From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 AP IMPACT: Lobbyists skirt Obama's earmark ban
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer
19 mins ago
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's ban on earmarks in the $825 billion economic stimulus bill doesn't mean interest groups, lobbyists and lawmakers won't be able to funnel money to pet projects.
They're just working around it — and perhaps inadvertently making the process more secretive.
The projects run the gamut: a Metrolink station that needs building in Placentia, Calif.; a stretch of beach in Sandy Hook, N.J., that could really use some more sand; a water park in Miami. |
2 Issue of terrorists' rights to test Obama's pledge
By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writer
31 mins ago
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's pledge of bipartisan cooperation with Congress will be tested as he tries to fulfill a campaign promise to close Guantanamo Bay and establish a new system for prosecuting suspected terrorists.
The undertaking is an ambitious one. Fraught with legal complexities, it gives Republicans ample opportunity to score political points if he doesn't get it right. There's also the liklihood of a run-in with his former rival, Sen. John McCain, a former prisoner of war who before running for president staked his career on overhauling the nation's detainee policies.
"We look forward to working with the president and his administration on these issues, keeping in mind that the first priority of the U.S. government is to guarantee the security of the American people," McCain, R-Ariz., said in a joint statement with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. |
3 Some global adversaries ready to give Obama chance
By PAUL HAVEN, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 42 mins ago
In his inaugural address, President Barack Obama signaled conciliation to America's foes by using the metaphor of an outstretched hand to an unclenched fist.
Already, there are signs that some of those foes were listening, sensing an opening for improved relations after eight combative years under President George W. Bush. Fidel Castro is said to like the new American leader, and North Korea and Iran both sounded open to new ideas to defuse nuclear-tinged tensions.
Unclear is what they will demand in return from the untested American statesman, and whether they will agree to the compromises the U.S. is likely to insist on in exchange for warmer relations. |
4 Fight building over judges redoing mortgages
By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 39 mins ago
WASHINGTON – Most congressional Democrats say the quickest way to save homeowners like Troy Butler of Saginaw, Mich., is to let them declare bankruptcy and allow judges to dictate new mortgage terms.
Easy, except the lenders that would absorb the pain — and lose control of any deals to ease the terms — do not want to get dragged into bankruptcy court by millions of overextended borrowers.
Butler, 40, is a laid-off General Motors worker who has filed for bankruptcy. But the bankruptcy court has no authority to change the terms of his $90,000-plus mortgage that is more than double the value of his home. |
5 State lawmakers bet gambling can help with budgets
By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writer
34 mins ago
ATLANTA – A tell-tale sign America's chips are down: States are increasingly turning to gambling to plug budget holes.
Proposals to allow or expand slots or casinos are percolating in at least 14 states, tempting legislators and governors at a time when many must decide between cutting services and raising taxes.
Gambling has hard-core detractors in every state, but when the budget-balancing alternatives lawmakers must consider include reducing education funding or lifting sales taxes, resistance is easier to overcome, political analysts said. |
6 World's highest drug levels entering India stream
By MARGIE MASON, AP Medical Writer
42 mins ago
PATANCHERU, India – When researchers analyzed vials of treated wastewater taken from a plant where about 90 Indian drug factories dump their residues, they were shocked. Enough of a single, powerful antibiotic was being spewed into one stream each day to treat every person in a city of 90,000.
And it wasn't just ciprofloxacin being detected. The supposedly cleaned water was a floating medicine cabinet — a soup of 21 different active pharmaceutical ingredients, used in generics for treatment of hypertension, heart disease, chronic liver ailments, depression, gonorrhea, ulcers and other ailments. Half of the drugs measured at the highest levels of pharmaceuticals ever detected in the environment, researchers say.
Those Indian factories produce drugs for much of the world, including many Americans. The result: Some of India's poor are unwittingly consuming an array of chemicals that may be harmful, and could lead to the proliferation of drug-resistant bacteria. |
7 China dams reveal flaws in climate-change weapon
By JOE McDONALD and CHARLES J. HANLEY, Associated Press Writers
36 mins ago
XIAOXI, China – The hydroelectric dam, a low wall of concrete slicing across an old farming valley, is supposed to help a power company in distant Germany contribute to saving the climate — while putting lucrative "carbon credits" into the pockets of Chinese developers.
