news20090929gdn2

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Water]
Adelaide latest victim of global water shortages
Australia's fifth-largest city could be reliant on bottled water as early as next week as overuse and drought stretch the Murray river to its limit
Toni O'Loughlin and John Vidal
guardian.co.uk, Monday 28 September 2009 17.58 BST Article history

The water in Australia's biggest river is running so low and is so salty that the nation's fifth-largest city, Adelaide, is at risk of having to ship water in to its residents, politicians have warned.

Adelaide's water crisis follows similar problems in cities around the world, as the combination of growing population, increasing agricultural use and global warming stretches resources to the limit. Experts are warning of permanent drought in many regions.

Salinity levels in some stretches of the Murray river already exceed the World Health Organisation's (WHO) recommendations for safe drinking, and South Australia's water authority and 11 rural townships east of Adelaide have been told to prepare for the worst.

"Another dry year will deplete our reservoirs and the water in the Murray will become too saline to drink. We are talking about 1.3 million people, who are not far off becoming reliant on bottled water. We are talking a national emergency," said South Australian MP David Winderlich.

As early as next week, water from parts of the river may become too dangerous to drink, which would require the water authority to begin delivering supplies to hospitals, clinics, aged care facilities and local supermarkets in plastic bottles, said Winderlich.

"There's simply too many people pulling water out of the river," said Roger Strother, Coorong council mayor. "We've been saying that one day it would catch up, and this summer is when it is going to happen. It could be next week."

Recent rains have topped up Adelaide's dams, but only enough for one year, and the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, which oversees water use across the whole of south-east Australia, says water levels in reservoirs are much lower than expected. Today the authority said the whole basin was at 25% capacity.

Australia's worst drought in a century has lasted over 10 years in places, and many cities have had to restrict water use.

Climate experts fear the continent faces a permanently drier future as the impact of global warming kicks in. South Australians have watched the waters stagnate as farmers, especially cotton and rice growers upstream, siphoned up to 83% of the water from the river system.

The WHO says the acceptable level of salinity for safe drinking water is 800 EC (electrical conductivity) units but the salinity in parts of the Murray is now around 1,200 EC units. The water authority says it will begin shipping water when the salinity rises to 1,400 EC units.

Adelaide is one of many cities around the world facing acute water shortages as populations grow, long-term droughts continue and ground water is not replenished. The Chinese water minister, Chen Lei, today told engineers at a water conference that two-thirds of Chinese cities now face serious shortages due to rapid industrialisation and climate change.

"Compared to 1956-79, the average rainfall has dropped 6% in three major river basins," Lei said. "Most parts in the north of China are now facing water shortages problems, especially because of the increasing influence of climate change and the faster speed of industrialisation and urbanisation."

By 2015, Lei said, water efficiency would have to be increased by 30%. "Water abstraction must be strictly controlled. We should have strict management of groundwater exploitation and consumption, put a limit on total use of groundwater, and ban or set quotas on groundwater exploitation. Nearly two out of three cities are facing water shortages, and the farmland affected by drought reaches nearly 15m sq km a year."

According to a new UN environment programme report, perennial drought conditions are developing in south-eastern Australia and south-western North America. "Projections suggest that persistent water scarcity will increase in a number of regions in coming years, including southern and northern Africa, the Mediterranean, much of the Middle East, a broad band in central Asia and the Indian subcontinent," the report said.

"There is growing concern that thresholds or tipping points may now be reached in a matter of years or a few decades, including dramatic changes to the Indian subcontinent's monsoon rains, the Sahara and west Africa monsoons, and climate systems affecting the Amazon rainforest," it said.

Hopes in some countries that an El Niño weather event would bring rain to parched areas of the US this week declined as the US government climate prediction centre said temperatures in the equatorial Pacific had stopped climbing. During strong El Niños, abnormally warm waters in that region pump heat and moisture into the atmosphere, which leads to intense storms.

Cities around the world under water stress

Beijing: Most of Beijing's water comes from the Miyun reservoir, but a decade of drought and huge population increase has left extreme shortages. Water diversion projects are helping, but this is depleting resources from other regions. The city must spend $3.5bn (£2.2bn) in the next five years to cope with a population expected to rise to 17 million.

Nairobi: The city has imposed water rationing, following an acute drought that has affected all Kenya's water catchment areas. River and reservoirs are at historically low levels. Flower farms and export-oriented agriculture are also reducing supplies available to people.

Mexico City: 2009 has been the driest year recorded in the city of 19 million people. Water is rationed and many areas have no piped water for days at a time. The government has imposed fines of up to $1,200 for hosing down cars and sidewalks or watering lawns during daytime hours. Signs warn that the city could run out of water next spring unless residents switch to low-flow showers and toilets, and plug leaks.

Gaza: Water fit for human use will run out in the Gaza strip within 10 years, the Gaza Coastal Municipal Water Utility and UN agencies said this month. Tap water is already salty, and only 5-10% of groundwater is drinkable. Gaza's population is expected to increase to 3 million by 2025.

Kathmandu: Erratic rainfall and drier winters have left Nepal's capital very short of water. The water company can provide only 160m litres a day but the demand is well over 200m litres. Many households are drilling their own boreholes to extract groundwater with electric pumps, but the water table is sinking approximately 2.5 metres a year and this is not sustainable in the medium term.

news20090929gdn3

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Nuclear power]
India plans to cut carbon and fuel poverty with untested nuclear power
Prime minister Manmohan Singh announces 100-fold increase in nuclear energy output by 2050 with thorium technology
Randeep Ramesh in Delhi
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 29 September 2009 13.29 BST Article history

India's prime minister today signalled a huge push in nuclear power over the coming decades, using an untested technology based on nuclear waste and the radioactive element thorium.

Manmohan Singh, speaking at a conference of atomic scientists in Delhi, announced that 470,000MW of energy could come from Indian nuclear power stations by 2050 — more than 100 times the current output from India's current 17 reactors.

"This will sharply reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and will be a major contribution to global efforts to combat climate change," he said, adding that Asia was now seeing a huge spurt in nuclear plant building. The Indian plan, which relies on untested technology, was criticised by anti-nuclear campaigners as "a nightmare disguised as a dream".

The prime minister said a breakthrough deal with the US, sanctioned by the international community, had opened the door for the country to "think big" and meet the demands of its billion-strong population.

The intervention comes as talks in Bangkok aimed at resolving the impasse between developing and developed countries over a new climate change deal to replace the Kyoto protocol have stalled. India, one of the world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, has been dismayed that its pledges of action – including a dramatic expansion of nuclear power - have been met with inaction from richer nations.

The prime minister's statement also brings Delhi alongside Beijing which has long promoted atomic energy. India's plan would see it leapfrog its northern neighbour. At present China has 11 reactors in operation producing 8GW but has proposed that by 2020 this output be increased 10-fold

Nuclear power has been a contentious issue in India. Although the country has had a decades-old atomic programme, it was effectively blacklisted from global civilian nuclear trade after testing a nuclear device in 1974. That embargo was lifted in 2008 after negotations with Washington.

The result has been a rush to sign deals – both to supply uranium and to build reactors. France, Russia and the United States have all sought access to the booming Indian market.

India has an ambitious three-stage nuclear programme which it sees as a "silver bullet" to its dire energy shortage. At present 400m people cannot light their homes and the country imports 70% of its oil.

Delhi says that it will be able to surmount these considerable problems and generate clean green power with an atomic programme that "virtuously recycles" the plutonium waste that reactors produce. This radioactive isotope takes thousands of years to be rendered safe and dealing with it is the greatest challenge facing nuclear energy's proponents.

The Indian plan turns this waste into fuel. Using thorium, which is abundant in the country, combined with plutonium, the country aims to produce power and "breed" stockpiles of uranium.

It is a technology that no other country has mastered – and many have dropped – but India still has more than 2,000 scientists working on the technical problems.

Singh said the country had entered "stage two" of the programme and had completed a prototype breeder reactor in southern India.

However campaigners said "if climate change is the problem, nuclear power is not the answer". SP Udayakumar, convenor of India's Alliance for Anti-Nuclear Movements, questioned whether the technology India was pushing would ever be ready.

"The nuclear technology the prime minister talks about is not proven. If we start going ahead then the issue is the amount of carbon emitted by building, maintaining, operating and decommissioning nuclear plants means that (nuclear power) is a hugely polluting technology. If it does not work then we are left with waste that takes 24,000 years to become safe. It is a gamble we will pay for generations to come."

news20090929nn

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 28 September 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.958
News
Target crater changed for Moon crash
Evidence of ice convinces NASA team to make last-minute switch.
By Eric Hand

Scientists have picked a new target for the planned 9 October crash of a NASA spacecraft into a crater near the Moon's south pole.

The Lunar Crater Remote Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) will now plough into Cabeus, a 100-kilometre-wide crater, in the hopes of kicking up some ice along with the rock and dust of the lunar soil. This is a switch from the previous target, Cabeus A, a crater half as wide that sits further from the south pole.

Cabeus A presented favourable viewing angles for the many telescopes on Earth that will be trained on the impact site. But instruments aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched with LCROSS on 18 June, have been offering up startling evidence: not only that water could be locked in a deep freeze within permanently shadowed polar craters, but also that there are significant differences between the craters (see 'Water on the moon?'). In particular, a neutron-counting instrument has shown a significant excess of hydrogen — a possible indicator of ice — within Cabeus. "The Cabeus region seems to be one of the places that could be the wettest, so we'd like to go there," says Jennifer Heldmann, the LCROSS observation campaign coordinator at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.

Cabeus is deeper than Cabeus A, so the impact plume will have to rise higher to be seen from Earth. But Heldmann says this drawback is mitigated by a deep cleft in the rim wall of Cabeus, which will make viewing lower parts of the plume not as difficult as it could be.

The LCROSS team told astronomers of the new target on 25 September. Nancy Chanover, an astronomer at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, says the adjustment shouldn't be too difficult. "It's not a big burden," says Chanover, who is leading an effort to deduce the composition of the plume through an analysis of its ballistics. Twenty professional observatories, including the Hubble Space Telescope, will be watching the event, and hundreds of amateur astronomers are expected to add their data to the mix.

But LCROSS itself, which has two components, will have the closest view. The spent upper stage of an Atlas V rocket will provide the main punch. A 'shepherding spacecraft', following four minutes behind, will watch the impact until the plume envelops it and conceals its own crash.


[naturenews]
Published online 28 September 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.956
News
Not blind to emotion
Out of sight is not out of mind for facial expressions or body language.
By Alison Abbott

Partially blind people can 'unconsciously' sense the facial expressions of others.PunchstockTwo patients, partially blind because of damage to one side of their brain, were able to sense, and respond to, emotions expressed by people in pictures presented to their blind sides.

