Overnight News Digest: Cyclone kills 10,000 in Burma

Top Story

• Guardian - Burma seeks emergency aid as cyclone kills at least 10,000

  An international relief effort was mobilising last night after Burma's military rulers estimated that 10,000 people had been killed in a cyclone at the weekend and acknowledged they were willing to accept foreign help. Aid workers believe at least 1 million people have been left homeless by Cyclone Nargis, which barrelled across south-west and central Burma on Saturday, unleashing 120mph (190kmph) winds, torrential rains and flooding that caused a catastrophic trail of destruction. The reclusive military government initially said casualties ran into the hundreds, but dramatically revised the toll yesterday. The foreign minister, Nyan Win, told diplomats the number of dead could reach 10,000, with at least 3,000 still missing, making it the worst natural disaster in east Asia since the 2004 tsunami.

USA

• LA Times - Chinese firms bargain hunting in U.S.

  Liu Keli... is investing $10 million in the Palmetto State, building a printing-plate factory that will open this fall and hire 120 workers. His main aim is to tap the large American market, but when his finance staff penciled out the costs, he was stunned to learn how they compared with those in China. Liu spent about $500,000 for seven acres in Spartanburg -- less than one-fourth what it would cost to buy the same amount of land in Dongguan, a city in southeast China where he runs three plants. U.S. electricity rates are about 75% lower, and in South Carolina, Liu doesn't have to put up with frequent blackouts. About the only major thing that's more expensive in Spartanburg is labor. Liu is looking to offer $12 to $13 an hour there, versus about $2 an hour in Dongguan, not including room and board. But Liu expects to offset some of the higher labor costs with a payroll tax credit of $1,500 per employee from South Carolina... For years, investment between the U.S. and China flowed one way, with American firms spending billions in the Asian nation. But the Beijing government's $5-billion stake in Morgan Stanley and $3-billion investment in the private equity firm Blackstone Group brought China's overall investments in U.S. firms to $9.8 billion in 2007, up from $36 million the year before, according to Thomson Financial. By comparison, U.S. investment in China was $2.6 billion last year, down from $3 billion in 2006, said China's Ministry of Commerce... "They don't want to miss this opportunity to bottom-fish in the U.S.," said Mei Xinyu, an economist at China's Ministry of Commerce, referring to the depressed asset prices in a sluggish American economy.

• AP - Oil passes 120 dollars a barrel

  Oil futures surged to a new record over $120 a barrel Monday... Supply threats that emerged overseas and a weaker dollar sent light, sweet crude for June delivery to a new trading record of $120.36 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange before futures retreated slightly to settle up $3.65 at a record $119.97.

• NYT - Racial Disparities Found to Persist as Drug Arrests Rise

  More than two decades after President Ronald Reagan escalated the war on drugs, arrests for drug sales or, more often, drug possession are still rising. And despite public debate and limited efforts to reduce them, large disparities persist in the rate at which blacks and whites are arrested and imprisoned for drug offenses, even though the two races use illegal drugs at roughly equal rates... In 2006, according to federal data, drug-related arrests climbed to 1.89 million, up from 1.85 million in 2005 and 581,000 in 1980. More than four in five of the arrests were for possession of banned substances, rather than for their sale or manufacture. Four in 10 of all drug arrests were for marijuana possession, according to the latest F.B.I. data... Two-thirds of those arrested for drug violations in 2006 were white and 33 percent were black, although blacks made up 12.8 percent of the population, F.B.I. data show. National data are not collected on ethnicity, and arrests of Hispanics may be in either category.

• LA Times - Bush visits Greensburg, a town torn and then reborn after 2007 tornado

  On the first anniversary of the storm, President Bush returned to Greensburg to celebrate its "yearlong journey from tragedy to triumph" ... By the estimate of state Democratic House Leader Dennis McKinney, at least half of the 1,400 residents remained. They are rebuilding the town, gamely turning Greensburg green -- figuratively and literally. The town, founded in 1886 and named for a 19th-century stagecoach driver, D.R. "Cannonball" Green, is rising again, built this time with a raft of energy-saving measures incorporated in the designs. Wind turbines and solar panels are contributing power. Native grasses are being planted to lessen the need for water. A quick ride through Greensburg suggests the distance it still has to travel. Entire city blocks are barren but for an occasional elm -- most branches stripped away, but green shoots appearing with the spring. The schools are a collection of double-wide trailers used as classrooms.

