MH USA Int

In the United States, "bathroom" commonly means "a room containing a lavatory". In other countries this is usually called the "toilet" or alternatively "water closet" (WC), lavatory or "loo". The word "bathroom" is also used in the U.S. for a public toilet (the more formal U.S. term being "restroom").

The Roman attitudes towards bathing are well documented; they built large purpose-built thermal baths, marking not only an important social development, but also providing a public source of relaxation and rejuvenation. Here was a place where people could meet to discuss the matters of the day and enjoy entertainment. During this period there was a distinction between private and public baths, with many wealthy families having their own thermal baths in their houses. Despite this they still made use of the public baths, showing the value that they had as a public institution. The strength of the Roman Empire was telling in this respect; imports from throughout the world allowed the Roman citizens to enjoy ointments, incense, combs, and mirrors.

Division 10 Specialties

DALLAS – The United States may soon see its prison population drop for the first time in almost four decades, a milestone in a nation that locks up more people than any other.
The inmate population has risen steadily since the early 1970s as states adopted get-tough policies that sent more people to prison and kept them there longer. But tight budgets now have states rethinking these policies and the costs that come with them.
"It's a reversal of a trend that's been going on for more than a generation," said David Greenberg, a sociology professor at New York University. "In some ways, it's overdue."
The U.S. prison population dropped steadily during most of the 1960s, and there were a few small dips in 1970 and 1972. But it has risen every year since, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
About 739,000 prisoners were admitted to state and federal facilities last year, about 3,500 more than were released, according to new figures from the bureau. The 0.8 percent growth in the prison population is the smallest annual increase this decade and significantly less than the 6.5 percent average annual growth of the 1990s.
Overall, there were 1.6 million prisoners in state and federal prisons at the end of 2008.
In the past, prison populations have been lower when drafts were enacted, including during World War II and the wars in Korea and Vietnam.
"People who go to war are young men, and young men are the most likely to get arrested or prosecuted," said James Austin, president of the JFA Institute, a research organization that advises states on prison issues.
The ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan haven't involved in a draft.
Instead, the economic crisis forced states to reconsider who they put behind bars and how long they kept them there, said Kim English, research director for the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice.
In Texas, parole rates were once among the lowest in the nation, with as few as 15 percent of inmates being granted release as recently as five years ago. Now, the parole rate is more than 30 percent after Texas began identifying low-risk candidates for parole.
In Mississippi, a truth-in-sentencing law required drug offenders to serve 85 percent of their sentences. That's been reduced to less than 25 percent.
California's budget problems are expected to result in the release of 37,000 inmates in the next two years. The state also is under a federal court order to shed 40,000 inmates because its prisons are so overcrowded that they are no longer constitutional, Austin said.
States also are looking at ways to keep people from ever entering prison. A nationwide system of drug courts takes first-time felony offenders caught with less than a gram of illegal drugs and sets up a monitoring team to help with case management and therapy.
Studies have touted significant savings with drug courts, saying they cost 10 percent to 30 percent less than it costs to send someone to prison.
"I don't think they work. I know so," said Judge John Creuzot, a state district judge in Dallas.
The reforms in many state prisons and courts come even as crime rates continue to drop nationwide.
"It's economically driven, but the science is there to support it," Austin said. "They are saving money, but not doing it in a way that jeopardizes public safety."

One exception to the trend is Florida, which has enacted a law requiring all convicts to serve a high percentage of their sentences. The law is straining the state's prison resources.

"They know that they are stuck in a time bomb they can't get out of," Austin said.

EDITOR'S NOTE: AP reporter Elliot Spagat follows Tijuana's new public safety chief, Julian Leyzaola, for eight months as he launches the city's most aggressive police reform to date, in the middle of a raging drug war.
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TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) — Behind every crime is a corrupt cop.
That's Public Safety Chief Julian Leyzaola's mantra as he storms Tijuana with its most aggressive police reform to date, a mix of counterterrorism and community policing. If it works, it could be a model for other hotspots and a huge breakthrough in a drug war in Mexico that has taken more than 14,000 lives in the last three years.
But the job is as monumental as turning around Al Capone's Chicago. Cops in this border city and many others nationwide now serve as the eyes and ears of drug lords. And those who fight the cartels often end up dead.
The Associated Press followed Leyzaola for eight months as he rallied troops, consoled officers' widows and appealed to jaded residents for support. The AP joined commanders and officers on patrol, at target practice and in training classes, tracking firsthand Leyzaola's intended reforms.
Leyzaola, 49, joined Tijuana police in 2007, after 25 years in the army and stints running Baja California's state prisons and police. A year ago, he became head of the largest police force in Baja, where 90 percent of officers surveyed last year failed federal security checks.
"Listen well," the retired military officer says with his trademark certitude. "No delinquent can survive without help from the authorities. If you do not clean up the police, you will never get rid of drug trafficking."
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The march to recapture the city starts in early 2009 and expands to a new district every three months. The plan is to end in 2011 in the east, the city's most violent section, where Teodoro "El Teo" Garcia Simental wages a vicious campaign to take over Tijuana's drug trade.
Leyzaola draws his strategy from many sources, including French counterterrorism operations in Algeria in the 1950s and Colombia's war against its cartels in the '90s. He has $7 million in federal funding this year.
The plan for each district: Make a slew of arrests. Then replace beat cops with officers who pass intensive background checks and put in former military officers as commanders. They patrol small areas in new pickup trucks and are responsible for whatever happens in their area.
First up is downtown Tijuana.
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Felipe Gandara, 37, is one of 400 Tijuana officers who passed the new training and background checks for downtown. In March, he begins by introducing himself at every bank, foreign-exchange business and restaurant.
"It's important to lose your anonymity%kf(%)," Leyzaola says. "I believe police abused their positions because no one knew who they were."
Gandara likes Leyzaola's approach.
"It was a complete change, a lot more responsibility," Gandara says. "Every crime is your responsibility."

Victor de la Cruz, the former Air Force officer appointed to oversee the launch, estimates a 40 percent increase in people reporting crimes in little more than a month.

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The same month, Leyzaola's bodyguard of 18 months, Ricardo Omar Medina, is among 130 officers caught in an anti-corruption spree.

Medina receives a call late one March night to report to Leyzaola at 8 a.m. for a new radio. When he arrives, his boss demands his vest, badge and other equipment.

"I've lost trust in you," Leyzaola tells him.

About 250 were fd pressured to resign. When Leyzaola suspects cops are dirty, he puts them on patrol in the palm trees outside police headquarters — a job that humiliates most into quitting.

According to court documents, one of the officers arrested in March said he got $500 a month from El Teo's gang to keep streets clear of cops during murders and kidnappings. If he refused, his family would be killed. Another officer said he was paid $300 to $500 each time he released criminals at El Teo's command.

Leyzaola likes confronting them personally — in his office, at their stations, even on patrol. He sometimes drives them himself to the army barracks, where they are held.

Families of the officers come forward immediately with allegations of torture — electrocuted genitals, near-suffocation, severe beatings Leyzaola says he is not responsible for what happened to officers in army custody.

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The threats start on April 24, broadcast over Tijuana's old police radios that drug traffickers routinely commandeer: If Leyzaola doesn't resign, cops will die.

Three days later, Officer Luis Izquierdo, Gandara's former partner and mentor, is on the night shift, patrolling the San Diego border with three other cops. He walks into a convenience store just as a caravan of black SUVs drives by. Men get out of the vehicles and pump Izquierdo and three others with more than 200 bullets.

The police scanners hum with a "narcocorrido," or a drug ballad. Three more officers go down in synchronized attacks across the city.

Gandara picks up the radio traffic and calls his wife.

"Luis is dead," he says.

She calls Izquierdo's wife to break the news: Seven officers killed in 45 minutes.

It is the department's deadliest day.

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The next day, Leyzaola stops the community policing, less than two months into the program. His officers are too exposed. They turn to patrolling large areas in convoys of as many as six trucks.

The department's 2,000 officers get two-week courses on securing crime scenes, surveilling suspects and other basic policing techniques.

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The tip comes in early June: Drug trafficker Filiberto Parra Ramos — wanted for killing two federal agents and for his role in one of Tijuana's deadliest shootouts — is spotted in Playas de Tijuana. The army already is out looking.

Leyzaola joins the massive search for him.

After a false alarm, Parra is cornered at a shopping center near the airport. Leyzaola personally makes the arrest — nabbing one of El Teo's top assassins without firing a single shot.

The hits ramp up in July.

The body of Officer Geronimo Calderon, pumped with bullets, is left with a note: "If you don't resign, Leisaola (sic), I'm going to kill 5 x week."

That night, a Tijuana cop survives an assassination attempt as he stands unarmed outside a grocery store. An officer dies in drive-by shooting the next day while guarding a Mexican Red Cross center, and a third is killed five days later in an ambush.

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By September, funerals are part of Leyzaola's routine.

Leyzaola is also quietly campaigning to keep his job after his boss, Mayor Jorge Ramos, is forced out by term limits in December 2010.

"We're really only in our first year," he says. "In two years, Tijuana will see a real difference."

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After the September killings, Leyzaola moves his campaign to Playas de Tijuana three months earlier than scheduled.

The district gets new radios and 58 new Ford F250s. They had 14 patrol vehicles before.

All over the city, cops are scared. They routinely patrol with their rifles drawn.

Officer Mario Pena, who worked the district where Izquierdo died, stops wearing his uniform to work and alternates his routes home. He quits meeting officers for coffee on the job, stops socializing with them on weekends for fear they will be recognized and gunned down.

