From The Alpha and the Omega - Volume III
by Jim A. Cornwell, Copyright © July 20, 2002, all rights reserved "Volume III - EU and G7 2011-2022, the One World Economy"

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Volume III - EU and G7 2011-2022, the One World Economy

The year 2011-2022

The year 2011.


• 1/1/2011 Crude closes at $91.38; futures up 15% for '10 by Dow Jones Newswires.
      Crude oil futures settle above $91 a barrel, closing out 2010 near a two-year high and charting a course toward $100 a barrel next year.    Crude rose to $91.38 a barrel with some forecasting it going as high as $120 to $130 by July.
      On the 4th crude rose to $91.55 a barrel on speculation that the global economy will grow this year.
      On the 5th crude rose to $92.07 a barrel but there were concerns about growth.
      On the 6th crude fell to $90.30 a barrel due to no growth.
      On the 7th crude fell to $88.38 a barrel due to a strenthening dollar versus the euro.
      On the 8th crude fell to $88.03 a barrel due to a weak jobs report for the U.S. economy.
      On the 11th crude rose to $89.25 a barrel because a pipeline was shut down after the leak was reported at a North Slope pump station for the 800-mile trans-Alaska pipeline owned by BP and four other companies.
      On the 13th crude rose to $91.86 a barrel an improved European financial picture and robust emerging markets from Asia.
      On the 14th crude fell to $91.40 a barrel as traders brushed off a weakening dollar and concerns faded about oil-supply disruptions.
      On the 15th crude rose to $91.54 a barrel as stronger equities and positive U.S. economic data outweighed the impact of monetary tightening in China.
      On the 19th crude fell to $91.38 a barrel as Americans are watching their spending as gasoline prices reach levels ($3.10 per gallon) not seen since October 2008.
      On the 22nd crude fell to $89.11 a barrel as prospects of gasoline rising to $3.20 to $3.75 a gallon by March and April ahead of the summer driving season.
      On the 25th crude fell to $87.87 a barrel after the Saudi oil minister hinted that his country may increase supplies to put the brakes on higher prices.
      On the 26th crude fell to $86.19 a barrel due to mixed economic news and the OPEC decision over concerns it could threaten global economic growth.
      On the 27th crude rose to $87.33 a barrel as investors focused on Obama's ideas for more jobs and overhaul corporate taxes (closing loopholes and lower business tax rates).
      On the 28th crude fell to $85.64 a barrel on weak U.S. economic data of new unemployment claims up by 51,000.
  
• 1/1/2011 Estonia starts new year with adoption of euro by AP.
      Tallinn, Estonia - Estonia kicked off historic New Year's festivities as the tiny Baltic state changed over to the euro, Europe's embattled common currency.    The inclusion of Estonia, a minuscule, $19 billion economy, in the $12.5 trillion euro area is being touted for its symbolic importance after bad news battered the currency throughout 2010.    Estonia is now the 17th member in the euro area.
  
• 1/2/2011 After a disappointing 2010, Japan's prospects are poor - Nation is sliding to second-tier power by AP.
      Tokyo - Japan has been overtaken by China as the world's No. 2 economy.    Its flagship company, Toyota, recalled more than 10 million vehicles in an embarrassing safety crisis.    Its fourth prime minister resigned in three years, and the government remains unable to jolt an economy entering its third decade of stagnation.
      For once-confident Japan, 2010 may well mark a symbolic milestone in its slide from economic giant to what experts see as its likely destiny: a second-tier power with some standout companies but limited global influence.
      Japan has an aging population, bulging national debt, political gridlock and a risk-averse culture slow to embrace change thus no promise to look forward to, and China is a military neighbor as well as an economic threat.
  
• 1/3/2011 GOP legislator sets sights on Obama health care law by AP.
      Washington - Republican lawmakers will go after President Obama's helath care law piece by piece to try and make it crumble, a top lawmaker said.    Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, the incoming chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, will follow a vote to repeal the law outright.    Such a vote could come soon after the GOP takes control of the House this week.    Also they promised a fight over the Obama administration's new approach on limiting greenhouse gas emissions.
  
• 1/3/2011 Battle over debt ceiling heats up - Foes of higher limit want spending cuts by Douglass K. Daniel, AP.
      Washington - Some Republican lawmakers said they oppose raising the ceiling on the nation's debt without tackling government spending.    President Obama's top economic adviser warned against "playing chicken" on the issue.    The federal debt is limited to $14.3 trillion, but the debt now stands at nearly $13.9 trillion and is growing daily.    Congress last raised the debt ceiling in February 2010 and is expected to consider raising it again as early as March.
      Conservatives refusal to raise the limit could be an effective tactic to force lawmakers into cutting spending and facing such issues as the rising costs of Social Security, Medicare and other entitlement programs.
      Of course the White House claim that the refusal to raise the debt ceiling would push the country into defaulting on its financial obligations for the first time in its history.    Republicans state that they will vote no unless there were a plan in place for dealing with long-term obligations.    So they will be forcing the Democrats to show some responsibility.
  
• 1/5/2011 Obama signs $1.4 billion food safety overhaul bill by AP.
      Washington - Obama signed a $1.4 billion overhaul of the nation's food safety system in spite of concerns that it's too expensive.    The law is prevention to help stop deadly outbreaks of food-borne illness before they occur, instead of reacting after consumers are sickened.    It calls for increasing government inspections at food processing facilities and gives the FDA the power to order the recall of unsafe foods.
  
• 1/10/2011 Clinton urges region to keep pressure on Iran by AP.
      Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that the world must keep presure on Iran over its suspect nuclear program despite recent estimates that the country may be not as far along in efforts to develop atomic weapons as previously thought.    Clinton stated that Iran remains a serious concern no matter when it might be able to produce a nuclear weapon and urged countries in the region to help enforce the sanctions.
  
• 1/12/2011 Portugal, refusing bailout, faces bond test - Japan joins China in pledging help by AP.
      Lisbon, Portugal - Portugal insisted it did not need an international bailout to solve its debt problem, a bond auction today could reveal the price of going it alone and add to the European financial crisis.    Investors have identified Portugal as the next victim of the crisis even with pay cuts and tax increases to reduce its budget deficit.    Germany and France are pushing them to accept the $65 billion assistance to keep the crisis from spreading to larger countries which would be costlier to rescue.
  
• 1/15/2011 EU ministers consider boosting bailout fund by AP.
      Euro-zone finance ministers face a big question in Brussels this week: Are they willing to change their strategy for solving the debt crisis that has rocked the currency bloc over the past year?
      They may have to boost the $1 trillion bailout fund by expanding its size to $2 trillion and giving broader powers as in buying bonds on the open market to relieve the pressure.
  
