Swine Flu in U.S., Mexico Is ’International Concern’

Swine Flu in U.S., Mexico Is ’International Concern’ (Update1)
By Jason Gale
April 25 (Bloomberg) -- The deadly swine flu outbreak in Mexico and the U.S. is a global concern and warrants an urgent assessment of its potential to spark the first influenza pandemic in 41 years, the World Health Organization said.
The United Nations health agency declared the epidemic “a public health emergency of international concern” after a meeting of an emergency committee of the agency today. There is no evidence at this stage the level of pandemic alert should be increased, WHO said in its statement today from Geneva.
Human-to-human spread of the previously unseen H1N1 swine influenza in Mexico and the U.S. is heightening concern that the virus may spark a pandemic. At least 81 deaths in Mexico may be linked to swine flu, Jose Cordova, Mexico’s Health Minister, told reporters today. More than 1,000 have fallen ill with flu- like symptoms in the Mexico City region in the past month, he said yesterday. The government of President Felipe Calderon has declared an emergency.
“The committee advised that answers to several specific questions were needed to facilitate its work,” according to the statement from the World Health Organization. “The committee nevertheless agreed that the current situation constitutes a public health emergency of international concern.”
The number of deaths in which swine flu was confirmed in Mexico remains at 20, Cordova said today at a press conference in Mexico City. Of 14 tissue samples tested from Mexico, half were a genetic match with the swine flu reported in eight people in California and Texas, the Atlanta-based Centers of Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday.
Cordova said today that 1,324 patients are under examination for possibly having the virus. No foreign government has put a ban on travel to Mexico, Economy Minister Gerardo Ruiz said at the televised press conference.
To contact the reporter on this story: Jason Gale in Singapore at j.gale@bloomberg.net Last Updated: April 25, 2009 21:35 EDT

Stronger Mexican Peso

The Mexican peso advanced to near its highest since December as a rally in local stocks attracted dollars into the country. There is a prospect that lending rates will be cut this week to boost growth in Mexico.

Obama and Mexico

President Barack Obama's visit to Mexico on Thursday and Friday offers the hope of a new beginning after the missed opportunity of George W. Bush's presidency. Obams will arrive in Mexico in the middle of a contested election to renew the lower house of the Mexican Congress and to elect the new Governors of Nuevo Leon, Sonora, San Luis Potosi, Colima, Campeche and Queretaro. Obama's presence in Mexico will certainly ignite the natinalistic views and rhetoric of outdated Mexican political parties. At the center of the agenda will be the security issue.
Stopping the flow of money and weapons from the United States into Mexico is critical to dealing with the violent drug cartels creating havoc on the border, the Mexican ambassador to the U.S. said Sunday. Mexican officials believe that 90 percent of the weapons seized there can be traced to the U.S., Ambassador Sarukhan said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

अ न्यू एरा इन उनितेद स्टातेस मेक्सिको रेलाशंस

A new era in U.S.-Mexico relations will बेगिन this week when President Barack Obama अर्रिवेस in मेक्सिको एंड मीट्स प्रेजिडेंट Felipe Calderón to address the politically challenging issues of immigration, ट्रेड एंड drug त्रफ्फिक्क।

U.S. High Level Visits to Mexico

President Barack Obama is set to make his first visit as president to Mexico during a Latin American tour beginning April 16 that will also take him to Trinidad and Tobago for the Summit of the Americas.

US Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, and White House Homeland Security Council director, John Brennan, will travel to the border with Mexico on Wednesday, April 15th.

Janet Napolitano and Attorney General Eric Holder visited Mexico last week as part of discussions on cross-border cooperation on organized crime.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also visited Mexico on March 25-26.

What is the intention of these high-level visits?

Do you know them?

This is a list of 60 people who will certainly be members of the new Mexican Congress, elected on the principle of proportional representation on July 5, 2009.

Rafael Yerena Zambrano
María Esther Scherman Leaño
Humberto Lepe Lepe
Yolanda de la Torre Valdez
Jesús Alberto Cano Vélez
María Hilaria Domínguez Arvizu
Oscar Guillermo Levín Coppel
Esthela Ponce Beltrán
Alfredo Villegas Arreola
Graciela Ortíz González
Isaías González Cuevas
María del Rosario Vázquez Meraz

Cruz López Aguilar
Margarita Gallegos Soto
Tereso Medina Ramírez
Yulma Rocha Aguilar
Carlos Flores Rico
Jesús María Rodríguez Hernández
Sara Gabriela Montiel Solís
Benjamín Clariond Reyes Retana
Hilda Flores Escalera
Gerardo Sánchez García
Felipe Solís Acero
Mercedes del Carmen Guillén Vicente

Juan Nicolás Callejas Arroyo
Georgina Trujillo Zentella
César Augusto Santiago Ramírez
Narcedalia Ramírez Pineda
Jorge Fernando Franco Vargas
Erick Rubio Barthell
Ana María Rojas Ruiz
Víctor Flores Morales
Margarita Liborio Arrazola
Víctor Manuel Kidne de la Cruz
Jorge Carlos Ramírez Marín
María Esther Terán Velázquez

Marco Antonio García Ayala
Beatriz Paredes Rangel
Valdemar Gutiérrez Fragoso
Claudia Ruiz Massieu
Miguel Alvarez Santamaría
Patricia Jiménez Case
Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada
Marisela Sánchez Cortés
Efrén Nicolás Leyva Acevedo
Linda Marina Dolores Munive Temoltzin
José Luis Carazo Preciado
Lilia Isabel Aragon del Rivero

Humberto Benítez Treviño
Paula Hernández Olmos
Francisco Rojas Gutiérrez
Jenny de los Reyes Aguilar
Canek Vázquez Góngora
Luis Videgaray Caso
Maricruz Cruz Morales
Andrés Massieu Fernández
Hilda Ceballos Llerenas
Armando Neira Chávez
José Ramón Martel López
Marisela Serrano Hernández

2009 Mexican Congressional Election

Legislative elections will be held in Mexico on 5 July 2009. Voters will elect 500 new Representatives (300 first-past-the-post and 200 by proportional representation) to sit in the Lower House of Congress.

Obama or McCain

What's best for Mexico, President Obama or President McCain?

What do you think? Why?

Treasure under the sea

A five-minute spot on prime time TV is part of a campaign by President Felipe Calderon: "Mexico has a great treasure, a treasure hidden below the bottom of the sea," the narrator says soothingly above joyous music. "But the world now confronts a new reality." Suddenly, the watcher is bombarded with graphics explaining deep sea drilling; the oil is at a depth 30 times greater than Mexico's highest building; the pressure is like 60 trucks weighing on a can of soda. As the music reaches a dramatic finale, the narrator hits the punch line: "Reaching our oil is one of the biggest challenges of our time," he says. "And Mexico has to take the necessary actions to achieve it."

Clearly, the stakes are high. What do you think about energy reform in Mexico?

"We must go after that oil," Calderon told reporters last month. "It's a problem of technology and operational capacity."

But... what about the dirty politics surrounding this discussion?