news20090530lat1

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

Deeper budget cuts hit schools and California's neediest
New reductions would affect classrooms, transit, state workers and a broad array of services for residents.

By Michael Rothfeld and Eric Bailey
May 30, 2009

Reporting from Sacramento -- A broad array of Californians would be touched in fundamental ways by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest proposal to balance the state budget: senior citizens who attend day-care centers, voters seeking absentee ballots, children who ride the bus to school, parents seeking enforcement of custody orders.

These services could go by the wayside in a plan the governor unveiled Friday to slice $2.8 billion more from state spending. The announcement was the closing act of a two-week drama during which Schwarzenegger proposed dismantling many of government's functions.

His new proposal would expand on cuts he put forward in earlier plans to close $21 billion of the budget shortfall as he and lawmakers begin negotiations to keep the state from running out of money by the end of July. That deficit projection has since swollen to more than $24 billion.

Schools would be hit by $680 million in new cuts to classrooms and by $315 million in cuts for transportation. The state's social safety net would lose $1 billion more in funding for the poor, disabled and aged. Cities and counties would lose an additional $242 million in transportation funding.

"These are no longer cuts," said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, a nonprofit advocacy group. "These are amputations, and the question is, which limb are we cutting off today?"

Several of the governor's proposals, including cuts to schools, would be contingent on whether the state's tax revenues dip as deeply as projected. All would require legislative approval.

It is unclear what tone the budget negotiations will take. The governor and legislators have said they understand the gravity of the situation and the need to act quickly, and they have expressed optimism that they can do so. But in recent years, despite similar declarations, state leaders have engaged in weeks -- even months -- of acrimonious fights over less serious problems than they face now.

Schwarzenegger would save $100 million by suspending laws requiring the state to pay for a variety of local government services, including offering absentee ballots before elections, resolving child custody problems, investigating deaths at mental hospitals, posting safety signs on beaches, collecting DNA samples from bodies, caring for abandoned pets and many more.

Local governments would have to pay for the services or stop providing them.

"We've really scraped the bottom of the barrel here," said Mike Genest, Schwarzenegger's finance director. "We've cut everything we could think of, and we are really just out of additional options."

State workers, already under orders to take two unpaid days off each month, would also receive a 5% wage cut, saving the state an additional $470 million, as part of Schwarzenegger's new plan.

Mirroring that proposal, the University of California, long besieged by controversy over its high executive salaries, announced 5% pay cuts for about 30 top administrators in the wake of the governor's plans to slash higher education funding. Many of them earn more than $300,000 a year.

In a letter to staff, UC President Mark G. Yudof said the $500,000 savings would barely dent the system's deficit but was "only right" when lower-ranking employees face pay cuts.

California Controller John Chiang urged the governor and legislative leaders in a letter Friday to come up with a plan to fix the budget by June 15. If they do not, he said, it will be difficult to arrange loans before the state runs short of cash two weeks later.

Underscoring his point, Fitch Ratings, a Wall Street agency that evaluates the state's creditworthiness, changed its outlook on California's debt Friday from stable to negative.

But Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) said Friday that she is unsure the Legislature can meet Chiang's deadline, and she does not support the governor's ideas about shutting down entire programs.

"Some of these cuts could result in people losing their lives," Bass said.

Schwarzenegger, speaking to reporters at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory after dedicating what was touted as the world's largest laser system, said he realizes that people would get hurt.

"Believe me, my vision of my next two years was quite different than having to make all of those cuts," he said. "I feel terrible about it."

The governor's proposal would bring spending in the state's general fund, which provides the bulk of its services, from $103 billion last fall to $83.5 billion for the coming fiscal year, a drop of nearly 20%.

Kevin Gordon, a lobbyist for school districts, said, "They're beyond considering any kind of policy implications. . . . It's, 'What can we cut under the law and get away with?' "

Administration officials said that for the most part, they did not have the luxury of considering the consequences -- financial or human -- of the plans they were making.

In an earlier proposal, they had suggested saving money by reducing fraud in the state's adult day-care program, which provides services at centers across the state to help the frail and elderly continue living in their homes rather than more expensive nursing homes.

Under the new plan, cracking down on fraud would no longer be necessary, said Ana Matosantos, chief deputy budget director, "because now we're looking at eliminating the program in its entirety."

The $117 million in presumed savings would be wiped out if 20% of the 38,000 elderly participants in California are shifted into nursing homes for care subsidized by the state, said Lydia Missaelides, executive director of the California Assn. for Adult Day Services.

"It feels like we're going back three decades, to the time where the only option for people was a nursing home," she said.

Also eliminated would be a $10.5-million caregiver program that helps the severely disabled, including people with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases and traumatic brain injuries.

The state would reduce payments to counties by $550 million for foster care, welfare and other services. It would cut $230 million by ending home care for all but the neediest, such as those who can't breathe without machinery or move their limbs, officials said.

Schwarzenegger's fellow Republicans were generally supportive of his plans.

"State government needs to tighten its belt," said Assemblyman Jim Nielsen (R-Gerber), "just like every hard-working family in California is doing right now."

news20090530lat2

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

[World]
Gates draws the line on North Korea's nuclear program: No proliferation
The Defense chief says the Obama administration does not consider the nuclear program a direct threat, but he forcefully warns the regime against transferring nuclear material abroad.

By Julian E. Barnes
May 30, 2009

Reporting from Singapore -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates promised today to hold North Korea accountable for selling or transferring nuclear material outside its borders, providing the first clear expression of the Obama administration's thinking on a vexing foreign policy challenge.

A succession of U.S. presidents have tried to persuade the reclusive government to give up its nuclear arms, and Gates made it clear that President Obama was open to using diplomacy to end the threat.

But he also drew a distinction between the danger posed by a North Korea that possessed nuclear weapons and one that sold them to other countries or groups. Spreading its nuclear technology would invite the swiftest and most forceful U.S. response, he said.

"The transfer of nuclear weapons or material by North Korea to states or non-state entities would be considered a grave threat to the United States and its allies," Gates said in a speech at a security conference in Singapore. "And we would hold North Korea fully accountable for the consequences of such action."

North Korea conducted a nuclear test and has made a number of missile tests in recent days, including one Friday. U.S. officials and their allies have reacted by denouncing the regime in Pyongyang and beginning consultations on new United Nations sanctions.

But Gates was more specific. Though painting its nuclear ambitions as a security concern for the region, he described the possibility of proliferation as a worry for the United States and the rest of the world.

He did not specify consequences, but his language hinted at a military reaction by echoing the post-Sept. 11 Bush administration warnings that those who harbor terrorists would be "held accountable." Those warnings were followed by a U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban government in Afghanistan.

Gates' speech also may serve as a message to countries and militant groups that are potential customers of North Korean weaponry. Past customers are believed to include Iran, Syria, Libya and the militant Lebanese group Hezbollah.

Gates' appearance at the annual security conference had powerful diplomatic overtones. After his address, Gates was planning to meet with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts to discuss security concerns. He met with a Chinese government delegation this morning.

Those meetings are designed to reinforce U.S. security commitments to its allies and to encourage an expanded Chinese effort to rein in its belligerent neighbor. Gates is being joined in the meetings by Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg, a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Gates, in his address, said Obama was receptive to dialogue with North Korea and had pledged to work with "tyrannies that unclench their fists." But Gates said Pyongyang's response to U.S. overtures was disappointing.

"The United States and our allies are open to dialogue, but we will not bend to pressure or provocation," he said. "And on this count, North Korea's latest reply to our overtures isn't exactly something we would characterize as helpful or constructive."

In a question-and-answer session after the speech, Gates compared the North Korean nuclear program to that of Iran. Both issues require concerted approaches and tougher sanctions, he said.

"For there to be a peaceful solution requires multilateral efforts and a willingness to impose real sanctions that bring real pain," he said.

And though the recent weapons tests threaten a "dark future," Gates added, "I don't think the North Korean nuclear program represents a direct threat to the United States."

Proliferation of nuclear material by North Korea is hardly a new concern. In recent days, U.S. officials, including Gates, have voiced concerns about the possibility that Pyongyang could seek to sell its nuclear technology. They have noted that North Korea has a record of spreading its missile and other weapons technology around the world.

Gates has played down any imminent threat posed by North Korea, saying Friday that the Obama administration did not consider the weapons tests of the last week a "crisis."

Gates has said he is in favor of increased U.N.-mandated inspections of North Korean weapons facilities. But the Pentagon is less enthusiastic about searches of North Korean ships against Pyongyang's will.

At the United Nations, officials continued to negotiate a draft resolution calling for the enforcement of widely ignored sanctions imposed after North Korea's 2006 nuclear test. The sanctions include further limits on shipments of arms and luxury goods.

North Korea threatened to retaliate if punitive U.N. sanctions were imposed for its latest nuclear test, saying its tests are conducted in self-defense, the Associated Press reported.

Meanwhile, international nonproliferation officials said atmospheric tests to confirm that Monday's blast was a nuclear test may be completed next week.

The security conference in Singapore, organized by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, has become a key platform for U.S. Defense secretaries to outline their approach to Asia.

Gates portrayed the United States as vigorously engaged throughout the region, but with an emphasis both on military security and diplomatic outreach.

"What we have seen in the U.S. approach to Asia in recent years -- and what I believe we will see in the future -- is a very real shift that reflects new thinking in the U.S. defense strategy overall, a shift toward a re-balanced mix of the so-called hard and soft elements of national power," Gates said.

In recent years, conference addresses by U.S. Defense secretaries have been aimed squarely at China. In Gates' address, the call for greater Chinese military transparency and dialogue, often the focus of past speeches, received only a cursory mention.

The George W. Bush administration often was criticized for eschewing multilateral approaches to security problems. Gates made it clear that the new administration has no such reservation.