But in the end the new Xiaoxi dam may do nothing to lower global-warming emissions as advertised. And many of the 7,500 people displaced by the project still seethe over losing their homes and farmland.
"Nobody asked if we wanted to move," said a 38-year-old man whose family lost a small brick house. "The government just posted a notice that said, 'Your home will be demolished.'" |
8 Car dealers try to survive as economy, sales drop
By TOM KRISHER, AP Auto Writer
Sun Jan 25, 7:17 am ET
NEW ORLEANS – At this year's version of the National Automobile Dealers Association convention, survival has passed maximizing profits as the focus of the annual event.
So as thousands of dealers from across the U.S. gathered Saturday in New Orleans, they were greeted by workshops entitled "Selling up in a down economy: Taking the bull by the horns" and "Tough times, tougher dealers: Saving your dealership's assets."
By almost all accounts, 2009 will be among the toughest years ever faced by the roughly 20,000 new car dealerships in the U.S., with sales of cars and lightweight trucks projected to shrink by as much as 6 million vehicles from the 16.1 million sold as recently as 2007. Sales last year were 13.2 million, down 18 percent from 2007, and December sales ran at an annual rate of around 10 million. Last year's sales were the worst in 26 years. |
9 Burden in Minn. Senate trial heavier on Coleman
By PATRICK CONDON, Associated Press Writer
30 mins ago
ST. PAUL, Minn. – It's been two months since the U.S. Senate election that pitted Democrat Al Franken against incumbent Republican Norm Coleman, but it's still impossible to say who actually won.
Their contest enters a new phase Monday when a panel of three judges begins hearing Coleman's lawsuit over a recount that left him out in the cold. Coleman argues that ballot irregularities and improperly rejected absentees are the reasons Franken holds a narrow lead.
But legal experts say it is Coleman who faces the bigger challenge. |
10 Dior Homme does fashion-forward black suit
Associated Press
23 mins ago
PARIS – Black suits that were anything but boring dominated Dior Homme's show Sunday.
Asymmetrical cuts, strap and metalwork closures and heaps of pleats created an edgy, bold silhouette that played on volumes and contrast.
Designer Kris Van Assche — who in 2007 replaced Hedi Slimane, the creator of the ultra-slim suit that was the house's star piece — dared go big, sending out billowy pants that bucked the overall trend in the Paris menswear shows toward slim trousers. A plethora of pleats fanning out from the low-slung waist band gave the pants an almost bubble cut through the hips and thighs. |
11 Indiana student ill, but wins Miss America crown
By OSKAR GARCIA, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jan 25, 7:17 am ET
LAS VEGAS – Katie Stam of Indiana was crowned Miss America on Saturday night, fighting off a throat infection, laryngitis and 51 other contestants to win the 88-year-old pageant.
The 22-year-old University of Indianapolis student drew loud applause for her rendition of "Via Dolorosa" during the talent portion of the pageant at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.
The Seymour native also strutted onstage in a black bikini and an off-the-shoulder, white lace evening gown. During the interview portion of the competition she decried the use of performance-enhancing drugs among professional athletes and discussed the definition of glamour. |
12 Obama aide won't rule out more money for bailouts
By Emily Kaiser and Kim Dixon, Reuters
2 hrs 19 mins ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama's top economic adviser would not rule out on Sunday that more money may be needed to stabilize the U.S. financial system as a deep recession increases banks' losses.
Lawrence Summers, head of the National Economic Council, also said there was no question that tax cuts passed under former President George W. Bush needed to be repealed, though he would not be pinned down on exactly when.
"We can make important progress and get started with the support that has been provided," Summers said on NBC's "Meet the Press" when asked whether taxpayers should expect another request for funding to shore up the financial system. |
13 Pelosi signals willingness to add to TARP funds
Reuters
Sun Jan 25, 7:03 am ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday the federal government may need to pump more taxpayer funds into the faltering banking system and that taxpayers should receive equity as compensation.
Pelosi told ABC's "This Week" program that "some increased investment" might be needed beyond the $700 billion approved last year under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, to stabilize the nation's banks and get them to resume making loans.
Congress would require more oversight of any further bank bailout, the California Democrat said. |
14 Ford does not need government loans: CEO
By Soyoung Kim, Reuters
1 hr 57 mins ago
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Ford Motor Co has enough liquidity to fund its restructuring plan and despite the deep downturn in auto sales still sees no need to ask for government loans, Chief Executive Alan Mulally said on Saturday.
