news20100106jt1

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

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010
Ailing finance chief wants to step down
But Hatoyama asks 77-year-old Fujii to stay on
Compiled from Bloomberg, Kyodo

Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii has told Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama he wants to resign for health reasons after he was admitted to a hospital last week for exhaustion and high blood pressure, political sources said Tuesday.

Hatoyama, however, was trying to persuade the 77-year-old Fujii to stay on, the sources said.

Fujii is still undergoing health checks and doesn't know if his doctor will let him attend the Diet session starting later this month.

"My examination is continuing, and I'll respect my doctor's judgment," Fujii said after a Cabinet meeting in the morning.

Fujii met separately with Hatoyama after the Cabinet session.

Finance ministers typically face questions by lawmakers during the January Diet session over the fiscal budget proposed by the government.

"If it becomes clear that Fujii can't fulfill his duties because of his health, clearly he'll be replaced," said Kyohei Morita, chief economist at Barclays Capital.

For Hatoyama, losing his finance chief would come amid declining public support, record government debt and broken campaign promises.

He asked Fujii last year to postpone his retirement and run in the August election.

Fujii was finance minister in 1993 and, as a bureaucrat in the Finance Ministry, served as a budget examiner, giving him a deeper background in the area than other DPJ lawmakers.

Fujii said Tuesday the results of his medical checks will be released soon.

His hospitalization followed weeks of deliberations over the administration's record ¥92.3 trillion budget unveiled Dec. 25. Hatoyama was forced to pare back campaign pledges to prevent an increase in debt issuance that risked swelling the nation's borrowing costs.

Morita said Fujii's health concerns are unlikely to disrupt budget debate in the Diet.

"Considering that the DPJ on its own has a majority in the Lower House, it's unlikely that budget discussions will stall simply because of Fujii's hospitalization," he said.

The Diet must approve the budget for it to take effect as laid out for the year starting April 1.

In the course of compiling the budget, Fujii urged ministers to restrain outlays after their requests amounted to an unprecedented ¥95 trillion.

Fujii said the government must keep its promise of containing bond sales at around ¥44 trillion even after Hatoyama indicated he wouldn't strictly adhere to the cap should more spending be necessary.

"The Cabinet has worked hard to keep new bond sales at ¥44 trillion, so when the leader of that process is gone, some of that discipline may disappear, too," said Masamichi Adachi, senior economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. "I don't think the budget will fall apart, but the discussions may take more time, and we may see some confusion."


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010
Builders quizzed over cash to Ozawa
Kyodo News

Prosecutors have questioned officials from several construction firms on suspicion they provided funds used by Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa in connection with a controversial Tokyo land purchase, investigative sources said Tuesday.

The firms asked by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office to respond to voluntary questioning have included Kajima Corp. and Mizutani Kensetsu, and all of them are taking part in a dam construction project in Iwate Prefecture, the ruling party kingpin's home district, the sources said.

Prosecutors on Tuesday also grilled Takanori Okubo, one of Ozawa's former government-paid secretaries, on a voluntary basis in connection with the case, suspecting more than ¥800 million in revenues and expenditures linked to the 2004 land buy had not been entered into the political funding reports of Ozawa's fund management body, Rikuzankai.

Okubo, 48, was Rikuzankai's treasurer at the time. He has been on trial in connection with a separate case of accounting irregularities involving alleged illegal donations to the fund management body from major contractor Nishimatsu Construction.

The prosecutors have already questioned DPJ lawmaker Tomohiro Ishikawa, 36, who was engaged in clerical work at Rikuzankai, in connection with the allegation that the body did not accurately report how it collected the ¥340 million it spent to buy a lot in Setagaya Ward in October 2004.

Ozawa's side had told investigators the land was paid for with more than \400 million borrowed from a financial firm, but it was discovered that Rikuzankai actually purchased the land shortly before receiving the loan, according to the sources.

Other sources said Rikuzankai received more than ¥400 million from Ozawa himself in 2004 and paid the politician back in 2007, but neither the 2004 receipt nor the 2007 expense was entered in the group's funding reports for those years.

During questioning by prosecutors late last year, Ishikawa admitted that the group received more than ¥400 million in revenues in 2004 when he was a clerk for the body, but it did not report this in its funding report for the year, the investigative sources said.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010
One in three hospitals vulnerable to major quakes
Kyodo News

About one out of every three hospitals in Japan does not fully satisfy government safety requirements for the worst earthquakes, the health ministry said Tuesday.

The ministry surveyed the buildings at 8,611 hospital complexes across the nation for quake safety between last January and August.

All of the buildings at 4,837 hospitals satisfied requirements against an earthquake with an intensity of upper 6 on the Japanese scale of 7.

In a similar survey a year earlier, all of the buildings at 4,132 hospitals were up to code.

The 2009 survey found that some of the structures at 2,595 hospitals meet the requirements.

There are 98 hospitals in which none of the buildings satisfy the quake-proof requirements.

Health minister Akira Nagatsuma said the central government will cooperate with prefectural governments to raise hospitals' earthquake safety as quickly as possible.


[BUSINESSNEWS]
Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010
ANA tops JAL in new flight slots at Haneda
Kyodo News

The transport ministry plans to allot more takeoff and landing slots for domestic flights to All Nippon Airways Co. than to Japan Airlines Corp. on a runway due to open in October at Tokyo's Haneda airport, ministry officials said Tuesday.

Of 37 slots per day, ANA will likely get about 11 and JAL around eight. At least 16 are expected to go to relatively new airlines, including Star Flyer Inc., the officials added.

The Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry decided to give more slots to ANA because JAL is in financial trouble and downsizing its flight network covering regional cities, according to the officials.

Total slots for domestic flights at Haneda are due to increase in stages, eventually reaching 1,114 per day from the current 830.

Allocation of 28 slots for international flights to be created by the opening of the new runway has yet to be discussed, the officials said.

JAL workers OK cuts
More than two-thirds of Japan Airlines Corp.'s current employees have agreed to accept the company's proposal to cut pension benefits substantially as part of efforts to turn the struggling carrier around.

About 10,700 of the approximately 16,000 employees had responded positively to JAL's proposal as of Monday evening, but it remains unclear whether a similar proportion of the company's retirees will accept the proposed pension benefit cuts.

Japan's top airline, suffering from heavy losses, has sent letters to its retirees and current workers seeking their approval for cuts to pension benefits and has set Jan. 12 as the deadline to respond.

Of the approximately 9,000 retirees, only 3,000, or one-third, had responded positively to the proposal.

The retirees have been asked to agree to a cut of more than 30 percent, while current employees have been asked to accept a reduction of 53 percent. JAL needs to obtain agreement from two-thirds of each group.

The cuts in pension benefits are deemed necessary for the company to secure long-term financial support from a government-backed corporate turnaround body, the Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp. of Japan.

news20100106jt2

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

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010
LOOMING CHALLENGES
Japan urged to exploit its tech, pop culture
By ALEX MARTIN
Staff writer
Last of five parts

Japan's economic and diplomatic clout has been declining for the last 10 years as China and India increasingly are seen as Asia's economic superpowers.

But Japan seems to have re-emerged with a different sort of influence during the decade, with "soft power" growing in a variety of cultural areas, a trend referred to by some in the West as "Cool Japan."

The sources of Japan's newfound cultural clout are varied: cuisine, animation, video games, hybrid cars and other green technologies in which Japan excels.

Polls show that Japan has consistently ranked high in terms of its international influence in recent years. A 2009 survey by the British Broadcasting Corp. in 21 countries ranked Japan fourth for its public image, while the United States was considerably less popular at 10th place.

"Japan stands out in terms of its international influence in pop culture, and we need to find a means to enhance this advantage, " said former Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker Yoshikazu Tarui, who headed a group of parliamentarians seeking to promote Japan's video games, animated characters and digital content.

"Japanese games and animation have gained worldwide recognition due to their commitment to quality and detail," he added.

The term "soft power" was coined by Harvard professor Joseph Nye to define ways nations get what they want via persuasion rather than coercion.

During the bubble economy of the 1980s, Japan was an economic power that during trade disputes may have tried to pressure other countries into condoning its unique business culture.

But as its image as a fierce trade competitor faded, a more benign view of the country has taken hold. People around the world are embracing Japanese pop culture.

Game consoles such as the Nintendo Wii and DS, and Sony's PlayStation 3 and PSP are just a couple of examples of this soft power. The Wii has done especially well, selling 6.5 million units in the U.S. alone in 2008, according to the Japan External Trade Organization.

Nintendo game guru Shigeru Miyamoto and artist Takashi Murakami, who draws inspiration from "otaku" (geek) culture, both made Time magazine's list of the world's 100 most influential people in recent years, alongside Hayao Miyazaki, whose animated film "Spirited Away" won an Oscar in 2003.

And although animated films have sold less well in the U.S. in recent years, Japanese-style "manga" comic books have enjoyed steady growth. According to pop culture and trade news Web site ICv2, manga sales in North America tripled from $60 million in 2002 to $180 million in 2005 and reached $200 million in 2006.

In his 2006 book "Cool Japan: Why the World is Buying Into Japan," Tomoyuki Sugiyama, founder of Digital Hollywood, a Tokyo school for digital artists and designers, explains how such industries can play a key role in the country's economic future.

Sugiyama writes that the evolution of digital technology has pushed the integration of industries that previously operated independently, spawning a broader "content" industry with the potential to save Japan from economic stagnation.

But whether Sugiyama's vision proves true may depend in part on how much importance the DPJ-led government places on the nascent industry.

In recent years, the content industry has moved into a period of transition. As Japanese society continues to age, creators are forced to adapt to an older audience.

Taizo Shinya, head of public relations at the nonprofit Visual Industry Promotion Organization, said that to ride out tough times and to increase the content industry's international competitiveness, help from the government and cooperation among various players in the industry are needed.

With 130 corporate members, including the biggest names in domestic media, VIPO promotes Japanese entertainment, including films, "anime," video games, music and books.

"South Korea, China, the United States, France — the governments of all these nations are actively involved in promoting their content industries," Shinya said.

"For Japan to remain competitive, we need both cooperation among various industries as well as substantial aid from the government," he said.

Since 2007, VIPO has run CoFesta (the Japan International Content Festival), an event held each fall that presents Japanese content to the world.

The festival has grown steadily. In 2009, more than 1 million people attended its 18 events, which included the Tokyo Game Show, the Tokyo International Film Festival and the Japan Fashion Week in Tokyo.

Tomoharu Ishikawa, director of CoFesta's production headquarters, said that compared with other nations, Japan's content industry receives little in the way of subsidies.

"Ideally, the government should invest more in cultivating human resources and developing new markets," Ishikawa said. "We need an organization that could oversee and aid the entire contents industry."

The recession isn't making it easy.

VIPO has protested drastic cuts in government spending on the promotion of local entertainment content, on which the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry spent ¥1.87 billion in 2009. METI plans to slash that by 43 percent next year as part of an austerity drive.

In a Dec. 10 statement sent to the ministry, VIPO stressed the importance of promoting the content industry, saying it is one field with the potential to compete globally and contribute to Japan's future growth, as well as play an important role in spreading Japanese culture, and that in turn will raise the country's profile.

Ishikawa said that while he believes the government understands the importance of investing in cultural industries, he has yet to see any tangible efforts.

"We're hoping the DPJ will present us with a plausible growth strategy," he said.

But Tarui, the ex-DPJ lawmaker, said Japanese politicians tend to underestimate the importance of popular culture.

