US Panel Recommends Approval of Drug to avoid HIV

The recommendation by a U.S government-funded panel of doctors and scientists that healthy people must be capable of use an AIDS drug to forestall contracting the HIV virus has many advocates hoping the U.S. goal of an “AIDS-free generation” may very well be more within sight. The possibly life-saving effects of the prophylactic use of Truvada are within the spotlight.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration held a marathon 12-hour hearing Thursday to judge evidence that Truvada, a once-daily pill currently getting used to regard AIDS patients, also can be used to stop HIV infection in healthy individuals.

A panel of independent health workers voted overwhelmingly to back Truvada's use to avoid HIV and urged the FDA to approve the drug to be used by people who find themselves considered to be at a high risk for contracting the disease.

“Using Truvada or pre-exposure prophylaxis, to forestall acquiring HIV, for an HIV negative person is a game changer, and it's something that i feel is actually going to take us to the subsequent level," said Kali Lindsey, who's with the National Minority AIDS Council.


New drug provides hope

Some critics have said Truvada could give people a false sense of confidence and bring about a discounted use of condoms. But HIV educator Brad Miller believes approval of the drug will actually promote a dialogue on condom usage.

“They'll know more about their health and what they could do to give protection to their health, versus being told what to do about their health,” said Miller.

Lisa and her husband, Tracy, who's HIV positive, make up one of the vital estimated 140,000 couples within the U.S. with mis-matching HIV statuses.

“This woman cared more about me than what i used to be infected with. Since the average person around here once they hear it, would go running the other way," said Tracy.

Lisa chose to not cut ties, but instead to tie the knot [get married], and likewise to check out Truvada.

“I wish to remain healthy, in order that within the times of his need, that i am there to aid. So when PrEP came along I jumped on the idea," said Lisa.

Optimism among advocates, users

PrEP refers to pre-exposure prophylaxis, and Tracy is a robust supporter.

“PrEP helps, it does. i feel that's probably the most positive things they may have give you, besides their research of ways to combat the disease," said Tracy.

Currently wait-listed for an ordeal where she would receive free PrEP drugs, Lisa worries concerning the cost - as high as $1,500 per 30 days.

“I just hope that they approve the PrEP, in order that many others which are living within the situation that i am living in could have this resource available to them,” she said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is not very required to follow the panel's recommendation on Truvada, but FDA officials concluded the high-profile session by saying more need to be done to avoid more HIV infections from occurring.

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Renowned News Photographer Horst Faas Dies

Two-time Pulitzer-prize-winning German photographer Horst Faas, known for his Vietnam War coverage, has died. He was 79 years old. Faas died Thursday in Munich, where he have been hospitalized since February.

He covered the Vietnam War from 1962 to 1974 and won a Pulitzer award in 1965 for his war photography. He won a second Pulitzer in 1972 for his coverage of the conflict in Bangladesh.

A native of Germany, Faas joined the Associated Press in 1956. As chief of photo operations for the U.S.-based news agency in Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City, Faas decided in 1972 to release the controversial picture of a badly burned, naked little Vietnamese girl fleeing an aerial napalm attack down a road. The photo was taken by Huynh Cong Ut and in addition won a Pulitzer.

Faas fell ill in Hanoi in 2005 and have become paralyzed from the waist down. His health started to seriously deteriorate in late 2008, and was in Munich for treatment.

Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.

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India\'s Softer Tax Stance Fails to Placate Foreign Investors

India has softened recent controversial tax measures that had rattled foreign companies, but this has not gone far enough to placate overseas investors. Business confidence in Asia's third largest economy has taken a success.

For weeks, foreign investors had pressed India to reconsider a suggestion to retroactively tax foreign companies which have bought an Indian asset overseas.  Parliament passed the law this week after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said he couldn't let India become a tax haven.

The government says the brand new tax rules are aimed at  "tax evasion" by foreign companies, which regularly route their investments in India through tax friendly countries like Mauritius.  

Investors say they face the chance of large bills that they had not anticipated since the new law can be utilized against transactions from as early as 1962. The corporate immediately affected is Vodafone. It will possibly face demands to pay greater than $2.2 billion in taxes from its takeover in 2007 of a telecom company, although the Indian Supreme Court ruled it was not prone to pay the tax.   

However, Indian authorities stepped back on a separate rule that may even have brought about higher tax liabilities for foreign investors in India's stock markets. They said its implementation could be deferred by a year.

