Avon Products to Cut 1,500 Jobs and Leave 2 Markets

NEW YORK (AP) — Avon Products plans to cut about 1,500 jobs and exit two Asian markets, as the struggling beauty products seller starts on a broad restructuring plan in an effort to turn around results.

The job cuts amount to almost 4 percent of its workforce and mark one of the first major moves by CEO Sheri McCoy. McCoy was brought on in April to replace longtime CEO Andrea Jung at Avon, a direct seller of beauty products like Skin So Soft lotion and Mark cosmetics.

Avon said the job cuts span all regions and functions. The 1,500 cuts include 100 employees in Vietnam and South Korea, which Avon will exit entirely.

Avon said in November that it would embark on a plan to save $400 million in three years, but the jobs cuts and market exits are the first details about the plan. The restructuring follows moves other consumer product makers have made this year to cut costs and exit businesses as they face an uncertain global economy.

"The decisions outlined today are necessary to stabilize the company and begin the process of returning Avon to sustainable growth," McCoy said in a statement late Tuesday.

The New York-based direct beauty products seller said it plans to focus on high-priority markets as part of the push to save $400 million. The initial steps are expected to be largely completed by the end of next year.

Citi Investment Research analyst Wendy Nicholson said the job cuts aren't surprising and she expects there will be more.

"New Avon management has said several times that they consider their overhead costs to be excessive, and that they are keenly focused on boosting the productivity of their selling, general and administrative spending," said Nicholson, who rates Avon "Buy," in a note to investors.

The exit from South Korea and Vietnam are also good moves, she said.

"While each of these markets are unprofitable and small, we like that Avon is making some hard choices about where to play," Nicholson said.

Avon has struggled this year to improve its performance after suffering through declining sales, a bribery investigation and other problems. In addition to hiring a new CEO, the company has tried to cut costs and focus on improving sales in international markets.

A growing number of consumer product makers are exiting businesses and cutting costs to deal with slowing growth in North America and China and the weak European economy.

Procter & Gamble announced a $10 billion cost cutting plan in February, including cutting more than 10 percent of its non manufacturing jobs. In November, Kimberly Clark said it is exiting its European diaper business, and Colgate said it will cut 6 percent of its workforce

Pre-tax costs related to Avon's moves are expected to total between $80 million and $90 million. Avon will take a charge of between $50 million and $60 million in the fourth quarter tied to the cost-cutting. It said initial steps will account for about 20 percent of its savings goal.

As of last Dec. 31, the company employed about 40,600 people including about 5,400 in the U.S. and 35,200 in other countries.

Last month, Avon reported an 81 percent drop in third-quarter net income, hurt by a stronger dollar and a hefty impairment charge. Its adjusted loss also fell short of Wall Street expectations. At that time, the company slashed its quarterly dividend to 6 cents from 23 cents.

Meanwhile, Avon still faces long-running bribery investigations. The problems began in 2008, when it started to investigate possible bribery in China related to travel, entertainment and other expenses, and soon widened the probe to other countries, with the Securities and Exchange Commission and Justice Department getting involved.

In September, the SEC decided it wouldn't recommend any action against the company over whether Avon contacted analysts inappropriately during a separate bribery investigation. But Avon still faces wider probes about possible bribery in China and other countries.

Founded in 1886, Avon became a fixture in households across the United States as its legions of "Avon ladies" went door to door selling makeup to family, friends and acquaintances.

Today, the company markets to women in more than 100 countries via 6 million independent sellers.

Shares fell 14 cents, or 1 percent, to close at $14.33 Wednesday. Shares have ranged from a 52-week low of $13.70 in mid-November to a high of $23.58 in mid-April.

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'Right-to-work' measure passes in Michigan Legislature

Controversial "right-to-work" legislation covering public-sector employees passed the Michigan House of Representatives on Tuesday, bringing it one step closer to being signed into law.

The House passed the bill, 58 to 51, as union opponents of the measure booed inside the Capitol and an estimated 12,000 people rallied outside. The state's Senate approved the bill last week.

The House is now scheduled to vote on a right-to-work bill for private-sector employees, which would cover Michigan's auto industry. If that measure passes, Michigan would become the 24th right-to-work state, meaning unions cannot require members to pay dues as a condition of employment.

