Global malaria battle stalls as financing gets tight

LONDON (Reuters) – Global funding for the fight against malaria has stalled in the past two years, threatening to reverse what the World Health Organisation (WHO) says are “remarkable recent gains” in the battle to control one of the world’s leading infectious killers.

After rapid expansion between 2004 and 2009, funding for malaria prevention and control leveled off between 2010 and 2012 – meaning there were fewer life-saving steps taken in hard- hit malarial regions such as sub-Saharan Africa.

“If we don’t scale up vector control activities in 2013 we can expect major resurgences of malaria,” said Richard Cibulskis, lead author of the WHO’s World Malaria Report, which was published on Monday.

“Vector control” means stopping transmission of the disease with tools such as treated mosquito nets. The report found that deliveries of such nets to endemic countries in sub-Saharan Africa dropped from 145 million in 2010 to an estimated 66 million in 2012.

“This means that many households will be unable to replace existing bed nets when required, exposing more people to the potentially deadly disease,” the report said.

Malaria is caused by a parasite carried in the saliva of mosquitoes and kills hundreds of thousands of people a year, mainly babies and children under the age of five in Africa.

According to WHO data, the disease infected around 219 million people in 2010, killing around 660,000 of them. Robust figures are, however, hard to establish and other health experts say the annual malaria death toll could be double that.

GLOBAL TARGETS

An estimated $ 5.1 billion a year is needed between 2011 and 2020 to get malaria medicines, prevention measures and tests to all those who need them in the 99 countries which have on-going transmission of the disease.

“Essentially, with the tools that we’ve got, we need to make sure that we continue the investments in the control measures that we have,” Cibulskis told a news conference in Geneva.

“If we don’t do that, malaria will bounce back. As soon as you take bed nets away, malaria will come back. If you stop indoor residual spraying, it will come back, and with a vengeance. So yes, we need to keep on investing in malaria ultimately until new tools are developed.”

The WHO says while many countries have increased financing for malaria, the total available global funding remained at $ 2.3 billion in 2011 – less than half of what is needed.

“Global targets for reducing the malaria burden will not be reached unless progress is accelerated in the highest burden countries,” Robert Newman, director of the WHO Global Malaria Programme, said in statement with the report.

“These countries are in a precarious situation and most of them need urgent financial assistance to procure and distribute life-saving commodities.”

The WHO report found that by far the greatest impact of malaria is concentrated in 14 endemic countries which account for an estimated 80 percent of malaria deaths.

Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are the most affected countries in sub-Saharan Africa, while India is the hardest hit in South East Asia.

WHO director general Margaret Chan wrote in a forward to the report that there is now an urgent need to identify new sources of funding to boost and sustain malaria control.

“We also need to examine new ways to make existing funds stretch further by increasing the value for money of malaria commodities and the efficiency of service delivery,” she said.

The Roll Back Malaria Partnership, which includes the WHO, UNICEF and the World Bank, said it was already exploring several options, including financial transaction taxes, airline ticket taxes and a potential “malaria bond” to encourage more involvement from private sector investors.

Fatoumata Nafo-Traore, executive director of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, said Mozambique and one other African country were preparing to pilot such a bond in 2013, with the hope that other countries would follow their example.

(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Additional reporting by Tom Miles in Geneva; Editing by Stephen Powell)

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Only balanced plan to avoid “cliff” is Obama’s: White House

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The only proposal that avoids the year-end U.S. “fiscal cliff” in a balanced manner is the one President Barack Obama has put forward, White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Monday.

“The only plan that we have seen that achieves the size and the balance that’s required for sustainable – for long-term deficit reduction and for putting our economy on a sustainable fiscal path, is the president’s,” Carney told reporters at a briefing.

Carney had been asked to comment on reports of a proposal from House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, that would allow top tax rates to rise in exchange for cuts to entitlement programs.

(Reporting By Mark Felsenthal; Editing by Eric Walsh)

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Egyptians hand Islamists narrow win in constitution vote

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptians voted in favor of a constitution shaped by Islamists but opposed by other groups who fear it will divide the Arab world’s biggest nation, officials in rival camps said on Sunday after the first round of a two-stage referendum.

Next week’s second round is likely to give another “yes” vote as it includes districts seen as more sympathetic towards Islamists, analysts say, meaning the constitution would be approved.

But the narrow win so far gives Islamist President Mohamed Mursi only limited grounds for celebration by showing the wide rifts in a country where he needs to build a consensus for tough economic reforms.

