Commodity Trading

Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – President Barack Obama on Thursday evening welcomed the Senate nod for the Stock Act, as the lawmakers voted 96-3 to ban insider trading for members of Congress, their staffs and top executive branch policy makers.

Calling it “an important step to rebuild the trust between Washington and the American people,” Obama felt there was “much more work to be done, like prohibiting elected officials from owning stocks in industries they impact, and prohibiting people who bundle campaign contributions for Congress from lobbying Congress, an idea that has bipartisan support outside of Washington.”

“These are straightforward proposals that will help eliminate the corrosive influence of money in politics,” said Obama in a statement adding, “I’m pleased the Senate took bipartisan action to pass the STOCK Act. I urge the House of Representatives to pass this bill, and I will sign it right away,” said President Obama.

The Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge Act, or Stock Act after a overwhelming support in the Senate now headed to the House where Republican lawmakers are expected to put tighten the law further.

For years, the lawmakers were not very keen on such a legislative measure but with public approval ratings for Congress in free fall, the move gained support to repair their standing with the public.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Stocks were little changed on the open Tuesday as traders and investors continue to keep a cautious eye on the ongoing European sovereign debt crisis.

Just before 10 a.m., the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 30 points, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index was flat and the NASDAQ gained about 2 points.

Keeping investors jittery and on the sidelines was a downgrade warning from S&P issued late Monday for the European region.The U.S. credit rating agency put 15 eurozone states, including Germany and France, on credit watch.

The credit watch decision by S&P brought mixed reaction across Europe on Tuesday. However, the general agreement was that the warning would step up pressure for a comprehensive deal at Friday’s European Union summit.

Stocks in the U.S. also appeared to be shrugging off the downgrade and were eager to keep last week’s strong rally going.

Shares of BP, which accused Halliburton of hiding evidence regarding the Deepwater Horizon spill on April 20, 2010, were up 11 cents at $43.71, while shares of Halliburton were down more than 4 percent at $35.48.

Oil was off 18 cents at $100.96 a barrel. Gold lost $20, and was last trading $1,714.90 a troy ounce.

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Cairo, Egypt (The Media Line) – Europe’s seemingly intractable financial crisis is threatening to make itself felt across the Mediterranean in the economies of North Africa that can least afford another blow, economists say.

Struggling to recover from the chaos and uncertainty of the Arab Spring, Egypt and the other economies of North Africa now face new troubles as Europe’s debt woes threaten to hurt exports and investments. By contrast, the Gulf economies, which have largely been spared the upheavals of the Arab Spring, are enjoying growing oil revenues that insulate them from Europe’s problems.

“North Africa, which has had to resolve many of the issues raised by the so-called Arab Spring, now has something else to contend with,” Daniel Broby, chief investment officer for London-based Silk Investment, told The Media Line. “Growth is still reasonably robust across the region, but it is slowing.”

Shaken by regime change, the North African countries of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya are all expected to post negative economic growth this year and enjoy only a mild rebound in 2012 amid strikes, political uncertainty, declining tourism and, in Libya’s case, plunging oil revenues.

The economic fallout is almost certain to complicate the transition these countries are all trying to make toward more democratic rule by forcing governments to put off economic reform to keep a lid on unrest and unemployment and deterring investors.

Two weeks ago, the Washington-based Institute for International Finance forecast that the economies of oil-importing countries, which include Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco, would contract 0.4% this year. By contract, it projected oil-exporting Gulf economies would gallop ahead at a rate of 6.5%. Next year, the gap will narrow, it said, but the rich will get richer: Oil importers will grow just 2.3% while Gulf economies expand 3.7%.

Now, the risk that Greece’s debt troubles will reverberate across Europe and push the continent into a slowdown or even recession may cause the gap to widen again next year. Even countries that have avoided the most severe unrest, like Morocco and Algeria, are likely to affected, economists say.

Chill winds from Europe are reaching North Africa in four ways – trade, tourism, workers remittances and foreign investment – according to a report by London-based Capital Economics.

The European Union is the main export market for Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia as well as the main source for foreign tourism, the report by Capital’s Said Hirsh and William Jackson noted. Europe is also a source for employment from these economies, which have suffered high levels of unemployment for years, forcing many to seek work in Europe and send home money to their families.