Michigan is the fourth state in the Midwest to become embroiled in labor controversy since 2010, when a slate of Republican governors were swept into statehouses across the nation. The speed with which the right-to-work measure are being passed worries some labor experts, who say that it was once unimaginable that Michigan, where 17.5% of the workforce is unionized, would become a right-to-work state.

"Michigan could prove defining," said Harley Shaiken, a labor expert at UC Berkeley. "What happens here, given the role of unions historically in Michigan, and the larger political implications of right-to-work, will mean a lot."

But even as the Rev. Jesse Jackson rallied protesters on the steps of Lansing City Hall, labor leaders were hurriedly seeking ways to reverse the legislation down the road.

Michigan can't go the way of Ohio, where a referendum last year reversed legislation that would have restricted collective bargaining. Michigan's right-to-work legislation is attached to an appropriations bill, meaning it can't be reversed by referendum. Also, it may be too risky to wait and go the way of Wisconsin, where litigation continues after a judge struck down parts of a collective bargaining law.

However, in Michigan, there is an option of a "statutory initiative," which would be permitted if opponents of the bills can collect enough signatures to equal 8% of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election, union leaders say. A so-called veto referendum could be triggered by collecting signatures equal to 5% of the votes cast.

A statutory initiative would allow voters to cast a ballot on right-to-work legisation in November 2014, when Gov. Rick Snyder, who has said he would support the legislation, will be up for reelection.

"There are multiple options for a referendum," a senior labor leader said Tuesday. "All options are on the table. This fight is far from over."

It’s unclear whether unions are promoting a referendum now to warn Snyder of the repercussions that signing the legislation would have.

Democrats including Sen. Carl Levin and Rep. John Dingell met with Snyder on Monday to urge him to veto the legislation. The governor promised to "seriously" consider their concerns, but Democrats remained worried that he would sign the bills.

“The governor has a choice: He can put this on the ballot, and let the voters make the determination, or he can jam it through a lame-duck session,” Dingell said Monday.

Snyder, a businessman before he became governor, was elected in 2010 by a landslide, beating his opponent by a nearly 2-to-1 margin. But only 35.5% of respondents said they thought he was doing an "excellent" or "good" job in a Michigan State University survey this fall, and that figure could fall as the controversy continues.

"I think this will pass, and be signed, and there will be a long struggle with the United Auto Workers and other unions,” said Kristin Dziczek, director of the labor and industry group at the Center for Automotive Research. "They’re going to focus their attentions on overturning this. I don’t think the war has even begun."

ALSO:

Obama blasts right-to-work in Michigan

Ohio votes to overturn new collective bargaining law

Protests re-ignite as Michigan right-to-work bill nears final OK

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Johnny Depp Gets His Tonto On in New <em>Lone Ranger</em> Trailer

Channeling just a little bit of the goofiness that he brought to Jack Sparrow, Johnny Depp gives his take on the Native American character Tonto in the latest trailer for The Lone Ranger.

In the latest clip for director Gore Verbinski’s adaptation of the classic Western series, Tonto tells Texas Ranger John Reid (The Social Network‘s Armie Hammer) that he had believed the lawman dead and buried him, only to see him come back from the other side. Naturally, the two team up to fight for justice, with Depp’s dead-pan Tonto insisting that the soon-to-be Lone Ranger shield his face with a mask.

“People think you are dead? Better to stay that way,” Depp advises. “There come a time when good man must wear mask.”

Verbinski and Depp, of course, worked together on the Pirates of the Caribbean flicks, and it looks like their chemistry has returned here – albeit in a Western and with a character that could be controversial. The question remains: Will Tonto come off as a Native American stereotype, or will the film find a way to do something more nuanced with the character, which was originally created in the 1930s?

The Lone Ranger is scheduled for release July 3, 2013.

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“Hobbit” actor McKellen has prostate cancer

LONDON (Reuters) – “The Hobbit” actor Ian McKellen said in an interview published on Tuesday that he had had prostate cancer for the last six or seven years, but added that the disease was not life-threatening.

McKellen, 73, played Gandalf in the hit “Lord of the Rings” movie trilogy, and reprises the role in three prequels based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel “The Hobbit”.

The first of those, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”, recently had its world premiere in New Zealand, where it was shot under the directorship of Peter Jackson.