The Muslim Brotherhood‘s party, which propelled Mursi to office in a June election, said 56.5 percent backed the text. Official results are not expected until after the next round.

While an opposition official conceded the “yes” camp appeared to have won the first round, the opposition National Salvation Front said in a statement that voting abuses meant a rerun was needed – although it did not explicitly challenge the Brotherhood‘s vote tally.

Rights groups reported abuses such as polling stations opening late, officials telling people how to vote and bribery. They also criticized widespread religious campaigning which portrayed “no” voters as heretics.

A joint statement by seven human rights groups urged the referendum’s organizers “to avoid these mistakes in the second stage of the referendum and to restage the first phase again”.

Mursi and his backers say the constitution is vital to move Egypt’s democratic transition forward. Opponents say the basic law is too Islamist and tramples on minority rights, including those of Christians who make up 10 percent of the population.

The build-up to Saturday’s vote was marred by deadly protests. Demonstrations erupted when Mursi awarded himself extra powers on November 22 and then fast-tracked the constitution through an assembly dominated by his Islamist allies.

However, the vote passed off calmly with long queues in Cairo and several other places, though unofficial tallies indicated turnout was around a third of the 26 million people eligible to vote this time. The vote was staggered because many judges needed to oversee polling staged a boycott in protest.

The opposition had said the vote should not have been held given the violent protests. Foreign governments are watching closely how the Islamists, long viewed warily in the West, handle themselves in power.

“It’s wrong to have a vote or referendum with the country in the state it is – blood and killings, and no security,” said Emad Sobhy, a voter who lives in Cairo. “Holding a referendum with the country as it is cannot give you a proper result.”

INCREASINGLY DIVIDED

As polls closed, Islamists attacked the offices of the newspaper of the liberal Wafd party, part of the opposition National Salvation Front coalition that pushed for a “no” vote.

“The referendum was 56.5 percent for the ‘yes’ vote,” a senior official in the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party operations room set up to monitor voting told Reuters.

The Brotherhood and its party had representatives at polling stations across the 10 areas, including Cairo, in this round. The official, who asked not to be identified, said the tally was based on counts from more than 99 percent of polling stations.

“The nation is increasingly divided and the pillars of state are swaying,” opposition politician Mohamed ElBaradei wrote on Twitter. “Poverty and illiteracy are fertile grounds for trading with religion. The level of awareness is rising fast.”

One opposition official also told Reuters the vote appeared to have gone in favor of Islamists who backed the constitution.

The opposition initially said its exit polls indicated the “no” camp would win comfortably, but officials changed tack during the night. One opposition official said in the early hours of Sunday that it would be “very close”.

A narrow loss could still hearten leftists, socialists, Christians and more liberal-minded Muslims who make up the disparate opposition, which has been beaten in two elections since Hosni Mubarak was overthrown last year.

They were drawn together to oppose what they saw as a power grab by Mursi as he pushed through the constitution. The National Salvation Front includes prominent figures such as ElBaradei, former Arab League chief Amr Moussa and firebrand leftist Hamdeen Sabahy.

If the constitution is approved, a parliamentary election will follow early next year.

DEADLY VIOLENCE

Analysts question whether the opposition group will keep together until the parliamentary election. The Islamist-dominated lower house of parliament elected earlier this year was dissolved based on a court order in June.

Violence in Cairo and other cities has plagued the run-up to the referendum. At least eight people were killed when rival camps clashed during demonstrations outside the presidential palace earlier this month.

In order to pass, the constitution must be approved by more than 50 percent of those casting ballots. There are 51 million eligible voters in the nation of 83 million.

Islamists have been counting on their disciplined ranks of supporters and on Egyptians desperate for an end to turmoil that has hammered the economy and sent Egypt’s pound to eight-year lows against the dollar.

The army deployed about 120,000 troops and 6,000 tanks and armored vehicles to protect polling stations and other government buildings. While the military backed Mubarak and his predecessors, it has not intervened in the present crisis.

(Additional reporting Yasmin Saleh and Marwa Awad; Writing by Edmund Blair and Giles Elgood; Editing by Tom Pfeiffer)

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“Hobbit” film sets December record in U.S., Canada debut

(Reuters) – “The Hobbit” brought home a big box office treasure over the weekend, setting a December movie record with $ 84.77 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales as legions of fans turned out for the long-awaited big-screen return to Middle Earth.

