Korea and Syria high on agenda at London G8 talks The Korean and Syrian crises will be high on the agenda when foreign ministers from the G8 group of nations hold talks in London on Thursday. Correspondents say Japan, present at the talks, is looking for a strong statement of solidarity over Korea. North Korea has been making bellicose threats against South Korea, Japan and US bases in the region. Foreign ministers will also debate the Syrian crisis, after meeting opposition figures on Wednesday. "There is no disagreement with the United States over North Korea," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry in London on Wednesday. South Korea has raised its alert level amid indications that the North is preparing for a missile test. Pyongyang has moved two Musudan missiles to its east coast. The ballistic missiles have an estimated 3,000km (2,000-mile) range. Correspondents point to Monday - the birthday of North Korea's founder Kim Il-sung - as a potential launch date. North Korea has increased its fiery rhetoric following fresh UN sanctions imposed after its third nuclear test and joint military manoeuvres by the US and South Korea. The North says it will restart a mothballed nuclear reactor, has shut an emergency military hotline to the South and has urged countries to withdraw diplomatic staff, saying it cannot now guarantee their safety. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has been among those calling for calm on the peninsula. In Washington on Wednesday, US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said North Korea was "skating very close to a dangerous line", adding: "Their actions and their words have not helped defuse a combustible situation.'' The G8 ministers met Syrian opposition figures on Wednesday on the sidelines of the two-day forum. Our correspondent says that, unlike North Korea, Syria divides the G8 and no-one expects Damascus's ally Russia to join others backing punitive action against President Bashar al-Assad. More than 60,000 people are estimated to have died in the uprising against President Assad Fresh evidence of links between some opposition fighters and al-Qaeda makes it even harder for governments to decide a course of action, he adds. In a meeting with ministers on Wednesday, leaders of the opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC) reportedly pressed for more humanitarian assistance. Mr Kerry, however, stressed the importance of the opposition becoming better organised, a senior US official told reporters. In a statement issued after the talks, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain was committed to finding a political solution to the crisis. "We discussed what further assistance the UK could provide to save lives in Syria, and how we could work together to ensure this support was channelled most effectively," he said. More than 60,000 people are estimated to have died since the uprising against the government of President Assad began in March 2011. The London talks are also the first chance for G8 ministers to discuss face-to-face the failure of last week's meeting in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on curbing Iran's nuclear programme. Tehran says it only wants to produce energy but the US and its allies suspect it is trying to develop a nuclear weapon. Mr Hague, meanwhile, has said his "personal priority" for the G8 meeting is a new agreement to prevent sexual violence in conflicts. Burma, Somalia and cyber-security are also topics on the agenda. The Group of Eight nations comprises the US, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and Russia. Britain currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the G8 and the talks are a prelude to the annual G8 summit later this year in Northern Ireland. abessive
Another patient of O.C. doctor dies of prescription drug overdose An Orange County doctor featured in a report. Wayne Oviatt, a patient of Dr. Van Vu of Huntington Beach, fatally overdosed in January. The onetime Mammoth "ski bum," as his brother called him, suffered from chronic pain. He was known to abuse his medications and mix them with alcohol, and obtained drugs from various doctors, coroner's records state. The Medical Board of California launched an investigation into Vu's practice following the Times report published in November. The inquiry into patient deaths is ongoing. In the meantime, there are no restrictions on Vu's practice. Vu declined to comment through an attorney who cited confidentiality laws governing patient care. Oviatt, 56, of Huntington Beach, died of a cocktail according to coroner's records. Vu was one of two doctors who prescribed him the drug. Vu's prescription was filled in the closest proximity to Oviatt's death — about a week before the Times article appeared. Steinberg amended one of the bills this week in an effort to give the medical board greater power to protect the public when it investigates