As American confidence in the Pakistani government wanes, the Obama administration is reaching out more directly than before to Nawaz Sharif, the chief rival of Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistani president, administration officials said Friday.
PakistanAmerican officials have long held Mr. Sharif at arm’s length because of his close ties to Islamists in Pakistan, but some Obama administration officials now say those ties could be useful in helping Mr. Zardari’s government to confront the stiffening challenge by Taliban insurgents.
The move reflects the heightened concern in the Obama administration about the survivability of the Zardari government. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the head of the United States Central Command, has said in private meetings in Washington that the stability of Pakistan’s government could be critically tested in coming weeks, according to administration and Congressional officials.
General Petraeus is among those expected to attend an all-day meeting on Saturday with senior administration officials to discuss the next steps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, in advance of high-level sessions next week in Washington, when Mr. Zardari and President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan will meet with Mr. Obama at the White House.
Washington has a bad history of trying to engineer domestic Pakistani politics, and no one in the administration is trying to broker an actual power-sharing agreement between Mr. Zardari and Mr. Sharif, administration officials say. But they say that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Richard C. Holbrooke, the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, have both urged Mr. Zardari and Mr. Sharif to look for ways to work together, seeking to capitalize on Mr. Sharif’s appeal among the country’s Islamist groups.
That could be a tall order, given the intense animosity between the two men, not to mention the ambivalence that many American officials still have toward Mr. Sharif, a former prime minister who was overthrown in a military coup in 1999.
But Obama administration officials have been upfront in expressing dissatisfaction with the response shown by Mr. Zardari’s government to increasing attacks by Taliban fighters and insurgests with Al Qaeda in the country’s tribal areas, and along its western border with Afghanistan. During a news conference on Wednesday, Mr. Obama said he was “gravely concerned” about the stability of the Pakistani government; on Friday, a Defense Department official described Mr. Zardari as “very, very weak.”
The official said the administration wanted to broker an agreement not so much to buoy Mr. Zardari personally, but to accomplish what the administration believes Pakistan must do. “The idea here is to tie Sharif’s popularity to things we think need to be done, like dealing with the militancy,” said the official, who insisted on anonymity to speak more candidly about American differences with Pakistan’s government.
Both Mr. Holbrooke and Mrs. Clinton have spoken with Mr. Sharif by telephone in the past month, and have urged Mr. Zardari’s increasingly unpopular government to work closely with Mr. Sharif, administration officials said.
“We told them they’re facing a national challenge, and for that, you need bipartisanship,” a senior administration official said. “The president’s popularity is in the low double digits. Nawaz Sharif is at 83 percent. They need to band together against the militants.”
Some Pakistani officials say that the deteriorating circumstances in the country have already led some members of Mr. Zardari’s government to reach out to Mr. Sharif. According to one Pakistani official, the government in Islamabad recently asked Mr. Sharif to rejoin the governing coalition. The two tried power-sharing last year, and that dissolved in acrimony only a week after Mr. Sharif and Mr. Zardari had banded together to force the resignation of President Pervez Musharraf.
Sir Mark Lyall Grant, director of political affairs at the British Foreign Office, was in Washington on Monday for talks with Mr. Holbrooke and Mrs. Clinton on how to move forward on Pakistan, according to American and European officials. The three discussed Mr. Sharif, but no conclusions were reached, a European official said.
“There’s certainly no agreement that Nawaz should become Zardari’s prime minister,” the official said, speaking on grounds of anonymity. He said the enmity between the two would make such a situation impossible. But, he added: “We need people who have influence over the militancy in Pakistan to calm it down. Who’s got influence? The army, yes. And Nawaz, yes.”
The Obama administration’s contemplation of a closer alliance with Mr. Sharif was first reported in The Wall Street Journal last week. Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, said that Mr. Zardari was open to talking to Mr. Sharif. “The president and prime minister of Pakistan have been striving for national consensus and continue to be in close contact with the leadership of all political parties.”
Among previous American efforts to broker agreements in Pakistan, the Bush administration struggled in 2007 to find a way to keep Mr. Musharraf in power amid a deepening political crisis. The administration prodded him to to share authority with his longtime rival, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, as a way of broadening his base, but those efforts ended after Mrs. Bhutto — the wife of Mr. Zardari —was shot and killed after a rally in Rawalpindi. The situation in Pakistan has become so dire in recent weeks, with the increasingly fragile government battling Taliban insurgents who have gotten increasingly close to Islamabad, that both American and Pakistani officials are looking hard for any possible way to bring stability to the nuclear-armed nation.
“For the United States, there’s no ambiguity about where the danger lies; it’s in the people who are attacking the state,” said Teresita C. Schaffer, a Pakistani expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. She said Mr. Sharif could broaden the appeal of the Zardari government, and his ties to Islamist militants give him added heft right now. “So the U.S. would dearly love to see both of those parties on the same page.”
Friday, May 1, 2009
Couple caught having sex on Queen's lawn
Tourists enjoying a day of sightseeing at Windsor Castle got more than they bargained for today when a couple were caught having sex on the Queen's lawn.
Ignoring signs asking visitors to Please Keep Off The Grass, the man and woman, said to be in their early 30, selected a spot near the castle's Garter Tower and stripped off in full view of hotels, pubs and shops.
