Monday, April 27, 2009

Swine flu fears prompt quarantine plans, pork bans

By FRANK JORDANS, Associated Press Writer Frank Jordans, Associated Press Writer – Sun Apr 26, 7:59 pm ET
GENEVA – Canada became the third country to confirm human cases of swine flu Sunday as global health officials considered whether to raise the global pandemic alert level.
Nations from New Zealand to Spain also reported suspected cases, and some warned citizens against travel to North America while others planned quarantines, tightened rules on pork imports and tested airline passengers for fevers.
The six Canadian cases in Nova Scotia and British Columbia all had links to people who had traveled to Mexico, and all are the same swine flu strain. The six people have recovered, said Dr. David Butler-Jones, Canada's chief public health officer.
But "these are probably not the last cases we'll see in Canada," he said.
The news follows the World Health Organization's decision Saturday to declare the outbreak first detected in Mexico and the United States a "public health emergency of international concern."
A senior World Health Organization official said the agency's emergency committee will meet for a second time Tuesday to examine the spread of the virus before deciding whether to increase the alert for a possible pandemic, or global epidemic.
The same strain of the A/H1N1 swine flu virus has been detected in several locations in Mexico and the United States, and it appears to be spreading directly from human to human, said Keiji Fukuda, WHO's assistant director-general in charge of health security.
Mexico's health minister says the disease has killed up to 86 people and likely sickened up to 1,400 since April 13. U.S. officials say the virus has been found in New York, California, Texas, Kansas and Ohio, but no fatalities have been reported.
Governments including China, Russia and Taiwan began planning to put anyone with symptoms of the deadly virus under quarantine.
Others were increasing their screening of pigs and pork imports from the Americas or banning them outright despite health officials' reassurances that it was safe to eat thoroughly cooked pork.
Some nations issued travel warnings for Mexico and the United States
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Saturday, April 18, 2009

US-POLITICS Summary

Reuters Friday, April 17, 2009; 11:04 PM
Obama reaches out to Cuba in new pitch to Americas
PORT OF SPAIN (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama pledged on Friday to seek a "new beginning" in ties with communist-ruled Cuba as part of a new era of U.S. partnership and engagement with Latin America and the Caribbean. Before addressing his counterparts in the hemisphere at the Fifth Summit of the Americas in Trinidad, Obama also initiated a handshake with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, one of Washington's most virulent critics in the region.


Clinton says U.S. welcomes Cuba's "overtures"
SANTO DOMINGO (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday that Washington welcomed "overtures" from Cuban President Raul Castro, hours after he said his country was open for talks with the United States about "everything." "We have seen Raul Castro's comments and we welcome his overtures," Clinton told reporters in the Dominican Republic.


Obama stands next to Mexico in war on drugs
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - President Barack Obama stood alongside Mexico's Felipe Calderon on Thursday and promised to help his "courageous" fight against ruthless drug cartels waging turf wars along the joint border. In his first trip to Latin America as U.S. president and fresh from his first big foray onto the global stage in Europe last month, Obama said Mexico and the United States both needed to strengthen and coordinate their drug war efforts.

From washingtonpost.com

Monday, April 06, 2009

Boon for tenants bane for landlords

BY Barbara Ross DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Sunday, April 5th 2009, 4:00 AM


More than 300,000 New York tenants could reap the rewards of a major court ruling that bars landlords who got special tax breaks from pushing apartments out of rent control.
The ruling found thousands of tenants have been overpaying for years and may be entitled to huge refunds.
Landlords, who are appealing the case, worry that if the ruling stands, they could face bankruptcy while shelling out refunds and lowering rents.


The ruling is rippling across major apartment complexes citywide from the Riverton Houses in Harlem to Peter Cooper/Stuyvesant Town below midtown.
The exact figure is not known, but officials estimate 350,000 rent stabilized units exist in developments that get tax breaks called J-51.
Those breaks, meant to encourage landlords to pay for necessary repairs, have been in effect for 54 years. Officals estimate that tens of thousands of such units have been deregulated.
Since 2005, tenants of Independence Plaza in Tribeca have battled in court to overturn rent hikes after discovering their landlord was receiving those tax breaks.
In that time, senior citizens like Elizabeth and David Harris watched the rent on their one-bedroom rise steadily. When they recently began receiving Social Security checks, the added income pushed them out of eligibility for a housing subsidy.
"It was frightening. I thought I was going to be out in the street," Elizabeth Harris, 84, said.

"Overnight, it went up by $800 a month. We weren't qualified for anything. I felt so terrible that I couldn't pay my rent," said David Harris, 70.
After the Daily News made calls, the owner, Larry Gluck, agreed to return the elderly couple to rent control-level payments.
But thousands of other tenants in similar circumstances across the city must wait to see if the recent decision stands.
Joseph Strasburg, president of the landlord group, the Rent Stabilization Association, called the ruling "a seismic and unprecedented shift in the New York rent regulatory landscape."
The unanimous March 5 decision by the Manhattan Appellate Division directly involves tenants living in 4,400 deregulated apartments in Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town.
Owner Tishman Speyer Properties L.P. and deregulated tenants there have agreed to put all extra rent they pay above the stabilized level into an escrow account until the appeal is resolved.

If the ruling survives, Tishman Speyer will have to roll back rents for deregulated tenants, refund some $200 million in rent overcharges, and abandon plans to deregulate thousands more apartments until the tax abatements expire.
As word of the ruling spreads, tenants and landlords across the city have started calling around to ask what it means for them.
"People are very worried. They're concerned about potential overcharge liabilities, foreclosure," said RSA general counsel Mitch Posilkin.
The RSA tells landlords to "consult with their own attorneys, take stock of potential exposure" and consider following the Tishman Speyer plan of putting excess rents into escrow accounts.
Meanwhile, a group of 15 city and state lawmakers urged the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal to notify every tenant in a tax break building of the court decision.
And they urged the agency to temporarily freeze all applications to deregulate more rent stabilized apartments when rents reach $2,000 and household income is $175,000 or more.


"Tenants may lose their homes because they don't know the ramifications of this," state Sen. Tom Duane (D-Manhattan) said. "It's DHCR's responsibility to protect the rights of tenants, not just landlords."
The RSA's Posilkin called the ruling "an enormous Pandora's box" and said that if owners must roll back rents and reimburse tenants, he said, the city's housing stock will deteriorate and its tax revenues will drop.
The case returns to the Appellate Division, which will decide whether it can move to the highest court, the Court of Appeals