news20100117jt1

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

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Sunday, Jan. 17, 2010
Ozawa vows to fight on as DPJ puts on brave face
At convention, kingpin denies shady funding
By JUN HONGO
Staff writer

Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa vowed Saturday to fight on despite the arrests of his key aides over a political funds scandal that could hurt voter support ahead of July's Upper House election.

During the DPJ's annual convention in Tokyo, Ozawa accused prosecutors of conducting an "unacceptable" investigation that has resulted in the arrests of three of his former aides for failing to declare in his political funds report \400 million that was used to buy a Tokyo land plot in 2004.

Prosecutors suspect that part of the money may have come from illegal donations from construction companies in return for favors in a dam construction project in Iwate Prefecture, Ozawa's political base.

Ozawa, who had remained tight-lipped on the land deal, told the convention that he will fight and seek justice.

"There might have been miscalculations or errors on records, but typically such issues are let off after making revisions and corrections in most cases," Ozawa said.

The DPJ kingpin explained that the \400 million purchase of the Tokyo plot was funded by his own hard-earned assets and not, as reported, by shady donations from construction companies.

"This isn't an irregular fund at all," Ozawa said, adding he has decided to confront the prosecutors not only to clear his name but to ensure proper investigative procedures are established.

The arrests of Ozawa's former secretaries Friday — including DPJ lawmaker Tomohiro Ishikawa — came three days before the opening of the ordinary Diet session.

The fallout from the developments dominated the party's annual event Saturday, as speculation grew that Ozawa's time in office could be limited.

But DPJ executives at the convention put on a brave face and called on party members to unite with the aim of bringing about change in the nation's politics.

"As the chief of the DPJ, I believe in Ozawa," Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said, insisting the party should concentrate on carrying out its duties in the ruling camp.

"We will not be discouraged, and we will not be defeated. I promise to answer the calls from the public," Hatoyama said.

New Party Daichi's Muneo Suzuki, a guest at the event, backed Ozawa and the DPJ by blasting prosecutors and accusing them of "running wild."

"To think that prosecutors are fair is a big mistake," said Suzuki, who himself has been involved in a bribery trial.

The convention hit a high note when Suzuki criticized the investigations of Ozawa and urged Hatoyama to deal with "corrupt powers."

Meanwhile, Social Democratic Party chief Mizuho Fukushima, a guest at the convention, caused minor unrest by effectively pushing Ozawa to come clean to the public and explain the shady fund transfers.

"The public is requesting a sincere explanation over the ongoing issue," Fukushima said in her speech, to a weak response from the audience.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Sunday, Jan. 17, 2010
U.S. calmly accepts end of MSDF refueling tour

WASHINGTON (Kyodo) The United States reacted calmly Friday to the termination of Japan's eight-year refueling mission in the Indian Ocean in support of U.S.-led antiterrorism operations in and around Afghanistan.

"This was a decision that Japan made," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters when asked about the mission's halt earlier in the day.

He also said Japan "continues to make important contributions to the mission in Afghanistan," referring to Tokyo's new policy of offering civilian aid to the conflict-ravaged country.

Maritime Self-Defense Force vessels will leave the waters following an order issued by Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa to terminate the operations at midnight Friday. The activities had continued for most of the period since December 2001 in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that year in the United States.

Japan had provided about 510,000 kiloliters of oil to vessels from 12 countries, including Britain, France, Pakistan and the United States, in 938 operations as of Dec. 31, according to a Defense Ministry tally.

The cost of fuel provided to foreign vessels during the mission since fiscal 2001 totaled \24.4 billion and expenses for the entire refueling mission amounted to \71.5 billion, according to the ministry.

Tokyo also provided around 1,200 kiloliters of fuel for helicopters on foreign ships taking part in antiterrorism activities in 85 operations and supplied foreign vessels with about 11,000 tons of water on 194 occasions. In total, around 13,300 MSDF members took part in the mission, the ministry said.

U.S. and Pakistani vessels were the major recipients of the fuel provided by the MSDF, the tally showed.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Sunday, Jan. 17, 2010
IHI to end GX rocket development joint venture after government pulls plug
Kyodo News

IHI Corp. has decided to liquidate a joint venture for the development of the GX medium-size rocket following the government's decision to scrap a public-private sector development project, sources said Saturday.

Heavy machinery maker IHI is expected to book an extraordinary loss of about \10 billion for the liquidation of Galaxy Express Corp., which was established in 2001.

IHI, which has a stake of more than 40 percent in the rocket development company, plans to hold talks over the liquidation with other shareholders, including Mitsubishi Corp. and Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd., they said.

IHI made the decision to terminate the joint venture after concluding that the business would not be feasible without government involvement, the sources said.

The government canceled the rocket development project late last year in a bid to eliminate wasteful spending. It determined the project was not economically viable after estimating that an additional \94 billion would have been needed to complete the rocket.

A total of about \70 billion has already been spent on the project, with the private sector shouldering about \43 billion.

The project began in 2003 with the state-run JAXA, IHI and U.S. defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. taking part.

news20100117jt2

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

[Environment]
Sunday, Jan. 17, 2010
WILD WATCH
'Tigers' and naturalists of many stripes
One person's species sighting may be no such thing in the eye of another beholder
By MARK BRAZIL

Ienter the forest and soon the rhythmic swish-swish of my skis over the snow mesmerizes me. This is my first foray of the new year in Hokkaido, making tracks in the lowland forest of Nopporo close to home just east of Sapporo.

As the rhythm of my arms, my legs and my skis builds, the pace of my thoughts changes too. The pressure of things "I must do" begins to fade, and unbidden ideas wander through my mind as if wafted on the breeze, or snagged briefly on the branches overarching the frosted and snowy views I contemplate.

I admire the meandering pattern of paw prints made by a browsing mountain hare, and glimpse a black woodpecker as it flits silently from tree to tree; I listen and watch as a dark, unfrozen streamlet trickles between snowy banks and reflects the stark, denuded and gray-barked trees above.

