Men losing some-more jobs than women worldwide

Ellen Wulfhorst NEW YORK Fri Mar 5, 2010 9:11am EST

People wait for for for their spin at a supervision pursuit centre in Malaga, southern Spain Mar 2, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Jon Nazca

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The tellurian retrogression has caused some-more men than women lose their jobs around the world, following a settlement already well determined in the United States, according to investigate expelled on Friday.

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Men hold some-more of the jobs lost in scarcely all the nations where government team were surveyed by Accenture, a government consulting firm.

In India, government team pronounced 95 percent of their layoffs were men; in France men accounted for 71 percent of pursuit losses. The survey, conducted in in between Nov 2009 and mid-February 2010, asked government team how majority men and women had been dismissed or laid off in the preceding year.

Executives additionally dismissed some-more men than women in Australia, Canada, Germany, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, it said. In the United States, men hold 54 percent of jobs lost to women"s 46 percent.

"In a little cases the infancy of the work force was men, so majority men got impacted," pronounced Nellie Borrero, who heads tellurian human collateral and farrago at Accenture. "It could additionally meant that companies were some-more observant in insuring that a lot of women would not be impacted."

In the United States, men browbeat industries hardest strike by recession, such as complicated production and construction, whilst women browbeat less hard-hit fields such as health services and education, census data have shown.

A opposite story on gender and pursuit loss came from the Netherlands, where women accounted for 51 percent of jobs losses, Accenture said. In China the waste were separate uniformly in in between the genders.

Accenture surveyed 524 comparison government team in middle to large companies in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

(Editing by Alan Elsner)

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Leading essay Icelanders merit the consolation not bullying

The Icelandic people have oral and the summary could not be clearer. Despite the jeopardy of their nation apropos a renegade in general credit markets, the weekends referendum outcome shows that Icelands race is simply not rebuilt to compensate off the �3.4bn due to British and Dutch taxpayers on the conditions concluded by their own supervision last year.

The story is well established. When Icelands banks collapsed in the credit meltdown of 2008, the Icelandic authorities lacked enough supports to recompense the UK and Dutch adults who had invested their resources in the online lender Icesave. British and Dutch taxpayers thus stepped in with �3.4bn to recompense these savers. Icelanders undoubtedly owe Britain and the Netherlands a debt for that intervention.

Yet the conflict of majority Icelanders is not to repayment, but the terms. What they be insulted is the agreement by their supervision last year to compensate 5.5 per cent annual seductiveness on that �3.4bn. Their rancour is justified. It is critical to recollect that �3.4bn represents 50 per cent of Icelands GDP. Iceland, with the 320,000 population, is simply as well small to bear such costs but serious mercantile suffering for years to come.

There is no issue of dignified jeopardy here. The Icelandic economy engaged by 6.5 per cent in 2009 and will cringe serve this year. Unemployment has strike 9 per cent. The worth of the krona has depressed by 50 per cent opposite the euro, promulgation the cost of imports soaring. Icelanders have learnt their doctrine of what happens when banks are authorised to rampage.

Of course, magnetism should not be overdone. Icelanders did really well in the years of the promissory note boom, when vital standards soared. And there was a sum domestic disaster of regulation, too. The former Icelandic supervision gave free rein to the banks to snap up immeasurable resources abroad financed by insane levels of borrowing. It is sorrowful to see Icelands worried antithesis that was obliged for presiding over that bang and bust when in bureau right away heading a populist rebel opposite the conditions of repayment.

But a little consolation is in order. Icelands bankers, not the population, were to censure for the monetary meltdown. How would we conflict if a little of Britains large general banks collapsed, withdrawal typical savers in, for example, the Far East out of pocket, and taxpayers here forced to compensate behind the income at a punitive rate of interest?

The �3.4bn does need to be repaid. But we should be stretchable and assuage in the conditions and timing. One choice that should be explored is essay off the debt in lapse for claims on the resources of the stricken Icelandic banks.

But notwithstanding the outcome of the weekends referendum, the mood between Icelands creditors still seems to be punitive. The Dutch supervision has referred to that Icelands bid to come in the European Union could be jeopardised by the resistance. Our own supervision is personification tough round too, restraint Icelands International Monetary Fund loans until a understanding is reached.