• 1/23/2011 States ready health care bills - Many seek to limit federal role by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, AP.
      Washington - Even as Republican attorneys in 26 states lead the legal battle to overturn the health care law's mandate that most Americans have health insurance, lawmakers in those states are working on how to deliver coverage under the law.    If the State does not do it, then the federal government can step in and do it for them.    It takes affect in 2014 where an estimated 24 million people will eventually buy private coverage most with the aid of federal subsidies.    Also states must open their Medicaid programs to a broader segment of low-income people (16 million), which is a worry since most states are struggling witht the cost of the program now, draining money from other services from education to law enforcement.
  
• 1/23/2011 Obama's economic plan: Boost U.S. competitiveness by Julie Pace, AP.
      Washington - Under pressure to energize the economy, Obama will put job creation and American competitiveness at the center of his State of the Union address, promoting spending on education and research while pledging to trim the nation's soaring debt.    He hopes to woo Republicans in a divided Congress and will sway a wary private sector to hire and spend money it's held back.    The economy is on firmer footing than when he took office two years ago and can now gear himself toward long-term growth in mind.    He wants more civility in politics.    So he wants to invest in a more educated work force, commit more to research and technology and improve roads, airports and high-speed internet for economic recovery.
  [Comment: Its taken this long for Obama to realize that creating jobs was the initial solution, rather than bailout corporations.    None of the things he is promoting will create any jobs either as the future will tell.]
  
• 1/23/2011 Nuclear talks with Iran fail by George Jahn, AP.
      Istanbul - Talks collapsed by six world powers regarding U.N. Security Council to stop Iran's uranium enrichment after two days of negotiations.
  
• 1/27/2011 China takes stage at economic gathering by AP.
      China has sent its largest-ever delegation (66 persons) to the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, continuing an expansion of its presence in recent years that underlines the nation's growing influence on the global economy.
  
• 1/27/2011 $1.5 trillion deficit predicted - Yearly record will fuel debate by Andrew Taylor, AP.
      Washington - A continuing weak economy and last month's bipartisan tax cut legislation will drive the government's deficit to a record $1.5 trillion this year, meaning we are borrowing 40 cents for every dollar the government spends.
  
• 1/27/2011 Obama calls for new era of competitiveness in U.S. by Julie Pace, AP.
      Manitowoc, Wis. - Obama campaigned vigorously for his revamped economic message warning that other countries have been grasping for first place in the global marketplace as the U.S. fell down on the job.    He wants us to step up spending on innovation and infrastructure to compete globally and to create jobs at home.    While China invested in clean energy technologies we fell down on the job.    He said we are going to need to get serious about winning the future.    While in Wisconsin he showcased Orion Energy Systems, a power technology company a leader in solar power and energy-efficient technology, what he calls America's future competitiveness.
  
• 1/28/2011 Leaders try to get Europe growing by AP.
      Davos, Switzerland - France's president tried to save the reputation of Europe and its currency, battered by debt crisis and worries about whether the continent is being steamrolled by speedier eastern economies.    He said they will never turn their backs on the euro calling it a linchpin of peace and prosperity for 60 years.
      The presidents of South Africa and Mexico worked to save the planet, sharing notes on hosting climate talks and how to get the U.S. and China to invest in cleaner energy.
      The mood at the World Economic Forum is upbeat as all parties struggle to get Europe growing again.
  
• 1/28/2011 Violent protests escalate in Egypt by Hamza Hendawi and Hadeel al-Shalchi, AP.
      Cairo - Violence escalated in two cities outside Egypt's capital as anti-government protesters torched a fire station and looted weapons that they then turned on police.    The country's top democracy advocate, Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, returned to the country and declared he was ready to lead the campaign to oust longtime President Hosni Mubarak.    In the city of Suez, east of Cairo, rioters firebombed the main fire station, and other places several hundred Bedouins and police exchanged gunfire, and 300 protesters surround a police station and fired two rocket-propelled grenades at it.    The outlawed Muslim Brotherhood threw its support behind the demonstrations.
  
• 1/28/2011 Panel lays blame for economic meltdown - The Fed, financial institutions fueled recession, global crisis by Zachary A. Goldfarb and Brady Dennis, The Washington Post.
      Washington - The official U.S. government report on what caused the financial crisis release cast blame on Goldman Sachs for fueling the subprime mortgage bubble, Merrill Lynch for not telling investors about the true state of its condition and the Federal Reserve for failing to stop troubling practices.    The report from the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, a congressionally appointed panel that has spent the past 18 months investigating the cause of the crisis, spares virtually no one in assigning culpability for the worst financial calamity in generations.
  
• 1/28/2011 No program safe from cuts, Obama says by Julie Pace, AP.
      Washington - Obama said that even government programs that work will face cuts as he looks for ways to bring down the nation's mounting deficits.    He made no details of reductions in the spending plan which is due next month for the budget year that begins Oct. 1.    He did mention community action grants that support economic and development initiatives in cities as examples of good programs that probably will lose money.    In his State of the Union he pledged to make responsible cuts and avoid moves that would hurt the economic recovery, by using a scapel instead of a chain saw.    [Comment: Sounds to me like he will be putting a bandaid on cancer.]
  
• 1/29/2011 Protesters battling police defy curfew, demand president's exit by Hamza Hendawi and Hadeel al-Shalchi, AP.
      Cairo - Embattled President Hosni Mubarak fired his Cabinet early today and promised reforms after protesters engulfed Egypt in chaos - battling police with stones and firebombs, burning down the ruling party headquarters and defying a night curfew enforced by a military deployment.    It was the peak of unrest posing the most dire threat to Mubarak in his three decades of authoritarian rule.    The protesters want Mubarak to go and instead he is digging in further.
      Legions without hope swell protest ranks as revolutionaries all tired with the daily corruption, the detached ruling clique and the rot permeating Egypt driving tens of thousands of them to the streets in mass demonstrations that have rattled authorities.    They are concerned that the Muslim Brotherhood who would try to bring Islamic law to Egypt, whereas the protesters have been largely middle class - lawyers, doctors, university students and professors who have something to lose if the nation of 80 million descends into anarchy, but cannot stay in Egypt's present course.    Many claim there is no middle clase only the rich and the poor.
      Oil prices surge to $89.34 a barrel on riots in Egypt and unrest in Mideast as gasoline hit $3.13 per gallon.    Americans were advised to avoid travel to Egypt, and traders pulled money from other assets to buy oil, gold and the dollar.    The uprising in Egypt follows protest this month that forced out the president of Tunisia, who fled to Saudi Arabia, as well as anti-government protest have rocked Lebanon and Yemen.
• 1/29/2011 Mideast fears push gold, silver prices up by AP.
      Gold and silver prices rose as rioting in Egypt fed fears that the violence may spread to other countries in the Middle East.    Gold settled at $1,340.70 an ounce and silver at $27.919 an ounce.
  
