US newspaper circulation slide accelerates

Daily circulation figures for US newspapers released on Monday provided more bad news for an industry battling the flight of readers to the Web and battered by a steep decline in advertising revenue.

Newspaper salesman Dallas Ayers waits for customers at his kiosk in San Francisco, California in September 2009. (AFP Photo)

Average daily circulation fell more than 10 percent in the April-September period compared with the same period last year, accelerating a slide that has led to bankruptcies, closures and cutbacks in newsrooms across the country.
  
 Average Sunday circulation for 562 newspapers was down 7.49 percent.
   
The figures from Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) also confirmed that The Wall Street Journal has become the largest US newspaper by weekday circulation, leapfrogging USA Today.
   
Of the top 25 US newspapers, the News Corp.-owned Journal was the only one to increase Monday-Friday circulation, gaining 0.61 percent to 2.02 million.
   
USA Today’s circulation fell 17.5 percent to 1.9 million.
   
The Journal is one of the few US papers to charge readers online and Web subscriptions are counted in its circulation figures.
   
Two other top 25 newspapers, The Denver Post and The Seattle Times, also gained circulation but only after their competitors, The Rocky Mountain News and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer respectively — closed down.
   
The New York Times remained the third-largest newspaper in the country but its circulation declined 7.28 percent to 927,851, the first time it has fallen below one million in more than 20 years.
   
Average daily circulation for 379 daily newspapers was down 10.62 percent at the end of September to 30.39 million from 34.0 million at the end of September 2008, according to the ABC.
   
The slide was greater than the 7.09 percent registered during the October to March period and the 4.64 percent decline during April to September last year.
   
The San Francisco Chronicle, whose owner Hearst Corp. threatened in February to close the daily if unions did not agree to steep cutbacks, suffered the biggest circulation drop, shedding 25.82 percent to 251,782.
   
Other big losers were the Newark Star-Ledger, down 22.22 percent to 246,006, and the Dallas Morning News, down 22.16 percent to 263,810.
   
The News Corp.-owned New York Post lost 18.77 percent to 508,042 while The Boston Globe, owned by the New York Times Co., shed 18.48 percent to 264,105.
   
The Los Angeles Times, owned by the bankrupt Tribune Co., saw its circulation fall 11.05 percent to 657,467 while the Tribune Co. flagship Chicago Tribune lost 9.72 percent to 465,892.
   
The Washington Post’s circulation dropped 6.40 percent to 582,844.
   
Newsday, which announced plans last week to begin charging readers online, lost 5.40 percent to 357,124.
   
Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst at the Poynter Institute, a non-profit journalism school based in Florida, said he had been expecting particularly poor circulation figures for the six-month period.
   
“I thought they’d be especially bad this time, which does seem to be the case,” Edmonds told AFP.
   
He chalked up the weak performance to several factors including the continued “movement over time from print to online.”
   
Edmonds said there has also been a trend among some metropolitan dailies of “pulling back from trying to serve distant areas that are expensive to serve and don’t have a lot of value to advertisers.”
   
“In essence they’re just letting that kind of circulation go,” he said, citing the San Francisco Chronicle as a case in point.
   
“We’re also looking at a period that reflects the economy itself being down,” Edmonds said. “A lot of people are out of work, cutting back here and there, and at least some of these are going to be cutting newspaper purchases.”

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Palestinian farmers struggle with water crisis

Once a proud grower of bananas, Abdullah Naji has been harvesting little more than dust in recent years. He blames his ill-fortune both on drought and on Israel’s water policies.

A Palestinian man is seen in his farm in the West Bank village of al-Auja, the heart of the West Bank’s traditionally fertile Jordan Valley. (AFP Photo)

“Every day I pray for water,” says Naji, 40.
   
But his village of Auja, in the heart of the West Bank’s traditionally fertile Jordan Valley, is bone dry. Even the goats cannot find food amid the rocks and dust.
   
Naji gave up his banana plantation two years ago and converted to herding sheep.
   
“At least now he can complain to his animals,” a neighbour jokes.
   