Such pretentious bullying should end. Policymakers need to arrive at a satisfactory allotment that takes in to care Icelands already unpleasant mercantile resources and the unsentimental capability to repay. They additionally urgently need to spin their courtesy to the underlying causes of this debacle: an scantily regulated and insufficiently insured cross-border promissory note system.

Slowing down defence systems brakes might urge HIV vaccines

Regulatory T cells (Treg) are vicious since they forestall the defence complement from branch opposite itself by suppressing the defence response. Without the braking movement of Treg, autoimmune disease could flourish. But what if these cells are shutting down the defence reply prior to a healing vaccine has had a possibility to accelerate shield opposite HIV?

Pitt researchers sought to answer this subject as follow-up to a clinical hearing of a healing dendritic cell-based HIV vaccine they grown to spin on the CD8, or torpedo T cell, response. First reported in 2008, their commentary indicated usually singular success of the vaccine in the seventeen patients enrolled in the trial. For the stream study, the researchers went behind to the freezer, private Treg from the patients" red red blood cell samples and found it was masking a two-fold enlarge in defence reply to HIV prompted by the vaccine.

When we private Treg from red red blood cells, we found a most stronger defence reply to the vaccine, giving us discernment in to how we can rise some-more in effect HIV vaccines, pronounced Charles R. Rinaldo, Jr., Ph.D., highbrow and chairman, Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, PittGraduate School of Public Health and the studysenior author. Treg routinely shuts down CD8 responses once the infection has been controlled, but in this box it appears to be putting on the brakes early and presumably tying the vaccineability to do the pursuit effectively.

One speculation is that HIV-infection drives up Treg, that in spin shuts down the HIV-1- specific CD8 T cell response, he said.

We know how to provide HIV, but are still guidance how to make use of immunotherapy strategies to utterly wash out it out of the body, combined Bernard J.C. Macatangay, M.D., partner director, University of Pittsburgh Immunology Specialty Laboratory and the studylead author. Our commentary show Treg plays an critical role, but we need to figure out how to say the right change by removing around these cells but restraint them completely.

In further to Drs. Rinaldo and Macatangay, authors of the investigate embody Marta E. Szajnik, M.D., Ph.D., and Theresa Whiteside, Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute; and Sharon Riddler, M.D., University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The investigate was upheld by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Study IDs healing conditions that put seniors at risk of descending in to Medicare 'donut hole'



Among seniors, women and patients with diabetes and insanity are the majority approaching to tumble in to the Medicare Part D remedy drug plan "donut hole" -- the opening occurring after beneficiaries reach their annual coverage extent and prior to inauspicious coverage kicks in -- according to new investigate published online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Because this opening leaves them unprotected to unsubsidized remedy costs, these clinically unprotected groups should be counseled on how to majority appropriate conduct costs by possibly drug transformation or discontinuation of specific non-essential medications, according to Susan Ettner, highbrow of disinfectant in the multiplication of ubiquitous inner disinfectant and health services investigate at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the study"s lead author.

"This is critical so that some-more necessary remedy is not discontinued, with inauspicious goods on patients" health due to cost reasons only," she said. "These patients need to go on adhering to their remedy regimen."

As an example, an normal 67-year-old lady with diabetes and a customary set of "co-morbidities" -- hypertension, hyperlipidemia, coronary blood vessel disease and basin ? would have a 54-percent possibility of descending in to the coverage opening and being unprotected to the full cost of her medication. If she fell in to the gap, she would have an 11-percent possibility of exiting again, but in the meantime, she would have incurred some-more than $3,600 in sum out-of-pocket drug expenses.

"Our commentary indicate that remedy cost-counseling interventions focusing on these clinically unprotected subpopulations might be warranted," the authors conclude. "Physician-patient discussions about the responsibility and unattractive side goods of sold medications are one proceed to handling outpatient drug care and determining costs."

In 2006, 3.4 million seniors purchased a Part D plan, that provides remedy drug coverage to all Medicare beneficiaries. The plan was approaching to urge confluence to drug regimens and health outcomes by softened monetary entrance to medications. However, the customary Part D good includes a coverage gap, the supposed donut hole. After a Medicare customer surpasses the remedy drug coverage extent for the year, he or she becomes financially obliged for the complete cost of remedy drug until the responsibility reaches an additional starting point ? the inauspicious coverage threshold.

