‘Unethical’ Dutch health insurers invest in expensive pharma firms

DutchNews, April 4, 2018

Health insurers are making money out of expensive drugs

Dutch health insurance companies are investing millions of euros in pharmaceutical companies which charge extremely high prices for their drugs, the Volkskrant reported on Wednesday. 

The total investment may only be a fraction of their total invested assets of €15bn, but it does mean there is a conflict of interest with their main function – keeping healthcare costs as low as possible – the paper said. 

Last year, for example, CZ invested €1.6m in Biogen, Vertex and Gilead, three firms which have been criticised for their high prices and refusing to justify the cost. Menzis had €1.2m in Biogen while Zilveren Kruis invested in Biogen and Gilead, the paper said. 

Biogen, which booked profit of €3.7bn last year, makes a drug to combat the muscle disease SMA, which costs hundreds of thousands of euros a year per patient, the paper said. 

VGZ also had investments in the controversial companies but recently sold its shares following criticism from the Dutch healthcare institute. 

The institute, which makes recommendations to the government about what the basic health insurance package should include, said last month that insurance companies were acting unethically. 

‘You cannot sell this [to the public],’ Utrecht University professor Toine Pieters told the paper. ‘It is painful and perverse. Health insurers are supposed to use their money to make sure medicine is available to all at as low a price as possible.’ 

A spokesman for Menzis told the paper that having an investment in the company allowed it to exercise pressure on policy. In addition, a healthy return on its investment helped keep premium prices low.

Pharma Bro' Shkreli gets seven years jail for defrauding investors

Yahoo – AFP, March 9, 2018

Pharmaceutical executive and hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli was
sentenced to seven years prison for defrauding investors (AFP Photo/Drew Angerer)

New York (AFP) - Infamous "Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli, once dubbed the most hated man in America for ratcheting up the price of an HIV drug, was sentenced to seven years prison Friday on charges of defrauding investors.

The disgraced former pharmaceutical executive and hedge fund manager was convicted last August of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and two counts of securities fraud.

Shkreli is best known for suddenly raising the price of the drug Daraprim by 5,000 percent -- from $13.50 a pill to $750 -- in 2015.

Although that incident had nothing to do with his trial before a federal court in New York, so great was the 34 year-old's notoriety that it was initially difficult to find an impartial jury for the trial.

His bail was revoked in September over a threat aimed at Hillary Clinton -- which he insists was a joke.

Shkreli's high-profile attorney, Ben Brafman, described his client as a mildly autistic self-taught genius and asked Judge Kiyo Matsumoto to limit the prison sentence to a maximum of 18 months.

Prosecutors were seeking 15 years prison, arguing that Shkreli had showed no remorse for his actions and pointing to his provocative and bizarre statements posted on social media.

Shkreli's high-profile attorney, Ben Brafman, had described his client as a mildly autistic self-taught genius and asked Judge Kiyo Matsumoto to limit the prison sentence to a maximum of 18 months https://t.co/yPMOKAyPgf

— AFP news agency (@AFP) March 9, 2018

Biggest Dutch pension fund drops tobacco, nuclear weapon investments

DutchNews, January 11, 2018

The smoking zone at the VU teaching hospital 

Dutch civil service pension fund ABP, one of the biggest pension funds in world, is to phase out all investments in tobacco and nuclear weapons. 

The pension fund intends to sell all its investments in the tobacco and nuclear weapons industries – totalling some €3.3bn – within the next year, it said in a statement on Thursday. ABP has 2.9 million participants and some €405bn in available assets. 

‘Investments in tobacco and nuclear weapons have been a dilemma for us for quite some time,’ said investment policy committee chairman Erik van Houwelingen. ‘Changes in society, also at an international level, were a reason for ABP to put the topic on the agenda again.’ 

Floris Italianer, director of the Dutch Heart Foundation and chair of the Dutch Alliance for a Smoke-free Environment, welcomed the pension fund’s decision. 

‘ABP is taking a big step towards discouraging tobacco use and realising a smoke-free generation,’ he said.  ‘We also call on other leaders in society, like executives of other financial institutions, service providers and supermarkets, to follow this example.’

