Bipartisan group of senators to unveil framework for immigration overhaul

A key group of senators from both parties will unveil on Monday the framework of a broad overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws, including a pathway to citizenship for more than 11 million illegal immigrants.

The detailed, four-page statement of principles will carry the signatures of four Republicans and four Democrats, a bipartisan push that would have been unimaginable just months ago on one of the country’s most emotionally divisive issues.

The document is intended to provide guideposts that would allow legislation to be drafted by the end of March, including a potentially controversial “tough but fair” route to citizenship for those now living in the country illegally.

[Do you think the new immigration plan will work? Discuss this and other immigration issues in The Washington Post’s new political forums.]

It would allow undocumented immigrants with otherwise clean criminal records to quickly achieve probationary legal residency after paying a fine and back taxes.

But they could pursue full citizenship — giving them the right to vote and access to government benefits — only after new measures are in place to prevent a future influx of illegal immigrants.

Those would include additional border security, a new program to help employers verify the legal status of their employees and more-stringent checks to prevent immigrants from overstaying visas.

And those undocumented immigrants seeking citizenship would be required to go to the end of the waiting list to get a green card that would allow permanent residency and eventual citizenship, behind those who had already legally applied at the time of the law’s enactment.

The goal is to balance a fervent desire by advocates and many Democrats to allow illegal immigrants to emerge from society’s shadows without fear of deportation with a concern held by many Republicans that doing so would only encourage more illegal immigration.

“We will ensure that this is a successful permanent reform to our immigration system that will not need to be revisited,” the group asserts in its statement of principles.

The framework identifies two groups as deserving of special consideration for a separate and potentially speedier pathway to full citizenship: young people who were brought to the country illegally as minors and agricultural workers whose labor, often at subsistence wages, has long been critical to the nation’s food supply.

Expanding visas

The plan also addresses the need to expand available visas for high-tech workers and promises to make green cards available for those who pursue graduate education in certain fields in the United States.

“We must reduce backlogs in the family and employment visa categories so that future immigrants view our future legal immigration system as the exclusive means for entry into the United States,” the group will declare.

The new proposal marks the most substantive bipartisan step Congress has taken toward new immigration laws since a comprehensive reform bill failed on the floor of the Senate in 2007.

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IMF grants Mali US$18m emergency loan

WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund agreed Monday to provide an US$18.4 million emergency loan to Mali, a move likely to lead other donors to release more funds after having cut off aid following the March 2012 coup.

The IMF executive board approved the loan under the Rapid Credit Facility aiming to help the government bridge a huge budget hole as its fights off an Islamist insurgency with French help.

Mali mission chief Christian Josz said the fund was confident that the country, battered by drought, the March coup and a rebellion by Islamist militants in the north, would stick to efforts at reducing its fiscal deficit and implementing economic reforms.

"We decided to go ahead with the board meeting (to decide the loan) in spite of the foreign military intervention because we could see that the authorities were still committed and eager to implement their program of fiscal prudence."

"At the same time we could also see that donors were prepared to re-engage in Mali and considered this operation of the IMF with Mali a precondition to re-engage."

Other donors include the World Bank, the European Union, the African Development Bank and individual countries.

The IMF board said the government's economic program was well-founded and called a resumption of aid from all donors "critical to Mali's economic recovery."

"The authorities' 2013 program appropriately reflects near-term priorities. It aims to maintain macroeconomic and financial stability by keeping spending in line with available revenues and avoiding the emergence of new arrears."

Josz told reporters in a briefing that after the Malian economy contracted by 1.5 per cent last year, growth could hit 4-5 per cent in 2013 if conditions, like the weather, stay positive.

The insurgency, which has drawn the intervention of French troops to help protect the government, remains focused in the north of Mali, while 95 per cent of the economy, heavily dependent on cotton farming and mining, is in the stable south.

"Of course there are many uncertainties. But we expect a recovery" this year, Josz said.

The success of the military intervention has reduced uncertainty in the south, he added, allowing a new gold mine to go ahead as well as an important investment by a third mobile carrier in the country.

Josz said the government had set a "minimalist" budget for 2013 that had not banked on foreign donors resuming aid.

