Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Congress Friday swiftly passed a deal to extend the payroll-tax cut through the end of 2012, continue paying unemployment benefits and avoid a steep cut in Medicare doctors’s fee, moving forward from a lengthy fight that had tied up legislators for months.

The House voted 293-132 to pass the measure. The Senate quickly followed with a 60-36 vote.

The move averts a tax increase on millions of Americas and the end of this month.

Under the deal, the tax paid by workers to Social Security will remain at 4.2 percent instead of reverting to 6.2 percent on March 1.

The deal also avoids a 27 percent cut in payments to doctors who serve Medicare patients, and extends through year’s end payment rates for Medicare doctors. The costs will be offset in part by taking $5 billion from a prevention and public health program established under President Obama’s signature and hotly debated health-overhaul bill.

Both parties are claiming victory.

Lawmakers now head out of town for a week-long recess.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – Stephen Colbert’s “The Colbert Report” was shut down this week because of the host’s ailing 91-year-old mother, according to reports from The New York Post.

On Thursday, Comedy Central suspended production due to “unforeseen circumstances.”

The network is filling the time by airing repeat episodes to round out the week.

The show’s warm-up comedian, Pete Dominick, tweeted about the incident, saying, “Yes I work at the Colbert Report and No I don’t know why the show is off for 2 nights.”

Other news sources say the reason for the hiatus was due to a family emergency.

Colbert is the youngest of 11 children. His father and two older brothers were killed in a plane crash in 1974, when Colbert was just 10. The family is said to be very close.

The show could return to normal scheduling as early as next week.

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New York, NY, United States (AHN) – New claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week to the lowest level in nearly four years.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 13,000 to a seasonally adjusted 348,000, the lowest since March 2008. Economists had forecast claims rising to 365,000.

The four-week moving average for new claims, a better measure of the labor market, fell 1,750 to 365,250, the lowest since April 2008.

The number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid fell 100,000 to 3.43 million in the week ending Feb.4.

While the numbers are welcome and encouraging, and signal renewed strength in the labor market, things are still not so rosy.

Some 23.8 million Americans are currently either out of work or underemployed. There are no job openings for nearly three out of every four unemployed.

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Wisconsin Rapids, WI, United States (KaiserHealth) – For the vast majority of parents-to-be, giving birth involves a stay at a hospital or birthing center. But a growing minority are choosing instead to have babies at home, where, they hope, they can have a more private, low-tech experience and allow the process to unfold naturally. It doesn’t hurt that in these days of rising health-care costs, having a baby at home is a lot cheaper, too.

When Jason and Rebecca Sparks were planning for the birth of their second child, Alexander, who’s now almost 4 months old, they decided to have him at their home in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis. The Sparkses had their first child, Ariana, 2, at a hospital in Wausau, about an hour away. The experience felt impersonal, says Jason, now 33, and was more uncomfortable than it needed to be for Rebecca, 31.

Not only that: Even though Ariana’s birth was without any complications, the bill came to nearly $14,000. The Sparkses, who have coverage through Rebecca’s job as a graphic designer, were on the hook for their plan’s $5,000 deductible and nearly $2,000 in other charges.

This time, the experience was very different. Their midwife and her assistant came to the house and stayed throughout the 21-hour labor. Rebecca was able to move around, and she gave birth in a more comfortable squatting position rather than lying down. The price was also easier to manage: $3,500, which they had set aside in their tax-free health savings account. In addition to the delivery, the fee covered both pre- and postnatal care.

“It’s good to have that safety net there of the hospital,” says Jason. “But to rely on them for everything, when health care is so expensive, just doesn’t make sense.”

An increasing number of people seem to agree. Between 2004 and 2009, the number of home births grew 29 percent, to 29,650, according to figures released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month. Although the higher figure represents fewer than 1 percent of all U.S. births in 2009, it’s the highest proportion since data collection began in’89.

Non-Hispanic white women made up 90 percent of the increase; one in 90 births to these women occurred at home in 2009. Women who gave birth at home were also more likely to be older than 35 and to have already had children than those who gave birth in the hospital, according to the CDC.

The choice to give birth at home doesn’t sit well with many doctors. The position of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the American Medical Association is that while they respect a woman’s right to choose the birth site, the safest choice is a hospital or birthing center.