A slowing European economy will hurt all these revenue streams. In the latest sign of the continent’s problems, Germany reported on Monday that its industrial output fell; 2.7% in September, its biggest drop since February 2009. The German economy, which had been pacing Europe’s pre-crisis recovery, might shrink in the fourth quarter, some analysts warned.

The Arab Spring countries have already seen foreign investment dry up this year, but a troubled Europe will also be more hesitant to invest in the MENA region, the report said. Moreover, without foreign assistance, the Arab Spring governments will have trouble funding their swelling budget deficits as they pour subsidies and make-work programs on their constituents to douse political unrest.

Meanwhile, in the Gulf, Europe’s troubles seem far away. Asia is the leading export market for the Gulf countries and oil prices and production have remained high despite concerns about the global economy. On Monday, the price of benchmark Brent crude rose above $113 a barrel as hopes that a cold winter would spur demand outweighed concerns about Europe.

“The oil-rich Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states’ close links to Asia and healthy balance sheets should help to counteract the drop in hydrocarbon revenues next year,” Hirsh and Jackson said in the report. “Meanwhile, the near term economic prospects for the rest of the MENA countries are poor.”

The Saudi central bank’s net foreign asset reserves have climbed steadily to a record high of 1.879 trillion riyals ($500 billion) in August. The country has enough cash to have allocated some $130 billion to boost in social spending, equal to nearly 30 percent of gross domestic product. Except for Bahrain, a tiny country with little oil and ridden with sectarian conflicts that spilled over into violence earlier this year, all will enjoy big fiscal surpluses this year and next.

“If there is a big decline in the economic conditions of Europe… it will affect all nations including the kingdom to some degree, but I stress that the impact would be very limited because we have the appropriate means to limit the negative effect on the kingdom’s economy,” Saudi Finance Minister Ibrahim told state news agency SPA last week..

Indeed, the financial position of the Gulf countries is so strong that indebted European financial institutions have been seeking fresh funding as they seek a cushion against their Greek and other troubled investments. A Qatari investment group with links to the state’s royal family will take over KBC’s private banking unit and BIL, a part of Dexia and last month France’s BNP Paribas was reported to be seeking a capital infusion from Gulf investors.

In the same vein, Arab solidarity will mitigate some of the impact, noted Brody. Egypt has received some $8 billion in financing from the Gulf countries to help it through its economic crisis. “In that respect, the GCC’s strong fundamentals are playing to the advantage of the North African states,” he said.

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – U.S. President Barack Obama is scheduled to meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel prior to engaging in official agenda of G20 Summit in Cannes, France on Thursday according to the White House officials.

Addressing journalists Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security advisor for strategic communications announced that President Obama would have two bilateral meetings, “first with President Sarkozy of France, and then with Chancellor Merkel of Germany.”

Citing them as “important meetings for him (President Obama) to have consultations with these leaders before the G20 commences,” Rhodes said the president would also meet the same day, “L20, the international labor leaders who will be in Cannes as a part of the G20 program.”

Although the Obama Administration officials did not announce any bilateral meeting with Chinese leadership, the focus beyond the Eurozone crisis would be on the Chinese currency.

Joining Rhodes at the White House briefing on Monday, Lael Brainard, the Treasury Department’s under secretary for international affairs told journalists, “In China and other surplus emerging-market economies, allowing exchange rates to appreciate to reflect market forces is the most powerful near-term tool to accelerate the shift to domestic consumption, while countering inflationary pressures.”

Brainard urged emerging economies including China, “to shift to domestic consumption-led growth, rather than relying on an outdated growth model based on net exports to advanced economies where demand is likely to be weak for some time.”

“The exchange rate plays the most powerful potential near-term role as a lever in helping that shift,” added Brainard.

On the question of dealing with the Wall Street fiasco, Brainard said, “With regard to discussions about getting the financial sector to bear their fair share of the burden, we’re very much in sync with Europe on their goal of ensuring both that the financial sector — large financial institutions — bear their fair share of the burden, but also that they’re discouraged from taking the kind of risky behavior that led to the crisis.”

Elaborating Brainard said, “The President has also put forward a financial crisis responsibility fee that would be directed at the largest financial institutions that really impose the greatest costs on the economy.”

Calling these proposals as “pretty well designed to both deter the kind of risky behavior that led to the crisis, and to ensure that these large financial institutions and not retail investors bear their fair share of the burden,” Brainard said, “We put forward the fee because we think it’s more important to put the burden on the largest financial institutions rather than shifting it to retail investors.”

