news.notes20090511a

[Biography of the Day] from [Britannica]

Salvador Dalí
Spanish artist Salvador Dalí, a leading Surrealist painter noted for his depiction of dreamworlds in which commonplace objects are juxtaposed or deformed in a bizarre and irrational fashion, was born this day in 1904.

[On This Day] from [Britannica]

330: “New Rome” established by Constantine
On this day in 330, Constantine the Great dedicated Byzantium (Constantinople; now Istanbul) as the new capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, an act that helped transform it into a leading city of the world.


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

[NATIONAL NEWS]

Monday, May 11, 2009
Japan gets fourth flu case

Another student from Canada school trip comes down with H1N1
KAWASAKI (Kyodo) Another student who took part in a school trip to Canada has swine flu, the fourth confirmed case in Japan, the health ministry said Sunday.

The 16-year-old boy was on board the same flight as a teacher and two other students who were confirmed Saturday as Japan's first cases of the H1N1 influenza A virus.

Another 48 passengers and crew who were on the Northwest Airlines flight that arrived Friday at Narita International Airport via the U.S. are being monitored at a hotel near the airport for 10 days.

The health ministry is conducting followup checks on 164 other people on the flight who stayed in Japan. The flight had a total of 409 passengers and crew members.

Of the passengers still in Japan, authorities were unable to contact three foreigners as of Sunday afternoon.

One is a young American boy who was scheduled to be at the U.S. Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo on Sunday.

The others are a British woman in her 40s and French man in his 20s staying at hotels.

The latest student to get swine flu, who attends the same high school in Neyagawa, Osaka Prefecture, as the two other students, initially tested negative for the virus, but a detailed test by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases later detected the H1N1 strain.

He has been isolated at a different hospital in Chiba Prefecture from the three other patients. His temperature, which was around 38 degrees as of Saturday afternoon, was back to normal as of Sunday, and he was in stable condition, hospital officials said.

Six other students on the same flight who initially tested negative for swine flu also underwent further tests, but none was found to have the disease.

According to the Osaka prefectural board of education, the student arrived at Narita from Detroit on Friday afternoon together with the three infected passengers — a 46-year-old teacher and two 16-year-old students — after staying in Oakville, Ontario, from April 24 on a school trip.

During quarantine inspection after landing, the student exhibited no flu symptoms but later complained of fever and coughing after being taken to a hotel for medical monitoring. He was among 49 people subject to medical monitoring, including 33 who traveled with the three confirmed cases on the school program.

Of the 49, seven — the male student and six female students — were taken to three hospitals in Chiba Prefecture to be examined for infection with the new flu after developing such symptoms as fever, coughing and a sore throat since arriving at the facility.

The World Health Organization has added Japan to its list of countries that have reported laboratory confirmations of swine flu.

No break from school

OSAKA (Kyodo) Three high schools in Neyagawa, Osaka Prefecture, will send study materials to their students being kept under observation for signs of swine flu since arriving at Narita International Airport on Friday.

Officials at the Osaka prefectural board of education said Sunday the materials will allow the students to study on their own while they are under quarantine.

The students will also get letters of encouragement, the officials said.

The board has decided to dispatch herapists to the schools to alleviate concerns among students and the parents of children who went on the school trip to Canada.


[NATIONAL NEWS]

Monday, May 11, 2009
Two P-3C patrol planes to join hunt for pirates

(Kyodo News) The government plans to give the order later this week to add two P-3C patrol aircraft to the antipiracy mission off Somalia, government sources said Sunday.

Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada is expected to issue the order Friday after the plan is approved by the top security panel and the Cabinet. It will be the first time for P-3C planes to be dispatched on an overseas mission.

Upon receiving the order, the Defense Ministry will send an advance team to Djibouti before dispatching the main unit later this month, the sources said. The Maritime Self-Defense Force aircraft are expected to begin their mission in June using the Djibouti airport as their base.

