Article Assigned for 23rd of Nov. Park Ji Young

Bloggers in the Middle East

Don't be too cheeky

Governments in the Middle East are cracking down on bloggers

Oct 21st 2010

A MONTH ago a court in Iran sentenced Hossein Derakhshan, an Iranian-Canadian, to almost 20 years in jail, the longest sentence ever handed down to a blogger. The charges were murky. He was convicted of co-operating with hostile states and insulting Islam. Often hailed as Iran's "blogfather", he published a do-it-yourself guide to blogging in Persian earlier this decade that helped to prompt an explosion of activity. Today there may be as many as 75,000 Persian blogs.

A harsh critic of Iran's rulers for many years, Mr Derakhshan boasted on his blog of making a trip to Israel, probably the source of the charge of collaborating with Iran's enemies. But more recently he had begun to defend the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He brushed off concerns that he could be arrested because of his earlier views. But on his return to Iran in November 2008 the authorities nabbed him.

Iran is far from alone in locking up bloggers. Governments across the Middle East are increasingly twitchy about their citizens' online activities. As internet use in the region has soared—up 19-fold since 2000, compared with a fivefold rise in the rest of the world, according to Internet World Stats, which monitors global internet usage—so the number jailed for what they do on the web has shot up too.

Related topics

• Iran
• Middle East
• Arts, entertainment and media
• Blogging
• Internet

According to Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based watchdog, at least 17 "netizens" are in jail across the Middle East: eight in Iran and the rest in Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the United Arab Emirates. China may be the biggest online represser, but the Middle East is not far behind.

Earlier this month, Syrian officials confirmed that in December 2009 Tal al-Mallohi, a 19-year-old student, was arrested, accused of spying. She has been held without charge for nine months. Many believe her blog is to blame. Earlier this year a Lebanese blogger, Khodor Salameh, was interrogated after writing a post lampooning Michel Suleiman, the country's president.

Egypt is little better. Two of its policemen are accused of beating to death a young man, Muhammad Khaled Said, outside an internet café in Alexandria in June after he posted an online video incriminating the police in a drug deal. The incident provoked angry protests online and in the streets. Another Egyptian blogger, Abdel Kareem Nabil Suleiman, was arrested in November 2006 for blog posts criticising senior clerics and the government. He has been in detention ever since. Bahrain is getting edgy too. Ali Abdulemam, the monarchy's best-known blogger, was jailed last month, accused of disseminating false information on his internet forum.

Governments are not only applying existing laws fiercely but also trying to come up with new ones. A new electronic media law in Saudi Arabia will require all online news sites to register. Bloggers will be encouraged to do so as well. A rare bit of good news for bloggers is that Jordan's government has withdrawn some repressive elements of a proposed temporary law on cyber crimes that would have allowed the government to punish those whose posts upset the authorities. The change of stance came after a flurry of online protests.

The authorities are getting better at exploiting the internet themselves. After the big demonstrations in Iran last year, they circulated pictures of protesters online for members of the public to identify. In May this year, Ebrahim Jabari, a Revolutionary Guard commander, confirmed that the regime had set up a "cyber-army" to crack down on "destructive" online networks. His unit has since hacked into dozens of sites and is thought to be responsible for the arrests of hundreds of Iranians.

Western governments as well as human-rights campaigners are watching the fate of bloggers closely. In January Hillary Clinton, the American secretary of state, expressed support for internet freedom. More recently Bernard Kouchner, France's foreign minister, said: "We must support cyber-dissidents in the same way that we supported political dissidents."