alleged overprescribing. The bill would give the board the authority to pull medical records from a physician's office without a patient's permission or a court order. It comes after complaints by the board that its investigators have difficulty convincing potentially addicted patients to cooperate with investigations and that judges have been unwilling to issue subpoenas. Steinberg's bill also seeks to make it easier for the board to stop a physician from prescribing dangerous drugs while an investigation is pending. "Currently, they are hamstrung," Steinberg said in an interview Wednesday. The Times reported last year that Vu led a list of 71 physicians who had prescribed drugs to three or more patients who died of overdoses or related causes. The finding was part of an analysis of 3,733 prescription drug-related fatalities in Southern California from 2006 through 2011, which found that nearly half involved at least one drug that had been prescribed to the decedent by a physician. In an interview with The Times last year, Vu said that he had been unaware of many of his patients' deaths and that learning of them was "eye opening." He declined to speak about individual patients but agreed to speak about his practice in general. He said most of his patients are referred by other doctors, who turn to him as "a last resort" for patients who have been battling pain for years. Many patients come to him already dependent on narcotics, he said. Vu said he conducts routine urine tests to make sure they take their medications as prescribed and do not use illegal drugs. He said he regularly uses a state-run prescription monitoring program to see whether any of his patients are also obtaining drugs from other doctors. Oviatt's brother, Ken, was skeptical that Vu maintained such vigilance. He said he and his mother complained to Vu's office on several occasions over the years about his brother's and asked that his medications either be curtailed or cut off. He said his brother routinely mixed pills with alcohol and obtained prescriptions from multiple doctors, which should have shown up on the database Vu said he uses. Ken Oviatt said his brother had legitimate pain associated with a skiing accident and a fall down two flights of stairs years earlier, which resulted in a brain injury. He had recently fallen while intoxicated and hurt his head. "He was addicted. Totally out of it. A zombie," Ken Oviatt said in a recent interview. "He would just sit there all day. It was ridiculous." He said neither Vu nor his staff was moved by the families' complaints. shaugh
Ex-KPMG partner was sting target The defining moment in the KPMG insider-trading scandal took place over coffee at a Starbucks in the San Fernando Valley, where the accountant at the center of the case was set up by his longtime friend. Scott London thought the friend, jeweler Bryan Shaw, invited him for a casual get-together until the man handed London an envelope containing $5,000 in cash. It was clear the money was a payoff for supplying privileged information that London gleaned from his job at KPMG. Unbeknownst to London, the FBI had orchestrated the sting and was secretly photographing it. A few days later, FBI agents showed up at London's Agoura Hills home. They confronted him with the photos and advised him to hire a lawyer. "They just showed up and said, 'You're subject to an investigation,'" London said in an interview Tuesday night with The Times. "I felt about as bad as you could feel. It was as if everything I had earned and accomplished was gone." Late Wednesday, Shaw issued a statement acknowledging his role in the insider trading. "I cannot begin to apologize for my incredibly stupid actions. There is no excuse for my wrongful conduct." Shaw, whose family runs Shaw Diamond Co. in Encino, said he "profited substantially" from stock tips that London gave him in multiple companies. London told The Times Tuesday that he began giving tips to Shaw because his friend's jewelry company had run into financial trouble. "I expect that my actions will result in significant civil and criminal consequences, but I realize that this is the painful price I will pay for my transgressions," he said. Shaw allegedly profited from information London provided to him from 2010 to 2012 on two of London's L.A.