Archives: Morning Breakouts

On the heels of the release of a draft report by an independent panel of experts examining the WHO's response to H1N1 (swine flu), BMJ News reports on a recently approved resolution and accompanying report released by the European Union parliament that calls on EU countries to revise their flu prevention plans "to make them more effective, coherent, and flexible" and for the WHO to revise its definition of pandemic to take into account not only geographical spread of disease but also severity.

Though safety concerns have prevented U.S. disaster experts from entering Libya and seeing the situation first-hand, State Department officials said Monday that U.S. partners have been dispensing aid, CNN reports.

Concerns regarding health risks "rose dramatically in Japan Tuesday" after officials said more radiation was released at a nuclear power plant that was damaged in the tsunami, the Associated Press reports. In an address to the nation, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said radiation had been emitted from four reactors. "The level seems very high, and there is still a very high risk of more radiation coming out," he said.

Press reports indicate the federal government took this position in court papers filed Monday.

Three-quarters of Libya was still unable to access humanitarian aid last week, Catherine Bragg, the U.N.'s deputy emergency relief coordinator, said on Thursday, the Canadian Press reports.

Due to Congress' proposals to cut spending for the State Department, the Obama administration is increasingly looking toward new funding mechanisms, referred to as blended funds, that pull from Defense Department budgets for activities in Iraq and Afghanistan, CQ reports. But that strategy could "undercut the Obama administration's efforts to create a more robust State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)" and "create significant congressional oversight challenges," the news service adds.