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ATHENS — Firefighters claimed victory Tuesday over a devastating, wind-swept wildfire that ravaged the outskirts of Athens over four days, enabling them to redeploy waterbombers to other blazes in Greece.

“The situation has greatly improved, we currently have no active fronts in greater Athens,” a fire department spokeswoman said. “Firefighting ground forces remain on location to watch out for possible areas of resurgence.”

Waterbombers were diverted to Mount Kithaironas, west of Athens, and to Karystos on the island of Evia to tackle fires in both places that did not, however, pose a threat to inhabited areas.

More than 500 firefighters — joined by counterparts from Austria, Cyprus, France, Italy and Turkey — battled the wildfire northeast and east of Athens that scorched more than 20,000 hectares and destroyed scores of homes.

Two more waterbombers from Spain were expected on Tuesday.

A “generous” offer of assistance by Macedonia was turned down, the government said.

The public works ministry on Monday said around 150 homes had been damaged after a first estimate but it was widely agreed that scores of properties were completely destroyed.

A more detailed inspection of stricken areas was expected to begin Tuesday.

A small number of people was in temporary housing, the authorities said.

At least two people were injured according to reports, and a waterbomber pilot was picked out of the sea off Nea Makri on Monday after his plane lost one of its floats, the government said.

The late summer inferno came exactly two years after similar wildfires killed 77 people in various parts of Greece, prompting strong criticism of the authorities.

Greek media pulled no punches on Tuesday either, accusing the government of “fatal errors” and incompetence.

To Vima daily cited ten major fires since 1981 that should have provided ample lessons to authorities

“There is no alibi for the incredible disaster in greater Athens,” the daily said, blasting the government for allegedly leaving Greece’s firefighting forces 3,000 staff short of their nominal strength.

Ethnos daily poured scorn on an earlier statement by government spokesman Evangelos Antonaros that appeared to blame pine trees for the fire.

“Pine trees may be pretty but in a way they are an additional aggravating factor in the spread of fires,” Antonaros had said Monday.

The disaster was a fresh blow to the embattled conservative government of Costas Karamanlis on whose watch Greece suffered its greatest fire-related catastrophe in living memory in 2007.

At the time, Karamanlis called an early general election a month later.

The PM is again widely reported to calculate when to hold another early election as his administration teeters on the edge barely halfway through its four-year term.

Resting on a single-seat majority in parliament, the government has been buffeted by corruption scandals and has heard repeated opposition calls to stand down

At least three Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a tunnel between Gaza and Egypt, Palestinian officials say.

They said several others were wounded in the attack, which occurred near the southern border town of Rafah.

It follows a rocket attack from Gaza into southern Israel on Monday, in which an Israeli soldier was injured.

Tunnels from Egypt are used to smuggle weapons and goods into Gaza, which is under an Israeli-led blockade.

A Palestinian Health Ministry official, Dr Moaiya Hassanain, says the men caught in the tunnel were all smugglers.

Rescue services were reported to be digging through the rubble at the site of the attack to try to find any more casualties.

The Israeli military say the air force struck the tunnel in retaliation for Monday’s cross-border mortar attack.

The border between Gaza and Israel has been largely quiet since a ceasefire agreed between Hamas and the Israeli government in January, which ended 22 days of fighting.

Aug. 25 (Bloomberg) — U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is under pressure to break his silence on the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi after leaving Scotland’s pro- independence government to fend off criticism of the move.

By declining to participate in the Aug. 20 decision or comment on it after, Brown dodged a clash with Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish National Party, which runs the Edinburgh government. Still, he left himself open to suggestions he supported it or simply couldn’t decide on an issue that riled the U.S. and led to calls for Americans to boycott Scotland.

“That Gordon Brown has got nothing to say on the most important political item of the day is disgraceful,” said Peter Fraser, formerly Scotland’s senior law officer, who issued the arrest warrant for the bomber in 1991. “I don’t think he has grasped how much trouble this is going to cause him. The idea of us alienating Washington in this way I find breathtaking.”

The controversy comes as Brown, the U.K.’s first Scottish prime minister in four decades, ends his summer vacation and re- emerges as an international leader. He hosts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today in London and attends the United Nations General Assembly in New York and the Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh next month.

