Good evening morning and welcome to the Overnight News Digest for February 12, 2011.
Well it was a long day evening night waiting in anticipation, but here we are now on DK4.
The OND is an ongoing evening series dedicated to chronicling recent news of import and interest. The series' current team of editors include ScottyUrb, BentLiberal, wader, Oke, rfall, JML9999, and is lead by Neon Vincent, our editor-in-chief.
The OND normally publishes every day near midnight Eastern.
I'm filling-in tonight for Neon Vincent, our regular Saturday host. Normally, Saturday's OND would compile the week's news in science and research, but tonight I'm sampling news from around the world.
Please add your own news selections from science, environment, politics, current events, or anything else that may strike your interest. Tonight's story lineup is after the jump.
USA
- Climate Progress - Kochs win big if Keystone XL pipeline is approved
The Keystone XL pipeline, awaiting a thumbs up or down on a presidential permit, would increase the import of heavy oil from Canada’s oil sands to the U.S. by as much as 510,000 barrels a day, if it gets built...
If President Obama allows a permit for the Keystone XL to be granted, he would be handing a big victory and great financial opportunity to Charles and David Koch, his bitterest political enemies and among the most powerful opponents of his clean economy agenda.
The two brothers together own virtually all of Koch Industries Inc. — a giant oil conglomerate headquartered in Wichita, Kan., with annual revenues estimated to be $100 billion...
Koch Industries is already responsible for close to 25 percent of the oil sands crude that is imported into the United States, and is well-positioned to benefit from increasing Canadian oil imports.
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- Times-Picayune - National Oil Spill Commission members say new safety regime would cost oil industry about 7 to 12 cents a barrel of oil
It would cost the oil and gas industry about 7 to 12 cents a barrel of oil to pay for an augmented federal regulatory regime that might help avoid a repeat of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, two members of the National Oil Spill Commission told Congress Friday.
"That's less than a quarter of a cent per gallon of gasoline," Donald Boesch, president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, told members of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. "It's a very modest cost that's easily affordable for the industry."
... While the Obama administration has said the oil and gas industry can easily afford to pay to raise the bar on its conduct, the industry says it already pays plenty into federal coffers, and oil patch lawmakers, including Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, agree.
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- CS Monitor - Alaska oil pipeline has safety and environmental risks
The US Department of Transportation’s pipeline safety division says the trans-Alaska pipeline is corroded and poses a severe public safety and environmental risk.
The 800-mile pipeline ships 12 percent of the domestic oil supply. In a letter sent earlier this month to the Alyeska Pipeline Service Co., a coalition of oil companies that control the pipe, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration [PHMSA] says “multiple conditions … pose a pipeline integrity risk.”
A reason for the increased corrosion is limited use. Oil began flowing through the 48-inch diameter pipeline in 1977. At its peak, the pipeline carried 2.1 million barrels per day, crossing three mountain ranges, from the North Slope of Alaska to Valdez, the state’s northernmost port. Capacity has dropped starting in the late 1980’s.
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- WaPo - Ex-CIA staffer alleges agency coverup in toxin exposure case
A former CIA security officer is alleging that the agency is unjustifiably invoking a "state secrets" claim to cover up evidence that he and his family suffered illnesses as a result of exposure to environmental contamination at an agency facility.
Kevin Shipp, 55, a counterterrorism consultant now employed by a firm with government contracts, said that the agency also has sought to prevent him from publicizing his ordeal by heavily redacting the manuscript he hopes to publish. The book describes what the family experienced during and after their exposure: illness, alcoholism, marital discord, and a campaign of harassment and surveillance that Shipp says was carried out by the CIA.
The facility where the Shipps lived is in the southwestern United States and has served as a weapons depot and disposal site.
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- LA Times - Here we go again with the Iowa Jackson Pollock sale
Iowa Republicans have apparently spent too much time watching "Antiques Roadshow." A few years ago, they discovered there was an heirloom in the attic that they didn't know was worth a pile of money, and since then all they can think of is, "Let's sell it!"
For the second time, Republicans in the Iowa House have introduced a bill to force the University of Iowa to sell its irreplaceable Jackson Pollock masterpiece, "Mural" (1943), this time to use the revenue for scholarship assistance. In 2008, there was a clamor to sell the painting -- part of the university’s 12,000-piece collection -- in order to offset costs of $743 million in severe flood damage that had destroyed part of the school.
