President Barack Obama is working with Mexico's president on ways to keep the swine flu from spreading further and says the U.S. will be ready if the flu strain develops into something worse.
Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon spoke for 20 minutes Saturday to share information about each country's efforts and the importance of close U.S.-Mexican cooperation, the White House said.
Swine flu, or H1N1 flu as the U.S. government prefers to call it, has caused only one confirmed death in the United States. But medical authorities fear the flu could become much worse.
About a third of the 160 confirmed U.S. cases of swine flu are people who had been to Mexico and likely picked up the infection there. But investigations indicate many newly infected people are getting the illness here, and that it probably still is spreading, said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
CDC officials said the agency knows of confirmed cases from 21 states, with Connecticut, Florida and Missouri the latest to join the list.
"This is a new strain of the flu virus, and because we haven't developed an immunity to it, it has more potential to cause us harm," Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address. "Unlike the various strains of animal flu that have emerged in the past, it's a flu that is spreading from human to human. This creates the potential for a pandemic, which is why we are acting quickly and aggressively."
The virus, which has claimed far more victims in Mexico than elsewhere, has not proved as potent in the U.S.
Obama recapped his administration's efforts. They include asking schools with confirmed cases of the flu virus to close for up to 14 days; urging employers to let infected workers take all the sick days they need; and reminding Americans to wash their hands often, cover their coughs and stay home if ill.
Obama has asked Congress for $1.5 billion to buy more medicine and equipment if needed.

President Barack Obama & Felipe Calderon working together on swine flu?

President Barack Obama is promising to work quickly and deliberately to name a replacement for retiring Justice David H. Souter who could double the number of women on the Supreme Court, become the first Hispanic justice, or do both.
Conservative and liberal groups are quickly laying the groundwork for a nominee fight that could re-ignite contentious debate on issues from abortion and immigration to gay rights.
Souter, 69, announced Friday that he would step down at the end of the court's term in late June. His retirement after almost two decades of unpredictable decisions gives Obama an early chance to place his stamp on the nine-member high court, possibly by naming a minority or a second woman.
"Obama's own record and rhetoric make clear that he will seek left-wing judicial activists who will indulge their passions, not justices who will make their rulings with dispassion," said Ed Whelan, president of the conservative Ethics and Public Policy Center.
Nan Aron, president of the liberal Alliance for Justice had a different view.
"We're looking for President Obama to choose an eminently qualified candidate who is committed to the core constitutional values, who is committed to justice for all and not just a few," she said.
On Friday, Obama promised to name a Supreme Court justice who combines "empathy and understanding" with an impeccable legal background. Obama pointedly referred to his plan to have "him or her" on the bench in time for the Supreme Court's session that begins the first Monday in October.
"I will seek someone who understands that justice isn't about some abstract legal theory or footnote in a case book. It is also about how our laws affect the daily realities of people's lives," Obama told reporters after speaking with Souter by telephone. Word of the impending retirement had leaked Thursday night.
As a candidate for the White House, Obama said he would not use a litmus test for nominees, but observed that he thought the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that gave women the right to end their pregnancies was correctly decided. Obama's selection will be the first high court nomination by a Democrat in 15 years.
Some of the names that have been circulating outside the White House include recently confirmed Solicitor General Elena Kagan, U.S. Appeals Court Judges Sonia Sotomayor, Kim McLane Wardlaw, Sandra Lea Lynch and Diane Pamela Wood, and Leah Ward Sears, chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, Harvard Law professor Cass Sunstein and U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo of Chicago have also been mentioned.
While Obama ticked off many criteria, spokesman Robert Gibbs emphasized only one in a later briefing: a broad background in life outside campus classrooms and judges' chambers.
Obama promised to consult with Republicans and Democrats alike on his choice to replace Souter.
In urging the Senate to act promptly on his selection, he said he hoped "we can swear in our new Supreme Court justice in time for him or her to be seated" by early October. Spokesman Gibbs said Obama intended to have a nomination before the Senate "well before the end of July."
Souter was named to the court in 1990 by the first President Bush, a Republican. But on abortion as well as other issues, the New Hampshire native quickly proved himself to be less than the strong conservative the GOP had expected. In 2000, he was one of four dissenting justices on a ruling that declared President George W. Bush the winner of the disputed national election.
Democrats, who control 59 seats in the Senate, will be in a strong position when Obama's nominee arrives for confirmation proceedings.
Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who will preside over confirmation hearings as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said he hoped Obama would consult with lawmakers in both parties. He then issued something of a gentle challenge to Republicans. "I hope that all senators will take this opportunity to unify around the shared constitutional values that will define Justice Souter's legacy on the court," he said.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, in a written statement of his own, said, "I trust the president will choose a nominee for the upcoming vacancy based on their experience and evenhanded reading of the law, and not their partisan leanings or ability to pass litmus tests."
Souter, who is expected to return to his native New Hampshire, is the youngest of three members of the court who have figured in retirement speculation in recent years. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 76 and recently underwent cancer surgery. Justice John Paul Stevens is 89, the oldest member of the court.
But one of the ironies confronting Obama is that even replacing all three would not allow him to fundamentally alter the court's makeup on key cases in which there often are four judges predictably on one side, four on the other, and Justice Anthony Kennedy in the middle, in effect the deciding vote.
Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, a Republican who turned Democrat earlier in the week, said the court "could use some diversity along a number of lines," including African-Americans and Hispanics.
The current court has one black justice, Clarence Thomas, and Ginsburg is the only woman. There has never been a Hispanic on the Supreme Court.

