The United Nations reports as many as 3.5 million children in flood-stricken Pakistan risk falling ill from waterborne diseases. A United Nations spokesman in Pakistan says children in emergency situations are particularly vulnerable to deadly diseases such as acute watery diarrhea and dysentery.

Pakistani authorities estimate the devastating floods are affecting 20 million people. Of these, the United Nations says at least six million are in need of emergency life-saving assistance.

• Pakistani, UN Officials Report Rise in Infectious Disease Due to Flood
• Survivors of Pakistan floods face growing health problems
• UN Secures More Aid for Flood-Ravaged Pakistan
• Deadly diseases could bring more tragedy to flood-stricken Pakistan
• UN: 3.5 Million Pakistani Children at Risk for Waterborne Diseases

June 14, 2010 — The lives of between 70,000 and 100,000 trauma victims worldwide could be saved each year if they were given access to a cheap, widely available, and easily administered medication, a study shows.

Experts involved in the CRASH-2 study say that tranexamic acid (TXA), which reduces the rate of blood-clot breakdown, is so effective it should be included on the World Health Organization (WHO) list of essential medicines.

• Cheap drug could save lives of accident victims
• Cheap drug could save thousands
• Cheap drug could save tens of thousands of accident victims by stopping bleeding
• Cheap blood drug “could save 100000 lives a year”
• Gary Coleman Cause of Death Revealed

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica-Costa Rica’s congress has shelved a final vote on a 60 percent pay raise for its members after President Laura Chinchilla promised to veto the measure.

Salaries for members of the unicameral congress would have risen to about $8,400 a month under a bill given preliminary approval this week. The legislators have been in office just one month.

The president said Wednesday she would veto the pay bill. About 15 citizens had filed legal challenges against it.

• France beats Costa Rica 2-1 in friendly
• NY court dismisses Costa Rican photographers’ lawsuit against QB Brady, model Bundchen
• Senate clears way for final vote on financial reform bill
• Republicans delay final action on massive financial regulation overhaul
• Senate Fails to Move Financial Bill to Final Vote

Survey: Sexual satisfaction ebbs for 45-plus set

NEW YORK Americans 45 and older are far more open to sex outside of marriage than they were 10 years ago, but they’re engaging in sex less often and with less satisfaction, according to a major new survey by AARP.

AARP’s sex and relationship expert, sociologist Pepper Schwartz, thinks financial stress is a prime culprit.

‘The economy has had an impact on these people,’ she said. ‘They’re more liberal in their attitudes, yet they’re having sex less often. The only thing I see that’s changed in a negative direction is financial worries.’

• Gay couples ask Mass. federal judge to strike down US marriage law, calling it discriminatory
• New Survey: AT&T Customers Experience Most Dropped Calls
• Pakistani couple beats car sex charge in Dubai
• Rescuing girls from sex slavery
• ’70s musician faces new sex charges

Imagine you’re a Jew living in a country where you don’t feel safe practicing your religion.

Imagine your place of business being smeared with anti-Semitic messages, your synagogue attacked and desecrated, and the school your children attend raided on trumped up suspicions of conspiracy.

Imagine the media calling for your people’s expulsion, articles suggesting your religion is the root of the world’s ills.

• The search for Noah’s Ark: a history
• White House to fight to preserve National Day of Prayer
• Why religion could affect Obama’s court nomination
• Google Local Business Center Becomes “Google Places”
• People of different religions donate to northwest China quake relief

British premier Gordon Brown’s re-election hopes took a fresh battering Saturday with the loss of a key media endorsement and a poll confirming his Labour party was in third place ahead of the May 6 vote.

Scenting weakness, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg attacked Labour as a spent force and claimed the final few days of the election campaign would be a “two-horse race” between his party and the main opposition Conservatives.

• Gaffe by Britain’s Gordon Brown revives immigration as an issue
• Pensioners respond to Gordon Brown’s bigot gaffe
• Labour in turmoil ahead of final UK election debate
• Gordon Brown gaffe prompts ‘Bigotgate’
• Gordon Brown ‘penitent’ after bigot gaffe torpedoes campaign

The Associated Press-GfK Vietnam Poll on the attitudes of Vietnamese was conducted by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media from Feb. 23 to March 25, 2010. It was based on face-to-face interviews in the Vietnamese language with a random sample of 1,600 people age 18 and older.