• 1/30/2011 Mubarak appoints apparent successor - Egyptians still defying curfew by Hamza Hendawi, AP.
      Cairo - With protests raging, Egypt's president named his intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman as his first-ever vice president rather than his son, setting the stage for a successor as chaos engulfed the capital, and did not satisfy protesters who defied curfew.    Soldiers stood by - a few even joining the demonstrators - and the death toll from five days of anti-government fury rose to 74.    Tanks and armored personnel carriers fanned out across the city of 18 million, guarding key government buildings, and major tourist and archaeological sites, and closed the pyramids.
  
• 1/30/2011 Looters prowl a lawless Cairo, other cities in Egypt by Sarah El Deeb and Maggie Michael, AP.
      Cairo - Residents boarded up homes and set up neighborhood watches of citizens armed with guns, clubs and knives as looting and violence engulfed the capital.    With police disappeared from the streets, the army expanded its presence of tanks and armored personnel carriers but mainly around government buildings.    The military expanded at dusk to quell the lawlessness, such as gangs of youths on motorcycles looting supermarkets, shopping malls and stores.
  
• 1/30/2011 Iranian opposition leader hails protests by AP.
      Tehran, Iran - Iran's opposition leader expressed hope that protest engulfing Egypt can bring the kind of change that has so far eluded his own country.
      Mir Hossein Mousavi compared the uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen with the protest movement that followed the disrupted 2009 presidential election in Iran, until a heavy military crackdown suppressed the protests.    He hopes the protest in Egypt will bring change to their country amid a wave of Arab unrest that was unleashed.
  
• 1/30/2011 Caution about Arab revolt by David Ignatius, The Washington Post.
      Davos, Switzerland - It's a sign of the times that some Arabs are keeping up with twitter messages about political protests back home, and everyone is nervous about anything connected to the status quo.    The unrest that toppled a government in Tunisia has spread across the region, with big street demonstrations in Egypt, Jordan and Yemen.    It's a movement that appears leaderless like a "flash mob," but consist of a younger generation that sees global chnage on the Internet, and has lost its fear of corrupt, autocratic leaders at home.    The U.S. officials have endorsed the protesters' goals of openness and reform, but America has little to do with the bolster of the octogenarian Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak even if it wanted to.
      The unrest follows a series of American failures in the region.    President Obama promised change.    But he couldn't bring Israel and the Palestinians to a peace agreement, and couldn't counter Hezbollah in Lebanon or its patron, Iran.    America is not the stopper in the bottle anymore, and the Arab man in the street knows it.
      U.S. officials are encouraged that the protesters in Tunisia, Egypt and other Arab countries seem autonomous of the Muslim Brotherhood and other radical Islamic groups.    But that may be false comfort since this is in its early stages, and history shows that the protesters usually give way to a manipulative revolutionary elite.    So one set of autocrats were replaced by another.
      Arab intelligence claims that these countries economies can't seem to grow fast enough to meet the demands of their rising young populations.
  
• 1/31/2011 U.S. urges democracy for Egypt - Clinton: Avoid another Iran by Lolita C. Baldor, AP.
      Washington - The U.S. appealed for an orderly transition to lasting democracy in Egypt even as escalating violence in the American ally threatened Mideast stability.    In Cairo, Egypt's most prominent democracy advocate took up a bullhorn and called for Mubarak to resign as thousands of protesters who defied a curfew.    Fighter jets streaked low overhead and police returned to the capital's streets with high-profile displays of authority over a situation spiraling out of control.
  
• 2/1/2011 Judge voids entire health law - Case likely headed to supreme court by Melissa Nelson, AP.
      Pensacola, Fla. - A federal judge, Roger Vinson, declared the Obama administration's health care overhaul unconstitutional, siding with 26 states that sued to block it saying that people can't be required to buy health insurance, thus violating their rights of not facing tax penalties, and holding Medicaid dollars as hostage, forcing a mandate without providing money to pay for it.    He declared the entire thing unconstitutional if the insurance requirement does not hold up.    Attorneys argued that the states did not have standing to challenge the law and will appeal forcing it to go to the Supreme Court.
  
• 2/1/2011 A million sought for march on Mubarak - Military says it won't fire; U.S. starts evacuations by Maggie Michael and Hamza Hendawi, AP.
      Cairo - Egypt's military pledged not to fire on protesters in a sign that army support for Mubarak may be unraveling on the eve of a major escalation - a push for a million people to take to the streets to demand his ouster.
• 2/1/2011 Arab turning point by Omar Attum, The Courier-Journal.
      The Egyptian government is stable despite protest and Hillary Clinton's clueless assessment of the protests in Egypt, since on the TV you only see Egypt's youth were mobilizing, chanting down with Mubarak an ally of the U.S. for the past 30 years.    Egypt's youth who are educated, financially struggling, unemployed and have no affiliation to the Muslim Brotherhood are leading the protests.    History is in the making, Egypt is the Berlin Wall of the Arab world, it will spread to other Arab countries.
  
• 2/1/2011 Crude oil prices shoot to highest since 2008 by Dow Jones Newswires.
      Oil prices shot to their highest level in more than two years as oil rose to $92.19 a barrel.
  
• 2/2/2011 Brent crude pushes higher amid unrest by AP.
      Brent crude, a key grade of oil traded in London, held above $101 per barrel meaning higher crude prices for many refineries, including those serving the East Coast.    Oil prices were unchanged as investors waited to see the outcome of protest in Egypt.
      On the 4th crude fell to $90.54 a barrel as the dollar rallied on higher service-sector activity and as escalating violence in Egypt was occurring and prospect of supply disruptions.
      On the 5th crude fell to $89.03 a barrel due to a stronger dollar.
      On the 11th crude rose to $86.73 a barrel as Egypt's military stepped in to safeguard the country and assured protesters that Mubarak will meet their demands and step down.
      On the 12th crude fell to $85.58 a barrel after Mubarak handed over power to the military and left Cairo, the military will oversee a transition to a democracy.
      On the 15th crude fell to $84.81 a barrel becasue the U.S. demand is oversupplied.
      On the 16th crude fell to $84.32 a barrel as the cost of gasoline is $3.13 per gallon.
      On the 18th crude rose to $86.36 a barrel as protests rocked some Middle East nations and concerns grew about oil supply disruptions.    Troops and tanks descended on demonstrators in Bahrain.
      On the 19th crude rose to $89.71 a barrel on worries of oil supply disruptions.
      On the 23rd the average price of gasoline is $3.19 per gallon as revolts in Libya, the world's 15th biggest oil exporter and other countries were blamed for the hike.
      On the 24th crude rose to $98.10 a barrel closing in on $100 drven by growing concerns about global supplies, as Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi continued to lose his grip on the oil-rich country.    Gasoline prices jumped as high as $3.28 a gallon.    Some areas on the 26th saw prices go as high as $3.35 to $3.39 per gallon .
  
