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Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Longtime Yale administrator files suit against university, alleging age discrimination
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Iraq budget based on $90 Brent oil price
BAGHDAD: Iraq?s cabinet approved a 2013 draft budget of 138 trillion Iraqi dinars ($118.6 billion) based on a world oil price of $90 a barrel and expected oil exports of 2.9 million barrels per day (BPD), Iraqi officials said.
Iraq has the world?s fourth-largest oil reserves and depends on oil revenues to fund 95 percent of its national budget.
?The cabinet approved the 2013 budget with 138 trillion dinars and it will send it to parliament for final approval,? said Ali Al-Moussawi, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki?s media adviser.
The projected oil exports include 250,000 BPD from the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, and federal revenues of $102 billion, government spokesman Ali Al-Dabbagh said in a statement.
The budget deficit will be estimated at 18.8 trillion dinars ($16.17 billion), he said.
That will be covered by unused funds from the 2012 budget, funds in the Development Fund of Iraq (DFI) account at the New York Federal Reserve, local debt issued through treasury bonds, or from an expected surplus from higher oil prices.
Since parliament only approved the 2012 budget of $100 billion in February, many government offices have not spent their allocations.
The DFI was established after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq in order to direct oil revenues to reconstruction and food programs for Iraqis. Iraq holds the bulk of proceeds from its oil export sales in the DFI.
Oil prices were at $108 a barrel yesterday.
The $118.6 billion budget included 55 trillion Iraqi dinars ($47.29 billion) for investment projects.
OPEC-member Iraq exported an average of 2.6 million barrels per day (bpd) in September, the highest total crude exports in decades, and aims to boost shipments to above 2.8 million bpd this month.
It also aims to double its output over the next three years after decades of neglect of infrastructure due to war and economic sanctions.
Source: http://www.arabnews.com/node/428607
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Monday, October 22, 2012
Obama immigration stance locks in Hispanic support
LAS VEGAS (AP) ? Elizabeth Alvisar is exactly the sort of voter Mitt Romney needs.
A victim of the brutal economy in this swing state, the 30-year-old tax preparer has been out of work for months. She's a foe of abortion and gay marriage, and was naturally drawn to the Republican ticket.
But Alvisar has switched her support to President Barack Obama because of his support for legislation known as the DREAM Act. While Democrats failed to get the bill through Congress, Obama in June announced a change in policy to implement its key provision ? allowing young people brought into the country without authorization as children to avoid deportation if they graduate high school or join the military.
"I have a lot of friends who've taken advantage of that opportunity," Alvisar said.
In the heavily Hispanic neighborhood where Alvisar lives, unemployment is high and home values are down. But Obama's immigration stance, and especially his executive order, has locked in support from a fast-growing demographic group that has been trending sharply Democratic in the wake of increasingly hard-line Republican positions on immigration.
Obama's campaign is counting on Hispanics providing the margin of victory not just in Nevada, but also in other swing states such as Colorado, Iowa, Virginia and North Carolina
"They know that he's on the right side of the immigration issue and wants to work with Congress for comprehensive immigration reform," deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter said. "They know he wakes up every day and thinks about how to secure the middle class and make it easier for young people to enter the middle class."
The importance of Hispanics as a voting bloc and immigration as an election-year issue was brought home during last week's presidential debate. Obama reminded viewers that Romney, who went hard to the right on the issue during the GOP primaries, had argued for "self-deportation" to solve the illegal immigration problem and took advice on the issue from the law professor who helped write Arizona's controversial immigration statute. The Republican challenger noted that Obama had promised to pass an immigration overhaul and had failed.
The Romney campaign says Hispanics, enduring a 9.9 percent jobless rate, which is more than 2 points higher than the national average, are a natural draw for the GOP ticket. "Hispanics are hurting almost more than any other demographic group under the Obama economy," Romney's Spanish-speaking son Craig, a frequent surrogate in the Hispanic community, said in a brief interview. "They're really struggling and they understand that this president has failed them and we need someone who understands how to create jobs."
The Romney campaign opened an office here in September and last week hosted New Mexico's popular Hispanic governor, Susana Martinez, in an effort to cut into Obama's edge in East Las Vegas, home to 42 percent of Nevada's Hispanic population.
But even some Romney supporters are pessimistic that Republicans can make inroads with a population that, many polls show, favors Obama by a 2-to-1 margin.
