain their presence in the global market by simply relying on these elements.

Until recently, many makers focused on targeting wealthy overseas consumers who were willing to pay for high quality and expensive Japanese products.

But given the shrinking domestic market and lackluster consumption in developed countries, they have begun switching their attention to middle-class consumers in emerging nations. Accordingly, they have started making efforts to produce simpler and more affordable products for middle-class workers in those countries.

Such consumers are often referred to as the "volume zone," and it is believed that about 1 billion people worldwide fall into this category.

While it won't be easy due to the fierce competition from other Asian electronics makers, analysts agree that winning a leading share of emerging markets is key to the growth of Japan Inc. in the coming years.

Take Panasonic Corp., whose sales revenues came equally from the domestic and overseas markets over the past 10 years, but is now aiming to raise overseas sales to 60 percent.

"When thinking about the potential for growth, it is not very good that 50 percent of our sales come from the domestic market, which won't grow bigger due to the falling birthrate," said Akira Kadota, manager of overseas media relations at Panasonic.

Until recently, the company's main overseas target was wealthy consumers.

"This has contributed to enhancing Panasonic's brand image, but the portion of the wealthy class is only about 5 percent to 7 percent of a country's population (on average), so it won't really boost our sales," said Kadota, adding that it is now essential to reach emerging nations' middle classes to increase overseas sales.

Panasonic plans to focus on the growing middle class in what are known as the BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China — as well as Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, Turkey and the Balkan states.

To win a bigger slice of the pie in these markets, products need to be simpler and more affordable. At the same time, they have to be closely connected to the lifestyle of the locals in the market, Kadota said.

To achieve this, Panasonic has been localizing the manufacturing procedure as much as possible, such as creating overseas research and development centers to analyze the needs of local consumers.

The company first targeted Indonesia, which has a population of 240 million and where about 70 percent of households spend less than $200 a month. About 30 percent of the population already own a refrigerator, and the demand is growing.

To test the waters for refrigerators in the volume zone, Panasonic in November 2009 began selling one-door versions in Indonesia, made based on the company's research of local needs.

According to the company, 70 percent of Indonesia's refrigerator owners use one-door models. Panasonic workers visited local households and found out that people were asking for a bigger space for bottles and vegetables.

"Reaching the volume zone is not just a shift of marketing policy. We think that we need to be committed as if we were changing the whole company's function," Kadota said.

Panasonic is not alone in pursuing a bigger share in overseas markets.

Sharp Corp., which enjoys the largest shares of the refrigerator and microwave markets in Indonesia, will be strengthening its marketing and sales efforts in countries like Vietnam, India and Thailand, where such efforts to date have been insufficient, according to the company.

Like Panasonic, Sharp also said it is important to analyze the demands of local markets and manufacture products that fit their needs, adding that the company aims to differentiate its products from rivals with energy-saving technology in some regions.

"(The volume zone) is a market that is expected to grow, so I think it is the right direction to target such a market," said Hiroshi Sakai, chief analyst at SMBC Friend Research Center.

But they are facing tough competition from other Asian makers, including Samsung Electronics Inc. and LG Electronics Inc.

Sakai said it is true that Japanese electronics makers are lagging South Korean makers in the field of general home appliances in emerging nations.

"South Korean makers have been making efforts in these markets (before Japanese makers), and I think their efforts are blooming now," he said.

According to U.S. market research firm DisplaySearch, Samsung was No. 1 by revenue share of worldwide TV brands with 21.9 percent, while LG ranked second with 12.9 percent, in the 2009 third quarter.

Another U.S. technology market researcher, ABI Research, found that Samsung was ranked second and LG third in the worldwide cell phone market in 2008.

In the computer-related market, Taiwan makers' presence grew rapidly worldwide during the 1990s, when U.S. computer makers created a production structure under which products are designed in the U.S. but manufactured in Taiwan.

In October, IT advisory firm Gartner Inc. announced that Acer moved up to second place for the first time with a 15.4 percent share of the global market in the third quarter of 2009.

While Toshiba Corp. had the world's No. 1 laptop share in the 1990s, its presence has weakened as mainstream computers shifted from desktop to laptop models and more companies started focusing on laptops.

Masahiko Fukakushi, president and CEO of Toshiba's Personal Computer and Network Company, conceded that the firm was slow to make a move in emerging countries, having focused on the U.S. and European markets for a long time.

But the company is now set to expand shares in emerging nations with simpler and more affordable laptops.

According to Toshiba's business plan announced in August, the company aims to increase its share of China's computer market from 4 percent in fiscal 2008 to 7 percent in fiscal 2010 in terms of unit sales. Fukakushi also said the company will be making greater efforts in countries within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations zone with laptop computers that will cost less than $599.

"Our company has not really been able to manufacture products that are closely connected to local needs," said Fukakushi, adding that the company would like to regain the title of the world's top laptop maker.

Kanae Maita, principal analyst at Gartner Japan, said Toshiba's aim to expand shares in emerging nations will take a serious commitment that may require drastic changes in its business operation, which had previously targeted consumers in developed nations with high-quality products.

Maita pointed out that the laptop market has greatly changed compared to the time when Toshiba was the leading maker. One contributing factor is the rise of Taiwan's computer makers, such as Acer and AsusTek Computer Inc.

The strength of Taiwan's makers is even penetrating Japan's domestic computer market, where makers such as NEC Corp., Fujitsu Ltd. and Toshiba had enjoyed dominant positions because users demand high specification and multiple functions to simple products.

According to Tokyo-based MM Research Institute, Acer Japan was ranked sixth in the domestic computer market for the first half of fiscal 2009, even though the company had been outside the top 10 as recently as two years ago.

"We think Japanese laptops are too expensive," said Kazunobu Seto, manager of the marketing division of Acer Japan.

Seto explained that when comparing almost identical specifications of two laptops, and one is domestic and the other from Taiwan, the difference in price is up to about \70,000, indicating "Japan brand" products come at a premium.

The price difference appears to arise from the size of shipments.

Gartner's data shows Toshiba shipped about 13.5 million units in fiscal 2008. But Seto said Acer ships about 30 million worldwide, which enables the firm to sell its products at lower prices.

A similar phenomenon has been seen in other products, including automobiles. Japan's carmakers are also now competing to provide affordable products for locals in emerging markets, such as India.

Nissan Motor Co. announced last November that it plans to sell a model in India whose price will compete with Indian automaker Tata Motors' model priced at around \210,000. Suzuki Motor Corp. and Volkswagen AG also shocked market watchers by announcing a capital alliance to better equip themselves for the battles that lie ahead in the Indian market.

