Canada close to nuclear deal with India

TORONTO — Canada has concluded negotiations on a nuclear cooperation agreement with India to sell nuclear technology and materials to the energy-starved South Asian nation, Canada's prime minister said Saturday.

Conservative leader Stephen Harper said the agreement would allow Canadian firms to export and import controlled nuclear materials, equipment and technology to and from India.

"Increased collaboration with India's civilian nuclear energy market will allow Canadian companies to benefit from greater access to one of the world's largest and fastest expanding economies," Harper said during a meeting with India's Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, following the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago.

In a statement issued Saturday, Harper said Canada and India will now take the necessary steps to finalize and implement the agreement, which will open up the lucrative Indian market to Canadian nuclear exports for the first time in more than three decades.

Trade Minister Stockwell Day announced earlier this year that government-owned Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. had signed a memorandum of understanding with India for next-generation nuclear reactors.

It was a turning point for Canada, which stopped nuclear co-operation with India in 1974 after its government used plutonium from a Canadian reactor to build an atomic bomb.

The international community lifted a three-decade ban on nuclear trade with India last September even though India still refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Some anti-nuclear activists worry India will stockpile domestic uranium for military weapons and use uranium imports for civilian purposes.

Day said Canadian negotiators insisted India allow nuclear inspectors into civilian facilities. Under the deal, Canadian nuclear exports cannot be used for military purposes, he said.

Now that the moratorium has ended, countries are lining up to sell nuclear technology to India, which wants to build 25 to 30 new reactors in the coming years.

"India's needs for nuclear energy are enormous, just as we need a lot more energy to make a success of our developing presence," Prime Minister Singh said Saturday.

Atomic Energy of Canada said earlier this year that it is eyeing foreign markets for its next-generation ACR 1000 reactors.

AECL has already signed a deal with a leading Indian engineering firm to start costing out the ACR 1000s — the prelude to a possible sale.

Saskatchewan's Cameco Corp., is also poised to sell uranium to India.

Canada's nuclear energy industry generates approximately 6.6 billion Canadian dollars ($6.2 billion) in annual revenue, $1.2 billion ($1.12 billion) in exports each year and employs approximately 31,000 people.

Baby can wait as expectant dad finishes spacewalk

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A spacewalking astronaut put aside the impending birth of his daughter and blazed through his first-ever venture outside the International Space Station on Saturday.

Expectant father Randolph Bresnik and Michael Foreman were so far ahead despite their late start and interrupted sleep the night before — false fire and decompression alarms jolted them awake — that their commander handed them extra work.

"Way to kick butt," said commander Charles Hobaugh, a Marine colonel.

The spacewalkers installed new antennas, relocated a monitor for electrical hazards, set up an attachment for a spectrometer due to arrive next year, and hooked up a wireless video system for spacewalkers' helmet cameras. Then they released another payload platform.

Baby Bresnik had yet to make an appearance by the time the six-hour spacewalk ended Saturday afternoon. Bresnik's wife, Rebecca, had been expected to give birth to their second child Friday, back home in Houston. They have a 3-year-old son, adopted from Ukraine.

"The Bresnik launch countdown clock has got some unpredictable and variable holds in it. So it's very hard to predict. But nothing new for you today," flight director Brian Smith told reporters eager for details.

The astronauts and Mission Control agreed before Saturday's spacewalk to hold off on any news if the birth occurred while the men were outside. Everyone wanted Bresnik, a 42-year-old Marine lieutenant colonel, focused on the spacewalk because of the extra risk posed by working outside.

"Absolutely, he was 100 percent focused and I don't think it was hard for Randy," Smith said. "Randy's a NASA astronaut. He knows how to compartmentalize. Before he was an astronaut, he was a Marine fighter pilot."

That didn't stop Bresnik from appreciating the view of Earth. He was mightily impressed as he started on his work outside.

"Other than seeing my wife for the first time, I don't think I've ever seen a more beautiful face," Bresnik said, gazing down at the planet 220 miles below. "This is amazing."

As they soared over Houston, the spacewalkers took time for a little sightseeing. They joked that they could see their homes and hear their commander urging, "Get back to work."

