Brazzaville, Dr Congo (IRIN) – Health authorities in the Republic of Congo have recorded 340 cases of cholera, nine of them fatal, since June 2011, in the northern district of Likouala, and have warned that the disease continues to spread and that some health centers lack sufficient treatment.

“Some deaths have not been taken into account because the [deceased's] families have not reported them,” said Jean Martin Mabiala, the doctor in charge of health services in the district, adding that there were other suspected cases that had not been confirmed because of the remoteness of their locations.

He said the crew of a river boat from the Central African Republic had buried two people suspected to have died of cholera in early February.

The epidemic has struck a 500-kilometer radius area stretching from Betou to Liranga, which includes the department’s main town, Impofondo.

“We have received some medical supplies from Brazzaville but the cholera patients use so much we have almost run out,” said Mabiala.

“There is a lot to be done to raise awareness and disinfect houses,” he added.

Meanwhile, in Brazzaville, 200 cases of measles, including two fatalities, have been recorded over the past two weeks, according to the director-general in the health ministry, Alexis Elira Dokekias, who explained that not all children had been vaccinated against the disease.

Between December 2010 and June 2011, 800 cases of measles, including 32 fatalities, were recorded in the southern Pointe-Noire region, leading to a stepped-up immunization campaign.

lmm/am/mw

– Provided by Integrated Regional Information Networks.

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Damascus, Syria David Rosenberg / The Med – Syria’s turmoil is showing signs of reaching the country’s kitchens as disruptions in transportation and trade sanctions are conspiring to shrink supplies and boost prices at a time when harvests are constrained by poor weather.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has increased its estimate for Syria’s harvests slightly since it last officially published figures in October. But, Mario Zappacosta, economist at the FAO’s Global Information Early-Warning Systems (GIEWS), said the higher figure is unlikely to be enough to prevent a food crisis.

GIEWS now estimates the Syrian production of wheat and barley in the harvest that ended last August at about 4.2 million tons, which is up from slightly less than 4 million tons in its previous estimate. But that still leaves it below the average crop size of the previous five years. Worse still, getting the food to consumers is more difficult than ever as unrest snarls transportation and sanctions have raised the cost of fuel.

“We categorize it as a problem of access. Especially in urban areas that are affected by the security situation, it is very difficult to supply shops in the market. We can imagine a situation where there [farm] products are harvested and stored, but markets aren’t functioning,” Zappacosta told The Media Line.

Cereal crops provide the most important part of the Syrian diet and are the only ones monitored by GEIWS. But other foods, like fruits and vegetables, are even more likely to suffer from the transportation problem because they have such a short shelf life and cannot be stored for as long.

A food crisis would pose a significant challenge to the beleaguered regime of President Bashar Al-Assad, who is coping with international diplomatic and trade isolation, a contracting economy and an opposition more ready than in the past to use arms. The president has struggled to keep the economy afloat and Syrians content, raising deposit rates to support the currency and maintaining subsidies of basic goods at great cost to the treasury.

“All this is an indication to the business community that the Syrian government is floundering on how to cope with economic deterioration,” Ayesha Sabavala, an analyst who follows Syria for the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), told The Media Line. “A rapid decline in economy could also cause the army or people in the government to abandon support of Al-Assad. They might see support for him comes at too heavy a price.”

Some analysts say that the disruptions wrought by misguided farm policies and drought were a key factor in pushing Syrians into rebellion. The drought, which struck much of northern and eastern Syria after 2006, forced tens of thousands of farm families to migrate to camps on the outskirts of Syria’s cities in search of work.

The unrest, now in its 11th month, makes it difficult for aid workers and experts to fully assess the situation. GEIWS uses satellite images and uses estimates to arrive at its numbers for output and consumption, but like other organizations it has very little information about conditions inside the country.

Nevertheless, in its latest assessment of global food security, released Feb. 10, the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) put the number of people defined as “food insecure” at 1.4 million since March 2011, when the uprising began. Food insecurity is the most severe in “hotspots” like Homs, Hama, rural Damascus, Dera’a and Idlib, the WFP said.