"In reality, the competitiveness of a nation's entertainment industry and national power are often proportionate," he said.

news20100106jt3

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

[EDUCATION AND BILINGUAL]
Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010
BILINGUAL: KEYES' POINT
The grateful outcast — feeling good to be needed
By MICHAEL HOFFMAN

"You ask who I am? I'll tell you," I declaim, being a bit horoyoi kigen (ほろ酔い機嫌, tipsy). "I am the eternal nokemono（除者, outcast)!"

"Nōnashi (能無し, good-for-nothing) is more like it," retorts one of my new friends to a chorus of approving laughter.

"Like us!" More laughter.

"Ma, nan de mo ii (ま、何でもいい, have it your way)." I'm laughing, too. "You, at least, have accepted me as one of yourselves, and for that I'm kansha shimasu (感謝します, grateful). "Yes, gentlemen, for a man like me to be able to walk into a bar like this, unknown, friendless . . . "

?"Is this your first time in Sanya?" one of the men asks. His age is hard to guess. A hard life ages a man, then finally makes him ageless. Sanya is Tokyo's main yoseba (よせば), a backstreet neighborhood where hiyatoi (日雇い, day laborers) are cheaply hired when there are jobs and cheaply lodged, if they have the money for lodgings. If not, they live homeless — an increasingly necessary alternative as the fukeiki (不景気, recession) rolls on.

"First time? Oh no. I come here . . . well, now and then."

"Why?" asks another (there are seven altogether). "Wareware ni wa dō shiyō mo nai (われわれにはどうしようもない, we have no choice), but you . . . "

"For nagusame (慰め, comfort), gentlemen! For solace! Reassurance! Kampai! (乾杯！Cheers!)"

"乾杯! What's your name?"

"Keyes. Ex-professor Keyes. Igokochi ga ii (居心地がいい, I feel at home) with you — more so than with most people I know. Forgive my drunken kanshō (感傷, sentimentality). Mukashi mukashi (昔々, once upon a time) I was a scholar, a historian, a student of Japanese history. The best period in the history of the world, if you ask me, was Japan's own Edo Jidai (江戸時代, Edo Period [1603-1867])."

"No!"

"Edo Jidai!" The surprise is general. "No democracy, no freedom — a samurai (侍) sees you on the street and doesn't like your face, he grabs his sword and chops off your head!"

"Very early on," I say, "that's true. But soon Bushidō (武士道, the way of the warrior) gave way to the life of the chōnin (町人, townsman), and once that happened, there was a lot more byōdō (平等, equality), and more genuine friendship too, than there is now in our own increasingly kakusa shakai (格差社会, society with a wide gap between rich and poor). Believe me — ordinary people were happier then than they are now. Much happier. You want proof? In the Edo Period, 30,000 people a year didn't commit suicide (jisatsu shinakatta, 自殺しなかった), as they've been doing now for the past 10 years."

"No, that's true."

"Sono tōri da (そのとおりだ, he's right)."

"And I'll tell you something else" — I almost feel I'm back in the classroom, arguing with my students. "Unlike us today, Edo people kankyo wo mamotta (環境を守った, took care of the environment). Theirs was a mottainai seishin (もったいない精神, a no-waste attitude). Everything was recycled. An umbrella, re-papered over and over again, would last three generations. And something else: There was true, restful leisure. People worked hard, very hard; but after work, they y?chō ni kamaeta (悠長に構えた, took it easy). There were no constant distractions, no . . . ah, shimatta! (しまった！ damn!)"

Speaking of distractions — my cell phone. "Keyes. Hello? ... About my son? Mondai wo okoshita n desu ka? (問題を起こしたんですか, Is he in trouble?) . . . I see. Yes, certainly, I'll be there in an hour . . . I understand. Thank you ... Guidance counselor at my kid's school," I explain as I hang up. He says the boy wants to study in the United States. News to me. I'm afraid I have to . . . What the . . . !" My phone's ringing again. "You see how popular I am all of a sudden! Hello! ... Reiko?"

My wife. That's odd. She never calls during the day, and my first thought is, something terrible must have happened. She's certainly kōfun shite iru (興奮している, excited) about something, but it takes some time before I can make out what.

"You've received a what? A yobidashijō (呼び出し状, summons)? From whom? What for? ... No! But . . . it's impossible! How can you serve as a saibanin (裁判員, lay judge)? You work, you take care of your mother . . . All right, let me get home, we'll discuss it . . . Oh, but wait — I just got a call from Peter's school, I have to meet his guidance counselor. Did he say anything to you about wanting to study in the States? ... Ichinan satte mata ichinan (一難去ってまた一難, When it rains, it pours). All right, Reiko. I'll get home as soon as I can."

"Keyes' Point" appears on the first Bilingual page of each month.

news20100106lat

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

[U.S. > Science]
By Shari Roan
January 6, 2010
Study finds medication of little help to patients with mild, moderate depression
Only people with severe depression benefit from antidepressants, says research published in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. Others do better with nonmedical approaches.

Antidepressant medications probably provide little or no benefit to people with mild or moderate depression, a new study has found. Rather, the mere act of seeing a doctor, discussing symptoms and learning about depression probably triggers the improvements many patients experience while on medication.

Only people with very severe depression receive additional benefits from drugs, said the senior author of the study, Robert J. DeRubeis, a University of Pennsylvania psychology professor. The research was released online Tuesday and will be published today in the Journal of the American Medical Assn.

Hundreds of studies have attested to the benefits of antidepressants over placebos, DeRubeis said. But many studies involve only participants with severe depression. Confusion arises, he said, "because there is a tendency to generalize the findings to mean that all depressed people benefit from medications."

The current analysis attempted to quantify how much of antidepressants' benefit is attributable to chemical effects on the brain and how much can be explained by other factors, such as visiting a doctor, taking action to feel better or merely the passage of time.

Researchers reviewed six randomized, placebo-controlled studies with a total of 718 patients who took either an antidepressant or placebo. The patients were adults with levels of depression ranging from mild to very severe based on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, a questionnaire widely used in depression research. The studies did not exclude patients who were likely to have a strong response to a placebo. Researchers then compared the patients' depression scores at the beginning of treatment with those after at least six weeks of treatment.

The study found that the magnitude of the drugs' benefit increased with the baseline level of depression. The effect of treatment was similar in people with mild, moderate and severe symptoms, regardless of whether they took an antidepressant or placebo. Only the people who rated very severe on the depression scale at the start of the study showed measurable improvements on antidepressants.

"There is no doubt that there are tremendous benefits from antidepressants, as our study showed," DeRubeis said. "But this study helps us resolve, to some degree, the question of how much benefit people can expect from the medicines themselves when symptoms are not severe."

Other research has also found that antidepressants are most effective for severe symptoms, said Dr. Philip Wang, deputy director of the National Institute of Mental Health. Though it could be that antidepressants don't work well for mild to moderate depression, it's also possible that people enrolled in antidepressant studies have robust placebo responses that mask some of the impact of the medication.

A severely depressed person who would probably benefit from antidepressants might have symptoms such as frequent weeping, feelings of guilt and sadness, thoughts that life is not worth living, problems sleeping, fatigue and withdrawal from normal activities, DeRubeis said.

Better antidepressants are needed for people with mild to moderate depression, Wang said, as is research on how to diagnose depression with tools, such as biomarkers, that could help personalize treatment.

Of the six studies in the current analysis, three involved selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, the most commonly used antidepressants, and three involved an older class of medications called tricyclics. Both classes are thought to be equally effective, although SSRIs are associated with fewer side effects.

One exception to the study findings, DeRubeis said, was people with dysthymia, or chronic, low-level depression. The analysis assessed severity of symptoms, not chronicity, he said. Other studies have established that people with chronic depression, no matter how severe, tend to respond well to antidepressants while other treatment may be ineffective.


[U.S. & World]
By Greg Miller
January 6, 2010
Confusion grows over how bomber infiltrated CIA base in Afghanistan
The Jordanian double agent had never been to the base before the attack that killed seven CIA employees waiting to receive hot tips on Al Qaeda.

Reporting from Washington - The bomber who killed seven CIA employees at an agency forward base in Afghanistan had never been to the compound or met with agency operatives before the attack, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

The absence of any previous encounter adds to the confusion over how the attacker -- posing as an informant with valuable information on Al Qaeda -- was able to make it past security with a bomb apparently strapped to his body and lure seasoned CIA operatives to their deaths last week.

A U.S. intelligence official said that the bomber had provided a stream of useful information to the CIA after being presented by the Jordanian intelligence service as an Islamic militant who had switched sides and was now willing to work against Al Qaeda.

But the informant -- a 36-year-old Jordanian physician -- was still seen as an unproven asset by CIA officers, who nonetheless were willing to look past their lingering concerns because they believed that he was poised to deliver an intelligence breakthrough on Al Qaeda's inner circle.

"The asset had a track record, but there were still questions about access and reliability," the U.S. intelligence official said. "But, at some point, especially on a case like this, which appeared to have real promise, you have to go face to face."

The decision to do so in this case precipitated the deadliest attack against the CIA in decades. Agency officers who flew to the remote outpost from Kabul, the capital, to attend the meeting were among those injured. The Jordanian intelligence operative who was the main point of contact with the informant also was killed.

A CIA inquiry is focused on two main questions: why the bomber was not more thoroughly screened and where he received the training and explosives used in the attack.

The bomber has been identified as Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal Balawi, who was known for extremist postings on websites affiliated with Al Qaeda before he was arrested by Jordanian authorities, recruited as a spy and sent to Afghanistan.

CIA veterans who served in the region say they are baffled by the security breach. When meeting informants, particularly those with ties to terrorist groups, "the first thing you do is have two security guys search him," a former high-ranking CIA officer said. "It's one of the basic building blocks" of espionage.

CIA officials have declined to disclose any details about the bombing.

"The CIA is looking at every aspect of the attack," CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said. "The enemy doesn't know everything that went on, and it makes no sense to fill in the gaps for him."

U.S. officials have contested some of the criticism aimed at the agency, particularly speculation that CIA operatives were so eager for a breakthrough on Al Qaeda that they ignored the risks of agreeing to a meeting with an informant they had never encountered face to face.

"That's off-base," a U.S. intelligence official said. "You have to use unsavory individuals to penetrate terrorist groups -- a saint won't get you inside. There's huge risk and danger involved . . . but it's irresponsible for anyone to suggest those hazards were somehow denied or ignored."

The attack occurred at Forward Operating Base Chapman, a CIA facility in Khowst, a region across the Pakistani border from territory controlled by the Haqqani network, a militant group with ties to the Taliban that has carried out a string of suicide bombings.

The base is part of a constellation of CIA outposts whose mission is to disrupt militant networks in Afghanistan, as well as identify targets across the border for the CIA's campaign of Predator drone strikes.

The Haqqani network has been particularly hard hit. Ten of the last 15 drone strikes last year took place in territory controlled by Haqqani, according to the Long War Journal, a website that tracks the Predator strikes.

Current and former U.S. officials have speculated that the Haqqani group may have helped orchestrate the bombing at the Chapman base in retaliation. But officials said the evidence so far is inconclusive.

news20100106gdn1

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Ethical and green living]
Britain must grow more sustainable food, says Benn
Proposals for national food strategy calls for UK farming 'revolution' in response to climate change and food security
John Vidal and James Meikle
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 5 January 2010 09.43 GMT Article history

Britain must grow more food, while using less water and reducing emission of greenhouse gases, to respond to the challenge of climate change and growing world populations, the environment secretary, Hilary Benn, said yesterday.

