BAGHDAD, October 25 – The Iraqi citizens have approved the constitutional draft en masse. The referendum saw almost an unanimous approval by the Shiits and Kurds and only the Sunni population rejected it in majority making the total approval rate 79%.
The division between these population groups is telling for the situation in Iraq. Sunnis are the backbone of the Iraqi insurgents and are the ones attacking the democracy being built. The Shiite and Kurdish communities have embraced the constitutional draft as it was set up by them, it favors their position in the Iraqi public life after being dictated for the past few decades by Saddam Hussein. The Sunni population of course reject this because they are cut off from the profits of the rich oil fields which fall under control of the Shiites and Kurds now. Their fault was that they boycotted the elections earlier this year so they had no say in the constitutional draft and now at the referendum they did not have enough voting power to overturn the constitution.
Sunnis have announced extreme measures against the democracy now, they have even called upon the United Nations to intervene because there are mistreated. Most likely insurgent attacks will rise in the coming weeks trying to disrupt the democratic process.
WASHINGTON, October 24 – Today President Bush announced his nomination for the position of Federal Reserve Chairman: Ben Bernanke the Chairman of his Council of Economic Advisers. Bernanke has very big shoes to fill as current Chairman for an astonishing 18 years Alan Greenspan is leaving the position is a pretty sound manner. Although the economy has been better it is currently crawling back to the top and Greenspan has done an incredible job over the last few years becoming the true “body” of the Fed.
Bernanke has a tough time ahead for sure, although the economy is on the rise right now there are a few factors making this a rocky road ahead. The sky-high energy prices are one big issue and the natural disasters like Katrina, Rita and Wilma aren’t exactly helping. Inflation is on the rise too and it is likely that the soaring real estate market will crash in the near future too. With these prospects ahead Bernanke needs to establish his credentials early on market analysts say. Many believe he needs to be tough from the get-go on interest rates or he might not have enough credit to stay on the job.
However it will play out, Bernanke is not a man to envy right now. The enormous federal budget deficit, an incredible trade gap and a big shortage of national savings, he has his work cut out for him.
Makes you wonder
BASEL, October 23 – At least one clan of families must be rejoicing over the widespread panic for the avian influenza. Swiss-based drug firm Roche is the license holder to the anti-viral drug Tamiflu which is ordered by the millions by many governments right now.
Known to be the only anti-viral drug providing any success to combating the avian flu Tamiflu is now so in demand that the company cannot even produce enough to keep up with the orders. U.S. Republicans have already threatened with compulsory licensing of the drug recipe to generic manufacturers to boost the production rate considerably. Roche of course is withholding, trying to hold on to the immense revenue as long as possible.
Odd if you realize that Roche did not even invent Tamiflu, U.S. based pharmaceutical firm Gilead is responsible for this. Early on they signed an exclusive development and licensing agreement with Roche, a very profitable one for Roche as it turns out. With the current threats of a global pandemic the family behind this massive company is expected to net about $3 million extra by the end of 2006 simply because of increased revenue from Tamiflu orders.
Many competitors have tried to get their hands on Roche, Swiss rival Novartis holds about one third of the total shares but a merger is not negotiable, the owners are much too proud to allow this and they hold a 50.01% share in the company. It is expected that in the future the new generation of heirs might allow such a merger though, they almost have too to keep up with the U.S. giant Pfizer and U.K. giant GlaxoSmithKline.
When will disaster hit?
ZAGREB, October 22 – Europe continues to have trouble keeping the bird flu contained. This week Croatia was hit by the dreaded avian virus as swans were found dead near the local national park. The swans were tested positive for the H5 strain but they were unable to specify whether it is the H5N1 strain, samples have been sent to Britain for further research.
Meanwhile the country has begun culling thousands of birds in a perimeter around the national park. Bird owners and farmers look devastated as entire flocks of birds are killed to prevent further spread of the virus.
Saturday morning five more swans were found dead by the bird flu, near the same place the original swans were found dead. Authorities have urged to stay calm and not panic due to this recent outbreak.
In England a parrot was quarantined after it died by the effects of the bird flu. They are still researching if the strain is the H5N1 strain. The bird was imported from Suriname but the chief veterinary there claimed the bird was healthy before exporting it to Britain.
In Russia another outbreak occurred in the Ural region where previously hundreds of birds died by this virus. This weekend 30 more birds were found dead by the effect of the bird flu. Relieving news came from Thailand where a father and son were suspected to have infected each other but it has been proven that the source came from outside, probably infected poultry.
The question is why?
BAGHDAD, October 21 – Yesterday night about ten men dressed as security and military forces went into the office of the defense lawyer Saadoun Sughaiyer al-Janabi and took him by force, yet the man did not resist. Today he was found dead on a sidewalk in Baghdad with two gunshot wounds to the head. Strangely enough this laywer was on the defense of Saddam Hussein’s side at his trial yesterday. He is the lawyer of one of the other seven people being tried together with Saddam.
The question remains why he was targeted. It would not make sense for the Sunni insurgents to strike the defense side of Saddam. One reason could be that they are trying to disrupt the trial, but it was already postponed till late November. There are signs that the man has been tortured so perhaps he knew some very important information regarding the trial or the man he represented. Needless to say the other lawyers on this trial have urged for extra security measures and some have even asked to move the trial outside of Iraq where they would be safe.
In other news it has been reported that 19 U.S. soldiers have lost their lives in the past week. Four men were killed in an insurgent attack yesterday and last Saturday three Marines were struck by an explosive of some sort. This brings the total of U.S. military deaths to a staggering 1,992 since the beginning of the war in Iraq.
October 20 – The last few weeks have certainly brought much positive news on medicine breakthroughs and today is no exception. Studies published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine confirm what many have said earlier this year, breast cancer faces a new breakthrough. The drug Herceptin (working ingredient: trastuzumab) has proven to be a revolution in breast cancer cures.
Until now the drug was mostly used when breast cancer recurred or spread beyond the breast but this new study indicates that it’s better to start treatment early on in the stages of breast cancer to prevent actual recurrences and improve the rate of survival for certain types of aggressive cancers. The drug is extremely effective against cancers that have too much of the protein HER2/neu. These forms of cancer are very hard to treat because they do not respond well to chemotherapy or other cancer drugs. Herceptin has proven to cut recurrence rates in half and the survival rate for women with HER2-positive cancer have improved incredibly.
The study was performed on three groups of each almost 1,700 women, the first group received no Herceptin after chemotherapy, the second group received one year of treatment with Herceptin after chemotherapy and the last group received two years of treatment. So far the results of the first and second group differ greatly with survival rates almost double in the group with one year of Herceptin treatment. The group that receives two years of treatment has not finished yet but it is likely that results will be similar if not better.