But even feeding the livestock has become a problem, as it is in much of the Middle East which is suffering its worst sustained drought in decades.
   
Auja villagers and their animals have survived in recent months thanks to fodder donated by the Oxfam aid group, which has also been delivering storage tanks and water to impoverished communities in the area.
   
“They, on the other hand,” Naji says, pointing in the direction of a nearby Israeli settlement, “have all the water they want.”
   
A canal runs alongside the village, but locals say it has not channelled any water since May. The spring that used to serve thousands of people in the area throughout the year has dried up.
   
Aid groups blame this on the construction of a new well that serves the 175 Israelis who make up the Yitav settlement.
   
Jewish settlements boast well-irrigated farms, orchards and vineyards, in sharp contrast to the dusty Palestinian villages and the surrounding rocky desert dotted with dirt-poor Bedouin encampments.
   
Amnesty International says in a report issued on Tuesday that discriminatory Israeli policies in the occupied Palestinian territories are the root cause of the striking disparity in access to water between Palestinians and Israelis.
   
“Israel allows the Palestinians access to only a fraction of the shared water resources, which lie mostly in the occupied West Bank, while the unlawful Israeli settlements there receive virtually unlimited supplies,” says Amnesty researcher Donatela Robera.
  
 A World Bank study earlier this year blamed the dire water shortages in part on Israeli restrictions, but also on bad Palestinian management.
   
Responding to the Amnesty report, Israel squarely blames the Palestinians.
   
“Israel uses less today than it did in 1967,” when it occupied the Palestinian territories, even though its population has grown, government spokesman Mark Regev told AFP.
   
“Palestinians received billions of dollars in aid. Why wasn’t it used for more efficient infrastructure?”
   
But Palestinians are not allowed to drill new wells or rehabilitate old ones without permits from the Israeli authorities, which are often impossible to obtain. Many rural communities rely on water tankers.
   
“This area is rich in water below the ground,” says Auja resident Khader Zawahra, 37.
   
“But we can’t get to it. Most of the water is at a depth of 500 metres (1,650 feet), but Israel only allows us to rehabilitate a well at 100 metres where there is little water.”
   
His brother Suleiman Zawahra says he can remember the days, about 10 years ago, when life was still good.
   
“There was water all year around. There were a lot of fields and enough barley for the animals,” he says, watching his three scrawny camels chew on straw.
 

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US Senate to debate wider government health care role

President Barack Obama’s top Senate ally announced plans Monday to start debate on historic legislation to remake US health care, including a controversial government-backed insurance plan.

After months of often fevered nationwide debate, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Senate would soon take up a bill that includes a so-called “public option” to compete with private insurers.
   
“It will protect consumers, keep insurers honest and ensure competition. And that’s why we intend to include it in the bill that will be submitted to the Senate,” said the Nevada senator.
   
Supporters of such a plan, which could bring the United States more in line with other industrialized democracies, say it’s the best way to tame runaway US health costs and help the country’s roughly 46 million uninsured people.
   
Opponents, chiefly Obama’s Republican foes but also about a dozen swing-vote Democrats in the 100-seat Senate, say it risks competing unfairly with private insurers, driving them out of business and leading to rationed care.
   
Reid said the public option was “not a silver bullet” but pointed to recent public opinion polls that showed a majority of Americans support the option to pick a government-backed insurance plan.
   
“I believe that a public option can achieve the goal of bringing meaningful reform to our broken system,” he said.
   
The Senate debate on the bill, a compromise between legislation from two Senate committees, will begin as soon as congressional budget analysts formally estimates how much the measure will cost — most likely later this week — according to Reid.
   
His announcement, welcomed by the White House and condemned by its Republican opponents, made it increasingly likely that Obama’s historic drive to overhaul US health care this year will result in a wider government role.
   
Obama, who wants to complete health care reform this year, believes “we’re closer than we’ve ever been to solving this decades-old problem,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement.
  