In a technique called area probability sampling, 48 cities, towns and other locations were selected to reflect the country’s population distribution between urban and rural regions.

• Miranda Kerr vs. Doutzen Kroes: Victoria’s Secret Angels In Fashion Face-Off (PHOTOS, POLL)
• Full face transplant ‘success’
• Spanish hospital claims 1st full face transplant
• They walk among us: 1 in 5 believe in aliens?
• Changing face of terror in Russia

The former governor of Alaska and vice presidential candidate was the headliner in Eugene for the Lane County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day dinner. She spoke as about 150 demonstrators gathered peacefully outside the fundraiser.

Eugene, home to the University of Oregon, is a Democratic stronghold in a blue state, and Lane County registers nearly twice as many Democrats as Republicans. But local GOP officials invited Palin to rally the GOP faithful.

• Sarah Palin Visits Liberal Oregon Stronghold
• Crist Weighs Cost of GOP Break
• GOP’s Kyl Is Courted on Nuclear Treaty
• Oregon scientists’ DNA testing of whale meat offers evidence of illegal trade from Japan
• Report: Sarah Palin Earns $12 Million as Non-Governor

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are stepping up their criticism of the Securities and Exchange Commission following reports that senior agency staffers spent hours surfing pornographic websites on government-issued computers while they were supposed to be policing the nation’s financial system.

California Rep. Darrell Issa, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said it was “disturbing that high-ranking officials within the SEC were spending more time looking at porn than taking action to help stave off the events that put our nation’s economy on the brink of collapse.”

• While economy crumbled, top financial watchdogs at SEC surfed for porn on …
• IMF: Government debt could derail recovery – Update
• Fabrice Tourre, Goldman Sachs VP, Charged With Securities Fraud (PHOTO)
• Goldman Star Capitalized on Mortgage-Security Boom
• Secretary of State Clinton ramps up pressure on Israel, Palestinians to resume peace talks

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul law is getting a mixed verdict in the first comprehensive look by neutral experts: More Americans will be covered, but costs are also going up.

Economic experts at the Health and Human Services Department concluded in a report issued Thursday that the health care remake will achieve Obama’s aim of expanding health insurance – adding 34 million to the coverage rolls.

• Report: Health overhaul will increase nation’s tab
• Shulman Says IRS Has Few ‘Punitive’ Ways to Enforce Health Law
• Government to offer long-term-care insurance: Health Care Fact Check
• High-risk health insurance pools set to begin in June
• Seniors are anxious about Medicare cuts

WASHINGTON (AP) – Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner (GUYT’-nur) says a key goal of financial reform is to avoid the supersizing of banks while reining in unreasonable risk-taking.

Geithner tells ABC there is “enormous resistance” to a regulation bill pending in Congress and says “that’s why it’s been so hard to get this done.”

The secretary said in an interview broadcast Thursday that the government must “make sure that you’re limiting” how big banks can get.

• Treasury unveils new $100 bill
• Geithner: Financial reform to get GOP votes
• Geithner Confident on Financial Overhaul Vote
• Geithner confident on US financial overhaul
• Geithner: “Very close” on financial overhaul

GENEVA – The World Health Organization says the ash cloud over Europe poses no health risk beyond areas close to the volcano in Iceland.

Dr. Carlos Dora of WHO says air quality monitoring shows pollution from the ash cloud isn’t arriving at ground level in most of Europe.

The message was in stark contrast to WHO’s warning last week that Europeans should stay indoors if ash from the volcano starts settling because of potential dangers related to inhalation.

• Weekend footage of the volcano eruption generating clouds of ash
• Iceland volcano cloud: The economic impact
• Should planes fly in Iceland volcano ash? Be careful, study says.
• Airline conducts test flight through volcanic ash cloud
• Iceland volcano ash keeps Obama, others from attending Polish president’s funeral

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission is checking whether the volcanic ash cloud over Europe could have any impact on people’s health but has no concerns for now, a spokesman said on Monday.

