Millions of Swine Flu Vaccines Will Be Destroyed

May 24, 2010

Boston.com

by Stephen Smith

Roughly 65 million doses of swine flu vaccine sit unused or expired in clinics, doctor’s offices, and warehouses across the United States as the virus that once stoked fears of a devastating global epidemic has retreated. Most of the leftover shots and nasal spray, about 40 percent of what the federal government ordered, will be destroyed.

The purchase of so much vaccine, at a cost of $1.6 billion, was a calculated gamble made early in the epidemic, when it was impossible to know the virus would prove less harmful than some specialists had forecast.

But the gamble may have yielded dividends nonetheless, disease trackers said: The 91 million doses that were administered may have helped prevent a wintertime outbreak.

“Influenza’s just very unpredictable,’’ said Dr. Susan Lett, medical director of the state Department of Public Health’s immunization program.

Massachusetts alone accounts for 1.3 million to 1.5 million unused doses, with no large immunization campaigns scheduled and with the respiratory virus, known scientifically as H1N1, responsible for few medical visits in recent weeks. Health departments in the five other New England states told the Globe they have a total of at least 730,000 remaining doses.

The big surplus, flu specialists said, illustrates the need to accelerate the process for making flu vaccine, which has been done the same way for decades. Because it took months to manufacture the vaccine, swine flu peaked before most shots and nasal spray had been shipped.

“Putting vaccine into production is like trying to turn a big ship around on a dime,’’ said Dr. David Ozonoff, a professor at the Boston University School of Public Health who presides over an online flu encyclopedia.

Long-standing critics of the government’s use of emergency powers in health crises said the vaccine surplus suggests an overreaction to an uncertain threat.

“It’s basically the taxpayers who will be paying for all of those doses,’’ said Bob Dwyer, a district coordinator of the Liberty Preservation Association of Massachusetts. “I don’t feel I should have to pay for it.’’

Early reports from Mexico, where the first swine flu cases were identified in April 2009, suggested that the disease could prove highly lethal, especially to children and young adults.

Those accounts, combined with the swift spread of the virus to the United States, fueled fears of a major outbreak that could have imperiled people whose immune systems had no natural firepower against the novel virus.

Federal disease trackers had to decide within weeks whether to brew a vaccine specifically targeting the virus, an antiquated task relying on chicken eggs that can take as long as six months.

Government flu specialists decided that they had no choice, that if they failed to act and the virus started killing people by the millions, they would be tarred for inaction. So they ordered tens of millions of doses.

They knew it was a race against the clock. Cases waned last summer, but history suggested that a second, possibly more potent wave would land in the fall.

“We know for a fact that flu vaccine saves lives, particularly those at high risk for the serious complications,’’ said Tom Skinner, a spokesman for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That second wave did arrive, peaking in late October and early November. But vaccine was a scarce commodity then. It took longer to produce than drug companies originally predicted.

Its use was initially restricted to children and adults considered at greatest risk of complications from H1N1, and that included people unaccustomed to getting flu shots: young adults.

At the same time, most of the elderly, historically a major focus of seasonal flu campaigns, were told they would have to wait for swine flu shots.

With the passage of time, it became evident that while swine flu was widespread and capable of killing, it would not cause the sort of upheaval spawned by the flu pandemic of 1918 and 1919, when millions died globally.

The latest federal estimates show that 61 million people in the United States have been infected with the H1N1 virus, and about 12,000 have died.

Studies estimate 36,000 people die on average each year from seasonal flu.

Once swine flu vaccine became more plentiful in late November and December, the public’s desire to be vaccinated was flagging.

“People felt a decreased sense of urgency about being vaccinated as they saw the mortality estimates be lower than earlier predicted,’’ said Dr. Paul Biddinger, an emergency preparedness specialist at the Harvard School of Public Health.

A Harvard study published in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine found that safety concerns also tamped down demand, though no significant complications have been reported.

Still, in Massachusetts, about 2.3 million doses of H1N1 vaccine were administered, comparable to what has been given the last few years for seasonal flu.

A feared third wave of swine flu has not materialized. Maybe, specialists said, it is because enough people became immune through vaccinations and natural exposure to the virus. Or maybe, they said, widespread campaigns admonishing people to cover coughs and sneezes and to use hand sanitizers has paid off.