"We don't want to borrow any more money. We have sufficient liquidity to fund our transformation plan, which means our business is in a relatively good shape," Mulally told reporters on the sidelines of the National Automobile Dealers Association convention.
Ford's U.S. rivals, General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC, won approval in December for $17.4 billion of government loans to avert collapse. Ford has asked for access to a $9 billion credit line from the U.S. government but has not sought loans. Washington has not yet responded to Ford's request. |
15 Baroness Reuter, last link to news dynasty, dies
By Mark Trevelyan, Reuters
1 hr 42 mins ago
LONDON (Reuters) – Marguerite, Baroness de Reuter, a European aristocrat from a bygone age and last survivor of the family that founded the international news agency, died on Sunday aged 96, friends said.
A patron of the arts, she was the widow of Oliver, 4th Baron de Reuter, whose grandfather Paul Julius Reuter established his news service in London in 1851 after starting out in Aachen, Germany, using telegraph cables and carrier pigeons.
The barony -- a German title granted to Paul Julius in 1871 but later confirmed by Queen Victoria as conferring the privileges of the nobility in England -- becomes extinct on her death, as she and her husband had no children. |
16 Chinese give Year of the Ox a noisy welcome
By Ben Blanchard, Reuters
Sun Jan 25, 10:37 am ET
BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese welcomed the arrival of the Year of the Ox with raucous celebrations on Sunday despite gloom about the economy, setting off firecrackers in the streets and sending fireworks into the sky.
Celebrations were expected to carry on into the early hours of Monday, officially the first day of the Lunar New Year.
But in the commercial capital Shanghai, one person was killed in an explosion near a police station, state-run Xinhua news agency said. The cause was under investigation. |
17 In Antarctica, golden sledge is icy art
By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent, Reuters
Sun Jan 25, 11:25 am ET
ROTHERA BASE, Antarctica (Reuters) – One of the few artists in Antarctica tests out his latest work on the snow -- a golden wooden sledge made of bits of old, ornate picture frames.
Chris Dobrowolski, 40, whose playful art has included a boat built from driftwood or a battle tank powered by lawnmowers, surveys the 12-foot (3.7 meter) sledge after towing it behind a snow scooter by the British Rothera research base.
"It worked as I hoped," he said, after the sledge flexed over icy bumps without cracking. He built it at the base in two months following a classic "Nansen" design in which many of the wooden parts are lashed together with leather. |
18 Pope gesture to traditionalists outrages Jews
By Philip Pullella, Reuters
Sun Jan 25, 11:44 am ET
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Benedict's rehabilitation of four traditionalist bishops may heal one festering Catholic wound at the expense of opening a wider one with Jews because one of the prelates is a Holocaust denier.
The four bishops re-admitted to the Church over the weekend lead the far-right Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), which has about 600,000 members and rejects modernizations of Roman Catholic worship and doctrine.
One of the four, the British-born Richard Williamson, has made statements denying the full extent of the Nazi Holocaust of European Jews, as accepted by mainstream historians. |
19 Chrysler sees viability even at weak U.S. auto sales
By Soyoung Kim, Reuters
Sat Jan 24, 4:13 pm ET
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Chrysler LLC sees U.S. industry auto sales in 2009 at the low end of prevailing expectations but its turnaround plan is aimed at achieving "viability" even at that sales level, executives said on Saturday.
Chrysler expects U.S. light vehicle sales to drop to 10.1 million units this year, the most conservative forecast yet among major automakers, U.S. sales executive Steve Landry told reporters on the sidelines of the annual National Automobile Dealers Association convention.
The forecast marks a further decline from the 11.1 million unit sales the struggling U.S. automaker had assumed in December when it presented its restructuring plan to Congress as condition of receiving government funding. |
20 Europe's new atom-smasher chief signals caution after breakdown
AFP
1 hr 41 mins ago
GENEVA (AFP) – The new director of Europe's Big Bang machine signalled in an interview published Sunday that he will be more cautious than his predecessor, following a major breakdown that marred its multi-billion dollar launch.
The giant atom-smasher, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), broke down only days after being switched on by CERN in September 2008, causing more than 30 million Swiss francs of repairs (20 million euros, 26 million dollars).