• 2/2/2011 Investors see happy days again - Dow passes 12,000, a post-recession high by AP.
      Two years ago, the stock market was road kill along the financial highway, but now is getting attention of investors as the Dow Jones Industrial average closed above 12,000 which erased most of the damage it inflicted on tens of millions of retirement accounts.    The S&P 500 closed above 1,300.    The hopes are that investors may come back and could accelerate the economic recovery, which has been a sedative lately.
• 2/2/2011 His pledge to not seek re-election leaves 250,000 in Cairo square jeering by Sarah El Deeb and Hadeel Al-Shalchi, AP.
      Cairo - President Hosni Mubarak defied 250,000 protesters demanding he step down immediately, announcing he would serve out the last months of his term and "die on Egyptian soil."    He promised not to seek re-election in September, but clashes came from public fury would not stop until he goes.
• 2/3/2011 Mubarak supporters, opponents trade fierce attacks in Cairo by Hadeel Al-Shalchi, AP.
      Cairo - Supporters of Mubarak charged into Cairo's central square on horses and camels brandishing whips while others rained firebombs from rooftops in what appeared to be an assault against protesters, killing 3 and injuring 600 people.    The crisis took a sharp turn as the regime demanded an end to the movement and accept his concessions, and let him shape the transistion as he chooses for democratic reform.
      On the 4th menacing gangs backing Mubarak attacked journalists and human rights activists as government opponents pushed loyalists out of Cairo's main square.    Mubarak's officials blamed outsiders for formenting unrest and media outlets of being sympathetic to protesters.
  
• 2/4/2011 Employment to take years to recover, Fed chief says by The Washington Post.
      The economy is poised to grow more rapidly this year, but it will take several years before unemployment reaches normal levels, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said.
  
• 2/5/2011 EU leaders rebuff financial plan from Germany, France by Dow Jones Newswires.
      Brussels - A large majority of EU leaders rebuffed a Franco-German plan for reforming the euro-zone economy presented at their summit.    The reaction at heated talks among the 27 nations, marks a setback for German Chancellor Merkel's effort to push far-reaching economic policy changes as a condition for boosting the currency bloc's emergency lending fund, the European Financial Stability Facility.    Most objections were over wage-setting and public pension policy which is typically the province of national governments.
  
• 2/5/2011 Jobless rate falls sharply to 9% - Sign that recovery is speeding up may further lift confidence by Jeannine Aversa and Christopher S. Rugaber, AP.
      Washington - The unemployment rate is suddenly sinking at the fastest pace to 9 % from 9.8 % in just two months the most encouraging sign for the job market.    More than half a million people found work in January.
  
• 2/5/2011 New protests, diplomacy put more pressure on Mubarak by Lee Keath, AP.
      Cairo - A new rally of 100,000 protesters and diplomacy from the Obama administration piled more pressure on Mubarak to make a swift exit and allow a temporary government to embark on a path toward democracy.    The death toll from clashes is 11 and the U.S. believes Egypt would be better without him.    He has made the protesters to vow more to make him leave now.    Obama wants Mubarak to consider his legacy and exit office in a way that wouild give his country the best chance for peace and democracy, as the world is watching.
  
• 2/6/2011 Egypt's party leaders resign - Defiant Mubarak plans to stay as president by Sarah El Deeb and Lee Keath, AP.
      Cairo - The leadership of Egypt's ruling party stepped down as the military figures spearheading the transition tried to placate protesters without giving them the one resignation they demand, Mubarak.    Protesters rejected the concession and still want Mubarak to step down.
• 2/6/2011 Hot Spots For Change - Political protest in the Middle East by AP.
      Egypt's turmoil is just one example of the political unrest in many parts of the volatile, oil-rich Arab world.    Several countries are seeing upheaval and demostrations as people protest poverty, joblessness, corruption and political repression.
  
  The reaction from:
  • Israel: Obama's push for swift elections in Egypt could bring unintended results to bring the Muslim Brotherhood to win a majority of the seats in parliament.
  • Egypt: The recent civil unrest and deadly clashes as seen in the above articles.
  • Syria: Has frustrated Syrians seeking sweeping political reforms and used Facebook and Twitter in an effort to organize "days of rage," but the protests never materialized.
  • Tunisia: A popular uprising in late January that toppled dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali which was the catalyst that led to unrest in Egypt and elsewhere.
  • Yemen: Yemen's autocratic leader, President Ali Abdullah Saleh, is facing unprecedented demonstrations from tens of thousands of protesters demanding that he step down.
  • Algeria: On Jan. 22, riot police broke up a march by hundreds of protesters demanding overturn of a law banning public gatherings.
  • Jordan: Populist anger erupted in protests late last month in a country with soaring foreign debt, high inflation, high unemployment and poverty rates
• 2/6/2011 New START treaty takes effect - U.S., Russia seek more cooperation by David Rising, AP.
      Munich - The new U.S.-Russia nuclear arms control treaty went into effect, securing a key foreign policy goal of President Obama and raising hopes among officials on both sides that it will provide the impetus for negotiations for further reductions.    Obama marks this as his vision of a world without nuclear weapons.    [Comment: What will we do if the war between worlds occurs?    What I really want to know is where is the facility that will hold all the nuclear weapons that each country will have access as a one world military in the future?    This is totally foolish to think that we are the only agressive entities on this earth or in the universe.]
      The treaty limits each side to 1,550 strategic warheads, down from 2,200, with inspections onsite to be conducted.
  
• 2/7/2011 Egyptian VP offers additional freedoms - Some fear talks are tactic to divide and conquer by Sarah El Deeb and Maggie Michael, AP.
      Cairo - Egypt's vice president reached out to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood and other opposition groups as part of a new offer of sweeping concessions, including press freedom and an end to hated emergency laws that have been in place for decades, in an attempt to calm an anti-government upheaval.    The youthful protesters claim they were not represented and were united in rejecting any form of negotiation until Mubarak steps down, raising questions about whether a rift might be developing that could undermine their campaign.    They believe the talks could be a sign the government is trying to divide and conquer as it tries to placate protesters without giving in to their chief demand.    Khaled Abdul-Hamid, one leader of a new coalition representing at least five youth movements said they did not attend the meeting and no one there represent us.
      On the 11th, Mubarak refused to step down and instead handed most of his powers to his vice president, enraging protesters who pleaded for the military to push him out.    The military did announce to protesters that all their demands would be met soon, Mubarak came out and spoke to them enraging them again for him to leave.
  