• The Hill - McCain courts right wing

  Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) will launch a new push Tuesday to ingratiate himself with social conservatives who mistrust him but whose support is vital to his hopes of winning the White House. Right-wing leaders, who know he needs their backing, are working on a list of demands to pin him down on choosing judges with a conservative philosophy. The two sides are engaged in a minuet that will determine the shape of this year’s Republican presidential platform. Seeking to overcome the right’s persistent mistrust, McCain will speak Tuesday on the importance of nominating conservative jurists to the federal courts, including the Supreme Court.

• LA Times - Uranium claims spring up along Grand Canyon rim

  The United States is on the verge of a uranium mining boom, and nowhere is the hurry to stake claims more pronounced than in the districts flanking the Grand Canyon's storied sandstone cliffs. On public lands within five miles of Grand Canyon National Park, there are now more than 1,100 uranium claims, compared with just 10 in January 2003, according to data from the Department of the Interior.

• McClatchy - More killer germs resisting world's antibiotics

  The threat of death-defying bacteria, stubborn organisms that refuse to be conquered by antibiotic medicines, is growing more alarming. Infectious microbes that used to be able to resist only one drug, such as penicillin or methicillin, now resist multiple drugs. Some can survive virtually every weapon in doctors' medicine cabinets... Two troubling recent developments: Some bacteria have acquired the ability to "eat" the very antibiotic medicines that are supposed to eat them... A lethal new form of tuberculosis, known as XDR-TB, that's virtually impossible to cure has exploded in Africa, Asia and Russia. There are also a small number of cases in the United States.

• WaPo - Air Pollution Impedes Bees' Ability to Find Flowers

  Air pollution interferes with the ability of bees and other insects to follow the scent of flowers to their source, undermining the essential process of pollination, a study by three University of Virginia researchers suggests. Their findings may help unlock part of the mystery surrounding the current pollination crisis that is affecting a wide variety of crops. Scientists are seeking to determine why honeybees and bumblebees are dying off in the United States and in other countries, and the new study indicates that emissions from power plants and automobiles may play a part in the insects' demise.

Europe

• AFP - Russia rehearses inauguration show of strength

  Fighter jets circled over Red Square on Monday as Russia prepared a huge patriotic display around this week's presidential inauguration, amid rising tension with pro-Western neighbour Georgia. MiG fighter jets together with strategic bomber planes thundered over the capital in a rehearsal for traditional World War II commemorations on Friday featuring a show of military hardware unprecedented for the post-Soviet era. The military parade is part of the dramatic backdrop to president-elect Dmitry Medvedev's inauguration on Wednesday, following Soviet-style May Day parades last week.

• AP - War fears over spy-plane row

  Officials in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia yesterday showed off what they said was the wreckage of two unmanned Georgian spy planes that were downed over the weekend. Georgia has denied that any of its planes were shot down, but Russia — a longtime backer of Abkhazia — quickly accused Georgia of inflaming tensions by sending the unmanned planes to spy on Abkhazian forces. Georgia retorted that it was Moscow that was being provocative by unilaterally bolstering its peacekeeping forces.

• LA Times - Investigation sought of alleged Kosovo war crimes

  A leading human rights group today urged the governments of Albania and the self-declared state of Kosovo to investigate horrific allegations about the kidnapping and abuse of Serb civilians after the NATO-led war that drove Serbian forces from Kosovo. The allegations involve about 400 Serbs who went missing after the war, which ended in June 1999. At that time, Kosovo Albanians were gaining power, backed by the United Nations and the U.S. Human Rights Watch, in urging an investigation, cited new information, some of it contained in a controversial book written and released last month by the former lead war crimes prosecutor for the Balkans, Carla Del Ponte.