Rolf-Dieter Heuer, director-general of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, told the Swiss newspaper Sonntag that the bill could even reach 40 million Swiss francs. |
21 Bolivia constitution would empower Indian majority
By DAN KEANE, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 53 mins ago
LA PAZ, Bolivia – Bolivian Indians threw their support behind a new constitution Sunday that is aimed at empowering their long-suffering majority while allowing leftist President Evo Morales a chance to remain in power through 2014.
The measure was expected to pass easily in a country whose oldest Indians can still recall a time when they were forbidden to vote.
But opposition from Bolivia's white and mestizo populations and disputes over the document's wording foreshadowed yet more political turmoil in a divided nation where tensions over race and class have recently turned deadly. |
22 The Eiffel Tower that tourists never see
By JENNY BARCHFIELD, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jan 25, 10:25 am ET
PARIS – A model of refined simplicity on the outside, the iron lady that symbolizes Paris is a complicated piece of work inside her elegant A-line figure.
Custom-fitted pumps, heaters and long-life bulbs keep the 119-year-old Eiffel Tower working and sparkling, while industrial-sized cogs, gears and cables spin, bump, grind and purr deep inside the structure's innards, in places no tourists see.
Caring for the monument's hidden core is a daunting, sometimes dangerous task that goes on out of sight but keeps the tower looking its picture-postcard best. More than 500 people — from welders and plumbers to security guards and cooks — work within the structure. |
23 Last whale stranded in Australia dies
Associated Press
Sun Jan 25, 6:13 am ET
HOBART, Australia – The last survivor among a group of 45 sperm whales that became stranded on a remote Australian sandbar died Sunday, ending a long and disappointing rescue effort.
The whales became stuck on a sandbar just off the island state of Tasmania's northwest coast on Thursday. Officials who rushed to the site to help survivors found only seven alive, and began pouring water over the semi-submerged mammals to keep them cool as they tried to devise a plan to free them.
But survivor numbers dwindled each day. The last one, which had hung on for more than three days but was hemmed in behind the bodies of others in the pod, died Sunday afternoon. |
24 International court starts first war crimes trial
By Aaron Gray-Block, Reuters
Sun Jan 25, 5:50 am ET
THE HAGUE (Reuters) – A Congolese militia leader will be the first suspect to go on trial at the International Criminal Court on Monday, in a test of the credibility of the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal.
Thomas Lubanga, who founded and led the Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) in Congo's eastern Ituri district, is accused of enlisting and conscripting children under the age of 15 to kill members of the Lendu ethnic group during the 1998-2003 war.
Ethnic violence in the Ituri region between the Hema and Lendu and clashes between militia groups vying for control of mines and taxation have killed 60,000 people since 1999. |
25 Modernizer leads contest to head Russian church
By Dmitry Solovyov, Reuters
2 hrs 23 mins ago
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Senior clergy from the Russian Orthodox church backed a modernizer who favors closer ties with the Vatican Sunday in the first round of voting to choose their first new patriarch since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, one of the most senior Russian clerics to have met the Roman Catholic pontiff, won the most votes in the church's Council of Bishops and enters the next round of voting as favorite.
But two other nominees were shortlisted for the final vote, which gets underway Tuesday, and religious scholars have said Kirill could face a backlash from traditionalists who may rally around another candidate to block him. |
26 S.Africa says can tackle cholera outbreak
Reuters
Sun Jan 25, 8:08 am ET
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – An outbreak of cholera that has spread from Zimbabwe into northern parts of South Africa can be contained, South African Health Minister Barbara Hogan said Sunday.
Hogan said the health department had sent trained cholera outbreak response teams to help authorities in worst hit Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces tackle the water-borne disease.
"I'm very concerned about the increase in the number of cases, but confident in the ability of the Health Department to fight the disease," Hogan said in a statement. |
27 Indonesia's top Islamic body weighs up smoking ban
By Olivia Rondonuwu, Reuters
Sun Jan 25, 3:30 am ET
PADANG PANJANG, Indonesia (Reuters) – Indonesia's top Islamic body debated on Sunday whether to apply a blanket ban on smoking for Muslims or place a more limited restriction on tobacco use in Southeast Asia's biggest economy.
Officially secular Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population and about 700 people, including Muslim clerics and theological experts, have gathered in West Sumatra for the National Edict Commission meeting, which could issue fatwas on a range of areas from polygamy to doing yoga.