Throughout the spacewalk, Foreman, a veteran spacewalker, had trouble hearing inside his helmet. Bresnik's voice was especially faint. "I can't understand you," Foreman called out. Bresnik spoke louder. "Still can't," Foreman said. An astronaut inside had to intercede.

Foreman also missed some of the praise coming his way after accomplishing all the major chores.

The spacewalk was delayed more than an hour by false decompression alarms that rang through the orbiting complex late Friday, for the second night in a row. The high-pitched beeps — emanating from a new Russian research chamber — triggered a series of smoke alarms. The racket woke up the astronauts and disrupted spacewalk preparations.

Right before the spacewalk, the combined crews attached a giant platform full of spare parts to the exterior of the space station, using robot arms. It was the second such shelf to be installed this week. Atlantis hauled up nearly 15 tons of equipment to keep the outpost running long after the shuttles' retirement next year.

One more spacewalk is planned on Monday. The shuttle will remain at the station until the day before Thanksgiving. Landing is planned the day after.

The pushcart war By Jean Merrill

Obama takes to the Web to talk to China

SHANGHAI — US President Barack Obama will try Monday to break out of the official constraints of his maiden state visit to China and seek to talk directly to Chinese people in a live dialogue via the Internet.

Obama is set to hold a campaign-style town-hall meeting with students in Shanghai, before heading to Beijing for talks Tuesday with President Hu Jintao on tough issues like trade, global crises including Iran and climate change.

The US leader, on the third leg of his debut tour of Asia, is to make brief remarks to a high-powered audience described by the White House as "future Chinese leaders," at Shanghai's science and technology museum.

Obama held hundreds of such events on the 2008 White House campaign trail and has used them as president to reach out over the head of traditional news networks in a bid to talk directly to voters.

Officials have been evasive over what kind of restrictions Obama's Chinese hosts have placed on the event, given tight controls on Internet content -- the so-called "Great Firewall of China".

It was unclear whether it would be carried live or unfiltered on Chinese national television.

The students were picked by department heads from universities around Shanghai, and the technology-savvy White House solicited questions over the Internet for the president.

The White House planned to stream the event on its website, taking aim at hundreds of millions of Chinese Internet users. Chinese state media said the website of the official Xinhua news agency would also carry the event live.

Ahead of the town hall meeting, Obama was to hold talks with Shanghai's mayor and Communist party chief.

Later, the formal business of a full US-China state visit will get under way, when Obama flies to Beijing for an official welcoming ceremony and dinner with Hu at the Diaoyutai state guest house.

After a day of talks on Tuesday and some sight-seeing, Obama will be honoured with the lavish pageantry of a state dinner.

Obama touched down in Shanghai in a rainstorm late Sunday for his first visit to the Asian giant -- a three-day mission aimed at convincing Beijing that Washington is its partner, not its rival.

He came directly from Singapore, where he and other Asia-Pacific leaders pledged to revamp the world economy but scuppered hopes that key climate change talks next month would end in a pact.

In a speech on Asia policy in Tokyo on Saturday, Obama said the United States welcomed China's rising political and economic clout.

"The United States does not seek to contain China, nor does a deeper relationship with China mean a weakening of our bilateral alliances," he said.

"On the contrary, the rise of a strong, prosperous China can be a source of strength for the community of nations."

Washington has angered China in recent months by imposing tariffs on Chinese tyres and preliminary duties on some steel products -- moves which Beijing has slammed as protectionist and as impeding world recovery.

Obama is expected to counter by again urging China to reconsider the value of the yuan, which has been effectively pegged to the dollar since July 2008, when the global crisis hit key export markets for Chinese-made goods.

Washington has stopped short of calling China a currency manipulator, but has urged Beijing to relax its exchange rate regime, hinting that it keeps the value of the yuan artificially low to boost exports.

Environmental activists had held out high hopes that Obama and Hu, whose countries are the world's top two emitters of greenhouse gases, would reach some kind of climate change deal before global talks in Copenhagen next month.

But that seemed unlikely after Asia-Pacific leaders conceded in Singapore that they would not reach a binding pact in the Danish capital.

Obama, criticised at home for not meeting the Dalai Lama during the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader's recent visit to Washington, has vowed to raise human rights issues with Beijing, but said he would do it without "rancour".