• 2/12/2011 MUBARAK OUSTED - Military vows to aid demands for greater democracy - Jubilation and new determination sweeps across Egypt as thousands rejoice by Maggie Michael and Lee Keath, AP.
      Cairo - Cries of "Egypt is free" rang out and fireworks lit up the sky over Cairo's Tahrir Square, where hundreds of thousands danced, wept and prayed in joyful pandemonium after 18 days of mass pro-democracy protests as Mubarak handed over power to the military ending three decades of authoritarian rule.
      The military said it was committed to demands for greater democracy thus disolving parliamnet and creating a transitional government to lead reforms.    Mubarak flew to his isolated palace in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, 250 miles from Cairo.
• 2/13/2011 Egypt's protester now seek voice - First act: cleaning square of trash by Maggie Michael and Ben Hubbard, AP.
      Cairo - On Egypt's first day free of Mubarak, its new military rulers promised to abide by the peace treaty with Israel and eventually hand power to an elected government.    Protesters pressed for a voice in guiding their country's move to democracy.
  
• 2/13/2011 Thousands of Algerians stage demonstration by AP.
      Algiers, Algeria - Heavily outnumbered by riot police, thousands of Algerians defied government warnings and dodge barricades to rally in their capital, demanding democratic reforms a day after mass protest toppled Egypt's autocratic ruler.    The opposition said demonstrator's bold defiance of a long-standing ban on public protests in Algiers marked a turning point, in breaking a psycholicial barrier, so the fear is gone.    26,000 riot police were deployed to try to quash the 10,000 people that succeeded in breaking barricades and gathering in the city center before the protest was broken up.    Algiers is ruled by a repressive government and is beset with widespread poverty and high unemployment which fueled uprising over high food prices have caused people to die.
  
• 2/14/2011 Egypt's military dissolves parliament - GOP questions U.S. intelligence by Sarah El Deeb and Maggie Michael, AP.
      Cairo - Egypt's military rulers took action to dismantle the autocratic legacy of Mubarak, dissolving parliament, suspending the constitution and promising elections in moves welcomed by pro-democracy protesters.    Restoring security was a top priority and go after any corrupt influence.
      On the 15th Egypt's state workers demand better pay, and military rulers ask for protest to end.    The military said it needs calm to implement what it promised for a handover to civilian rule under a new democratic system, and a new constitutional amendments to be drawn up within 10 days and a referendum to approve them within two months ahead of elections for a civilian government, according to youth activists who met with the top generals.
  
• 2/15/2011 Eurozone to set future bailout fund by AP.
      European finance ministers decided to provide $674 billion for a new crisis fund that will come into force in 2013 but continued to fight over the best way to combat the current debt crisis that has crippled the eurozone in the past year.    Additional financing will come from the IMF which is unknown at this time.    No decision has been made but for now only raised $336 billion in loans.
• 2/16/2011 World's poor face crisis with rising food prices by Howard Schneider, The Washington Post.
      Washington - Rising food prices pushed tens of millions into extreme poverty last year and are reaching "dangerous levels" in some countries as the World Bank says overall food costs rose 15 percent from October through January which covers the costs of grain, sugar, food oils and other staples with food riots as the result.    This rise in price put an additional 44 million people below the threshold of extreme poverty, surviving on the equivalent of $1.25 per day.
      Finance ministers from the Group of 20 economic powers meet in Paris this weekend to discuss ways to stabilize world food prices, currency issues and other global economic policies.    The G-20 established in 2009 a $20 billion fund to help the poorest countries cope with higher food costs.
      Wheat prices have been doubling between June and and January as Russia restricted exports, Australia's crop was damaged by flooding and the size of China's upcoming winter crop was cast into doubt because of drought.    Rice is still a bright spot for a staple.
  
• 2/16/2011 Egypt's military vows handover in 6 months - Muslim group can participate by AP and Washington Posts.
      Cairo - Egypt geared up for a breakneck rush to democracy as its military rulers vowed to hand authority to an elected civilian government in six months and ordered legal experts to draft a revised constitution in 10 days.    The transition plan also opened the door for the Muslim Brotherhood, the fundamentalist movement that has long stirred unease in Washington because of its religious ideology.
      Mubarak's fall has ignited hopes of similar revolutions across the Middle East as protesters clashed with governments in Yemen and Bahrain.
  
• 2/17/2011 Protests in Mideast gather strength - Crowds turn out in Bahrain, Libya by Hadeel Al-Shalchi, AP.
      Manama, Bahrain - The protests against Bahrain's rulers grew with huge crowds calling for a sweeping political overhaul as leaders tried to crush the uprising stoked more rage on the streets and criticism from the West.
      The widening challenges to the Arab world's political order also flared in Libya for the first time, with riot police battling protesters marching against the 42-year rule of Moammar Gadhafi.
      In Yemen, the embattled president flooded the capital of Sanaa with security forces to try to stamp out protests that began a week ago and turned deadly.    Yemen is a battleground agaisnt Islamic militants inspired by al-Qaida
      Egyptian protests continue over wages and toxic waste dumping.
  
• 2/17/2011 N. Korea has completed new missile launch site by AP.
      Tokyo - The latest satellite imagery indicates North Korea has completed construction of a second - more modern - missile launch facility, a vital step in its efforts to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles.    Despite scant domestic resources and international sanctions this suggest that long-range missile development remains a top priorty in Pyongyang.
  
• 2/18/2011 GOP, Democrats trade fire with a shutdown looming - Struggle over budget has factions playing chicken over government operations by David Espo, AP.
      Washington - In a deepening struggle over spending, Republicans and Democrats swapped charges over a possible government shutdown when funding expires for most federal agencies March 4.    "Read my lips: We're going to cut spending," declared House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who vowed the GOP-controlled House would refuse to approve even a short-term measure at current funding levels to keep the government operating.    He accused Democrats of risking a shutdown "rather than to cut spending and to follow the will of the American people."
      Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Boehner was resorting "to threats of a shutdown without any negotiation."
      The House is trying to complete work to cut more than $61 billion from the budget year that's more than a third over.
• 2/18/2011 Bahrain crushes protesters' camp - 4 die in raid that sparks angry response from crowds by Hadeel Al-Shalchi, AP.
      Manama, Bahrain - In Bahrain riot police swinging clubs and firing tear gas smashed into protesters, many of them sleeping, in a predawn assault on their camp, killing four people.    Then the military announced a ban on gatherings as the Sunni Muslim rulers claimed the anti-government upheaval was under control.    The protesters are led by members of Shiite majority and discontented Sunnis.
  