"It's going to take several years because we haven't engaged this community at all," said Joel Garcia, a conservative who formed a coalition to recruit Hispanics here. "You've got a lot of Hispanics who are conservative in how they live their lives and their values, but there's this hook in their mouth pulling them left called immigration."
Much like any other group, Hispanics often list the economy, jobs and education as top issues in polls. But the acrimonious immigration debate of the past decade has given that issue extra weight for them. "What started as a war on illegal immigration is now being perceived as a war on Latinos," said Matt Barreto, who polls Hispanics for the company Latino Decisions.
Nevada is a prime example of that dynamic. In 2010, Hispanics helped Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid win re-election against a tea party candidate who promoted her staunch anti-illegal immigration stance. Republican Brian Sandoval, a Hispanic who was elected governor at the same time, only won 33 percent of the Hispanic vote.
Until Obama's executive order, Hispanic activists were frustrated that Obama had not pursued plans to legalize more illegal immigrants. Instead, his administration was deporting them in record numbers.
"Before President Obama made his decision to go forward with deferred action, it was pretty dismal," said Vicenta Montoya, an immigration attorney and Democratic activist. "I was going to vote for Obama but it wasn't going to be with grand enthusiasm."
Now Obama's order has fired up Montoya and others in East Las Vegas, a swath of shopping centers, tire shops and weathered ranch houses sprawling east from the Strip. It's the neighborhood of the often-unionized people who make Sin City function ? housekeepers, card dealers and taxi drivers.
For some, Obama's order pulled them into politics. Earlier this month, Hector Rivera's father asked him what he was going to do with his future. Rivera, a high school senior who was brought into the United States without authorization when he was 5, went to the East Las Vegas Obama campaign office and volunteered.
The teenager already has applied for documents allowing him to work under Obama's program. "It's an opportunity for me and future generations," said Rivera, 17, imagining how his own unborn children could benefit someday. "Even though they'll be born here, I want to get a better job to give them a better opportunity so they can live a better life."
Others, like Sergio Solis, have suffered economically but see the president as on their side. Solis had to close a restaurant in Southern California and move here to work as a salesman for an energy company. But, after approvingly mentioning the DREAM Act, Solis said it will take time to correct the country's course following the eight years of the George W. Bush administration.
"This building here, I can dynamite it and destroy it in five minutes," Solis said, gesturing to a supermarket where he was handing out brochures. "But I can't build it back up in five minutes."
The Romney campaign's East Las Vegas office shares a strip mall with a bail bond company and a tortilleria. It opened after volunteers in the neighborhood urged the campaign to set up shop closer to their homes, so they didn't have to drive to the suburbs to phone-bank or collect yard signs.
Susana Loli, 56, is thrilled. The hotel housekeeper didn't vote for Obama in 2008. But as the economy collapsed before his inauguration, she hoped he could keep the country healthy. Now her side business fixing garage doors has shriveled, and she had to sell family property in Peru to stave off foreclosure on her Nevada house.
"With Mitt Romney, we'll have a better future for my children and grandchildren," Loli said. "The Latinos who are going to vote for Obama haven't studied the problem. When you talk to them and explain the situation, then they understand."
Ana Maria Gonzalez, 50, was disappointed that some Hispanics support Obama because of his executive order. She backs Romney because of her faith in his business acumen and moral values, but also because she thinks he's more likely to deliver a humane overhaul of the country's immigration system.
"In four years, President Obama did nothing," Gonzalez said, adding, that she was certain Romney would come up with a way to let DREAM Act youth and other deserving illegal immigrants stay in the country.
___
Follow Nicholas Riccardi on Twitter at www.twitter.com/nickriccardi
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-immigration-stance-locks-hispanic-support-140711172--election.html
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In Myanmar, only sickest HIV patients get drugs
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) ? Thein Aung has been trained not to show weakness, but he's convinced no soldier is strong enough for this.
He clenches his jaw and pauses, trying to will his chin to stop quivering and his eyes not to blink. But he's like a mountain that is crumbling. His shoulders shake, then collapse inward, and he suddenly seems small in the denim Wrangler shirt that's rolled up to his elbows and hanging loosely off his skinny arms. Big tears drip from his reddened eyes, and he looks away, ashamed.
As he sits outside a crowded clinic on the outskirts of Myanmar's biggest city, he knows his body is struggling to fight HIV, tuberculosis and diabetes ? but he can't help wishing he was sicker.
Although Aung is ill enough to qualify for HIV treatment in other poor countries, there are simply not enough pills in Myanmar. Only the sickest of the sick are lucky enough to go home with lifesaving medicine here. The others soon learn their fate is ultimately decided by the number of infection-fighting cells found inside the blood samples they give every three months.
