Tag Archives: U.S.

Florida has identified 10 more Zika cases; calls in feds for help

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are seen at the Laboratory of Entomology and Ecology of the Dengue Branch of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The state of Florida has identified 10 more cases of Zika virus caused by local mosquitoes and has asked the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to send in experts to help with the investigation of the outbreak.

The state now has a total of 14 cases of Zika caused by locally transmitted mosquitoes, according to a statement issued on Monday by Florida Governor Rick Scott.

The Florida Department of Health said it believes active transmission of Zika is restricted to one small area in Miami-Dade County, just north of downtown Miami.

The health department said six of the 10 new cases are asymptomatic and were identified through the door-to-door community survey and testing that it is conducting.

Scott said the state has called on the CDC to activate a CDC Emergency Response Team to assist the Florida Department of Health and other partners in their investigation, sample collection and mosquito control efforts.

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Bill Trott)

Florida identifies two more Zika cases not related to travel

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are seen at the Laboratory of Entomology and Ecology of the Dengue Branch of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in San Juan

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The Florida health department said on Wednesday it was investigating another two cases of Zika not related to travel to a place where the virus is being transmitted, raising the possibility of local Zika transmission in the continental United States.

The Florida health department said it has identified an additional case of Zika in Miami-Dade County, where it was already investigating a possible case of Zika not related to travel, and another case in Broward County, where it has been investigating a non-travel related case.

“Evidence is mounting to suggest local transmission via mosquitoes is going on in South Florida,” said CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said.

“These cases fit similar transmission patterns for mosquito-borne diseases such as Chikungunya that we’ve seen in South Florida in years past.”

To confirm whether Zika is being transmitted locally, epidemiologists must survey households and neighbors within a 150-yard radius around the residence of the person who has Zika, which constitutes the flying range of the mosquitoes that carry the virus.

According to the U.S. Zika response plan, Zika transmission is defined as two or more cases not due to travel or sex with an infected person that occur in a 1-mile diameter over the course of a month. Evidence of the virus in local mosquito populations can also be used to confirm local transmission.

Florida heath department officials said investigations into the new cases begins today. The state is urging residents and visitors to participate in requests for urine samples by the department in the areas of investigation. These results will help the department determine the number of people affected.

In addition to the possible cases of non-travel related transmission, Florida on Wednesday reported 328 travel-related cases of Zika. The state is monitoring 53 pregnant women who had Zika infections.

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Bernard Orr)

Poor U.S.-Russia relations increase risk of dirty bomb

By Toby Sterling

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Tension between Russia and the West may be distracting them from cooperating to prevent an accidental nuclear confrontation or a dirty bomb attack by militants, nuclear policy experts said on Tuesday.

Former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry said he regretted the current lack of communication between the United States and Russia, which went into a deep freeze after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.

“We are about to recreate the conditions that nearly brought us to the brink of nuclear war” during the Cold War, Perry said.

Anatoly Adamishin, a former Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, argued that the U.S. has focused on a policy of “strangling Russia” and hoping for the departure of Russian President Vladimir Putin, which has the effect of putting Russia at the forefront of a list of U.S. enemies.

“The U.S. simply has to rethink its own policy: what should be in focus is nuclear reductions,” he said. “Russia and the U.S. are not inherent enemies.”

They made their comments at a conference organised by the the Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe.

The forum’s head, Moshe Kantor, said the threat of a ‘dirty bomb’ attack on a European city was at its highest level since the end of the Cold War.

Security experts have raised concerns since the attacks in Paris and Brussels by Islamist militants that poorly guarded European nuclear facilities pose a risk.

Kantor cited chemical weapons attacks carried out by Islamic State in Iraq, their stated desire to carry out more attacks in Europe, and evidence militants linked to the attacks in Paris had also been studying a Belgian nuclear power plant.

“This, combined with poor levels of security at a host of nuclear research centres in the former Soviet Union mean the threat of a possible ‘dirty-bomb’ attack on a Western capital is high,” Kantor said.

He urged the United States and Russia, both nuclear powers, to cooperate on using their technological resources to monitor the illegal transportation of radioactive materials.

Gorbachev, appearing by satellite link, said he was alarmed by the increasing readiness of many nations to use military force to resolve conflict rather than negotiation.

“I note that these have not solved the problems, but they have served to undermine international law and weaken international relations,” he said.