 ”The president is pleased at the progress that Congress has made. He’s also pleased that the Senate has decided to include a public option for health coverage, in this case with an allowance for states to opt out.”
   
Republicans, who have historically opposed creating new government health care programs, waged a months-long blitz to defeat the public option and have moved to delay the Democratic health care drive.
   
“No matter what you call it or how you dress it up, the Democrats’ proposal is government-run insurance,” charged Senator Jon Kyl, the number two Senate Republican.
   
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has already said the lower chamber’s version would include a “robust” public option, making it all but certain that the final legislation that reaches Obama’s desk will include a broader government health care role.
   
Reid declined to say whether he had the 60 votes needed to ensure that Democrats — who control exactly that many votes — can overrun any parliamentary delaying tactics and pass the legislation.
   
But he acknowledged that including the provision would drive off the lone Republican to support Obama’s efforts thus far, Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, and said he hoped she would change her mind.
   
“We’ll have to move forward on this, and there comes a time, I hope, where she sees the wisdom of supporting a health care bill after having had an opportunity, her and others, to offer amendments,” said Reid.
   
His office declined to provide a summary of the legislation, which could be made public as soon as Tuesday, but the senator himself said it would give states until 2014 to opt out of the public option.
   
Reid had been working with key senators and the White House to blend rival health care bills approved by the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

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Iran may give ‘part’ of low-enriched uranium as per deal: FM

TEHRAN, Oct 26, 2009 (AFP) – Iran said on Monday it may deliver abroad “part” of its existing stock of low-enriched uranium to be further processed, in accordance with a deal being brokered by the UN atomic watchdog.

“For the supply of (nuclear) fuel, we may buy it like in the past or we may deliver a part of our (low-enriched uranium) fuel that we don’t need now,” Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told the official IRNA news agency.

The UN atomic watchdog is brokering a deal whereby Iran would ship 1,200 kilos of its LEU to be enriched to a higher purity level and returned as nuclear fuel for a Tehran research reactor.

But the deal is facing increasing criticism in Iran with top officials suggesting Tehran would be better off buying the fuel directly rather than handing over its LEU stock.

Mottaki said “both options are on the table” for procuring the fuel needed for the Tehran reactor.

“Making a decision to choose which option is on the agenda of the Islamic republic and in the next few days the decision will be announced,” Mottaki said.

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Oil price slip on profit-taking, Nigeria ceasefire

LONDON, Oct 26, 2009 (AFP) – Oil prices fell Monday on profit-taking and as a ceasefire took hold in Nigeria, whose crude production has been ravaged by militant attacks in recent years, analysts said.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in December, shed 49 cents to 80.01 dollars a barrel.

Brent North Sea crude for December lost 40 cents to 78.52 dollars in early London trade.

New York crude oil hit 82 dollars on Wednesday, the highest level since October 14, 2008, as the market took its cue from a slumping US currency.

Nigeria’s main armed group in the oil-rich Niger Delta declared on Sunday an “indefinite ceasefire” to encourage dialogue with the government but the Abuja authorities rejected the fighters’ mediation team.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it made its decision after the government “expressed its readiness to engage in serious and meaningful dialogue with every group or individual towards achieving a lasting peace in the Niger Delta.”

MEND’s attacks on Nigeria’s oil industry have helped play havoc with oil prices on the world market and slashed the nation’s output by a third since 2006. Nigeria is the world’s eighth-largest oil producer.

Analysts at JBC Energy consultancy in Vienna said that the Nigerian ceasefire was “positive news” which would ease supply worries.

“Last week’s announcement by the Nigerian government that it is willing to give 10 percent of the country’s oil wealth to the residents of the Niger Delta appears to be paying dividends, with Nigeria’s main militant group MEND announcing … it is to reinstate a previous ceasefire to engage in talks with the government,” JBC analysts said.

“However, the security situation in Iraq looks increasingly uncertain following two bombings at the weekend.

“This again put into question just how much the country will be able to increase its oil output in the next few years.”