Scotland is faced with a potential drop in the number of U.S. tourists playing on its golf courses and buying its whisky. A Web site has been set up to encourage a boycott of the country, while the U.S. State Department played down any threat.

Only Conviction

The Edinburgh government has been criticized by the U.S., victims’ families and opposition parties for freeing al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds. Doctors said he’s dying of cancer. He was the only person convicted for the killing of 270 people in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie on Dec. 21, 1988.

Al-Megrahi was greeted by cheering crowds, some waving Scottish flags, on his return to Libya.

The former intelligence officer was sentenced in 2001 to serve 27 years for the downing of the Boeing 747 bound for New York from London. He has maintained his innocence and dropped his second appeal days before the release, a condition for his freedom.

Scotland’s legal system remained independent of England’s under the 1707 Act of Union that joined the two countries. Under the so-called devolution agreement that re-established the parliament in Edinburgh in 1999, the Scottish government is responsible for justice, though not foreign policy.

Meddling Concern

Brown’s silence was driven by a fear of being accused of intervening in Scottish affairs, according to Eric Shaw, a lecturer in politics at Stirling University in central Scotland. That Brown himself represents a constituency near Glasgow hasn’t prevented Salmond from referring to “the London Labour Party,” and accusing the prime minister of neglecting Scotland’s interests.

“If they had intervened, Salmond would have capitalized on it,” said Shaw. “Brown’s main concern will be to maintain his silence. If he intervenes now, it implies he could have intervened earlier.”

In London, the opposition Conservatives noted that Brown’s office yesterday published a letter congratulating England’s cricket team on their defeat of Australia at the weekend.

“He’s taken time out to give us his view on England’s cricket team, but there’s a deafening silence on the release of a mass murderer,” Liam Fox, Conservative defense spokesman, told the British Broadcasting Corp. “It’s an insult to the British political process.”

Links Reported

At the same time, Brown has faced reports in newspapers including the Daily Mail of a link between the release and commercial interests. Brown met Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi last month. Brown spokesman Tom Hoskin said it would be wrong for the government in London to be involved in or comment on a decision made by the Scottish administration.

Brown is already on course to lose the election he must call within a year. A poll in today’s Guardian newspaper found support for his government at its lowest in more than a year. Labour was backed by 25 percent of voters compared with 41 percent for the Conservatives and 19 percent opting for the Liberal Democrats, according to the survey by ICM Ltd.

Boycott Threat

Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill has defended his decision to release al-Megrahi amid U.S. criticism.

Visitors from the U.S. accounted for 340,000 trips to Scotland in 2008, spending 260 million pounds ($426 million), according to figures published by Visit Scotland, the government-funded agency promoting tourism.

Whisky exports to the U.S. were 324 million pounds in the 12 months to June 30, a drop of 26 percent on the previous year, the Scotch Whisky Association in Edinburgh said.

Visit Scotland received e-mails from Americans saying they plan to cancel vacations and staff have been preparing for a backlash, said Alison Robb, a spokeswoman.

In Englewood, New Jersey, where Libya’s mission to the UN owns land, officials expressed distress over the prospect that Qaddafi would camp on the property when he attends the world body’s General Assembly in New York next month.

At the same time, Mayor Michael Wildes said Qaddafi probably couldn’t be prevented from staying there. “I will not allow this to happen as a mayor unless there is no choice,” he said in an interview.

International agreements may preclude the city or U.S. government from barring Qaddafi, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters in Washington. The agency has been in touch with authorities in New York City, which denied Qaddafi permission to camp in Central Park, and the UN to address concerns over the visit, he said.

Kelly said there wouldn’t be any measures taken against the U.K. or Scotland.

“We have an important relationship with Great Britain, and also with Scotland, and we have no plans to retaliate against them,” he said.

The Commander in Chief has, of late, become something of a fact checker in chief. In town halls, interviews and meetings with interest groups, President Barack Obama repeatedly harps on what he calls the “myths” and “fabrications” about health-care reform.

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The list runs from “death panels,” which have not been proposed by Congress, to illegal immigrants, who would not get coverage under the current proposals, even though 55% of Americans believe otherwise, according to a recent poll. The President also routinely mentions the issue of abortion. “You’ve heard that this is all going to mean government funding of abortion,” Obama said recently in a call to religious leaders. “Not true.”
(See TIME’s photo-essay “The Health-Care Debate Turns Angry.”)