The budget includes around US$300 million for security spending -- up 37 per cent in two years -- that leaves it with a large shortfall of US$110 million.

"With this approval by the IMF board... there is hope that these donors will together cover at least the US$110 million" fiscal gap, Josz said.

- AFP/jc

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SC commutes rapist-killer father's death

NEW DELHI: A man, released on parole after being arrested on wife's FIR accusing him of raping his minor daughter, came home and hacked to death his wife and daughter, but the Supreme Court on Monday found it not to be a "rarest of rare" crime and commuted his death penalty to imprisonment for entire life.

To deviate from the concurrent view of the trial court and the Punjab & Haryana high court to award death penalty to Mohinder Singh, the apex court bench of Justices P Sathasivam and F M I Kalifulla found a "significant factor": the man did not harm his other daughter who was present in the house during the incident on January 8, 2006.

It was probably more brutal than the Nirbhaya case. Singh was convicted for raping minor daughter and was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. The wife, who had lodged the rape case against her husband, had driven him out of the house. After being released on parole in January 2005, he had once attacked the wife.

But a year later, he came to his wife's house in a village near Ludhiana armed with a axe and hacked both her and the rape victim daughter in front of his other daughter. The prosecution narrated the sequence of events, recounting, "When the wife came to the lobby of the house, the accused hit her on the head with an axe. She fell on the ground and, thereafter, he gave two more blows on her neck and hand. Then, he attacked the daughter and gave three repeated blows on her head. Both of them died on the spot."

The prosecution said, "When he approached towards the other daughter, she went into a room and bolted it from inside. The accused fled the scene leaving behind the axe at the spot. After some time, the surviving daughter came out of the room and raised a hue and cry." The accused was arrested on the same day.

In converting the death penalty into imprisonment for entire life, the bench of Justices Sathasivam and Kalifulla said, " "One significant factor in this case, which we should not lose sight of is that he did not harm his other daughter even though he had a good chance for the same."

Justice Sathasivam, writing the judgment for the bench, said, "It was highlighted that he being a poor man and unable to earn his livelihood since he was driven out of his house by his deceased wife. It is also his claim that if he was allowed to live in the house, he could easily meet both his ends and means, as the money which he was spending by paying rent would have been saved. It is his further grievance that his deceased wife was adamant and he should live outside and should not lead happy married life and that was the reason that their relations were strained."

After taking note of Singh's plea, the apex court said, "This shows that the accused was feeling frustrated because of the attitude of his wife and children. Moreover, the probability of the offender's rehabilitation and reformation is not foreclosed in this case."

The court also relied on an affidavit filed by Singh's sister reflecting that the family had not entirely renounced him and concluded, "Hence, there is a possibility for reformation in the present appellant. Keeping in mind all these materials, we do not think that the present case warrants the award of death penalty."

"The appellant accused, therefore, instead of being awarded death penalty, is sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life, meaning thereby, the end of his life but subject to any remission granted by the appropriate government satisfying the conditions prescribed in law," the court added.

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Sicilian Mummies Bring Centuries to Life

Arrayed in crypts and churches, with leering skulls and parchment skin, the desiccated dead of Sicily have long kept mute vigil.

But now, centuries later, these creepy cadavers have plenty to say.

Five years into the Sicily Mummy Project, six macabre collections are offering scientists a fresh look at life and death on the Mediterranean island from the late 16th century to the mid-20th.

Led by anthropologist Dario Piombino-Mascali of the Department of Cultural Heritage and Sicilian Identity in Palermo (map), the ongoing investigation is revealing how religious men and their wealthy supporters ate, interacted, dealt with disease, and disposed of their dead.

"These mummies are a unique treasure in terms of both biology and history," says Piombino-Mascali, who is also a National Geographic Expeditions Council grantee. (National Geographic News is part of the National Geographic Society.) "They can tell us a lot if they are studied appropriately." (See pictures of Sicily's mummies from National Geographic.)

Show and Tell

In the case of the Sicilian mummies, that means x-ray exams and CT scans rather than invasive sampling and autopsy. Radiographic techniques preserve the specimens—the oldest of which dates to 1599, when Capuchin friars began mummifying clergy, then nobles and bourgeoisie who hoped to secure blessed afterlives—even as they peek inside.