“I’ve had prostate cancer for six or seven years,” McKellen told the Daily Mirror tabloid. “When you have got it you monitor it and you have to be careful it doesn’t spread. But if it is contained in the prostate it’s no big deal.”

His representatives in London were not immediately available to comment on the interview.

“Many, many men die from it but it’s one of the cancers that is totally treatable,” added McKellen, one of Britain’s most respected actors who is also well known in Hollywood for appearances in the X-Men franchise.

“I am examined regularly and it’s just contained, it’s not spreading. I’ve not had any treatment.”

He admitted he feared the worst when he heard he had the disease.

“You do gulp when you hear the news. It’s like when you go for an HIV test, you go ‘arghhh is this the end of the road?’

“I have heard of people dying from prostate cancer, and they are the unlucky ones, the people who didn’t know they had got it and it went on the rampage. But at my age if it is diagnosed it’s not life threatening.”

“The Hobbit” opens in cinemas later this week.

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White)

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Global Update: Hand-Held Device Locates Hot Spots of Lead Contamination

Using a hand-held scanner to map hot spots where the soil is full of lead could protect children in mining towns against brain damage, scientists at Columbia University concluded in a new study.

Touched to the ground, the device, an X-ray fluorescence scanner, can measure the soil’s lead content in less than a minute, said Alexander van Geen, a geochemist at Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and an author of the study, which is in the current issue of the Bulletin of the World Health Organization. The “XRF guns,” which are often used by scrap-metal sorters, cost between $15,000 and $40,000.

His team tested the scanners in Cerro de Pasco, Peru, a town in the high Andes with mines dating back 1,400 years. Samples as close as 100 yards apart showed widely variable lead levels, so it is possible to find and mark off the areas most dangerous to young children, who get fine lead dust on their hands while playing and then put their fingers in their mouths.

“People assume the contamination is everywhere, and it’s not,” Dr. van Geen said. “It could be in one backyard and not in another.” Or, he said, in an untested playground, schoolyard, or any place where children gather.

The technology could be useful anywhere families live close to mines or smelters, which is common in Latin America and Africa, he said. Lead is a byproduct not just of lead mines, but of mining for gold, silver, copper and other metals.

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DealBook: Hedge Funds Stride the Stage of World Affairs

ARGENTINA’S president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, was re-elected with a huge margin last year, leaving her political opponents fractured and demoralized. But in recent months, she has found herself locked in battle with a determined adversary who may outmaneuver her.

Her opponent is not a participant in Argentina’s domestic political scene. Rather, he is Paul Singer, a soft-spoken New York hedge fund manager. Through one of his funds, Mr. Singer is fighting in United States courts to press Argentina to pay up on some defaulted bonds. Mrs. Kirchner has refused.

Mr. Singer may be deploying arcane legal strategies thousands of miles from Argentina, but his tactics are dominating the nation’s political discourse. “This has been on the front page every day in Argentina,” said Maria Victoria Murillo, a professor of political science and international affairs at Columbia University.

In other words, a hedge fund has become an important political player in a democracy of 41 million people.

With the right idea at the right time, and with the requisite financial firepower, hedge fund investors can exert significant political and economic influence. That may even prompt political scientists and economists to consider analyzing hedge funds the way they do trade unions and political parties.

The ability of hedge funds to act as decisive change agents dates to one momentous trade: George Soros’s bet against the British pound in 1992.

At the time, the British government had tied the value of the pound to that of other European currencies. Many people contended that the pound’s exchange rate was too high in this arrangement and was weighing on the British economy.

Mr. Soros’s fund wagered that the government would ultimately have to let the pound fall in value, prompting the fund to sell billions of pounds and buy other European currencies. The selling pressure was too much for the British government, and the pound left the currency arrangement. The day it dropped out was known as Black Wednesday.

When the dust settled, some politicians saw Mr. Soros’s actions in a positive light. They said the pound’s exit allowed the British economy to flourish.

The impact of Mr. Soros’s trades may have been even more far-reaching. Britain’s departure from the arrangement influenced its decision not to join the European single currency, according to Norman Lamont, Britain’s chancellor of the Exchequer at the time.

“After Black Wednesday, it was politically impossible for any government, Conservative or Labour, to join the euro,” Mr. Lamont wrote last year in The Daily Telegraph.

