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TOKYO ? Japan's rapid aging means the national population of 128 million will shrink by one-third by 2060 and seniors will account for 40 percent of people, placing a greater burden on the shrinking work force population to support the social security and tax systems.
The population estimate released Monday by the Health and Welfare Ministry paints a grim future.
In year 2060, Japan will have 87 million people. The number of people 65 or older will nearly double to 40 percent, while the national work force of people between ages 15 and 65 will shrink to about half of the total population, according to the estimate, made by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research.
The total fertility rate, or the expected number of children born per woman during lifetime, in 2060 is estimated at 1.35, down from 1.39 in 2010 ? well below more than 2 needed to keep the country's population from declining. But the average Japanese will continue to live longer. The average life expectancy for 2060 is projected at 90.93 for women, up from 86.39 in 2010, and 84.19 years for men, up from 79.64 years.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has pledged to push for social security and tax reforms this year. A bill he promised to submit by the end of March would raise the 5 percent sales tax in two stages to 8 percent in 2014 and 10 percent by 2015, although opposition lawmakers and the public pose challenges to its approval.
Experts say that Japan's population will keep losing 1 million every year in coming decades and the country urgently needs to overhaul its social security and tax system to reflect the demographic shift.
"Pension programs, employment and labor policy and social security system in this country is not designed to reflect such rapidly progressing population decline or aging," Noriko Tsuya, a demography expert at Keio University, said on public broadcaster NHK. "The government needs to urgently revise the system and implement new measures based on the estimate."
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It?s official.? In Saturday?s edition of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, ?reader representative? Ted Diadiun addressed at length the decision to remove long-time Browns writer Tony Grossi from the team?s beat.? Diadiun?s article is well-written, superficially persuasive, and apparently effective, given the number of emails we?ve received from folks who believe based on Diadiun?s article that the newspaper did the right thing.
But it doesn?t change our opinion that the Plain Dealer cowered to the Browns.? In fact, it strengthens it.
When scrutinizing an employment decision, inconsistencies in the reasons and rationalizations from the employer become extremely important.? The thinking is that, if the employer can?t tell a unified story in support of a supposedly legitimate decision, it?s possible that the employer is trying to conceal potentially illegitimate motives.? Circumstantial evidence also takes on a critical role, since the employer rarely will admit to ordering the Code Red.? Or, perhaps for these purposes, a Code Orange.
And that?s really the ultimate question.? Did the Browns order a Code Orange on Grossi?? Or, more accurately, did the Plain Dealer reassign Grossi because it believed the Browns wanted Grossi out?
Let?s consider the facts, the circumstances, and the inconsistencies.
First, the facts.? Grossi posted on his Twitter page a message that he had intended to keep private.? In the message, Grossi called Browns owner Randy Lerner a ?pathetic figure? and ?the most irrelevant billionaire in the world.?? (Of all the billionaires in the world, technically one of them must be the most irrelevant.)? Grossi immediately deleted the tweet once he realized his mistake.? By then, however, his words had been copied and repeated across the Internet, and it was impossible to unring the bell.
Grossi apologized publicly, the Plain Dealer apologized publicly, and Plain Dealer publisher Terrance C.Z. Egger sent a written apology to the Browns and to Lerner.
Though not addressed in Diadiun?s column, the Browns responded with silence.? Apart from declining to comment in response to inquiries from PFT, the Browns and Lerner refused to take calls from Grossi, and possibly from other officials of the Plain Dealer.? Indeed, Diadiun admits that ?[n]one of the editors involved talked with anyone connected with the team? before making the decision to reassign Grossi.
Diadiun omits reference to the key question of whether the Plain Dealer tried to have such discussions.
Second, the circumstances.? Most significantly, Diadiun admits that Egger personally met with Lerner and team president Mike Holmgren on Wednesday, after the decision was made to reassign Grossi.? The fact that a meeting occurred invites speculation that the Browns cared ? or at a minimum that the Plain Dealer believed the Browns cared ? about the manner in which this situation was handled.
Third, the inconsistencies.? On Thursday, Plain Dealer managing editor Thom Fladung told 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland that the ?determining factor? for the decision was the following standard:? ?Don?t do something that affects your value as a journalist or the value of your newspaper or affects the perception of your value and the perception of that newspaper?s value.?? Fladung also said that Grossi?s opinions would have been permissible if he had posted them not on his Twitter page, but in the pages of the Plain Dealer.? ?Let?s say Tony had written that Randy Lerner?s lack of involvement with the Browns and their resulting disappointing records over the years has made him irrelevant as an owner, that?s defensible,? Fladung said.? ?That?s absolutely defensible.?