To compete with their rivals in Asia, analysts and industry insiders agree that Japanese manufacturers should not simply engage in a price war.

"(Targeting the volume zone) won't mean that we will be simply manufacturing low-priced products," Panasonic's Kadota said, adding that the products and marketing have to be closely connected to the lifestyle of locals in the market.

Sakai of SMBC Friend Research Center said simply offering cheaper products will also hurt the high-quality image of their products, and Japanese companies can still utilize the advanced technology they developed in the postwar years.

"So, it would be effective to manufacture products that enable them to use such technology to cater for local consumers' needs," Sakai said.

news20100104lat

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

[Environment]
By Robyn Dixon
January 4, 2010
Kenyan tribe slowly driven off its ancestral lands
First it was colonists who put the Ogiek on reserves in Mau Forest. After freedom corrupt officials drove them out as they set up farms. Now a reforestation effort has forced them even farther away.

Mau Forest, Kenya - For centuries, the little-known Ogiek people foraged wild honey and used bows and arrows to hunt gazelles in the Mau Forest of Kenya.

But recently, for the second time in 16 years, they were driven from their homes and are now living in makeshift bamboo-and-plastic tents at the side of the road in a valley that long ago was part of the forest.

Their plight casts a focus on Kenya's endemic corruption and its potentially catastrophic effect on a small, powerless tribe, and the rest of the nation.

The Ogieks were first dispossessed in the 1930s by British colonists, who set aside small forest reserves for them, while taking away most of their ancestral lands. Things got worse, however, after the nation won its independence.

In 1993, the tribe, now about 36,000-strong, was forced to the edge of the forest by corrupt businessmen and politicians, who with government complicity, bulldozed trees and planted tea, raking in profits. In Kenya's biggest rain catchment, rainfall declined sharply. Wetlands and lakes at the other end of the country also began dying, including the Nakuru Lake, famous for its flamingos.

In November, the Kenyan government finally acted to save the Mau Forest. The first step: Evict the Ogiek again -- this time from their villages near the edge of the forest.

According to the Kenyan government, there is no choice in the matter. To save the forest, everyone must move.

"If encroachment and unsustainable exploitation of the forest ecosystem continues, it will only be a matter of time before the entire ecosystem is irreversibly damaged with significant socio-economic consequences and ramifications to internal security and conflict," a Kenyan government report states.

It's one thing, planting new trees. But undoing the decades of damage means untangling corrupt land deals made years ago and declawing one of Kenya's most powerful political elites, taking back the land parceled out illegally. It means taking on former President Daniel Arap Moi, his family and cronies -- some of the biggest beneficiaries of the illicit land deals. Yet it also means more woes for Moi's victims.

In Kiptagich, in the Rift Valley, a huge tea factory looms like a medieval fortress, on land that was once filled with trees. Iridescent green tea plantations carpet the surrounding hills. (Kenya's Nation newspaper reports that the factory is owned by the Moi family.)

On a nearby hill there's a stretch of forlorn bamboo-and-plastic tents: the latest home of the Ogiek.

An old woman stirs a pot of beans under the plastic roof. A malarial child hovers between life and death under a rough gray blanket. A girl rocks a toddler. The fire smokes. Rain drips in.

Chepkurui Mutai's labor pains began the day police came to their home in Kurbanyat village, ordering them to leave. She and her husband, both members of the Ogiek tribe, did not resist.

"People didn't complain. We just left."

One Ogiek villager, Philip Ngeny, said police pushed the residents with the butts of their guns. People quietly packed up, gathered their children and left the same day.

As she struggled up the hill with her husband and four children, Mutai's labor pains grew worse.

"It was so painful, I just thought if the baby comes on the way, I'll have no choice. I'll just have to accept it," said the 29-year-old.

Her baby son was born the next day in the tent. A week later, her 3-year-old daughter fell ill with malaria.

"I'm feeling bad. You can see the way we're living. I blame this government of ours, which has removed us from our village."

Philip Ngeny grew up in the forest, surviving on the honey and gazelle meat. He explains how to dig up ground honey, from bees that live in the earth. He tells how the Ogiek built hives from hollow logs and smoked out the bees, warming the hive to draw out the honey.

He remembers the words of the tribal elders, who knew the boundaries of the Ogiek land as outlined by the British colonials.

"Our elders used to tell us this forest was left to us by the colonial whites. They even took us to the marker where the whites put the boundary. They told us, 'These are the boundaries and nobody should cut down trees here,' " Ngeny, 44, says.

In 1993, in the Moi era, provincial officials burned the Ogieks' homes and beat up anyone who resisted, Ngeny recalled. They were told it was done to preserve the forest.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who took office in 2008, has referred to the land seizures in the Moi era as illicit, and an independent government inquiry set up by President Mwai Kibaki in 2003 found that Mau Forest land transfers from the 1990s were illegal. Government officials and well-connected businessmen were the main beneficiaries. The Moi clan has, in the past, denied corruption charges.

"I felt so bad," Ngeny said, "because I knew when they were subdividing that they would clear the forest and plant things. The government gave the land to people and they planted tea. Those were all government officials and powerful businessmen.

"I felt angry, because there was nothing I could do. It used to hurt my heart."

He and other Ogieks were moved to Kurbanyat village, where they began to farm millet. When they wanted honey, they often had to buy it.

In recent months, the Kenyan government has evicted 5,000 people from the Mau Forest, including Ogiek tribesmen and small farmers who had been given land during election campaigns.

Odinga has earned praise from environmentalists in his push to reforest the Mau, and revive the rain catchment -- and has made powerful enemies in his political party, the Orange Democratic Movement.

A group that includes Agriculture Minister William Ruto has been critical of the inhumane treatment of those evicted. Some tried to plot a parliamentary rebellion and no-confidence vote.

Odinga, in return, accuses his opponents of defending their own illegally acquired land.

"I have personally never seen a group of Kenyan politicians so desperately trying to build their leaderships and hang on to their illicit landholdings through such grossly parochial and divisive campaigns as these Kalenjin MPs [members of parliament] are," Odinga said in a newspaper column -- a reference to a tribe of some of his opponents.

"We all know that such leaders are fighting not for the squatters or settlers, but to protect their own illicit interests in the forest. They should leave their Mau holdings, like the settlers moving voluntarily are doing."

The struggle will probably cost Odinga electoral support in the crucial Rift Valley, but he declares he's willing to pay a political price.

Ngeny, meanwhile, sits in his tent, surrounded by sacks containing his belongings and memories of better times.

The Kenyan government has promised compensation -- but only to those with title deeds.

"They [government officials] said move there [in 1993]. We'll give you a title deed. And that has never happened, ever."