Naturalists wear many stripes; while some wander quietly, others quest passionately. Whereas some glow with contentment at each and every unexpected encounter — whether of dragonfly, deer or falcon — others are like homing missiles seeking out specific targets to add to their lifetime lists of sightings — whether a new species of butterfly, bird or mammal.

Some of us return again and again to favorite walks, favorite woods or hills, and savor and extol the virtues of renewed experiences in familiar places and with familiar species, extending all the while our knowledge of these "old friends." Others prefer to move ever on, visiting new sites in order to log new sightings. Whatever their inclination, however, most naturalists make notes about their experiences, and I have been doing so now for more than 40 years; accumulating information, looking for patterns, always learning.

New experiences motivate many of us, and it is through our notes and our lists that we strive somehow to abbreviate those experiences, to make a shorthand mental list of them. But if we make lists, what actually are we listing?

If I glimpse a flash of fur in the forest at dusk, does that "count" as my first flying squirrel of the year? If I peruse a fox's tracks across open fields to work out which way it was going, does that count at all? If I watch entranced for hours, and spring after spring, as red-crowned cranes in eastern Hokkaido perform their balletic nuptial dances, does that really only "count" as one sighting (albeit repeated) on my list of bird species seen?

Clearly lists are, of themselves, heartless, consisting merely of cold numbers recording sightings, and reflecting neither whether the subject was rare or common, whether it was seen well or poorly, merely glimpsed or observed with time to stare.

The flashing, black-and-white barred wings of a hoopoe are unmistakeable, but the very briefest of glimpses I had between trees of this gorgeous bird one day long ago in Norfolk, eastern England, was hardly the kind of view I had dreamed of as my very first sighting in Britain. For sure I saw it — but was it satisfying? No. So how should one list it?

One great friend adds a cryptic acronym, "bvd," after recording such brief sightings in his notes: "better views desired." Yes, he saw it and will remember the pleasure of doing so, but the dream of an even better sighting lingers.

Others are more demanding, they append "bvr" — "better views required" — as if they were somehow personally let down by a poor experience. Some seem to feel disappointment regardless of their sightings unless they have captured a stunning photograph of their target species. There is no doubt that if you set your sights that high, there is every opportunity for disappointment to strike you very deeply.

To a purist, for instance, the hare tracks I admired in the snow would count as nothing, because I did not see the animal itself. Yet for me, those tracks told a story of a secretive, nocturnal creature seeking food following a recent fresh fall of snow.

Conversely, my brief view of the black woodpecker, locally a much scarcer species than the hare, would count significantly for the purist. I saw it, after all — even though I found the hare tracks far more satisfying. Perversely, had I heard the woodpecker without seeing it, and known about its presence from its ringing cry, and perhaps from the tapping sounds of its beak on dry wood, my experience would have felt more complete; I could have imagined so much more.

Avery recent prolonged spell of time I spent in India has given me considerable food for thought on the nature of wildlife sightings. Despite the tremendous biodiversity of that country, so often the near-singular target of naturalists visiting the subcontinent is the tiger. Now a great rarity, and under tremendous pressure from poachers for its whiskers, skin and bones, the Bengal tiger is increasingly difficult to see, even where it is protected in national parks and tiger reserves.

Certainly, no foray into an Indian forest comes with any guarantee of a sighting, yet there are often signs all around of the presence of the tiger for those willing to look for them — and they tell a fascinating story of an ecosystem with a powerful predator at its apex.

My opportunities to be where tigers live, both recently and before, have led me to reflect deeply on how to "list" or "rank" one's connections with wildlife, not merely as a check on a list, but as an indication of the strength of that connection.

I call what I have now devised as a result "My Tiger Sighting Scale," though it is not just for tigers. The tiger is merely a metaphor that applies equally to any quest, and it works as well for Japanese macaques, mountain hares, giant salamander, red-bellied frogs or Okinawa rails — and anything else you dream of encountering or experiencing.

Here is what I came up with — a six-point scale combining experiences and emotional responses: 0: Nothing! Truly no sign of my "tiger" at all, yet I know it's there.

An experience filled with dreams and imaginings. 1: Signs. Seeing footprints, tracks, scratch marks, droppings or other indications that my "tiger" has been here.

Imagination runs riot, telling stories about the creature's recent activities. Excitement builds — I am close! 2: A View. There it is! I glimpsed my "tiger," partly hidden in dense vegetation; not a complete view.

Elation is tempered by the desire for more. 3: Good View. Great! I can see my "tiger." There it is, a clear sighting, albeit brief, but in my mind I can store an image.

Excitement lingers, seasoned with a desire for a photograph. 4: Very Good View. Fantastic! A prolonged opportunity to stare, to study my "tiger," and at close range.

Thrilling experience, with long-lasting excitement and a wealth of images in the mind and in the camera. 5: Excellent View. Wow! Hard to imagine beating such a prolonged, close-range experience, watching the fascinating behavior of my "tiger" and taking wonderful photographs.

A dream-fulfilling experience.

Each new year begins filled with dreams. May this Year of the Tiger fulfil your dreams — and bring you an appreciation of the very many signs of the natural world around you. I hope that you will find your very own "tiger," too.

Mark Brazil, naturalist and author, organizes and leads wildlife excursions around Japan and worldwide. His latest book is "Field Guide to the Birds of East Asia," and, like his earlier "A Birdwatcher's Guide to Japan," it is readily available through markbrazil@world.email.ne.jp

news20100117lat

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

[Haihi Earthqauke]
By Tina Susman and Tracy Wilkinson and Mark Silva
January 17, 2010
Aid pours into Haiti airport as relief workers struggle to distribute it
Desperate Haitians face a fifth day with little food, water or medical care as rubble and a ruined infrastructure prove a barrier to troops and rescue teams. Clinton arrives, meets with Preval.

Reporting from Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, and Washington -- For the first time since a catastrophic earthquake shuddered across Haiti last week, there were real signs of relief Saturday, with U.S. helicopters ferrying emergency supplies from an aircraft carrier off the coast and bulldozers taking to the streets of Port-au-Prince to shove through mountains of debris.