But Diadiun?s item contains a contradictory quote from Plain Dealer editor Adam Simmons, who thinks that Grossi?s role as a beat writer precluded him from making the statements about Lerner in any context.? ?If it had been a columnist who wrote that, we might cringe, but that role is different,? Simmons said. ?They?re paid to offer up opinions, however prickly. But we?re not asking them to go out and cover a team in a fair and balanced and objective way, like we are with a reporter.?? (Presumably, Simmons also believes that a columnist could have offered those opinions on his Twitter page, since opinions are fair game for a columnist.)
Complicating matters is Diadiun?s attempt to reconcile the action against Grossi with his First Amendment rights.? Rather that relying on the simple ? and accurate ? notion that employees of a private, for-profit enterprise have no First Amendment rights, Diadiun draws a clumsy line between personal and professional social media.? ?Anyone who works at the paper has the right to say, write or Tweet anything they wish,? Diadiun writes.? ?But they do not have a corresponding right to say it in the newspaper or on the website or on their newspaper Twitter account.? If they do, the editors who are in charge of maintaining the credibility of the newspaper have the right to change their assignment.?
So Fladung says that Grossi could have said what he said in the paper, Simmons says that Grossi couldn?t have said what he said anywhere unless he was a columnist, and Diadiun says that Grossi could have said what he said on his own, personal Twitter page.? And no one says it?s impermissible for Grossi to secretly possess those views, even if those views (as Diadiun writes) undermine his credibility.? Under the newspaper?s view of journalistic ethics, it only becomes a problem when those views are disclosed ? which actually should make Grossi even more credible, since he has openly acknowledged his bias.
The end result is a stew of mixed messages, which invites speculation that the real reason for the move was to maintain a good relationship with the Browns.? Though there continues to be ? and likely never will be ? any evidence that the Browns told the Plain Dealer what the Browns wanted the Plain Dealer to do, some of the loudest and clearest messages can be sent through silence.
When Grossi or others from the Plain Dealer tried to call Lerner and/or Holmgren and they refused to speak, what should a reasonable person conclude?? Moreover, why would a meeting with Lerner and Holmgren even be needed if the Plain Dealer didn?t care about the team?s response to the situation?? If this decision was solely about journalistic standards and the integrity and credibility of Grossi?s coverage in the eyes of the audience given his personal views regarding Lerner, there was no reason to go to Berea and kiss rings and/or smooch butts.
That?s the fundamental disconnect.? The Plain Dealer wants us to believe it engaged in a textbook exercise in ethics while at the same time doing things like writing letters of apology to Lerner and publicly calling Grossi?s words about Lerner insulting and personally meeting with Lerner and Holmgren.
Though the Browns may not have intended to order a Code Orange, we believe that the Plain Dealer believed that it needed to remove Grossi from the beat in order to remain in the good graces of the Browns.? And we?d have far more (or, as the case may be, any) respect for this decision if the Plain Dealer would simply admit that which upon inspection of the facts, the circumstances, and the inconsistencies seems obvious.
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TEHRAN (Reuters) ? European companies owed oil by Iran could lose out if Tehran imposes a ban on crude exports to the European Union next week, the head of Iran's state oil company said on Saturday.
Iran's parliament is due to debate a bill on Sunday that would cut off oil supplies to the EU in a matter of days, in revenge for a decision last Monday by the 27 EU member states to stop importing crude from Iran as of July 1.
"Generally, the parties to incur damage from the EU's recent decision will be European companies with pending contracts with Iran," Ahmad Qalebani, head of the National Iranian Oil Co. told the ISNA news agency.
"The European companies will have to abide by the provisions of the buyback contracts," he said. "If they act otherwise, they will be the parties to incur the relevant losses and will subject the repatriation of their capital to problems."
By turning the sanctions back on the EU, Iranian lawmakers hope to deny Europe the six-month window it had planned to give those countries most dependent on Iranian oil - including some of the most economically fragile - time to adapt.
The EU banned imports of oil from Iran on Monday and imposed a number of other economic sanctions, joining the United States in a new round of measures aimed at deflecting Tehran's nuclear development programme.
Under buyback contracts, a common feature of the Iranian oil industry, investments in oil field projects are paid back in oil, often over many years.