Middle East & Africa

20101123, Article, contributied by Juhye, Lyu

China's rising prices Hunting down the hoarders To rein in prices, the Chinese government turns to unconventional measures Nov 18th 2010 | HONG KONG LENIN thought inflation a subversive force, as damaging to capitalism as any Bolshevik revolutionary. Certainly, his heirs in the Chinese Communist Party are taking no chances. On November 17th the State Council, China's cabinet, promised "forceful measures" to stabilise prices. It said it would drum up supply and crack down on hoarders and speculators. It even threatened to "interfere" with the prices of daily necessities, which might include grains, cooking oils, sugar and cotton. Inflation is not yet a threat to the republic. But consumer prices rose by 4.4% in the year to October, the fastest rise for over two years. Food prices, which account for more than a third of the consumer-price index, are largely to blame: vegetables are almost a third more expensive than they were a year ago. Even the most exotic commodities have been affected (see article). As China's prices rise, consumer confidence and the stockmarket are falling. Shanghai shares have fallen by a tenth since the inflation figures came out. Rising food prices may explain China's inflation, but what is behind their rise? Floods, including a deluge in Hainan province last month, hurt some crops. Harvests have also disappointed elsewhere in the world: the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation said this week that the cost of the world's food imports may exceed $1 trillion this year, only $5 billion short of the record bill in 2008. Related items China's price inflation, continued: Caterpillar fungus, the new goldNov 18th 2010 The macroeconomic weather has also played a role. China's banks appear determined to breach their quota of 7.5 trillion yuan ($1.1 trillion) of new loans this year. The People's Bank of China raised their reserve requirements this month for the fourth time this year and lifted interest rates in October for the first time since 2007. But neither step will do much to constrain banks swimming in deposits and lending to an economy growing, in nominal terms, by 15% a year. And so the government is reaching for less conventional weapons. To shield the vulnerable, it urged local governments to raise unemployment benefits, pensions and the minimum wage in line with inflation. It also promises to increase shipments of cotton from the western region of Xinjiang, and to cut the price of electricity, gas and rail transport for fertiliser makers. To keep the population sweet, on November 22nd it will sell 200,000 tonnes of sugar. If extra supplies do not curb prices, the government may set caps. It may repeat the kinds of measures it imposed in 2008, when food inflation topped 23% after an outbreak of disease killed many of China's pigs. Then, the government required sellers of pork, rice, noodles, cooking oil and other staples to ask permission before raising their prices. Such controls serve as an "extreme signal" of the government's determination to fight inflation, note Mark Williams and Qinwei Wang of Capital Economics. That may help quash self-fulfilling expectations of higher prices. But beyond that, price controls have "little to commend them." If sellers cannot fetch a good price, they will limit the supply of what they offer, or adulterate the quality. Whenever the government stops petrol prices from rising in line with oil prices, queues at the pump merely lengthen. Inflation undermines capitalism, according to Keynes, in part because it discredits entrepreneurs. They become "profiteers" in the eyes of those hurt by rising prices. China's leaders promise to hunt down and punish hoarders and speculators. According to Andy Rothman of CLSA, a broker, some traders are taking possession of agricultural commodities in the hopes that prices will rise. But how to stop households buying two bottles of cooking oil rather than one?

20101023 contributed by Rho Inseon

North Koreans Unveil Vast New Plant for Nuclear Use

By DAVID E. SANGER

Published: November 20, 2010

WASHINGTON — North Korea showed a visiting American nuclear scientist earlier this month a vast new facility it secretly and rapidly built to enrich uranium, confronting the Obama administration with the prospect that the country is preparing to expand its nuclear arsenal or build a far more powerful type of atomic bomb.