"Food security is as important to this country's future wellbeing, and the world's, as energy security. We need to produce more food. We need to do it sustainably. And we need to make sure what we eat safeguards our health," he said.

Launching the government's food strategy for the next 20 years with a speech to the Oxford Farming Conference, he proposed a consumer-led, technological revolution to transform UK farming.

"We know that the consequences of the way we produce and consume our food are unsustainable to our planet and to ourselves," he said. "We know we are at one of those moments in our history where the future of our economy, our environment, and our society will be shaped by the choices we make now."

He said consumers, rather than retailers, should lead by buying "greener" food, wasting less and growing more of their own: "People power can help bring about a revolution in the way food is produced and sold."

Food businesses, supermarkets and manufacturerswould follow consumer demand for food that was local, healthy and had a smaller environmental footprint – just as consumers had pushed the rapid expansion of Fairtrade products and free range eggs in the last decade, Benn said.

The government aims to develop a "meanwhile" lease for landowners and voluntary groups wishing to set up temporary allotments on land awaiting development. One in three people in the UK grows fruit and vegetables, according to a survey commissioned by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Ministers believe the move could foster community spirit and skills as well as physical and mental health. The cross-departmental strategy report, Food 2030, also supports farmers' markets to raise consumption of local produce.

But by comparison with the government's own adviser, the Sustainable Development Commission, the report is cautious about changing agriculture, by, for example, reducing the reliance on intensive meat and dairy production.

It acknowledges livestock production is a big contributor to greenhouse emissions but says there is no clear evidence on the carbon footprint of such foods which consumers can use to change their diet. "Not all types of meat have the same impacts, neither do all systems of production," it states; livestock farming could be the only economically productive activity possible in some hilly areas.

Emma Hockridge of the Soil Association said: "Consumers are feeling increasingly confused by the proliferation of diet-related advice doled out by government departments. While it is right we need to eat less meat overall to achieve sustainable food production, red meat, as long as it is from grass-fed livestock, has a critical role to play in minimising carbon emissions. This is because grasslands for grazing represent vitally important carbon stores."

Benn promised £50m for research over the next five years. Much will go to find ways to reduce carbon emissions from soils and rotting waste food, as well as finding ways to grow food with less fertiliser, pesticides and fuel. He did not mention GM foods, even though the government is known to be in favour of making it easier for farmers to grow such crops.

The campaign group Sustain said the report avoided tough issues, such as reducing children's consumption of junk food: "The government's food vision is hardly worthy of the name. The document proposes a series of minor tweaks to our fundamentally unsustainable food system."

Nick Herbert, the shadow environment secretary, told the conference he welcomed "belated" recognition of the importance of increasing food production in Britain. He proposed an ombudsman to rule on disputes between supermarkets and their suppliers. Farmers complain that chains, which control up to 80% of the grocery market, abuse their power.

Ports of call

A review of Britain's ports is to tackle government fears that our vast food imports are too concentrated in a few ports, risking disruption. Although 93% of imported food and drink arrives by sea through nearly 50 ports, much of it comes through just six: London, Dover, Liverpool, Felixstowe, Grimsby and Immingham. Ports are "potentially vulnerable" to storm damage and coastal surges, says the Food 2030 report, and switching in emergencies may not possible if the alternatives do not have the equipment or depth to handle large ships, or are too specialist. Tilbury handles most of our sugar, Liverpool almost all soya, Portsmouth 33% of bananas, and Southampton is the sole port for fresh produce from the Canary Islands.

James Meikle


[Environment > Copenhagen climate change conference 2009]
Speculation over change in role for Chinese climate negotiator
Media outlets in Hong Kong suggest He Yafei has been punished for failing to smooth relations at Copenhagen between China, the US and Europe
Jonathan Watts, Asia environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 5 January 2010 17.44 GMT Article history

A senior member of the Chinese negotiating team at Copenhagen has been shifted from his post, prompting speculation that he has been punished for the debacle of the climate talks.

He Yafei, who was at the forefront of China's blocking actions on the final fraught day of the summit, has been removed as vice foreign minister, according to a short summary of government appointments by the Xinhua news agency.

The agency gave no explanation, but the Hong Kong newspaper Sing Tao suggests He has been punished with a shift to a post at the United Nations for failing to smooth relations between China, the US and Europe, particularly as tempers flared in the last hours of the talks.

During the negotiations, He described his US counterpart as "lacking common sense", frustrated the US president, Barack Obama, at his inability to make decisions and astonished the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, by refusing to allow even rich countries to set a target to cut emissions by 2050.

In public, China has hailed the "significant and positive" outcome of the Copenhagen accord, which committed the world to keeping global warming below 2C.

Privately, however, officials are furious at the public relations disaster of the summit, which ended with Europe blaming China for sinking long-term goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Part of the problem was the vastly different expectations of the delegations. Britain and other European nations intended to bang heads together to achieve progress and to set ambitious targets during the two-week conference.

China, however, was desperate to avoid any goals that might limit its economic expansion. Having announced its first carbon target shortly before the conference, China's negotiators hoped the event would be a chance for the world to applaud the progress the country has made to improve efficiency and boost renewable energy.

The vastly different approaches led to several messy and fractious encounters, at which He Yafei was usually the fall guy.

Although the premier, Wen Jiabao, was the most senior figure in the Chinese delegation, he refused to attend most of the negotiating sessions with other leaders. This was a defensive move rather than a snub. The premier did not want to be strongarmed into a deal he could not guarantee at home.

In his place, he dispatched He, an experienced multilateral negotiator who previously served in senior posts at the United Nations and arms control talks, as well as running the North American department of the foreign ministry.

But He lacked the authority to make decisions. In huddles with world leaders, who far outranked him, all he could do was block. President Obama is said to have declared in exasperation: "It would be nice to negotiate with somebody who can make political decisions."

When he rejected a European proposal that developed nations reduce emissions by 80% by 2050, Angela Merkel described the situation as ridiculous.

The vice-minister also failed to endear himself to the chief US negotiator, Todd Stern, who suffered his undiplomatic wrath after stating that the US was not in historical debt to China because of climate change.

"I don't want to say the gentleman is ignorant," He said. "I think he lacks common sense or is extremely irresponsible."

In the angry aftermath of the conference, senior European diplomats accused China of "systematically wrecking the accord" with leaks and obstructionist tactics.

news20100106gdn2

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Whaling]
Sea Shepherd anti-whaling speedboat collides with Japanese vessel
Six crew members of hi-tech boat resembling stealth bomber rescued after bow sheared off in clash with whalers in Antarctica
Associated Press
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 6 January 2010 08.08 GMT Article history

A hi-tech anti-whaling speedboat resembling a stealth bomber had its bow sheared off and was taking on water today after it collided with a Japanese whaling ship in Antarctica.

The six crew members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society speedboat were safely rescued.

The clash was apparently the most serious in the past several years, during which the marine conservation group has sent vessels into far southern waters to try to harass the Japanese fleet into ceasing its annual whale cull.

The society said its boat the Ady Gil was hit by the Japanese ship the Shonan Maru near Commonwealth Bay and had its bow sheared off.

"The condition of the Ady Gil now is that it is inoperable and the crew of the Ady Gil has been transferred to our other vessel, the Bob Barker," Locky Maclean, the first mate of the society's lead ship told Australian Broadcasting Corpation radio.

The Ady Gil's captain had stayed on board to try to save equipment "before it floods too severely," he said.

Clashes using hand-thrown stink bombs, ropes meant to tangle propellers and high-tech sound equipment have been common in recent years, as have collisions between ships.

Japan's fisheries agency, which has no direct involvement in whaling but oversees Japanese fishing operations, said it was still checking details about the clash.

"We have confirmed that there was a collision, but we have no other details. We have not heard that any boats have sunk. We are now trying to confirm details of why the collision occurred," said a fisheries agency spokesman, Toshinori Uoya.

He said there were no injuries on the Japanese vessel, but said he was not sure about the Ady Gil crew members.

Sea Shepherd sends boats to Antarctic waters each southern summer to try to stop the Japanese fleet killing whales under what the fleet calls a scientific whaling programme. Conservationists and many countries say the programme is a front for commercial whaling.

Earlier today, the Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR), the non-profit organisation that conducts the hunt, said that one of the ships in the whaling fleet was attacked by the Ady Gil, but it did not mention a collision.

It said the Ady Gil arrived on the scene at about 6pm GMT yesterday and that its crew threw ropes at the whaling lead ship, the Nisshin Maru. It said another Sea Shepherd vessel, the Bob Barker, had already arrived in nearby waters.

The Ady Gil came "within collision distance" of the Nisshin Maru's bow and repeatedly dangled a rope in the water in an attempt to entangle the ship's rudder and propeller, and lobbed small projectiles designed to release a foul smell, said the ICR. The whalers responded by firing high-powered hoses to keep the Sea Shepherd vessels away.

"The obstructionist activities of the Sea Shepherd threaten the lives and property of those involved in our research, are very dangerous and cannot be forgiven," the ICR statement said.

Each side routinely alleges the other engages in dangerous activity. Australia and New Zealand – which have Antarctica territories – have urged both sides to show restraint, warning that they are far from rescue if anything goes wrong.

Japan's whaling fleet left in November for its annual hunt in the Antarctic waters. Uoya said that for security reasons, details of the fleet's composition, the number of whales it hoped to take and the number of crew members was not being released.


[Environment > Endangered species]
Giant river fish faces extinction after years of overfishing
Rory Carroll
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 5 January 2010 18.30 GMT Article history

The arapaima, a giant Amazon river fish that can grow longer and heavier than a human adult, is at risk of extinction, according to a new study. Overfishing and errors in classification are believed to have left the world's largest scaled freshwater fish critically endangered.

A report in the Journal of Applied Ichthyology, a branch of zoology devoted to fish, said there were four sub-species of arapaima – not just one, as previously thought – and that they were under severe pressure from fishermen. Arapaima mature relatively late and need specific habitats to live and reproduce. The fish's size – it can grow to more than 2m and weigh over 200kg – and need to surface to breathe have left it vulnerable to harpoons and gill nets, said the authors, Leandro Castello of the Woods Hole Research Centre in Falmouth, Massachusetts, and Donald Stewart of the State University of New York. "They have the curse of being tasty and of having to breathe air," Castello told the BBC. Much of what is known about the arapaima, also known as pirarucu or paiche, is based on a taxonomic review conducted over 160 years ago.

The researchers analysed nearly all preserved museum specimens of supposed arapaima and found only one specimen of Arapaima gigas. The others are suspected to be closely related species. "Our new analyses indicate that there are at least four species of arapaima," said Castello. "So, until further field surveys of appropriate areas are completed, we will not know if Arapaima gigas is extinct or still swimming about."

Fishermen ignore regulations intended to manage stocks, he said, and there is a lack of data about population numbers. "The present situation may be one in which one species of arapaima is recovering in certain areas, while unrecognised species are going extinct."


[Money > Energy bills]
Boiler scrappage scheme launched
Households with a working G-rated boiler will get £400 towards the installation of an A-rated boiler or renewable heating system
Lisa Bachelor
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 5 January 2010 11.57 GMT Article history

Thousands of households will be able to apply for £400 off a new boiler under a government-backed scrappage scheme launched today.

The scheme, which was announced in December's pre-budget report, is designed to to cut carbon and help people save money on energy bills.

Up to 125,000 households in England with working boilers with the lowest "G" rating can apply for vouchers from the Energy Saving Trust, which they must put towards buying an A-rated boiler or installing a renewable heating system such as a biomass boiler or heat pump.