Ngeny fears the Ogiek people won't get compensation -- nor a place to live -- and that their ancient way of life will be lost.

"Our tears and anger go directly to the government. The way we see things going, the way of life of the Ogiek will just be over. It's like death.

"When I die, you don't see me. It is the end of me."

news20100104gdn1

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Renewable energy]
Sun, wind and wave-powered: Europe unites to build renewable energy 'supergrid'
> North Sea countries plan vast clean energy project
> €30bn scheme could offer weather-proof supply
Alok Jha
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 3 January 2010 22.30 GMT Article history

It would connect turbines off the wind-lashed north coast of Scotland with Germany's vast arrays of solar panels, and join the power of waves crashing on to the Belgian and Danish coasts with the hydro-electric dams nestled in Norway's fjords: Europe's first electricity grid dedicated to renewable power will become a political reality this month, as nine countries formally draw up plans to link their clean energy projects around the North Sea.

The network, made up of thousands of kilometres of highly efficient undersea cables that could cost up to €30bn (£26.5bn), would solve one of the biggest criticisms faced by renewable power – that unpredictable weather means it is unreliable.

With a renewables supergrid, electricity can be supplied across the continent from wherever the wind is blowing, the sun is shining or the waves are crashing.

Connected to Norway's many hydro-electric power stations, it could act as a giant 30GW battery for Europe's clean energy, storing electricity when demand is low and be a major step towards a continent-wide supergrid that could link into the vast potential of solar power farms in North Africa.

By autumn, the nine governments involved – Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden and Ireland and the UK – hope to have a plan to begin building a high-voltage direct current network within the next decade. It will be an important step in achieving the European Union's pledge that, by 2020, 20% of its energy will come from renewable sources.

"We recognise that the North Sea has huge resources, we are exploiting those in the UK quite intensively at the moment," said the UK's energy and climate change minister, Lord Hunt. "But there are projects where it might make sense to join up with other countries, so this comes at a very good time for us."

More than 100GW of offshore wind projects are under development in Europe, around 10% of the EU's electricity demand, and equivalent to about 100 large coal-fired plants. The surge in wind power means the continent's grid needs to be adapted, according to Justin Wilkes of the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA). An EWEA study last year outlined where these cables might be built and this is likely to be a starting point for the discussions by the nine countries.

Renewable energy is much more decentralised and is often built in inhospitable places, far from cities. A supergrid in the North Sea would enable a secure and reliable energy supply from renewables by balancing power across the continent.

Norway's hydro plants – equivalent to about 30 large coal-fired power stations – could use excess power to pump water uphill, ready to let it rush down again, generating electricity, when demand is high. "The benefits of an offshore supergrid are not simply to allow offshore wind farms to connect; if you have additional capacity, which you will do within these lines, it will allow power trading between countries and that improves EU competitiveness," said Wilkes.

The European Commission has also been studying proposals for a renewable-electricity grid in the North Sea. A working group in the EC's energy department, led by Georg Wilhelm Adamowitsch, will produce a plan by the end of 2010. He has warned that without additional transmission infrastructure, the EU will not be able to meet its ambitious targets. Hunt said the EC working group's findings would be fed into the nine-country grid plan.

The cost of a North Sea grid has not yet been calculated, but a study by Greenpeace in 2008 put the price of building a similar grid by 2025 at €15bn-€20bn. This would provide more than 6,000km of cable around the region. The EWEA's 2009 study suggested the costs of connecting the proposed 100GW wind farms and building interconnectors, into which further wind and wave power farms could be plugged in future, would probably push the bill closer to €30bn. The technical, planning, legal and environmental issues will be discussed at the meeting of the nine this month.

"The first thing we're aiming for is a common vision," said Hunt. "We will hopefully sign a memorandum of understanding in the autumn with ministers setting out what we're trying to do and how we plan to do it."

All those involved also have an eye on the future, said Wilkes. "The North Sea grid would be the backbone of the future European electricity supergrid," he said. This supergrid, which has support from scientists at the commission's Institute for Energy (IE), and political backing from both the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Gordon Brown, would link huge solar farms in southern Europe – producing electricity either through photovoltaic cells, or by concentrating the sun's heat to boil water and drive turbines – with marine, geothermal and wind projects elsewhere on the continent. Scientists at the IE have estimated it would require the capture of just 0.3% of the light falling on the Sahara and the deserts of the Middle East to meet all Europe's energy needs.

In this grid, electricity would be transmitted along high voltage direct current cables. These are more expensive than traditional alternating-current cables, but they lose less energy over long distances.

Hunt agreed that the European supergrid was a long-term dream, but one worth making a reality. The UK, like other countries, faced "huge challenges with our renewables targets," he said. "The 2020 target is just the beginning and then we've got to aim for 2050 with a decarbonised electricity supply – so we need all the renewables we can get."

A North Sea grid could link into grids proposed for a much larger German-led plan for renewables called the Desertec Industrial Initiative (DII). This aims to provide 15% of Europe's electricity by 2050 or earlier via power lines stretching across desert and the Mediterranean. The plan was launched last November with partners including Munich Re, the world's biggest reinsurer, and some of Germany's biggest engineering and power companies, including Siemens, E.ON, ABB and Deutsche Bank. DII is a $400bn (£240bn) plan to use concentrated solar power (CSP) in southern Europe and northern Africa. This technology uses mirrors to concentrate the sun's rays on a fluid container, the super-heated liquid then drives turbines to generate electricity. The technology itself is nothing new – CSP plants have been running in the United States for decades and Spain is building many – but the scale of the DII project would be its biggest deployment ever.


[Environment > Energy]
The truth about woodburning stoves
Ignore what the evangelists say about woodburning stoves – here's what it's really like to own one
Phil Daoust
The Guardian, Monday 4 January 2010 Article history

A woman I know simply will not shut up about her new woodburning stove. It's "fantastic", she says. You put on "one tiny log" and the whole house is roasting for the rest of the day. It's the "best thing she's ever bought".

Rubbish. I've had one for three and a bit winters, and if you're thinking of joining the club you ought to know the other side of the story.

1. A woodburner will heat your whole home only if that home is tiny and heavily insulated. In my draughty, mountainous bit of the world, where the temperature regularly hits -12C in winter, almost everyone has a stove, a great big pile of logs to feed it, and a chunk of forest to supply said woodpile. The first question locals ask when visiting a strange house is: "How do you heat this place?" If the answer is "wood", their second question is: "And what else?" My own supposedly wood-fired shack is habitable only thanks to four electric radiators and three paraffin heaters. And it's double-glazed.

