Obama wants to strip funding from veterans" medical choice program - Senate backs bill to address veterans" suicide

President Obama’s 2016 budget blueprint proposes rolling back a program that gives veterans the right to receive faster care outside of the long waitlists at the troubled Veterans Affairs medical system.

Obama signed the Veterans Choice Program into law in August following months of partisan wrangling on Capitol Hill that finally led to a compromise measure to overhaul the agency.

The Veterans Choice Program was a key GOP provision in the deal.

Authored by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the measure provides “choice” cards to veterans that can be used to obtain medical care at designated facilities outside of the VA system.

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Obama wants to strip funding from veterans" medical choice program - Senate backs bill to address veterans" suicide

Privy Council backs Lasco against Pfizer

Lasco Distributors has secured the dismissal of  the appeal brought by U.S. pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, against an award of  S400m it was granted by the lower court.Pfizer went to the UK Privy Council to appeal the ruling. Pfizer’s appeal followed a decision to hand Lasco Distributors an award of  $400m dollars in damages to compensate for lost earnings on a hypertension drug.Lasco was barred from selling the drug for seven years by a court injunction after Pfizer said the company breached its patent on the medication. The court did not agree with Pfizer and awarded compensation to Lasco for lost earnings due to it being barred from selling the drug.The award was upheld by the Court of  Appeal on Pfizer’s appeal and now also by the Privy Council.

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Privy Council backs Lasco against Pfizer

Shanachie backs reggae/soul album

FOR many years, Shanachie Records has been one of the world’s leading sources for indigenous and roots music. In terms of reggae, its catalogue includes revered recordings from the music’s golden age of the 1970s.

Shanachie has, however, reached out to a younger audience in the last decade. Currently, the company is putting its promotional muscle behind 9INE, a reggae/soul album by American singers Syleena Johnson and Musiq Soulchild.To be released in September, the set is produced by Kemar ‘Flava’ McGregor, a leading figure in dancehall/reggae. Randall Grass, Shanachie’s president, spoke to Splash recently about plans for 9INE.“Our promotion strategy is aimed both at the reggae and R&B market, especially Musiq and Syleena’s fan base. We are servicing reggae radio in Jamaica, the US and UK, but also urban radio in the US and R&B/soul radio in the UK,” he explained.Grass says a dancehall mix of Feel The Pain, the album’s lead single, will be serviced to club DJs worldwide. Music Soulchild and Johnson are also expected to do shows in the US next month as part of 9INE’s promotion.According to Grass, Shanachie’s involvement with 9INE seemed natural. The label released Johnson’s previous album, Labour Pains, while Musiq Soulchild appeared in a music video by The Floacist, a soul poet signed to Shanachie.9INE is the latest effort by the New York-based company to reach a contemporary audience. Like Rounder Records in Massachusetts, Shanachie is known for its vast catalogue of roots music, which includes titles by reggae acts Augustus Pablo, whose East Of The River Nile album marked the company’s association with Jamaican music in 1978.Shanachie also has albums by Dennis Brown, The Mighty Diamonds, Culture and the Wailing Souls in its catalogue. In recent years, it has released new albums by Third World as well as a slate of smooth jazz and neo-soul acts including singer Crystal Bowersox, the 2010 American Idol runner-up.Johnson told Billboard magazine early this year that the collaboration with McGregor resulted from a tape he sent them of a new sound he was working on. It impressed her and Soulchild enough to consider doing a song with him but once they got into the studio, the project evolved.“The music was so good and Musiq and I both love Kemar’s production so we’re like, ‘why don’t we just do an album together’,” she said.Johnson and Musiq Soulchild are part of the neo-soul explosion that took place in the United States during the mid-1990s. McGregor is best known for producing Etana’s I Am Not Afraid and Mama Don’t Cry by Gyptian.Kemar ‘Flava’ McGregor, Syleen Johnson and Musiq Soulchild.

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Shanachie backs reggae/soul album

Israel cabinet backs referendum bill

28 July 2013 Last updated at 07:34 ET Mr Netanyahu faces a tough task convincing colleagues on prisoner releases The Israeli cabinet has approved a bill requiring any peace deal with the Palestinians to be put to a referendum.

A statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that it was “important that on such historic decisions every citizen should vote directly”.

The cabinet has also been discussing a controversial proposal by the PM to free a number of Palestinian prisoners.

The release forms part of US-backed efforts to resume the peace process.

‘Tough decisions’

The Israeli government will seek “urgent and important” approval for the referendum bill, asking parliament to fast-track its passage.

“Any agreement which may be reached in negotiations will be put to a referendum,” Mr Netanyahu’s office said.

Israelis opposed to the release of Palestinian prisoners protested outside the PM’s office

The bill is seen as a conciliatory gesture to right-wing members of the government who are wary of concessions Israel might have to make during peace process negotiations.

The issue of the release of the prisoners, some of whom have carried out militant attacks that claimed Israeli lives, has proved more difficult for the PM.

Sunday’s cabinet meeting was delayed by an hour as he sought support.

“This moment is not easy for me, is not easy for the cabinet ministers, and is not easy especially for the bereaved families, whose feelings I understand,” Mr Netanyahu said ahead of the meeting.

“But there are moments in which tough decisions must be made for the good of the nation and this is one of those moments.”

Ahead of the meeting, Deputy Defence Minister Danny Danon condemned the proposal, telling Israel Radio: “This is a political mistake, it is an ethical mistake. The message we are sending the terrorists is that we eventually free them as heroes.”

But Kadoura Fares, the head of a Palestinian advocacy group for prisoners, said that there would be “no negotiations unless they are all released”.

It has been suggested by Palestinian sources, although not confirmed officially, that peace talks could start again in the US next week. The negotiations have been stalled since 2010.

US Secretary of State John Kerry announced on 19 July that the talks would begin “in the next week or so”.

He said the parties had “reached an agreement that establishes a basis for resuming direct final status negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis”.

The Palestinians have insisted Israel recognise pre-1967 ceasefire lines as borders of a Palestinian state, subject to some negotiation, before any talks commence, but this is something that has been opposed by right-wing members of Mr Netanyahu’s coalition.

The issue of settlement-building halted the last direct talks in September 2010.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said he will also put any peace deal to a referendum.

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Israel cabinet backs referendum bill