And what lies within?

For one thing, evidence of a good diet, says Piombino-Mascali, whose international team includes scientists from Germany, Brazil, and the United States. Since most of the mummies were well off in life, they ate a balanced mix of meat, fish, grains, vegetables, and dairy products.

But that gastronomic affluence came with a price. Isotopic probes of the bones also show signs of maladies like gout and skeletal disease, which Piombino-Mascali says "tended to afflict the middle and upper classes in preindustrial societies."

And of course wealth couldn't protect them from aging. More than two-thirds of these bodies show signs of degenerative disorders, says Piombino-Mascali—"probably because most were old adults when they died." (From National Geographic magazine: Sicily's mummies offer lessons about life.)

Spilling His Guts

As work continues apace in Sicily, which operates as an autonomous region of Italy, discoveries are coming from unlikely places

Consider the studies performed by Karl Reinhard, a forensic scientist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He and his graduate students recently conducted a pilot program to see what they could glean just by examining intestines.

Their subject: "Piraino 1," a male in his 40s who lived at the turn of the 19th century, one of 26 mummies in the Piraino Mother Church's Sepulcher of the Priests in northeastern Sicily, which dates to the 16th Century.

Radiology revealed that he had multiple myeloma, a form of cancer. But the real surprise came when Reinhard's student Melissa Lien found evidence of milkwort, a pollen plant with antitumor agents used in China and Turkey but thought to be unknown in Sicily.

"That indicates that people here had an esoteric knowledge of medicinal plants," says Reinhard, whose team also found traces of grape pulp, a purgative with compounds effective in cancer treatment and cardiovascular disease. Based on the type of pulp, adds Reinhard, Piraino 1 likely died in the winter.

What's more, Reinhard's student Kelsey Kumm found an enormous whipworm infection—involving more than 600 worms—in the mummy's intestinal tract. Kumm concluded that because the man had been sick with other diseases, his immune system was vulnerable to whipworm, a fecal-borne parasitic disease usually associated with poverty.

"From all these intestinal findings we can put together a pretty interesting picture," says Reinhard. "Though this individual was well-to-do in life, one can speculate that his activities brought him into contact with the lower classes. This shows how we can create a thumbnail sketch—his disease, his diet, his time of death—from the inside of a mummy."

Mor(t)al Quandaries

Mummification in Sicilyian usually meant stowing a body in a ventilated chamber, draining it of bodily fluids, and stuffing it with straw or bay leaves, to preserve its shape and combat the stink of death. Months later it would be washed with vinegar, dressed in its Sunday best, and laid in a coffin or hung on a wall.

The more recently mummified—like two-year-old Rosalia "Sleeping Beauty" Lombardo, who died of pneumonia in 1920 and lies with 1,251 others in the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo—were embalmed with chemicals, and thus better preserved.

But for how much longer?

Piombino-Mascali is eager to perform DNA investigations on the mummies—including those at newly studied collections in the towns of Caccamo and Gangi, where wax was "peculiarly" used to create partial and complete death masks—to understand how they might be related. But with moisture, humidity, and dust preying on some of the collections, particularly those at Palermo and Piraino, time may be running out.

Piombino-Mascali says climate-control systems such as air conditioning are desperately needed, though it's unclear if the money or political will exist to put them in place.

"We need to act fast to save these mummies," he says. "It was the wish of these people to be mummified. So we have a moral [imperative] to preserve them."

Whatever comes next, Piombino-Mascali says his team's work has had an unexpectedly existential effect on the local populace.

"For many years the subject of death was taboo [in Sicily]," he says. "In the 20th century, things like the two world wars somehow influenced the approach Sicilians had toward death. They just didn't want to talk about it anymore.

"Now, given the scientific importance of what's emerging with these mummies, people are understanding that in Sicily, death has always been part of life. And for centuries many Sicilians were using mummification to make sure there was a constant relationship between life and death.

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Asia's gambling apartheid

SEOUL: The casino industry is booming across Asia, offering anyone looking for high-stakes action a wide choice of venues, from high-tech South Korea to the Himalayan nation of Nepal and communist Vietnam.