An employee at the Harte and Garter Hotel, which overlooks the castle, said guests went out to observe the scene and could not believe their eyes. The woman, who asked not to be named, said: "People were shouting things like 'what are you doing?' but the couple didn't seem to care at all. It was going on for about 10 or 15 minutes, which is quite a long time, considering the location."
Another witness, Mark Robinson, 44, said the couple carried on until police intervened. He said: "The officers told them to stop and the sight of the uniforms seemed to snap them out of it. They were unsteady on their feet and the guy pulled his trousers up and helped the girl put hers back on.
"The Japanese tourists were comparing their videos."
A spokesman from Thames Valley police confirmed that two people had been arrested and cautioned for outraging public decency. It is not known whether the Queen was in residence at Windsor Castle at the time.
)
Ignoring signs asking visitors to Please Keep Off The Grass, the man and woman, said to be in their early 30, selected a spot near the castle's Garter Tower and stripped off in full view of hotels, pubs and shops.
An employee at the Harte and Garter Hotel, which overlooks the castle, said guests went out to observe the scene and could not believe their eyes. The woman, who asked not to be named, said: "People were shouting things like 'what are you doing?' but the couple didn't seem to care at all. It was going on for about 10 or 15 minutes, which is quite a long time, considering the location."
Another witness, Mark Robinson, 44, said the couple carried on until police intervened. He said: "The officers told them to stop and the sight of the uniforms seemed to snap them out of it. They were unsteady on their feet and the guy pulled his trousers up and helped the girl put hers back on.
"The Japanese tourists were comparing their videos."
A spokesman from Thames Valley police confirmed that two people had been arrested and cautioned for outraging public decency. It is not known whether the Queen was in residence at Windsor Castle at the time.
)
Gordon Brown's terrible week exposes lack of a loyal bruiser
Prime ministers are famously supposed to be able to chew gum and walk at the same time, but when you are flying over the Hindu Kush pondering the world's most fragile democracy and the fate of 8,000 British soldiers fighting in Helmand, it is hard to focus on a Lib Dem opposition supply day in the Commons.
While Gordon Brown was over the border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan on Monday, the seeds of a terrible week were being sown at home, as the government blundered towards defeat in a vote over the rights of Gurkhas to settle in Britain. Twenty-seven Labour MPs rebelled, dozens more abstained, an emergency statement followed and the sense prevailed that Brown's authority had been critically undermined.
Miserable comparisons were made to the last days of John Major's premiership and historians noted the first government defeat in an opposition day debate since James Callaghan in 1978. A day later came further dispiriting climbdowns over MPs' expenses as the week of misjudgments dragged on.
"There should have been a figure back in London sorting this out," said one minister involved in the setback.
It was obvious from Monday that Labour was likely to lose the vote on the Gurkhas. It had taken more than six months to get a decision out of Whitehall on what to do, ever since a court ruled in September that the government had not been fair to veterans whose cases had been settled before 1997. The delay was largely because the Ministry of Defence did not have any money to pay the potential pension costs, but also because no one gripped the issue at the centre.
One whip said: "We thought two staged concessions, one to Martin Salter, and the other to George Howarth [both Labour MPs], might be enough to turn it round. But there were a group of MPs that were not listening. What is worrying is that the rebels and abstainers were not the usual suspects.
"We tried everything, but we were very despondent afterwards, saying the MPs were blind to argument. Some of them may have been cross about their second home allowance, but most of them just thought we had mishandled it. We could not get our message across."
A minister said: "One problem is that Gordon at prime minister's questions said this would cost a lot of money, but he did not say the next bit, which is that we have not got any money."
A senior minister stood back and looked at the wider lessons of Brown's first defeat of his premiership: "It's a cliche, but every government needs a John Prescott, or in Thatcher's case, a Willie Whitelaw, an enforcer.
"Brown needs someone to pull it all together. The obvious candidate is Ed Balls because he knows Gordon's mind, or perhaps Alan Johnson. Harriet Harman cannot do it because she is overstretched as it is. Jack Straw might have done it, but he seems to have lost his way, after the bill of rights proposals got shot down by the rest of the cabinet."
Someone like a Prescott might have questioned the wisdom of trying to handle the MPs' expenses issue by unveiling an initiative in a YouTube video. Faced by an increasingly strident rightwing press, it is easy to see why communications gurus favour bypassing papers such as the Daily Mail.
Brown presumably believed he was speaking to a youthful, disenchanted public, on one of the few issues that genuinely engages and infuriates them. But after he had made his first excruciating grin to camera, a good adviser would probably have put his hand over the lens, shouted "cut" and then binned the idea. "Come back Damian McBride, all is forgiven," say some, not wholly in jest.
Sometimes the medium can become the message and, ironically in the case of the supposed dinosaur Prescott, videos have worked unexpectedly well. But Brown had learnt early in his premiership to be authentically grave and his advisers have to stick to that. Even Downing Street's new speech writer, Michael Lea from the Daily Mail, will have to match his metaphors to the man.
But Brown's bigger worry came in the lethal criticism from the former home secretary David Blunkett that Labour had a void where its domestic policy should be. "Of course we will be judged by what we have done in terms of dealing with the economic crisis. But we will actually be judged on our vision for the next 10 to 15 years," he said yesterday.
The bulk of Blunkett's speech was an attempt to fill that void with his version of community-localised politics. Many will disagree with his specific proposals, but there are many Labour MPs like Blunkett, worried that Brown's natural instinct and knowledge of economics lead him to neglect the nexus of social, moral and domestic policy issues on which elections are traditionally fought.