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- NYT - Nantucket Whaler Lost in Pacific Tells Its Tale at Last
In the annals of the sea, there were few sailors whose luck was worse than George Pollard Jr.’s.
Pollard, you see, was the captain of the Essex, the doomed Nantucket whaler whose demise, in 1820, came in a most unbelievable fashion: it was attacked and sunk by an angry sperm whale, an event that inspired Herman Melville to write “Moby-Dick.”
Unlike the tale of Ahab and Ishmael, however, Pollard’s story didn’t end there: After the Essex sank, Pollard and his crew floated through the Pacific for three months, a journey punctuated by death, starvation, madness and, in the end, cannibalism. (Pollard, alas, ate his cousin.)
Despite all that, Pollard survived and was given another ship to steer: the Two Brothers, the very boat that had brought the poor captain back to Nantucket. And then, that ship sank, too.
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World
Europe
- Spiegel - Doing Time on Norway's Island Prison
No bars. No walls. No armed guards. The prison island of Bastøy in Norway is filled with some of the country's most hardened criminals. Yet it emphasizes self-control instead of the strictly regulated regimens common in most prisons. For some inmates, it is more than they can handle.
Freedom beckons on the opposite shore, where the lights glitter at night like rhinestones. The two-mile trip by boat to the mainland takes less than 10 minutes.
The boy isn't crying, the tears underneath his eyes are tattoos. He is standing in the snow, tall and broad, not knowing where to go at first. The guards took him from his cell to the ferry, which brought him to this island -- without handcuffs. Once he was there, he was left to his own devices, surrounded by red and yellow wooden houses and a church tower poking through the treetops. And this is supposed to be a prison.
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- RIA Novosti - Russian military justifies purchase of French Mistral ships
Russia has decided to buy Mistral ships from France because it would have taken at least 10 years to develop a similar domestic model, Chief of the Russian General Staff Gen. Nikolai Makarov said Thursday.
"It could take at least 10 years to develop a ship similar to Mistral," Makarov said. "And meanwhile someone will create a better weapon [than Mistral]."
Makarov said Russia should buy the best of modern weaponry abroad to be built under license in Russia. He also said that the Russian state armaments procurement program until 2020 would be adjusted and would total 23 trillion rubles ($785 billion), or 2 trillion rubles ($68 billion) more than originally planned.
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- Reuters - Greece slams EU, IMF officials after inspection visit
Greece accused the EU and IMF of interfering in its domestic affairs on Saturday after the international lenders said Athens must speed up reforms and sell more public assets.
On Friday, EU and IMF inspectors visiting Greece to monitor the implementation of a bailout plan that saved Greece from bankruptcy, approved more aid for the country but adopted a more critical tone than on previous visits.
In rare harsh words, the Greek government said the inspectors' approach was unacceptable, after coming under fire from local media for not reacting to criticism of the pace of reforms and the call for privatisations.
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- Guardian - Tensions rise in Italy over Silvio Berlusconi sex charges
A beleaguered Silvio Berlusconi is due to meet the president, Giorgio Napolitano, for urgent talks on Friday as tensions grew between his supporters and opponents over the prospect of his being committed to trial on sex charges...
A judge in Milan is expected to rule next week on an application from prosecutors for the prime minister's indictment on charges of paying a juvenile prostitute and abusing his official position to cover up what he had allegedly done.
Investigators have compiled almost 800 pages of evidence to support their claim that Berlusconi hosted sex parties at his home outside Milan, several of which were attended by a 17-year-old Moroccan runaway, Karima el-Mahroug.
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- EUobserver - Oligarch yachts become no-go area for EU comissioners
The European Commission has barred top officials from taking holidays on oligarchs' yachts and dictators' jets in a new code of conduct. But MEPs, who want more say on the rules, point to shortfalls and loopholes.
The commission unveiled the code on Thursday (10 February) at a meeting with EU parliament chiefs in Brussels, the same week that the French foreign minister and prime minister were caught with egg on their face for accepting luxury trips from Tunisian hardman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his Egyptian counterpart, Hosni Mubarak...