On the domestic political situation accompanying President Obama on his G20 trip, Carney last week acknowledged “gridlock” with Republican leaders as the lawmakers dragged their feed on Obama’s ambitious $447 billion jobs bill, and slow progress at a bipartisan congressional committee shouldering the responsibility to cut at least $1.2 trillion in additional spending.

Sounding a positive note, Carney, however added, “The president’s message to the Europeans and broadly to all the members of the G20 is that we need to work individually as countries and collectively together to ensure that we sustain and continue the global economic recovery and to put our people broadly speaking back to work.”

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The White House on Monday gave a boost to Occupy Wall Street protestors as President Barack Obama embarked on his bus tour of North Carolina and Virginia.

Addressing a friendly gathering in Asheville, N.C., at the first stop of his trip, President Obama lambasted the Republicans for defeating his jobs plan and then presenting a sketchy plan of their own,

Drawing boos in support of his point, President Obama explained that the Republicans’ plan, “turns out the Republican plan boils down to a few basic ideas: They want to gut regulations; they want to let Wall Street do whatever it wants.”

Further along the tour, President Obama is expected to express solidarity with Occupy Wall Street protestors as he has earlier accepted their cause as identifying Americans’ economic frustrations.

Addressing journalists en route to N.C., White House press secretary Jay Carney said abroad Air Force One that Occupy Wall Street protestors are reflecting the fight the president has launched.

Asking journalists to pay attention to words of President Obama, Carney said, “President has expressed, an understanding of the frustration that the demonstrations manifest and represent.”

Linking the two, Carney explained: “There is a link between two things: One, the frustrations that regular folks — middle-class Americans feel about the state of the economy, the need for growth to improve, and certainly the need for job creation to improve.”

“There is a related frustration that a lot of Americans feel about the idea that Wall Street in the past played by different rules than mainstream, and now we have a situation where — and yet was, for good reasons, was assisted by the federal government to prevent the financial sector from collapsing,” added Carney.

Highlighting the Republican efforts to nullify the reforms pushed by the Obama Administrations, Carney said, There is frustration now I believe with the efforts by some to roll back the protections the President fought so hard to put into place through the Wall Street reform act that was passed and signed into law.”

Carney said that American public did not support the idea of rolling “back Wall Street reforms and we need to adopt the kind of economic policies that led to the worst recession since the Great Depression.”

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – How low will it go?

That is the question facing analysts, traders and investors Wednesday as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index hit a new low for the year.

In early afternoon trading, the S&P 500 lost 1.3 percent to dip under 1,238. While corporate earnings for the quarter continued to be strong, it wasn’t enough to appease the markets. Economic uncertainty has many investors on edge.

Gold continues to reach new highs, the dollar continues its descent, and oil was also treading lower. Economic woes persist and market trends all point lower for the moment.

Traders were looking for support in the 1,240-1,245 range on the S&P, but that range was touched and broken. Now traders are simply looking for a bottom.

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Tokyo, Japan (AHN) – Wednesday saw stocks rebound as trading in Tokyo markets ended for the day following two days of sell-offs caused by concern over damage caused by Friday’s earthquake.

Losses over Monday and Tuesday had totaled over 16 percent, the largest two-day loss in 23 years.

However, by the end of the trading day on Wednesday the Nikkei 225 index recovered some of those losses, rising 489 points, or 5.7 percent.

Investors were concerned over the long-term effects of damage caused by the 9.0 earthquake and the devastating tsunami that followed, as well as problems with the nuclear power plant in Fukushima Daiichi.

The quake was the fifth largest since records began. The tsunami produced a wall of water that was up to 30 feet high in some places. It swept many houses out to sea and obliterated entire towns.

Japan was not the only market to show gains.

In Seoul, South Korea, the main Kospi index rose 1.8 percent.

Germany led gains in European markets with the Dax index rising 1 percent, while in Australia shares rose a more modest 0.7 percent by the end of trading.

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – President Barack Obama on Monday unveiled a $3.7 trillion budget request for 2012, with the daring but painful fiscal cuts in his government’s spending programs but leaving Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, out of the trimming zone.

Speaking at Parkville Middle School and Center of Technology outside of Baltimore with Secretary Arne Duncan and Budget Director Jack Lew, in attendance, Obama told his audience, “

Obama cited the “need to invest in education,” as essential for equipping Americans “to compete with any worker, anywhere in the world,” noting, “The only way we can make these investments in our future is if our government starts living within its means.”

