Friday was a tragic day

A close friend of mine died in a car crash on his way back from Edmonton. Joneson Chiang used to work for Syncrude and was a very hard working individual. We went to lunch a few weeks ago and he was so excited about his wife moving to Fort McMurray. I will miss him a lot and I wish that his family is coping well with the tragedy. It is really sad. The authority must do something to keep impaired drivers off the highway.

The market was in a mess last week. It’s correcting. I am not sure what to expect this week. I just hope that we see some recovery going forward. The projects are not moving here in Fort McMurray. I am not too optimistic about this year. It looks like a year to forget. We just want to forget 2009 and look to the future.

- NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil prices dropped to $69 a barrel Monday at the start of a week filled with third quarter company earnings reports that could hint at the health of the U.S. economy. Benchmark crude for November deliver fell 71 cents to $69.24 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost 87 cents to settle at $69.95 on Friday. PFGBest analyst Phil Flynn said swelling U.S. crude supplies are staggering, but the dire state of the jobs market is also hitting the energy markets. "Welcome to the jobless economic recovery that should reduce oil demand expectations even further as we look out into our future," Flynn said in his morning report. Weak economic data weighed on crude prices last week. The U.S. reported worse than expected manufacturing and jobs numbers, with the unemployment rate rising to 9.8 percent in September, the highest since 1983. "Economic and oil data remain consistent with a macro economy just beginning to push off the trough, leaving markets with a lack of clear direction," Goldman Sachs said in a report. The oil markets also slipped on geopolitical news out of Nigeria, where a rebel leader accepted a government amnesty offer to disarm. Unrest in the country has cut its oil production by a million barrels a day, allowing Angola to overtake it as Africa's top oil producer.

- TOKYO (AP) -- Japanese automaker Mazda now expects about half the red ink it previously forecast for the fiscal year, crediting a rise in demand from "green" car incentives, and said it will raise $1.1 billion to fund research and development. Mazda Motor Corp. on Monday revised its forecast for the fiscal year through March 2010 to a 26 billion yen ($289.5 million) net loss -- about half the 50 billion yen ($556.8 million) loss that Japan's No. 4 automaker had projected in May. Mazda also said it will issue new common stock later this month that will reduce former U.S. alliance partner Ford Motor Co.'s stake to 11 percent from 13.8 percent. The automaker will issue 460 million shares from Oct. 14 to Oct. 20, raising as much as 95.9 billion yen ($1.1 billion) for research and development into green cars and safety features. In forecasting a smaller loss, Hiroshima-based Mazda said global sales for the fiscal year were expected to be stronger by 55,000 vehicles, rising to 1.155 million, from the earlier forecast of 1.1 million, helped by strong sales of the its high mileage Mazda3, called Axela in Japan.

- NEW YORK (AP) -- The U.S. service sector grew in September for the first time in 13 months, an encouraging sign for the fledgling economic recovery, although jobs remain scarce. The Institute for Supply Management said Monday that its service index hit 50.9 last month, up from 48.4 in August. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected a reading of 50, the dividing line between growth and contraction. The index, which tracks more than 80 percent of the country's economic activity, including hospitals, retailers, financial services companies and truckers, hadn't grown since August 2008.
The good news:
-- The new orders index, an indicator of future activity, jumped to 54.2 in September from 49.9 a month before, the first growth reading in a year.
-- Businesses' backlog of orders grew for the first time in 14 months.
-- Present business activity rose to 55.1 from 51.3 in August, growing for the second straight month after 10 straight contractions.
The ISM report is based on a survey of the institute's members in 18 industries and covers indicators such as new orders, employment and inventories. Five industries grew last month: utilities, health care, retail, construction and wholesale trade. And while activity is rising, only three areas reported an increase in jobs: health care, support services for companies and educational services. Overall, service-sector employment shrank in September, though at a slightly slower pace than in August. The survey's reading of 44.3, up from 43.5, was the 20th month of contraction in 21 months. "Better, but still terrible," Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist for High Frequency Economics, wrote in a research note. Other analysts said any hiring tends to lag increased production. "We won't likely see increased hiring until January," even if business and new orders keep rising this fall, said Bank of America Merrill Lynch economist Ethan Harris. "Businesses are more reluctant than in the past to start the hiring process. They really do take the 'prove it to me' attitude" that the recession is over and demand is increasing, he said. Last week, for example, Little Rock, Arkansas-based telecom services provider Windstream Corp. said it would cut 350 jobs, or 5 percent of its work force, this year.

- ISLAMABAD – A suicide bomber disguised as a security officer struck the lobby of the U.N. food agency's Pakistan headquarters Monday, killing five people a day after the new leader of the Pakistani Taliban vowed fresh assaults, authorities and witnesses said. The blast raises questions as to how the bomber managed to evade tight security at the heavily fortified World Food Program compound in the capital, Islamabad. It could also hamper the work of WFP and other aid agencies assisting Pakistanis displaced by army offensives against al-Qaida and the Taliban in their strongholds close to the Afghan border. Hours after the attack, the world body said it was closing its offices in Pakistan temporarily. "This is a heinous crime committed against those who have been working tirelessly to assist the poor and vulnerable on the front lines of hunger and other human suffering in Pakistan," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters in Geneva. Ban said the U.N. will continue its humanitarian assistance to more than 2 million Pakistanis. WFP spokesman Amjad Jamal said the food agency would not halt its aid to refugees fleeing fighting between militants and the army even while its offices were shut. "I want to repeat it again that our operations have not been halted." There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing. Militants have carried out scores of suicide attacks in Pakistan over the last 2 1/2 years, several of them targeting foreigners and their interests. Under U.S. pressure, Pakistani security forces have recently had some success combatting the extremists. Islamist militants in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq seeking to attack high-profile Western targets have shown no hesitation in targeting foreign humanitarian agencies, including the United Nations, regardless of the work they are doing in relieving the suffering in the countries.

