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Obama seeks to 'engage' APEC nations

SINGAPORE, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama will "engage" Asian economic powers at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Singapore, an administration official says.

Michael Froman, deputy U.S. national security adviser for international economic affairs, told reporters Saturday in Tokyo that Obama would "engage with what is an important region to the U.S. economy."

Noting that 60 percent of U.S. exports go to APEC countries, Froman told reporters, "the APEC agenda is one that includes both a discussion of balanced and sustainable and inclusive growth, as well as trade liberalization."

Froman said Obama hopes "the APEC countries will embrace some of the outcomes of the (Group of 20) summit in Pittsburgh and talk about how they might apply them in this region."

The reference to "balanced growth" referenced points made in a speech Obama delivered earlier in Japan, in which he spoke of ensuring that the United States and Asia don't return to an "imbalanced" cycle of American consumer spending prompting Asian economies to view at the United States solely as an export market.

Obama's first Asian trip as president will proceed from Singapore to Shanghai Sunday before moving to Beijing for talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

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FDA considers new flu vaccine process

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- An experimental flu vaccine that relies on fermentation rather than chicken eggs is under consideration by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

For decades, chicken eggs have been used to grow viruses used in flu shots, but the process takes as long as six months and requires millions of eggs.

Protein Sciences Corp.of Meriden, Conn., makes its experimental FluBok vaccine by taking a gene from a flu virus and inserting it into cells from a virus that infects caterpillars, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. Those cells are put in a fermentation vessel to multiply and produce a protein that is made into flu vaccine.

Beginning to end, the FluBok process takes no more than six weeks, company officials said.

An FDA panel is to meet next week to consider the company's request to produce a seasonal flu vaccine, though the same process could be used to make an H1N1 swine flu vaccine, the Journal reported.

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Obama to Congress: Hold off on Hood probe

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama Saturday urged members of Congress not to turn the investigation into the Fort Hood massacre into "political theater."

In his weekly radio and Internet address, released by the White House during the president's Asia trip, Obama renewed his pledge to thoroughly investigate the Nov. 5 shooting rampage that killed 13 people and wounded dozens more at the sprawling Texas Army base.

As some lawmakers planned or called for congressional investigations, Obama urged them to wait and allow federal intelligence agencies, law enforcement and the military to gather and examine evidence in one of the deadliest shootings ever on a U.S. military base.

"I know there will also be inquiries by Congress, and there should," Obama said. "But all of us should resist the temptation to turn this tragic event into the political theater that sometimes dominates the discussion here in Washington. The stakes are far too high."

Obama said the background, views and possible motives of the gunman would be scrutinized to reveal "potential warning signs that may have been known" before the shootings.

The military has charged Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, with 13 counts of premeditated murder. After he opened fire, two civilian police officers shot and wounded him, and he appears to be paralyzed from the waist down, his lawyer said.

Since the shootings, troubling details about Hasan's past have emerged. For example, he had repeated e-mail contacts last year with a radical Muslim cleric who praised Hasan after the shootings as a "hero" for "doing the right thing," investigators say. In 2007, Hasan said Muslim soldiers shouldn't have to serve in Afghanistan and Iraq because they'd be fighting fellow Muslims, The Washington Post reported. And fellow doctors at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington suggested Hasan might be psychotic and worried about his extremist Islamic views, National Public Radio said.

"We must compile every piece of information that was known about the gunman, and we must learn what was done with that information," Obama said. "Once we have those facts, we must act upon them. If there was a failure to take appropriate action before the shootings, there must be accountability.

"Most importantly," he added, "we must quickly and thoroughly evaluate and address any flaws in the system so that we can prevent a similar breach from happening again. Our government must be able to act swiftly and surely when it has threatening information. And our troops must have the security that they deserve."

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GOP: Health bill doesn't rein in lawsuits

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- A healthcare reform bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives doesn't rein in medical malpractice lawsuits, a Republican Party spokesman says.

Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., said Saturday in the GOP's weekly radio and Internet address that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., blocked Republicans' "common sense" healthcare reform ideas, such as tort reform, while passing a Democratic-backed proposal that will only result in higher taxes.

"We could start lowering costs by reining in lawsuits in America," Kirk said. "We are the most litigious country on Earth. Lawsuit reforms can save billions in healthcare costs alone."

Kirk, sounding other GOP healthcare reform themes, also called on Congress to allow cross-state purchasing of health plans and to give states the opportunity to test healthcare reform experiments.

"The bill opens a new trillion-dollar entitlement just as our national debt tops $12 trillion," Kirk said. "Ignoring the future needs of Social Security and Medicare, the bill creates a new massive spending program, supported by heavy taxes and cuts to senior healthcare."