The World Health Organization recommends treatment start when this all-important CD4 count drops to 350.
In Myanmar, it must fall below 150.
____
Antiretroviral therapy, in the past considered a miracle only available to HIV patients in the West, is no longer scarce in many of the poorest parts of the world. Pills are cheaper and easier to access, and HIV is not the same killer that once left thousands of orphaned children in sub-Saharan Africa.
But Myanmar, otherwise known as Burma, remains a special case. Kept in the dark for so many decades by its reclusive ruling junta, this country of 60 million did not reap the same international aid as other needy nations. Heavy economic sanctions levied by countries such as the United States, along with virtually nonexistent government health funding, left an empty hole for medicine and services. Today, Myanmar is among the hardest places to get HIV care, and health experts warn it will take years to prop up a broken health system hobbled by decades of neglect.
"Burma is like the work that I did in Africa in the'90s. It's 15, 20 years out of date," says Dr. Chris Beyrer, an HIV expert at Johns Hopkins University who has worked in Myanmar for years. "If you actually tried to treat AIDS, you'd have to say that everybody with every other condition is going to die unless there are more resources."
Of the estimated 240,000 people living with HIV, half are going without treatment. And some 18,000 people die from the disease every year, according to UNAIDS.
The problem worsened last year after the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria canceled a round of funding due to a lack of international donations. The money was expected to provide HIV drugs for 46,500 people.
But as Myanmar wows the world with its reforms, the U.S. and other nations are easing sanctions. The Global Fund recently urged Myanmar to apply for more assistance that would make up the shortfall and open the door for HIV drugs to reach more than 75 percent of those in need by the end of 2015. It would also fight tuberculosis, a major killer of HIV patients. TB in Myanmar is at nearly triple the global rate as multi-drug resistant forms of the disease surge.
The aid group Doctors Without Borders has tried to take up the slack by providing more than half the HIV drugs being distributed. But every day, physicians at its 23 clinics must make agonizing decisions to turn away patients like Aung, who are desperately ill but still do not qualify for medicine because their CD4 counts are too high.
"It's very difficult to see those kind of situations," says Kyaw Naing Htun, a young doctor with a K-pop hairstyle and seemingly endless energy, who manages the organization's busy clinic in Insein. He says about 100 patients who should be on drugs are turned away every month in Yangon alone. "It takes a lot more resources when they come back sicker. It's a lose-lose game."
____
Aung first learned about the virus living inside him in April. He had dropped weight and wasn't sleeping well, but figured it was the TB and diabetes running him down.
When the test came back positive for HIV, he was shocked and scared: How? Why?
"I wanted to commit suicide when I found out the results," he says softly, looking away. "What upset me most was my wife. She says I shouldn't die now because we have children."
The questions swarmed and consumed him, followed by a flood of worry and guilt that he had possibly infected his spouse. Then the bigger concern: What's next?
Unlike many living in a country closed off to the world for the past half century of military rule, Aung, an Army staff sergeant, had some firsthand knowledge about HIV.
He had watched the disease rot one soldier from the inside out, punishing him with a cruel death. But he also saw another get on treatment and live a normal life, despite the military kicking him out.
With the images of those two men locked in his head, Aung decided to fight to save himself and ultimately his family. No one but his wife could know, or he would lose his job and their home on the military base because of the deep fear and discrimination surrounding the disease. Drugs were his only chance to keep the secret.
"If I get the medicine, and I can stay in this life longer, I will serve the country more and my family will not be broken," he says. "My family is invaluable."
At the clinic in Insein, an area of Yangon better known for a notorious prison, Aung, who is using another name to protect his identity, waited nervously for the results of his first blood test.
CD4 count: 460. Low enough for drugs in the U.S., but well above the 150 cutoff in Myanmar. He was given TB medication and told to come back in three months.
____
Many of the 200 people crammed into the two small buildings of an HIV center just outside Yangon are simply waiting to die.
Beloved opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi visited patients there in November 2010, just days after being freed from house arrest, appealing to the world for more medicine. She also spoke passionately in July about the stigma of HIV via a video link to the International AIDS conference in Washington, saying, "Our people need to understand what HIV really is. We need to understand this is not something that we need to be afraid of."
There are no doctors or nurses stationed at the hospice supported by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, forcing patients to care for each other. One man hangs a drip bag on a plastic string from the ceiling over an emaciated body. Other caregivers ? many of whom are also infected ? wave paper fans beside their loved ones for hours, providing the only relief they can offer.