Although the great majority of births are routine, unforeseen and life-threatening crises such as severe maternal bleeding and fetal delivery problems such as shoulder dystocia, in which the baby’s head has emerged but the shoulder is stuck behind the pubic bone, do occur.

“Even with the best-trained person at a bedside, if you don’t have access to emergency services there’s only so much you can do,” says Erin Tracy, an OB/GYN at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

The degree of risk in home birth is a matter of heated debate. ACOG cites research that babies born at home are two to three times as likely to die as those born at a hospital. Home birth proponents counter with a 2005 British Medical Journal study that found that the mortality rate for babies in planned births at home was about the same as that of babies born in hospitals to low-risk mothers. Who’s right? What is clear is that, as ACOG states in its opinion, “High-quality data to inform this debate is limited.”

Midwives attend about two-thirds of home births; the others are split between physicians (5 percent) and other attendants such as emergency medical personnel. Not all midwives receive the same training, however, and depending on their credentials they may or may not be permitted to practice in a state. Certified nurse-midwives — registered nurses with master’s-level training in midwifery — can practice in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. They typically practice in hospitals, however, and their clinical training generally emphasizes that.

The training for certified professional midwives, on the other hand, focuses on delivery in a home setting. But these non-nurse midwives, whose certification requires demonstrated competence in various knowledge and skills areas rather than specific coursework or degrees, have had a tougher time gaining acceptance. They are licensed or otherwise regulated in 27 states, including Virginia, according to the Big Push for Midwives, a nonprofit that is working to expand licensure for certified professional midwives. In the remaining 23 states (including Maryland) plus the District, they may be and sometimes are prosecuted for practicing medicine without a license, says Katherine Prown, the group’s campaign manager.

In any state, home births attended by certified nurse-midwives are routinely covered by insurers, says Christine Larsen, president of Larsen Billing Service, which specializes in billing services for midwives and birthing centers. But that’s not necessarily the case with certified professional midwives, she says. “Insurers may not pay even if they’re licensed,” she says.

But it’s always worth filing a claim, says Larsen. “Don’t assume your home birth won’t be covered,” she says. “Insurers may say one thing on the phone and then process the claim and pay. We’ve been very successful getting insurers to pay for home birth.”

Please send comments or ideas for future topics for the Insuring Your Health column to questions@kaiserhealthnews.org.

– Provided by Kaiser Health News.

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – A congressional committee took on part of the nation’s illegal immigration problem Thursday during a hearing on guest worker programs.

A House Judiciary subcommittee heard from witnesses from state agricultural programs in California, Georgia and North Carolina who support the idea of using foreign workers to harvest their crops.

However, almost no one wants them to stay in the United States after they complete their work, which would add to a problem that has created about 12 million illegal immigrants.

“There is no numerical limit to H-2A temporary agricultural work visas, yet half of farm workers remain illegal immigrants,” Lamar Smith, chairman of the subcommittee on immigration policy enforcement, said at the hearing. “Why don’t more growers who have heavy demands for seasonal agricultural labor make use of the program? Well, in 2008, the Department of Labor concluded that the vast majority of growers find the H-2A program so plagued with problems that they avoid using it altogether.”

Farmers’ complaints about the guest worker program include the bureaucratic obstacles to obtaining the visas and the high cost of providing workers with housing, which is required.

A bill pending in Congress would allow states to administer their own version of a visa program that brings in foreign workers for seasonal farm work. The bill also would give permission for some foreigners to work year-round in the United States, but only for limited periods of time, such as two years.

State programs would reduce regulatory barriers and allow more workers to qualify for the visas, according to supporters of the proposal.

The U.S. Labor Department now administers the H-2A program of short-term visas for guest workers.

However, the Labor Department has been criticized for not administering it properly.

About 1 million guest workers reside in the United States while millions of others live in the country illegally.

Critics of the program say it should be expanded so there would not be much need for illegal immigrant workers.

The government could then monitor their presence and get them to leave the United States peacefully when their visas expire.

The alternative requires turning the borders into armed camps and forcibly deporting illegal immigrants who return within a few weeks.

“America needs an agricultural guest worker program that is fair to everyone it impacts – American growers, farm workers, consumers and guest workers,” Smith said. “The program must provide growers who want to do the right thing with a reliable source of legal labor. It must protect the livelihoods of American workers and the rights of guest workers. And it must keep in mind the pocketbooks of American families.”