The mission will involve about 150 personnel, including the air crews and Ground Self-Defense Force personnel who will guard the airport, according to the ministry. In addition, the Air Self-Defense Force will transport personnel and necessary supplies to the airport.

The P-3C aircraft will complement two MSDF destroyers that have been conducting escort missions for Japan-linked commercial ships in the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden, patrolling a vast area off the Horn of Africa.

The two planes will search for pirate boats and provide information to the destroyers, Japan-related ships and other countries' military vessels navigating the high seas, according to the ministry.

The destroyers have escorted 44 vessels between late March, when they began their mission, and last Wednesday.

Such countries as Britain, France, the United States, Russia and China have sent naval vessels to the area to patrol for pirates in support of U.N. Security Council resolutions.


[NATIONAL NEWS]

Monday, May 11, 2009

Kawasaki woman cleared of swine flu

KAWASAKI (Kyodo) A Kawasaki woman in her 30s who was suspected of having swine flu instead has a seasonal flu, city officials said Sunday.

She is infected with the Hong Kong type-A flu, not the H1N1 flu that is spreading worldwide and has killed dozens of people in Mexico and the United States, they said.

The woman returned from the United States on Wednesday and underwent a detailed examination for the new flu strain.

She has been at a Kawasaki hospital and was running a fever of 37 degrees.

A sample from her test was sent to the Kawasaki City Institute for Public Health for further analysis, and to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases.

ANA crews to cover up


(Kyodo News)　All Nippon Airways cabin attendants will wear masks on flights from the United States to Japan after the nation's first swine flu cases were found among passengers who arrived from Canada via Detroit, ANA officials said.

Cabin attendants on U.S.-bound flights from Japan are not covered by the step, ANA said.

Workers who clean airplane interiors and load in-flight meals for flights from the United States will be required to wear masks.

ANA will also require ground officials who meet passengers on flights from the United States at Japanese airports to wear masks. At Narita airport, many officials have already been wearing masks on their own.

Pilots on flights from the United States will have to wear masks when boarding and when going to the restroom.

Japan Airlines has already ordered cabin attendants on flights from Mexico to wear masks. It is considering whether to extend the step to flights from other destinations in North and South America, but it allows cabin attendants to wear masks if they want.

news.notes20090511b

[Today's Paper] from [Los Angeles Times]

Naturalized citizens are poised to reshape California's political landscape
The increase in naturalized Asian and Latino citizens -- 300,000 people took the oath of allegiance in 2008 -- could alter the state's policy priorities for years to come, analysts say.

By Teresa Watanabe
May 11, 2009

More than 1 million immigrants became U.S. citizens last year, the largest surge in history, hastening the ethnic transformation of California's political landscape with more Latinos and Asians now eligible to vote.

Leading the wave, California's 300,000 new citizens accounted for nearly one-third of the nation's total and represented a near-doubling over 2006, according to a recent report by the U.S. Office of Immigration Statistics. Florida recorded the second-largest group of new citizens, and Texas claimed the fastest growth.

Mexicans, who have traditionally registered low rates of naturalization, represented the largest group, with nearly one-fourth of the total. They were followed by Indians, Filipinos, Chinese, Cubans and Vietnamese.

The new citizens are reshaping California's electorate and are likely to reorder the state's policy priorities, some political analysts predict. Several polls show that Latinos and Asians are more supportive than whites of public investments and broad services, even if they require higher taxes.

Most Latinos, for instance, support all five budget propositions on the May ballot while most whites oppose them, according to recent polls by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California. Although viewed as largely conservative, most Asian Americans supported a 2004 measure requiring large businesses to provide health insurance to employees, even as it failed at the ballot box, according to an analysis by the Asian Pacific American Legal Center in Los Angeles.

Nationally, nonwhite voters overwhelmingly supported Barack Obama's presidential candidacy, while most whites voted for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a recent study by the Pew Research Center showed. And there were more nonwhite voters last year -- Latino registered voters increased by 3 million compared with 2004, said Antonio Gonzalez, president of the Southwest Voting Registration Education Project in Los Angeles.