The CDC is implementing a plan allowing doctors to return expired vaccine, with the federal government absorbing the cost. Massachusetts authorities are asking physicians with vaccine that is still good to hold onto it until the arrival of immunizations for the next flu season.

“Just in case there’s a problem with the seasonal vaccine,’’ said Donna Lazorik, the state’s adult immunization coordinator.

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Small Businesses Will Die, Thank The IRS

May 24, 2010

NaturalNews.com

by Mike Adams

According to a recent report from CNNMoney.com, the massive U.S. health care system overhaul includes more than just a transition to government-run medicine. A small section hidden away in the 2,409-page bill requires all businesses to send 1099 tax forms to every company or individual from which they purchased more than $600 in services and goods throughout the tax year, beginning on January 1, 2012.

As you’ll see below, this new law threatens to cause a wave of paperwork chaos across the entire U.S. economy, stifling the operations of small businesses and driving more jobs overseas.

Here’s why…

1099s required for virtually any expenditure
For those of you who aren’t familiar with a 1099, this tax document is typically issued to independent contract workers who receive payments for work they’ve done. “Employees” of businesses are issued W-2 forms at the end of the tax year while independent contractors and other freelancers making money outside of the wage structure receive 1099 forms.

But the new change (conveniently slipped into the health care bill that nobody actually read prior to voting on it) drastically expands the scope of 1099s. Not only will contract workers be receiving them, but so will millions of individuals and companies that receive more than $600 in payments for services and products they provide throughout the tax year.

And if you’re a small business owner, you will be required to issue a 1099 to every business from which you purchased more than $600 worth of goods or services.

If you buy a laptop at Best Buy, for example, you will be required by law to issue a 1099 form to Best Buy. If you purchase over $600 in internet services, you need to issue a 1099 to your broadband provider. If you get a car repair over $600, you have to issue a 1099 form for that, too.

This law might as well be called the “Accountant employment act of 2010″ because it will drastically expand the mountain of tax paperwork needed to be filed by all U.S. small businesses and corporations.

How the changes will really impact small business
Remember: The new law will require 1099s to be issued to both individuals and corporations. This means that a musician who buys an expensive new guitar will have to send the retailer a 1099 at the end of the year for that purchase. A florist will have to send 1099s to each of her suppliers as well, including the flower growers, the ribbon company and even the place where she buys tape and scissors if those purchases exceeded $600 throughout the year.

In fact, the more sources businesses buy from, the more 1099s they will have to issue, which will likely cause many of them to consolidate their vendors.

Do you see where I’m going with this? These “small” changes are going to have a monumental impact on how business is run in America, particularly small businesses who are already strapped with heavy regulatory burdens. 1099s will be used for a lot more than just taxing compensation. They will be used to tax virtually all business expenses, driving up prices for everyone.

The changes are also going to create an “avalanche of [new] paperwork”, according to Bill Rys, tax counsel for the National Federation of Independent Businesses. Business owners are going to have to spend a lot more time tracking purchases and saving receipts, which for many is going to be a logistical nightmare that could drive them right out of business.

Small businesses will go out of business, thanks to the IRS
Those of you that own or operate a small business already know how difficult it can be to stay afloat and compete in today’s economy, especially during tough times. Besides the regular day-to-day operations, there are all kinds of fees, taxes and other regulatory burdens that make doing business a challenge.

Can you imagine having to track and tally every single business purchase you make throughout the year and send 1099 forms to all of them? How about having to collect names and taxpayer identification numbers from every vendor or payee that you dealt with? Can you imagine how long it would take on the phone with Wal-Mart customer service to try to obtain the company’s tax ID? Multiply this by the other five hundred companies you do business with, and you start to get an idea of the new burden this is going to place on small businesses across America.

It’s going to take a whole lot more time to comply with these rules, and many small businesses will probably have to hire someone full-time just to take care of it all. The additional expense will either further strain companies who can take the hit (which will just drive up prices for consumers) or force them out of business. But no matter how you look at it, it’s a lose-lose situation for American businesses.

And what about all the companies on the receiving end? Imagine the flood of 1099 forms companies like Apple will receive at the end of the year from all the freelancers who bought new computers from them? Or Office Max for millions of dollars of office supplies? The burden will be tremendous not only on those who have to track and send all the 1099s, but also on everyone who receives them.

