Overnight News Digest: Climate Change Progress a Joke at G8

Top Story

• Globe and Mail - Climate-change goals fall short at G8

  Hopes have dimmed for stronger action on climate change – a central goal of this week's G8 summit in Japan – with countries such as the United States and Canada resisting calls for the group to set hard midterm targets for reducing emissions... Environmental groups and European groups had called for the G8 to set midterm targets for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by 2020.... Instead, the G8 is likely to declare a longer-term, “aspirational” goal of leading efforts to halve greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050 – criticized by environmentalists as too weak and too far in the future to spark real action – and perhaps some other modest steps.

USA

• IHT - America's oil addiction: Chronicle of a crisis foretold

  Over the last 25 years, opportunities to head off the current crisis were ignored, missed or deliberately blocked, according to analysts, politicians and veterans of the oil and automobile industries. What's more, for all the surprise at just how high oil prices have climbed, and fears for the future, this is one crisis we were warned about. Ever since the oil shortages of the 1970s, one report after another has cautioned against America's oil addiction. Even as politicians heatedly debate opening new regions to drilling, corralling energy speculators, or starting an Apollo-like effort to find renewable energy supplies, analysts say the real source of the problem is closer to home. In fact, it's parked in our driveways. Nearly 70 percent of the 21 million barrels of oil the United States consumes every day goes for transportation, with the bulk of that burned by individual drivers, according to the National Commission on Energy Policy, a bipartisan research group that advises Congress.

• SMH - Pentagon afraid of ignorance about Iran

  Pentagon chiefs fear that Israeli plans for an attack on Iran's nuclear program will fail to destroy the facilities because neither the CIA nor Mossad knows where every base is located. US commanders fear Israel will feel compelled to act within 12 months, with no guarantee that it can do more than slow Iran's development of a nuclear weapon.

• NYT - Bush, Preparing for Talks, Defends Olympics Decision

  President Bush arrived on the mountainous northern Japanese island of Hokkaido on Sunday to talk to world leaders about climate change, soaring oil and gas prices and aid to Africa. But first he defended his decision to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing next month — and he got a little help from his host, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who announced he would go, too. “I view the Olympics as an opportunity for me to cheer on our athletes,” Mr. Bush said at a news conference in nearby Toyako after the two leaders met privately. He said not going to the ceremony “would be an affront to the Chinese people” that might make it “more difficult to be able to speak frankly with the Chinese leadership.”

• NYT - Doctors Press Senate to Undo Medicare Cuts

  Congress returns to work this week with Medicare high on the agenda and Senate Republicans under pressure after a barrage of radio and television advertisements blamed them for a 10.6 percent cut in payments to doctors who care for millions of older Americans. The advertisements, by the American Medical Association, urge Senate Republicans to reverse themselves and help pass legislation to fend off the cut. How to pay doctors through the federal health insurance program is an issue that lawmakers are forced to confront every year because of what is widely agreed to be an outdated reimbursement formula. But the dispute, which showcases the continued potency of health care issues, has reached a new level of urgency this year. Some doctors are reassessing their participation in the program and powerful interests on all sides are in a lobbying frenzy.

• The Hill - Durbin slams Senate GOP for obstructing key bills

  Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Saturday strongly criticized the chamber’s Republicans, accusing them of stopping “efforts to bring change to Washington.” Durbin, who delivered the Democratic radio address, said the founding fathers would be troubled by the gridlock in Washington and he blamed Republicans for the situation. “Just last month, they blocked bills to combat global warming, halt the mortgage meltdown and bring down fuel prices,” Durbin said.

• McClatchy - When Alaska's Young needed help, lobbyists ponied up

  Facing bad publicity and a dwindling campaign account, U.S. Rep. Don Young last year turned to the "AK Wolfpack," a group of more than 20 lobbyists, including former Young staffers and retired former congressmen, with close ties to the Alaska Republican. Young's chief of staff, Mike Anderson, sent the Wolfpack an e-mail to tell them that national Democrats planned aggressive fundraising and claims of misconduct by Young to topple the 35-year incumbent congressman and his fellow Alaska Republican, U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens. If they succeed, Anderson warned, "you and your clients will be impacted." Anderson e-mailed the fundraising appeal on June 8, 2007. Since then, according to federal reports, Young has received more than $90,000 from the e-mail recipients, their lobbying firms or clients of their firms... Of the 27 individuals to whom the e-mail was addressed, 23 are registered federal lobbyists...