The surge in new citizens will accelerate by several years the California electorate's shift from majority white to nonwhite, according to Dowell Myers, a USC demographer. Although that shift won't be completed until 2026, Myers and others said, Latinos, Asians and African Americans are already joining with progressive whites to elect ethnically diverse candidates.

"As we have more Asian American and Latino voters, our electorate will begin to look more like the face of the public at large," said Mark Baldassare of the Public Policy Institute. "From the standpoint of representative democracy, few things could be more important than this."

The path to the 1-million mark was paved by an organized collaboration among community activists, the Spanish-language media and government. Univision TV network and La Opinion newspaper, in particular, had many stories about the importance of citizenship and demystified the application process, said Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund in Los Angeles.

"You could not go throughout Los Angeles and not be bombarded with the message that it's time to become a citizen," said Vargas, whose organization helped spearhead the national campaign called Ya Es Hora ("It's Time").

U.S. immigration officials worked weekends to distribute information, develop TV scripts and provide an official to conduct an on-air mock citizenship interview, Vargas said. Jane Arellano, district director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' seven-county area covering Southern California, was the movement's "unsung hero," he said.

Arellano said she first met with activists in 2006 about their citizenship campaign plans. As she watched citizenship applications shoot up in January 2008, Arellano immediately appealed to her agency's headquarters for extra help.

In all, she managed to add more than 100 extra staff, won authorization for weekend overtime work and worked with the courts to add and expand citizenship ceremonies. The high point came in September, when 34,000 new citizens took the oath of allegiance -- more than a fourfold increase over the previous year, Arellano said.

Meanwhile, the region's adult and community colleges joined the effort, expanding English and civics classes to help prepare immigrants for their citizenship test. The Los Angeles Unified School District's adult education division nearly doubled the number of citizenship classes last year over the previous year, officials said.

One of those new Latino voters was Joanuen Llamas, a 26-year-old Mexico native and Los Angeles homemaker who legally immigrated here in 1998. She was inspired to become a citizen in March 2008 after joining the massive immigrant rights marches of recent years and took to heart their slogan, "Today we march, tomorrow we vote."

"It made me think that that's the way to change anything in this country," said Llamas, who cast her first vote, for Obama, in November.

Those demographic and political trends will continue to marginalize Republicans unless the party makes major changes in its tone and policies toward immigrants, said Allan Hoffenblum, a Republican political consultant in Los Angeles.

"The reason the Republican Party is in such dire straits is its inability to successfully reach out and change its image among Latinos and Asians," he said. "The image is too shrill on immigration. It's an image of an intolerant cult."

But Gonzalez said Latinos and other immigrants still had far to go, noting that 8 million of them have not yet claimed citizenship although they are eligible. "The test is going forward," he said.

Indeed, new citizenship applications have already dropped significantly. In the Southern California district, for instance, applications plunged to 58,433 last year from 253,666 the previous year, U.S. immigration statistics show.

Most experts say that a 69% increase in application fees to $675 was one reason for the steep decline. The Obama administration is proposing $206 million in funding for immigration services that could help reduce the fee by about $50, and activists are hoping for more, said Rosalind Gold of the National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund. New citizen Alfonso Vergara is one product of the massive citizenship campaign effort. A Mexico native and pharmaceutical technician, the 31-year-old said he had postponed applying for citizenship for years because the process seemed too time-consuming.

But last year, he said, he was swept up in the marches and the call for civic activism.

"It was time for me to build a stronger future for my family and become a more active person in this country," he said.

Ultimately, Vargas said, the citizenship wave will help Latinos and other new U.S. citizens contribute even more to the country.

