Obama to ask Congress for $1.8B to combat Zika
WASHINGTON - The Obama administration will ask Congress for $1.8 billion to respond to the Zika virus abroad and prepare for it at home, the administration said Monday.
We must work aggressively to investigate these outbreaks, and mitigate, to the best extent possible, the spread of the virus,” the administration said in a statement. Although the administration said it has not yet seen a case of Zika transmitted directly from within the continental United States, but it said that with the approach of spring and summer mosquito seasons, it wanted to be prepared to fight the disease.
The bulk of the money, $828 million, would go to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The request also includes $250 million for a one-year increase in Medicaid funds for financially burdened Puerto Rico, where there have already been direct cases of Zika.
The administration would pump $200 million into accelerated vaccine and testing techniques for Zika through the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration. And $210 million would go to a new fund to respond to new outbreaks if they appear in the United States.
The rest of the money would go to help other countries respond to the virus. It would include $335 million for US Agency for International Development and $41 million for the State Department to respond across South America, Central America and the Caribbean.
Miners battle for survival as CEO sees return to 1990s
INDIA - It’s time for mining companies to hunker down and fight for survival, Vedanta Resources Chief Executive Officer Tom Albanese said.
“This is exactly where we were in the late 1990s,” Albanese, the head of India’s biggest aluminum and copper producer, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Monday. “The survivors were the ones that enjoyed the benefit when China kicked in starting in 2003. Those who can manage their balance sheets the best in this period of time, manage their assets the best, stay opportunistic. We could be OK.”
While some supply and demand data for copper, zinc and gold are looking better than a few months ago, the market shouldn’t expect any big improvements, Albanese said.
India says no to Facebook’s “free” Internet for the poor
NEW DELHI - India’s telecom regulator said Monday that service providers cannot charge discriminatory prices for Internet services, a blow to Facebook’s global effort to provide low-cost Internet to developing countries.
Facebook’s “Free Basics” program provides a pared-down version of Facebook and weather and job listings to some 15 million mobile phone users in 37 countries around the world.
When it debuted in India in April, however, Free Basics immediately ran afoul of Internet activists who said it violated the principle of “net neutrality,” which holds that consumers should be able to access the entire Internet unfettered by price or speed.
Monday, India’s Telecom Regulatory Authority of India agreed, prohibiting data service providers from offering or charging different prices for data – even if it’s free. The Free Basics program has run into trouble elsewhere in the world recently – with Egypt banning it and Google clarifying that it pulled out of the application during a testing phase in Zambia.
Washington Post
