After early start, worst of flu season may be over

NEW YORK (AP) — The worst of the flu season appears to be over.

The number of states reporting intense or widespread illnesses dropped again last week, and in a few states there was very little flu going around, U.S. health officials said Friday.

The season started earlier than normal, first in the Southeast and then spreading. But now, by some measures, flu activity has been ebbing for at least four weeks in much of the country. Flu and pneumonia deaths also dropped the last two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.

"It's likely that the worst of the current flu season is over," CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said.

But flu is hard to predict, he and others stressed, and there have been spikes late in the season in the past.

For now, states like Georgia and New York — where doctor's offices were jammed a few weeks ago — are reporting low flu activity. The hot spots are now the West Coast and the Southwest.

Among the places that have seen a drop: Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Allentown, Pa., which put up a tent outside its emergency room last month to help deal with the steady stream of patients. There were about 100 patients each day back then. Now it's down to 25 and the hospital may pack up its tent next week, said Terry Burger, director of infection control and prevention for the hospital.

"There's no question that we're seeing a decline," she said.

In early December, CDC officials announced flu season had arrived, a month earlier than usual. They were worried, saying it had been nine years since a winter flu season started like this one. That was 2003-04 — one of the deadliest seasons in the past 35 years, with more than 48,000 deaths.

Like this year, the major flu strain was one that tends to make people sicker, especially the elderly, who are most vulnerable to flu and its complications

But back then, that year's flu vaccine wasn't made to protect against that bug, and fewer people got flu shots. The vaccine is reformulated almost every year, and the CDC has said this year's vaccine is a good match to the types that are circulating. A preliminary CDC study showed it is about 60 percent effective, which is close to the average.

So far, the season has been labeled moderately severe.

Like others, Lehigh Valley's Burger was cautious about making predictions. "I'm not certain we're completely out of the woods," with more wintry weather ahead and people likely to be packed indoors where flu can spread around, she said.

The government does not keep a running tally of flu-related deaths in adults, but has received reports of 59 deaths in children. The most — nine — were in Texas, where flu activity was still high last week. Roughly 100 children die in an average flu season, the CDC says

On average, about 24,000 Americans die each flu season, according to the CDC.

According to the CDC report, the number of states with intense activity is down to 19, from 24 the previous week, and flu is widespread in 38 states, down from 42.

Flu is now minimal in Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

___

Online:

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/

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Stocks end higher for sixth straight week, tech leads

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Nasdaq composite stock index closed at a 12-year high and the S&P 500 index at a five-year high, boosted by gains in technology shares and stronger overseas trade figures.

The S&P 500 also posted a sixth straight week of gains for the first time since August.

The technology sector led the day's gains, with the S&P 500 technology index <.splrct> up 1.0 percent. Gains in professional network platform LinkedIn Corp and AOL Inc after they reported quarterly results helped the sector.

Shares of LinkedIn jumped 21.3 percent to $150.48 after the social networking site announced strong quarterly profits and gave a bullish forecast for the year.

AOL Inc shares rose 7.4 percent to $33.72 after the online company reported higher quarterly profit, boosted by a 13 percent rise in advertising sales.

Data showed Chinese exports grew more than expected, a positive sign for the global economy. The U.S. trade deficit narrowed in December, suggesting the U.S. economy likely grew in the fourth quarter instead of contracting slightly as originally reported by the U.S. government.

"That may have sent a ray of optimism," said Fred Dickson, chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co in Lake Oswego, Oregon.

Trading volume on Friday was below average for the week as a blizzard swept into the northeastern United States.

The U.S. stock market has posted strong gains since the start of the year, with the S&P 500 up 6.4 percent since December 31. The advance has slowed in recent days, with fourth-quarter earnings winding down and few incentives to continue the rally on the horizon.

"I think we're in the middle of a trading range and I'd put plus or minus 5.0 percent around it. Fundamental factors are best described as neutral," Dickson said.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> ended up 48.92 points, or 0.35 percent, at 13,992.97. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 8.54 points, or 0.57 percent, at 1,517.93. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 28.74 points, or 0.91 percent, at 3,193.87, its highest closing level since November 2000.