But there also were signs of the immense problems ahead: the stench of decaying bodies rising from neighborhoods; the sprawling tent cities that have sprung up across the capital; the challenge of getting help to people in the face of the breathtaking scale of destruction and need.

U.S. officials made a concerted push Saturday to show support for the survivors of a disaster that may have left more than 100,000 people dead.

In Washington, President Obama met with his two immediate predecessors, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, whom he has designated to lead a massive private fundraising effort for Haiti.

"These two leaders send an unmistakable message to the people of Haiti and the world," Obama said of the former presidents flanking him in the Rose Garden. "In a moment of need, the United States stands united."

Hours later, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived in Haiti aboard a flight that carried an aid shipment. She is the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the impoverished Caribbean nation since the magnitude 7.0 earthquake left its capital in ruins.

On a field near Port-au-Prince's airport with a view of the runway, small crowds of Haitians watched as U.S. military helicopters landed.

The airport was a frenetic hive of activity as flights arrived carrying search-and-rescue teams and cargo varying from forklifts to earth-moving equipment to food and medical aid. Crowds of civilians lined up for hours to catch charter flights out.

The U.S. military has a history of coming into Haiti at times of crisis, raising hopes among its citizens that their bedraggled country somehow will miraculously be transformed with new jobs and development and long-term security -- hopes that went unfulfilled time after time.

Nevertheless, this time there appeared to be a genuine desire to see U.S. forces come back -- but perhaps again with unrealistic expectations of the U.S. role. Scrawled in black letters across a concrete slab amid rubble was a greeting and plea: "Welcome the U.S. Marines. We need some help."

"We want them to rebuild the nation," said Charlme Prevenel, a teacher, who seemed certain that it was just a matter of days before U.S. troops were on the streets to control traffic, rebuild broken schools and hospitals, and create jobs.

"In the past, they came to take power. This time, they are coming to help," Prevenel said as a chopper thundered.

Haitian officials have said the death toll could exceed 100,000 and might reach twice that number. On Saturday, the State Department confirmed the deaths of 15 U.S. citizens: a diplomat and 14 private individuals, according to the Associated Press.

The United Nations said that the body of Haiti mission chief Hedi Annabi had been found in the rubble of its headquarters, which collapsed during the earthquake.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the bodies of Annabi's deputy, Luiz Carlos da Costa, and the acting police commissioner, Doug Coates, had also been found.

Rescuers digging in the rubble still held out hope of finding survivors, despite the dwindling odds. U.S. officials said search-and-rescue operations would continue over the weekend, even as the focus was shifting to humanitarian relief.

The Pentagon reported that as of Friday night, 4,200 U.S. military personnel were supporting task force operations, within Haiti and from Navy and Coast Guard vessels offshore. An additional 6,300 military personnel were scheduled to arrive through the weekend.

In Port-au-Prince, Secretary of State Clinton met with Haitian President Rene Preval and other leaders to discuss the emergency response.

Clinton said she and Preval agreed to work closely on relief work and restoring basic services, such as telecommunications, electricity and transportation. She said the two would issue a joint statement today outlining what comes next.

In remarks directed to the Haitian people, Clinton said, "We are here at the invitation of your government to help you. As President Obama has said, we will be here today, tomorrow and for the time ahead."

With an atmosphere of desperation in Port-au-Prince, and reports of scattered looting and mob violence, Obama counseled patience as the international relief effort moves forward.

"There's going to be fear, anxiety, a sense of desperation in some areas," Obama said. But, he added, "we are going to be making slow and steady progress."

Bush, a Republican, and Bill Clinton, a Democrat, have established a website -- www.clintonbushhaitifund.org -- to collect contributions from Americans and donors around the world.

Bush, who was widely criticized for his administration's response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, urged Americans to give money, saying it was the most effective answer to the immediate crisis.

"I know a lot of people want to send blankets and water -- just send your cash," Bush said. He promised to make sure "that your money is spent wisely."

As for Clinton, who is also the U.N. special envoy to Haiti, he said the earthquake would require expanding plans for long-term rehabilitation that were already underway. The U.N. has estimated that the quake damaged or flattened up to half of the buildings in hard-hit areas.

But the short-term challenge of moving people and huge aid shipments into the city through the damaged airport was proving daunting enough.

Aid groups looked for detours around the overwhelmed airport, with one runway, and quake-damaged seaport. Some were shuttling supplies overland from the neighboring Dominican Republic, but roads are poor and the going slow.

U.S. Air Force Capt. Dustin Doyle said the Air Force had taken charge of the airport to ensure that planes unloaded their cargo quickly, and then took off again to allow more planes in. France lodged a protest after two relief flights were turned away by U.S. air traffic controllers, the Associated Press reported.

"The first few days some planes just couldn't land" because of the crowded tarmac and lack of control, Doyle said. From here on, Doyle said, the U.S. Army will oversee moving the materials to a staging point either within the airport premises or somewhere nearby. From that point, he said, aid agencies will pick them up for distribution.

"We're not going to just induce rioting by taking supplies and dropping them somewhere," Doyle said. "We want everything now, now, now too, but it's just that sometimes these things take time."

But what Doyle dismissed was exactly what people outside the airport wanted to happen.

Luciana Hasboun suggested that police and U.S. troops could deliver supplies directly to the population through local committees. Leaving it to aid agencies to set up distribution sites would be a problem for the elderly and injured, and lead to fighting among Haitians for the goods, Hasboun said.

Jean Maxime Paulroc agreed, saying, "The people are crooked. The [local aid] organizations are crooked.

"They always say if someone wants something to get done, they prefer the U.S. Marines to the U.N."

news20100117gdn

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Wildlife]
Asia's greed for ivory puts African elephant at risk
Slaughter by poachers intensifies as governments seek to increase legal sales
Robin McKie
The Observer, Sunday 17 January 2010 Article history

There has been a massive surge in illegal ivory trading, researchers warned last week. They have found that more than 14,000 products made from the tusks and other body parts of elephants were seized in 2009, an increase of more than 2,000 on their previous analysis in 2007.

