Popular Support Key to Security in Northern Iraqi City

By Barry Newhouse Irbil 10 May 2007

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Wednesday's suicide truck bombing in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil was the city's first major bomb attack in two years. VOA's Barry Newhouse reports from Irbil on why residents believe the city has been relatively untouched by the chaotic violence that has gripped the rest of the country.

US soldiers shop for carpets at the downtown market in the center of Irbil, Iraq, 10 Nov 2005

Irbil is less than 100 kilometers from the violent cities of Kirkuk and Mosul - where insurgent militias launch raids and suicide bomb attacks almost every day.

If you ask residents why Irbil has been safe, when there is near constant fighting nearby, most people say the same thing: the public supports the security forces.

This man is a longtime Irbil resident who works in trading.

"All the people here when they see some strange things or strange people they try to ask them why they are here," he said. "If they [the people] make any problems they call the government and tell them there is some strange thing. That is very helpful for the peace here."

Irbil residents interviewed by VOA declined to give their names, saying they did not want to be identified when talking about the security measures following Wednesday's attack.

Remains of a truck are seen in front of the badly damaged Interior Ministry building in the Kurdish city of Irbil northern Iraq, 09 May 2007

Security in Irbil has been tightened since the blast near the interior ministry, with more police and military forces out in the streets and thorough inspections at the city's numerous traffic checkpoints.

This man in a downtown barbershop says residents also participate in maintaining security by occasionally acting as vigilantes.

He says many times people do that but they keep it secret and they don't tell anyone that they took action.

Khaled Salah is a spokesman for the Kurdistan Regional Government. He says Kurdish security forces have been improving their effectiveness and building trust among the local population since the region gained autonomy in 1992.

While Irbil is largely peaceful now, the city and much of the Kurdish-controlled north was a battleground for decades in fighting against Saddam Hussein's military. After the region gained autonomy in 1992, Kurdish factions then fought a brutal civil war.

A woman who works as a translator in Irbil says those wars provided experience for dealing with Iraq's current conflict, but also made people weary of fighting.

"You know, we've been suffering a lot from these things from almost 35 years ago and we want to live our life just like other people - not killing and bombing," she said.

As fighting continues in the rest of Iraq, more people from the south are moving to the Kurdish north to escape the violence.

Many of the new arrivals are Arabs and some are viewed with suspicion by locals who worry they will cause problems. Arabs who come here must have a trusted resident vouch for them, or they will be turned away at the city's checkpoints.

This resident of Irbil, who is member of Iraq's ethnic minority Turkmen population, says he believes the recent bomb attack was a message from Arab militants who are angry at the city's reputation as a safe harbor.

He says because many Arabs are leaving their towns in the south, this bomb was to tell the Arabs that also it is not safe here.

Wednesday's bomb attack targeted the heart of the Kurdish government's security branches -- just outside the interior ministry and the main offices of the Kurdish intelligence.

Officials say they suspect the bomber was from outside the Kurdistan region and was affiliated with the Sunni militant group Ansar al Islam.

But they also say that, as in the city's two previous major bomb attacks in 2004 and 2005, the bomber probably had help from Irbil residents - a rare betrayal in the otherwise unified city.

Bush Says Iraq Policy Not Hurt by British Transition of Power

By Paula Wolfson White House 10 May 2007

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President Bush is losing his strongest ally on Iraq. VOA's Paula Wolfson reports Britain's prime minister, Tony Blair, is stepping down at a time of slipping approval in Britain for the Iraq war.

Prime Minister Blair has stood with the United States throughout the Iraq conflict, and has worked closely with President Bush.

President Bush, 10 May 2007

"I'll miss Tony Blair," said President Bush. "He is a political figure who is capable of thinking over the horizon. He's a long-term thinker. I have found him to be a man who's kept his word, which sometimes is rare in the political circles I run in."

Mr. Blair's decision to step down comes at a time when some public opinion surveys in Britain put support for the war at under 30 percent. But President Bush - speaking to reporters after a briefing at the Pentagon - indicated he is optimistic there will be no change in British policy on Iraq.

"I believe that the relationship between Great Britain and America is a vital relationship," he said. "It is a relationship that has stood the test of time, and when America and Great Britain work together, we can accomplish important objectives."

The president predicted he will be able to work well with the new prime minister. All indications are the ruling Labor Party will choose treasury chief Gordon Brown. Mr. Bush said Brown well understands all that is at stake in Iraq.