Whether the calculated revelation is a negotiating ploy by North Korea or a signal that it plans to accelerate its weapons program even as it goes through a perilous leadership change, it creates a new challenge for President Obama at a moment when his program for gradual, global nuclear disarmament appears imperiled at home and abroad. The administration hurriedly began to brief allies and lawmakers on Friday and Saturday — and braced for an international debate over the repercussions.
The scientist, Siegfried S. Hecker, a Stanford professor who previously directed the Los Alamos National Laboratory, said in an interview that he had been "stunned" by the sophistication of the new plant, where he saw "hundreds and hundreds" of centrifuges that had just been installed in a recently gutted building that had housed an aging fuel fabrication center, and that were operated from what he called "an ultra-modern control room." The North Koreans claimed 2,000 centrifuges were already installed and running, he said.
American officials know that the plant did not exist in April 2009, when the last Americans and international inspectors were thrown out of the country. The speed with which it was built strongly suggests that the impoverished, isolated country, which tested its first nuclear device in 2006, had foreign help and evaded strict new United Nations Security Council sanctions imposed to punish its rejection of international controls.
A delegation of American experts that included Dr. Hecker has already reported that it confirmed satellite photographic evidence of another new advance by the North — a light-water reactor being built on the site of a facility the country had dismantled as part of an agreement with the international community to end its nuclear weapons program.
Dr. Hecker did not initially mention the surprising discovery of the uranium enrichment operation as he left North Korea. He privately informed the White House a few days ago.
The White House is clearly eager to use the new information to show that North Korea, in violation of United Nations mandates, continues to make significant progress toward advancing its nuclear program, even though it remains under international sanctions for its past violations.
American officials were sent to China, Japan, Russia and South Korea, the other members in the moribund "six-party talks." The Obama administration also hopes to persuade China, by far North Korea's most important source of political and economic support, to put more pressure on the government of Kim Jong-il, which has shown signs of becoming more militaristic as it undergoes a leadership transition.
China has been hesitant to cut off trade or fuel to the North, and it appears determined to support its longtime, if difficult, ally during its succession process. But in the past China has taken modest steps to support a tougher line when North Korea has tested nuclear weapons or missiles, defying international commitments.
Dr. Hecker said he was forbidden from taking pictures during his tour of the uranium plant on Nov. 12, and was not allowed to verify North Korean claims that it was already beginning to produce low-enriched uranium. He also said he had doubts that North Korea would fulfill its promise to build a light-water reactor to utilize the fuel. "There are reasons to question whether that's true," he said.
There are two routes to a nuclear weapon: obtaining plutonium from the spent fuel produced by a nuclear reactor, and enriching uranium to weapons grade.
Since the 1950s, North Korea pursued the first path, and its arsenal of weapons was manufactured from fuel harvested from a small nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. That produced enough for roughly a dozen weapons, but the facility was decrepit, and under an agreement with the Bush administration it was shut down in 2008, with television cameras running as its cooling tower was blown up.
But meanwhile, the North was already well down the second path, uranium enrichment, much the way Iran has pursued its nuclear program. Like Iran, North Korea insists the fuel is intended for a yet-to-be-built experimental reactor to make electricity.
American officials, though, say they think the intent of the enrichment program is to make weapons fuel. Since the North has blocked international inspections, it may be impossible to monitor how much fuel it has made, or if it could be used to produce or improve atomic bombs.
For roughly 15 years, American intelligence agencies have reported evidence the North was seeking to enrich uranium, largely based on technology it bought from A. Q. Khan, the rogue Pakistani nuclear dealer, in a transaction that dates from 1996. There were later reports of North Korean efforts to buy critical centrifuge components, and a suspicious shipment of uranium hexafluoride to Libya that appeared to be of North Korean origin. The Bush administration accused the North in 2003 of secretly pursuing the technology, leading to the ouster of inspectors.

The Hunt for Jobs Sends the Irish Abroad, Again [From NYT by Jihwan Kim]

November 20, 2010

The Hunt for Jobs Sends the Irish Abroad, Again

By SUZANNE DALEY

DUBLIN — Antoinette Shields had a plan to keep her tall, blue-eyed son, Kevin, close at hand. When she took over her boss's construction company in 2002, she hoped to retire at 55 and give her son the business.

But it is not working out that way. Mrs. Shields's company, which once employed 26 people, is now down to 8, still afloat in Ireland's collapsed economy, but barely. Though Kevin graduated from college two weeks ago, she has no work for him, and he expects to emigrate to the United States or Canada next year.

"That is where we are," Mrs. Shields said. "Sad, isn't it?"

Just three years ago as Ireland's economy boomed, immigrants poured in so fast that experts said this tiny country of 4.5 million was on its way to reaching population levels not seen since before the great potato famine of the mid-19th century. The conditions that prompted the Irish statesman Éamon de Valera to express the hope that Ireland's children would no longer "like our cattle, be brought up for export" seemed like quaint history.