Obama announced a”freeze on annual domestic spending over the next five years,” that would result in cutting the deficit by more than $400 billion over the next decade.”

These cuts would require painful cuts in “community action programs in low-income neighborhoods and towns, and community development block grants that so many of our cities and states rely on,” the president said.

Obama listed “domestic spending, defense spending, health care spending, and spending through tax breaks and loopholes,” as some of the sections where the austerity measures can yield results, urging both the Republicans and the Democrats to work together.

“There’s going to be more work that needs to be done, and it’s going to require Democrats and Republicans coming together to make it happen,” Obama said.

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Kathmandu, Nepal (AHN) – A last ditch effort to form a national consensus government to carry on Nepal’s derailed peace process faced another jolt on Wednesday as Nepal’s major political parties failed to reach any tangible conclusion by the deadline set by President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav.

A meeting among the three major political parties’ – UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and CPN-UML- hours before the expiration of the deadline to form a unity government could not yield any results. The top brass of the parties have spent nearly a year attempting to make headway by narrowing the differences that have been surfaced following the resignation of caretaker Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal six months ago.

“We could not agree on new government leadership,” said UML leader K.P. Oli.

Leaders expressed hope that they will arrive in a conclusion soon. However, according to the new parliamentary procedures, parties have to go for voting, which they have been trying to avert for the past few days.

The president, who is scheduled to embark on a 10-day trip to India on Thursday, will extend the deadline another couple of weeks in hopes of forming a government on a majority basis, which is the only alternative remaining.

“We will hold the talks. We have been trying to sort out the differences,” NC leader Ram Chandra Poudel said after the meeting. The push among the parties on power sharing issues has become a bone of contention as two other parties, Congress and UML, refuse to hand over power to the Maoists until completion of the peace process.

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LaQuinta, CA, United States (AHN Sports) – Jhonattan Vegas is playing in only his fifth PGA Tour event but that hasn’t stopped him from going really low at the Bob Hope Classic.

Vegas shot a second straight 67 Friday and got to 18-under par after 54 holes and found himself atop the leader board with Gary Woodland, who shot a third-round 64.

The two young bombers are leading an assault on par that could again yield a winning score of 30-under par come Sunday. They are one-shot ahead of Greg Chalmers, who shot 65 at LaQuinta and is alone in second at 199, 17-under par.

Martin Laird’s 64 on the Palmer course got him to 16-under, two shots off the lead. Jeff Overton is among a group of four players at 15-under 201.

Vegas used to hit rocks with a stick as a youngster in Venezuela and found himself hooked on golf when he watched Tiger Woods win the 1997 Masters on television.

He is unafraid of his position at the top.

“It’s a lot of fun. That’s the way I take it. I’m enjoying it as much as I can because we know how complicated golf can be.”

He said his position as co-leader won’t cost him any sleep either. “Leading a golf tournament is not going to cut into my sleep. I’m going to just keep doing what I’ve been doing,” he said.

Vegas has been accurate all week off the tee, and he’s been long as well. Same with Woodland, who is playing on a medical extension after recovering from shoulder problems.

Saturday is the final day of the pro-am format.. The pros will move on to the Palmer course on Sunday in a shootout for the title.

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Friday called on the Senate Budget Committee to come up with a deficit reduction plan, saying he expected moderately more economic recovery in 2011 than in 2010, but not at a rate sufficient to make much of a dent in the unemployment rate.

He told the committee he foresees an unemployment rate of around 8 percent in two years and said it will take an additional four or five years beyond that to get the labor market back to normal. Bernanke also said he was not concerned about consumer inflation, as it has declined each year since the recession; however, wages have also declined.

Bernanke told senators that some sort of deficit reduction plan was necessary to reassure investors in order to boost the financial markets.

In addition, Bernanke told the committee members that a stable job market was the central bank’s first priority. He explained that coming up with a credible plan to do something to stabilize the job market now was essential to moving forward. Bernanke explained that because the economic recovery was still so fragile that it was not enough to say they were not doing anything now because of the recession and that they would do something later.

Bernanke told the committee that right now they needed to take into account the low rate of economic activity.