Challenges such as terrorism, economic turmoil, pandemic diseases and piracy require efforts by groups of nations, he said.

"What these challenges all have in common is that they cannot simply be overcome by one, or even two countries," he said, "no matter how wealthy or powerful."

news20090530nyt

[Today's Newspaper] from [The New York Times]

[Global Business]
Tentative Deal for G.M.’s Opel Is Latest Shift for Industry

By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ and CARTER DOUGHERTY
Published: May 29, 2009

The global reordering of the auto industry took a big step forward on Friday as an unlikely alliance led by Magna International, a Canadian auto parts maker, and Sberbank of Russia tentatively agreed to buy the European operations of General Motors.

The deal was brokered by the German government in Berlin, with negotiations stretching from Moscow to Washington, Detroit, Ontario and New York, where G.M.’s board gathered for a meeting ahead of an expected bankruptcy filing on Monday.

With sales plunging to levels not seen in decades, auto companies are seeking refuge in mergers or bankruptcy court. Other companies, like Magna and Fiat, are seeing opportunities in beaten-down automakers, hoping to buy them or form alliances on the cheap.

The deal in Germany will have ripple effects in the United States.

Fiat had hoped to grow into a top-tier global company virtually overnight, with its nearly completed alliance with Chrysler and by buying G.M. of Europe, which includes Opel of Germany as well as the British auto company Vauxhall.

Although stitching together established companies on different continents is challenging, Chrysler’s prospects might have improved as part of a larger company.

Now, with Fiat apparently losing out to Magna for G.M.’s European operations, prospects for Chrysler’s long-term future could darken.

By contrast, a deal for G.M.’s European operations could resolve an important issue for the beleaguered company and help speed its restructuring in bankruptcy court, which appears all but certain.

“It’s an extremely important step forward for our company and our operations in Europe,” said Carl-Peter Forster, the president of G.M. Europe, in an interview shortly after the talks concluded at 2 a.m. Berlin time.

“We had three interested parties and it came down to one, Magna, and we hammered out a memorandum of understanding in what was basically 36 hours,” he said. “It’s a well-founded, pretty detailed M.O.U.”

Some industry experts immediately panned the proposed Magna alliance with G.M. in Europe, saying the German government had picked the Magna deal over the rival Fiat offer to safeguard nearly 25,000 jobs at home in an election year, while adding yet another player to an industry already burdened by chronic overcapacity.

German labor leaders and politicians feared that Fiat would be more aggressive in cutting jobs.

“It solves nothing in terms of the industry’s structure,” said Philippe Houchois, an analyst with UBS in London. “It’ll be detrimental to the whole industry’s pricing ability, and not much good will come out of this.”

Losing Opel to Magna would be a blow to Sergio Marchionne, Fiat’s chief executive, who was initially favored to acquire Opel.

After his recent deal for 20 percent of Chrysler, without having to put any of Fiat’s money down, Mr. Marchionne had hoped Opel would deliver the kind of scale he believes is crucial for survival in the global auto industry.

Putting Fiat, Opel, and Chrysler under one roof would have created a company with the capacity to build nearly six million cars a year, which would have made it the second-largest global automaker after Toyota.

Instead, Fiat and Chrysler now face competition from a new player, Magna, while Mr. Marchionne and his team work to revive Chrysler’s battered fortunes.

A final deal would lift Magna, whose specialty is making parts and assembling vehicles for other automakers, into the role of manufacturer. Under the terms of the deal as initially proposed by Magna, G.M. would retain a 35 percent stake in the new company, with Sberbank, a bank controlled by the Russian government, taking 35 percent, Magna holding 20 percent and Opel’s employees controlling the remaining 10 percent.

While Sberbank’s stake is larger, Magna, along with G.M. Europe’s executives, would supply the carmaking expertise to the new company.

G.M. surprised German officials on Thursday night when it disclosed that an additional 300 million euros would be needed because Opel’s finances were deteriorating so quickly.

Magna and its Austrian-born chief executive, Frank Stronach, have long dreamed of joining the ranks of the automakers it now sells parts to. It is a major supplier of components to G.M., so the two companies already have a relationship, which observers said would help Opel as G.M. navigates its way through the expected bankruptcy process.

Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, director of the Center for Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen, said that if the Magna deal came through, it would “take some work to make it a sustainable business.“

Though Magna rose from machine shop to auto parts maker, the company, based in Aurora, Ontario, has deep experience in engineering, assembling vehicles like the BMW X3, a sport utility vehicle, at its Austrian subsidiary, Magna Steyr, in Graz. In 2012 it will begin assembling the Porsche Cayenne, also an S.U.V.

The deal also represents a watershed for Russian companies in the West. This month, Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, talked about the Magna offer by phone with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel.

After initial friction developed between German and American negotiators, as well as G.M., earlier in the week, the tone improved Friday and the pace of negotiations quickened, according to an administration official who insisted on anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks. A senior member of the Treasury’s auto task force in Washington spent the last three days focused on the talks in Berlin, and the Treasury also had a senior adviser there.

With roughly two million vehicles a year produced by G.M.’s European operations, Magna will not be in the front ranks of the automotive world.

But Magna’s trump card could be the Russian market, which could reach annual sales of five million vehicles by 2015, Mr. Dudenhöffer said. By cooperating with Gaz, the Russian automaker, Magna could sell up to 500,000 cars a year there, he said, and steadily increase thereafter.

At first, Fiat’s abrupt exit from the negotiations was assumed to be a bluff on the part of Mr. Marchionne. But it looks to be an exit for Fiat, which was surprised to learn earlier in the week that Opel would lose 2 billion to 3 billion euros this year, far more than the 1.5 billion euro loss analysts had anticipated, according to officials with knowledge of the negotiations who declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Politics rather than finances may have been be the crucial factor ahead of an election later this year in Germany. German officials believe the Magna bid will mean fewer job losses than any deal with Fiat. G.M. Europe and Opel employ roughly 50,000 workers in Europe, about half of whom are in Germany.

On Friday, the European Commission convened a meeting of ministers to address concerns that the aggressive action by individual countries, like Germany, to protect local jobs, risks dividing the unified market of the 27-nation European Union.

In a statement following the meeting, the commission said, “All participants agreed that any financial support by one or more member states must be based strictly on objective and economic criteria, and not include non-commercial conditions concerning the location of investments and/or the geographic distribution of restructuring measures.”

But the statement failed to satisfy critics who say action, rather words, is needed.

“We have always said there is not a level playing field,” said Ivan Hodac, secretary-general of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association. “The commission has to create a level playing field because the last thing we need is to get out of this crisis with a destroyed internal market.”

news20090530wp

[Today's Newspaper] fom [The Washington Post]

[Business]
U.S. Hopes To Recoup GM Outlay In 5 Years
Calculation Relies on Fast Revival for Firm Verging on Bankruptcy

By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 30, 2009

The United States would recover most of its planned $50 billion investment in General Motors within five years, according to a preliminary Treasury Department estimate that foresees the company, now on the brink of bankruptcy, rebounding over that time to become a strapping global competitor.

By putting billions of dollars into the ailing automaker, the Obama administration has placed a huge bet on the effort to revive and streamline the company through the elimination of brands, dealerships and factories. Yesterday, the company's union announced that it had approved a cost-cutting contract and GM neared an agreement to shed its Opel brand.

If the government-monitored corporate reorganization fails and GM sputters again, however, the government investment into the company would be lost.

Some industry analysts are skeptical that an automaker that has struggled for so long could be so quickly reborn. The preliminary estimate, by contrast, reflects optimism that the iconic American manufacturer can flourish after its restructuring.

"I don't know how much we're going to recover," acknowledged an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity. "I'm not here to tout stock. But we're very excited about this as a company."

After a planned GM bankruptcy, during which the company will seek to shed burdensome debts, the U.S. and Canadian governments will own 72.5 percent of the reorganized automaker. In addition, GM will owe the United States about $8 billion.

The United States could recover most of that investment by 2013, when, sources said, a Treasury projection shows the company would reach an equity value of $75 billion.

The government share, by then slightly diluted, would be worth about $46 billion. The $8 billion debt would have been repaid, and the government would have reaped billions in preferred-stock payments. Sources said the estimates are constantly being refined.

Brian Bethune, chief U.S. financial economist for IHS Global Insight, called the assumptions "extremely optimistic" given the risks in the economy and the challenges facing the company.

"Whenever a company goes through that deep of a restructuring, there are all kinds of risks," Bethune said. "This is not a nip-and-tuck exercise. This is major surgery."

Among the key variables in any such forecast is the number of new cars sold annually in the United States as well as the estimate of GM's share of the market.

During the boom years, the annualized figure for car sales in the United States hovered around 16 million. Recently, it has fallen to between 9 million and 10 million on an annualized basis.

In regulatory filings, GM has estimated that the car market will rebound to 16 million by 2012.

Those filings also assume the GM market share will slump slightly between now and 2012, to 18.4 percent from 19.5 percent, presumably because the company will offer fewer brands.

"It's not a completely unreasonable estimate -- if the market recovers and if they really invest in GM's capabilities," said Susan Helper, an economics professor at Case Western Reserve University who specializes in the auto industry. So far, the United States has invested $20 billion to keep GM in business and would contribute about $30 billion as part of a bankruptcy restructuring.

"We hope to recover as many taxpayer dollars as we can," the administration official said. "It would be wonderful to recover more."

For now, GM and the Obama administration are working toward streamlining the manufacturer's bloated operations.

Toward that end, the United Auto Workers ratified contract changes yesterday that will help General Motors cut more than $1 billion in labor costs.

Union President Ron Gettelfinger said 74 percent of GM's production and skilled-trade workers voted in favor of the deal yesterday.

