White House aide's family likely has swine flu

WASHINGTON – A member of the U.S. delegation that helped prepare Energy Secretary Steven Chu's trip to Mexico City has demonstrated flu-like symptoms and his family members have tested probable for swine flu.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Thursday that three members of an aide's family are being tested to see if they have the same strain of swine flu that is threatening to become a pandemic. The aide worked in presidential advance, which is responsible for planning and preparing trips.

Gibbs said that Secretary Chu has not experienced any symptoms. The spokesman also said that President Barack Obama also has had no symptoms of the virus and doctors see no need to conduct any tests on his health.

SOURCE

"Hope swine flu stops now."

Officials confront first US death from swine flu

By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard, Ap Medical Writer – 9 mins ago

WASHINGTON – A 23-month-old Texas toddler became the first confirmed swine flu death outside of Mexico as authorities around the world struggled to contain a growing global health menace that has also swept Germany onto the roster of afflicted nations.

"Even though we've been expecting this, it is very, very sad," Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday of the infant's death. "As a pediatrician and a parent, my heart goes out to the family."

President Barack Obama said this morning that Americans should know the government is doing all it can to control virus. Obama also says schools should consider closing if the spread of the swine flu virus worsens.

Canada, Austria, New Zealand, Israel, Spain, Britain and Germany also have reported cases of swine flu sickness. Deaths reported so far have been limited to Mexico, and now the U.S.

As the United States grappled with this widening health crisis, Besser went from network to network Wednesday morning to give an update on what the Obama administration is doing. He said authorities essentially are still "trying to learn more about this strain of the flu." His appearances as Germany reported its first cases of swine flu infection, with three victims.

"It's very important that people take their concern and channel it into action," Besser said, adding that "it is crucial that people understand what they need to do if symptoms appear.

"I don't think it (the reported death in Texas) indicates any change in the strain," he said. "We see with any flu virus a spectrum of disease symptoms."

Asked why the problem seems so much more severe in Mexico, Besser said U.S. officials "have teams on the ground, a tri-national team in Mexico, working with Canada and Mexico, to try and understand those differences, because they can be helpful as we plan and implement our control strategies."

Sixty-six infections had been reported in the United States before the report of the toddler's death in Texas.

The world has no vaccine to prevent infection but U.S. health officials aim to have a key ingredient for one ready in early May, the big step that vaccine manufacturers are awaiting. But even if the World Health Organization ordered up emergency vaccine supplies — and that decision hasn't been made yet — it would take at least two more months to produce the initial shots needed for human safety testing.

"We're working together at 100 miles an hour to get material that will be useful," Dr. Jesse Goodman, who oversees the Food and Drug Administration's swine flu work, told The Associated Press.

The U.S. is shipping to states not only enough anti-flu medication for 11 million people, but also masks, hospital supplies and flu test kits. President Barack Obama asked Congress for $1.5 billion in emergency funds to help build more drug stockpiles and monitor future cases, as well as help international efforts to avoid a full-fledged pandemic.

"It's a very serious possibility, but it is still too early to say that this is inevitable," the WHO's flu chief, Dr. Keiji Fukuda, told a telephone news conference.

Cuba and Argentina banned flights to Mexico, where swine flu is suspected of killing more than 150 people and sickening well over 2,000. In a bit of good news, Mexico's health secretary, Jose Cordova, late Tuesday called the death toll there "more or less stable."

Mexico City, one of the world's largest cities, has taken drastic steps to curb the virus' spread, starting with shutting down schools and on Tuesday expanding closures to gyms and swimming pools and even telling restaurants to limit service to takeout. People who venture out tend to wear masks in hopes of protection.

The number of confirmed swine flu cases in the United States rose to 66 in six states, with 45 in New York, 11 in California, six in Texas, two in Kansas and one each in Indiana and Ohio, but cities and states suspected more. In New York, the city's health commissioner said "many hundreds" of schoolchildren were ill at a school where some students had confirmed cases.