“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” also rung up sales of $ 138.2 million in international markets. Global receipts for the prequel to the smash “Lord of the Rings” trilogy stood at $ 222.97 million through Sunday, distributor Warner Bros. said.

The current projection for the total box office take in 2012 is $ 10.8 billion, according to an estimate from Hollywood.com, which would beat the $ 10.6 billion record in 2009.

The 3D “Hobbit” directed by Oscar-winning “Rings” filmmaker Peter Jackson is the first of three films based on a 1937 classic novel by J.R.R. Tolkien. Warner Bros. is aiming to build on the success of the “Rings” series, one of Hollywood’s biggest franchises with $ 2.9 billion in global ticket sales.

The “Lord of the Rings” movies debuted in theaters from 2001 to 2003. After that, production on “The Hobbit” ran into delays, leaving fans waiting a decade for another look at the fantasy story of dwarves, wizards and elves.

The opening weekend “Hobbit” sales proved interest remained high. North American (U.S. and Canadian) receipts toppled the old record for December set by Will Smith sci-fi flick “I Am Legend,” which pulled in $ 77.2 million when it debuted in 2007.

“The best we were hoping for was to reach or exceed the $ 77 million set by that movie and we did it by quite a lot. It was all good and we’re very happy about it,” said Dan Fellman, president of theatrical distribution for Warner Bros.

“You have to assume that by the time this first week is over we are going to have around $ 110 million in the bank before the holiday even starts,” he added.

The new film follows the epic journey of hobbit Bilbo Baggins, played by Martin Freeman, as he travels through the treacherous Middle Earth with a band of dwarves to steal treasures from the dragon Smaug.

The movie also stars Richard Armitage and Benedict Cumberbatch, while Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett and Elijah Wood reprise their “Rings” roles.

Opening-weekend audiences embraced “The Hobbit,” awarding an “A” grade in polling by survey firm CinemaScore. Critics had a mixed response to the nearly three-hour film. Sixty-five percent of reviews on the Rotten Tomatoes website recommended the movie, although some objected to Jackson’s decision to shoot it using a 48-frames-per-second format rather than the usual 24.

SOME VIEWERS NAUSEOUS

The faster frame rate delivers clearer pictures, but some critics called the format cartoonish and jarring. Some fans at early screenings in New Zealand complained it made them feel nauseous and dizzy, according to The New Zealand Herald. Only a fraction of theaters showed the film in the new format.

The next two “Hobbit” movies are schedules to reach theaters in December 2013 and July 2014. The films were financed by MGM and Warner Bros.‘ New Line Cinema unit for an estimated $ 500 million.

“The Hobbit” took a bumpy, years-long journey to the big screen that included two directors and a lawsuit. Jackson made the “Rings” trilogy when producers could not get “The Hobbit” rights that were held by MGM’s United Artists unit.

Guillermo del Toro was first hired to direct “The Hobbit” but he left the project when financial woes at MGM caused delays. The movie went into production only after Jackson settled a lawsuit against New Line in a dispute over profits from the “Rings” films.

“The Hobbit” was the only new nationwide release over the weekend. The rest of the top five were films that have been playing for weeks.

In second place was the animated family film “Rise of the Guardians” with $ 7.4 million, followed by historical drama “Lincoln” starring Daniel Day-Lewis as the revered U.S. president, which grabbed $ 7.2 million from Friday through Sunday, according to studio estimates.

James Bond movie “Skyfall” landed in fourth place with $ 7 million.

Next on the box office chart was “Life of Pi,” which captured $ 5.4 million. Teen vampire tale “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2″ earned $ 5.17 million.

Time Warner Inc’s Warner Bros. released “The Hobbit.” “Lincoln” was produced by Steven Spielberg’s Dreamworks Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Co. Sony Corp’s movie studio released “Skyfall.” Dreamworks Animation distributed “Rise of the Guardians,” which was released by Viacom Inc’s Paramount Pictures. Summit Entertainment, a unit of Lions Gate Entertainment, released “Breaking Dawn.”

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

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Pope speaks of his pain over “senseless violence” in Connecticut

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Benedict expressed his pain over the killing in the United States of 26 people, including 20 schoolchildren, by a gunman and prayed for the consolation of the victims’ families at his weekly address on Sunday.

“I was deeply saddened by Friday’s senseless violence in Newtown, Connecticut,” the pontiff told crowds of pilgrims gathered in St Peter’s Square in Vatican City.