Earlier this month, high street health and beauty chain Kruidvat said it was phasing out the sale of tobacco products from its stores.

ABN Amro severs ties with tobacco industry after striking deal with heart foundation

DutchNews, July 5, 2017

Photo: DutchNews.nl

Dutch bank ABN Amro is closing its door to the tobacco industry. As of now the bank will no longer invest in tobacco firms, nor will it accept new clients from the sector. 

According to a statement by the bank reported in Trouw, ‘the core activity of the tocacco industry is not compatible with the core values of the bank.’ ‘Current contracts will be honoured but there will be no extensions or new contracts,’ a spokesman said. 

The bank is the first systemic bank in the country to turn its back on the tobacco industry. Although the bank’s tobacco investment portfolio is not a large one – its business partners include none of the big tobacco firms – it is thought the decision may force other banks and investment funds to follow suit. 

On Tuesday the bank signed an agreement with the Dutch Heart Foundation, which campaigns against the use of tobacco. The foundation is moving half of its capital, some €35m, to the bank which has pledged to help it raise funds and participate in health care projects. 

Smoking is the main avoidable cause of illness and death in the Netherlands. Every year some 20,000 people die from the effects of smoking. The bank’s economic research unit has calculated that smoking is costing society €2,000 per head of the population. 

The Heart Foundation still has business relations with other banks investing in tobacco, such as Rabobank, ING and Van Lanschot but are currently discussing the matter with them as well. 

Heart foundation director Floor Italianer, who praised the bank’s ‘commitment’, told the paper it is ‘sadly ironic and short-sighted’ that civil service pension fund ABP, which is currently investing over €1 billion in the tobacco industry, will not follow in the bank’s footsteps. 

The ABP, however, said it will not terminate its investments because it is one of many industries that are perceived as socially undesirable. But according to Italianer the ABP has not understood what the discussion is about. 

‘Tobacco is on a par with the arms industry’s cluster bombs which pension funds have stopped investing in a long time ago. This industry knowingly makes a product which kills people prematurely on a big scale. A sector which continues to do that deserves to be banned,’ he told Trouw. 

The news comes at the same time as the government clamps down on the sector by minimising the visibility of cigarettes. On Wednesday the health ministry announced that cigarettes must be kept out of sight by 2020, with a ban on cigarette machines two years from then.

Related Article:

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once),Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …”

Ex-finance minister proposes cap on pharmaceuticals industry profits

DutchNews, January 20, 2017

Photo: Depositphotos.com

Wouter Bos, former finance minister and now chairman of the VU Medical Centre in Amsterdam, has proposed capping the profits of pharmaceutical companies in order to reduce the price of drugs. 

Bos told the Financieele Dagbad on Friday there should be a maximum of 10% profits for pharmaceutical companies instead of the 20% or more which is now common in the industry. 

The pharmaceutical industry has been under fire for high prices which mean treatment for some patients costs tens of thousands of euros a year.

‘When the telecoms industry was privatised, we let industry watchdog Opta set maximum profit margins. We should do the same sort of thing for the pharmaceutical sector,’ he said. ‘And we feel that premier division football must not disappear behind the decoder in favour of commercial interests. We act tough on telephones and football, but do nothing about pharma.’ 

Dutch get tough on cigarette packaging: no glitter, no holograms

DutchNews, October 18, 2016

Photo: DutchNews.nl 

Tobacco companies operating in the Netherlands are to be banned from adding decorative elements to their packaging such as ‘holograms, shiny and glamorous colours, and references to themes such as football or King’s Day’. 

And potential innovations, such as packaging which creates an effect when opened – such as a noise or light or smell – will also be forbidden, the minister said. 

Junior health minister Martin van Rijn told MPs in a briefing on Tuesday that cigarettes and tobacco may only be sold in simple packaging with a matte finish from July 1 next year. 

If tobacco firms don’t comply with the new rules, they face even tougher packaging rules and could be restricted to standard boxes which only carry the name of the company, the minister said. 

The measure is one of a string of changes being introduced throughout the EU in an effort to make smoking less attractive.