The government said the £50m scheme would save as much carbon as taking 45,000 cars off the roads, and cut a household's energy bills by up to £235 a year.

The prime minister, Gordon Brown, who today launched the scheme with energy secretary, Ed Miliband, said: "Today's announcement will slash household energy bills and carbon emissions while providing an important boost for the British heating industry."

The average cost of a boiler and its installation is around £2,500, according to industry figures. People who own their homes and landlords who rent homes are eligible, but social landlords, housing associations and boiler installers are not.

Friends of the Earth criticised the scheme for not going far enough. "The boiler scrappage scheme is a welcome initiative but pathetically small," climate campaigner Dave Timms said. "It will only reach 125,000 households when the UK has over 4m inefficient G-rated boilers.

"A comprehensive programme to slash energy waste and fit renewable energy systems is desperately needed to tackle climate change, end fuel poverty and create thousands of green jobs."

To determine whether a gas boiler is G-rated, a quick test is to see if it has a permanent pilot light, the Energy Saving Trust said. If it has then it is very likely G-rated. If it is gas or oil fired and more than 15 years old it is also likely to be eligible.

Householders aged under 60 can only apply if the boiler is the main boiler used to heat the home and is in working order. For those aged over 60 the boiler does not even have to be working.

Those with a G-rated boiler then need to get a quote for a new boiler from a qualified installer and give this information, along with details of their old boiler, to the Energy Saving Trust.

Assuming everything is in order, householders will then be able to go ahead with the installation and claim the £400 voucher back from the trust. The first of these vouchers will be issued on 18 January.

Some energy companies will add to, and even match, the government offer with discounts for customers who want to upgrade to more energy-efficient heating systems. British Gas said it would offer £400 to customers who qualified for the government payout, allowing its customers to save £800 on the cost of a new boiler.

Npower launched its own energy scrappage scheme last year and will continue with this offer. Again, householders could save up to £800 by going through this scheme.

news20100106nn1

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 5 January 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.1170
News
Frogs' secret disposal system revealed
Talented amphibians urinate foreign objects implanted in their body cavities.
Brendan Borrell

Plant thorns, spiny insects and even radio transmitters don't stick around for long inside tree frogs. Researchers have discovered that these amphibians can absorb foreign objects from their body cavities into their bladders and excrete them through urination.

The finding will be of interest to field researchers, who often implant tiny radio transmitters into frogs to track them. It also helps to explain how these little creatures survive a life leaping around in thorny forests and consuming spiny insects whole.

"It strikes me as being a pretty incredible mechanism for getting stuff out from the body cavity," says lead researcher Christopher Tracy of Charles Darwin University in Darwin, Australia. By contrast, humans and other mammals typically develop peritonitis, a potentially deadly infection of the body-cavity membrane, if the membrane is punctured or damaged by sharp objects.

As if by magic

In 2003, Tracy and his colleagues began a project to find out how frogs regulate their body temperature. They surgically implanted temperature-sensitive radio transmitters in the abdominal cavities of tree frogs of three species (Litoria caerulea, Litoria dahlii and Cyclorana australis) living around the city of Darwin. After several months, the authors set out to recapture their frogs to log the data and replace the transmitters' batteries. But out in the field they found three of the transmitters lying on the ground.

"In telemetry studies of small animals, it's not uncommon to find they've been eaten by something," Tracy says. "But there's usually some evidence that happened: scratches on the ground or a pile of predator faeces."

In this case, the transmitters were pristine. And the strangest discovery was yet to come: back in the lab, the researchers opened up dozens of animals and in many cases pulled transmitters not from the body cavity, but from the urinary bladder. "That's when we started thinking about trying to pin down exactly what was going on," Tracy says.

Better out than in

In 2008, Tracy and his colleagues decided to look into the phenomenon. They kept tree frogs and cane toads in the lab and surgically implanted beads in their body cavities. Within 2–3 weeks, the beads appeared on the floor of the frog cage. Only one cane toad out of five excreted a bead, but Tracy opened some other toads after the surgery and caught them in the act of enveloping the beads into their bladders. In just two days, the bead was surrounded by a transparent tissue devoid of blood vessels, which subsequently became vascularized and muscular.

The researchers describe their findings in a poster presentation today at a meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in Seattle, Washington.

Although the study is the first to show an animal using its bladder to expel foreign objects, researchers have observed similar phenomena in other vertebrates. Several species of fish and snake absorb objects into their intestines from the body cavity and expel them by defecation, for instance.

Rick Shine, a herpetologist at the University of Sydney, Australia, who has seen snakes expel implanted radio transmitters¹, says that the research has broad implications for understanding vertebrate physiology. For reptiles and amphibians, at least, moving objects from one part of their innards to another may pose no problem. "It makes sense for an animal to get an object out of the body cavity," he says. "The remarkable thing is that they are able to do it."

References
1. Pearson, D. J. & Shine, R. Herp. Rev. 33, 261-263 (2002).


[naturenews]
Published online 5 January 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/463014b
News
Israeli government advisers threaten walkout
Research council says it wants independence from ministry.
Haim Watzman

A rift in Israel's science establishment is threatening the country's long-term planning of civilian science. All 15 members of its National Council for Research and Development, now subordinate to the ministry of science, are poised to resign this month unless the council is given independent budgetary and administrative standing.

"If the council ceases to exist, we won't see any effects in the short term," comments Meir Zadok, director of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Jerusalem. "But its responsibility is to aggregate information about research and development throughout the country and to look ten years ahead to see where the government needs to be involved."

In recent years the council has lent its support to efforts to increase research and university funding. Members have appeared in public forums and in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, to lobby for such funding.

The group was established in its current form in 2004 as part of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. In 2007, under the previous government, the council was transferred to the ministry of science when a science minister wanted to expand the ministry's responsibilities.

"The council's budget currently comes through the ministry of science, and it requires the approval of the ministry's officials for everything it does," says Meir Sheetrit, chairman of the science and technology committee in the Knesset. Council members chafed at being subject to the ministry's whims, and complained that their budget was being cut in favour of other areas under the ministry's purview, which included — until last spring — culture and sport.

In response, Sheetrit held hearings and drafted legislation to change the council's status to that of a government-run corporation. "Every­where else in the world," he says, "national research councils are independent, with separate budgets, to ensure their objectivity."

But the government opposed the bill and, in mid-December, the Knesset rejected the legislation. As a result, council members plan to submit their resignations en masse in the next few weeks.

Council director Rony Dayan blames Daniel Hershkowitz, the country's science minister, for torpedoing the legislation. "The officials in his ministry warned him that his small ministry would have trouble justifying its existence if it lost authority over the council," says Dayan.

Hershkowitz rejects that charge and says he supports independent status for the council. "The law that was submitted wasn't appropriate, however," he told Nature. "My goal is that the research council operates with independence, but there needs to be oversight to ensure proper management."

He declined to comment on how he would react to a full council resignation.

Hershkowitz says that he plans to draft legislation in line with his goals of continued ministry oversight. Sheetrit has already reintroduced his own bill, and plans to continue to push for its passage.

news20100106nn2

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 5 January 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/463015a
News
Kepler finds its first planets
Early data hints at discoveries to come in the hunt for Earth-like worlds.
Eric Hand

WASHINGTON DC

Kepler pins down planet size by tuning in to the music of the spheres.NASA/JPL-CaltechStars hum and throb, and the vibrations of this cosmic music could aid the NASA satellite Kepler in its goal of finding an Earth-like extrasolar planet.

On 4 January at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington DC, the Kepler team announced that it had identified five new planets. These are the first to be found by the 1-metre telescope, which stares continuously at one swathe of sky and looks for the dimming as a planet crosses a star and blocks some of its light. Hundreds more planet candidates await confirmation as the telescope gathers more data. These include some that orbit stars bright enough for their characteristic 'asteroseismology' vibrations to be detected, says Ronald Gilliland, a Kepler team member at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.

A precise understanding of these vibrations could allow astronomers to separate Earth-sized planets into two groups: those that are rocky and those that are watery, says Dimitar Sasselov, a co-investigator on the Kepler science team and an astronomer at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "It makes all the difference."

Because the core of an older star vibrates differently from that of a younger one, asteroseismology measurements can allow a precise determination of the age of the star system (and thus the planet). The data can also lead to a better estimate of the star's size — which in turn leads to more precision in the planet size. Gilliland says the extra precision could, when combined with ground-based measurements, help to determine the density of exoplanets as much as 50% better than before. Sasselov says that will be just enough of an improvement to discern the difference between a rocky planet like Earth, which is 0.06% water, and a water world like the recently discovered GJ 1214b, which is probably at least 50% water (D. Charbonneau et al. Nature 462, 891–894; 2009).

It is still early days for Kepler, which launched on 6 March 2009 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The first five planets were discovered with just the first six weeks' science data, and they cross their parent stars repeatedly in short period orbits of a few days. Four are bigger than Jupiter — the largest planet in our Solar System — and one is about the size of Neptune.

Orbs more like Earth will be seen as the team shifts its attention to smaller planets in longer period orbits.

But Kepler only measures size. To understand density the team needs to measure mass as well, which comes from follow-up observations by ground-based astronomers. Sasselov says that even the giant 10-metre Keck telescopes in Hawaii lack an instrument sensitive enough to confirm an Earth-like planet if Kepler saw it. He is building a new instrument that he hopes to have installed on the 4.2-metre William Herschel Telescope in the Canary Islands by 2011 or 2012 — about the time when Kepler should have Earth-analogue candidates to check.


[naturenews]
Published online 5 January 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/463014a
News
Chemists crack complex compound
Naturalistic approach vindicated as sponge molecule yields to synthesis in the lab.
Mark Peplow

{{Palau’amine is found in sponges in the waters around the Republic of Palau.}
B. Krist/Corbis}

One of the most daunting challenges for synthetic chemists has finally been conquered. The effort to make palau'amine in the lab sparked heated competition for more than a decade between leading researchers, even though it may have little potential as a drug.

The yield of the 25-step synthesis, which was led by Phil Baran at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, was just 0.015%: fewer than 2 in every 10,000 molecules of starting material made it through to the final product.

"Palau'amine is the pinnacle of technical difficulty," says organic chemist Patrick Harran of the University of California, Los Angeles, who has been trying to make the compound since 2002. "Phil and his students have set a standard against which all future work in the area will be judged."

But the synthesis, published last week in Angewandte Chemie¹, is more than a technical achievement. The procedure demonstrates the effectiveness of a set of guiding principles for efficient organic synthesis that was articulated by Baran's group several years ago and is now gaining adherents for its focus on brevity and simplicity.

Palau'amine was isolated from the sponge Stylotella agminata, which is found in the waters around the Republic of Palau in the western Pacific Ocean. First reported in 1993 (ref. ²), it is part of a family of compounds known as pyrrole-imidazole alkaloids, which may help to deter fish from snacking on the sponge or prevent microbes from taking up residence. The molecule has antitumour, antibacterial and antifungal activity at levels that are "OK, but not fantastic", says Matthias Köck, a marine natural-products chemist at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, Germany.

Thus, the main attraction in synthesizing the molecule is not its potential as a wonder drug, but the sheer challenge of making something so complex. The structure of palau'amine is crowded with spurs and joints in unusual places, and littered with nitrogen atoms that lie in wait to disrupt the chemical reactions used to stitch the compound together. At the molecule's heart lies a unique configuration of rings — two circles made up of carbon atoms and a nitrogen atom that are fused in a contorted configuration.