The current guest worker program does not meet those goals, according to witnesses at the hearing Thursday.

Gary W. Black, a Georgia Department of Agriculture commissioner, said Georgia’s farmers who did not hire illegal immigrants experienced a labor shortage under the Labor Department’s guest worker program.

The Georgia Agriculture Department did a study last year that showed 26 percent of its farmers suffered a loss of income because of a labor shortage despite a high unemployment rate nationwide. The problems were most severe in the fruit and vegetable industries.

“Even with unemployment rates hovering around 10 percent, this task was not as easy as it would seem,” Black said.

He mentioned the case of a Georgia farmer who “had one employee that worked half a day one week and two half days the next week. This employee earned a total of $119. The employee walked off the job and did not return though plenty of work was available. In addition, the employee filed an unemployment claim, and the producer received notification that the employee was eligible for $235 weekly benefits for 17 weeks.”

Foreign workers, such as illegal immigrants, would not be entitled to unemployment insurance benefits.

During his 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama said he would make immigration reform a priority of his administration. He mentioned it again during his 2012 State of the Union address.

More recently, Obama admitted during an interview with the Spanish language television station Univision that he has not accomplished his immigration reform goals, which he blamed on obstruction by Republicans in Congress.

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Nairobi, Kenya (IRIN) – At a waterlogged gold mine in western Kenya’s Migori District,–year-old Jacob*, one of 15,000 children toiling in the region’s pits, scours the water for glistering flakes, a job he says beats going to school on an empty stomach.

“I would rather work for people here at the mine and at the end of the day they will give me money to spend,” he told IRIN.

“Even my parents say what I am doing is right; I can buy my own clothes. What is the point of being in school?” There are few formal job opportunities in the region.

Jacob’s employer for the day – one of many people who rent a section of the mine on a daily basis – will pay him 100 shillings (US$1.20) for his labor. A gram of gold sells for around $55 on the world market.

“We are told those who have employed us are rich, but me, I just want a little money to buy good clothes and food for my mother. I don’t want to be rich,” said another child.

An estimated 15,000 children are working in gold mines in the districts of Nyatike and Migori in western Kenya’s Nyanza province, either in actual extraction or in ancillary services such as selling food, according to the local Children’s Welfare Office.

This number rises significantly at weekends and during school holidays.

Some, like Jacob, end up missing school altogether. “When you look at the levels of school drop-outs… the closer a school is to a gold mine, the higher the rates of [decline] in school attendance,” said Geoffrey Cherongis, the Nyanza provincial director of education.

School attendance in the affected areas is about 35 percent of the total school days. “What this means is that in one week a child working at a gold mine will normally attend school for just two days,” said Cherongis.

Poverty factor

“We know the dangers of involving children in gold mining, both in terms of losing school days and damaging their health, but we rely on the goodwill of people to report cases but this doesn’t happen often because parents encourage their children to seek employment at the mines,” said Emily Waga, a senior children’s officer in Migori.

“When people are poor, nothing that brings in income is dangerous.” Jack Omoro, a government official in one of the mining areas, said his efforts to persuade parents to keep their children in school had been in vain.

“One thing that has held us back is that while we promote education, there is little to end the cycle of poverty that creates this problem in the first place,” he said.

“A parent will find it hard to send a boy to school when that boy can bring back income that very evening when employed at the mine,” he added.

Exploitation

The children’s services department has set up toll-free telephone lines to report cases of child abuse, said Ahmed Hussein, a director at the department.

Referring to existing child protection legislation Hussein said that no child should be denied a right to education because they are earning money to feed families.

Children under 18 constitute 30-50 percent of the total workforce in small-scale gold mines across Africa, according to the UN International Labour Organization.

Gold was first discovered in Migori in the 1930s, with initial prospecting activities involving large mining companies.

At present, small-scale companies and artisanal miners work the deep and waterlogged tunnels left by the old companies – the pure gold deposits there are worth about KSh64 billion (about $764 million) according to estimates by the Department of Mines and Geology.

But residents continue to live in poverty exploited by middlemen. “These are poor people with very low levels of education who believe whatever price they are told,” Henry Rapenda, a mine manager, told IRIN.

James Ochoro, a resident, added: “We have gold on our land but we are poor and we live like squatters; it is the middlemen who benefit from our gold.