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The Truth About Cancer: A Global Quest docu-series - official trailer

The Truth About Cancer: A Global 

Quest docu-series - official trailer

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. 

The Next Ones to Fall

There's something potentially coming that you should know about, and I've reported it before two other times. But I want you to hear it again. What other very large industries don't have integrity, but also have a great deal of money? Prepare for the crumbling of big pharma in America. It is starting now and when the reports happen and the movie is created [smile], Americans will wake up to the fact that they have an enormously wealthy industry that keeps people sick for money.

You're not going to like it and you're not going to tolerate it. Watch. What I say today is not fortune telling, dear ones. I am reporting the potentials of Human nature before me. I'm reporting that awareness is starting to grab that which is inappropriate on this planet, what you call old energy, and slowly is beginning to move it to a place you never thought it would go. It's a place of integrity that your parents told you was impossible for large institutions, but here you are living it. Along with this also will be changes in the very large business of insurance, as we told you before. …”

"THE BRIDGE OF SWORDS" – Sep 29, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) - (Text Version)

“…I'm in Canada and I know it, but I will tell those listening and reading in the American audience the following: Get ready! Because there are some institutions that are yet to fall, ones that don't have integrity and that could never be helped with a bail out. Again, we tell you the biggest one is big pharma, and we told you that before. It's inevitable. If not now, then in a decade. It's inevitable and they will fight to stay alive and they will not be crossing the bridge. For on the other side of the bridge is a new way, not just for medicine but for care. Paradigms that have not yet been thought of, which don't represent any system that currently exists, will be created and developed by young minds who have concepts that the seniors don't know about. Things that don't have integrity today will fall over tomorrow. Just get ready. It's all part of what's on the other side of the bridge. And the old energy won't like it, and they will object. …”

Ban health insurers permanently from paying profits to shareholders: MPs

DutchNews, July 20, 2016   

 Photo: Depositphotos.com

Socialist, Labour and Christian Democrat MPs are calling for a permanent ban on dividend payments to shareholders by health insurance companies. 

A temporary ban is currently in place but the MPs say health insurers should never be allowed to pay out profits to shareholders or others. Instead, they say, all profit made on health insurance should be used to improve healthcare or cut premiums.

‘We pay premiums for good healthcare, not to benefit investors,’ Socialist Party MP Renske Leijten is quoted as saying by news agency ANP. ‘Confidence in the healthcare system will be seriously undermined if health insurers can pay out profits to shareholders.’ 

In addition, allowing health insurers to pay dividends could lead to them putting the company interests ahead of that of patients, the MPs say. 

The current ban is due to expire in 2018.

The four biggest insurance companies control 90% of the market. Achmea, which includes Zilveren Kruis, De Friesland, FBTO and Agis, is market leader with 32%. VGZ, a cooperative, has 25%.

Smirking Shkreli clashes with US congressional panel

Yahoo – AFP, 4 February 2016

Entrepreneur and pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli listens during a 

congressional hearing on February 4, 2016 in Washington (AFP Photo/

Brendan Smialowski)

Washington (AFP) - Pharmaceutical "bad boy" Martin Shkreli invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination Thursday in a brief, contentious appearance before a US congressional panel.

Shkreli, called to testify in a House oversight hearing on prescription drug prices, repeatedly declined to explain steep drug price increases he imposed as former chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals.

Shkreli was asked what he would tell sick patients who can no longer afford the drug and whether he thinks he has done anything wrong.

"On the advice of counsel, I invoke the Fifth Amendment and respectfully decline to answer your question," Shkreli told the lawmakers in each case.

Shkreli wore a smirk and looked away from lawmakers much of the time, sparking bipartisan outrage.

"It's not funny," said Maryland Democrat Elijah Cummings, the senior Democrat on the committee. "People are dying and they are getting sicker."

Representative John Duncan, a Tennessee Republican and a veteran lawmaker first elected in 1988, said in all his years in Congress: "I've never seen an individual behave with such arrogance."