Another minister notes the lack of a centrally driven strategy from No 10 to get the government's message out and tell voters in a concerted way what Labour stands for and where it wants to go. "Ministers in their departments are pushing out their stuff, working in their policy bubble, but there is little attempt to pull it together from the prime minister," the minister said.
"What we lack is determination, willpower and organisation," said one cabinet minister.
"He is good at economics, but not politics," said a Labour select committee chairman.
Another former minister argued: "The public will not thank us for what we have done in the past but on whether they judge we have any gas in the tank and some coherent ideas for the future."
No 10 replies that last week it pushed out big policies on an equality bill, the future of primary education through the Rose review, and fresh ideas about community crime prosecutors. But these stories were drowned out by defeats in parliament, rebellious former ministers and the threat of a flu pandemic.
Apart from yet another rethink inside Downing Street, there is no sign of an attempt to push the prime minister out. Only Frank Field, brilliant, but alone, openly calls for Brown to be toppled after the European elections in June.
Backbenchers would be unlikely to be goaded into revolt even if the party came third behind the Lib Dems in terms of the share of the vote or saw its vote drop below 25%. Most people feel they have been through that process last summer and, in the words of David Cameron, the party has made its strategic choice.
Cabinet ministers who are hardly supporters of Brown have this week been moved to near sympathy. One said: "Backbenchers keep kicking the shit out of Gordon and then wondering out loud why he appears damaged."
Another described the parliamentary Labour party as having gone "la la". Brown was the first PM to attempt to reform the expenses system. He said: "You could post a video on YouTube and announce you were giving them £10,000 each and they would still be unhappy." This cabinet minister, however, drew a line at stepping up to advise Brown.
Some ministers still insist that it is the recession alone that will determine the next general election. The stockmarket, looking at consumer confidence, may be enjoying a frisky spring but, in the real economy the news remains dire. Yet, if Brown can point to an upturn by late winter, the fate of 1,000 Gurkhas, and the second home allowance, will fade into a distant memory.
While Gordon Brown was over the border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan on Monday, the seeds of a terrible week were being sown at home, as the government blundered towards defeat in a vote over the rights of Gurkhas to settle in Britain. Twenty-seven Labour MPs rebelled, dozens more abstained, an emergency statement followed and the sense prevailed that Brown's authority had been critically undermined.
Miserable comparisons were made to the last days of John Major's premiership and historians noted the first government defeat in an opposition day debate since James Callaghan in 1978. A day later came further dispiriting climbdowns over MPs' expenses as the week of misjudgments dragged on.
"There should have been a figure back in London sorting this out," said one minister involved in the setback.
It was obvious from Monday that Labour was likely to lose the vote on the Gurkhas. It had taken more than six months to get a decision out of Whitehall on what to do, ever since a court ruled in September that the government had not been fair to veterans whose cases had been settled before 1997. The delay was largely because the Ministry of Defence did not have any money to pay the potential pension costs, but also because no one gripped the issue at the centre.
One whip said: "We thought two staged concessions, one to Martin Salter, and the other to George Howarth [both Labour MPs], might be enough to turn it round. But there were a group of MPs that were not listening. What is worrying is that the rebels and abstainers were not the usual suspects.
"We tried everything, but we were very despondent afterwards, saying the MPs were blind to argument. Some of them may have been cross about their second home allowance, but most of them just thought we had mishandled it. We could not get our message across."
A minister said: "One problem is that Gordon at prime minister's questions said this would cost a lot of money, but he did not say the next bit, which is that we have not got any money."
A senior minister stood back and looked at the wider lessons of Brown's first defeat of his premiership: "It's a cliche, but every government needs a John Prescott, or in Thatcher's case, a Willie Whitelaw, an enforcer.
"Brown needs someone to pull it all together. The obvious candidate is Ed Balls because he knows Gordon's mind, or perhaps Alan Johnson. Harriet Harman cannot do it because she is overstretched as it is. Jack Straw might have done it, but he seems to have lost his way, after the bill of rights proposals got shot down by the rest of the cabinet."
Someone like a Prescott might have questioned the wisdom of trying to handle the MPs' expenses issue by unveiling an initiative in a YouTube video. Faced by an increasingly strident rightwing press, it is easy to see why communications gurus favour bypassing papers such as the Daily Mail.
Brown presumably believed he was speaking to a youthful, disenchanted public, on one of the few issues that genuinely engages and infuriates them. But after he had made his first excruciating grin to camera, a good adviser would probably have put his hand over the lens, shouted "cut" and then binned the idea. "Come back Damian McBride, all is forgiven," say some, not wholly in jest.
Sometimes the medium can become the message and, ironically in the case of the supposed dinosaur Prescott, videos have worked unexpectedly well. But Brown had learnt early in his premiership to be authentically grave and his advisers have to stick to that. Even Downing Street's new speech writer, Michael Lea from the Daily Mail, will have to match his metaphors to the man.
But Brown's bigger worry came in the lethal criticism from the former home secretary David Blunkett that Labour had a void where its domestic policy should be. "Of course we will be judged by what we have done in terms of dealing with the economic crisis. But we will actually be judged on our vision for the next 10 to 15 years," he said yesterday.