After the success of his pound wager, Mr. Soros’s fund focused on Asian currencies. They were vulnerable because, like the pound, their value was fixed in a way that could create unsustainable economic imbalances. The bets by Mr. Soros and others forced some countries to abandon the rigid approach to managing currencies, said Sebastian Mallaby, author of “More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite.”

Since then, developing nations have mostly avoided fixed currency arrangements, a choice that has generally served their economies well. “The upshot was that emerging markets broadly adopted flexible exchange-rate regimes,” Mr. Mallaby said.

Hedge funds never make bets as a selfless way to free nations from suffocating currency regimes. And those regimes might have collapsed anyway. But the hedge funds probably hastened their demise, leading to relief sooner rather than later.

Hedge fund actions also contributed to a landmark legislative change in the United States a decade ago.

Kynikos Associates and other hedge funds had doubts about Enron’s books and were betting that its shares would decline. Eventually, fraud was exposed, and Enron, an energy trading company, went bankrupt in 2001.

The company’s collapse, with the crash of other fraudulent businesses, helped create the political climate for an overhaul of how companies report their financial condition. A result was the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

It is possible, even likely, that something like Sarbanes-Oxley would have developed anyway. But the hedge funds’ ability to pick up on the fraud played an important role in shaming the main players. Auditors, regulators and banks largely missed Enron’s skulduggery, underscoring the need for big changes.

“I can’t think of one major financial fraud in the United States in the last 10 years that was uncovered by a major brokerage house analyst or an outside accounting firm,” James S. Chanos, founder of Kynikos, said in testimony before Congress soon after Enron’s collapse.

Hedge funds also played an early role in the housing bust, which affected millions of people and led to deep societal changes. Managers like Michael Burry of Scion Capital and John Paulson saw the shakiness of the housing market well before regulators, politicians and banks did.

While house prices would have collapsed without hedge funds, the funds helped lead to the crash. In particular, their bearish housing bets helped convince Wall Street, a critical part of the mortgage machine, that the good times were ending.

As early as 2005, Mr. Burry pestered investment banks for ways of betting against housing, according to “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine,” by Michael Lewis. Eventually, the banks provided the financial instruments that allowed Mr. Burry to place the bearish trades. Soon, firms like Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs were betting heavily against housing in a similar way.

Once the establishment started to turn against subprime mortgages, the game was up. Again, hedge funds helped end a bubble earlier and clear out excesses. Again, their prescience shamed those who should have seen the trouble brewing, fueling the postcrisis overhaul.

But funds’ efforts are often frustrated, and their antagonistic actions can backfire. For example, Mr. Singer’s lawsuits may actually be making Mrs. Kirchner more popular, some specialists in Argentine politics said. “This is a beautiful thing for her,” said Ms. Murillo, the Columbia professor. “It’s a unifying cause.” Hedge funds may now think twice before taking on a government in the same way.

Also, some markets are so big that funds may struggle to gain sway, especially if other investors do not share their theories.

J. Kyle Bass, managing partner of Hayman Capital Management, is outspokenly gloomy about Japan, saying its government debt levels may soon become overwhelming. But he says his fund is not a meaningful catalyst. “I am a very small asset manager,” he said. “When there’s a quadrillion yen of debt outstanding, it’s nonsense to think I can have an influence.”

Now, hedge funds can also be outgunned by government entities aiming to shore up markets.

Since the financial crisis in 2008, the world’s central banks have shown a willingness to print trillions of dollars to support financial assets. This makes it much harder for some bearish bets to work. Hedge funds betting on the collapse of the euro have had a hard time since the European Central Bank stepped up its support in September, agreeing to buy government bonds of stressed countries.

In many ways, it looks as if central banks will be able to dictate market prices for a long time, which might deter hedge funds from trying to upset the apple cart. After all, central banks can effectively print money to protect the prices of assets singled out by funds.

But Mr. Bass said he was not convinced that central banks could maintain their support indefinitely. “They are not allowing natural forces to react in the marketplace,” he said. “No one’s willing to say, ‘Maybe central banks can’t fix it.’ ”

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Latin music star Jenni Rivera believed dead in plane crash

Fans of Mexican-American singing star Jenni Rivera held a vigil Sunday night in Lynwood

MEXICO CITY — Mexican American singer Jenni Rivera, the "diva de la banda" whose commanding voice burst through the limits of regional Latin music and made her a cross-border sensation and the queen of a business empire, was believed to have died Sunday when the small jet carrying her and members of her entourage crashed in mountainous terrain.