“I assure the families of the victims, especially those who lost a child, of my closeness in prayer. May the God of consolation touch their hearts and ease their pain.”

“Upon those affected by this tragedy, and upon each of you, I invoke God’s abundant blessings!”

On Friday a 20-year-old gunman identified as Adam Lanza forced his way into the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown where he shot dead six adult women, and 12 girls and eight boys aged six and seven years old, before killing himself.

Services to mourn the victims have been held at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Newtown.

(Reporting by Naomi O’Leary; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Craft Brewers Threatened by Big Beer Brands

American craft brewers love to talk about how they’re stealing market share from the big beer companies, such as MillerCoors and Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD). In the first half of the year, craft beer sales rose 14 percent, in dollar terms, according to the trade group Brewers Association. Their larger competitors can only dream of such gains in the U.S.

Craft brewers, however, are increasingly worried about how the world’s two largest beer companies are attempting to counter their growth by making beers that appear to be craft products—like MillerCoors’s Blue Moon and AB InBev’s Shock Top—with no indication on their labels that they’re produced by large multinational corporations.

Today the craft brewing industry called out the big guys in an op-ed piece in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the hometown newspaper of AB InBev’s North American division. It was written by Charlie Papazian and Bob Pease, the president and chief operating officer, respectively, of the Brewers Association, and Dan Kopman, co-founder of Schlafly Beer, a small independent brewer in St. Louis.

Here’s what they had to say:

Noting the expansion of the craft brewers’ niche and also that many beer drinkers are turning away from the mass-produced light lagers that they are historically known for, the large brewers started producing their own craft-like beers. However, they don’t label these faux-craft beers as products of AB InBev and MillerCoors. So if you are drinking a Blue Moon Belgian Wheat Beer, you are not told it is an SABMiller product. If you crack open a Shock Top, you are not told this brand is 100 percent owned by AB InBev. The large brewers also have bought or own 100 percent of smaller breweries like Goose Island, Leinenkugel and Henry Weinhard. They own significant equity stakes in Red Hook, Widmer and Kona breweries. They sell these beers through their strong distribution channels, but market these faux-craft beers as if they were from independent, locally owned craft breweries.

In an interview, Kopman told Bloomberg Businessweek that all brewers should label their products so consumers aren’t mislead about a beer’s origin. “We definitely need to discuss this as an industry,” he said. “We need to have an agreed-upon standard for transparency where you are a multinational or an independent.”

This craft industry’s increasing aggressiveness comes at a sensitive time for AB InBev. The Belgium-based company that bought Anheuser-Busch in 2008 is now seeking the approval of the U.S. Department of Justice to complete the purchase of Grupo Modelo (GMODELOC). The last thing it needs is the small American brewers complaining that it’s trying to undermine their growth. That doesn’t seem to have escaped the craft industry either.

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Nigeria governor, 5 others die in helicopter crash

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — A navy helicopter crashed Saturday in the country’s oil-rich southern delta, killing a state governor and five other people, in the latest air disaster to hit Africa’s most populous nation, officials said.

Nigeria‘s ruling party said in a statement that the governor of the central Nigerian state of Kaduna, Patrick Yakowa, died in the helicopter crash in Bayelsa state in the Niger Delta. The People’s Democratic Party’s statement described Yakowa’s death as a “colossal loss.”

The statement said the former national security adviser, General Andrew Azazi, also died in the crash. Azazi was fired in June amid growing sectarian violence in Nigeria, but maintained close ties with the government.

Yushau Shuaib, a spokesman for Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency, said four other bodies had been found, but he could not immediately give their identities.

The crash occurred at about 3:30 p.m. after the navy helicopter took off from the village of Okoroba in Bayelsa state where officials had gathered to attend the burial of the father of a presidential aide, said Commodore Kabir Aliyu. He said that the helicopter was headed for Nigeria’s oil capital of Port Harcourt when it crashed in the Nembe area of Bayelsa state.

Aviation disasters remain common in Nigeria, despite efforts in recent years to improve air safety.

In October, a plane made a crash landing in central Nigeria. A state governor and five others sustained injuries but survived.

In June, a Dana Air MD-83 passenger plane crashed into a neighborhood in the commercial capital of Lagos, killing 153 people onboard and at least 10 people on the ground. It was Nigeria’s worst air crash in nearly two decades.

In March, a police helicopter carrying a high-ranking police official crashed in the central Nigerian city of Jos, killing four people.

