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London-based shipping underwriters have formally lifted a war-risk classification from Sri Lanka’s ports a year after the island ended its decades-long ethnic war, the foreign ministry said Friday.

The Lloyd’s Market Association removed Sri Lankan ports from the high-risk category from earlier this month, the foreign ministry said in a statement. It said the move would increase business confidence in Sri Lanka and encourage more shipments of cargo through Colombo’s harbour.

The ministry quoted the underwriters as saying that an independent analysis had prompted them to remove the surcharge on Sri Lanka. Insurance firms had relaxed a war-risk surcharge on Colombo-bound cargo two months ago. The insurance surcharges were slapped on Sri Lanka after Tamil Tiger rebels staged a commando-style attack and destroyed six civilian jets parked at the island’s only international airport in July 2001.

The rebels also attempted to bomb the main Colombo harbour using light aircraft and carried out suicide attacks against several ports before they were wiped out in a major military campaign last year. Since the crushing of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) last year there have been no guerrilla attacks in the island. The United Nations estimates that up to 100,000 people were killed in the fighting between 1972 and May last year.

Colombo, July 16, 2010 (AFP)

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Swiss insurer Zurich Financial Services said on Friday that it had set aside 330 million more dollars to meet potential losses arising from its commercial property loans in Britain and Ireland.

“Given the continuing deterioration in the UK and Irish property markets, the group has carried out a further review of its property development loan books and the respective provisioning levels,” said the insurer in a statement.

As a result, it “reported a 330 million dollar (256-million-euro) increase in the loan loss provisions in its commercial property loan books in the UK and Ireland to be taken in the second quarter 2010,” it added.

The insurer found after its review that it had to increase provisions for its British loans by 250 million dollars as the value of loan redemptions fell.

In addition, drops in property prices have led to declines in the value of collaterals, “especially in respect of undeveloped land, where market values have experienced significant deterioration.”

The insurer also increased its provisions in Ireland by 80 million dollars — bringing the total provisions on the Irish portfolio to half of loan values.

The insurer had halted new lending for commercial property developments in Ireland and significantly cut back loans in Britain over 2009.

Zurich is scheduled to report its first half earnings on August 5.

Zurich, July 16, 2010 (AFP)

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Axa insurer launched in July a short film documentary about a family affected by water damage.

The short film film takes viewers through this personal drama from the perspective of a family whose home was affected by water damage last year when their toilet water pipe became dislodged. Narrated by the different family members, the film gives an insight into how the smallest things – like damaged photos – are often the most disruptive and distressing.

In the documentary, we also see one of Axa’s personal claims handlers assist the family through their claims process following their home disaster.

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A Spanish court has for the first time ordered a firm to pay millions of euros in compensation to residents whose health was harmed by exposure to asbestos from one of its factories.

Spanish construction materials firm Uralita was ordered to pay 3.9 million euros (4.9 million dollars) to 45 people who for decades lived near its factory in a Barcelona suburb, for “damage to the lungs, leading in some cases to death”, according to the ruling obtained by AFP Wednesday.

The financial compensation will be shared between residents who became sick because of their asbestos exposure, and their families in the case of victims who have died.

It is the first time in Spain that a court orders a company to compensate local residents, as opposed to employees, for health problems related to asbestos exposure, according to daily newspaper El Pais.

The factory, which made cement, used asbestos for years until the use of the mineral which has been found to cause cancer was banned in 2001. Uralita said it will appeal the Madrid court’s decision.

Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral that was once used widely to fireproof roofs, insulation and other building materials.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and the U.S. National Toxicology Program have declared all forms of asbestos to be proven human carcinogens.

In additional to cancer, asbestos exposure has been found to cause asbestosis, a progressive, debilitating lung disease.

Madrid, July 15, 2010 (AFP)

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Britain leads the world in the quality of care it provides for the dying, leaving many developed nations lagging a long way behind, according to a study released Wednesday.