"Maybe smokers won't drop the habit in five or six years, but we hope that before the apocalypse there won't be any smoker in Indonesia if we put a ban on it," said Hasan Mansur Nasution, an ulema from North Sumatra, who favored a ban despite being a smoker himself. |
28 Iceland commerce minister quits
By Kim McLaughlin, Reuters
Sun Jan 25, 9:53 am ET
REYKJAVIK (Reuters) – Iceland's Minister of Commerce quit on Sunday, calling into question the government's ability to rule until an early election in May and tackle the country's economic collapse.
Prime Minister Geir Haarde, who has cancer, shocked Iceland on Friday when he said he would not seek re-election due to the pressures of dealing with the crisis. He called an early parliamentary election for May 9.
His commerce minister, Bjorgvin Sigurdsson, said he was resigning because of his role in the collapse that has prompted protesters to call for the government's immediate resignation. |
29 Women's basketball event excites war-weary Somalis
By Ibrahim Mohamed, Reuters
Sun Jan 25, 6:42 am ET
MOGADISHU (Reuters) – The stadium was packed for the women's basketball tournament in the bombed-out capital of staunchly Islamic Somalia.
Sports events are an unusual and welcome diversion for many residents of Mogadishu, torn by a two-year-old insurgency of suicide bombings, assassinations and indiscriminate artillery attacks.
But women's tournaments are even rarer in the Muslim country, attracting droves of eager spectators who filled the seats of the crumbling, colonial-era Italian stadium of Ex Lucino more than an hour before the start. |
30 China's New Year rush puts trains in line for cash
By Simon Rabinovitch, Reuters
Sun Jan 25, 4:05 am ET
BEIJING (Reuters) – China's trains labored to carry millions home on Sunday on the eve of the country's biggest annual holiday, serving as a reminder of the staggering infrastructure needs of the world's third-largest economy.
Despite investing vast amounts in the rail network, 350 billion yuan ($51 billion) in 2008 alone, the government has struggled to keep up with passenger flows as more Chinese move to cities for work and have the money to return home to the countryside for the Lunar New Year.
Beijing has pledged to nearly double rail spending this year to 600 billion yuan to ease the congestion. |
31 "Lonely" Thaksin vows to keep fighting for Thailand
Reuters
Sun Jan 25, 1:37 am ET
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra attacked the current government's economic stimulus plans on Sunday, saying they were just short-term fixes for long-term problems.
"It's more or less like giving the people money to mow the lawn and the next day the grass still grows back," Thaksin, ousted in a 2006 coup, said on a new anti-government cable television channel.
"The country will see more people out of job(s) this year due to global financial crisis," he said. |
32 Ethiopia completes Somali pull-out
by Aaron Maasho, AFP
Sun Jan 25, 12:14 pm ET
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) – Ethiopia on Sunday completed its withdrawal from Somalia, two years after deploying thousands of troops to quell an Islamist insurgency that is still raging in its war-torn neighbour.
Islamist groups still hold sway over much of Somalia outside the capital Mogadishu and the seat of the transitional government Baidoa, but the Ethiopians said it was mission accomplished as far as they were concerned.
"The Ethiopian army has successfully completed its mission in Somalia and it has been fully withdrawn," said Minister of Communications Bereket Simon. |
33 An American Underdog Dreams of Kitchen Gold
Time Magazine
Sun Jan 25, 2:10 am ET
With twenty days to go before the most important competition of his young life, Timothy Hollingsworth still didn't have the fish plate right. He had just spent the previous five hours calmly but urgently preparing the two dishes he would present in Lyon, France at the world's most prestigious chefs' contest. The beef plate came out beautifully. But his coach, Roland Henin, poked a little despondently at Hollingsworth's cod. "You need more on the plate," he said. "There's a segment of judges who are going to feel cheated. They'll look over at the meat judges and think, 'How come they got so much more?'" |
From Yahoo News U.S. News |
34 Pastor: New Life will recover from new allegations
By DAN ELLIOTT, Associated Press
31 mins ago
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – New Life Church will recover from new allegations in the 2-year-old sex scandal that brought down founder Ted Haggard, its pastor said Sunday.