For more than a decade, chemists assumed that the rings were twisted into a bowl-like shape. But in 2004, Baran hypothesized that all the members of palau'amine's molecular family could be constructed with the same general strategy — implying that the accepted structure of palau'amine was wrong.

In 2007, his prediction was vindicated by three teams that independently worked out its true structure. Köck, who led the most detailed study, recalls that at first "almost no one believed us. Nearly everyone we spoke to thought we were misguided." But synthetic chemists soon switched their focus to the revised target. "Many groups had been chasing the wrong structure for years," says Köck.

Baran's synthesis adheres to a set of synthesis guidelines³ that aims to exploit the target molecule's inherent reactivity and stay as close as possible to the way it is made in nature, explains team member Ian Seiple. This includes using cascade reactions that can form many new chemical bonds in a single step, and avoiding the use of protecting groups to shield fragile parts of a molecule during synthesis because they increase the cost and complexity of the process.

Although none of the guidelines is new, applying them all within the same synthesis has become a hallmark of Baran's work. His goal is to prove that new drugs do not have to be built from the relatively limited pool of molecular motifs used by pharmaceutical companies.

The efforts to synthesize palau'amine have forced chemists to develop new reactions and techniques for assembling complicated molecules. Part of Baran's synthesis relies on a silver-based reagent, for example, that his lab invented to gently oxidize the half-built palau'amine molecule without disrupting its nitrogen atoms. That reagent is already being used by a pharmaceutical company to make a range of drug candidates, says Baran.

In the near future, he hopes to make grams of the compound instead of the few milligrams he has so far achieved, and to tweak his synthesis so that just one of the two possible mirror-image forms of the compound is produced. His team already has a working route that cuts ten steps from the beginning of the process. "For us, the story has just begun," Baran says.

References
1. Seiple, I. B. et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Edn doi:10.1002/anie.200907112 (2009).
2. Kinnel, R. B., Gehrken, H. P. & Scheuer, P. J. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 115, 3376-3377 (1993). | Article | ChemPort |
3. Baran, P. S., Maimone, T. J. & Richter, J. M. Nature 446, 404-408 (2007). | Article | PubMed | ISI | ChemPort |

news20100106bbc

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

[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 03:01 GMT, Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Japan's finance minister Hirohisa Fujii urged to stay
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has said he does not want his finance minister, Hirohisa Fujii, to resign.

Earlier reports suggested Mr Fujii's resignation had been accepted.

Mr Fujii, 77, is an experienced backer of fiscal discipline. It would be a blow to Mr Hatoyama, who took office in September, if he left, analysts say.

The prime minister has promised to shift Japan to the left after half a century of conservative dominance by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

Mr Fujii, who is suffering from high blood pressure, was admitted to hospital last week for tests.

He is one of only a few members of the new government with extensive previous experience of administration.

He has been seen as a champion of fiscal restraint, resisting calls from the ruling Democratic Party's (DPJ) coalition partners for more spending despite Japan's huge debt, the BBC's Roland Buerk reports from Tokyo.

The prime minister is already getting a reputation for being indecisive, and is struggling to revive Japan's frail economy and tackle the vast public debt, our correspondent says.

Mr Fujii had told reporters he was exhausted after weeks of wrangling within Japan's governing coalition to finalise the budget.

He was reported to have offered his resignation after a cabinet meeting he had left hospital to attend.

Some reports said the government had accepted Mr Fujii's resignation.

But Mr Hatoyama was quoted on Wednesday as saying that he wanted Mr Fujii to see through his work on the budget.

"But it is a question of his health, so we also have to think about the opinions of the doctors," he added.


[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 10:05 GMT, Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Anti-whaling activists accuse Japan fleet of attack
Anti-whaling activists have accused a Japanese vessel of ramming their high-tech speed boat during a confrontation in the Southern Ocean.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society says its vessel was sliced in half, but all six crew were rescued.

Earlier the campaigners - who are trying to stop Japan's whaling fleet - said they threw chemicals onto the whaling boat to prevent it being used.

The whalers said the activists tried to tangle their propeller with a rope.

'Whale war'

In recent years the two sides have regularly confronted each other in the waters around the Antarctic.

Sea Shepherd spokesman Paul Watson said the incident had turned the confrontations between the whalers and the activists into a "real whale war".

A statement on the Sea Shepherd website said a Japanese vessel that was accompanying the Nisshin Maru whaler "deliberately rammed" the Ady Gil, a high-tech speed boat that resembles a stealth bomber, shearing off its bow.

The crew of the Ady Gil, five from New Zealander and one from the Netherlands, were picked up unharmed by nearby Sea Shepherd vessel Bob Barker near Commonwealth Bay.

"The Ady Gil is believed to be sinking and chances of salvage are very grim," the Sea Shepherd statement said.

Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR), which conducts the country's whale hunt, accused Sea Shepherd of using the Ady Gil to attack its vessels.

{Confrontations between whalers and activists have heated up over recent years}

They alleged the trimaran speedboat came dangerously close to the Nisshin Maru, trying to entangle its rudder and propeller with a rope and launching stink bombs at the vessel.

"The Sea Shepherd extremism is becoming more violent... Their actions are nothing but felonious behaviour," the (ICR) said in a statement.

Japan's fisheries agency said it was the fourth time this season that the anti-whaling activists had interfered with the whaling fleet's operations, Kyodo news agency reported.

The Sea Shepherd group sends boats to Antarctic waters each year to try to stop the Japanese whaling fleet hunting whales.

Japan abandoned commercial whaling in 1986 after agreeing to a global moratorium but international rules allow it to annually kill hundreds of whales under the auspices of a research programme.

Conservationists say the whaling is a cover for the sale and consumption of whale meat.


[Middle East]
Page last updated at 09:12 GMT, Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Yemen 'arrests al-Qaeda suspects' wounded in raid
Yemeni forces have arrested three suspected al-Qaeda militants who were wounded in a raid on Monday, security sources say.

They were captured at a hospital north of the capital, Sanaa. AFP news agency says they include Mohammed al-Hanq, a key local al-Qaeda leader.

The arrests came as the UK and France reopened their embassies in Yemen.

They and the US embassy had been temporarily closed in response to what was described as an al-Qaeda threat.

AFP quoted an unnamed security official saying: "Mohammed al-Hanq and two others who were wounded were captured in a hospital in Amran."

The agency said the local al-Qaeda leader was thought to be behind the security threats that had prompted the embassy closures.

Failed bomb plot

The British embassy said its public services still remained closed, and that the security situation was being assessed on a daily basis.

The US had reopened its embassy on Tuesday, saying successful counter-terrorism operations by Yemeni forces had addressed a "specific area of concern".

This was an apparent reference to Monday's raid some 25 miles (40km) north of Sanaa, in which two other suspected members of al-Qaeda were killed.

The difficulties of travel within Yemen have prevented the BBC from independently verifying details of the reported raid.

But the BBC's Jeremy Bowen, in Sanaa, says he saw military jets flying over the capital on Monday afternoon and into the evening, suggesting some kind of operation was under way.

American intelligence officials say the failed plot to bomb a US-bound jet on 25 December originated in Yemen - where the suspect was allegedly trained by al-Qaeda.


[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 07:24 GMT, Wednesday, 6 January 2010
China again rejects UN sanctions against Iran
China's ambassador to the United Nations, Zhang Yesui, has said the time is not right to consider more sanctions against Iran.

The UN Security Council, including China, has previously called for Iran to stop enriching uranium and has issued three sets of sanctions.

Iran's leaders insist their atomic programme is only meant for energy-generating purposes.

But the US and its allies fear Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons.

China has the presidency of the UN Security Council during January, and is one of its five permanent veto-holders.

Timing tangle

Mr Zhang told reporters at the UN that "more time and patience" was needed to find a diplomatic solution to the impasse.

The Chinese ambassador's comments come days after after Iran missed an end-of-year deadline set by the US to respond positively to offers of talks about its uranium enrichment programme.

Plans on how to respond are apparently still up in the air, says the BBC's Tom Lane, at the UN in New York.

Diplomats at the UN say senior figures from Europe, the US, Russia and China will meet later this month to exchange opinions, our correspondent says.

US officials have previously called for "crippling" sanctions in the event of a diplomatic failure.

However, recent reports suggest they are currently thinking of "targeted sanctions" that focus on people and companies involved in Iran's nuclear programme, our correspondent adds.

Analysts say it could take Iran from between 18 months and three years to build a nuclear bomb.

With all this in the background, diplomats say it could be many weeks and even months before a deal is reached at the UN, our correspondent reports.

However, it is possible the US and its allies could roll out new sanctions of their own sooner.

news20100106cnn

[Top stories] from [CNN.com]

[World > Japan]
By Kyung Lah
January 6, 2010 -- Updated 1306 GMT (2106 HKT)
Japanese finance minister Fujii quits
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
> Hirohisa Fujii's resigns despite appeal from PM Hatoyama for him to stay
> Hatoyama's government faces key budget battle in January
> 77-year-old Fujii in hospital last week with fatigue, high blood pressure

Tokyo, Japan (CNN) -- Japanese Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii resigned late Wednesday despite a public plea by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to stay in the job.

The 77-year-old Fujii, a former Finance Ministry bureaucrat, checked into the hospital last week, suffering from fatigue and high blood pressure. His departure comes as the Hatoyama government is about to enter a key budget battle in the Japanese parliament, or Diet.

Hatoyama had told reporters Wednesday morning that he hoped Fujii would stay in his Cabinet, saying he needed his support to help pass a draft of the budget in the upcoming Diet session, set to start January 18.

Hatoyama called the budget Fujii's "baby" and said he hoped his close ally would remain to "nurture it through the Diet session."

But by the end of the day, Fujii had officially resigned. Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan has been named his successor.

The resignation is the first of Hatoyama's administration and could signal a fraying of the government's leadership. Hatoyama's approval ratings have fallen from 70 percent to 50 percent since his election four months ago.


[World]
January 6, 2010 -- Updated 0750 GMT (1550 HKT)
Irish probe, Slovak apology after explosives find
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
> Ireland orders probe into incident of explosives planted on unsuspecting passenger arriving in Dublin
> Flight originated from Slovakia; country's interior minister issues profound regret over incident
> 3 ounces of research development explosive planted in luggage of 49-year-old electrician at Bratislava airport
> Slovak authorities say they were conducting test of their country's airport security measures

(CNN) -- Ireland's justice minister ordered an investigation Tuesday after explosives planted in an unsuspecting passenger's luggage by authorities as part of a security test in Slovakia made their way to Dublin.

"Following contact ... from the Slovakian authorities with the Airport Police at Dublin Airport, members of the Garda Síochána (Irish National Police) have recovered a small quantity of explosive material from the luggage of a passenger who had flown into Dublin from that country on Saturday last," a statement from the Department of Justice said.

No explanation was given for why Slovakian authorities waited several days before telling their counterparts in Ireland about the situation.

Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern ordered national police to conduct a full investigation into the incident.

Slovakian Minister for the Interior Robert Kalinak has conveyed his government's profound regret for this incident and will cooperate with the Irish investigation, according to the Irish justice department.

Police, working with an army bomb squad, closed off a section of central Dublin while they recovered 90 grams (3 ounces) of research development explosive, or RDX, placed in the luggage of a 49-year-old electrician at Bratislava Airport in Slovakia last weekend as part of a test of security procedures, Irish state media reported. The man was arrested and held for several hours before being released, according to national broadcaster RTE.

"It has since been established that this material was concealed without his knowledge or consent in the passenger's luggage as part of an airport security exercise by the authorities in Slovakia," the Department of Justice said.