Under the deal, the union's cost-of-living increases, performance bonuses and some holiday pay will be suspended to offset health-care costs.

The union, whose contract covers 54,000 workers, has agreed not to strike until 2015.

With this contract, "there's no excuse for these companies not to build in this country," Gettelfinger said.

He noted that GM announced yesterday that the company would retool an existing U.S. plant to build small cars, which typically have been built overseas because of their low prices.

"It's going to stop the imports coming in here from China," he said. "We can build those small cars in this country."

Meanwhile, GM's bondholders were weighing a company offer to give up claims to $27 billion in bonds for a 10 percent ownership stake in the company. Their decision is due by 5 p.m. today.

GM was also close to finalizing a deal that would allow it to sell its Opel unit. It would give control of the company's German-based subsidiary to Magna International, a Canadian auto-parts maker, which edged out Fiat in a bidding battle.

Opel accounts for a huge chunk of GM's output, with just under 1.5 million cars sold in 2008.

Negotiators met in Germany, where 25,000 of Opel's workers are employed. Chancellor Angela Merkel, facing elections this year, hosted all-night talks at her offices that ended at 5:30 a.m. Thursday. A U.S. Treasury official, German Cabinet members and financial advisers took part.

Under the agreement, Magna would inject $300 million into Opel on Tuesday to keep the firm afloat, a source involved in the talks said. GM would retain 35 percent of the company, unions would get 10 percent and Magna would get a controlling stake, the source added.

The German government would provide about $2 billion in short-term financing, according to a Bloomberg News report.

One key term responds to U.S. concerns that Opel could compete against its erstwhile parent corporation in the United States. The deal would prohibit Opel from selling cars or opening plants in the United States, the source said.

news20090530gdn

[Environment] from [The Guardian]

[Climate change]
Nobel laureates compare climate crisis to threat from nuclear weapons
Prince Charles-hosted symposium says zero carbon economy is ultimate necessity and calls for urgent cuts in emissions

John Vidal, environment editor
guardian.co.uk, Friday 29 May 2009 16.53 BST
Article history

Twenty Nobel prizewinners, including US energy secretary Steven Chu, Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka, and Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai, have compared the threat of climate change to that posed to civilisation by nuclear weapons.

Borrowing a phrase from US civil rights leader Martin Luther King, they said at the end of a three-day climate change symposium hosted by Prince Charles in London: "We must recognise the fierce urgency of now. The evidence is compelling for the range and scale of climate impacts that must be avoided, such as droughts, sea level rise and flooding leading to mass migration and conflict. The scientific process, by which this evidence has been gathered, should be used as a clear mandate to accelerate the actions that need to be taken. Political leaders cannot possibly ask for a more robust, evidence-based call for action."

The laureates, who included physics and chemistry Nobel winners, called for urgent reduction in emissions. "Without directing current economic recovery resources wisely, and embarking on a path towards a low carbon economy, the world will have lost the opportunity to meet the global sustainability challenge. Decarbonising our economy offers a multitude of benefits, from addressing energy security to stimulating unprecedented technological innovation. A zero carbon economy is an ultimate necessity and must be seriously explored now."

The St James's Palace Memorandum urged politicians to make far faster and deeper emission cuts than most countries were contemplating. "[There must be] a peak of global emissions of all greenhouse gases by 2015 and at least a 50% emission reduction by 2050 on a 1990 baseline. This in turn means that developed countries have to aim for a 25-40% reduction by 2020. A robust measure of assessing the necessary emission reductions is a total carbon budget, which should be accepted as the base for measuring the effectiveness of short-term (2020) and long-term (2050) targets. They also called for an emergency package to provide "substantial" funding to tropical forest nations to help them halt deforestation.

This was a theme that Prince Charles, who was hosting the event, picked up on Wednesday. He said, "Saving the rainforests is not an option, it is an absolute necessity." On Tuesday, Chu stressed the importance of energy efficiency in combating climate change.

They concluded: "The solutions to the extraordinary environmental, economic and human crises of this century will not be found in the political arena alone.

"Global climate change represents a threat of similar proportions [to that ] threat posed to civilization by the advent of thermonuclear weapons, and should be addressed in a similar manner. All scientists should be urged to contribute to raising levels of public knowledge on these threats to civilisation and engage in a massive education effort.

"We know what needs to be done. We cannot wait until it is too late. We cannot wait until what we value most is lost."


[Wildlife]
Stingrays suffering from contact with wildlife tourists, study finds
Blood tests show that the animals at 'Stingray City' in the Cayman Islands have weaker immune systems and are in poorer health than those left undisturbed

David Adam, environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Friday 29 May 2009 15.00 BST
Article history

It features regularly on lists of things people want to do before they die, but swimming with stingray may not be the life-enhancing experience expected – at least not for the animals.

A new study has revealed that stingray at a tourist hotspot in the Cayman Islands are suffering because of all the human attention. The Grand Cayman sandbank, dubbed Stingray City, is regularly swamped with up to 2,500 visitors at a time, most of whom have paid handsomely for the chance to feed, stroke and swim with the creatures.

The study highlights the risks to animals posed by the growing "wildlife tourism" industry. Experts say wild populations of creatures such as dolphins, penguins and sharks are also affected by increased contact with curious people.

The study was one of the first to investigate direct effects on the physiology of animals involved in such tourism. Blood tests showed that the stingrays at Stingray City had weaker immune systems and were in poorer health than animals not disturbed by tourists, perhaps making them more vulnerable to disease and storms.

The experts warn that the "long-term health and survival of tourist stingrays have a significant probability of being affected" and they call for tighter regulation of the industry. Similar crowded tourist sites across the world will be doing similar damage to stingray, they say.

Christina Semeniuk, an ecologist at Simon Fraser University in Canada, who led the research, said: "Our study is the first to definitively show negative physiological impacts that indicate long-term costs to the animals' health."

She added: "The implications of these findings will not only affect the wildlife. Reduced stingray numbers, or injured, unhealthy-looking stingrays can cause the visitor site to become less attractive and may cause a decline in tourist numbers and have an economic impact."

The stingray at the site are regularly injured by boats, the scientists found, while the crowded conditions encourage parasites. The creatures have also come to rely on hand-fed squid, which stingray do not usually eat. "These impacts can have long-term health effects, in terms of reduced longevity and reduced reproductive effort," Semeniuk said. The results will be published in the journal Biological Conservation.

Other studies have looked at the impact of wildlife tourism on grizzly bears, penguins, dolphins, sharks and lizards. "The majority of these studies have looked at changes in the animals' behaviours or their stress responses," Semeniuk said. "Each has suggested that wildlife tourism should be both continually researched and managed."

Vincent Janik of the Sea Mammal Research Unit at St Andrews University said: "It's an important issue, and there doesn't need to be physical contact. Even just watching animals can sometimes bring problems." Studies have shown that dolphins regularly targeted by tourist boats are more likely to be injured and to abandon their young, he said.

Swimming with wild dolphins is banned in many places because of the likely impact on the animals.

Courtney Vail of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society said the treatment of captive dolphins was to blame for the way people treated the animals they encountered in the wild. "You get people trying to ride on their backs and holding on to the dorsal fin. They are trying to recreate the Sea World experience with wild dolphins."

Janik said efforts to control wildlife tourism, such as the stingray experience in the Caymans, need to be handled carefully. "If the tourists aren't there then these animals could just be hunted or eaten. The best way is to educate the operators and the customers." Many of the negative effects of wildlife tourism are likely to be restricted to local populations of animals, he said.

Semeniuk said new legislation in the Cayman Islands has recently been introduced to address the impact of tourists on wildlife. New Wildlife Interaction Zones, including the North Sound of Grand Cayman where Stingray City is located, forbid people taking marine life out of the water. Feeding wildlife will also be more strictly regulated.

But not all of the recorded impacts of wildlife tourism on animals are bad. While most wild creatures react as if the humans are predators, some see tourists as beneficial, either because they reduce the risks of predation by others, or because they supply food. This can allow the animals to dedicate more valuable energy supplies to rest and reproduction.

news20090530slt

[Today's Paper] from [Slate Magazine]

Can GM Get It Together?

By Kara Hadge
Posted Saturday, May 30, 2009, at 6:29 AM ET

The New York Times (NYT) and the Washington Post (WP) lead with stories on saving General Motors. The NYT focuses on Friday's tentative deal by GM to sell the European arm of the company, Opel, to Canadian parts manufacturer Magna in an alliance with Russian bank Sberbank. The WP looks forward to Monday's deadline from the Obama administration for GM's restructuring plans, with word from the Treasury Department that the U.S. government would recoup the $50 billion it plans to pour into the company within five years. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) tops its world-wide news box with Defense Secretary Robert Gates' warning to North Korea against developing and, in particular, exporting nuclear weapon technologies that could threaten the U.S. and its allies. The Los Angeles Times (LAT) leads local with a story on severe budget cuts in California. In an effort to trim another $2.8 billion to prevent the state from running out of money this summer, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed deep cuts to education, transportation, and a slew of other government functions.

Although the Opel deal has not been finalized, Magna and Sberbank appear to have won out over Fiat, which was also looking to buy the stake in GM's European operations. Had Fiat done so, it would have become the second-largest car manufacturer in the world, after Toyota. The NYT implies that Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne lost out in the deal, but an earlier story online in the WP yesterday suggested Marchionne was just recoiling due to requests by the German government, which is leading the search for Opel's buyer, "to fund Opel on an emergency basis while the government determines the timing and conditions of financing."

In the U.S., the government has already put $20 billion into GM and would give the ailing automaker another $30 billion as part of the anticipated bankruptcy proceedings. When all is said and done, the U.S. and Canadian governments will own 72.5 percent of GM. The third part of this weekend's GM saga, which appears inside all the papers, is the United Auto Workers' agreement to a new labor contract with GM, which affects 54,000 workers, as well as retirees and family members numbering in the hundreds of thousands.

