Six In The Morning

Britain in talks with 10 more Gaddafi aides

Inner circle turn their backs on besieged Libyan dictator

By Cahal Milmo, Oliver Wright and Donald Macintyre in Tripoli Friday, 1 April 2011

The British Government said it was in urgent talks with up to another 10 senior figures in Colonel Gaddafi’s creaking regime about possible defection following the dramatic arrival in Britain of the Libyan dictator’s chief henchman for much of his 40 years in power.

As former foreign minister Moussa Koussa was reported to be “talking voluntarily” to British officials yesterday, the Libyan regime was desperately struggling to limit the damage of the stunning desertion, suggesting he was exhausted and suffering from mental problems.

Sour economy, multiple crises test Japan’s young

Some graduates, destined for corporate life, find purpose volunteering to help those left destitute by quake, tsunami

By Ken Benson

TOKYO – As hundreds of thousands of young people begin their working lives on Friday, they face a transformed Japan that will test a generation reared in affluence yet dismissed by its elders as selfish materalists.

April 1 is the traditional entrance day for incoming classes of new employees, who assume adult responsibilities and values along with the new suits and crisp white shirts that are the uniforms of corporate Japan. But they face a landscape as uncertain as any in their lives, with Japan’s economy hobbled and its national pride bruised by the triple disasters of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis.

Yo Miura had expected to enter a bank in the Sendai area, counting on a steady income and a modest amount of prestige.

Call for Lenin’s remains to be moved

The Irish Times – Friday, April 1, 2011  

DANIEL McLAUGHLIN in Moscow

ADVISERS TO Kremlin chief Dmitry Medvedev have called for the removal of the remains of revolutionary Vladimir Lenin from his Red Square mausoleum as part of major plans to erase remnants of Soviet life from modern Russia.

The project was revealed as the Russian president seeks to portray himself as the progressive face of politics in the country, in contrast to his conservative mentor, prime minister Vladimir Putin, who has lamented the collapse of the Soviet Union and restored huge power to the security services.

It is not clear which of the men will run in next year’s presidential election, though they have pledged not to go head-to-head. Competition between them and their respective cliques is intensifying, with speculation about growing tension in their relationship.

Bears face shrinking future



Mike Campbell

April 1, 2011

THE surface area of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean shrank this northern winter to one of its lowest levels in decades – more bad news for polar bears, which depend on the ice to survive.

Since the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre began tracking sea ice three decades ago, only in 2006 was there as little ice during a northern hemisphere winter – 14.6 million square kilometres.

That’s nearly 8 per cent less than the average of 15.9 million square kilometres recorded from 1979 to 2000.

Japan repeats claims over Dokdo in diplomatic report

 

04-01-2011 10:01

Japan repeated its territorial claims over South Korea’s easternmost islets of Dokdo in its annual diplomatic report Friday, an official said, just two days after Tokyo approved a series of textbooks claiming the islets as its territory.

Shortly after Japan’s Cabinet approved the “Diplomatic Blue Paper” report for 2011 with claims to the islets, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak vowed to continue to reinforce South Korea’s control of the islets, saying Dokdo “is our territory” no matter what happens.

Referring to calls for stronger government action on the issue, Lee said, however, that it wouldn’t be wise for Seoul to make a big deal of the Dokdo matter as the islets are under South Korean control.

“We will continue to undertake what it takes to strengthen our effective control,” he said.

Royal Society publishes tales of oil on troubled waters and the first roll-ups

A letter from Benjamin Franklin describing how to calm stormy seas and the first English description of a cigarette being rolled are among documents released by the Royal Society

Alok Jha , science correspondent

The Guardian, Friday 1 April 2011

How to calm rough seas with oil, the first time anyone from Britain had seen a cigarette being rolled, and Captain Scott’s first impressions of the Antarctic – these are some of the stories revealed in documents digitised and published by the Royal Society on Friday.

The release includes travel journals, diaries and letters from a collection started more than three centuries ago. “Since 1660 the Royal Society has been collecting documents sent to it from all over the world,” said Keith Moore, head of library and archives at the Royal Society’s Centre for History of Science.