That has abruptly turned around.

As this country struggles with its newest financial crisis, and the European Union and the International Monetary Fund prepared a bailout package that is likely to run into the tens of billions of dollars, Ireland seems set to watch yet another generation scatter across the globe to escape desperate times. Many are headed to Australia, where a mining boom has produced construction jobs in the western part of the country. But others are going to Canada, New Zealand, the United States, Britain and even the Middle East or Asia.

Mrs. Shields, who lives in Carlingford, a village about 48 miles north of Dublin, said she knew a number of parents whose children were already gone. The parents gather at the local golf club "trying to take strength from each other," she said.

Experts say about 65,000 people left Ireland last year, and some estimate that the number may be more like 120,000 this year. At first, most of those leaving were immigrants returning home to Central Europe. But increasingly, the experts say, it is the Irish themselves who are heading out — unsure that they will ever come home.

"Things totally flipped in a very short time," said Edgar Morgenroth, an economist with the Economic and Social Research Institute in Dublin. "And if you don't want to go, it can be quite painful."

Those left behind say it is hard for them, too. Cónán Ó Broin, 23, who works for the Union of Students in Ireland, said the sendoffs in his hometown, Clondalkin, were now so frequent that everyone knew the drill, assembling at a pub for a final round of drinks.

"We call the parties Irish wakes," said Mr. Ó Broin, whose two best friends left for Australia this year, after nine months without work. "It's pretty bad. It really affects you."

Ireland's economy shrank 7.1 percent last year and remains in recession. Signs of the downturn are everywhere. Dublin's main shopping area is full of for-rent signs and handwritten posters in store windows advertising special one-day sales. Mr. Morgenroth sits in his office overlooking an almost vacant office complex.

Some of those emigrating are desperate for a paycheck. Others are just disgusted that Ireland should find itself in such a state, and they fear they will be paying for years — with tax increases and pay cuts — for a mess they did not create. Bernard McNerney, 25, who has a job, said he would leave next year to teach English in South Korea and see where life took him after that.

"I don't want to be here with everyone complaining and people in a genuinely bad way," he said.

The latest moves to shore up Ireland's economy follow more than two years of harsh austerity measures by the government. Taxes have been raised and salaries cut for nurses, professors and other public workers by up to 20 percent. This month, the government announced that an additional $6 billion would need to be cut from the budget next year.

Some economist argue that emigration can be a useful safety valve in hard times, reducing the numbers of the unemployed and avoiding the debilitating effects of long-term unemployment.

In fact, the number of Irish signing up for unemployment benefits dropped about 3 percent last month. The government pointed to the change as a sign of an improving economy. But opposition parties quickly disputed that analysis, saying the change was really caused by emigration.

And there are risks, too, that Ireland's best and brightest — the very people who could help turn things around — are leaving.

Edwina Shanahan, the marketing manager of Visafirst, a company that helps emigrants settle abroad, said there might be some truth to this. "A lot of the countries giving visas are quite choosy," she said. "You need to be highly qualified and have recent job experience to get into Australia. They are getting the best among us."

Orla Neary and Joseph Rice decided to move to Australia three months ago, when they realized it could be years before they could afford their own home.

Mr. Rice, 25, is in training to become an electrician, but he would have trouble getting his license here — there are so few jobs that he cannot log the required hours. His brother has won awards as an electrician, and even he cannot find work, Mr. Rice said.

Ms. Neary, 22, just finished her training as a midwife. But because of austerity measures the national health system is unlikely to hire anyone soon. She takes temporary work when she can get it. Some weeks, she will get called to cover for three shifts. But other weeks, none.

"Things here are not going anyplace," Mr. Rice said recently. "This place is just stuck."

Ireland experienced its sharpest population drop during the 19th-century potato famine when the population dropped sharply from 6.5 million. More than a million people emigrated, and another million died. But there have been other waves of emigration during economic downturns in the 1930s, the 1950s and the 1980s.