But this last statement, while technically correct, does not tell the whole story. The health-care reform proposed by House Democrats, if enacted, would in fact mark a significant change in the Federal Government’s role in the financing of abortions. “It would be a dramatic shift,” says Representative Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat who has vowed to oppose the bill because of how it would affect abortion. Stupak says dozens of House Democrats may join him in opposing a final health-care compromise unless the abortion language is changed, presenting a clear challenge to Democratic vote counters that could imperil a party-line vote.

To understand the change, one must first look at the strictly hands-off role the Federal Government has historically taken toward abortion services. Since 1976, Congress has mandated through the so-called Hyde Amendment that no federal funds will be used for abortion, effectively preventing Medicaid dollars from being used for the procedure, except in cases of rape or incest, or when the life of the mother is at risk. Private health plans offered to government employees, including members of Congress, have also been barred from offering abortion coverage, as has the military.
(See TIME’s video “Seniors Say End-of-Life Care Matters.”)

The health-care-reform bill proposed by House Democrats does not actually override those restrictions. But it does find a way for the Federal Government to expand the coverage of abortion services through a government-run program — the so-called public option — without spending what it defines as federal dollars on abortion. Instead, the only money the public insurance option could spend on abortion that does not involve rape, incest or the life of the mother would be money collected from members dues; or, in the words of supporters like Elizabeth Shipp, of NARAL Pro-Choice America, the plan “could only use private funds to pay for abortion services.”

The member dues, or premiums, to pay for expanded abortion coverage would be segregated from the federal tax dollars by keeping the money in separate internal accounts. The problem is that all those who sign up for the public option would have to pay into the account for abortion coverage, an amount “not less than $1 per month,” according to the legislation. So in effect, anyone who wanted to sign up for the public option, a federally funded and administered program, would find themselves paying for abortion coverage. “You are spreading the cost of the procedure over a public plan,” explains Stupak. Under the legislation, the Executive Branch would have to make a determination that abortion is a basic medical service for the service to be provided, something the Obama Administration is expected to do.
(See the top 10 health-care-reform ads.)

Meanwhile, private insurance companies, which could receive taxpayer subsidies to cover low-income individuals, would continue to choose for themselves whether or not to offer abortion coverage. If they did offer the coverage, they would also need to segregate the funds to pay for the procedure, to ensure that direct taxpayer subsidies were not involved. And no consumer would be forced to choose a health-care plan that covered abortion. By using a new federally managed marketplace for purchasing health insurance — the so-called exchange — uninsured consumers would be able to choose not to join the public plan in favor of a plan that does not cover abortion services. Opponents of abortion, including Stupak, want language that would prohibit any private insurance company that accepts federal funds from offering to policyholders abortions other than those already eligible under Medicaid.

As most schoolchildren started their first day of class, Gov. Rick Perry held a news conference in San Antonio to explain the state’s approach to dealing with the novel strain of H1N1 that closed schools and canceled thousands of events statewide last spring.

“This virus does not seem to want to go away,” Perry said Monday morning at the University of Texas Health Science Center. “Students are now into close contact. They are sharing not only ideas but also germs.”

Instead of closing schools, Perry, along with the state’s commissioners for health services and education, stressed a practical approach, including a heavy reliance on asking people to cover their mouths when they cough, wash their hands, use alcohol-based sanitizers and stay home when sick.

“We can overcome this with a little common sense,” Commissioner of Education Robert Scott said. “This is not the year for perfect attendance.”

Scott asked parents to keep sick children out of school and for school staff to contact parents if they see any students showing signs of illness. Students are not to return until they show no signs of illness for at least 24 hours.

The same is being asked of adults to limit the spread of germs at the workplace.

Because vaccines will not be ready for the new strain of H1N1, commonly known as swine flu, until at least mid-October, the state is stockpiling antiviral medications.

The drugs will be distributed across the state via partnerships with H-E-B and other private companies. Subsidies will be available for those who cannot afford the shots, the governor said.

“H1N1 is no more severe than most flu strains,” said Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Department of State Health Services. “Most people recover on their own.”