But inside the WSJ, P.J. O'Rourke attributes American automakers' hardships to causes deeper than the recession: "[I]f we want to understand what doomed the American automobile, we should give up on economics and turn to melodrama." Americans quit romanticizing the automobile, O'Rourke says, when we became reliant on it to get around the suburban sprawl that car culture created.

The NYT and the WP off-lead with stories about Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's focus on race issues. The WP goes straight for the story that has dominated this week's coverage of the nominee, with comments from President Obama that Sotomayor regrets her 2001 remarks about the greater value of "a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences" over that of a white male judge. It also focuses on GOP efforts to quell the Republican backlash against those comments (a story that the LAT stuffs, along with the WSJ, and the NYT downplays). The NYT frames the issue more broadly on page one, with a look at the questions Sotomayor's nomination raises about the role of affirmative action after the election of the first black President. The article looks at Sotomayor's support of affirmative action during her college years. The opinion pages of both the WSJ and the LAT carry pieces calling for senators to step up to make Sotomayor's confirmation hearings meaningful.

The WP fronts a mournful image of South Koreans gathered to remember former president Roh Moo-hyun, who committed suicide a week ago. Roh jumped off a cliff near his rural home, as the new administration was investigating whether he had been involved in a bribery scandal. The tone at the national funeral yesterday evoked some bitterness towards the incumbent president, who supported the investigation. The LAT's former Seoul bureau chief remembers Roh for his exceptional popularity among young people, but noted that ultimately, "Roh followed in a sad tradition of South Korean presidents who've either self-destructed or were destroyed by the system."

The front page of the WSJ doubles as a briefing on the role of technology in twenty-first century America. The paper turned up evidence that Washington politicians (legally) used their taxpayer-funded expense accounts to purchase high-end laptops and digital cameras and to lease luxury vehicles last year. Another story details European Union regulators' plan to levy new sanctions against Microsoft, such as requiring the company to package additional Web browsers with Windows software, along with its own Internet Explorer. And finally, a feature looks at the increase in laptop use among the homeless, centering on the San Francisco population. The story only has numbers on Internet use in homeless shelters, but its anecdotes about resourceful laptop owners living under bridges and in vans are intriguing, if not entirely convincing of a trend.

In other news from the West Coast, music producer Phil Spector was sentenced to 19 years to life yesterday for the second-degree murder of actress Lana Clarkson in 2003. The LAT imbues its story with some local flavor, pointing out the meting of justice to a Los Angeles "music icon." The brief story devotes a few short paragraphs to the emotional response of the victim's mother and relegates the requisite supportive quote from Spector's wife to the kicker.

Inside the A section, the NYT takes a look at the only remaining air route for postal delivery, in Idaho. The Postal Service tried to cancel the route to ease its budget cuts, but the resident ranchers quickly made it clear that they couldn't get by without postman Ray Arnold's special deliveries. To get to a P.O. box, "In the summer they could face hours of hiking and dirt-road driving; in the winter the journey would be all but impossible." Instead, through rain, sleet, snow, and recessions, the postman will continue to make his weekly rounds in one of the last outposts of the American wilderness.

news20090529brt

[Biography of the Day] from [Britannica]

Friday, May 29, 2009
John F. Kennedy
Born this day in 1917, John F. Kennedy, the 35th U.S. president, faced several foreign crises, most notably in Cuba and Berlin, and secured such achievements as the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty before being assassinated in 1963.

[On This Day] from [Britannica]

Friday, May 29, 2009
1953: Mount Everest summit reached by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay
Following numerous failed attempts by other climbers, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Tibet surmounted Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world (29,035 feet [8,850 metres]), on this day in 1953.

1905: The Russian navy was defeated in the Battle of Tsushima during the Russo-Japanese War.

news20090529jt1

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

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Friday, May 29, 2009
Government loses A-bomb suit
原爆症訴訟で国が敗訴
High court rules 29 of 30 plaintiffs are radiation victims, raising pressure to review criteria

(Kyodo News) The Tokyo High Court ruled Thursday that the government should certify 29 of 30 plaintiffs as suffering from illness caused by radiation from the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, scrapping a lower court ruling that recognized just 21.

The decision marks the 18th consecutive defeat for the government in district and high courts concerning suits over certification of atomic bomb victims, placing it under further pressure to review its certification criteria once more.

"The screening rules are inappropriate in certifying atomic bomb-related diseases," presiding Judge Tatsuki Inada said.

The court ruled that the link between diseases and radiation from the bombs should be decided after a comprehensive evaluation of the applicant, and that plaintiffs with liver failure and less than normal thyroid functions, which are excluded from the list of specific diseases the government will proactively certify, should be certified as atomic-bomb victims.

"I am very excited," said Hidenori Yamamoto, who led the plaintiffs.

"I did not expect such a good ruling to be given to us," he said. "There was one person who was not recognized, and I am determined to fight until the day all plaintiffs are given redress."

In dismissing the one plaintiff's claim, the court cited difficulty in establishing links between his illness and radiation exposure. It also rejected their demand for 3 million in damages per person.

"Already 14 plaintiffs have died in the course of the trial, and the government should understand its cruelty," the plaintiffs' lawyer, Shoji Takamizawa, said. "We waited six years. The damages should have been awarded."

The Tokyo District Court ruled in March 2007 that 21 of the 30 plaintiffs were bomb sufferers but rejected claims for damages and recognition by nine plaintiffs, saying it was difficult to establish any link between their illnesses and their exposure to atomic bomb radiation.

The district court ruled that the government should not decide on certification by simply applying the criteria, but rather take a broader approach and look at how applicants were exposed to radiation, what immediate symptoms they developed, what they did, and how they led their lives afterward.

The government eased its criteria in April 2008, but about a third of the plaintiffs — including those who were already recognized by the court as sufferers of atomic bomb-related diseases — remain unrecognized.

The plaintiffs, who had cancer, cirrhosis or other diseases, initially filed suit with the district court seeking reversal of the government's decision not to recognize them as A-bomb sufferers and rewards of 3 million in damages per person.

Certified victims are eligible for medical allowances worth 137,000 a month.

A total of about 300 people nationwide have filed suits seeking certification at 17 district courts, and 13 district courts and four high courts had ruled in favor of the plaintiffs prior to Thursday.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Friday, May 29, 2009
Concern greets nomination of new U.S. envoy
次期米大使に歓迎の意
Roos, a diplomatic novice, has strong ties to Obama

By JUN HONGO and MASAMI ITO
Staff writers

The nomination Thursday of a virtually unknown lawyer as the next U.S. ambassador to Japan was greeted with more concern than optimism by experts and the government.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura welcomed the nomination of John Roos, calling it "proof that the Obama administration considers the Japan-U.S. alliance important."

Kawamura brushed off concern that Roos lacks diplomatic experience, saying there are specialists to support the ambassador, whoever he or she is. Instead, the top government spokesman said Japan is counting on the strong personal ties between Roos and President Barack Obama.

"We harbor expectations that Roos will have a hotline connection to the president to deal with major issues," Kawamura said.

But many, including some Foreign Ministry officials, acknowledged they didn't know anything about Roos until the media began reporting that the California lawyer was the probable nominee.

One ministry official said he remembered seeing Roos' name on a list of possible ambassadors, but that was as far as his knowledge went.

Yoshimitsu Nishikawa, a professor of international relations at Toyo University, said the nomination is a "sign of Japan passing," and that Roos appears to lack diplomatic experience and is unlikely to be deeply knowledgeable about the Japan-U.S. relationship.

Nishikawa contrasted the nomination with that of Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. as the U.S. ambassador to China, who was presented to the media by Obama himself earlier this month.

Huntsman, who speaks fluent Mandarin, "is a politician of presidential candidate caliber," Nishikawa said, adding that Washington clearly wasn't as interested in filling the Tokyo post.

While Roos may be good at raising funds for a presidential campaign, his diplomatic ability and knowledge of Asia remain unclear. The previous ambassador to Japan, Thomas Schieffer, may not have had extensive experience in politics, but he did boast a keen knowledge of the Asia-Pacific region after serving as ambassador to Australia prior to his stint in Japan.

If confirmed by the Senate, Roos will be filling the shoes of some major political figures, like former Vice President Walter Mondale, former White House chief of staff Howard Baker and former Sen. Mike Mansfield.

Just a few weeks ago, the appointment of Joseph Nye, a former assistant secretary of defense, as ambassador to Japan looked like a sure bet, since the Harvard professor is a specialist on the Japan-U.S. security alliance and sees the relationship as the cornerstone for peace and stability in Asia.

The Japanese media have reacted to the Roos nomination by calling it a "ronkokosho," a reward post given by Obama for his support during the presidential campaign.

Toyo University's Nishikawa said Japan should get over the shock fast and ask not what Roos will do for Japan, but think about what Japan can get out of Washington through the new ambassador.

"This really comes down to the government's diplomatic capabilities, and how they can make best of the personal connection Roos reportedly has with President Obama," Nishikawa said.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Friday, May 29, 2009
Immigration bills threaten rights of foreigners: critics
入管法改正案、外国人を管理、監視強化の恐れ

By ALEX MARTIN
Staff writer

Representatives of municipalities and human rights groups voiced their opposition Thursday to government-sponsored immigration bills they say will lead to violations of foreigners' rights and excessive control over them.

The proposed bills would issue new "zairyu" (residency) cards to replace their alien registration cards. Failure to carry the cards or report any changes in status could lead to a fine of up to 200,000, and failure to comply within three months could lead to one's visa being canceled.

Alien registration is currently handled by local ward offices, but the new bills would hand responsibility for that task — and any records collected — to the Justice Ministry.

