WASHINGTON (AFP) –
The Obama administration Thursday took an axe to executive salaries at firms rescued by taxpayer bailouts, cutting cash payments by 90 percent amid a public backlash at bloated Wall Street bonuses.

In a dramatic government swipe at big business, as unemployment nears 10 percent and the economic crisis reaps a painful toll, Obama's corporate pay czar also hacked away at corporate perks and "golden handshake" payoffs.

The Federal Reserve meanwhile fired its own shot at the corporate gravy train, unveiling new rules to curb pay awards at top banks that encourage excessive risk-taking which imperils the wider financial system.

Treasury official Kenneth Feinberg cut cash payouts to the 25 top executives of seven bailed out firms by an average of 90 percent, capping salaries at half a million dollars for most, and reducing total compensation by an average of 50 percent.

President Barack Obama, who has expressed outrage at corporate greed and out-of-control Wall Street risk-taking, said Feinberg had taken "an important step forward" in curbing financial excess.

"We don't disparage wealth, we don't begrudge anybody for doing well, we believe in success.

"But it does offend our values when executives of big financial firms -- firms that are struggling -- pay themselves huge bonuses, even as they continue to rely on taxpayer assistance to stay afloat."

The roll-call of firms hit by the curbs include some of the most revered names in US corporate history: Citigroup, AIG, Bank of America, Chrysler, Chrysler Financial, General Motors Co., and GMAC Inc.

The restrictions apply to firms which took the most money from the 700 billion dollar Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) set up by the Bush administration last year to stave off a complete financial meltdown.

Public anger began to boil over when it was revealed earlier this year that disgraced insurance giant AIG was still paying 165 million dollars in bonuses despite the huge cash injections by Washington.

Record bonuses lapped up by executives of other firms blamed for helping unleash the financial storm, have further fueled the populist fire, with little sign the wider jobs crisis is about to abate.

Feinberg's measures are designed to reward long-term success of executives who build firms rather than seek get-rich-quick profits, and turn existing cash guarantees held by executives into long-term stocks.

Minimizing the threat of systemic risk was also a prime goal of the new Federal Reserve compensation guidelines.

"The Federal Reserve is working to ensure that compensation packages appropriately tie rewards to longer-term performance and do not create undue risk for the firm or the financial system," said Fed chairman Ben Bernanke.

The proposed rules stop short of specific pay caps or dollar targets for bonuses or commissions, but the Fed could intervene to compel compliance by 28 "large, complex banking organizations."

Obama appointed Feinberg to the new post of "special master" in June, with powers to reject salary plans from firms getting taxpayer help if they are deemed "excessive or inappropriate."

The corporate pay czar said he hoped his actions would set an example to other companies that have not had to resort to taxpayer generosity to survive.

"I would like to think that these standards... will be voluntarily picked up by the market place, if not, this would be a lost opportunity," Feinberg told reporters.

Feinberg also sought to curtail some extravagant corporate perks offered executives, including the use of corporate jets for personal travel, drivers and reimbursement for country club membership.

But critics have complained at government interference in the free market, or warn that the pay cuts may see already struggling firms lose top executive talent to competitors not subject to pay curbs.

General Motors, which like Chrysler has benefited from tens of billions of dollars in emergency government loans in a bankruptcy proceeding, said it would accept the new measures.

"Following a collaborative and constructive review of GM's executive compensation, GM is adopting the changes to its executive compensation as outlined by the special master," the company said in a statement.

Leaders from the world's biggest economies pledged during a Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in September to tackle the issue of executive compensation in the financial sector.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) –
Exercise can reduce the often debilitating fatigue that cancer patients experience during chemotherapy, new research shows.

The study from Denmark found that people being treated for cancer are likely to benefit from a supervised exercise program that combines high intensity exercises (resistance training and aerobics) with low intensity activities (relaxation, body awareness, and message therapy).

The payoff, according to the study published this week in the British Medical Journal, could be less fatigue and a greater feeling of well-being during chemotherapy.

Previous research into the benefits of exercise for cancer patients has been limited and the results mixed, the study team notes. Few studies have included patients in the midst of difficult chemotherapy treatments. Most have focused on women with breast cancer who were challenged by a moderate intensity program of just one activity such as riding a stationary bike. None included a program like this Danish study that combined vigorous, high intensity exercises with a low intensity regimen.

Researchers Lis Adamsen and Tom Mller from Copenhagen University Hospitals and associates recruited to their study 265 men and women undergoing chemotherapy between 2004 and 2007.

They randomly assigned the study subjects to a control group or a 6-week supervised exercise program consisting of 9 hours per week of high and low intensity cardiovascular and resistance training, relaxation and body awareness and massage.

Compared with the non-exercisers, the exercisers experienced significantly less fatigue, "more vitality," and improved aerobic capacity and muscle strength.