The bulk of Blunkett's speech was an attempt to fill that void with his version of community-localised politics. Many will disagree with his specific proposals, but there are many Labour MPs like Blunkett, worried that Brown's natural instinct and knowledge of economics lead him to neglect the nexus of social, moral and domestic policy issues on which elections are traditionally fought.
Another minister notes the lack of a centrally driven strategy from No 10 to get the government's message out and tell voters in a concerted way what Labour stands for and where it wants to go. "Ministers in their departments are pushing out their stuff, working in their policy bubble, but there is little attempt to pull it together from the prime minister," the minister said.
"What we lack is determination, willpower and organisation," said one cabinet minister.
"He is good at economics, but not politics," said a Labour select committee chairman.
Another former minister argued: "The public will not thank us for what we have done in the past but on whether they judge we have any gas in the tank and some coherent ideas for the future."
No 10 replies that last week it pushed out big policies on an equality bill, the future of primary education through the Rose review, and fresh ideas about community crime prosecutors. But these stories were drowned out by defeats in parliament, rebellious former ministers and the threat of a flu pandemic.
Apart from yet another rethink inside Downing Street, there is no sign of an attempt to push the prime minister out. Only Frank Field, brilliant, but alone, openly calls for Brown to be toppled after the European elections in June.
Backbenchers would be unlikely to be goaded into revolt even if the party came third behind the Lib Dems in terms of the share of the vote or saw its vote drop below 25%. Most people feel they have been through that process last summer and, in the words of David Cameron, the party has made its strategic choice.
Cabinet ministers who are hardly supporters of Brown have this week been moved to near sympathy. One said: "Backbenchers keep kicking the shit out of Gordon and then wondering out loud why he appears damaged."
Another described the parliamentary Labour party as having gone "la la". Brown was the first PM to attempt to reform the expenses system. He said: "You could post a video on YouTube and announce you were giving them £10,000 each and they would still be unhappy." This cabinet minister, however, drew a line at stepping up to advise Brown.
Some ministers still insist that it is the recession alone that will determine the next general election. The stockmarket, looking at consumer confidence, may be enjoying a frisky spring but, in the real economy the news remains dire. Yet, if Brown can point to an upturn by late winter, the fate of 1,000 Gurkhas, and the second home allowance, will fade into a distant memory.
Hong Kong 'flu' hotel sealed off
About 300 people at a Hong Kong hotel have been placed under quarantine after a guest there became China's first confirmed swine flu case.
The 25-year-old man, who is now in hospital after testing positive for the virus, had travelled from Mexico via Shanghai, Hong Kong's leader said.
Local TV footage showed police wearing masks guarding the hotel exits.
Meanwhile, the UK joined Canada, Spain, Germany and the US in reporting person-to-person transmission of the virus.
On Friday, French Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot said two people were infected with swine flu, France's first confirmed cases.
South Korea has also confirmed its first case, local media said - a 51-year-old woman who has recently returned from Mexico.
The announcements take to 16 the number of countries where swine flu has been confirmed.
Mexico, where the outbreak began, has shut down parts of its economy for five days in a bid to curb the virus's progress.
Mexican officials say the spread of swine flu - suspected in more than 160 deaths - is slowing.
International experts are more cautious - but one, Nancy Cox, chief of America's Center for Disease Control's influenza division, said the new virus lacked the traits that made the 1918 pandemic so deadly.
"We do not see the markers for virulence that were seen in the 1918 virus," she said.
'No panic'
In cases outside Mexico the effects of the virus do not appear to be severe, although one death of a Mexican child has been confirmed in the US.
The WHO has set its pandemic alert level at five - but says it has no immediate plans to move to the highest level of six.
In Hong Kong, the authorities have raised the alert level to emergency but urged residents to carry on life as normal.
CONFIRMED CASES
Mexico: 168 suspected deaths - 15 confirmed
US: One death, at least 109 confirmed cases
New Zealand: 4 confirmed, 12 probable cases
Canada: 35 confirmed cases
UK: 11 confirmed cases
Spain: 13 confirmed cases
Germany: 4 confirmed cases
France: 2 confirmed cases
Israel, Costa Rica: 2 confirmed cases each
The Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, South Korea: 1 confirmed case each
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Countries with confirmed cases of secondary transmission
US
Canada
Spain
Germany
UK
Mapping the outbreak
Mexico: First swine flu cases
Border town not slowing down
Price hikes in Mexico amid flu panic
"I assure you the Hong Kong government will try its best to conquer the virus," Chief Executive Donald Tsang said.
"I stress we don't need to panic."
The Mexican man is said to be in a stable condition in Hong Kong's Princess Margaret Hospital, after seeking treatment on Thursday night after becoming unwell.
The Metropark Hotel in Wanchai district where he briefly stayed will be sealed off for seven days, health officials said, and the antiviral drug Tamiflu given to about 200 guests and 100 staff there.
Medical staff wearing protective clothing were seen carrying boxes of equipment into the building.
Efforts are also under way to trace people who travelled on the same flights as the Mexican, and taxi drivers with whom he came into contact.
BBC China Editor Shirong Chen says confirmation that the man has tested positive for the virus has set alarm bells ringing beyond Hong Kong.
Chinese Health Minister Chen Zhu said the virus was very likely to enter mainland China and urged the country to prepare for an outbreak, as millions start travelling over the May Day long weekend.
In South Korea, a 51-year-old woman who had recently returned from Mexico was confirmed as the country's first case, Yonhap news agency reported.