For the week, the Dow was down 0.1 percent, the S&P 500 was up 0.3 percent and the Nasdaq up 0.5 percent.

Shares of Dell closed at $13.63, up 0.7 percent, after briefly trading above a buyout offering price of $13.65 during the session.

Dell's largest independent shareholder, Southeastern Asset Management, said it plans to oppose the buyout of the personal computer maker, setting up a battle for founder Michael Dell.

Signs of economic strength overseas buoyed sentiment on Wall Street. Chinese exports grew more than expected in January, while imports climbed 28.8 percent, highlighting robust domestic demand. German data showed a 2012 surplus that was the nation's second highest in more than 60 years, an indication of the underlying strength of Europe's biggest economy.

Separately, U.S. economic data showed the trade deficit shrank in December to $38.5 billion, its narrowest in nearly three years, indicating the economy did much better in the fourth quarter than initially estimated.

Earnings have mostly come in stronger than expected since the start of the reporting period. Fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies now are estimated up 5.2 percent versus a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters data. That contrasts with a 1.9 percent growth forecast at the start of the earnings season.

Molina Healthcare Inc surged 10.4 percent to $31.88 as the biggest boost to the index after posting fourth-quarter earnings.

The CBOE Volatility index <.vix>, Wall Street's so-called fear gauge, was down 3.6 percent at 13.02. The gauge, a key measure of market expectations of short-term volatility, generally moves inversely to the S&P 500.

"I'm watching the 14 level closely" on the CBOE Volatility index, said Bryan Sapp, senior trading analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research. "The break below it at the beginning of the year signaled the sharp rally in January, and a rally back above it could be a sign to exercise some caution."

Volume was roughly 5.6 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and the NYSE MKT, compared with the 2012 average daily closing volume of about 6.45 billion.

Advancers outpaced decliners on the NYSE by nearly 2 to 1 and on the Nasdaq by almost 5 to 3.

(Additional reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Nick Zieminski, Kenneth Barry and Andrew Hay)

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IHT Rendezvous: IHT Quick Read: Feb. 9

After a failed attempt to set spending targets at a summit meeting in November and in a 24-hour marathon of talks this week, European leaders finally agreed late Friday to a common budget for the next seven years. The new budget, which is slightly smaller than its predecessor — the first decrease in the European Union’s history — reflects the climate of austerity across a Continent still struggling to emerge from a crippling debt crisis. James Kanter and Andrew Higgins report from Brussels.

Few things divide British eating habits from those of Continental Europe as clearly as a distaste for consuming horse meat, so news that many Britons have unknowingly done so has prompted alarm among shoppers and plunged the country’s food industry into crisis. A trickle of discoveries of horse meat in hamburgers, starting in Ireland last month, has turned into a steady stream of revelations, including, on Friday, that lasagna labeled beef from one international distributor of frozen food, Findus, contained in some cases 100 percent horse meat. Stephen Castle reports from London.

The coaches of England’s Premier League are an aggressively unstylish bunch, stalking the sideline in the most scrutinized sport in the world with wardrobes that speak less of Savile Row than of the remainder rack on the Island of Misfit Clothes. The way the coaches dress, there’s no mistaking the English Premier League sideline for a fashion runway. Sarah Lyall reports from London.

With only two weeks to go before national elections, the Italian campaign has become a surreal spectacle in which a candidate many had given up for dead, former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, has surged. Although he is not expected ever to govern again, with his media savvy and pie-in-the-sky offers of tax refunds, Mr. Berlusconi now trails the front-runner, Pierluigi Bersani, the leader of the Democratic Party, by about five or six points, according to a range of opinion polls published on Friday. Rachel Donadio reports from Rome.

ARTS The auction of Impressionist and Modern art followed by Surrealist works that took place at Sotheby’s on Tuesday evening ended with 52 lots fetching £121 million. It will be remembered by auction house professionals as the second most successful sale in the field held at Sotheby’s London and, by some of those attending, as the strangest session in living memory. Souren Melikian reports from New York.

SPORTS If size or the weight of history were the sole determining factors in a soccer match, then you might wonder why Burkina Faso would even bother to turn up against Nigeria in the Africa Cup final. Rob Hughes reports from London.