Shkreli, 32, vaulted to notoriety in September 2015 after he raised the price of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 per pill. Daraprim is a decades-old drug used to treat toxoplasmosis, a potentially fatal infection, and it is also used by HIV patients.

In December, Shkreli was arrested and indicted for securities fraud for allegedly orchestrating a Ponzi scheme-like conspiracy at two hedge funds and another firm, prior to joining Turing.

He is accused of lying to investors, moved money between investments to cover losses in other vehicles and siphoned off cash for personal expenses. Shkreli resigned as CEO of Turing the day after the indictment.

Shkreli's attorney, Benjamin Brafman, a prominent criminal defense lawyer, told reporters after the appearance that it was a "frustrating morning for us."

"Mr. Shkreli would like nothing more than to answer the committee's questions," Brafman said. However, invoking the Fifth Amendment was "appropriate" given his indictment on the fraud charge.

"I would also tell you Mr. Shkreli did not intend to show any disrespect for any members of the committee, listened intently," he said.

"Some of what you saw was nervous energy by an individual who very much would like to explain what happened, but has agreed to listen to his lawyer," said Brafman, whose high-profile clients have included Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the International Monetary Fund chief who resigned amid a sexual assault scandal.

Shkreli stayed mum as television cameras followed him from the Capitol Hill hearing, but quickly took to Twitter after that to blast lawmakers.

"Hard to accept that these imbeciles represent the people in our government," he tweeted.

Martin Shkreli (2nd R), CEO of Turing Pharmaceutical, is brought out of 26

Federal Plaza by law enforcement officials after being arrested for securities

fraud on December 17, 2015 in New York City (AFP Photo/Andrew Burton)

Related Article:

Reviled US pharma chief arrested on fraud charges

Reviled US pharma chief arrested on fraud charges

Yahoo – AFP, Thomas Urbain, December 17, 2015

Martin Shkreli (C) leaves the federal court in New York on December 17,
2015 (AFP Photo/Jewel Samad)

New York (AFP) - A reviled US pharmaceutical boss who caused a storm in September by jacking up the price of a life-saving drug by 5,000 percent was arrested Thursday on fraud charges, prosecutors said.

The arrest of Martin Shkreli -- who has appeared to revel in his notoriety -- was not linked to the massive increase in the price of Daraprim, a drug used to treat malaria and infections suffered by people with HIV.

The former hedge fund manager, 32, is accused of stealing $11 million in what the FBI described as a "securities fraud trifecta of lies, deceit and greed."

Prosecutors said the scheme involved another company he once led, Retrophin, and two hedge funds.

"As alleged, Martin Shkreli engaged in multiple schemes to ensnare investors through a web of lies and deceit," said Robert Capers, US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

"His plots were matched only by efforts to conceal the fraud, which led him to operate his companies, including a publicly traded company, as a Ponzi scheme, where he used the assets of the new entity to pay off debts from the old entity."

It began in 2009 when Shkreli allegedly lied to eight people to get them to invest about $3 million in his hedge fund, Capers told a press conference.

When he lost the money through "bad trades" he started a new fund to try to cover the losses and continue to line his pockets.

Shkreli was also charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"Over a five-year period, Shkreli is alleged to have perpetrated a series of frauds on investors in his hedge funds and Retrophin's shareholders in order to cover up his poor trading decisions," said Andrew Ceresney, director of the SEC's enforcement division.

Martin Shkreli (2nd R), CEO of Turing Pharmaceutical, is brought out of 26 

Federal Plaza by law enforcement officials after being arrested for securities 

fraud on December 17, 2015 in New York City (AFP Photo/Andrew Burton)

Shkreli is accused of siphoning about $120,000 from one of the hedge funds to pay for food, clothing, rent and other personal expenses.

He is also accused of lying to investors about one of the fund's size and performance by claiming returns of nearly 36 percent when it had really generated a loss of 18 percent and saying the fund had $35 million in assets when it really had less than $7,000.

He allegedly stole $900,000 in 2013 from one of the funds to settle with a broker who was suing him and stole more money to pay off disgruntled investors who were threatening legal action.

Also arrested was Evan Greebel, a lawyer who was outside counsel to Retrophin.