But unlike most flu viruses, the new strain of H1N1 did not go away this summer. In June, the World Health Organization declared a pandemic because of its worldwide spread.

“(We) still we have a population with no natural immunity built up,” Lakey said. “This flu season will be a challenge.”

But the governor said he would be surprised if any large event, such as the state fair or a football game, were canceled this year because of a flu outbreak.

Aug. 24, 2009 — Preventing sexually transmitted HPV infections may reduce a man’s risk of developing cancer of the penis. A worldwide review of studies has found that one of the most common types of the human papillomavirus (HPV) is linked to about half of all penile cancers.

HPV refers to a group of more than 100 different virus types, some of which are sexually transmitted. Some types are considered “high risk” because they make a person more likely to develop certain diseases, such as cancer. For example, HPV-16 and HPV-18 are associated with about 70% of cervical cancers in women.

Now, researchers say HPV-16 is the leading HPV type liked to penile cancer; HPV-18 is the second most common type, according to a report in the Journal of Clinical Pathology. Two cancers of the penis (basaloid and warty squamous cell carcinomas) were most often associated with the two high-risk HPV types.

The findings are based on a review of 31 major penile cancer studies published between 1986 and June 2008. Prevalence of HPV infection was 46.9% among the 1,466 penile cancers identified. A larger international study is under way to better examine the prevalence and causes of penile cancer.

Penile cancer is rare. According to the American Cancer Society, it occurs in about one in 100,000 men in the U.S. The cancer is more common in some parts of South America and Africa. There are 26,300 new worldwide cases of penile cancer every year.

Factors that can raise a man’s risk for penile cancer include poor hygiene, smoking, and not being circumcised or having unretractable foreskin on the penis. Proper use of condoms during sexual activity can lower one’s risk for HPV infection. However, condoms do not completely protect against HPV because the virus may be found on other parts of the body, such as the anal area.

The study’s authors say about 7,000 cases of penile cancer could be prevented each year if such infections could be wiped out. A vaccine called Gardasil is available in the U.S. to protect girls and women against certain HPV infections. It is not approved for men.

Swine flu reported in Fairbanks school
A week into the school year, a school in Fairbanks has reported its first case of swine flu.

West Valley High School e-mailed families Saturday, advising parents to monitor their children for symptoms and to take precautions not to spread the disease.

KTUU reports Anchorage school also are sending parents a letter this week warning them of symptoms and prevention methods.

Anchorage School District superintendent Carol Comeau says the district had some flu cases when football practice started at West and Bartlett high schools.

Health department officials say there are more than 400 confirmed cases of swine flu in Alaska.

Vietnam will ban smoking in all indoor public places next year and raise tariffs on tobacco products to reduce consumption, the government said.

Starting from January 1, smoking in schools, hospitals, libraries, cinemas, factories, offices and on public transport will be prohibited, a government statement seen on Tuesday said.

The ban will extend to all indoor public spaces by the end of 2010, the statement said, adding the government also plans to apply “high tariff levels” on tobacco products next year to cut consumption.

Tobacco products are subject to a tax rate of 45 percent at present. The government statement did not provide details of the planned tax hike.

Annual consumption of tobacco products in the Southeast Asian country was estimated at about $500 million in 2007, state media reported.

Recognizing the powerful force older Americans have become in the efforts to overhaul the nation’s heath care system, Republicans have announced a Seniors’ Health Bill of Rights, a set of principles the party says are important to ensure that any health care reform “be fully paid for, but not funded on the backs of our nation’s senior citizens.”

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“As the president frequently, and correctly, points out, Medicare will go deep into the red in less than a decade,” wrote Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, in an essay published Monday in the Washington Post. “But he and congressional Democrats are planning to raid, not aid, Medicare by cutting $500 billion from the program to fund his health care experiment.”

The Republicans want to outlaw any attempt to ration care based on age, and prevent the government from dictating end-of-life care.

‘Feigned interest’
Firing back, the Democratic National Committee accused Republicans of using “this feigned interest in Medicare” to scare seniors for the purpose of shooting down reform to gain political advantage. The AARP, which has yet to take a stand on any of the health reform plans being debated in Congress, released a statement Monday saying nothing in the proposals “would bring about the scenarios the RNC is concerned about.”