“We are checking this issue. At the time being there is no concern,” a spokesman for the European Union executive told a news briefing.

The World Health Organization said last week people with breathing problems could be harmed by the cloud of ash that was hurled into the atmosphere by an Icelandic volcano.

• New volcanic ash cloud threatens flight hopes
• Volcanic ash cloud restrictions ‘embarrasssing’, say airlines
• Ash Delays Greek Aid Meeting
• Airline conducts test flight through volcanic ash cloud
• Eruption may hurt people with breathing problems: WHO

INDIANAPOLIS – Two of the largest publicly traded health insurers said Friday they will team up to sell Medicare Advantage plans to employers that offer retiree coverage.

Cigna Corp. and Humana Inc. say they plan to collaborate on a deal that provides Humana’s Medicare Advantage insurance to employers in Cigna’s customer base. Cigna will then manage the accounts.

The companies will split revenue from the deal, which they say blends strengths of both insurers. Humana, based in Louisville, Ky., offers dozens of Medicare Advantage plans nationwide. Cigna, which is headquartered in Philadelphia, offers coverage to employers in every state.

• Health Insurers Debate Medical-Cost Meaning In Reform
• Saudi health minister says conjoined Palestinian twins have died
• Saudi says Gaza conjoined twins inseparable
• Crews Prepare Desperate Rescue Effort at WV Mine
• Medicare Advantage Payments Unchanged for UnitedHealth, Humana

GENEVA – Europeans should try to stay indoors if ash from Iceland’s volcano starts settling, the World Health Organization warned Friday as small amounts of ash fell in Iceland, Scotland and Norway.

WHO spokesman David Epstein said the microscopic ash is potentially dangerous for people when it starts to reach the Earth because inhaled particles can enter the lungs and cause respiratory problems.

• Volcano ash: Your stories
• Volcano ash worsens flight disruptions in Europe
• Iceland volcano’s uncertain timescale
• Ash cloud from Iceland volcano forces cancellation of trans-Atlantic flights
• Iceland volcano ash disrupts European flights

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Sri Lankans voted Thursday for a new Parliament that will decide how to ensure peace and development after decades of civil war, with President Mahinda Rajapaksa seeking to expand his political dominance after winning re-election.

Voters lined up as polls opened throughout the island nation southeast of India, and Rajapaksa cast his ballot at his home village of Medamulana in southern Sri Lanka.

• Sri Lanka votes in elections set to tighten president’s grip on power
• Sri Lanka holding first post-war parliament poll
• Ayad Allawi’s bloc wins most seats in Iraqi parliamentary elections
• Trial of Sri Lanka ex-army chief Fonseka adjourned
• Sri Lanka’s defeated presidential candidate, ex-army chief appears before court-martial

WASHINGTON — Capping a long day and a consuming political journey, President Barack Obama celebrated the passage of health care legislation with hugs, high fives and an emboldened attitude. Said the president to the nation, “Tonight, we answered the call of history.”

At nearly midnight in Washington, with a big swath of country asleep or headed that way, Obama strode into the ornate East Room with Vice President Joe Biden backing him. There was no hour too late for the president to embrace this moment.

• Dems Eye ‘Reconciliation’ on Health Care, But Tactic Is No Smooth Solution
• East Bay lawmakers hail passage of health care bill
• Health care vote results: bill passes, Obama to sign it into law
• Health care reform bill 101: Who will pay for reform?
• Stage set for historic health care reform vote

HANOI, Vietnam – Nearly half of all births in China are delivered by cesarean section, the world’s highest rate according to a survey by the World Health Organization, which warned Tuesday that a boom in unnecessary surgeries is jeopardizing women’s health.

Rates of C-sections have reached “epidemic proportions” in many countries worldwide, the WHO said in a report focusing on Asia. In China, 46 percent of births reviewed in a survey of hospital records were C-sections; a quarter of those were not medically necessary, the report said.

