news/notes20090502a

[Biography of the Day] from [Britannica]

Catherine II
Catherine the Great, who engineered the abdication of her husband, Peter III, to become empress of Russia (1762–96) and one of the most powerful women in history, was born in Prussia this day in 1729.

[On This Day] from [Britannica]

1939: Lou Gehrig's 2,130-game streak ended
On this day in 1939, New York Yankee great Lou Gehrig, the “Iron Horse” of American baseball, ended his streak of consecutive games played (2,130), setting a record that stood until 1995, when it was broken by Cal Ripken, Jr.


[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]

[NATIONAL NEWS]

Saturday, May 2, 2009
Baby at Yokota base latest flu scare focus
Yokohama boy now not linked to new strain

(Compiled from Kyodo, Staff reports) A baby who arrived Friday at the U.S. Yokota Air Base in Tokyo from the United States has tested positive for type-A influenza in a preliminary exam and may be the first case here of the new H1N1 strain, the Foreign Ministry said on the heels of reports that two Japanese earlier suspected of having caught the virus were in fact suffering other forms of flu.

A Yokohama high school boy who recently visited Canada had earlier been suspected of carrying the new strain, but a followup test turned out negative, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Friday.

Health minister Yoichi Masuzoe, breathing a sigh of relief, said the youth had the Soviet A-type influenza, not the swine-avian-human flu that first surfaced in Mexico and is causing pandemic fears.

Thursday night it was reported a 25-year-old woman returning to Japan aboard a Northwest Airlines flight from Los Angeles had tested positive for the influenza-A virus, possibly being Japan's first H1N1 case, but she was later diagnosed with type-A Hong Kong flu.

The 4-month-old baby who arrived at the Yokota base and the infant's mother have been isolated at a medical facility on base, while 13 other passengers seated near the baby on the airplane will be isolated until they are confirmed as not being infected with the H1N1 strain, the Foreign Ministry said, based on information provided by the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.

Details, including the gender of the baby, are not known.

The U.S. side is conducting further tests on the baby and will provide the results to Japanese authorities as soon as they are known.

The 17-year-old youth tested positive in a preliminary A-type flu test Thursday during a medical checkup after returning with classmates from a trip to British Columbia on April 25. His symptoms included a fever, coughing and phlegm, Masuzoe said.

The National Infectious Disease Surveillance Center, which examined the Yokohama sample, said it took time confirming whether the student had the H1N1 subtype, because the amount of virus in the sample was too small.

"There is no need to panic. I ask people to take measures against ordinary influenza, such as wearing masks and washing hands," Masuzoe said.

The Yokohama student had a fever of 39, but that dropped to 37 on Friday and he is recovering, city officials said.

None of his family or schoolmates has flu symptoms, but the city is questioning teachers and students about where they went and with whom they came into contact, the official said.

The boy tested positive on a polymerase chain reaction test that detects the DNA of the virus, but the results were not conclusive enough to declare he was infected with the new flu, the health ministry said.

A school official said 115 students and five teachers went on the excursion and came back to the school on three buses from Narita airport.

On Thursday, the World Health Organization said it will no longer use the term "swine flu" to refer to the new strain of A virus rapidly spreading across the world, citing protests from pork and other farm industries. The WHO will instead use the term "influenza A (H1N1)," a representative said.


[NATIONAL NEWS]

Saturday, May 2, 2009
Q&A
Tips to prepare for influenza outbreak

By MARIKO KATO and MINORU MATSUTANI
Staff writers

Concern about the new flu, called a type H1N1, is spreading in Japan as global alert levels have been raised regarding a possible pandemic.

Although no cases of infection has been confirmed in Japan, foreign residents in particular may be keen to know where to go for advice if they think they have the new bug.

Here are some basic questions and answers about the situation:

If infection is suspected, what precautions should be taken?

Those who think they may have influenza of any kind should avoid taking public transport and wear a mask to avoid spreading the infection, according to Masaaki Murakami of the infectious diseases division of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry. This is because all types of influenza, including the new one, are easily transmitted through the air, he said.

"When patients cough, sneeze or speak, viruses in their saliva fly 2 or 3 meters," he said. Flu may be transmitted if the infected saliva reaches someone else's mouth or nose, or their hands and they rub their eyes or eat with them, he added.

Those worried about infection should also be careful when removing their masks, according to Murakami.

"You don't want to touch its surface, which has probably absorbed other people's saliva," he said.

Other precautions include washing hands as well as wiping doorknobs and light switches with disinfectant, he added.

Some foreign medical experts say masks won't help prevent the spread of the flu. Are they right?

According to a spokesman from Japan's leading health care product company, Kowa Co., masks do help prevent flu from spreading if their filters are small enough to block infected saliva.

"Saliva particles with the virus are about 3 micrometers in diameter. Kowa makes masks with filters that block 0.1-micrometer substances," he said.

While some mask makers tend to advertise their products as working specifically for one type of prevention, such as blocking pollen, most other masks will work to combat flu as well, said the spokesman, who asked not to be named.