But he says the killings are a sign that Leyzaola is succeeding.

"We are finishing off the mafia," he says.

El Teo has other plans.

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By the end of September, the Mexican army gets another tip: U.S. authorities say a weapons purchase north of the border indicates a plot is afoot to kill Leyzaola.

The intelligence leads soldiers in October to a Tijuana shoe shop, where they arrest Edgar Zuniga, one of El Teo's men. Zuniga leads them to a ranch on the eastern outskirts, where the assassins' vehicles are being painted in camouflage to trick Leyzaola as they approach.

The plan calls for 12 men to approach Leyzaola in a fake military convoy as one takes him out with a .50-caliber rifle. The execution would be videotaped, set to a narcocorrido and posted on the Internet.

Soldiers surprise the planners Oct. 31 in a shootout at the ranch, arresting 13 suspects. They seize more than 3,400 bullets, plus the camouflaged vehicles.

The foiled hit had been personally ordered by El Teo for Nov. 1.

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In Leyzaola's first year as public safety director, 32 officers died, more than in the previous five years total. Dozens went to jail and the department shrunk from about 2,200 to 2,000 — forcing him to extend patrol shifts from eight to 12 hours.

His community policing plan is still on hold.

But Leyzaola already is looking to next year, planning to hire 150 new officers, send 50 at a time to train with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and issue new bulletproof vests, each backed by a manufacturer's $50 million guarantee. He hopes to restart community policing early in 2010.

He avoids speculating on what would have happened if the plot had gone through. Leyzaola is a man who only moves forward.

"God protects me," he says.

AQCHA, Afghanistan – While international forces in Afghanistan battle militants hiding in the mountains, aid agencies are fighting an even more elusive enemy: malnutrition.
The World Food Program and UNICEF have launched a project to feed thousands of mothers and children — some too weak to cry. Aid workers hope a high-protein diet distributed through a network of village clinics can help them through the winter.
Despite the billions spent in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion to oust the Taliban, the country is still comparable to the worst humanitarian crisis zones in Africa. Afghanistan has the world's highest maternal mortality rate and the second-highest child mortality rate — and hunger is a major reason why, the United Nations says. This year, centers across the country will feed 100,000 children and 35,000 pregnant or breast-feeding women.
Dozens of mothers, many clad in full burqa body veils, crouched in the clinic in Aqcha waiting for rations. The room was eerily silent except for gusts of wind that howled through the open door. Dozens of toddlers in their arms didn't make a sound.
"Most of the children are too tired and hungry, they don't have the energy to cry," said Dr. Nasrullah Sulfane, who oversees the program here.
The mothers received their weekly ration: 25 grams (0.88 ounces) of cooking oil with 215 grams (7.58 ounces) of corn and soya flour per child. The food doesn't cover all the children's needs, but it aims to provide the extra calories needed to avert the worst consequences of hunger.
The program was launched in August amid widespread security concerns because Afghanistan's insurgents have increasingly tended to target aid workers. There also were worries that conservative villagers would not let their women go to the feeding centers, where they might encounter foreigners regularly. That didn't happen in Aqcha, a remote town lost on the barren steppes of northern Afghanistan.
"So far, attendance is a real success," Sulfane said. "I think all the families understand the benefits of free food."
Before receiving their rations, mothers balanced their toddlers on a scale used to identify children in deteriorating condition.
Two-year-old Sharafuddin weighed in at 9.5 kilograms (20.94 pounds).That's extremely light for a 2-year-old boy, but the aid workers were thrilled — a month before, he had weighed just 8 kilograms (17.64 pounds).
"We're very happy for him. He's just graduated to 'moderately malnourished,'" said Nih Mohammed, the records manager who handed out the rations.
Fed with "Plumpy Nut," a special fat-rich paste made from peanut butter, Sharafuddin had gained enough weight to go home to his family, a high priority because most parents can't afford to remain at a clinic, away from their fields and their other children.
"I'm happy that he's better, but he's still going to be hungry," said the boy's mother, Fatima, who like many Afghans goes by one name.
Her five other children were skinny too, she said, though Sharafuddin was in the worst condition. He was born during Afghanistan's 2007 drought when the family had little food and Fatima didn't have breast milk.
"He's been very ill three or four times, and he often has diarrhea," said Fatima, whose husband is a farm hand in a village about a one-hour walk from the clinic. "All my children and all the other children in the village would need rations too."
Because there isn't enough food for everybody, the $1-million-per month handout to feeding centers focuses on new mothers and children under five, when hunger causes the most damage.
The last government survey, conducted in 2004, shows that 48 percent of Afghan children are malnourished and another 5 percent acutely malnourished.
"Since then, there are some areas where it has gotten worse," said Anna-Leena Rasanen, the WFP's nutrition program officer for Afghanistan. In certain zones, child malnutrition now hovers above the U.N.'s emergency level of 15 percent, she said.

Indicators tracked by U.N. and Afghan government agencies paint an alarming picture of chronic hunger: 70 percent of children lack iodine, which can cause mental disabilities. A lack of vitamins and proper nutrients means much of the population has poor eyesight. Stunted growth is widespread. A quarter of Afghan children die before the age of five and nearly 2 percent of women die while giving birth.

The WFP will spend US$319 million in Afghanistan this year, its second-largest humanitarian budget worldwide after Sudan. Aid includes handing out daily lunches to 1.4 million students as an incentive for parents to send their children, especially girls, to class.

The Aqcha feeding center is the only one in a district of about 100,000 people. Dr. Sayed Ahmad Shah said three children died of hunger-related disease last year in the district, but none so far this year.

"The whole purpose of handing out food is that we're now avoiding acute emergency cases," he said, touring the crowded clinic to reach a ward for the worst of the malnourished children.

"Look, the room is empty. There are no cases," Ahmad Shah said, pushing open the door to the room, packed instead with pregnant women about to give birth.

They had taken over the ward because their wasn't enough space for them elsewhere.

"Well," said Ahmad Shah, who hastily closed the door after hearing surprised cries. "What I meant is that it's now empty of sad cases."

HAVANA – Fidel Castro says an agreement forged at the U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen is "undemocratic" and calls President Barack Obama's speech there "misleading."
The ailing former Cuban president blasts a U.S.-brokered deal that urges major polluters to make deeper emissions cuts — but does not require it.
Castro claimed in one of his regular "Reflections" published Sunday that only industrialized nations could speak at the summit, while emerging and poor nations only had the right to listen.
Meanwhile, Bolivian President Evo Morales said Sunday that he would organize an alternate climate conference. Morales urged the world to mobilize against the failure of the Copenhagen summit, which ended Saturday after two weeks of political bickering.

BAGHDAD – Officials say Iraqi oil workers are back at a disputed oil well in southern Iraq that was seized by Iranian forces earlier this week.
Two Iraqi government officials and a worker at the site say Iraqi army troops escorted the workers Sunday morning to well No. 4, about 50 meters from the Iranian border.
A senior Oil Ministry official in Baghdad also confirmed that Iranian troops left the well.
All four spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue publicly.
About 11 Iraqi oil employees returned to the well. Troops raised the Iraqi flag on the oil well where the Iranian flag had flown earlier.

EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Reuters) –
Kobe Bryant scored 29 points and had 10 rebounds as the Los Angeles Lakers came from behind to register a 103-84 victory over the New Jersey Nets on Saturday.

Bryant and Lamar Odom sparked an 11-0 run by the league-leading Lakers (21-4) to turn a one-point deficit into a 10-point lead in the third quarter.

"We had a couple days off so we were a little rusty," Bryant, who scored 13 points in the third quarter, told reporters.

"We picked up the play in the second half. Defensively we got our rhythm back, we got back in sync," said Bryant.

Lakers coach Phil Jackson blamed himself for the team being out of sync.

"I screwed up the game by playing a lot of guys; 11 guys in the first half," Jackson said. "(we got) some rest for the guys who had to play back-to-back and got ourselves ready to play the second half.

"Came out and played the kind of game we had to play."

Odom, Pau Gasol and Jordan Farmar each contributed 14 points for Los Angeles. Gasol also had 14 rebounds and Odom 12.

Devin Harris had 21 points and Chris Douglas-Roberts 20 for the Nets, who have lost seven games in a row and have the NBA's worst record this season (2-26) after starting with a league-record 18 consecutive losses.

CONFIDENCE

New Jersey led 52-46 in the third before Bryant scored six consecutive points to pull Los Angeles within one. Derek Fisher's three-pointer and Odom's layup put the visitors ahead.

"New Jersey gained a little more confidence and the guys that were out there were playing well," Bryant said. "We didn't want it to go any further so I kind of took over."

Interim Nets coach Kiki Vandeweghe said he was pleased with his team's performance despite the loss.

"They competed every play and went out and got good shots," Vandeweghe said.

"I think in the second half you saw why the Lakers are one of the best teams in the NBA. But I must say, our guys kept playing and got any shot they wanted. ... we just went cold and couldn't convert."