A study by an international team of researchers found that the patients unconsciously twitched a facial muscle uniquely involved in smiling when a picture showed a happy person, and a muscle involved in frowning when the person depicted looked fearful1.

The patients, both from the United Kingdom, have the very rare condition known as partial cortical blindness. Their eyes are intact but they have damage to the visual cortex on one side of their brain. This means that they cannot process information from the visual field on the opposite side of their nose.

The scientists, who were led by Marco Tamietto and Beatrice de Gelder at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, say the results show that our spontaneous tendency to synchronize our facial expressions with those of other people in face-to-face situations — known as emotional contagion — occurs even if we cannot consciously see them.

"This is interesting evidence that we can recognize the emotions of others without needing to be visually aware of them," says neuroscientist Christian Keysers, an expert in the neurophysiology of emotion at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, who was not involved in the study.

Second sight

The two patients were shown random mixtures of images of people looking happy or fearful, each for two seconds, in rapid succession. The pictures were presented on the side of their visual field that they could see, then on the side they could not consciously see. They were asked to press a button after each picture to indicate the emotion they had recognized, or guessed at.

{{“They could sense emotion through an unconscious mechanism, and resonate with it.”}
Marco Tamietto
Tilburg University}}

The scientists attached special electrodes to the patients' faces, allowing them to measure subtle contractions — of which we are usually unaware — of the tiny muscles involved in expressing emotion.

The patients twitched their smiling-specific zygomaticus major muscle when presented with happy pictures and the frowning-specific corrugator supercilii muscle when presented with fearful pictures. The response was the same whether the pictures were presented on the side they could see or the side they could not see. But the response was faster when the pictures were presented to the blind side — perhaps because there was no conscious emotional evaluation to delay things, says Tamietto.

"The subjects were not simply imitating the expression of others, because their faces responded whether the emotion was conveyed to them via facial expression or body language," he says. "They could sense emotion through an unconscious mechanism, and resonate with it."

Mixed picture?

Much of the visual input from the retina goes directly to the visual cortex, which processes the information so that we consciously perceive the image we are looking at. But a small part goes directly to the midbrain, through an evolutionarily primitive subcortical pathway that processes emotion and other information central to survival — and that is intact in the two patients.

So it seems that emotional contagion can be implemented via evolutionarily ancient neural structures, says Tamietto, and does not necessarily require the involvement of higher brain regions, visual awareness or the mirror neurons that are active when we recognize the physical actions of others.

But Keysers cautions that it remains to be determined whether the subcortical and higher cortical pathways for recognizing emotions operate in parallel. Emotion recognition could use several types of available information, he says.

References
1. Tamietto, M. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA http://dx.doi:10.1073/pnas.0908994106 (2009).

news20090929bbc1

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

[Africa]
Page last updated at 12:11 GMT, Tuesday, 29 September 2009 13:11 UK
Guinea rally death toll nears 130
At least 128 people were killed when Guinean troops opened fire on opposition protesters on Monday, rights groups and opposition figures claim.

Earlier police said 87 people had died, but local activists say hospital sources confirmed a much higher toll.

Human rights groups say they have had reports of soldiers bayoneting people and women being stripped and raped in the streets during Monday's protest.

Junta head Captain Moussa Dadis Camara denied knowledge of sexual assaults.

About 50,000 people were protesting over rumours that Capt Camara intends to run for president in an election schedule for next January.

But soldiers moved in to quell the rally using tear gas and baton charges and firing live ammunition into the crowds.

An eyewitness told Human Rights Watch: "I saw the Red Berets [an elite military unit] catch some of the women who were trying to flee, rip off their clothes, and stick their hands in their private parts.

"Others beat the women, including on their genitals. It was pathetic - the women were crying out."

Another eyewitness told the group: "I saw several women stripped and then put inside the military trucks and taken away. I don't know what happened to them."

There has been worldwide condemnation of the violence.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the Guinean authorities to exercise maximum restraint, while the West African regional body Ecowas is reported to be pursuing sanctions against the military regime.


[South Asia]
Page last updated at 12:07 GMT, Tuesday, 29 September 2009 13:07 UK
Afghan bus bombing kills dozens
At least 30 civilians travelling on a bus in southern Afghanistan have been killed by a roadside bomb blast, the Afghan interior ministry has said.

The bus was on its way from Herat to Kandahar when the device exploded, the ministry said, adding that 10 children and seven women were among the dead.

The most seriously wounded have been taken to a Nato base for treatment.

Kandahar's provincial government blamed the Taliban for planting the device, although the group has yet to comment.

A similar blast on the same main road - in Maywand district - had killed three civilians on Monday, a government spokesman said.

"An explosion hit the bus. I don't know what happened. When I came to, I got out of the bus and saw that it was totally wrecked," one of the passengers, Lal Jan, told the Associated Press in Kandahar.

The BBC's Martin Patience in Kabul says the Taliban are increasingly using roadside bombs to attack foreign forces.

However, civilians are frequently caught up in the violence, our correspondent says. According to the UN, more than 1,500 have been killed this year, the majority in insurgent attacks.

'More troops needed'

The deaths come shortly after Anders Fogh Rasmussen made his first speech in the United States as Nato secretary-general.

{{MARDELL'S AMERICA}
{ Some want to get back a strategy where the main aim is killing terrorists, not building a nation}
Mark Mardell
BBC North America editor}}

Speaking at the Atlantic Council in Washington, the former Danish prime minister called on European nations to stand with US forces in Afghanistan.

There are currently some 100,000 foreign soldiers in Afghanistan from more than 40 countries - more than 60,000 of them American.

US military commanders have warned that more troops will be needed, but US President Barack Obama says he will not decide until after a strategy review.

The commanding US officer in Afghanistan, Gen Stanley McChrystal, delivered a review of the situation in the country to Mr Obama earlier this month.

However, rising military casualties have undermined public support for the operation in some Western countries.

Correspondents say European nations are not expected to offer any significant increase in troops unless Washington takes the lead.

The Netherlands and Canada have already set 2010 and 2011 as deadlines for withdrawal and Italy has announced plans for a "strong reduction" in its forces.


[South Asia]
Page last updated at 10:04 GMT, Tuesday, 29 September 2009 11:04 UK
Air India protest hampers flights
Hundreds of passengers have been left stranded in India because of a strike by senior pilots working for the national carrier, Air India.

The company says that a significant number of flights have been disrupted after pilots reported sick for a fourth consecutive day as part of a protest.

The pilots are protesting against the cancellation of performance-related bonuses by the cash-strapped airline.

Talks between pilots and management failed to reach a solution on Monday.

The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Delhi says that the Indian aviation industry has been hit hard by the global economic turndown with increased costs of operation and travellers opting for low-cost airlines or train services.

Earlier this month a protest by pilots for India's privately-owned Jet Airways caused considerable disruption.

During that protest hundreds of passengers were stranded at various airports, leading to angry confrontations.

Air India said that the pilots' refusal to accept their decision to slash bonuses and incentives by up to 50% were "unacceptable".

So far the management has held firm saying they need to cut costs since Air India is facing huge losses because of the worldwide recession.

Air India is state owned and the government is now intervening to try and end the crisis. The airline posted losses of more than $800m in 2008-09 and has asked the government for a financial bail-out.

But it also said that it was keeping options open. As well as cancelling many flights, the airline has suspended bookings for flights in the next fortnight.

The struggling airline had to delay by a fortnight payment of June salaries and incentives to its 31,500 employees.

The protest comes as airlines around the world try to cope with declining passenger traffic due to the global slowdown.


[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 08:56 GMT, Tuesday, 29 September 2009 09:56 UK
Six jailed for Vietnam baby fraud
Six Vietnamese have been sentenced to jail for arranging more than 300 fraudulent adoptions, an official said.

The six were jailed for two to four-and-a-half years for "abuse of power", court official Nguyen Tien Hung said.

Among those convicted were two heads of provincial welfare centres, doctors, nurses and local officials.

They were found to have filed false papers to allow babies from poor families to be adopted, many by parents in France, Italy and the US.

Ten other people received suspended sentences of 15 to 18 months.

They came from the province of Nam Dinh, south of Hanoi.

The falsified papers said the babies had been abandoned, making them eligible for adoption by foreign parents, the prosecutors said.

The group was operating from 2005 to July 2008, when the two key suspects were arrested.

The case came to light last year after the US embassy in Hanoi accused Vietnam of failing to police its adoption system, allowing corruption, fraud and baby-selling to flourish.

The US report led Vietnam to end a bilateral adoption agreement.

news20090929bcc2

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

[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 03:44 GMT, Tuesday, 29 September 2009 04:44 UK
Japan prices continue record fall
Japan's core consumer prices dropped 2.4% in August year-on-year, the fourth successive month of record falls.

Official figures showed core prices, which exclude those of volatile fresh food, fell for a sixth month in a row.

The record fall for August was due to lower petrol and other energy costs as well as weak domestic demand.

Japan, the world's second largest economy, experienced a prolonged period of deflation in the 1990s, commonly referred to as "the lost decade".

Lower prices may appear to be a good thing, but deflation can hamper growth by depressing company profits and causing consumers to postpone purchases, leading to production and wage cuts. It can also increase debt burdens.

The deflation comes despite recent signs of an improvement in the Japanese economy, which returned to positive growth in the second quarter of 2009, exiting a severe year-long recession.

Not to worry?

The central bank has expressed confidence that low interest rates and the stimulus packages it has already implemented will prevent deflation taking hold again.

Analysts are not so sure.

Several have said that although the impact of last summer's spike in the oil price will lessen towards the end of the year, they expect further falls in prices.

"Reflecting stagnant retail sales, falls in prices are spreading more broadly than we had expected," said Susumu Kato, chief economist at Calyon Securities.

"There's a chance that deflation might continue longer than expected."

Few economists expect falls in prices to accelerate sharply but weak domestic demand is likely to keep up the deflationary pressure.

The Bank of Japan has already forecast deflation to last until the year to March 2011 and is expected to extend its deflation forecast by another year in its next set of forecasts due out in late October.

Separately, the Japanese Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii said that it is important not to overreact to current foreign exchange moves, which he said are within a natural "margin of error".

The yen surged to an eight-month high against the greenback on Monday.


[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 07:25 GMT, Tuesday, 29 September 2009 08:25 UK
Yen falls from eight-month highs
The yen has weakened from Monday's eight-month highs against the US dollar following comments from Japanese Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii.

It hit 88.23 to the dollar on Monday after Mr Fujii made comments taken to mean that he was comfortable with the yen's strength.