Under the new code, commissioners may no longer "accept hospitality except when in accordance with diplomatic and courtesy usage". An EU official said: "This means in a nutshell that commissioners can only accept diplomatic assistance for travel when on official business, but not when they go on holiday."
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- Global Post - Dutch station Dusk discovers that women like to watch sex that looks real
Welcome to the world of Dusk, the Dutch TV channel which claims to be the first in Europe providing non-stop pornography and erotica targeted at a female audience.
“We call it porna, to give the idea that it’s porn made for women, something different from traditional porno,” said Martijn Broersma, the man behind Dusk...
“Women really like to see explicit content,” Broersma explained. “They want to have proof that it’s really happening, that it’s not fake.”
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- DW-World - Capsized ship drains last of its acid cargo into the Rhine
The last of the acid from a capsized ship near the famous "Loreley" on the Rhine River was drained on Thursday in spite of numerous technical difficulties.
The "Waldhof" tanker capsized last month carrying over 2,000 tons of sulphuric acid. Authorities had chosen to gradually drain the acid into the Rhine in a procedure which was considered the safest option...
The Waldhof capsized near picturesque St. Goarshausen in Germany's western Rhineland-Palatinate state on January 13th. It is stranded near the fabled Loreley rock, which marks the narrowest part of the Rhine. Two of the four crewmembers survived the accident; two other have not yet been found, despite rescue efforts.
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Africa
- NYT - Military Offers Assurances to Egypt and Neighbors
As a new era dawned in Egypt on Saturday the army leadership sought to reassure Egyptians and the world that it would shepherd a transition to civilian rule and honor international commitments like its peace treaty with Israel...
In an announcement broadcast on state television an army spokesman said that Egypt would continue to abide by all its international and regional treaties and that the current civilian leadership would manage the country’s affairs until the formation of a new government.
The army spokesman said the military was “aspiring to guarantee the peaceful transfer of power within the framework of a free democratic system that allows an elected civilian power to rule the country, in order to build a free democratic state.” But he did not discuss a timetable for any transfer of power.
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- McClatchy - Three young Egyptians who helped make a revolution
Three young revolutionaries, their friendship formed in a classroom and sealed in the fight for their country's future, sat under the fireworks and marveled...
"Before," said Mahmoud Hafny, 24, "we never dreamed that Egypt could do a revolution like this."
The story of Egypt's historic uprising has a lot to do with the organizing power of the Internet. It took inspiration from the revolt weeks earlier in nearby Tunisia. And it united a strikingly broad cross-section of Egyptians — students, the working class, conservative Islamists and secular liberals — under the banner of ousting Mubarak and remaking the political order...
Hafny and his two friends, 24-year-old Islam Mohamed and 27-year-old Islam Gamal, met as engineering students at Cairo University. It was there that they attended their first protests, joining dozens of classmates in supporting and free elections and anti-corruption campaigns in a country where Mubarak's ruling party had effectively banned all formal opposition.
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- AP - Thousands rally for democracy in Algerian capital, 400 arrested
Thousands of riot police tried to seal off the Algerian capital on Saturday to prevent activists from holding a banned pro-democracy rally a day after Egypt's authoritarian leader was toppled. The head of the Algerian human rights group says 400 were arrested during the protest in Algiers...
Despite the massive deployment, thousands of people defied the government ban, flooding into downtown Algiers where they faced some skirmishes with police. Some arrests were reported as police tried to disperse the crowd.
Protesters chanted slogans including “No to the police state” and “Bouteflika out,” — a reference to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has led this sprawling North African nation since 1999.
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- Zimbabwe Independent - Mugabe in GNU Tight Corner
President Robert Mugabe is in a tight spot over the controversial lifespan of the government of national unity, which he purports ends today, as other political parties and senior members of his Zanu PF party say there is no "sunset clause" terminating the troubled coalition's duration.
This comes as Zanu PF continues to plot how to collapse the inclusive government to force early elections.
The party has been variously claiming, amid contradictory statements from its top officials, that the inclusive government ends today. It has also been desperately trying to paint a picture that the government is dysfunctional and that the constitution-making process is not necessarily connected to the elections.
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- This Day Live - Pirates Attack Foreign Ship in Lagos
Pirates off the coast of Lagos have attacked an unnamed foreign chemical tanker in a bid to board and rob the ship in the Gulf of Guinea.