A book by an Uruguayan journalist that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave to President Barack Obama is now the No. 5 seller on Amazon.com.

It's an astounding jump for "Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent," by Uruguayan journalist Eduardo Galeano.

Eduardo Hughes Galeano (born September 3, 1940) is an Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist. His books have been translated into many languages. His works transcend orthodox genres, combining fiction, journalism, political analysis, and history. The author himself has denied that he is a historian: "I'm a writer obsessed with remembering, with remembering the past of America above all and above all that of Latin America, intimate land condemned to amnesia."

The paperback edition was ranked 54,295 on the online retailer before Chavez gave Obama a Spanish-language edition of the 1971 book on Saturday. It had jumped to No. 5 by Sunday.

The English hardcover edition is listed as out of print.

Galeano's book documents how foreign interests have dominated and afflicted Latin America since the Spanish conquest. It's a favorite among leftists.

Galeano started his career as a journalist in the early 1960s as editor of Marcha, an influential weekly journal which had such contributors as Mario Vargas Llosa, Mario Benedetti, Manuel Maldonado Denis and Roberto Fernández Retamar. For two years he edited the daily Época and worked as editor-in-chief of the University Press.

In 1973, a military coup took power in Uruguay; Galeano was imprisoned and later was forced to flee. He settled in Argentina where he founded the cultural magazine, Crisis.

US PRESIDENT: Hugo Chavez gave OBAMA book "Open Veins of Latin America

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The President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in the United States by influence and recognition. The President leads the executive branch of the federal government and is one of only two elected members of the executive branch (the other being the Vice President of the United States).

President Barack Obama made a historic announcement Friday night, talking about a new beginning in relations between Cuba and the U.S. It seems that Cuba feels the same way, but a CBS Cuba expert says one must be cautious with what happens if negotiations take place between the two countries.

"The United States seeks a new beginning with Cuba," said President Barack Obama as he the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad Friday. Seemingly stunned at what President Obama said, Latin American leaders reacted slowly with applause.
All of a sudden relations between Cuba and the U.S. seem to be warming and accelerating. Not only did President Obama expand travel rights for Americans who have loved ones on the island, but last night at another summit in Venezuela Raul Castro declared his willingness to negotiate even on topics that were taboo in the past.

Human rights, freedom of the press, and political prisoners, he said, were all fair game if the talks were on equal terms.

President Obama responded in kind: "I am prepared to have my administration engage with the Cuban government on a wide range of issues - from human rights, free speech, and democratic reform to drugs, migration, and economic issues. Let me be clear; I am not interested in talking for the sake of talking."
Also this week Obama met with Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez, a Cuban ally and fierce critic of the United States. The two met ahead of the summit's opening ceremonies. The Venezuelan presidency released a photograph of the pair shaking hands and described it as a friendly encounter.

Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (pronounced [ˈuɰo rafaˈel ˈtʃaβ̞es ˈfɾias]) (born July 28, 1954) is the current President of Venezuela. As the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution, Chávez promotes a political doctrine of participatory democracy, socialism and Latin American and Caribbean cooperation.He is also a critic of neoliberalism, globalization, and United States foreign policy.

US PRESIDENT : Barack Obama & Chavez are friend?