State support for end-of-life care and an effective network of hospices put Britain top of the list of 40 countries, despite not having the best healthcare system overall, said a report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

Researchers looked at factors including public awareness, availability of training and access to pain killers and doctor-patient transparency to compile the “quality of death” index.

Australia ranked second on the global list followed by New Zealand and Ireland, with Germany, the US and Canada also featuring in the top 10.

Many rich nations were in the bottom half of the list, including Denmark (22nd) and Finland (28th). India scored worst at number 40, with Portugal, South Korea and Russia also in the bottom 10.

In the worst cases, the study found the quality and availability of care was often poor and policy co-ordination was lacking. It said “few nations, including rich ones with cutting-edge healthcare systems” incorporate end-of-life care strategies into their overall healthcare policy.

availability of care, ageing populations, longevity, pain-killing drugs, palliative care, death

In many of these countries, increasing longevity and ageing populations mean demand for end-of-life care “is likely to rise sharply”, said the study.

Falling birth rates, especially in developed countries, are likely to complicate the situation and, for the first time in history, the number of people over 65 will outnumber children under five years old, it added. “For the end-of-life care community, this presents a new and complex set of problems,” the report said.

It also found the availability of pain-killing drugs, rated in the report as the most important practical issue in the standard of palliative care, was “woefully inadequate across much of the world”.

This is mainly due to concerns about the drugs’ illicit use and trafficking, and a lack of training among medical personnel on how to administer them. “The result of this state of affairs is an incalculable surfeit of suffering, not just for those about to die but also for their loved ones,” the study said.

Among the challenges faced by countries seeking to improve their end-of-life care is the task of overcoming perceptions of death and cultural taboos about dying.

In Chinese culture, death and dying are stigmatised to such an extent that both are considered taboo, said the study, adding that in Western societies curative treatments are given priority over palliative care.

The report recommended more training for potential home carers, stating that palliative care need not mean institutional care and that many patients choose to die at home.

It cited data showing that more than 100 million patients and their family care-givers need palliative support annually, but fewer than eight per cent of them actually receive it. “Governments and providers are in a race against time,” said the study, warning that the spread of ageing was rapidly outpacing efforts to provide much-needed care.

Researchers interviewed doctors, specialists and other experts across the 40 countries listed, including 30 nations within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and 10 others for which data was available.

London, July 14, 2010 (AFP)

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Experts advising the World Health Organisation on whether to end the year-old swine flu pandemic alert could now meet as late as August, the agency’s chief said Wednesday.

An emergency committee of 15 scientists headed by Australian infectious diseases expert John Mackenzie was meant to reassess by mid-July whether to recommend an end to the A(H1N1) pandemic.

But WHO chief Margaret Chan told AFP said the team had decided to wait a few more weeks in order to obtain more information about the development of the flu in the southern hemisphere’s winter.

“In the northern hemisphere, the situation is OK, but we have to look at the situation in the southern hemisphere,” said Chan.

“The president of the committee said that we have to wait and see what is going on in Australia and New Zealand where, traditionally, the peak for influenza is in August. “So I expect the committee to meet at the end of July or in August,” added the director-general of the WHO.

The WHO declared a swine flu pandemic on June 11, 2009.

Following the committee’s last meeting in June, Chan had decided to maintain a pandemic alert for swine flu, which according to WHO data has claimed some 18,311 lives worldwide.

Geneva, July 14, 2010 (AFP)

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Surgery without anaesthetics, unsterilised needles and epidemics worsened by malnutrition illustrate the desperate state of North Korea’s health care system, Amnesty International said Thursday.

Food shortages have persisted since the 1990s famine and some North Koreans survive partly on grass, tree roots and bark, the international rights group said in a report.

The communist state says health care is free for all, but Amnesty said many witnesses told it they have had to pay for all services since the 1990s. Doctors were usually paid in cigarettes, alcohol or food for consultations and took cash for tests or surgery. “If you don’t have money, you die,” the report quoted a 20-year-old woman refugee as saying.