Hiroko Uehara, the former mayor of the city of Kunitachi in western Tokyo, refused to connect the municipality's resident registry network to the nationwide Juki Net network in 2002 to protect residents' privacy. She warned that transferring the management of alien registration from municipalities to immigration offices would reduce the quality of service for foreign residents.

"Municipalities have so far made an effort to provide, at their own discretion, services to foreign residents," Uehara told a gathering in Tokyo. "But if immigration takes control of registration, all that effort will be lost," she said.

According to estimates by the Justice Ministry, municipalities have issued registration cards to roughly 20,000 illegal foreign residents in Japan, and the problem has been blamed on the government's lack of authority to check registration data.

Tomoko Ishii of Amnesty International said that the new bills would exacerbate the situation for refugees entering Japan, who are generally not eligible for social insurance and many other benefits. "In the past, municipalities offered services to those refugees they thought were in dire need of help," Ishii said, warning that if the government took over such matters, refugees will receive no such support.

Takao Yamada, an official of the city of Kawasaki who used to handle alien registrations, expressed disappointment that the new bills offer no improvement on the current system.

"Nothing will change," he said, reflecting on his past efforts to provide adequate support to foreign residents in Kawasaki. "Why is it only the foreigners that need to deal with this system?" he asked.

news20090529jt2

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

[BUSINESS NEWS]
Friday, May 29, 2009
Mitarai calls for big sales tax hike

(Kyodo News) Top business leader Fujio Mitarai is calling for doubling the consumption tax to at least 10 percent in the latter half of the next decade to meet ballooning social security costs.

"We need to have a double-digit tax rate by the latter half of the 2010s in order to secure stable financial resources for pensions, health care and nursing care," the chairman of the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) said in a recent interview with media organizations.

The consumption tax is currently 5 percent.

Mitarai will enter his last year as the head of Japan's most influential business lobby after the federation's annual general meeting Thursday.

Mitarai, who has repeatedly lobbied for fundamental reform of the taxation and social security systems, said the government should prepare for a tax hike by 2011, which would be in line with Prime Minister Taro Aso's plan to raise taxes around that time if the economy shows signs it is recovering.

As for Japan's outlook, Mitarai, who is also chairman of Canon Inc., said things are looking better because progress is being made in inventory adjustments.

"Exports are ceasing to decline and showing some signs of recovery," he said.

If the additional stimulus steps now pending in the Diet are taken, the economy may hit bottom as early as the July-September quarter, Mitarai said.

As for Japan's medium-term goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, Mitarai called for the government to explain the costs and burdens the public will have to shoulder to meet that goal.


[BUSINESS NEWS]
Friday, May 29, 2009
Eco-points prove boon for electronics sales

(Kyodo News) Sales of flat-panel television sets jumped 60 percent and those of large refrigerators surged 120 percent in May thanks to the government's eco-point program aimed at boosting sales of ecologically friendly home appliances, a marketing company said.

GfK Marketing Services Japan Ltd. surveyed 4,500 electronics shops nationwide during the week of May 18 to 24, comparing the figures with the same period last year.

As part of its economic stimulus package, the government launched the system earlier in May to give consumers subsidies to buy ecologically friendly electronic products, such as TVs and air conditioners that consume little power.

"The measure is very well-focused. It's working greatly to stimulate the economy," said Fumio Otsubo, president of Panasonic Corp.

"The (eco-point) system is bringing great effect," Setsuhiro Shimomura, president of Mitsubishi Electric Corp. said.

Some economists, however, suspect the effect will not last long as many companies have decided to reduce summer bonuses for workers amid the deepening recession.

Sales of air conditioners surged 45 percent in the week starting May 11 compared with the same period last year, but tumbled 7 percent the following week.

Kazuharu Miura, senior economist at Daiwa Institute of Research, argued that the eco-point system will not greatly help electronics firms because the effects are very small when compared with the size of their worldwide sales.

"(In addition), bonuses of workers are now expected to decrease. I don't think many people will buy new home appliances to replace old ones," Miura said.

[BUSINESS NEWS]
Friday, May 29, 2009
Toyota, Nissan gear down
Pair led global output cuts as sales sagged in North America

(Bloomberg) Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. led a drop in global auto production as sales in North America plunged amid rising unemployment.

Toyota's output dropped for the ninth straight month, falling 50 percent to 366,125 units in April from a year earlier, the company said Thursday. Nissan built 183,248 vehicles, down 38 percent, it said. Honda Motor Co. made 231,399 autos, 30 percent fewer.

Japanese automakers slashed output in North America in April to reduce inventories as their combined sales in the United States, the world's largest auto market, plunged 36 percent in April.

Carmakers' domestic production also fell as the government began a tax incentive program aimed at spurring sales of fuel-efficient cars, including new hybrids introduced by Toyota and Honda.

"Production cuts among the companies are nearing the bottom," said Koichi Ogawa, chief portfolio manager at Daiwa SB Investments Ltd. "Demand for fuel-efficient cars, especially Toyota's Prius, is robust, and that will help support output."

Toyota said that it won more than 80,000 orders before unveiling the revamped Prius hybrid on May 18 in Japan. The company said Wednesday it is boosting production of the model.

Toyota's production in Japan fell 56 percent to 145,516 units in April, as exports dropped 71 percent, the company said. Overseas production plunged 44 percent to 220,609, as Toyota slashed output in North America and Europe.

Domestic production will improve in May, compared with April, Toyota spokesman Yuta Kaga said.

The carmaker, which halted domestic output for three days in April, plans normal domestic production after May, President Katsuaki Watanabe said March 26. The Prius is built at two factories in Japan and a plant in China.

Toyota said May 20 that "a slight uptick" in its U.S. sales in May may mark the end of the collapse in industrywide demand there. Still, major improvements are unlikely to happen before next year, Jim Lentz, president of Toyota's U.S. sales unit, said at the time.

Honda built 57,066 vehicles in Japan, down 38 percent, in May, the company said. Exports slumped by a record 70 percent to 16,418 vehicles. Production abroad dropped 27 percent to 174,333, Honda said.

Its Insight became the first hybrid to become the best-selling model excluding minicars in Japan in April.

Domestic output at Nissan fell 50 percent to 49,663 units in April, as it prepared to introduce revamped fuel-efficient models, the automaker said. Nissan's Chief Operating Officer Toshiyuki Shiga said on May 19 that domestic orders of 14 of its fuel-efficient models, including the Cube and Tiida, have risen about 30 percent in May helped by government incentives.

Mazda Motor Corp., Japan's fifth-largest automaker, said its global production fell 44 percent in April.

The company canceled two holidays scheduled in June at two of its domestic plants to meet rising demand for its autos in countries including the U.K. and Germany, it said on May 20.

[BUSINESS NEWS]
Friday, May 29, 2009
Steel blocks Unison bid for Aderans

(Compiled from Bloomberg, Kyodo) Steel Partners Japan Strategic Fund (Offshore) LP won shareholder support Thursday to install a new board at Aderans Holdings Co., blocking a bid for Japan's largest wigmaker.

Aderans investors voted for Steel Partners' nominees over company-backed candidates that included three representatives from Japanese buyout fund Unison Capital Inc., an Aderans spokesman said at a meeting in Tokyo.

The new Aderans president is Nobuo Watabe, 66, a former vice president of the wigmaker who is backed by Steel.

The victory blocks a 17.6 billion offer from Unison for a stake of at least 35.2 percent that would have displaced Steel Partners, the fund run by U.S. investor Warren Lichtenstein, as the wigmaker's largest shareholder. It continues New York-based Steel Partners' efforts to overhaul governance at Aderans after it ousted Chief Executive Officer Takayoshi Okamoto and six directors last year.

"With today's vote, Aderans' shareholders demonstrated their strong desire for constructive change in the company's leadership and direction and have set a new milestone for corporate governance in Japan," Warren Lichtenstein, head of Steel Partners, said in a statement issued after the meeting.

"I firmly believe that the newly elected board is willing, committed and motivated to effect meaningful positive change in the management and corporate performance of Aderans," the statement said.

To fend off Steel's demands, Aderans teamed up with Unison Capital to propose the appointment of seven board members, including the three outside members from the Japanese fund.

Unison raised its offer for Aderans by 20 percent this week to 1,200 a share after Steel began lobbying shareholders to reject the approach.

Aderans' previous board backed Unison's offer last month, saying the alliance would strengthen its business. The wigmaker in April posted a full-year deficit of 2.17 billion, its first in four years, on declining demand for wigs.

news20090529lat

[National on Today's Paper] from [Los Angeles Times]

Program to refurbish aging nuclear warheads faces setbacks
Technical problems and an erosion of scientific expertise are blamed for delays in the effort to replace thousands of parts that have aged since the bombs left the factory decades ago.

By Ralph Vartabedian
May 29, 2009

A decadelong effort to refurbish thousands of aging nuclear warheads has run into serious technical problems that have forced delays and exacerbated concerns about the Energy Department's ability to maintain the nation's strategic deterrent.

The program involves a type of warhead known as the W76, which is used on the Navy's Trident missile system and makes up more than half of the deployed warheads in the U.S. stockpile.

The refurbishment program is aimed at replacing thousands of parts that have aged since the bombs left the factory 20 and 30 years ago.

The $200-million-a-year program is a cornerstone of America's nuclear deterrent strategy, and the Energy Department has been under growing pressure from the military and Congress to meet tough deadlines to get the weapons ready.

In February, the department's National Nuclear Security Administration announced that the "first refurbished W76 nuclear warhead had been accepted into the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile by the Navy."

But no delivery was ever made. The warhead is in pieces inside a production cell at the Energy Department's Pantex plant in Amarillo, Texas, according to an engineer at the facility.