The WHO argues against closing borders to stem the spread, and the U.S. — although checking arriving travelers for the ill who may need care — agrees it's too late for that tactic.

"Sealing a border as an approach to containment is something that has been discussed and it was our planning assumption should an outbreak of a new strain of influenza occur overseas. We had plans for trying to swoop in and knockout or quench an outbreak if it were occurring far from our borders. That's not the case here," Besser told a telephone briefing of Nevada-based health providers and reporters. "The idea of trying to limit the spread to Mexico is not realistic or at all possible."

"Border controls do not work. Travel restrictions do not work," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said in Geneva, recalling the SARS epidemic earlier in the decade that killed 774 people, mostly in Asia, and slowed the global economy.

Authorities sought to keep the crisis in context: Flu deaths are common around the world. In the U.S. alone, the CDC says about 36,000 people a year die of flu-related causes. Still, the CDC calls the new strain a combination of pig, bird and human viruses for which people may have limited natural immunity.

Hence the need for a vaccine. Using samples of the flu taken from people who fell ill in Mexico and the U.S., scientists are engineering a strain that could trigger the immune system without causing illness. The hope is to get that ingredient — called a "reference strain" in vaccine jargon — to manufacturers around the second week of May, so they can begin their own laborious production work, said CDC's Dr. Ruben Donis, who is leading that effort.

Vaccine manufacturers are just beginning production for next winter's regular influenza vaccine, which protects against three human flu strains. The WHO wants them to stay with that course for now — it won't call for mass production of a swine flu vaccine unless the outbreak worsens globally. But sometimes new flu strains pop up briefly at the end of one flu season and go away only to re-emerge the next fall, and at the very least there should be a vaccine in time for next winter's flu season, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the National Institutes of Health's infectious diseases chief, said Tuesday.

"Right now it's moving very rapidly," he said of the vaccine development.

Besser appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press," CNN and CBS's "The Early Show."

SOURCE OF THIS SADDENING NEWS

" A very young victim for this outbreak is saddening. Hopefully, the vaccine will be ready sooner. Hope no more deaths. Let us all join in praying that the flu stops harming humanity."

Swine Flu starts to infect U.S.

NEW YORK – At least seven people were in U.S. hospitals with swine flu Tuesday as the number of cases nationwide rose to 64 and a federal health official warned that deaths were likely.

Most of the nation's confirmed cases were in New York, where the city health commissioner said "many hundreds" of schoolchildren were ill at a school where several students had confirmed cases of swine flu.

Richard Besser, acting director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, noted that although ordinary human flu accounts for 36,000 deaths every year, he was concerned by this strain.

"I fully expect we will see deaths from this infection," Besser said at an Atlanta news conference.

He said he did not know about a newspaper report of two deaths in two southern California hospitals in which the victims appeared to have suffered from swine flu symptoms.

New York has the largest number of swine flu cases, with a heavy concentration at a Catholic school in Queens where students recently went on a spring break trip to Mexico.

There were indications that the outbreak may have spread beyond the school, with two people having to be hospitalized and officials closing a school for autistic children down the road. Those cases have not been confirmed.

"It is here and it is spreading," New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said. "We do not know whether it will continue to spread."

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that 82 of 380 students at P.S. 177, a school for autistic children, have called in sick. A third school in Manhattan is being evaluated because students there are sick, Frieden said.

The CDC said the country has 64 confirmed cases across five states, with 45 in New York, one in Ohio, two in Kansas, six in Texas and 10 in California. At least four other cases have been reported by states.

At least five other people have been hospitalized in the U.S., including three in California and two in Texas, Besser said.

The increase is not surprising. For days, CDC officials have said they expected to see more confirmed cases — and more severe illnesses. Health officials across the country have stepped up efforts to look for cases, especially among people with flu-like illness who had traveled to Mexico.