The report, citing World Health Organization (WHO) figures, said the North spent less on health care than any other country — under one dollar per person per year in total.

It urged the North to take effective steps to tackle food shortages, including accepting international assistance and ensuring the transparent delivery of food aid.

Amnesty called on the international community to support the UN’s “grossly underfunded” World Food Programme and other aid groups, and to ensure provision of aid is based on need and not political considerations. “It is crucial that aid to North Korea is not used as a political football by donor countries,” said Catherine Baber, Amnesty’s deputy Asia-Pacific director, in a statement.

The report paints a Dickensian portrait of barely functioning hospitals bereft of anaesthetics and medicines, with unsterilised needles and bloodstained sheets.

Amnesty said its report was based on interviews with more than 40 North Koreans now living overseas and with health professionals working in the secretive country.

It quoted a 56-year-old woman from the northeastern city of Musan who underwent surgery to remove her appendix in 2001 without anaesthesia. “I was screaming so much from the pain, I thought I was going to die. They had tied my hands and legs to prevent me from moving,” she said.

Baber said the North failed to provide for the most basic health and survival needs of its people, especially those too poor to pay for medical care.

Amnesty reported that many people bypass doctors altogether and go to the markets to buy medicine, which they administer through guesswork or the advice of stallholders. “The government’s failure to provide basic education about using medication is especially worrying as North Korea fights a tuberculosis epidemic,” Baber said.

Quoting WHO figures, the report estimated that five percent of the 24 million people are infected with tuberculosis and a growing number have developed resistance to first-line drugs.

Amnesty cited constant food shortages, worsened by policies such as a botched currency revaluation last November. A 2008 UN survey showed nine million people lacked enough food. But Amnesty said the government had been reluctant to seek international assistance. In March 2009, as relations became more strained, the North refused to accept any further US food aid.

Amnesty researcher Norma Kang Muico told a press conference to launch the report that the North may be prepared to accept international cooperation on health care.

She said Pyongyang sought help from the WHO and the Red Cross to fight a malaria epidemic a couple of years ago, and noted that the World Food Programme had made progress in monitoring food deliveries. “This is a forward-backward movement but I would say there still is a slow progression,” Muico said.

Seoul, July 15, 2010 (AFP)

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The Met Office has issued on Thursday a weather warning in Northern Ireland from 14.00 to 21.00. Heavy rain is expected in locals areas like Antrim, Armagh, Derry, Down, Fermanagh and Tyrone.

“Heavy thundery showers this afternoon are expected to give accumulations of 15mm within a 3 hour period, with isolated accumulations through the afternoon and evening possibly as high as 50mm”, Met Office announced.
“The public are advised to take extra care and refer to TrafficWatchNI.com (operational hours 07.00 to 21.00 Mon to Fri and 09:00 to17:00 on Saturdays) for further advice on road conditions.”

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Across Europe, more than 120 million sick days a year are actually taken for personal reasons rather than for an illness according to Aon Consulting, the leading employee risk and benefits management firm.

More than one in ten people (15%) say the last time they took a day off from work as sick leave they were only feigning illness, according to a survey of over 7,500 European workers. Additionally, 10% of people took their last sick day in order to look after a family member.
This research is part of the Aon Consulting European Employee Benefits Benchmark, a survey of more than 7,500 workers from across Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and the UK, ten of the leading economies in Europe. The Benchmark focuses on the views of workers across Europe on topics such as retirement, employee benefits and other pension-related issues.

More than 800 million sick days are taken each year, and assuming the average work day is 8 hours long, Europe’s ‘sickies’, the practice of feigning illness to avoid work, are costing employers close to a billion hours in lost man hours. Taking the size of the workforce in each of the ten countries surveyed and applying the percentage of fictitious sick leave (15%) multiplied by the average wage cost of sick leave for employers brings the total cost to an incredible €40 billion. The number of sickies this year are expected to have increased with many people taking time off work in order to watch the World Cup.