Reveling in controversy

Shkreli gained notoriety in September when his company Turing Pharmaceuticals raised the price of Daraprim from $13.50 a tablet to $750 after acquiring the drug.

The move -- and his arrogant response to the controversy -- was angrily denounced by US politicians.

"Price gouging like this in the specialty drug market is outrageous," Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton said on Twitter, vowing to fight runaway drug prices.

Turing later announced that while it would not lower the drug's per tablet price, it would negotiate agreements with health groups on wholesale prices.

Shkreli, the chief executive of the company, specializes in buying patents on inexpensive drugs and then hiking their price.

In November, he gained control of another drug company, Kalobios Pharmaceuticals, whose stock price plummeted on news of his arrest, falling 53.24 percent to $11.03 before trading was suspended.

Reveling in controversy, Shkreli made waves earlier this month by buying a secret Wu-Tang Clan album for $2 million, "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin."

Turing Pharmaceuticals did not immediately return a request for comment.

Family doctors reach agreement with health insurers

DutchNews, October 5, 2015

Health insurers will interfer less in the care offered by family doctors and will stop offering financial incentives to use particular treatments. 

This is the result of an agreement reached on Monday by doctors, insurers, the health ministry and health organisations. 

Family doctors have been very unhappy about the contracts they are being asked to sign by health insurance companies. 

No alternative

Doctors have to sign contracts with health insurers to ensure their patients are covered for treatment. But many say insurance companies are unwilling to negotiate while others sign the deals because they feel they have no alternative, a survey in January by the doctors’ association LHV found.

Since 2006, health insurers have been tasked by the health ministry with bringing down the cost of health care.  As a result, contracts with family doctors have included rewards being coupled to the prescribing of specific anti-depressants, regardless of what suits the patient.

Some family doctors are also being rewarded for using research labs with which the health insurer has a contract. 

Many doctors were furious about these contracts, seeing them as moving patient care from the surgery to the insurer. 

Major changes

The new agreement brings in three important and major changes. Family doctors will have more equality with insurers and more flexibility in what treatments they can offer.

In addition, bureaucracy will be decreased by scrapping unnecessary administration, and a less time-consuming method for checking the quality of doctors will be introduced.

‘Health insurers will again trust the expertise of the family doctor,’ doctors’ association LHV chairwoman Ella Kalsbeek told the NRC. ‘That is very important. It will give doctors more time for what is most important: care of the patient,’

Oklahoma governor stays man's execution over lethal injection procedures

The US state of Oklahoma was about to execute a man after the Supreme Court rejected a last-ditch appeal. Minutes before the execution, the state's governor intervened to assess the legality of the execution method.

Deutsche Welle, 1 October 2015

Oklahoma's governor granted a last-minute stay of execution to an inmate convicted of hiring a hit man to murder his former employer Barry van Treese, a motel owner. The state said that it needed time to determine if its death penalty procedures complied with court orders.

Lawyers for Richard Glossip, 52, had argued for a stay, saying they had evidence pointing to his innocence, but were turned down by the US Supreme Court minutes before the scheduled start of the execution at 3 pm local time (20:00 UTC).

Governor Mary Fallin, a Republican, said the state corrections department needed time to address questions raised on Wednesday about Oklahoma's execution procedures and the chemicals used for lethal injections. Glossip's execution was moved to November 6. The state has been closely monitoring its execution methods after a botched execution last year.

I have issued a 37 day stay for Richard Glossip while the state addresses questions about its execution protocol http://t.co/t3LVhjNn7z

— Governor Mary Fallin (@GovMaryFallin) September 30, 2015

Fallin said that she had ordered the delay over questions regarding potassium acetate, the last drug in the three-drug protocol used on Oklahoma's death row. Spokesman Alex Weintz explained that the Corrections Department routinely received the lethal drugs on the day of the execution. Prison officials had not realize they were sent potassium acetate instead of potassium chloride until the drugs were delivered.

A prominent case

Glossip, 52, had been scheduled to die Wednesday at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, 200 kilometres east of state capital Oklahoma City. He would have been the second inmate put to death on Wednesday in the United States after Georgia executed its first woman in seven decades, Kelly Gissendaner .