CDC officials also had warned that updates in the number of confirmed cases would at time be disjointed, as different states announce new information before the CDC's national count is updated.

A handful of schools around the country have closed over swine flu fears and some people are wearing masks, but it's mostly business as usual in the U.S., even at border crossings into Mexico.

In addition to thousands of deaths, often the elderly and the very young, about 200,000 people are hospitalized in the U.S. each year because of flu complications.

SOURCE OF THIS LATEST NEWS

"Swine flu is fast infecting too many countries. Hoping for the soonest solutions to this problem before more people, especially children gets affected."

Swine flu spreads to Middle East, Asia-Pacific

By ANDREW O. SELSKY, Associated Press Writer Andrew O. Selsky, Associated Press Writer

MEXICO CITY – The swine flu epidemic crossed new borders Tuesday with the first cases confirmed in the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region, as the number of deaths in Mexico blamed on the virus surpassed 150.

With the swine flu having already spread to at least six other countries besides Mexico, authorities around the globe are like firefighters battling a blaze without knowing how far it extends.

"At this time, containment is not a feasible option," said Keiji Fukuda, assistant director-general of the World Health Organization, which raised its alert level on Monday.

New Zealand reported Tuesday that 11 people who recently returned from Mexico contracted the virus. Tests conducted at a World Health Organization laboratory in Australia had confirmed three cases of swine flu among 11 members of the group who were showing symptoms, New Zealand Health Minister Tony Ryall said.

Officials decided that was evidence enough to assume the whole group was infected, he said.

Those infected had suffered only "mild illness" and were expected to recover, Public Health Director Mark Jacobs said. There are 43 more suspected cases in the country, officials said.

The Israeli Health Ministry on Tuesday confirmed the region's first case of swine flu in the city of Netanya. The 26-year-old patient recently returned from Mexico and had contracted the same strain, Health Ministry spokeswoman Einav Shimron.

Dr. Avinoam Skolnik, Laniado Hospital's medical director, said the patient has fully recovered and is in "excellent condition" but will remain hospitalized until the Health Ministry approves his release.

Another suspected case has been tested at another Israeli hospital but results are not in, the ministry said.

Meanwhile, a second case was confirmed Tuesday in Spain, Health Minister Trinidad Jimenez said, a day after the country reported its first case. The 23-year-old student, one of 26 patients under observation, was not in serious condition, Jimenez said.

With the virus spreading, the U.S. prepared for the worst even as President Barack Obama tried to reassure Americans.

At the White House, a swine flu update was added to Obama's daily intelligence briefing. Obama said the outbreak is "not a cause for alarm," even as the U.S. stepped up checks of people entering the country and warned U.S. citizens to avoid nonessential travel to Mexico.

"We are proceeding as if we are preparatory to a full pandemic," said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

The European Union health commissioner suggested that Europeans avoid nonessential travel both to Mexico and parts of the United States. Russia, Hong Kong and Taiwan said they would quarantine visitors showing symptoms of the virus.

Mexico, where the number of deaths believed caused by swine flu rose by 50 percent on Monday to 152, is suspected to be ground zero of the outbreak. But Mexican Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova late Monday said no one knows where the outbreak began, and implied it may have started in the U.S.

"I think it is very risky to say, or want to say, what the point of origin or dissemination of it is, given that there had already been cases reported in southern California and Texas," Cordova told a press conference.

It's still not clear when the first case occurred, making it impossible thus far to determine where the breakout started.

Dr. Nancy Cox of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said she believes the earliest onset of swine flu in the United States happened on March 28. Cordova said a sample taken from a 4-year-old boy in Mexico's Veracruz state in early April tested positive for swine flu. However, it is not known when the boy, who later recovered, became infected.

The World Health Organization raised the alert level to Phase 4, meaning there is sustained human-to-human transmission of the virus causing outbreaks in at least one country. Monday was the first time it has ever been raised above Phase 3.