The Spanish are the most likely to admit having taken a sickie (22%), followed by UK workers, the Irish (both 21%) and the Dutch (20%). The Danish (4%), the Norwegians (10%) are the least likely to have taken a sick day off from work under false pretences.

Peter Abelskamp, Director of health and benefits EMEA, at Aon Consulting commented: “A billion hours taken as fictitious sick leave across Europe and the associated financial cost for businesses are probably conservative figures, considering the number of people who don’t admit to faking sickness and the fact that these costs only account for direct wages. Employers would be well advised to tackle the issues of sickness and workplace absence, as these seriously impact efficiency and hit their balance sheets.

“56% of workers say they would not feel forced to take a day as sick leave if they could just be honest and have access to flexible working hours or ‘social days’. Of course employers should also not ignore the fact that 15% of people say that more interesting work would keep them in the office.

“The economic turmoil facing Europe has probably reduced the number of sick days taken, as 11% of people say the threat of redundancy would actually force them to cut down the number of days off for non-medical reasons. Perhaps not surprisingly, nearly a quarter of respondents say a cash incentive on top of their salary would also encourage them to come in to work.”

According to Aon’s research, the top five things which would encourage Europeans to take less time off work include:
• Benefit of social days to take for non-medical, personal reasons (31%)
• Provision of flexible working (27%)
• Substantial cash incentive (25%)
• Provision of on-site medical care (19%)
• More interesting work (15%)

Aon Consulting recently launched the European Sick Leave Index, allowing companies to measure the cost of sickness and absence and compare it to their national averages. To
participate, visit the European Sick Leave Index webpage.

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Specialist insurer Ecclesiastical today renewed its warning that many of Britain’s churches and buildings are being systematically targeted by criminals for their valuable metal.

Speaking on national “Metal Theft Day of Action”, Ecclesiastical’s claims and risk services director David Bonehill stressed that up to four churches each day are being damaged by metal thieves plus an increasing number of non-faith buildings such as schools.

Mr Bonehill said: “Metal Theft Day of Action is an excellent way of raising awareness of the scale and damage that metal theft is causing in our country today. But it’s vital to understand that this scourge doesn’t just affect infrastructure such as cabling and pipes. Much of the UK’s most important and socially valuable building stock is being stripped of its roofing, its guttering and other vital parts of its fabric.

“Raising public awareness is part of fighting the problem: all too often people see the criminals in the act but mistake them for legitimate builders or trades people. “Co-operation between the authorities and organisations involved in fighting this crime will also help. We need to share intelligence and learn from our successes. “Ultimately, we need to work with scrap yards to close off the market for stolen metal in this country and thus protect the architectural heritage the UK is renowned for.”

During the first six months of 2010 Ecclesiastical received a total of 945 theft of metal claims worth more than £2.1m. The highest number of metal theft claims was recorded in 2008 when, during the first five months of the year, 1,382 claims worth more than £4.2m were received by Ecclesiastical.

Although lead stolen from churches still makes up the majority of theft of metal claims to Ecclesiastical, a significant increase is now emerging in non-faith claims. With more than 18% of all metal theft claims now being recorded for non-faith customers such as schools, heritage buildings and commercial properties, the insurer is warning that a number of sectors will need to improve their security measures to fight the epidemic.

In addition to urging its customers to continue to use the forensic SmartWater solution to protect roofing lead and other valuables, Ecclesiastical is also piloting an external roof alarm scheme with a number of its church customers. Several churches suffering from repeated lead thefts have had the alarms fitted during the pilot phase, resulting in no subsequent thefts once the alarms were introduced.

In February this year, Ecclesiastical announced that over the last five years, theft of metal from UK churches has cost over £20m in insurance claims. Metal Theft Day of Action on Wednesday 14 July has been called by a range of organisations in the UK including the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), Network Rail, British Transport Police, BT and the Environment Agency.