  MIDEAST PROTESTS
  • LIBYA: Libyans demonstrate in five cities, defying crackdown by security forces, 20 deaths, and they want Gadhafi to step down.
  • YEMEN: Several thousand protesters have marched for seven straight days clashing with police and government supporters, in their demand for the president to resign, to stop poverty and official corruption.
  • EGYPT: Egyptian workers still protest for better pay.
  • IRAQ: Hundreds of Kurdish protesters rally in the northern city of Sulaimaniyah, demanding political reforms from the regional government, as security forces killed two people.    Also protests in three southern cities by Iraqis angry over a lack of basic services like electricity and clean drinking water.
  • JORDAN: Protesters have marched for six weeks demanding Jordan become a constitutional monarchy in which the prime minister is elected and then tackle high unemployment and inflation.
• 2/19/2011 Bernanke urges nations to help ease trade gaps - Fed chief says U.S. should save more by AP.
      Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke urged countries with large trade surpluses like China to let their currencies rise in value to help prevent another global financial crisis.    He called for nations with persistent trade deficits like the U.S. to narrow their budget shortfalls and save more.    The flow of captial and global imbalances will be on the table at the Group of 20 meeting in Paris in the next two days.
  
• 2/19/2011 Foes stage anti-government protest in Albanian capital by Llazar Semini, AP.
      Tirana, Albania - Tens of thousands of Albanian opposition Socialists supporters marched peacefully through the capital to demand the conservative government resign over corruption allegations, nearly a month after four people died in a demonstration turned violent.    Albania a NATO member wants to join the EU but the Balkan country of 3.2 million people has not done enough to root out corruption.
  
• 2/19/2011 Bahrain fires on protesters - Dozens injured as army tries to quash political uprising by Hadeel Al-Shalchi, AP.
      Manama, Bahrain - Soldiers opened fire on thousands of protesters defying a government ban, injuring at least 50 people in a chaotic scene of tear gas clouds, bullets coming from many directions and people slipping in pools of blood seeking cover.
  
  MIDEAST PROTESTS
  • LIBYA: In the city of Benghazi protesters set fire to government buildings and police stations.    About 1,000 inmates at Benghazi prison attacked guards and escaped.    In Beyida protesters have forced out government security forces.
  • YEMEN: Anti-government demonstrators clashed with supporters and riot police in the captial for the ninth day.    In Taiz a hand grenade was thrown at protesters injuring at least 48 people and the stampede that followed.    In Aden protesters set cars, buildings and a police warehouse on fire with 4 deaths.
  • EGYPT: Hundreds of thousands of flag-waving Egyptians packed the square in the first major rally since the fall of Mubarak pressing the military to uproot the rest of his regime and steer the country toward reform.
  • JORDAN: Clashes erupted in the capital, Amman, between about 200 government supporters and about 2,000 protesters, injuring eight.
  • SAUDI ARABIA: Is a coutry which follows strict Islamic rule and the Umma Islamic Party wants the kingdom's rulers to start dialogue on reform, including the status of women.
  • DJIBOUTI: Thousands of demonstrators rallied in this tiny East African nation to demand that their president resign after two terms and a family who has been in power for more than 30 years.
• 2/20/2011 Libya, Yemen fire on protesters - Bahrain pulls its troops back by Maggie Michael and Brian Friedman, AP.
      Cairo - Security forces in Libya and Yemen fired on pro-democracy demonstrators as two hard-line regimes struck back against the wave of protests that has already toppled autocrats in Egypt and Tunisia.    At least 15 people died in Libya, and both Libya's Gadhafi and Yemen's Ali abdullah Saleh made clear they plan to stamp out opposition and not be dragged down by movements that have grown in nations from Algeria to Djibouti to Jordan.
  
• 2/20/2011 Vague deal threatens relevance of the G-20 by Gabriele Steinhauser and Greg Keller, AP.
      Paris - The world's dominant economies struck a watered-down deal on how to smooth out trade and currency imbalances that many say exacerbated the financial crisis.    G-20 finance ministers and central bankers meeting in Paris agreed on a list of technical indicators to track those imbalances caused by some nations consuming more while others tend to hold on to their money and when the imbalances become dangerous and what to do to mitigate them.
      The G-20 itself is a recognition of the rise to power of nations such as India, China and Brazil, having supplanted smaller forums like the G-7 and G-8 in the height of the financial crisis, when it had its biggest successes.
  
• 2/20/2011 Freshmen flex fiscal muscles - House budget bill would cut $61 billion by Andrew Taylor, AP.
      Washington - The GOP-run House, jolted by freshman determined to drive down the deficit, eliminated $61 billion from hundreds of programs while shielding coal companies, oil refiners and farms from new regulations.    The $1.2 trillion bill face long odds in the Senate and a veto in the White House.    The vote of 235-189 was a victory for the 87 freshman Republicans elected last fall on a promise to attack the deficit and reduce the reach of government.    The American people demand that Washington stop its out-of-control spending now, not in the future.    The legislation imposes spending cuts on domestic programs and foreign aid.
  
• 2/21/2011 Libyan forces again fire on citizens - More than 200 believed killed in 5 days by Sarah El Deeb, AP.
      Cairo - Libyan forces fired machine guns at thousands of mourners marching in a funeral for anti-government protesters in the eastern city of Benghazi, a day after commandos of Gadhafi attacked demonstrators with assault rifles.    At least 204 were killed.
  
  MIDEAST PROTESTS
  • TUNISIA: Several thousand protesters swarmed the governmental palace to demand the ouster of the provisional government.
  • MOROCCO: Thousands of people marched in cities across Morocco, demanding greater democracy in the North African kingdom, and economic opportunities, educational reform, better health services and help in coping with rising living costs.
  • BAHRAIN: Bahrain's opposition is weighing the regime's offer for talks after nearly a week of protests calling for the tiny Gulf nation's monarchy to give up control.
  • JORDAN: Jordan's King Abdullah II called for quick and real reforms to give the public greater role in governing and eliminate corruption following anti-government protests over the weeks.
  • YEMEN: Yemen's president, Abi Abdullah Saleh, offered to oversee a dialogue between the ruling party and the opposition in a bid to diffuse 11 days of protest calling for his ouster.
  • KUWAIT: Descendents of desert nomads demonstrated for a third day to demand Kuwaiti citizenship and its lavish benefits.
• 2/23/2011 Capital bloodied - Officials quit; foes control one city by Sarah El Deeb and Maggie Michael, AP.
      Cairo - Deep cracks opened in Gadhafi's government with officials resigning, air force pilots defecting and a bloody crackdown on protesters in the capital of Tripoli, where cars and buildings were burned.    Gadhafi went on TV to show he had not fled.    Gadhafi appeared to have lost support of at least one major tribe, several military units and his own diplomats, including the delegation to the U.N.    He is now being accused of committing genocide against his own people in the current crisis after seven days of protests.
      The Libyan unrest fuels oil spike as prices jumped by more than $4 a barrel settling at $90.23 a barrel.    So the protests could disrupt crude supplies from OPEC nations, and Libya is one of the world's biggest oil producers and has the largest proven oil reserves in Africa.
      Gadhafi vows a fight to the death to his "last drop of blood" and roared at supporters to strike back agaisnt protesters to defend his embattled regime.
      Stocks tumbled as the market is extremely vulnerable to the kind of global risk we are seeing now as oil rose to $93.57 a barrel.
  