About two-thirds of the nation’s economy is dependent on consumer spending. However, with so many consumers out of work, fewer people have paychecks to spend. The percentage of Americans who have jobs fell again in December. According to a report released Friday morning by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 64.3 percent of working-age Americans had either a part- or full-time job in December.

Bernanke told the committee that the persistently high rate of unemployment is damping household income and confidence and that it could threaten the recovery’s strength and sustainability.

The Fed chair also defended his controversial $600 billion bond buying plan, saying it would not cost taxpayers in the end. He said the quantitative easing programs would yield excess profits to the Fed of $125 billion that it will remit to the Treasury.

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London, England, United Kingdom (AHN) – Financial experts are advising Britons to shift their investments from savings accounts to stocks. The advice came on the heels of official data that in November the inflation rate went up to 4.7 percent from 4.5 percent, outpacing interest rates offered by banks or building societies.

Personal finance website Moneyfacts found that of 2,203 products on the market, only three accounts paid a real rate of return and only one for higher-rate taxpayers.

The website identified the Independent Savings Account of Santander that offered a return of 5.5 percent, which is higher than the inflation rate of 4.7 percent. However, the account has many strict conditions that depositors must meet.

The portal also named the fixed-term savings products or bonds offered by the Yorkshire Building Society and Barnsley Building Society as worthwhile for depositors because of their 6 percent rate of return.

Because of very low interest rates offered by most savings accounts, British depositors miss out on earning as much as $483 a year, according to a consumer watchdog.

Yield on the FTSE 100 index of leading shares is 2.9 percent, but many individual blue chips pay at a much higher rate, such as a 5.1 percent yield for Royal Dutch Shell stocks and 6.2 percent yield for Aviva stocks.

The higher-than-expected inflation rate led Andrew Sentance, a member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee, to call for an immediate hike in the current interest rate of 0.5 percent. Sentance warned that unless key lending rates are gradually increased it would be more difficult to hike them more sharply, which could cause a larger jolt to confidence in the British economy in the future.

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Kathmandu, Nepal (AHN) – A Nepali farm specializing in producing organic vegetables has exclusively developed nine varieties of tomatoes it says are easily tolerant to disease and heat.

The tomatoes, named Srijana (“creation”), will be available in local markets of Kathmandu within a year, according to the proprietor, Bishnu Marahatta.

The owner of Gorkha Seed Company has been cultivating other vegetables in which he hopes to develop varieties with similar resistances. The research has taken place on a four-acre farm in Kathmandu. “The varieties we have developed are bacteria-resistant and withstand hot climate,” he added. “We will soon name those varieties.”

The farm has been extensively engaged in research for four years and has been producing and selling organic vegetables in the city’s markets, although not yet in commercial quantities.

“Now we have been also conducting research on new varieties of green-bow radish, Jyapu cauliflower and cucumber which are yielding encouraging results,” he claimed.

The farm also been able to increase the production capacity of each tomato plant, which could set a record. The new varieties can yield 30 kg per plant. The research is currently being undertaken at plots in Nakkhu of Lalitpur, in the Kathmandu Valley.

Typically, farmers growing the new varieties can easily produce at least 10 kg per plant even under adverse climatic conditions, with each tomato weighing up to 80 grams. Even if the temperature is as high as 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), they can be easily grown, a senior scientist at the company, Dr. Kedar Budhathoki, recently told the BBC.

“We are planning to export seeds of these varieties to India and Bangladesh where the climate is hot and the possibility of bacteria attack is high,” the owner, Marahatta, said. Seeds of hybrid tomatoes are selling for Rs 80,000 (US $1,200) to Rs 90,000 ( US $,350) per kilogram in the domestic market.

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Dublin, Ireland, United Kingdom (AHN) – Despite the agreed $105 billion (70 billion pounds) bailout for Ireland, trouble continues to hound Dublin as corporate depositors panicked and withdrew their savings.

The Irish Central Bank admitted Tuesday that major international firms had been withdrawing their deposits from Ireland, which worsened the anxious mood of the market.

The chief investment officer of a major bond manager described Irish banks as bleeding deposits, recalling it was the same phenomenon that happened in Argentina and other emerging economies.

With the bailout, Ireland’s banking sector will be recapitalized, which would place the Allied Irish Banks into state control and the government majority stake in Bank of Ireland. The effect of this would be a mandated increase in capital cushions for the Irish banks from 8 to 12 percent. The move is expected to improve confidence in Ireland’s banking sector and stop the financial hemorrhage.