Brady Boyd encouraged his Colorado Springs congregation and reminded them of their "holy tenacity," two days after revelations that a male church volunteer reported having a sexual relationship with Haggard.
It's the second such claim against Haggard. In late 2006, a male prostitute in Denver said he had a three-year cash-for-sex relationship with the former New Life pastor. |
35 College financial aid system facing stiff test
By DAVE CARPENTER, AP Personal Finance Writer
Sun Jan 25, 4:26 am ET
CHICAGO – Finding financial aid for college this year promises to be tougher than any final exam. The quest for money that begins for students and parents every January has taken on new urgency in 2009 amid fears that loans and grants will be scarcer than in the past due to the recession.
"The financing system for college is in real crisis," said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of College Registrars and Admissions Officers. "Every one of the participants in the system is experiencing hardship — higher education institutions, states, aid donors and families all are cash-strapped."
Federal student loans remain readily available — with some funding even increased recently by Congress. But the prospect that grants and scholarships may be cut at many schools, combined with the shrinking availability of private loans, has fueled widespread angst at a time when more people than ever are seeking help. Applications for federal aid for the current academic year already are running 10 percent above last year's record pace, according to the Department of Education. |
36 Southpaw Obama leads from the left
by Jitendra Joshi, AFP
Sun Jan 25, 12:52 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Barack Obama's inauguration as the 44th US president was not just a cause of rejoicing for African-Americans. Another minority -- lefties -- had one of their own back in the White House.
Obama joined a disproportionately high number of southpaw US leaders, and the well-documented intuition and creativity of left-handed people may be exactly what a nation in crisis needs right now.
"I'm a lefty. Get used to it," Obama quipped to photographers as he signed his first official documents a day after his historic inauguration as America's first black president Tuesday. He wasn't referring to his politics. |
37 Obama 'brand' stimulates big merchandise sales
by Rob Lever, AFP
Sun Jan 25, 12:30 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – A Barack Obama T-shirt sells for five dollars on K Street in Washington. An Obama bronze medallion costs 60 dollars through the official presidential inauguration committee outlet.
The US is awash in Obama merchandise, ranging from refrigerator magnets to baseball caps to Obama-style coffee (half Hawaiian, half Kenyan) capitalizing on the image of the new president.
Obama coffee mugs, key chains, scarves and baseball caps are flying off the shelves. The Washington Post and The New York Times sell commemorative books and special editions of their inauguration issues. |
38 Playboy Shows Signs of Withdrawal
Time Magazine
Sun Jan 25, 12:45 am ET
Who knew sex was a bad business to be in? That's probably what they're thinking over at Playboy's New York city offices, which are to be closed and its staff either laid off or offered a position at Playboy's headquarters in Chicago. |
39 McCain grudgingly says defense pick will proceed
Associated Press
Sun Jan 25, 12:59 pm ET
WASHINGTON – Sen. John McCain said Sunday the confirmation of President Barack Obama's choice for deputy defense secretary should move forward despite concerns about the nominee's role as a former defense lobbyist.
The Obama administration considers William J. Lynn, Obama's pick for the No. 2 job at the Pentagon, to be an exception from its own ban on hiring lobbyists. As a lobbyist for Raytheon, one of the military's top contractors, Lynn worked on matters with far reach across the Pentagon.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs has said that even the toughest rules require "reasonable exceptions" for "uniquely qualified individuals." |
40 Stimulus: School money will be hard to cut later
By LIBBY QUAID and JUSTIN POPE, AP Education Writers
Sun Jan 25, 8:34 am ET
WASHINGTON – Democrats want to use the big spending package designed to jump-start the staggering economy to send billions to long-term programs to help poor and disabled school children.
President Barack Obama's recovery plan amounts to the biggest increase ever in federal money for schools. Many Republicans say it is not a short-term boost but an immense expansion that will be impossible to roll back.
"What will happen two years from now when the Democrat spending spree comes to an end?" asked California Rep. Buck McKeon, top Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee. |
41 Gore highlights new US push on climate change
by Olivier Knox, AFP
Sun Jan 25, 1:02 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Al Gore will exhort US lawmakers to renew US leadership on battling climate change next week, as "green" groups push for quick, sweeping action from President Barack Obama and a friendly Congress.
Gore will testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday as Democrats -- who now control the White House and enjoy sizeable majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives -- seek to wield their new power.