Details of this disturbing rise have been revealed on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the world ivory trading ban. Implemented on 18 January 1990, it was at first credited with halting the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of elephants.

But the recent growth in the far east's appetite for ivory – a status symbol for the middle classes of the region's newly industrialised economies – has sent ivory prices soaring from £150 a kilogram in 2004 to more than £4,000.

At the same time, scientists estimate that between 8% and 10% of Africa's elephants are now being killed each year to meet the demand. The world's largest land animal is again threatened with widespread slaughter.

"It is a really worrying situation," said Richard Thomas, director of Traffic, the group that monitors trade in wildlife. "However, it is not absolutely clear what should be done." Indeed, the issue is so confused that a conflict over the ivory trade is expected at March's meeting of Cites, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

A key source of contention will be the future of legitimate stockpile sales of ivory that have been permitted by international agreement. Killing elephants for their tusks is illegal, but selling ivory from animals that have died of natural causes has been permitted on occasions. In 2008 a stockpile of tusks – from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe – was bought by dealers from China and Japan. The sale, of 105,000 kilograms of ivory, raised more than £15m.

But now countries including Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo are to call for a ban of these stockpile sales at the Cites meeting. They say such trade – albeit sporadic – only increases demand for ivory goods and is responsible for triggering the recent rise in illegal trade and the killing of thousands of elephants across Africa.

This point is backed by shadow environment secretary Nick Herbert, who recently returned from a visit to study the impact of ivory poaching in India. "On the 20th anniversary of the international ban on the ivory trade, we should be taking a stand," he said last week. "Instead of flooding the market with more ivory and legitimising the trade, we should be choking demand, not stoking it."

But countries such as Tanzania and Zambia, which have some of the worst poaching records in Africa, want a relaxation of ivory trade regulations at Cites so they can hold their own stockpile sales. They say the tens of millions of pounds that can be raised will help them fund rangers who can protect their elephants.

"Unfortunately the evidence is not clear whether stockpile sales increase demand for ivory or help to control it," said Heather Sohl of the WWF. "We have had recent stockpile sales of ivory – and poaching has increased dramatically. But other factors may be involved. Many African countries are suffering terrible drought and local people are desperate. Killing elephants brings money, alas."

Killing for tusks is a particularly gruesome trade. Elephants are intelligent animals whose sophisticated social ties are exploited by poachers. They will often shoot young elephants to draw in a grieving parent, which is then killed for its ivory. Estimates suggest more than 38,000 elephants were killed this way in 2006: the death rate is higher today.


[Environment > Greenpeace]
Greenpeace to build £14m flagship
The Rainbow Warrior III mega-yacht will be one of the greenest ships afloat, complete with satellite video system and a helipad
John Vidal
The Observer, Sunday 17 January 2010 Article history

Many navies are shrinking as defence cuts bite, but environment groups are renewing their fleets in response to growing ecological pressure on oceans and losses of their vessels at sea.

German and Polish shipyards will shortly start work on Greenpeace's £14m flagship, a mega-yacht that will become the third Rainbow Warrior next year. It will be one of the biggest yachts to have been commissioned in the last decade with, say the designers, a massive 1,300 sq metres of sail supported on two A-frame masts.

Like billionaire Roman Abramovich's £300m mega-yacht, the Eclipse, also expected to be launched this year in Germany, the Rainbow Warrior III will have its own helipad and room for a flotilla of inflatables. But while it will sleep 30 in more comfort than the fishing boats the environment group usually converts, it will not have Abramovich's swimming pools, military-grade missile defence system, submarine or armour-plating.

Instead it will be one of the greenest ships afloat and a satellite system will allow campaigners to stream video footage from anywhere in the world. "We have converted ships for 30 years and it's time we practised what we preach," said Ulrich von Eitzen, a Greenpeace spokesman. "Upgrading the existing ship was not technically or financially feasible and converting a secondhand ship would compromise our campaigning and energy conservation needs."

The new ship will have both diesel and electric engines but these are expected to be in use for less than 10% of its time at sea. "The aim is to drastically reduce emissions and to burn far less fuel. You can never say in advance what speeds it will do, but its main propulsion will be by wind," said Eitzen.

Analysis showed that it was ecologically efficient to build from new rather than convert another ship, but that there was little difference between an aluminium or steel hull. By far the greatest impact on the environment was found to be during the ship's use rather than in the construction or eventual demolition phases.

The decision to choose sail rather than rely on fossil fuels is also a deliberate challenge to the shipping industry to reduce its carbon and other polluting emissions. Ships' diesel engines rely on "bunker" oil, one of the dirtiest fuels in the world, but owners are coming under increased pressure to reduce emissions and marine designers are investigating a return to sail. Critics have argued that Greenpeace has been reluctant to address shipping emissions for fear of drawing attention to its own fossil-fuel-powered fleet.

The cost should not be a problem for the group, which, with nearly three million supporters, is extremely wealthy. The new Rainbow Warrior will bring the Greenpeace fleet to six ocean-going ships, as big as the navies of many island states such as Madagascar, the Seychelles, the Maldives and Mauritius. Greenpeace boats have been used from the Arctic to the Amazon to confront whalers, loggers, illegal fishers, GM food importers and nuclear testing. They are crewed by a mix of professional sailors and volunteers.

In 1986 the French government ordered its secret service to sink the first Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour, New Zealand.

The Sea Shepherd conservation group, based in California, is also planning to augment its fleet of former US and British coastguard ships after one of its vessels was smashed in half by a Japanese whaling ship in Antarctica the week before last. Even as the futuristic Ady Gil, a £1.1m carbon-fibre trimaran, was sinking, Sea Shepherd's Hollywood backers launched an appeal to raise £2m for a new "bigger, better, faster ship".