"This isn't about helping Latinos for the sake of helping Latinos," Vargas said. "This is about helping Latinos succeed for the sake of America."

news.notes20090511c

[Today's Paper] from [The New York Times]

Shaky Pakistan Is Seen as Target of Qaeda Plots

By MARK MAZZETTI and ERIC SCHMITT
Published: May 10, 2009

WASHINGTON — As Taliban militants push deeper into Pakistan’s settled areas, foreign operatives of Al Qaeda who had focused on plotting attacks against the West are seizing on the turmoil to sow chaos in Pakistan and strengthen the hand of the militant Islamist groups there, according to American and Pakistani intelligence officials.

One indication came April 19, when a truck parked inside a Qaeda compound in South Waziristan, in Pakistan’s tribal areas, erupted in a fireball when it was struck by a C.I.A. missile. American intelligence officials say that the truck had been loaded with high explosives, apparently to be used as a bomb, and that while its ultimate target remains unclear, the bomb would have been more devastating than the suicide bombing that killed more than 50 people at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad in September.

Al Qaeda’s leaders — a predominantly Arab group of Egyptians, Saudis and Yemenis, as well as other nationalities like Uzbeks — for years have nurtured ties to Pakistani militant groups like the Taliban operating in the mountains of Pakistan. The foreign operatives have historically set their sights on targets loftier than those selected by the local militant groups, aiming for spectacular attacks against the West, but they may see new opportunity in the recent violence.

Intelligence officials say the Taliban advances in Swat and Buner, which are closer to Islamabad than to the tribal areas, have already helped Al Qaeda in its recruiting efforts. The officials say the group’s recruiting campaign is currently aimed at young fighters across the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia who are less inclined to plan and carry out far-reaching global attacks and who have focused their energies on more immediate targets.

“They smell blood, and they are intoxicated by the idea of a jihadist takeover in Pakistan,” said Bruce O. Riedel, a former analyst for the C.I.A. who recently led the Obama administration’s policy review of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

It remains unlikely that Islamic militants could seize power in Pakistan, given the strength of Pakistan’s military, according to American intelligence analysts. But a senior American intelligence official expressed concern that recent successes by the Taliban in extending territorial gains could foreshadow the creation of “mini-Afghanistans” around Pakistan that would allow militants even more freedom to plot attacks.

American government officials and terrorism experts said that Al Qaeda’s increasing focus on a local strategy was partly born from necessity, as the C.I.A.’s intensifying airstrikes have reduced the group’s ability to hit targets in the West. The United States has conducted 17 drone attacks so far this year, including one on Saturday, according to American officials and Pakistani news accounts, compared with 36 strikes in all of 2008.

According to a Pakistani intelligence assessment provided to The New York Times in February, Al Qaeda has adapted to the deaths of its leaders by shifting “to conduct decentralized operations under small but well-organized regional groups” within Pakistan and Afghanistan. At the same time, the group has intensified its recruiting, to replace its airstrike casualties.

One of Al Qaeda’s main goals in Pakistan, the assessment said, was to “stage major terrorist attacks to create a feeling of insecurity, embarrass the government and retard economic development and political progress.”

The Qaeda operatives are foreigners inside Pakistan, and experts say that the group’s leaders, like Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, appear to be wary of claiming credit for the violence in the country, possibly creating popular backlash against the group.

“They are trying to take an Arab face off this,” said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University.

“If you look at Al Qaeda as a brand, they know when to broadcast the brand, as the group has done in North Africa,” Mr. Hoffman said. “And they know when to cloak the brand, as it has done in Pakistan.”

As a result, it is difficult for American officials to assess exactly which recent attacks in Pakistan are the work of Qaeda operatives. But intelligence officials say they believe that the Marriott Hotel bombing was partly planned by Usama al-Kini, a Kenyan Qaeda operative who was killed in Pakistan by a C.I.A. drone on New Year’s Day.

According to Mr. Hoffman, Al Qaeda may be trying to achieve a separate goal: getting the C.I.A. to call off its campaign of airstrikes in the tribal areas. A wave of terrorist violence could foment so much popular discontent with the government of President Asif Ali Zardari, he said, that Pakistan might then try to pressure the Obama administration to scale back its drone campaign.