China tells U.S. to play constructive role over South China Sea

Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative file image of an octagonal tower with a conical feature at its top, located on the northeast

By Yeganeh Torbati and Michael Martina

BEIJING (Reuters) – China told the United States on Tuesday that it should play a constructive role in safeguarding peace in the disputed South China Sea, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called for talks and a peaceful resolution.

China claims most of the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims, as well as close military ties with the United States.

China has been angered by what it views as provocative U.S. military patrols close to islands China controls in the South China Sea. The United States says the patrols are to protect freedom of navigation.

Speaking at the end of high-level Sino-U.S. talks in Beijing, State Councillor Yang Jiechi, China’s top diplomat who outranks the foreign minister, said China had the right to safeguard its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights.

“China respects and protects the right that all countries enjoy under international law to freedom of navigation and overflight,” Yang told reporters.

Disputes should be resolved by the parties involved through consultation, he said.

“China hopes the U.S. will scrupulously abide by its promise to not take sides in relevant territorial disputes and play a constructive role in safeguarding peace and stability in the South China Sea,” Yang said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Saturday the U.S. approach to the Asia-Pacific remained “one of commitment, strength and inclusion”, but he also warned China against provocative behaviour in the South China Sea.

Kerry said the United States did not take a position on the sovereignty of any land features in the South China Sea but thought all claimants should exercise restraint.

“We reiterated America’s fundamental support for negotiations and a peaceful resolution based on the rule of law as well as our concern about any unilateral steps by any party … to alter the status quo,” Kerry said.

Kerry added that he and Yang reaffirmed their governments’ commitment to upholding the freedom of navigation and overflight.

The Philippines is hoping for a favourable ruling from a tribunal in The Hague this month after it went to court in 2013 seeking clarification on its economic entitlements in the South China Sea.

China has said it will not respect the court’s decision and there are fears in Manila that China may retaliate by declaring an air defence identification zone in the disputed waters or by reclaiming disputed Scarborough Shoal.

Gregory Poling, director of Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the U.S. Center for Strategic and International Studies, said China would not risk an escalation if it knew the United States would try to deter its actions on Scarborough Shoal.

“What we’ve seen over and over in the last years, China is unwilling to risk activities that threaten deadly force,” Poling told diplomats and military officials at the main army base in Manila.

“It is possible to deter them. We’ll have to keep deterring them over and over. That is the test for next 10 to 15 years in this game of whack-a-mole until the Chinese decide that this is not the way to do international relations.”

(Additional reporting by Manuel Mogato in Manila; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Robert Birsel and Nick Macfie)

Netanyahu frequents Russia as U.S. influence in mideast recedes

Israeli PM Netanyahu inspects honour guard during welcoming ceremony upon his arrival at Moscow's Vnukovo airport

By Dan Williams and Denis Dyomkin

JERUSALEM/MOSCOW (Reuters) – With the Obama administration in its final months, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been a more frequent and feted visitor to Moscow than Washington, his eye on shifting big-power influence in the Middle East.

No one expects Netanyahu, who was hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday for the third time in the last year, to break up Israel’s bedrock alliance with the United States. But he is mindful of Putin’s sway in the Syrian civil war and other Middle East crises as the U.S. footprint in the region wanes.

“Netanyahu’s not defecting, but what we see here is a bid to maneuver independently to promote Israel’s interests,” said Zvi Magen, a former Israeli ambassador to Russia now with Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies.

With Russian forces fighting alongside Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas to keep Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in power, Putin is the closest thing to a guarantor that Israel’s three most potent enemies will not attack it from the north.

He is also the first port of call for Netanyahu’s argument that Assad’s loss of central control vindicates Israel’s de facto annexation of the Golan Heights in 1981, a move never recognized internationally. Israel took the area in a 1967 war.

Netanyahu can offer Putin reciprocal Israeli restraint in Syria, where Russia maintains a strategic Mediterranean base, and a chance to play a greater role in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking that has long been dominated by the United States.

With the Obama administration and France hinting they might back a future U.N. Security Council resolution against Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land, Netanyahu also has an interest in sounding out the views of veto-wielding Russia.

Moscow’s guest-list suggests mediation may be under way.

When Netanyahu last came, in April, it was three days after a visit by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. On Wednesday, when Netanyahu departs, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is scheduled to host Palestinian counterpart Riyad al-Maliki.

FRIENDLY FIRE

Yaakov Amidror, one of Netanyahu’s former national security advisers, played down the scope of Israeli-Russian relations. He said they focused on preventing the sides accidentally trading fire over Syria and were underpinned by Netanyahu’s personal rapport with Putin – hence their meetings every few months.