• Seattle Times - Mima Mounds: Mystery hides in vast prairie

  The swath of grassy humps known as the Mima Mounds Natural Area Preserve spins a mystery as yet without an ending. And with any good story, context is critical. A single 6-foot-tall-by-30-foot-wide mound in a grassland prairie is but a mound. But acres upon acres of mounds, sharing similar shape and size and packed in clumps like eggs in a carton? What are they? Why are they here? No one knows.

Europe

• RIA Novosti - Russia hopes for new strategic arms deal with U.S. by yearend

  Russia expects to reach a new nuclear arms reduction treaty with the United States by the end of the year, an aide to the president of Russia said on Sunday. The effective Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-1) was signed by the United States and the Soviet Union on July 31, 1991, five months before the U.S.S.R. collapsed. The treaty is set to expire on December 5, 2009. Speaking before journalists on the eve of a meeting between the Russian and U.S. presidents to be held as part of a summit of the G-8 group of industrialized nations in Japan set to open on Monday, Sergei Prikhodko said that there had been no progress of late in reaching an understating between Russia and the United States on strategic arms. Prikhodko said that the United States was expressing its readiness to reach an understanding on a new nuclear arms pact only in words.

• NYT - Union of Mediterranean, About to Be Inaugurated, May Be Mostly Show

  Perhaps the grandest new idea of France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, looking to give his presidency of the European Union a lasting stamp, is the Union of the Mediterranean. An effort to bind the 17 nations bordering the Mediterranean Sea with the European Union around regional projects, the new union will be inaugurated next week at a Paris summit meeting. But as with some of Mr. Sarkozy’s other ideas, the execution has been haphazard. The Union of the Mediterranean has created resistance among vital allies, like the Germans and the Spanish, and confusion within his own government. The result may be more show than substance.

• Guardian - UK is wasting far too much food - Brown

  Britons will today be urged to make saving food as important as saving energy, with the publication of a government report which reveals that more than 4m tonnes of food are wasted each year at a cost of hundreds of pounds per household. The Cabinet Office review of food policy states that the UK throws away an annual 4.1m tonnes of edible goods, the equivalent of £420 for every home.

• Telegraph - 'Big Brother’ government costs Britain £20 billion

  The cost of Britain’s “surveillance society” measures is now running at £20 billion, a new report reveals today. The amount is equivalent to £800 per household and includes £19 billion for the planned ID card system and £500 million for CCTV cameras. The report by the TaxPayers’ Alliance was highlighted by David Davis, the former shadow home secretary, who stands in a by-election this week on the issue of civil liberties. Mr Davis resigned as an MP after the opposition failed to defeat Government plans to hold terrorism suspects for 42 days.

• Observer - Turkish coup plot awakens fear of violent nationalism

  In a recent declaration, Turkish nationalists identified what they described as the 'six arrows' of the country's proper identity: nationalism, secularism, statism, republicanism, populism and revolutionism. Judging by the events of last week, it is the last arrow - revolution - that has preoccupied the more radical in recent months. In an extraordinary raid which led to the arrests of 21 people allegedly tied to Ergenekon, a shadowy nationalist grouping, police uncovered documents that revealed plans for a sustained campaign of terror and intimidation against the Islamist government due to begin this week. A perfect storm of disruption was to be whipped up, beginning with a groundswell of popular protest, followed by a wave of assassinations and bombings, culminating in an economic crisis and army coup. Turkey's moderate Islamist government would be ousted in favour of a right-wing secular dictatorship. The documents appeared to identify a 30-member assassination squad targeting judges and other prominent figures. The episode is only the latest trauma to convulse the Turkish body politic. As the raids took place, the AKP government, led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, was defending itself in court from accusations that it is trying to transform Turkey into a hardline Islamic state.

• DW-World - Climate Change Brings Jellyfish Plague to Europe's Beaches

  Jellyfish are taking over Europe's favorite swimming spots in increasing numbers. Scientists blame climate change and overfishing for the proliferation of the stinging nuisance. While Mediterranean resort areas will be hardest hit by the jellyfish plague this summer, there will also be high concentrations in the Baltic and North Seas, according to scientists. They warn that the dramatic increase in jellyfish is a sign that ocean ecosystems are out of whack.