"I won't let them take me down. I'm going to build another ship, an improved version," said Ady Gil, a producer who gave £600,000 to the group last year to buy the ship. It held the speed record for circumnavigating the world and could travel at 50 knots in high seas. Within a few hours of the sinking, a further £120,000 was pledged to Sea Shepherd by animal lovers, mainly in the US and Australia.

Gil's donation follows a £3m gift to Sea Shepherd from Hollywood quiz host Bob Barker last year to convert a former Norwegian whaler into an enforcement vessel. "We need everything: coastal patrol vessels, inflatables, personal watercraft and other types of vessels and marine equipment," said Captain Paul Watson, the group's director.

Oceana, one of the world's largest maritime protection organisations, with more than 300,000 members, also plans to augment its fleet. The group, which monitors and reports illegal fishing in the Mediterranean and elsewhere, plans to lease a third ocean-going boat.

news20100117bbc

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

[Science & Environment]
Page last updated at 10:56 GMT, Sunday, 17 January 2010
Extent of Haiti destruction clear
First reports from the epicentre of Tuesday's earthquake in Haiti suggest the damage is even more dramatic than in the capital, BBC correspondents say.

They say the scene in Leogane, west of Port-au-Prince, is "apocalyptic", with thousands left homeless and almost every building destroyed.

In the capital, survivors have become desperate as they wait for aid being handed out by international agencies.

But in a sign of hope, rescuers pulled a woman alive from rubble on Sunday.

"It's a little miracle," the woman's husband, Reinhard Riedl, told the Associated Press news agency after she was rescued from a luxury hotel.

{{ AT THE SCENE}
Mark Doyle, BBC News, Haiti
> The scene an hour's drive west of Port-au-Prince is apocalyptic. Almost every single building on the road I'm driving on now has been flattened.
> The destruction here is even more dramatic than the dreadful conditions in the capital. People have fled to the surrounding sugarcane fields or into mangrove swamps - anything to get away from the nightmare of the falling buildings.
> I've seen a long line of people queuing up at a single working water tap. Tens of thousands are living in the open in church compounds, school playgrounds and marketplaces.
> The population here are in profound shock. Many are wearing handkerchiefs over their mouths to keep out the dust and ward off the smell of dead bodies.}

The UN says up to 80-90% of buildings in Leogane, about 19km (12 miles) west of Port-au-Prince, have been destroyed.

The BBC's Mark Doyle - who travelled to the town on Saturday - said people had taken refuge in the surrounding sugarcane fields or mangrove swamps.

One survivor said he had come to Haiti from America for his mother's funeral, only for his wife to be killed in the earthquake. He said that so far people in the area had received no help of any kind.

"We don't have any aid, nothing at all," he said. "No food, no water, no medical, no doctors."

David Orr, a spokesman for the UN World Food Programme, said many thousands were feared dead.

"Nearly every house was destroyed here. The military are talking about 20,000 to 30,000 dead."

Many survivors have been leaving quake-hit areas in search of food, water and medicine.

Logistical challenges

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is due to arrive in Haiti on Sunday.

The UN has launched an appeal for $562m (£346m) intended to help three million people for six months, while some two million people are thought to need emergency relief.

{{We need fuel to bring in supplies and carry the wounded}
Elisabeth Byrs
UN spokeswoman}

International relief supplies have been arriving at the airport.

There were aid distributions in parts of Port-au-Prince on Saturday, but deliveries have been hampered by severe logistical challenges.

The airport is congested, the port badly damaged, and many roads blocked by corpses and debris.

On Sunday the UN also warned about fuel shortages, which it says could affect humanitarian operations.

"Fuel is the key issue," Elisabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told the BBC. "We need fuel to bring in supplies and carry the wounded."

David Wimhurst, a spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force in Haiti, said aid was being delivered as quickly as possible.

"Aid is going out but it's simply impossible in 24 hours to bring in enough aid to instantly feed all these people, many of whom are in places that are inaccessible," he said.

There are also security concerns amid reports of looting. On Saturday a crowd was reportedly involved in a fight over goods in Port-au-Prince, but a UN official said the overall situation was calm.

Country 'decapitated'

Estimates of how many people died following the 7.0 magnitude earthquake on Tuesday have varied.

The Pan American Health Organization put the death toll at 50,000-100,000, while Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said 100,000 "would seem a minimum".

A UN official has said aid workers are dealing with a disaster "like no other" in UN memory because the country had been "decapitated".

Three ministers and several senators are reported to have been killed.

Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said his house had been destroyed and he had been sleeping in his car.

"For the moment, we are trying to save our employees who are still stuck under the rubble," he said.

The UN itself lost at least 40 employees in the earthquake, and confirmed on Saturday that the head of its mission in Haiti had been found dead in the rubble of its headquarters.

The US has launched what President Barack Obama called "one of the largest relief efforts in its history" following the earthquake, which killed tens of thousands of people and left many more homeless.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was the first senior Western official to arrive in Haiti on Saturday.

She told Haitians that the US would be "here today, tomorrow and for the time ahead", asserting that "Haiti can come back even better and stronger in the future".

news20100117cnn

[Top stories] from [CNN.com]

[Haiti Earthquake]
January 17, 2010 -- Updated 1038 GMT (1838 HKT)
Search crews dig through quake rubble as relief mission takes shape
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
> By Saturday, 22 people had been pulled out from collapsed buildings
> More than 300 U.N. staffers are unaccounted for; 37 are confirmed dead
> Two common graves were dug Saturday and a third completed Friday

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Undeterred by the darkness or search dogs who no longer picked up signs of life, a rescue crew patiently chipped away at concrete and debris early Sunday morning to try and reach a woman who sent a text message that she was buried beneath the ruins of a collapsed bank.

The team with the Los Angeles County Search and Rescue had been looking for the woman since Saturday afternoon when a text arrived: "I'm OK but help me, I can't take it anymore."

Hours ticked by with no sign that the woman may still be alive. Rescue crews hadn't seen or heard anything with high-tech cameras and listening devices.

But the crew said they would keep looking -- as long as it took; as long as there was a modicum of hope she might still be alive.

Hope has been in short supply in Haiti since a 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated this impoverished island nation on Tuesday.