Iraqi security forces were on high alert on Monday, a day after twin suicide vehicle bombs blamed on Al-Qaeda killed 99 people and blasted government offices in Baghdad.

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Iraq bombings spark international fury

BAGHDAD (AFP) – Iraqi security forces were on high alert on Monday, a day after twin suicide vehicle bombs blamed on Al-Qaeda killed 99 people in Baghdad, provoking widespread international condemnation.

The near-simultaneous attacks targeting government offices in the centre of the capital were the deadliest in the violence-wracked country in more than two years. More than 700 people were wounded.

An Iraqi man is lifted off the ground as he grieves following a suicide bombing outside the Baghdad Provincial Governorate in central Baghdad on October 25 (AFP photo)

US soldiers were called in to assist with the investigation into the bombings, as Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki pledged that the perpetrators would be brought to justice.

One of the attackers exploded a truck bomb at a busy intersection near the justice and municipalities ministries, while the other detonated a car bomb opposite the nearby Baghdad provincial government offices.

Shortly after the attacks, Maliki visited the site of the provincial government attack, where he spoke to officials and security officers.

“These cowardly terrorist attacks must not affect the determination of the Iraqi people to continue their struggle against the remnants of the dismantled regime and Al-Qaeda terrorists,” Maliki said in a later statement.

He said the attacks would not affect the political process or parliamentary elections due in January, and promised to punish those behind the bombings. Related article: Iraq’s bloodshed

US President Barack Obama led international condemnation of Sunday’s attacks and offered his condolences by telephone to both Maliki and President Jalal Talabani.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen condemned as “reprehensible” the attacks, saying in a statement: “On behalf of NATO, I strongly condemn the bombing that occurred today in Baghdad, which caused huge loss of innocent life.”

The European Union’s Swedish presidency expressed its disgust, while France offered its “full solidarity” and Britain said the attacks had “no justification”.

Iran joined the condemnation. “These terrorist actions aim to wreck stability and the process of reinforcing democratic structures,” a foreign ministry official said.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh and Major General Qassim Atta, spokesman for the Iraqi army’s Baghdad operations, both said 99 people had been killed in the attacks.

Atta added that the truck was carrying one tonne of explosives and the car was packed with 700 kilograms (more than 1,500 pounds) of explosives.

The toll was the highest in a coordinated attack in Iraq since four truck bombings on August 14, 2007, killed more than 400 people in two Kurdish villages.

The US military, which has around 120,000 soldiers stationed in Iraq, “provided explosive ordnance disposal teams and forensics personnel to assist with the investigation following the attacks,” a military spokesman said in an email.

Two American security contractors were among the wounded in the blasts, a US embassy spokeswoman said in a statement.

The explosions were a grim reminder of deadly truck bombings which shook the ministries of foreign affairs and finance on August 19, when at least 95 people were killed.

Baghdad blamed those attacks on supporters of the Baath party, whom it says were given safe haven in neighbouring Syria, dramatically damaging ties between the countries.

Sunday’s twin bombings came ahead of a meeting of senior Iraqi political leaders over a stalled election law, amid growing concerns that the country’s January 16 election will have to be delayed.

Prospects for consensus appeared grim after the meeting concluded without agreement, and Maliki is to hold further discussions with Talabani and parliament speaker Iyad al-Samarrai on Monday.

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Calm returns to Jerusalem’s Old City after clashes

JERUSALEM, Oct 26, 2009 (AFP) – Israeli police reopened the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound to Muslim worshippers and tourists on Monday, a day after the latest clashes erupted in and around Jerusalem’s flashpoint site.

The streets of the Old City remained calm after the latest violence to shake the site, known as Al-Haram Al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) to Muslims and as Temple Mount to Jews.

Palestinian Muslim women stand next to an Israeli policeman during clashes near the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem’s old city on October 25, 2009 (AFP photo)

“There are still a number of police patrolling in and around the Old City,” Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. “But the Temple Mount will be open to both visitors and Muslim worshippers.”

The site of the compound is the holiest place in Judaism and third-holiest to Muslims, after the Saudi cities of Mecca and Medina.