Africa

• Guardian - South African peace plan for Zimbabwe given qualified welcome by opposition MDC

  South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, has presented a plan to Zimbabwe's political leaders that would allow Robert Mugabe to remain as a titular head of state but surrender real power to the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, who would serve as prime minister until a new constitution was negotiated and fresh elections held. A senior opposition Movement for Democratic Change source, who has read the document, told the Guardian that Mbeki had sent the plan to Mugabe and Tsvangirai and that it was generally welcomed by the MDC. The opposition believes the proposal appears to represent a recognition by Mbeki - whom Tsvangirai had previously accused of "colluding with Mugabe to play down the deepening political crisis" - that the Zimbabwean president's power is crumbling. But the MDC remains suspicious of Mbeki and is demanding that the African Union be a party to any deal to ensure it is adhered to.

• Telegraph - UN official shot in Somalia

  Gunmen opened fire on people leaving a mosque in Mogadishu yesterday, killing one of Somalia's senior UN officials in the latest fatality in a series of attacks on aid workers in the country. Osman Ali Ahmed, the head of the UN development programme for Somalia, was shot in the head as he left the mosque after evening prayers. Attacks on officials, including those working for the UN or aid agencies, are common in Somalia, where the government is struggling to contain a growing insurgency launched by remnants of the Islamist groups which controlled much of the country until they were driven from power in 2006.

• BBC News - Nigeria wants colonial mining reparations

  Nigeria's Plateau State wants $100bn (£50bn) in compensation from the UK and Europe for environmental damage caused, it says, by mining in colonial times. The Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Agency says it has discovered radioactive materials buried under the soil. Radioactive waste occurs in the material that remains when tin is extracted from its ore. Many children and cattle are also reported to have fallen into disused quarries and died. The mines were owned by British and other European companies between the early 1900s and the 1960s. The state government has compiled a report showing the extent of the damage during that time.

Middle East

• WaPo - Relative Calm in Iraq Ends as Attacks Take 16 Lives

  A wave of attacks in Baghdad and areas north of the capital Sunday shattered a relative lull in violence, killing 16 people and injuring 15 a day after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki declared that Iraq's government had defeated terrorism... Six people were killed in the deadliest attack Sunday, a car bombing in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad. Police said the bomb was detonated by remote control in a popular market. "There still are some sleeping cells operating from time to time, but that doesn't change the fact of the improvement in the security situation," said Maj. Gen. Abdul Karim al-Izzi, a police commander. "Now you can see shops in Baghdad open until late hours at night, unlike before, when they were closing at noon." In Diyala province northeast of Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed a high-ranking member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the party headed by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, along with seven other people, said Maj. Gen. Abdul Karim al-Rubaie, Diyala military operations commander. The incident occurred in the town of Mandily, 60 miles east of Baqubah, the provincial capital. Rubaie said two civilians were killed in Baqubah when police clashed with members of the U.S.-backed Awakening Councils, former insurgents who have turned their weapons against the extremist group al-Qaeda in Iraq.

• CS Monitor - Iraqi Shiite party rises as Sadr falls

  At a teeming rally in this holy city last Thursday, thousands of Iraqi Shiites made an election pledge. "We are at your beck and call, Hakim," they shouted in unison to Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), arguably now the country's most influential and best organized Shiite religious political party... If the enthusiasm of the audience is any indication, ISCI and its affiliates are poised to do well at the polls, a development that some fear would exacerbate a bitter intra-Shiite struggle for power between ISCI and its allies and the movement of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr... Already Mr. Sadr's partisans and members of his Mahdi Army militia believe that ISCI and its affiliate party, the Badr Organization – previously known as the Badr Brigade and ISCI's armed wing – instigated the recent US-Iraqi military operations against the Mahdi Army in southern Iraq and Baghdad. They allege it was part of an ISCI/Badr plot to dismantle Sadr's organization ahead of elections.

• LA Times - United Arab Emirates to forgive Iraq's $4 billion debt

  Prime Minister Nouri Maliki traveled Sunday to the United Arab Emirates, where he won a promise that at least $4 billion in Iraq's debt would be forgiven. The visit was a significant step forward in efforts by Iraq's Shiite-dominated government to improve relations with Sunni Arab nations in the region... The principal of the debt owed by Iraq was put at $4 billion. An Emirates diplomatic source [said] the total sum that would be forgiven was closer to $7 billion when interest and arrears were included.

• NYT - U.S. Helps Remove Uranium From Iraq

  American and Iraqi officials have completed nearly the last chapter in dismantling Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program with the removal of hundreds of tons of natural uranium from the country’s main nuclear site. The uranium, which was removed several weeks ago, arrived in Canada over the weekend, according to officials... Although the material cannot be used in its current form for a nuclear weapon or even a so-called dirty bomb, officials decided that in Iraq’s unstable environment, it was important to make sure it did not fall into the wrong hands.