More than half of the bailout would be used to fund Dublin’s deficit spread over three years, while the remaining balance would be used to recapitalize banks and serve as contingency fund.

Markets are also still shaky that borrowing costs for Portugal and Spain jumped to dangerous levels over fears that European Union leaders are losing political control over the Irish crisis.

On Tuesday, yields on 10-year Portuguese bonds went up to 6.9 percent, which repeats the pattern of what happened to Greece and Ireland before these two nations were capitalized by the EU and the International Monetary Fund.

Spreads on 10-year Spanish bonds also grew to a record of 233 basis points over Bunds, which pushed the yield to 4.87 percent. With this development, Spanish Central Bank Governor Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez called on Madrid to fast track fiscal reforms to convince the market that Spain could put its house in order.

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Dublin, Ireland, United Kingdom (AHN) – Pressure is increasing for Ireland to make a decision on the offer of a financial bailout by the European Central Bank or the International Monetary Fund.

Dublin was given just 24 hours to decide if it will accept the offer to prevent the negative impact of another Irish economic crisis on the 16-nation eurozone.

Finance ministers from the zone are scheduled to hold emergency meetings Tuesday night, while global financial markets are waiting for Dublin’s move to finalize negotiations with the EU.

Fund managers are urging the Irish government to accept the EU bailout offer or face harder times ahead if they delay their decision.

Even before Ireland agrees to the bailout offer, borrowing cost for Dublin has gone done following reports of the ECB financial lifeline offer. Yield on benchmark 10-year Irish bonds went down to 8.1 percent from last week’s 9 percent. Premium sought by investors to hold on to their Irish bonds over the standard German bunds or spread also decreased to 545 basis points from 652 basis points on Thursday.

Irish officials are still balking at the proposed bailout because of the probable loss of sovereignty. The fast-paced developments may possibly result in the Irish government announcing the 2011 budget a week earlier than the previous Dec. 7 schedule.

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Kathmandu, Nepal (AHN) – After a tireless but so far futile effort, the family of missing U.S. hiker Aubrey Sacco has upped the reward money for information leading to the whereabouts of the 23-year-old woman to $14,000.

Sacco disappeared April 22 during a solo trek to the Langtang region of northern Nepal. Park records show she entered the Langtang trail from Syabrubesi on April 20. She stayed at a local hotel in Pairo on April 21. She has not been seen since since lunch the following day.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is assisting U.S. authorities to find the missing hiker.

Connie Sacco, mother of the missing hiker, said if informants fear for their safety in providing information, safe haven with the U.S. Embassy and safe passage to neighboring India will be provided, if necessary.

“We don’t care who is responsible for her disappearance, we just want Aubrey back. We believe that someone knows exactly what happened,” Connie Sacco was quoting as saying by the Himalayan Times. Nepali police and army and as well member of the U.S. embassy and three private firms conducted a joint search.

“In the last three weeks we have been busy conducting a new 15-man search of primitive villages in Nepal, and distributing posters to thousands of people through a group of benevolent doctors from Colorado who are treating thousands of Langtang locals,” her parents wrote on their daughter’s website on Oct.21.

“We do not yet know the fruits of our labor but they should be many,” they added. “We are also working with private investigators out of Los Angeles and Colorado and using the assistance of the Embassy in more creative ways. Basically our search web is getting larger and larger and reaching various different levels of people including centers for missing persons. Surely this should yield a positive result.”

The family said they have received emails from trekkers who say their posters are being removed in the Langtang villages. “We recently had many posters put up that were laminated to withstand weather. The trekkers saw the posters at the beginning of their trek and when they return they are gone.”

The family has also been launching fundraising campaigns across the U.S. to expedite the search for Aubrey. More than 8,000 letters have been sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking for her office’s support in putting more US resources into in Nepal to help in Aubrey’s search.

Om Rana, deputy superintendent of police in Rasuwa, said that police search have produced no clues in Aubrey’s case. “The investigation, however, is underway,” he said.

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Delhi, India (Citizen News Service) – Tobacco use, tuberculosis (TB), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are all burgeoning problems in resource poor settings. The evidence of their potentially devastating effects on global public health is increasing and they require a coordinated approach for control.