(Reporting by Gene Cherry in Salvo, North Carolina. Editing by Peter Rutherford and Julian Linden)

NEW YORK – Over the past week, Facebook has been nudging its users — first gently, then firmly — to review and update their privacy settings.
You may have procrastinated by hitting "skip for now," but Facebook eventually took away that button and forced you to update your settings before continuing to use the site.
After finally accepting Facebook's recommendations or tweaking the privacy settings yourself, though, you might have made more information about you public than what you had intended.
At the same time, Facebook has given users many granular controls over their privacy, more than what's available on other major social networks.
So if you want to stay out of people's view, but still want to be on Facebook, here are some things to look out for as you take another look at your settings.
1. Some of your information is viewable by everyone.
Everyone can see your name, your profile photo and the names of work and school networks you're part of. Ditto for pages you are a fan of. If you are worried about a potential employer finding out about a quirky fetish or unorthodox political leaning, avoid becoming a Facebook fan of such groups. You can't tell Facebook you don't want those publicly listed. Your gender and current city are also available, if you choose to specify them. You can uncheck "Show my sex in my profile" when you edit your profile if you don't want it listed, and you can leave "Current City" blank.
2. Your list of friends may also be public.
Facebook also considers your friends list publicly available information. Privacy advocates worry that much can be gleaned from a person's list of friends — even sexual orientation, according to one MIT study. But there is a way to hide the list. Go to your profile page and click on the little blue pencil icon on the top right of your box of friends. Uncheck "Show Friend List to everyone." Either way, those you are already friends with can always see your full list.
3. You can hide yourself from Web searches.
There is a section for "Search" under Facebook's privacy settings page, which is accessible from the top right corner of the Web site under "Settings." If you click the "Allow" box next to "Public Search Results," the information that Facebook deems publicly available (such as photo, fan pages and list of friends), along with anything else you have made available to everyone, will show up when someone looks up your name on a search engine such as Google. The stuff you've limited access to in your profile will not show up.
This is useful if you want people you've lost touch with, or potential work contacts, to be able to find your Facebook page. If you'd rather not be found, uncheck this box.
A second setting, controlling searches within Facebook, lets you refine who can find you once that person has logged on. Limit searches to friends only if you think you have all the friends you need and don't want anyone to find you when they type in your name to Facebook.
4. Beware of third-party applications.
Quizzes and games are fun, but each time you take one, you first authorize it to access your profile information, even if you have made that available only to your friends. You're also letting the app access some information on your friends.
Under "Application Settings," Facebook lists all the apps you have opened your profile up to. If you no longer want to authorize access to "Which Golden Girl Are You?" you can always remove it by clicking on the "X" next to its name. Apps you use regularly, such as Facebook for Android if you update your status from your mobile phone, should stay.
Next, by clicking on "Applications and Websites" on the privacy settings page, you can edit whether your friends can share your birthday, photos and other specific information. Remember that applications can access your "publicly available information" no matter what.
The security firm Sophos recommends users set their privacy settings for two of Facebook's own popular applications, notes and photos, to friends only.

5. Go over your list of friends.

The average Facebook user has 130 friends. But many people interact with a much smaller group when commenting on status updates, photos and links. So it doesn't hurt to occasionally review your list of your friends to get an idea of just who can view your status posts, vacation photos and funny links you've shared over the years. Don't feel obligated to add anyone as a friend, even if that person adds you first. For professional acquaintance you don't want to snub, send them to a LinkedIn profile you can set up. Some workplaces and schools have rules about Facebook interactions between bosses and employees or students and teachers.

6. Create custom friends groups.

If you have friended a lot of people, sort them. Think of the groups you interact with in real life — co-workers, college buddies, girlfriends, grandma and grandpa — and organize your Facebook friends in these groups, too. Go to "All Friends" under the "Friends" button up top, click on "Create New List" and fire away. Then decide what aspects of your profile, and which status posts and photos, these people will have access to. Or, simply create a "limited" list for acquaintances or distant relatives and limit their access.

7. Customize your status posts.

Type "I'm hungry" into your status update box. Click on the little lock icon. You'll see a range of privacy controls pop up, letting you either allow or limit access to the post. If you want, you can even hide it from everyone by clicking "Only Me" under the custom settings. Click on "Save Setting." Repeat with each post, or create a default setting for most updates and increase or decrease privacy as you see fit.

8. Let your friends know you have boundaries — in person.

Many of us have woken up on a Sunday morning to find that an overzealous friend has posted dozens of photos from that wild party we barely remembered — the good, the bad and the hideous. Chances are, they didn't do this to embarrass you, though if they did you have bigger problems. Rather, they probably don't know that you don't want these photos posted. Sure, tweak your photo privacy settings on Facebook. But if someone starts snapping pictures of you at a party, ask them to check with you before posting it anywhere.

9. Never assume complete privacy.

Even for the most tech-savvy person, unflattering photos, incriminating text messages or angry status posts about work have a way of worming their way out in the open. Just saying.

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What do you consider too private for Facebook? E-mail bortutay(at)ap.org

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Officials say at least 13 people have been killed, among them civilians and a police officer, in fighting after insurgents launched mortars at a police compound in Mogadishu during the force's 66th anniversary ceremony.
Ali Musa, the head of the Mogadishu ambulance service, says 12 civilians were killed and 15 others were wounded when police and African Union forces retaliated against insurgents Sunday. Musa says that most of the shelling by police forces hit near the Bakara market in the rebel-controlled district of Mogadishu.
Aden Ahmed, a police official, says one police officer was killed and three others were wounded in the mortar attack by insurgents.
Somalia's capital sees near-daily bloodshed as an insurgent group tries to overthrow the fragile government.

LOS ANGELES – In a Dec. 7 story about the Vevo online music video venture, The Associated Press erroneously reported that Google Inc.'s YouTube will receive a fee for providing Vevo's technology but will not share in advertising revenue. YouTube will be paid for its technology and also will receive a small percentage of Vevo's ad revenue.

However, the remaining vast tracts of unsettled land were often used as a commons, or, in the American west, "open range." As degradation of habitat developed due to overgrazing and a tragedy of the commons situation arose, common areas began to either be allocated to individual landowners via mechanisms such as the Homestead Act and Desert Land Act and fenced in, or, if kept in public hands, leased to individual users for limited purposes, with fences built to separate tracts of public and private land.

The "open range" tradition of requiring landowners to fence out unwanted livestock was dominant in most of the rural west until very late in the 20th century, and even today, a few isolated regions of the west still have open range statutes on the books. Today, across the nation, each state is free to develop its own laws regarding fences, but in most cases for both rural and urban property owners, the laws are designed to require adjacent landowners to share the responsibility for maintaining a common boundary fenceline, and the fence is generally constructed on the surveyed property line as precisely as possible.

Wrought Iron Gates

KABUL – U.S. commanders in Afghanistan are reporting a sudden surge in Afghan army recruits this month, a much-needed boost after Afghan President Hamid Karzai said his security forces may not be able to take over from U.S. troops for up to five more years.
The uptick followed an autumn slump in Afghan army recruitment, and U.S. military officials attributed the sudden jump to promised pay hikes rather than President Barack Obama's announcement that U.S. troops will start leaving in 18 months.
"If we continue recruiting like we did, we'll make it," Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell, head of the Afghan training mission, told reporters on Wednesday.
The Obama administration had earlier this year outlined a goal of setting up a viable security force of 400,000 by 2013, and Caldwell was measuring his progress against that figure. The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, however, has backed off the goal of 400,000 in recent weeks.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal told Congress on Tuesday that regular measures of the size of the insurgency and the capability of the Afghan forces will be more useful than the hard target, but he estimated the total could be near 300,000 by July 2011, when U.S. forces begin drawing down.
The latest recruiting figures were a small bright spot in the otherwise slow and troublesome effort to blunt the Taliban while building a capable Afghan security force.
Afghanistan's ability to independently defend itself against attacks from Taliban and al-Qaida fighters is the linchpin in Obama's exit strategy, which envisions that U.S. troops would start to leave in July 2011 following the deployment of 30,000 more U.S. troops this year.
Lt. Gen. David Rodriguez, the No. 2 U.S. commander in Afghanistan, told reporters during a visit by Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Wednesday that the Taliban is already using the withdrawal date of 2011 in its propaganda to locals to suggest the U.S. is weak and losing the war. But the date also has placed a valuable sense of urgency on the Afghanistan government, he said.
The American timetable for a sustainable, trained Afghan security force is considerably more optimistic than the one laid out this week by Karzai. Standing beside Gates on Tuesday, Karzai said it will take five years before his forces will lead security operations and another 15 to 20 years before Afghanistan could pay for such a large force.
On Wednesday, Rodriguez and Caldwell said the sudden uptick of Afghan recruits in December was not believed to be the result of Obama's announcement. Rather, he said increased pay for police officers and extra money for soldiers engaged in heavy combat has helped breathe new life into the training effort.
Caldwell said 2,659 Afghan recruits signed up in the first seven days of December, compared to 831 in all of September.
Pay is a big hurdle.
For example, the Afghanistan government recently increased to $240, from about $180, the monthly pay given to a freshly recruited soldier deployed to the troubled Helmand province.
Taliban pay is reported to be anywhere from $250 to $350 a month.
"The real criteria is feeding their family," Rodriguez said.
Gates this week arrived in Afghanistan in the first Cabinet-level trip since Obama's Dec. 1 announcement. Gates carried the message to Karzai directly that the U.S. commitment was not open-ended, but also that the U.S. would not abandon Afghanistan's struggle.

Where two or more individuals own a business together but have failed to organize a more specialized form of vehicle, they will be treated as a general partnership. The terms of a partnership are partly governed by a partnership agreement if one is created, and partly by the law of the jurisdiction where the partnership is located. No paperwork or filing is necessary to create a partnership, and without an agreement, the relationships and legal rights of the partners will be entirely governed by the law of the jurisdiction where the partnership is located.