2. You can't run a stove on the odd branch picked up while walking the dog. Between December and March, you can easily get through 100 wheelbarrow loads of beech, oak or whatever. How much will it cost ready-chopped? Imagine 300 blue Ikea bags filled with £50 notes.

3. Because most stoves will rarely burn unattended for more than four hours, and because fire-lighting becomes a more tedious chore by the day, your burner will dominate your life like a newborn baby. Every time you get up to pee during the night you will have to chuck a few more logs in, and if you don't get up during the night you will wake up shivering. Whenever you leave the house, you fret that you will return to a pile of ash that no amount of bellows-work will resuscitate. And if you socialise with other woodburner owners, evenings usually end by 11 with the words: "Oh my God, I've got to go and feed the stove." If there's one thing worse than some Pollyanna banging on about how much she loves her woodburner, it's a whole bunch of grumps whingeing about how much they hate theirs.

news20100104gdn2

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Business > Manufacturing sector]
Manufacturing sector savages Darling claim that Labour supports green jobs
EEF says 90% of £2bn earmarked for London Array wind farm is being spent abroad
Terry Macalister
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 3 January 2010 15.39 GMT Article history

The manufacturing sector has savaged suggestions from the chancellor, Alistair Darling, that Britain is benefiting from government support for a "green" jobs revolution, warning that the UK was instead in danger of "missing the boat".

The industry body, the EEF, points out that over 90% of the €2bn earmarked for the world's biggest wind farm in UK waters – the London Array, off Kent – is being spent abroad and ministers must take some of the blame.

"In Germany you get government sitting down with business and saying, this is what the targets are for renewable energy and what do you need to provide the kind of necessary capacity," said the EEF's head of climate change and environment policy, Gareth Stace. "Lord Mandelson [the business secretary] has brought a sense of urgency, but it still requires a different mindset to push the boundaries of state aid like other countries do. We have missed the boat on onshore wind and risk doing the same offshore," he added.

E.ON and the other investors in the London Array have just finalised a €2bn contract bonanza for suppliers, but the German power company confirmed that all but €180m of the work was being spent outside of Britain, largely because there were no suitable local suppliers.

The setback follows the decision by the leading turbine maker Vestas to shut its Isle of Wight turbine factory this summer, just days after the government promised a clean-tech job revolution.

Yet Darling wrote in the Guardian on 30 December that government action meant that 500,000 jobs would be created around the clean energy sector. "By addressing investment barriers we've released billions of pounds for offshore wind, ultra low-carbon vehicles, marine energy and low-carbon aerospace. Green industries alone could support a further half a million jobs over the next decade. None of this would happen without support," he said.

Around £500m is being spent on turbines for the London Array, but the propellers are going to be built by Siemens Wind Power at its factory in Denmark.

The bulk of the €180m that is being spent in Britain is also going to Siemens, to build two offshore electrical substations and one onshore one. Siemens is a German company, but that work will be done through its Manchester-based subsidiary, Siemens Transmission and Distribution. The only other significant contract for Britain is for some transmission links from JDR Cable Systems, a UK subsidiary of a larger group based in Houston, Texas.

The British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) said the lack of real local content highlighted the need for the UK to build up its indigenous industrial capacity as soon as possible. "Huge efforts are being made by government to attract manufacturing to the UK and we wholeheartedly endorse that, but the London Array shows the sooner we manage to do this the better," a BWEA spokesman said. "We are starting from a very low base, or pretty much non-existent one, when it comes to turbines."

E.ON, one of the three main backers of the 630-megawatt London Array, along with Dong of Denmark and Masdar of Abu Dhabi, said all €2bn worth of contracts went out to competitive tendering. "We estimate that €180m of that went to local companies, but unfortunately there were not more British companies in the running," an E.ON spokesman said.

He added that the enormous project – set to open in 2012 – would provide plenty of work in the home market, giving as an example the 45 jobs which would be created at the port of Ramsgate, the main logistics base for the London Array.

Siemens unveiled plans to set up a wind power research centre at Sheffield University, but continues to dither over whether it is prepared to construct a turbine manufacturing plant in the UK. The head of Siemens held talks with Gordon Brown in October, but the German firm declined to say whether it was any closer to making a final decision to invest here or abroad.

Mitsubishi of Japan and General Electric of the US have also been considering whether to build an assembly plant here, while the government has given a grant to the US-based firm Clipper Windpower to build a prototype mega-blade for UK deep water windfarms in Hartlepool.

A spokesman for Mandelson's department of business, innovation and skills, said it was "unfair" to judge the wider low carbon industry on the back of the London Array, which is only one project.

"British companies are successfully competing for work on schemes around the world such as the Masdar city project in Abu Dhabi," the spokesman said. "The government has unveiled a range of new initiatives, such as support for the Dalton Nuclear Institute in Manchester and the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre in Rotherham."


[Environment > Oil spills]
Chinese environment officials fail to stop oil slick from polluting Yellow river
Water supplies suspended after 150 tonnes of diesel leaks into tributary of river that sustains 140 million people
Jonathan Watts, Asia environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Monday 4 January 2010 12.05 GMT Article history

Chinese environment officials are rushing to build three temporary barriers on the Yellow river after failing to contain an oil slick in a tributary of the country's second largest waterway.

Despite overnight efforts by 700 workers to dig diversion channels, the contamination belt — which was 13 miles long at its peak — has tainted the giant Sanmenxia reservoir, the state media reported today . Some areas have been forced to suspend water supplies according to the Xinhua news agency, as the spill spread from the Wei tributary in Shaanxi province to the Yellow river in Henan province.

Separate reports said the major downstream cities of Zhangzhou and Kaifeng would not be affected as they have alternative water supplies.

The oil spill occurred last Wednesday when 150 tonnes of diesel leaked from the Lanzhou-to-Chengsha pipeline owned by the China National Petroleum Corporation, but it did not become known publicly until Sunday.

After the leak, the state-owned firm and environment ministry dispatched teams to the area to try to control the leak before it entered the Yellow river, which sustains 140 million people with water supplies for drinking, irrigation and industry.

As well as diversion ditches, they used 27 floating barriers to try to isolate the diesel so that it could be removed or soaked up with absorbent materials.

China's vice premier Li Keqiang said the operation should "strictly prevent leakage and pollution from flowing into the Yellow river and ensure the safety of drinking water for the masses," according to a news release at the weekend.

But today's monitoring data along the Yellow river indicate the efforts were only partially successful, with the already poor water quality deteriorating further.

The Sanmenxia dam has been closed to prevent the contamination from passing further downstream. Emergency teams are using the floating barriers to divert the spill to an area of the reservoir where it can be dealt with.

The environment department of Henan province said its senior officials has been dispatched to join the containment effort. "We don't have anyone here who can comment as they all at the site," said an operator at the head office.