• WaPo - Iran's Leaders Divided on U.S.

  A senior adviser to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has rejected a proposed expansion of the U.S. diplomatic presence in Iran, saying in an interview that the idea is a "propaganda pose." Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi, in an interview last Sunday, said that to improve relations with Iran, the United States would have to withdraw its military forces from Iraq and accept Iran's nuclear program. During a visit to the United Nations last week, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki signaled willingness to allow the first U.S. diplomats to work in Tehran, at an interests section now staffed by non-Americans. He also called for direct flights between Tehran and New York, repeating an Iranian proposal made in 2007.

• BBC News - Lebanon 'set to announce cabinet'

  Lebanon is reported to be on the verge of announcing the formation of a new government, following months of political deadlock. The breakthrough, if confirmed, ends weeks of arguments over cabinet posts between the pro-Western majority coalition and Hezbollah-led opposition. It was reportedly brokered by the government of Qatar.

• RIA Novosti - Israel reopens border crossings with Gaza

  Israel has reopened its border crossings with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip after closing them again as a result of Palestinian rocket fire, an Israeli army spokesman said on Sunday. Peter Lerner said the border crossings reopened on Sunday morning to allow the supplies of essential items, and also cement and fuel into the Palestinian territory. Palestinians seeking medical treatment abroad were also being allowed into Israel, the spokesman said.

South Asia

• LA Times - Suicide blast kills at least 15 in Pakistan

  A powerful suicide explosion killed at least 15 people and injured dozens of others here this evening, shortly after a large protest rally marking the one-year anniversary of government forces' raid on a radical mosque. Most of the dead were police officers. The blast, which appeared to have targeted the security forces, poses a sharp new challenge to Pakistan's coalition government, which has been struggling in its efforts to formulate a policy for dealing with Islamic militants.

• NYT - Afghans Say New U.S. Strike Killed Civilians

  Local officials in eastern Afghanistan said Sunday that an American airstrike killed at least 27 civilians in a wedding party, most of them women and children and including the bride. Officials of the American-led coalition disputed the report, saying that the airstrike killed militants and that there was no evidence of women and children at the scene. The attack early Sunday in the Deh Bala district of Nangarhar Province was the second in the past three days in which many civilian deaths were reported. The president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, has ordered an investigation into a helicopter strike on Friday in Nuristan Province in which the provincial governor said 22 civilians had been killed and 7 wounded.

• WaPo - Restoring Past Glory in Old Kabul

  The road that rings the old city district of Murad Khane is thick with smoke from the hearths of a row of blacksmiths. Until recently, few people in the Afghan capital had much reason to venture beyond the plumes of black smoke into the district. For decades, Murad Khane has been crushed beneath tons of garbage, a monumental wasteland to the conflict that has gripped Afghanistan for 30 years. The trash heaps made the homes there so inaccessible in places that residents had to burrow through the refuse to enter their front doors.

• NYT - Decades Later, Toxic Sludge Torments Bhopal

  Hundreds of tons of waste still languish inside a tin-roofed warehouse in a corner of the old grounds of the Union Carbide pesticide factory here, nearly a quarter-century after a poison gas leak killed thousands and turned this ancient city into a notorious symbol of industrial disaster. The toxic remains have yet to be carted away. No one has examined to what extent, over more than two decades, they have seeped into the soil and water, except in desultory checks by a state environmental agency, which turned up pesticide residues in the neighborhood wells far exceeding permissible levels.

Asia-Pacific

• Xinhua - China's yuan hits new high against U.S. dollar

  China's currency, the yuan, Monday set a new high against the U.S. dollar since the country depegged its currency from the greenback in July 2005. On Monday, the central parity rate of the yuan, or Renminbi (RMB), was set at 6.8567 yuan against one dollar, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trading System. The reference rate was up 72 basis points from the previous trading day level. The yuan has risen more than 5.5 percent against the U.S. dollar so far this year, in comparison with the 6.9-percent gain last year, and has broken its own record high value 51 times.

• Reuters - China presses demands on Dalai Lama ahead of Games

  China's attitude to future talks with envoys of the Dalai Lama rests on how he answers demands not to disrupt the Beijing Olympics, an official said, highlighting intense anxieties about the Games. After secretive talks with representatives of the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader, Beijing said last week that future talks depended on his preventing acts "sabotaging the Olympic Games".

