August 25, 2009

Swine flu threat:

A White House advisory panel warned that as many as 90,000 people in the United States may die from swine flu in the upcoming influenza season.

The President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology said Monday the H1N1 virus could lead to the hospitalization of 1.8 million people this year. The usual annual flu is said to be responsible for about 36,000 deaths and 200,000 hospitalizations a year.

In what the council called a "plausible scenario" up to half the U.S. population -- more than 150 million people -- will be infected with swine flu before next spring. Most of the cases are predicted to be mild but deaths related to the disease were placed in the range of 30,000 to 90,000.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said: "This isn't the flu that we're used to. The 2009 H1N1 virus will cause a more serious threat this fall. We won't know until we're in the middle of the flu season how serious the threat is but, because it's a new strain, it's likely to infect more people than usual."

"We are making every preparation effort assuming a safe and effective vaccine will be available in mid-October," Sebelius said.

CIA abuse investigation:

The release of a CIA inspector general's report on alleged prisoner abuse was followed by the appointment of a special prosecutor to look into the charges.

Federal prosecutor John Durham, already investigating the alleged destruction of videotapes of CIA interrogations, had his mandate widened Monday to include the abuse investigation.

The CIA inspector general report ran to 109 pages and much of that was blacked out of the copy provided to the public. But it includes allegations interrogators carried out mock executions and threatened to kill or sexually assault detainees' family members.

The New York Times said the inspector general said the questioning of detainees did provide information that led to the terror plots being stopped and also the identification of other suspected terrorists.

However, the overall methods brought up questions of legality and the true effectiveness of the harshest techniques.

Brown feels Lockerbie fallout:

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown faces growing pressure to say what he knows about the release of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdul Baset al-Megrahi by the Scottish government last week.

Al-Megrahi was returned to Libya on compassionate grounds as he is suffering from terminal prostate cancer. He had served eight years of a life sentence for the bombing of Pan Am 103 in 1988, killing 270 people.

The decision sparked outrage in the United States and much of Britain. Brown has made no comment on the matter though he met with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi a month ago and was in Scotland last week at the time of al-Megrahi's release.

Critics want to know if he discussed the matter in Libya or with Scottish ministers before al-Megrahi's release. Gadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam, had claimed the al-Megrahi matter had been "on the table" in recent U.K.-Libya oil and gas negotiations.

Sen. Joe Lieberman told CNN regarding such suggestions, "I don't want to believe that they are true, but they are hanging so heavily in the air that I hope that our friends in Britain will convene an independent investigation."

U.S. websites are urging Americans to boycott Scotch whiskey and vacations in Scotland to protest the Scottish government's action.

Jackson's death a homicide:

Michael Jackson's death was due to lethal levels of an anesthetic and may be considered a homicide.

Jackson died June 25 of apparent heart problems. The coroner's report on the death is yet to be unsealed but legal documents related to a search warrant said the singer's body had "lethal" amounts of propofol, a powerful anesthetic.

The warrant was made public in Houston, where Dr. Conrad Murray, Jackson's doctor, has an office. The doctor has been interviewed and his offices searched but he is yet to be termed officially a suspect.

Bringing Bernanke back:

The Obama administration says it will nominate Ben Bernanke for a second term as Federal Reserve chairman.

Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan in February 2006 but has seen the economy drop into a deep recession in the last 18 months. However, his handling of that crisis led U.S. President Barack Obama to seek to retain Bernanke.

"The president thinks that Ben's done a great job as Fed chairman, that he has helped the economy through one of the worst experiences since the Great Depression and that he has essentially been pulling the economy back from the brink of what would have been the second Great Depression," an administration official told The New York Times.