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Consumer credit in the U.S. rose during October, mainly boosted by a rise in student loans, a report by the Federal Reserve said on Tuesday.

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Berlin, Germany (Community News) – By: Babs Verblackt

Louder voices and more demand for new tools against tuberculosis (TB) from people and communities are needed to push the fight against the airborne disease, participants of the 41st Union World Conference on Lung Health in Berlin, Germany (November 11-15) stressed.

“Governments don’t support TB research and development enough. We have to empower communities with more knowledge on TB issues to move governments to do something,” Lucy Ghati, Community Representative to the Stop TB Partnership’s Working Group on New TB Vaccines and Program Officer of the National Empowerment Network of People Living with HIV and AIDS in Kenya remarked at a press briefing on the state of TB vaccine development. “Without being pushed governments won’t do anything,” she added. “But we need new commodities to address TB and HIV: new diagnostics, better drugs and – if we want to have a long term solution – new vaccines.”

The current diagnostics, drugs and vaccine against TB are outdated and not efficient enough. Peg Willingham, Senior Director External Affairs at the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation, presented the example of TB vaccines in a separate media meeting held to brief journalists on key issues on the conference agenda. BCG, the only currently available vaccine against TB, is partly effective against severe forms of childhood TB but fails to prevent the most prevalent form, pulmonary tuberculosis in adults. Researchers around the world are working to develop new, more effective and safe vaccines, which will be affordable and available worldwide.

“It is important that the community is involved in the research. Therefore, our clinical trial research partners in the countries where we test new vaccines do a lot of community outreach,” Willingham explains in an interview with CNS, citing different ways to engage and inform people such as through radio programs, outreach to schools, and comic books.

It is also essential to consider the perspectives of the decision makers at national levels who will play the leadership role in rolling out future new vaccines. “We want to make sure that what we are doing is what countries want,” Willingham said. Aeras works to involve communities at all levels of society, as demonstrated by a recent market study done among national-level decision makers in high TB burden countries. The study, still in preliminary form, showed that TB is considered a significant health problem that does not get the attention it deserves.

“It would be a kind of a virtuous circle if people from the community said new vaccines are something they want,” said Willingham, explaining that community engagement helps build demand for vaccine research and development, and it fosters clinical trial recruitment. Local involvement and demand is essential to building government support for research.

An added challenge to building demand for vaccines is that prevention is often overlooked. As Willingham explained, vaccines administered in childhood that have worked in preventing illness are quickly forgotten. The cause and effect relationship of vaccines and the disease they prevent are not immediate, as with medication that quickly provides relief.

Stigma surrounding people with TB and the lack of advocates willing to add their voices to public calls for new TB vaccines also contributes to the lack of awareness about the inadequacies of BCG and the need to improve or replace it.

“People are always surprised to hear still two million people die of TB every year,” Willingham says. “More people need tell to their personal stories and provide the face of people with TB. We have to figure out a way to reduce that stigma, figure out how to get people to feel safe and brave to speak up because otherwise people will keep dying quietly, behind closed doors, and it will never get any better.”

Joris Vandeputte, Senior vice president advocacy and resource mobilization at TuBerculosis Vaccine Initiative (TBVI) reaffirmed the need to deal with stigma at the TB vaccines press briefing. “Stigma has consequences for advocacy efforts and resource mobilization for TB as well,” he said, at the same time acknowledging the achievements made with the (limited) funding available. “There are currently 12 vaccine candidates ready to be translated into vaccines that are globally accessible as well as promising diagnostics and treatment avenues. We have to work hard to translate these into products ready to be used in the field. For vaccine candidates to be translated, financial resources must be multiplied by 3 to 4 compared with the present effort. To overcome this huge challenge, we will have to be innovative.”

Babs Verblackt – CNS

(The author is a journalist writing for Citizen News Service (CNS) and Associate Communications at TuBerculosis Vaccine Initiative – TBVI. Website: www.citizen-news.org )

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London, United Kingdom (AHN) – A British TV spy show, “Spooks,” where many of its female intelligence operatives die violent deaths, is hampering the real MI5 in its recruitment drive for women to join the service.

When the highly rated British TV spy show, known abroad as “MI5″, airs every Monday night, there is a corresponding increase in online visits to the real MI5′s website from an average of 500 an hour to 1,500. But it has been putting off women from actually filling out the application because of the show’s portrayal of its female characters defusing bombs, chasing terrorists, getting injured in the line of duty or dying violently.

Despite an announcement of severe budget cuts, MI5 has begun an active recruitment drive for more female intelligence officers at starting salaries of just under £25,000 a year. On its website, the agency says it wants women to know that unlike the female characters in “Spooks,” they will be facing more cerebral challenges such as analyzing terrorist threats to the UK inside MI5′s Thames Intelligence headquarters.