While most emigrants plan to return someday, most of those early emigrants never did. But people who left in the 1980s did come back in the 1990s, encouraged by the Irish government. Ireland benefited from their experiences abroad. "The drain of the '80s was the gain of the '90s," Mr. Morgenroth said.

The Irish have emigrated so often that almost everyone has relatives in several countries. "Emigrating is a cultural norm, even if it is not a cultural preference," said Brian Lucey, an economics professor at Trinity College in Dublin. "The Irish know how to do it. They build networks and take care of each other."

Kevin Shields has relatives in the United States, even an uncle who was in the Marines, and he has entered the lottery for a green card. With a degree that qualified him to estimate the cost of construction projects, he is also contacting construction companies in Canada. "It is depressing listening to the news here," he said. "There is nowhere as bad as here." But he hopes to be back in Ireland eventually.

Mrs. Shields said she took comfort from the fact that emigration today was not what it used to be. "It's not like when we were waving goodbye from a dock," Mrs. Shields said. "There are lots of ways to stay in touch — Google, Facebook. A lot of mothers around here are learning a lot about computers these days."

"We'll come out of it," she added. "And maybe we will come out of it stronger."

Article, 20101116 contributied by Taeseok, KIM

Happiness index to gauge Britain's national mood

Despite 'nervousness', David Cameron wants measure of wellbeing to steer government policy

 

Allegra Stratton, political correspondent

guardian.co.uk, Sunday 14 November 2010 20.06 GMT

 

The UK government is poised to start measuring people's psychological and environmental wellbeing, bidding to be among the first countries to officially monitor happiness.

 

Despite "nervousness" in Downing Street at the prospect of testing the national mood amid deep cuts and last week's riot in Westminster, the Office of National Statistics will shortly be asked to produce measures to implement David Cameron's long-stated ambition of gauging "general wellbeing".

 

Countries such as France and Canada are looking at similar initiatives as governments around the world come under pressure to put less store on conventional economic measures of prosperity such as gross domestic product.

 

British officials say there is still hesitation in some parts of Whitehall over going ahead with the programme during such difficult economic times, but Cameron is said to want to place the eventual results at the heart of future government policy-making.

 

On 25 November, the government will ask the independent national statistician Jil Matheson to devise questions to add to the existing household survey by as early as next spring.

 

It will be up to Matheson to choose the questions but the government's aim is for respondents to be regularly polled on their subjective wellbeing, which includes a gauge of happiness, and also a more objective sense of how well they are achieving their "life goals".

 

The new data will be placed alongside existing measures to create a bundle of indications about our quality of life.

 

A government source said the results could be published quarterly in the same way as the British crime survey, but the exact intervals are yet to be agreed.

 

The source said: "The aim is to produce a fresh set of data, some of it new, some of using existing data sets currently not very well used, to be published – at a frequency to be decided – that assesses the psychological and physical wellbeing of people around the UK. So that's objective measurements of, for instance, how much recycling gets done around the UK, alongside more subjective measures of psychology and attitudes."

 

There are currently different views within the government on whether all indicators should be shrunk into one single wellbeing indicator or simple happiness index.

 

The government already polls people on their life satisfaction but experts say the innovation is that the new tests will ask more subjective questions and will be put to a larger sample size. The combined wellbeing data set, it says, will have a more central role in policy-making.

 

A Downing Street source said: "If you want to know, should I live in Exeter rather than London? What will it do to my quality of life? You need a large enough sample size and if you have a big sample, and have more than one a year, then people can make proper analysis on what to do with their life. And next time we have a comprehensive spending review, let's not just guess what effect various policies will have on people's wellbeing. Let's actually know."

 

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, announced last year he intended to include happiness and wellbeing in France's measurement of economic progress. Sarkozy was responding to recommendations made by two Nobel economists, Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen, who called on world leaders to move away from a purely economic concept of gross domestic product, which measures economic production, to wellbeing and sustainability. That report suggested a shift from production to greater attention to household wealth and an assessment of whether countries were growing sustainably or damaging the environment.