Putting an alert at Phases 4 or 5 signals that the virus is becoming increasingly adept at spreading among humans. Phase 6 is for a full-blown pandemic, characterized by outbreaks in at least two regions of the world.

Fifty cases — none fatal and most of them mild — were confirmed in the United States. Including the New Zealand, Israeli and new Spanish reports, there were 92 confirmed cases worldwide on Tuesday. That included six in Canada, one in Spain and two in Scotland.

Symptoms include a fever of more than 100, coughing, joint aches, severe headache and, in some cases, vomiting and diarrhea.

Amid the alarm, there was a spot of good news. The number of new cases reported by Mexico's largest government hospitals has been declining the past three days, Cordova said, from 141 on Saturday to 119 on Sunday and 110 Monday.

In a bid to prevent mass contagion, Mexico canceled school nationwide until May 6, and the Mexico City government is considering a complete shutdown, including all public transportation. The Cinco de Mayo parade celebrating Mexico's defeat of a French army on May 5, 1862 and Mexico City's traditional May 1 parade were canceled. More than 100 museums nationwide were closed.

At Mexico City's international airport, families grimly waited for flights out of the capital or country, determined to keep their masks on until they touched ground somewhere else.

Three games involving Mexico City soccer clubs were played with no spectators over the weekend. Decio de Maria, secretary general of the Mexican soccer federation, said plans for future matches would be announced on Wednesday.

"The idea is to look for the fewest number of games that have to be played behind closed doors," he said. "If it's necessary, we'll play all the matches behind closed doors. We don't foresee canceling any games."

Many residents of Mexico City wore blue surgical masks, though the CDC said most masks offer little protection. Many victims have been in their 30s and 40s — not the very old or young who typically succumb to the flu. So far, no deaths from the new virus have been reported outside Mexico.

It could take four to six months before the first batch of vaccines are available, WHO officials said. Some antiflu drugs do work once someone is sick.

Napolitano, the U.S. Homeland Security chief, said Washington is dispatching people and equipment to affected areas and stepping up information-sharing at all levels of government and with other nations.

Richard Besser, the CDC's acting director, said his agency is aggressively looking for evidence of the disease spreading and probing for ways to control and prevent it.

Flu deaths are nothing new in the United States. The CDC estimates that about 36,000 people died of flu-related causes each year, on average, during the 1990s in the United States. But the new flu strain is a combination of pig, bird and human viruses that humans may have no natural immunity to.

Besser said that so far the virus in the United States seems less severe than in Mexico. Only one person has been hospitalized in the U.S.

"I wouldn't be overly reassured by that," Besser told reporters at CDC headquarters in Atlanta, sounding a cautionary note.

The best way to keep the disease from spreading, Besser said, is by taking everyday precautions such as frequent handwashing, covering up coughs and sneezes, and staying away from work or school if not feeling well.

WHO spokesman Peter Cordingley singled out air travel as an easy way the virus could spread, noting that the WHO estimates that up to 500,000 people are on planes at any time.

Governments in Asia — with memories of previous flu outbreaks — were especially cautious. Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines dusted off thermal scanners used in the 2003 SARS crisis and were checking for signs of fever among passengers from North America. South Korea, India and Indonesia also announced screening.

Teams of doctors, nurses and government officials boarded flights arriving in Japan from Mexico, the U.S. and Canada to check passengers for signs of the flu, Japanese Health Ministry official Akimori Mizuguchi said.

World stock markets fell Tuesday as investors worried that any swine flu pandemic could derail a global economic recovery.

__

AP writers Mark Stevenson in Mexico City, Mike Stobbe in Atlanta, Ray Lilley in Wellington, New Zealand, Aron Heller in Jerusalem and Pan Pylas in London contributed to this report.

SOURCE OF THIS LATEST SWINE FLU NEWS

"This swine flu epidemic is really beginning to be a BIG scare to the world. I hope that the proper authorities find the ways to cure the disease and prevent its spread soonest time possible."