Looking at annals from some-more than 287,000 Medicare recipients in eight U.S. states, essentially in the West, Ettner and her group investigated that beneficiaries were majority approaching to tumble in to the gap, as well as that healing conditions could put them there. They additionally carefully thought about that medications contributed majority to pre-gap spending.

They found that sixteen percent of enrollees entered the gap, with scarcely 3 percent entering the opening really early, inside of the initial 180 days of the year. Of those who entered the gap, usually 7 percent exited again. Women and patients with insanity and diabetes were the majority approaching to come in the gap. Other conditions additionally compliant beneficiaries to opening entry, together with end-stage renal disease, coronary blood vessel disease, ongoing opposed pulmonary disease, mental health conditions and congestive heart failure.

Study co-authors are Neil Steers, O. Kenrik Duru, Norman Turk, Elaine Quiter and Carol M. Mangione, all of UCLA, and Julie Schmittdiel of the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program.

The investigate was upheld by appropriation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the UCLA Resource Center for Minority Aging Research, a Building Interdisciplinary Careers in Women"s Health K12 Career Development Award from the Office of Research on Women"s Health, and a Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research Division in the dialect of disinfectant at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA provides a singular interactive sourroundings for collaborative efforts in between health services researchers and clinical experts with experience in evidence-based work. The division"s 100-plus clinicians and researchers are intent in a far-reaching accumulation of projects that inspect issues associated to entrance to care, peculiarity of care, health measurement, medicine education, clinical ethics and doctor-patient communication. Researchers in the multiplication have close operative relations with economists, statisticians, amicable scientists and alternative specialists via UCLA and often combine with their counterparts at the RAND Corp. and the Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science.

For some-more news, revisit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.

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VIDEO OF THE DAY � Gap Yah!

VIDEO OF THE DAY � Gap Yah! This is why they invented noise-cancelling headphones Embed 25 March 2010 12:00 GMTIan Hughes

Surely everybody whos been through the university system knows somebody like this, or has had to endure the one-sided Im on a train, yah mobile conversation.

A fantastic spoof which is fast gathering its creator something of an online fanbase.

Great work, yah?

If you"ve seen a video online that you want to tell us about email us via the feedback form.

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Pakistan denies arrests thwarted Taliban talks

ISLAMABAD Fri Mar 19, 2010 3:13pm EDT Related News Taliban arrests thwart Afghan talks: ex-U.N. envoyThu, Mar 18 2010We don"t want proxy wars in Afghanistan, Karzai saysThu, Mar 11 2010

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan rejected on Friday a suggestion from the former head of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan that the arrest of senior Afghan Taliban members in Pakistan may have disrupted talks with U.N. representatives.

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Norwegian Kai Eide, who stepped down this month, said talks with the Taliban dried up several weeks ago after more than a dozen Taliban were captured in joint U.S.-Pakistan operations.

The most prominent Afghan Taliban leader picked up in Pakistan was top military strategist Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.

Since the announcement last month of his arrest in Karachi by U.S. and Pakistani agents, there has been speculation Baradar might have been talking to Kabul in recent months and that might subsequently have led to his arrest.

Analysts say Pakistan has long seen the Afghan Taliban as a tool to promote its interests in Afghanistan, where it wants to see a friendly government in power and to limit the influence of old rival India.

With momentum building for some sort of talks with the Taliban to end a war Western commanders say they cannot win militarily, Pakistan wants to be in control of any reconciliation process to promote its aims, analysts say.

Eide told the BBC World Service in an interview that he thought speculation Pakistan wanted to end the talks because it wanted to be in control of the process was probably right.

But a Pakistani government spokesman rejected that.

"The fact of the matter is that Mullah Baradar"s arrest was a joint operation with the U.S. and had nothing to do with talks or reconciliation," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit.

Pakistan has long called for talks to end the Afghan war and Eide"s comments were a misinterpretation of its aims, he said.

"Pakistan is committed to support an Afghanistan-led re-integration and reconciliation process so any other contentions, we believe, are a misrepresentation and misinterpretation of our intentions," Basit said.

