FDA approves new flu shot to boost stock for season
Washington – Mindful of last year’s flu-vaccine shortage, the Food and Drug Administration approved a new shot Wednesday in an attempt to ensure adequate supplies during the upcoming flu season.
It remained uncertain, however, whether there would be enough shots for all who wanted them.
The FDA approved the vaccine Fluarix for people 18 years and older. The shots, made in Germany by a subsidiary of GlaxoSmithKline, have been available in other countries for years.
A spokesman said the company expects to supply 8 million doses to the U.S. market this flu season, at a price comparable to other flu shots. Flu vaccine typically costs less than $20 a dose.
The government hasn’t yet predicted how much flu vaccine the nation will have this fall, after last year’s surprise shortage when British regulators shut down a U.S. supplier, Chiron Corp., because of the discovery of contaminated vaccine.
Sanofi-Pasteur, the nation’s leading flu-shot provider, plans to produce 50 million to 60 million doses for this fall.
Another 3 million doses of a nasal-spray vaccine, MedImmune Inc.’s FluMist, are also expected to be available. That vaccine is for use only by healthy people.
PORT ST. JOHN, Fla.
Wrongly imprisoned, man can’t sue state
A man wrongly imprisoned for 22 years for a rape he did not commit cannot sue the state for compensation, a judge has ruled.
In the ruling dismissing Wilton Dedge’s lawsuit, Leon County Circuit Judge William Gary said the state is protected from such lawsuits.
“While everyone is in agreement that what happened to Wilton Dedge is tragic, only the Legislature can address the issue of compensation under existing law,” the judge wrote.
Dedge, 43, who with his parents sued the state and the Florida Department of Corrections in May, said he was disappointed about the ruling, issued Monday.
“The Legislature told us to go to the courts, and now the court is telling us to go to the Legislature,” he said. “It’s like a pingpong ball.” The lawsuit did not ask for a specific dollar amount.
KIEV, Ukraine
Yushchenko’s support slipping, poll finds
Popular support for President Viktor Yushchenko is slipping, but analysts said Wednesday that the disappointment does not yet signal that the pro-Western leader’s “Orange Revolution” is under threat.
A new opinion poll found that only 20 percent of respondents would vote for Yushchenko’s party, Our Ukraine, in next spring’s parliamentary election – a drop from 31.6 percent in May.
Yushchenko’s main revolutionary ally and coalition partner, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, also saw her own party’s support fall by a third, to 10.5 percent, according to the poll by Ukraine’s respected Razumkov think tank.
MEXICO CITY
Mexicans abroad can soon get voting forms
President Vicente Fox on Wednesday celebrated a new law allowing Mexicans abroad – overwhelmingly in the United States – to vote in next year’s presidential election, saying they will no longer be “second- class citizens.”
Mexico’s Congress approved methods to enable voting abroad two months ago, and officials are now implementing the plan. On Tuesday, the government said Mexicans living overseas will be able to pick up forms requesting an absentee ballot at Mexican consulates and embassies starting Oct. 1.
Nearly 11 million Mexicans live outside of Mexico, and 98 percent are in the United States. Some 4.2 million are registered to vote. Ballots will be returned by mail.
LONDON
Former treasury chief hopes to lead Tories
A familiar face from Britain’s political past is betting he’s the man to reinvigorate the long-beleaguered Conservative Party and wrest power from Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The garrulous former treasury chief Kenneth Clarke is seeking the Tory leadership. He is one of the party’s most popular politicians, but age – he’s 65 – and his left-leaning views may work against him.
Clarke is likely to be up against front-runner David Davis, the Conservatives’ spokesman on law and order issues, in the race to succeed outgoing leader Michael Howard. Education spokesman David Cameron, 38, another probable contender, is seen as an up-and- coming modernizer.
Malcolm Rifkind, a former foreign secretary, said he would also be a candidate. Clarke has sought the party leadership unsuccessfully twice before, in 1997 and 2001.
CHICAGO
Congresswoman’s spouse guilty of fraud
The husband of an Illinois congresswoman pleaded guilty Wednesday to tax violations and bank fraud for writing rubber checks and failing to collect withholding tax from an employee.
Robert Creamer, a political consultant married to four-term Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D.-Ill., could face four years in prison on the two felony counts when he is sentenced Dec. 21.
Schakowsky has not been accused of wrongdoing. Creamer, 58, a prominent Chicago political consultant, was accused of swindling nine financial institutions of at least $2.3 million while he ran a public-interest group in the 1990s.