Mexico fights swine flu with 'pandemic potential'

By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer Mark Stevenson, Associated Press Writer – Sat Apr 25, 10:58 pm ET

MEXICO CITY – Mexico's president assumed new powers Saturday to isolate people infected with a deadly swine flu strain as authorities struggled to contain an outbreak that world health officials warned could become a global epidemic.

New cases of swine flu were confirmed in Kansas and California and suspected in New York City. But officials said they didn't know whether the New York cases were the strain that now has killed up to 81 people in Mexico and likely sickened 1,324 since April 13, according to figures updated late Saturday by Mexico's health secretary.

Tests have confirmed swine flu as the cause of death in 20 of the cases.

Mexican soldiers and health workers patrolled airports and bus stations as they tried to corral people who may be infected with the swine flu, as it became clearer that the government may have been slow to respond to the outbreak in March and early April.

Now, even detaining the ill may not keep the strain — a combination of swine, bird and human influenza that people may have no natural immunity to — from spreading, epidemiologists say.

The World Health Organization on Saturday asked countries around the world to step up reporting and surveillance of the disease and implement a coordinated response to contain it.

Two dozen new suspected cases were reported in Mexico City alone, where authorities suspended schools and all public events until further notice. More than 500 events, including concerts and sports games, were canceled in the metropolis of 20 million.

Mexican authorities ordered schools closed in the capital and the states of Mexico and San Luis Potosi until May 6, and the Roman Catholic Church announced the cancellation of Sunday masses in the capital.

The Mexican government issued a decree authorizing President Felipe Calderon to invoke special powers letting the Health Department isolate patients and inspect homes, incoming travelers and baggage. But officials said it was designed to free health workers from possible legal reprisals and to speed disease control efforts.

A team from the Centers for Disease Control had arrived in Mexico to help set up detection testing for the swine flu strain, something Mexico previously lacked.

The U.S. Embassy said the U.S. has not imposed travel constraints to and from Mexico but is suspending the processing of visas and other services through Wednesday to avoid creating crowds.

It issued an earlier message advising U.S. citizens to avoid large crowds, shaking hands, greeting people with a kiss or using the subway.

While suspected swine flu cases have been reported in about 16 Mexican states, Health Secretary Jose Cordova said "it has not spread to the entire country."

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said the outbreak of the never-before-seen virus has "pandemic potential." But she said it is still too early to tell if it would become a pandemic.

WHO lays out three criteria necessary for a global epidemic: The virus is able to infect people, can readily spread person-to-person and the global population has no immunity to it.

Early detection and treatment are key to stopping any outbreak. WHO guidance calls for isolating the sick and blanketing everyone around them with anti-viral drugs such as Tamiflu.

Now, with patients showing up all across Mexico and its teeming capital, simple math suggests that kind of response is impossible.

Mexico appears to have lost valuable days or weeks in detecting the new virus.

Health authorities started noticing a threefold spike in flu cases in late March and early April, but they thought it was a late rebound in the December-February flu season.

Testing at domestic labs did not alert doctors to the new strain, and Cordova acknowledged Mexican labs lacked the necessary profiling data to detect the previously unknown strain.

The first death occurred in southern Oaxaca state on April 13, but Mexico didn't send the first of 14 mucous samples to the CDC until April 18, around the same time it dispatched health teams to hospitals looking for patients with severe flu or pnuemonia-like symptoms.

Those teams noticed something strange: The flu was killing people aged 20 to 40. Flu victims are usually either infants or the elderly. The Spanish flu pandemic, which killed at least 40 million people worldwide in 1918-19, also first struck otherwise healthy young adults.

Even though U.S. labs detected the swine flu in California and Texas before last weekend, Mexican authorities as recently as Wednesday were referring to it as a late-season flu.

But mid-afternoon Thursday, Mexico City Health Secretary Dr. Armando Ahued said, officials got a call "from the United States and Canada, the most important laboratories in the field, telling us this was a new virus."