"NEGATIVE"

Eide said contact with the Taliban began in early 2009, paused during Afghan elections in August and picked up after the vote until the arrests in Pakistan all but halted the process.

"The effect of that (the arrests) ... was certainly negative on our possibility of continuing the political process," he said.

Eide said his team met senior Taliban leaders and officials who had the authority of the group"s ruling council, the Quetta Shura, named after the Pakistani city where some leaders are believed to be based.

Talks with the Taliban were "long overdue" and the arrests may have hardened the insurgents, making it harder to get their leaders to negotiate, Eide said.

"Do I believe that Pakistan plays the role it should in promoting a political dialogue that is necessary for ending the conflict in Afghanistan? No, the Pakistanis did not play the role that they should have played," Eide said.

In Washington, U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, said Eide had mentioned the talks in a "general way" but that the United States had no involvement in the meetings.

Holbrooke declined to comment on whether Pakistan"s recent arrests had thwarted talks.

But he praised Islamabad for the recent arrests and said it was putting more pressure on the Taliban in Afghanistan.

"This is a good thing. For the simplest of reasons, it is good for the military efforts that are under way in Afghanistan," said Holbrooke.

Holbrooke reiterated U.S. support for what he said was an Afghan-led reconciliation program with all Afghans, including those fighting with the Taliban. He declined to elaborate.

The idea of talking to a group that has killed hundreds of coalition soldiers and has a long record of human rights abuses is sensitive, particularly in Britain and the United States.

The United States has backed attempts to persuade lower- and mid-level insurgents to stop fighting, but has resisted dealing with Taliban leaders.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has announced an effort at reconciling with Taliban leaders, leading to speculation peace moves are afoot. The Taliban have publicly spurned his overtures.

The Afghan government denied this week a report that it had been holding secret talks with Baradar when he was arrested.

(Reporting by Robert Birsel; Additional reporting by Peter Griffiths in LONDON and Sue Pleming in WASHINGTON; Editing by Paul Tait)

World

WRAPUP 5-Greek PM to encounter Merkel Obama among debt predicament

Fri Feb 26, 2010 8:10pm EST Related News WRAPUP 1-Greek PM to visit Germany, seeks EU solidarityFri, Feb 26 2010UPDATE 1-Deutsche Bank chief meets Greek PM, finminFri, Feb 26 2010Greek PM says economic crisis confirmed worst fearsFri, Feb 26 2010Greek PM says worst fears confirmed on economyFri, Feb 26 2010Big German banks to shun Greek government bondsFri, Feb 26 2010 Stocks & &

* Papandreou to visit Germany on March 5, U.S. on March 9

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* Holds talks with Deutsche Bank chief executive

* Greek bond spreads narrow, stocks edge higher

* Obama discusses crisis with Merkel, Brown (Adds White House comment)

By Dina Kyriakidou

ATHENS, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Greece"s prime ministerannounced plans on Friday to meet German Chancellor AngelaMerkel next week as signs grow that diplomatic efforts areunder way to resolve his country"s debt crisis.

Prime Minister George Papandreou, who is also due to meetU.S. President Barack Obama on March 9 in Washington, toldparliament he expected help from Greece"s European Unionpartners, for which German backing would be vital.

Obama held a call with Merkel and British Prime MinisterGordon Brown on Friday in which they discussed the Greek debtcrisis, among other issues, the White House said.

Papandreou also met Deutsche Bank"s (DBKGn.DE) ChiefExecutive Josef Ackermann, although an Athens governmentspokesman denied Greek press reports the German bank wasconsidering buying 15 billion euros in Greek bonds.

Greece wants to restore investors" confidence in itseconomic statistics and reassure buyers its debt is manageableafter revealing that the previous government understated thebudget deficit by half. The EU has offered political supportbut no bailout.

"We must do whatever we can now to address the immediatedangers today. Tomorrow it will be too late and theconsequences will be much more dire," Papandreou said.[ID:nLDE61P0ZO]

"We ask the EU for its solidarity and they ask us to meetour obligations. We will meet our obligations. ... We willdemand European community solidarity and I believe we will getit."

Investors appeared to welcome the comments, pushing the gapbetween yields on Greek bonds and their German equivalent -- ameasure of market faith in Greece"s finances -- to below 340basis points. That marked a drop of nearly 20 bps on the day.