Anyone, that is, except South Koreans, Nepalese or Vietnamese.

For conservative Asian countries, the financial pros and social cons of casino gambling pose something of a dilemma - one that several have chosen to resolve by adopting a foreigner-only access policy.

The upsides are obvious in a region where rapid development has nurtured a taste and capacity for high-end leisure activities.

Casinos provide a consistent source of hard currency revenue, fuel tourism - especially from sought-after high rollers from mainland China - and boost the local economy.

Macau, now the world's largest gaming hub, saw its gaming revenue jump 13.5 percent to a record $38 billion in 2012.

But the social impact of gambling is equally well documented, in terms of addiction and broken families, as well as criminal activities like loan-sharking.

So a number of Asian countries have tried to have their cake and eat it, by building glitzy casinos but barring - or strictly limiting - entry to their own citizens.

Kim Jin-Gon, director of tourism in South Korea's Culture Ministry, cited a widely-held belief that Koreans are particularly susceptible to gambling addiction.

"Our feeling is that Korea does not have a mature culture that could enjoy gambling simply as a leisure activity," Kim said. "We block Koreans from casinos because the fallout would be too big."

South Korea's ban is not total. Of the country's 17 licensed casinos, one - Kangwon Land Resort - is open to locals.

Its remote location in a mountainous area, several hundred kilometres and a three-hour express bus ride from Seoul, was supposed to deter salarymen from nightly excursions during the working week.

But special "bullet taxis" offer a high-speed, white-knuckle service that promises to get punters there in half the time, and attendance and revenue figures seem to support the theories about Koreans' proclivity for gambling.

Kangwon Land pulls in an average 10,000 visitors a day - around five times the actual seating capacity - and boasted revenue of nearly 1.2 trillion won (1.1 billion dollars) in 2011, more than all the 16 foreigner-only casinos combined.

This despite rules that restrict any individual from gambling more than 15 days a month - ID cards must be shown - and impose a maximum house wager of 300,000 won ($280).

The overcrowding led to calls for other casinos to be opened to Koreans but the government has resisted, insisting that Kangwon Land was a one-off project with the sole aim of revitalising an economically depressed area.

Director Kim warned that other casinos, especially in major cities, would be swamped if access was extended to all.

"If we let Koreans in, there would be no room left for foreigners, which would defy the whole purpose of the casinos in the first place," he said.

Nepal and Vietnam operate 100 percent foreigner-only casino policies, although in the case of Nepal it's a regulation often observed in the breach.

Vietnam's first casino opened in 1992 and there are now seven, with two more in the pipeline.

According to the finance ministry, casinos generated around 1.5 trillion dong ($72 million) in tax revenues in 2012.

For Vietnamese nationals, all gambling apart from a state-run lottery is banned, although illegal betting - on everything from cock-fighting to English Premier League football matches - is widespread.

While Vietnamese gamblers have no access to a place like Kangwon Land, they can simply cross into Cambodia, where huge casinos have been built near the border that cater almost exclusively to Vietnamese tourists.

Cambodians, needless to say, are not legally allowed to gamble in their own casinos, though presumably they would be welcomed at those in Vietnam.

Perhaps aware of the contradictions thrown up by foreigner-only policies, Singapore has opted for a compromise of open casino access but with special restrictions for the island state's citizens and long-term residents.

A S$100 (US$80) entry fee aimed to filter out low-income gamblers, while any Singaporean who had filed for bankruptcy or received long-term financial state aid was automatically barred.

After a 2011 official survey showed an increasing proportion of low-income gamblers playing with large sums, the ban was expanded in June last year to include the unemployed and those on short-term welfare.

Casinos that fail to comply face a maximum fine that used to be capped at Sg$1.0 million but can now reach as high as 10 percent of annual gross gaming revenue.

Despite these measures, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong admitted during a visit to Australia in October that his government was still "watching anxiously" to determine the impact of the casino experiment.

"From a social point of view, we would like to say that it has been all right, but it is too early to say because the casinos have been operating only for two years and a half," Lee said.

Commercially, Singapore's two casino resorts have been an undeniable success, with a combined gaming revenue of around $5.0 billion in 2011.