And it’s not just the big guys that will bear the burden. There are plenty of small, family-owned suppliers who are going to have a tough time complying. Many of them will most likely be forced out of business because they won’t be able to absorb the cost. Or businesses will choose instead to make purchases only from large “one-stop” shops because the paper trail will be a lot easier to manage.

Government greed and corruption is ruining America
The U.S. economy is already in shambles and many Americans are unemployed, but leave it to the American government (and the puppet masters who control them) to increase the burden on American business even more. Are these people out of their minds?

This small tax change is going to have huge ramifications once it kicks in starting in 2012. Small businesses will take the biggest hit, resulting in even more lost jobs and higher prices for goods and services. Many companies might decide to just pack up shop now and move to another country before it all kicks in, and that means more American jobs being exported to other countries.

The whole thing speaks volumes about how things are run in Washington where it’s all about money and control. Bureaucrats are always looking for new ways to pass new laws that will bankroll their out-of-control spending programs. You know… the ones that get them reelected.

Fortunately, not all politicians are in on the game. Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) recently introduced a bill called “The Small Business Paperwork Mandate Elimination Act, which would rescind the 1099 provisions from the health care bill.

It’s a good start, but what about the rest of the politicians? Where is the outcry from the alleged “public servants” over tax changes that threaten to destroy American small businesses?

Small businesses are the primary drivers of our economy. They are the ones responsible for real job creation in America. Provisions like the 1099 mandate only work to destroy the very fabric that has held America’s economy together. Any government that tries to destroy this crucial sector is only accelerating the country’s financial demise.

It’s time for people to wake up and take a stand against this paperwork tyranny. A nation drowning in tax forms can’t get much of anything else done, and Washington, it seems, just can’t help but heap another tax compliance paperwork nightmare upon the People.

That is has all been hidden inside the health care reform bill is yet another insult to the intelligence of us all. Who do these politicians think they are? How quickly they forget that Government derives its power from the People and not the other way around.

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Syrian President: US Has Failed In Middle East

May 24, 2010

HAARETZ.com

Syrian President Bashar Assad said Monday that the United States has lost its influence in the Middle East due to its failure to contribute to regional peace, in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

U.S. President Barack Obama “raised hopes” in the region, said Assad, but has failed to accomplish any significant peace maneuvers.

Assad’s comments came just before Obama was to meet with Lebanon Prime Minister Sa’ad al-Hariri to raise Washington’s concerns about Syria arming Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon

The Syrian leader met on Sunday with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner in Damascus earlier Sunday and urged the West to “break its silence” in the face of Israeli “aggression” in the Middle East.

During their talks, Assad denounced “the ongoing Israeli threats to ignite wars and undermine the stability in the region.”

“The region has changed and the West’s policy in the area is no longer acceptable, keeping silent over Israeli violations is no longer acceptable,” Assad told Kouchner, according to Syria’s official news agency SANA.

“If the West wants security and stability to be established in the Middle East, [it] must start to play an effective role to contain Israel and put an end to its extremist policies,” Assad said.

The Syrian president also told Kouchner that the Western countries pushing for harsh United Nations sanctions against Iran should understand that Tehran’s contentious nuclear program was aimed at civilian and not military pursuits, according to SANA.

“The countries involved need to change their attitude to Iran’s civil nuclear program, because this agreement is an important opportunity to reach a diplomatic solution and prevent a tragic dispute in the region and the world at large,” said Assad.

Also Sunday, Syria defied Western pressure over its support for the militant group Hezbollah and said it would not act as a policeman for Israel to prevent weapons from reaching the Lebanese Shi’ite movement.

“Did Israel ever stop arming itself, did it stop instigating violence or making military maneuvers,” Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said after meeting his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle. “Why are arms forbidden to Arabs and allowed to Israel?”

Citing Israeli occupation of Arab land and the technical state of war between Syria and Israel, Moualem said the Damascus government “will not be a policeman for Israel”.

“Israel is beating the drum of war. In the absence of real peace every thing is possible,” he added.

Syria, a country Washington says is critical for Middle East peace, has shown no signs of withdrawing backing for Hezbollah, which is also supported by Iran, although the issue has clouded rapprochement between Damascus and Washington.