But his case has kept courts across the nation busy: Glossip's initial conviction was overturned, but he was convicted again in a 2004 retrial, which saw him sentenced to death. The actual killer in the case, Justin Sneed, has been serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. Sneed had agreed to a plea bargain by pleading guilty and testifying against Glossip.

Death Row inmate Richard Glossip
said he was grateful for receiving the
37-day stay while the method of execution
in Oklahoma was due to be reassessed

Glossip's case made headlines in June when his challenge of the execution method came before the US Supreme Court, which ruled 5-4 against Glossip and two other death row inmates. Their lawyers argued that the use of Midazolam, a drug meant to induce unconsciousness, violated the US constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Midazolam was first used in an execution in 2014 after two other drugs used to sedate inmates became difficult to procure following an embargo from EU drug companies to supply drugs for the procedure.

Glossip's execution already has been delayed twice, once when the US Supreme Court decided to take up his drug challenge, and again two weeks ago to allow Oklahoma courts time to review claims of new evidence that ultimately were rejected.

Pope Francis had personally appealed for clemency in Glossip's case.

Capital punishment still a key social issue

Three more inmates were scheduled to be executed in the coming week in Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri. The overall number of executions in the United States has declined in recent years. The 35 executions carried out in 2014 were the lowest total in two decades.

Thirty-one of the 50 states, plus the federal government and military, retain the option of capital punishment for certain crimes, according to the non-governmental Death Penalty Information Centre, which opposes the practice.

ss/bw (Reuters, AFP, dpa)

The US state of Virginia has executed a prison inmate by lethal injection. More details here http://t.co/QoPsJ02QMc pic.twitter.com/TemYW2nWzQ

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) October 2, 2015

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Pension fund in China not for stock market bail-out: official

Want China Times, Xinhua 2015-08-29

People walking past a pension fund management center in Fuzhou, Fujian
province, June 30. (File photo/CNS)

Allowing China's pension fund to invest in the stock market was not intended as a bail out, but to create long-term and stable returns, said the vice minister of human resources and social security on Friday.

The change will eventually have a positive effect on China's real economy and support a healthy capital market, but the core purpose is to gain long-term and stable yields for the fund, vice minister You Jun said at a press conference.

The fund's management must prioritize safety, and the timing of the fund's entry into the stock market will be decided by the market, You added.

The State Council finalized guidelines on Sunday allowing the pension fund to invest in new products, including the domestic stock market.

The guidelines allow the fund to invest in more than 20 financial products, including high-risk stocks and equities, as well as low-risk bank deposits and bonds, which diversify the investment risk, You said.

To minimize risks, the guideline restricts the maximum proportion of investment in stocks and equities to 30% of total net assets.

The fund will also participate in major projects and purchase shares in state-owned enterprises to gain long-term yields, he added.

Around 2 trillion yuan (US$330 billion) of the funds total assets can be invested, You said, adding that the amount will increase as the fund grows.

China's pension fund, which accounts for roughly 90% of the country's total social security fund pool, had net assets of 3.5 trillion yuan (US$547 billion) at the end of 2014.

The pension fund was previously parked in banks or invested in treasury bonds with low yields, provoking calls for change as China faces the challenge of caring for its growing elderly population.

The new policy came as China's stock markets continue to decline, beset by shrinking turnover and greater volatility. The key Shanghai index plunged more than 30% from its June peak, wiping out most of this year's gains.

"Market-oriented operation of the pension fund requires more market supervision by authorities," said You.

The National Council for Social Security Fund (SSF), a social security strategic reserve for China's future aging population, played an exemplary role in increasing the fund's investment returns. The SSF has had an average yearly return of 8.5% over the past 14 years as of 2014 and outpaces the consumer price index growth.

The SSF has a bigger investment scope than the pension fund and is allowed to invest in domestic and overseas stocks as well as fixed income assets.

In China, private urban employees pay for their pension before retirement and usually get a pension equal to about half of their final salary.

Related Article:

Dutch pension fund pulls out of Mylan over execution fears