That level of return has fuelled debate in countries like Japan about lifting its ban on casinos, which forces Japanese gamblers to travel to South Korea, Macau and Singapore to play the tables.

Taiwanese, meanwhile, may soon have a domestic option after the people of outlying Matsu island voted in July last year to open Taiwan's first legal casino.

The casino would be open to everyone except, perhaps inevitably, the Matsu islanders themselves.

- AFP/de

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BJP naming PM candidate could split NDA: Togadia

BHOPAL: Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Praveen Togadia on Sunday said that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) should not announce a prime ministerial candidate before the 2014 general elections. Togadia said that such an attempt would weaken the BJP and the NDA alliance.

"Announcing the name of PM candidate could work as a strategy in favour of UPA parties. It could split both the BJP and its NDA alliance partners. Best would be for BJP to democratically elect its leader after winning the elections,'' Togadia told reporters here.

Asked if VHP would support the BJP in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Togadia explained, "VHP neither supports nor opposes any political party or person. VHP's only intention is to strengthen Hindutva. However, we are not in favour of political parties that hit-out and defame Hindus.''

Togadia argued that recent controversy over Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde's comment on Hindu terrorism "is one such instance of how greed to placate minority vote-bank politics makes political parties to give statements that work in favour of Pakistan.''

"Rebellion against Hindus is equated with secularism presently. Congress party should pressurize home minister Shinde to withdraw his statement which might work out as an advantage to Pakistan on the international forum. And voters should start contemplating on such remarks and give a fitting reply to such allegations,'' he added.

Meanwhile, VHP stands firm on the issue of the disputed Bhojshala structure in Dhar in Madhya Pradesh. It could be yet another trying law and order situation as Basant Panchami fall on Friday, February 15 this year. "Bhojshala belongs to Hindus and Muslims have nothing to do with it. VHP will keep up the struggle for Bhojshala. There will be no compromise on the issue.''

Bhojshala is an 11th century Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) protected monument in Dhar town, 350 km south of Bhopal, which Hindus believe is a temple of goddess Waghdevi (Saraswati) while Muslims treat it as a mosque. In 2003, the VHP started a movement claiming the structure was a university established by Raja Bhoj with a temple of the goddess of learning inside the premises.

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Brazil Nightclub Fire: 232 Dead, Hundreds Injured

Flames raced through a crowded nightclub in southern Brazil early Sunday, killing more than 230 people as panicked partygoers gasped for breath in the smoke-filled air, stampeding toward a single exit partially blocked by those already dead. It appeared to be the world's deadliest nightclub fire in more than a decade.

Witnesses said a flare or firework lit by band members may have started the blaze in Santa Maria, a university city of about 225,000 people.

Television images showed smoke pouring out of the Kiss nightclub as shirtless young men who had attended a university party joined firefighters using axes and sledgehammers to pound at windows and walls to free those trapped inside.

Guido Pedroso Melo, commander of the city's fire department, told the O Globo newspaper that firefighters had a hard time getting inside the club because "there was a barrier of bodies blocking the entrance."

Teenagers sprinted from the scene desperately seeking help. Others carried injured and burned friends away in their arms.

"There was so much smoke and fire, it was complete panic, and it took a long time for people to get out, there were so many dead," survivor Luana Santos Silva told the Globo TV network.

The fire spread so fast inside the packed club that firefighters and ambulances could do little to stop it, Silva said.

Germano Roratto/AFP/Getty Images

Another survivor, Michele Pereira, told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that she was near the stage when members of the band lit flares that started the conflagration.

"The band that was onstage began to use flares and, suddenly, they stopped the show and pointed them upward," she said. "At that point, the ceiling caught fire. It was really weak, but in a matter of seconds it spread."

Guitarist Rodrigo Martins told Radio Gaucha that the band, Gurizada Fandangueira, started playing at 2:15 a.m. "and we had played around five songs when I looked up and noticed the roof was burning"

"It might have happened because of the Sputnik, the machine we use to create a luminous effect with sparks. It's harmless, we never had any trouble with it.

"When the fire started, a guard passed us a fire extinguisher, the singer tried to use it but it wasn't working"

He confirmed that accordion player Danilo Jacques, 28, died, while the five other members made it out safely.