Rivera, a native of Long Beach, was 43. Mexico's ministry of transportation did not confirm her death outright, but it said that she had been aboard the plane and that no one had survived the crash. Six others, including two pilots, also were on board.

"Everything suggests, with the evidence that's been found, that it was the airplane that the singer Jenni Rivera was traveling in," said Gerardo Ruiz Esparza, Mexico's secretary of communications and transportation. Of the crash site, Ruiz said: "Everything is destroyed. Nothing is recognizable."

Word of the accident ricocheted around the entertainment industry, with performer after performer expressing shock and grief. Fans gathered outside Rivera's four-acre estate in Encino.

"She was the Diana Ross of Mexican music," said Gustavo Lopez, an executive vice president at Universal Music Latin Entertainment, an umbrella group that includes Rivera's label. Lopez called Rivera "larger than life" and said that based on ticket sales, she was by far the top-grossing female artist in Mexico.

"Remember her with your heart the way she was," her father, Don Pedro Rivera, told reporters in Spanish on Sunday evening. "She never looked back. She was a beautiful person with the whole world."

Rivera had performed a concert in Monterrey, Mexico, on Saturday night — her standard fare of knee-buckling power ballads, pop-infused interpretations of traditional banda music and dizzying rhinestone costume changes.

At a news conference after the show, Rivera appeared happy and tranquil, pausing at one point to take a call on her cellphone that turned out to be a wrong number. She fielded questions about struggles in her personal life, including her recent separation from husband Esteban Loaiza, a professional baseball player.

"I can't focus on the negative," she said in Spanish. "Because that will defeat you. That will destroy you.... The number of times I have fallen down is the number of times I have gotten up."

Hours later, shortly after 3 a.m., Rivera is believed to have boarded a Learjet 25, which took off under clear skies. The jet headed south, toward Toluca, west of Mexico City; there, Rivera had been scheduled to tape the television show "La Voz" — Mexico's version of "The Voice" — on which she was a judge.

The plane, built in 1969 and registered to a Las Vegas talent management firm, reached 11,000 feet. But 10 minutes and 62 miles into the flight, air traffic controllers lost contact with its pilots, according to Mexican authorities. The jet crashed outside Iturbide, a remote city that straddles one of the few roads bisecting Mexico's Sierra de Arteaga national park.

Wreckage was scattered across several football fields' worth of terrain. An investigation into the cause of the crash was underway, and attempts to identify the remains of the victims had begun.

Rivera, a mother of five and grandmother of two, was believed to have been traveling with her publicist Arturo Rivera, who was not related to her, as well as with her lawyer, hairstylist and makeup artist; reports of their names were not consistent. Their identities were not confirmed by authorities. The pilots were identified as Miguel Perez and Alejandro Torres.

In the world of regional Latin music — norteño, cumbia and ranchera are among the popular niches — Rivera was practically royalty.

Her father was a noted singer of the Mexican storytelling ballads known as corridos. In the 1980s he launched the record label Cintas Acuario. It began as a swap-meet booth and grew into an influential and taste-making independent outfit, fueling the careers of artists such as the late Chalino Sanchez. Jenni Rivera's four brothers were associated with the music industry; her brother Lupillo, in particular, is a huge star in his own right.

Born on July 2, 1969, Rivera initially showed little inclination to join the family business. She worked for a time in real estate. But after a pregnancy and a divorce, she went to work for her father's record label and found her voice, literally and figuratively.

She released her first studio album in 2003, when she was 34.

Her path had not been easy, but rather than running from it, she wrote it into her music — domestic violence; struggles with weight; raising her children alone, or "sin capitan," without a captain. She was known for marathon live shows that left audiences exhilarated and exhausted; by the fifth hour of one recent performance, she was drinking straight from a tequila bottle and launching into a cover of "I Will Survive."

In a witty and sometimes baffling stew of Spanish and English, she sang about her three husbands, about drug traffickers, in tribute to her father, in tribute to her gynecologist.