"That was what led us to realize it wasn't a seasonal virus ... and take more serious preventative measures," Cordova said.

Asked why there were so many deaths in Mexico, and none so far among the 11 cases in the United States, Cordova noted that the U.S. cases involved children — who haven't been among the fatal cases in Mexico, either.

"There are immune factors that are giving children some sort of defense, that is the only explanation we have," he said.

Another factor may be that some Mexican patients may have delayed seeking medical help too long, Cordova said.

Some Mexicans suspected the government had been less than forthcoming. "They always make a big deal about good things that happen, but they really try to hide anything bad," Mexico City paralegal Gilberto Martinez said.

Airports around the world were screening travelers from Mexico for flu symptoms. But containing the disease may not be an option.

"Anything that would be about containing it right now would purely be a political move," said Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota pandemic expert.

Scientists have warned for years about the potential for a pandemic from viruses that mix genetic material from humans and animals.

This swine flu and regular flu can have similar symptoms — mostly fever, cough and sore throat, though some of the U.S. victims who recovered also experienced vomiting and diarrhea. But unlike with regular flu, humans don't have natural immunity to a virus that includes animal genes — and new vaccines can take months to bring into use.

A "seed stock" genetically matched to the new swine flu virus has been created by the CDC, said Dr. Richard Besser, the agency's acting director. If the government decides vaccine production is necessary, manufacturers would need that stock to get started.

Mexican authorities did lay to rest one persistent doubt, after Mexican museum director Felipe Solis died this week, just days after accompanying U.S. President Barack Obama on a tour of National Anthropology Museum on April 16. Cordova said Solis had a pre-existing illness and died of pneumonia unrelated to influenza.

___

Associated Press Writers David Koop in Mexico City; Frank Jordans in Geneva; Mike Stobbe in Atlanta; Malcolm Ritter in New York; and Maria Cheng in London contributed to this report.

" This is a very disturbing news. In the Philippines, an order was given to strictly check all passengers at the NAIA who came from swine flu locations. With a new pandemic such as this, adding to the world economic crisis, what else is next? We can only hope for the best. "

POLICE BEAT NEWS

Police beat: April 11, 2009

By Naples Daily News staff report

Collier sheriff

Domestic violence arrest

Marie Elaine Hinds, 41, 5455 Tamarind Ridge Drive, Golden Gate Estates, was arrested Thursday at home. She was charged with grabbing the arms of Bonnie Reilly Davis and shoving her. She was also charged with possession of Xanax and oxycodone.

Grand theft arrests

Jennifer Cervantez, 23, 1318 Orange St., Immokalee, and Juan Ortiz, 1026 Warden Lane, Immokalee, were arrested Thursday at 752 Crestview Circle. They were charged with breaking into a vehicle and stealing two televisions and a computer monitor.

DUI arrests

■ Jose Guadalupe Salinas, 33, 107 Dixie Lane, Immokalee, was arrested Thursday at the intersection of Escambia Street and New Market Road. He was also charged with possession of cocaine, resisting an officer with violence, and driving without a license. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement placed an immigration hold on Salinas.

■ Daryl John Strain, 58, 6035 Seagrass Lane, Golden Gate Estates, was arrested Wednesday at 4100 Green Blvd.

■ David Silva Rojas, 39, 1811 Sherman Ave., Immokalee, was arrested Wednesday at the intersection of U.S. 41 East and Turner River Road.

Police Beat is compiled and written by the Naples Daily News staff from oral and written reports by Naples police, Collier Sheriff‘s Office, Marco police and other agencies. Arrests indicate suspicion of crime, not guilt. To report a crime or suspicious activity in your neighborhood, call the Naples Police and Fire Department at 213-4844, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office at 774-4434 or the Marco Island Police Department at 389-5050.