But on Tuesday, he said the government might intervene in the currency markets if exchange rates made irregular moves.

The yen gave up most of Monday's gains, returning to about 90 to the dollar.

'National interest'

"If [exchange rates] move abnormally, we could take appropriate measures for our national interest," Mr Fujii told a news conference.

Mr Fujii became finance minister last month after the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) ended more than 50 years of almost unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party.

"Perhaps [Mr] Fujii didn't realise how much the market would move on his comments after he became finance minister. But now he realises that this isn't such a good thing," said Tokichi Ito at Trust & Custody Services Bank in Tokyo.

Japan has not intervened in the currency markets since March 2004.


[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 03:53 GMT, Tuesday, 29 September 2009 04:53 UK
N Korea constitution bolsters Kim
South Korea's news agency has published excerpts from North Korea's amended constitution.
By Jill McGivering
BBC News

It seems to bolster the position of leader Kim Jong-il amid speculation about his health and growing pressure about the North's nuclear programme.

The constitution was changed in April this year but this is the first time its wording has been seen outside the country.

Political change and shifts in power inside North Korea are guarded secrets.

So it has taken months for details to emerge in the South about changes to the country's constitution.

There is particular interest in the terms used to describe Kim Jong-il, amid months of speculation about his health and possible successor.

For the first time, the constitution refers to him implicitly as "supreme leader".

'Respect'

It also endorses the role of the National Defence Commission - which he chairs - in national and foreign affairs.

And it places more weight on Kim's personal doctrine of "military first".

So as well as strengthening Kim Jong-il's position, the changes could also be designed to boost the status of military.

There has been speculation too about the decision to change the wording about the rights of citizens.

The new constitution says the country "respects" its citizens' human rights, as well as protecting them.

This may be an attempt to show concern about human rights in the face of international condemnation about its rights record.

All this comes as China's premier Wen Jia-bao prepares to visit North Korea next week.

It is part of growing efforts to persuade Pyongyang to rejoin multilateral talks on its nuclear programme.

There have been signs of a softening of the North's usually harsh rhetoric.

But it is still unclear if Pyongyang will accept a return to the six party talks framework - or press for an alternative.


[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 21:39 GMT, Monday, 28 September 2009 22:39 UK
US wants sustained Burma dialogue
The US says its planned dialogue with Burma's military rulers must be part of a "sustained process of interaction".

The State Department says the Burmese leadership has for the first time shown an interest in engaging with the US, and Washington intends to pursue that.

But it says sanctions will remain until there is progress on human rights.

Also on Monday, Burma's Prime Minister, Gen Thein Sein, told the UN General Assembly that sanctions were "unjust" and should be stopped.

Gen Thein Sein - the most senior member of the Burmese government to appear at the UN for nearly 15 years - vowed to take "systematic steps to hold free and fair elections" next year.

'Core concerns'

{{Lifting sanctions now would send the wrong signal }
Kurt Campbell
US Assistant Secretary of State }}

Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said the US wanted a "sustained process of interaction" with Burma after only sporadic contacts in recent years.

"We intend to begin a direct dialogue with Burmese authorities to lay out the path towards better relations," Campbell was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.

But he said that key reforms were needed.

"Lifting sanctions now would send the wrong signal," he said. "We will tell the Burmese that we will discuss easing sanctions only if they take actions on our core concerns."

He said the US would press for the unconditional release of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent most of the past two decades under house arrest.

Mr Campbell said the Obama administration has also called on Burma to free all political prisoners and end conflicts with ethnic minorities.

news20090929cnn

[Top stories] from [CNN.com]

[World]
Palestinians call for Israel to be 'punished' for Gaza offensive
Story Highlights
> U.N. group presents scathing report on Israel's conduct during Gaza offensive
> Palestinians urge U.N. to address alleged crimes; Israel condemns report
> Report accuses Israel of "actions amounting to war crimes" during offensive
> Report finds Palestinian militants also committed war crimes
September 29, 2009

(CNN) -- Palestinians on Tuesday urged the United Nations to "punish" Israel as a scathing U.N. report accused the nation of war crimes during its military offensive in Gaza last winter.

But Israel rejected the investigation as one-sided and shameful.

The report accused Israel of committing "actions amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity" during its military incursion into Gaza from December 27 to January 18.

Richard Goldstone, the South African judge who headed the U.N. investigation into the conflict, demanded that someone be held responsible for crimes committed during it.

"The lack of accountability for war crimes and possible crimes against humanity has reached a crisis point," Goldstone said Tuesday. "This is the time of action."

He formally presented the report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland on Tuesday.

It claims that the Israeli Defense Forces "failed to take feasible precautions required by international law to avoid or minimize loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects."

Ibrahim Khraishi, the Palestinian Authority's ambassador to the United Nations, called the report professional and unbiased.

"This report should not be another report to just document and archive," said Khraishi. "My people will not forgive this council if they let these criminals go unpunished."

But Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Aharon Leshno-Yaar, questioned the report in strong language Tuesday, calling it one-sided and shameful.

"This report is based on carefully picked incidents, cherry-picked for political effect," Leshno-Yaar said. "The authors of this fact-finding report had little thought about finding facts."

Israel did not cooperate in the U.N. investigation, calling it flawed and biased.

There is an ongoing dispute about the number of people killed in the three-week military offensive which Israel called Operation Cast Lead.

The Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights put the death toll at 1,419 and said that 1,167 of those were "non-combatants."

The Israeli military released its own figures earlier this year, claiming 1,166 people were killed and that 60 percent of those were "terror operatives."

A separate report released earlier this month by Israeli human rights organization B'tselem put the death toll at 1,387, claiming that more than half of those killed were civilians.

Israel has said it "had both a right and an obligation to take military action against Hamas in Gaza to stop Hamas' almost incessant rocket and mortar attacks upon thousands of Israeli civilians and its other acts of terrorism."

Hamas is the militant Palestinian movement which governs Gaza. It rejects Israel's right to exist.

The U.N. report said Israel fired the chemical agent white phosphorus in civilian areas, intentionally fired upon hospitals using high-explosive artillery shells, and failed to provide effective warnings to civilians or U.N. workers before attacks, all of which can be war crimes.

It also claims that Israel used Palestinian civilians as human shields and deliberately attacked Palestinian food supplies in Gaza.

The report recommends that the U.N. Security Council require the government of Israel to launch appropriate independent investigations into the findings of the report within three months. The findings also recommend that the alleged Israeli war crimes be explored by the International Criminal Court.

Israel has launched a number of its own investigations into the conflict.

The findings also call on Palestinian leadership to investigate alleged war crimes, for militants to respect humanitarian law, and for the release of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped by Palestinian militants in 2006, on humanitarian grounds.

Representatives from Russia, Cuba and Egypt applauded the Goldstone report.

The U.S. representative to the U.N. Human Rights Council, Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner, said some of the recommendations in the report were "deeply flawed" and called for Israel and Palestinian authorities to be allowed to finish conducting their own investigations before passing judgment.

A spokeswoman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said the Human Rights Council could draft a resolution on the issue by Friday.

The group that prepared the report is called the U.N. Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict. Its 500-plus page report was released earlier this month and presented formally on Tuesday.


[World]
Iran to give IAEA inspection timetable
Story Highlights
> Iran says it will soon tell IAEA when it can inspect newly revealed nuclear facility
> Iran revealed covert site last week, drawing condemnation from the West
> Iran's nuclear chief to meet 5 permanent U.N. Security Council members Thursday
> Country has also carried out missile tests, provoking further strong response
September 29, 2009

(CNN) -- Iran will soon tell the International Atomic Energy Agency when it can inspect the Islamic republic's recently revealed nuclear facility, the country's state-run Press TV reported.

The head of Iran's nuclear program made the announcement in an interview with Press TV on Monday, but he did not give a timetable for the potential inspection.

Iran revealed the existence of the covert uranium enrichment site last week, drawing condemnation from the West.

The country has also launched a series of missile tests which provoked a further strong response from Western leaders. Saturday, Iran tested short-range missiles, and Monday, it fired two types of long-range missiles.

What Tehran described as routine military exercises, France and the United States called "destabilizing" and "provocative."

Iran claims its nuclear enrichment program is intended for peaceful purposes, but the international community accuses the country of continuing to try to develop nuclear weapons capability.

Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, accused the major powers of politicizing the Islamic Republic's nuclear activities. He told Press TV the accusations that the newly revealed uranium enrichment plant is used for military purposes are "baseless."

"It is against our tenets, it is against our religion to produce, use, hold or have nuclear weapons or arsenal," Salehi told Press TV. "How can we more clearly state our position? Since 1974 we have been saying this."

Iran's nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, is scheduled to meet Thursday with representatives of the five permanent United Nations Security Council members, plus Germany. European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana will also attend the talks in Geneva, Switzerland.

Salehi told Press TV that Iran will try to resolve the issue "both politically and technically" during those meetings.

Both of Iran's long-range missile tests successfully hit their targets, and Iran's air force commander hailed the exercise as a show that Iran is "fully prepared and determined to stand against all threats."

The Shahab-3 missile can strike targets between 1,300 to 2,000 kilometers (800 to 1,250 miles), according to the Fars News Agency.

If true, the missile brings Moscow, Russia; Athens, Greece; and southern Italy within striking distance.

The Sajil-2 missile is a solid-fuel rocket with a similar range and has been launched twice before, in November 2008 and May 2009.

Last Monday, Iran wrote a letter to the IAEA, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency, revealing the existence of a second uranium enrichment facility. The IAEA acknowledged the admission on Friday, prompting U.S. President Barack Obama and the leaders of Britain and France to publicly chide the Islamic republic and threaten further sanctions.

The facility is located on a military base near the city of Qom, about 100 miles southwest of Tehran, and is thought to be capable of housing 3,000 centrifuges, according to the officials and the IAEA. That is not enough to produce nuclear fuel to power a reactor, but sufficient to manufacture bomb-making material, according to a U.S. diplomatic source who read the letter.

Iran told the IAEA there is no nuclear material at the site, an agency spokesman said.

Salehi told Press TV that the plant is under construction within IAEA regulations. He said Iran has informed the IAEA that the new site will produce enriched uranium of up to 5 percent, consistent with its nuclear energy program.

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[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Clean tech investments soar worldwide: report
Tue Sep 29, 2009 4:35am EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Global investment in clean technology roared back in the third quarter, driven by solar power and a public offering that underscores growing enthusiasm for the sector, Greentech Media reported on Monday.

Clean tech investments -- which include solar power, an electric grid controlled by computers for efficiency, electric cars, biofuels and green building materials -- rose to $1.9 billion in 112 deals, Greentech said.