The Yellow, often described as the Cradle of Chinese civilisation, is one of the country's most heavily exploited and polluted rivers. According to the United Nations, water is unfit for any use along one third of the river.

news20100104gdn3

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Business > Royal Dutch Shell]
Shell accused of abandoning solar power buyers in the developing world
Row over responsibility for sold-off systems has left Sri Lankan communities unable to replace faulty equipment
Terry Macalister
The Observer, Sunday 3 January 2010 Article history

Shell has become embroiled in a major row with the World Bank and green energy companies after allegations that it is unfairly refusing to honour warranties on solar power systems sold to the developing world.

A widespread breakdown of its equipment in Sri Lanka and elsewhere has left the oil firm accused of abandoning a responsibility to impoverished communities while damaging the prospects of the wider renewable power sector in a world desperate to reduce carbon emissions following the Copenhagen climate change summit.

The rural electrification business under which the Shell systems were sold has now itself been passed on – as have most other parts of the group's solar business – but critics say that Shell, which made profits of $31bn in 2008, has a continuing role in ensuring former customers are not left vulnerable.

"Shell exited solar on a global basis, seemingly without due consideration to how after-sales service and warranty replacements would be provided, thereby damaging the very local solar industries it had earlier helped to create," said Damian Miller, a former Shell manager who now heads his own solar business, Orb Energy.

"In Sri Lanka, poor customers with average earnings of $1,500-$2,000 a month have bought Shell's solar systems. The system is equivalent to 30% of their annual income," he added. "They could only afford a system because they could get a loan from microfinance institutions or other banks. But now there are reports of thousands of Shell's [branded] solar panels failing in the field and Shell seemingly is not replacing them."

The World Bank, which provides financing packages to the developing world, said it too was very worried about a situation in which about 700 solar systems appear to have failed and local suppliers risked going out of business.

Anil Cabraal, an energy specialist at the bank's Washington headquarters, has written to Shell asking for action. "I would like Shell to honour these commitments. We are not talking about millions of dollars here but hundreds of thousands," he told the Observer.

The company argues that it is being unfairly targeted and is doing all it can to sort out the problem. It points out that its Shell Solar Sri Lanka business has been transferred to a third-party purchaser, Environ Energy, along with all liabilities. The Anglo-Dutch oil group says the bulk of its former solar module manufacturing operation has also been switched to a new owner, Solar World.

"In October 2007, Shell sold Shell Solar Lanka Ltd to Environ Energy Global PTE Ltd. Specifically in order to protect customer interests, the terms of the transaction explicitly covered the management of all past, present and future liabilities, including warranty issues," said a Shell spokesman in the Hague.

"Environ Energy Global understands that resolution of this issue rests with Environ, but [its] own management team in Sri Lanka continues to approach Shell. We have asked Environ Energy Global to clarify responsibilities with [its] own management team in Sri Lanka."

The situation has been complicated by the fact that Environ claims Solar World will not replace any modules unless it has the appropriate warranty documents. Environ claims those papers were destroyed by Shell prior to the handover to Solar World, although Shell told the Observer this was not true.


[Environment > Guardian Environment Network]
E.ON lights the way ahead with LED streetlamps
E.ON will today launch an LED streetlight that consumes up to 70% less energy than standard lights and promises to deliver a "step change" in the efficiency of lighting infrastructure.
From BusinessGreen, part of the Guardian Environment Network
guardian.co.uk, Monday 4 January 2010 10.43 GMT Article history

E.ON will today launch an LED streetlight that consumes up to 70 per cent less energy than standard lights and promises to deliver a "step change" in the efficiency of lighting infrastructure.

The energy firm already operates a number of lighting contracts for local authorities and private companies and is now looking to offer the technology to new and existing customers.

"We're bidding for a number of highway and streetlighting contracts and wanted to demonstrate a step change within the efficiency of lighting," Rachel Hodge at E.ON Sustainable Energy told BusinessGreen.com.

She added that the long life of streetlamps – contracts typically run for 25 years – means that it is important to install the most efficient systems available at the start of a project or risk being locked into higher levels of energy use.

The new Marlin streetlight has been in development for 18 months and has been tested successfully at a number of E.ON sites, as well as with two local authorities, the company said.

The technology was developed in partnership with West Midlands lighting firm Advanced LEDs, and according to E.ON it represents the first low-energy streetlight to be designed, developed and manufactured entirely in the UK.

Calculations based on data taken from the trial at an E.ON site last year found that an organisation installing just 10 lights would save £33,000 and 63 tonnes of carbon over 25 years. The lights are also expected to last 10 times longer than standard streetlights – lasting for more than 150,000 hours.

The company said that as well as local authority customers, E.ON will target private sector firms which are expected to use the technology to light car parks. E.ON said the lamp also provides improved resolution on CCTV images.

The lights will be produced in Coventry by local social enterprise Remploy and they contain no harmful mercury or heavy metals, meaning they are relatively easy to dispose of at the end of their life.

The announcement comes a fortnight after NGO the Climate Group announced the launch of a major global trial of LED streetlights. The LightSavers initiative was unveiled at the Copenhagen climate summit and will see LED lights trialled in Adelaide, Hong Kong, Kolkata, London, Mumbai, New York, Tianjin and Toronto.

news20100104bbc1

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

[EARTH NEWS]
Page last updated at 10:57 GMT, Monday, 4 January 2010
By Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News
The giant Amazon arapaima fish is 'under threat'
The arapaima, a giant species of fish that lurks in the Amazon river, may be threatened by overfishing.

Studies reveal that errors in the classification of the species could mean that it is being pushed closer to the edge of extinction than thought.

The arapaima is the largest freshwater fish with scales in the world.

But there may actually be four species rather than one, say scientists, and a lack of research and management may allow some to be fished to extinction.

The threat to the future of these fish has been revealed in research conducted by Dr Leandro Castello of the Woods Hole Research Center in Falmouth, Massachusetts, US, and Professor Donald Stewart of the State University of New York in Syracuse, US.

They have reviewed what is known about populations of the arapaima, and conducted detailed investigations into the status of the fish in the wild.

Previously, it was thought there was one species of arapaima (Arapaima gigas), which also goes by the common names pirarucu or paiche.

{{They have the curse of being tasty and of having to breathe air}
Dr Leandro Castello
Woods Hole Research Center, US }

This perspective is based on a taxonomic review done over 160 years ago.

Adults grow to almost 3m in length and can weigh more than 200kg, making the fish the largest with scales living in freshwater anywhere in the world.