While there has not been an official count, estimates of the number of casualties in the capital alone range from 100,000 to 150,000.

By Friday, 13,000 bodies had been recovered, said U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Edmond Mulet. Among the dead are 15 Americans.

More than 300 U.N. staffers are unaccounted for. Thirty-seven are confirmed dead, including the top two civilian officials at the U.N. mission in Haiti, a peacekeeping and police force established after the 2004 ouster of then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Even now, survivors still emerge from under mounds of concrete. By Saturday, American search teams had pulled out 22 people from collapsed buildings.

Nearly 30 international rescue teams continue to comb the disaster areas for more survivors.

One man, said to be the head of the capital's tax office, was carried out alive on a stretcher amid wild cheers from residents.

And a 2-month-old baby with broken ribs was pulled out and airlifted to Florida in critical condition.

But in many cases, rescue operations turned into recovery ones.

A Los Angeles resue team answered the desperate pleas of a mother who believed her young daughter was trapped alive beneath the rubble of a day care center in downtown Port-au-Prince.

They searched for eight hours Saturday. At some point, the distinct sounds of tapping from within the crushed concrete stopped.

As rescue personnel pulled away, the mother -- who stood praying silently during the rescue efforts -- stayed put, holding on to hope.

Despite the best attempts by aid groups, the country remains in dire need of food, water and medical aid.

In open fields, abandoned stadiums and empty warehouses in the capital, relief workers set up makeshift hospitals.

Residents flocked to them en masse.

Dr. Jennifer Furin was tending to about 300 patients at one such hospital on a U.N. compound near Port-au-Prince's airport. Without immediate surgery, a third of them will die, she predicted.

"They will die of infections, they'll die of dead tissue, they'll die of malnutrition and metabolic derangements," Furin, with the Harvard Medical School, said.

Throughout the capital city, thousands of bodies lay exposed to the sun or draped in sheets and cardboard.

Residents who could not afford face masks smeared toothpaste below their nose to cover the stench.

On Friday, patients at a field hospital watched doctors and nurses walk away. The Belgian medical team said it pulled out after concerns for its safety.

The departure left CNN's Sanjay Gupta the only doctor to tend to the patients through the night.

Assisted by other CNN staffers, security personnel and at least one Haitian nurse who refused to leave, Gupta assessed the needs of the 25 patients. But there was little he could do without supplies.

The medical team returned Saturday, saying it had been assured of security that night.

Hundreds of Haitians, without food and water for four days, stretched their arms toward the sky as U.S. helicopters dropped boxes of food in part of the battered capital. The residents swarmed toward the boxes, ignoring the wind and dust kicked up from the helicopter's blades.

For the most part, people stood in long, orderly lines for food -- even while anxiety about whether there was enough to go around permeated the wait.

On Friday, a food convoy with the World Food Programme was forced to leave an area after men in the crowd starting pushing and shoving their way to the trucks.

But Raymond Joseph, the Haitian ambassador to the United States, did not believe crowds will turn violent as long as food distribution continued.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton toured the capital early Saturday afternoon -- the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit since the quake.

She pledged American assistance to the Haitian people, "today, tomorrow and for the time ahead."

In addition to the immediate needs, Clinton said the focus next week will switch to long-term recovery and reconstruction.

Amid the chaos, there were signs of progress: more aid distribution sites and hospitals and a system for identifying the dead.

Two common graves were dug Saturday and a third completed Friday, said Mulet. There, the dead are photographed in hopes of providing identification in the future for families.

The Port-au-Prince airport remained overwhelmed by the influx of air traffic bringing in supplies.

And U.S. troops handed out about 2,500 meals in Petionville Saturday and 14 aid distribution points had been established.

Increasingly, Haitians were seen helping Haitians.

Impact Your World

One local church was able to scrounge up some potato chips, bottled water and juice to hand out.

Local authorities also were seen setting up a makeshift clinic on a street corner in Port-au-Prince with one doctor and a couple of tables and folding chairs.

In the United States, former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush kicked off a fundraising drive -- a donation push called the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, similar to the appeal led by Clinton and Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, for the victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami.

For many U.S. Coast Guard rescuers, Saturday bought a welcome respite from devastation and death.

A woman being evacuated off the coast of Haiti gave birth as she prepared to take a U.S. Navy helicopter to a hospital.

"It was really quick," said Coast Guard pilot Lt. Tim Williams, of the birth aboard a Coast Guard cutter. "They laid her down, and within like 30 seconds, there was a baby."

It was a boy.

news20100117reut1

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Martin Roberts
SEVILLE
Sat Jan 16, 2010 4:27pm EST
EU unlikely to extend emissions cuts: ministers
SEVILLE (Reuters) - The European Union is unlikely to raise its commitment to cut carbon emissions by 30 percent from 20 percent until other countries show greater willingness to follow suit, ministers said on Saturday.

The EU has set a target of cutting carbon dioxide (CO2) by 20 percent from 1990 levels over the next decade. It promised ahead of climate talks in Copenhagen in December that it would deepen those cuts to 30 percent if other countries did likewise.

The United Nations has fixed a January 31 deadline for countries to commit to emissions cuts and the EU sees no sign that major economies will set comparable targets that soon.

"The final evaluation is that it probably cannot be done," Spanish Secretary of State for Climate Change Teresa Ribera told journalists after a meeting of EU environment ministers in Seville, Spain. The decision had been widely expected.

The EU, which accounts for about 14 percent of the world's CO2 emissions, is keen to lead climate talks despite its marginalization at last year's meeting in Copenhagen.

Environmentalists had pushed it to adopt a more aggressive target in order to show the way.

It has not ruled out adopting a 30-percent cut at a later stage if it can gain concessions from other countries.

The nominee for European climate commissioner, Connie Hedegaard, told a European Parliament hearing on Friday that she hoped the EU's conditions for moving to 30 percent would be met before a meeting set for Mexico later this year.