The House version of health care reform proposes cutting $538.5 billion from Medicare and Medicaid programs over the next 10 years, but promises to reinvest $320 billion into the program at the same time, according to the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

The bulk of reductions would come from changes in payments made to private insurers that offer Medicare policies, plans known as Medicare Advantage. A third of the cuts would come from health providers such as hospitals, nursing homes and sellers of durable medical equipment.

Despite assurances by President Obama that Medicare benefits would not be cut, seniors have been showing up in droves at town hall meetings upset about the potential impact of the proposed cuts on their care.

The Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over Medicare, has yet to release its proposed bill.

Over the years, both Democrats and Republicans have supported proposals to reduce Medicare costs as fiscally responsible, said Patricia Neuman, a vice president with the Kaiser Family Foundation.

“The House bill slows the growth in Medicare spending and extends life of the Medicare trust fund for five years, keeping Medicare fiscally stronger for a longer period of time,” she said.

The bill cuts more than $150 billion from the Medicare Advantage program, a Republican-led initiative in which the government subsidizes private insurers to provide Medicare coverage to seniors. These policies have come under sharp criticism because the government pays the private plans 14 percent more than traditional Medicare costs.

Critics of the cuts, including the trade group that represents health insurers and some conservative organizations, say reducing payments to private insurers would cause seniors to lose coverage and providers to drop Medicare.

‘Micro managing’
“Anytime the government gets involve in financing of health care, they control it with micro managing, and we end up with long lines and rationing. That’s what happens in other countries and that’s what would happen in our country,” said Dr. Donald Palmisano, spokesman for the conservative Coalition to Protect Patients’ Rights.

But supporters say words like “rationing” are used only to strike fear in the hearts of Medicare beneficiaries and derail the reform effort. Already, controversy over government involvement in end-of-life decisions has all but scrapped a plan for Medicare to pay doctors to consult with patients about their options, including palliative care and advanced directives.

“The so-called cuts to Medicare are really cost savings and efficiencies that many providers have already agreed to do as part of health reform,” said Joe Baker, president of the Medicare Rights Center, referring a pledge by the hospital trade association to trim payments by about $155 billion over 10 years if health reform passes. “They know if we get all of Americans insured under this plan, their bottom lines will be improved

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Higher testosterone levels might explain why some women seek out risky financial trading jobs while others stick to more stable business careers, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

Female MBA students with higher levels of the “male” hormone testosterone were far more likely than those with lower levels to choose finance careers such as investment banking that can be lucrative but also risky, a team at Northwestern University, and the University of Chicago found.

“This study has significant implications for how the effects of testosterone could impact actual risk-taking in financial markets, because many of these students will go on to become major players in the financial world,” University of Chicago’s Luigi Zingales, who worked on the study, said in a statement.

“Furthermore, it could shed some light on gender differences in career choices. Future studies should further explore the mechanisms through which testosterone affects the brain.”

Zingales and colleagues studied 550 MBA students at the University of Chicago who were forced, as part of their coursework, to give saliva for testosterone tests. Their fingers were also measured, because studies have shown that finger length is affected by how much testosterone a person was exposed to while in the mother’s womb.

The researchers were able to find out about the career choices of 379 of the students two years after graduation.

“Individuals high in testosterone and low in risk aversion were more likely to choose risky careers in finance,” they wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Men and women both produce testosterone in their bodies, although men usually have much higher levels. High testosterone is linked with many traits, including aggression and a relish for risks.

“In general, women are more risk averse than men when it comes to making important financial decisions, which in turn can affect their career choices,” Northwestern’s Paola Sapienza said in a statement.

“For example, in our sample set, 36 percent of female MBA students chose high-risk financial careers such as investment banking or trading, compared to 57 percent of male students.”

But women with higher testosterone levels ended up choosing more risky career paths, they found.

Other studies have found that male financial traders will make much more aggressive trades on days when their testosterone is high.

The researchers said it is not clear whether testosterone actually causes the behavior — they said it is possible some other factor makes a person likely to enjoy taking risks and to also have high levels of the hormone.

The researchers found no correlation between finger length and levels of testosterone in the saliva.