A report Friday by the International Maritime Bureau showed the attack happened late on Thursday about 50 nautical miles off the coast of Lagos. The Associated Press reported that the tanker began to evade a suspicious boat and robbers opened fire on the vessel. The report said the robbers attempted to use a grappling hook to board the tanker, but failed after an hour chasing the boat.
Pirate attacks have risen around Nigeria in recent years.
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- Globe and Mail - Savour that chocolate while you can still afford it
In the not-too-distant future, chocolate will become a rarefied luxury, as expensive as caviar.
John Mason, a Canadian expert on cocoa, first made this prophesy six years ago from his base in West Africa, the epicentre of production. He was confident enough to repeat it, over and over, to the directors of the biggest chocolate companies in the world...
Today they treat him like a guru. An influential set of senior industry heavyweights flew to Ghana last week to hear him speak; the talk ended with an unprecedented agreement between industry competitors and the government to establish a working group that will map out a sustainable future. It is the first such agreement of its kind in the cocoa world...
The industry has been ignoring a looming supply problem, one that’s been brought into sharp focus by a political eruption in Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa-producing nation...
Alone, Ivory Coast produces more than a third of the world’s cocoa beans; there is some Ivoirien cocoa content in nearly every mass-produced chocolate bar on store shelves. But Alassane Ouattara, the presidential claimant in the country’s disputed November election, is using the crop as a political cudgel. His opponent, incumbent Laurent Gbagbo, has the loyalty of the army; cocoa revenues pay his soldiers. Recently, Mr. Ouattara imposed a ban on all cocoa exports, hoping it will force Mr. Gbagbo to leave office, a move which the U.S. and the E.U. support. So far, Mr. Gbagbo has refused. Fears are mounting that Ivory Coast will erupt in civil war.
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Middle East
- AFP - Palestinian election plan runs into Hamas obstacle
The Palestinian leadership in the West Bank on Saturday announced plans to hold elections by September, running into immediate opposition from its Hamas rivals in Gaza.
The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) executive committee's call for presidential and legislative polls comes amid stalemate in Israeli-Palestinian talks and the political upheaval in Egypt, a key player in peace efforts. And chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat on Saturday submitted his resignation.
The opposition of the Islamist movement Hamas already killed a plan by the Palestinian Authority to hold a general election in January 2010.
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- AJE - Thousands rally in Yemen's capital
Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in the Yemeni capital, calling on President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down.
Clashes broke out in Sanaa between groups supporting and opposing the government after men armed with knives and sticks forced around 300 anti-government protesters to end a rally, the Reuters news agency quoted witnesses as saying on Saturday.
The Associated Press news agency reported that troops beat some anti-government protesters.
Inspired by the Egyptian uprising which toppled Hosni Mubarak, protesters chanted "After Mubarak, it's Ali's turn" and "A Yemeni revolution after the Egyptian revolution."
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- Reuters - Suicide bomber kills 38, wounds dozens in Iraq
A suicide bomber blew himself up on Saturday near a crowd of Shi'ite pilgrims at a bus depot in the Iraqi city of Samarra, killing 38 people and wounding scores, police and officials said.
The attack was the second suicide bombing this week near Samarra, where Shi'ite pilgrims are commemorating the death of one of their 12 revered imams, and followed a series of recent attacks by insurgents as U.S. troops prepare to fully withdraw.
"It was a suicide bomber wearing an explosives vest. An Iraqi soldier at the south entrance of Samarra tried to stop him but he immediately blew himself up near a bus terminal filled with pilgrims," Ahmed Abdul-Jabbar, the deputy governor of Salahuddin province, told Reuters.
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- AFP - Iraq mass grave filled with Qaeda victims: police
Iraqi authorities uncovered a mass grave north of Baghdad on Saturday with 153 bodies of Al-Qaeda victims, many of them women, children and members of the security forces, police told AFP.
"Following a confession by a terrorist arrested two weeks ago in Baquba we discovered a mass grave containing 153 bodies of people killed by al-Qaeda in 2006 and 2007 " said General Abdul Hussein al-Sahamari, the police chief of restive Diyala province.
"The terrorist confessed that he and other members of Al-Qaeda had murdered the victims during those years. There are bodies of women, children, civilians, policemen and soldiers," he added.