"He understands the urgent need for American engagement and leadership on this issue. America must act decisively," ahead of December UN talks on the issue in Copenhagen, said Democratic Senator John Kerry, the panel's chairman. |
42 Media freedom under threat in Sri Lanka: US
AFP
Sat Jan 24, 2:25 pm ET
COLOMBO (AFP) – Continuing attacks against journalists in Sri Lanka show the deteriorating conditions media workers face in the country, a statement released by the US embassy here said Saturday.
In the statement, US State Department acting spokesman Robert A. Wood said the United States was appalled by ongoing physical attacks and threats against the media in Sri Lanka, where government troops and locked in combat with Tamil separatist rebels.
It comes a day after the editor of a weekly paper, Upali Tennakoon, was stabbed and wounded outside the capital Colombo while he and his wife drove to work. |
43 Obama breaks from Bush, avoids divisive stands
By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jan 25, 7:15 am ET
WASHINGTON – Barack Obama opened his presidency by breaking sharply from George W. Bush's unpopular administration, but he mostly avoided divisive partisan and ideological stands. He focused instead on fixing the economy, repairing a battered world image and cleaning up government.
"What an opportunity we have to change this country," the Democrat told his senior staff after his inauguration. "The American people are really counting on us now. Let's make sure we take advantage of it."
In the highly scripted first days of his administration, Obama overturned a slew of Bush policies with great fanfare. He largely avoided cultural issues; the exception was reversing one abortion-related policy, a predictable move done in a very low-profile way. |
44 Obama acts to reverse Bush climate moves: officials
By Jeff Mason, Reuters
17 mins ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama will start reversing former President George W. Bush's climate change policies on Monday by taking steps to allow states to limit greenhouse gas emissions from cars and by ordering 2011 vehicle fuel efficiency standards to be set by March.
An administration official said late on Sunday that Obama, who took office last week, would direct the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider a request by California to impose its own strict limits on car emissions.
The request was denied under the Bush administration. The official said a final decision by the EPA would likely take several months. |
45 Bolivians approve sweeping constitutional reforms
by Raul Burgoa, AFP
1 hr 27 mins ago
LA PAZ (AFP) – Bolivians approved sweeping constitutional changes that would bring greater political power to the country's indigenous majority and allow President Evo Morales to run for re-election.
Exit polls by two of the country's largest television networks showed the new constitution being approved by at least an eight point margin. Partial official results are due early Monday, with final results expected in three or four days.
"Now Bolivia is being re-founded!" Morales told supporters who gathered at the Plaza de Armas in La Paz to hear him speak from the balcony of the presidential palace. |
46 Obama faces Republican rancor as economy reels
by Jitendra Joshi, AFP
1 hr 38 mins ago
WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama entered his first full week in office Monday battling to win over Republicans hostile to his signature plan to haul the US economy out of a paralyzing recession.
Obama's 825-billion-dollar stimulus bill, which is set for debate in Congress this week, has become a litmus test of the new Democratic president's pledge to drain Washington of partisan rancor.
Before heading to Capitol Hill to lobby for the bill in person Tuesday, Obama was Monday hoping to add a crucial name to his cabinet with the Senate expected to confirm his pick for Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner. |
47 Scots mark 250 years since national poet Burns's birth
by Katherine Haddon, AFP
Sun Jan 25, 4:15 pm ET
LONDON (AFP) – With whisky, haggis and poetry, Scots around the world celebrated the 250th anniversary Sunday of the birth of national bard Robert Burns, whose works include "Auld Lang Syne."
From Scotland to the United States, China and even Afghanistan, millions who claim Scots ancestry worldwide enjoyed a traditional Burns supper of haggis -- sheep's heart and lungs chopped up with spices and oatmeal and stuffed into a sheep's stomach -- plus "neeps" (turnips) and "tatties" (potatoes).
Devoted "Rabbie" fans traditionally recite his "Address To A Haggis," which hails the "great chieftain o' the puddin-race," before tucking into their meal. |
48 Darfur peacekeepers: Government planes bomb town
By SARAH EL DEEB, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jan 25, 5:12 pm ET
CAIRO, Egypt – Sudanese government planes have bombed a rebel-held town in southern Darfur, killing a child, burning homes and sending civilians fleeing to a peacekeepers compound, the peacekeeping force said Sunday.