• WHO survey: Half of China’s births are C-sections
• China Inches Into Future(s)
• China fueling growth of neighbours
• Washington Times slashes staff; sports section out
• Rev. Moon-funded Washington Times slashes staff; sports section out

In an awkward encounter, President Obama and New York Gov. David Paterson exchanged pleasantries Monday following reports that the president has urged the Democratic governor to withdraw from the race for his own seat.

Paterson greeted Obama as he arrived on Air Force One on the way to speak at a community college in Troy, N.Y. Obama and the governor shook hands upon the president’s arrival, and Obama leaned over to make a brief comment to Paterson.

• 
  Updated, 12:08 p.m. | TROY, N.Y. – So what did he say?
  After President Obama walked down from Air Force One shortly after his plane landed shortly before 11 a.m. Monday, he and Gov…
• 
  WASHINGTON – The White House doesn’t buy the notion that President Obama, who appeared on five talk shows Sunday and is heading next for David Letterman’s couch, could be wearing out his welcome on the tube.
• 
  WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Obama will host meetings Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the White House announced Saturday.

• Obama calls Paterson, New York’s embattled governor, a wonderful man
• Paterson Greets Obama at Albany Airport
• Obama trip to NY coincides with tensions over Washington role in governor’s race
• Was talk-show blitz too much by Obama?
• Paterson says he’s staying in 2010 governor’s race
• Paterson Won’t Drop Out of 2010 Race
• Obama to host Israeli-Palestinian talks
• Is President Obama an Alien a Real Alien?!
• Obama gives Specter a boost at fund-raiser
• House Votes to Rebuke Wilson for Shouting at Obama

Worried about the spread of swine flu?

Already, there are reports coming from schools across Florida that kids are being diagnosed with swine flu (also known as the H1N1 virus). And in Georgia, Alaska and Puerto Rico, health officials say swine flu already is widespread.

The good news is this: Although swine flu is highly contagious, the World Health Organization says it generally causes “very mild illness” in healthy people.

• 
  This year’s flu season is shaping up to be unusually long and unpredictable, with current outbreaks of swine flu in schools potentially followed months from now by waves of seasonal flu among the elderly…
• 
  If you’re wondering whether your sniffling co-worker’s bout of flu is indeed the swine flu, then wonder no more.
  Doctors across the nation are saying people who came down with the flu this summer probably had the new swine flu (H1N1) strain.

• US campers developed drug-resistant flu: report
• Drug-resistant swine flu may have spread
• H1N1 flu shots give pregnant women pause
• US Braces for a Long Flu Season
• Had the Flu? It Was Probably Swine Flu
• Antiviral Drugs Should Be Used Cautiously to Fight Flu, US Says
• Flu pandemic giving tiny companies big stage
• US says Tamiflu for the sick, not a preventive
• US Issues Swine Flu Guidelines for Day-Care Programs
• China to approve single-dose swine flu vaccines

The World Health Organization warned Friday that doctors around the world are now reporting a severe form of swine flu that goes straight to the lungs of otherwise healthy young people — but some infectious disease experts said the alarm could be unwarranted.

The WHO update comes in the wake of reports from some countries that as many as 15 percent of patients infected with the new H1N1 pandemic virus require extensive — and expensive — hospital care.

• 
  LONDON — The World Health Organization said Friday that Tamiflu should only be given to particularly vulnerable people — a warning to countries like Britain where the swine flu drug is being handed out freely.
• 
  GENEVA (Reuters) – Healthy patients who get H1N1 swine flu without suffering complications do not need to be treated with antivirals like Tamiflu, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.
• 
  LONDON (AP) – Healthy people who catch swine flu do not need antivirals like Tamiflu, but the young, the old and the pregnant surely do, the World Health Organization declared Friday in new advice to doctors.
  The U.N…

• WHO says swine flu down in Southern Hemisphere
• Obama Advisers: Swine Flu Could Infec…
• Asia way short of vaccine to fight sw…
• ‘Explosion’ of Swine Flu Cases Predicted
• WHO: Save Tamiflu for the young, old and pregnant
• Flu drugs inappropriate for healthy a…
• Keep swine flu drugs for serious case…
• WHO: No Tamiflu for healthy people with swine flu
• WHO Warns of ‘Second or Third’ Wave o…
• WHO predicts ‘explosion’ of swine flu cases

OAK BLUFFS, Mass. — President Barack Obama hasn’t even finished his Martha’s Vineyard vacation and already he’s being asked whether he’ll come back next year.

