PLAYING MANY ROLES

Michelle Obama swivelled her hips 142 times during a hula hoop demonstration at a healthy kids fair on the White House South Lawn. She had worse luck, however, when she attempted to skip double-dutch style.

The fair was designed to promote healthy eating and exercise for America’s children. She also urged those in attendance, mostly local students, not to whine when vegetables appear on their plate.

Mrs Obama has made healthy nutrition and combating childhood obesity priorities during her time as first lady.

President Obama joined other world leaders Tuesday in calling for immediate and substantive steps to combat climate change, saying failure to act now would bring “irreversible catastrophe.”

Speaking to a special summit on climate change at the United Nations, Obama pledged the full commitment of the United States to a global response after what he called years of responding too slowly to the magnitude of the challenge.

However, Obama’s speech lacked specific details on cutting greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. He also warned that the global economic recession could hinder the ability of countries to take necessary steps to combat climate change.

“We seek sweeping but necessary change in the midst of a global recession, where every nation’s most immediate priority is reviving their economy and putting their people back to work,” Obama said. “And so all of us will face doubts and difficulties in our own capitals as we try to reach a lasting solution to the climate challenge.”

Progress in the negotiations involving almost 200 countries has been slowed by disputes over the roles of industrialized powers and major greenhouse gas emitters such as the United States and emerging nations such as China that have become major emitters in their rush to economic development.

China will increase efforts to improve energy efficiency and curb the rise in CO2 emissions, President Hu Jintao has told a UN climate summit in New York. Mr Hu gave no details about the measures, which should mean emissions grow less quickly than the economy. The US, the world’s other major emitter, said China’s proposals were helpful but figures were needed.

About 100 leaders are attending the talks, ahead of the Copenhagen summit which is due to approve a new treaty. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said failure to agree a treaty in December would be “morally inexcusable”.

Negotiators for the Copenhagen summit are trying to agree on a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol to limit carbon emissions.

A LONG WAITING LINE

Sen. Max Baucus on Wednesday brought out the much-awaited Finance Committee version of an American health-system remake — a landmark $856 billion, 10-year measure that starts a rough ride through Congress without visible Republican backing.

The bill by Baucus, Democratic chairman of the Senate panel, would make major changes to the nation’s $2.5 trillion health care system, including requiring most people to purchase insurance coverage or pay a fine and prohibiting insurance companies from charging more to people with more serious health problems.

The proposal, crafted by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Montana, would cost $856 billion over 10 years and mandate insurance coverage for every American by 2013. It lacks a government-run public health insurance option favored by most Democrats and President Obama, but it contains provisions to meet other major goals for health care reform.

The House of Representatives is expected to pass a bill which will allow Americans who do not have employer-provided health insurance to choose a publicly-run insurance scheme. But Mr Baucus’s bill will not offer the so-called “public option”.

Instead, he would create not-for-profit co-ops, which would compete with private insurers to cover people without employer-sponsored coverage. Like other draft bills produced by various House committees and the Senate health committee, Mr Baucus’s bill would mandate all Americans to get insurance, and would provide subsidies to help less well-off Americans pay for their coverage.

But while the House committees proposed to pay for the increased coverage by placing a surtax on families earning over $350,000 a year, Mr Baucus would cover the costs of his proposals by levying new fees on more generous private insurance schemes.

Mr Baucus had hoped to attract Republican support for his plan, which is more moderate than the bills proposed by other committees. “This is a unique moment in history where we can finally reach an objective so many of us have sought for so long,” said Mr Baucus.

“The Finance Committee has carefully worked through the details of health care reform to ensure this package works for patients, for health care providers and for our economy.”

So far, however, his bill has not received any Republican backers. And one of the leading Democrats on the committee, Senator Jay Rockefeller, has rejected the plan, because it does not include a public option.

If the Finance Committee does eventually agree on a bill, the full senate will attempt to come up with a bill, based on the versions produced by the Finance Committee and the Health Committee.

MORE THAN PHOTO FINISH

The Sydney Morning Herald in Australia and The Sun newspaper in Britain reported that gender tests ordered by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) show the 18-year-old is a hermaphrodite.

South African officials have stepped up their defence of Caster Semenya, warning of a “third world war” if the row over her sex stops her competing. The 18-year-old 800m world champion has had medical tests following doubts about whether she is actually female.

Athletics world governing body the IAAF is still analysing the results of Semenya’s tests and wants to discuss them with the athlete. It has indicated that she is unlikely to be asked to return the gold medal she won in Berlin, but questions remain over her future in women’s sport.