Infected children whose parents have already died play barefoot in the stuffy, crowded rooms. Bodies, some nothing more than breathing corpses, are stacked side by side on bamboo slats above dirt floors.
Another room is packed with 20 women stretched out on straw mats crisscrossing the wooden floor. A young mother sobs in one corner as she breast-feeds a 7-day-old baby girl. She did not take HIV drugs until late in her pregnancy, and now must wait up to 18 months to know for sure whether her only child is infected.
"The funding is limited for the enormous number of patients," says newly elected parliament member Phyu Phyu Thin, who founded the center in 2002 and was jailed by the former government for her HIV work. "Waiting to get the medicine under the limits is too risky for many patients because they can only get it when their health is deteriorating."
____
Aung looks the part of a soldier with his shaved head and wiry build. He spent the first decade of his 27 years in the military fighting in domestic ethnic wars, away from his wife and two children.
It's this past life that devours him each night when sleep refuses to come. He served as a medic then, and regularly came into contact with the blood of wounded soldiers. He also had sex with other women. The question that haunts him most is, which one is to blame? He'll never know.
He takes sleeping pills every night to be released from these thoughts. But relief does not come, as chills and night sweats drench his body and the constant urge to urinate keeps him running to the toilet.
He's lost 10 pounds in the past month, dropping from 130 pounds to 120. His cheeks are starting to sink, and his eyes look hollow. His strength is also fading, and he can no longer lead grueling daily runs with the trainees. He uses his TB as an excuse, but he fears his superiors will not be fooled much longer.
"I try to hide it as much as I can, but some people have started rumors about me, so I try not to face them directly," he says. "I want to be strong like the other people. I'm trying, but now my body cannot follow my mind."
His wife refuses to be tested until Aung gets on the drugs. She worries if she comes back positive, her guilt-ravaged husband will kill himself.
"She doesn't want me to be depressed," he says. "If she is positive, I will be very, very depressed."
The disease has forced him to rethink who he is. He's killed people in combat, cheated on his wife and witnessed many horrors in his lifetime. But he wants a chance to make up for his wrongs.
As a Buddhist, he believes his disease is a punishment for misdeeds in a previous life. He vows to be a better man by helping others and giving what little he has to charity.
He says sicker patients deserve treatment first. Still, as he sits waiting for his second blood test, he can't help wishing his immune system was weak enough to help him reach the magic number.
But when the doctor reads his results, he knows he will leave empty-handed again.
CD4 count: 289. Still too high.
His only choice is to try again in three months, hoping he'll be sick enough then.
___
Follow Margie Mason on Twitter at twitter.com/MargieMasonAP
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/myanmar-only-sickest-hiv-patients-drugs-002946401.html
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Medicare Changes and Tough Decisions | Michigan Elder Law Center
With ever-changing co-pays, premiums, and the list of covered drugs, prescription drug plans can be very frustrating and difficult to navigate. But the good news is that more choices can also drive down prices, said, Bettie Hughes, a MMAP coordinator with the Senior Alliance, a federally funded Area Agency on Aging. The Senior Alliance serves seniors in western and southern Wayne County.
Seniors must look around and be weary of individuals trying to advantage: 75-year-old eyes don?t read small print like they used to, and the annual user?s manual from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is jargon-filled and confusing. It is also easy to be distracted by the noise of politicians? promises and predictions in an election year.
But as it stands, nothing has been changed to substantially change Medicare,?yet. As is, the idea of offering health insurance to Americans 65 and older and those with certain disabilities ? remains strong, according to Jo Murphy, director of the state MMAP program.
More Details: Important dates
Monday: Open enrollment begins for Medicare Advantage and Part D (drug) plans.
Dec. 7: Open enrollment ends for both.
Jan. 1: New coverage begins in 2013 plans.
Jan. 1-Feb. 14: Medicare Advantage customers can switch to Original Medicare.
Dec. 8-Nov. 30, 2013: Advantage customers can switch to a five-star rated plan.
More Details: About the categories of Medicare coverage
Part A: Provides coverage for hospital care, limited nursing home stays, hospice and some home health care. Most people who have been employed get Part A coverage without having to pay a monthly premium.
Part B: Many seniors purchase this coverage for their physician visits, outpatient services and some medical equipment. Enrollment typically is automatic once you qualify for Medicare. Recipients pay a monthly premium plus a typical 20% co-pay and costs.