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- WaPo - Ahmadinejad says Egypt, Tunisia were inspired by Iran's anti-Western protests
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaking... in a speech Friday during a large state-sponsored rally to celebrate the 32nd anniversary of Iran's Islamic revolution, Ahmadinejad said that the uprisings in the Arab world have been inspired by his country's struggle against Western powers.
The protests, he said, herald the emergence of a new Middle East where, despite "satanic" Western designs, the United States and Israel would not be able to interfere. "The arrogant powers will have no place in this Middle East," Ahmadinejad said...
The crisis that has been roiling Egypt, a key U.S. ally in the region, dominated Friday's celebration. Ahmadinejad said that the 12th imam Mahdi, a revered 9th-century Shiite saint, had directed the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.
"This is a global revolution, managed by the imam of the ages," he told the crowds gathered in and around Tehran's central Azadi Square.
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South Asia
- NYT - Attack on Kandahar Police Stirs Panic
At least four gunmen wearing vests with explosives in them attacked police headquarters in the southern city of Kandahar on Saturday, the third such attack since the start of the year in the strategically important city.
The assault, a complex operation involving several car bombs and a battery of rocket-propelled grenades, killed at least 19 people, most of them police officers, according to Afghan officials and witnesses.
The attack caused near panic in central Kandahar as residents, hearing the heavy gunfire and explosions, fled the area and the police cordoned off all the roads into downtown. The fighting continued for nearly five hours before the police succeeded in killing three would-be suicide bombers and wounding and detaining a fourth, according to Afghan police officials.
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- Mother Jones - Abusive Afghan Husbands Want This Woman Dead
A 22-year-old woman lies naked on a tile platform. Ninety percent of her body is burned—her skin mottled brown and in places torn open, exposing the white tissue of seared muscle. Nurses bathe her with saline solution. An IV tube drips fluid into her right foot, one of the few unburned places on her body. The odor of her flesh mixes with lingering traces of the cooking fuel she doused herself with.
Shayma Amini, 33, is the head nurse in Herat Regional Hospital's burn unit, where women from all over western Afghanistan are brought to be treated after self-immolation. A stout woman with a gentle, dutiful gaze, Amini begins wrapping the woman's body in elastic bandages. Bits of her blackened clothing flit across the floor, spun by the shifting feet of the nurses.
The previous evening, the woman's father had called her a slut, accusing her of sleeping with a man out of wedlock. He had taken her to a doctor who confirmed his suspicion. Now she would never find a husband. She was worthless to her family. Throughout the night, the woman fumed. In the morning, she stormed upstairs, locked the door behind her, and set herself ablaze. She burned for 20 minutes before her father finally beat down the door. She had not wanted to burn so badly, she told the doctors. I'll behave better. Let me live. Don't send the case to the police. It is not my father's fault.
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- DAWN - Arrest warrant for Musharraf issued in Butto case
The Anti Terrorism Court issued non-bailable- arrest-warrant for the former president Pervez Musharraf in Benazir Butto murder case here Saturday.
The court declared Musharraf as a suspect in the interim challan of the case. The warrant was issued on the statements of Brig. Retd. Javed Iqbal Cheema and Brig. Aijaz Shah.
Cheema suggested in a statement given to the FIA that the BB’s death occurred due to the wound from lever of the escape hatch of her vehicle, Shah second cheema’s statement.
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- CNN - Pakistani court orders American diplomat held for 14 more days
A Pakistani court has ordered a jailed American diplomat to remain in custody for 14 more days, authorities said Friday. The man's lawyer then filed a petition calling for his immediate release, saying he is covered under diplomatic immunity.
Raymond Davis, who allegedly shot and killed two men, was transferred from police custody to "judicial remand," said Munir Ahmed Khan, a member of the police investigative team.
Pakistani law says police can only keep a suspect in custody for 14 days. After that, a judge can either release the suspect -- on bail or for lack of evidence -- or transfer him to judicial custody, which is usually a prison instead of a police station lock-up.
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- The Hindu - 'Resuming dialogue with India a significant breakthrough'
The resumption of “full spectrum dialogue” with India, according to Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir, is a “significant breakthrough” with implications beyond the bilateral relationship. The process – which he described as ‘Work in Progress' – will begin in March with a series of “carefully sequenced meetings” on all issues over the next three months, leading to a review meeting at the Ministerial level.