They are also air-breathers, coming to the surface every 5 to 15 minutes to gulp air, a behaviour which allows them to colonise muddy oxygen-poor rivers and lakes within the Amazonian basin and prey on other fish that find it difficult to move in such conditions.

However, in an ongoing study, Prof Stewart has analysed nearly all preserved specimens of supposed arapaima available in museums in the world.

So far he has only found one specimen of Arapaima gigas.

The others are suspected to be closely related species, including some as yet unreported.

"Our new analyses indicate that there are at least four species of arapaima," says Dr Castello.

"So, until further field surveys of appropriate areas are completed, we will not know if Arapaima gigas is extinct or still swimming about."

Concern about the fish's numbers comes from other work done by Dr Castello and Prof Stewart.

{For a split second, an arapaima surfaces to gulp air}

That suggests that arapaima sexually mature relatively late, and need very specific habitats to both live and reproduce.

Their research also shows that populations of the fish are being put under severe pressure by fishermen.

Because of the fish's huge size and habit of coming to the surface, it has long been a favoured fish to catch, with fisherman using harpoons and gill nets to land their prey.

"They have the curse of being tasty and of having to breathe air," says Dr Castello.

Fishermen have been catching large numbers of arapaima in this way since the 1800s.

But now, while a few populations are increasing, others are being overfished, say the researchers, who have published a paper warning of the fish's fate in the Journal of Applied Ichthyology.

And while Brazil implemented regulations to manage arapaima fisheries some 20 years ago, most fishermen do not follow the regulations, say the authors.

{Fishermen capture a young arapaima for ecological studies}

"Arapaima can be viewed as badly overexploited and under some level of threat of extinction," says Dr Castello.

One solution, they say, is to encourage community-based schemes for fisheries, and there is much need for additional action on the part of the government.

For example, their research shows that fishermen who specialise in hunting arapaima with harpoons can accurately count the fish, due to the fish's habit of breaching the surface for air.

The fishermen can then select a sustainable proportion of the population to hunt.

"Populations of arapaima managed with this system increased about 50% annually, while yielding increasing catches and hence economic profits to the fishermen," says Dr Castello.

Around 100 such community schemes are in place, and some previously overexploited populations have recovered.

"Such results are extremely rare in wildlife conservation, especially in tropical countries where wildlife conservation challenges are greater than elsewhere," says Dr Castello.

But much more needs to be done to research these fish in more detail and prevent overfishing, the scientists warn.

In particular, "the present situation may be one in which one species of arapaima is recovering in certain areas, while unrecognised species are going extinct," they say.


[Health]
Page last updated at 00:20 GMT, Monday, 4 January 2010
Biological cells reveal brain chemistry secrets
{The cells change colour to reveal specific kinds of neural messages}
Scientists have developed biological cells that can give insight into the chemistry of the brain.

The cells, which change colour when exposed to specific chemicals, have been used to show how a class of schizophrenia drug works.

The researchers hope they will also help shed light on how many other drugs work on the brain.

The study, by the University of California - San Diego, is published in Nature Neuroscience.

{{It's a world of signalling between cells that we were blind to before}
Professor David Kleinfeld
University of California - San Diego}

Schizophrenia is most commonly associated with symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations.

But people with the illness also struggle to sustain attention or recall information.

A class of drugs called atypical neuroleptics has become commonly prescribed, in part because they seem to improve these problems.

However, the way they altered brain chemistry was uncertain.

It was known that the drugs trigger the release of a large amount of a chemical called acetylcholine, which enables brain cells to communicate with each other.

However, the drugs have also been shown to hobble a receptor on the surface of the receiving cell, which would effectively block the message.

The San Diego team designed biological cells - called CNiFERs - which changed colour when acetylcholine latched onto this particular class of receptors - an event scientists have not previously been able to detect in a living brain.

They implanted the cells into rat brains, then stimulated a deeper part of the brain in a way known to release acetylcholine nearby.

In response, CNiFERs changed colour - proving that they were working.

They then gave the rats one of two atypical neuroleptics. In both cases the drug severely depressed the response from the CNiFERs.

This suggested that the drugs' receptor-blocking action over-rides the increase they trigger in acetylcholine.

Researcher Professor David Kleinfeld said the new cells had great potential to reveal the mysteries of chemical action in the brain.

He said: "It's a world of signalling between cells that we were blind to before."

The researchers say they are already working to redesign CNiFERS so they can detect the activity of other types of receptors as well.

Paul Corry, of the mental health charity Rethink, said: "This study shows the value of mental health research.

"It is eliciting new information that could lead to the development of more effective drug treatments for schizophrenia, which have fewer of the debilitating side-effects associated with even the most modern atypical medicines.

"That in itself would benefit millions of people around the world.

"But the research also offers a new technique for understanding the workings of the brain that could also be developed for use across broad areas of medicine.

"We really do need to recognise that mental health research is starved of funds compared to other areas of medicine and recognise also that much of it takes place at the frontiers of our understanding which means that results from it could have far-reaching applications."

news20100104bbc2

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

[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 13:04 GMT, Monday, 4 January 2010
China water warning as oil spill hits Yellow River
{Hundreds of emergency workers are trying to contain the leak}
Pollution from a broken oil pipeline in northern China has now reached one of the country's major water sources - the Yellow River, state media say.

Hundreds of workers had battled to contain the oil upstream, but officials discovered traces in the river itself.

The traces were found about 200km (124 miles) upstream from Zhengzhou.

Three counties in neighbouring Shaanxi province have warned people not to take supplies from the river or drink river water.

Correspondents say local towns and cities get some of their water from the river, the rest from underground water sources.

Floating dams

The official Xinhua news agency said: "At present, cities along the river in Henan province have sufficient water resources."

About 150,000 litres of diesel poured into the Wei river in Shaanxi province after a construction accident on Wednesday, state media reported.

The leak occurred on the fuel pipeline operated by the state-run China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) that connects Lanzhou in the north-west province of Gansu with Zhengzhou in central Henan province, according to the China Daily newspaper.

The diesel first went into the Chishui river, a tributary of the Wei.

Around 700 emergency workers are said to be labouring round the clock, using floating dams and solidifying agents to contain the spill.

Their task has been helped by the current cold weather in the region.

news20100104cnn

[Top stories] from [CNN.com]

[World > Middle East]
January 4, 2010 -- Updated 1431 GMT (2231 HKT)
Debt-hit Dubai opens world's tallest tower
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
> Dubai will on Monday open the world's largest tower, reaching half a mile into the sky
> Dubai wallowing in debt crisis and a second $10B bail-out loan from neighboring Abu Dhabi
> Critics see the Burj as a poorly designed throwback to financial boom times

(CNN) -- Dubai is Monday due to open the world's tallest tower -- a 160-plus story structure hailed as a monumental architectural achievement but seen by some as a symbol of the city's unbridled excess.