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Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. has filed a securities fraud lawsuit against Goldman, Sachs & Co. to recover losses on $62.5 million of investments in Fannie Mae, a portfolio segment that the insurer claims is now “virtually worthless.”

The Boston-based insurer claims it was misled by Goldman Sachs regarding preferred stock offerings in Fannie Mae that occurred in September 2007 and again in December 2007, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit, filed July 9 in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts, claims Goldman Sachs allegedly took steps to alter its own real estate investment strategy in late 2006 and throughout 2007. The lawsuit alleges that the investment banking firm anticipated difficulties in the subprime mortgage market and sought to protect itself by selling or unwinding its own exposure. Goldman Sachs generated a $4 billion profit on bets it made against the real estate market, according to the lawsuit.

Goldman Sachs was also the underwriter on the sale of Fannie Mae preferred stock in 2007, a move geared toward raising surplus capital that would strengthen the government-sponsored enterprise’s balance sheet. According to the lawsuit, Fannie Mae was severely under-capitalized at the time and “needed to complete the sale of preferred stock just to stay in business.”

Goldman Sachs allegedly either knew or recklessly disregarded several key aspects of federal lender’s condition, including:
– The overstated value of Fannie Mae’s investments in residential-backed mortgage securities;
– Fannie Mae’s loan loss reserves of less than 1%;
– And Fannie Mae’s “deferred tax asset, which could not be transferred and was inflated beyond any real world value.”

Goldman Sachs spokesman Michael Duvally said the lawsuit was “entirely without merit and we will contest it vigorously.” He declined any further comment on the case.
Liberty Mutual spokesman Rich Angevine said the company does not comment on matters that are in litigation.

According to an A.M. Best special report, the U.S. insurance industry’s investments in securities issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac totaled about $371 billion as of year-end 2007 (BestWire, Aug. 18, 2008).

The U.S. property/casualty industry’s total exposure to securities issued by the two government-sponsored enterprises, which add liquidity to the mortgage market, represented 23% of year-end 2007 policyholder surplus. According to the special report, the property/casualty industry’s exposure totaled about $115.5 billion as of year-end 2007.

Get more informations

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Do you shop around for your home insurance each year, or are you happy to let it to renew each year without checking the cost? If so, you could be losing £132 a year, and not contributing to the £937 million being saved every year – just by shopping for insurance.

29 percent of British homeowners automatically renew their home insurance every year, choosing not to shop around for a number of different reasons.

Some people (Around 15%) believe they cannot make any savings and that the price they currently pay for their buildings and contents insurance, cannot be beaten, while 14% of people simply cannot be bothered or do not have time to shop around different providers.

Over 55s are the most loyal to their providers, staying with them for 3.6 years on average, while very nearly half of all homeowners have been with their providers for 2 years – And 1 in ten people have been with the same home insurance provider for over ten years. Northern Ireland are the most loyal area in the UK, customers there spending three and a half years on average with the same provider.

Of course, there are multiple ways to save money on your home insurance without changing provider: Paying yearly instead of monthly, for example, can save you up you up to 22%, although some providers do not actually charge any extra – check your terms and conditions before you make any decisions.

You can also save money on your home insurance by:

• Fitting a burglar alarm,
• changing locks
• installing time-switch lights
• joining a neighbourhood watch scheme
• installing security lighting

Doing the above can save you around 15% on your premiums as well, but don’t forget that any changes you make, you need to declare to your provider.

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A gene linked to increased life span through calorie restriction also appears to play a critical role in boosting memory and brain power, according to a study published Sunday.

A protein encoded by the SIRT1 gene has been shown in laboratory experiments to help slow the ageing process in rodents. Called Sirtuin1 in humans, that same enzyme seems to enhance memory and nerve-cell development in the brain as well, according to the new findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature.

The work could provide leads for drugs to combat Alzheimer’s and other debilitating neurological diseases, the researchers said.