• CS Monitor - Turkey aims for clout as regional mediator

  Drawing on its close ties with Israel and growing closeness to Syria, Turkey is working to position itself as a key regional mediator in the Middle East... Turkey's bid, analysts say, is part of a larger plan to improve its relations with neighbors and take full advantage of its location and historical Ottoman ties to play a larger role than it has in previous decades. But many questions remain about its ability to establish itself as a heavyweight quite yet.

• Independent - Vivaldi's long-lost opera returns to Prague after 278 years

  A long-lost opera by Antonio Vivaldi was to have its first performance in centuries last night. Argippo, discovered by a Czech musician as he rummaged through an old archive of anonymous scores, was being staged at a castle in Prague, the city where it had its premiere in 1730. Fittingly, it will be conducted by Ondrej Macek, the man who found the manuscript, and played by his Baroque Music Ensemble Hofmusici... Only about two-thirds of it have survived the centuries, and Mr Macek used other arias from Vivaldi to fit the preserved text.

Africa

• LA Times - At least 5 killed in Somalia food riots

  Thousands of angry Somalis rioted Monday over rising food prices and the collapse of the nation's currency, culminating in clashes with government troops and armed shopkeepers that killed at least five protesters, witnesses and officials said. Shops and markets throughout Mogadishu quickly shut their doors as protesters, including many women and children, stoned storefronts and chanted slogans accusing traders of cheating them... Somalia imports at least 60% of its grain and its local crops this year were devastated by a cycle of drought and flooding. As a result, prices for rice, maize, sorghum and other cereals are up between 100% and 400% over the past year. A sack of rice that sold for $32 only one month ago is now going for $52.

• Independent - Confusion over run-off date for Zimbabwe poll

  The uncertainty surrounding a possible second round of voting in Zimbabwe has deepened, with no date announced and no confirmation from the opposition that it will take part while its supporters are under attack from state-sponsored militias. Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, said yesterday that he has taken a decision on participation in the run-off but will not make it public until a date is set. The opposition rejected official results of the 29 March election when they were finally released last week and insist that their candidate won the first round outright. Conflicting reports have emerged over the weekend suggesting that a second round of voting in the presidential contest could be delayed for up to a year, while other officials said they expect the election "within weeks". Under the law, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission is meant to set a date within three weeks of the release of results, but it has the power to extend that period.

• CS Monitor - Ethiopia: A model of African food aid is now in trouble

  Farmers in Ethiopia are better off now than they were four years ago, in part due to better-than-average rains and rising grain prices globally. But there's another reason: Africa's largest beneficiary of foreign aid has shifted from food aid to cash assistance. Ethiopia is seen by aid organizations as a model of how to best help hungry nations. But in an effort to prevent food riots in cities, the government here is again relying on foreign food aid and now prohibits foreign aid groups from buying grains from local farmers. In effect, it may be undermining its own success story.

• Guardian - Breeding toxins from dead PCs

  Thousands of discarded computers from western Europe and the US arrive in the ports of west Africa every day, ending up in massive toxic dumps where children burn and pull them apart to extract metals for cash. The dumping of the developed world's electronic trash, or e-waste, is in direct contravention of international legislation and is causing serious health problems for inhabitants of the shanty towns that have sprung up amid the smouldering dumps in Lagos and Accra. Campaigners believe unscrupulous scrap merchants are illegally dumping millions of tonnes of dangerous waste on the developing world under the guise of exporting it for use in schools and hospitals. They are calling for better policing of the ban on exports of e-waste, which can release lead, mercury and other dangerous chemicals.

Middle East

• NYT - Iraqi President’s Wife Not Hurt by a Roadside Bomb

  Four marines were killed in Anbar Province by a roadside bomb, and in Baghdad, the Iraqi president’s wife narrowly escaped an attack on her motorcade, officials said Sunday. Hiro Ibrahim Ahmed, the wife of President Jalal Talabani, was in a motorcade heading to a cultural festival at the National Theater on Sunday, when a roadside bomb in the Karada district hit the car carrying her bodyguards. She was not wounded, but four of her bodyguards were hurt. The death of the marines in Anbar, in an attack on Friday that the military reported Sunday, was one of the deadliest in months on American troops in the province. For much of the past 18 months, Anbar, once one of the most violent places in Iraq, has been mostly quiet. But recently there have been several suicide bombings and other attacks, primarily aimed at Iraqis who have joined the Awakening movement, groups of former fighters and tribal members who decided to work with the American military to fight Islamic extremists.