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President Barack Obama travels to meet with his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderon, as the U.S. and one of its biggest economic partners grapple with a trade standoff and escalating violence stemming from drug trafficking.
Obama begins his first trip today as president to Latin America in Mexico City, where he and Calderon are likely to discuss border security, a conflict over Mexican trucks delivering goods inside the U.S., the global economic crisis and energy-related issues, including climate change.
Obama’s meeting with Calderon is meant to reinforce his commitment to working with Mexico on issues that pose a threat to the economic and public security of both countries. While Mexican officials have said they are pleased with Obama’s attention to the country, they are seeking more support in the drug fight and an end to the trucking dispute.
“This administration is starting to move in the right direction,” Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico’s ambassador to the U.S., said in an interview last week in Washington as he discussed Obama’s efforts to help quell drug violence. “Is it all that we need? Of course not. It’s a process that needs to be built upon.”
Mexican officials have been pressing the U.S. to do more to staunch the illegal flow of weapons into Mexico.
“Arms trafficking from the U.S. to Mexico must be stopped immediately,” said Jesus Ortega, leader of Mexico’s opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution. “This has heightened the violence in our country and previous U.S. governments have done practically nothing to stop it.”
Summit Meeting
The U.S. president is making the stop in Mexico on his way to Trinidad and Tobago to attend the fifth Summit of the Americas, where Latin American leaders likely will press him on Cuba and other points of contention.
The Mexico visit is aimed at sending “a very strong” signal to Calderon, U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough said earlier this week. “The president admires his work as it relates to confronting violence and impunity by criminal trafficking organizations,” McDonough said.
Obama also wants to “underscore and more deeply develop our bilateral relationship on economic matters, as well as on matters related to energy and climate change.”
Mexican cartels sell $13.8 billion a year worth of drugs to U.S. users, according to White House figures. Rival gangs killed more than 6,200 people last year in Mexico, double the total the year before.
Obama, who shortly before his inauguration in January met with Calderon in Washington, last month bolstered U.S. efforts to help Mexico stem violence by increasing the number of law- enforcement officers at the border.
Merida Initiative
The new steps were crafted to work with programs funded by the Merida Initiative, a $1.4 billion measure approved by Congress last year.
The mix of crime-fighting equipment sent to Mexico under the program and training provided law officers is “adequate,” Sarukhan said. “We would like to see more support. I think the administration has already started to move in that direction in shutting down the flow of guns and cash to Mexico,” he said.
Obama yesterday designated three Mexican crime organizations as subject to a law that permits the Treasury Department to block financial transactions or seize assets, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said. The move demonstrates U.S. support for Calderon’s attempts to battle drug cartels, he said.
Trucking Dispute
On trade, Calderon will urge Obama to push Congress to let Mexican trucks deliver products inside the U.S. Lawmakers last month ended a program that allowed some trucks to cross into the U.S. Mexico retaliated by imposing $2.4 billion in import tariffs on U.S. goods.
Mexico’s government will ask Obama to allow all of the country’s 18-wheelers to operate across the border, Deputy Transportation Minister Humberto Trevino said in an interview. Mexico sees an opportunity for opening access because the Obama administration has expressed a willingness to revive the truck- access program, he said.
The government also is encouraged that 140 U.S. business, food and agricultural groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, last week called on Obama to settle the feud, according to Trevino.
U.S.-Mexico Trade
Trade between the two countries totaled $368 billion in 2008, making Mexico the third-largest U.S. trading partner after Canada and China, according U.S. data.
It would be “premature” to expect a detailed announcement on the trucking dispute this week, McDonough said.
The conflict dates from 1995, when the U.S. refused to implement a cross-border trucking plan agreed to under the North American Free Trade Agreement amid opposition from labor unions. The rules would have let Mexican trucks haul goods to a U.S. destination and pick up cargo to return to Mexico.
“The United States has been in noncompliance of Nafta for 15 years,” Sarukhan said.
Sarukhan predicts that Obama will get the same sort of lavish attention in Mexico that he received on his recent trip to Europe. “The people of Mexico City will turn out onto the streets to try to get a glimpse of him,” he said.
Still, Obama is under pressure improve relations with the region, particularly as many Latin Americans were disappointed in former President George W. Bush, some political observers said.
Bush, a former Texas governor, “expressed some interest in Mexico before becoming president” yet wasn’t “able to follow through,” said Abraham Lowenthal, a professor of international relations at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
“Obama has even less experience in Latin America than George W. Bush had,” he said. “On the other hand, he’s a very different sort, and he’s obviously very internationally minded, has an international DNA and is very much of a quick study and a learner.”