Global appetite of Universal Soldier

De vier onderstaande kant-en-klare menu's zijn resp. voor de Amerikaanse, Italiaanse, Canadese en Zuid-Koreaanse troepen.


Het Amerikaanse menu met onder ander pork ribs, BBQ sauce, tortillas, aardappel-cheddarsoep en pindakaas.
 
Het Italiaanse: o.a. pasta en bonensoep, tortellini, makreel in olijfolie en worstjes in blik.
 
Het Canadese: broodje kaas, broodje hamburger, chocoladekoekje en een tandenstoker.

Kimchi, gebakken rijst, worstjes en witte bonen in saus in het Zuid-Koreaanse pakket.

H1N1: 10,000 Deaths in US from Swine Flu Pandemic

Swine flu has already infected 50 million Americans, killing 10,000, most of them children and younger adults, federal officials reported Thursday.

The new estimates suggest that the flu, also known as H1N1, has spread through 15% of the U.S. population since it was first identified in April. As of Nov. 17, 200,000 people have been hospitalised, says Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's about the same number of people hospitalised during the entire flu season, which usually lasts until May.

At least 7,500 adults 18 to 64 and 1,000 children younger than 18 have died of the disease, Frieden said. In a typical flu season, roughly 80 children die.

"Many times more children and younger adults, unfortunately, have been hospitalised or killed by H1N1 influenza than occurs during a usual flu season," Frieden says.

The analysis marks the government's latest assessment of the H1N1 epidemic. The virus has upended expectations of flu by targeting the young rather than the old. In a typical year, 95% of deaths are in people 65 and older; so far, 95% of deaths have been in people younger than 65.

William Schaffner, a flu expert at Vanderbilt University, says the new estimates reinforce the message that "this isn't an infection to be trifled with or blown off."

Although flu seems to be waning — with just 25 states now reporting widespread activity, down from 48 little more than a month ago — the virus remains highly infectious and may come roaring back, Schaffner says.

Europe joins US in applying pressure on China to revalue Yaun

The head of the European Central Bank said here Sunday that a revaluation of the yuan currency would be "appropriate" after talks with China's Premier Wen Jiabao.
"We discussed the exchange rate policy, the de facto peg of the yuan," Jean-Claude Trichet told reporters at a briefing after talks between EU officials and Wen in the eastern city of Nanjing.

He said officials encouraged Beijng to take "a more flexible policy," adding "it seems it would be appropriate."

The talks, which also involved Eurogroup chief Jean-Claude Juncker and EU economic and monetary affairs commissioner Joaquin Almunia, took place a day ahead of a major China-EU summit expected to focus on climate change.
The yuan currency's exchange rate is one of the thorniest issues between China and the European Union.

The Chinese currency has been effectively pegged to the dollar since the summer of 2008, and Europe fears the euro's rise against the yuan will hurt EU exports to China and eventually slow the continent's economic recovery.

Beijing, which faces complaints from both the United States and Europe that it is manipulating its currency to gain an unfair trade edge, says it wants to take its time and reform its exchange rate system.

Juncker also told reporters that the global economic recovery was not strong enough yet to withdraw stimulus measures introduced by various governments to fight the financial crisis.

"We are considering the moment has not yet arrived to withdraw the stimulus packages that are under way in various parts of the world," he said.

"The euro area will see no major withdrawal of stimulus measures in 2010."

H1N1: Swine Flu Cases in the US drop steadily but deaths above 'normal epidemic threshold'

Influenza infections fell for the fourth week in a row in the United States but the number of flu deaths remained above the epidemic threshold, a government health agency said in a weekly report.

During the week of November 15-21, 32 states reported widespread flu activity, down from 43 states the previous week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in its weekly flu report.

Nearly all the cases of flu were A(H1N1), or swine flu, the report said.

Hospitalization rates and deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza were both higher than expected for the time of year, with very young children -- ranging from newly-borns to four years -- having the highest hospitalization rate.

More than eight percent of all deaths reported to the CDC during the week covered by the report were due to pneumonia or influenza, a full percentage point above the epidemic threshold.
Deaths from pneumonia and influenza have been above the threshold for eight consecutive weeks, the CDC said.

Thirty-five of the deaths from flu were in young children, and in 27 of those deaths, swine flu had been confirmed in laboratory tests.

Seven children died of other influenza A viruses, which were not subtyped, and one child died of seasonal flu.

Since the swine flu outbreak was first reported, the CDC has received reports of 198 laboratory-confirmed pediatric deaths from the new strain of H1N1 flu, but that toll is thought to be "an undercount of the actual number," the federal health agency said.

The highest paediatric death toll from seasonal flu in the past three years was 88, CDC officials said last month.

Earlier this month, the CDC unveiled a new method for counting deaths from swine flu, and revised its estimated death toll from the new strain of flu to 4,000 people overall, including more than 500 children.

Worldwide, more than 207 countries and overseas territories or communities have reported laboratory-confirmed cases of pandemic swine flu, and 7,820 people have died of the new strain of flu, according to statistics released last week by the World Health Organization (WHO).

In North America, the Caribbean and a limited number of European countries, the WHO said "there are signs that disease activity has peaked."

Times Cartoon sums up US economy on Thanksgiving Day

......with the UK not far behind, along with Africa, South America, Australia, etc.....

60% of US deficit debt is with China - $22.1 Billion

On Friday, as President Obama crossed the Pacific to begin his first trip to Asia, the Census Bureau released its monthly trade tally.

The headline was that the U.S. trade deficit grew to $36.5 billion in September, more than forecasters expected and the biggest such figure since January.

Incredibly, the really dramatic number was that 60.5% of the deficit, or $22.1 billion, was with just one country: China.

Obama arrived in Beijing Monday, but experts don't expect anything to get resolved. The U.S.-China economic relationship has become far too complicated and contradictory to benefit from simple solutions.

Within the U.S., the imbalance is mainly seen as the product of protectionist policies by China, in particular China's refusal to let its currency, the yuan, appreciate against the dollar.

It's universally agreed in all countries, except China, that a freely floating yuan would be worth significantly more than the 15 cents it currently trades for. By keeping its currency's value artificially low, China makes its products cheaper in the U.S., thus encouraging and maintaining the imbalance in trade.

History shows us that when China linked its currency to the dollar in the early 1990s, it was not out to create trade surpluses but to establish a bit of stability in the turbulent global currency markets.

During the emerging-market currency crises of 1997 and 1998, China's success in keeping the yuan fixed at 8.3 yuan to the dollar was applauded in the West as a major contribution to averting financial chaos.

Since 2005, China has been willing to allow the yuan to appreciate a bit (the current exchange rate is 6.8 yuan to the dollar) but only on its own extremely conservative terms.

Meanwhile, in China, it is fashionable to blame U.S. trade deficits on the debt-addicted ways of American citizens and their government and there may be an element of truth to this.

If the U.S. borrowed and spent less, its trade imbalances would be smaller but China has been enabling this profligate behaviour for years by buying trillions of dollars in U.S. government debt and mortgage securities as part of its long term strategy and continuing efforts, to keep the yuan from appreciating against the dollar.

It's a bit reminiscent of the seemingly endless wrangles in the late 1980s and early 1990s with Japan, which accounted for the bulk of the U.S. trade deficit in those days. The trade deficit with Japan never shrank much in dollar terms, but it became smaller as a share of GDP starting in the mid-1990s, and was eclipsed by the trade imbalance with China in 2000 (in September the U.S. trade deficit with Japan was $4.1 billion, compared to $22.1 billion with China).

The issue was never resolved, but it ceased to seem so important. The question now is whether the same could happen with China?