The official Syrian SANA news agency said two weeks ago that the direct damage to the farm sector caused by what it called “armed terrorist groups” had reached 450 million Syrian pounds ($7.8 million). The General Organization for Consumer Products reported that food worth 250 million pounds ($4.3 million) was stolen from its warehouses in the Homs neighborhood of Baba Amr.

If it happens, crunch time for Al-Assad is likely to occur this spring. That is about the time that the 2011 harvest will have been depleted even if the entire crop reaches Syrian consumers, according to GIEWS estimates.

“In general, the country is not self-sufficient. Domestic production is enough for the first eight months after the harvest [in August] and imports start to take its place in May and June,” Zappacosta said.

GIEWS estimates the country will need to import about four million tons of cereals during the current marketing year, which is down from the 4.6 million tons it estimated in October. But Damascus will have trouble meeting even the smaller shortfall because of trade sanctions.

The European Union’s ban on Syrian oil imports, imposed last September, doesn’t include food. But analysts say it has strained the country’s finances and made traders wary about doing business with it. European traders told The Wall Street Journal last month that a risk premium of around $10 a metric ton was being imposed on all wheat supplied to Syria through the private sector.

Meanwhile, the pound has plunged more than 50 percent so that a dollar is now worth about 58 pounds on the official market and 71 pounds on the black market. Most of the depreciation occurred in the final two months of 2011.

All that has made it more expensive to buy food abroad. But the cost of trucking local produce to market and even the cost of growing it have both climbed. Syrian farmers are highly reliant on irrigation, but the pumps rely on every more costly fuel.

Even where there is food, sticker shock is the new norm for the urban consumer. Since the unrest broke out, the price of a 25-liter (6.6 gallon) bottle of cooking gas in Damascus has risen to anywhere between $8.70 and $14 from $4.30, according to IRIN, the news service of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. A tray of 30 eggs has increased to between $5.20 and $6.90 from $3.10; and a kilo of potatoes to between $1 and $1.30 from 35 cents.

Syrian inflation is likely to touch 12% this year according to the EIU.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Stocks rallied Tuesday and propelled the Dow above the psychologically important 13.000 level. It was the first time the Dow surpassed the mark since May 2008.

Buoying markets was news that eurozone finance ministers had inked a deal for a second Greek bailout. Industrials lead the broad-based rally

Chevron, Alcoa, McDonalds, Home Depot and Bank of America were among the movers. Just before noon, the Dow had given back some gains, but was still up some 35 points to 12,986.43

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and the NASDAQ also advanced, led by energy, materials and consumer staples.

European shares steadied after hitting seven-month highs in the previous session.

Global markets were cheering the Greek deal that staved off what would have been a messy and chaotic default.

With little on the economic calendar for Tuesday, investors traded off the overseas news.

Commodities also enjoyed gains. Oil was up $1.54 to $104.78. Gold soared $31 to $1,756 a troy ounce, platinum jumped $40, palladium gained $15 and silver was up 55 cents.

On Wednesday, traders will be looking at mortgage applications, existing homes sales and a five-year note auction. On Thursday market participants will weigh in on jobless claims, a report on the FHFA home price index. oil inventories and Apple’s shareholder meeting. On Friday, moving markets will be a report on consumer sentiments and new home sales.

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Daytona Beach, FL, United States (AHN Sports) – Bobby Gerhart was in the right place at just the right time and it resulted in his record-setting eighth ARCA win at Daytona on Saturday.

Running fifth in the final turn of the 83-lap Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200, Gerhart skirted past on the outside when race leader Brandon McReynolds and frontrunner Chris Windom ran out of gas just short of the finish line.

Gerhart scored his third straight win at Daytona and gained some redemption after being disqualified from the pole the day before.

“We were certainly disappointed last evening. I think the whole group of us was. What happened there’s no excuse for it and I think the series did the right thing,” Gerhart said. “I learned a long time ago that these things are not over until they’re over. I don’t care if it’s the last lap. A lot of things can happen as it played out tonight.”

The 53-year old native of Lebanon, Pa., won his fifth Daytona ARCA pole Friday but the run was disqualified when the engine of his No. 5 Chevrolet failed the post-race vacuum-leak test in inspection.

