WORLD IN BRIEF

Qatar entices Northwestern to expand east By Jodi S. Cohen, Chicago Tribune… Qatar entices Northwestern to expand east By Jodi S. Cohen, Chicago Tribune

Thousands of miles from Evanston, Ill., students from Qatar and other areas of the Middle East may soon be able to receive Northwestern University degrees – without ever setting foot on the North Shore campus.

Lured by money and the opportunity to expand its international presence, Northwestern University is nearing a deal to open journalism and communication schools in Qatar, headquarters of Al Jazeera, the largest Arabic-language TV network, university officials said.

The Medill School of Journalism and School of Communication programs would offer foreign students-who can meet Northwestern’s admissions requirements and afford its pricey tuition-an undergraduate curriculum similar to the one at the Evanston campus.

The Northwestern outpost would be part of a Qatari government-backed, higher-education enterprise called Education City, a 2,500-acre complex created by hand picking top academic programs from select universities in the United States.

“They can literally buy-in the best,” said Richard Garrett, a senior analyst at Eduventures, an education-consulting company. “Many of these countries have a large brain drain as top-quality students go abroad. … This way, you get a badge of a foreign degree but by staying in your own country.”

While universities’ international efforts have primarily focused on giving American students opportunities to study abroad, some new programs target foreign students who don’t want to – or can’t – leave their region. That includes wealthy areas in the Middle East and Asia, particularly Qatar, Singapore and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. There are 82 international branch campuses throughout the world, about half of which are outposts of U.S. universities, according to the London-based Observatory on Borderless Higher Education. Five years ago, there were 24 campuses, a group that does not include study-abroad programs or universities that partner with an institution abroad.

At Education City in Doha, the capital city on the coast of Qatar, five U.S. universities already offer degrees.

Virginia Commonwealth University was the first to sign on in 1998 when it established a School of the Arts. Cornell University then opened a medical school, Texas A’M brought its engineering program, and Carnegie Mellon University established schools of business and computer science. The prestigious Georgetown University School of Foreign Service opened a campus in 2005.

Falling rice yields viewed as an early sign global warming in Japan By Jun Sato and Masae Honma, The Yomiuri Shimbun

TOKYO – The latest report by a U.N. panel on climate change may have focused on future dangers, but some of the problems it warns of have already been witnessed in Japan and other parts of the world.

The fourth evaluation report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, adopted by the United Nations on Friday, warned that many people will have to dramatically change their way of life, as extreme temperatures and drought could affect many parts of the world.

“I feel Kyushu may be turning into a subtropical region,” said Shozo Koga, a 51-year-old farmer in Isahaya, a major rice producing area in Nagasaki Prefecture.

Koga grows vegetables and rice on the same farmland during the course of the year, but still has to take on a side job to supplement his income. “I can no longer live on the rice I’m able to produce,” he said.

Rice harvests in the Kyushu region have been poor for the past four years, while the quality of much of this rice also has fallen. An increasing number of rice harvests are being rated second- and third-grade, which is worth 1,000 to 2,000 yen less per 60 kilograms than first-grade rice.

Last year, the total crop yields of rice in the city fell to below half of what would be expected in an average year. The lower yields have been attributed to the high temperatures between late August and early September, when rice grains mature.

Junya Koga, a senior researcher at the prefectural Nagasaki Agriculture and Forestry Experiment Station, said harvesting first-grade rice of Hinohikari, the most widely grown variety in the prefecture, is almost impossible when temperatures exceed 26.5 C during the period.

He added that in recent years it has not been unusual for temperatures in the city to exceed this level at that time of year.

The IPCC report warned that rising temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns could lower agricultural productivity, resulting in serious food shortages in Asia.

California taxes growers of medical marijuana By Judy Lin, McClatchy Newspapers

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – When it comes to the sale of medical marijuana, California is seeing green.

For the first time since voters passed Proposition 215 more than a decade ago, state tax assessors are reaching out to the state’s 150 to 200 estimated medical marijuana retailers to get them to pay their state and local sales tax.

In February, the state Board of Equalization sent out a special notice to sellers of medical marijuana, urging them to obtain a seller’s permit like any other retailer.

“If you sell medical marijuana, your sales in California are generally subject to tax, and you are required to hold a seller’s permit,” according to the notice.

It goes on to warn sellers that “If you do not obtain a seller’s permit or fail to report and pay the taxes due, you will be subject to interest and penalty charges.”

Proponents of the move say the outreach effort could help legitimize medical marijuana stores by giving them the same rights and responsibilities as any other retailer. Yet, it’s causing a lot of consternation among cannabis club owners and medical marijuana advocates.

While some cannabis club owners want to be “good neighbors” and pay the sales tax, others prefer to stay underground for fear that any tax information they report will be used against them by federal drug enforcement officials.

“It’s frustrating,” said Chris Moscone, an attorney representing the Hemp Center, a San Francisco dispensary currently negotiating with state tax collectors on paying back taxes. “There are basically two camps: those that want to be treated like legitimate businesses and the other side, where they’re still rebels and don’t want to be taxed.”

When Californians passed the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, or Proposition 215, decriminalizing the use of marijuana at the recommendation of a doctor, the law failed to address how the state should deal with medical marijuana sales.

In early 2005, Board of Equalization Chairwoman Betty Yee said the board took up the Hemp Center’s case and soon realized an inconsistency in the law. While the shop had been paying taxes on T-shirts, hats, pipes and other consumption devices, it did not pay taxes on medical marijuana.

The board ultimately determined that medical marijuana was subject to the sales tax because it is not dispensed by a pharmacist or approved by the Food and Drug Administration.