The delay in retrofitting the warheads appears to validate long-standing concerns about an erosion of technical expertise at the Energy Department, as Cold War-era scientists and engineers retire and take with them detailed knowledge about the bombs.

Although the nation's nuclear weapons are functional and reliable, the W76 issue represents one of the most serious setbacks in the nuclear weapons program at least since the end of the Cold War and raises questions about the future, several experts told The Times.

"I wouldn't say the deterrent has been affected at all," said Philip Coyle, a former deputy director at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and former assistant secretary of Defense. "It is, however, a reminder that expertise about nuclear weapons is a precious thing and needs to be maintained."

He said the W76 problem underscored concerns experts have long raised about maintaining nuclear weapons decades after they were designed, manufactured and tested.

As the nation reduces the size of its stockpile under treaty agreements with Russia, he said, the reliability of the remaining weapons becomes more important.

Damien LaVera, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, said the department had not lost its crucial skills, but he acknowledged that retaining experienced weapons scientists and training a new generation of scientists were "an ongoing concern."

At issue with the W76, at least in part, is a classified component that was used in the original weapon but that engineers and scientists at the Energy Department's plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn., could not duplicate in a series of efforts over the last several years.

The component, known by the code word "fogbank," is thought to be made of an exotic material and is crucial to a hydrogen bomb reaching its designed energy level in the microseconds before it blows apart.

The W76 is designed to release energy equal to about 100 kilotons of TNT, through both fission and fusion of atoms.

When it came time to make new batches of fogbank for the refurbishment program, the current workforce was unable to duplicate the characteristics of the batches made in the 1970s and 1980s, according to a March report by the Government Accountability Office.

"I don't know how this happened that we forgot how to make fogbank," Coyle said. "It should not have happened, but it did."

Given the problems, the technical staff at the Pantex plant was stunned by the Energy Department announcement in February that the warhead had been delivered to the Navy, according to an engineer who spoke on condition of anonymity.

B&W Pantex, the private company that operates the plant, was still awaiting delivery of a classified part from another facility and cannot assemble the warhead, the engineer said.

Navy spokesman Lt. Clay Doss told The Times on Thursday: "We have not received delivery of any refurbished W76 warheads. The answer is none."

LaVera defended the accuracy of the February announcement, saying a federal council had decided to accept the final design of the weapon and therefore it was technically a part of the stockpile.

The failure of the Energy Department to actually deliver a W76 was brought to the attention of The Times by the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington-based watchdog group that has long expressed concern about poor performance at the nation's weapon sites.

"NNSA gets away with producing shoddy work . . . and even lying to the public," said Danielle Brian, the group's executive director. "Our confidence in the stockpile cannot depend on lies."

The technical problems with the W76 were also partially disclosed in the report from the GAO, which said the Energy Department had failed to "effectively manage cost, schedule and technical risks" not only on the W76 program but on another refurbishment effort for a warhead known as the B61.

In the case of the B61, the Energy Department boasted that it had completed the job ahead of schedule and under cost, even though it sharply reduced the number of bombs that it rebuilt and curtailed the scope of the work on each bomb, the GAO said. The cost of refurbishing each bomb doubled, the office said.

LaVera said all issues with fogbank had been resolved. The only remaining W76 issue involves potential minor defects in its arming, fusing and firing system, the safety controls that prepare a nuclear weapon for detonation.

He said the existing design of the arming system had been certified, though the department was continuing to examine the issue.

"It is inaccurate to say that we are unable to ship the weapons because there is an issue or problem," LaVera said.

Not everybody agrees that the fogbank problem raises broad concerns about a loss of expertise.

Since the late 1990s, the nation has embarked on a program to invest billions of dollars in scientific research to keep the old weapons viable.

The issue is highly sensitive because many arms control advocates worry that such a loss could become a rationale for a resumption of nuclear testing.

The Energy Department's scientific program to support the stockpile "has done very well so far. Most people would say it has been a terrific success," said Sydney Drell, a nuclear weapons expert at Stanford University.

The department plans to deliver the first batch of W76s in late fall, LaVera said.

That would put it about two years behind schedule, a delay that has caused logistical problems for the Navy, the GAO said.

It is not yet clear how long it will take for the department to refurbish all 2,000 warheads in its current plan, but the process of gradually taking warheads out of service, refurbishing them and returning them to service could take an additional 10 years.

news20090529nyt

[Politics on Today's Paper] from [The New York Times]

Pentagon Plans New Arm to Wage Wars in Cyberspace

By DAVID E. SANGER and THOM SHANKER
Published: May 28, 2009

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon plans to create a new military command for cyberspace, administration officials said Thursday, stepping up preparations by the armed forces to conduct both offensive and defensive computer warfare.

The military command would complement a civilian effort to be announced by President Obama on Friday that would overhaul the way the United States safeguards its computer networks.

Mr. Obama, officials said, will announce the creation of a White House office — reporting to both the National Security Council and the National Economic Council — that will coordinate a multibillion-dollar effort to restrict access to government computers and protect systems that run the stock exchanges, clear global banking transactions and manage the air traffic control system.

White House officials say Mr. Obama has not yet been formally presented with the Pentagon plan. They said he would not discuss it Friday when he announced the creation of a White House office responsible for coordinating private-sector and government defenses against the thousands of cyberattacks mounted against the United States — largely by hackers but sometimes by foreign governments — every day.

But he is expected to sign a classified order in coming weeks that will create the military cybercommand, officials said. It is a recognition that the United States already has a growing number of computer weapons in its arsenal and must prepare strategies for their use — as a deterrent or alongside conventional weapons — in a wide variety of possible future conflicts.

The White House office will be run by a “cyberczar,” but because the position will not have direct access to the president, some experts said it was not high-level enough to end a series of bureaucratic wars that have broken out as billions of dollars have suddenly been allocated to protect against the computer threats.

The main dispute has been over whether the Pentagon or the National Security Agency should take the lead in preparing for and fighting cyberbattles. Under one proposal still being debated, parts of the N.S.A. would be integrated into the military command so they could operate jointly.

Officials said that in addition to the unclassified strategy paper to be released by Mr. Obama on Friday, a classified set of presidential directives is expected to lay out the military’s new responsibilities and how it coordinates its mission with that of the N.S.A., where most of the expertise on digital warfare resides today.

The decision to create a cybercommand is a major step beyond the actions taken by the Bush administration, which authorized several computer-based attacks but never resolved the question of how the government would prepare for a new era of warfare fought over digital networks.

It is still unclear whether the military’s new command or the N.S.A. — or both — will actually conduct this new kind of offensive cyberoperations.

The White House has never said whether Mr. Obama embraces the idea that the United States should use cyberweapons, and the public announcement on Friday is expected to focus solely on defensive steps and the government’s acknowledgment that it needs to be better organized to face the threat from foes attacking military, government and commercial online systems.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has pushed for the Pentagon to become better organized to address the security threat.

Initially at least, the new command would focus on organizing the various components and capabilities now scattered across the four armed services.

Officials declined to describe potential offensive operations, but said they now viewed cyberspace as comparable to more traditional battlefields.

“We are not comfortable discussing the question of offensive cyberoperations, but we consider cyberspace a war-fighting domain,“ said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman. “We need to be able to operate within that domain just like on any battlefield, which includes protecting our freedom of movement and preserving our capability to perform in that environment.”

Although Pentagon civilian officials and military officers said the new command was expected to initially be a subordinate headquarters under the military’s Strategic Command, which controls nuclear operations as well as cyberdefenses, it could eventually become an independent command.

“No decision has been made,” said Lt. Col. Eric Butterbaugh, a Pentagon spokesman. “Just as the White House has completed its 60-day review of cyberspace policy, likewise, we are looking at how the department can best organize itself to fill our role in implementing the administration’s cyberpolicy.”

The creation of the cyberczar’s office inside the White House appears to be part of a significant expansion of the role of the national security apparatus there. A separate group overseeing domestic security, created by President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11 attacks, now resides within the National Security Council. A senior White House official responsible for countering the proliferation of nuclear and unconventional weapons has been given broader authority. Now, cybersecurity will also rank as one of the key threats that Mr. Obama is seeking to coordinate from the White House.

The strategy review Mr. Obama will discuss on Friday was completed weeks ago, but delayed because of continuing arguments over the authority of the White House office, and the budgets for the entire effort.

It was kept separate from the military debate over whether the Pentagon or the N.S.A. is best equipped to engage in offensive operations. Part of that debate hinges on the question of how much control should be given to American spy agencies, since they are prohibited from acting on American soil.

“It’s the domestic spying problem writ large,” one senior intelligence official said recently. “These attacks start in other countries, but they know no borders. So how do you fight them if you can’t act both inside and outside the United States?”

news20090529wp1

[Europe on Today's Paper] fom [The Washington Post]

Europe Objects Anew to Detainees
Reluctance Centers On U.S. Refusal to Also Admit Inmates

By Craig Whitlock and Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, May 29, 2009

BERLIN, May 28 -- The Obama administration's push to resettle at least 50 Guantanamo Bay prisoners in Europe is meeting fresh resistance as European officials demand that the United States first give asylum to some inmates before they will do the same.

Rising opposition in the U.S. Congress to allowing Guantanamo prisoners on American soil has not gone over well in Europe. Officials from countries that previously indicated they were willing to accept inmates now say it may be politically impossible for them to do so if the United States does not reciprocate.

"If the U.S. refuses to take these people, why should we?" said Thomas Silberhorn, a member of the German Parliament from Bavaria, where the White House wants to relocate nine Chinese Uighur prisoners. "If all 50 states in America say, 'Sorry, we can't take them,' this is not very convincing."

Interior ministers from the 27-member European Union are pressing the Obama administration to agree to a joint declaration that would commit the United States to accept some prisoners, something Congress has been highly reluctant to do.