At the start of the race Gerhart pitted on the first lap and again on Lap 10 to top off his fuel tank, which proved to be the difference as two of the leaders ran out fuel in the final quarter mile.

The only lap Gerhart led was the one that counted most as the race went an additional three laps of overtime and finished under green-white-checkered conditions.

McReynolds took the lead on Lap 19 and led 62 straight laps before his No. 4 Chevrolet of Turner Motorsports pulled up lame in the race’s final yards of real estate.

With a push from the No. 28 Chevrolet of runner-up Drew Charlson, making just his second ARCA start, Gerhart flew by on the outside for his ninth career ARCA win.

“That’s got to be heartbreaking. To sit in a spot like he did and he led a lot of laps,” Charlson said of McReynolds. “I feel for him but that’s just the way it goes.”

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Chonburi, Thailand (AHN Sports) – Yani Tseng wasted no time getting down to business in the final round of the Honda LPGA Thailand championship on Sunday.

The world’s No. 1 player eagled the first hole of the day, tied for the lead then went on to add two more birdies to build a four-shot lead after nine holes. That enabled Tseng to go on and finish with a 66 and a 19-under par winning total of 269, one better than runnerup Ai Miyazato.

Tseng stumbled a bit on the back nine with bogeys at the 10th and 13th holes but another birdie at the 15th kept her in the lead. Both players birdied the 17th then Tseng closed the door when her approach shot to the 18th hole stopped inches from the hole for a tap-in birdie.

She needed it because Miyazato birdied the final two holes for 68 but came up a shot short. Jiyai Shin let her presence be known as well. She shot 67 and finished solo third at 17-under par.

But Tseng was too strong for both. “I had a one-shot lead and I was thinking maybe make par and win,” Tseng said, recalling the final hole at the Siam Country Club. “But after I saw Ai hit it close, I knew I had to make birdie to win it.”

Tseng hit the splendid approach and captured her first win of 2012. It was her 13th LPGA title and 21st title world-wide. She said she still feels pressure to win, especially after her 12 international victories in 2011.

“I feel much more pressure coming into this year,” she admitted afterward. “Last year when I started, I was nothing. I was just in the top five in the world. After last year, I have the world no. 1 ranking and I had 12 wins and that pressure kept going on and on.”

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Harare, Zimbabwe (IRIN) – Twenty-nine NGOs providing services ranging from alleviating food insecurity to assisting the disabled in Zimbabwe’s Masvingo Province have been banned, sparking fears that this could be the start of new wave of restrictions like the blanket ban placed on the activities of civil society organizations during the violent and disputed parliamentary and presidential elections in 2008.

Titus Maluleke, governor of Masvingo Province and member of President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party, announced the immediate banning of the NGOs on 14 February, claiming that they had failed to register with his office.

”What has happened in Masvingo can easily spread to other provinces, with undesirable consequences,” Abel Chikomo, director of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, said at a hastily convened media briefing in the capital, Harare, on 16 February.

A joint statement on behalf of various civil society organizations – including the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), the Crisis In Zimbabwe Coalition, the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, the National Association of Non Governmental Organizations (NANGO), the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights – said Maluleke’s actions were “blatantly illegal…and are a nullity at law.”

“The law in this country clearly shows that he has no regulatory authority; nor does he have the power to register or de-register NGOs. Even the Provincial Council that he heads in terms of the Provincial Councils and Administration Act does not have regulatory powers over NGOs. The council exists solely to foster developmental projects initiated and carried out by central government and local government,” the joint statement said.

”The governor’s rash and ill-advised utterances merely seek to confuse matters and are regrettably likely to worsen the humanitarian crisis in Masvingo Province. This is because the list of organizations he seeks to ban includes NGOs that are currently providing food, medication, water and other social and economic support [services] to the community.”

The civil society organizations urged the affected NGOs to “ignore the [banning] order by the governor”.

Maluleke’s banning order – made in the presence of senior army and police officials – was accompanied by what has become a repeated claim by ZANU-PF that civil society is collaborating with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, which in turn is a front for Western governments.