The bombing on Saturday destroyed eight homes in the town of Muhajeria, home to 30,000 residents, many of whom were displaced from previous fighting, said Noureddine Mezni, spokesman for the U.N.-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur.
The government has vowed to take control of the town from Darfur's most powerful rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement. The rebels seized control of Muhajeria earlier this month from another rebel group that has signed a peace deal with Sudan's government. |
49 Rwanda-Congo force pushes deeper into militia zone
By EDDY ISANGO, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 8 mins ago
KINSHASA, Congo – Rwandan and Congolese troops pushed deeper into zones in Congo held by Rwandan Hutu militiamen Sunday in a joint military operation designed to crush armed groups that have destabilized central Africa, a military spokesman said.
Rwanda and Congo have been enemies for years, but the two neighbors suddenly changed tactics and began cooperating last week to disarm groups each nation had previously backed as proxies.
Eastern Congo has been wracked by violence since Rwanda's 1994 genocide spilled war across the border. Hutu militias that participated in the massacres of more than 500,000 mostly ethnic Tutsi civilians sought refuge in Congo. |
50 India grapples with high maternal death rate
By Sujoy Dhar, Reuters
Sun Jan 25, 8:15 pm ET
PURULIA, India (Reuters) – In Sindri village in a dirt-poor district of eastern India, Manohar Kumbhakar and his family are still mourning the death of his wife, who died in childbirth aged 25 while being treated by a local quack.
"I don't know what he did to my daughter-in-law. The quack kept me outside the room and later, after almost two hours, he said she had to be taken to a hospital," said Kumbhakar's mother, Helubala. "He later denied he had any role in the treatment."
...
The figures illustrate how poor women in rural India have largely been left behind by India's economic boom which has lifted millions of people out of poverty. |
51 Ancient Polynesian seafaring renaissance
By Michael Perry, Reuters
2 hrs 40 mins ago
SYDNEY (Reuters) – A Polynesian voyaging canoe will set sail from Hawaii in March and head into the South Pacific, aiming to reach tiny Palmyra Atoll near Kiribati using only an ancient seafaring skill known as "wayfinding."
The double hulled canoe, similar to the canoes that sailed across the Pacific thousands of years before European explorers voyaged to the world's largest ocean, will cover some 2,000 miles in the round trip.
The open ocean trip, using no modern navigational equipment, will be a training exercise for future voyages and is part of a renaissance in Polynesian voyaging that is helping to preserve and spread an ancient seafaring culture. |
52 In Brazil's industrial hub, crisis starts to bite
By Stuart Grudgings, Reuters
2 hrs 26 mins ago
VOLTA REDONDA, Brazil (Reuters) – Rust-colored iron ore trains still rumble through Volta Redonda, but workers in this steel town are feeling the strain as economic crisis slams the brakes on the industries that fueled Brazil's recent boom.
Plunging factory output and mounting job losses show that Latin America's biggest economy is being hit hard, only four months after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva dismissed the market turmoil as a U.S. problem with the words "what crisis?"
In Volta Redonda, a center of Brazilian industry where few people's lives are untouched by dominant steel firm Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN), the announcement last month of 300 job cuts has sent shivers through the community. |
53 Regional summit hopes to break Zimbabwe deadlock
AFP
1 hr 16 mins ago
PRETORIA (AFP) – A summit of Southern African leaders will renew efforts to break Zimbabwe's political deadlock on Monday, as President Robert Mugabe comes under increasing international pressure.
Mugabe and rival Morgan Tsvangirai signed a deal more than four months ago to share power and form a unity government but it has yet to be implemented because of the failure to agree key posts.
The latest attempt by the 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) to forge a breakthrough comes one week after talks in Harare between the rivals collapsed in acrimony. |
54 Scientists solve 'The Italian Job' cliffhanger
By RAPHAEL G. SATTER, Associated Press Writer
Fri Jan 23, 11:17 am ET
LONDON – Some of the Britain's brightest minds have resolved one of the country's biggest cinematic cliffhangers: How the robbers could have got away with the gold at the end of "The Italian Job."
The 1969 heist film ends with the robbers' gold-laden bus teetering over the edge of an Alpine road, with their loot — and their lives — in doubt.
On Friday the Royal Society of Chemistry offered fans a little closure, announcing the winner of a competition to find a scientific solution to their predicament. |
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