Explosives were also placed in seven other pieces of luggage by Slovakian authorities, but were caught by security screeners, RTE reported.

"On their own, this type of explosive does need to be combined with other elements to make it into a bomb, but obviously this type of high-grade explosive is potentially extremely dangerous," Commandant Gavin Young, an Irish Defense Forces spokesman, said in an RTE interview.


[World]
January 6, 2010 -- Updated 1143 GMT (1943 HKT)
Yemen arrests 3 al Qaeda suspects
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
> Yemeni security forces arrest three al Qaeda suspects who clashed with troops on Monday
> Four suspects accused of helping them were also apprehended
> It is thought the three men were accompanying local al Qaeda leader Mohammed Ahmed al-Haunq

(CNN) -- Yemeni security forces arrested three al Qaeda suspects northwest of the capital, Sanaa, early Wednesday, the Interior Ministry said.

The suspects were wounded and on the run after clashes with government troops on Monday, when they were thought to be accompanying Mohammed Ahmed al-Haunq, an al Qaeda leader for the area, according to the ministry.

Four others accused of helping the suspects also were apprehended at a hospital in Amran province, according to the ministry Web site, which described them as "al-Haunq security and relatives."

Yemen's state-run news agency, SABA, reported Monday that two al Qaeda suspects were killed and two others were injured in clashes with a Yemeni anti-terrorism unit.

Yemen fertile ground for terror groups

The Yemeni government has referred to al-Haunq as the mastermind and leader of the group threatening to attack Western embassies in Yemen.

The United States on Sunday closed its embassy in Sanaa after intelligence suggested that four al Qaeda operatives might have been planning an attack on the compound, a senior Obama administration official said Monday.

The embassy reopened Tuesday, saying Monday's operation had addressed a threatened al Qaeda attack.

The British Embassy in Yemen also cited security concerns when it closed Sunday. It reopened Tuesday, but public services -- including consular and visa
services -- remained suspended indefinitely.


[World > Japan]
Man who survived 2 atom bombs dies
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Man exposed to two atom bombs at the end of World War II has died
{Yamaguchi spoke publicly about his experiences and appealed for the abolition of nuclear weapons.}
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
> Man exposed to two atom bombs at the end of World War II has died
> Tsutomu Yamaguchi died after a long battle with stomach cancer at 93
> He appealed for the abolition of nuclear weapons at the United Nations.
> About 140,000 people perished in Hiroshima and an additional 70,000 in Nagasaki

Tokyo, Japan (CNN) -- The only man recognized as a survivor of both atom bombs dropped in Japan at the end of World War II has died.

Tsutomu Yamaguchi died Monday after a battle with stomach cancer. He was 93.

He had long been a certified "hibakusha," or radiation survivor, of the August 9, 1945, atomic bombing in Nagasaki. In March 2009, the Japanese government confirmed that he had also survived Hiroshima three days earlier.

On that day, the U.S. B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb nicknamed "Little Boy," which exploded over Hiroshima at 8:15 in the morning.

Yamaguchi happened to be in the city on a business trip for his employer, Mitsubishi Shipyard.

Many years later, he recalled the bombing in a story that appeared in the British newspaper The Times.

"It was very clear, a really fine day, nothing unusual about it at all. I was in good spirits," he said. "As I was walking along, I heard the sound of a plane, just one. I looked up into they sky and saw the B-29, and it dropped two parachutes. I was looking up into the sky at them, and suddenly ... it was like a flash of magnesium, a great flash in the sky, and I was blown over."

Badly burned, Yamaguchi returned home to Nagasaki only to experience horror again.

"My double radiation exposure is now an official government record," Yamaguchi told reporters last year after his official recognition. "It can tell the younger generation the horrifying history of the atomic bombings even after I die."

About 140,000 people perished in Hiroshima and an additional 70,000 in Nagasaki. Many of those who survived suffered a lifetime of radiation-related health problems, including cancers. Yamaguchi lost his hearing in his left ear in the blasts, and suffered from acute leukemia, cataracts and other bomb-related illnesses in subsequent years.

Yamaguchi spoke publicly about his experiences and appealed for the abolition of nuclear weapons at venues such as the United Nations.

He was visited in his hospital room in Nagasaki last month by filmmaker James Cameron, who wanted to discuss ideas for a film about nuclear weapons, the Japanese newspaper Mainichi reported.

news20100106reut1

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Naveen Thukral and Valerie Parent
Mon Jan 4, 2010 12:55pm EST
Wheat, corn up 2 percent on firm oil, fund flows
PARIS/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. corn and wheat futures rose about 2 percent on Monday as grain prices started the year with a lift from rising oil and expectations of strong investor demand.

Corn and wheat could see inflows of managed funds this year, analysts said, a supportive factor that lifted the two grains around 20 percent last quarter in the face of bearish fundamentals of large supplies and poor demand.

Grains and soybeans were boosted by gains for crude oil which a hit its highest price in more than two months at $81 a barrel amid talk Russia had halted oil supplies to Belarus after failing to agree terms for 2010.

Soybeans, which were up about 1.5 percent, also continued to draw strength from Chinese purchases that reduced bearish influence from the upcoming South American harvest.

"There is some positioning today as big funds are looking to increase their exposure to some of these commodities," said Toby Hassall, an analyst with CWA Global Markets in Sydney.

"There are prospects of some index funds rebalancing, which might be having an impact on the trade psychology."

HEAVY WHEAT FUNDAMENTALS

In the first session of 2010, Chicago Board of Trade March wheat rose 2.17 percent to $5.53-1/4 a bushel by 1233 GMT and March corn gained 1.75 percent to $4.21-3/4.

Wheat futures will be buffeted in 2010 by the opposing winds of bullish technical signals and bearish fundamentals, according to the analyst who most accurately predicted prices for the grain in 2009.

European operators were also expecting any price support to come from fund flows this year given an increasingly heavy supply-and-demand balance.

A tailing off in exports in late 2009 has contributed to this bearish fundamental picture in Europe and the latest tender held by Egypt confirmed the trend, with the world's top wheat importer buying Russian wheat only.

"I don't know how the market is going to deal with some 4 million tonnes of ending stocks, unless the investment funds have a different idea," one Euronext broker said, referring to projected wheat stocks in France, Europe's top producer.

The benchmark March contract on Euronext was up 0.38 percent at 133.75 euros a tonne, drawing support from the CBOT in thin trade as operators returned after the year-end holidays that saw the physical trade in Europe virtually closed.

Corn prices were partly underpinned by freezing temperatures across the U.S. Midwest which will likely prevent farmers from harvesting corn this week.

On the soybean market, the CBOT January contract rose 1.54 percent to $10.55-3/4 a bushel.

"The trade is aware that South American soybean supplies are getting closer to coming on line. Still, it appears that China is showing strong appetite for U.S. soybeans," said Hassall.

The U.S. Agriculture Department on Thursday said export sales of soybeans were 1.075 million tonnes, within the range of estimates for 800,000 to 1,200,000 tonnes. Chinese purchases accounted for nearly half -- 531,500 tonnes -- of the weekly total.

The soybean market faces a deeply uncertain outlook for 2010, according to the divergent views of this year's top forecasters, who predict either continued demand-side strain or an overwhelming supply response in the year ahead.

Soybean production in Latin America is widely expected to rebound this year on favorable crop weather and a large area under cultivation.

The dollar edged down from a four-month high against the yen but held firm against other major currencies on Monday, the first trading day of 2010, as investors focus on U.S. data this week that could add to optimism about the economy.


[Green Business]
LONDON
Mon Jan 4, 2010 2:51pm EST
Iberian power prices bounce back as wind drops
LONDON (Reuters) - Iberian spot power prices recovered on Monday from record lows seen last week as wind power output shrank over the weekend, making the market rely more on costly fuel-burning plants.

The day-ahead price set on Monday for Tuesday was 30.11 euros per megawatt-hour, compared to just 3.40 euros/MWh set for December 31 by the Spanish-based Omel exchange.

Last week's record low came as Spain managed to produce a record of 54.1 percent of its electricity early on December 30, according to data from grid operator REE.

Wind power met less than 15 percent of Spain's needs on Monday, while hydroelectricity output also shrank its share of the generation mix compared to last week.

Although hydro output of 15-20 percent remained well above the average 9 percent share of total demand for last year as utilities continued drained reservoirs which are brim-full after two weeks of heavy rainfall.

The fall in fuel-free power generation meant more gas and coal plants were needed to provide electricity than during much of last week, with gas plant increasing their share to normal levels of over 30 percent of demand from less than 2 percent.

As both types of plant have to pay for their fuel they charge more for their output.

In over-the-counter dealing, Calendar-year 2011 was heard traded at 44.50 euros/MWh on a broker screen on its first day of trading as the front-year contract.

(Reporting by Daniel Fineren)


[Green Business]
NEW YORK
Mon Jan 4, 2010 4:23pm EST
Oil jumps above $81 on cold weather
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil rose more than $2 to settle above $81 a barrel on Monday, its highest close in nearly 15 months, as cold weather battered the United States and other big consumer regions and drove up demand for heating fuel.

Heating oil futures led the U.S. oil complex higher as U.S. crude for February delivery settled up $2.15 at $81.51, its highest close since October 9, 2008. Brent crude climbed $2.19 to settle at $80.12.

"Cold temperatures in the U.S., part of a global cold front, and a weak dollar are driving oil prices higher," said Phil Flynn of PFGBest Research in Chicago.

Frigid temperatures were expected to boost U.S. heating demand to 21 percent above normal, with consumption in the U.S. Northeast, the largest heating oil market, seen up 11 percent above average levels.

This follows the coldest U.S. December in nine years, which helped boost heating oil prices by nearly 10 percent.

Unusually cold weather in Britain is expected to continue into the second half of January after the coldest December since 1995, said the UK's official weather center.

Colder temperatures in Europe were seen gradually spreading from the northeast to southwest during the next few days, boosting energy consumption.

Heavy snows and biting cold also hit parts of Asia on Monday, with unusually harsh winter weather snarling transport across north China, South Korea and India.

The dollar slid as investors locked in recent gains ahead of U.S. economic data this week that could dictate the currency's direction in the coming months.

Over the past year, some investors have sold safe-haven plays such as the dollar and bought oil futures following positive economic data.

Crude markets have been looking to wider economic data for signs of a turnaround that could bolster flagging oil demand. Expectations of a demand rebound helped push up crude prices 78 percent in 2009.

U.S. stocks jumped after data showed a fifth straight month of expansion in the manufacturing sector and semiconductor stocks gained on a brokerage upgrade of Intel.

The Institute for Supply Management said its index of national factory activity rose for a fifth consecutive month and neared a four-year high in December.

Markets were also keeping a close eye on an oil pricing dispute between Russia and Belarus that briefly cut off supplies to the Eastern European nation. Russia on Monday said had resumed supplies to refineries in Belarus, but tensions are still simmering.

Belarus officials earlier on Monday warned they may cut electricity supplies to Russia, ratcheting up tensions in the dispute that broke out on New Year's Eve and raised the specter of another winter of supply disruptions for European Union customers.

Positive economic data from China and India added to the bullish sentiment.

China's factories cranked up production in December, while the rate of growth in Indian manufacturing rose for the first time in three months in December, surveys showed.

(Reporting by Matthew Robinson, Edward McAllister, Robert Gibbons and Gene Ramos in New York; Alex Lawler in London; Fayen Wong in Perth; editing by Jim Marshall)

news20100106reut2

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Edward McAllister
NEW YORK
Tue Jan 5, 2010 3:10pm EST
Oil rises to near $82, cold weather supports
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil rose on Tuesday, up for the ninth straight day as cold weather in the United States and Europe boosted demand for heating fuel.