Dozens of Israeli police and Palestinians were wounded when clashes erupted at the compound on Sunday after Muslim leaders called on their followers to defend the site, accusing Jewish extremists of plotting to enter.

Police twice entered the compound and clashed with stone-throwing Palestinian youths in the narrow streets of the Old City, Jerusalem’s main tourist attraction. At least 18 Palestinians were detained during the fighting.

Sunday’s violence was the latest to rock the holy site, where perceived changes in the status quo have often sparked deadly clashes.

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S. Korea court convicts disgraced stem cell scientist

SEOUL, Oct 26, 2009 (AFP) – A South Korean court Monday imposed a suspended prison term on a disgraced scientist whose claims of stem cell breakthroughs rocked the scientific world until his research was found to be faked.

The court passed a two-year sentence suspended for three years on Hwang Woo-Suk after convicting him of embezzling research funds and of ethical lapses in obtaining human eggs for experiments.

Hwang Woo-Suk (C) answers questions from reporters after his trial on charges of fabricating data for his research papers at the Seoul Central District Court on October 26, 2009 (AFP photo)

It found him not guilty of defrauding private entities which had contributed funds to his research.

Prosecutors had demanded a four-year jail term for Hwang, 56, who went on trial in June 2006. He remained expressionless as the verdict was read.

Judges ruled he had known that his team “exaggerated or manipulated” some experiments, although they found no evidence he directly instructed them to do so.

Hwang shot to fame in 2004 when he published a paper in the US journal “Science” claiming to have created the world’s first stem cell line from a cloned human embryo.

In a follow-up paper in 2005 in the same journal, he maintained that his team had developed 11 patient-specific embryonic stem cell lines.

The claims raised hopes of new treatments for diseases such as cancer, diabetes and Parkinson’s.

The government showered Hwang and his team from the prestigious Seoul National University (SNU) with money and honours. Hwang was awarded the title of “Supreme Scientist”.

But his reputation was tarnished in November 2005 amid allegations that he had violated medical ethics by accepting human eggs from his own researchers.

Hwang apologised for the lapse but the scandal widened with reports from local television network MBC that his entire research was fabricated.

In January 2006 an SNU investigative team ruled in a report that his findings were faked and said he had produced no stem cells of any kind.

But he still retains a loyal following.

After sentence was passed, supporters inside the courtroom clapped and shouted “Doctor Hwang, cheer up!” Hwang smiled and shook hands with them. saying his lawyers would decide whether to appeal.

About 100 supporters outside wildly applauded Hwang as he walked out through a crowd of journalists. The court received petitions from 55 lawmakers and others calling for leniency.

Hwang was also found guilty of breaching a law on bioethics which bans illegal human egg transactions. “Hwang and his team failed to prove that they were not involved in illegal trading of human eggs,” the verdict said.

The judges said Hwang had misappropriated a combined 830 million won (704,000 dollars) in research funds by using borrowed bank accounts or manipulating tax bills.

But they said he did not do so for personal profit.

Hwang’s work in creating Snuppy (Seoul National University puppy), the world’s first cloned dog, has been independently verified.

While on bail during the trial, he focused on animal cloning after losing his government licence for human stem cell research.

“His brilliant achievements in animal experiments, his sincere repentance and the fact he was already disciplined by his school should be considered,” the judges said.

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Japan PM pushes for ‘equal’ ties with US

TOKYO, Oct 26, 2009 (AFP) – Japan’s centre-left Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama stressed in his first policy address to parliament Monday that he wants a relationship of equals with chief ally the United States.

Hatoyama, who took power last month, was speaking ahead of Barack Obama’s first visit to Tokyo as US president on November 12-13 and amid a row about where to relocate a major US base on a southern island.

“The close and equal alliance between Japan and the United States is the foundation” of efforts to secure regional peace that would benefit Japan, Asia and the entire world, he said.

“Being equal means a relationship in which Japan can also actively propose roles and concrete actions that the Japan-US alliance could perform for global peace and security,” the 62-year-old leader told the Diet.