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Manitoba Tories to oust youth president over social media comments

WINNIPEG – An official with Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative party is being ousted over social media comments about aboriginals.

Brayden Mazurkiewich, the president of the party’s youth wing, is being asked to resign over a post on his Facebook page today.

The post concerns a planned urban reserve on a former Winnipeg military base, and says the land was designed for — quote — “hard-working men and women of the military, not free-loading Indian.”

Party president Ryan Matthews says the comments are unacceptable.

Matthews says if Mazurkiewich doesn’t quit voluntarily, the party’s management committee will convene next week to deal with the matter.

Mazurkiewich was not immediately available for comment.

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As Conn. story unfolds, media struggle with facts

NEW YORK (AP) — The scope and senselessness of the Newtown, Conn., school shooting challenged television journalists’ ability to do much more than lend, or impose, their presence on the scene.

Pressed with the awful urgency of the story, TV, along with other media, fell prey to reporting “facts” that were often in conflict or wrong.

How many people were killed? Which Lanza brother was the shooter: Adam or Ryan? Was their mother, who was among the slain, a teacher at the school?

Like the rest of the news media, television outlets were faced with intense competitive pressures and an audience ravenous for details in an age when the best-available information was seldom as reliable as the networks’ high-tech delivery systems.

Here was the normal gestation of an unfolding story. But with wall-to-wall cable coverage and second-by-second Twitter postings, the process of updating and correcting it was visible to every onlooker. And as facts were gathered by authorities, then shared with reporters (often on background), a seemingly higher-than-usual number of points failed to pan out:

— The number of dead was initially reported as anywhere from the high teens to nearly 30. The final count was established Friday afternoon: 20 children and six adults, as well as Lanza’s mother and the shooter himself.

— For hours on Friday, the shooter was identified as Ryan Lanza, with his age alternatively reported as 24 or 20. The confusion seemed partly explainable when it was determined that 20-year-old Adam Lanza, the shooter who had then killed himself, was carrying identification belonging to his 24-year-old brother.

This case of mistaken identity was painfully reminiscent of the Atlanta Olympics bombing case in 1996, when authorities fingered an innocent man, and the news media ran with it, destroying his life. Such damage was averted in Ryan Lanza’s case largely by his public protestations on social media, repeatedly declaring “It wasn’t me.”

— Initial reports differed as to whether Lanza’s mother, Nancy, was shot at the school, where she was said to be a teacher, or at the home she shared with Adam Lanza. By Friday afternoon, it was determined that she had been shot at their home.

Then doubts arose about whether Nancy Lanza had any link to Sandy Hook Elementary. At least one parent said she was a substitute teacher, but by early Saturday, an official said investigators had been unable to establish any connection with the school.

That seemed to make the massacre even more confusing. Early on, the attack was said to have taken place in her own classroom and was interpreted by more than one on-air analyst as possibly a way for Adam Lanza to strike back at children with whom he felt rivalry for his mother’s affection.

— Lanza’s weapons were listed as two pistols (a Glock and a Sig Sauer) as well as a .223-caliber Bushmaster rifle, but whether that rifle was used in the school or left in the trunk of Lanza’s car remained unclear.

— There were numerous versions of what Lanza was wearing, including camouflage attire and black paramilitary garb.

With so many unanswered questions, TV correspondents were left to set the scene and to convey the impact in words that continually failed them.

However apt, the phrase “parents’ worst nightmare” became an instant cliche.

And the word “unimaginable” was used countless times. But “imagine” was exactly what the horrified audience was helpless not to do.

The screen was mostly occupied by grim or tearful faces, sparing everybody besides law enforcement officials the most chilling sight: the death scene in the school, where — as viewers were reminded over and over — the bodies remained while evidence was gathered. But who could keep from imagining it?

Ironically, perhaps the most powerful video came from 300 miles away, in Washington, where President Barack Obama delivered brief remarks about the tragedy. His somber face, the flat tone of his voice, the tears he daubed from his eyes, and his long, tormented pauses said as much as his heartfelt words. He seemed to speak for everyone who heard them.

But TV had hours to fill.

Children from the school were interviewed. It was a questionable decision for which the networks took heat from media critics and viewers alike. But the decision lay more in the hands of the willing parents (who were present), and there was value in hearing what these tiny witnesses had to say.

“We had to lock our doors so the animal couldn’t get in,” said one little boy, his words painting a haunting picture.