These diseases all occur in predominantly resource-poor countries. They are perpetuated by poverty and inadequate resources, was the clear mandate from the consultative workshop organized by the TB and Poverty sub-working group of the Stop TB Partnership in India (29-30 October 2010). It is expected that the scientific deliberations at the 41st Union World Conference on Lung Health in Berlin, Germany (11-15 November 2010), will address these concerns on a well-coordinated response to these epidemics.

The secretariat of the TB and poverty sub-working group of the Stop TB Partnership has now moved to India, housed at the South-East Asian office of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) since August 2010.

Statistically, there is 1 TB-related death that takes place every 18 seconds, and 1 smoking-related death every 13 seconds. The enormous public challenge posed by the combined epidemics of tobacco smoking, TB and COPD, is undoubtedly alarming. In countries like India where the TB disease burden is the highest, the situation is only grimmer with majority of tobacco use happening in form of either leaf-rolled tobacco (beedi) or chewing tobacco.

But is there a link between TB, COPD and tobacco use? Do they increase the risk of each other?

“At the beginning of 21st century we really are facing convergence of several epidemics like TB, COPD and tobacco smoking among others” had said Richard N van Zyl-Smit to CNS at the 38th Union World Conference on Lung Health in 2007. Dr Richard works with Lung Infection and Immunity Unit, Division of Pulmonology and UCT Lung Institute, Department of Medicine, University of Cape Town, South Africa.

“Tobacco smoking is unquestionably the primary risk factor for COPD. The importance of “total burden of inhaled particles” (occupational, household, environmental) is increasing” said Richard.

“Smokers have two fold higher risk of developing active TB disease” shared Dr Madhukar Pai from McGill University and Montreal Chest Institute in Canada. Dr Pai was referring to three meta-analysis studies from 2007/2008. “Tobacco smokers have 2 times more risk of dieing of TB” added Dr Pai, referring to the data from India. India has enormous tobacco use and COPD rates, and also the highest TB burden in the world.

There are studies to show that passive smoking escalates risk of developing active TB disease by three times.

Tobacco smoke increases the risk of pneumonia, influenza, menningococcal meningitis, among others. Evidence is accumulating that smoking is a risk factor for TB.

At least 15 more studies have been published since the three major meta-analyses in 2007/2008. All studies report a positive association between tuberculosis and tobacco smoking. Studies also show that current male smokers have a higher risk for active TB disease than former smokers. In a study conducted in India, 900 non-medical staff monitored 1.1 million people for 3 years for cause of death taking place in this population. TB was the biggest cause of death reported in this study in India, and 66% of those who died of TB during the study, were active smokers.

Mortality rates, particularly from Asian countries suggest that there is an urgent need to target TB patients for smoking cessation interventions.

The second edition of the International Standards of Tuberculosis Care (ISTC), which is an official component of the WHO Stop TB Strategy also mentions tobacco smoking cessation among other measures to improve TB treatment outcomes. The ISTC standard 17 says: “This plan should include assessment of and referrals for treatment of other illnesses with particular attention to those known to affect treatment outcome, for instance care for diabetes mellitus, drug and alcohol treatment programs, tobacco smoking cessation programs, and other psychosocial support services, or to such services as antenatal or well baby care.

Tobacco cessation is an important part of the comprehensive tobacco control programme, but not the only part. So all components of the comprehensive tobacco control measures should be implemented for improving public health outcomes. All countries should implement the global tobacco treaty formally known as the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Comprehensive tobacco control programmes can yield major public health outcomes, as 30% of male TB patients die of tobacco smoking.

According to PATH Canada factsheet, “For the poor, daily spending on tobacco represents a daily drain on scant family resources. Yet in many countries it is precisely the poor who use tobacco the most. In Bangladesh, smoking rates are twice as high in the lowest income group as in the highest.”

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “it is the poorer and the poorest who tend to smoke the most. Globally, 84% of smokers live in developing and transitional economy countries.” The WHO further adds: “Together, tobacco and poverty create a vicious circle. In most countries, tobacco use tends to be higher among the poor. Poor families, in turn, spend a larger proportion of their income on tobacco. Money spent on tobacco cannot be spent on basic human needs such as food, shelter, education and healthcare. Tobacco can also worsen poverty among users and their families since tobacco users are at much higher risk of falling ill and dying prematurely of cancers, heart attacks, respiratory diseases or other tobacco-related diseases, depriving families of much-needed income and imposing additional costs for healthcare.”

The risk to develop active TB disease is higher when tobacco smoking is combined with alcohol.