She became, in a most unlikely way, a feminist hero among Latin women in Mexico and the United States and a powerful player in a genre of music dominated by men and machismo. Regional Mexican music styles had long been seen as limiting to artists, but Rivera shrugged off the labels and brought traditional-laced music — some of which sounded perilously close to polka — to a massive pop audience.

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What Should We Name NASA's New Mars Rover?

With the monumental success of NASA’s Curiosity rover, the agency recently decided to build a younger sibling for the probe out of spare parts.

During a surprise press conference on Dec. 4, NASA associate administrator of science John Grunsfeld announced plans for the new rover that will launch to Mars in 2020. Some in the scientific community reacted by wondering if NASA was completely addicted to Mars, blind to the fact that there are other planets in the solar system. But most are firmly behind the new rover, with folks already rallying around the idea that it will take the first step in a long-held dream of the planetary science community, a Mars sample-return mission.

The public reaction ranged from excitement (“Awesome, another rover!”) to jaded indifference (“Big whoop, another rover.”). Twitter had a field day coming up with silly names for the as-yet nameless rover, many of which were collected under the hashtag #newmarsrovernames. While NASA will no doubt sponsor a contest for young students to christen the probe, that doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun in the meantime.

Here we’ve collected some of the best online responses to NASA’s big announcement. Take a look and vote on which one you think is best below.

Punny Names

Just about everyone and their robot dog suggested a pun, with the number one choice being “Red” as in “Red Rover.” On the other hand, Curiosity is getting a little brother, so what could be more appropriate than Brover? Several folks wanted NASA to embrace the robot’s freedom of sexual expression with the name Bi-Curiosity. And a good number of names played off the idea of curiosity and its feline-murdering ways with The Cat.

Many humorous suggestions centered on the fact that the new rover would be very similar to the old one, with names like Mimicry, Accompany, Supplantation, I’m Curious Too, and the mouthful Revor, Son of Rover, Picker-upper-er of Dirt and Hopefully Other Stuff.

Sarcastic Names

Our favorite online Curiosity doppelganger @SarcasticRover led the charge on curmudgeonly names, writing “How about “Apathy” – young people love that, right?” on Twitter shortly after the announcement.

A great number of the public seemed to favor Redundancy, though Mediocrity, Indifference, and Superfluous made appearances on the internet as well. One Twitter user best summed up these folks, suggesting we call the new rover Meh.

Geeky Names

You can always count on space geeks to be geeky. We got a few mentions of Sagan for the scientist fanboys out there and Serenity for the Joss Whedon acolytes. Stephen Colbert also got a mention with Colbert Rides Again, a possible reference to the man’s namesake treadmill on the International Space Station.

A few people picked up on NASA’s job creator obligations and singular Mars focus, suggesting Job Security and I Should Be On Titan.

Positive Names

Not all suggestions centered on fun and games. The new rover is expected to be just as popular and inspirational as the last and at least one Twitter user threw down a list of beautiful names such as Serendipity, Vitality, Veracity, Agility, Infinity, Audacity, and Tenacity.

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Tech guru McAfee’s legal appeals win him respite in Guatemala

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – U.S. software pioneer John McAfee, facing deportation from Guatemala to Belize to answer questions over the death of a neighbor, has bought himself some time with legal appeals, the Guatemalan government said on Sunday.

McAfee’s lawyers have filed a request with a local court to grant him leave to stay in Guatemala until his legal appeals against deportation have been settled, which could take months.

“The government of Guatemala respects the courts and we have to wait for them to make a decision,” said Francisco Cuevas, a spokesman for the Guatemalan government.

The government initially said it would deport him straight away after rejecting McAfee’s request for asylum on Thursday.

Guatemala has been holding the former Silicon Valley millionaire since he was arrested on Wednesday for illegally entering the country with his 20-year-old Belizean girlfriend.

Officials in Belize want to question McAfee as a “person of interest” in the killing of fellow American Gregory Faull, his neighbor on the Caribbean island of Ambergris Caye.

The court has up to 30 days to rule on his request, but McAfee’s lawyers said on Sunday they expect a ruling in the American’s favor as early as Monday.

“We are filing a series of papers with the court to attempt to keep me here long enough for the world to see the injustice of sending me back to Belize,” McAfee said in an online news conference on Sunday evening.