A senior Whitehall source the Mail newspaper, “Spooks is a great TV show, but the violence can put women off applying for jobs at MI5. A career in the Service is about brain not brawn, carefully piecing together vital intelligence to protect the UK and its people.”

The Intelligence Service is made up of 41 percent women. Officials are looking for candidates with strong analytical and communication skills, patience, dedication, discretion, honesty and integrity, who work well in a team under pressure – not the ability to defuse nuclear devices or leap from exploding cars.

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The pocketbook is battling the pulpit in Brazil’s presidential elections Sunday, as government candidate Dilma Rousseff faces opposition leader José Serra in a runoff to lead this burgeoning economic power of 190 million people.

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Deauville, France (AHN) – In an attempt to build a pan-European security partnership, the leaders of France and Germany are meeting with their Russian counterpart in the Normandy seaside resort of Deauville for a two-day summit.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that they jointly launched the drive to ‘anchor Russia to the West’ with the hope to convince the Russian leader to support NATO’s new security concept, which it is due to unveil next month at Lisbon summit.

The French and German leaders are also keen on persuading Russian President Dmitry Medvedev over NATO’s European missile defense plan, which the alliance and the U.S. said was aimed at securing Europe from Iranian and North Korean missile threats.

Despite repeated assurances, Moscow vehemently opposes the plan, claiming it can pose potential security threat to Russia and demands assurances that it will never be used to neutralize Russia’s long-range nuclear arsenal.

Sarkozy and Merkel told the European Union and Britain, which were not invited, that the summit would only be a “brainstorming session” but hinted that they might discuss security and economic partnership before the upcoming G20 summit of leading economies.

All three nations – Russia, France and Germany – strongly opposed U.S.’ invasion on Iraq. However, the relations between Russia and France deteriorated after the French government decided to return to NATO’s military wing. With Germany, the ties strained due to Russia’s decision to stop gas supplies to Europe because of its pricing dispute with Ukraine and its brief was with Georgia in 2008.

Tensions apparently eased between Russia and the West following an effort by U.S. President Barack Obama to reset relations with Moscow.

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Dream of driving your own car won’t vanish even if you are suffering from credit problems. Sometimes we make decisions in our professional field but become trapped unfortunately in credit hazards. It may happen due to any of the following reasons – arrears, CCJ’s, declaration of bankruptcy or defaults in previous debts. Whatever the case may be you still have the option to go for auto loans bad credit to fulfill your dream of car.

Auto loans bad credit will provide you with enough money to buy a new or used car. A very common doubt can arise here why the lender is giving money to a customer having credit hazards. So here is the answer. Auto loans bad credit is secured against the car you are going to buy. You also have the option to put any of your valuable assets as collateral against the loan. It must have some equity attached with it to prove your repayment potentiality.

Eligibility and procedure

Every UK citizen is eligible to apply for. They must produce their income and residential proof in front of lender. They will get an option to select their car and other terms will be decided afterwards. Seeing your bad credit they may charge you with extra high interest rate. So before approaching any lender go through your credit report very carefully and try to make every possible improvement. If possible settle down some previous debts which you think you can.

Auto loans bad credit is available in two forms short term and long term. In case of short term auto loans money has to be paid back within 2 to 3 years. Interest rate in this case will be a bit high, but with long term auto loans repayment tenure is long and interest rate is low. Overall money to be paid in case of long term will be less.

You can get the loan approved from any bank or private lending companies. Or you can simply sit in your room and go through all the quotes available online. Nowadays auto dealers are also giving auto financing.

Introduction

Are you feeling disappointed that bad credit history is preventing you from purchasing your dream vehicle. Well, worry no more as auto loans bad credit are here to provide the required finance for your car. The intense competition among lenders offering loans for car has led to many lenders providing finance for purchasing new or even used cars in spite of borrowers having a bad credit history. These loans are provided on careful consideration of certain factors. The borrowers need to assure the lenders of their ability to repay the loan on time. Adequate proof of this has to be supplied in the form of bank statements and income documents.

Types

Auto loans bad credits are primarily disbursed in two forms i.e. secured and unsecured. Under a secured loan, the car or any other collateral needs to be pledged as security with the lender. Secured loans often carry a lower rate of interest and are also easily approved due to the collateral being placed. Unsecured loans for cars generally have a higher rate of interest as there is no collateral and hence the risk to the lender is more. Both these loans are generally provided for a time ranging between 5-7 years. Clearing some of your old debts can improve your credit score, which may in turn fetch you lower interest rates when you are applying for auto loans.

Many lenders including online lenders for loans for buying cars have started providing finance to people who have a bad credit score. Auto loans bad credit can now be acquired online with just a few mouse clicks. Many of these lenders also provide car loan calculators at no extra cost, which is an extremely useful tool to determine the ideal loan for your dream vehicle among the various options on hand. Auto and car loans for individuals with bad credit can be acquired for the purchase of either a new car or a used one.