The poor people are undoubtedly most hard hit by TB, tobacco and COPD, and are least likely to have access to existing services. Collaboration between different single disease or other programmes that are addressing poverty in communities will be truly beneficial and have major public health outcomes.

Reporting by Bobby Ramakant of Citizen News Service

The author serves as the Director of CNS Stop-TB Initiative, and was conferred upon the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General’s WNTD Award in 2008. . Email: bobby@citizen-news.org, website: www.citizen-news.org

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Baltimore, MD, United States (AHN) – The School Sisters of Notre Dame are raising money for their cause in an unusual way as they are auctioning off a Honus Wagner baseball card, expecting to yield over $100,000.

The card is part of the T206 series, produced between 1909 and 1911. About 60 Wagner cards are known to exist.

A near-mint-condition T206 Wagner card sold in 2007 for $2.8 million, the highest price ever for a baseball card.

The card was left to the School Sisters of Notre Dame by the brother of a deceased nun. The card is expected to fetch between $150,000 and $200,000.

On Wednesday morning, the highest bid was $60,000.

Proceeds will benefit the sisters’ ministries in 35 countries.

Nicknamed “The Flying Dutchman,” Wagner played for 21 seasons, including 18 with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He has a .328 career batting average and was one of the five original inductees into baseball’s Hall of Fame.

The card was printed by the American Tobacco Company while Wagner was one of the best players in baseball.

Production of the Wagner card was halted soon after it began which some have chalked up to Wagner not wanting to promote tobacco products to children.

Others believe it was a dispute over money.

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New Delhi, India (AHN) – Hindus in India, Bangladesh and Nepal are celebrating Dussehra, a festival that celebrates the victory of good over evil. Usually celebrated in September or October, Dussehra is observed on the tenth day of the waxing moon during the Hindu month of Ashvin.

Dussehra marks the victory of the diety Lord Ram over the demon Ravan, often called Dashanan because of his 10 heads. Ram killed Ravan in the world’s biggest battle to punish the demon for kidnapping his beautiful wife Sita and taking her to Lanka to make her his wife. Ram and his brother Lakshman crossed the sea with devotee Hanuman and a huge army of monkeys to rescue Sita.

Dussehra also marks the end of hot summers and the beginning of cold weather as well as infections, especially in North India. Hence effigies made of phosphorus-based firecrackers are burnt to purify the environment. Temples also perform rituals to keep the household environment clean and healthy and with the aim to eliminate bad emotions such as lust, anger, delusion, greed, pride, jealousy, will, ego, desire and selfishness, all of which are represented by Ravan’s 10 heads. Hindus also burn effigies of Ravan’s brother Kumbhakarn and son Meghanaad on Dussehra evening. This day is also called Vijaydashmi – the victory on the 10th day.

People also worship Shakti, the “God of Power,” during the festival period with the hope of gaining physical, mental and spiritual powers.

During these celebrations, Hindus observe a fast to honor the mother Goddess and pray to her to start the new harvest season by reactivating the fertility of the soil. Hindus believe in rejuvenating soil by invoking cosmic forces. They make huge clay statues of the Goddess Durga, honor her with turmeric and other worship items and submerge her into the river on the tenth day with the hope that this will help the water yield better crops.

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Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – Statistics Canada will use the new but shorter census form when the agency conducts a head count next year.

The Federation of Francophone and Acadian Communities in Quebec had attempted to secure a judicial review of the Ottawa decision to scrap the mandatory long census form. However, Federal Court Judge Richard Boivin on Wednesday dismissed the federation’s application.

The federation argued the use of the shorter voluntary survey form would result in less reliable information about minority French-speaking communities. This, in turn, would stand in the way of the federal government’s ability to fulfill its obligations under the Official Languages Act.

In rejecting the petition for a judicial review, Brown said the act did not specify the tools that government must use to support and serve minorities who use different languages. The justice added it is too early to judge if the voluntary survey form would yield unreliable data, as groups opposed to the change in census form point out.

Marie-France Kenny, president of the federation, was disappointed with the court’s decision, but said they have not yet decided if the group would appeal the ruling.

A similar petition has been filed by some First Nations group.

Industry Minister Tony Clement said that because of advice from StatsCan about the importance of questions pertaining to the Official Languages Act, the new census form would include questions about support for official languages. These questions will remain mandatory, according to Clement.

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