He and Hu were also expected to discuss the controversial nuclear programmes of North Korea and Iran.

Obama enjoys great popularity in China, especially among the youth in the world's most populous nation of 1.3 billion people.

"I want to encourage my son to learn from him and his fighting spirit to reach his goal," office worker Zhang Yan said Sunday at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in Shanghai, where people posed with a replica of the US leader.

"Obama is probably the most eloquent leader we have ever known."

Officials to restore birthplace of Robert Johnson

JACKSON, Miss. – The mystery surrounding bluesman Robert Johnson's life and death feeds the lingering fascination with his work.

There's the myth he sold his soul to the devil to create his haunting guitar intonations. There's the dispute over where he died after his alleged poisoning by a jealous man in 1938. Three different markers claim to be the site of his demise.

His birthplace, however, has been verified. The seminal bluesman came into the world in 1911 in a well-crafted home built by his stepfather in the Mississippi town of Hazlehurst.

Now, 71 years after his death, local officials want to restore the home in hopes of drawing Johnson fans and their tourism dollars to Copiah County, about 100 miles from the Delta region that most bluesmen called home.

Johnson's life and music have been the subject of multiple books. And producers are shopping a script in Hollywood about him penned by Jimmy White, the screenwriter for the Academy Award-winning film, "Ray."

"It's amazing that after all these years, people still talk about Robert Johnson on the level that they do," said the bluesman's grandson, Steven Johnson.

Johnson's influence can be heard in the works of numerous artists, from Muddy Waters to Eric Clapton, who covered 14 of the bluesman's songs on his 2004 album, "Me and Mr. Johnson."

The house is an important piece of Johnson's legacy, said Grammy-winning pianist George Winston, who will headline a fundraiser for the restoration Monday at the Belhaven College Center for the Arts in Jackson.

"Everything with Robert is mysterious, but the more we can demystify, we can get down to the truth," said Winston. "He was an inspired musician. He took a quantum leap." The story goes that Johnson didn't play all that well at first, then left town for awhile. When he returned, his music had undergone a transformation.

"He came back and everybody couldn't believe how well he played," Winston said.

That's likely what gave rise to the soul-selling rumor, a transaction purportedly taking place at the crossroads of U.S. 61 and U.S. 49 in the Mississippi Delta.

Johnson's birthplace was verified in a letter from his half-sister years ago, said Janet Schriver, executive director of the Copiah County Office of Cultural Affairs.

The 1,500-square foot home now owned by the county has fallen into disrepair, but it still bears evidence of craftsmanship. Johnson's stepfather, Charles Dodds, was a furniture maker and a prosperous landowner. The house had a double-parlor, a long front porch and a pump that allowed water to flow into the kitchen, a modern convenience unheard in most homes occupied by blacks in the early 20th century, said Schriver.

Schriver said the county is trying to raise $250,000 for the restoration project, which coincides with efforts to get Johnson's life story to the screen.

White was commissioned by HBO about three years ago to write the script, but the production company's management changed and the project was scrapped, said Cathy Gurley, who handles publicity for the Robert Johnson Blues Foundation.

HBO confirmed Thursday a project had been in development, but subsequently producers were allowed to take it elsewhere.

Gurley said "we're currently shopping the project."

White, who is based in Santa Monica, Calif., said he was moved by the "sheer genius" of Johnson, who was self-taught on the guitar.

"He was so good that he would literally turn his back when they were recording him. He didn't want the other musicians to see his fingering technique," White said.

A restored Johnson birthplace would offer his latter-day fans something rare: a tangible relic linked to the long-dead musician. Few personal artifacts from Johnson's life remain. Only two photographs of Johnson are known to exist, one known as the "studio portrait" made for Johnson by Hooks Brothers Studios in Memphis, Tenn., and the other referred to as "the dime store portrait" or "the photo booth self portrait" taken by Johnson himself.

White spent months researching Johnson's life and interviewing other blues artists, including David "Honeyboy" Edwards, who knew Johnson. Little known in their prime, outside of the audience for "race music," the bluesmen created an enduring musical legacy.