Two other people are being tested for the virus, the agency said.
Schools closed
Meanwhile, the authorities in Mexico hope a nationwide shut-down ordered from Friday, covering two public holidays and a weekend, will help curb the spread of the virus.
SYMPTOMS - WHAT TO DO
Swine flu symptoms are similar to those produced by ordinary seasonal flu - fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, chills and fatigue
If you have flu symptoms and recently visited affected areas of Mexico, you should seek medical advice
If you suspect you are infected, you should stay at home and take advice by telephone initially, in order to minimise the risk of infection
Some factories will stop production and schools are already closed. Residents have been urged to stay at home, but it is not clear how widely the shut-down order will be followed.
The number of confirmed cases of swine flu infection in Mexico now stands at more than 300, officials say.
Mexican Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said on Friday that three more deaths from swine flu had been confirmed, bringing the toll to 15.
Announcing the figure, Mr Cordova said that new cases of the virus were levelling off.
But Dr Keiji Fukuda, acting assistant director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), said fluctuations were to be expected.
In other developments:
• The US announces that it will buy 13 million new courses of antiviral treatment and send 400,000 of them to Mexico
• A flight from Germany to Washington DC is diverted to Boston after a female passenger complains of flu-like symptoms
• An aide to US Energy Secretary Stephen Chu who helped arrange President Barack Obama's recent trip to Mexico is being tested for swine flu, although the aide is said not to have been in contact with the president
• The head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it is fine for people without flu symptoms to fly and use the subway, a day after Vice-President Joe Biden said he would advise his own family members against using public transport
• Denmark reports its first confirmed case of swine flu
• German authorities confirm that a nurse who treated a patient with swine flu also contracted the disease, in the first person-to-person transmission in the country
• Test results confirm the UK's first person-to-person transmission of swine flu, in a friend of a couple from Scotland who were first in the country to be diagnosed with the virus
Several countries have restricted travel to Mexico and many tour operators have cancelled holidays.
The WHO, meanwhile, says it will now call the virus influenza A (H1N1) rather than swine flu - which it says is misleading as pork meat is safe and the virus is being transmitted from human to human
The 25-year-old man, who is now in hospital after testing positive for the virus, had travelled from Mexico via Shanghai, Hong Kong's leader said.
Local TV footage showed police wearing masks guarding the hotel exits.
Meanwhile, the UK joined Canada, Spain, Germany and the US in reporting person-to-person transmission of the virus.
On Friday, French Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot said two people were infected with swine flu, France's first confirmed cases.
South Korea has also confirmed its first case, local media said - a 51-year-old woman who has recently returned from Mexico.
The announcements take to 16 the number of countries where swine flu has been confirmed.
Mexico, where the outbreak began, has shut down parts of its economy for five days in a bid to curb the virus's progress.
Mexican officials say the spread of swine flu - suspected in more than 160 deaths - is slowing.
International experts are more cautious - but one, Nancy Cox, chief of America's Center for Disease Control's influenza division, said the new virus lacked the traits that made the 1918 pandemic so deadly.
"We do not see the markers for virulence that were seen in the 1918 virus," she said.
'No panic'
In cases outside Mexico the effects of the virus do not appear to be severe, although one death of a Mexican child has been confirmed in the US.
The WHO has set its pandemic alert level at five - but says it has no immediate plans to move to the highest level of six.
In Hong Kong, the authorities have raised the alert level to emergency but urged residents to carry on life as normal.
CONFIRMED CASES
Mexico: 168 suspected deaths - 15 confirmed
US: One death, at least 109 confirmed cases
New Zealand: 4 confirmed, 12 probable cases
Canada: 35 confirmed cases
UK: 11 confirmed cases
Spain: 13 confirmed cases
Germany: 4 confirmed cases
France: 2 confirmed cases
Israel, Costa Rica: 2 confirmed cases each
The Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, South Korea: 1 confirmed case each
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Countries with confirmed cases of secondary transmission
US
Canada
Spain
Germany
UK
Mapping the outbreak
Mexico: First swine flu cases
Border town not slowing down
Price hikes in Mexico amid flu panic
"I assure you the Hong Kong government will try its best to conquer the virus," Chief Executive Donald Tsang said.
"I stress we don't need to panic."
The Mexican man is said to be in a stable condition in Hong Kong's Princess Margaret Hospital, after seeking treatment on Thursday night after becoming unwell.
The Metropark Hotel in Wanchai district where he briefly stayed will be sealed off for seven days, health officials said, and the antiviral drug Tamiflu given to about 200 guests and 100 staff there.
Medical staff wearing protective clothing were seen carrying boxes of equipment into the building.
Efforts are also under way to trace people who travelled on the same flights as the Mexican, and taxi drivers with whom he came into contact.
BBC China Editor Shirong Chen says confirmation that the man has tested positive for the virus has set alarm bells ringing beyond Hong Kong.
Chinese Health Minister Chen Zhu said the virus was very likely to enter mainland China and urged the country to prepare for an outbreak, as millions start travelling over the May Day long weekend.
In South Korea, a 51-year-old woman who had recently returned from Mexico was confirmed as the country's first case, Yonhap news agency reported.
Two other people are being tested for the virus, the agency said.
Schools closed
Meanwhile, the authorities in Mexico hope a nationwide shut-down ordered from Friday, covering two public holidays and a weekend, will help curb the spread of the virus.