That represents another big jump, after clean tech went from $836 million in the first quarter to $1.2 billion of second quarter.

"There is a lot of momentum and there are a lot of deals in the pipeline," said Eric Wesoff, who wrote the report. "People are energized by the A123 Systems Inc IPO. I'd say it's reasonable to look for moderate growth in the fourth quarter."

Shares of battery maker A123 soared more than 50 percent on Thursday, marking it as the most attractive of last week's public offerings.

Wesoff said venture capitalists will take note of that, but that their pockets are not deep enough to support continued growth at the rate of the past two quarters.

More than half the clean tech investment in the third quarter went into two areas -- solar and a combined category of biofuels, gasification and cleaner coal.

Solar accounted for $575 million in 29 deals, and biofuels, gasification and coal for $513 million in 17 deals.

One company alone, high-efficiency solar electric panel maker Solyndra, accounted for a $198 million, in a round led by Argonaut Private Equity.

Exxon Mobile Corp made a multi-year commitment to invest $300 million in Synthetic Genomics for the development of algae-based fuels.

Smart grid and associated technologies accounted for $160 million in 14 deals, and auto and transport in five deals for $158 million.

Green buildings at $105 million and green materials at $100 million were the other two major areas.

Still the deals failed to hit the record highs of 2008, when the third quarter saw $2.9 billion and the entire year $7.6 billion. Wesoff said the year -- and the quarter -- were driven by unusual capital investment to build out solar manufacturing plants.

(Reporting by David Lawsky; Editing by Richard Chang)


[Green Business]
Investors eye forest CO₂ market, climate pact key: poll
Tue Sep 29, 2009 6:22am EDT

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Investors such as UBS, Citigroup and Blackrock back a potentially multi-billion dollar carbon credit market centered on saving forests but regulations and cash were needed to build a market first, a survey has found.

The survey of investors with $7 trillion of assets under management by the Brunswick Group for global conservation group WWF said banks and fund managers were waiting for the forest carbon scheme to be included in a broader U.N. climate pact.

They also said rich nations needed to include the U.N.-backed scheme, called reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD), into laws that allow forest carbon offsets to be included as part of steps to meet national emissions targets.

The tougher the targets the likely greater the demand for the offsets. The survey was released on Tuesday.

"REDD is critical to a climate solution and financing is critical to make REDD work," said Donald Kanak, chairman of WWF's Forest Carbon Initiative, which commissioned the survey of 25 senior institutional money managers, analysts and sustainability investors globally.

"In the long term private capital could play a major role if certain conditions are satisfied. We need the public sector to support sufficient financing in the near term to help forest countries become REDD ready," he told reporters in Bangkok.

Delegates from about 180 countries are trying to narrow differences on emissions reduction targets, climate finance and transfer of clean-energy technology before a December deadline to try to seal a tougher pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol.

REDD is seen as a crucial part of a new climate pact because deforestation is responsible for about 20 percent of mankind's greenhouse gas emissions, so saving forests is a key part of the climate puzzle.

Developing countries could potentially earn billions of dollars in annual funds from selling carbon offsets from projects that protect or rehabilitate forests for decades, thereby locking away large amounts of carbon dioxide.

PRECONDITIONS But Kanak said a number of preconditions needed to be met before a global forest carbon market could take off.

"Agreement on a climate treaty at Copenhagen, with support from major economies such as China and India, and legislation in the U.S. are key pre-requisites," he said. Negotiators will try to agree on a broad outline of a post-Kyoto pact in Copenhagen in December.

"Public sector funding will be vital before a market-based approach can take effect," he said, adding that problems on ensuring REDD projects are permanent and lead to significant long-term CO2 reductions could be addressed if there was a strong political framework in place.

"National governments must also put in place robust and durable legal frameworks to create certainty for investors," he said.

The survey also found more than a third of investors expected a forest CO2 market would evolve from the existing voluntary carbon market to a "compliance" market backed by national emissions trading schemes in five to 15 years if the preconditions were met.

(Reporting by David Fogarty; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)


[Green Business]
Indonesia CO₂ pledge to help climate talks: greens
Tue Sep 29, 2009 5:10am EDT
By David Fogarty, Climate Change Correspondent, Asia

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Environmentalists on Tuesday welcomed Indonesia's pledge to substantially cut the growth of its greenhouse gas emissions, saying the promise could help talks on crafting a broader global pact to fight climate change.

Indonesia is the world's third largest greenhouse emitter and steps by big developing nations to curb their emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases are a key focus of U.N.-led climate talks under way in the Thai capital until Oct 9.

Delegates from about 180 countries are trying to narrow differences on emissions reduction targets, climate finance and transfer of clean-energy technology before a December deadline to try to seal a tougher pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol.

In a speech to G20 leaders on September 25, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the government was crafting a policy that would cut emissions by 26 percent by 2020 from "business as usual" (BAU) levels.

The policy would be a mix of stepping up investment in renewable energy, such as geothermal power, and curbing emissions from deforestation and changes in land use.

With international support, he said he was confident Indonesia could cut emissions by as much as 41 percent.

"This target is entirely achievable because most of our emissions come from forest-related issues, such as forest fires and deforestation," he said during a working lunch in the U.S. city of Pittsburgh. Reuters obtained a copy of his speech on Tuesday.

"We are also looking into the distinct possibility to commit a billion ton of CO2 reduction by 2050 from BAU. We will change the status of our forest from that of a net emitter sector to a net sink sector by 2030."

In the jargon of international climate talks, "business as usual" levels refers to what would happen if emissions grew at the same rate as has accompanied economic growth in the past.

DESTRUCTION OF RAINFOREST

Indonesia is the world's third largest greenhouse gas emitter, the country's National Climate Change Council says, mainly through loss of rainforests and forest fires. Slowing the pace of destruction is a key focus of climate negotiators trying to firm up ways to curb the pace of global warming.

Deforestation is responsible for about 20 percent of mankind's greenhouse gas emissions, so saving forests is a key part of the climate puzzle.

"This is extremely positive, that developing countries can commit to the world that this is the ambition level we are at, we can do," Kim Carstensen, head of conservation group WWF's global climate initiative, told Reuters in Bangkok.

"What's even more interesting and something that's been lacking in the negotiations is that they are willing to provide an additional 15 percent if they get financial support."

Greenpeace said Yudhoyono's comments would put pressure on rich nations to act faster on fighting climate change.

"This puts the focus firmly back on the developed world, most especially the countries who have been bleating that they won't move without the big southern emitters," said Paul Winn, Greenpeace international forest climate campaigner, in Bangkok.

"It also highlights the urgent need for financing to help developing countries take further action on climate."

Rich nations say developing nations need to include any emissions reduction steps into a post-Kyoto pact to ensure such measures can be monitored and verified. Developing countries would also need to make regular progress reports on such steps.

Developing nations are resisting this demand and say rich nations should pay substantial sums to help them adapt to the impacts of climate change and to pay for clean-energy technology.

(Editing by Alex Richardson)

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[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
EU, U.S. eye green goods tax pact in climate fight
Mon Sep 28, 2009 3:43pm EDT
By Darren Ennis

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The European Union and the United States are holding talks on forging a pact with OECD countries and China to eliminate duties on green goods as part of incentives to Beijing in a potential global climate deal.

EU diplomats told Reuters that under a plan being discussed by Brussels and Washington, the 30 nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and China would agree a global pact to phase out import tariffs on goods such as wind turbines, renewables and green technologies.

But any deal is unlikely to include environmentally friendly hybrid cars, the diplomats said.

"The talks are entering an advanced stage. Brussels and Washington hope this could be one of the incentives needed to get China on board in the lead up to the Copenhagen climate change talks," one EU diplomat told Reuters.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Trade Representative's office said the United States and the EU had been pushing within the Doha round of world trade talks since November 2007 for a deal to cut tariffs on environmental goods "and continue to work closely in pushing for concrete progress."

"We remain eager to move ahead with negotiations to eliminate tariff barriers on climate-friendly technologies and spur momentum on a larger WTO Doha package on environmental goods and services," said USTR spokeswoman Carol Guthrie.

U.S. businesses such as United Technologies Corp and General Electric Co, that are frustrated with the slow pace of the Doha round, have urged the Obama administration to consider alternative paths to reach a deal to boost trade in environmental goods and services.

"It's a chance to jump-start U.S. trade policy and aid global climate negotiations at the same time," said Jake Colvin, vice president for global trade policy at the National Foreign Trade Council, a U.S. business group.

China is on course to become the world's largest producer of wind turbines in the world this year and is a major manufacturer of solar products.

CHINA UNDER PRESSURE

The Asian powerhouse -- the world's biggest polluter -- is under pressure from Europe and the United States to cut its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions as part of negotiations on a new global climate treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which lapses at the end of 2012.

In return Beijing wants billions of dollars in cash from the EU and the United States to help it harness new greener technologies for its export-driven economy.

"This deal would save Chinese exporters billions of euros and dollars and could form a large part of the overall package offered to Beijing to cut emissions," another diplomat said.

India and Brazil are also being wooed by the EU and Washington before global climate talks in Copenhagen in December, but are considered unlikely to take part in the initiative.

"Brazil and India are not seen as part of the deal since reducing their import tariffs would not benefit them. They can opt in, but it is expected they will opt out," the first diplomat said.

EU trade ministers gave the green light earlier this month to EU president Sweden and the European Commission -- which oversees trade policy for the 27-nation bloc -- to pursue the negotiations with Washington.

"Member states will get a complete update on October 6 in Sweden and if approved, formal negotiations could start with the OECD and China before Copenhagen," the second diplomat said.

Any negotiations would take place between ambassadors at the World Trade Organization in Geneva, but any deal would be formally agreed outside the global trade watchdog, the diplomats said.

"It would be similar to an agreement in the pharmaceutical sector and would not contravene WTO rules," one envoy said.

Pharmaceutical-producing countries accounting for approximately 90 percent of global production, including the United States, EU and China, have agreed to "zero-for-zero" tariffs for pharmaceutical products and for chemicals used in the production of pharmaceuticals.

(Additional reporting by Doug Palmer in Washington; Editing by Timothy Heritage and Chris Wilson)


[Green Business]
U.S. solar stocks knocked by German demand fears
Mon Sep 28, 2009 2:48pm EDT
By Laura Isensee

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S.-listed solar shares sank on Monday, cutting into gains earlier this month as investors feared Germany's new coalition government could trim support for the industry.