For now, however, Obama administration officials say they believe that the covert airstrikes are the best tool at their disposal to strike at Al Qaeda inside Pakistan, which remains the group’s most important haven, but where large numbers of American combat forces would never be welcome.

The April 19 strike that hit what appeared to have been a truck bomb in a compound used by Al Qaeda set off an enormous secondary explosion, intelligence officials say. A second, empty truck destroyed in the same attack may also have been there to be outfitted with explosives, they say.

In another significant attack, on April 29, missiles fired from a C.I.A. Predator killed Abu Sulayman al-Jazairi, an Algerian Qaeda planner who American intelligence officials say they believe helped train operatives for attacks in Europe and the United States.

Still, officials caution that Al Qaeda has not abandoned its goal of “spectacular” attacks in the United States and Europe. According to one American counterterrorism official, the group continues to plan attacks outside its sanctuary in the tribal areas, aiming at targets in the West and elsewhere in Pakistan.

“They are opportunistic to the extent they perceive vulnerabilities with the uncertain nature of Pakistani politics and the security situation in Swat and Buner,” said the American counterterrorism official, who like other officials interviewed for this article was not authorized to speak publicly on intelligence issues. “They’re trying to exploit it.”

In meetings this past week in Washington, American and Pakistani officials discussed the possibility of limited joint operations with American Predator and Reaper drones.

Under one proposal, the United States would retain control over the firing of missiles, but it would share with the Pakistani security forces some sophisticated imagery and communications intercepts that could be relayed to Pakistani combat forces on the ground.

C.I.A. officials for months have resisted requests by Mr. Zardari to share the drone technology. In a television interview broadcast Sunday, the Pakistani leader said he would keep pressing to get his own Predator fleet.

“I’ve been asking for them, but I haven’t got a positive answer as yet,” Mr. Zardari said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“But I’m not giving up.”

Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the number of drone strikes that American officials say the United States has conducted against Al Qaeda so far this year. It is 17 strikes, not 16.

news.notes20090511d

[Today's Newspaper] fom [The Washington Post]

Health Groups Vow Cost Control
$2 Trillion in Savings Offered Over Decade, White House Says

By Michael A. Fletcher and Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, May 11, 2009

Volunteering to "do our part" to tackle runaway health costs, leading groups in the health-care industry have offered to squeeze $2 trillion in savings from projected increases over the next decade, White House officials said yesterday.

The pledge comes amid a debate over how, or whether, to overhaul the nation's health-care system, and Obama administration officials predicted that it will significantly increase momentum for passing such changes this year.

The groups aim to achieve the proposed savings by using new efficiencies to trim the rise in health-care costs by 1.5 percent a year, the officials said. That would carry huge implications for the national economy and the federal budget, both of which are significantly affected by health-care expenses.

Representatives from half a dozen health industry trade groups are scheduled to make a formal offer today in a White House meeting with President Obama.

"I don't think there can be a more significant step to help struggling families and the federal budget," a senior administration official said in a conference call with reporters. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the offer remains tentative.

The White House projects that the savings after five years under the proposal would mean about $2,500 a year in lower health-care bills for a family of four. Within 10 years, the savings would "virtually eliminate" the nation's budget deficit.

Despite such heady predictions, many aspects of the plan remain unclear. The groups did not spell out yesterday how they plan to reach such a target, and in a letter to Obama they offer only a broad pledge, not an outright commitment.

In addition, White House officials said, there is no mechanism to ensure that the groups live up to their offer, only the implicit threat of public embarrassment. And it would be difficult to track whether they come up with the promised savings, other than the imprecise measure of comparing current projections of health-care cost increases with future actual costs.

Nonetheless, White House officials were optimistic about the offer from industry officials, who previously tried to put up obstacles to health-care reform.

The trade groups making the pledge represent a broad spectrum of health-care interests, including the American Medical Association, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the American Hospital Association, America's Health Insurance Plans, and the Service Employees International Union.

