Wine YouTube

WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
The White House pledged on Sunday to move forward on allowing imports of safe prescription drugs from nations like Canada where they are less expensive, but not in the healthcare reform legislation now before Congress.

The pharmaceutical industry's powerful Washington lobbying group backs the healthcare reform legislation that is President Barack Obama's top legislative priority, but its important support for that effort could evaporate if drug imports are included.

White House adviser David Axelrod said the administration will pursue the issue, but not in the healthcare reform bill.

"Let me be clear. The president supports ... safe re-importation of drugs into this country," Axelrod told CNN's "State of the Union" program. "There's no reason why Americans should pay a premium for the pharmaceuticals that people in other countries pay less for."

The importation of drugs from other countries has been proposed for years as a way to lower prescription drug costs in the United States. The same prescription drugs sold in the United States often are sold at much lower prices in other countries, including Canada.

Both Obama and Republican rival John McCain supported drug imports during last year's presidential campaign. But the Obama administration recently issued a letter from the Food and Drug Administration citing safety concerns.

"The president is committed to moving forward once we resolve the issues that the FDA has. That's his responsibility, to protect the American people," Axelrod said.

The Senate on December 15 rejected two amendments to the healthcare bill to allow drug re-importation.

Allowing these cheaper drugs to be sold to Americans could cut revenues for the roughly $315 billion pharmaceutical industry, which strongly opposes the idea.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a key White House ally in the healthcare reform push, has lobbied heavily against importation, and likely would not support a final healthcare bill if it was included.

In a letter sent to Republican Senator Sam Brownback on December 8, the FDA said it saw "significant safety concerns" with a drug re-importation amendment proposed in the Senate.

The FDA said overseeing the proposed drug imports would be "logistically challenging" and "resource intensive."

(Reporting by Will Dunham, editing by Vicki Allen)

When businesses need to raise money (called 'capital'), more laws come into play. A highly complex set of laws and regulations govern the offer and sale of investment securities (the means of raising money) in most Western countries. These regulations can require disclosure of a lot of specific financial and other information about the business and give buyers certain remedies. Because "securities" is a very broad term, most investment transactions will be potentially subject to these laws, unless a special exemption is available.

In Thailand, for example, it is necessary to register a particular amount of capital for each employee, and pay a fee to the government for the amount of capital registered. There is no legal requirement to prove that this capital actually exists, the only requirement is to pay the fee. Overall, processes like this are detrimental to the development and GDP of a country, but often exist in "feudal" developing countries.

NJ Business Broker

ATLANTA – About 1 in 110 children have autism, according to the government's latest estimate released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It's a small change from a 1 in 100 preliminary estimate that CDC officials made in October from the same study. CDC officials said the latest number comes from a more complete analysis of reports from 11 states.
Until recently, the CDC had been saying autism occurred in 1 in 150 children. The new CDC estimate looks at 8-year-old children who had been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder in 2006.
The increase may be due in part to better diagnosis and changes in how well records were kept in the study sites, said Catherine Rice, a CDC behavioral scientist who worked on the new report.
"At this point it's impossible to say how much is a true increase and how much is identification," she said, in a Friday news conference.
Doctors do not know what causes autism, but have been investigating possible genetic and environmental triggers. Results from the environmental research are still years away, Rice said.
In October, officials from the National Institute of Mental Health published results of a 2007 telephone survey of parents that concluded that 1 in 91 children had autism. At the same time, the CDC released to the media its preliminary results of 1 in 100 from its own research, which it updated on Friday.
The study is based on medical and school records of nearly 2,800 children in communities in Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Wisconsin.
Autism is diagnosed by making judgments about a child's behavior; there are no blood or biologic tests. For decades, the diagnosis was given only to kids with severe language and social impairments and unusual, repetitious behaviors. The definition of autism has gradually expanded, and "autism" is now shorthand for a group of milder, related conditions.
Health officials have urged stepped-up screening of children for autism, saying early therapy can improve how well children develop. While researchers have found that parents often voiced concerns about a child's development before age 2, the average age of diagnosis is still about 4 1/2.
___
On the Net:
The CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5810a1.htm