As for other laws that regulate or impact businesses, in many countries it is all but impossible to chronicle them all in a single reference source. There are laws governing treatment of labor and generally relations with employees, safety and protection issues (OSHA or Health and Safety), anti-discrimination laws (age, gender, disabilities, race, and in some jurisdictions, sexual orientation), minimum wage laws, union laws, workers compensation laws, and annual vacation or working hours time.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
President Barack Obama nominated Larry Persily, a former aide to ex-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, on Wednesday to be federal coordinator for Alaska Natural Gas Transportation Projects, the White House said.

Persily, a former Alaska journalist, worked for more than a decade on oil and gas issues for three Alaska governors, including Palin, who was John McCain's running mate on the Republican ticket that lost to Obama and Vice President Joe Biden in the 2008 presidential election.

Persily became a vocal critic of Palin after leaving her office.

Obama also nominated Patricia Hoffman as assistant secretary for electricity delivery and energy reliability in the Department of Energy. Hoffman had 14 years of experience at Energy.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

KABUL – The No. 2 commanding general in Afghanistan acknowledged Wednesday that a NATO-led attack the day before in eastern Afghanistan possibly resulted in civilian deaths.
The statement that some civilians might have been killed in the attack comes amid fears among Afghan citizens that the 30,000 fresh U.S. troops being deployed to the war will result in more violence and deaths of Afghan citizens. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has ordered troops to minimize civilian casualties, which undermine Afghan support for the war against the Taliban.
Lt. Gen. David Rodriguez, the No. 2 man, told reporters in the capital that the attack, which involved coalition and Afghan troops, was a "confusing operation."
"We're continuing to investigate," he said.
The Afghan government and NATO had differing accounts of the pre-dawn operation Tuesday in Laghman province in eastern Afghanistan.
NATO said Afghan and international forces came under fire as they assaulted the compound of a militant leader responsible for directing several suicide strikes in the region. The international force said seven insurgents were killed and four were detained, but no civilians were killed or injured.
"We are aware of civilian casualty allegations, however there are no operational reports to substantiate those claims of harming civilians, including women and children, during this operation," the NATO statement said Tuesday.
However, a statement issued by the Afghan presidential palace said six civilians were killed during the firefight, including one woman.
Local officials in the Afghan province said 12 people were killed in the clash outside Mehtar Lam, including an unspecified number of civilians. After the operation, about 400 people marched on Mehtar Lam to protest the raid, and an official said one demonstrator died in clashes with police.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who is touring the country, promised Afghans on Tuesday that the U.S. will do all it can to keep civilians out of the line of fire.
"Our top priority remains the safety of civilians," he said at a joint news conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

NAIROBI, Kenya – An oil tanker bound for the United States that was hijacked by Somali pirates was traveling outside a recommended maritime corridor, the commander of the EU Naval Force said Tuesday.
The Greek-flagged tanker Maran Centaurus was carrying more than $20 million of crude oil when pirates captured it Sunday.
Rear Adm. Peter Hudson said Tuesday he does not advise vessels to have armed guards on board, and that flammable cargo and firearms don't mix.
Hudson also said the fact that pirates are now attacking ships 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) off the Somali coast presents a large challenge and that the EU force will never fully secure such a large area of ocean.
Twenty percent of global shipping — including 8 percent of global oil shipments — is funneled into the narrow, pirate-infested Gulf of Aden that leads through the Red Sea to the Suez Canal. The route is bordered on one side by the failed state of Somalia and on the other by the increasingly unstable country of Yemen.
Somalia's lawless 1,880-mile coastline has become a pirate haven. The impoverished Horn of Africa nation has not had a functioning government for a generation and the weak U.N.-backed administration is too busy fighting an Islamist insurgency to go after pirates. Pirates now hold about a dozen vessels hostage and more than 200 crew members.
The Maran Centaurus is carrying around 275,000 metric tons of crude, said Stavros Hadzigrigoris, from the ship's owners Maran Tankers Management. At current market rates the oil would be worth just over $20 million.
The ship has 9 Greeks, 16 Filipinos, 2 Ukrainians, and a Romanian aboard. Granberg said the ship's owner reported the crew was not injured in the attack.
The vessel is only the second oil tanker captured by Somali pirates. The Saudi-owned Sirius Star was hijacked a year ago, leading to heightened international efforts to fight piracy off the Horn of Africa. That hijacking ended with a $3 million ransom payment. The ship held 2 million barrels of oil valued at about $100 million and was released last January.

President Barack Obama will announce his long-awaited Afghanistan strategy in a prime time address Tuesday night. Much of the speculation and debate thus far has focused on the number of troops the commander-in-chief will dispatch to Afghanistan. However, no strategy-- regardless of the number of troops involved--will likely succeed if we are not willing to see it through to completion.

Neutralizing or defeating the Taliban will require a well-designed and implemented counterinsurgency strategy that could take years, not months. The term "counterinsurgency" conjures up images of Special Forces stealthily tracking and engaging guerrillas in combat. But successful counterinsurgency is more about building relationships with the locals than it is about "kinetic" action, or actual combat. When I recently visited the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, Indiana, I was shown the "Solarstik," a portable device that utilizes solar and wind technology to generate energy. It is being used in prototype form by Special Forces in Afghanistan for their tactical needs in remote areas. But the soldiers are also sharing these devices with friendly villages that lack electricity-a relatively minor element of the US counterinsurgency strategy that may have big payoffs in winning "hearts and minds."

As the US Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Manual (co-authored by General David Patraeus) makes clear, the main mission of counterinsurgency is to convince the local populace that it's in their interest to support their national government rather than the insurgents. As the manual itself states, "The long-term goal is to leave a government able to stand by itself. In the end, the host nation has to win on its own. Achieving this requires development of viable local leaders and institutions." In order to build viable institutions and empower local leaders, the counterinsurgency force needs to be large enough to protect and engage with the civilian population. Thus General Stanley McChrystal's request for 40,000 additional troops.

Captain Jason L. Morris, USMC, recently returned from a six-month tour in Afghanistan, where he served as the judge advocate for Second Battalion, Third Marines. A former student of mine from Brownsburg, Indiana, and a graduate of Indiana University Maurer School of Law, one of his jobs was to help build the "rule of law" in Nimroz Province and part of Farah Province, in southwestern Afghanistan. The 2/3's area of operations was the size of Vermont, but the Marines had just three rifle companies to cover its entirety. Morris told me that, when it came to his own efforts in counterinsurgency-helping local Afghans to govern themselves, in particular by training prosecutors-"we were hamstrung to a point because the local security situation was pretty bad. If local Afghans don't feel safe enough to go to work, you can't get much done." Farah's chief prosecutor had difficulty recruiting local prosecutors because they were afraid of being killed by the Taliban.

Although US forces have been in Afghanistan for over eight years, Morris was the first American judge advocate the provincial prosecutor had ever met. It is unclear whether Morris' JAG replacement will continue these particular efforts at relationship-building. Other priorities may emerge for the new Marine battalion in that province, and Morris' activities may soon be forgotten. Building relationships of trust and cooperation with local leaders takes time. Successful counterinsurgency will require not only enough troops to cover a particular geographic area, but also a continuity in personal contact. Of course, more troops would facilitate continued outreach in a particular village or district, since they wouldn't be spread so thin.

Morris also told me of his battalion's work in Delaram district, Nimroz Province, one of the rare locales that had an established police presence--albeit a poorly trained and disciplined one. "When we first got there, if they were pointing their weapons in a safe direction, that was a good day," he said. Yet by the time his unit left six months later, the Afghan national police were able to lead joint patrols with the marines. Morris counts the training of the police in Delaram as "one of the biggest successes for our battalion."

Given the intensity of the Taliban insurgency, siding with the US forces-and the Kabul government we are bolstering-can be dangerous. The Afghan population will have to be convinced that choosing "our side" will be worth the risk. But they are understandably skeptical: we abandoned the country once before, as soon as US-backed mujahedeen defeated the Soviets in the late 1980's.

Eight years into a war that was long under-resourced, we will have no hope of succeeding in Afghanistan if we don't make the requisite commitment of troops, money, and time. But even if we do go all-in, we still might not succeed. Afghanistan is not Iraq, and the idea of simply replicating the "surge" is implausible. Unlike Iraq, Afghanistan has no history of a strong central government. President Karzai is viewed as illegitimate and hopelessly corrupt by many of his own people-and the legitimacy of the national government is critical to the success of any counterinsurgency strategy. Afghanistan lacks basic infrastructure, much of its populace is illiterate, and many areas have no functional government whatsoever, no police, and not even running water. In Iraq, after decades of tyranny, crippling sanctions and war, there remained a country that could be resurrected and rebuilt. In Afghanistan, on the other hand, many basic elements associated with sovereignty and minimal governance will need to be created from scratch. Counterinsurgency alone will not overcome these deficits.

As casualties mount, support for the war is dwindling. Sensitive to this, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs recently said that "the president does not see this as an open ended engagement." Yet President Obama has long argued that Afghanistan is the "right war." If he is serious, then his mission Tuesday night will be to convince the American people, Congress, and our NATO allies that, despite the obstacles, Afghanistan is indeed a cause worthy of a long-term commitment.

MANILA (Reuters) –
Seven-time world boxing champion Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao registered as a candidate for a seat in the Philippines lower house of Congress on Tuesday, climbing into the political ring for the second time following a 2007 defeat.

