Morning News Roundup (30 May)

• Treasury Secretary John Snow has (finally) submitted his resignation (after years of false hopes from the pundits). In his place, President Bush has nominated Goldman Sachs Chairman Henry M. Paulson Jr. According to ThinkProgress, he has a very interesting view on environmental economics:
  

  [He] not only endorses the Kyoto Protocol to limit greenhouse emissions, but argues that the United States’ failure to enact Kyoto undermines the competitiveness of U.S. companies.
  
  Goldman Sachs, under Paulson’s leadership, argued that the danger from global warming is imminent and requires “urgent” action by government to reduce emissions:
  

  [C]limate change is one of the most significant environmental challenges of the 21st century and is linked to other important issues such as economic growth and development… Goldman Sachs is very concerned by the threat to our natural environment, to humans and to the economy presented by climate change and believes that it requires the urgent attention of and action by governments, business, consumers and civil society to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

  As a result, Paulson’s nomination is strongly opposed by a coalition right-wing groups seeking to cast doubt on climate science, such as the National Center for Public Policy Research, describing Paulson as “diametrically opposed to the positions of [the Bush] Administration.”

• Emergency aid has begun to reach survivors of Saturday's earthquake in Indonesia, after many people spent a third night without shelter. The death toll in the 6.3 magnitude earthquake which hit near the city of Yogyakarta has reached at least 5,427. More than 20,000 people were injured in the quake and 200,000 left homeless. [BBC]
  
  
• The Afghan capital erupted Monday in the worst street violence since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, following a fatal traffic accident involving a U.S. military truck. Mobs of men and boys, many of them shouting slogans against the government and United States, set fires, attacked buildings and clashed with police for about seven hours. The violence was fed by rumors that U.S. troops had shot and killed civilians, which U.S. military spokesmen denied. [WaPo]
  
  
• Two key lawmakers on Capitol Hill, one Democrat and one Republican, said on Sunday that they suspect that senior US military officers were involved in "covering up evidence of war crimes" by a Marine unit in Haditha, Iraq.
  
  The Los Angeles Times reports that Sen. John W. Warner (R) of Virginia, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Rep. John P. Murtha (D) of Pennsylvania said they did not yet have proof of an attempt to surpress evidence of the shootings of 24 Iraqi civilians last November. Both men added, however, that the amount of time it took to launch an investigation into the events that happened in Haditha "led them to suspect that officers up the chain of command were complicit in attempting to keep the incident under wraps." [Christian Science Monitor]
  
  
• Seventy-five prisoners at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were on a hunger strike Monday, joining a few who have refused food and been force-fed since August. Detainees are counted as hunger strikers if they miss nine consecutive meals, and most of the 75 hit that mark Sunday, Durand said. Most are refusing food but continuing to drink liquids. [WaPo]
  
  
• President George W. Bush has likened the "war on terrorism" to the cold war against communism. But as the US struggles to assert itself on the international stage, the president's most radical supporters now dismiss this as mere rhetoric, and traditional conservatives are questioning the wisdom of a democratisation strategy that has brought unpleasant consequences in the Middle East. [Financial Times]
  
  
• The atmosphere is warming faster in subtropical areas, around 30 degrees north and south latitude, than it is elsewhere, University of Washington-led research shows. But scientists examining more than 25 years of satellite data also found that each hemisphere's jet stream has moved toward the pole by about 1 degree of latitude, or 70 miles. That could widen the tropics and expand some of the world's driest regions, they say. [TerraDaily]
  
  
• “Another reason to worry about global warming: more and itchier poison ivy.” Ivy grows “faster and bigger” as carbon dioxide levels increase. [ThinkProgress' ThinkFast]
  
  
• For a country so enamoured of biotechnology and a recognised leader in genetically modified crops research, China is experiencing an organic farming boom. Recent years have seen a surge in organic farming, which advocates the use of traditional farming methods without use of fertilisers or pesticides. The demand is driven by an explosion of organic food sales overseas. China's organic food exports totalled 142 million US dollars in 2003 and 200 million US dollars in 2004. [IPS]
  
  
• Middle- and working-class Americans signed up for high-speed Internet access in record numbers in the past year, apparently lured by a price war among phone companies. Middle- and lower-income households still lag higher-income households when it comes to broadband adoption. Among the $30,000-$50,000 households, 43 percent now have broadband, compared to 68 percent for those making more than $75,000. Overall, 42 percent of adult Americans, or 84 million people, have broadband, compared to 30 percent a year ago. [AP/Yahoo!]

And a new special round-up of World Cup news:

• Everyone's favorite on-field hooligan, Wayne Rooney, will travel to Germany next Monday with England's World Cup squad after all, after a last-minute changed of mind by Sven-Goran Eriksson.
  
  
• Holland have suffered an injury setback after midfielder Rafael van der Vaart was forced to pull out of training with an injured ankle. [BBC]
  
  
• Czech midfielder Tomas Rosicky (he of the stringy mullet) is expected to recover in time for the World Cup finals after a medical check-up showed his leg injury was not serious. There was more good news for the Czechs as striker Jan Koller, who has been recovering from knee surgery, trained with the squad over the past few days. [Soccernet]
  
  
• Hopeful news: Striker Miroslav Klose has left Germany's Swiss training camp to fly home to Bremen for personal reasons.
  
  Bad news: However, the Werder Bremen striker is scheduled to rejoin the squad before Tuesday's friendly against Japan. [BBC]
  
  [I saw him play when I was at the last World Cup in Korea, back in 2002, and he's an uninspiring striker]