NEW YORK – Prosecutors investigating Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton were prepared to seek indictments of them for their roles in the Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky affairs, an explosive new book about the former president's scandals charges.
In "The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr," due out in February, author Ken Gormley also says that Lewinsky believed Bill Clinton lied about their affair during grand jury testimony about his relationship with the White House intern.
The Associated Press on Friday obtained a copy of the book by Gormley, a Duquesne University law professor, about the scandals that enveloped the final years of the former president's second term. Excerpts from the book were first reported Thursday on the Politico news Web site.
Calls seeking comment from now-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the former president's foundation weren't immediately returned Friday.
Gormley didn't return AP calls seeking comment; his publicist, Penny Simon, said Friday Gormley wouldn't speak about the book until its Feb. 16 release.
Former independent counsel Kenneth Starr's office spent millions in the 1990s on a probe of Clinton's affair with Lewinsky and efforts to cover it up, which led to the president's impeachment by the House. Starr's five-year probe also investigated the Clintons' Whitewater business dealings, the suicide of deputy White House counsel Vincent Foster, firing of White travel office workers and charges that White House officials misused FBI files.
After Starr left office, his successor, Robert Ray, sent a message to the ex-president that he was prepared to prosecute Bill Clinton. The books says Ray "took steps to instill the fear of God in the White House."
"I wanted them to know I was coming," Ray said. "I was fully of the view that if I was not prepared to carry out the threat, it wasn't worth making."
Lewinsky told Gormley that Clinton lied in grand jury testimony about the sexual affair they had.
"There was no leeway on the veracity of his statements because they asked him detailed and specific questions to which he answered untruthfully," Lewinsky said this year, according to the book.
Starr prosecutors in 1998 proposed to formally indict Hillary Rodham Clinton on charges she and a former law partner lied about her business dealings with Madison Guaranty, a failed savings and loan connected to friends James and Susan McDougal, Gormley wrote.
The indictment was drafted against Clinton and Webster Lee Hubbell to be filed in Arkansas federal court, the book said.
"Yet the consensus was that any effort to prosecute Mrs. Clinton would be extremely risky," Gormley wrote. Prosecutors believed that "getting an Arkansas or a Washington grand jury to indict the First Lady seemed like a long shot." Starr prosecutors instead decided to focus efforts on charges against the former president, the book says.
In a deal with prosecutors on his last full day as president, Clinton acknowledged that he gave false testimony in the Lewinsky scandal, heading off the threat of indictment. As part of the deal, the president said he gave false answers in a January 1998 deposition, but he insisted he didn't do so knowingly, an important element of the crime of perjury.
In Gormley's new book, former Secret Service Director Lewis Merletti says that the FBI was suspicious that he had colluded with Clinton in order to get the agency's top job. Merletti claimed an FBI agent accused him of concealing Clinton's indiscretions. The FBI agent denied the accusation.
Gormley interviewed the former president, Starr, Lewinsky, Susan McDougal — who spent 18 months in prison for refusing to testify before a Whitewater grand jury — and ex-Arkansas state worker Paula Jones who filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Bill Clinton.
He did not interview the former first lady.

WASHINGTON – A moderate Democrat revolt Wednesday was delaying the start of debate on a vast overhaul of regulations governing Wall Street, as centrists sought to amend some of the bill's tougher provisions.
The internal Democratic dispute centered on whether Democratic leaders would permit moderates to offer amendments on the House floor that would alter certain regulatory provisions, particularly ones governing consumer protections and complex derivatives trades.
Without assurances that their changes would get a vote, moderates were threatening to withhold their support for letting the bill proceed, congressional officials said.
Complicating the negotiations were changes that had already been granted to liberals and the likelihood they would get votes on some other of their preferences.
Democratic leaders feared that if some of the moderate amendments passed with Republican backing, the overall bill would lose appeal within the broader Democratic majority, thus imperiling its passage.
The Senate is not expected to act on its version of regulations until next year. Democrats wanted to make sure that amendments in the House did not weaken their hand when they have to reconcile bills with the Senate.
As proposed, the House bill hits big banks hardest, a response to public anger at the notion that some institutions had grown too big to fail and pushed the nation's financial system to the brink of collapse.
If the bill casts the largest banks as villains, it casts consumers as victims and provides for a new federal agency with regulatory and enforcement powers to oversee the public's dealings with lenders.
Moderates were seeking a chance to vote on amendments that would either eliminate a proposed Consumer Finance Protection Agency, a provision pushed by President Barack Obama, or eliminate the ability for states to enforce tougher state consumer laws.
Others wanted greater exemptions for firms trading in derivatives, the largely unregulated financial instruments blamed for accelerating last year's crisis.