  MIDEAST PROTESTS
  • YEMEN: President Ali Abdullah Saleh rejected demands that he step down, but offered to begin a dialogue with protesters.    Tens of thousands protested in four cities.
  • BAHRAIN: The embattled monarchy sought to engage demonstrators in talks.    Hassan Meshaima, a opposition figure accused of plotting against the state, plans to return today.
  • TUNISIA: They named an interim foreign minister after the ouster of their president.
  • EGYPT: The top prosecutor requested the freezing of the foreign assets of Mubarak and his family.
• 2/23/2011 Strike set for today may disrupt flights, services by AP.
      Athens - Labor unions and professional groups in Greece have called for a general strike today that will likely disrupt flights, close stores, and cripple services.    Prime Minister George Papandreou's Socialist government faces international pressure to make deeper and more lasting cuts after his nation's economy was rescued from bankruptcy by the European Union and the IMF.
  
• 2/23/2011 Iranian warships pass through Suez Canal by AP.
      Jerusalem - Two Iranian warships sailed from Suez Canal into the Mediterranean, eliciting Israeli charges that Iran is seeking to dominate the Middle East.    Egypt controls access to the canal and must open to every vessel of commerce or of war.    The frigate and a supply ship headed toward Syria but were expected to remain in international waters as they passed the Israeli coast.
  
• 2/24/2011 Dollar slips against the euro and pound by AP.
      The dollar fell against the euro and the pound as investors bet that the European Central Bank and the Bank of England would lift interest rates before the Federal Reserve does.
  
• 2/24/2011 Gadhafi's hold on nation eroding by Paul Schemm and Maggie Michael, AP.
      Benghazi, Libya - Gadhafi's contol in Libya shrank as major cities and towns closer to the capital fell to the rebellion against his rule.    The opposition vowed to liberate the capital, Tripoli, where Gadhafi is holed up with a force of militiamen roaming the streets.    A pilot ejected out of a warplane and let it crash into the desert rather than follow orders to bomb an opposition-held city.
      In New York, stocks stabilized and oil prices eased as it settled at $97.28 a barrel.
  
• 2/25/2011 Iraqis warned to avoid protest - Al-Qaida behind rally, leader says by Hamid Ahmed, AP.
      Baghdad - Iraq's prime minister Nouri al-Maliki warned his people to boycott an anti-government protest planned today, saying it is being organized by supporters of the ousted Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida, but had no proof.
      On the 26th, thousands marched on government buildings and clashed with security forces in cities across Iraq in an outpouring of anger that left 12 people dead.    The protest billed as a "Day of Rage," were fueled by anger over corruption, chronic unemployment and poor public services from the Shiite-dominated government.    So now there are worries that the protests could spiral out of control as they did in Egypt and elsewhere.
  
• 2/25/2011 Gadhafi strikes back at uprising by Paul Schemm and Sarah El Deeb, AP.
      Benghazi, Libya - Foreign mercenaries and Libyan militiamen loyal to Gadhafi tried to roll back rebellion against his rule that has advanced closer to his stronghold in tripoli, as 23 people were killed.
      But the rebels made new gains, seizing a military air base, as Gadhafi blamed Osam bin Laden for the upheaval.
      In defense of the nation, Gadhafi threatens a massacre if they do not leave and ordered troops to hunt them down in their homes.
      On the 26th, protesters demanding Gadhafi's ouster came under a hail of bullets when militia opened fire with automatic weapons and anti-aircraft gun to stop the marches in the Libyan capital.    Gadhafi's troops also attacked a major air base that had fallen into rebel hands.    The rebels have taken control of nearly the entire eastern half of the country, as well as cities close to Gadhafi's stronghold in the capital.    And Gadhafi's legitimacy has been reduced to zero.
      On the 27th, in Tripoli Gadhafi's regime passed out guns to civilian supporters, set up checkpoints and sent armed patrols to rove to quash a revolt.
      On the 28th in Zawiya anti-government rebels who control this battle-scarred city nearest to the capital deployed tanks and anti-aircraft weapons to brace for an attack by troops loyal to Gadhafi.
  MIDEAST PROTESTS
  • YEMEN: The president ordered the formation of a government panel to open a dialogue with protesters, and for now has difused the protests.
  • ALGERIA: Algeria has lifted a state of emergency ordered 19 years ago when it was in a period of chaos.    But protest marches are still banned in the capital.
  • SAUDI ARABIA: Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz announced an economic aid package $36 billion, including interest free home loans as a bid to get ahead of potential unrest.    [Comment: That sounds like what Obama did, except he used our money to do it.]
• 2/27/2011 Progress seen on avoiding shutdown of government - Democrats, GOP move closer to deal on cuts by Jim Abrams, AP.
      Washington - Lawmakers appear to be moving closer to a compromise that would prevent a government shutdown, at least for now.
  