" Such vigilant acts to guard violence in the community is truly highly commendable. May we all be vigilant in guarding ourselves and our neighborhood against violence."

Sharp to Cut 1,500 Jobs, Sees Deeper Loss

By HIROYUKI KACHI and DAISUKE WAKABAYASHI

TOKYO -- Sharp Corp. Wednesday forecast a deeper net loss for its fiscal year ended March 31 citing restructuring costs and an additional securities valuation loss, and said it would cut 1,500 temporary jobs.

The maker of the Aquos-brand liquid crystal display televisions said it now expects a group net loss of 130 billion yen (US$1.3 billion) for the past fiscal year, worse than the ¥100 billion loss it forecast in February.

The full-year net loss would be its first since 1950, and considerably worse than the net profit of ¥101.92 billion it posted in the previous fiscal year.

Sharp, like other Japanese electronics makers, has been battered by a precipitous slide in consumer demand and strength in the Japanese yen. The company said its results were also weighed by LCD panel inventory cutbacks and extra valuation losses on its securities holdings.

Sharp said it now expects a ¥49.7 billion loss on securities impairment, wider than a loss of ¥43.3 billion it forecast previously.

The company cut its revenue outlook for the year which ended March 31, 2008, to ¥2.850 trillion from ¥2.900 trillion. It now expects an operating loss of ¥60 billion, worse than the operating loss of ¥30 billion it predicted in February.

At a press conference, Mikio Katayama, Sharp's president and chief operating officer, said the company expects to cut costs by ¥billion in the new fiscal year ending March 31, 2010.

Despite cutting its forecasts, the Osaka-based consumer electronics maker said it will begin operations at an LCD panel manufacturing plant in Sakai, western Japan, in October. It had earlier said the plant would start operations by March 2010.

"Though the worldwide demand for LCD TVs has slowed temporarily due to the global economic recession, it is expected to further expand, notably in emerging economies such as China," Sharp said in a statement.

The LCD plant in Sakai near Osaka plans to produce panels using the industry's most advanced 10th-generation mother glass substrates, capable of producing TV panels measuring 50-inches or larger.

SOURCE OF THIS HOT NEWS

"The rising job losses around the world is indeed very alarming. The effects of this loss to every family in all nations is very saddening and worrying. I hope that our world leaders will be more vigilant in doing something smart for this economic problem."

Dozens dead and thousands left homeless by Italy earthquake.

Dozens dead and thousands left homeless by Italy earthquake

by: Anne Barrowclough

At least 27 people, including five children were killed when an earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale destroyed hundreds of homes in central Italy early this morning.

Scores more are missing after the earthquake struck at 3.32am (0132 GMT) near l'Aquila in the mountainous region of Abruzzo 60 miles (95 kilometres) north of Rome.

Dawn revealed a scene of devastation in the town, the epicentre of the earthquake, as rubble blocked the streets and rescue workers desperately searched for survivors in the ruins of the collapsed buildings.

The death toll rose through the night and is expected to keep rising, according to police.

At least half a dozen university students remain trapped after their dormitory in l'Aquila was destroyed, according to Italy's RAI TV. A student who was not named told RAI they were awakened by the earthquake and ran down the stairs of the dormitory before the roof collapsed.

Police confirmed that five people were killed in the small town of Castelnuovo, and four children died in hospital in l'Aquila, three miles from the quake's epicenter, according to the Italian news agency ANSA. An elderly woman and a child were also crushed when their home collapsed in the nearby town of Fossa.

The earthquake would claim "many victims", public safety chief Guido Bertolaso told ANSA.

"Thousands of people (could be left) homeless and thousands of buildings collapsed or damaged," Agostino Miozzo, an official at the civil protection ministry, added.

The centre of L'Aquila, a town of about 70,000 inhabitants, had been hard hit, Italian journalist Paulo Pacitti told the BBC.

"All the people are now on the road, queuing - trying to reach a safe area," he said

British residents in the region told how the ground "felt like jelly" as their houses were shaken violently in the early hours.