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Einhorn case against Apple rests on rarely used legal tactic

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Hedge fund star David Einhorn wants to force Apple Inc to share some of its huge cash pile with investors, but his lawsuit rests on a U.S. securities rule that has little court precedent surrounding it.

Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital sued the iPad and iPhone maker in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Thursday to try to prevent Apple from eliminating preferred stock from its charter. The suit is part of Einhorn’s bid to pressure Apple to use some of its $ 137 billion in cash to issue perpetual preferred shares that pay dividends to existing shareholders.

The suit contends that Apple has violated Securities and Exchange Commission rules that prohibit companies from “bundling” together unrelated matters into a single proposal for a shareholder vote.

Establishing that Apple violated the rules could be tricky. Little to no case law exists on the question, and the SEC’s own rule is relatively general with little guidance, legal experts said.

Still, James Cox, a professor at Duke University School of Law, said he thinks Einhorn “has a hell of good case.”

“I think he’s got Apple in the crosshairs,” he added, saying that it “strikes me as fairly dramatic case of bundling.”

The hedge fund manager is seeking an injunction to block a February 27 shareholder vote on the proposal, saying Apple violated Section 14 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Arguments are due to be heard before U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan on February 22. Apple has until February 15 to file a response with the court to the Greenlight complaint.

The proxy proposal at issue, Proposal No. 2, seeks to amend Apple’s articles of incorporation in three ways: by providing for majority voting for directors, establishing a par value for Apple stock, and eliminating its ability to issue preferred stock.

Einhorn is represented by law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, Greenlight’s long-time outside counsel. No lawyer for Apple is yet listed on the court docket, and a representative declined to say who would represent Apple in the case.

It is unclear how Apple will respond in its formal reply to the lawsuits. On Thursday, Apple said Einhorn’s lawsuit was “misguided” and that adoption of Proposal No. 2 would not preclude preferred share issuances in future.

“Currently, Apple’s articles of incorporation provide for the issuance of ‘blank check’ preferred stock by the Board of Directors without shareholder approval,” Apple said. “If Proposal #2 is adopted, our shareholders would have the right to approve the issuance of preferred stock.”

Greenlight in its complaint said it supports two of the proposals but not getting rid of preferred stock. Einhorn deems preferred stock superior to dividends or share buybacks, and has separately put forward a proposal for an issuance of Apple preferred stock with a perpetual 4 percent dividend.

But as Apple’s proxy proposal is structured, Greenlight said, shareholders have “no choice but to either vote in favor of an amendment they oppose, or against an amendment they support.”

Few lawsuits have ever been filed challenging proposals under the rules, a situation some legal experts attributed to the normally passive nature of shareholders.

“In most cases you’re not going to get a lot of complaining about bundling,” said Brian Slipakoff, special counsel at law firm Duane Morris in Philadelphia.

In one of the few related lawsuits, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York in 1999 recognized an implied private right of action by shareholders suing over alleged antibundling rule violations.

That precedent could back Einhorn in his legal standing to bring the case. The appeals court ruling was cited by Greenlight in additional court papers filed late on Thursday.

Francis Vasquez, a lawyer with the law firm White & Case who is not involved in the case, said Apple may argue that because the stockholder proposals in Proposal 2 are all amendments to the charter, they are properly related.

The California company has another five proposals up for a vote, which are not being challenged by Einhorn and do not involve amending Apple’s charter. Those measures focus on matters such as director elections and executive compensation.

“Apple’s first argument likely is going to be, ‘Look, these are all amendments we put in one place, they don’t have to do with the other items,’” Vasquez said.

The antibundling rules date to 1992. John Coffee, a professor at Columbia Law School, said the idea was to “prevent managements from bribing shareholders with a sweetener into voting for a proposal they would otherwise reject.”

The case is Greenlight Capital LP, et al., v. Apple Inc., U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, 13-900.

(Reporting By Nate Raymond in New York; Additional reporting by Poornima Gupta; Editing by Martha Graybow, Tiffany Wu and Tim Dobbyn)

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Asian shares inch higher on solid China trade data

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares edged up on Friday after China's trade data for January handily beat forecasts to underscore a recovery trend, but prices were capped by investors seeking to book profits before next week's Chinese new year holidays.