The row intensified when President Shimon Peres last month accused Syria, which borders Lebanon, of sending long-range Scud missiles to Hezbollah.

Syria said it only gives Hezbollah political backing and that Israel may be using the accusation as a pretext for a military strike.

“A Scud missile is as big as this room. How could it be hidden and smuggled with Israeli planes and satellites all over the region?” Moallem asked, adding that cumbersome Scuds were not suited to Hezbollah’s guerrilla tactics.

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US Appoints First Cyber Warfare General

May 24, 2010

Guardian.co.uk

by Peter Beaumont

The US military has appointed its first senior general to direct cyber warfare – despite fears that the move marks another stage in the militarisation of cyberspace.

The newly promoted four-star general, Keith Alexander, takes charge of the Pentagon’s ambitious and controversial new Cyber Command, designed to conduct virtual combat across the world’s computer networks. He was appointed on Friday afternoon in a low-key ceremony at Fort Meade, in Maryland.

The creation of America’s most senior cyber warrior comes just days after the US air force disclosed that some 30,000 of its troops had been re-assigned from technical support “to the frontlines of cyber warfare”.

The creation of Cyber Command is in response to increasing anxiety over the vulnerability of the US’s military and other networks to a cyber attack.

James Miller, the deputy under-secretary of defence for policy, has hinted that the US might consider a conventional military response to certain kinds of online attack.

Although Alexander pledged during his confirmation hearings before the Senate committee on armed services last month that Cyber Command would not contribute to the militarisation of cyberspace, the committee’s chairman, Senator Carl Levin expressed concern that both Pentagon doctrine, and the legal framework for online operations, had failed to keep pace with rapid advances in cyber warfare.

In particular Levin voiced concern that US cyber operations to combat online threats to the US, routed through neutral third countries, “could have broad and damaging consequences” to wider American interests.

Plans for Cyber Command were originally conceived under President George W Bush. Since taking office Barack Obama has embraced the theme of cyber security, describing it last year as “one of the most serious economic and national security challenges [the US faces] as a nation”.

During his confirmation hearing, Alexander said that the Pentagon’s networks were being targeted by “hundreds of thousands of probes every day” adding that he had “been alarmed by the increase, especially in this year”.

Cyber warfare has increased rapidly in scale and sophistication with China accused of being at the forefront of prominent recent attacks, including the targeting of Google and 20 other companies last year as well as “Titan Rain” in 2003 – a series of coordinated attacks on US networks. Russian and North Korean hackers have also been accused of large-scale attacks.

Moscow was accused of being behind a massive cyber assault on Estonia in 2007 – the second largest cyber warfare operation ever conducted.

While Alexander has tried to play down the offensive aspects of his command, the Pentagon has been more explicit, stating on Friday that Cyber Command will “direct the operations and defence of specified Department of Defense information networks [involving some 90,000 military personnel] and prepare to, when directed, conduct full-spectrum military cyberspace operations in order to enable actions in all domains, [to] ensure US allied freedom of action in cyberspace and deny the same to our adversaries.”

The complex issues facing Cyber Command were thrown into relief earlier this year when the Washington Post revealed details of a so-called “dot-mil” operation by Fort Meade’s cyber warfare unit, backed by Alexander, to shut down a “honeytrap website” set up by the Saudis and the CIA to target Islamist extremists planning attacks in Saudi Arabia.

The Pentagon became convinced that the forum was being used to co-ordinate the entry of jihadi fighters into Iraq.

Despite the strong objections of the CIA, the site was attacked by the Fort Meade cyber warfare unit. As a result, some 300 other servers in the Saudi kingdom, Germany and Texas also were inadvertently shut down.

Of equally concern to those who had opposed the operation, it was conducted without informing key members of the Saudi royal family, who were reported to be “furious” that a counter-terrorism tool had been shut down.

The issue of cyber warfare – and how to combat it – has become an increasingly fraught one.

The need to have electronic warfare capabilities, say those who support them, has been proven repeatedly by the apparent success of hostile attacks on government networks, including last year’s massive denial of service assault on networks in both the US and Korea.

Last year, hackers also accessed large amounts of sensitive data concerning the Pentagon’s Joint Strike Fighter programme.

The difficulties facing the new command were underlined in March by former CIA director Michael V Hayden, who said that the Saudi operation had demonstrated that cyber warfare techniques were evolving so rapidly that they were now outpacing the government’s ability to develop coherent policies to guide its use.