By contrast, while Netanyahu and Obama have feuded on Iran and the Palestinians and are wrangling over a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) for future U.S. defense aid to Israel, their countries’ partnership ticks over thanks to a network of military, diplomatic and parliamentary channels, Amidror said.

“In Syria, there is liable to be a clash tomorrow morning that neither we nor the Russians want,” said Amidror, now with the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University and the U.S. think-tank JINSA, alluding to the risk of a friendly-fire incident.

“It’s not like the MOU, which we can spend months discussing with the Americans and be assured a resolution will be found.”

Russia has been closed-lipped about any wider statecraft initiatives it may have in store for Israel. The two countries “each express their positions in a pretty constructive manner, and all of this contributes to this rather frequent and intensive communication”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

“But of course, there cannot be any talk of the intensity of these contacts reflecting any kind of rivalry with anyone,” he added, alluding to Washington, where Netanyahu was last hosted by U.S. President Barack Obama in November. A trip expected in March was canceled given the difficult MOU talks.

That’s different from the dignified optics Netanyahu can be assured of in Russia. This time, he will leave with state gifts likely to buoy Israeli public opinion: an Israeli army tank captured by Syrian forces during battles in Lebanon in 1982 and recovered by Russia, and Moscow’s agreement to pay pensions to tens of thousands of Russian immigrants to Israel.

(Additional reporting by Dmitry Solovyov in Moscow; Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

U.S. motorists to hit roads on Memorial Day holiday in near-record numbers

Traffic flows along Coast Highway 101 through San Diego's North County beach town of Encinitas, California

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The number of Americans traveling by car for the Memorial Day holiday will hit an 11-year high this year, fueled by a growing economy and low gasoline prices, the nation’s largest motorists’ advocacy group said on Thursday.

AAA projected 33.9 million people will hit the road and drive 50 miles (80 km) or more from home during the upcoming Memorial Day holiday period, the most since 37.3 million in 2005.

The expectation for strong driving numbers is welcome news for U.S. refiners, who are banking on the summer driving season to resurrect profits that plummeted during the recent fall and winter seasons.

The 2.1 percent increase in driving volumes for the May 26 to May 30 period from the holiday weekend a year before will bring the auto share of holiday travel to 89 percent, the highest since AAA began tracking in 2000, underscoring how low pump prices have led consumers to consider driving as a low-cost alternative to flying.

“The great American road trip is officially back thanks to low gas prices, and millions of people from coast to coast are ready to kick off summer with a Memorial Day getaway,” Marshall Doney, AAA president and chief executive, said in a statement.

The national average price of gas is $2.26 a gallon, roughly 17 percent less than the average price of $2.75 on Memorial Day last year.

Overall holiday travel, including airplanes, is expected to reach more than 38 million travelers, also the second-highest after 2005 figures, AAA said.

The most recent data from the U.S. Department of Transportation shows the U.S. road renaissance, spurred in part by the crude oil rout and lower unemployment, remains strong.

U.S. motorists logged 232.2 billion miles in February, the most for any February, up 5.6 percent from a year earlier, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. That was the largest year-over-year bump since at least 1991, it said.

Driving activity in the United States is closely watched since the country accounts for about 10 percent of global gasoline demand.

(Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)

Wall Street falls as consumer stocks take a hit

Traders work on the floor of the NYSE

By Noel Randewich

(Reuters) – U.S. stocks fell on Friday as a decline in oil prices added to pressure from consumer companies after gloomy earnings reports from Nordstrom and J.C. Penney overshadowed upbeat April retail sales data.

The decline in the department stores’ shares marked the end of a week that highlighted the expanding clout of Amazon.com and the plight of brick-and mortar retailers struggling to keep up.

Crude prices slipped on Friday as a strong dollar weighed and investors cashed in on gains from a three-day rally.

That pushed the S&P energy index  down 1.07 percent.

U.S. retail sales jumped 1.3 percent last month, the largest gain since March 2015 and a bigger rise than economists expected, the U.S.

But consumer stocks, which have already been under pressure this week after a string of feeble earnings reports, fell again after Nordstrom and J.C. Penney reported lower-than-expected sales.

Nordstrom  slumped 13.60 percent and J.C. Penney Co Inc lost 3.78 percent. Dillard’s Inc, which gave a quarterly report that also disappointed Wall Street, fell 1.62 percent.

Amazon lost 0.96 percent but was still up 5.5 percent for the week following steady gains since last Friday.