SYMPTOMS - WHAT TO DO
Swine flu symptoms are similar to those produced by ordinary seasonal flu - fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, chills and fatigue
If you have flu symptoms and recently visited affected areas of Mexico, you should seek medical advice
If you suspect you are infected, you should stay at home and take advice by telephone initially, in order to minimise the risk of infection
Some factories will stop production and schools are already closed. Residents have been urged to stay at home, but it is not clear how widely the shut-down order will be followed.
The number of confirmed cases of swine flu infection in Mexico now stands at more than 300, officials say.
Mexican Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova said on Friday that three more deaths from swine flu had been confirmed, bringing the toll to 15.
Announcing the figure, Mr Cordova said that new cases of the virus were levelling off.
But Dr Keiji Fukuda, acting assistant director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), said fluctuations were to be expected.
In other developments:
• The US announces that it will buy 13 million new courses of antiviral treatment and send 400,000 of them to Mexico
• A flight from Germany to Washington DC is diverted to Boston after a female passenger complains of flu-like symptoms
• An aide to US Energy Secretary Stephen Chu who helped arrange President Barack Obama's recent trip to Mexico is being tested for swine flu, although the aide is said not to have been in contact with the president
• The head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it is fine for people without flu symptoms to fly and use the subway, a day after Vice-President Joe Biden said he would advise his own family members against using public transport
• Denmark reports its first confirmed case of swine flu
• German authorities confirm that a nurse who treated a patient with swine flu also contracted the disease, in the first person-to-person transmission in the country
• Test results confirm the UK's first person-to-person transmission of swine flu, in a friend of a couple from Scotland who were first in the country to be diagnosed with the virus
Several countries have restricted travel to Mexico and many tour operators have cancelled holidays.
The WHO, meanwhile, says it will now call the virus influenza A (H1N1) rather than swine flu - which it says is misleading as pork meat is safe and the virus is being transmitted from human to human
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Cong gaining foothold in UP, Bihar?
It is an idea which crops up every now and then. But this time the buzz from the baking lands of Bihar and UP is that Congress, first
time since Mandal and Mandir squeezed it out of power matrix, is finding a connect with voters.
The voting trends in the Hindi heartland suggest that Congress's attempt at revival is not going unnoticed.
Though signs of an organisational resurgence in the past proved to be deceptive, with the party sacrificing whatever limited gains it made at the altar of coalition compulsions, it may sustain this time owing to Rahul Gandhi's personal investment in the project. If so, it will have serious consequences for future cowbelt polity.
Reports say Congress has inserted itself in many contests in UP and Bihar, a far cry from earlier faceoffs as a bit player.
The first two phases in UP saw Congress seriously vie for 11 of 33 seats, while the party is said to have given jitters to the frontrunners SP and BSP in another handful of the lot that were up for grabs on Thursday. Its performance on quite a few seats — among them Kushinagar, Gonda, Barabanki, Unnao, Maharajganj — are surprising UP-watchers too.
The same is true for Bihar where Congress, having dumped trusted ally Lalu Prasad over the snub of three-seat offer, is seen as holding its own in many places and fancying its chances in more than what it won in 2004.
The surge in goodwill for Congress may not translate into wins, but what is happening may still have far-reaching consequences.
There are indications that the bid to make the party fighting fit will not stop with elections, as has often happened in past. Sources said Rahul had personally overseen the decisions against engaging SP and RJD in lop-sided deals and will ensure continuity after May 16.
With regional parties having had around two decade run, Congress's wading into the poll battle solo in two states this year has rekindled the interest among social groups which left its fold for OBC outfits and BJP in the wake of Mandal and Mandir tremors, pulling the rug from under its feet.
Reports say Muslims and Brahmins, two of Congress core support bases in its heydays, have been among first to give it a dekko. These communities have journeyed through regional outfits and may be toying with homecoming.
That Congress is baiting them from a position of strength — as a frontrunner for power after having already run a full-tenure government in Delhi — is helping its cause.
Also, the fact that SP and RJD pursued Congress for tieups has taken a message to voters that it was a party worth its salt, testify insiders.
At the same time, the pragmatism of fielding politically strong defectors — be it Rajaram Pal in Akbarpur or Sadhu Yadav in Bettiah — seems to be egging the interested groups towards "winnable" candidates.
Irrespective of the tally it clocks, Congress is to continue its engagement in Bihar with assembly polls barely over a year away. It is felt the lure of candidatures and offices would keep freshly-generated energy among workers going. In UP, it would have to find ways of doing it, but insiders are hopeful.
Such a sustained project to revive the party in states which send 120 MPs to Lok Sabha is politically significant. Since the project's success would comeat the cost of regional outfits, Congress is thus likely to attract their hostility. For its part, Congress will also find it difficult to have a long-term and close partnership at the Centre with the heartland players whom it will have to contend against in UP and Bihar.
The downside, it is felt, is that getting support from SP or RJD or for that matter JD(U) may become a difficult or complicated proposition.
The power politics may be tantalisingly poised if Congress continues to walk the revival path.
time since Mandal and Mandir squeezed it out of power matrix, is finding a connect with voters.
The voting trends in the Hindi heartland suggest that Congress's attempt at revival is not going unnoticed.
Though signs of an organisational resurgence in the past proved to be deceptive, with the party sacrificing whatever limited gains it made at the altar of coalition compulsions, it may sustain this time owing to Rahul Gandhi's personal investment in the project. If so, it will have serious consequences for future cowbelt polity.
