Metra to install defibrillators throughout system

(Tribune illustration / March 13, 2012)

Staff report

7:59 p.m. CST, December 21, 2012

Hundreds of defibrillators will be installed on all of Metra’s trains, officials said today.

The commuter rail line plans to equip its trains with nearly 300 of the automatic external defibrillators, according to a news release.

Another 125 of the devices will be installed “throughout work facilities and Metra police vehicles,” the release said.

Metra is partnering in the effort with Northwestern Memorial Hospital, the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Cardiac Science.

chicagobreaking@tribune.com
Twitter: @ChicagoBreaking

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Venezuela's VP Maduro a "poor copy" of Chavez: opposition

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's opposition mocked President Hugo Chavez's chosen successor Nicolas Maduro on Friday as a "poor copy" of his boss who should be promoting national unity rather than insulting opponents during a delicate time for the South American nation.

In power since 1999, Chavez named vice president and foreign minister Maduro as his preferred replacement should he be incapacitated by the cancer he is battling in Cuba.

Since the December 11 operation, Maduro, 50, a former bus driver and union leader who shares Chavez's socialist politics, has been fronting day-to-day government in Venezuela while the president has been neither seen nor heard from in public.

Though lacking Chavez's booming charisma, Maduro has borrowed elements of his style - speaking regularly and lengthily on live TV, inaugurating public works, rallying supporters and attacking "bourgeois" opponents at every turn.

He even used one of Chavez's old catch phrases to gloat that Sunday's regional vote, where Chavez allies won 20 of 23 governorships, smashed the opposition into "cosmic dust."

The opposition Democratic Unity coalition reacted angrily.

"Vice President Nicolas Maduro has begun his temporary rule badly," it said in a withering statement, accusing him of ignoring Venezuela's pressing social, economic and political problems while falling back on antagonistic speeches.

"Mr. Maduro, the country expects better from you than a bad imitation of your boss. ... In his rhetoric, Maduro hides the leadership crisis in government given President Chavez's absence. He hides his weakness with shouts and threats."

"Don't waste the opportunity to create a wide national consensus," the statement said.

After an extraordinary year - in which Chavez proclaimed himself cured from the cancer that has dogged him since mid-2011, won a presidential election, then disappeared for new surgery - Venezuelans are heading into an uncertain 2013.

Government officials say Chavez, 58, is lucid and recovering in a hospital, but have acknowledged he is still suffering a respiratory infection after his operation and needs total rest.

Speculation is rife that his condition is life-threatening, and there is uncertainty over whether Chavez will be able to return to start his new term on January 10.

IN-FIGHTING?

The stakes are huge in Venezuela's political drama.

Beyond its borders, Venezuela helps sustain an alliance of left-wing Latin American governments from Cuba to Bolivia via oil subsidies and other economic aid.

Should Chavez be forced to vacate power, a new election would be held within 30 days, with the probable scenario a straight competition between Maduro and opposition leader Henrique Capriles, who lost to Chavez in the October vote.

There are rumors of in-fighting within "Chavismo" - the wide movement of military men and hard-left ideologues that has ruled for the last 14 years. Yet in public, the senior figures have repeatedly vowed unity and loyalty to Chavez.

Apart from Maduro, the two most powerful men are Congress head Diosdado Cabello and Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez.

"You know, there is a campaign from abroad and by the national right wing to try and divide us," Maduro said in one of a string of speeches on Friday at ceremonies to celebrate the pro-Chavez governors' election wins.

"Every day, they say we're fighting, that Diosdado is Joseph Stalin and I am Leon Trotsky. Ridiculous, ridiculous and more ridiculous! ... We've never been more united."

Cabello, a former military comrade of Chavez viewed by Venezuelans as the hard man in government with possible presidential ambitions of his own, stirred controversy this week by suggesting that the January 10 inauguration date could be delayed to accommodate Chavez's recovery.

Confusion over that and any tensions within the ruling Socialist Party threaten to create a difficult transition to any post-Chavez government in the OPEC nation with the world's largest crude oil reserves.

Former soldier Chavez has vastly expanded presidential powers and built a near-cult following among millions of poor Venezuelans, who love his feisty language and pouring of funds into welfare projects in the nation's slums.

Smarting from defeats in the presidential and state polls in quick succession, the opposition coalition is trying to keep Venezuelans' attention on a raft of unresolved problems, from a soaring black market in currency to rampant crime.

"The economy is in dust. Citizens' security is in dust. Public services are in dust. The only thing that isn't is corruption in government," the coalition statement said.

(Additional reporting by Daniela Desantis in Asuncion; editing by Todd Eastham)

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Bank of Japan to mull 2 percent inflation target as Abe turns up heat

The Bank of Japan will ease monetary policy this week and consider adopting a 2 percent inflation target no later than in January, sources say, responding to pressure from next Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for stronger efforts to beat deflation.