Hatoyama also said he would hold “frank talks” about pending issues between the two long-standing allies, including touchy questions related to the 47,000-strong US troop presence in the country.

Japan’s Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama (R) shakes hands with Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan (C) after Hatoyama’s first policy speech at the Diet in Tokyo on October 26 , 2009 (AFP photo)

The main debate has been about the US Marine Corps Futenma Air Base on Okinawa, a facility long opposed by many residents annoyed by aircraft noise, worried about accidents and angered by crimes committed by US personnel.

Hatoyama’s government has said it would review a 2006 agreement to move the base from a crowded urban area to a coastal area of Okinawa by 2014, repeatedly suggesting that the facility may be moved off the island entirely.

Washington has urged Tokyo to honour the previous commitments, and US Defense Secretary Robert Gates on a Tokyo visit last week urged Japan to resolve the issue before Obama’s visit.

In his parliamentary address, Hatoyama pledged closer cooperation with the United States in the fight against global warming and strong support for “President Obama’s courageous proposal for a nuclear-free world.”

Hatoyama also said he sought closer cooperation with Russia and vowed to solve a long-standing territorial row with Moscow over four islands which Soviet troops occupied in the closing days of World War II.

“I will position Russia as a partner in the Asia-Pacific region and will strengthen cooperative relations,” Hatoyama said, without elaborating.

Pressing his vision of an EU-style Asian community, he also said he would promote cooperation with South Korea, China, the Southeast Asian nations and other Asian countries.

Domestically, Hatoyama spoke on his vision of a kinder, gentler society guided by the spirit of “fraternity” and said market forces are useful for a country but must be tempered to create a liveable society.

“It is self-evident that free economic activity in markets invigorates society,” he said. “But it is also obvious that the idea of letting markets decide everything for the survival of the strongest, or the idea of ‘economic rationalism’ at the expense of people’s lives, does not hold true any more.”

Hatoyama’s Democratic Party of Japan won a sweeping victory in August 30 lower house elections, ousting the business-friendly Liberal Democratic Party which had ruled with only one brief break since 1955.

The new government has promised more generous social welfare, including child payments and free school tuition, and has vowed to return power to elected politicians by reining in the powerful state bureaucracy.

Almost six weeks in office, Hatoyama is riding high on strong public support and landslide wins in two upper house by-elections on Sunday.

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Thousands eat breakfast on Sydney Harbour Bridge

SYDNEY (AFP) – Thousands sat down to breakfast on the Sydney Harbour Bridge on Sunday after the iconic structure was closed to traffic and carpeted with grass for the first time for a giant picnic.

About 6,000 early risers were on the steel bridge from 6:30 am to take part in the two-hour event designed to showcase Sydney’s best food and outdoor lifestyle.

Thousands of Sydney residents picnic on 10,000 square metres of grass at the inaugural ‘Breakfast On The Bridge’ event spanning the Sydney Harbour Bridge (AFP photo)

As accordion players and trumpeters provided the background music, those who had won tickets to the picnic in a random lottery munched on fruit, pastries, muesli, yoghurt, and the staple Australian breakfast spread Vegemite.

“It’s amazing to see the bridge in this perspective,” said Sydneysider Don Fuchs of the structure which is used by about 100,000 cars daily.

“Usually you sit in the car, you cross it, and that’s it.”

“It was beautiful,” said Linda Curnow who attended the picnic with her family. “The grass was so thick it was like being in your back yard.”

New South Wales state Premier Nathan Rees said the event was set to become an annual feature of Sydney’s month-long October food festival.

About 45,000 people applied for tickets to the breakfast for which people brought their own food but were able to taste samples from some of the state’s best producers.

“I don’t think we were ever doubtful of the success of this event today,” a government spokesman told AFP. “It was a unique world first for this iconic attraction. This type of event typifies the Australian personality.”

Organisers are planning to use about 40 percent of the grass on Sydney parks.

The bridge was due to reopen at about 1:00 pm.

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