Police Maj. Cleberson Braida Bastianello said by telephone that the toll had risen to 233 with the death of a hospitalized victim — he said earlier that the death toll was likely made worse because the nightclub appeared to have just one exit through which patrons could exit.

Officials counted 232 bodies that had been brought for identification to a gymnasium in Santa Maria, which is located at the southern tip of Brazil, near the borders with Argentina and Uruguay.

Federal Health Minister Alexandre Padhilha told a news conference that most of the 117 people treated in hospitals had been poisoned by gases they breathed during the fire. Only a few suffered serious burns, he said.

Brazil President Dilma Roussef arrived to visit the injured after cutting short her trip to a Latin American-European summit in Chile.

"It is a tragedy for all of us," Roussef said.

Most of the dead apparently were asphyxiated, according to Dr. Paulo Afonso Beltrame, a professor at the medical school of the Federal University of Santa Maria who went to the city's Caridade Hospital to help victims.

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Artur Davis considers bid for Virginia Senate or Congress

RICHMOND — Former congressman Artur Davis, who represented Alabama as a Democrat before moving to Virginia and the Republican Party, is considering a bid for the Virginia state senate or Congress, according to three Republicans with knowledge of his thinking.

Davis has met with a Virginia campaign consultant and several operatives to assess the viability of running for state Senate in 2015 or seeking the U.S. House seat held by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) if the congressman retires, according to two of those people, who asked not to be named in order to discuss a private matter. He has no intention of challenging Wolf, they said.

The third person, former Republican congressman Tom Davis, confirmed that Artur Davis talked to him recently about possible runs for various offices, including state Senate.

“If there’s a Senate seat that’s winnable, I’m sure he’d be interested,” said Tom Davis, who represented Northern Virginia. “He’d be an instant star.”

Davis, who lives in heavily Democratic Arlington, is said to be considering moving into a more competitive district. Reached via e-mail Saturday, he declined to comment.

“More and more people are moving into districts to run,” Tom Davis said. “Twenty years ago, that didn’t happen.”

The Virginian-Pilot reported that a new Senate map the GOP rammed through the chamber Monday has Artur Davis considering a Senate bid from Northern Virginia, perhaps for the seat held by Sen. Dave Marsden (D-Fairfax).

Tom Davis and the two other Republicans familiar with Artur Davis’s thinking said his interest in the Senate predates the surprise redistricting plan. Artur Davis is said to have been exploring his options since late December.

But the new map, which makes several districts more favorable to Republicans, seems to have moved his planning to the front burner.

“Republicans have told Davis that the map requires potential Republican candidates to get a stronger head start given that the affected Democratic incumbents will be ramping up their efforts, and that if it stands, it has upped the timetable for decision-making, given the certainty that a number of local Republicans will be looking at these districts too,” one of the Republicans familiar with Davis’s planning said via e-mail.

The redistricting measure creates a new majority-black district in Southside but also dilutes the black vote in at least eight other districts, making them more heavily Republican. The plan still must get past the House, Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) and a near-certain legal challenge from Democrats before it could take effect in 2015.

Time in the state Senate could help Davis establish himself for voters as both a Virginian and a Republican, several political observers said. In 2008, when he was still a Democratic congressman, Davis heartily seconded the nomination of Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention. He went on from there to lose a bid for Alabama governor, move to Virginia and declare himself a Republican — one featured speaker at last year’s Republican National Convention.

“He would be a very strong candidate for anything he wants to do, and I think right now he’s earning his stripes,” Tom Davis said.

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Sailing: Olympic sailing champion visits Singapore

SINGAPORE: Xu Lijia, the 25 year old who became the first Chinese to win a gold medal in the dinghy class after finishing first in the laser radial class at the 2012 London Olympics, is in town.

The Chinese athlete shared her experiences with local sailors at a talk, which attracted 500 participants. The talk also saw the launch of the Character Development Through Sailing programme.

The Shanghai native, who won bronze in the same class at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, said that it was not just about winning, but also enjoying the journey.

She had to beat many odds including injuries, physical limitations and the lack of a proper support structure for the sport in China.