"I believe he understand the consequences of failure," admitted Mr. Bush.

President Bush was also asked about the change of power in France, and prospects for improved ties under President-elect Nicholas Sarkozy.

"We will have our differences, and we will have our agreements," he said. "And I am looking forward to working with him."

Next month, Mr. Sarkozy will represent France for the first time at the Group of Eight summit in Germany. It will also be the last such gathering for Tony Blair, who leaves office officially on June 27.

US Says Most Security Council Members Back Independent Kosovo

By Peter Heinlein United Nations 10 May 2007

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Washington's ambassador at the United Nations says most Security Council members back a plan to grant supervised independence to Kosovo. But as VOA's correspondent at the U.N. Peter Heinlein reports, veto-wielding Russia remains opposed to the plan.

Zalmay Khalilzad (file photo)

America's U.N. ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, told the Security Council Thursday delaying a decision on Kosovo's future is a prescription for rising resentment and economic stagnation in the Balkan region.

He said the Council's recent mission to Belgrade and Pristina had convinced him that talks on Kosovo's future are hopelessly deadlocked, and Council action is necessary.

"I understand that there is no potential for compromise on the independence question," he said. "Nothing further from these talks can come about, and no potential for passage of time to change the polarization in the foreseeable future. I think delay on the other hand has great potential to destabilize Kosovo and the Balkans."

The United States and European powers have signaled an intention to put the issue to an early vote in the Security Council. Ambassador Khalilzad says a formal resolution could be introduced as early as Friday. He says most Council members back a recommendation from special U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari that the region be granted supervised independence.

"I believe the votes are there for supporting the Ahtisaari Plan, assuming there is no Russian veto," he said.

Khalilzad said that he has not heard any Russian veto threat.

A short time later, however, Russia's U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, refused to rule out a veto. Speaking to reporters, he noted what he called "irreconcilable differences" between elements of a U.S. and European-backed resolution that endorse the Ahtisaari proposal, and a separate set of Russian elements calling for more negotiations.

"There are some points in those elements that clearly cannot be reconciled," he said. "So this is why there are two separate documents now on the table. So we have a difficult problem before us. We believe this problem requires further negotiations."

At the same time, Churkin said Russia understands that what he called "the status quo" in Kosovo cannot continue. He said Moscow is prepared to accept a transfer of the region's administration from United Nations to European Union control.

But he argued that independence would set a precedent by violating the territorial integrity of a U.N. member state.

"We understand and appreciate that the European Union is very actively involved and prepared to take over the main political role in Kosovo," he said. "We don't mind that. I could easily see a formula where as the talks between Belgrade and Pristina continue, the European Union could take over from the U.N., but it is an issue of broad international significance, and in a situation where never before has a part of a country, an autonomous region, been, never before it has been proposed that they be given independence, this is a threshold situation in terms of international law."

Backers of Kosovo's independence call it a unique case in view of the genocide that occurred there in the 1990s, leading to the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.

Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations since 1999, after a NATO bombing campaign ended a brutal crackdown by Serbian forces against the province's Albanians.

Rice Calls Consolidation of Power by Russian President 'Troubling

By David Gollust State Department 10 May 2007

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U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday the concentration of political power in the Kremlin under Russian President Vladimir Putin is "troubling," though adding that Washington and Moscow are working together well on some major world issues. Rice goes to Moscow next week for talks laying groundwork for next month's G-8 summit in Germany. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department.

Condoleezza Rice testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, 10 May 2007

The secretary of state is due in Moscow in the middle of next week for two days of talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and probably also President Putin, on a bilateral relationship she describes as "complicated."

At a Senate hearing on the Bush administration's $40 billion foreign affairs budget for the coming year, Rice said the two former Cold War adversaries are cooperating well on some major strategic issues, including efforts to curb the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea.

However, she said recent years have been "difficult" in other areas, including what she said is an inability by Moscow to fully accept the idea of good relations between the United States and newly democratic states of the former Soviet Union, like Georgia and Ukraine.

Rice said the roll-back of democratic reforms in Russia, and the reconcentration of powers in the Kremlin, is troubling and a matter of concern not only for the United States.

"I think it's fair to say there has been a turning back from some of the reforms that led to the de-centralization of power out of the Kremlin: a strong legislature, a strong free press, an independent judiciary," she said. "And I think everybody around the world, in Europe, in the United States, is very concerned about the internal course that Russia has taken in recent years."