U.S. crude for February delivery closed up 26 cents at $81.77 a barrel, off an earlier high of $81.99, a cent below the October 2009 high. London Brent crude closed up 47 cents at $80.59.

"Oil prices are on a cold-weather rally, with heating oil demand seen rising for the next few weeks amid forecasts for temperatures for much of the country to be much below normal in that period," said Andy Lebow, broker at MF Global in New York.

"At the same time, economic indicators showing the economy is improving implies higher demand for diesel fuel," he added.

Crude markets have in recent months looked to wider economic data for signs of a turnaround that could bolster flagging oil demand.

The Dow industrials slipped as a plunge in November pending home sales increased concerns about the housing market, although a sign of improvement in the manufacturing sector limited losses.

U.S. retail gasoline demand fell 3.5 percent in the week to January 1, compared with the previous week, according to a MasterCard SpendingPulse report. Consumption was up 1.2 percent over the four-week period compared with year-ago levels.

Investors were also awaiting weekly U.S. oil inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) later on Tuesday and the Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday. Analysts polled by Reuters forecast the data will show a drop in distillate and crude stockpiles.

COLD SNAP CONTINUES

Frigid temperatures in the United States were expected to boost the country's heating demand to 21 percent above normal, with consumption in the U.S. Northeast -- the largest heating oil market -- seen 11 percent above average levels.

Unusually cold weather in Britain is expected to continue into the second half of January after the coldest December since 1995, while lower temperatures in Europe were seen gradually spreading from the northeast to the southwest during the next few days.

Heavy snow and biting cold also hit parts of Asia on Monday, with unusually harsh winter weather snarling transport across north China, South Korea and India.

Investors were watching for any further developments between Russia and Belarus after an oil dispute saw Russia briefly cut off supplies to the Eastern European nation. Belarus sent a delegation to Moscow on Tuesday for talks to resolve the dispute that has raised the specter of winter supply problems for the European Union.

(Additional reporting by Gene Ramos and Robert Gibbons in New York, Joe Brock in London and Jennifer Tan in Singapore; Editing by Christian Wiessner and Lisa Shumaker)


[Green Business]
Tova Cohen
TEL AVIV
Tue Jan 5, 2010 8:26am EST
China's Sanhua invests in Israeli solar firm
TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Zhejiang Sanhua signed an agreement on Tuesday to invest $10.5 million in solar thermal systems developer HelioFocus, marking the first direct investment by a Chinese company in an Israeli firm.

HelioFocus Chief Executive Uri Zik said Sanhua, a producer of components and control parts for air-conditioning systems, would be not just a financial investor in the company, but will also produce some solar thermal components.

"We will be able to reduce costs and move relatively quickly to manufacturing," Zik told Reuters. "Components that can be made at lower cost in China will be produced there."

Sanhua, which will hold 30 percent of HelioFocus, will invest $9.25 million directly in the company and will acquire $1.25 million worth of shares from its founders.

IC Green Energy, the renewable energy investment arm of holding company Israel Corp, is the largest shareholder in HelioFocus with a 40 percent stake. It will invest $2.3 million in HelioFocus alongside Sanhua's investment.

The rest of HelioFocus, which was founded in 2007 and has raised over $20 million, is held by workers and management.

Zik said the company, whose system converts the sun's rays into hot air to produce electricity, will release its first product in 2012 and is working on a pilot project in Israel. Funds raised from Sanhua will be used by HelioFocus to continue its research.

"We believe that the thermo-solar market will grow significantly, together with the rapid global development and ongoing legislation in the clean energy market," Yom Tov Samia, chairman of HelioFocus and president and CEO of IC Green Energy, said in a statement.

Jacky Eldan, Israeli consul general in China, said the door opened by Sanhua will pave the way for more cooperation and investments of Chinese companies in Israel.

(Editing by David Holmes)


[Green Business]
PARIS
Tue Jan 5, 2010 9:20am EST
Big French firms to pay variable carbon tax
PARIS (Reuters) - Large French companies that pollute heavily will be penalized under new carbon tax legislation but are likely to pay variable rates, French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said in remarks published on Tuesday.

More than 1,000 companies would be penalized according to how much energy they use to produce and how much competition their sectors face, Lagarde told French daily Les Echos.

The companies had been exempted from paying carbon tax in France under legislation that was annulled two days before it was due to come into force on January 1.

France's constitutional council argued that the initial version of the carbon tax included too many exemptions that violated the principle of equality among taxpayers.

"We are working on the possibility of applying reduced rates and of putting in place other incentive mechanisms or platforms," Lagarde told the paper.

"The competitiveness of companies is important and there is no question of taxing all these sectors indiscriminately including those that are economically fragile," she said.

The government is racing to piece together new legislation for a carbon tax by January 20, when it is supposed to be presented to the cabinet.

In a separate interview on France 2 television, Lagarde said the new version would not include big changes given that the blueprint pointed in the right direction and would help to improve consumption patterns.

Companies in France that were already subjected to European Union emission quotas would not be taxed again in France, she said.

Set at 17 euros per tonne of carbon dioxide and promoted by President Nicolas Sarkozy as a crucial weapon in the fight against climate change, the tax has been criticized by some as hurting big emitters and by others as giving them an easy ride.

The government could find it difficult to persuade lawmakers to back the plan so close to regional elections in March.

(Reporting by Tamora Vidaillet; editing by Sue Thomas)


[Green Business]
WASHINGTON
Tue Jan 5, 2010 9:26am EST
U.S. ethanol output rises in October: EIA
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. daily ethanol output rose in October, after two months of declines, amid stronger demand for the alternative motor fuel, the Energy Information Administration said.

Distillers made 740,000 barrels per day of the fuel in October, up from 725,000 bpd in September, the EIA said in a monthly report last week.

Matt Hartwig, a spokesman at industry group the Renewable Fuels Association, said a few plants started initial production in October, while others that had been running partial capacity increased output of the fuel.

Fuel blenders and refiners mixed about 703,258 bpd of ethanol into gasoline in October, up from 678,800 in September the EIA said.

U.S. mandates call for increasing amounts of ethanol to be blended into gasoline in an effort to help wean the country off foreign oil. The mandate for ethanol made from corn and other grains hits a maximum of 15 billion gallons a year by 2015.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner)

news20100106reut3

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
TOKYO
Tue Jan 5, 2010 9:40am EST
Sharp, Enel, STMicro to jointly make solar cells
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Sharp Corp said it will set up a joint venture with Enel and STMicroelectronics by March to make solar cells in Italy, in a bid to further tap the strong growth potential of renewable energy sources.

Consumer electronics maker Sharp and Italian utility company Enel in 2008 announced their intention to make thin-film solar cells with a European manufacturer, but they did not identify the third company.

The venture plans to start producing solar cells in early 2011 at STMicroelectronics' existing facility in Sicily at an initial output capacity of 160 megawatts a year, which will eventually be raised to 480 megawatts.

In addition to bank loans, each of the joint venture partners will invest up to 70 million euros in the project, Sharp said in a statement.

The venture will be owned a third each by Sharp, Franco-Italian chip maker STMicroelectronics and Enel Green Power, an Enel group company.

Sharp and Enel Green Power will also set up another joint venture to generate electricity using solar panels manufactured by the three-way, solar panel-producing joint venture.

The Sharp-Enel Green Power joint venture plans to set up power plants with a total capacity of more than 500 megawatts by the end of 2016, Sharp said.

(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Joseph Radford)


[Green Business]
LONDON
Tue Jan 5, 2010 12:59pm EST
Iberian power prices remain firm on low wind
LONDON (Reuters) - Iberian spot power prices continued to climb on Tuesday, rising further above record lows seen last week, as wind power output remained relatively low.

The day-ahead price set on Tuesday for Wednesday was 31.91 euros per megawatt-hour, up from a previous pool price of 30.11 euros.

Last week's record low of just 3.40 euros/MWh set by the Spanish-based Omel exchange came as Spanish wind power output met over half of total electricity demand early on December 30.

With wind meeting less than 20 percent of Spain's needs on Monday and Tuesday, more gas and coal plants have been called upon this week and both types of plant have to pay for their fuel so they charge more for their output.

(Reporting by Daniel Fineren)


[Green Business]
Nao Nakanishi
LONDON
Tue Jan 5, 2010 2:22pm EST
UK offshore wind costs can fall 40 percent: Carbon Trust
LONDON (Reuters) - New technology and careful choice of sites could slash projected costs for Britain's next round of offshore wind farm project by as much as 40 percent, the Carbon Trust, which advises the government, said on Tuesday.

Capital investment required for Round 3 offshore wind projects could fall to 45 billion pounds ($72.5 billion) from current projections of 75 billion, said officials from the independent body, set up by the government to help Britain meet carbon reduction targets.

While the Round 3 project to build 29 gigawatts (GW) by 2020 is a challenge equivalent to building eight Channel Tunnels in 10 years and requires a step-change in technology, it is achievable, Benj Sykes, Senior Technology Acceleration Manager, told reporters.

He projected that offshore wind farms could supply about 90 terawatt hours of electricity by 2020, comprising the bulk of 151 terawatt hours required from renewable sources.

On Friday the Crown Estate, in charge of Britain's coastal seabed, is to announce winners in a tender for Round 3, the world's largest offshore wind project, which is divided into nine zones.

The programme is aimed at expanding the country's offshore wind farms, already the world's biggest at around 1 GW, to around 33-40 GW by 2020 to source a third of its power from renewable energy.

"It's easy not to grasp the scale of challenge," Sykes said. "There's huge step change required."

The Round 3 farms would be built in depths of up to 60 meters, compared with 25 meters for previous rounds. They would be also up to 205 km off the coast, compared with 25 km now.

It would require setting up every year about 500 turbines -- which are taller than the 180-meter "Gherkin" building in London -- by around 2013, compared with around 280 achieved last year, and accelerate the speed to about 1,000 by 2019.

However, Phil de Villiers, Offshore Wind Acceleration Manager, said it had identified four technological improvement areas, such as foundations, that would reduce capital expenditure and operational costs while improving yields.

It was looking into technology such as floating foundations or better electricity transmission systems that could cut costs by 14 billion pounds. Picking sites in shallower water would bring additional savings of 16 billion pounds.

"If offshore wind is going to be the real success that it needs to be and can be, we've got to do things faster, we've got to get things installed faster, we've got to do it cheaply and more safely," said Sykes.

He said the industry could also deliver about 250,000 jobs by 2050 and 65 billion pounds in net benefit, while abating carbon emissions by around 35 megatonnes by 2020.

(Reporting by Nao Nakanishi, editing by Anthony Barker)


[Green Business]
MEXICO CITY
Tue Jan 5, 2010 3:39pm EST
Mexico vows to set new efficiency rules for autos
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico will limit imports of inefficient used cars and encourage low-carbon technology to reduce its overall volume of tailpipe exhaust, the energy ministry said on Tuesday.

The ministry said it was also mulling regulations that would for the first time set a national standard for auto emissions. Such standards would be at the "vanguard" of international best standards, the agency said.

Officials hope to slowly purge heavy, inefficient autos from among the roughly 21 million cars now on the road in Mexico. The nation's auto fleet is expected to rise by more than 14 million vehicles by 2017.

Only 1 percent of Mexican automobiles currently use alternative fuel, the ministry said.