HOUSTON (Reuters) –
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board on Wednesday called a July explosion at Citgo Petroleum Corp's Corpus Christi, Texas, refinery "a significant near-miss" for a widespread release of highly toxic hydrogen fluoride (HF) into a community.

"It's a significant near-miss of an HF release into the refinery and into the community," said CSB Investigations Supervisor Robert Hall at a Houston news conference.

On Wednesday, the CSB warned of a potential hazard from HF vapor releases at Citgo's Corpus Christi refinery.

The board, which is investigating the cause of and response to the July explosion at an alkylation unit that uses HF, urged Citgo to develop and implement plans to ensure an adequate water supply to prevent toxic HF vapor releases.

The CSB also called on Citgo to have a third party audit operations on hydrogen fluoride alkylation units at its 163,000 barrels per day (bpd) Corpus Christi and 167,000 bpd Lemont, Illinois, refineries to see if they conform with practices recommended by the American Petroleum Institute.

Citgo has never performed such an audit. The API issued the recommendation in 1992. The audits are to be performed every three years.

The company had no immediate comment following the news conference. Citgo is an indirect subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA.

"I do believe we have some assurance from Citgo they will comply with our recommendations," said CSB Chairman John Bresland at the news conference.

In the fire following the July explosion, only steady winds blowing HF vapor out over a nearby bay and a water cannon system that was able to keep functioning despite several breakdowns in back-up water supply prevented a widespread disaster, Hall said.

Hydrogen fluoride is a highly toxic substance that can spread long distances as a vapor. It can cause burns to skin and eyes as well as damage heart, lungs and bones in humans.

The release of hydrocarbon vapor containing HF began when a control valve on the alkylation unit broke leading to violent shaking in piping and then a break in a connection on that piping.

One type of alkylation units uses HF to make octane boosting additives for gasoline. Another type uses sulfuric acid.

Citgo's emergency water supply at the Corpus Christi refinery was nearly exhausted as water cannons sprayed the burning alkylation unit to prevent HF vapor from spreading.

A system to replenish the firefighting water supply with sea water from the Corpus Christi ship channel had multiple failures including hose ruptures and pump engine fires, Hall said.

About 42,000 pounds of HF was released in the fire. An estimated 4,000 pounds was not absorbed by the water spray from the cannons and escaped into the atmosphere and blew out to sea, Hall said.

One worker at the refinery, Gabriel Alvarado, remains in a San Antonio hospital undergoing treatment for burns and HF during the fire. Alvarado has had a portion of one arm amputated.

After the Citgo blast, the United Steelworkers union, which represents 30,000 U.S. refinery workers launched a campaign to replace HF alkylation units.

Bresland called Citgo's cooperation with the probe "marginal" saying the company has refused document requests and attempted to stop the release of security camera video of the explosion and fire on grounds of national security.

Citgo's attempt to "to block release of information to the public was unrelated to national security," he said.

The board also verified with the U.S. Homeland Security Department that it could release the tapes.

As part of its investigation, the CSB is also looking at other HF alkylation unit mishaps and how vapor releases are prevented at the 51 U.S. refineries with such units.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board investigates chemical plant accidents. It has not regulatory or enforcement powers.

(Editing by Marguerita Choy)

Automobile repair shops can be specialty shops like muffler shops, transmission specialists, body shop, tire shops and automobile electrification shops. Examples include MAACO and AAMCO. There are also independently-owned specialists who work only on specific makes of cars, such as European car specialists and BMW repair specialists.

In the UK, a Garage does not typically specialize in one area of the vehicle.[citation needed] Instead, they tend to repair all mechanical and servicing requirements, the only specialty being body repair and painting.

Collision Repair Irvine

Live food is commonly used as feed for a variety of species of exotic pets and zoo animals, ranging from alligators to various snakes, frogs and lizards, but also including other, non-reptile, non-amphibian carnivores and omnivores (for instance, skunks, which are omnivorous mammals, can be technically be fed a limited amount of live food, though this is not known to be a common practice). Common live food ranges from crickets (used as an inexpensive form of feed for carnivorous and omnivorous reptiles such as bearded dragons and commonly available in pet stores for this reason), waxworms, mealworms and to a lesser extent cockroaches and locusts, to small birds and mammals such as mice or chickens.

Mealworms are typically used as a food source for reptile and avian pets. They are also provided to wild birds in bird feeders, particularly during the nesting season when birds are raising their young and appreciate a ready food supply. Mealworms are high in protein, which makes them especially useful as a food source. They are also commonly used for fishing bait.