The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> edged up 0.2 percent, wiping earlier losses when bearish sentiment was carried over from overnight after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi noted risks still facing the euro zone economy. The pan-Asian index rose to a 18-month high on Monday.

China said its exports grew 25.0 percent in January from a year ago, the strongest showing since April 2011 and well ahead of market expectations for a 17 percent rise, while imports also beat forecasts, surging 28.8 percent on the year.

"China's economic conditions are improving and the trade data confirms the continuation of a recovery trend. Not just the trade data but retail, production and investment flows clearly show that the economy bottomed out in the third quarter last year," said Hirokazu Yuihama, a senior strategist at Daiwa Securities in Tokyo.

U.S. stocks edged lower while disappointing results from French drugmaker Sanofi sent European shares down to 2013 closing lows.

Australian shares rose 0.5 percent while South Korean shares <.ks11> climbed 0.6 percent, on track to reverse six losing sessions as investors bought up auto shares after recent declines.

Japan's Nikkei stock average <.n225> fell 1.4 percent as investors took profits from the index's surge to a its highest level since October 2008 on Wednesday. <.t/>

"Asian markets are undergoing a pre-holiday adjustment, keeping prices top-heavy, with many opting to book profits. Prices have gained sharply over the past months, so a correction is healthy. But the upward trend in Asian equities markets remains intact," Daiwa's Yuihama said.

EURO STEADIES

The euro was off its two-week lows hit the previous session as investors took Draghi's comments as signalling concerns about the euro and Europe's growth outlook, boosting the dollar <.dxy> to a one-month high against a basket of key currencies.

The euro edged up 0.1 percent to $1.3410, after slumping to a two-week low of $1.33705 on Thursday, but still below a 14-1/2-month high against of $1.3711 hit last week.

The ECB kept interest rates at a record low 0.75 percent at its policy meeting on Thursday. Draghi said the ECB will monitor the economic impact of a strengthening euro, feeding expectations the currency's climb could open the door to an interest rate cut.

While Draghi said the exchange rate was not a policy target but is important for growth and price stability, he also noted the euro's appreciation was a sign of returning confidence in the currency.

Spain sold more debt than planned on Thursday, auctioning over 18 percent of its full-year medium- and long-term funding target. The strong demand indicated easing worries about Madrid's financing ability despite political uncertainty over a corruption scandal.

The yen remained near lows against the dollar and the euro.

Data showed on Friday Japan logged a current account deficit for a second straight month in December, resulting in its smallest annual surplus on record in 2012, with evidence of deteriorating trade balances supporting the yen's weakening trend.

"Japan will remain a nation of current account surpluses but the surplus will not be as high as it used to be," said Takeshi Minami, chief economist at Norinchukin Research Institute in Tokyo.

The dollar eased 0.1 percent to 93.53 yen after reaching 94.075 yen, its highest since May 2010 on Wednesday. The euro inched up 0.1 percent to 125.43 yen, having hit its strongest since April 2010 of 127.71 yen on Wednesday.

"Currencies are increasingly becoming part of the policy debate...In the case of the EUR, we believe that the bullish 'overshooting' trend will remain intact as ECB policy continues to promote an asset market friendly environment," Morgan Stanley said in a note.

Morgan Stanley added that the anticipation of the Bank of Japan taking bolder easing steps is set to keep the weak yen trend going, supporting global risk appetite.

U.S. crude futures and Brent were both up 0.2 percent to $96.01 a barrel and $117.48 respectively.

London copper added 0.5 percent to $8,241 a tonne.

(Editing by Eric Meijer)

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Lens Blog: Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen's Photos of Her Newcastle Neighborhood

On clear days in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, a small yet bustling working-class city in northeast England, the view from the hills of Byker can be spectacular. That shabby neighborhood’s rows of brick houses and terraced streets overlook a historic city center, the river and sometimes far beyond.

Those vistas were rare in 1969, when Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, a 21-year-old Finnish photographer, arrived. The landscape was cloaked in an industrial fog belched from the coal and shipbuilding industries.

Despite the grayness, the laughter and vivacity that radiated from this close-knit community appealed to Ms. Konttinen. It welcomed a young foreigner whose presence stoked curiosity, but also generosity. They joked with her in pubs. Some of the older women took her under their wing — she kindled a protective instinct in them.