Macy’s  rose 0.38 percent after its poor quarterly report on Wednesday triggered a selloff in U.S. retailers.

First-quarter earnings reports are nearly all in and, on average, have not been quite as bad as expected. The S&P 500 is trading at about 16.5 times expected earnings, according to Thomson Reuters.

“It’s hard to make a case that you’re going to have stellar equity market performance. In the context of low interest rates, equity valuations look about right,” said Mark Heppenstall, chief investment officer at Penn Asset Management in Horsham, Pennsylvania.

At 2:35 pm, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 0.99 percent at 17,545.59 points and the S&P 500  had lost 0.85 percent to 2,046.66. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.45 percent to 4,715.91.

All of the 10 major S&P sectors fell, led by a 1.38 percent decline in the consumer staples index.

Nvidia surged 14.7 percent after the graphics chipmaker forecast better-than-expected revenue for the current quarter.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by 2,022 to 930. On the Nasdaq, 1,660 issues fell and 1,081 advanced.

The S&P 500 index showed 15 new 52-week highs and 8 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 27 new highs and 65 new lows.

(Additoinal reporting by Tanya Agrawal and Yashaswini Swamynathan; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

U.S. Retail sales strongly boost economic outlook

A man in short sleeves carries shopping bags near Herald Square during unseasonably warm weather in Manhattan

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. retail sales in April recorded their biggest increase in a year as Americans stepped up purchases of automobiles and a range of other goods, suggesting the economy was regaining momentum after growth almost stalled in the first quarter.

The jump in sales reported by the Commerce Department on Friday is a boost for the sector that has been hit by sluggish demand. It comes days after major retailers, including Macy’s and Nordstrom, reported sales tumbled in the first quarter and lowered their full-year profit forecasts.

“The retail sales report shows that recent claims of the demise of the U.S. consumer have been greatly exaggerated,” said Steve Murphy, a U.S. economist at Capital Economics in Toronto.

Retail sales surged 1.3 percent last month, the largest gain since March 2015, after dropping 0.3 percent in March. Excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, retail sales shot up 0.9 percent last month after an upwardly revised 0.2 percent gain in March.

These so-called core retail sales correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of gross domestic product.

They were previously reported to have gained 0.1 percent in March. Economists had forecast retail sales rising 0.8 percent and core retail sales gaining 0.3 percent last month.

Signs of an acceleration in consumer spending keep an interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve next month on the table.

“Today’s data materially strengthen the hand of those within the Fed for a rate increase in June but we remain doubtful as to whether this view will prevail, barring an especially robust employment report in early June,” said Anthony Karydakis, chief economic strategist at Miller Tabak in New York.

Consumer spending prospects got a boost from a separate report showing sentiment among households jumped to an 11-month high in early May.

The University of Michigan said its consumer sentiment index surged 6.8 points to 95.8 early this month, the highest reading since June. Sentiment increased among all income and age groups, with big gains among lower-income and younger households.

Last month’s strong core retail sales increase could prompt economists to raise their second-quarter GDP, currently hovering around a 2 percent annualized rate. Economic growth braked to a 0.5 percent pace in the first three months of the year after expanding at a 1.4 percent pace in the fourth quarter.

But another report from the Commerce Department on Friday showing a 0.4 percent increase in business inventories in March suggest growth was much higher than initially estimated.

Data on retail sales, construction spending and factory orders have already implied that the advance GDP growth estimate could be raised to a 0.9 percent rate when the government publishes its revision later this month.

The dollar rose against the euro and the yen after the data, while prices for U.S. government debt fell. U.S. stocks were trading lower.

Retail sales have been sluggish in part because the strengthening labor market has not generated strong wage growth.

Economists also say that some of the savings from cheaper gasoline over the past year-and-a-half have been absorbed by rising rents and medical care costs.

Macy’s, the largest department chain, said this week same-store sales fell 5.6 percent in the first quarter, and expected full-year sales to decline 3-4 percent.

Nordstrom reported that sales at stores open at least a year fell 1.7 percent in the first quarter. It cut its profit forecast for the year to $2.50-$2.70 per share from $3.10-$3.35.

The Commerce Department report showed retail sales in April rose across all categories, with the exception of building materials and garden equipment. Auto sales advanced 3.2 percent, the largest increase since March 2015, after slumping 3.2 percent in March.

Receipts at service stations increased 2.2 percent, reflecting recent increases in gasoline prices. Sales at clothing stores surged 1.0 percent, the largest increase since May 2015.