• NYT - Cities Near Beijing Close Factories to Improve Air for Olympics

  With Beijing struggling to clear polluted skies before the Olympics in August, the nearby industrial port of Tianjin has ordered 40 factories to suspend some operations for two months as part of a broader effort to improve air quality during the Games, state news media reported. The planned shutdowns in Tianjin, about 70 miles east of Beijing, are one piece of a regional plan that is expected to result in temporary factory closings or slowdowns across a large swath of northern China during the Games. Few details are known about which factories might close or when, so the announcement in Tianjin offers a window into one piece of the plan. Beijing’s air quality remains a major concern for the Games as the city continues to struggle with pollution, despite a $20 billion government cleanup campaign.

• Independent - Japan creates fortress for G8

  The picturesque lakeside resort of Toyako in Hokkaido, Japan's northern island, is the setting for this year's Group of Eight summit, which kicks off today smothered in the one of the country's largest security operations ever. About 21,000 police have been deployed to protect the leaders of Japan, Britain, Germany, Canada, France, Italy, Russia and the United States. Destroyers and aircraft are patrolling off the coast and a no-fly zone has been imposed over the resort, amid fears that a hijacked plane could be crashed into the mountain-top Windsor Hotel Toya, where the leaders are staying. Protesters, activists and the media are being kept miles away from the summit venue, many in government-designated campsites. But tales of extravagance have already leaked from the remote resort, including reports that 60 chefs have been flown in to cater for the world's political leaders.

• CS Monitor - Philippines tries to edge out India for U.S. outsourcing jobs

  For investors in the US, the economic wobbles of recent months could spell the onslaught of a recession... As fuel and food costs continue to soar, forcing corporate cutbacks, more American businesses are looking to save by outsourcing portions of their business abroad... That means more overseas workers from India to Poland will be fielding calls for Citibank credit card customers or remotely managing Hewlett Packard's human resources tasks. The Philippines, with some of the highest literacy rates and cheapest wages in Asia, is positioning itself to capture 10 percent of the world's back office work by 2010, which analysts predict will balloon to a $130 billion industry. Shifting overseas could be a win-win, saving American companies 20 to 40 percent off their bottom line and creating as many as 600,000 new jobs for Filipinos, according to estimates by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

• Reuters - Malaysia asks Interpol help to find missing detective

  Malaysian police on Sunday issued an international alert for a missing private eye after he made, and abruptly retracted, allegations about the deputy prime minister's links to a high-profile murder case. The detective, Balasubramaniam Perumal, disappeared along with his wife and three children on Friday after retracting an allegation that Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak had sexual relations with the murder victim.

• Bangkok Post - Bribes havebecome a way of life in Thailand

  Bribes may be offered and taken anywhere. Only those who hand them out and those who pocket them keep it quiet. From politicians at parliament to vegetable vendors at markets, kickbacks can represent a quick way to get things done, albeit unethically or illegally. Bribes can be paid anywhere. And the Supreme Court has proved to be no exception. Last month, a snack box stuffed with two million baht in cash was left at the court office. Prepared in 1,000-baht notes, the money was offered to a clerk attached to the Supreme Court. Three key members of the legal team working for former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his spouse, Khunying Potjaman, were sent to jail for contempt of court in relation to what many see as attempted bribery.

• Telegraph - Australia climate report 'like a disaster novel'

  Droughts could hit the country twice as often as now and could be more severe in key agricultural production areas, the Bureau of Meteorology and the country's top science organisation, the CSIRO, said in a joint report. "Parts of these high-level projections read more like a disaster novel than a scientific report," said Tony Burke, the agriculture minister. "What's clear is that the cycle of drought is going to be more regular and deeper than ever."

• SMH - Treasury warns on military spending

  The pace of spending on the military cannot be sustained without inflaming the already acute pressures on the budget caused by the ageing of the population, Treasury analysis to be published today shows. As the [Australian] Government prepares its first defence white paper, due this year, the modelling shows that prolonging the commitment to increase annual funding by 3 per cent above inflation would cause defence spending as a share of the economy to rise from 2 to 2.6 per cent over the next 40 years. This would reverse a trend over the past 40 years for defence spending to fall as a proportion of gross domestic product.

Americas

• WaPo - Colombian Officials Recount Rescue Plan

  Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos told a special team of intelligence agents assigned with drawing up a hostage rescue operation to be inventive and bold. The country's largest rebel group held more than 700 hostages throughout the vast jungle, and Santos knew that the insurgents would have the advantage in the face of a conventional rescue. Other army rescues had failed miserably, with guerrillas immediately shooting their captives dead as military helicopters approached.