European officials involved in the negotiations said Obama administration officials had assured them that some detainees who are not considered security threats would be released in the United States, while others would be prosecuted in U.S. courts.

But now European governments are seeking fresh assurances that the White House will be able to follow through on its pledge, given recent opposition by Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress to permitting any prisoners on U.S. territory.

Congress has refused to authorize $80 million Obama wants to pay for closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, until he reveals exactly what he plans to do with the 240 prisoners held there.

In a speech last week, Obama said that some inmates would be tried in federal courts or military commissions and that others would probably be held in preventive detention, although he did not say where. U.S. courts have ordered that 21, including the Uighurs, be released, and there are 50 more "who we have determined can be safely transferred to another country," Obama said.

Several European countries, including Spain, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland and Portugal, said they were willing to give a new home to Guantanamo inmates after Obama announced in January that he would empty the prison within a year. Guantanamo has been a human rights sore point in Europe since President George W. Bush opened it in 2002.

Agreements to resettle individual prisoners, however, have been slow in coming. Britain and France have each accepted one Guantanamo prisoner since Obama took office, but no other arrangements have come to fruition.

German Assent Evaporated

Perhaps the thorniest case so far has involved a group of prisoners that many U.S. and European officials had thought would be the easiest to resolve: the Uighurs, members of a Muslim ethnic group from China.

There are 17 Uighurs at Guantanamo; all were captured in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. A U.S. federal judge ruled in October that none poses a security threat and that they should be freed. But American officials have struggled to find a place for them.

Attorneys for the 17 men have said they cannot be sent back to China because, as members of a persecuted minority group, they would face imprisonment or even death. Other countries have been reluctant to accept them for fear of antagonizing the Chinese government, which considers them terrorists.

Recently, U.S. officials thought they had found a solution. Leaders in Germany, which hosts the largest expatriate community of Uighurs in Europe, indicated a willingness to resettle some of the men.

After weeks of informal discussions, the State Department delivered a formal request last month to the German government to accept nine Uighurs. The response was positive. German diplomats supported the idea. Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, a leading opponent of accepting Guantanamo prisoners, softened his position in a meeting with Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., saying he would consider helping under certain conditions.

In Munich, the capital of the southern state of Bavaria, the City Council passed a resolution saying it would be glad to welcome the Uighurs. Members of Munich's Uighur community, about 500 immigrants, promised to line up jobs and homes for the former detainees.

"It is important to send the signal that we should do what we can to help close Guantanamo," Friedrich Graffe, director of social services for the city of Munich, said in an interview. "If the Uighurs should come to Munich, we would take care of them."

Since then, however, negotiations have stumbled. German officials complained that the Obama administration has not shared enough details from the Uighurs' files to allow an independent assessment of whether they pose a security risk. More trouble emerged when Washington stipulated that the Uighurs would be barred from traveling to the United States.

"If the U.S. says they should come here, but they cannot travel to the U.S., we would have to ask why not?" said a German Interior Ministry official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations. "Does that mean they are dangerous?"

Protest in Northern Virginia

The Obama administration is facing similar problems at home.

In a bipartisan eruption, lawmakers across the country have protested any relocation of detainees in their states. One of the most adamant has been Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R), in whose Northern Virginia district the administration hopes to resettle several Uighurs.

When constituents with inside information alerted him May 1 that a plane was being readied for the "imminent" transfer of two to five Uighurs, Wolf shot off a letter to Obama asking the president to "declassify all intelligence regarding their capture, detention, and your administration's assessment of the threat they may pose to Americans, prior to any decision to release them." Obama did not respond, but Wolf's chief of staff received a call from the White House accusing him of playing politics with the issue, Wolf said.

Earlier, Wolf added, the Justice Department had given him an informal promise not to carry out any resettlements without congressional consultation in exchange for his agreement not to grill Holder on the Uighurs during the attorney general's House testimony April 23.

Wolf's letter to Obama was followed by one to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on May 4, and another to Holder on May 13. The Uighurs, Wolf told Holder, are "trained terrorists" and members of an al-Qaeda affiliate, allegations that the military and federal courts had dismissed.

Although neither Napolitano nor Holder responded to his letters, Wolf said, the Justice Department set up a classified meeting with him last week. The session ended abruptly and unsatisfactorily, he said, when Ronald H. Weich, the assistant attorney general for legislative affairs, was unable or unwilling to fully answer Wolf's questions.

"My sense is that Holder just wants to release someone so he can go back and say [to the Europeans], 'Well, we've taken one or two or three,' " Wolf said yesterday.

Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd declined to respond directly to Wolf's assertions, saying in an e-mail that the department has briefed Wolf and other members of Congress "on the detainee review process. . . . We will continue to do so as we work to close the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay."

A White House aide noted that "a federal judge ordered the release of the Uighurs during the previous administration, and we've been working hard to implement that order, bearing in mind that we will not release any detainee who would endanger the security of the American people."

"Contacts with the congressman's office," the aide said of Wolf, "were the result of an effort to bring him into the consultative process" of determining where the detainees should go.

Some Germans Digging In

The hitches that have developed in admitting some of the Uighurs to the United States have, in turn, severely hampered efforts to send the nine other Uighurs to Germany.

"It's very clear that the [Obama] administration has to bring some of them to the U.S.," said Susan Baker Manning, a Washington lawyer who represents two Uighurs seeking to go to Munich.

"Our European allies have made it quite clear that they expect our help and participation in solving the problem of Guantanamo, which we created," she said.

Meantime, some influential German authorities are digging in their heels. Joachim Herrmann, Bavaria's interior minister, said in an interview that he would not completely rule out accepting some Uighurs. But he said the Obama administration needed to do a much better job of allaying German concerns.

Herrmann also said he was not convinced by Washington's insistence that the Uighurs do not pose a threat.

"These are people who participated in terror camps, who had military training, who are radicalized, who do not follow democratic principles, who follow radical goals," he said. "And we do not want to accept such people."

CONTINUED ON news20090529wp2

news20090529wp2

[Europe on Today's Paper] fom [The Washington Post]

Europe Objects Anew to Detainees
Reluctance Centers On U.S. Refusal to Also Admit Inmates

By Craig Whitlock and Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, May 29, 2009

CONTINUED FROM news20090529wp1

Siegfried Benker, a Munich City Council member and local Green Party leader, said officials such as Herrmann are trying to stir fears by portraying the Uighurs as sinister.

"With the Uighurs, there is no proof at all that they were guilty. They have been cleared from being enemy combatants, and the U.S. no longer sees them as being suspicious," said Benker, whose party endorsed the resolution welcoming the Uighurs to Munich. "But the opponents act like anyone who comes from Guantanamo has to be a terrorist. They do not allow for innocence. Apparently they hope for votes."

news20090529gdn1

[Environment] from [The Guardian]

[Energy]
California fires up laser fusion machine
California fires up laser fusion machineSuccess at National Ignition Facility could pave the way for commercial laser fusion power stations and provide a solution to world energy crisis

Ian Sample, science correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 28 May 2009 18.15 BST
Article history

A tentative first step towards an era of clean, almost limitless energy will take place today with the opening of a giant facility designed to recreate the power of the stars in an oversized warehouse in California.

The $3.5bn National Ignition Facility (NIF) sits in a 10-storey building covering three football fields and will harness the power of lasers to turn tiny pellets of hydrogen into thermonuclear energy.

If the machine works as planned, it will become the first to generate more energy than it consumes, a feat that could pave the way for commercial laser fusion power stations and an end to the world's energy security problems.

The building, which has taken almost 15 years to build and commission, is due to be opened in a ceremony attended by the US energy secretary, Steven Chu, and the California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has said the facility could "revolutionise our energy future".

"If they're successful, it will be a very big deal. No one has achieved a net gain in energy before," said Derek Stork, assistant technical director at the UK United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA)'s centre for fusion research in Culham, Oxfordshire.

Inside the building, scientists will use the world's most powerful laser to create 192 separate beams of light that will be directed at a bead of frozen hydrogen in a violent burst lasting five billionths of a second. Each fuel pellet measures just two millimetres across but costs around $40,000, because they must be perfectly spherical to ensure they collapse properly when the laser light strikes.

The intense beams produce a powerful shockwave that crunches the fuel pellet at a million miles an hour, generating temperatures of around 100,000,000C. Under such extreme conditions, which are found only in the core of stars, the hydrogen atoms will fuse, producing helium and vast amounts of energy.

The facility will gradually work up to full power over the next 12 months or so, but experiments are scheduled to run until around 2040.

If the NIF succeeds, politicians will be under pressure to invest in the technology to develop a first generation of demonstration plants to feed fusion energy into electricity grids.

Plans for a laser fusion plant have been drawn up at UKAEA in Culham. The Hiper project would use two lasers to produce power from seawater and lithium, an abundant element.

"When this works, it will immediately change the future energy map for the world. One cubic kilometre of sea water has the fusion energy equivalent of whole world's oil reserves," said John Parris at the Hiper project. That would overturn concerns over energy security caused by vast amounts of the globe's oil been locked up beneath a small number of nations.

The NIF facility must overcome major technical hurdles before scientists can start celebrating. The laser at the heart of the facility can only fire a handful of times a day. In between each shot, the hydrogen fuel pellet needs to be replaced. Over the coming years, scientists want to see improvements that allow the facility to run continuously. That could mean firing the laser 10 times a second, at fuel pellets that are shot mid air as they are dropped into the fusion chamber.

[Energy]
New survey of Arctic's mineral riches could stoke international strife
• Region could contain 30% of the world's gas reserves
• Fears that study will raise tensions in region

Alok Jha, green technology correspondent
The Guardian, Friday 29 May 2009
Article history

The battle for the Arctic's hidden mineral riches is likely to intensify after a survey revealing the energy reserves present beneath the ice.