“Cyber was moving so fast that we were always in danger of building up precedent before we built up policy,” Hayden said.

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Obama’s Approval Gradually Decreasing

May 24, 2010

RasmussenReports.com

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 25% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-three percent (43%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -18 (see trends).

Following passage of health care, enthusiasm for the president among Democrats soared. Today, however, just 49% of Democrats Strongly Approve of Obama’s performance. That’s down from a high of 65%. It remains to be seen whether this is a temporary aberration or the beginning of a lasting change.

Sixty-three percent (63%) of voters nationwide favor repeal of the health care law. That’s the highest level of support for repeal yet measured.

The Presidential Approval Index is calculated by subtracting the number who Strongly Disapprove from the number who Strongly Approve. It is updated daily at 9:30 a.m. Eastern (sign up for free daily e-mail update). Updates are also available on Twitter and Facebook.

Overall, 44% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the president’s performance. Fifty-four percent (55%) disapprove. The Rasmussen Reports Media Meter shows that media coverage of the President has been 51% positive over the past week.

Just 27% are even somewhat confident that Congress knows what it’s doing when addressing that nation’s economic challenges. That figure includes only 6% who are Very Confident that Congress knows what it’s doing.

Click here to continue reading the full report

Global Economy Now In The Hands Of Europe

May 24, 2010

WashingtonPost.com

by Howard Schneider & Neil Irwin

If the trouble starts — and it remains an “if” — the trigger may well be obscure to the concerns of most Americans: a missed budget projection by the Spanish government, the failure of Greece to hit a deficit-reduction target, a drop in Ireland’s economic output.

But the knife-edge psychology currently governing global markets has put the future of the U.S. economic recovery in the hands of politicians in an assortment of European capitals. If one or more fail to make the expected progress on cutting budgets, restructuring economies or boosting growth, it could drain confidence in a broad and unsettling way. Credit markets worldwide could lock up and throw the global economy back into recession.

For the average American, that seemingly distant sequence of events could translate into another hit on the 401(k) plan, a lost factory shift if exports to Europe decline and another shock to the banking system that might make it harder to borrow.

“If what happened in Greece were to happen in a large country, it could fundamentally mark our times,” Angelos Pangratis, head of the European Union delegation to the United States, said Friday after a panel discussion on the crisis in Greece sponsored by the Greater Washington Board of Trade.

That local economic development boards are sponsoring panels on government debt in Greece is perhaps proof enough that Europe’s problems are the world’s. That the dominoes can tumble fast was shown Thursday when a new and narrowly drawn stock-trading policy in Germany helped trigger a sell-off on Wall Street.

It marks a change, Barclays Capital chief European economist Julian Callow wrote in a Friday analysis, from a situation in which the bonds of European countries were considered to carry virtually zero risk to a “brave new world” where sovereign default in one of the world’s core economic areas is a tangible threat. Bank holdings of European debt are now being studied with the same focus given to holdings of U.S. mortgage-backed securities as the global financial crisis unfolded in 2008 — and with the same suspicion that problems in one part of the world could wreck others.

The most vulnerable European countries — Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland — may represent only about 4 percent of world economic activity, but “the debt crisis and its ripple effects are bad news for all corners of the world,” said Cornell University economist Eswar Prasad.

The risk of a worst-case scenario is still considered remote. European countries have pledged hundreds of billions of dollars to aid indebted neighbors that run into trouble, and they say they are committed to fixing the continent’s larger economic problems. The euro and U.S. markets were both higher Friday after the German Parliament approved a key piece of that support program. A renewed effort by the U.S. Federal Reserve to ensure that European banks have adequate access to dollars has generated little demand — a sign that a feared shortage of cash is not in the offing.

U.S. banks are not heavily exposed to the weaker European countries, Fed governor Daniel K. Tarullo said in testimony on Capitol Hill last week. Banks are in better shape overall, after fresh infusions of capital. Meanwhile, the U.S. economic recovery has been strengthening through the year, with jobs added in five of the last six months, and recent consumer spending and industrial output stronger than most forecasts.