The city-state's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, is due to lead celebrations to unveil the majestic silvery construction that houses a luxury hotel, apartments and offices.

Six years in the making, the Burj Dubai reaches 818 meters, or half a mile, into the sky above Dubai, with dizzying views of the ambitious building program that has transformed the emirate and left it swamped by debt.

The structure's architects, Chicago-based Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, have called the Burj "a bold global icon that will serve as a model for future urban centers."

Declaring that "tall buildings are back," the company predicts that the groundbreaking techniques it used to push the Burj to new heights should enable the construction of even taller towers in the future.

iReport: Share your photos of the world's tallest buildings

"As with any project, SOM's architects and engineers learned a great deal and are ready to apply this to the next world's tallest building as it is certainly possible to go taller," it said.

Despite such lofty claims, the Burj -- and other construction projects including the Palm Jumeirah and World archipelagos of man-made islands built for the super-rich -- have cast a financial shadow over Dubai.

Last month the emirate was bailed out to the tune of $10 billion by neighboring Abu Dhabi after its state-owned holding company, Dubai World, shocked investors but asking for a freeze on payments owed on its $26 billion in debts.

The announcement by Dubai World -- an umbrella group which includes the Burj's developers, delivered a cold dose of reality to speculators worldwide who believed the oil-rich region was impervious to the global financial crisis.

While predicted economic recovery are likely to help Dubai to shake off some of its debt woes, if not fully regain its boom-time ebullience, some say the city's path of prestige over practicality will leave projects like the Burj struggling to justify their place in the Gulf state's skyline.

"Dubai doesn't really need to have to build tall asides from prestige purposes," Jim Krane, author of "City of Gold: Dubai and the Dream of Capitalism" told CNN in a recent interview.

"If you look at it, it's a really bad idea. It uses as much electricity as an entire city. And every time the toilet is flushed they've got to pump water half a mile into the sky," he said.

The telescopic shape is also presents problems of a more practical nature Krane says.

"The upper 30 or 40 floors are so tiny that they're useless, so they can't use them for anything else apart from storage. They've built a small, not so useful storage warehouse half a mile in the sky," he said.


[World]
Islamic states condemn attack on Danish cartoonist
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
> Organization of the Islamic Conference condemns attack on cartoonist
> Somali man attacked home of Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard
> Westergaard known for controversial cartoons of prophet Mohammed

(CNN) -- The attack on a Danish political cartoonist "runs totally against the teachings and values of Islam," the umbrella organization representing Muslim countries has said.

If the attack was a reaction to Kurt Westergaard's drawing of the Muslim prophet Mohammed with a turban shaped as a bomb, "then it should be rejected and condemned by all Muslims," the Organization of the Islamic Conference said in a statement Sunday.

An ax-wielding Somali man is accused of trying to break into Westergaard's home Friday and was charged the next day with attempted assassination. Intelligence officials linked the suspect to an East African Islamist militia allied with al Qaeda.

The suspect tried to kill Westergaard and an on-duty police officer, the Danish Intelligence and Security Service said.

Danish police shot the 28-year-old suspect Friday night as he tried to enter Westergaard's home in the city of Aarhus.

The suspect was shot in the right leg and left hand. He was hospitalized after the incident. Video showed him appearing at court strapped to a stretcher.

Authorities did not identify him because the judge decided it would be illegal to disclose his name, said Chief Superintendent Ole Madsen with the East Jutland Police. They said he has legal residency in Denmark and lives in Sjaelland, near Copenhagen.

The judge ordered the suspect held for four weeks while the investigation proceeds. Madsen said the man is currently the only suspect in the case, and he would not say whether police were investigating anyone else.

Al-Shabaab, the militant organization with alleged ties to the suspect, is waging a bloody battle against Somalia's transitional government and is currently on a U.S. government list of terrorist organizations.

At a news conference in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, al-Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage said, "We are very happy with the Somali national who attacked the house of the Danish cartoonist who previously insulted our prophet Mohammed. This is an honor for the Somali people. We are telling that we are glad that anyone who insults Islam should be attacked wherever they are."

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 alleged terrorist links.

Police said the suspect wielded an ax and a knife and managed to crack the glass front door of Westergaard's home. A home alarm alerted police to the scene, and they were attacked by the suspect, authorities said.

Westergaard, who was home with his 5-year-old granddaughter at the time of the break-in, hid in a "panic room" when he realized what was happening, Madsen said. Westergaard is ordinarily accompanied by bodyguards when he leaves his home, but nobody was on guard at the house Friday, the Security and Intelligence Service told CNN.

Police said Westergaard was "being taken care of" after the break-in, but wouldn't reveal his new location.

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 -- was first published by the Danish newspaper Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten in September 2005. It sparked an uproar among Muslims in early 2006 after newspapers reprinted the images in support of free speech.

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."


[World]
By Harmeet Shah Singh, CNN
January 4, 2010 -- Updated 1131 GMT (1931 HKT)
India cold snap leaves homeless at risk
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
> Scores feared dead as temperatures plunge in northern India
> Homeless, elderly most at risk; authorities ordered to build fires in vulnerable neighborhoods
> Temperatures have been as low as 5C (41F) since Thursday

New Delhi, India (CNN) -- A biting cold snap lingered across sections of northern India Monday, hitting the homeless hardest in some of the country's most impoverished regions.

At least six people were feared dead because of intense cold in the eastern state of Bihar, Disaster Management Minister Devesh Thakur said. Temperatures have been as low as 5 degrees Celsius (41 degrees Fahrenheit) since Thursday in parts of the state, he added.

The homeless and the elderly have suffered the worst, Thakur said. District authorities have been ordered to build fires in vulnerable neighborhoods to keep residents warm.

India's main weather office said day temperatures were 5 to 10 degree Celsius below normal in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and parts of Rajasthan and West Bengal states.

Media reports pointed to scores of additional deaths in Uttar Pradesh due to the extreme weather, but those figures could not be immediately confirmed with authorities there. More than 160 million people live in India's fourth largest state.

news20100104reut1

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
LONDON
Mon Jan 4, 2010 8:22am EST
UK's Brown says climate change agreement possible
LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Sunday he believed a global agreement to combat climate change might still be possible despite the limited results of last month's Copenhagen meeting.

"I've got an idea about how we can actually move this forward over the next few months and I'll be working on this," Brown told the BBC, when asked what came next after the U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen.

"I think it's not impossible that the groundwork that was done at Copenhagen could lead to what you might call a global agreement that everybody is happy to stand by," Brown said.