“People were baffled by my choice to live there,” Ms. Konttinen recalled. “Not that many people had any idea where Finland was, but if they did, they thought it such a beautiful clean country, and why would I choose to come to Byker?”

She had ventured there because of Amber Collective, a progressive documentary project that she helped found, which chronicled the lives of working people in northeast England. The group was formed in London by a handful of students who made a film following Vietnam War demonstrations at Grosvenor Square that turned violent. Titled “All You Need Is Dynamite,” it was just a student effort, but its makers found they shared a philosophy.

Before long, they had relocated to Newcastle.

The city was in decline. Urban planners sought flashy new development projects, and some sections, like Byker, were scheduled for demolition. Ms. Konttinen was unaware that she was documenting a place that was about to disappear. Not drawn to gloomy topics, she found the place spirited and interesting.

“Initially, I don’t think we ever thought that we need to document it because it will be the only thing left for people to remember the place and what the area was like,” she said. “I personally have never felt that that was my mission.”

The Amber Collective has produced an enormous amount of material, dating back decades, that is focused on the communities of northeast England, although Ms. Konttinen’s Byker pictures are probably the collective’s best-known project. That work was published as a book in 1983; Amber also released a film companion of the same name, and in 2011 her documentation was registered with the Unesco U.K. Memory of the World. For the first time in a commercial art space, photographs from the series will be shown in the United States, on view at the L. Parker Stephenson Gallery from Feb. 15 through May 11. Ms. Konttinen will also deliver a lecture at the International Center for Photography on Feb. 13.

In recent years, she returned to Byker. The new Byker is changed — more on that Friday — and the changes required her to reconsider her approach when she decided to photograph it. The newer project, “Byker Revisited,” is a result of a far more collaborative endeavor. Not that she hadn’t collaborated in other ways with a subject before. Her 1971 photo of Heather (Slide 3) brought about one such relationship.

“I heard music coming from a derelict house,” she said. “This was one of the last terraces before the final demolition, and there were no steps left to the house, but upstairs I heard music, piano, coming out the windows.”

She entered the house, climbing a rickety staircase to where the music was coming from. She found a girl, Heather, “playing the piano, banging the notes that were kind of stuck and unstuck.”

Ms. Konttinen and Heather started talking, and Ms. Konttinen taught her a simple tune.

“I told her if she ever wanted to come and play, she could come and play it again on my piano,” Ms. Konttinen said. Heather showed up a few days later, with her little brother. On Ms. Konttinen’s piano, they played the tune together.

---

Friday: Returning to Byker, in color.

Photographs from “Byker” will be on view at the L. Parker Stephenson Gallery from Feb. 15 through May 11. Ms. Konttinen will also deliver a lecture at the International Center for Photography on Feb. 13.

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LibreOffice, a Free Alternative to Office, Is New and Improved

I understand that some people need Microsoft Office – that for the sake of compatibility, familiarity and features, nothing else will do.

But anyone who doesn’t feel that way should consider trying LibreOffice, a free, open-source alternative. The new version, LibreOffice 4, offers better compatibility and more features than the previous version, along with lots of under the hood improvements.

I’ve been a happy LibreOffice 3 user for about a year, and I wouldn’t say the new version is a drastic change — at least not on its face. Perhaps the most significant new feature is the ability to attach comments to a range of text, not just a single point, which will help improve compatibility with Office documents.

But the lack of flashy changes is okay, I think. While Microsoft seems to make a point of shaking up the look and feel of each new version of its Office suite, part of LibreOffice’s allure is how it stays the same. (In fact, if you hated the Ribbon layout of Office 2007 and beyond, I’d argue that LibreOffice is just the respite you’re looking for.)

Like I said, not everyone will be able to work with LibreOffice. But in my experience it handles basic compatibility very well. It supports all Office file formats, has all the major features you might expect, and gets the job done for typical document and spreadsheet editing. Give it a shot if your office software needs don’t justify Microsoft’s $ 140-and-up asking price.