Shares of First Solar Inc, Suntech Power, Yingli Green Energy and LDK Solar Co Ltd all slipped 2 to 3.5 percent as Germany, the world's largest renewable energy market, prepared for the Free Democrats to join Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives in a governing coalition.

The Free Democrats (FDP), who have called for reduced solar supports, are expected to replace the Social Democrats (SPD).

"The elections are likely to be a negative for the sector," said Gordon Johnson, analyst with Hapoalim Securities.

Solar companies have struggled with an oversupply of cells and modules this year as a cutback in Spanish subsidies and the global financial crisis knocked demand for the systems that turn sunlight into electricity.

Still, the shares had rebounded in September on hopes that demand growth was returning to the nascent companies. First Solar shares have jumped 22 percent since the end of August, to $148.51 at mid-afternoon on Monday. U.S.-based SunPower Corp and China's Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd have gained 19 percent and 7 percent, respectively, since the end of August while Trina Solar Ltd hit a high for the year at $35.90 last week.

Prices for solar modules have fallen by as much as 40 percent since the fourth quarter of 2008, eroding margins for many companies and raising worries that smaller companies may lack the resources to withstand the downturn.

Cowen & Co analyst Rob Stone said solar stocks were "somewhat oversold" in August as companies expected price erosion to continue, putting pressure all the way down to their bottom line.

"The bear argument was that you had this pricing spiral going on with no bottom in sight," Stone said.

"The thought (in August) was that, yes, Q3 might be OK, but then you've got six months of unknown territory to cross with lower volume, falling prices and margin pressures. So it's probably better to sell them and come back in the springtime," Stone added.

Since August, however, companies have been shipping strong enough orders so that bookings have stretched into December, shedding some light on how the fourth quarter might look, Stone said.

The solar power industry's busiest season tends to be the third quarter.

An uptick in demand, the stock market gains on Wall Street and firmer oil and natural gas prices also helped lift the solar sector this month.

"The idea being if energy prices are higher, companies are more willing to invest and there will be more capital to build solar projects," Pavel Molchanov, analyst with Raymond James.

Some analysts warned that the rally might be premature if the rise in demand turns out to be only seasonal. Hapoalim's Johnson said expectations that Germany could reduce its supports for solar in 2010 or 2011 was driving demand for equipment higher this year at the expense of future sales.

German demand was forecast to be about 1.5 gigawatts in 2009, but may reach as much as 2.0 to 2.2 GW as customers speed up orders, he said.

And with the price for solar modules sharply below year-ago levels, new sales will not necessarily equal rising profits.

"In a muted pricing environment, you really need to have this unit growth continue throughout the next year. Right now it's a bit early," said Oppenheimer and Co analyst Sam Dubinsky.

(Reporting by Laura Isensee and Matt Daily; Editing by Richard Chang)

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[Today's News] from [CBS News.com]

[World]
Sept. 29, 2009
White House to Go After Iran's Oil Income
Obama Administration to Push for Tough New Economic Sanctions if Iran Doesn't Come Clean on Nuclear Plans

(CBS/AP) The Obama administration is planning to push for new sanctions against Iran, targeting its energy, financial and telecommunications sectors if it does not comply with international demands to come clean about its nuclear program, according to U.S. officials.

The officials said the U.S. would expand its own penalties against Iranian companies and press for greater international sanctions against foreign firms, largely European, that do business in the country unless Iran can prove that its nuclear activities are not aimed at developing an atomic weapon.

Among the ideas being considered are asset freezes and travel bans against Iranian and foreign businesses and individuals who do business in those areas, the officials said. The officials spoke Monday on condition of anonymity because the measures were still under review.

As the White House mulls its next move, Iran continued Tuesday to defiantly tout its most recent play in the diplomatic chess game over its weapons program.

Iran tested its longest-range missiles Monday and warned on Tuesday that they can reach any place that threatens the country, including Israel, parts of Europe and U.S. military bases in the Mideast. The launch capped two days of war games and was condemned as a provocation by Western powers, which are demanding Tehran come clean about a newly revealed nuclear facility it has been secretly building.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said there has never been a stronger international consensus to get tough on Iran's nuclear program, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Fuss.

Western nations accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons, while Iran says it only seeks to create fuel for nuclear power plants.

Diplomats from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - as well as Germany meet with Iran's top nuclear negotiator on Thursday to press once again an offer of incentives for Iran to halt suspect activity.

Of the Thursday meeting in Geneva, Gibbs said Iran must provide full transparency about its nuclear activities and ensure that it will only pursue peaceful nuclear energy uses.

"They have decisions to make. They have one of two paths that they can take. They can continue the path that they've been on, even while the world has shown conclusive intelligence about a facility in Qom, or it can make a decision to step away from its nuclear weapons program and build confidence in the world and ... enter into a meaningful relationship with the world based on their own security, but not based on nuclear weapons," Gibbs said.

The proposed sanctions would largely focus on investment in Iran's energy infrastructure and development, the officials said. Until now, the sanctions have dealt mainly with companies and people suspected of buying or selling weapons of mass destruction or their components.

CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports that going after Iran's ability to profit from its vast energy reserves is the key aspect to the expected new sanctions - as Iran "is not yet a nuclear power, but an oil power".

"To really have an impact on Iran you have to have an impact on its ability to export oil at substantial leveles," Ray Takeyh of the Council on Foreign Relations told Martin. "

For those sanctions to be effective, adds Takeyh, they must have full backing from Russia and China.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev indicated a willingness to consider sanctions against Tehran for the first time during the United Nations General Assembly in New York last week, but China may prove a more difficult ally to bring onboard.

"The Chinese are actually investors in Iran - Iran's petroleum sector, and also consumers of Iran's petroleum products," Takeyh explained to CBS News. "So they might have some hesitation in terms of really imposing rigorous sanctions."


[World]
MANILA, Philippines, Sept. 29, 2009
2 U.S. Troops Killed in Philippines Blast
Suspected al Qaeda-Linked Militants' Landmine Hits Joint U.S.-Filipino Convoy in Deadly Southern Region
(CBS/AP) Updated at 4:29 a.m. Eastern.

Two U.S. troops were killed in a land mine attack Tuesday by suspected al Qaeda-linked militants in the southern Philippines, officials said.

It was believed to be just the second time U.S. soldiers have been killed in the southern Philippines in violence blamed on the Abu Sayyaf group since American counterterrorism troops were deployed to the region in 2002, and the first fatalities in years.

One Philippine marine also was killed and two others were wounded in the blast on Jolo island, where the Americans have been providing combat training and weapons to Filipino troops battling Abu Sayyaf militants.

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner said a Philippine military convoy joined by U.S. troops was on its way to an area in Jolo's Indanan township where troops were building two school buildings and digging artesian wells when the land mine exploded.

One U.S. soldier died at the scene, while another who was critically wounded in the blast died a short time later, Brawner told The Associated Press.

CBS News' Barnaby Lo reports that U.S. Ambassador Kristie A. Kenney released a statement saying the troops, "lost their lives serving others and we will always be grateful for their contributions to improve the quality of life on Jolo."

Lo reports that the slain troops were noncombatant members of the U.S. Navy.

"They were not in combat," Brawner confirmed to reporters. "These U.S. soldiers were there in the area to supervise the developmental projects in Indanan."

In a statement, the U.S. Embassy said the deaths happened when the soldiers' vehicle struck an improvised explosive device at about 8:45 a.m. (0045 GMT) during a resupply mission for the school construction project.

The troops were not identified pending notification of next of kin.

Brawner said no suspects were immediately identified, but suspicion immediately fell on the well-armed Abu Sayyaf, which is blamed for numerous bombings, beheadings and kidnappings of Filipinos and foreigners in the south in recent years.

Lo reports that Jolo is Abu Sayyaf's stronghold in the southern Philippines.

Abu Sayyaf has declared a temporary ceasefire in the Philippines, vowing to help local villagers recover from the devastating flooding left in the wake of Tropical Storm Ketsana. At least 240 people have been killed and many thousands more left homeless by the inundation, primarily in the northern parts of the country.

A senior Philippine military commander overseeing counterterrorism campaigns in the south told The Associated Press that Abu Sayyaf had likely planted the landmine in Indanan, where the militants have jungle strongholds. The commander spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give information to reporters.

Abu Sayyaf is believed to have about 400 fighters, to have received funds from al Qaeda and is suspected of sheltering militants from the larger Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah.

An estimated 600 U.S. troops are stationed in the Philippines to train and advise their Filipino counterparts in their fight against Abu Sayyaf and other Muslim insurgents in the country's south, reports Lo.

In recent months, however, a Philippine Navy officer has accused U.S. troops of engaging directly in the fighting. The accusation has been repeatedly denied by both the Filipino military and the U.S. Embassy. It has stoked significant protests on the streets of Manila, with demonstrators calling for the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. forces.
The only previous publically known fatality of American service members in the Philippines was the death in October 2002 of a U.S. Green Beret, killed along with two Filipinos when a bomb loaded with nails exploded outside a cafe in Zamboanga city.

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[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Climate change]
Met Office warns of catastrophic global warming in our lifetimes
> Study says 4C rise in temperature could happen by 2060
> Increase could threaten water supply of half world population
David Adam, environment correspondent
The Guardian, Monday 28 September 2009 Article history

Unchecked global warming could bring a severe temperature rise of 4C within many people's lifetimes, according to a new report for the British government that significantly raises the stakes over climate change.

The study, prepared for the Department of Energy and Climate Change by scientists at the Met Office, challenges the assumption that severe warming will be a threat only for future generations, and warns that a catastrophic 4C rise in temperature could happen by 2060 without strong action on emissions.

Officials from 190 countries gather today in Bangkok to continue negotiations on a new deal to tackle global warming, which they aim to secure at United Nations talks in December in Copenhagen.

"We've always talked about these very severe impacts only affecting future generations, but people alive today could live to see a 4C rise," said Richard Betts, the head of climate impacts at the Met Office Hadley Centre, who will announce the findings today at a conference at Oxford University. "People will say it's an extreme scenario, and it is an extreme scenario, but it's also a plausible scenario."

According to scientists, a 4C rise over pre-industrial levels could threaten the water supply of half the world's population, wipe out up to half of animal and plant species, and swamp low coasts.

A 4C average would mask more severe local impacts: the Arctic and western and southern Africa could experience warming up to 10C, the Met Office report warns.

The study updates the findings of the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which said the world would probably warm by 4C by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. The IPCC also listed a more severe scenario, with emissions and temperatures rising further because of more intensive fossil fuel burning, but this was not considered realistic. "That scenario was downplayed because we were more conservative a few years ago. But the way we are going, the most severe scenario is looking more plausible," Betts said.