In recent weeks, concerns over the proposed law had led some foreign funds to withdraw investments from India, costing the rustic billions of greenbacks.

However, analysts say the government's moves won't have done enough to restore confidence in India as a pretty investment destination.

A. Prasanna, an economist at ICICI Securities in Mumbai, says India's economy have been losing its sheen as growth slides to around seven percent.  “I don't believe anyone should question the intent of the govt. But i believe the quick term problem or the medium term problem that continues to persist, essentially is that reforms aren't moving forward and the investment climate has worsened," Prasanna stated. "That apart, there's a general sense of drift in policy making which has definitely contributed to this problem.”

Officials say India remains attractive for investors as it is a growing economy with a big middle class population. They are saying investment decisions are according to the dimensions of the market and won't be impacted by the hot tax laws.

But analysts aren't so sure. They mention that there are not any signs of a fast economic revival because the government had hoped. The national currency, the rupee, has plunged by nearly 16 percent against the dollar within the last year. And the newest data indicates that industrial output - a key economic indicator - fell 3.5 percent in March from a year ago by means of weak domestic demand and investment.

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Blind Chinese Activist \'Happy\' With Beijing\'s Handling of Case

Blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng says he's pleased with the Chinese government's handling of his case, despite his confinement in a Beijing hospital and the reported detention of his relatives.

Chen, an outspoken human rights activist often critical of the govt., was measured in his comments during an interview Friday with VOA's Mandarin television program, Pro & Con.

“To the Chinese government, i'm very pleased with the cool-headedness and reticence with which they've handled this situation,” he said. “I hope the Chinese government, especially the central government, can continue to take steps towards further emancipating their minds, deepen reforms, and higher address social injustices.”

If that occurs, Chen said, he believes Beijing could gain the trust of the folks.

Chen have been recuperating within the Chaoyang hospital since leaving the U.S. Embassy, where he took refuge last month after breaking free from local security forces imprisoning him and his family at their Shandong province home.

Chen says police at the moment are blocking hospital visits by friends, relatives and U.S. diplomats. The self-taught lawyer, who fell out of the favor of local authorities after protesting forced abortions and sterilizations, is awaiting a visa from Beijing to review within the U . s . a ..

Chen told VOA if he moves to the us, he desires to live in peace. REUTERSChen Guangcheng on the U.S. embassy in Beijing, May 2, 2012.“I'd similar to to mainly rest for some time, then supplement my very own knowledge,” he said. “It's already been greater than seven years i have not had a single weekend without tension. So really it's these two things that i'm hoping i will do.”

Chen says he suffered torture by the hands of Chinese security forces who turned his home right into a virtual prison, with security cameras, covered windows and plainclothes policemen patrolling the line to his house.

Since Chen's escape, his brother and sister-in-law reportedly has been detained, and Chen's lawyers say his nephew is facing “intentional homicide” charges for attacking intruders who entered his home looking for Chen.

The activist told VOA he last spoke with Chinese authorities on Monday, and they reaffirmed a pledge to research what he called the “illegal happenings” in Shandong.

“The important thing is they will handle the case publically based on Chinese law - they expressed this very clearly.  But they haven't clearly said when this can begin,” he said.

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Charles Taylor\'s Lawyers Say Proposed Sentence is Vindictive

Lawyers for Charles Taylor are protesting the 80-year jail sentence being sought by prosecutors after Taylor's conviction for crimes against humanity.

Taylor's attorneys on Friday filed documents saying the proposed sentence is "vindictive" and places an excessive amount of of the blame for Sierra Leone's wartime atrocities at the former Liberian president.  

The former president's sentence is because of be set May 30.

Last month, the U.N.-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone found Taylor guilty on 11 counts of crimes against humanity, including acts of terrorism, murder, and rape.

Prosecutors said Taylor masterminded Sierra Leone's civil war within the 1990s, arming and assisting rebels in exchange for "blood diamonds" mined in eastern Sierra Leone.

The court found Taylor didn't have command and control of the rebels, but was aware about their activities and provided them with weapons and other supplies.

Taylor was arrested and handed over to the court in 2006, three years after his indictment and subsequent resignation as president.  

The trial, which opened in 2007, was transferred from Freetown to The Hague amid regional security concerns.

The tribunal was established to attempt essentially the most serious cases of war crimes rising from the Sierra Leone conflict.  The Taylor case is predicted to be the court's last major trial.

Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

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JP Morgan Losses Bolster Case for brand new Financial Regulations

Banks stocks took an incredible hit Friday after JP Morgan Chase and corporate reported a $2-billion loss on a fancy trading strategy that went bad. The bank's disclosure is renewing debate over the necessity for tougher financial regulations.

It's one of many world's biggest investment banks, and its CEO is likely one of the harshest critics of presidency efforts to rein in risky financial bets. But in a late night conference call to shareholders, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon told investors the bank could have taken too big a risk.

“We are reducing that hedge, but in hindsight, the brand new strategy was flawed, complex, poorly reviewed, poorly executed and poorly monitored," said Dimon.

Dimon blamed the $2-billion loss on a posh trading scheme that was designed, ironically, to assist manage the bank's credit risks. Instead, the trading blunder bolstered the argument that gigantic banks can not be trusted to address risks on their lonesome.

"Well, as he [Dimon] said himself, there's egg on his face [he's embarrassed] and it does play okay, as he says, into the pundits who've been advocating the Volcker rule and likewise the scenario of being too big to fail," said CMC Markets analyst Brenda Kelly.

The Volcker rule is called after former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. It'd restrict the largest U.S. banks from making risky investments that don't benefit bank customers. Volcker said such trades involving credit default swaps and other derivatives played a key role within the financial crisis of 2008.

"It was elements of a casino, a extremely complex casino with all types of inter-dependencies.  And when it came stressed, not only from credit default swaps but otherwise, when the system came stressed - it collapsed," said Volcker.

JP Morgan has warned investors to expect additional losses - sending a shiver through Wall Street. JP Morgan stock lost greater than 8 per cent of its value. Other financial stocks also suffered big declines.

Analysts fear the scandal will impact regulations not only within the U.S., but everywhere.

"Just because it will within the U.S. and inside the eurozone, Asia is simply not spared this push down the trail of greater, tighter regulations," said Tim Condon, who's head of Asia research at ING Financial Markets.

In a press release Friday, U.S. Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, who have been pushing for brand spanking new banking rules, said the bank's losses were "a stark reminder of the necessity for regulators to determine tough, effective standards."

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Ruling Party Wins Big in Algerian Elections

Algeria on Friday declared its ruling party the winner of a parliamentary election.   

Interior Minister Daho Ould Kablia announced the winners from Thursday's vote, saying that the country's Constitutional Council would have 10 days to officially ratify the consequences.

He says that the country's ruling National Liberation Front won 220 seats. An alliance of moderate Islamists claimed 66 seats and disputed the outcomes.

The National Alliance Party party of Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia claimed second place with 68 seats, the golf green Alliance won 48, the Socialists won 21, and the Worker's Party won 20.

Kabila said voter turnout was 44 percent, in comparison to a record low turnout of 37 percent within the 2007 elections. He said the elections went relatively smoothly aside from "several small incidents or verbal disputes" that were "resolved quickly."

But Islamic parties said there has been "widespread fraud."

About 1/2 the 44 political parties that competed were legalized this year. a far better Islamist victory, in Algeria's first elections because the Arab Spring, would have echoed trends in Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt.

Opposition activists citing ongoing distrust of promised government reforms had urged voters to stick clear of the polls.

Despite the fraud claims, the top of a team of European Union election monitors, Jose Ignacio Salafranca, said that there have been few irregularities.

He says that voting generally happened under satisfactory conditions and that observers were present at both the outlet and shutting of polling stations. He said polling places were generally well-equipped and that polling workers were well-prepared..

One woman who voted within the capital Algiers, however, complained that there have been lots of glitches and that she came away frustrated by the voting.

She complains that she had her voting card but wasn't capable of finding her name at the electoral roll. Nobody, she adds, was around to assist her resolve the issue.

Abu Jarah Sultani, who heads the Society for Peace Movement, said that the election was a chance for Algerians to create their very own "Arab Spring."

He says that the vote was a referendum at the Algerian reform movement and a possibility for Algerians to construct a future beginning within the voting booths.

While Islamists hoped for an easier showing, Khattar Abou Diab, who teaches political science on the University of Paris, said it was probably not.

He said that for the foremost part Islamic fundamentalist parties aren't going to ride a tidal wave to power as they did in Tunisia and Morocco, because they're seriously divided. He adds that even supposing they'd made a far better showing, they might were forced to form alliances with two more conservative parties.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has announced a chain of constitutional reforms after pro-democracy protests erupted last year. The hot parliament will vote on proposed constitutional changes and lay the groundwork for presidential elections in 2014.

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