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American Idol: It's a Guys' Night in Hollywood

TV Watch

American Idol

By Jamie Bufalino

02/06/2013 at 11:00 PM EST

From left: Randy Jackson, Mariah Carey, Ryan Seacrest, Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban

George Holz/FOX

Caution: Contains spoilers!

"It does feel a bit like The Hunger Games," said Keith Urban, ramping up the drama as American Idol kicked off the first day of Hollywood Week. Although producers didn't unleash any tracker jackers on the contestants, they did throw in a couple unexpected twists: This season the week started off as a guys-only competition (the girls arrive in Hollywood next week), and after surviving a round of sudden death solo sing-offs, contestants would then be put into groups from which they couldn't escape.

During the solo round, the standouts included two memorable contestants from the nationwide auditions. First up, Navy man Micah Johnson, who developed a speech impediment after suffering through a botched surgery to remove his tonsils. After a rousing rendition of Elton John's "Bennie and the Jets," Johnson was the first to get the green light to the next round.

Joining him soon after was Cuban-American Lazaro Arbos, a 21-year-old ice cream scooper from Naples, Fla., who speaks with a severe stutter but sings with ease. Although Arbos admitted to being both "scared" and "petrified," he quickly won the judges over – Nicki Minaj made her fingers into a heart-shape while he sang – with his take on the Robbie Williams hit, "Angels."

When it came time to form groups of four, the Idol producers threw a few more curveballs – such as pairing a couple of country crooners with two flamboyant (think glitter and faux fur) dudes Ryan Seacrest described as the show's "resident divas."

The result: a quartet that dubbed themselves Country Queen, which delivered a train wreck of a performance. Still, somehow three of the four made it through.

Meanwhile, Arbos's group experience also proved to be a bit of a disaster – which some of his cohorts blamed on his inability to quickly learn the lyrics and melody to the Beach Boys hit "Wouldn't It Be Nice." Although his main nemesis got the boot, a tearful Arbos got the chance to sing another day.

The day of auditions came to a close with what was possibly the most heartbreaking Idol exit ever. New York City subway singer Frankie Ford got a case of the jitters before going on stage, then proceeded to screw up the lyrics and sing off key – leaving the judges no choice but to pull the plug on his dreams. Before walking off into the night, a sobbing Ford stared into the camera and said, "I swear to God I'm coming back next year and I'm going to win."

There will be more solos Thursday (8 p.m. ET), as the judges have to whittle the 43 men left in the competition down to 20 lucky fellas.

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New whooping cough strain in US raises questions

NEW YORK (AP) — Researchers have discovered the first U.S. cases of whooping cough caused by a germ that may be resistant to the vaccine.

Health officials are looking into whether cases like the dozen found in Philadelphia might be one reason the nation just had its worst year for whooping cough in six decades. The new bug was previously reported in Japan, France and Finland.

"It's quite intriguing. It's the first time we've seen this here," said Dr. Tom Clark of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The U.S. cases are detailed in a brief report from the CDC and other researchers in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

Whooping cough is a highly contagious disease that can strike people of any age but is most dangerous to children. It was once common, but cases in the U.S. dropped after a vaccine was introduced in the 1940s.

An increase in illnesses in recent years has been partially blamed on a version of the vaccine used since the 1990s, which doesn't last as long. Last year, the CDC received reports of 41,880 cases, according to a preliminary count. That included 18 deaths.

The new study suggests that the new whooping cough strain may be why more people have been getting sick. Experts don't think it's more deadly, but the shots may not work as well against it.

In a small, soon-to-be published study, French researchers found the vaccine seemed to lower the risk of severe disease from the new strain in infants. But it didn't prevent illness completely, said Nicole Guiso of the Pasteur Institute, one of the researchers.

The new germ was first identified in France, where more extensive testing is routinely done for whooping cough. The strain now accounts for 14 percent of cases there, Guiso said.

In the United States, doctors usually rely on a rapid test to help make a diagnosis. The extra lab work isn't done often enough to give health officials a good idea how common the new type is here, experts said.

"We definitely need some more information about this before we can draw any conclusions," the CDC's Clark said.

The U.S. cases were found in the past two years in patients at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. One of the study's researchers works for a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, which makes a version of the old whooping cough vaccine that is sold in other countries.