-area clients, nutritional products company. KPMG last week fired London, who had been an L.A-based partner. The firm resigned Tuesday as the outside auditor for the two companies. Herbalife and Skechers are now scrambling to find new accountants. London and Shaw are awaiting the next step: potential civil action and criminal prosecution. The trading scandal is taking a big toll on London, who had been at KPMG for nearly three decades, his lawyer, Harland Braun, said Wednesday. "His life is ruined. He's 50 years old. He's going to lose the rest of his career, humiliate his family, perhaps lose his freedom," Braun said. His client received $25,000 to $35,000 from Shaw over the years — not much for someone whose income was "way into six figures," his lawyer said. The stakes in the scandal are high for accounting powerhouse KPMG, which is scrambling to retain credibility with clients. The scandal also tainted Herbalife, which already had been ensnared in a separate controversy over the legitimacy of its accounting practices. But as much as anything, the sting that nabbed London demonstrates the lengths to which the government is going in pursuit of wrongdoers large and small. As part of an intensive dragnet, securities regulators have stepped up measures in recent years to root out insider trading. They've enlisted stock exchanges and brokerage firms to aid the cause. "I would call it a crusade," said Ernest Badway, a former SEC enforcement attorney who is now a defense attorney in New York. "This is something they just are locked onto — almost with a religious fervor — and they are not going to let it go, at least in the near term." planchet
Intrigue swirls as Iran prepares to choose next president The supreme leader has made it clear that such behavior will not be tolerated this time. Ahmadinejad, who was reelected in the disputed 2009 balloting, is barred by law from seeking a third term and is publicly promoting a trusted aide to replace him. It is far from clear, however, whether the president's preferred successor will even be allowed to run. For much of the outside world, the incumbent remains the defiant face of the Iranian theocracy. At home, however, the clerical establishment that backed him four years ago has tired of what hard-liners regard as his divisiveness and lack of deference to the religious leadership. The election comes at a difficult moment for the Islamic Republic, which is facing the prospect of increased international isolation. Economic sanctions are biting, pushing up prices and spurring widespread discontent. Officials have clamped down on any signs of street protests. The Iranian leadership is also deeply concerned about the fate of its major Arab ally. Ahmadinejad has come in for criticism as not only an inflammatory figure, but a profligate spender whose policies have damaged the economy. The blacksmith's son has championed cash subsidies for the needy, winning considerable support from the poor and working class. Still, in the last two years of his presidency, Ahmadinejad has been transformed into a kind of renegade, flailing about in outrage as his ministers are impeached and his power curbed. Last year, the president's top press aide was thrown into jail for disrespecting Islam and the supreme leader. Though he has proved a wily and at times ruthless political player, the president's legacy is plainly in peril. He and his disciples face being sidelined or shut out completely in the nation's new political order. Enter Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, the president's chief advisor, top strategist and theoretician. He is also Ahmadinejad's trusted in-law — the president's son is married to Mashaei's daughter. Mashaei is widely regarded as Ahmadinejad's handpicked prospective successor, though the aide has yet to declare his candidacy. Candidates must declare their intention to run by May 7. To get on the ballot, they must be approved by the Guardian Council, a hard-line panel close to supreme leader. Many observers say the council is unlikely to approve Mashaei, who is loathed in clerical circles as a leader of a "deviant current" challenging religious authority. Undeterred, the president has been busily extolling Mashaei's virtues in stump speeches across the country, often in emotional joint appearances. The two were photographed late last month crying together at an event for cancer-stricken children. The president also pinned a badge on Mashaei for his contributions to Iranian culture. The pair paid a visit to the battlefields of the brutal 1980s war with Iraq. The yes-to-more-of-the-same campaign has adopted a rousing and somewhat obscure slogan, "Long live spring!" By one interpretation, the motto seems to equate the Ahmadinejad years with a kind of. If the clerical establishment is cool to Ahmadinejad, it is outright hostile to Mashaei. He has been pilloried as a closet monarchist who extols pre-Islamic Persian leaders such as Cyrus the Great and champions nationalist rhetoric while ignoring religious themes. Mashaei also has been publicly linked to the Bahai faith, a minority sect deemed hostile to the Islamic Revolution. One leading hard-liner accused him in a recent newspaper editorial of serving the goals. There even are rumors of sorcery in the presidential palace. Some reports, noting Mashaei's "mesmerizing eyes," liken him to Rasputin, the Russian mystic who became a close advisor to the last czar. Last year, when Mashaei proclaimed publicly that Iranian universities and seminaries were in a backward state, a popular religious balladeer, Saeed Haddadian, labeled the presidential aide a "mule" and a "donkey" and suggested Iran would be better off if he were dead and burning in the "depths of hell." protanopia