A local radio station reporter asked White House spokesman Bill Burton on Thursday whether the president was ready to commit to a return trip.

Burton says that while the president loves the island, staff members “haven’t thought ahead that far in terms of figuring out what he’s going to do on vacation next year.”

• 
  Associated Press Writer= OAK BLUFFS, Mass. (AP) ?” Barack Obama’s first presidential vacation began with a hurricane, was interrupted for a major economic announcement and is ending with a sad eulogy for a famous friend.
• 
  Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama was meetingtop economic advisers April 10, Good Friday, as regulatorsprepared stress tests for the largest U.S. banks, when he turnedto Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S…

• What vacation? Obama still in news spotlight
• White House: Obama won’t referee Kennedy legacy
• April Thank You From Obama Started Em…
• Decade of Debt: $9 Trillion
• Efforts to Rein in Gov. Paterson’s Ra…
• Obama vacation: Golf and Cindy Sheehan protest
• Obama’s Big Bang could go bust
• Obama expected to renominate Bernanke
• Dodd Says Obama’s Plan to Nominate Be…
• Obamas begin Martha’s Vineyard vacation

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Asia is going to be way short of the new H1N1 vaccine to fight swine flu when the next surge of infections hits during the cold season this year, a spokesman for the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

Australia and China are due to begin producing the vaccines in September, but these would be used domestically and the rest of the region is unlikely to benefit.

“Nowhere is ready … there is going to be massive underproduction of vaccines as compared to the needs and demand,” said Manila-based WHO spokesman Peter Cordingley.

• 
  LONDON — The World Health Organization said Friday that Tamiflu should only be given to particularly vulnerable people — a warning to countries like Britain where the swine flu drug is being handed out freely.
• 
  GENEVA (Reuters) – Healthy patients who get H1N1 swine flu without suffering complications do not need to be treated with antivirals like Tamiflu, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.
• 
  LONDON (AP) – Healthy people who catch swine flu do not need antivirals like Tamiflu, but the young, the old and the pregnant surely do, the World Health Organization declared Friday in new advice to doctors.
  The U.N…

• cdc’s Advice to Parents: Swine Flu Sh…
• ‘Explosion’ of Swine Flu Cases Predicted
• WHO: Save Tamiflu for the young, old and pregnant
• Flu drugs inappropriate for healthy a…
• Keep swine flu drugs for serious case…
• WHO: No Tamiflu for healthy people with swine flu
• WHO Warns of ‘Second or Third’ Wave o…
• WHO predicts ‘explosion’ of swine flu cases
• First Swine Flu Vaccinations May Star…
• Swine flu vaccine expected in Australia next month

President Barack Obama is challenging his critics on a national health care overhaul, accusing them of making “phony claims” about the legislation.

“This is an issue of vital concern to every American, and I’m glad that so many are engaged,” Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address.

“But it also should be an honest debate, not one dominated by willful misrepresentations and outright distortions, spread by the very folks who would benefit the most by keeping things exactly as they are.”

• 
  WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama hammered away at “outrageous myths” about his healthcare reform plans on Saturday, seeking again to take control of a debate that has tarnished support for his top domestic policy goal.
• 
  PHOENIX — President Barack Obama took on both the defense establishment and freespending lawmakers on Monday, saying they were draining the defense budget with “exotic projects.
• 
  WASHINGTON – To separate fact from fiction, Lori Robertson managing editor at FactCheck.org, joined FOX 5 News.
  President Barack Obama heads to Montana today for yet another town hall on health care reform.