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JournaL: http://www.nejm.org

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Asian shares pause, caution before ECB

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares and the euro paused on Thursday, with investors seeking clues from European Central Bank President Mario Draghi on growth prospects for the euro zone economy at a policy meeting later in the day, amid optimism that the worst may be over.

Japanese equities underperformed Asian bourses as a break in the yen selling pulled them from Wednesday's four-year peak. But shorter-dated Japanese government debt rallied, sending two-year JGB yields to their lowest since September 2002 at 0.030 percent, on expectations that the central bank will cut interest rates to zero.

The yen's broad weakness has been driven by expectations for radical reflationary policy from the Bank of Japan, under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's push for a mix of anti-deflation policies.

"Hopes for 'Abenomics' are supporting the mood, but investors are also sensitive to the currency moves, so right now, even small uncertainty on Europe can be a reason to pull back," said Hiroichi Nishi, an assistant general manager at SMBC Nikko Securities.

Japan's Nikkei stock average <.n225> fell 0.8 percent, as investors took profits on export-driven firms. The benchmark closed at its highest level since October 2008 the day before when the yen slipped to fresh lows. <.t/>

The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan <.miapj0000pus> was down 0.1 percent near a one-week low, after reaching a 18-month high on Monday. Asia tracked overnight lackluster U.S. stocks, with Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> ending nearly flat after a five-year high earlier in the week.

Australian shares gained 0.3 percent, outperforming their Asian peers, on a rise in iron ore prices supporting the top miners and on higher earnings from National Australia Bank and Telstra Corp. Australian jobs data for January beat market expectations.

Recent data suggesting a moderate global economic recovery, even if it lacked strong momentum, underpinned industrial metals, keeping London copper prices near four-month highs and platinum and palladium near their highest level in 17 months on hopes of a better demand.

Data from deflation-swamped Japan was also positive, with the country's core machinery orders surging unexpectedly in December for a third straight month of increases and firms expect more improvement in the first quarter.

But analysts said Asian economies were still relying on exports to power their way to growth.

"One of the pillars of our bullish view on Asian currencies at the start of the year was the theme of global rebalancing, in which Asian economies would move away from export-dependent growth models towards a more domestic demand-driven model, allowing their currencies to appreciate to dampen their export competitiveness in favor of stronger terms of trade," said Morgan Stanley in a research note.

"However, Asian economies have been slower in the rebalancing process than we had envisioned, as seen by the heavy physical and verbal FX intervention this year."

FATE OF DRAGHI MAGIC

Growing optimism that the euro zone economy may be nearing a bottom has propelled the euro to a 14-1/2-month high against the dollar, a 34-month peak against the yen and 15-month top on sterling.

The ECB is expected to keep interest rates at a record low 0.75 percent at later on Thursday. Traders will focus on any comments about the euro's recent strength as well as the bank's view on the euro zone economy.

Vassili Serebriakov, strategist at BNP Paribas, said the ECB will likely reason that the euro's strength is due to real improvement in the financial markets and economic outlook, and thus does not warrant immediate action.

"That said, our economists suggest that Mr. Draghi will probably soften the overall tone at the press conference, signaling that easing options are still available if needed," Serebriakov wrote in a client note.

Draghi's strong verbal commitment to defend the euro and the ECB's new bond-buying scheme to help ease funding strains in highly indebted euro zone members had significantly reduced risks of the region crumbling under the weight of its debt woes.

But a corruption scandal in Spain and uncertainty over the outcome of an Italian election later this month brought market focus back to the region's potential political instability.

Later on Thursday, Spain will test investor appetite by offering up to 4.5 billion euros of bonds.

The euro eased 0.1 percent to $1.3505. It hit a 14-1/2-month high against the dollar of $1.3711 last week and a 34-month peak against the yen of 127.71 on Thursday.

The dollar eased 0.2 percent to 93.45 yen after touching 94.075 yen, its highest since May 2010 on Wednesday. The euro fell 0.3 percent at 126.17 yen, off Wednesday's 127.71 yen, its strongest since April 2010.

U.S. crude rose 0.2 percent to $96.81 a barrel.

(Additional reporting by Ian Chua in Sydney and Ayai Tomisawa in Tokyo; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

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