Factoring in the skepticism triggered by similar thaws in the past which ended in the deep-freezer, Mr. Bashir sought to toe a pragmatic line, stating that while the two countries are dealing with difficult and complex issues, it is important to show that both have the ability to work through them. “It requires patience, responsibility and political will.”
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Asia
- Guardian - Shark fishing in Kesennuma, Japan – a messy, blood-spattered business
As daylight throws its first shadows on to the loading bay, fishery workers begin gutting the sharks before removing their fins with razor-sharp knives. It is a messy, blood-spattered business, and a study in industrial efficiency.
The fins are hurled into plastic buckets, and what's left of the animals is scooped up by a forklift and loaded on to a truck. In contrast, the marlin, swordfish and bluefin tuna that share the port's 1,000 metre-long bay are afforded almost reverential treatment...
The blue sharks that comprise 80% of the shark catch at Kesennuma are listed as "near threatened" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Its migratory habits make it difficult to gauge the exact population, but there is no doubt that catches are in decline.
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- CS Monitor - Russia's renewed focus on Kuril Islands draws Japanese ire
Russia and Japan appear headed into a deep diplomatic chill after a meeting meant to resolve their long-running dispute over the Kuril Islands, occupied by the USSR in 1945, ended in an exchange of acrimonious rhetoric Friday.
The four tiny islands off the northern tip of Japan are the last loose end left over from World War II, and are the main reason Russia and Japan have never signed a peace treaty formally ending the state of war between them...
Amid a storm of outrage in Japan, Russia agreed to hold a meeting of foreign ministers to discuss ways of defusing the controversy and moving toward long-delayed negotiations to end the formal state of war between the two countries. But Friday's talks between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Japanese counterpart, Seiji Maehara, appeared to break down amid a toughening of lines on both sides.
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- Asahi Shimbun - Japan's 'spider-man' spins research to save the world
Kazuhide Sekiyama's interest in a synthetic thread that could change the world stems from a simple question posed in 2004, when he and other students were discussing possible research subjects.
What is the most powerful critter in the world?
Sekiyama, then a student at Keio University's Institute for Advanced Biosciences, noted that perhaps spiders, and especially their webs, should be bestowed that title.
From there, Sekiyama's "spider-sense" started tingling. Now 28 and head of his own venture business, Sekiyama is trying to become the first person in the world to mass-produce synthetic spider silk for practical use.
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- BBC - China activist Chen Guangcheng 'beaten'
A prominent Chinese activist and his wife are reported to have been beaten following the release of a video showing their house arrest.
Chen Guangcheng and his wife, Yuan Weijin, were badly injured by security officials, according to the group Chinese Human Rights Defenders.
It says the beating came after the release of a secretly shot film showing Mr Chen as a prisoner in his own home. He said he has been under surveillance since his release from jail last year.
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- Xinhua - China's railway minister under investigation over "disciplinary violation"
Liu Zhijun, the Chinese Minister of Railways, has become the latest senior official to be investigated in the country's battle against corruption.
Liu, who heads the country's giant railway system since 2003, is under investigation over alleged "severe violation of discipline," said a Xinhuanet report that quoted the Communist Party of China's (CPC's) discipline watchdog on Saturday.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the CPC did not give further details, according to Xinhuanet... According to the CCDI and the Ministry of Supervision, Zhang abused his position to receive "a large amount of money" in bribes.
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- Bloomberg - Vietnam Must Tackle Inflation After Dong's Devaluation, IMF, Citigroup Say
Vietnam’s devaluation of the dong yesterday by about 7 percent, the most since at least 1993, needs to be followed with steps to curb inflation, the International Monetary Fund and Citigroup Inc. said.
The dong slumped to as weak as 20,893 per dollar, compared with 19,490 on Feb. 10, and closed at 20,875 in Hanoi yesterday. The State Bank of Vietnam fixed the reference rate for the currency at 20,693 versus 18,932 the previous day, or 8.5 percent weaker. The trading band for the currency was narrowed to 1 percent on either side of the rate from 3 percent previously.
Vietnam’s fourth devaluation in 15 months to curb the trade deficit and narrow the gap between official and black-market exchange rates runs the risk of spurring inflation from almost a two-year high.