Matthew Peacock, who lives with his wife and child in the Umbrian town of Amelia, around 60 miles north of Rome, said he woke up around 2.30am UK time feeling a "very significant shaking".

He told Sky News: "It was quite an extraordinary experience.

"I live in a big old stone house with walls a metre thick. It felt like the house was being shaken from the rooftop - my bed was banging against the wall and you could hear this creaking.

"I rushed across the hallway to my son, who's five, grabbed him and stood underneath the doorway. The shaking went on for 20 seconds or so."

Mr Peacock, who said he felt two or three aftershocks after the initial quake, added: "The earth really felt like jelly underneath.

Another Briton living in Monte San Marino, a small town in the Apennine mountain range 60 miles to the north east of L'Aquila, said he also woke up to find the house shaking.

Barry Raven told Sky News: "It continued to shake for about 30 seconds.

"When you felt it you were thinking 'Is this the beginning or is this the end?' "

The earthquake, which was also felt in Rome, was the latest in a series of tremors that have shook Italy's north central region since Sunday. It struck at a depth of six miles (10 kilometres), the US Geological Survey said on its website.

It came hours after a 4.6 magnitude tremor struck in Ravenna, in the north west on Sunday night.

Italy is criss-crossed by two fault lines, with some 20 million people at risk from earthquakes.

A powerful earthquake in the region claimed 13 lives in 1997 and damaged or destroyed priceless cultural heritage.

The most recent major earthquake, in October 2002, killed 30 people including 27 pupils and their teacher who were crushed under their schoolhouse in the tiny medieval village of San Giuliano di Puglia.

SOURCE OF THIS HOTTEST NEWS

"This story is alarming. I pray that victims will be rescued as soon as possible."

Alex Da Silva's Arrest

Celebrity choreographer Alex Da Silva arrested

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles police have arrested a choreographer featured on the FOX television show "So You Think You Can Dance" on suspicion of sexually assaulting four of his dance students.

Officer Jason Lee says Alex Da Silva was taken into custody Saturday and held on $3.8 million bail.

Detectives say the alleged assaults occurred between May 2003 and March 28. The female accusers told police Da Silva lured them to his homes in North Hollywood and Van Nuys, used a ruse to get them into his bedroom and raped them.

It's not immediately known whether the 41-year-old Da Silva has retained an attorney. The voicemail for a phone number posted on his Web site was full and wouldn't accept messages.

SOURCE OF THIS NEWS

"I do not know yet if I believe this news. However, given it the benefit of the doubt, I would suggest to give both the victims and the accused a non-judgmental attitude by the readers until all has been cleared out. After all, both parties deserved to be heard first. I just hope everything will come out clear and justified in the end."

Jiverly Voong, shooting in Binghamton, New York

Shooting in Binghamton, N.Y.

By Katharine Q. Seelye

Hostages exit a building near the American Civic Association in downtown Binghamton, N.Y., following a shooting spree by a gunman Friday April 3, 2009. A law enforcement official says the gunman who killed at least 12 people in Binghamton, N.Y., died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

For more information and further developments, please see the main news article on this event on out Web site, which will be updated as the evening goes on.

Updated | 7:59 p.m. A law-enforcement official said that Mr. Wong had a New York State pistol license that listed two pistols, a 45-caliber Beretta and a 9-mm Beretta. The authorities matched the serial numbers of two guns found with the gunman’s body to the serial numbers on his license. The authorities were trying to trace the guns to determine where Mr. Wong obtained them and their history.

"Such a horrific news. I wonder what was going on in the murderer's mind, killing these twelve people. And killing himself, too. News like this is sickening but should serve as an awakening to all of us. Does this follow that there are lots of people who are very disturbed that needs more caring from others? I do not know really or exactly, but what I understand is that maybe, if we can be more caring to more people, maybe, just maybe, lesser crimes like this will ever take place."