A Sampling of Clips for 
April 21, 2006

* UCSD faculty and staff may obtain a copy of an article by e-mailing the University Communications Office

Venture Capitalists Find That
When Styles Collide, Companies Can Get Hurt
The New York Times, April 21 -- In February, Forbes magazine listed Parag Saxena as one of the top 25 U.S. deal makers. But at the end of this month, Saxena will step down as managing partner of Invesco Private Capital, punctuating a major management shake-up. His departure highlights what can happen when members of two exclusive clubs with different rules are forced to share the same dinner table. (Quotes Paul Kedrosky, the executive director of The William J. von Liebig Center at UCSD.) More

Fitness Fanatics: Cross Trainer
San Diego Union-Tribune, April 21 -- UCSD's Briana Hinga has a big heart and a big schedule, with javelin, basketball, academics and work. Besides setting school records for blocked shots in basketball and the javelin throw, Hinga shares the school record with teammate Amy Beeman in the heptathlon. More

Editorial: Informal Diplomacy
Continues in Stalled North Korea Talks
San Diego Union-Tribune, April 21 -- North Korea's Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill didn't get any further than a brief hello when they came to Tokyo last week. The Bush administration forbade Hill to meet with Kim unless North Korea first agreed to return to the Six-Party Talks, and Pyongyang refused to return to the talks unless the U.S. lifted the sanctions it has imposed on North Korea for suspected counterfeiting of U.S. dollars. (Guest editorial by Susan L. Shirk, professor in the Graduate School of International Relations/Pacific Studies and research director of the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation at UCSD.) More

Russia Spurns U.S. Request
to Halt the Building of Nuclear Plant in Iran
San Diego Union-Tribune, April 21 -- Russia rejected a call from the United States to halt construction of a nuclear plant in Iran yesterday. The United States hoped to put pressure on the Islamic Republic to stop its nuclear enrichment program. Russia is helping Iran build the nuclear plant for civil use in the southern city of Bushehr. That plant should be completed by the end of this year. Iran has paid Russia as much as $1 billion for work on the project. (Quotes Babak Rahimi, who teaches Islamic studies at UCSD.) More

SEC Panel Advises
Easing Corporate Accounting Rules
San Diego Union-Tribune, April 21 -- An advisory committee to the Securities and Exchange Commission recommended yesterday that thousands of public companies be exempted from portions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the sweeping law devised to combat corporate fraud. The panel listed 32 recommendations in its final report. The most crucial is a proposal to exempt about 70 percent of public companies from a requirement that an outside auditor certify that internal controls over financial reporting are adequate to avoid accounting mistakes or fraud. (Quotes Michael Willoughby, a finance professor at UCSD.) More

UCSD Kavli Institute Awards Grants
San Diego Daily Transcript, April 20 -- Investigations into the persistence of mistaken political beliefs, the surprising cognitive inflexibility of children and whether sleep requires a brain are among nine projects selected by The Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind at UCSD, for its Innovative Research Awards. Designed to launch projects "focused on ideas that bridge different levels of organization of brain and mind" - a discipline-crossing area of study which cannot always effectively compete for conventional sources of funding - the Innovative Research Awards program is in its second year of operation. More