"It's just a marketing tactic appealing to people with hay fever during a particular season, and (the masks) probably work for colds and flu as well," he said.

He added that a good mask fits the face so it completely blocks infected saliva.

Where can I go for foreign-language advice if I think I have the new flu?

If you think you may have the flu, the government advises going to the new fever consultation centers opening in public health centers across the country, which accept inquiries about related symptoms.

The fever consultation centers will then advise you to go to hospitals designated to handle infectious diseases, of which there are 10 in Tokyo, including Tokyo Metropolitan Bokutoh Hospital in Sumida Ward and Tokyo Metropolitan Ebara Hospital in Ota Ward.

For information about the nearest fever consultation center in Tokyo in English, Chinese, Korean, Thai and Spanish, call Tokyo Metropolitan Medical Institution Information at (03) 5285-8181 between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. daily. Outside these hours, you can call Tokyo Fever Consultation Center at (03) 5320-4509, although they may not have foreign-language speaking staff.

For advice in Kyoto, call the consultation hotline at (075) 342-0088, where English-speaking staff are available daily between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. and Chinese, Korean, Spanish and Portuguese speakers from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

For consultation in Japanese, call (075) 222-3421 between 9 a.m. and 10 p.m. daily.

How long will airline passengers have to wait in Immigration?

According to a Narita airport spokeswoman, all passengers on flights from the U.S., Canada and South America undergo medical inspections while still on board, which can take two hours or longer.

"When the planes land at Narita, we distribute surveys asking whether passengers have a fever or a cold, and those who reply in the affirmative receive a quick health check on the spot," she said.

She added that those suspected of having the flu are taken from the plane to avoid contact with other passengers.

Similar checks are being carried out on direct flights from the U.S. to Kansai International Airport, a spokesman for the quarantine division said.

Have foreign embassies issued warnings about traveling to Mexico?

According to the Mexican embassy in Tokyo, the Mexican government released a statement Thursday saying it has no plans to close national borders or restrict travel in and out of the country.

Although the U.S. and U.K. embassies in Japan have not themselves issued any particular warnings to Japan-based nationals against traveling to Mexico, the U.S. government's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advised American travelers to "avoid nonessential travel to Mexico," while the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the U.K. is "advising against all but essential travel to Mexico."

news/notes20090502b

[NATIONAL NEWS]

Saturday, May 2, 2009
Kyoto tourists not panicked by flu

By ERIC JOHNSTON
Staff writer

KYOTO — Concerns about the new flu were on the minds of tourists and local officials in the Kansai region Friday, as the ancient capital of Kyoto braced for the arrival of thousands of tourists from Japan and abroad over the Golden Week holidays.

At Kyoto Station Friday morning, busloads of Japanese tourists gathered around flag-waving tour guides, while groups of non-Japanese tourists with backpacks searched for foreign language information about local shrines and temples. Both Japanese and non-Japanese tourists said they were concerned, but not panicked, about the possibility of type H1N1 flu spreading.

"We've traveled to other countries that are always dangerous, healthwise. Many of the precautions officials are urging are the kinds of common-sense suggestions like keeping clean, eating healthy, and getting plenty of rest, things that anybody who travels should be familiar with," said Beth Ryan, a 25-year-old American who was visiting Kyoto with her boyfriend.

Her thoughts were echoed by Kazumi Yamanaka, 38, a housewife from Nagoya who was visiting Kyoto and Nara with friends.

"As long as people are careful and stay clean, and as long as they don't wait to see a doctor if they feel sick, I don't see any reason to panic," she said.

To prepare for the influx of tourists, especially foreign tourists, Kyoto has prepared information in English, Chinese, Korean, Spanish and Portuguese, and has set up a telephone hotline in these languages for foreign tourists who feel ill or who have questions about swine flu.

The information is available at the Kyoto Prefectural International Tourism Center, on the ninth floor of Kyoto Station, where English-speaking staff are also available.

"So far, we haven't had any foreign tourists come in saying they felt ill," said Mahito Bito, who works at the center. About 150 foreign tourists per day visit the center.

While there is no foreign language information at the center on hospitals, medical centers, or doctors in Kyoto who are fluent in foreign languages, those who call the hotline can get information about where such help might be available.

However, foreign tourists who have seen the precautions Kyoto is advising wondered about the effectiveness of several of the suggestions.

"We're advised to buy flu masks if we start coughing and to stay 2 meters away from others when coughing or sneezing. But just how effective are they, really in stopping the spread of disease, especially in an extremely crowded place like Japan?" asked Jay Madlock, a 21-year-old Australian who lives in Tokyo and is traveling around Kansai.

news/notes20090502c

[Today's Papers] from [Slate Magazine]

Judgment Call

By Kara Hadge
Posted Saturday, May 2, 2009, at 6:24 AM ET

Barely past the 100-day mark in his Presidency, Barack Obama already has an opportunity to shape his legacy: The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal's world-wide news box, and Los Angeles Times lead, and the New York Times off-leads, with speculation about the type of judge the president will appoint to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter. Obama will personally lead the search for a nominee, and his background as a constitutional law professor and community organizer is a likely influence behind his desire to appoint someone who will show "empathy" toward "people's hopes and struggles," as he said in yesterday's press briefing.