Asked what would happen if she was barred from competition, Stofile said: “I think it would be the third world war. “We (would) go to the highest levels in contesting such a decision. I think it would be totally unfair and totally unjust.

“Neither Caster nor her family deserves this humiliation. None of them have done anything wrong. And we appeal that they be left alone. “We have referred the matter to our lawyers to see how best her rights and interests can be protected.”

Stofile was speaking after media reports in Australia claimed a source had revealed that Semenya’s test results showed her to be a hermaphrodite – someone who has some or all of the primary sex characteristics of both men and women.

South Africa’s sports minister, the Reverend Makhenkesi Stofile, said: “Caster is a woman, she remains our heroine. We must protect her.” It is understood tests are likely to show Semenya has an intersex status.

That means that although she has been brought up as a girl and lives as a woman, she may prove to have both male and female sex characteristics.

100 NEW MUTATIONS FOUND

Each of us has at least 100 new mutations in our DNA, according to research published in the journal Current Biology.

Scientists have been trying to get an accurate estimate of the mutation rate for over 70 years. However, only now has it been possible to get a reliable estimate been thanks to “next generation” technology for genetic sequencing.

However, only now has it been possible to get a reliable estimate been thanks to “next generation” technology for genetic sequencing. The findings may lead to new treatments and insights into our evolution.

In 1935, one of the founders of modern genetics, JBS Haldane, studied a group of men with the blood disease haemophilia. He speculated that there would be around 150 new mutations in each of us.

Others have since looked at DNA in chimpanzees to try to produce general estimates for humans. However, next generation sequencing technology has enabled the scientists to produce a far more direct and reliable estimate.

They looked at thousands of genes in the Y chromosomes of two Chinese men. They knew that the men were distantly related, having shared a common ancestor who was born in 1805.

By looking at the number of differences between the two men, and the size of the human genome, they were able to come up with an estimate of between 100 and 200 new mutations per person. Impressively, it seems that Haldane was right all along.

One of the scientists, Dr Yali Xue from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridgeshire, said: “The amount of data we generated would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. “And finding this tiny number of mutations was more difficult than finding an ant’s egg in an emperor’s rice store.”

New mutations can occasionally lead to severe diseases like cancer. It is hoped that the findings may lead to new ways to reduce mutations and insights to into human evolution.

Joseph Nadeau, from the the Case Western Reserve University, US, who was not involved in this study said: “New mutations are the source of inherited variation, some of which can lead to disease and dysfunction, and some of which determines the nature and pace of evolutionary change.

“These are exciting times,” he added. “We are finally obtaining good reliable estimates of genetic features that are urgently needed to understand who we are genetically.”

INDIAN MALE MAKEOVER

All you women out there, get set to drool over more washboard abs. Not just Shahrukh Khan, the urban Indian male is getting a make-over. It’s not just Bebo aka Kareena Kapoor or the sizzling Shilpa Shetty who are sporting the ’size zero’ look. Almost every single garment brand says they are having to sew up a new wardrobe for men: the slim fit line.

“Last year, across all our menswear brands, about 20% of the total collection would have been slim fits. Now, over 50% of our collections are slim fits,” says Rachna Aggarwal, CEO of Indus League, which markets leading menswear brands such as Indigo Nation, Scullers, John Miller and Urbana.

Aggarwal says that shirt sizes 40 and 42 — medium and large — formed the core of the company’s sales. Now, it’s sizes 39 and 40 that form the core. “The demand for size 42 has shrunk, while demand for size 44 has almost vanished,” she says. Ashish Dikshit, president of Madura Garments, whose brands include Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly and Peter England, says India is seeing a lifestyle transformation. “It’s happening globally as well. Men are getting more fit. They also want to be seen in slimmer cuts, as now they feel more comfortable in such clothes,” he says.

Arvind Mills, with brands like Arrow and Excalibur, says their slim fit offerings now account for 60% of the total collection, up from 20% last year. “Even our new US Polo sportswear brand comes with a large slim range,” says Suresh J, CEO (brands & retail) of Arvind Mills.

ATHLETE'S GENDER IN DOUBT

New 800m world champion Caster Semenya has been “humiliated” after being asked to take a gender test, says the head of South Africa’s athletics body.

South African athletics officials have rallied behind controversial new running star Caster Semenya, who won the women’s world 800 meters title just hours after the sport’s governing body asked for the 18-year-old’s gender to be verified.

Semenya crushed her rivals by streaking away to secure victory in a time of one minute 55.45 seconds — the best in the world this year and more than eight seconds quicker than her fastest effort of 2008.