While concluding that the combo exercise program was "feasible, safe and beneficial," the researchers acknowledge it wasn't for everyone.

For instance, a participant with brain cancer was dropped from the trial after experiencing a seizure during high intensity exercise. The patient was admitted to the hospital, recovered and was discharged the same day. The authors advise that patients with brain tumors or brain metastases not participate in high intensity exercise programs.

In general, however, the results show that a combination of high and low intensity exercises for chemotherapy patients can improve physical function and mental well being, and relieve fatigue, the investigators say.

Although all of the study participants were white Caucasians, Adamsen and Mller told Reuters Health in an email: "We are convinced that all races of both genders might benefit from the intervention."

At the end of the clinical trial, Copenhagen University Hospitals made the combination exercise program a regular part of cancer treatment. Adamsen and Mller said more than 800 patients have participated to date.

"We have received more requests from cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy who wanted to participate, than the exercise program has been able to accommodate," they said.

SOURCE: British Medical Journal, online October 14, 2009.

GENEVA (AFP) –
The UN Human Rights Council on Friday adopted a resolution that endorses a damning report accusing both Israel and Hamas of war crimes during the Gaza conflict.

With 25 states of the council voting for the resolution, six voting against and 11 abstaining, the "draft resolution ... is therefore adopted," said president of the Human Rights Council Alex Van Meeuwen.

The resolution calls for the endorsement of "the recommendations contained in the report" produced by a team led by international war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone, which looked into a the 22-day conflict ending in January that Israel launched in response to rocket fire from Gaza.

It also "calls upon all concerned parties including United Nations bodies, to ensure their implementation."

The controversial Goldstone report published in September concluded that both Israel and Hamas, Gaza's rulers, committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity during the conflict.

It recommends referring its conclusions to the International Criminal Court prosecutor in The Hague, if Israel and Hamas fail to conduct credible investigations within six months.

Late Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the Human Rights Council to reject the resolution.

"Responsible nations have to vote against this decision that supports terror and harms peace," Netanyahu told reporters after a meeting with visiting Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

Even Goldstone himself, who was in Bern for a conference Thursday, criticised the UN Council resolution for targetting only Israel and failing to include Hamas.

The UN resolution is peppered with references to "recent Israeli violations of human rights in occupied east Jerusalem" but failed to mention Hamas.

"This draft resolution saddens me as it includes only allegations against Isreal. There is not a single phrase condemning Hamas as we have done in the report. I hope that the council can modify the text," he said in remarks published in Swiss newspaper Le Temps.

LONDON (Reuters) –
The Church of England could restrict the powers of some women bishops under a plan designed to end a rift between traditionalists who want to keep the all-male senior clergy, and liberals demanding equality.

The proposal has reignited the long-running debate over a supposed ecclesiastical "stained-glass ceiling" that stops women from attaining the most senior roles in the church.

Along with homosexual bishops and same-sex marriages, the ordination of women is among the most divisive issues facing the Anglican Communion, which has 77 million members worldwide.

While Anglicans in the United States, Canada and Australia already have women bishops, conservatives in many other parts of the Communion strongly oppose them. They say there is nothing in the Bible or church history to support women bishops.

Liberals, who argue that women should be treated equally, said the latest proposals to allow women bishops, albeit with reduced powers in some areas, risked creating a two-tier church.

The Church of England body reviewing the law on women bishops, the Revision Committee, has voted to change the rules to remove certain powers from female bishops in dioceses where they face opposition from traditionalists.

Specially-appointed male bishops would assume those powers and the new system would be written into British law, the committee said in a statement on Thursday.

"Where there are parishes who don't recognize women bishops and want to look to another bishop, that diocesan bishop's duties and responsibilities to those parishes would be reduced automatically," a Church of England spokesman said. "Those duties would pass to this other bishop."

The committee has yet to decide which powers would be removed, although reports suggested they could include things like the right to hold confirmation services.

The committee's proposals must first win the support of regional church groups before being put to the General Synod, the church's decision-making body, and then parliament.

"It is unlikely that the first female bishop will be consecrated before 2014," the committee said in a statement.

Rod Thomas, chairman of Reform, a conservative Anglican group, said the proposal was a "sensible compromise" that will help to avoid a deeper split on the issue.

"It represents a compromise. It doesn't go as far as some wanted, it goes further than some liberals wanted," he said. "It is a way in which nobody can lose."

However, supporters of women bishops said the proposed law change would discriminate against senior female clergy.

"You are legislating this schism into existence and you are creating a two-tier church, a category of second-class bishops," Ruth McCurry, who chairs a group that campaigns for the ordination of women bishops, told the Guardian newspaper.

(Editing by Michael Roddy)