Accompanied by his family, Pacquiao attended a Catholic mass before marching to the poll body office in Alabel town on the southern island of Mindanao to submit his nomination papers under his own political party -- People's Champ Movement (PCM).

"I am ready, there's no more turning back," Pacquiuao told a cheering crowd of supporters, confident of winning a title that eluded him at his first attempt in May 2007.

He was defeated in the congressional election in 2007 by an incumbent opposition lawmaker, Darlene Custodio, who belongs to a prominent political clan in General Santos City.

Pacquiao is now facing a tough opponent supported by the three biggest political and business families in the province of Sarangani, who also have close links to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Arroyo, for her part, filed her own candidacy for a seat in lower house of Congress at her hometown in Lubao, Pampanga province, north of the capital Manila.

"I realized I am not ready to step down completely from public service," Arroyo said on Monday when she decided to seek a seat for Congress as her term as president ends on June 2010.

"Of course the family agrees, we support her 100 percent," Arroyo's husband, Jose Miguel, told reporters after the president submitted her nomination papers under the ruling Lakas-Kampi-CMD coalition party.

The party's standard-bearer, former defense chief Gilberto Teodoro and his running-mate, television game show host Edu Manzano, submitted their nominations for president and vice president at the poll body's main office in Manila.

(Reporting by Manny Mogato; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's announcement of plans to build 10 more uranium enrichment facilities is largely bluster after a strong rebuke from the U.N.'s nuclear agency, analysts said Monday. Nonetheless, the defiance is fueling calls among Western allies for new punitive sanctions to freeze Iran's nuclear program.
U.S. and European officials were swift to condemn the plans, warning that Iran risked sinking ever deeper into isolation. Iran responded that it felt forced to move forward with the plans after the International Atomic Energy Agency passed a resolution Friday demanding that it halt all enrichment activities.
Iran's bold announcement Sunday appears to be largely impossible to achieve as long as sanctions continue to throw up roadblocks and force Iran to turn to black markets and smuggling for nuclear equipment, said nuclear expert David Albright.
"They can't build those plants. There's no way," he said. "They have sanctions to overcome, they have technical problems. They have to buy things overseas ... and increasingly it's all illegal."
A more worrisome escalation in the standoff would be if Iran reduced its cooperation with the IAEA, as some Iranian officials have threatened to do if the West continues its pressure. The U.N. inspectors and monitoring are the world's only eyes on Tehran's program. The head of Iran's nuclear agency on Monday ruled out an even more drastic move, saying Tehran does not intend to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Enrichment is at the center of the standoff between Iran and the West because it can be used both to produce material needed for atomic weapons as well as fuel for nuclear power plants. Iran insists it only wants the latter.
New enrichment plants, on the scale of the one Iran already operates in the town of Natanz, would be extremely expensive, take years to build and would be difficult to stock with centrifuges and other necessary equipment while sanctions are in place, Albright said.
Further dimming the credibility of the plan, 10 new facilities on the scale of Natanz would put Iran in league with the production levels of any of Europe's major commercial enrichment suppliers, said Albright, president of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security.
"And also they don't have enough uranium. They would need a massive amount of uranium," he said.
A diplomat from one of the six world powers attempting to engage Iran on its nuclear program described the Iranian announcement as a "political move" with little immediate significance beyond demonstrating Tehran's defiance.
The diplomat, who follows the nuclear dossier the IAEA has gathered on Iran, noted that Tehran appears to have significant problems with its present enrichment program, to the point that it cannot even keep the centrifuges it has set up at Natanz running without breakdowns.
The diplomat demanded anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the issue.
Still, the announcement is of major concern because it could signal an intention to put up numerous decoy sites to deceive the outside world, while building perhaps a few secret military enrichment sites on a small scale that could be put to use in weapons production if Tehran decides to do go down that path, Albright said.
Such concerns were heightened with the recent discovery that Iran had a second, previously unknown enrichment facility burrowed partway into a mountain near the holy city of Qom.
"I tend to think that this Qom site was probably meant to be a clandestine facility for breakout that they wanted built for nuclear weapons," said Albright. "And now that it's been exposed they may want to replace it."
Iran's announcement triggered calls for new penalties that Albright said could evolve into a "mini-cold war strategy" to further isolate and contain Iran while holding out a hand for negotiations.
The United States' ambassador to the U.N., Susan Rice, said Iran's plans would be "completely inappropriate" and would further isolate it from the world.
In Paris, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner called Iran's decision "a bit childish."

"Iran is playing an extremely dangerous game," Kouchner said on France's RTL radio Monday. "There's no coherence in all this, other than a gut reaction."

The French defense minister, Herve Morin, said the international community should "probably commit toward new economic sanctions against Iran."

Iran and the top powers at the U.N. are deadlocked over a U.N.-drafted proposal for Iran to send much of its enriched uranium abroad, which the West seeks because it would at least temporary leave Tehran unable to develop a nuclear bomb. So far Iran has balked at the offer. The unusually strong IAEA censure of Iran over enrichment was a sign of the West's growing impatience with its defiance.

Iranian Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, who heads the nuclear program, told state radio that the decision to build the new uranium enrichment facilities was necessary to respond to the resolution.

"We had no intention of building many facilities like the Natanz site, but apparently the West doesn't want to understand Iran's peaceful message," Salehi said.

Salehi said Iran would not go so far as to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, under which Iran is subject to oversight by the U.N. nuclear agency.

"If we wanted to obtain nuclear weapons, we would have pulled out of NPT ... Iran doesn't want to withdraw from the treaty," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying Monday.

Iran's parliament speaker Ali Larijani insisted "a diplomatic opportunity" was still possible "under which Iran will continue its (nuclear) work under international surveillance."

But a day earlier, Larijani warned that Iran could reduce its cooperation with the IAEA if the West continues its pressure and doesn't compromise.

___

Keyser reported from Cairo. Associated Press Writers George Jahn in Vienna and Ingrid Rousseau in Paris contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AFP) –
A clear majority of Americans see China as an economic threat, a poll has shown, as Barack Obama sought to bolster relations on his first trip to Beijing and Shanghai as president.

More than 70 percent of those questioned in the CNN poll said they considered the Asian giant to be an economic threat, while only 28 percent disagreed with the notion.

Two-thirds of those surveyed said they saw China as a source of unfair competition for American companies, while only a quarter viewed China positively as a huge potential market for US goods.

"That may be why 71 percent of Americans consider China an economic threat to the US," said CNN polling director Keating Holland. "Americans tend to view foreign countries as competition, and China is no exception."

Trade tensions between the powers have intensified in recent months, with both sides taking action against the other's imports.

Obama ignited the first major trade spat of his presidency when he imposed punitive duties on Chinese-made tires in September.

An angry Beijing lodged a complaint at the World Trade Organization and retaliated by launching a probe into possible unfair trade practices involving imports of US car products and chicken meat.

The CNN poll Monday showed that Americans were split on whether China posed a military threat with slightly more, 51 percent, agreeing with the statement than disagreeing (47 percent).

A quarter of the 1,014 people questioned in the weekend poll said China had a good track record on human rights, but 68 percent suggested the rights of Chinese citizens were not being respected.

Obama, in booming Shanghai Monday, pushed for an unshackled Internet and expanded political freedoms during a webcast town hall event.

On Chinese state television's evening news, Obama's visit was not even mentioned until 25 minutes into the broadcast. The main dispatch on the state news agency Xinhua on the Shanghai event did not include Obama's comments on Internet freedoms.

MARIETTA, Pa. – Malaria. Tuberculosis. Alzheimer's disease. AIDS. Pandemic flu. Genital herpes. Urinary tract infections. Grass allergies. Traveler's diarrhea. You name it, the pharmaceutical industry is working on a vaccine to prevent it.
Many could be on the market in five years or less.
Contrast that with five years ago, when so many companies had abandoned the vaccine business that half the U.S. supply of flu shots was lost because of contamination at one of the two manufacturers left.
Vaccines are no longer a sleepy, low-profit niche in a booming drug industry. Today, they're starting to give ailing pharmaceutical makers a shot in the arm.
The lure of big profits, advances in technology and growing government support has been drawing in new companies, from nascent biotechs to Johnson & Johnson. That means recent remarkable strides in overcoming dreaded diseases and annoying afflictions likely will continue.
"Even if a small portion of everything that's going on now is successful in the next 10 years, you put that together with the last 10 years (and) it's going to be characterized as a golden era," says Emilio Emini, Pfizer Inc.'s head of vaccine research.
Vaccines now are viewed as a crucial path to growth, as drugmakers look for ways to bolster slowing prescription medicine sales amid intensifying generic competition and government pressure to cut down prices under the federal health overhaul.
Unlike medicines that treat diseases, vaccines help prevent infections by revving up the body's natural immune defenses against invaders. They are made from viruses, bacteria or parts of them that have been killed or weakened so they generally can't cause an infection.
Investment in partnerships and other deals to develop and manufacture vaccines has been on a tear — and accelerating since the swine flu pandemic began. Billions in government grants are bringing better, faster ways to develop and manufacture vaccines. Rising worldwide emphasis on preventive health care, plus the advent of the first multibillion-dollar vaccines, have further boosted their appeal.
While prescription drug sales are forecast to rise by a third in five years, vaccine sales should double, from $19 billion last year to $39 billion in 2013, according to market research firm Kalorama Information. That's five times the $8 billion in vaccine sales in 2004.
"What was essentially 25 years ago a rounding error now has become real money," says Robin Robertson, director of the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research Development Authority.
That jump is due to a couple of new blockbuster vaccines and rising use of existing ones. The government's list of recommended vaccines for children since has more than doubled since 1985 to 17. It now also calls for a half-dozen vaccines for everyone over 18 and up to four more for some adults.
The last decade brought breakthrough vaccines against pneumococcal disease and rotavirus — two of the world's top killers — meningitis, cervical cancer and more.
Better technology to create and mass produce vaccines is bringing progress in preventing tropical dengue fever and new threats like superbugs MRSA and C. difficile, even ending addiction to cocaine and nicotine. Success on some vaccines in development, particularly for Alzheimer's and AIDS, likely would bring billions a year in sales.
Just this fall and early next year, the swine flu vaccines are expected to bring their makers at least a couple billion extra dollars.
That's despite the five manufacturers for the U.S. not being able to meet an optimistic plan to first make seasonal flu shots and then produce 120 million doses of swine flu vaccine by mid-October — an unprecedented task. But they are steadily catching up with demand.
Unlike most vaccines now "manufactured" in mammal, yeast or other cells — quickly, purely and at high yields — flu vaccines are still grown over many weeks in chicken eggs because it's economical and those newer, faster methods aren't U.S.-approved yet. Because swine flu vaccine grew slower than expected, there have been shortages — and lines of anxious consumers.
But a horde of biotech companies, many using multimillion-dollar government grants, already are testing state-of-the-art technology for the next pandemic.