"As a writer, it was exciting for me because nobody has been able to crack the code of how to tell the story of a blues singer from that era, especially the legendary one who sold his soul to the devil," White said.

Police: NY school gunman upset over GI treatment

PINE PLAINS, N.Y. — Upset by the treatment of U.S. military personnel, a 42-year-old father of an Army veteran sneaked a disassembled shotgun into a middle school just after classes began Tuesday, put it together in a bathroom, then held the principal hostage for more than two hours before surrendering without firing a shot, police said.

At 7:45 a.m., minutes after the bell signaled a start to the school day at Stissing Mountain Middle School, Christopher Craft Sr. loaded a single round into the shotgun, walked into the main office and confronted Principal Robert Hess, police said. Students were herded into the cafeteria's kitchen or huddled under desks.

Craft ordered Hess at gunpoint into an inner office where he restrained him and threatened to kill him to try to compel school officials and police to talk to media about his message "concerning the wrongful treatment of United States Military personnel," court documents said.

Students and staff were locked in other rooms, part of the school's safety procedures.

Craft surrendered peacefully at 9:52 a.m. and was taken from the school in handcuffs. Officials said they negotiated constantly with Craft but did not say what finally persuaded him to surrender.

Police then began going room to room to clear out about 700 students from the combined middle and high schools, who were taken to the district bus garage to assemble. They returned to the school and were dismissed shortly after 2 p.m., about the time they are normally released.

No one was injured.

Craft, wearing black jeans and a black T-shirt with an image of a pirate ship on the back at his arraignment, told a judge he was depressed and needed psychiatric care.

"Jail is not the place I need to be," Craft told Pine Plains Town Justice Louis Imperato. The judge didn't respond to his request for psychiatric care.

Craft has two sons who had attended the school, but school officials said neither was currently enrolled.

Craft's elder son, also named Christopher, was a motor transportation operator in the Army from December 2006 through June 2009, the Department of Defense confirmed Tuesday evening.

Craft, who went to school in the district, was charged with first-degree kidnapping and also faces charges of criminal possession of a weapon and criminal trespassing.

Craft didn't enter a plea at his arraignment. A public defender will be assigned before his next court appearance Dec. 2.

One student, seventh-grader Zach Pruner, said he was in the counselor's office in the next room when Craft walked in and began arguing with administrators. He began cursing and talked about being frustrated and confused, Zach said.

"I could hear him in the next room," he said. "I was frozen with fear."

Zach said he hid under a desk for the next two hours. He jumped out a window after getting the attention of the SWAT team by waving his arm, and he held up a sign that said "One guy with gun and four people inside."

Police and school officials didn't single out any student's actions, saying they followed the proper procedures during the standoff.

Classes began around 7:30 a.m. and Craft walked in a few minutes later, checking in with a receptionist as required, according to Pine Plains Schools Superintendent Linda Kaumeyer. He asked to use the bathroom, where he put the shotgun back together, loaded it with one round and headed into the main office, police said.

Hess was the psychologist at the school before becoming principal, said Gregg Pulver, superintendent of Pine Plains, a town about 90 miles north of New York City.

"He has a great way of handling people, thank God," he said.

The school was to be closed Wednesday to observe Veterans Day, but Kaumeyer said she would consider opening it to provide counseling.

Parents were told to gather in a parking lot at a restaurant a couple of blocks from school. Hundreds of people, including parents and other townspeople, were milling around an intersection near the school, which sits in a rural valley amid rolling hills.

Pine Plains has about 2,400 residents. The school district is the one-stoplight town's largest employer, Pulver said.

Police said Craft had a prior misdemeanor conviction, but they would not release details. He was also shot in the shoulder in 2000 during a dispute over stolen property.

Iran, North Korea top Clinton's overseas agenda

WASHINGTON — Nuclear impasses with Iran and North Korea are the dominant issues for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on her trip to Europe and Asia, which begins with a stopover in Germany to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall's fall.

Developments in both stalemates are expected in the coming days with international patience running out over Iran's refusal to come clean about its suspected nuclear program and North Korea's refusal to return to stalled disarmament talks.