Senate poised to debate gun control measure Gun control efforts in Congress leared a significant hurdle Wednesday as the Senate prepared to open what could be a weeks-long debate, even as opponents plotted a shift in strategy aimed at undermining a comprehensive package of legislation. Gaining enough support simply to open the debate has required extensive negotiation and legislative maneuvering, testimony to the difficult politics of gun control. If the Senate proceeds as scheduled Thursday, it will mark only the third time in a generation that a significant gun measure has come to the floor. The last time — late in the Clinton administration — the bill eventually fell victim to attacks from both sides. After passing the Senate with a tie-breaking vote by then-Vice President Al Gore it failed in the House, where amendments left it too weak in the eyes of gun control advocates, but still too tough for gun rights supporters to accept. Gun rights advocates plan a similar strategy this time. Their goal, according to Senate officials, is to try to draw out the debate on amendments and offer a number of measures that would expand gun owners' rights. Democrats running for reelection next year in conservative states will feel the need to back many of those amendments, opponents of the measure hope, and if enough of them pass, liberal gun control advocates will turn against the bill. Ever since Congress began work on a legislative response to last year's slaying of 20 children and six educators in Newtown, Conn., backers of new gun laws have tried to come up with a package that would avoid that fate. Their goal is to win support from enough gun control skeptics to get to 60 votes in the Senate — the level required to avert a filibuster — without losing the backing of more ardent gun control advocates. On Wednesday, the two unveiled a compromise that appeared to include much of what Democratic backers of gun control had been seeking, albeit with some concessions. The proposal won praise from key gun control advocates and opposition from the NRA. The compromise would require background checks for a large majority of gun purchases, closing the current exemption for gun shows and Internet sales. Certain private transactions, including transfers between family members and neighbors, would be exempt. All sales subject to the expanded checks would also be subject to current record-keeping requirements, a key demand of gun control advocates and more liberal Democrats, including Sen. of New York, lead author of the Senate's gun control package. To assuage the fears of gun rights advocates, the bill would restate existing law that prohibits the creation of a national registry of gun owners. The compromise also gives gun rights advocates some victories. Notably, gun owners would be given the right to transport their weapons through states where their firearms are illegal. For example, gun owners who legally own an assault weapon would have the right to transport it through California or New York, which ban such weapons, so long as they could show they were traveling through, not remaining in, the state. Schumer spent the morning calling leading gun control advocates to seek their support for the compromise, and won significant backing. President Obama said that there were "aspects of the agreement that [he] might prefer to be stronger," but that the agreement "does represent welcome and significant bipartisan progress." Manchin, who won his Senate seat after a campaign in which he aired a television ad that showed him firing a gun at an Obama-sponsored bill, said he believed the proposal would win support from gun owners. "They understand this is common sense — this is gun sense. We're not infringing on their rights as an individual citizen," he said. "If you're going to go to a gun show, you should be subjected the same as if you went to the gun store. If you're going to go online, you should be the same as if you bought the gun across the state lines.... This makes sense." Added Toomey: "I don't consider criminal background checks to be gun control. I think it's just common sense." "If you pass a criminal background check, you get to buy a gun," he added. "It's no problem." Sen. Mark a cosponsor of the proposal, emerged optimistic from a closed-door meeting of Republicans. "Right now we're on a roll with a 90-10 issue," he said, referring to polls that show approximately 90% of Americans support expanding background checks. In a sign of the challenges ahead, however, few senators in either party pledged their immediate support, although Democratic aides said they were confident most if not all of the 55 members of their caucus would endorse it. anaphalantiasis
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