Scientists — including some at J&J's new vaccine partner, Holland's Crucell NV — even are working to develop the holy grail: a universal flu vaccine targeting a part of the virus that doesn't change year to year.

And some future vaccines will come in patches, pills and nasal sprays, rather than painful shots.

In the last century, vaccines dramatically lengthened lifespans by stopping diseases that killed or disabled millions, from smallpox to polio.

After all those successes, many pharmaceutical companies instead focused on lucrative daily pills for chronic diseases. By the middle of this decade, only a handful were still making vaccines, which are harder to produce than chemical-based pills, making yields unpredictable.

That led to the 2004 fiasco when half the U.S. flu shot supply was lost overnight, plus continuing periodic shortages of some kids' vaccines.

Today, five companies supply flu vaccine: GlaxoSmithKline, Switzerland's Novartis AG, Australia's CSL Biotherapies, MedImmune, part of Britain's AstraZeneca PLC, and France's Sanofi-Aventis SA.

There's been more research on flu vaccines in the last five years than in the previous 20, notes Dr. William Schaffner, Vanderbilt University's head of preventive medicine and a spokesman for the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Now many drugmakers are rethinking vaccines.

Britain's GlaxoSmithKline is gunning to become the world's top vaccine manufacturer by revenue, unseating pioneer Merck & Co. This spring, Glaxo opened a state-of-the-art vaccine packaging plant in Marietta, Pa., west of Philadelphia, so it can expand in the U.S. market.

Glaxo, which sold only one vaccine in the U.S. 13 years ago, now sells 12 here — and 30 worldwide. It has 20 more in human testing, including ones for meningitis and malaria.

J&J, which previously avoided vaccines, plans to build a full vaccine portfolio, starting with universal flu and Alzheimer's vaccines, says research head Dr. Paul Stoffels.

Even Pfizer Inc.'s $68 billion acquisition of Wyeth in October was partly about getting its vaccine expertise, now being put to work against Alzheimer's. Wyeth makes the most successful vaccine ever, Prevnar, which protects children from ear infections and potentially deadly pneumonia and blood infections. Prevnar brought in $2.7 billion in 2008 sales, and with approval of an improved version pending, billions more a year are expected.

Experts call Prevnar the "game changer." It was the first vaccine to exceed $1 billion in annual sales, followed by Merck's cervical cancer shot Gardasil, with $2.3 billion in 2008 sales.

"Vaccines are now perhaps seen to be more attractive than drugs," says Dr. Stanley Plotkin, a former University of Pennsylvania professor and industry researcher who helped develop the German measles and rotavirus vaccines.

Vaccines command higher prices — roughly $375 for the three-shot Gardasil series — and so are more profitable than in the past. With only one or two makers of most vaccine types, price competition is rare in wealthy countries. Plus, they rarely face generic competition.

For flu shot makers, the risk of having to throw out millions of unused doses here come spring has plunged as U.S. guidelines have steadily widened to include 83 percent of Americans. Use has jumped from 20 million doses in 1990 to 113 million last year.

And many companies are partnering with promising biotechs, the World Health Organization and global charities, or setting up deals with local drugmakers abroad, to inexpensively manufacture vaccines in developing and middle-tier countries that increasingly want them to prevent much-higher health care costs.

"What you had was, everybody out of the water," says analyst Steve Brozak of WBB Securities. "Now, everybody's back in the water."

CHICAGO (Reuters) –
Sarah Palin said a run for the White House in 2012 is "not on my radar screen right now" as the Republican carefully did not close the door to a possible candidacy in an interview that launched her big book tour.

Palin spoke to TV talk show hostess Oprah Winfrey as she began the roll-out to her memoir, "Going Rogue: An American Life." Palin made clear she wanted to concentrate on the 2010 congressional elections in which Republicans hope to make inroads into Democratic majorities in the U.S. Congress.

"I'm concentrating on 2010 and making sure that we have issues to tackle," Palin said in the interview taped last week and broadcast on Monday. "I don't know what I'm going to be doing in 2012. (Running for president is) not on my radar screen right now."

The former Alaska governor and unsuccessful 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate, who is popular among many U.S. conservatives, has embarked on a campaign-style media tour to promote Tuesday's release of her book.

Her appearance on Winfrey's program, one of the most watched daytime shows on U.S. television, comes as political insiders watch her every move to see if she may launch a bid for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

Winfrey actively supported Democrat Barack Obama during last year's campaign.

Palin is to hit a dozen states during a book tour that will take her mostly to smaller cities. The initial printing of 1.5 million copies promises the memoir written with a ghost writer will be an instant best-seller.

If Palin is to seek higher office, she'll have to overcome some political headwinds.

A Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 60 percent of those polled said Palin was not qualified to serve as president and 52 percent viewed her in unfavorable terms. Among Republicans, however, her positive rating was 76 percent.

The interview with Winfrey was interspersed with home video showing Palin playing with her grandson Tripp, exercising in shorts, and staying out of her daughter's way during a Halloween trick-or-treating excursion in their hometown of Wasilla, Alaska.

A self-styled "hockey mom" during the 2008 campaign, Palin directed her at-times tart tongue at CBS TV anchorwoman Katie Couric and Levi Johnston, who fathered a child out-of-wedlock with Palin's daughter Bristol and has since become a Palin critic.

'NEANDERTHAL TRIBE'

Palin said Couric's questions during their series of interviews during the campaign -- which critics said exposed Palin's lack of intellectual depth -- had "annoyed" her and therefore left the perception she was "unqualified."

"I thought she was asking about this Neanderthal tribe up there in Alaska," Palin said of Couric's questions about which newspapers and magazines she regularly read.

Palin recalled being confronted by Couric backstage following a thrilling campaign stop.

"There's the perky one, with the microphone, with the questions," Palin said disparagingly.

"You're pretty perky, too," Winfrey remarked.

Asked about Johnston, Palin said she did not want to respond to his criticisms, which have included comments that she is a poor parent and not getting along with husband Todd.

"We don't want to mess up the gig he's doing: aspiring porn," Palin cracked, referring to his appearance in Playgirl, an online magazine that features nude men. "I also saw I didn't go to hockey games. There are so many untruths."

Levi is still welcome to come to dinner next week for the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday with the Palins, she added. "He's family."

(Editing by Will Dunham and Steve Holland)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) –
An analysis of 19 studies provides additional evidence of increased asthma risk in children and adults given acetaminophen.

The study's lead author told Reuters Health, while this type of study isn't the best way to prove that the medication actually causes the illness, it does show that the relationship should be investigated further.

"We know acetaminophen affects inflammatory cells in the airway," said Dr. J. Mark FitzGerald of the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute in British Columbia. But even if the medication does boost asthma risk, he added, it's likely only one factor in the rise in asthma prevalence seen in recent years.

Asthma has become increasingly common worldwide, and some investigators have suggested that more widespread acetaminophen use could be one contributing factor, given that the drug lowers levels of an antioxidant called glutathione found in lung tissue, FitzGerald and his team note in the journal CHEST.

Also, the researcher pointed out in an interview, a study of about 200,000 patients published in 2008 suggested an increased risk of asthma and wheezing in those who took acetaminophen.

To investigate further, FitzGerald and his associates searched the medical literature for studies that looked at acetaminophen and risk of asthma and wheezing.

When the researchers did a combined analysis of the 19 studies they identified, which included 425,140 patients in all, they found acetaminophen use was associated with a 1.6-fold increased risk of asthma. Children exposed to the drug in the womb were at 1.3-fold greater risk of asthma and 1.5-fold increased risk of wheezing.

The one study that looked at high-dose acetaminophen in children found it more than tripled asthma risk.

At this point, FitzGerald said, parents shouldn't purge their medicine chests of acetaminophen.

When a pediatrician recommends acetaminophen to treat fever in a child, according to the researcher, parents should follow this advice. The drug "works very well to do what it is supposed to do," he noted, adding "there's always a risk benefit in terms of medication."