Online retail sales jumped 2.1 percent, the biggest gain since June 2014. Receipts at sporting goods and hobby stores rose 0.2 percent last month.

Sales at electronics and appliance outlets increased 0.5 percent. Building materials and garden equipment store receipts, however, fell 1.0 percent last month, the largest decline since August. Sales at restaurants and bars rose 0.3 percent.

In a separate report, the Labor Department said its producer price index climbed 0.2 percent last month after slipping 0.1 percent in March. In the 12 months through April, the PPI was unchanged after dipping 0.1 percent in March.

Inflation continues to be restrained by the lingering effects of the dollar’s surge and oil price plunge. The greenback gained 20 percent against the currencies of the United States’ trading partners between June 2014 and December 2015.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

U.S. to schools: Give transgender students bathroom rights

A gender-neutral bathroom is seen at the University of California, Irvine in Irvine, California September 30, 2014.

By Megan Cassella

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration told U.S. public school districts across the country on Friday to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity, rather than their gender at birth.

The new guidance comes as the Justice Department and North Carolina battle in federal court over a state law passed in March that prohibits people from using public restrooms not corresponding to their biological sex.

Officials from the Education and Justice departments told schools that while the new guidance does not carry legal weight, they are obligated not to discriminate against students, including based on their gender identity.

“Our guidance sends a clear message to transgender students across the country: here in America, you are safe, you are protected and you belong – just as you are,” Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement accompanying the letter sent to school districts nationwide.

The guidance contains an implicit threat that those not abiding by the Obama administration’s interpretation of the law could face lawsuits or a loss of federal aid.

As a condition of receiving federal funds, the letter said, a school agrees that it will not treat any person in its educational programs or activities differently on the basis of sex.

It added that the administration’s interpretation of existing regulations means that a school cannot treat a transgender student differently from other students of the same gender identity.

The issue of access to bathrooms by transgender people flared into a national controversy after North Carolina passed a law in March that made it the first state in the country to ban people from using multiple occupancy restrooms or changing rooms in public buildings and schools that do not match the sex on their birth certificate.

The U.S. Justice Department this week asked a federal district court in North Carolina to declare that the state is violating the 1964 Civil Rights Act and order it to stop enforcing the ban.

North Carolina’s Republican governor, Pat McCrory, and the state’s secretary of public safety sued the agency in a different federal court in North Carolina, accusing it of “baseless and blatant overreach.”

(Reporting by Megan Cassella and Susan Heavey; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Frances Kerry)

Russia will act to neutralize U.S. Missile shield threat

A view shows the command center for the newly opened ballistic missile defense site at Deveselu air base

By Vladimir Soldatkin

SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) – A ballistic missile defense shield which the United States has activated in Europe is a step to a new arms race, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday, vowing to adjust budget spending to neutralize “emerging threats” to Russia.

The United States switched on the $800 million missile shield at a Soviet-era base in Romania on Thursday saying it was a defense against missiles from Iran and so-called rogue states.

But, speaking to top defense and military industry officials, Putin said the system was aimed at blunting Russia’s nuclear arsenal.

“This is not a defense system. This is part of U.S. nuclear strategic potential brought onto a periphery. In this case, Eastern Europe is such periphery,” Putin said.

“Until now, those taking such decisions have lived in calm, fairly well-off and in safety. Now, as these elements of ballistic missile defense are deployed, we are forced to think how to neutralize emerging threats to the Russian Federation,” he said.

Coupled with deployment in the Mediterranean of U.S. ships carrying Aegis missiles and other missile shield elements in Poland, the site in Romania was “yet another step to rock international security and start a new arms race”, he said.

Russia would not be drawn into this race. But it would continue re-arming its army and navy and spend the approved funds in a way that would “uphold the current strategic balance of forces”, he said.

U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work said on Thursday that the shield would not be used against any future Russian missile threat.

Frank Rose, deputy U.S. assistant secretary of state for arms control, warned at the time that Iran’s ballistic missiles could hit parts of Europe, including Romania.

Putin said the prospect of a nuclear threat from Iran should no longer be taken seriously and was being used by Washington as an excuse to develop its missile shield in Europe.

The full defensive umbrella, when complete in 2018 after further development in Poland, will stretch from Greenland to the Azores.

It relies on radars to detect a ballistic missile launch into space. Sensors then measure the rocket’s trajectory and destroy it in space before it re-enters the earth’s atmosphere. The interceptors can be fired from ships or ground sites.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Lidia Kelly and Richard Balmforth)