Reports say Congress has inserted itself in many contests in UP and Bihar, a far cry from earlier faceoffs as a bit player.
The first two phases in UP saw Congress seriously vie for 11 of 33 seats, while the party is said to have given jitters to the frontrunners SP and BSP in another handful of the lot that were up for grabs on Thursday. Its performance on quite a few seats — among them Kushinagar, Gonda, Barabanki, Unnao, Maharajganj — are surprising UP-watchers too.
The same is true for Bihar where Congress, having dumped trusted ally Lalu Prasad over the snub of three-seat offer, is seen as holding its own in many places and fancying its chances in more than what it won in 2004.
The surge in goodwill for Congress may not translate into wins, but what is happening may still have far-reaching consequences.
There are indications that the bid to make the party fighting fit will not stop with elections, as has often happened in past. Sources said Rahul had personally overseen the decisions against engaging SP and RJD in lop-sided deals and will ensure continuity after May 16.
With regional parties having had around two decade run, Congress's wading into the poll battle solo in two states this year has rekindled the interest among social groups which left its fold for OBC outfits and BJP in the wake of Mandal and Mandir tremors, pulling the rug from under its feet.
Reports say Muslims and Brahmins, two of Congress core support bases in its heydays, have been among first to give it a dekko. These communities have journeyed through regional outfits and may be toying with homecoming.
That Congress is baiting them from a position of strength — as a frontrunner for power after having already run a full-tenure government in Delhi — is helping its cause.
Also, the fact that SP and RJD pursued Congress for tieups has taken a message to voters that it was a party worth its salt, testify insiders.
At the same time, the pragmatism of fielding politically strong defectors — be it Rajaram Pal in Akbarpur or Sadhu Yadav in Bettiah — seems to be egging the interested groups towards "winnable" candidates.
Irrespective of the tally it clocks, Congress is to continue its engagement in Bihar with assembly polls barely over a year away. It is felt the lure of candidatures and offices would keep freshly-generated energy among workers going. In UP, it would have to find ways of doing it, but insiders are hopeful.
Such a sustained project to revive the party in states which send 120 MPs to Lok Sabha is politically significant. Since the project's success would comeat the cost of regional outfits, Congress is thus likely to attract their hostility. For its part, Congress will also find it difficult to have a long-term and close partnership at the Centre with the heartland players whom it will have to contend against in UP and Bihar.
The downside, it is felt, is that getting support from SP or RJD or for that matter JD(U) may become a difficult or complicated proposition.
The power politics may be tantalisingly poised if Congress continues to walk the revival path.
From today, manage your own pension
Starting Friday, anybody can invest in a pension fund with the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) launching the
facility for the general public. The scheme is similar to the one currently in operation for central government employees, which yielded an average return of 14.5% in 2008-09.
Under this National Pension Scheme (NPS), money invested in the pension fund during the working life of the investor will come back partly as a lumpsum and partly as an annual payment or pension.
The fund gives investors the option of deciding what level of risk they want to take, given the fact that higher returns are typically associated with higher risk investments. The fund will be invested in three kinds of assets — equity, government bonds and corporate bonds — and it is for the investor to decide how much should be invested in each of these.
Investment in equity is, however, subject to two significant caveats. First, it cannot be more than 50% of the amount in the investor's account. Secondly, fund managers cannot invest in shares of individual companies, but only in index funds linked to the BSE's sensex or the NSE's Nifty.
For those who would rather leave it to experts to decide what the balance should be, there is `auto choice' option. Under this option, for those aged 18-36, 50% of the amount in their pension account will be invested in equity, 30% in corporate bonds and the remaining 20% in government securities. From age 36 onwards, the proportion of investments in equity and corporate bonds will decrease annually while that in government securities will increase till the mix reaches 10% in equity, 10% in corporate bonds and 80% in government securities at age 55.
Under the scheme, you can invest any amount, though tax benefits will be available only up to Rs 1 lakh under Sec 80C. The minimum annual contribution, however, has been mandated at Rs 6,000.
The fund will be managed by six fund managers, appointed by the government at annual fees of 0.0009% of the invested amount, which is less than one paise per Rs 100. The fund managers appointed by the PFRDA are SBI, UTI Asset Management, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, Reliance MF, IDFC Mutual Fund and Kotak Mahindra.
To open a pension account, you will have to approach the branches of any of the 22 `point of presence' (POP) service providers selected by the authority. These include State Bank of India and all its seven subsidiaries as well as ICICI Bank and Punjab National Bank. PFRDA Chairman D Swarup said that to start with there would be around 300 POPs in the country, which will soon be ramped up to more than 10,000.
The investor's account will be kept by a record keeping agency appointed by the PFRDA. However, the investor will need to interact only with the POP, where he can deposit his annual/monthly contribution.
The scheme gives the investor the option of shifting from one fund manager to another, merely by instructing his POP to do so. The POP will inform the same to the record keeping agency, which will shift the fund to the new fund manager, selected by the investor.
facility for the general public. The scheme is similar to the one currently in operation for central government employees, which yielded an average return of 14.5% in 2008-09.
Under this National Pension Scheme (NPS), money invested in the pension fund during the working life of the investor will come back partly as a lumpsum and partly as an annual payment or pension.