The NYT leads with a look at the U.S. government's outreach to Nawaz Sharif, the chief opposition to the Pakistani president. While the United States had avoided Sharif before due to his ties to Islamists, the Obama administration now views those connections as a useful way to prop up a government that is losing influence to Taliban insurgents. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Richard Holbrooke, special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, are encouraging Sharif and President Asif Ali Zardari to work together, although the two men are fierce rivals.

Appointing a Supreme Court justice gives the president a chance to leave a lasting impact on the judicial system, and Obama is under pressure to choose someone who is not only qualified but also symbolic. The papers are already speculating that he will lean toward a female or minority candidate, or possibly a dyed-in-the-wool liberal like former Justice Thurgood Marshall. There is a general consensus among the coverage that Obama could consider Sonia Sotomayor, a New York federal appeals court justice who would be the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice; Elena Kagan, the former Harvard Law School dean already tapped to be solicitor general; Stanford professor Kathleen Sullivan; or Diane Wood, an appellate judge from Chicago. The WP and NYT also make the stretch to suggest Democratic Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick as a contender with political and legal experience, after Obama admired a former governor who became chief justice on the campaign trail.

Conservative activists are already protesting the president's criteria for going "beyond what is necessary for choosing a justice," the WP reports. But perhaps Obama needn't worry too much: Sen. Lindsey Graham has already commented that the Democrats can't really "screw this up" unless the president nominates a radical or someone with a shady financial history.

All the papers front updates on the challenges ahead for Chrysler in the wake of the company's filing for bankruptcy protection. Dealerships are scrambling to find sources for customers' loans, and four plants have already shut down ahead of Monday's planned closure date. In its partnership with Chrysler, Fiat will try to streamline production costs, increase sales, and turn around the company's "battered image," says the LAT. Fortunately, Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne won the same fight when he took control of the Italian automaker five years ago. The WP profiles the Maryland-based great-grandson of Chrysler's founder, who has been cataloging the company's history for years with a museumlike display in the building that houses his furniture-making business. Lately, he has thrown all his effort into a letter-writing campaign to the president and others to save the ailing company. Meanwhile, the United Automobile Workers union is feeling pretty good about their unparalleled support in the bankruptcy proceedings beginning in New York; the Treasury Department will provide Chrysler's union members with retiree medical benefits and protection for their pension plans.

Swine flu stories move inside today in all the papers except the WP, which fronts news of school closures in Maryland. The LAT points out that closing the U.S.-Mexico border is unlikely to stop the spread of the virus, as past pandemics have proven. The WSJ points to a survey that shows Americans are avoiding public places like malls and sporting events, while in Mexico City, medical teams are going house to house to uncover new cases of the flu. In her NYT column, Gail Collins calls Vice President Biden "the perfect warning bell to show the White House when things are veering out of control" and "a kind of mental canary in the governmental mine shaft," following the frank concerns he expressed on the Today show yesterday about venturing onto airplanes, subways, and other enclosed places.

There is no word yet on whether the vice president will be tweeting from the White House's new Twitter account. Just in time to communicate news about the swine flu outbreak, the White House announced yesterday that it has joined Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace.

A few months after the president announced his plans to shut down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, the Obama administration is thinking about reinstating the controversial military courts there. Although the current administration would revise the military commission system, human rights groups are concerned it might still circumvent laws upheld in American courts. Others worry that trials would lack the power to convict suspected terrorists.

Across the pond, the WP reveals that British taxpayers have spent $900,000 in legal fees, covered by the government, on behalf of three associates of Osama Bin Laden who have been fighting extradition to the United States since 1998. The three suspects in the U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania "have plodded through the British bureaucracy with no end in sight, undermining transatlantic cooperation on counterterrorism and highlighting how easy it can be for international terrorism suspects to elude the reach of U.S. prosecutors."

In the ongoing elections in India, Rahul Gandhi tries to cash in not on his dynastic legacy—as the fourth generation of a long-revered political family—but on his youth, according to the WSJ. The 38-year-old grandson of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is up against candidates in their 70s and 80s at a time when people under the age of 40 make up 70 percent of the country's population.

The grass may actually be greener in front of foreclosed homes in California. With "a bit of water, a few chemicals, and the willing suspension of disbelief," a local entrepreneur is reviving dead lawns by painting them green in the hopes that this will help sell houses.

The WSJ surveys the betting field for today's Kentucky Derby. Most people place their bets on horses with catchy names. While their monikers don't say much about their chances for success, this year's pack may be worth a gamble, at least, with names like Recapturetheglory, I Want Revenge, and Chocolate Candy. TP has a soft spot for General Quarters.