She finished more than two seconds clear of second-placed Kenyan Janeth Jepkosgei, the 2007 champion.

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress earlier urged the country to rally round “our golden girl”. Her family has also insisted she is female. “I know she’s a woman — I raised her myself,” the 18-year-old’s grandmother said.

Her mother Dorcus Semenya told the Star newspaper that doubts about her daughter’s gender were motivated by “jealousy”. “If you go at my home village and ask any of my neighbours, they would tell you that Mokgadi [Caster Semenya] is a girl,” she said.

“They know because they helped raise her. People can say whatever they like but the truth will remain, which is that my child is a girl. I am not concerned about such things.”

In an interview with South Africa’s Times newspaper, her 80-year-old grandmother Maphuthi Sekgala said Ms Semenya had been teased when younger for her boyish looks.

PREGNANT WITH 12 BABIES

A teacher in her 30s is pregnant with a record-breaking 12 babies, it has been reported. The Tunisian woman, who had two miscarriages earlier, is reportedly carrying six boys and six girls.

She is said to have undergone fertility treatment. British fertility experts say though such a pregnancy is possible, it is very risky. There is less than one in 100 chance of even a single baby surviving, an expert said. But the woman claims to be in good health.

‘All I want to do is be able to hug my babies and show them all my love,’ she told hospital workers in the town of Gafsa, about 250 miles south of the capital Tunis. ‘This is an absolute miracle, and we all feel blessed after struggling so hard to have children.’

Her husband, named Marwan, who teaches at the same school in Tunisia, said ‘In the beginning, we thought that my wife would give birth to twins, but more foetuses were discovered. ‘Our joy was increased with the growing number. The medical team told us that my wife would give birth naturally.’ Early labour is expected.

But British experts said that a natural birth would be impossible and warned that the strain of carrying 12 babies could lead to labour at 20 weeks – just halfway through pregnancy.
‘This woman is going to be enormous by 20 weeks. And when the uterus goes into labour there is nothing you can do about it.

Fertility doctors say it is unlikely that an IVF doctor would have agreed to implant the Tunisian woman with 12 embryos. The bumper pregnancy could be the result of fertility drugs to stimulate the ovaries.

The drug industry, the American Medical Association, hospital groups and the insurance lobby are all saying Congress must make major changes this year. Television ads paid for by drug companies and insurers continued to emphasize the benefits of a health care overhaul — not the groups’ objections to some of the proposals.

“My gut is telling me that something major can pass because all the people who could kill it are still at the table,” said Ken Thorpe, chairman of health policy at Emory University in Atlanta. “Everybody has issues with bits and pieces of it, but all these groups want to get something done this year.” As a senior official at the Health and Human Services department in the 1990s, Thorpe was deeply involved in the Clinton administration’s failed effort.

President Barack Obama on Saturday continued his full-court press to pass health care reform legislation. In his weekly Internet and radio address, Obama cited a new White House study indicating that small businesses pay far more per employee for health insurance than big companies — a disparity he says is “unsustainable — it’s unacceptable.” “And it’s going to change when I sign health insurance reform into law,” Obama said, adding that he has “a sense of urgency about moving this process forward.”

This time, the health care industry groups see a strategic opportunity. As lawmakers squabble, the groups are focused on how to come out ahead in the end game. “We’re still optimistic that we can get health care reform accomplished,” said Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, the main insurance industry trade group. “There is strong support from policymakers and from across the health care sector. “

It’s all got to do with shifts in the economy. Even before the recession hit, employer-sponsored health coverage had been steadily shrinking, and many people couldn’t afford the premiums for individual policies. Meanwhile, government programs have been expanding — and they’ve gotten increasingly friendly to private insurance companies. Insurers now play major roles as middlemen in Medicare, Medicaid and the children’s insurance program.

And if the government requires everybody to get coverage — just what the overhaul legislation calls for — it could guarantee a steady stream of customers subsidized by taxpayers not only for insurers, but for all medical providers.
What I’m concerned about is the damage that’s being done right now to the health of our families, the success of our businesses, and the long-term fiscal stability of our government,” Obama said in his address.

Obama criticized what he said were tactics by opponents to block health care overhaul “as a way to inflict political damage on my administration. I’ll leave it to them to explain that to the American people.” “Today, after a lot of hard work in Congress, we are closer than ever before to finally passing reform that will reduce costs, expand coverage and provide more choices for our families and businesses,” Obama said.