“Our children drop out of school because they have to supplement our meager incomes,” said Ochoro. “Here, we work ourselves to death with our children.”

Health concerns

The use of mercury to amalgamate small particles of gold is also a source of concern because of its high toxicity and detrimental impact on children’s development.

“The damage from mercury on people’s health, including children, is there because they have been exposed for a long time,” said Hillary Okoth, a clinical officer at Migori District Hospital.

“What is lacking is the capacity among health workers to diagnose the symptoms of such damage. I think it is time the government moved in to sensitize and train health workers to diagnose and treat such damage once detected,” added Okoth.

Dusty conditions in the mines, where protective masks are not used, may also contribute to Migori having the province’s highest prevalence of TB – 37 percent – as well as to high rates of respiratory tract infections.

“Governments must have strong laws in place, enforce the laws through awareness-raising and labor inspections, and take steps to assist children transition from child labor into education,” Juliane Kippenberg, a senior children’s researcher at Human Rights Watch, told IRIN.

“For this, access to education must be improved.”

According to Nyatike agriculture officials, the over-reliance on gold mining is leading to food insecurity, with at least 69 percent of the population affected.

“Nyatike is extremely food-insecure because people have abandoned farming to rely solely on mining as a source of income,” Joash Otieno Owiro, the Nyanza Provincial Director of Agriculture, told IRIN.

“The area continues to be food-insecure and those with money have to travel to other districts to get food, yet the place is on very fertile soil.”

*Not his real name

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– Provided by Integrated Regional Information Networks.

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Paris, France (AHN) – French aviation workers continued their strike for a third consecutive day Wednesday, forcing carrier Air France to cancel 30 percent of its domestic flights and 40 percent of long-haul flights.

The strike has not only affected Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport and regional airports but also thousands of passengers.

Aviation workers organized the four-day strike in protest of a proposed law that would require them to individually give at least 48 hours notice before they go on strike.

The French Lower House approved the bill last month and is in the Senate for approval.

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Kathmandu, Nepal (AHN) – Six years after the end of a decade-long armed conflict, Nepal’s ex-Maoist fighters who have been languishing in various satellite camps have begun leaving their cantonments.

The process started Friday in the three major camps–Sindhuli, Chitwan and Nawalparasi–and was scheduled to begin in the other four main camps from Saturday. The entire process is expected to be over in two weeks.

The lengthy conflict ended in 2006 after killing nearly 14, 000 people and replacing a century-long Hindu monarchy with a secular republic country.

This is an important part of Nepal’s ongoing peace process.

The Maoist combatants have been monitored since 2007 by the United Nation’s political mission that oversaw the storage of weapons and the soldiers’ registration, verification and housing. After the UN left Nepal in 2011, Nepal’s political party agreed to set up Special Secretariat to look after them.

After completion of this process, integration of the Maoist combatants in the national army and the social life of the nation will begin.

Out of the 19,000 UN-verified combatants, 7,365 combatants who chose voluntary retirement will head to their homes after the Maoist party hosts a formal farewell ceremony on Feb. 11. Another 9,000 opted for integration into security agencies.

Those who opted for retirement will receive around $ 6,300 to $10,200 from the government in installments.

The Maoist guerillas, under the aegis of the UCPN (Maoist) party, which is now largest political party in Nepal’s Constituent Assembly, fought to set up a hardcore communist regime in Nepal.

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The United States this week expanded cooperation with India on labor and employment issues with the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that was hailed by both as a tool to enhance strong bonds between the two democracies.

Calling the MoU “an essential part of our bilateral relationship,” Mark Toner, the State Department spokesman, told journalists on Friday, “When you look at our relationship and the strategic dialogue that we have with India, there’s many baskets of issues that fall under that rubric, and certainly labor laws are one of those.”

Earlier on Thursday, Mallikarjun Kharge, visiting Indian minister for labor and employment, and U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis inked a bilateral MoU for cooperation in the areas of skill development, youth employment, occupational safety and health and mines safety and health.

Kharge emphasized that, “the road map laid down in the Memorandum of Understanding will facilitate very close cooperation and interaction between our two countries and bring about improvements in the life of workers and their working conditions.”

Welcoming the structured bilateral engagement, Solis said, “Our governments share a firm commitment to workers and their rights. Today marks the launch of a new program to share valuable information that will ensure that workers’ rights are respected.”