Rice said one of the advantages of the strong personal relationship President Bush has forged with his Russian counterpart is that he can raise such concerns with Mr. Putin and discuss them.

She spoke shortly after a Thursday morning telephone conversation between the two leaders, who will have a meeting on the sidelines of the three-day G-8 summit opening June 6 at a Baltic resort in northern Germany.

White House and Kremlin spokesmen said the two presidents discussed the Rice Moscow visit and summit preparations as well as a variety of global issues.

Officials here say Rice's agenda in Moscow will cover the "full gamut" of issues, including democracy in Russia, the future status of Kosovo, the situation in Darfur, and Russian objections to U.S. plans to put elements of a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic.

On another matter, State Department officials say the Russian government has told U.S. diplomats that President Putin was not referring to the United States when he said Wednesday that the world faced new threats like those posed by Hitler's Third Reich.

The Russian leader's mention, at a World War II victory event, of forces operating by Nazi-like "diktat" and "claims of exceptionalism" was widely reported in the news media as a slap against unilateralism in U.S. foreign policy.

However, a senior diplomat here said the U.S. embassy raised the matter with the Kremlin and was told that no link to the United States was implied or intended, and that U.S. officials "take them at their word."

Diamond Trade Meeting Singles Out Zimbabwe, Venezuela for Violations

By Jim Teeple Jerusalem 10 May 2007

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The World Diamond Council, the association responsible for regulating the global diamond trade, has singled out Zimbabwe and Venezuela for not meeting global standards aimed at curtailing the trade in so-called conflict diamonds. VOA's Jim Teeple reports from Jerusalem, where the leaders of the world diamond trade wrapped up their annual meeting on Thursday.

The glittering trade in diamonds has long had an ugly side to it. The illicit trade in what are called conflict, or blood diamonds has helped to fuel civil conflicts in Africa.

But, in 2003, diamond companies, civil society groups and governments around the world began an effort to stop the trade in conflict diamonds. Called the Kimberley Process for the town in South Africa where it was first proposed, the plan involves a certification system that tracks the origin of virtually every diamond that is sold around the world.

The chairman of the World Diamond Council, Eli Izhakoff, says, while the trade in conflict diamonds was never more than five percent of the total global trade in diamonds, it is now down to about one percent. He says two countries in particular need to do more to adhere to the standards of the Kimberley Process.

"We have some problems in Zimbabwe, where the government is cooperating in trying to put their house in order, and, hopefully, we can resolve that situation," he said. "One other situation that is outstanding is Venezuela, where they have not been in compliance with the Kimberley certification scheme. We are hopeful they will do the right thing. But, if not, the Kimberley Process certification scheme will have to take some action."

If countries do not meet Kimberley Process standards, they may find it impossible to sell their diamonds on the international market, because buyers will not buy uncertified diamonds.

Recently the U.N. Security Council voted to lift its ban on the sale of Liberian diamonds, because Liberia had made progress at stopping the trade in conflict diamonds.

Alex Yearsly of the public-interest group Global Witness helped to lead the fight to ban conflict diamonds. He says, as the once-rampant trade in conflict diamonds has declined, most of the focus of enforcing the Kimberley Process now involves verifying just how many diamonds are being produced by a country.

"One of the key things that has been started to have been addressed is statistics and production figures," he said. "At the moment, one of the hard things to ascertain [is], what is actually produced in a particular country, and trying to marry that up with the imports and exports of various countries. Another issue is the valuation of diamonds, and how that is represented on the certificates."

Yearsly says, while conflict diamonds no longer largely fuel civil wars, the dark underside of diamond production is still a problem that can fall outside of the Kimberley Process.

"One of the key things is internal controls in alluvial diamond producing countries. There are still many problems with that," he said. "Regulations are not enforced, and they are lax. There are awful human rights violations in some of these countries, where the military and the police take law into their own hands, and steal the diamonds themselves."

About half of the world's diamonds come from West, Central and Southern Africa. Namibia's minister of mines, Kennedy Hamutenya, says, as public awareness about conflict diamonds threatened to turn into a global boycott of diamonds, African countries realized they too had to act to curtail the trade.

"You know, it is like one rotten apple destroying all the other apples," Hamutenya said. "Our concern was that, if you boycott diamonds from our countries, basically, you cause instability. What happens when our economies are ruined? There are going to be civil wars, there is going to be strife."