McAfee has been evading Belizean officials for nearly a month, saying he fears they want to kill him, and that he is being persecuted for speaking out about corruption in the country’s ruling party. Belize’s prime minister has rejected McAfee’s claims, calling him paranoid and “bonkers.”

McAfee’s attorney, Telesforo Guerra, said that if his request with the court is successful, McAfee would be allowed to stay in the country until the legal suits have been resolved.

His lawyers have filed several injunctions against government officials, alleging McAfee’s rights were violated because his asylum request was not given proper consideration.

McAfee said on Saturday he wanted to return to the United States, and Guerra said he had filed a motion that would require Guatemalan authorities to deport him there and not to Belize.

The eccentric tech pioneer, who made his fortune from the anti-virus software bearing his name, has been chronicling life on the run in a blog, www.whoismcafee.com.

(Editing by Dave Graham; editing by Todd Eastham)

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News Analysis: A Debate on Coated Aspirins and Aspirin Resistance

Millions of Americans take low-dose aspirin every day to prevent heart attacks and strokes. But a study published last week challenges some cherished beliefs about the familiar remedy, leaving some consumers to wonder if they should throw out their coated pills and others concerned that they unnecessarily may be taking expensive substitutes.

The study, published in the journal Circulation, by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, tested 400 healthy people for evidence that aspirin did not work in them, a phenomenon called “aspirin resistance.” Aspirin prevents blood platelets from sticking together, which can lead to heart attacks and strokes. Previous studies have estimated that anywhere from 5 to 40 percent of the population is resistant to aspirin’s effects.

But the study essentially found that the condition doesn’t exist: they could not document a single case of true aspirin resistance in their sample. What had appeared to be aspirin resistance, they said, actually was caused by the coating commonly used on aspirin pills intended to protect the stomach. The coating slowed the drug’s absorption into the body.

The study didn’t evaluate whether coated aspirin was less likely to prevent heart attacks or strokes, said Dr. Garret FitzGerald, one of the authors. And people who took the coated aspirin in his study eventually showed a response to it.

But people who seek out coated aspirin may be doing so unnecessarily, he said, especially since previous studies have not consistently shown that the coating even prevents gastric problems.

“There’s no rationale for you to be on coated aspirin,” said Dr. FitzGerald, who is a cardiologist and chairman of pharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Some cardiologists have begun advising patients to seek out uncoated aspirin because other studies have suggested that the uncoated type may be more effective. But finding it isn’t so easy. Even cheaper store brands, like those sold by CVS and Wal-Mart, come with a so-called enteric coating. One of the few uncoated aspirins on the market is St. Joseph’s chewable variety — the old orange-flavored baby aspirin.

But other experts, like Dr. Steven E. Nissen, a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic, see no real harm in taking coated aspirin, which is cheap and readily available. Many major studies of aspirin have been conducted using the coated variety.

The new study also calls into question the very idea of aspirin resistance. Testing for the condition became more widespread in the early 2000s, as expensive prescription alternatives like the blood thinner Plavix (also called clopidogrel) gained popularity. Many cardiologists suspected that the timing was not a coincidence.

“Before clopidogrel, we had never heard of aspirin resistance,” said Dr. Sanjay Kaul, a cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. “It seemed to be that this was driven mostly by marketing considerations.” The new study raises the possibility that many patients may have been falsely told that aspirin doesn’t work on them, Dr. Kaul and other experts said.

The University of Pennsylvania study was partially financed by Bayer, the world’s largest manufacturer of branded aspirin, much of which is coated. In a statement, Bayer challenged some of the study’s conclusions and methods, and also said there was evidence that the enteric coating can reduce gastric side effects.

Critics of Dr. FitzGerald’s study also argue that he should have studied aspirin resistance in patients with conditions like heart disease, rather than in healthy people.

But even these critics acknowledge that testing for resistance is probably not worthwhile. Dr. Nissen, who is critical of Dr. FitzGerald’s study, doesn’t test his patients for aspirin resistance. But he said he would be reluctant to switch a patient from another drug back to aspirin now if a test had previously shown they were aspirin-resistant. Changing treatments is always risky, he said.

“If the patient is not bleeding, is not having a complication, am I going to take it away?” Dr. Nissen wondered. “That’s the dilemma we face.”

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