Kharge said that India was interested in increasing its know-how in the areas of accreditation systems, self-regulation and auditing through collaboration, exchange and sharing of ideas, among other initiatives with the U.S.

During a press conference with Washington-based Indian media, the minister said, “This is the first time India and the U.S. is signing such an important document and naturally it is going to help both of us–more to us and they will be also very anxious to help us.”

Citing a vision by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of teaching skills to 500 million persons by 2022, the visiting minister stated that collaboration with U.S. would “enrich us in the areas of training delivery methods, certification, preparation of instructional material, curriculum development and expanding outreach.”

The latest cooperation move would help in further developing “an appropriate employment strategy for inclusive growth in India and strong bonds between the people of our two great nations,” Kharge emphasized.

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Hargeisa, Somaliland, Somalia (IRIN) – Cases of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), as well as domestic violence, are increasing in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Hargeisa, capital of the self-declared independent Republic of Somaliland, with social workers attributing the trend to hard economic times made worse by recent drought in the region.

“Numbers of the displaced have increased in recent months, with many families coming to town to escape drought; lack of a police presence within the camps and inadequate lighting have contributed to the increase in some of these cases,” Shukri Osman Said, an SGBV coordinator for an NGO, Comprehensive Community-Based Rehabilitation Somaliland (CCBRS), told IRIN at the Stadium IDP camp in Hargeisa.

The Stadium IDP camp, home to an estimated 5,000 families (30,000 people), is one of several IDP camps in Hargeisa where humanitarian organizations such as CCBRS have ongoing programs aimed at addressing SGBV among vulnerable communities.

According to Said, CCBRS has been running the SGBV program in the IDP camps since 2006 with funding from the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR.

“On average, CCBRS handled between 15 and 20 cases of SGBV per month; however, we have noticed that the cases of domestic violence have increased dramatically; in 2011 alone, we had over 500 cases of domestic violence,” Said told IRIN.

“Our SGBV prevention program has helped somewhat because the SGBV cases have started reducing; our concern is the rise in domestic violence, which is mostly due to men not coping well with economic hardship and ending up venting their frustration on their wives.”

The CCBRS program, she said, had a component targeting those with physical disabilities and provided orthopedic aids – such as wheelchairs – to some of the affected IDPs. SGBV coordinators from CCBRS also made home visits for physiotherapy sessions, provided counseling and psycho-social support and referred those requiring specialized treatment and/or legal aid to relevant institutions.

“Most of the victims of SGBV are poor and cannot afford treatment in private hospitals; some cannot even afford the transport to public hospitals, so we help by referring them to the Sexual Assault Referral Centre in the main hospital in Hargeisa,” Said told IRIN.

“We also refer those requiring legal aid to organizations that help women seek justice.”

Hawo Yusuf, a member of the management committee at the Stadium IDP camp, said the committee supported SGBV survivors by helping them be accepted by society.

“We help construct shelter for those in need of a place to stay, especially those who become pregnant; we help by tracking and [apprehending] the perpetrators, although our efforts are frustrated when these people are freed without being charged with any offense.”

Livelihood projects

According to UNHCR Somaliland, Hargeisa is home to approximately 85,000 displaced people who have fled their homes mostly from south and central regions of Somalia, due to various reasons, including drought, limited livelihood opportunities and increased violence.

“IDPs often live in difficult conditions, more often than not with limited access to basic facilities such as adequate healthcare, good shelter and clean water and sanitation amenities, ample security as well as employment opportunities,” the agency said.

“UNHCR engages IDPs in Hargeisa in various projects like solar lighting or animal husbandry that will equip them with the necessary skills to start up their own businesses and provide a better life for their families.”

CCBRS is implementing an income-generating project, funded by UNHCR, aimed at empowering woman in the IDP camps. Started in 2008, the project has helped transform the lives of the IDPs by providing them with better livelihoods.

Fouzia Hassan, mother of eight and one of the beneficiaries, told IRIN: “All my children are now in school, thanks to the US$600 grant I received to boost my bread-making business. My business has expanded and I now make between 55 and 65 loaves a day, something I could not have dreamt of doing before the start of this project.”

Hassan said she can now take care of her family better: “I can meet their medical bills, I have built a latrine for the family’s use and I have installed a water tank, this is now my home. It has changed my life and my family’s.”

js-ah/mw

– Provided by Integrated Regional Information Networks.

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