Hamutenya also says one of the beneficial side effects of the Kimberley Process is that it has helped to foster African unity.

"Through the Kimberley Process, we actually become closer, the producing countries. And, through the process, we actually put together a forum where we help each other - through African solidarity. For instance, Sierra Leone, DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo] and even Zimbabwe have asked us, Namibia to put their house in order," he said.

Hamutenya adds that diamonds are the smallest commodity with the highest concentration of value - and easy to smuggle across porous borders. He says, while the Kimberley Process has not completely eliminated the trade in conflict diamonds, those who participate in the verification process should be given credit for ensuring that the vast majority of diamonds sold around the world are not tainted by the stain of conflict diamonds.

Egypt, Jordan, Israel Discuss Arab Peace Initiative

By Challiss McDonough Cairo 10 May 2007

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The foreign ministers of Jordan, Egypt and Israel have met in Cairo to discuss an Arab initiative for Middle East peace. It is the first meeting between Tel Aviv and the members of the Arab League "working group" tasked with negotiating with Israel. VOA Correspondent Challiss McDonough has more from Cairo.

From right: Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, her Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Jordan's Foreign Minister Abdel-Ilah al-Khatib, Cairo, 10 May 2007

It was the first time that Jordan and Egypt have formally briefed Israel on the recently re-launched Arab peace initiative.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni called the meeting "important" and "historic." Her Jordanian counterpart, Abdel-Ilah al-Khatib said the Arab League is hoping to breathe new life into the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

"Today's meeting was beneficial," he said. "It allowed us to express the Arab position and discuss the Israeli position. We hope that this leads to tangible results that could be positively reflected on the Palestinian-Israeli track and achieving comprehensive peace in the region."

Jordan and Israel are the only two Arab states that have already made peace with Israel and established full diplomatic relations, so meetings between them are not unusual. But in these talks, for the first time, the Jordanian and Egyptian foreign ministers represented not their own governments, but the Arab League.

The Arab League has asked the two countries to work on convincing Israel to accept the Arab peace initiative recently revived at a special summit in Saudi Arabia.

The Arab proposal offers Israel peace and normal relations with all Arab countries in exchange for Israeli withdrawal from all lands taken during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

Israel rejected the deal when it was first proposed five years ago, but has recently shown more interest in it and said it might be a starting point for negotiations.

Livni said the Arab world has "an important role" to play in moving toward peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. But she also said it would be a supporting role, and the main peace negotiations would be the bilateral ones between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

"I would like to say clearly that it is not our policy, nor our goal to control the Palestinian life," she said. "On the other hand we are facing terror on a daily basis and when it comes to our ability to open passages and so on, on the other hand we have a responsibility to the life of Israeli civilians. So, this is the equation, but I truly believe if we will be determined enough to work it out we will find a solution."

Livni did not mention other regional issues, such as the return of Palestinian refugees or Israel's territorial disputes with Syria and Lebanon. The Arab League representatives said they would not be negotiating with Israel on behalf of those parties. They said the appropriate role for the Arab League is setting the stage and creating the right atmosphere to push the peace process forward.

Earlier in the day, Livni met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to discuss a range of issues, including security in the Gaza Strip and along the Gaza-Egypt border.

Turkish Lawmakers Vote on Major Constitutional Changes

By Amberin Zaman Istanbul 10 May 2007

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The Turkish parliament has backed Thursday a proposed amendment to the constitution to enable the people to elect a new president directly. The measure is a key provision in a package of electoral reforms the chamber is debating before July 22 elections. From Istanbul, Amberin Zaman has details for VOA

Turkish ministers, from left, Osman Pepe, Mehdi Eker, Kemal Unakitan and Vecdi Gonul are seen voting in parliament in Ankara, 10 May 2007

During a roll call in the Turkish parliament, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was among those casting ballots.

A total of 376 lawmakers in the 550 member chamber voted in favor of a proposal to have the new president of Turkey elected by the people, rather than by the parliament.

The move proposed by Mr. Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party, better known by its Turkish initials AK, is intended to break a deadlock over the election of a new president to replace Ahmet Necdet Sezer.

Mr. Sezer was scheduled to step down on May 16. He is now expected to stay on as a caretaker until a new parliament is elected after the July 22 polls.

The Justice and Development Party is pushing to hold presidential elections concurrently with the parliamentary polls, after failing in an earlier effort to get Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul elected president.