Mealworms

TEHRAN, Iran – An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman says the case of five British sailors reportedly detained after their racing yacht was stopped in the Persian Gulf is "being investigated."
But Ramin Mehmanparast did not confirm or deny the British were taken into custody by the Iranian navy. He only said on Tuesday that "the case and its details are under investigation."
The British government said Iran is holding the five yachtsmen after their "Kingdom of Bahrain" yacht, owned by Sail Bahrain, was stopped last Wednesday, possibly after straying inadvertently into Iranian waters. The yacht was to join the Dubai-Muscat Offshore Sailing Race on November 26.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Britain has been in touch about the matter with their Iranian counterparts.

The lumbar is the region of the spine between the diaphragm and the pelvis; it supports the most weight and is the most flexible. The adjustable lumbar mechanisms in seats allow the user to change the seat back shape in this region, to make it more comfortable. Some seats are long enough to support full thigh.

In suitably equipped cars, seats and mirrors can be adjusted using electric controls. Some vehicles let the driver(s) save the adjustments in memory for later recall, with the push of a button. Most systems allow users to store more than one set of adjustments. This allows multiple drivers to store their comfort settings, or a single driver to store several different occupant positions. Some vehicles associate memorized settings with a specifically numbered, remotely operated key fob, resetting a seat to the position associated with that fob when the vehicle is unlocked (e.g. key fob #1 sets seats to memory position #1, #2 to #2, etc.)

http://www.leonoxautoaccessories.com/

Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama will outline
for the public tomorrow the cost of his new strategy in
Afghanistan and the limits on U.S. involvement there, White
House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.

Obama last night ordered his military commanders to begin
carrying out his plan, which he’ll announce in an address from
the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York.

“You will hear the president discuss clearly that this is
not open-ended,” Gibbs said. “This is about what has to be
done in order to ensure that the Afghans can assume the
responsibility of securing their country.”

Obama has been informing U.S. allies of his plans; calls he
placed today included ones to French President Nicolas Sarkozy
and U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He isn’t discussing troop
levels with the other leaders, Gibbs said. Obama also plans to
brief a group of U.S. lawmakers before his speech, scheduled for
8 p.m. New York time.

Obama is unveiling his strategy, which a U.S. official said
will include deploying 30,000 to 35,000 additional American
troops, as polls show public support for the war dropping.

On the ground in Afghanistan, the U.S. and its North
Atlantic Treaty Organization allies are facing stiffer
resistance from the Taliban. The president has said his main
goal is to disable al-Qaeda and other extremist groups that have
established havens in the border region between Afghanistan and
Pakistan.

Local Forces

Gibbs said the main U.S. objective is to train Afghan army
and police forces so they can fight the insurgency and “so that
we can then transfer that security responsibility appropriately
back to the Afghans.â€

While Obama will “touch onâ€

Obama convened his top national security advisers last
night to lay out his decision and give orders for carrying it
out. Among those he discussed the plan with were Vice President
Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary
Robert Gates, Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, General
David Petraeus, head of the U.S. Central Command, and National
Security Adviser Jim Jones.

Obama also spoke with the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan,
Karl Eikenberry, and the top commander on the ground, General
Stanley McChrystal, by secure video conference, Gibbs said.

Orders Issued

“The president communicated his final decision on the
strategy in the Oval Office and issued orders on the strategy’s
implementation,” Gibbs said. Obama’s orders “are being acted
upon by those whose job it is to implement them.”

Obama was briefing other world leaders, including German
Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and
Chinese President Hu Jintao. He met today at the White House
with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

The U.K.’s Brown said today his country will add 500 more
troops to Afghanistan, bringing to 10,000 the total number it
has committed there. Brown spoke with Obama for 45 minutes in a
video conference. They agreed on the importance of combining
military and political strategies and asking other nations to
share more of the burden, according to a statement from Brown’s
office.

French Forces

Sarkozy said in Paris today that he will keep French
soldiers in Afghanistan until the country is “pacified and
sovereign.” France has 3,095 troops in Afghanistan, and Sarkozy
didn’t say whether he would add to that force. He and Obama
spoke for about 40 minutes, the French president’s office said.

Obama planned to speak with Afghanistan President Hamid
Karzai and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari either later
today or tomorrow, Gibbs said.

Before departing for his speech at West Point, Obama
planned to brief about 31 lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats,
from the House and Senate, Gibbs said.

Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, the top Republican on the
Foreign Relations Committee, said yesterday that Obama “is in a
moment in which he really has to regain the approval of the
American people.”

“This is why this speech and the plan is so important,”
he said on CNN.

Explaining to Congress

To help garner support, top administration officials will
be heading to the Capitol. The Senate Armed Services Committee
is scheduled to hear testimony Dec. 2 from Clinton, Gates and
Mullen. McChrystal and Eikenberry will return from Afghanistan
to speak to lawmakers, likely next week.

An issue getting increasing attention among congressional
Democrats is the cost of the war effort. Democratic
Representative David Obey of Wisconsin is among lawmakers
backing a so-called war tax to help pay for the war.

White House Budget Director Peter Orszag has estimated that
each additional soldier in Afghanistan may cost $1 million
annually. Orszag was among the president’s advisers
at his final strategy session.

“The costs of our involvement in Afghanistan both in terms
of our men and women in uniform, the health of the force and
what this will mean” for the federal budget, have “been part
of this discussion from the very beginning,” Gibbs said.

Defense Spending

The Defense Department has spent $168.1 billion on Afghan
operations since the October 2001 invasion through Sept. 30, the
end of fiscal 2009, according to figures released by the
Pentagon today. That includes $47.3 billion spent in fiscal 2009
as the U.S. increased its troop level from 34,400 in January to
about 68,000 now. That’s up from $32 billion spent in fiscal
2008.

The monthly costs averaged $3.9 billion in fiscal 2009,
with a high of $10 billion in September, according to the
Pentagon.

The non-partisan Congressional Research Service in a Sept.
28 report estimated that lawmakers have authorized about $227
billion in spending on Afghanistan since the war started. The
CRS figure includes funding for such categories as civilian
agencies and intelligence as well as military operations.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Julianna Goldman in Washington at
jgoldman6@bloomberg.net ;
Roger Runningen in Washington at
rrunningen@bloomberg.net

WASHINGTON (AFP) –
The US House of Representatives may pass a new economic stimulus bill by December 18 in a bid to combat sky-high US unemployment, a top congressional ally of President Barack Obama said Tuesday.

"I would certainly want to see us move something on jobs before that, and we are working on it now," Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, who has made December 18 the House's target adjournment date, told reporters.

With US unemployment at a 26-year high heading into a mid-term election year, Obama and his Democratic partners have found fresh urgency in tackling the issue again, nine months after enacting a 787-billion-dollar stimulus package.

"I wouldn't characterize it as a second stimulus. I don't want to be as broad as that, I want to be very targeted on jobs," said Hoyer, who declined to provide a figure or a precise breakdown of what the bill might include.

With a White House jobs summit set for December 3, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has tasked the chairs of key committees to draw up suggestions, which will be blended together into a final bill, said Hoyer.

"We are moving ahead at a pace that hopefully will allow us to do something in the next three weeks," he said at his weekly briefing.

"Clearly, 10.2 percent unemployment is unacceptable and is causing great pain to literally millions of people around the country. All the economic analysts have indicated that it is going to be very difficult to bring down the jobless rate, but we are hopeful to make progress on that," he said.

Hoyer indicated that measures like helping states save public sector jobs, jobs tax credits, infrastructure investments were among the "whole list of options that are available."

"We're discussing those, we're discussing with economic advisers as to what is the most effective and frankly, there are differences of opinion," he said.

But the number two Republican in the House, Representative Eric Cantor, expressed undisguised disbelief, accusing Democrats and the White House of "finally" seeing a need to help create jobs.

"We say it's about time, I say you've got to be kidding me," said Cantor.

"Sometimes it is difficult for us to take the other side seriously, but if they are serious we welcome this news," he added, urging Pelosi to work with Republicans to craft the bill.

Later, senators unveiled legislation to fund the Economic Development Administration, a government agency founded in 1965 to help economically distressed areas in the United States create or retain jobs.

"In these tough economic times, creating good jobs for American workers is our top priority," said Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer.

"This is common sense bipartisan legislation that we should move forward as quickly as possible," said Republican Senator James Inhofe.

WASHINGTON, Nov 17 (OneWorld.net) - More people are going hungry today than ever before in human history, and the numbers continue to rise. Establishing a global system of food reserves could help stifle the forces spreading hunger and begin to reverse the trend, humanitarian groups told government officials gathered at a World Food Summit this week.

The coalition of food and hunger groups is disappointed that little has happened since representatives of the world's eight most industrialized nations -- the G8 -- agreed to study the idea at a meeting in July.