• NYT - Iran Rejects More Talks on Iraq With U.S.

  Iran said that it would not hold talks with the United States on Iraq while American forces were fighting Shiite militias in Sadr City, the Iranian Foreign Ministry reported on its Web site on Monday... The Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mohammad Ali Hosseini, said another round of talks would be ineffective while what he called American "occupying forces" were undertaking "indiscriminate bombardment of Iraqi residential areas." "Given the current circumstances, holding the next round of talks would have no result and makes no sense," Mr. Hosseini said...

• McClatchy - Iraq backs off allegations that Iran is behind violence

  The Iraqi Government seemed to distance itself from U.S. accusations towards Iran Sunday saying it would not be forced into conflict with its Shiite neighbor. And Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki ordered the formation of a committee to look into foreign intervention in Iraq. As the government appeared to back down from its hardening stance against Iran, four marines were killed in Anbar in the deadliest attack in the Sunni province in months.

• NYT - Hezbollah Trains Iraqis in Iran, Officials claim

  Militants from the Lebanese group Hezbollah have been training Iraqi militia fighters at a camp near Tehran, according to American interrogation reports that the United States has supplied to the Iraqi government. An American official said the account of Hezbollah’s role was provided by four Shiite militia members who were captured in Iraq late last year and questioned separately.

South Asia

• NYT - Police and Army Officers Tied to Attempt on Karzai’s Life

  Afghanistan’s defense minister confirmed Sunday that a police captain was connected with the group behind the assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai a week earlier and that an army officer supplied the weapons and ammunition used in the attack. Both men have been arrested and are under investigation for their suspected role in the attack on the military parade, which killed three people, including a member of Parliament, and wounded 11. One of the suspects may have been a sympathizer, and the other was probably motivated by money, Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said. Afghanistan’s intelligence chief, Amrullah Saleh, blamed Al Qaeda for the attack. He said three of the men involved were in contact with people outside Afghanistan, including people in Miram Shah, a town in Pakistan’s tribal region of North Waziristan, the main base for Taliban and Al Qaeda in the region.

• AP - Afghan officials: 3 accidental blasts kill 9 in Afghanistan

  Three accidental explosions in the Afghan capital have left nine people dead and more than 20 wounded, including some counternarcotics police, officials said Monday. A policeman dropped a rocket-propelled grenade that exploded as his unit set off from Kabul on Monday on an opium poppy eradication mission north of the city, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary. Three policeman were killed in the blast, an Interior Ministry statement said. At least eight others were wounded, said Dr. Ahmad Zia Aftali, chief of the hospital where the injured were taken for treatment.

• BBC News - Anger in Pakistan at poll delays

  The main parties in Pakistan's new government have condemned a decision by the election commission to postpone a number of by-elections for two months. The commission says the delay is partly due to security concerns, particularly in the north-west. Neither of Pakistan's top politicians, Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif, ran in the February elections that saw President Musharraf's allies routed. Reports say both are considering standing in the by-elections.

• NDTV - Delhi's water woes grow this summer

  Delhi has been without water since the last 10 days. Life in north Delhi is like living in a desert refugee camp. The situation is so bad that residents are using disposable plates and cups to conserve every last drop of liquid gold... Nearly one out of very six people in Delhi is experiencing the water crisis because two reservoirs that get Yamuna river water haven't filled up this summer. The Delhi Jal Board says Haryana hasn't released the water to these reservoirs. Apart from Rajinder Nagar, Civil Lines, Paharganj, many areas of Central Delhi are also facing a similar problem.