Gul's bid was derailed by the pro-secular opposition parties who boycotted the vote. They did so on the grounds that Gul, who formerly belonged to an overtly Islamist party, poses a threat to the secular tenets of the republic. Gul denies the charges.

He told VOA in an interview earlier this week that he was determined to run for president again.

"Well definitely I am one of the leading people in this direction so definitely," he said.

The parliament also voted in favor of a measure that will make it harder for the country's largest pro-Kurdish group to field independent candidates. The group, known as the Democratic Society Party, says it plans to field independents because under the current electoral rules a political party needs to win at least 10 percent of the national vote in order to be represented in the parliament.

But independents do not need 10 percent to win a seat. The Kurdish group has never garnered more than five percent of the national vote, and its leaders hope that by running as independents they will get a seat.

The entire constitutional package needs to be approved first by the parliament and then by President Sezer, who could block it by appealing to the Constitutional Court.

Text Messages Could Mean Money for African Farmers

By Nico Colombant Dakar 10 May 2007

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New technologies are starting to bring market information to African farmers straight to their cell phones, and these services are improving. But challenges remain in terms of illiteracy, market reach and expanding cell phone coverage. VOA's Nico Colombant has more from Dakar on one such product from Accra, Ghana.

BusyLab's Mark Davies, right, and the Tradenet Technicians

How do you bring information from a market in Ghana, like here in Accra, to a text message on a cellular phone?

This type of technology is being fine-tuned by a staff of West Africans and non-Africans working for a company called BusyLab in the Ghanaian capital.

British entrepreneur Mark Davies explains what market information is usually like in Africa.

"These information highways have traditionally been truck routes, transport routes, camel trains through the desert, sort of single corridors of transport, and information sort of just fall off these," he said.

That changes when a user gets information on his mobile phone.

"You can for the very first time in history get essentially real time information to help a farm know today what are the prices of the commodities in the market today," he added.

The idea is to get that information and make it available through text messages when requested.

Even though his service is only in its first year, Davies can already point to some interesting transactions.

"One of my partners watched somebody in Kaduna, in Nigeria, text in an offer to sell a product that he had, and within 30 minutes he had three telephone calls from traders in Lagos," he said. "And the deal was done in an hour. We have people in Rotterdam who are buying shear nuts from Mali. We have got people in Yemen that are buying organic fertilizer in Nigeria."

Back inside a noisy market in Accra, one happy customer was easy to find.

A vegetable seller Dorothy Quaye uses her cell phone to check current prices

"I am Dorothy Quaye. I am 48 years old and a trader for about 18 years. I deal in vegetables, tomatoes, cabbage, potatoes, etcetera," she said.

She adds that using a cell phone to improve her business came easily.

"Let us say I sell white maize. So I am in need of white maize. I just use my mobile phone that I have to send my message through my phone, that I am in need of white maize, then send the message," she explained. "Then for about five or some seconds I get the reply back from wherever the maize is, and even the price and even who to contact so before I am searching to go and buy the goods, everything is ready for me."

To expand this business model, an economics professor, Edward Kutsoati, says obviously, widespread illiteracy, will be a problem.

"Reading, writing, education is the key, is the bedrock for any economy, to move on from one level to the next," he said. "In the time being, it would be a constraint to the growth of this particular product. I have relatives back in the village that I wish I could send them text messages, but they are unable to read, they are unable to text message themselves and that would be a constraint."

But Davies says he has an idea for that problem.

"We are looking to set up traders of information, young people, comfortable with technology, helping farmers sell their produce or buy produce and that is the way we see this dissemination of information early on, through proxies and trade agents as we call them," he explained.

Other problems include a lack of mobile phone coverage in many parts of rural areas.

Kutsoati says the help of the public sector may be needed to improve that situation.

"The potential is there. It is really difficult to assess the risk," he added. "This is why maybe a public-private venture becomes very critical because it tends to share the risk between the private sector and public sector."

Other major challenges will be for more farmers to know about the product, and to guarantee the reliability of users.

Economists say turning cell phone beeps into money in the pockets of African farmers could be an economic miracle if it worked on a large scale, but well worth the effort.

Blair to Step Down as Labour Party Leader; Hand Over Power June 27

By Sonja Pace London 10 May 2007

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Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair announced Thursday he is stepping down as leader of the Labour Party and will hand over power to a new prime minister June 27. VOA's Sonja Pace reports from London.

Tony Blair chose the town of Sedgefield, the heart of his constituency in northeast England, to make his long-awaited announcement.