"We are developing consensus proposals to reduce the rate of increase in future health and insurance costs through changes made in all sectors of the health system," the groups wrote to the president. "We are committed to taking action in private-public partnership to create a more stable and sustainable health care system."
The groups declined to elaborate on their proposal yesterday, saying they wanted to meet with Obama before doing so.

Much of the proposal tracks with ideas Obama included in his draft budget, and the goal of slowing the rise in health-care costs by 1.5 percent a year was first articulated by the administration. Lawmakers, however, are considering more draconian cuts.

"As restructuring takes hold and the population's health improves over the coming decade, we will do our part to achieve your administration's goal of decreasing by 1.5 percentage points the annual health care spending growth rate," the groups wrote.

Their offer is the latest attempt by the health-care industry to secure a seat at the bargaining table, as Democrats consider legislation that would simultaneously hold costs in check and extend coverage to millions of uninsured Americans.

Drugmakers, insurers, hospitals and the American Medical Association were among the harshest critics of a similar reform plan by President Bill Clinton in 1993. The insurance lobby, for instance, sponsored the "Harry and Louise" ads that ultimately turned popular sentiment against reform efforts.

But the explosive cost of health care has since strangled pay raises for most workers and slowed profits for many business, causing the industry to dramatically shift its posture. Earlier this year, it offered a major concession, offering to abolish policies that deny coverage because of preexisting coverage. In return, insurers said they want Congress to enact legislation that requires every American to have insurance.

During the presidential campaign, Obama opposed such an "individual mandate." But many Democrats back the concept, comparing it to a requirement that all drivers have auto insurance.

The prospect of millions of new customers has been a major enticement for other industry players as well. Drug manufacturers, suffering declining profits as consumers switch to cheaper generic medications, have put money and lobbying muscle behind universal coverage, expecting that the newly insured will become new customers.

"It is a recognition that the fictional television couple, Harry and Louise, who became the iconic faces of those who opposed health-care reform in the '90s, desperately need health-care reform in 2009," Obama said in remarks prepared for his event with industry officials today. "And so does America."

White House officials said many of the cost reductions would be "crucially dependent" on legal changes being contemplated in Congress as part of a health-care reform package.

The groups will have to streamline administrative costs, better coordinate care and bundle payments to achieve the projected savings. If they can slow the spiraling increases in health-care costs, it would greatly improve the prospects for expanding coverage to the 46 million uninsured Americans.

Experts estimate that extending coverage to every American will cost $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion over the next decade, much of the money going to start-up expenses. Over the longer term, Obama and some analysts expect to accrue savings from technological improvements and more appropriate, less unnecessary care.

The United States spends about $2.2 trillion a year on medical care, representing about 16 percent of the nation's overall economy. And the federal government has a big interest in lowering the cost of health care, given the hefty expense of its Medicaid and Medicaid coverage.

Obama has not been shy about framing his health initiatives in a broader economic context, calling reform integral to reining in federal budget deficits and to raising the take-home incomes of ordinary Americans.

Such comments tap into the most potent political argument identified by pollsters. Many Americans express concerns about the number of citizens who do not have coverage, but surveys show that the top complaint among voters is the rising cost of care.

"We cannot continue down the same dangerous road we've been traveling for so many years, with costs that are out of control, because reform is not a luxury that can be postponed, but a necessity that cannot wait," Obama said in the prepared remarks.

Advocates for expanding health-care coverage applauded the industry's avowed commitment yesterday.