Prior to the Copenhagen talks, the United Nations had called for wealthy countries to cut emissions by 25-40 percent by 2020 in order to keep the average rise in global temperatures to within 2 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels.

(Additional reporting by Pete Harrison in Brussels, editing by Anthony Barker)


[Japan & China]
TOKYO
Sun Jan 17, 2010 4:20am EST
Japan threatens action on China gas project: report
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan warned China on Sunday that it would take action if Beijing starts gas production in a disputed field in the East China Sea, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported.

Although the two countries reached a broad agreement in 2008 on principles intended to solve the dispute by jointly developing gas fields, progress has been slow and Japan has accused China of drilling for gas in violation of the agreement.

Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada indicated to his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi at a meeting in Tokyo on Sunday that Japan might also start its own development in the disputed area, if China moves ahead with its gas production at the site, Kyodo reported, citing a ministry source.

The two ministers had heated exchanges, with Yang saying Okada's stance as not acceptable, Kyodo also reported.

But the two also agreed on the need to continue frequent high-level dialogue, and Yang invited Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to visit China for this year's World Expo in Shanghai while Okada also invited Chinese premier Wen Jiabao to visit Japan, Kyodo also reported.

Tokyo objects to Chinese development of the Chunxiao gas field in seas close to Japan's claimed boundary.

Estimated net known reserves in the disputed fields are a modest 92 million barrels of oil equivalent, but both countries have pursued the issue because there may be larger hidden reserves.

(Reporting by Hideyuki Sano; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)


[Japan & China]
TOKYO
Sun Jan 17, 2010 2:53am EST
Mazda and Ford to dissolve China JV: report
TOKYO (Reuters) - Mazda Motor Corp (7261.T) and Ford Motor Co (F.N) will dissolve their joint venture in China by 2012, a move that would further weaken the tie between the two automakers, Japan's Nikkei business daily reported on Sunday.

Mazda, Ford and China's Chongqing Changan Automobile Co (000625.SZ) have basically agreed to split their three-way tie-up, Changan Ford Mazda, into two entities, Nikkei reported, citing sources.

They will likely spin off the joint venture's factory in Nanjing as a 50-50 joint venture between Mazda and Changan Automobile Group, while Ford and Changan will run the venture's other factory in Chongqing, the business paper said.

Mazda wants more freedom to accelerate its business in China, -- now the world's biggest car market -- Nikkei reported.

"It was sometimes difficult to coordinate production (in the three-way joint venture,)" Nikkei quoted a senior Mazda official as saying.

Mazda's ties with Ford has weakened since the cash-strapped U.S. automaker reduced its controlling one-third stake in Mazda to 13 percent in 2008.

But Mazda will continue its joint production with Ford in the United States and Thailand for the time being, Nikkei added.

Mazda is estimated to have produced around 70,000 cars in China in the two factories in 2009 and the automaker plans to expand the capacity of the Nanjing plant to 200,000 units per year from a current 160,000, the Nikkei reported.

Mazda's China sales rose 40 percent in 2009 to around 180,000 units but the company, which has a much smaller presence in Chinese market than other Japanese car makers, wants to boost sales to around 300,000 units, the paper also said.

(Reporting by Hideyuki Sano; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)


[Technology > Media > Chaina]
Melanie Lee
SHANGHAI
Sun Jan 17, 2010 3:49am EST
Google denies leaving China, seeks negotiations
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Google Inc enters a second week of high stakes brinkmanship with China's government, amid speculation the firm has decided to pull out of the world's biggest Internet market over cyber-spying concerns.

Google, the world's most popular search engine, said last week it was thinking about quitting China after suffering a sophisticated cyber-attack on its network that resulted in theft of its intellectual property.

The company has said it is no longer willing to filter content on its Chinese language google.cn engine, and will try to negotiate a legal unfiltered search engine, or exit the market.

Most of the filters on google.cn were still in place on Sunday, though controls over some searches, including the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, appear to have been loosened.

The Google announcement captured the attention of China's 384 million netizens, the world's largest Internet market by users, with blogs and local media quoting unnamed insiders as saying Google has already decided to close its offices in China.

Google has denied that, saying the company is still in the process of scanning its internal networks since the cyber-attack in mid-December. Google also said it would hold talks with the Chinese government over the next few weeks.

China has tried to play down Google's threat to leave, saying there were many ways to resolve the issue, but insisting all foreign companies, Google included, must abide by Chinese laws.

Washington said it is issuing a diplomatic note to China formally requesting an explanation for the attacks.

The Google issue risks becoming another irritant in China's relationship with the United States, already strained by arguments over the Chinese currency's exchange rate, trade protectionism and U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.

Washington has long been worried about Beijing's cyber-spying program. A congressional advisory panel said in November the Chinese government appeared increasingly to be penetrating U.S. computers to gather useful data for its military.

When Google introduced its google.cn website in 2006 with the decision to self-censor searches, it said the move would benefit the Chinese people by expanding access to information.

"We think we have made a reasonable decision, though we cannot be sure it will ultimately be proven to be the best one," a top level Google spokesman told the U.S. Committee on International Relations in 2006.

Google's move to publicly denounce censorship and accuse Chinese hackers of launching an attack that resulted in the theft of its intellectual property was seen as a bold move.

"We have never seen a company take on the Chinese government in such a public and confrontational manner," said James McGregor, senior counselor to public affairs consultancy Apco Worldwide.

But it may backfire as signs emerge the firm has already damaged its prospects in China regardless of whether it carries out its threat to quit the country.

JPMorgan analyst Dick Wei said he thinks Google's relationship with the Chinese government is already strained and if the firm decides to stay, it could be subject to tighter regulations.

UBS analyst Wang Jinjin also believes Google's relationship with advertisers has been damaged as a result of the threat and that they will choose Baidu Inc over the firm.

On Saturday, Yahoo was dragged into the growing row after its Chinese partner Alibaba Group slammed its statements supporting Google.

Playing down the concerns raised by Google, rival Microsoft Corp said it had no plan to pull out of China.