Tony Blair announces he will step down as prime minister on June 27, 10 May 2007

"Today, I announce my decision to stand down from the leadership of the Labour Party," he said. "The party will now select a new leader. On the 27th of June I will tender my resignation from the office of prime minister to the Queen."

With these words, Mr. Blair began the transition of power. The Labour Party is expected to select current treasury chief, chancellor of the exchequer, Gordon Brown, as its new leader, paving the way for him to become prime minister on June 27.

Speaking to party members in Sedgefield, Mr. Blair said that after a decade in power it was time to go.

"I've been prime minister of this country for just over 10 years," he added. "In this job in the world of today, I think that's long enough for me, but more especially for the country."

Mr. Blair recounted some of his government's successes, including Britain's booming economy, improvements in health care, employment and social benefits. He also talked of foreign successes: intervention in the civil conflicts in Kosovo and Sierra Leone. He spoke of Britain's part in the fight against terrorism, in toppling the Taleban in Afghanistan and in ousting Saddam Hussein from Iraq, although acknowledging Britain's involvement in Iraq remains a deeply controversial issue.

Mr. Blair admitted not everyone agrees with the decisions he made over the past 10 years.

"I did what I thought was right," he said. "I may have been wrong; that's your call. But, believe one thing if nothing else, I did what I thought was right for our country."

Mr. Blair acknowledged that not all expectations he had come into office with had been fulfilled. He said some people might say the expectations were too high, but he said he would not have wanted it any other way.

VOASE0510_Economics Report

10 May 2007

Harvard Economist Susan Athey Wins a Top Award
First woman to receive the Clark Medal is honored for work across several areas of study, including government auctions.

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This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

Susan Athey, an economics professor at Harvard University, has won the John Bates Clark Medal. The American Economics Association awards the Clark Medal to the most promising economists. And it may be even harder to win than a Nobel Prize in economics. The Clark Medal is given every two years. And the winner has to be under the age of forty.

Susan Athey is thirty-six years old and the first woman to win the Clark Medal in its sixty year history. No woman has yet won the Nobel economics prize which has been awarded since nineteen sixty-nine.

Professor Athey came to Harvard in Massachusetts last year. Before that she was at Stanford University in California for five years. And before that she taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for six years.

Past winners received the Clark Medal for a single area of research. But Susan Athey was honored for her work across several areas of economics. Her work has dealt with both applied theory and empirical studies. In other words, it has dealt both with the complex methods that help economists do their jobs and with economic problems in the real world.

One of the real-world situations that she has studied is government auctions. Auctions can be used to sell something like the right to cut down trees on public forest lands. Or they can be used to buy something that a government agency needs, like computers. In both cases, bidders compete against one another to win the auction.

For five years, Susan Athey worked with the British Columbia Ministry of Forests in Canada to design a system for timber auctions. That system has helped the Canadians collect over one billion dollars. It has also helped ease a trade dispute. The United States accused Canada of providing unfair support to its timber industry.

Professor Athey has also studied how bidders in an auction can suppress competition. One pays the others to offer losing bids. This, of course, defeats the purpose of an auction. Susan Athey showed that requiring businesses to make secret bids could increase competition.

The John Bates Clark Medal has been given every two years since nineteen forty-seven, except for nineteen fifty-three. That year no prize was awarded. Among thirty winners of the medal, eleven have won the Nobel prize in economics.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.

VOASE0510_American Mosaic

10 May 2007

Cortney Tidwell's Music: Moonlit Laughter, in the Shadow of Emotions
Also: a question from Saudi Arabia about presidential candidates' pages on MySpace. And the US Postal Service releases only its second triangular stamp, to honor the 400th anniversary of Jamestown.

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HOST:

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.

(MUSIC)

I'm Doug Johnson. This week on our show:

We answer a question about the Web sites of American presidential candidates ...

We also have music by Cortney Tidwell ...

And we tell you about a new American stamp that honors an event from four centuries ago.

Jamestown Stamp

HOST:

This weekend, after years of planning, Virginia observes the four hundredth anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown. Jamestown was Britain's first permanent colony in the New World. Queen Elizabeth was there last week. And now, three days of historic re-creations and other events are planned through Sunday. The events includes the release of an unusual postage stamp. Barbara Klein has our story.

BARBARA KLEIN:

The Settlement of Jamestown stamp is in the shape of a triangle. The design represents the three-sided fort that the settlers built four hundred years ago.