"We are glad to see major industry trade groups approach the president with an offer to get health-care costs under control in a system that covers everyone, and we appreciate their emphasizing the urgency of health-care reform," said Richard Kirsch, national campaign manager of Health Care for America Now, which calls itself a national grass-roots organization pushing for expanded health-care coverage.

news.notes20090511e

[Today's Papers] from [Slate Magazine]

Keeping the Doctors Away

Joshua Kucera
Posted Monday, May 11, 2009, at 5:59 AM ET

The Washington Post leads with news that groups representing doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical and insurance companies are vowing to slow the growth in health care costs, an apparent attempt to curry favor with the White House and to become part of the bargaining process when the administration and congressional Democrats take on health care reform later this year. The Wall Street Journal worldwide news box also leads with the story. The New York Times leads with U.S. and Pakistani intelligence officials saying that al Qaeda has shifted its attention from plotting attacks on the west and now focuses on fomenting chaos in Pakistan and trying to support Islamist groups there.

USA Today leads with word that the White House will release a report today offering more evidence for the claim that the stimulus plan will "save or create" 3.5 million jobs. Republicans have contested the estimate; it's not clear from the story whether the new report is a response to that skepticism or would have been done regardless. The Los Angeles Times leads with an analysis of how the increasing number of naturalized citizens is changing the face of politics in California, which is home to about one-third of the nation's new citizens. For example, "Several polls show that Latinos and Asians are more supportive than whites of public investments and broad services, even if they require higher taxes," the paper writes.

U.S. officials who talked to the NYT said al Qaeda's increasing Pakistan focus is a result of the U.S. drone bombing campaign there, which has killed some key al Qaeda leaders and reduced the group's capacity to carry out attacks abroad. And an American terrorism expert says al Qaeda may be increasing its activities in Pakistan to foment so much violence that the Pakistani government will ask the U.S. government to scale back its drone bombings, so that it can regroup and again plan attacks in the West.

The groups offering to make the health care cuts – representing doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical and insurance companies – were among the same who opposed the Clinton administration's attempts at health care reforms. "But the explosive cost of health care has since strangled pay raises for most workers and slowed profits for many business, causing the industry to dramatically shift its posture," the Post writes. The figure the Post uses in the lede is $2 trillion, which sounds a lot less impressive when you note, as the Post does two grafs down, that that figure represents about a whopping 1.5 percent decrease in the amount that health care costs would otherwise have increased. Still, it seems to have done the trick; the White House welcomed the move: "I don't think there can be a more significant step to help struggling families and the federal budget," one unnamed administration official said.

The NYT, which puts the story inside, sounds a skeptical note, observing that the plan has few details: "In the abstract, slowing the growth of health spending is a goal on which consumers and health care providers agree. But experience shows that specific proposals touch off fierce battles among interest groups fighting to expand their share of health care money."

Also on the front page, the Post reports on a preemptive PR campaign by an opponent of health care reform, who started running television ads last week warning against government-run medicine. A pro-reform group is countering by pointing out that the effort is being bankrolled by a former hospital CEO who was fired amidst a fraud investigation and coordinated by the same PR company that "masterminded" the Swift boat attacks on John Kerry in 2004.

A global recession is appearing less likely and, as a result, investors are putting money into emerging economies like Russia, China and Brazil, the Wall Street Journal reports. Russian stocks are currently the best performers in the world, followed by Brazilians. "Investors appear to be trying to get in early on a long-term bet: Emerging-market economies will get back into their grooves long before the U.S. or Europe shake off the global crisis," the Journal writes.

Also in the papers... the humble, humiliating hospital gown may be on the way out as efforts to engineer a better one are underway, the Journal reports. An animated film that examines the consequences of consumption has become a hit in classrooms across America, garnering some controversy along the way, the NYT reports on the front page. Syria is again becoming a conduit for suicide bombers from abroad to enter Iraq, the Post reports on the front page. And the economic downturn is, belatedly, hitting Iraq, the LAT finds. The LAT also looks at the first 100 days of Michael Steele's chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, and it is not pretty.

USA Today fronts a feature on the slow progress of Freedom Tower, the 1,776-foot tower that will rise where the World Trade Center once stood. It is intended to enhance the "brand" of freedom, as the paper puts it, but buried in the 51st graf is this nugget: of the 2.6 million square feet, 190,000 is to be leased to a Chinese company.