• Obama again tackles “myths” on health…
• Firms with Obama ties profit from health push
• Obama lashes defense establishment, Congress
• Obama confident of health care overhaul
• Death of Obama’s grandma has role in health-care talk
• Obama Invokes Grandmother’s Death
• Obama invokes grandmother’s death in health debate
• Calling all crazies: Obama needs you – Chicago Sun
• Obama invokes granmother’s death
• Obama On Road For Health Care Overhaul

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, in a poignant acknowledgment of his mortality at a critical time in the national health care debate, has privately asked the governor and legislative leaders to change the succession law to guarantee that Massachusetts will not lack a Senate vote when his seat becomes vacant.

In a personal, sometimes wistful letter sent Tuesday to Governor Deval L. Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray, and House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, Kennedy asks that Patrick be given authority to appoint someone to the seat temporarily before voters choose a new senator in a special election.

• 
  (CNN) — Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the sister of President John F. Kennedy and a champion of the disabled who founded the Special Olympics, died Tuesday, the Special Olympics said…

• Ailing Kennedy Asks for Speedy Replac…
• Sen. Kennedy asks Massachusetts leaders for speedy process to replace him in Congress
• Cancer-stricken Sen. Kennedy asks Mass. leaders for speedy process to replace him in Congress
• Cancer-stricken Sen. Kennedy asks Mass. leaders for speedy process to replace him in Congress – WHNT
• Ahold reports Q2 profits above forecasts
• Judge stands by closing ahead of death-row appeal
• Firms with Obama ties profit from health push
• Deadly Violence Ahead of Afghanistan’s Election
• Florida Gov. Crist vets former US attorney for Senate seat
• Eunice Kennedy Shriver dies

Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) — Mass vaccination against swine flumay begin in Australia within a month, health officials said,heralding one of the worlds biggest public health exercises.

Two million doses from Melbourne-based CSL Ltd. will beready by the end of this month, enabling the program to commenceonce interim data from human trials have been assessed in earlySeptember, Australias Health Minister Nicola Roxon said today.

• 
  With about 55 million U.S. children heading back to school in the next few weeks, concerns are growing that the H1N1 swine flu will spread even further than it already has…

• Swine flu vaccine expected in Australia next month
• Australia orders 21 million doses of …
• Minister Says Japan Swine Flu Spread …
• Factory logjam could delay some swine flu shots
• US government to advise businesses on swine flu
• Japan Has Second Swine Flu Fatality; Kobe Man Dies in Hospital
• US taking some steps to try to counter new delay in shipments of swine flu vaccinations
• Swine Flu: the Next Wave
• Swine flu inspires video game designed by Dutch researchers; aim is to control pandemic
• Swine flu inspires new video game

With about 55 million U.S. children heading back to school in the next few weeks, concerns are growing that the H1N1 swine flu will spread even further than it already has. Identified by scientists four months ago, the virus has already turned up in nearly every corner of the world, from Argentina to Iran. It defied public-health officials’ predictions of a lull in the warm summer months, proliferating in military units and children’s summer camps.

• 
  WASHINGTON — Immigration officials said Monday they discovered records of 10 previously unreported deaths of detainees in government custody, prompting a review by the…
• 
  Traces of cocaine taint up to 90 percent of paper money in the United States, a new study finds.
  A group of scientists tested banknotes from more than 30 cities in five countries…
• 
  SAN JOSE (Reuters) – Costa Rican President Oscar Arias is suffering from the H1N1 virus, making him the first head of state known to have contracted swine flu.
  Nobel Peace Prize winner Arias…

• More Immigration Detainee Deaths Disclosed
• Scientists take big step toward developing DNA microchips
• 90 percent of U.S. money is laced with cocaine
• Most US Money Laced With Cocaine
• Swine flu inspires video game designed by Dutch researchers; aim is to control pandemic
• Swine flu inspires new video game
• In India swine flu panic is more infectious than virus itself; schools close, streets deserted
• Costa Rica President Arias has H1N1 flu
• Disgrasian: Masturbation and Gay Sex Cause Swine Flu, Apparently
• First Swine Flu Vaccinations Ready By September

* Obama says healthcare reform will reduce expenses

* Lambastes critics for spreading misinformation (Changes dateline, adds details from Colorado town hall)

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo., Aug 15 (Reuters) – U.S. PresidentBarack Obama reignited his criticism of health insurancecompanies on Saturday, pledging his reforms would prevent firmsfrom capping coverage or charging “outrageous” fees.