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- Bernama - Thailand To Explain Border Rows With Cambodia To UNESCO
Thai Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti is scheduled to visit France next week to meet the secretary-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the director-general of the World Heritage Centre under UNESCO in Paris to explain border rows between Thailand and Cambodia related to the ancient Preah Vihear Temple, a world heritage site, to the UN authorities.
Suwit said on Saturday he would clarify before the UNESCO authorities that Thailand did not invade Cambodia, and that a spate of clashes between Thai and Cambodian troops along the border near the Preah Vihear Temple were, instead, Thailand's attempts to protect national sovereignty, Thai News Agency (TNA) reported.
Suwit revealed that Thailand will also seek a review of the World Heritage Committee's listing of the Preah Vihear Temple for Cambodia, as Thailand has maintained its opposition to the unilateral listing based on the fact that the 11th century temple stands on an unsettled area of Thailand and Cambodia and that a world heritage site management plan proposed by Cambodia covers its vicinity which includes Thai territory.
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Oceana
- SMH - The untouchables: crime fighters let gangsters take the money and run
The state's most secretive law enforcement agency has been sharing the proceeds of crime with organised crime figures, cutting deals that allow them to walk away with millions of dollars.
The NSW Crime Commission, set up to investigate and jail Sydney's crime lords, has struck as many as 600 such deals during the past 20 years, in effect, handing over millions of dollars' worth of assets that might have been illegally obtained...
For senior figures in the underworld, it has become a cost of doing business. The Herald has confirmed that in one recent case, someone with criminal associations approached the commission to pay a financial settlement - before he was even called in to give evidence.
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- Sunday Star Times - Mad cow disease blood test raises hopes for NZ donors
British scientists have developed the most accurate blood test yet for the human form of mad-cow disease, potentially clearing the way for thousands of Kiwis who lived in the UK in the 1980s and 90s to give blood.
Since 2000, the New Zealand Blood Service has banned donations from anyone who lived in Britain, France or Ireland for six months or longer between 1980 and 1996.
The ban was instigated by the Ministry of Health because of the risk of donated blood products transmitting variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD). The fatal, brain-wasting disease is linked to eating beef from cattle infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also called mad-cow disease. It is thought that infected beef entered the food supply of the three countries during the 16-year period.
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Americas
- BBC - Bolivian President Evo Morales flees food price protest
Bolivian President Evo Morales has abandoned a public event in the face of an angry protests over food shortages and price rises.
Mr Morales was due to address a parade to commemorate a colonial-era uprising in the mining city of Oruro. But he and his team left the city to avoid a violent demonstration by miners throwing dynamite...
Mr Morales cut short his visit and returned to La Paz after protesters set off explosions close to where he was preparing to give a speech in Oruro, the capital of his home province in western Bolivia.
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- LAHT - Ecuador Court Frees 3 Indigenous Leaders Jailed on Terrorism Charges
An Ecuadorian judge today ordered the release of indigenous leaders José Acacho, Pedro Mashiant and Fidel Karinas, who were arrested on 1 February on charges of terrorism and sabotage for leading by instigating a protest in 2009 in which one person died.
"Accepting the petition of habeas corpus in favor and provides for their immediate release," ruled Judge María Cristina Narváez of the Pichincha court.
Approximately 300 hundred protestors erupted into jubilant cheers and chants of “libertad” in front Quito’s Corte Provincial de Justicia of Pichincha of when they heard the decision granting temporary freedom to Shuar nation leaders.
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- Guardian - Samba replaces sound of gunfire as Rio de Janeiro favela is purged of drug traffickers
When Evandro Pereira de Souza saw tanks gathering at the entrance to his slum, he braced himself for the worst. It was last November and Rio's notorious Complexo do Alemão shanty town was about to witness the largest military operation in the city's history, part of an unprecedented government drive to expel heavily armed drug traffickers from the favelas.
"I was expecting a bloody disaster," recalls Souza, a samba-obsessed 32-year-old better known by his stage name Wando Simpatia (Friendly Wando). "We slept at my aunt's house."
But the bloodbath that Souza had envisaged never materialised. With high-calibre rifles slung over their shoulders, scores of drug traffickers scattered into the surrounding hills as around 1,600 security men swept into the warren of redbrick homes and set up camp.