"It is about promotion, promoting this sport not only in Singapore, China but... in whole of Asia. I hope that Asia can become stronger and stronger and (compete) with the European countries," she said.

- CNA/jc

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Swine flu pandemic infected at least one in five Indians: Study

LONDON: The 2009 global H5N1 swine flu pandemic - the first in over 41 years that swept throughout the globe in record time -- infected at least one in five Indians with the highest rates of infection being among children.

A joint Imperial College, London, and the World Health Organization global study released on Saturday found that 47% of those aged five to 19 showed signs of having caught the deadly influenza virus in India.

Older people were affected less, with only 11% of people aged 65 or above becoming infected.

The study analyzed data from 19 countries, including India, UK, US and China, to assess the global impact of the 2009 pandemic.

It collated results from over two dozen research studies involving more than 90,000 blood samples collected before, during and after the pandemic and showed that the virus that continues to infect and kill Indians now affected 20-27% people studied during the first year of the pandemic.

The study was published in "Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses" journal on January 26.

Imperial College's Dr Maria Van Kerkhove said, "This study is the result of a combined effort by more than 27 research groups worldwide, who all shared their data with us to help improve our understanding of the impact the pandemic had globally.'' She said the samples were tested for antibodies produced in response to the specific flu strain that caused the pandemic.

While this study did not set out to look at mortality, the authors also used previously published estimates of pandemic influenza mortality together with mortality estimates that are still in progress to estimate the proportion of people infected who died from the pandemic virus.

Based on an estimate of approximately 200,000 deaths, they suggest that the case fatality ratio was less than 0.02%.

The study said multiple exposures to previously circulating influenza viruses may have given older people some protection against the strain.

Blood samples from before the pandemic showed that 14% people aged 65 or above had antibodies that reacted to the 2009 strain.

WHO's Dr Anthony Mounts said, "Knowing the proportion of the population infected in different age groups and the proportion of those infected who died will help public health decision-makers plan for and respond to pandemics.'' He said this information will be used to quantify severity and develop mathematical models to predict how flu outbreaks spread and what effect different interventions may have."

The study said data used to estimate age-specific incidence were available from 11 countries and 12 studies. ``The overall incidence of H1N1 was 24% and varied significantly by age. The highest age-specific incidence was found among children 5-19 years old (46%) followed by 0-4 years old (37%) and decreased by age from 20 years old and older (20-44 years old 20% and 14% among 45-64 years olds). Overall incidence was 28% lower in Asia when compared with Europe."

The WHO in August 2009 issued the swine flu alert to the highest pandemic level, signaling that a global epidemic of the H1N1 virus had begun. It first detected the novel pandemic influenza H1N1 virus in Mexico and the US in April 2009.

The last flu pandemic was declared in 1968 when H3N1 virus strain killed an estimated 1 million people.

The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, recently said India may have grossly underestimated the might of 21st century's most aggressive pandemic.

A recent CDC study, with help from New Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences, published in medical journal Lancet said the deaths caused by H1N1 pandemic flu in its first year (2009-10) could be 15 times higher than the number of laboratory-confirmed deaths previously reported to the WHO.

During the pandemic, 18,500 laboratory-confirmed H1N1-deaths were reported worldwide from April 2009 to August 2010.

The CDC research indicated that the death toll was anywhere between 1.51 lakh and 5.75 lakh during the first year when the virus circulated worldwide.

The results said that 80% deaths occurred in people younger than 65, contrary to seasonal influenza where most deaths occur among the elderly.

Additionally, the study suggested that 51% deaths may have occurred in south-east Asia and Africa home to 38% of the world's population.

"China and India, where about a third of the world's population live have garnered little information about the burden of influenza," it said.

India's age-adjusted respiratory and cardiovascular mortality rate associated with 2009 pandemic influenza H1N1 per 100 000 individuals stood at 4.1-6 per 100,000 population.

"An additional 83,300 cardiovascular deaths associated with the 2009 pandemic influenza were estimated to have occurred in people older than 17 years globally, resulting in a total of 284,400 respiratory and cardiovascular deaths. Around 20% of these deaths occurred in people older than 64 years," the CDC study said.

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