During a town hall-style meeting in a conservative area ofColorado, a Western state that supported Obama in the 2008election, the president continued his assault on insurancecompanies, which the White House has painted as being at theroot of the country’s healthcare woes.

• 
  The town hall brawls over health care reform are already driving down public support for the effort — but that’s not the worst of the danger to the White House.
  They could also give cover to some big business players…
• 
  Washington – President Obama expects a confrontation Tuesday with anti-health reform protesters at a New Hampshire town hall – and he’s ready for it.
  “There’s actually…

• Obama defends healthcare plans, criticizes insurers
• Obama's Push for Health Care Reform May Use Up His Political Capital
• Battle over health care goes viral
• 'Town Halls' a Chance for the President, Not the Public, to Vent
• Plan B For Business Groups On Health Care: Going Negative
• A sedate town hall raises questions
• White House Says Girl With Campaign Ties Chosen at ‘Random’ to Speak at Obama Town Hall
• Obama says 'death panels' aren't on his healthcare overhaul agenda
• Obama Predicts Health Care Win in Fall
• President Obama welcomes debate on health care, not yelling …

LONDON — Polio, the dreaded paralyzing disease stamped out in the industrialized world, is spreading in Nigeria. And health officials say in some cases, it’s caused by the vaccine used to fight it.

In July, the World Health Organization issued a warning that this vaccine-spread virus might extend beyond Africa. So far, 124 Nigerian children have been paralyzed this year – about twice those afflicted in 2008.

• 
  Hillary Clinton’s trouble-prone African odyssey threw up more controversy last night when she appeared to equate US democracy with Nigeria’s corrupt election system.
  Speaking in Nigeria…
• 
  SAN JOSE (Reuters) – Costa Rican President Oscar Arias is suffering from the H1N1 virus, making him the first head of state known to have contracted swine flu.
  Nobel Peace Prize winner Arias…
• 
  Aug. 4 (Bloomberg) — Pneumonic plague claimed the life ofa third man in northwestern China as global health officialssaid the disease was unlikely to cause mass fatalities.
  A 64-year-old man died in the remote town of Ziketan inQinghai province…

• In India swine flu panic is more infectious than virus itself; schools close, streets deserted
• Hilary Clinton stresses good governance, electoral reform in Nigeria
• Clinton urges reform in oil-rich Nigeria
• Clinton makes gaffe on 2000 US election during Nigeria visit
• Michael Watts: Nigeria at a Tipping Point
• Sarah Dotlich: Clinton in Nigeria: A Moment of Opportunity
• Swine flu cases climb among US soldiers in Iraq
• Costa Rica President Arias has H1N1 flu
• Plague Outbreak Death Toll Reaches 3 in Northwestern China Town
• China seals off town amid plague outbreak

WASHINGTON – For months, the White House press corps has been accused of having a too-cozy relationship with the Obama administration, a friendship that even featured an off-the-record Fourth of July party at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for some 30 selected reporters.

While relations are not yet as tense as they are in Canada between the media and the Prime Minister’s Office, the U.S. brawl over health-care reform is taking its toll on the alleged love-in between President Barack Obama and the reporters who cover him.

• 
  Team Obama is suffering from Extended Campaign Syndrome. In an election, campaign staffers are often just trying to survive until the next week or the next primary. They cut corners because they are fatigued or under pressure…
• 
  WASHINGTON – The White House is attempting to fight back this week against the well-organized foes of its health-care reform plans who have angrily disrupted town hall…

• AARP Corrects False Obama Claim
• Obama and the Permanent Campaign
• Under Fire, Obama Takes Health Plan West
• Henryk A. Kowalczyk: The Health Care Reform Bill; the Promise of Pears on a Willow Tree
• White House fights back online against opponents of heath-care reform
• White House Launches Web Site to Battle Health Care 'Rumors'
• Obama’s ambitious reforms lose steam
• James Oberstar threatens to “roll over” White House
• Critics Accuse White House of Playing 'Big Brother' in Health Care …
• Obama to discuss health care in NH on Tuesday