A team led by Li-Huei Tsai, director of the neurobiology programme at MIT in Boston, had earlier demonstrated that Sirtuin1 boosts neuron survival in mice genetically modified to mimic certain degenerative brain disorders. “We have now found that SIRT1 activity also promotes memory and plasticity,” Tsai said, referring to the ability of healthy brain cells to interconnect. “This result demonstrates a multi-faceted role of SIRT1 in the brain, further highlighting its potential as a target for the treatment of conditions with impaired cognition.”

In experiments, Tsai examined behaviour and brain development in mice deficient in the SIRT1 gene.

Compared to normal mice, they reacted poorly to electrical stimulation in the hippocampus, which is critical to long-term memory and spatial navigation. In Alzheimer’s, the hippocampus is one of the first regions in the brain to be damaged.

The gene-altered lab mice also had reduced density of neuron development, a key measure of brain activity.

Finally, they were less able to discriminate old from new objects in memory tests. “SIRT1 deficient mice are impaired in all three memory paradigms compared to control mice,” Tsai explained in an email.

The study also unveiled a previously unknown mechanism: by keeping certain gene regulators called mircoRNAs in check, the SIRT1 gene allows the memory-enhancing proteins to be expressed.

The results are preliminary, Tsai cautioned, adding that is was still too early to design clinical trials with humans.

The study did open up the intriguing possibility that Sirtuin1 enzymes could one day be used to turbocharge memory and brain function even in healthy people, she acknowledged. “Activation of sirtuins can be mildly beneficial in humans,” she said.

Recent research suggests that the gene and the enzymes it produces are part of a feedback system that enhances cell survival during times of stress, especially a lack of food.

Paris, July 13, 2010 (AFP)

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Greater levels of vitamin D have been linked to a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease in a study in Finland where low sunlight leads to a chronic lack of the nutrient, researchers said Monday.

Scientists from the National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland, first hypothesized that Parkinson’s “may be caused by a continuously inadequate vitamin D status leading to a chronic loss of dopaminergic neurons in the brain.”

Vitamin D, supplied chiefly by the sun’s ultraviolet rays and a small range of foods, is known to play a role in bone health and may also be linked to cancer, heart disease and type 2 diabetes, the researchers said.

The Finnish study, published in the July issue of Archives of Neurology, followed 3,173 Parkinson’s-free Finnish men and women aged 50-79 over a 29-year period from 1978-2007.

At the end of the study 50 participants had developed the disease.

After adjusting for potentially related factors, including physical activity and body mass index, those with the highest levels of vitamin D (top 25 percent of the group) were found to have a 67 percent lower risk of developing Parkinson’s disease than those with the lowest level of the vitamin (bottom 25 percent), the study said.

The researchers could not explain how vitamin D levels may affect Parkinson’s risk, but said the nutrient “has been shown to exert a protective effect on the brain through antioxidant activities, regulation of calcium levels, detoxification, modulation of the immune system and enhanced conduction of electricity through neurons.”

“In intervention trials focusing on effects of vitamin D supplements, the incidence of Parkinson disease merits follow up,” they added. “This study was carried out in Finland, an area with restricted sunlight exposure, and is thus based on a population with a continuously low vitamin D status,” about half of the suggested optimal level, researchers said.

Washington, July 13, 2010 (AFP)

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Go Compare has reported a £12m profit during the 2009 financial year following the £4m loss recorded for 2008.

The aggregator said this is based on a 53% increase in annual turnover from £49m in 2008 to £74.9m in 2009 and an uplift in consumer response from increased brand awareness.
The company has also fully repaid its £30m loan facility agreed early in 2007 with Esure that has been used to fund Go Compare’s marketing. It added that it generates revenues from relationships with over 150 insurance brands.

Chief executive Hayley Parsons said: “We are delighted with these results – they show an efficient business competing strongly in a growing market. These figures are for 2009 but we are already on track to more than double profits during 2010.