Operating in fear

Harassment, detention and arrests of NGO workers are common, even when they are not banned. NGOs were outlawed in the weeks leading up to the disputed 2008 elections when there was widescale food insecurity. Civil society organizations claimed the ban was instituted to prevent documentation of the political violence during the election period.

In the aftermath of the 2008 poll, Mugabe and Tsvangirai formed an uneasy government of national unity in 2009. Recently there have been growing calls by ZANU-PF for fresh elections, but the MDC wants certain guarantees, such as an overhaul of the voters’ roll and adoption of a new constitution, before assenting.

Machinda Marongwe, of NANGO, said there was ”a tense environment” in Masvingo. ”Pronouncement of the ban has limited our movement in Masvingo. An official of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), which monitors human rights abuses, told IRIN: “There is so much fear among the NGOs.”

“It is clear that the move by the governor is linked to talk within ZANU-PF about holding elections this year,” said the official, who declined to be named

“The party wants to monitor our movements but communities are the ones that will suffer most. ZANU-PF has used the tactic before, and soon other governors aligned to the [ZANU-PF] party will follow suit.”

fm/go/he

– Provided by Integrated Regional Information Networks.

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Daytona Beach, FL, United States (AHN Sports) – It was 1995 and Bobby Gerhart had finished poorly in the ARCA 200 for the third straight year.

The difference with this most recent finish (37th) was it cost him an overnight stay at Halifax Health hospital.

After being driven back to Daytona International Speedway the next day his late mother, Anne, who passed away in 1997, gave him the kind of straight talk that only a mother can deliver.

“I’ll never forget it. She turned around and said, “You’ve got to work on this. You have got to start up front. If you’re going to win the races they’re going to come from the pole,’ ” Gerhart said. “That pretty much started a big boost, or a big effort, for us to make these cars runs faster a couple laps.”

Friday, despite being 12th-fastest in practice the day before, Gerhart turned a lap of 183.479 mph at Daytona International Speedway to win the pole before his engine failed post-race inspection and he was relegated to a 42nd starting spot in the Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200.

It would’ve been Gerhart’s record-setting fifth pole here and first since 2006 when he won four straight. He will make his 25th consecutive start here from the back with the 182.633 mph of Sean Corr will be on the pole.

“When I was growing up watching the ARCA Series Bobby Gerhart was right up there with Frank Kimmel and those top drivers,” Corr said.

Gerhart, for all intents and purposes, has been the man to beat here since that pep talk from his late mother.

He scored his first of a record-setting seven ARCA 200 wins in 1999 and has won here the last two years straight.

“When we learned to (win poles) we learned how to keep the speed in them and what made them driveable after that,” Gerhart said. “What started the whole thing was kind of a special day here for me.”

Gerhart led the race’s final 61 laps en route to the win here last year when he stretched his fuel mileage to the brink of empty.

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New Brunswick, NJ, United States (AHN) – Johnson & Johnson has been plagued by product recalls, and on Friday a unit of the pharmaceutical giant issued another one.

McNeil Consumer Healthcare said it is recalling some 574,000 bottles of a grape-flavored version of its liquid infant Tylenol because of problems with the device on the bottle that helps measure dosage.

The bottles come with a syringe and have a protective cover, or flow restrictor, at the top to help measure the right dose. McNeil says the restrictor has been pushed into the bottle in some cases when the syringe is inserted.

McNeil is one of three business segments for New Brunswick, NJ-based J&J. The latest recall is among about two dozen recalls issued in more than two years.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – U.S. stocks opened mixed to higher Thursday fueled by lower than expected jobless claims and impressive earnings from General Motors.

Just after the open on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 15 points. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and the NASDAQ were both nearly unchanged.

Investors were buoyed by the a report from the Labor Department that showed initial jobless claims fell to a near four-year low.

Also giving stocks momentum was an earnings report from General Motors. GM reported the largest annual profit in its history on Thursday, even as losses in Europe were a drag on fourth quarter earnings.

The auto maker said it earned a quarterly profit of $472 million, or 28 cents a share. It was the eight consecutive quarterly profit for the car maker, which strategically cleared up much of its debt in bankruptcy a few years ago. For all of 2011, GM earned $7.6 billion, most of it from North America.