The fund gives investors the option of deciding what level of risk they want to take, given the fact that higher returns are typically associated with higher risk investments. The fund will be invested in three kinds of assets — equity, government bonds and corporate bonds — and it is for the investor to decide how much should be invested in each of these.
Investment in equity is, however, subject to two significant caveats. First, it cannot be more than 50% of the amount in the investor's account. Secondly, fund managers cannot invest in shares of individual companies, but only in index funds linked to the BSE's sensex or the NSE's Nifty.
For those who would rather leave it to experts to decide what the balance should be, there is `auto choice' option. Under this option, for those aged 18-36, 50% of the amount in their pension account will be invested in equity, 30% in corporate bonds and the remaining 20% in government securities. From age 36 onwards, the proportion of investments in equity and corporate bonds will decrease annually while that in government securities will increase till the mix reaches 10% in equity, 10% in corporate bonds and 80% in government securities at age 55.
Under the scheme, you can invest any amount, though tax benefits will be available only up to Rs 1 lakh under Sec 80C. The minimum annual contribution, however, has been mandated at Rs 6,000.
The fund will be managed by six fund managers, appointed by the government at annual fees of 0.0009% of the invested amount, which is less than one paise per Rs 100. The fund managers appointed by the PFRDA are SBI, UTI Asset Management, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, Reliance MF, IDFC Mutual Fund and Kotak Mahindra.
To open a pension account, you will have to approach the branches of any of the 22 `point of presence' (POP) service providers selected by the authority. These include State Bank of India and all its seven subsidiaries as well as ICICI Bank and Punjab National Bank. PFRDA Chairman D Swarup said that to start with there would be around 300 POPs in the country, which will soon be ramped up to more than 10,000.
The investor's account will be kept by a record keeping agency appointed by the PFRDA. However, the investor will need to interact only with the POP, where he can deposit his annual/monthly contribution.
The scheme gives the investor the option of shifting from one fund manager to another, merely by instructing his POP to do so. The POP will inform the same to the record keeping agency, which will shift the fund to the new fund manager, selected by the investor.
Voters feel the heat in third phase of polls
The heat wave singed the third phase of the Lok Sabha polls, with only half the 14.40 crore voters turning up to vote for 107 seats on Thursday.
Crucial phase for BJP The round was crucial for the BJP which was defending 43 seats as compared to the Congress’s 25. Polling is now over in the BJP strongholds of Gujarat, MP and Karnataka.
With temperatures ranging from 40 to 46 degree Celsius in nine states and two Union Territories, Deputy Election Commissioner R. Balakrishan said the “hot summer” had affected the turnout.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and BJP prime minister candidate Lal Krishna Advani were among the 1,567 candidates in the fray in the third round.
Even as the poll panel described the polling as peaceful, two polling officials and their driver were killed in West Bengal’s Paschim Midnapore district when a landmine blew up their vehicle on Thursday evening.
In Purulia, two Border Security Force men were injured in an explosion in a primary school.
With Thursday’s poll, voting for two-thirds of the 543 Lok Sabha seats is now over.
The round was crucial for the BJP which was defending 43 seats as compared to the Congress’s 25. Polling is now over in the BJP strongholds of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.
The average turnout for Phase III was lower compared to 2004, except in Gujarat and Anantnag, the only seat to go the polls in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday.
Despite the boycott call given by the separatists, the voting percentage was 10 per cent higher at 25 per cent in Anantnag than the last time.
Gujarat saw a five per cent higher voting this time. It was 45 per cent in 2004 polls. BJP’s prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani is a candidate from Gandhinagar. After casting his vote, Advani called for a fixed tenure for Lok Sabha and compulsory voting to counter low turnout.
Polls were boycotted in 150 polling booths in West Bengal and Bihar. In West Bengal’s sensitive Lalgarh area, very low turnout was reported.
Crucial phase for BJP The round was crucial for the BJP which was defending 43 seats as compared to the Congress’s 25. Polling is now over in the BJP strongholds of Gujarat, MP and Karnataka.
With temperatures ranging from 40 to 46 degree Celsius in nine states and two Union Territories, Deputy Election Commissioner R. Balakrishan said the “hot summer” had affected the turnout.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and BJP prime minister candidate Lal Krishna Advani were among the 1,567 candidates in the fray in the third round.
Even as the poll panel described the polling as peaceful, two polling officials and their driver were killed in West Bengal’s Paschim Midnapore district when a landmine blew up their vehicle on Thursday evening.
In Purulia, two Border Security Force men were injured in an explosion in a primary school.
With Thursday’s poll, voting for two-thirds of the 543 Lok Sabha seats is now over.
The round was crucial for the BJP which was defending 43 seats as compared to the Congress’s 25. Polling is now over in the BJP strongholds of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.
The average turnout for Phase III was lower compared to 2004, except in Gujarat and Anantnag, the only seat to go the polls in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday.
Despite the boycott call given by the separatists, the voting percentage was 10 per cent higher at 25 per cent in Anantnag than the last time.
Gujarat saw a five per cent higher voting this time. It was 45 per cent in 2004 polls. BJP’s prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani is a candidate from Gandhinagar. After casting his vote, Advani called for a fixed tenure for Lok Sabha and compulsory voting to counter low turnout.
Polls were boycotted in 150 polling booths in West Bengal and Bihar. In West Bengal’s sensitive Lalgarh area, very low turnout was reported.
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