“Following our launch in November 2006, initial losses stemmed from focused investment in our infrastructure and marketing for the Go Compare brand. We entered a pre-softened market with a clear focus on firm cost control, revenue per head, scalable infrastructure and marketing that focuses on maximising response as well as brand recall. These results and our current position speak volumes for the effectiveness of that strategy.” She added: “We invested heavily again last year to tap into clear growth potential within a hardening insurance market of time-pressed consumers who are embracing price comparison as the most convenient and transparent method of insurance shopping. Our ability to fulfil their needs and those of the insurers keen to reach them has paid extraordinary dividends.”

In 2009, Go Compare’s insurance quote volumes increased to 19.4million quotes from 12.3 million in 2008. It added that it is issuing in excess of two million quotes for car, home, pet, van and motorbike insurance each month and foresees this level continuing to increase over the coming years.

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The Met office has issued on Tuesday a weather warning in Wales. Heavy rain is expected today from 13.30 to 20.00 in local areas like Ceredigion, Conwy, Flintshire, Powys and Swansea.

“Heavy rain will spread northwards across western and northern parts of Wales during the afternoon. This will give rainfall totals of 15mm in 3 hours in places”, Met Office said.

“The public are advised to take extra care and refer to Traffic Wales for further advice on road conditions.”

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President Barack Obama will Tuesday declare that America’s battle against AIDS is at a “crossroads” and roll out a plan to cut new infections and improve care for those who have the disease.

Thirty years after the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) burst to global attention, the first-ever National HIV/AIDS Strategy will demand action from federal, state and tribal governments and medical and scientific communities. It envisages cutting the annual number of new domestic infections by 25 percent over five years, and aims to increase the number of people living with HIV, who actually know their status to 90 percent.

The strategy, previewed by the White House on Monday, will say in a vision statement that “the United States will become a place where new HIV infections are rare.” Those who are infected, regardless of age, gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity or economic level, will get “unfettered access to high-quality, life-extending care, free from stigma and discrimination.”

The HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States has claimed nearly 600,000 lives, though has faded from the headlines in recent years, as new life-extending anti-retroviral drug therapies have emerged.

But around 56,000 people still become infected with HIV every year. There are currently 1.1 million Americans living with HIV, according to US government figures.

The new Obama strategy has three goals: to reduce the number of new infections; to increase access to care for those with HIV; and to reduce HIV-related health disparities. “Our country is at a crossroads. Right now we are experiencing a domestic epidemic that demands a renewed commitment, increased public attention and leadership,” Obama said in the preamble to the new national strategy.

Obama said that countless Americans had devoted their lives to fighting HIV/AIDS and that successful prevention efforts had averted more than 350,000 new infections in the United States. “This moment represents an opportunity for our nation. Now is the time to build on and refocus our existing efforts to deliver better results for the American people.”

The new strategy recognizes the tight fiscal straitjacket under which the administration is operating, after the worst financial crisis in decades. It does not lay out an increase on the current 19 billion dollars a year the government spends to fight HIV/AIDS within the United States.

Rather, the strategy states that better results should be possible to achieve within existing funding levels and says the case for additional investments where they are required should be highlighted.

Obama will on Tuesday discuss the new strategy at a White House reception honoring members of the HIV/AIDS community while his top health officials will also provide details.

The new strategy, laying out the philosophical grounding for the fight against AIDS, will be accompanied by a Federal Implementation Strategy.

The strategy is designed to intensify HIV prevention efforts in most at risk communities, including gay and bisexual men, African American men and women, the Latino community, addicts and drug users. It also envisages improving the education of all Americans about HIV/AIDS and how to prevent the spread of the disease.

The administration also plans to use the new Obama health care reform plan passed this year as a platform for expanding treatment of HIV/AIDS for the most vulnerable communities.

Obama announced in October that his administration would end a ban on people with HIV/AIDS traveling to the United States, which rights groups had branded discriminatory and harmful.