• Independent - Suicide of farmer poet highlights the poverty trap in India

  Farming and poetry were inextricably linked for Shrikrishna Kalamb. As he poured his efforts into scraping a livelihood for him and his family from the unyielding land, so he described in verse the scale of his struggle. It was a struggle he ultimately lost. Confronted by large debts, a mounting sense of futility and worried as to how he would pay for the weddings of his five daughters, Mr Kalamb, 50, hanged himself. In his final poem, written just two days before he took life, he wrote: "My life is different; my death will be like untimely rain." Mr Kalamb took his life at the end of March, one of tens of thousands of Indian farmers who have committed suicide in recent years.

Asia-Pacific

• NYT - China Petrochemical Project Opposed

  Hundreds of people marched in a western provincial capital in China over the weekend to protest environmental risks they said were associated with the construction of a petrochemical factory and oil refinery, witnesses said Monday. It was the latest in a series of rare but increasingly ambitious organized movements in Chinese cities aimed at derailing government-backed industrial projects that the protesters said could damage the environment and people’s health.

• NYT - Chinese Officials Meet With Dalai Lama’s Representatives

  In their first direct talks since the outbreak of violence in Tibet in March, Chinese officials met with representatives of the Dalai Lama on Sunday, although it was unclear whether there was any progress in easing tensions between Beijing and the exiled Tibetan leader. According to Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, the daylong talks, in the southern city of Shenzhen, mostly involved finger-wagging and a warning that future dialogue would be fruitless unless the Dalai Lama ceased advocating Tibetan independence. They also urged him to stop "disrupting and sabotaging" the upcoming Olympic Games. The Dalai Lama, who has repeatedly said he is not seeking the secession of Tibet, has denied any role in the unrest.

• WaPo - Taiwan Vice Premier Suspected of Corruption

  Taiwanese prosecutors announced Monday that Vice Premier Chiou I-jen is suspected of corruption in connection with a diplomatic scandal involving an alleged attempt to defraud the government of nearly $30 million. Chiou was responsible for choosing two intermediaries who were entrusted with the money in 2006 as part of an attempt to induce the South Pacific country of Papua New Guinea to grant diplomatic recognition to Taiwan. Senior officials said the two men hoodwinked the Foreign Ministry and took the money for themselves.

• LA Times - Philippines feels the pinch of dollar's decline

  The dollar's slide against other currencies is rippling across the globe: It is keeping more American tourists at home, raising prices on imports and creating bargains for foreigners swooping down on U.S. assets. It is also causing financial pain in less obvious places, such as the Philippines, where millions of people have come to rely on the purchasing power of dollars sent home by relatives working abroad. An estimated 10 million overseas Philippine workers provide money for an even greater multiple of dependents at home. A year ago, one dollar bought 49 Philippine pesos. Today, it brings about 41 pesos, a sharp depreciation that has coincided with rising commodity prices to create an economic crunch in this archipelago of 92 million.

• SMH - Cut cannabis use by selling it at the post office: expert

  Cannabis would be sold legally in post offices in packets that warn against its effects under a proposal outlined by the head of a Sydney drug and alcohol clinic. The director of the alcohol and drug service at St Vincent's Hospital, Alex Wodak, said Australia needed to learn from the tobacco industry and the US Prohibition era in coming to terms with his belief that cannabis use would replace cigarette consumption over the next decade. "The general principal is that it's not sustainable that we continue to give criminals and corrupt police a monopoly to sell a drug that is soon going to be consumed by more people than tobacco," he said.

• SMH - Burying coal fumes a 'smokescreen'

  Carbon capture and storage technology, which is central to the Federal Government's climate change strategy, is a mirage that is damaging efforts to develop renewable energy, a global report funded by Greenpeace has found. The report was criticised yesterday by the resources industry and the mining union, which are relying on the technology to cut down emissions from coal-burning power stations.