A report last week from the UN Environment Programme said emissions since 2000 have risen faster than even this IPCC worst-case scenario. "In the 1990s, these scenarios all assumed political will or other phenomena would have brought about the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by this point. In fact, CO2 emissions from fossil-fuel burning and industrial processes have been accelerating."

The Met Office scientists used new versions of the computer models used to set the IPCC predictions, updated to include so-called carbon feedbacks or tipping points, which occur when warmer temperatures release more carbon, such as from soils.

When they ran the models for the most extreme IPCC scenario, they found that a 4C rise could come by 2060 or 2070, depending on the feedbacks. Betts said: "It's important to stress it's not a doomsday scenario, we do have time to stop it happening if we cut greenhouse gas emissions soon." Soaring emissions must peak and start to fall sharply within the next decade to head off a 2C rise, he said. To avoid the 4C scenario, that peak must come by the 2030s.

A poll of 200 climate experts for the Guardian earlier this year found that most of them expected a temperature rise of 3C-4C by the end of the century.

The implications of a 4C rise on agriculture, water supplies and wildlife will be discussed at the Oxford conference, which organisers have billed as the first to properly consider such a dramatic scenario.

Mark New, a climate expert at Oxford who has organised the conference, said: "If we get a weak agreement at Copenhagen then there is not just a slight chance of a 4C rise, there is a really big chance. It's only in the last five years that scientists have started to realise that 4C is becoming increasingly likely and something we need to look at seriously." Limiting global warming to 2C could only be achieved with new technology to suck greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. "I think the policy makers know that. I think there is an implicit understanding that they are negotiating not about 2C but 3C or 5C."


[News > World news > Philippines]
Philippines storm death toll rises
At least 140 people have been killed and scores are missing after tropical storm brings worst flooding for four decades
Matthew Weaver and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Monday 28 September 2009 13.11 BST Article history

The Philippines called today for international help as it sought to deal with the aftermath of a tropical storm that triggered the deadliest flooding in the country for 40 years.

At least 140 people were confirmed dead and another 32 were missing after the weekend flooding in and around the capital, Manila. Officials fear further bad weather could compound the situation.

Gilbert Teodoro, the defence secretary, said help from foreign governments would augment relief work already started by army troops, police and civilian volunteers.

He said welfare agencies had begun to provide food, medicine and other help to more than 115,000 people in government-run emergency shelters.

It is feared the death toll could increase significantly as rescue workers come to terms with the scale of the disaster, which happened when tropical storm Ketsana tore through the northern Philppines on Saturday. Teodoro estimated that 435,000 people had been displaced by the storm.

He told a press conference the official death toll excluded a reported 95 deaths in Antipolo City, east of Manila, and in Marikina City and Quezon City, two of the northern municipalities of metropolitan Manila.

Ketsana brought more than a month's worth of rain in 12 hours, swamping towns, sparking landslides and leaving neighbourhoods in Manila under water.

Amateur video footage showed cars swirling like driftwood in the floodwater. Stranded passengers waited to be rescued on the roof of one vehicle.

The government declared a "state of calamity" in metropolitan Manila and 25 storm-hit provinces, allowing officials to use emergency funds for relief and rescue.

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the president, today opened up the presidential palace as an emergency centre for victims.

She said the storm and flooding were "an extreme event" that "strained our response capabilities to the limit but ultimately did not break us".

Joselito Mendoza, the governor of Bulacan province, north of the capital, said: "People drowned in their own houses."

Ronald Manlangit, a 30-year-old resident of the Manila suburb of Marikina, said: "We're back to zero. Suddenly, all of our belongings were floating. If the water rose farther, all of us in the neighbourhood would have been killed."

Footage taken from a military helicopter yesterday showed survivors marooned on top of half-submerged buses and roofs in suburban Manila.

Some were clinging to power lines while others plodded through waist-high waters.

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[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Environment > Climate change]
Fate of US climate bill casts shadow over Bangkok talks
Evidence of 'clear movement' on domestic front would lend weight to UN climate talks in Bangkok, says US chief negotiator
Associated Press
guardian.co.uk, Monday 28 September 2009 11.41 BST Article history

The fate of US carbon emission cap and trade legislation weighed heavily on delegates at United Nations climate talks which started today in Bangkok, with the Americans saying delays in passing the bill could deter commitments from other nations.

Negotiations on a new UN climate pact have been hindered by a general unwillingness to commit to firm emissions targets, and a refusal by developing countries to sign a deal until the west guarantees tens of billions of dollars in financial assistance – something the richer nations have so far refused to do.

"The more specific we can be, the easier it is to press others to be equally specific," said Jonathan Pershing, the chief US negotiator at the talks. "We have a lot of things we want from countries ... The less we can put on the table, the harder it is to achieve that outcome."

The two-week conference in the Thai capital is drawing some 1,500 delegates from 180 countries to boil down a 200-page draft agreement to something more manageable, in the hope of finalising a new international climate pact this year.

In June, the US House of Representatives passed its first bill to cap carbon emissions. The Senate, currently embroiled in debates over healthcare, is expected to take up the legislation as early as this week.

However, Pershing said he doubted that there's enough time to pass an emissions bill in Congress before December's crucial climate change negotiations in Copenhagen, which aim to reach a deal to replace the outgoing Kyoto protocol, due to expire in 2012.

He said it wouldn't prevent a global deal as long as "we have clear movement, clear intent and a signal from the Senate that is it is moving" towards passing the legislation.

UN climate chief Yvo de Boer warned that the US should not repeat what happened with the 1997 Kyoto agreement – when it signed on to the deal, only to have Congress reject it a few years later over concerns that it would hurt the economy and fail to require China and India to curb their emissions.

President Barack Obama and the Chinese president, Hu Jintao – whose countries are the world's two biggest emitters, each accounting for about 20% of greenhouse gas pollution – vowed tough measures to combat climate change at UN talks in New York last week.

Hu said China would generate 15% of its energy from renewable sources within a decade, and for the first time pledged to reduce the rate by which its carbon emissions rise. He did not provide specific targets.

There will be one more meeting in Spain in November before negotiators head to Copenhagen. De Boer said progress was slower than it should be, but remained confident a deal would be reached in Copenhagen.

David Victor, a political scientist who has written about climate negotiations since 1990, said it is unlikely a comprehensive treaty can be finalised this year.

"The world economic recession has made most governments acutely aware of policies that could affect economic growth," he said. "And the range of issues on the table in Copenhagen is so large and complex and the time available to sort them out is very short."


[Environment > Endangered species]
US to review endangered status of humpback whalesThe population of humpback whales has been growing steadily, prompting a review of its status in the US – but not everyone wants it delisted
Associated Press
guardian.co.uk, Monday 28 September 2009 11.26 BST Article history

The US government is considering taking the humpback whale off the endangered species list in response to data showing the population of the massive marine mammal has been steadily growing in recent decades.

Known for their acrobatic leaps from the sea and complex singing patterns, humpback whales were nearly hunted to extinction for their oil and meat by industrial-sized whaling ships well through the middle of the 20th century. But the species has been bouncing back since an international ban on their commercial whaling in 1966.

"Humpbacks by and large are an example of a species that in most places seems to be doing very well, despite our earlier efforts to exterminate them," said Phillip Clapham, a senior whale biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The US government is required by law to review the endangered species status of an animal or plant if it receives "significant new information". The National Marine Fisheries Service, a NOAA agency, received results last year from an extensive study showing that the north Pacific humpback population has been growing 4-7% a year in recent decades.

Public comment is being accepted until 13 October on the upcoming review, which is expected to take less than a year. It is the first review for humpbacks since 1999.

A panel of scientists will then study the data and report on their analysis in late spring or early summer. It is unclear what the decision on delisting the humpback will be.

Some environmental groups are already opposing the possibility of a delisting.

Miyoko Sakashita, the ocean programs director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said that ongoing climate change and ocean acidification are emerging threats that may hurt humpback whales.

"Ocean conditions are changing so rapidly right now that it would probably be hasty to delist the humpbacks," Sakashita said.

Ralph Reeves, who chairs the cetacean specialist group at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), said the US should remove humpbacks from the list if populations have sufficiently recovered.

He said conservationists must "be prepared and willing to embrace success" if they're to maintain what he called a "meaningful" endangered species program.

"The whole process, the credibility of it, depends on telling people that things are really bad when they're really bad and telling people that they aren't so bad when they aren't so bad," Reeves said.

There are an estimated 18,000-20,000 humpbacks in the north Pacific, up from just 1,400 in the mid-1960s. A survey in the early 1990s of humpbacks in the north Atlantic showed the population at 10,600. The results of a follow-up to that study, expected by the end of the year, are likely to show this population has grown, too.

The global humpback population is estimated to be about 60,000, according to the Swiss-based Conservation of Nature union.


[Environment > Wildlife]
BBC puts wildlife footage online
Clips from 30 series made available on BBC website with introduction by David Attenborough
Adam Gabbatt
guardian.co.uk, Monday 28 September 2009 14.08 BST Article history

Chimpanzees ambushing and eating colobus monkeys, great white sharks leaping clean out of the ocean to catch their prey and the first footage of an entire snow leopard hunt are just some of the wonders of nature made available by the BBC as it opens up its vast archive of wildlife footage online today.

Over 500 video clips have been made available to view on the BBC's website, along with audio and an introduction from Sir David Attenborough.

Users can search all creatures great and small and watch clips, complete with voiceover, to find out more about their favourite creatures.

The video footage has been taken from 30 BBC series, and will gradually be added to. To launch the site Attenborough has selected some of his favourite clips, including a group of chimpanzees cracking nuts and footage of killer whales beaching themselves to catch sealions.

"It has always been my hope that, through film-making, I can bring the wonder of the natural world into people's sitting rooms," he said. "The web has totally changed how we can link information, connect people and reach new audiences in an on-demand world.

"Wildlife programmes have always proved hugely popular and the appetite for discovery has led the BBC to bring these two worlds together."

As well as serving as an education in wildlife, for viewers who grew up watching the BBC's wildlife programmes the videos offer a trip down memory lane ‑ from Attenborough's encounter with mountain gorillas to his "optical probing" of an ant bivouac.

The BBC has also added audio from its archive, where appropriate, with many of the videos of mammals being accompanied by audio clips ‑ some three minutes long ‑ of calls and grunts.

George Entwistle, controller of knowledge, said viewers would now have an all-year round "natural history experience. The BBC has a vast collection of world-class natural history content which we are now making available to viewers online," he said. "Through Wildlife Finder, we are able to offer viewers a year-round on-demand natural history experience."

news20090928nn

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 27 September 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.953
News
Physicists shrink X-ray source
Laser accelerator almost fits on a tabletop.
By Geoff Brumfiel

A team of physicists has built a small, powerful X-ray source — a prototype of the sort of machine they hope could replace much larger facilities.