Microsoft has high hopes for its Bing Internet search engine in China, which has only a small share of the market but could benefit if Google, the No. 2 player behind dominating local rival Baidu Inc, pulls out.

(Editing by Bill Tarrant)

news20100117reut2

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[World > Natural Disasters]
Andrew Cawthorne and Catherine Bremer
Sun Jan 17, 2010 3:43am EST
World pledges quake aid, Haitians still waiting
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - World leaders have stepped up to pledge aid to rebuild a devastated Haiti, but on the streets of its wrecked capital quake survivors were still waiting on Sunday for the basics: food, water and medicine.

Four days after a massive quake killed up to 200,000 people international rescue teams were still finding people alive under the rubble of collapsed buildings in Port-au-Prince.

Hundreds of thousands of hungry Haitians were desperately waiting for help, but logistical logjams kept major relief from reaching most victims, many of them sheltering in makeshift camps on streets strewn with debris and decomposing bodies.

In the widespread absence of authority, looters swarmed over collapsed stores on the city's shattered main commercial boulevard, carrying off T-shirts, bags, toys and anything else they could find. Fighting broke out between groups of looters carrying knives, ice-picks, hammers and rocks.

Many Haitians streamed out of the city on foot with suitcases on their heads or jammed in cars to find food and shelter in the countryside, and flee aftershocks and violence.

Many others crowded the airport hoping to get on planes that left packed with Haitians.

President Barack Obama promised help as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton flew to Haiti, where the shell-shocked government gave the United States control over the congested main airport to guide aid flights from around the world.

"We're moving forward with one of the largest relief efforts in our history to save lives and deliver relief that averts an even larger catastrophe," said Obama, flanked at the White House by predecessors George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, who will lead a charity drive to help Haiti.

CHAOS

But on the streets of Port-au-Prince, where scarce police patrols fired occasional shots and tear gas to try to disperse looters, the distribution of aid appeared random, chaotic and minimal. Downtown, young men could be seen carrying pistols.

And heavily armed gang members who once ran Haiti's largest slum, Cite Soleil, like warlords returned with a vengeance after the quake damaged the National Penitentiary allowing 3,000 inmates to break out.

"It's only natural that they would come back here. This has always been their stronghold," said a Haitian police officer in the teeming warren of shacks, alleys and open sewers that is home to more than 300,000 people.

There were jostling scrums for food and water as U.S. military helicopters swooped down to throw out boxes of water bottles and rations. A reporter also saw foreign aid workers tossing packets of food to desperate Haitians.

"The distribution is totally disorganized. They are not identifying the people who need the water. The sick and the old have no chance," said Estime Pierre Deny, standing at the back of a crowd looking for water with his empty plastic container.

Haiti is the Western Hemisphere's poorest country and has for decades struggled with devastating storms, floods and political unrest. Around 9,000 U.N. peacekeepers have provided security here since a 2004 uprising ousted one president.

Looting has been sporadic since Tuesday's earthquake, which flattened large parts of the capital. But it appeared to widen on Saturday as people became more desperate.

The U.N. mission responsible for security in Haiti lost at least 40 of its members when its headquarters collapsed. The U.N. said the mission's chief, Hedi Annabi of Tunisia, his deputy Luiz Carlos da Costa of Brazil and U.N. police commissioner in Haiti, Doug Coates of Canada, were killed.

RUSSIANS RESCUE GIRLS

Four days after the 7.0 magnitude quake, aftershocks were felt every few hours in the capital, terrifying survivors and sending rubble and dust tumbling from buildings.

Dramatizing the need to keep up rescue efforts, a Russian team pulled out two Haitian girls still alive -- 9-year-old Olon Remi and 11-year-old Senviol Ovri -- from the ruins of a house on Saturday.

U.S. rescuers worked through the night to dig out survivors from one collapsed supermarket where as many as 100 people could have been trapped inside. They were about to give up, when they were told a supermarket cashier had managed to call someone in Miami to say she was still alive inside.

Trucks piled with corpses have been ferrying bodies to hurriedly excavated mass graves outside the city, but thousands of bodies are still believed buried under the rubble.

Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime said around 50,000 bodies had already been collected and the final death toll will likely be between 100,000 and 200,000.

Dozens of bloated bodies have been dumped in the yard outside the main hospital on Saturday, decomposing in the sun. The hospital gardens were a mass of beds with injured people, with makeshift drips hanging from trees.

The weakened Haitian government is in no position to handle the crisis alone. The quake destroyed the presidential palace and knocked out communications and power. President Rene Preval is living and working from the judicial police headquarters.

AIRPORT BOTTLENECK

Hillary Clinton told Haitians the United States will ensure their country emerges "stronger and better" from the disaster.

"We will be here today, tomorrow and for the time ahead," she said after meeting Preval at the airport.

The U.S. State Department confirmed 15 Americans had died in the temblor, including one of its employees in Haiti.

Dozens of countries have sent planes with rescue teams, doctors, tents, food, medicine and other supplies, but faced a bottleneck at Port-au-Prince's small airport.

The American Red Cross said 50-bed field hospitals and water purification equipment that were rerouted to neighboring Dominican Republic arrived by truck convoy, allowing it to start distributing water and first aid in Port-au-Prince.

Air traffic control in Port-au-Prince, hampered by damage to the airport's tower, was taken over by the U.S. military with backup from the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, which arrived off Haiti on Friday.

Navy helicopters are taking water and rations ashore and ferrying injured people to a field hospital near the airport.

The Pan American Health Organization said at least eight hospitals and health centers in Port-au-Prince had collapsed or sustained damage and were unable to function.

The president of the Inter-American Development Bank, Luis Alberto Moreno, will visit Haiti on Monday and attend a donors meeting in the Dominican Republic to start analyzing Haiti's reconstruction needs, a bank spokesman said.

(Reporting by Tom Brown, Joseph Guyler Delva and Eduardo Munoz in Port-au-Prince, Andrew Quinn in Washington and Patrick Worsnip at the United Nations; writing by Anthony Boadle; editing by Todd Eastham)