Now, nearly three months on, Friendly Wando, the president and chief composer of the Complexo do Alemão's leading samba school, Paraíso da Alvorada (Dawn Paradise), is back, preparing for next month's carnival in a drastically changed community.
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- MercoPress - Brazilian shipyard wins Petrobras 4.6 billion contract for seven ultra-deep rigs
Brazil's government managed oil and gas giant Petrobras said on Friday that local shipyard Estaleiro Atlantico Sul (EAS) had won the tender to build seven drilling rigs in Brazil.
The contract is worth 4.63 billion US dollars. Rigs will be used for the exploration and development of Petrobras pre-salt oil and gas fields that could make the country one of the world’s leading producers of hydrocarbons...
The first rig is scheduled to enter operations in 2015, Petrobras said in a statement. All seven drilling rigs have signed leases, and the day-rates range from 430,000 to 475,000 US dollars.
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- LAHT - Lawmakers Come to Blows in Venezuela
Pro-government and opposition lawmakers came to blows Thursday during a session of the Venezuelan National Assembly devoted to questioning of several of leftist President Hugo Chavez’s ministers.
Tension had been building since Jan. 5, when the winners of last fall’s legislative elections assumed their seats...
Thursday’s session turned nasty after opposition member Alfonso Marquina walked to the podium to protest heckling from Chavez supporters in the gallery. Marquina was confronted by ruling-party lawmaker Henry Ventura and they began arguing.
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- WSJ - Strong Quake Jolts Chile
magnitude-6.8 earthquake shook Chile's central-southern regions Friday, scaring residents, although President Sebastian Pinera said the quake didn't cause any major damages or deaths.
The tremor struck near the offshore epicenter of a quake—one of the strongest on record—which devastated Chile nearly a year ago, killing more than 500 and causing damages nearing $30 billion...
President Pinera asked Chileans to remain calm and said Friday's quake was likely "an aftershock" of the massive February 2010 earthquake. "Experts say that we may see aftershocks from that earthquake for up to five years," Mr. Pinera said.
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- MercoPress - Corruption controversy: Argentine official calls US diplomats “a joke”
Argentina’s Cabinet Chief Aníbal Fernández is the latest high-ranking official to address the Wikileaks controversy after Spanish newspaper El País published several cables that denounced various corruption cases within the Cristina Fernández de Kirchner administration.
“Some US diplomats are a joke. They gather cheap gossip from opposition websites in order to justify their pay-checks,” he said, referring to the staff of the US embassy in Argentina.
“I think the US Department of State, the one with the real problem, has finally come to realize that it has had diplomats around the world who were nothing but a lazy joke, sending articles from anti-government, yellow press websites as if they were the result of some great investigation,” he stated.
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- BBC - Bar attack in Mexico's Guadalajara kills six
An attack on a crowded night club in the Mexican city of Guadalajara has left six people dead, police say. Unidentified gunmen sprayed the city centre bar with bullets and threw a hand grenade before driving away.
Police said the attackers were customers who returned to exact revenge after a late-night dispute with other drinkers. Guadalajara - Mexico's second city - has seen a sharp rise in drug-related violence in recent months...
At least 20 people were wounded in the shooting and grenade explosion, and some are reported to be in a serious condition.
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- Ottawa Citizen - Ontario halts offshore wind-energy projects
Once a shining example of its renewable energy plan, the Liberal government Friday turned its back on offshore wind energy, announcing an end to all projects until further scientific research is conducted.
Government officials said the decision was made to further investigate impacts on human health and damage to the natural habitat...
Energy minister Brad Duguid downplayed the policy change...
"It's simply a case of recognizing we need to take a closer look at the science on freshwater offshore wind projects," said Duguid. "Right now there's only one in the world we're aware of, in Sweden. There's a number of issues that need to be looked at before anything could ever be considered for approval."
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- CBC - Polar bear births fall in warming climate: study
Polar bears will have drastically fewer cubs and more miscarriages as the ice melts on Hudson Bay, Alberta researchers predict.
In fact, if the ice melts one month earlier than in the 1990s, 40 to 73 per cent of pregnant female bears living on the western side of the bay will not carry their pregnancies to term, says the study led by University of Alberta biostatistician Péter Molnár.
The study was published Tuesday in Nature Communications. According to the paper, sea ice on Hudson Bay has been breaking up about a week earlier per decade in recent decades.
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