SOURCE: CHEST, November 2009.

NEW YORK – "How extraordinary," Catherine Givings observes. "It looks like a farming tool. Where do you put it?"
Indeed.
Sarah Ruhl — MacArthur "genius" grant recipient, upstart playwright, woman, wife, mother — has arrived at her Broadway moment with an electrifying effort that uses a big, buzzing box to explore some of humankind's most dangerous places: real intimacy, life-transforming technology and the limitless nature of medical science.
The work: "In the Next Room (or the vibrator play)." The place: A prosperous spa town outside New York City. The time: circa 1880s, at the realization of Thomas Edison's dream for mass distribution of electricity.
The story line?
Before the relentless, digital spread of pornography and Meg Ryan's sumptuous deli scene in "When Harry Met Sally...," some doctors believed that women suffering "hysterical symptoms" could be cured through assisted "paroxysms." The men of science used boxy, plug-in contraptions with hoses and ceramic baubles on the ends to release pent-up "juices" in the wombs of patients as a cure for anxiety, headaches and sleeplessness.
Before the devices came along, doctors used their fingers to administer the treatment. It's all there in historical accounts that inspired Ruhl, though her ensemble work directed by Les Waters is about much, much more than the machine behind an unassuming door that separates Catherine's living room from her doctor-husband's "operating theater." The adjacent rooms are in simultaneous use on stage at the Lyceum Theatre.
The narrative framework is unusual, but it speaks loudly about emotionally unavailable men and childlike wives, some of whom — Catherine (Laura Benanti) among them — are desperate to connect on a more fulfilling level at just about any cost.
"At a young age, we all know what a woman is supposed to look like, sound like, be like when she is opened in that way," says Benanti, who won a Tony for her portrayal of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee in the 2008 revival of "Gypsy."
"In the Victorian age, nobody was telling you how you should feel. Mostly, they were telling you not to, but in private moments ... you see what people have always wanted and continue to want — a genuine human connection."
Ruhl came up with the idea when the Berkeley Repertory Theatre commissioned her to write a play. At the time, she was breast-feeding her now nearly 4-year-old daughter and digesting a book, "The Technology of Orgasm" by Rachel Maines. As a new mother, she found herself wondering what it might feel like to have no milk for her baby and what it might have felt like — or not felt like — for doctors to perform both the manual and vibrator-assisted treatments on their patients, including some men.
Besides, Ruhl says, "I had always wanted to write a Victorian costume drama."
And so Catherine is finely dressed as a bored, ball of energy with inadequate breast milk for her infant. She's married to the zipped-up Dr. Givings (Michael Cerveris) who won't stop yammering about the potential of electricity — a technology not at all lost on Catherine as she revels in her new lamps, befriends a couple of her husband's artistically bent patients and hires a wet nurse.
Drawn by noises coming from the office during treatment of one Mrs. Daldry (Maria Dizzia), Catherine allows curiosity to get the best of her and picks the lock on the magical door. Catherine and Mrs. Daldry use the machine on each other while Dr. Givings is out at his club one night.
Catherine's time on the vibrator and her exposure to the piano-playing Mrs. Daldry, and a bouncy but melancholy male patient, painter Leo Irving (Chandler Williams), create a yearning in her that culminates in a breakthrough with her husband in their snowy garden.
Ruhl says she wasn't out to shock audiences with her play, including the final act that leaves Dr. Givings completely without clothes as he gives himself over to his wife.
"It's really hard to get a straight play done on Broadway and I think there should be a place for it in New York, so I couldn't be happier," she says.
Cerveris, a Tony winner for his portrayal of John Wilkes Booth in the revival of "Assassins," said the laying bare of Dr. Givings at his wife's desperate urging serves up the strength of Ruhl's storytelling.

"The play makes it clear how little men have understood women historically, and I think that's extraordinarily relevant today," he says. "It seemed a very earned, logical, meaningful place for the character to arrive."

The cast for the limited run that ends Jan. 10 is rounded out in the Lincoln Center Theater production by Thomas Jay Ryan as Mr. Daldry and Quincy Tyler Bernstine as the somber wet nurse Elizabeth, who lost her faith in God when her infant son died and left her full with milk.

It's Elizabeth who connects the dots for Catherine and Mrs. Daldry, that the sensations of the treatment seem a lot like sexual relations with her husband back home. Ruhl considers the character another example, like the labor-saving vibrator machine, of how fundamental human necessities are doled out.

"This notion of compartmentalization and farming out such intimate practices is kind of what the whole play is about," Ruhl says, noting similarities with today's Internet-driven world.

"In general, I have such a conflicted relationship with technology and with this cultural moment," she said. "The whole notion of solitude seems to be shifting. We're increasingly disembodied. It's hard to put ourselves back in that time where there was no electricity."

New Delhi –
The Afghan elections have officially ended, and President Hamid Karzai will hold on to his office for five more years, the election commission declared Monday after rival Abdullah Abdullah dropped out of the race.
The fraud-ridden saga has diminished the stature of both Mr. Karzai and the international community in Kabul, and the result brings no mandate but instead raises further proposals for forcing more government accountability.
The talk among Afghan and Western experts ranges from preparing immediately for next year's Parliamentary elections, to rewriting the constitution, to scrapping elections altogether in favor of an "enlightened dictatorship."
One researcher whose work involved 170 recent interviews with voters in different districts of Kabul says these elections have not killed the democratic spirit.
"There was still very much a desire to be a part of this global movement to participate in government, but it needed to be defined in an Afghan context instead of a Western one," says Anna Larson, a researcher on governance with the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit in Kabul and author of a new study to be released tomorrow on the election. "The ideal system that seemed to come out from our respondents was a system whereby Islamic values were combined with a democratic system of selecting a government."
Hope for democracy She notes that, though "Islamic values" are not universally defined, in general the concept denoted concerns – especially among the educated elite – that enfranchising a majority of Afghans who are young and uneducated could unleash the "unlimited freedom" of Western democracy and leave few safeguards for traditional religious and social mores.
As for the conduct of the elections, her interviews revealed that Afghans worried less about macro questions of fraud and influence-peddling, which they had assumed would take place anyway, and more on technical concerns about whether the ink was really indelible and the malfunctioning of hole punchers on election day.
Such problems, notes Ms. Larson, should be avoided by preparing immediately for the upcoming parliamentary elections this April.
"We need to start preparing earlier, getting the mechanisms in place earlier, to prevent the extent of corruption we saw this time," says Larson. One of the reasons for the last-minute preparation for this year's elections had to do with sluggish funding from donor countries, she adds.
Among the Afghan elite, there's at least some sentiment that democracy isn't the way to go for now.
"I think that we need a strong leadership composed of the enlightened people – we need an enlightened dictatorship," says an Afghan newspaper editor who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals. "Democracy did not help us. Democracy means they are bribing people in the street."
Keeping Karzai in checkThen there are calls to move in the opposite direction, away from the current system of a strong presidency toward one that shares more power with the Parliament. This idea could gain momentum as the international community ponders another five years with Karzai as a partner.
Making such changes would involve calling a constitutional loya jirga – essentially an Afghan version of a constitutional convention.
"I think a constitutional loya jirga is way overdue," says Samina Ahmed, the South Asia project director for the International Crisis Group, based in Islamabad, Pakistan. "The flaws in the constitution need to be removed."
One such flaw: The Independent Election Commission charged with running the elections is not independent because the commissioners are all appointed by the president, with no oversight by the Parliament.
Tweaking the constitution through the loya jirga has its problems, however.
"A loya jirga will be composed of the people who are now in power, and the same idea will go forward," says the Afghan newspaper editor.
Then, too, there are concerns – familiar to Americans who routinely vote down constitutional conventions – that convening such a forum would open a Pandora's box of suggested revisions that would involve lengthy debate.

Sharing blame for flawed electionFinally, the power to convene the jirga falls to the president, except in impeachment scenarios, and it's unlikely Karzai would see this to be in his interests. However, Ms. Ahmed and other observers argue that the international community must be more forceful with Karzai to get changes in governance.

"There should be a clear message sent that what Karzai has done is totally undemocratic and unacceptable," says Ahmed. At same time, she adds, the international community should not try to escape blame for what has happened: "Remember who paid for the elections. If you are paying for an electoral process that you know is so deeply flawed, surely there is responsibility attached to the internationals in making sure there is as credible a process as possible."

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Abdullah pullout from Afghan runoff sows new doubt over legitimacy. Read more here.

Cap Cana is located in the Eastern region of the Dominican Republic known as Juanillo. The site was founded as a new and more ambitious touristic site with contributions from international investors and strategic partners such as Ritz-Carlton, Sotogrande, Donald Trump and many others. The site has a Marina, Large resorts, beaches, and many others. Primarily founded as a site to attract international visitors. The Cap Cana Championship, a Champions Tour golf tournament, is held at Punta Espada Golf Club in Cap Cana, a course designed by Jack Nicklaus.

Cap Cana is a tourism development with an investment of upwards of two billion dollars in the eastern lands of the Dominican Republic. This area renown for its great hotels and beaches, lacks exclusivity to the high upper class which Cap Cana hopes, in part, to offer. The area was conceived with the backing both financially and publicly of "elites" such as Donald Trump, Jack Nicklaus, and other holders.

Cap Cana Villa Rental

NAIROBI (AFP) –
Rwanda plans to ask Italy to extradite a Rwandan Hutu priest, accused by an African rights group of being involved in the massacre of 80 students during the 1994 genocide, officials said Thursday.