 

Canadian statisticians also poll subjective wellbeing across the country but it is not part of their official data set.

 

John Helliwell, a member of Canada's National Statistics Council who has been in talks with the UK on how to measure subjective wellbeing, told the Guardian: "The UK plans are putting into action the two most important elements of the Stiglitz/Sen report: systematically measuring subjective wellbeing as part of a broader national accounting system, and using these data to inform policy choices."

 

Over the last two months Downing Street has called on experts, including Sen, to advise it on the policy and keep one eye on Sarkozy's progress. "We've certainly drawn on Sarkozy, we have learnt from them and hope to go a bit further," a source said.

 

"There has been scepticism but David Cameron was very clear in opposition this would be what he would do and even in tough times it's just as relevant an agenda. The purpose of GDP is ultimately to help people lead more satisfactory lives and it is as important during a downturn as during a boom."

 

In 2006, just five months into his time as Conservative party leader, Cameron described the task of gauging people's wellbeing as one of the "central political issues of our time".

 

Helliwell said: "Canadian statisticians and researchers also poll subjective wellbeing across the country, but the data have thus far not attracted much policy attention.

 

"What is or could be dramatically different in the UK is for the government not just to undertake more widespread and thorough collection of subjective wellbeing data, but also to give them a central place in the choice and evaluation of public policies. That would be a global first."

UC campuses move to recruit more out-of-state students [From LAT by Jihwan Kim]

UC campuses move to recruit more out-of-state students

The university's efforts to boost enrollment of non-Californians — who bring in $23,000 a year each — may prove controversial. But schools say they could help bolster besieged budgets.

By Larry Gordon, Los Angeles Times

 

November 14, 2010

 

From Boston to China and across the Internet, University of California campuses this year are taking unprecedented and potentially controversial steps to recruit out-of-state and international students for the extra revenue and geographic diversity they bring to the cash-strapped system.

 

Most of the nine UC campuses that enroll undergraduates report sending admissions staffers more often this year than in previous years to visit high schools, college admissions fairs and other events outside the state. Some are taking these steps for the first time, pushed by the state's budget crisis and the chance to garner the extra $23,000 in annual tuition UC charges each non-resident student.

 

The push for out-of-state students comes as UC also tries more traditional ways to boost its revenues. This week, the university's regents will vote on a proposal to raise student fees for undergraduates 8% for the next school year. The board also is scheduled to discuss the plan to increase out-of-state enrollment across the system.

 

"It's still all new for us," Thomas Lifka, UCLA's associate vice chancellor of student academic services, said of the far-flung recruiting efforts. This summer, for the first time, UCLA admissions officers visited 10 cities around the country, including Chicago, Boston, Atlanta and Honolulu. UCLA representatives also traveled this year to China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore, he said.

 

The Santa Barbara, Davis and Irvine campuses say they have mounted serious out-of-state recruitment efforts this year for the first time. UC San Diego and UC Santa Cruz are concentrating mainly on using the Internet and social media sites to contact high-achieving students from other states. UC Merced, the newest and smallest of the UCs, is focusing on international students enrolled at nearby community colleges, although a representative also recently visited the Middle East.

 

"This year, we are doing more than we have ever done" in out-of-state efforts, said Walter Robinson, director of undergraduate admissions at UC Berkeley, which enrolls the UC's highest percentage of non-Californians, about 22% of its current freshman class. (UCLA is second with 15%.) This year, Robinson said, his staff visited South Africa, England, Turkey, New England, Florida and Texas, among other places.

 

UC officials say they know that some California families will worry that out-of-state or international students may take coveted spots on campus that might otherwise go to Californians. But university leaders contend that UC will not reduce the number of California students significantly — or at all on certain campuses — in its push to boost non-resident enrollment. But they also said that depends on the state's continuing to subsidize its California students.