But the fallout from Europe could still be widely felt. U.S. trade officials, hoping the country can dramatically boost its exports, are dismayed at the steep drop in the value of the euro — which is around $1.25, down from more than $1.50 in November. The decline makes American goods more expensive compared with those produced in Europe. The slide in the common European currency could also change the way China and a host of Asian countries approach their currency policies, possibly making them less likely to agree with U.S. demands to raise the value of their money. If they raised it, Asian goods would become more expensive in world markets, making it easier for U.S. products to compete.

The connections are being closely watched. Analysts are studying how the involvement of Greek financial institutions in Eastern Europe, or Spanish banks in Latin America, could affect those economies. The International Monetary Fund and E.U. officials are doing biweekly checks on Greece’s progress to ensure its economic reform program stays on track, according to Vassilis Kaskarelis, Greece’s ambassador to the United States.

Inside the euro zone, banks are intimately linked, with a web of investments and cross-country bond holdings that could be a main vector for financial “contagion,” with a default in one country weakening banks elsewhere.

There are some positive impacts in all this for the United States.

For one, uncertainty about European government debt has driven global investors toward U.S. government bonds, which in turn is pushing down long-term interest rates. The 10-year Treasury bond had a rate of 3.2 percent Friday compared with nearly 4 percent last month. Those lower rates should flow through to private borrowing, helping Americans getting mortgages or businesses looking to grow.

The European panic is also lowering the price of oil and other commodities on global markets, potentially making it cheaper for Americans to fuel their cars and heat their homes. A barrel of oil went for about $70 on Friday, down from almost $87 on April 6.

A final positive for the U.S. economy is that the stronger dollar will help keep inflation in check by reducing the cost of imports. That, combined with renewed worry about the strength of the recovery, is likely to give the Fed some leeway to delay raising interest rates above their current extremely low levels longer than it would have otherwise.

The most precise comparison is to the East Asian financial crisis that enveloped Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea and other nations in 1997 and 1998. There were widespread fears that the crisis would damage the U.S. economy, including through a financial contagion effect. The Fed even cut interest rates in the fall of 1998 to try to forestall a weakening in U.S. growth.

But there was little obvious impact on the U.S. economy, which grew 4.5 percent in 1997, 4.4 percent in 1998, and 4.8 percent in 1999.

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Obama Orders Troops To Prepare For Korea

May 24, 2010

MSNBC.MSN.com

The White House said Monday that President Barack Obama “fully supports” the South Korean president and his response to the torpedo attack by North Korea that sank a South Korean naval ship.

In a statement, the White House said Seoul can continue to count on the full backing of the United States and said U.S. military commanders had been told to work with their South Korean counterparts “to ensure readiness and to deter future aggression.”

The administration said it endorsed President Lee Myung-bak’s demand that “North Korea immediately apologize and punish those responsible for the attack, and, most importantly, stop its belligerent and threatening behavior.”

Late last week, a team of international investigators accused North Korea of torpedoing the Cheonan corvette in March, killing 46 sailors in one of the deadliest clashes between the two since the 1950-53 Korean War.

The United States still has about 28,000 troops in South Korea to provide military support. The two Koreas, still technically at war, have more than 1 million troops near their border.

“U.S. support for South Korea’s defense is unequivocal, and the President has directed his military commanders to coordinate closely with their Republic of Korea counterparts to ensure readiness and to deter future aggression,” the statement said.

“We will build on an already strong foundation of excellent cooperation between our militaries and explore further enhancements to our joint posture on the Peninsula as part of our ongoing dialogue,” it said.

“The U.S. will continue to work with the Republic of Korea and other allies and partners to reduce the threat that North Korea poses to regional stability,” the statement added.

Lee said Monday that South Korea would no longer tolerate the North’s “brutality” and said the repressive communist regime would pay for the surprise March 26 torpedo attack.

He also vowed to cut off all trade with the North and take Pyongyang to the U.N. Security Council for punishment over the sinking of the warship Cheonan.

Speaking earlier in Beijing, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the North must be held accountable and she is pushing to get the support of China, North Korea’s top ally, for diplomatic action.

Clinton warned of a “highly precarious” security situation in the region, and said North Korea’s neighbors, including Pyongyang ally China, understood the seriousness of the matter.

Clinton would not say whether such action would include new international sanctions against the North, and said she was engaged in intense consultations with China and other nations about the next step.

“We are working hard to avoid an escalation of belligerence and provocation,” Clinton said.