Italy's Eni says it is owed $1.4-1.5 billion in oil for contracts in Iran dating from 2000 and 2001 and has been assured by EU policymakers its buyback contracts will not be part of the European embargo but the prospect of Iran acting first may put that into doubt.
The EU accounted for 25 percent of Iranian crude oil sales in the third quarter of 2011.
(Writing by Robin Pomeroy; Editing by David Stamp)
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By JAYMES SONG
updated 8:38 p.m. ET Jan. 27, 2012
KAPOLEI, Hawaii - The Pro Bowl has turned into a numbers game.
The AFC features five players who wear No. 24, including three corners, which has caused some confusion with autograph seekers and photographers leading up to Sunday's all-star game.
The quintet of 24s include New York Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis, Denver Broncos cornerback Champ Bailey, Houston Texans cornerback Johnathan Joseph, San Diego Chargers running back Ryan Mathews and Jacksonville Jaguars special teamer Montell Owens.
They all posed for photos together after Friday's practice.
So will real No. 24 please stand up?
"They're all the real No. 24s on their own team," Mathews said. "On the Chargers, I'm the real No. 24."
Mathews wore No. 21 at Fresno State, but changed to 24 when he arrived at San Diego.
"(LaDainian Tomlinson) was No. 21, so I had to change my number," he said. "I'm sure he wouldn't have minded if I wore it, though. But that's L.T.'s number. I wanted to make my own brand."
Numbers often become a part of a player's brand or identity, especially for superstars in their respective sports. Michael Jordan is 23, even though he also wore 45. Jerry Rice's No. 80 San Francisco 49ers jersey is a classic.
Besides serving as a player's brand, numbers often carry a story behind it and can represent something they've carried since childhood, the number of a player they admired or simply a special number. Or it could mean nothing at all.
"It's my first year wearing 24 and I made it to the Pro Bowl," said Joseph, who switched from 22 when he left the Cincinnati Bengals after five seasons and joined the Texans.
"I wouldn't say it's my lucky number, but it's working for me."
Bailey, on the other hand, is making his 11th Pro Bowl and has worn 24 since joining the NFL 13 years ago. He wore No. 4 at Georgia. Bailey acknowledges having so many 24s may create some confusion with fans, but not with the coaches or players.
"We all know each other and we're all going to represent the number real well," he said.
At Friday's practice on the grounds of the players' hotel at the Ko Olina Resort, Revis played the left side while Bailey was on the right.
Revis said there are some similarities between the 24s.
"All of us are great at we do and that's play great football," he said.
While some are selective about their numbers, Owens was willing to take whatever he could get after playing his collegiate ball as No. 33 at Maine.
"I noticed all the 24s out here, but for me, it wasn't even the number I selected at Jacksonville. It was given to me," he said. "I was a guy who came out undrafted and so when you come out undrafted, you better take any number they give you."
For the NFC, there's only a pair of 24s ? Arizona Cardinals safety Adrian Wilson and Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch. But there are four 21s.
Cardinals rookie cornerback Patrick Peterson wore No. 7 at LSU, changed to the standard double-digit NFL number after being selected fifth overall in the 2011 draft.
"It (21) is definitely the hottest number out there and a lot of guys are representing it well," Peterson said. "I obviously wanted to follow that trend as well."
But it came at a cost, which Peterson wouldn't disclose. He purchased the number because another Cardinal already had it.
Safety Hamza Abdullah wore No. 21 before Peterson. Abdullah is now 23, but apparently still has his old number in his heart. He still tweets from (at)HamzaAbdullah21.
Green Bay Packers cornerback Charles Woodson is among the four 21s for the NFC.
"But there's an elder statesman 21 and that would be me," he said.
Woodson wanted to be 21 back when he first joined the Raiders, but that number was taken by Eric Allen. So he picked 24, which became one of the more popular Raiders jerseys. But he nabbed No. 21 when he joined the Packers.
"I was leaving Oakland behind and moving on to another chapter of my life so I wanted to change it and 21 was there, so I took it," he said. "(In the end), it's all about the names on the jersey. That's what counts."
___
Follow Jaymes Song at http://twitter.com/JaymesSong
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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More newsRay Stubblebine / ReutersBob Costas has strong opinions on many subjects, including the rampant "individual over team" excessive celebrations in the NFL. He also says the new NFL overtime format is flawed.
Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46170321/ns/sports-nfl/
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