The industry groups have invested heavily to make sure their views get taken into account. The health care sector gave $167 million in campaign contributions to congressional candidates in the 2008 election cycle, according to the watchdog group OpenSecrets.org. Health care companies poured $484 million into lobbying efforts in 2008, and are on pace to exceed that this year.

Separately, the drug companies have offered up $80 billion over 10 years to reduce prescription costs of seniors if a deal goes through, while major hospital groups agreed to a $155-billion reduction in Medicare and Medicaid payments to free up funds that would help subsidize coverage for the uninsured. The political infighting on Capitol Hill has strengthened the hand of the health care groups, since liberals have been thwarted so far in their attempts to win speedy passage of the legislation through the House and Senate.

One of the liberals’ main objectives is to include a strong government-sponsored insurance plan in the legislation, to compete against private insurance. Stopping or weakening the government plan is a top priority for the insurance industry. Other health care interest groups are also leery because the public plan could put a dent in their budgets. The House version, modeled on Medicare, would pay doctors and hospitals less than private insurance.

All eyes are now on Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., who has never been friendly to the idea of a government-sponsored insurance plan. Baucus is trying to broker a bipartisan deal with a handful of Republican colleagues. It’s not clear if Baucus will succeed, but his group is looking at creating nonprofit co-ops that would lack Medicare’s power to dictate payment levels and tell providers to take it or leave it. Instead, the co-ops would have to negotiate payment rates with hospitals, doctors and drug makers — just like private insurance plans do.

“We are hopeful at the end of the day a bipartisan plan will emerge that benefits both patients and the U.S. economy,” said Ken Johnson, senior vice president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the drug industry lobby. Obama has endorsed the notion of a strong public plan, the kind liberals want to see. But if Baucus gets a bipartisan deal, the president may have to swallow hard and embrace it or accept defeat of his top domestic priority.

“There is a way out of it — a bipartisan compromise — but so far the liberals have found that to be anathema,” said Robert Laszewski, a health care industry consultant.

MAKING IT WORK IS KEY

President Obama said Wednesday he was unable to guarantee that health care reform won’t change how Americans get medical treatment, but he said any changes would be necessary and positive.

In a nationally televised news conference dominated by the health care issue, Obama delivered lengthy statements in response to Republican attacks on proposals he favors. He also attempted to ease the concerns of people left confused by the fierce debate in Washington.

He repeatedly emphasized that the spiraling costs of the current system would bankrupt the nation while denying coverage to millions more Americans. Asked directly if he could guarantee that an overhauled health care system won’t change how people receive treatment, Obama said no. ”The whole point of this is to try to encourage what works,” Obama said, addressing concerns that reform would take away the ability of people to choose their doctors and treatment.

President Obama’s key domestic policy objective is to reform the US system of healthcare. And the next few weeks will be crucial in determining whether he can deliver the fundamental reform that has eluded his predecessors.

“I am going to keep pressing until we get this done,” President Obama told a town hall meeting in Virginia in early July as he went on the offensive. The rising cost of health care for individuals, which has made it unaffordable for an increasing number of Americans, was a key issue in Mr Obama’s election campaign and crucial to his victory. Now a number of bills are already making their way through the US Congress, and the President would like to sign a comprehensive plan this year, despite intense opposition from Republicans and lobby groups.

President Obama responded to Republican opposition to health care reform, saying that political motives are behind efforts to block progress on the issue. Republicans “who openly announce their intentions to block this reform” would “rather score political points” than confront the ailing health care system, Obama said in a Rose Garden statement.

Republicans responded that Democratic proposals so far would fail to deliver what they promise and eventually lead to a government takeover of health care. Delaying action now “is so we can be smart about the action we have to take,” said Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele.

But as the cost of healthcare reform has risen, along with a $1.7 trillion (£1 tn) US budget deficit, Mr Obama has had to abandon some of his early pledges, and consider increasing taxes to pay for reform.
His $1 trillion 10-year plan has drawn the ire of budget hawks, who want tough measures to reduce the deficit. “There remain questions about whether this is the right time to be engaging in such an expensive agenda item,” says Maya McGuineas of the Committee for a Responsible Budget. “We’ve already been hit with sticker shock of just how much this budget deficit is going to cost.”

Amid the sharpened debate, a leading House Democrat said Tuesday the chamber may not vote on a bill before Obama’s deadline of August 7, when Congress goes on recess. Obama and his chief spokesman indicated the deadline was more a target for progress, rather than a make-or-break moment.

“We’re going to come back here after the August break and have a lot of work to do on health care,” said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs. At issue is overhauling a health care system beset by spiraling costs while leaving 46 million Americans uninsured.