Emmanuel Uwayezu is accused by London-based African Rights of being involved in a massacre of "more than 80 young people aged between 12 and 20 years old" from a school in Kibeho in southern Rwanda where he was headmaster.

Uwayezu, 47, was picked up on Tuesday by Italian police near Florence after Rwandan authorities issued a warrant for his arrest via Interpol, with a view to trial in Rwanda.

"In launching the mandate against him, we asked that he be arrested and transferred to Rwanda. We're going to ask Italy to extradite him to Rwanda," the spokesman for the chief prosecutor, Augustine Nkuzi, said on Radio Rwanda on Thursday.

"Here, justice functions well. Even the international community recognises that," Nkuzi added.

Several other Rwandans accused of taking part in the 1994 genocide have been arrested in European countries, but none of them have been extradited to Rwanda.

European leaders are unconvinced that the defendants will get a fair trial in the central African country. Kigali calls on those which refuse to extradite suspects to try them where they were arrested.

Uwayezu had been living in Italy for more than 15 years and served as a vicar in Ponzano, some 20 kilometres (15 miles) from Florence.

According to African Rights, Uwayezu had links to a machete-wielding militia that attacked the students.

The clergyman defended himself, saying he wanted "to open a trial on this case in order to establish the facts", Italy's ANSA news agency reported Tuesday.

"I took no part in genocide. Instead, the bishop and I tried unsuccessfully to save young people massacred by the militia," the Italian news agency quoted him as saying.

The Rwandan genocide of 1994 mainly targeted minority Tutsis and about 800,000 people were killed, according to the United Nations.

The House Financial Services Committee voted to approve legislation Thursday to create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, advancing a major piece of the Obama administration's agenda for overhauling financial regulations.

The legislation, approved by a 39-29 vote, would create a new agency to regulate mortgages, credit cards and other common financial products. The agency would be able to bar any "unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practice" in connection with consumer financial issues, and non-bank financial institutions that sell financial products to consumers would have to register with it.

States could issue tougher consumer regulations than those set by the agency, but an amendment adopted earlier this week would allow federally chartered banks limited pre-emption from state laws. Melvin Watt, D-N.C., who offered the amendment, said it would allow federal regulators to determine, on a case-by-case basis, whether a particular state law unfairly restricts a federally chartered bank and puts it at a disadvantage to competitors in that state.

Democrats Walt Minnick of Idaho and Travis W. Childers of Mississippi voted with Republicans against the bill. Michael N. Castle of Delaware was the only Republican to support the measure.

President Obama praised the committee action soon after the bill was approved.

"This step sends an important signal to the American people that we will not stand by and allow big financial firms and their lobbyists to mobilize against change," he said in a statement.

TOPEKA, Kan. – A Kansas legislator promised Friday that he'll repost his "RedNeck Rap" video criticizing President Barack Obama on YouTube, while a national civil rights group assailed the video as racist.
Republican state Rep. Bill Otto said he'll add a new beginning to the video, explaining that the cap he's wearing in the video — calling opossum "the other dark meat" — is a reference to his own redneck heritage, not Obama.
Otto posted the video on YouTube last month, but it came down Thursday after a fellow legislator called it as "disturbing" and suggested it was evidence of bigotry. Otto said the criticism is unfounded.
He said his adult daughters took the video down, using his passwords, because they didn't like him being called a racist. He said he told them that taking the video down made his situation worse.
"People are going to think that this was done by people to shut me up," Otto said in a telephone interview from his home in LeRoy, a small town about 75 miles south of Topeka. "I'm getting hate e-mails from Maryland to California, but, hey, that's part of the game."
Heidi Beirich, research director for the Southern Poverty Law Center, saw Otto's video as part of ongoing criticism of the nation's first black president that is "racially tinged." The center, based in Montgomery, Ala., monitors hate groups and saw more than 200 reports of hate crimes in the weeks following Obama's election.
"It's totally racially insensitive," she said.
The flap over Otto's video also comes less than two months after U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins, another Kansas Republican, remarked in a public forum that the GOP was still looking for "a great white hope." She later said she wasn't referring to Obama and didn't know of the phrase's past link to pre-civil-rights era racism.
Otto said he wanted to repost the video because he believes it's important to raise issues about Obama's policies. In his rap, he criticizes Obama over health care, the environment, the economy and Obama's plans to close the prison for terrorist detainees in Guantanamo Bay Cuba.
Otto, first elected to the Legislature in 2004, has posted videos on YouTube for about 18 months. Some feature footage from events in his eastern Kansas district, but he uses others to comment on issues — sometimes in song.
Earlier this year, he poked fun at then-Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' impending departure for Obama's Cabinet with a parody of a country song that ended with the chorus, "You picked a fine time to leave us, Kathleen."
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On the Net:
Kansas Legislature: http://www.kslegislature.org
Southern Poverty Law Center: http://www.splcenter.org/
(This version CORRECTS description of district to eastern Kansas.)

WASHINGTON – Businesses in the South and Southwest benefited most from the first federal contracts awarded under President Barack Obama's stimulus program, according to initial data released by a government oversight board. Military construction and environmental cleanup contributed to a boost of about 30,000 jobs.
The new job numbers — in line with expectations for such an early accounting — offer the first hard data on effects of the $787 billion stimulus program.
The figures, released Thursday, are based on jobs linked to less than $16 billion in federal contracts and represent just a sliver of the total stimulus package. But they also represent a milestone of sorts for an administration that promised unprecedented real-time data on whether the program was working.
Until now, the White House has relied on economic models to argue that the program created jobs and eased the recession. The numbers help shift the discussion from whether the program is creating jobs to whether it is creating enough to justify its enormous price tag.
"These are the most thankful employees you'll ever want to see," said Robert Del Riego, majority owner of Frederick, Md.-based Re-Engineered Business Solutions, who said he hired 33 new employees, mostly skilled laborers looking for work in the dismal construction market.
He expects to hire six more to help with water and sewer projects in Arkansas and North Carolina and small construction jobs at other sites. His company won $1.9 million in Army Corps of Engineers contracts.
"It's extra work, and with work, hopefully you make a profit," he said. "But the main thing is, it's putting real guys back to work."
The White House said the new numbers were validation that the administration was on track to hit Obama's goal of creating or saving 3.5 million jobs by the end of next year.
"The early indications are quite positive," said White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein, who said the report "exceeds our projections."
The construction industry showed the strongest numbers in Thursday's report, accounting for about a third of the jobs thanks to contracts to repair military bases. Despite those gains, unemployment in the construction industry remains high, at 17.1 percent. That's down from its February high of 21.4 percent.
"It's kind of carrying us, allowing us to retain employees until the economy makes a rebound," said Matt Rathsack, director of operations at the Kentucky engineering firm, TetraTech, which reported saving 71 jobs thanks to an Army Corps of Engineers construction project at the Detroit Arsenal facility in Michigan. "We've already pared back and cut back. The staff is on reduced hours. The feeling is we're coming around the corner. We're optimistic."
Environmental jobs also provided a big boost. CH2M Hill, the contractor in charge of cleaning the nation's most contaminated nuclear site, said nearly 2,200 jobs, from carpenters to engineers to secretaries, had been created in southwest Washington state.
On paper, Colorado posted the largest increase of any state, more than 4,700 jobs, largely thanks to a contract to set up a call center to field questions about a change to digital cable. But the jobs were spread across multiple states, underscoring one of the many hiccups in the data. Like most contracting jobs, these were temporary, and most are already over.
California, Florida, Tennessee and Texas also showed strong gains.
New England fared poorly, with fewer than 750 jobs reported across the region. Rhode Island, which has the third-highest unemployment rate in the country, reported the weakest job numbers, both overall and per capita. Businesses there reported creating or saving about six jobs.
Broader numbers on local stimulus spending, for everything from repairing public housing and building schools to repaving highways and keeping teachers off the unemployment lines, won't be available until late this month. Those figures are expected to show early stimulus money saving thousands of teaching jobs and creating construction work for highway projects nationwide.
Thursday's numbers represent such a small snapshot, they are unlikely to significantly change the debate over whether the stimulus law was the right prescription for an ailing economy. Until more money is spent and more data come in, it is impossible to accurately calculate how much the government is spending per job.
House Republican leader John Boehner said the numbers don't change the fact that unemployment has climbed higher than the White House ever expected. Since signing the stimulus in February, Obama has watched the economy shed millions of jobs. The White House says things would have been far worse without the stimulus.

"The administration's continuing assertion that the stimulus is working flies in the face of the harsh reality being faced by Americans outside the Beltway every day," Boehner said. "While the administration spins its illusion, Americans are asking, 'Where are the jobs?'"

In the short term, the most significant thing about the job numbers may be that they exist at all. The government has never attempted to track the effects, in real time, of such a huge government program. The data released by the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board allow taxpayers to see not just where their money is going, but what the government is getting in return and how many people are on the job.

The reporting does not attempt to measure jobs created by $288 billion in tax cuts or the sizable increases in spending on Medicaid and unemployment benefits. The White House has said that, when considering those factors and estimating the ripple effect through the economy, more than 1 million jobs have been created or saved so far.

Auditors, fearing businesses would use part-time jobs to inflate the numbers, required companies to convert all jobs numbers to full-time. That means a 20-hour-a-week roofing job is counted as one-half job.

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On the Net:

Interactive map showing job creation by county: http://bit.ly/4oQLIW

Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board: http://www.recovery.gov