Part C: Also known as Medicare Advantage, these plans are purchased through insurance companies and provide more comprehensive coverage. Options might include coverage for prescription and generic drugs, dental and vision care, contributions toward gym memberships, diet-related programs and other care. Medicare Advantage plans include all Part A and B coverage, so you don?t need the two basic plans if you have a Medicare Advantage policy.
Part D: Also known as a prescription drug plan, these policies pay for outpatient prescription and generic drug coverage. If you don?t sign up immediately for one of these plans when you reach age 65, you face penalties for joining later.
Medigap: A supplemental policy, offered by private insurers, that adds to coverage under Parts A and B.
Contact Michigan Elder Law attorney Christopher Berry to help you navigate the difficult decisions prompted by Medicare changes.
?
Read more:
http://www.freep.com/article/20121014/FEATURES08/310140046/
Attorney Christopher J. Berry is a Metro Detroit estate planning and elder law lawyer who helps families, seniors, veterans and business owners with their important legal needs. Oakland County estate planning lawyer, Christopher Berry is a partner in the Bloomfield Hills law firm of Witzke Berry PLLC. Mr. Berry practices in the areas ofestate planning, business, probate, veterans benefits & Medicaid planning. Follow Christopher on Twitter@chrisberryesq
Source: http://michiganelderlawcenter.com/medicare-changes-tough-decisions/
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Second Reminder- 'The Business of Awesome: How to Make Your ...
Second Reminder- ?The Business of Awesome: How to Make Your Business Boom? Citrix Online Webinar October 23
Citrix Online?is hosting a webinar on Tuesday, October 23 at 1.00 pm EDT. The topic of the webinar is ?The Business of Awesome: How to Make Your Business Boom?.
Citrix Online?team says, ?Join the Business Awesome series to learn:
- Which marketing strategies and trends are disasters in disguise
- How to establish trusting relationships with your customers
- Ways to drive awesome business to your site
- How you can win a free copy of Scott Stratten?s latest book!?
Webinar Details
Organizer:?Citrix Online
Key person:?Scott Stratten, Marketing Expert and Best-Selling Author,?UnMarketing?and?The Book of Business Awesome
Topic:?The Business of Awesome: How to Make Your Business Boom
Day/Date:?Tuesday, October 23
Time: 1.00 pm EDT?- Time Zone Converter
Register for webinar details.
?The Business of Awesome: How to Make Your Business Boom? Webinar
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In vitro fertilization linked to increase risk for birth defects
ScienceDaily (Oct. 20, 2012) ? In vitro fertilization (IVF) may significantly increase the risk of birth defects, particularly those of the eye, heart, reproductive organs and urinary systems, according to new research presented on Oct. 20, at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans.
According to the study, despite increasing use of IVF in the United States, associations between birth defects and IVF are poorly understood. Management of birth defects comprises a large part of pediatric surgical care and demands significant health care resources.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, California has the highest rate of IVF usage in the United States. In the abstract, "Congenital Malformations Associated with Assisted Reproductive Technology: A California Statewide Analysis," researchers examined infants born in California from 2006-2007 after IVF and other treatments such as fertility-enhancing drugs or artificial insemination. Researchers examined maternal age, race, the number of times the mother had given birth, infant gender, year of birth and presence of major birth defects.
"Our findings included a significant association between the use of assisted reproductive technology, such as certain types of in vitro fertilization, and an increased risk of birth defects," said study author Lorraine Kelley-Quon, MD, a general surgery resident at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, who conducted the research at Mattel Children's Hospital UCLA.
Overall, 3,463 infants with major birth defects were identified among 4,795 infants born after IVF and 46,025 naturally conceived infants with similar maternal demographics. Birth defects were significantly increased for infants born after IVF -- 9 percent versus 6.6 percent for naturally conceived infants, even after controlling for maternal factors. Specifically, malformations of the eye (0.3 percent versus 0.2 percent), heart (5 percent versus 3 percent), and genitourinary system (1.5 percent versus 1 percent) were greater in IVF infants. Overall, an IVF infant's odds of birth defects were 1.25 times greater than that of a naturally conceived infant with similar maternal characteristics. Risk of birth defects after other fertility treatments such as artificial insemination or ovulation induction alone were not significant.
"For parents considering in vitro fertilization or other forms of assisted reproductive technology, it is important that they understand and discuss with their doctor the potential risks of the procedure before making a decision," said Kelley-Quon.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Academy of Pediatrics, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/UH2CXj5Sj3c/121020162613.htm
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