The groups are concerned that economic priorities continue to drive international food and agriculture policies while over 100 million more people have been pushed into hunger over the past two years. They believe the human right to food should take precedence, and governments should be given tools to combat the forces of supply and demand when those forces result in severe malnutrition and starvation for poorer people.

"Food reserves are an important tool for governments trying to address hunger and stabilize markets for their farmers," said Alexandra Spieldoch of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), one of the groups that authored the letter to world leaders. "We cannot allow food reserves to drop off the radar at the World Food Summit."

Staple food prices spiked worldwide in 2007 and 2008, largely as a result of rising fuel costs, erratic weather patterns that destroyed harvests, and the conversion of farmland to grow crops for biofuels. The poorest people worldwide faced the most severe consequences, while wealthier communities tended to suffer less.

With energy prices still unpredictable and climate change threatening to wreak havoc on future harvests, the potential for future food emergencies remains high.

Today, millions of families in Kenya, Somalia, and other East African countries are struggling mightily to feed themselves after three bad years of harvests caused by the worst drought the region has seen in decades. Hunger also ravaged parts of Yemen and Nepal this year, and even the United States has seen an alarming rise in its number of hungry families.

IATP and its allies believe that establishing key food stockpiles at the local, regional, or global levels would give governments in Africa and other developing countries more power over the food supply chain, allowing them to ensure consistent minimum prices -- and thus a livable income -- for their farmers as well as access to food for all their citizens during lean times and unexpected emergencies. [» Read more from IATP on the potential of food reserves and their hopes for the summit.]

Nearly 1 in 6 U.S. Citizens Went Hungry in 2008

Hunger now affects one-sixth of all people worldwide, and it is no less a problem in the United States.

As the World Food Summit got underway in Rome yesterday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture disclosed that hunger levels reached their highest levels in this country since the agency began monitoring food security in 1995.

Some 49 million people "had difficulty putting enough food on the table at times during the year," the agency said. [» Read the full report from the Inter Press Service.] 

Food Summit Promises Fail to Impress

For the first time ever, more than 1 billion people now suffer from hunger, according to the United Nations. Humanitarian groups hope passing this ignominious milestone will create a new sense of urgency among world leaders to address the problem for the world's poorest.

Pledges made in 2000, to halve hunger worldwide by 2015, are clearly off track and unlikely to be met without a concerted change of approach and renewed commitment from world leaders.

"The silent hunger crisis -- affecting one sixth of all of humanity -- poses a serious risk for world peace and security," said Jacques Diouf, head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), earlier this year. "We urgently need to forge a broad consensus on the total and rapid eradication of hunger in the world and to take the necessary actions."

The FAO organized this week's food summit to help spur on those actions.

On the summit's first day, however, a declaration was passed that largely disappointed groups working to end hunger worldwide.

An Inter Press Service (IPS) report from the conference notes that the FAO had called for governments to commit to provide $44 billion in aid for agriculture each year, "primarily to enable smallholder farmers in developing countries to feed themselves as well as helping the world achieve the goal of increasing food production by 70 percent to meet the needs of a population likely to reach 9.1 billion by 2050."

The money would be used to increase farmers' access to irrigation systems, modern machinery, seeds, and fertilizers, as well as improving rural infrastructure and roads so they can obtain the inputs they need and take their goods to market, notes IPS.

Humanitarian groups were also disappointed that the summiteers refused to set a goal of eradicating hunger worldwide by 2025. [» Read the full IPS report on the summit.] 

Take Action

For the latest news on the global food crisis and information about what groups are doing to ease hunger worldwide -- and how you can lend a hand -- see OneWorld.net's global food crisis alert.

» OneWorld TV: Al Gore Urged to Tackle Hunger

» Subscribe to OneWorld's News Updates and Digests

More from OneWorld:

» Obama's China Trip Full of Potential

» Brazil Deforestation Down 45 Percent

» We Can Have Food Security, Say Two New Reports

» Homelessness Down, But Persisting, for U.S. Vets

LOS ANGELES – Bobby Frankel possessed a gift for coaxing top performances out of ornery, high-strung thoroughbreds, a gruff Hall of Fame trainer who was hard in his dealings with humans but gentle with the animals in his barn.
Frankel died of cancer Monday at his home in Pacific Palisades, jockey agent Ron Anderson said. He was 68.
Frankel had been running his stable by phone for most of the year while undergoing treatment and concealing details of his illness from most of his colleagues, a remarkable feat in an industry fueled by gossip.
"He was a secretive guy," Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert said from Santa Anita. "He's from the old school of training — nobody needs to know your business."
Frankel began his career at Belmont Park and Aqueduct in New York, one of the cheap hired hands who walk horses around the barn after morning workouts. He took out his trainer's license in 1966 and won his first race with Double Dash at Aqueduct that November.
He built an early reputation as "King of the Claimers," taking the cheapest horses and turning them into high-priced stakes winners.
Frankel saddled 3,654 winners and earned $227,949,775 during his 43-year career, according to Equibase. He was second only to D. Wayne Lukas in money won, and they were the only trainers to earn more than $200 million.
The Brooklyn-born Frankel oversaw a coast-to-coast string of horses, never losing his New York accent or brusque demeanor that came off as intimidating to most who sought him around the barn.
"He wasn't a good people person when he was plying his trade," said retired Hall of Fame jockey Eddie Delahoussaye, who rode for Frankel. "If you didn't know him, he could be a jerk. You had to know him off the track. He was very gracious, but he wouldn't let everybody know that."
Frankel revealed a softer side only among his animals and close friends.
"Once you got him by himself, he was a lot of fun to be around," Baffert said.
Anderson added, "He was a very kindhearted person that had people that worked for him for 20, 30 years, which is almost unheard of around the racetrack."
Frankel enjoyed his greatest success this decade, winning four consecutive Eclipse Awards (2000-03) as the nation's leading trainer and five overall. His biggest client since the 1990s was Khalid Abdullah-owned Juddmonte Farms.
Besides Empire Maker, other winning horses Frankel trained for Juddmonte included Aptitude, Intercontinental, First Defence, Sightseek and Ventura.
"He was brilliant," Juddmonte manager Garrett O'Rourke said from Lexington, Ky. "It's the end of an era, isn't it?"
Frankel, fiercely competitive and supremely confident, struck some as arrogant, especially during Belmont Stakes week in 2003.
Funny Cide was bidding to complete racing's first Triple Crown since 1978 after winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. Empire Maker was bothered by a foot injury and had finished second in the Derby.
"You could have 10 really clued-in people giving him advice. He always listened and he loved it," O'Rourke said. "Then he'd turn away and say, 'That all makes sense, but we're doing this.' And if that statement was accompanied by a smirk, then you were loaded for bear. That's the way he felt coming into the Belmont."

Frankel believed his horse could handle the grueling 1 1/2 miles and he relished the idea of spoiling Funny Cide's Triple Crown coronation.

"I hope everybody hates me after the race," he said. "Then I'll know I did well."

Empire Maker won by three-quarters of a length, giving Frankel his only victory in a Triple Crown race after years of trying.

"This is probably the biggest thrill in racing for me," he said.

Frankel had twice before finished second in the Belmont, including 2002 when Medaglia d'Oro was beaten by a half-length by 70-1 shot Sarava. In 2000, he failed when Aptitude was second in the Derby and the Belmont.

Frankel enjoyed needling his rivals, including Baffert, who had his own run of success leading the nation's trainers in money won.

"I ran into him at Saratoga, and he told me, 'I'm gonna get cha,'" Baffert said, imitating Frankel's accent, "and he caught me."

Frankel trained six Breeders' Cup winners, including 2004 Classic winner and Horse of the Year Ghostzapper, and ranked second to Lukas in career Breeders' Cup earnings.

His last Breeders' Cup win came with Ventura in the 2008 Filly & Mare Sprint at Santa Anita, with Frankel on hand to watch. Ventura finished second in this year's race on Nov. 6 at the same track, with Frankel listed as the trainer although he was too ill to attend.

"His outstanding horsemanship, coupled with a keen insight into the game, made him a force in the sport for the last 40 years," said Alex Waldrop, president and CEO of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. "His immense talent, and his abiding love for his horses, will be sorely missed."

Frankel was well regarded for his success with turf horses, including Eclipse Award winners Possibly Perfect, Wandesta, Ryafan, Intercontinental and Leroidesanimaux. He was an astute handicapper, always picking the most favorable spots to enter horses.

Despite his illness, he had continued success this year, with longtime assistant Humberto Ascanio saddling Frankel's horses to victories in 13 stakes races.

Born Robert J. Frankel on July 9, 1941, he split his time between New York and California, where he first moved in 1972. He won a record 60 races at Hollywood Park in Inglewood that year on the way to his first of 30 training titles nationwide.