In the absence of much hard information, speculation was a regular fallback. Correspondents and other “experts” persisted in diagnosing the shooter, a man none of them had ever met or even heard of until hours earlier.

CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight” scored an interview with a former classmate of Lanza’s — with an emphasis on “former.”

“I really only knew him closely when we were very, very young, in elementary school together,” she said.

Determined to unlock Lanza’s personality, Morgan asked the woman if she “could have ever predicted that he would one day flip and do something as monstrous as this?”

“I don’t know if I could have predicted it,” she replied, struggling to give Morgan what he wanted. “I mean, there was something ‘off’ about him.”

The larger implications of the tragedy were broached throughout the coverage — not least by Obama.

“We’re going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics,” he said, which may have gladdened proponents of stricter gun laws.

But CBS correspondent Nancy Cordes noted, “There’s often an assumption that after a horrific event like this, it will spark a fierce debate on the issue. But in recent years, that hasn’t been the case.”

Appearing on “The O’Reilly Factor” Friday night, Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera voiced his own solution.

“I want an armed cop at every school,” he said.

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School murders silence “cliff” rhetoric as deadline nears

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Mass murder in Connecticut silenced “fiscal cliff” talk on Saturday as the White House and Congress quietly got ready for a final scramble to avert the tax hikes and spending cuts set for the New Year, with sessions of the U.S. House of Representatives now scheduled just days before Christmas.

President Barack Obama canceled a trip he had planned to make next Wednesday to Portland, Maine to press his case for tax hikes for the wealthy. His weekly radio and Internet address on Saturday focused on Newtown, the site of Friday’s school shootings, in which a gunman killed 20 children and six adults before taking his own life.

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio canceled the standard Republican radio response to Obama “so that President Obama can speak for the entire nation at this time of mourning,” he said in a statement issued late Friday.

The moratorium on cliff pronouncements masked a growing recognition that the two sides could remain deadlocked at the end of the year on the key sticking point – whether to leave low tax rates in place except for high earners, as Obama wants, or extend them for all taxpayers, as Boehner wants.

With multiple polls showing that the public supports Obama’s position, Republicans in the U.S. Senate prodded their counterparts in the House to make a face-saving retreat, in a fashion that would allow Obama’s proposal to pass the Republican-controlled House while simultaneously letting Republicans cast a vote against it.

Republicans could then shift the debate onto territory they consider more favorable to them, cutting government spending to reduce the deficit.

“Just about everyone is throwing stuff on the wall to see if anything sticks,” one Republican aide said with reference to various proposals being discussed on how to proceed. Alluding to public opinion polls, the aide added: “We know if there is no deal, we will get blamed.”

“We could win the argument on spending cuts,” said a Republican senator who asked not to be identified. “We aren’t winning the argument on taxes.”

However, Republican leaders in both chambers are leery about seeming to cave on taxes. “There’s concern that if we did that, Obama would simply declare victory and walk away and not address spending,” said one aide. “We don’t trust these guys.”

Some of the prodding was coming from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Don Stewart, a McConnell spokesman, said the minority leader in the Democratic-controlled Senate hasn’t embraced any single plan, but has discussed and circulated measures offered by fellow Senate Republicans.

“Senator McConnell does not advocate raising taxes on anybody or anything,” Stewart said.

“We’re focused on getting a balanced plan from the White House that will begin to solve the problem of our debt and deficit to improve the economy and create American jobs,” said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel.

“Right now, all the president is offering is massive tax hikes with little or no spending cuts and reforms,” Steel said.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor scheduled “possible legislation related to expiring provisions of law,” a reference to the expiring tax cuts, for the end of the week, portending a weekend session.

Cantor has said the House would meet through the Christmas holidays and beyond.

Hopes expressed after the November6 general election of some “grand bargain” on deficit reduction have all but disappeared, at least for this year. This is partly because time is running out and partly result of growing warnings from Democrats in Congress that they would not support big changes in the Medicare program, the government-run health insurance program for seniors that is a major contributor to the government’s debt.

House Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California ruled out one frequently mentioned proposal – raising the age of eligibility for Medicare, in a December 12 CBS television interview.

Asked if she was drawing a “red line,” around that idea, Pelosi said her comments were “something that says, ‘don’t go there,’ because it doesn’t produce money.

(Reporting by Thomas Ferraro and Kim Dixon; Editing by Fred Barbash and David Brunnstrom)

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