Americas

• NYT - Clashes in Bolivia on Vote Over More Autonomy

  Street clashes broke out here and in small towns in the surrounding countryside on Sunday as Santa Cruz, Bolivia’s largest province and a bastion of separatist groups, held a referendum on measures that would give it greater autonomy from the government of President Evo Morales. Still, voting unfolded without hindrance at most polling places even as Mr. Morales denounced the vote as illegal and some of his supporters laid siege to voting stations in isolated attacks. Dozens of people were injured in the scattered clashes, according to radio reports, including one demonstrator hit by a dynamite blast in the town of Montero.

• Miami Herald - U.S. base is no longer welcome in Ecuador

  With 18 months left on its decade-long contract, the U.S. Forward Operating Location in Manta has few friends in this South American nation -- and fewer still who believe that the agreement has any hope of being extended. Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa has vowed not to renew the base's contract beyond its November 2009 expiration. And politicians drafting a new constitution have proposed banning the base or any other foreign military presence in the country. If the Manta base closes, it would leave the United States shopping for a new airstrip for the radar-mounted AWAC E3s, and P-3 spy planes that ply the Eastern Pacific, looking for drug runners...

• LA Times - New Colombia drug gangs wreak havoc

  A new generation of criminal gangs... have emerged in the two years since right-wing paramilitary fighters officially disbanded. The status of the paramilitary fighters has serious ramifications for President Alvaro Uribe, a conservative U.S. ally who famously broke up the militias, which were playing a role in destabilizing the country. But he has seen his presidency challenged by revelations that many of his closest allies were tied to the right-wing gunmen. The paramilitary groups, originally formed to defend farmers and ranchers against leftist rebels, subsequently turned to drug trafficking and other criminal activities, including extortion and mass killings, prosecutors say.

• MercoPress - Dubai begins expansion of Peru’s main port El Callao

  Global port operator Dubai Ports World has started the construction of the 300 million US dollars Muelle Sur Container Terminal at the Port of El Callao, Peru. Peruvian president Alan Garcia was present at the ground-breaking ceremony that marked the beginning of the expansion project of the country's most important port.

• CS Monitor - Brazil defends ethanol in food-versus-fuel fight

  Brazil, the world's biggest ethanol exporter, is bristling over criticism of its biofuel. As wheat, rice, and corn prices rise sharply, critics say producing fuel for cars is taking precedence over food for people... President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva says the bad publicity is unwarranted and uninformed. Many biofuel experts agree. Critics, they say, fail to distinguish between the different kinds of ethanol. Brazilian ethanol from sugar cane is up to eight times more energy efficient to produce than ethanol derived from corn, beets, wheat, or other temperate crops. And Brazilian officials point out that there's plenty of sugar. Brazilian sugar production has doubled since the end of the last decade and is expected to grow by another 50 percent by 2021, says Marcos Jank, the president of Unica, the Brazilian Sugar Cane Industry Association... Brazil has around 160 million hectares of arable land ready to be planted, and although claims that no trees are being cut down to plant sugar cane might be true, they are also disingenuous, environmentalists say.

• NYT - Mexico Cites Reprisals in Killings of 9 Officers

  In what appears to be a bloody counteroffensive by drug cartels responding to a government crackdown, nine federal police officers, including the chief of the organized crime division, have been killed in the past three weeks. The brazen killings demonstrated not only that the federal police are unable to protect their own from hit-and-run attacks, but also that the antidrug offensive that President Felipe Calderón began last year still faced powerful resistance... Mexico has suffered a wave of violence since President Calderón sent troops and federal officers into drug-plagued towns and states last year to restore order and clean up corrupt local police forces. At least 3,500 people have died in the mayhem, among them at least 200 police officers.

• Globe and Mail - Quebec spurs rush in wind power

  Quebec, long a world leader in the generation of hydroelectric power, is now set to become one of the continent's biggest wind power developers. Premier Jean Charest yesterday approved 15 bids for $5.5-billion in projects that would provide 2,004 megawatts by 2015, calling the development "the largest tender for wind-powered energy ever awarded in a single block in North America." The wind projects would provide enough power to heat and light 320,000 Quebec homes. The projects are the second phase of a program that has already seen 1,000 megawatts of wind-powered energy awarded by the province. Quebec currently generates more than 400 megawatts from about a dozen wind farms, mostly located in the Gaspé region.