He won 28 races worth $1 million or more in his career, including a record six wins in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar. Frankel was the career leader in victories among trainers at Hollywood Park and Santa Anita.

"It came easy to him. He was a very gifted horseman," Baffert said. "He left a huge stamp on racing. He'll always be remembered."

Frankel was a mentor to trainer Rick Dutrow Jr., who saddled Big Brown to victories in last year's Kentucky Derby and Preakness. The horse lost his Triple Crown bid in the Belmont, when he finished last.

"I used to love it when I would do something good, I would call Bobby first and say, 'Bobby, did you see that?'" Dutrow said Monday from New York. "When I didn't know what to do, he would be the first guy to call."

Dutrow said he introduced Frankel to Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre. The two became close friends and were partners in owning some horses.

Frankel loved dogs and often brought them to the barn. He named his Australian sheep dogs Ginger and Punch after Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic winner Ginger Punch, whom he trained. Anderson said Frankel left the hospital because "he wanted to go home and see the dogs one more time."

Frankel is survived by his daughter, Bethenny, who has appeared on the Bravo reality series "Real Housewives of New York City." He was twice divorced.

A service was planned for Tuesday at Hillside Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

___

AP Sports Writer Richard Rosenblatt in New York contributed to this report.

LONDON – European and Asian stock markets fell modestly Tuesday, a day after a stronger than anticipated rebound in U.S. retail sales helped many of the world's major indexes rise to their highest levels this year.
The FTSE 100 benchmark of leading British shares was down 13.32 points, or 0.3 percent, at 5,369.35 — on Monday it closed at its highest since September 2008.
Meanwhile, Germany's DAX fell 6.33 points, or 0.1 percent, to 5,768.49 while the CAC-40 in France was 9.52 points, or 0.3 percent, lower at 3,853.64. Both indexes are near yearly highs as well.
On Wall Street, stocks were also poised to open slightly lower, a day after the Dow Jones industrial average and the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index closed at 13-month highs — particularly noteworthy was the S&P finally managing to close above 1,100 for the first time.
Dow futures were down 3 points at 10,365 while the S&P 500 futures slipped 0.4 point to 1,105.90.
Analysts doubt that Tuesday's subdued mood heralds a period of sustained weakness.
"There is little to suggest that this will turn into any full-blown bout of profit taking," said Ben Potter, research analyst at IG Markets in Melbourne, Australia.
Stock markets have rallied strongly since March's lows as investors reined in their economic doomsday expectations to factor in a swifter than anticipated global economic rebound.
U.S. retail sales data Monday helped stoke investor optimism about the recovery in the world's largest economy. U.S. retail sales are particularly important when assessing the outlook for the global economy because U.S. consumer spending accounts for around 70 percent of the U.S. economy.
Retailers will continue to dominate the earnings calendar in the U.S. this week, too. Those scheduled to report include Home Depot Inc., Target Corp. and Gap Inc.
Investors are also keeping a close eye on the dollar, which won a brief respite Monday after U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said the central bank was monitoring developments in foreign exchange markets closely and that current monetary policies "will help ensure that the dollar is strong and a source of global financial stability."
His comments provoked a knee-jerk dollar rally, pushing the euro down to $1.4878.
However, those dollar gains were mostly lost in European trading as investors focused on his statement that economic conditions would "warrant exceptionally low levels of interest rates for an extended period."
"Investors seemingly recovered from the initial reaction and the dollar weakened slightly following the Bernanke comments as investors sought risk assets once more," said Gareth Berry, a currency strategist at UBS.
By midmorning London time, the euro was down 0.4 percent on the day at $1.4905, having oscillated widely between $1.4878 and $1.5010 over the last day or so. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar was unchanged at 89.10 yen.
Earlier in Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average lost 61.25 points, or 0.6 percent, to 9,729.93 with exporters hit by the appreciating yen. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 29.83, or 0.1 percent, to 22,914.15 after briefly rising above 23,000 earlier in the day and South Korea's Kospi retreated 0.4 percent to 1,585.98.
Elsewhere, Australia's benchmark faded 0.5 percent and Singapore's market dropped 0.6 percent. China's Shanghai index bucked the trend on optimism about the country's economic recovery, gaining 0.2 percent to a 14-week high of 3,282.89.
Oil prices hovered below $79 a barrel. Benchmark crude for December delivery was down 48 cents to $78.42 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $2.55 to settle at $78.90 on Monday.