So far, China has refrained from criticizing the North, which it supplied with troops during the Korean War

Obama and Lee have agreed to meet at the G20 summit in Canada next month, the statement said.

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Geithner Lies About US Recovery

May 24, 2010

DailyFinance.com

by Douglas McIntyre

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner put on a brave face trying to convince the global capital markets that Europe’s economic situation will have little impact on America’s or the world’s recovery from deep recession. His case was thin, and he offered almost no rational support.

Geithner told the Xinhua news agency of China: “You see some of the challenges in Europe now. But I think we’re in a much stronger position to manage those challenges.” He also said renewed GDP gains in the U.S. and an acceleration of growth in China were essential to the ongoing improvement of the global economic environment.

Many Troubling Issues

Geithner failed to address several issues that could do a great deal of damage to both the U.S. and China. The rise of the U.S. dollar against the euro will raise the price of U.S. exports to Europe. Many financial experts believe the euro’s value could fall to parity with the dollar from the current ratio of $1.24 This will make American goods much less attractive than European products, which could cut into the sales of a large number of U.S. companies. China faces the same issue.

Many experts fear that budget cuts and higher taxes in eurozone nations, starting in Greece, Spain, and Portugal, are likely to be regressive. Extremely high taxes tend to slow GDP, especially when they’re significant and levied quickly. That means these new taxes could actually slow growth, undermine demand for imports and raise unemployment as businesses send more money to their governments.

The problem of potential sovereign-debt defaults has not been entirely addressed by the nearly $1 trillion aid facility put together by the eurozone nations and the International Monetary Fund. In Greece, the aid it’s receiving now still only covers a modest portion of its national debt. The country’s race to cut its deficit will almost certainly be undermined by resistance from powerful unions. The same threat exists in Spain and Portugal. Some economist believe that the sovereign-debt issue could spread to Italy and Ireland.

Bank Exposure to Europe’s Debt

Chinese and U.S. banks hold European government paper. None of the financial firms have disclosed the size of their holdings and which banks have the greatest exposure. JPMorgan Chase’s (JPM) exposure is estimated to be as high as $36 billion. Other large U.S. money-center banks probably have billions if not tens of billions of dollars of European sovereign paper. Any default would damage the balance sheets of large American banks, which are only just now recovering from the credit crisis of 2008.

Geithner is underestimating the extent of the Europe problem — at least in public.

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Court Rules Advair Patent Invalid

May 20, 2010

Telegraph

By Rachel Cooper

Advair, which is known as Seretide in Europe and Viani in Germany, made up 18pc of Glaxo’s sales last year with £5bn worth of the drug being sold across the world.

Germany, which is Europe’s biggest pharmaceutical markets, accounted for £177m of Advair sales. Thursday’s court ruling, which marks a victory for four generic drug-makers including a unit of Novartis’ Sandoz, deemed that the German patent covering the combination of ingredients in the drug was invalid.

The ruling only applies to the drug in Germany and cannot be applied elsewhere but it marks the latest in a series of challenges to the patent.

Click here for the full report.

Canned Food Exposes You To BPA

May 20, 2010

WebMD

By Todd Zwillich

A small study suggests people may be routinely exposed to the chemical bisphenol A through everyday consumption of canned goods.

The study has food safety and consumer advocates calling for a crackdown on the chemical in a food safety bill expected to reach Senate debate in the coming weeks.

Bisphenol A, also known in BPA, is widely used in plastics and as a lining for cans holding everything from soup to fruit to sardines. It has come under intense scrutiny in recent years because in addition to preserving food, it also mimics human hormones and has been classified as an endocrine disruptor.

Five states and several municipalities have restricted the use of BPA in baby products and infant formula cans because of concerns that exposure may be dangerous for young children. Tuesday’s study, though small, suggests the chemical may be widely consumed by children and adults in everyday groceries.

A study conducted by a coalition of consumer and food safety groups found detectable levels of BPA in 46 of 50 grocery store cans tested. The results suggest BPA routinely leaches from can linings into food.

BPA has been associated with a variety of health problems in laboratory animals, including cancers, early puberty, and developmental problems.

The highest BPA level detected was 1,140 parts per billion, found in a can of Del Monte French Style Green Beans obtained from the pantry of a study participant in Wisconsin.

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