The measure came into force in January.

The United States has also contributed tens of billions of dollars for HIV/AIDS relief around the world, with the President’s Plan for Emergency AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) — one of the most lauded legacy achievements of former president George W. Bush.

Washington, July 12, 2010 (AFP)

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At least four consortiums made up of private Chinese investors have approached US insurance giant AIG to acquire its Asian unit AIA, a Hong Kong newspaper reported Tuesday.

The investors approached American International Group and the US Treasury Department shortly after Britain’s Prudential aborted a plan to take over AIA in June when its shareholders balked at the 35.5 billion US dollar cost, the South China Morning Post reported.

It sid all the mainland investors involved indicated they had strong backing of Chinese insurers or banks. It said one of the consortiums is led by Shan Weijian, chairman of the large Asian investment firm Pacific Alliance Group.

Another consortium is led by Zhang Songqiao, chairman of Hong Kong-based property group CC Land Holdings. Zhang is also a major shareholder in Hong Kong-based China Strategic Holdings, the report said.

The third consortium is led by Guo Guangchang, chairman of Shanghai-based Fosun Group, a large non-state-owned investment conglomerate, according to the newspaper. The fourth is a group of Hong Kong and Taiwanese investors.

Analysts were baffled at why so many private Chinese investors were eyeing the AIA bid, the Post said. Some speculated that the central government would be forced to make a decision soon on whether it wanted to back one of the four consortiums or use a new investment vehicle.

“The AIA business has standing in Asia. As Chinese insurers are expanding and banks have the ambition to develop insurance business, AIA is a suitable target,” Wang Xujin, a professor at Beijing Technology and Business School, told the newspaper.

In May, Prudential took out secondary listings in Hong Kong and Singapore to woo Asian investors ahead of a planned issue of shares designed to raise 21 billion US dollars to help fund the now-aborted AIA takeover. The huge transaction would have been the biggest-ever takeover in the insurance sector.

Hong Kong, July 13, 2010 (AFP)

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Aon Corp, the world’s largest insurance brokerage, said Monday it will buy Hewitt Associates Inc for $4.9 billion in cash and stock to create the world’s largest human resources company.

With Hewitt, Aon will get a firm foothold in human resource and benefits outsourcing and take on rival insurance broker Marsh and McLennan’s Mercer unit. The deal, the second major transaction in the consultancy space in a year, surpasses the $4 billion merger of Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt, which created the world’s largest HR consultants when it closed in January 2010.

Aon shares fell 7 percent to $35.57 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Stifel, Nicolaus & Co analyst Meyer Shields said Aon’s shares were undervalued relative to peers, so using stock to buy Hewitt was a negative.

“Deals of this size almost always invoke significant distractions for management,” Shields added in a research note. Aon’s offer of $50 a share — $25.61 in cash and 0.6362 in Aon stock — is 41 percent above Hewitt’s closing stock price on Friday. Hewitt shares were up 33.6 percent to $47.30 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Aon plans to integrate Hewitt with its existing consulting and outsourcing operations and sees annual revenue of $4.3 billion. The combined unit will be named Aon Hewitt and will be headed by Russ Fradin, chairman and chief executive officer of Hewitt. Fradin will report to Greg Case, chief executive of Aon. Aon expects the deal to add to 2011 and 2012 earnings and generate $355 million in annual cost savings in 2013, primarily from reduction in back-office areas.

The purchase price reflects a multiple of about 7.5 times Hewitt’s fiscal 2010 consensus estimate for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The deal is expected to close by mid-November. Aon has financing commitments from Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley for a three-year $1 billion bank term loan and a $1.5 billion bridge loan facility.

Credit Suisse acted as financial adviser to Aon, and Sidley Austin LLP is serving as legal counsel. Citigroup Global Markets served as exclusive financial adviser to Hewitt, and Debevoise & Plimpton LLP and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP are serving as legal counsel.

New York, July 12, 2010 (Reuters)

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