The technology has the potential to revolutionize everything from microbiology to materials science by giving scientists easier access to high-quality images of the things they are studying.

Researchers use X-rays to probe all manner of things — from comet dust to fossilized animals trapped in amber. But making high-quality images requires much brighter and better controlled sources than those available in most institutions. So at the moment, most scientists use large particle accelerators known as synchrotrons, which work by accelerating electrons around a ring. As the electrons bend along the circular path, they naturally emit high-quality X-ray radiation.

Synchrotrons are large, costly and usually in high-demand by scientists, so Matthias Fuchs of the Max-Planck-Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching, Germany, and his colleagues have been working on another way to generate electrons.

Rather than using conventional magnets to guide and accelerate electrons, the team used a powerful laser beam and a small cell of hydrogen gas. They shot a brief, 37-femtosecond (10-15 seconds) pulse into the cell to blow the electrons off the hydrogen atom's nuclei. But electrical attraction causes the electrons to snap back towards the positive ions, so for a brief period after the pulse the electrons vibrate back and forth around the hydrogen atom's positive core, producing a wave. As they do so, a few electrons break loose and ride the crest of the electron wave. "Just like a surfer, the electrons can surf down these waves," Fuchs says.

The electrons then sail through a series of magnetic lenses, which feed them into a second series of magnets that cause them to wiggle back and forth — releasing low-energy 18-nanometre wavelength X-rays as they go.

Short pulse

Because the electric fields between the hydrogen ions and their electrons are so large, the electrons pick up speed much more rapidly than they would in a conventional accelerator. That means a machine the size of a building can be shrunk to the size of a tabletop. Well, almost. Fuchs says that including the laser, the accelerator takes up two fairly large tables. "We came up with the phrase 'banquet tabletop'," he says. The team's research has been published by Nature Physics¹.

Nevertheless, "it is exciting", says Tom Katsouleas, dean of engineering at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Other groups had already shown lower-power radiation from similar systems, so it wasn't surprising, he adds. "I don't think anybody really doubted it could be done." "But they've actually shown that the beam quality can be fairly high," he says.

Because relatively few electrons are accelerated, the pulses are bright but short, so the 'tabletop' accelerator is unlikely to replace conventional synchrotrons any time soon. Still, Katsouleas says, there is no reason, in principle, why they could not be made into a workable X-ray source for use in universities.

References
1. Fuchs, M. et al. Nature Phys. advance online publication doi:10.1038/NPHYS1404 (2009).


[naturenews]
Published online 27 September 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2009.954
News
Sex chromosomes linked to evolution of new species
Questions over conflict of the sexes remain.
By Natasha Gilbert

Experiments in stickleback fish have shown for the first time that the evolution of new sex chromosomes is the driving force behind the formation of a new vertebrate species.

Up until now, most evidence has shown that new species arise because they have adapted to new environments. But a study to be published by Nature¹ found that the emergence of new sex chromosomes caused a population of threespine stickleback fish in the Japan Sea, to diverge from its Pacific Ocean–dwelling ancestor (Gasterosteus aculeatus) — creating a new species.

Jun Kitano, an evolutionary biologist at Tohoku University in Japan, and his team discovered that the Japan Sea stickleback fish had different sex chromosomes compared to their ancestors. The ancestral Y sex chromosome (which makes males) had fused with a non–sex chromosome to create a new sex chromosome in the Japan Sea stickleback fish.

The team also observed that the Japan Sea males exhibited more aggressive mating behaviours than their ancestral populations. Females from the ancestral population avoid mating with the Japan Sea fish due to their more aggressive behaviour. And in lab tests, the male progeny of the two populations were sterile.

The study found that the gene responsible for the aggressive mating behaviour of the Japan sea males was on the new Y chromosome. The new mating behaviours linked to the new sex chromosome stop the two populations from mating, making the Japan Sea population a new species.

"There is a gene on the new sex chromosome that causes differences in mating behaviour in the male stickleback. This behaviour leads to evolution of a new species of stickleback," says Catherine Peichel, a molecular biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, and a member of the research team that published the study.

Battle of the sexes

Ole Seehausen, a fish ecologist and evolutionist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology in Dübendorf, says the study is "remarkable". "This is the first study that has shown a direct link between the evolution of sex chromosomes in vertebrates and the evolution of a new species," he says.

Peichel says that not much is known about what drives the evolution of new sex chromosomes. Scientists have hypothesized that conflict between the sexes could be behind this. If species carry genes that could be advantageous to males but detrimental to females, then natural selection will favour that these genes be located in the part of the genome that appears in males but not in females.

"A good place for them to be is right next to the gene that causes sex determination," says Peichel.

However the study has not yet answered whether conflict between the sexes drives the evolution of new sex chromosomes. "They do not prove that there is sexual conflict over the trait they study — that is that it is good for males but not females," Seehausen says.

References
1. Kitano, J. et al. Nature doi:10.1038/nature08441 (2009).

news20090928bbc1

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

[Middle East]
Page last updated at 13:27 GMT, Monday, 28 September 2009 14:27 UK
Iran tests longest range missiles
Iran has successfully test-fired some of the longest range missiles in its arsenal, state media say.

The Revolutionary Guards tested the Shahab-3 and Sajjil rockets, which are believed to have ranges of up to 2,000km (1,240 miles), reports said.

The missiles' range could potentially permit them to reach Israel and US bases in the Gulf, analysts say.

The tests come amid heightened tension with the big international powers over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Last week, Iran disclosed it was building a second uranium enrichment plant, despite UN demands that it cease its enrichment activities.

{{ANALYSIS}
Jon Leyne, BBC Tehran correspondent
These missile tests are being carried out as part of Iran's sacred defence week, so they were probably planned some time ago.
Nevertheless the West is likely to see this as a gesture of defiance just days after the latest revelation about Iran's nuclear programme. Iran may not mind too much about that interpretation.
Both the Shahab-3 and the Sajjil are capable of reaching much of the Middle East including Israel.
They make up what is probably Iran's strongest deterrent against any possible attack by Israel or the West.}}

Iran is due to hold crucial talks with the five UN Security Council members plus Germany on Thursday on a wide range of security issues, including its nuclear programme.

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said the missile tests were merely part of an annual military drill, known as Sacred Defence Week, to commemorate its war with Iraq in the 1980s.

It was not a reaction to the nuclear crisis, he added.

"Many countries have these [displays] and it has nothing to do with Iran's peaceful nuclear technology," he told a news conference.

France called on Tehran to immediately stop "these deeply destabilising activities".

In a statement, the foreign ministry urged Iran to co-operate "by responding without delay to the demands of the international community to reach a negotiated settlement on the nuclear question".

But Russia appealed for restraint, saying the world should not "succumb to emotions" in dealing with Iran.

"The main thing is to launch productive negotiations [with Iran]," a foreign ministry source told Interfax news agency.

Gesture of defiance

"An improved version of Shahab-3 and the two-stage Sajjil, powered by solid fuel, were fired," the Guards' air force commander Hossein Salami was quoted as saying by the state-owned Arabic language TV channel al-Alam.

Footage of the test-firing of the Shahab-3 in desert terrain was broadcast by another state-owned channel, Press TV.

The Shahab-3 (Meteor-3) is classed as a medium range ballistic missile but is the longest-range rocket Iran has successfully tested in public.

Iran says the missile, which it first tested in July 2008, can fly some 2,000km, although Western defence experts have put the strike range at 1,300km (807 miles).

The surface-to-surface Sajjil is a new, two-stage missile using solid fuel, which is considered to give a more accurate delivery than liquid fuel rockets.

It has been tested by Iran twice, in November 2008 and May 2009.

The BBC's Tehran correspondent Jon Leyne says Iran's enemies might be most worried by the test-firing of the Sajjil missile.

It is more advanced, and multiple stage rockets offer the potential for longer ranges, he says.

The Shahab-3 and Sajjil rockets are currently believed to be capable of reaching not only Israel and US bases in the Gulf, but also parts of Europe.

On Sunday, the medium-range Shahab-1 and 2 missiles with a range of 300 to 700km (186 to 434 miles) were tested.

The short-range Tondar-69 and Fateh-110 type, with a range of up to 170km (100 miles), were also tested.

Although the tests are likely to have been planned in advance, Iran will not be unhappy if they are seen as a gesture of defiance by the West, our correspondent adds.

Telecoms move

Iran is under increasing pressure to co-operate fully over its nuclear ambitions - particularly since the revelation of a previously undisclosed uranium enrichment plant.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has insisted that the plant, near the holy city of Qom, does not breach UN regulations and says it is open for inspection by UN experts.

But leaders of the US, Britain and France accuse Tehran of keeping the plant secret in breach of UN rules.

They have raised the prospect of new, tougher sanctions against Iran if Thursday's meeting with the so-called P5+1 (US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany) yields little progress.

In a separate development, Iranian state media report that a consortium linked to the Revolutionary Guards has bought a majority share in the state telecommunications company.

The Revolutionary Guards led the government response to the street protests that followed the disputed re-election of President Ahmadinejad - himself a former guard - in June.

During the demonstrations, the authorities interrupted mobile phone networks, hindering the opposition movement.

The Revolutionary Guard was set up shortly after the revolution to defend the country's Islamic system.

It has since become a major military, political and economic force, with close ties to the leadership.


[Americas]
Page last updated at 15:15 GMT, Monday, 28 September 2009 16:15 UK
Troops raid Honduran media groups
Two Honduran media organisations that have been critical of the country's interim government have been closed.

Troops raided Radio Globo and Cholusat Sur TV hours after authorities issued a state of emergency suspending key civil liberties for 45 days.

The measures followed a call by ousted president Manuel Zelaya for his supporters to stage a protest exactly three months since he was deposed.

Mr Zelaya is holed up in the Brazilian embassy in the capital Tegucigalpa.

The raid on Radio Globo early on Monday was the second on the station since Mr Zelaya was ousted in June.

"Troops assaulted the radio (station)... and took it off the air," said Radio Globo director David Romero.

The interim government's decree - broadcast on national television - allows unauthorised public meetings to be banned and news media to be temporarily closed down.

'Final offensive'

Earlier, Mr Zelaya had urged his supporters to converge on Tegucigalpa on Monday in what he called a "final offensive".

Hundreds of soldiers and riot police have been surrounding the embassy for the past week since Mr Zelaya made a surprise return to the country.