As Clinton prepared to depart early Sunday for Berlin, U.S. officials said they anticipated that the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog soon would give up hope that Iran would accept a confidence-building deal under which it would ship uranium abroad for further enrichment. That would set the stage for consideration of new U.N. Security Council penalties against Tehran.

In addition, the officials said the U.S. is nearing an announcement that it will send a special envoy to North Korea in a bid to get the North to resume the negotiations, known as the six-party talks. The envoy, Stephen Bosworth, has been invited by the North Koreans, but the Obama administration has not yet accepted.

The centerpiece of Clinton's two days in Berlin will be celebrations marking the anniversary of the Nov. 9, 1989, opening of the wall, the symbolic end of the Cold War. But behind the scenes, in meetings with German and other visiting foreign officials, the Iran question looms.

The administration is seeking support for fresh penalties against Iran. In particular, the U.S. is hoping for help from Russia, which along with China, has in the past resisted and is giving mixed signals about whether it will back them if the uranium transfer proposal is rejected.

Clinton will be at events with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, all of whose countries are involved in the Iran talks. U.S. officials said Iran will be a prime topic of conversation.

"This is a pivotal moment for Iran, and we urge Iran to accept the agreement as proposed," Clinton told reporters in Washington last week after meeting with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle. "We will not alter it and we will not wait forever."

The proposal would see Iran send 1.2 tons of low-enriched uranium — around 70 percent of its stockpile — for reprocessing in Russia in one batch by the end of the year as a way to ease concerns that the material would be used for a bomb — something Iran denies.

France would then convert the uranium into fuel rods that would be returned to Iran for use in a reactor in Tehran that produces medical isotopes. Fuel rods cannot be further enriched into weapons-grade material.

Western officials say Iran agreed to the deal in principle, but there have been recent conflicting signals about it and senior Iranian lawmakers are demanding that the government reject it. The International Atomic Energy Agency is attempting to persuade Iran to accept the deal; Clinton and others say time is running out.

"Our patience is not unlimited," she said.

From Berlin, Clinton goes to Singapore, where she will meet Wednesday with Asia-Pacific foreign ministers for talks that will center on North Korea.

Jeffrey Bader, a senior Asia adviser to Obama said Friday that the United States is prepared to send Bosworth to North Korea for direct talks, but only if the North understands that such contact must set the stage for the scrapping of its nuclear program.

Bader said no decision has yet been made about when or how that trip would happen.

But two other U.S. officials said Saturday that an announcement may be imminent, possibly ahead of or during President Barack Obama's Asia trip, which begins Wednesday and will include stops in Japan, China and South Korea — all key players in the six-party talks.

North Korea said last week it had reprocessed 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods and extracted enough plutonium to bolster its atomic stockpile, raising the stakes in an apparent effort to push the U.S. into direct negotiations.

The North pulled out of the six-party talks in April in protest at international criticism of a long-range rocket launch. It then conducted its second-ever nuclear test in May and a series of ballistic missile tests.

After her meetings in Singapore, Clinton will make a brief stop in the Philippines on Thursday to show U.S. solidarity with the nation as it recovers from a series of devastating typhoons. Clinton then returns to Singapore to join Obama for the rest of his Asia trip.

On the Net:

• State Department: http://www.state.gov/

House GOP health plan would cover relatively few

WASHINGTON — Congressional budget umpires say the House Republican health plan would only make a small dent in the number of uninsured Americans.

In an analysis released late Wednesday, the Congressional Budget Office said the GOP plan would reduce the number of uninsured by 3 million.

The Democratic bill, by comparison, would reduce the number of uninsured by 36 million. Both estimates are for the year 2019.

While the Democrats' bill would cover 96 percent of eligible Americans, the Republican alternative would cover 83 percent — roughly comparable to current levels.

The budget office says the Republican plan would reduce federal deficits by $68 billion over the 10 year period, and push down premiums for privately insured people.

Sacking threatens drug panel future

Mass resignations have been predicted from the country's drugs advisory panel in protest at Alan Johnson's decision to axe its chairman for criticising the Government's policy.

At least two members of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) have quit since Professor David Nutt was sacked by the Home Secretary on Friday in a row that is threatening the panel's future.