• BBC News - Fidel Castro in Farc hostage plea

  Cuba's former President Fidel Castro has called on the Colombian Farc rebel movement to release all of its remaining hostages. His comments follow the rescue of Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and 14 others on Wednesday. He said he had energetically criticised the "cruel methods of kidnapping and holding prisoners in the jungle". But at the same time, Mr Castro added the rebel movement should not lay down its weapons.

• NYT - Quietly, Brazil Eclipses an Ally

  President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil clasped hands here at a summit meeting late last month, as employees of Venezuela’s state oil company raised their fists and shouted Cuban-inspired socialist slogans before the cameras. It was an image of solidarity that might once have alarmed Washington, which has seen the United States’ standing steadily eroded by a shift toward left-leaning, populist leaders across the region in the last decade. But the carefully orchestrated event disguised a more recent turn in Latin America that presents new opportunities for the United States: Mr. da Silva has steadily peeled himself away from Venezuela’s leader and quietly supplanted him as he nurtures Brazil into a regional powerhouse.

• Guardian - Venezuela: Army unrest grows over Chávez reforms

  Venezuelan military officers have expressed growing alarm at attempts by President Hugo Chávez to turn the armed forces into a political instrument of his socialist revolution. One general has been detained and hundreds of other officers reportedly sidelined for protesting against the ideological drive. Chávez has ordered the armed forces to adopt the Cuba-style salute "Fatherland, socialism or death" to put the institution at the heart of his effort to transform Venezuela. Pastors from the recently formed pro-Chávez Reformed Catholic church have been installed as army chaplains to weaken the influence of the traditional Catholic church, which is hostile to the president. "That's causing a lot of resentment, a lot of upset," said a source close to the military.

• MercoPress - Argentine Senate begins Monday farm taxing system debate

  Argentina's lower house of Congress finally approved on Saturday after a marathon session a controversial package of grain-export taxes that have sparked months of nationwide farm strikes and food shortages since they were first implemented in March. The very tight 129-122 vote followed 18 hours of heated floor debate during which government legislators offered to simplify tax-refund procedures for small farmers, while opponents sought the taxes' total repeal. The Senate is scheduled to debate the measure beginning next Monday.

• BBC News - Ancient Peruvian tomb unearthed

  Archaeologists have unearthed an ancient tomb in northern Peru that could throw light on the pre-Columbian Moche Indian culture. The tomb in Ucupe, 670km (416 miles) from the capital Lima, contained well-preserved human remains along with jewellery and ceramics. The finds suggested the tomb related to nobility, experts said. The Moche Indians thrived from 100-800 AD and were famed for their ceramics, architecture and irrigation.

• LA Times - Reporters covering Mexico drug wars risk their lives

  More than 30 reporters killed or missing in Mexico since 2000 as drug violence has skyrocketed, according to Paris-based Reporters Without Borders. In many ways, Mexico's democratic evolution has afforded the news media greater freedom than at any time in modern history. But at the same time, reporters are working on a battlefield: Mexico is considered the most dangerous Latin American nation in which to be a journalist, and one of the riskiest in the world... Besides the killings and disappearances of reporters, criminal gangs have attacked newspaper offices with high-powered rifles and grenades. Anonymous threats are commonplace. Reporters have been seized, held for hours and beaten.

• Canadian Press - Americans' personal guns account for vast majority of border seizures

  Americans cherish their constitutional right to keep and bear arms, even when they come to Canada. Canada Border Services Agency officers regularly discover smuggled guns destined for the Canadian criminal underworld, but most firearms they turn up belong to otherwise law-abiding Americans, according agency intelligence summaries... Crossings into British Columbia account for the largest percentage of all gun seizures, and about a third of all handguns, the agency says. A high percentage are in transit to Alaska and not intended for the illicit firearms market...

• CBC - Big mosque on the Prairie opens in Calgary

  Hailing it as an "architectural treasure," Prime Minister Stephen Harper joined hundreds of guests as the biggest mosque ever built in Canada opened its doors on Saturday. The $15-million Baitan Nur mosque in northeast Calgary covers 4,500 square metres, or 48,000 square feet, and was constructed largely through donations from the city's small but rapidly growing Ahmadiyya Muslim community. "I don't suppose I will be the first to observe it isn't exactly the little mosque on the prairie," Harper said. "Quite the opposite. It is Canada's largest mosque complex."