David Failor is the executive director of stamp services for the United States Postal Service. He says a citizens advisory committee helped decide what the stamp would look like.

The fifteen-member committee is made up of volunteers. They meet about four times a year to consider suggestions from the public for new stamps.

The first step was to approve a Jamestown commemorative stamp. Then the Postal Service began to search for the best way to represent the subject.

A nineteen forty-nine painting by artist Griffith Baily Coale was chosen. It shows the three ships that carried the first settlers to Jamestown.

David Failor says this is only the second time the Postal Service has issued a triangular stamp. The first time was in nineteen ninety-seven in honor of the International Stamp Show in San Francisco.

Every post office in the country will sell the Jamestown stamp for several months. The stamp is the first to be sold at the new first-class mail rate in the United States -- forty-one cents.

About seventy million Jamestown stamps were printed. David Failor says there will be no more. Only the future will tell if they are popular enough to become valuable collector's items.

The Jamestown commemorative stamp is not for raising money to help pay for the anniversary events. He says the purpose is to raise public awareness about the history of Jamestown.

Candidates' Pages on MySpace

HOST:

Our VOA listener question this week comes from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Van Hoosh wants to know more about the MySpace pages of the American presidential candidates.

MySpace, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, is the leading social networking site on the Internet. Users have lists of "friends," and those friends have lists of friends. Now, candidates are competing for MySpace friends in the same way they compete for money -- as a measure of popularity.

The Web site TechPresident is following the online activities of the two thousand eight presidential election campaign. It says that among the Democrats, Hillary Clinton had more than sixty-three thousand MySpace friends as of Wednesday. That was four thousand more than Barack Obama. John Edwards had thirty-four thousand.

Among the Republicans, John McCain had thirty thousand MySpace friends. Mitt Romney had seventeen thousand. And Ron Paul, a congressman from Texas, had thirteen thousand.

But the candidates are not the only ones who create pages for their campaigns. Supporters and local political groups have also created MySpace pages for their favorite candidates. As our listener in Saudi Arabia points out, it can be difficult to know which pages belong to the candidates themselves.

For example, a supporter of Barack Obama created a MySpace page under the senator's name. More than one hundred thousand friends joined the list.

MySpace later decided that the Obama campaign team had the right to take control of the page. The supporter got a new address, but he was permitted to take his list of friends with him.

MySpace recently created a special page just for the presidential election. The address is impact.myspace.com. It has links to all of the official pages for the candidates. It also includes links to voter registration groups and other sites.

MySpace has announced that it will hold its own presidential nominating election early next year. Voting in this online primary will be open to any MySpace member.

Candidates recognize the power that social networking sites have to reach large numbers of people. These include teenagers who grew up with the Internet and will turn eighteen next year -- old enough to vote for the first time.

Cortney Tidwell

HOST:

Cortney Tidwell grew up with a grandfather and mother who sang country music in Nashville, Tennessee. So it is not surprising that she, too, turned to a career in music. Her songs have a dreamy quality with unexpected electronic sounds and, yes, now and then the sound of a country guitar. Katherine Cole tells us more.

KATHERINE COLE:

Cortney Tidwell controls her voice carefully, but her music is hard to define. Sometimes the sounds that come out of her mouth are unusual and surprising. In her songs you might also hear things like sudden changes in the beat or words that sound far away.

The musical result is poetic and striking. One critic says it is like listening to the sound of moonlight.

This song, from her first full-length album, released earlier this year, is called "Pictures on the Sidewalk."

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Cortney Tidwell says she is influenced by children’s laughter, the night sky and the ups and downs of people’s emotions. Yet the mournful sound that we hear in "Pictures on the Sidewalk" can also be found in many of her other songs.

She has described how her mother suffered from severe depression and would express her sadness through music. As a result, Cortney Tidwell says that as a child she came to connect music with being unhappy.

But she says that in time, she recognized that writing music helped her survive some very difficult times. Here is a song simply called "La La."

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Cortney Tidwell lives in Nashville with her husband, who helped produce her album. We leave you with the title song from "Don't Let the Stars Keep Us Tangled Up."

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HOST:

I'm Doug Johnson, hoping you enjoyed our program today. Our show was written by Brianna Blake, Dana Demange and Jill Moss. Caty Weaver was our producer. For transcripts and MP3 files of all of our programs, go to voaspecialenglish.com.

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