 

The extra tuition from out-of-state students helps support classes and campus life for Californians, UC officials say. And the university does not provide non-resident students financial aid for the $23,000 they pay beyond the basic $11,000 in fees and $16,000 for room, board and other expenses.

 

"The financial circumstances make us seek additional revenues and this is one source of additional revenues to fund the educational needs of our students," said Lawrence H. Pitts, the UC system's provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. The out-of-staters also bring cultural, intellectual and geographic diversity to UC and, by state rules, generally must show higher academic credentials for admission than Californians.

 

At this week's meeting, the regents will discuss a university commission's recommendation that UC increase its overall enrollment of out-of-state undergraduates from 6% now to as much as 10% over the next few years, with some variation among campuses. A vote on the proposal is expected in December, Pitts said.

 

By comparison, public universities in Michigan, Virginia and Colorado enroll more than 30% of their undergraduates from beyond state borders, supporters of the change note.

 

But UC San Diego history professor Daniel Widener, who heads that campus' African American studies program, is among those who oppose any significant increase in non-resident enrollment at UC. Widener says the plan could spark political controversy and result in lower state funding and alumni support for the university.

 

In addition, the professor said, UC's recruiting effort would be better aimed at trying to find talented Californians, especially from low-income households and minority families. "It could be disastrous for the long-term viability of the system," he said.

 

Tighter state budgets have nudged many public universities in recent years to seek more non-resident students. But such recruiting has its limits, except for a few elite public universities such as UC Berkeley, according to David Shulenburger, vice president for academic affairs at the National Assn. of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges.

 

Across the country, he said, about three-quarters of all college-bound students stay in their home states for school, and high unemployment among their families has made it harder for them to go far from home, he said. "It is not reasonable to believe that all schools can succeed in attempting to increase their number of out-of-state students," he said.

 

On recruiting trips, UC admissions officials often emphasize their campuses' world-class faculties, champion sports teams and the state's pleasant climate; but lately, they have also faced questions from parents and students about the university's financial health and course cutbacks.

 

At UC Berkeley, Robinson said that potential applicants around the country want to know whether they will be able to enroll in the classes they need in order to graduate in four years. His staffers, he said, are upfront in saying that UC is not as flush with money as it used to be, but they tell questioners that students still receive a high-quality education and can finish on time.

 

Still, most campuses aren't waiting for regents to decide on a systemwide out-of-state recruiting plan.

 

UCLA, for example, intends to raise its proportion of non-resident undergraduates from the current 11% to about 18% over the next three to five years without reducing the number of Californians, said Lifka.

 

UC Irvine wants to increase its percentage of out-of-state undergrads gradually, from 4% now to about 10%, said Brent Yunek, assistant vice chancellor for enrollment services. The campus took initial steps last year to boost its national recruiting but is doing more this admissions cycle, with recruiters heading out of state to college fairs and high school counselors' conventions, he said.

 

"This is the first full-fledged year we are active in this kind of way," he said.

Article, 20101115, "China, Japan Say Relations Thawing "contributed by Kyung Jin Lee

·        BUSINESS

·        NOVEMBER 15, 2010

China, Japan Say Relations Thawing

-Kyung Jin, Lee-

The Wall Street Journal

By CHESTER DAWSON And AARON BACK

YOKOHAMA, Japan—The leaders of China and Japan signaled over the weekend that icy bilateral relations between Asia's largest economic and political powers are slowly thawing, after several weeks of tension triggered by an incident involving a longstanding territorial dispute.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said that he and Chinese President Hu Jintao agreed to strengthen ties between their two nations at a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the weekend's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC, forum in Yokohama.

"We confirmed that we will promote our strategic relationship of mutual benefit," said Mr. Kan at a press conference Sunday. "I think we were able to bring the general direction to the time when I took office in June," he added.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement late Saturday echoing that general sense of optimism, saying that Mr. Hu called for keeping relations with Japan "on a healthy and stable track."