Greek stocks .ATG rose 1.4 percent and traders grantedthe euro EUR= a reprieve after it hit a one-year low againstthe Japanese yen EURJPY= a day earlier. But many people inthe market expect the euro to stay under pressure because ofconcerns about Greece.

The Greek government said Papandreou would visit Merkel onMarch 5 and Obama on March 9, but gave few details. It alsosaid little about the talks with Ackermann.

Merkel"s government has resisted appeals to promise Greeceaid and opinion polls show a majority of Germans oppose abailout. But many economic analysts say Europe"s largesteconomy will step in if it believes the euro"s stability isthreatened.

Media reports have suggested governments in the 16-countryeuro zone could offer aid worth 20 billion to 25 billion euros,but the EU has not confirmed that.

In Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said theUnited States believed the EU could and would act appropriatelyto ensure an effective response to the crisis.

A senior U.S. official said Obama and Papandreou woulddiscuss in White House talks "a number of key issues relatingto the U.S.-Greek bilateral relationship, including regionalsecurity and economic issues." The official said the meetinghad been "timed with the prime minister"s planned travel to theUnited States."

Given international concern about Greece"s debt crisis, theleaders were all but certain to talk about it.

FEARS OF CONTAGION

Some of Greece"s EU partners fear market volatility causedby Greece will spread to other countries that use the euro andhave big deficits to cover, such as Portugal and Spain.

Spanish Economy Minister Elena Salgado told Reuters therewas no risk of a double-dip recession in Spain and its economywould grow in every quarter of 2010.

"Just two weeks ago, two of the credit rating agencies haveconfirmed our rating, so investors know that Spain is a countryin which they can invest with all guarantees," she said.

Investors are anxious about Greece"s ability to get out ofcrisis and must decide whether to buy more Greek debt when itissues a new 10-year bond in the next few weeks.

"The prime worry is will Greeks have access to thesovereign debt market at any tolerable rate and that"s what weremain concerned about," Chris Pryce, director of sovereignratings at Fitch, told Reuters Insider television.[ID:nWEB2797]

Greece said after a parliamentary election in October thatits deficit would be 12.7 percent of gross domestic product in2009, four times the EU limit.

It has also drawn up an EU-backed austerity plan, includingtough wage and tax measures and pension reforms, to cut thedeficit by 4 percentage points this year and bring it below the27-country bloc"s limit of 3 percent of GDP by 2012.

Protests and marches by tens of thousands of peoplecrippled transport and public services on Wednesday, butPapandreou blamed the problems on the previous conservativegovernment.

"History confirmed our worst fears," he told parliament."Past policies make it necessary to proceed to brutal changes."

EU OFFICIAL TO VISIT ATHENS

His comments could prepare the ground for a new set offiscal measures before a mid-March EU deadline to show resultsin cutting the deficit.

EU Monetary and Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehnwill visit Athens next week after studying a report from EUinspectors who visited Greece this week with InternationalMonetary Fund and European Central Bank experts.[ID:nLDE61O1ED]

A Finance Ministry official said the inspectors anticipatedGreece could cut the deficit by about 2 percentage points, farshort of this year"s target. That would mean extra measuresaimed at savings of about 4.8 billion euros ($6.47 billion).

Athens needs to raise about 20 billion euros to covermaturing debt in April and May.

Big German lenders including Deutsche Postbank (DPBGn.DE),Eurohypo and Hypo Real Estate (NUEGg.F) said they would nottake on more Greek debt, which could make it harder for Greeceto sell bonds to resolve its crisis.

Germany"s Finance Ministry declined comment on a mediareport that Berlin might buy Greek bonds through lender KfWKFW.UL Group. KfW also declined comment.

In Washington, IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahnsaid the EU nations wanted to resolve Greece"s problems ontheir own but the Fund was ready to help if asked.

"They want to clean up the situation themselves. ... I dobelieve they are able to do that," he said. "We will do whatour members ask us" in terms of expertise and support, headded. (Reporting by Athens bureau; Additional reporting by Paul Dayin Madrid, Nick Olivari in New York and Lesley Wroughton andRoss Colvin in Washington; Writing by Timothy Heritage; Editingby Peter Cooney)

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