A map of potential oil and gas reserves in the region, published today in Science, shows that about 30% of the world's ­un­exploited gas and 13% of oil lie under the seas around the north pole. Billions of barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of gas lie within the Arctic ­circle, where, until now, permanent ice has prevented drilling.

The report is likely to further stoke international competition for mineral, tourism and shipping rights in the region. Exploration and drilling for oil and gas have become easier as climate change forces the ice to retreat, and all countries with borders inside the Arctic circle are fighting to claim their share. "For better or worse, limited ­exploration prospects in the rest of the world ­combined with technological advances make the Arctic increasingly attractive for ­development," said Paul Berkman of the Scott polar research institute at the University of Cambridge, who specialises in the politics of the Arctic.

Russia filed its claim with the UN in 2001 but it is being contested by Canada, ­Denmark, Norway and the US. In 2007, Russian sailors used a submarine to plant a flag on the sea bed beneath the north pole in an area also claimed by Denmark, thanks to its sovereignty of Greenland. Earlier this month, Russia said it would be prepared to use military force to protect its claims in the Arctic.

The map in Science pulls together ­partial assessments of the region ­carried out by many different countries and puts the information in the public domain for the first time. It shows that most of the oil is likely to be found under shallow water and there is probably about 90bn barrels in total. For comparison, at the end of 2007, the world's proven oil reserves stood at 1,238bn barrels and annual consumption was about 30bn barrels.

Donald Gautier of the US Geological Survey, who led a team of researchers to produce the map, said the amounts were relatively small compared with the rest of the world's total fossil fuel production. "I think one should be cautious in ­jumping to the conclusion that it immediately extends world production by three years," he said. "There's nothing we see in the Arctic which suggests the pre-eminence of the oil resources of the Gulf states would be shifted."

For natural gas, the picture is different. "Gas is heavily concentrated in Russian territory and they're already the world's largest producer of gas," said Gautier. "These findings suggest that future pre-eminence of Russian strategic control of gas resources is likely to be extended."

The researchers said while their map was an accurate estimate of the potential geological resource in the Arctic, they had not considered the practical or economic case for whether the oil or gas would be recoverable.

Berkman, who will speak on the political challenge of the Arctic at a meeting at the Royal Society in London next week, said energy resources happened to be at the top of international considerations at present but additional commercial prospects would soon arise.

"Shipping is an important resource and potential for more efficient and economic access through the Arctic would have a tremendous economic implication for trade normally," he said. "The potential for fisheries would also have significant implications." The biggest challenge for governments, he said, was the potential for discord.

"They need to envision strategies to defuse international tensions. At the moment, there are a lot of assertions going on by different nations about their interests."

One way to face the problem, he said, was to focus on common interests in the region, such as environmental protection and peace. But Berkman was concerned that no forum for international dialogue had been developed.

The US team produced the map by gathering data from geological surveys carried out by scientists from Germany, Canada, Denmark and Norway.

By mapping sedimentary rocks, which are the type most ­consistent with finding oil and gas, and comparing these rocks with proven fossil fuel deposits around the world, the researchers were able to ­calculate an assessment for the resources in the Arctic.

Gautier said the map was only an early estimate for the minerals around the north pole. "What we have done is gone into an unknown world and done our best to bring to bear the best geological information we can."

news20090529gdn2

[Environment] from [The Guardian]

[Wildlife]

Wild beavers return to British waters for first time in 200 years
• Release of native species a reintroduction victory
• Lodges built for family groups in Argyll forest

Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent
The Guardian, Friday 29 May 2009
Article history

It has been described as a "tubby spaniel" by its admirers and as a "destructive nocturnal rat" by its critics. Now, the beaver is officially back in the wild in Britain.

At least two centuries after the species was hunted to extinction in the UK, three beaver families have been released into three lochs in forest unpopulated by people near the Sound of Jura in Argyll.

The release marks the most ambitious mammal reintroduction programme to date in Britain.

The first two families were shepherded into man-made "lodges" in Knapdale forestry reserve today. The last family will be uncaged tomorrow by the Scottish environment minister ­Roseanna Cunningham. "Welcoming beavers back to Scotland marks a historic day for conservation," Cunningham said. "These charismatic creatures are not only likely to create interest in Scotland from further afield but crucially can play a key role in providing good habitat for a wide range of wetland species."

Allan Bantick, chairman of the Scottish Beaver Trial partnership, said: "Beavers are a native species made extinct by man and we are hoping our trial reintroduction is a step towards seeing this corrected."

However, it emerged today that the project has suffered problems. Five of the 17 beavers, which were imported from Norway last November, died while in quarantine at a Devon reserve – reportedly from unrelated causes. So the organisers, left with only three families and one adult, held back those remaining. They hope a family will later be produced for Knapdale. Meantime, the Royal ­Zoological Society of Scotland, a partner in the five-year pilot project, recruited instead two other beaver families, held in Scotland.

Plans also for a second pilot, testing beaver reintroduction in populated Highland areas, were dropped, partly after complaints from the salmon industry. That was to have started as early as next year.

The beavers project has identified Insh Marshes national nature reserve near Kingussie as their favoured site, but the Scottish government and Scottish Natural Heritage want this delayed until the Knapdale project has been properly tested.

In the next few months, naturalists in Wales are also hoping to name six possible beaver release sites, then reintroduce the animals in two to three years' time.

Natural England began its beaver re­lease consultation in March, identifying among areas the New Forest, Bodmin Moor in Cornwall, and the Forest of Bowland in Lancashire, as prime beaver habitat.

Naturalists in England and Wales hope to avoid the controversy that dogged the Scottish project. The first plan to release beavers in Knapdale was vetoed by ministers in 2005 after intense lobbying from lairds, farmers and fisheries who claimed the animals would damage salmon and trout rivers, as well as flood farmland and commercial forestry with their dams.

But, by felling trees, creating lakeside lagoons and opening up forest canopies, beavers create richer riverside habitats and help to prevent flooding by increasing the size of wetlands.

[Climate Change]
Global warming causes 300,000 deaths a year, says Kofi Annan thinktank
Climate change is greatest humanitarian challenge facing the world as heatwaves, floods and forest fires become more severe

John Vidal, environment editor
guardian.co.uk, Friday 29 May 2009 11.03 BST
Article history

Climate change is already responsible for 300,000 deaths a year and is affecting 300m people, according to the first comprehensive study of the human impact of global warming.

It projects that increasingly severe heatwaves, floods, storms and forest fires will be responsible for as many as 500,000 deaths a year by 2030, making it the greatest humanitarian challenge the world faces.

Economic losses due to climate change today amount to more than $125bn a year — more than the all present world aid. The report comes from former UN secretary general Kofi Annan's thinktank, the Global Humanitarian Forum. By 2030, the report says, climate change could cost $600bn a year.

Civil unrest may also increase because of weather-related events, the report says: "Four billion people are vulnerable now and 500m are now at extreme risk. Weather-related disasters ... bring hunger, disease, poverty and lost livelihoods. They pose a threat to social and political stability".

If emissions are not brought under control, within 25 years, the report states:

• 310m more people will suffer adverse health consequences related to temperature increases

• 20m more people will fall into poverty

• 75m extra people will be displaced by climate change.

Climate change is expected to have the most severe impact on water supplies . "Shortages in future are likely to threaten food production, reduce sanitation, hinder economic development and damage ecosystems. It causes more violent swings between floods and droughts. Hundreds of millions of people are expected to become water stressed by climate change by the 2030. ".

The study says it is impossible to be certain who will be displaced by 2030, but that tens of millions of people "will be driven from their homelands by weather disasters or gradual environmental degradation. The problem is most severe in Africa, Bangladesh, Egypt, coastal zones and forest areas. ."

The study compares for the first time the number of people affected by climate change in rich and poor countries. Nearly 98% of the people seriously affected, 99% of all deaths from weather-related disasters and 90% of the total economic losses are now borne by developing countries. The populations most at risk it says, are in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, south Asia and the small island states of the Pacific.

But of the 12 countries considered least at risk, including Britain, all but one are industrially developed. Together they have made nearly $72bn available to adapt themselves to climate change but have pledged only $400m to help poor countries. "This is less than one state in Germany is spending on improving its flood defences," says the report.

The study comes as diplomats from 192 countries prepare to meet in Bonn next week for UN climate change talks aimed at reaching a global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in December in Copenhagen. "The world is at a crossroads. We can no longer afford to ignore the human impact of climate change. This is a call to the negotiators to come to the most ambitious agreement ever negotiated or to continue to accept mass starvartion, mass sickness and mass migration on an ever growing scale," said Kofi Annan, who launched the report today in London.

Annan blamed politians for the current impasse in the negotiations and widespread ignorance in many countries. "Weak leadership, as evident today, is alarming. If leaders cannot assume responsibility they will fail humanity. Agreement is in the interests of every human being."

Barabra Stocking, head of Oxfam said: "Adaptation efforts need to be scaled up dramatically.The world's poorest are the hardest hit, but they have done the least to cause it.

Nobel peace prizewinner Wangari Maathai, said: "Climate change is life or death. It is the new global battlefield. It is being presented as if it is the problem of the developed world. But it's the developed world that has precipitated global warming."

Calculations for the report are based on data provided by the World Bank, the World Health organisation, the UN, the Potsdam Insitute For Climate Impact Research, and others, including leading insurance companies and Oxfam. However, the authors accept that the estimates are uncertain and could be higher or lower. The paper was reviewed by 10 of the world's leading experts incluing Rajendra Pachauri, head of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change, Jeffrey Sachs, of Columbia University and Margareta Wahlström, assistant UN secretary general for disaster risk reduction.