Despite the many issues at hand—or perhaps because of them—the meeting between Messrs. Kan and Hu appeared to have been arranged hastily and lasted less than half an hour. The meeting, which at its beginning was televised, opened with the Japanese leader stiffly reading a prepared statement. Japanese officials went out of their way to portray the session as "very cordial," but it took the Chinese side several hours to confirm that it took place.

There was no sign of compromise on the territorial dispute or other key bilateral issues, which seemed to underscore the depth of the discord. "We made clear our basic position that there is no territorial dispute in this region," said Mr. Kan, indicating that Japan doesn't consider China's territorial claims to the group of island at the center of the latest flare-up to be valid. The islands are under Japanese administration.

None of that matched the positive rhetoric and friendly body language evident between Tokyo and Washington at the weekend forum. But it was a marked shift from the rhetorical broadsides over the past two months.

The Sino-Japanese summit was the first such formal meeting since a Chinese fishing trawler collided with a Japanese coast guard cutter in September. The collision, which occurred near the islands, triggered a diplomatic freeze and a chilling of the broader relationship between the two major trading partners.

In a speech to APEC leaders earlier on Sunday, Mr. Hu didn't bring up his meeting with Mr. Kan or address Sino-Japanese relations more broadly. But China's leader did say his nation remains committed to "the regional policy of building good-neighborliness and friendship," according to text of the speech released by the Chinese delegation. Mr. Hu on Saturday also reiterated a pledge to allow exports of crucial minerals known as rare earths to Japan, according to a Japanese foreign ministry official.

Some regional government and business leaders said they hoped China and Japan would be able to put the dispute behind them. Speaking at a meeting of business leaders in Yokohama on Saturday, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the territorial issue is "an old problem that is not going away anytime soon." Mr. Lee called upon the two countries to move beyond it in order to improve their broader ties. "The challenge is to manage this without carrying into the overall relationship and souring the overall mood," he said.

Several business leaders in attendance agreed. "That group of islands has always been an issue and probably always will be," said Junichi Ujiie, chairman of Nomura Holdings Inc. "Geopolitics can become a hot potato from time to time, but trade is a mutually beneficial path that must continue to be pursued."

Japanese Prime Minister Kan has faced criticism from opposition politicians and protest groups for his government's decision to release the Chinese fisherman under diplomatic pressure from China. Mr. Kan's administration has also been under fire for refusing to release videos of the sea clash, which were then illicitly leaked and posted online.

As a result of a growing sense of Tokyo's mishandling of its response to the incident, the six-month old government's public approval rating has plummeted. An Asahi newspaper poll showed that Mr. Kan came into office with the support of about 60% of Japanese registered voters, but a Kyodo News survey showed that falling to 32.7% as of earlier this month.

The APEC conference attracted demonstrations by Japanese protesters unhappy with China's position on a number of issues, including the disputed islands, which are known as the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. On Saturday, the cries of thousands of protestors could be heard echoing outside the Yokohama convention center, even though they were kept several blocks away from the meeting site.

On Sunday morning, a smaller group of about 100 demonstrators wearing placards with anti-China slogans were gathered around a small sound truck equipped with bullhorns.

"China is now trying to dominate first of all the South China Sea, then the East China Sea, including the Senkaku islands," said protestor Katsuhiko Umehara, a former mayor of the northern Japanese city of Sendai. "The reaction of the government of Japan is so weak," he said.

The formal summit between the Chinese and Japanese leaders came after a delicate diplomatic dance over the past several weeks.

Last month, Mr. Kan and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao were supposed to confer during a meeting of Southeast Asian leaders in Hanoi, but the planned session was abruptly cancelled by the Chinese side at the last minute. Instead, Messrs. Kan and Wen had an informal talk for about 10 minutes in a waiting room before the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit began.

Earlier in October, the two leaders had a chance meeting at an Asia-Europe forum in Brussels. Messrs. Kan and Wen passed each other in a hallway as they were leaving a working dinner and sat down to talk briefly, according to an account by a Japanese government official.

—Kana Inagaki and Takashi Nakamichi contributed to this article.