The new importation rules will aim to "avoid the accelerated aging of the Mexican car fleet," the agency said in a statement.

A senior Mexican environmental policymaker said in August the country would likely adopt fuel efficiency standards compatible with those in place in the United States.

Mexico is one of the world's largest car builders and most global auto companies have at least one factory in the country.

Stakeholders in the domestic auto market have long lobbied for limits to be placed on the import of older used cars from the United States to help support the domestic market.

The new goals were developed as part of a multi-year national plan to create a sustainable energy policy.

In a separate move, the ministry promised to outline new standards for energy efficiency in newly-built government offices.

(Reporting by Patrick Rucker; Editing by Christian Wiessner)

news20100106reut4

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Ed Stoddard
DALLAS
Tue Jan 5, 2010 7:00pm EST
U.S. carbon market growth seen without climate bill
DALLAS (Reuters) - Voluntary carbon markets in the United States will grow especially at the regional level even if a stalled federal climate bill fails to impose "cap and trade" on American industry, the chairman of the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) said on Tuesday.

"I think we will continue to see interest in voluntary carbon markets ... And I would expect that without a federal law you will continue to see growth in regional initiatives in the United States," Richard Sandor, the exchange's founder, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

He noted regional moves that he said were gaining traction such as the Western Climate Initiative.

"After all, we started CCX when there was virtually no movement in Washington (on mandatory emissions caps) back in 2003," Sandor said.

U.S. lawmakers face an uphill battle enacting a climate bill in 2010 that includes a cap-and-trade market in greenhouse gases after December's U.N. meeting in Copenhagen failed to hammer out a global pact on emissions cuts.

U.S. climate legislation remains likely as lawmakers feel pressure to help the country lead in production of low-carbon energy sources such as wind, solar and nuclear power.

But the Copenhagen Accord did not include mandatory emissions targets. This will make it difficult for lawmakers to argue that the U.S. should have a binding emissions cap.

Political uncertainty has contributed to low carbon prices in the United States. The Carbon Financial Instrument contracts on the Chicago exchange have fallen to about 15 cents per tonne from about $2 early last year. In Europe, carbon allowances are worth about $18.50 a tonne.

But Sandor, an innovative and key figure in the history of the global derivatives industry, said he still saw "momentum" for cap and trade in the United States.

He also said he saw a lot of growth and excitement around a U.N.-backed system to pay poorer nations for saving or replanting their forests, known as the reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation, or REDD.

"I think REDD will continue to grow and capture the imagination of many, many people in and out of the environment movement," he said.

He said he saw regional markets and exchanges being set up in places like Brazil while Africa would begin to benefit from offset projects.

Sandor is executive chairman of Climate Exchange PLC, which owns not only the CCX but the European Climate Exchange, a key part of the European Union's carbon trading scheme put in place after the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol in 1997.

Asked if it was seeking new partners or markets, he replied: "We continue to explore other markets."

(Additional reporting by Timothy Gardner in Washington; Editing by Christian Wiessner)


[Green Business]
Edith Honan
NEW YORK
Tue Jan 5, 2010 6:15pm EST
Chesapeake says N.Y. could drive away gas drillers
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Chesapeake Energy has called proposed New York state regulations for the shale gas drilling industry unnecessarily onerous and likely to scare energy companies out of state, depriving New York of badly needed revenue.

The sentiment was supported by competitor Fortuna Energy, a subsidiary of Canada's Talisman Energy, which said it was shifting its focus to Pennsylvania because uncertainties in New York threatened to undermine its investments there.

"The measures proposed ... will be more burdensome than any of those placed on our industry throughout the United States," Chesapeake said in public comments made available to Reuters on Tuesday.

As a result, "some operators may elect to focus their risk capital in other states," the company said, which would mean New York would lose potential tax revenue from gas production at a time when the state is looking to close a $3.2 billion budget deficit.

The Oklahoma-based energy company, which on Monday announced a deal to sell a $2.25 billion stake in its Texas shale gas assets to French oil major Total, accused the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) regulators of going overboard with environmental protections.

Fortuna said companies faced uncertainty over whether the state would issue drilling permits and it was looking toward Pennsylvania, where exploration of the Marcellus Shale is booming -- but it is also where some of the greatest environmental concerns have arisen.

"New York is facing the loss of at least hundreds of millions of dollars of direct economic impact stimulus and is forfeiting the opportunity to create thousands of new jobs at a time in our state's history when they have never been needed more," Fortuna lawyer Mark Scheuerman told the DEC.

Development of the massive Marcellus Shale in several northeastern states holds the promise of providing the United States with a valuable domestic energy source. But environmental concerns that shale gas drilling contaminates drinking water have created uncertainty for the industry because of the risk of greater regulation.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is scrutinizing shale gas drilling, and the U.S. Congress is considering a bill that would force companies to disclose the chemicals that are mixed with water and sand in the process known as hydraulic fracturing.

New York Governor David Paterson proposed opening the Marcellus Shale to the technique. It has been taking place in New York but on a small scale and using relatively minor volumes of water compared to the current industry norm.

The DEC proposed a series of conditions and requirements for drilling companies in September, and the public had until December 31 to respond.

Until now, shale gas drillers in the state have been limited to less modern techniques that yield less energy.

HEALTH CONCERNS

Environmentalists have raised serious health concerns about the chemicals used in hydro-fracturing, including that they might cause cancer.

Neighbors of shale drilling operations in other states have complained their drinking water has become discolored or foul-smelling, their pets and farm animals have died from drinking it, and their children have suffered from diarrhea and vomiting.

Chesapeake accused critics of creating "fear and panic" with misleading or incorrect information and concerns "that have no basis in science or reality."

Chesapeake's views on the industry took on greater weight in light of its deal bringing Total into Chesapeake's Barnett Shale gas fields in north Texas.

That continued a trend in the industry of international oil majors buying shale gas assets. In December, the largest U.S. oil and gas company, Exxon Mobil, agreed to buy shale gas producer XTO Energy Inc for about $30 billion.

(Reporting by Edith Honan; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

news20100106reut5

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Fang Yan and Jacqueline Wong
SHANGHAI
Wed Jan 6, 2010 3:44am EST
Qinyuan seeks to boost electric car sales in U.S.
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Tianjin Qingyuan Electric Vehicle Co, the first Chinese automaker to break into the United States, hopes to significantly boost sales of its self-developed electric models in the world's second-largest market this year, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.

State-backed Qingyuan is among a growing army of Chinese automakers, including BYD Co, partly-owned by U.S. billionaire Warren Buffett, eager to tap the fledgling green car sector in mature markets.

Qingyuan hopes to sell 3,000 self-made electric vehicles mostly in the United States in 2010, 50 percent more than what it shipped there in the past five years, the source told Reuters.

It is also seeking opportunities to sell electric vehicles in Europe where regulators have been tightening up emission rules to tackle environmental issues, the source said.

"Qingyuan is rather positive on the outlook of its export business as market potential for green cars in the U.S. and Europe is huge," said the source.

Qingyuan declined to comment.

Other Chinese automakers are also stepping up investment in the green car sector which is poised to take off.

BYD Co -- 10 percent controlled by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc, has sold several hundred of its plug-in hybrid, F3DM, unveiled in December 2008. It also plans to export its first electric car, the e6, to the United States this year.

Chery Automobile Co, Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Corp (BAIC) and SAIC Motor Corp, among others have unveiled their electric or hybrid models.

HOME MARKET

Beijing said in December it would expand its pilot scheme to subsidize the purchase of clean-energy vehicles for public transport fleets in 13 to 20 cities.

It would also subsidize the purchase of "environmentally friendly" vehicles in five cities selected for a pilot program to private car buyers for the first time.

The move presents new growth opportunities for Qingyuan, which has been seeking to cooperate with domestic and foreign car ventures in China in the green vehicle segment.

A source told Reuters in September that Qingyuan was in talks with Daimler AG to develop an electric version of a van made at the German automaker's joint venture in southeast China.

Chery Auto, Beijing Hyundai, Hyundai Motor's car venture with BAIC, are also among its potential clients, the source said.

Qingyuan, based in the municipality of Tianjin near Beijing, is capable of producing 5,000 to 6,000 electric vehicles per annum.

Its near-term goal is to raise its production level for key components of electric cars, including motor and driving systems.

To fund expansion, Qingyuan is in talks with several potential foreign and domestic investors, said the source, without elaborating.

It may consider listing on China's Nasdaq-style second board, CHinNext eventually. The four-month old board is already home to 36 start-up firms, including movie maker H.Brothers and Aier Eye Hospital Group.

(Reporting by Fang Yan and Jacqueline Wong)


[Green Business]
Timothy Gardner
WASHINGTON
Tue Jan 5, 2010 4:33pm EST
U.S. scrapped more cars than bought new ones
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans scrapped more automobiles than they bought last year as the ragged economy reduced demand and some major cities expanded mass transit service, according to a new report.

The United States scrapped 14 million autos while buying only 10 million last year, shrinking the country's car and light duty truck fleet to 246 million from a record high of 250 million, according to the report to be released on Wednesday by nonprofit group the Earth Policy Institute (EPI).

The United States, the world's biggest petroleum user, "is entering a new era, evolving from a car-dominated transport system to one that is much more diversified," said Lester Brown, the president of the EPI.

While many cities like New York have had to cut mass transit services and raise fares during the recession, Phoenix, Seattle, Houston, Nashville and other cities have expanded or improved mass transit systems.

Cities are taking a variety of steps, like adding rapid bus lanes and light duty rail, to fight traffic congestion and air pollution. Some are raising parking meter prices and cutting down the required parking spaces per building, the report said.

President Barack Obama's "cash for clunkers" program, which last summer gave consumers a rebate of up to $4,500 for trading in older cars and light trucks, led to the scrapping of more than 700,000 vehicles. But since the incentive was only available to consumers who bought new fuel-sipping vehicles, it did not affect the ratio of scrapped vehicles to new sales.

Market saturation of autos, urbanization, high oil prices that reached a record $147 a barrel in 2008, and the uncertain economy have helped cut car sales, Brown said. Given those forces, sales may never reach the 17 million per year level they were between 1999 and 2007, he said.

Because more people live in cities than a few decades ago, young people, particularly those burdened with student loans, are foregoing car purchases, the report said.

As more people live in cities, some teens are not even bothering to get driver's licenses. The number of teenagers with licenses peaked at 12 million in 1978 but is now under 10 million, the report said.

"When I was a kid socializing revolved around getting into a car and going for a drive," said Brown. "Today kids socialize over the Internet and on smart phones."

A continued drop in auto purchases could cut long-term oil demand and greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. he said. It could also lead to increases in steel supplies as big cars get recycled, Brown said.

Brown used data from the U.S. Federal Highway Administration and R.L. Polk & Co to write the report.

(Editing by Philip Barbara)


[Green Business]
TORONTO
Tue Jan 5, 2010 4:12pm EST
Sunoco to pay Pennsylvania air quality fines
TORONTO (Reuters) - Sunoco Refining and Marketing will pay $173,310 in civil penalties for air quality violations at its 178,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, that occurred in 2008, state authorities said on Tuesday.

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Southeast Regional Director, Sunoco had several reported incidents of emissions, as well as numerous air permit and storage tank violations, during the same time period.

"Sunoco views this as an opportunity to maintain our efforts in continuous improvement," said Thomas Golembeski, a spokesman for the refiner.

" We take our environmental performance seriously. We self-reported our air emission releases and cooperated fully with Pennsylvania DEP inspections. The safe, reliable and environmentally sound operation of our facilities is our main focus," he added.