In early morning trading, shares of GM climbed almost 5 percent, and were last changing hands at $26.15 per share.

Holding stocks back were continued worries over Greece’s ability to secure a second bailout. Investor sentiment was further dampened after rating agency Moody’s put 17 global banks and 114 European financial institutions on review for possible downgrades.

Gold fell as Greece’s woes hurt the euro. The precious metal tumbled $16.40 to $1,711.80 a troy ounce. Oil was flat at $101.67 a barrel.

Ringing the opening bell on the NYSE was Westminster’s Best in Show, Malachy, a petite, composed and well manicured Pekinese.

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Washington, DC, United States (KaiserHealth) – Across the national airwaves and on the Republican campaign trail, the Massachusetts health law that many now call “Romneycare” is routinely trashed. Here’s Texas Governor Rick Perry in a debate last October.

“Romneycare has driven the cost of small business insurance premiums up by- percent over the national average in Massachusetts.” And from former Senator Rick Santorum last month we heard, “it (Romneycare) was the basis of Obamacare and it was an abject failure.”

So you might think this drubbing would rub off on Massachusetts residents, about two-thirds of whom have consistently endorsed the state’s coverage plan since it passed in 2006. Not so.

In the latest WBUR poll, 62 percent support the law and 33 percent oppose it. Steve Koczela is president of the Mass, Inc. polling group, which conducted the poll.

“Even with all the attention the Massachusetts law has gotten nationally,” said Koczela, “it really hasn’t driven down support among voters here in Massachusetts.”

The difference between national and local opinions about the law is part politics, part misinformation, and partly a difference of experience, says Robert Blendon, a professor at Harvard Kennedy School. Massachusetts residents are living with the law. Opinions outside the state are based on speculation.

“A substantial share of Americans believe that the national law will fail and they assume that the Massachusetts law, which in their minds is related to this, is not working well either,” Blendon said.

That’s the case, said Blendon, even when he presents evidence to audiences outside Massachusetts that a strong majority of residents in the Commonwealth are happy with the state law.

“People are convinced,” laughed Blendon, that “[the poll] can’t be right.”

In Massachusetts, most residents in the WBUR poll (68 percent), see former Governor Mitt Romney’s opposition to the national law as an effort to win votes in his presidential campaign. Only 25% see his opposition as a disagreement based on principle.

“Taking that, in concert with the level of influence people thought the state law had on the national law, at least suggests there’s some difficulty distancing yourself from what happened nationally to what happened here at home,” says pollster Koczela.

That dynamic may translate into problems for Republican Sen. Scott Brown, who, like Romney, supports the state law but hopes to repeal the national law.

Robert D’Ambrosio is one of the WBUR poll respondents who said he likes the state health care law and is not sure whom he supports in the Senate race. D’Ambrosio finds Brown’s position confusing.

“I don’t understand why he doesn’t bother the same with the national as he does with the state,” says D’Ambrosio, who lives in Malden, a suburb just north of Boston. “If you like one, how can you not like the other?”

Many residents polled say they want to know how Brown and the leading Democratic contender Elizabeth Warren would control health care costs. Paula Zindler from Cummington in western Massachusetts, is another undecided voter. She says the state law, which both Brown and Warren support, has forced up the cost of her health coverage.

“We had to switch to a different carrier, because my insurance, I was told, was inadequate,” explains Zindler. “So I either had to change my insurance or pay a fine, and I’m not happy with that.”

While health care is expected to be a key issue in the U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts, there are at least two major, yet to be determined, factors that will shape this debate. One is whether the US Supreme Court will let all or part of the federal Affordable Care Act stand. Two is who the Republican presidential nominee will be. But health care will also play into the standard practice of US political races, says Professor Blendon.

“Even though they (Brown and Warren) have a truce on how each side will describe each other, there will be an effort to put one far on the left and one far on the right and health care examples will be very prominent in that effort,” explains Blendon.

By “truce,” Blendon refers to the agreement Warren and Brown reached a few weeks ago to donate half the cost of any political ad funded by an outside organization to charity. Several residents in the WBUR poll praise this deal and say watching whether it holds will be one of the most interesting parts of this year’s Senate race.

– Provided by Kaiser Health News.

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