- WASHINGTON – And we're off: Swine flu vaccinations begin Monday with squirts in the noses scheduled for some doctors, nurses and other health workers in Indiana and Tennessee, a first step in a hugely ambitious campaign to try to inoculate over half the population in a few months. But don't start bugging your doctor about an appointment just yet. This week's initial shipments to states are so small that, with a few exceptions for children, most states are reserving them for health workers so they'll stay healthy enough to care for the flu-stricken and vaccinate others. Inoculations won't gear up in earnest until mid-October, when at least 40 million doses against what scientists call the 2009 H1N1 flu will have rolled out, with more arriving each week after that. This is uncharted territory — you really can't plan too far ahead to say, "I'll schedule my shot on Oct. 16 at Clinic X." Only as shipments start arriving will local doctors, clinics, school vaccination programs and drugstores get word that their doses are coming and how much. Each state health department decides that. People will have to stay tuned. "Take a deep breath, be patient, wait a couple of days, make another phone call and cut everyone a little slack, because it's a little hectic out there, folks," says Dr. William Schaffner, a flu vaccine specialist at Vanderbilt University.
Here's what you need to know:
Q: Why not wait to start until there's enough for everybody instead of the confusing here-and-there vaccinations?
A: Even though Sunday was the official start of flu season, this H1N1 wasn't heeding the calendar — it's already causing illness in nearly every state. That means getting vaccine to the people at highest risk is a race. So each week, states will distribute however much they have on hand.
Q: If factories are still racing vaccine out the door, how can I be sure it's safe?
A: The Food and Drug Administration clears batches of vaccine before they're released. The H1N1 vaccine is made in the same way as the regular winter flu vaccine that is used with very few, minor side effects by nearly 100 million Americans a year. There's no biological reason the H1N1 vaccine should react any differently, and no red flags have appeared in studies of several thousand people.
"What I want people to know is that no corners have been cut at all," said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Q: Why is the nasal-spray vaccine arriving before the shots, and can I use either one?
A: They're considered equally effective, but the maker of the squirt-in-the-nose FluMist was able to finish brewing sooner. There is an important difference, though. Flu shots, made of killed flu virus, are for anyone without an egg allergy. FluMist, besides the egg issue, is only for use in healthy people ages 2 to 49 — no pregnancy or underlying conditions. It's made of live but weakened flu virus. So some people on the first-in-line list for the new H1N1 vaccine aren't eligible for FluMist.
Q: Who's first in line once enough vaccine arrives?
A: Pregnant women; the young, ages 6 months through 24 years; people younger than 64 who have conditions such as asthma or diabetes that increase the risk of complications from flu; health workers and caregivers of newborns.
Q: I thought flu was most dangerous to people 65 and older.
A: Regular winter flu is most dangerous to older adults, but the new H1N1 is predominantly striking the young.
Q: How many shots, or squirts, will I need?
A: Most people will need one dose each of the H1N1 vaccine and the regular winter flu vaccine. But health authorities believe children under 10 will need two doses of the H1N1 vaccine, about three weeks apart. And some very young children getting their first regular flu vaccination will need two doses of it, too, for a total a four inoculations.
Q: Can I get both types of vaccine at the same visit?
A: If you're lucky enough to find a provider who has both at the same time, a jab in each arm is OK, or a jab of one and a squirt of the other. If you opt for the FluMist version of each vaccine, however, you're supposed to wait three to four weeks between squirts.
Q: What if I'm not on the high-risk list and want H1N1 vaccine anyway?
A: Only some will be physically reserved, doses sent to schools or obstetricians, for example. But eventually enough is expected for everyone who wants it within just a few weeks. The government doesn't expect people to be turned away unless that day's supplies run out.
Q: What will it cost?
A: The H1N1 vaccine itself is free because the government bought it with your tax dollars. But providers can charge a small fee for administering it, usually about $20. Regular flu shots tend to cost up to $35.

- STOCKHOLM – Americans Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak won the 2009 Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for discovering a key mechanism in the genetic operations of cells, an insight that has inspired new lines of research into cancer. It was the first time two women have been among the winners of the medicine prize. The trio solved the mystery of how chromosomes, the rod-like structures that carry DNA, protect themselves from degrading when cells divide.
The Nobel citation said the laureates found the solution in the ends of the chromosomes — features called telomeres that are often compared to the plastic tips at the end of shoe laces that keep those laces from unraveling. Blackburn and Greider discovered the enzyme that builds telomeres — telomerase — and the mechanism by which it adds DNA to the tips of chromosomes to replace genetic material that has eroded away. The prize-winners' work, done in the late 1970s and 1980s, set the stage for research suggesting that cancer cells use telomerase to sustain their uncontrolled growth. Scientists are studying whether drugs that block the enzyme can fight the disease. In addition, scientists believe that the DNA erosion the enzyme repairs might play a role in some illnesses. "The discoveries by Blackburn, Greider and Szostak have added a new dimension to our understanding of the cell, shed light on disease mechanisms, and stimulated the development of potential new therapies," the prize committee said in its citation. Ten women have won the prestigious medicine award since the first Nobel Prizes were handed out in 1901, but it was the first time that two women were honored in the same year.