Writing in the Times, the professor warned more of the remaining 28 members could leave, saying: "It seems unlikely that any 'true' scientist will be able to work for this, or future, home secretaries.

"My sacking has cast a huge shadow over the relationship of science to policy. Several of the science experts from the ACMD have resigned in protest and it seems likely that many others will follow suit.

"This means the Home Office no longer has a functioning advisory group, which is very unfortunate given the ever-increasing problems of drugs and the emergence of new ones."

Fellow panel member Dr Les King resigned on Sunday, saying Mr Johnson had denied Prof Nutt his right to free speech and called for the advisory panel to become truly independent from politicians.

A second member, pharmacist Marion Walker, is also understood to have quit.

Dr King said the Government's attitude to the panel has shifted and home secretaries now had a "pre-defined political agenda" when they asked for its expert advice.

"It's being asked to rubber stamp a pre-determined position," he said. "If sufficient members do resign, the committee will no longer be able to operate."

Writing in the Guardian, Mr Johnson again explained his rationale for the sacking. He said: "Professor Nutt was not sacked for his views, which I respect but disagree with. He was asked to go because he cannot be both a Government adviser and a campaigner against Government policy."

CRTC says no to Globalive

Globalive does not meet Canadian ownership and control requirements and cannot therefore set up shop as Canada's fourth national cellphone company, the CRTC says.

The regulator on Thursday found that the Toronto-based company, which is backed by Egypt's Orascom and had plans to launch service in Toronto and Calgary this year under the Wind brand, does not meet ownership and control rules.

"The commission found it particularly important that Orascom owns 65.1 per cent of the equity, has entered into a strategic technical arrangement with Globalive, controls and holds the 'Wind' brand under which Globalive will operate, and holds the overwhelming majority of the outstanding debt," the regulator said.

"The commission therefore determines that Globalive has not met the requirements of the ownership and control regime and is therefore not currently eligible to operate as a Canadian telecommunications common carrier."

The CRTC prescribed a list of changes the company could theoretically make in order to bring itself into compliance, which would include amendments to the composition of its board of directors, liquidity rights and the threshold for veto rights.

However, the fact that Orascom controls almost all of the company's debt is a factor that cannot be easily resolved.

"When these levers are considered in concert with Orascom's provision of the vast majority of Globalive's debt financing, the commission finds that it cannot conclude that Globalive is not controlled in fact by a non-Canadian, to wit Orascom," the CRTC said. "In other words, the commission finds that Orascom has the ongoing ability to determine Globalive's strategic decision-making activities."

Globalive chief executive Anthony Lacavera said the CRTC has made a "bad decision" and that Canadians need to speak up on what they want to see in the wireless marketplace.

"What this means for Canadians is less choice in wireless, higher prices, less features and services," Lacavera told CBC News. "We were ready to launch with a new competitive offering that's going to cause all the incumbent players to bring better offerings themselves to Canadians."

'We are a Canadian company'

Lacavera rejected the findings of the CRTC, saying Globalive complies with Canadian ownership rules.

“The CRTC has, in our estimation, made errors in their assessment of our control and ownership. We are a Canadian company, we have always been a Canadian company. We're ready to begin a new wireless offering to Canadians and Canadians have spoken loud and clear that they want this choice in wireless."

He said they are still assessing their options.

The CRTC decision stymies the company's plans to launch service across the country, except in Quebec, by next year after spending $442 million in an auction of government airwaves last year. Globalive passed an ownership test by Industry Canada at the conclusion of the auction.

The government had reserved airwaves for potential new wireless carriers during the auction in an effort to boost competition in the Canadian marketplace.

Telecommunications analyst Carmi Levy said he was shocked by the decision, given the federal government’s apparent openness to foreign investment.

Several other companies are also hoping to enter the sector and Levy said they should be double-checking their ownership structures.

“It means that the CRTC is looking very closely into precisely who’s pulling the strings,” he said, “who’s making the decisions, and if they don’t meet those very stringent Canadian ownership criteria, they, too, will be denied entry.”

Levy predicted Globalive won’t give up because it has invested too much already.

“They will look at re-jigging their organizational structure, possibly seeking additional Canadian-based investment and re-approaching the CRTC at some future point in time,” he said.