Turning up the heat, Abe made a rare, direct push for a higher inflation target when BOJ Governor Masaaki Shirakawa visited the headquarters of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on Tuesday.

"I told him that during my election campaign, I called for setting a policy accord with the BOJ and a 2 percent inflation target," Abe told reporters. "The governor just listened," he said when asked how Shirakawa responded.

The LDP swept to power in Sunday's lower house election after campaigning for big fiscal spending to revive the economy and "unlimited" monetary easing to achieve higher inflation in a country mired in deflation for the past 15 years.

A day after the election, Abe called on the BOJ to boost its monetary stimulus at a two-day meeting that ends on Thursday and pressed it to adopt a 2 percent inflation target, double its current price goal, as soon as next month.

Under pressure, the central bank will likely ease policy this week amid looming risks to Japan's economic outlook, sources familiar with its thinking have told Reuters, and may also start debating how to meet Abe's calls to set a higher price target.

Abe will form a new cabinet on December 26 and is seen choosing Taro Aso as finance minister, Japanese media said, a former prime minister expected to toe the party's line calling for aggressive easing and public works splurge.

That means the central bank will be under pressure to respond again at its policy-setting meeting on January 21-22, when it is set to cut its economic forecast for the year ending in March 2013 due to the widening pain from slowing global growth.

"Abe's comments have really raised expectations for easing this week," said Norio Miyagawa, senior economist at Mizuho Securities Research & Consulting in Tokyo.

"I think the BOJ will deliver with increased purchases of government debt. Next year could also be a big year for monetary policy easing, because of the inflation target debate and a change in leadership at the BOJ."

Fourteen of 19 economists polled by Reuters last week said they expected the BOJ to ease this week, most likely by increasing its 91 trillion yen ($1 trillion) asset buying and lending program by up to 10 trillion yen.

The BOJ currently has a 1 percent inflation target but has said this is a goal for the time being, and that it considers a range of zero to 2 percent as long-term desirable price growth.

The central bank may thus opt to clarify that after the 1 percent inflation is met, it will aim for 2 percent inflation as a long-term policy goal, to meet demands from Abe for more aggressive monetary stimulus.

The BOJ and the government may issue a joint statement, similar to one crafted in October between the central bank and the outgoing government led by the Democratic Party, pledging to take measures to aim for 2 percent inflation in the long run, the sources said.

SEEK CLOSER TIES WITH U.S.

Shirakawa told reporters he did not discuss monetary policy with Abe, and that he only visited to pay respect. It is rare for a premier or a would-be prime minister to reveal what was discussed at a closed-door meeting with a central bank governor.

The BOJ has eased monetary policy four times so far this year via an increase in its asset-buying and lending program. But politicians like Abe have criticized the central bank for not doing enough to end 15 years of grinding deflation in Japan.

Some central bankers are keen to boost stimulus again, with the world's third-largest economy already in mild recession and unlikely to rebound strongly early next year due to weak exports to China and the potential impact from the U.S. "fiscal cliff."

Any BOJ action on Thursday will likely take the form of a further increase in its asset-buying program. But central bankers, feeling the heat, have been privately pondering options for next year including setting a higher inflation target and buying government bonds more aggressively.

Through such steps, they hope to stave off threats by Abe of revising the BOJ law guaranteeing its independence.

But there is strong resistance within the BOJ on setting a 2 percent inflation target in a country that has barely seen price growth exceed 1 percent in the past two decades. Japan's core consumer inflation was flat in October from a year earlier after five straight months of declines.

BOJ officials close to the conservative Shirakawa are wary of setting a higher price target without having effective means of achieving it. They also fret that pumping too much money into the economy could brew seeds of imbalances, such as sharp rises in asset prices, in the long-term.

But Abe, whose LDP and its small ally New Komeito captured a two-thirds majority in Sunday's landslide victory, has swiftly moved to press his agenda.

On Tuesday, Abe told reporters that he had agreed in a telephone call with U.S. President Barack Obama that the two would try to meet next month, part of a push to strengthen ties with Washington and give Japan a greater global security role.

The choice of Aso, 72, as finance minister suggests Abe is looking to experienced LDP lawmakers to fill key posts to avoid criticism that his ministers lack experience.

While Aso's views on monetary policy are little known, as prime minister he launched massive stimulus packages to combat the global financial crisis in 2008.

The new finance minister, along with the economics minister, can attend or send subordinates to BOJ policy-setting meetings. They cannot vote on policy decisions but can voice opinions and request a delay in a vote.

($1 = 83.7600 Japanese yen)

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