"I'll be working on that in the next few months and I can see a way forward because what prevented an agreement was suspicion and fear and forms of protectionism that I think we've got to get over," he said, without giving details of his plan.

The Copenhagen talks ended with a bare-minimum agreement when delegates "noted" an accord struck by the United States, China and other emerging powers that fell far short of the conference's original goals.

Environmentalists and many policymakers voiced disappointment at the outcome.

The accord set a target of limiting global warming to a maximum 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial times, seen as a threshold for dangerous changes such as more floods, droughts and rising seas, but failed to say how this would be achieved.

Another round of climate talks is scheduled for November 2010 in Mexico. Negotiators are hoping to nail down then what they failed to achieve in Copenhagen -- a new treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol.

(Reporting by Adrian Croft; Editing by Janet Lawrence)


[Green Business]
Chris Buckley
BEIJING
Sun Jan 3, 2010 11:02pm EST
North China struggles with icy cold snap
BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing authorities shut schools, mobilized extra buses and ordered thousands of residents to help clear icy roads and paths with shovels on Monday, as the Chinese capital struggled with its harshest winter weather in years.

North China began the working week after a blast of harsh cold and heavy snow blanketed the region over the weekend, paralyzing highways and forcing the cancellation of many flights.

"Low temperatures and ice-covered roads are expected to severely affect local traffic on Monday," Song Jianguo, the head of the Beijing traffic management bureau, told the official Xinhua news agency.

So far there are no signs the cold spell will trigger the weeks-long disruptions and power cuts that hit some parts of southern China in unusually icy weather in 2008.

But the snow and cold could push up food prices by stalling shipments and damaging greenhouses, delay flights, and hold up some business in Beijing and other cities for a few days.

"Vegetable prices already went up yesterday. It's nothing if you have money, but you notice it if you're just an ordinary resident," said Wu Yidong, a carpenter on a building site riding a battered bicycle on an icy lane in downtown Beijing.

"It's cold on the bicycle, but feels even colder standing still," he said before moving on.

The icy snap could also strain gas and coal supplies. Unusually cold weather in the past two months has caused gas shortages as distribution networks struggled to meet demand.

Sections of highways around Beijing, the nearby port city of Tianjin, as well as neighboring provinces, including the big coal producer Shanxi province, remained cut on Monday morning, the national ministry of transport said.

FAR NORTH

The wave of cold is expected to continue through the first part of the week. China's national meteorological office warned that temperatures in the nation's far north could fall to around minus 32 degrees Celsius (-26F).

Beijing is likely to shiver at about minus 10 degrees Celsius in daytime and colder at night, touching records that have stood for decades.

Large parts of the Korean peninsula were also blanketed with snow on Monday that snarled the rush hour commute in Seoul, where the main domestic airport, Gimpo, canceled all domestic flights.

The Chinese capital has become used to milder, largely snow-free winters in recent decades. The snow over the weekend was the biggest in Beijing since 1951, with falls of up to 20 centimeters (7.8 inches) in the city's far north near the Great Wall, local television news reported.

On Sunday, more than 90 percent of flights at Beijing's Capital International Airport, the country's busiest, were canceled or severely delayed. Many highways out of Beijing were shut too, and on others stalled cars and jack-knifed trucks created long tailbacks of traffic.

On Monday, many flights out of Beijing still held up by the backlog of delayed planes, and cars crawled on ice-covered roads.

The cold spell across southern China last year prompted public grumbling about an initially tardy, fumbling official response. This time, the government appears determined to avoid such complaints.

Railway, airport and road authorities have all announced plans to minimize delays and get transport moving.

(Additional reporting by Yu Le in Beijing and Christine Kim and Yoo Choonsik in Seoul; Editing by Benjamin Kang Lim and Alex Richardson)


[Green Business]
TAIPEI
Mon Jan 4, 2010 7:36am EST
Outdone by Dubai, Taiwan tower seeks green award
TAIPEI (Reuters) - Outdone by an tower extending over 800 meters in Dubai, the world's former tallest building, Taipei 101, wants to become the highest green structure by completing a checklist of clean energy standards, a spokesman said on Monday.

Green Business | Lifestyle

Taipei 101 will spend T$60 million ($1.9 million) over the next year to meet 100 criteria for an environmental certificate that it would hold over Dubai, spokesman Michael Liu said.

The office-commercial tower that reigned for five years as the world's highest building at 509 meters (1,670 feet) expects the U.S-based Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design to give it the certificate in 2011.

"We're focused now on becoming a Taiwan landmark, that won't change, and on going green. We'd be the tallest building to get a green certificate," Liu said by telephone.

Taipei 101, he said, would work with its 85 office tenants to cut electricity and water use, while encouraging them to recycle more refuse. Annual utility savings should total T$20 million.

Restaurants would be asked to bring in supplies from as close as possible to reduce transportation.

"We can reduce power, trash and water by more than 10 percent," he said. "We're already pretty green. In principle there's no major problem."

The Taiwan skyscraper, complete with an observation deck popular with tourists, has already met 60 of the checklist items, including double-paned windows to retain cool air.

Green towers are unusual in Asia, a region with the world's busiest construction sector yet one of the poorest records for eco-friendly building.

Burj Dubai, started at the height of the economic boom and built by some 12,000 laborers, will now become the world's tallest building. It was set to open on Monday as Dubai seeks to rekindle optimism after its financial crisis.

(Reporting by Ralph Jennings, Editing by Ron Popeski)

news20100104reut2

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
BEIJING
Mon Jan 4, 2010 6:00am EST
China diesel spill reaches Yellow River
BEIJING (Reuters) - A spill of around 150,000 liters of diesel oil from a broken pipeline in northwestern China into a river has started reaching the Yellow River, but drinking water is safe for now, state media said on Monday.

Green Business | China

The leak, from a pipeline owned by China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) in Shaanxi province, was discovered on Wednesday.

The company turned off the tap when the accident happened, according to state media, 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.

Despite the efforts of hundreds of people using barrages and other methods to clean up the diesel, the pollution had reached the Yellow River, the official Xinhua news agency said on its website (www.xinhuanet.com).

The populous but poor province of Henan is the first to have been affected, the report said, and the local government had begun taking emergency measures to guarantee safe drinking water, though say there is no need for alarm just yet.

"At present, cities along the river in Henan province have sufficient water resources," Xinhua said.

The province "will work all out to deal with the situation and ensure the safety of drinking water for cities along the Yellow River," it added.

The teaming provincial capital of Zhengzhou is one of the cities which relies on the Yellow River.

The province is setting up additional testing stations along the river and will test the water quality hourly, Xinhua said.

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 the 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 Nick Macfie)