On Sunday, the interim government warned Brazil that its diplomatic credentials would be revoked in 10 days if it doesn't grant Mr Zelaya asylum or hand him over.

He was forced from office at gunpoint after announcing plans to hold a non-binding public consultation on whether people supported moves to change the constitution.

His opponents said the move was unconstitutional and was aimed at removing the current one-term limit on serving as president, so paving the way for Mr Zelaya's possible re-election. He has denied this.

A presidential election is planned for November.

news20090928bbc2

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

[Americas]
Page last updated at 14:08 GMT, Monday, 28 September 2009 15:08 UK
Obama to woo IOC over Chicago bid
US President Barack Obama will travel to Copenhagen to support the bid by the city of Chicago to host the 2016 Olympic Games, the White House says.

He will join his wife, Michelle, and other administration members at the International Olympic Committee meeting in the Danish capital on Thursday.

Chicago faces opposition from Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo in the vote.

Brazilian, Spanish and Japanese leaders are also expected to lobby IOC delegates at the meeting.

{{ANALYSIS}
Gordon Farquhar, BBC Sport
These bids are now being run like election campaigns, by hard-nosed political strategists working out tactics for grabbing the second or even third preference votes that will be crucial to the chances of any of the bidders.
Strict IOC rules dictate the boundaries of what is permitted, and transgressing them could be fatal.
Expenses-paid trips to bid cities for voting members - with freebies ranging from the odd case of wine to dental work to scholarships for offspring - were banned after the Salt Lake City "votes for gifts" scandal.
It is all strictly above board now.
However, one of the unexpected consequences of the ban on members' visits seems to be that if you cannot go to the city, the city now comes to you, with half the nation's politicians, sports stars and famous alumni in tow.}}

Correspondents say the impact of star personalities on Olympic bids was demonstrated when lobbying by former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2005 helped London win the 2012 Games, and Russian President Vladimir Putin led Sochi's bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics in 2007.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva expressed hope on Monday that he would "return from Copenhagen with a victory".

"This is a fight," he said in his weekly radio programme. "And if we don't win, we'll have to prepare for another one."

'Inspiration'

Mr Obama, who was senator for Illinois and lived in Chicago before his election to the White House, will be the first sitting US president to take on such a direct role in an Olympic bid.

He will be joined on Friday by Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who are both from Illinois.

"President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama symbolise the hope, opportunity and inspiration that make Chicago great, and we are honoured to have two of our city's most accomplished residents leading our delegation in Copenhagen," Chicago Mayor Richard M Daley said on Monday.

"Who better to share with members of the International Olympic Committee the commitment and enthusiasm Chicago has for the Olympic and Paralympic Movement," he added.

Mr Obama had reportedly told IOC chief Jacques Rogge last week that the pressure of his push for healthcare reform would prevent him from attending the meeting.

The race to host the 2016 Olympics has been described as one of the closest in history.

But correspondents say Chicago, with President Obama's overt support, could be considered a slight favourite.

Chicago was chosen to bid for the Games two years ago by the US Olympic Committee ahead of four other US cities.

The city's plan revolves around providing a compact event in the middle of the city, on the shores of Lake Michigan, using many established venues. The costs of Games will be borne by the private sector - unlike the three other bids.

It is expected that Chicago's renowned skyline, history and cultural heritage will be positive factors in its Olympics bid, while the city also boasts good transport infrastructure.

Although there is no official IOC continental rotation policy, correspondents say the Americas may have an edge as previous games will have been held in Asia, Europe, and Australasia.

This factor, they add, is considered the most significant weakness of both Madrid - one of the few major European capitals yet to host the Games - and Tokyo's bids.

Rio de Janeiro's successful staging of the Pan-American Games in 2007 and their future hosting of the 2014 World Cup seemed to bolster its prospects, but the IOC recently noted that it would not be capable of providing the level of security and safety required for the Games.


[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 11:25 GMT, Monday, 28 September 2009 12:25 UK
Japan's LDP chooses a new leader
Japan's Liberal Democratic Party has elected a new leader after its crushing electoral defeat last month.
By Roland Buerk
BBC News, Tokyo

Sadakazu Tanigaki, a 64-year-old who has held a number of cabinet posts, replaces former Prime Minister Taro Aso, who stepped down as party leader.

He now faces the task of rebuilding the LDP, which is in opposition for only the second time in more than 50 years.

He will have an early test next year when elections are due for the less powerful upper house of Parliament.

Mr Tanigaki is a former finance minister known as a consensus builder, and his election is being seen as an attempt to maintain party unity.

His two rivals for the post, both in their 40s, had campaigned for a generational change.

New Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, of the Democratic Party of Japan, has said he will steer the country away from unrestrained capitalism towards what he has described as a more fraternal society.

Among his pledges are cash allowances for families with children and a reduction in the power of bureaucrats.


[Asia-Pacific > Business]
Page last updated at 06:45 GMT, Monday, 28 September 2009 07:45 UK
Yen hits eight-month dollar high
The Japanese yen has hit an eight-month high against the dollar - denting the share prices of many exporters.

The currency reached 88.23 yen per dollar - the highest since January's 13-year high of 87.10.

A stronger yen makes Japanese exports less competitive - but makes imports more affordable to Japanese consumers.

Observers said the strengthening of the yen came after comments suggesting that the likelihood of Japan intervening to weaken its currency had receded.

'Mistake'

In the past, Japan has stepped into the currency markets to weaken the yen when the government thought its rise was threatening growth in the world's second-largest economy.

The authorities have not intervened since 2005, but some observers had believed finance minister Hirohisa Fujii could step in to halt the yen's strengthening.

However, Mr Fujii told the Dow Jones newswire that that "foreign exchange dumping" to defend Japanese exporters would be the wrong policy.

"It would be a mistake to artificially influence foreign exchange rates," Mr Fujii was quoted as saying.

Mr Fujii became finance minister after the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) last month ended more than 50 years of almost unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party.

Earlier this month, he said a strong yen had merits, but he has backed down from this view as the rise has gained momentum.

Honda Motors and electronic parts maker Kyocera were among the exporters seeing their shares lose ground on Monday.

The benchmark Nikkei index fell 256.46 points to 10,009.52 - its lowest close since late July. It also hit a two-month intraday low of 9,971.05.

news20090928bbc3

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

[Asia-Pacific]
Page last updated at 10:33 GMT, Monday, 28 September 2009 11:33 UK
Philippine floods test rescuers
Rescue workers are being overwhelmed by the scale of floods in the Philippines that are estimated to have killed at least 140 people, officials say.

The head of the National Disaster Co-ordinating Council, Anthony Golez, said resources were being spread too thinly.

Torrential rains from Tropical Storm Ketsana flooded the capital, Manila, and 25 nearby provinces on Saturday.

Some 80% of Manila was submerged, displacing 450,000 people. More than 115,000 are now in makeshift shelters.

"We are concentrating on massive relief operations. The system is overwhelmed, local government units are overwhelmed," Mr Golez told reporters.

{{AT THE SCENE}
BBC correspondent Alastair Leithead in Manila
The rain is still coming down in Marikina, the worst affected part of Manila, but it certainly has got through the worst of what the storm threw at it.
All the streets were under metres of water. There's a thick coating of mud over everything. At the bottom of the road, there's a pink car which is balanced on the diagonal on its roof on top of another. The only people who escaped the floods were those who went up onto the upper floors of their buildings. All the shops and businesses on the ground floors have been destroyed.
Now people are just focusing on clearing up, trying to get what possessions they can together, along with food, water and some shelter, because more rain is forecast.}}

"We were used to helping one city, one or two provinces but now, they are following one after another. Our assets and people are spread too thinly."

One doctor in Manila told the BBC that he had been working 24-hour shifts in a hospital flooded with water since Saturday.

Defence Minister Gilbert Teodoro said troops, police and volunteers had so far been able to rescue more than 7,900 people. Thirty-two people are missing.

The authorities were now focusing on providing food, medicine and other necessities to those in emergency shelters, he added. Telephone and power services in some parts of Manila remain cut.

Over the weekend, the government declared a "state of calamity" in Manila and the 25 storm-hit provinces, including many that have not experienced widespread flooding before, allowing access to emergency funds.

The Philippine government has not yet requested international help, but Mr Golez said it would welcome any assistance. The US military has deployed a helicopter and soldiers to the country's south to help.

'Stranded'

On Sunday, President Gloria Arroyo visited the devastated areas, appealing for calm over what she described as an "extreme event" that "strained our response capabilities to the limit but ultimately did not break us".

Ramil Digal Culle in Cavite City, south of Manila, told the BBC that he had spent the night with families trapped on rooftops without food and water.

"The mothers were at work when the flooding happened and they got stranded with me, unable to go home," he wrote in an e-mail.

"Strange how I could have internet access during the disaster to describe this experience... while the government struggles with a scarcity of rescue equipment," he added.

Some officials are quoted as saying rubbish-choked drains and waterways, along with high tides, compounded the flooding.

The BBC's Alastair Leithead in Marikina City, the worst affected part of the capital, says all the streets in the area were under metres of water and that now there is a thick coating of mud over everything which was submerged.

Our correspondent says the government argues it could not have been expected to cope easily with a storm in which a month's rain fell in 12 hours.

In the meantime, he adds, people are just focusing on clearing up, trying to salvage what possessions they can, along with food, water and some shelter, because further rainstorms are forecast.

'Heroic rescuer'

Reports have also emerged of acts of heroism by members of the public during the floods, including Muelmar Magallanes, who rescued more than 30 people, but ended up sacrificing his own life.

With the help of his older brother, the 18-year-old construction worker tied rope around his waist and took his siblings to safety before going back to the house for his parents, according to the AFP news agency.

Later, he decided go back to save neighbours trapped on rooftops. He then dived back in again when he saw a mother and her six-month-old baby daughter in the water.

"I didn't know that the current was so strong. In an instant, I was under water. We were going to die," the mother Menchie Penalosa told AFP.

"Then this man came from nowhere and grabbed us. He took us to where the other neighbours were, and then he was gone," she added.

Witnesses said an exhausted Mr Megallanes was simply swept away by the water.

His father Samuel said: "He always had a good heart. We had already been saved. But he decided to go back one last time for the girl."

The Philippines chief weather forecaster, Nathaniel Cruz, said more than 40cm (16in) of rain fell on Manila within 12 hours on Saturday, exceeding the 39cm average for the whole month of September.

The previous record of just over 33cm in a 24-hour period was set in June 1967, Mr Cruz added. He had earlier blamed climate change for the mass downpours.

Ketsana, with winds of up to 100km/h (62mph), hit the Philippines early on Saturday, crossing the main northern Luzon island before heading out toward the South China Sea.