• 3/1/2011 Oil drops below $97 on shipping reports by AP.
      Crude fell to $96.97 a barrel just days after spiking above $100 last week on reports that Libya was still exporting oil.
      On the 2nd crude rose to $99.63 a barrel as Iran clamped down on anti-goverment protesters and unrest in the Middle east threatened to keep energy prices high for months to come.
      On the 3rd crude rose to $102.23 a barrel for the first time since September 2008 as fighting escalates in Libya and petroleum demand grew in the U.S.    Gasoline is up to $3.39 a gallon.
      On the 4th crude fell to $101.91 a barrel following reports that a settlement to the conflict in Libya could be on the horizon.    Venezuelan President Chavez had talked Gadhafi to accept a mediation to the conflict with the rebel groups.
      On the 5th crude rose to $104.42 a barrel as fighting in Libya intensified, and the U.S. added 200,000 jobs suggesting more people will be driving to work.
      On the 11th crude fell to $102.70 a barrel despite reports of protests in Saudi Arabia, as police shot three protesters trying to get the release of prisoners.    Gas prices jump to $3.60 per gallon in Louisville, as the national average was $3.53.
      On the 15th crude fell to $101.19 a barrel on concerns of a drop in Japan's economy activity as the 9.0-magnitude earthquake rocked the world's third-largest oil-consuming nation wreaking havoc on its energy infrastructure, refineries and nuclear power plants.
      On the 16th crude fell to $97.18 a barrel on deepening fears about Japan's economy after its nuclear crisis worsened, and diminished demand for oil.
      On the 17th crude rose to $97.98 a barrel as traders tried to gauge the impact of the international crises will have on world energy demand.
      On the 18th crude rose to $101.42 a barrel after a crackdown on protesters in Bahrain and stepped-up pressure for U.N. action against Libya's Gadhafi, and Japan will soon boost imports as it recovers.
      On the 19th crude fell to $101.07 a barrel due to U.N. resolution to use force to stop Gadhafi's violent attacks on rebels after calling a cease-fire.
      On the 22nd crude rose to $103.09 a barrel as Libya's oil exports could be off the world market longer than expected as the U.S. enforced a no-fly zone over the nation, and other OPEC production could be affected.
      On the 23rd crude rose to $104.97 a barrel as traders focused on tightening of global supplies from a region that produces 27 percent of the world's oil.
      On the 24th crude rose to $105.75 a barrel the highest since Sept. 26, 2008.
      On the 25th crude fell to $105.60 a barrel due to a mixed read on the U.S. economic recovery.
      On the 26th crude fell to $105.40 a barrel as the U.S. said its economy grew faster than it estimated and the Japanese damaged nuclear power plant weighed down on oil prices and gasoline prices were as high as $3.66 a gallon.
      On the 29th crude fell to $103.98 a barrel after Libyan rebels recaptured some key oil ports and promised to resume exports.
      On the 30th crude rose to $104.79 a barrel over concerns about political upheaval in North Africa and the Middle East.
  
• 3/1/2011 Gadhafi faces more battles and sanctions by Maggie Michael, AP.
      Tripoli, Libya - International pressure on Gadhafi to end a crackdown on opponents escalated as his loyalists fought rebels.    The U.S. moved naval and air forces closer to Libya and said all options were open.    France said it would fly humanitarian aid to the opposition-controlled half of the country.    The EU imposed an arms embargo and other sanctions, and considering the creation of a no-fly zone over Libya.
  
• 3/1/2011 States offered health care option - Can have own plans; must achieve goals by Ricardo Alonzo-Zaldivar, AP.
      Washington - In a concession over his divisive health care overhaul, Obama told the nation's governors that he is willing to let states design alternative plans, as long as they fulfill the goals of his landmark law.    About half of the states are suing to overturn Obama's health care law, targeting its unpopular requirement that most Ameircans carry health insurance or face fines from the IRS.    So Obama told the governors that if any of them have better ideas, they're welcome to propose it and see if it works.    They would have to convince Washington that it covers at least as many state residents, provides equally affordable and comprehensive benefits, and would not increase the federal deficit.
      The law already allows states to propose their own framework for health care, but not until 2017 where they submit their ideas in 2014.    The reality is the more you look at the details, the less flexibility you will see, and if you cannot control eligibility or the benefits package you will have to figure out how to pay for it.
  
• 3/2/2011 Pro-Gadhafi forces retake towns near capital by Maggie Michael, AP.
      Tripoli, Libya - Gadhafi's forces repelled poorly armed rebels as they fought for controls of towns near the capital.    The clashes could transform the popular rebellion into a drawn-out civil war, where the death toll is already up to 228 people, but the U.N. puts it around 1,000.
      In Sanaa, Yemen the embattled president accused the U.S. of instigating the mounting protest against him, but it did not slow his ouster.
  
• 3/4/2011 European Central Bank considers interest-rate hike by Dow Jones Newswires.
      European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet signaled that the central bank could raise interest rates next month for the first time since the worst of the financial crisis in 2008.    Its intent is to slow inflation in the euro zone.    The euro rose instantly in the financial markets.
  
• 3/5/2011 37 dead as Gadhafi forces battle with rebels in Libya - Despite attacks, stalemate lingers by Maggie Michael, AP.
      Tripoli, Libya - Gadhafi's regime struck back at foes with a powerful attack on the closest rebel-held city to Tripoli with tear gas and live ammunition to new protests.    At least 37 people died in fighting in an effort by both sides to break a deadlock in the 18-day upheaval.
      On the 6th, Libya veers toward extended civil war as loyalists, rebels both make progress in various battles.
      On the 7th in Bin Jawwad, Libya forces loyal to Gadhafi in helicopter gunships pounded opposition fighters with artillery, rockets, and gunfire escalating their counter offensive to halt the advance.    During an battle into Misrata they fell into a trap and five hours later were pushed back by rebel forces.
  MIDEAST PROTESTS
  • YEMEN: Soldiers open fire on anti-government protesters in northern Yemen, with 4 killed as thousands took to the street for prayers.    Tens of thousands assembled near Sanaa University to call for the presidents ouster, while supporters countered for them to respond to the president's call for dialogue.    Several members of the ruling Congress Party resigned, putting more pressure on the president for those seeking his ouster.    Government supporters wielding knives and handguns attack protesters.
  • BAHRAIN: Thousands of anti-government demonstrators chanted against the sunni dynasty.    Shiite protesters form a human chain around the capital as their campaign to loosen the Sunni monarchy's grip on power, as no police are in sight.    Thousands of Shiite opposition supporters block the entrance to the Bahraini prime minister's office but fail to disrupt a government meeting.
  • EGYPT: Egypt's prime minister Essam Sharaf promises to do everything he can to meet the demands for political change, and the referrendum will be on March 19.    Hundreds of people march on buildings belonging to the internal security service in Cairo, and issue facing military rulers.    Egypt's prime minister-designate names a caretaker Cabinet to help lead the country through reforms and toward free elections.
  • JORDAN: Opponents call for the new prime minister to resign, and demand reforms to open up the kingdom's politics.    King Abdulllah II just named a new prime minister and orders him to make political changes, including fairer election laws.
  • TUNISIA: New premier Beji Caid-Essebsi says he will present a new Cabinet in the coming days to help get beyond a renewed bout of violence.
  • IRAQ: Thousands rally in Baghdad in anti-government demonstrations, mostly peaceful.
  • LEBANON: Protesters stage a sit-in against the sectarian political system in Beirut.
  • SAUDI ARABIA: The Interior Ministry says demonstrations will not be tolerated after a protest by about 100 members of the Shiite minority in the eastern region of the kingdom.    Saudi authorities release a Shiite cleric, who last week was arrested for calling for a constitutional monarchy, two days after Shiites in the eastern region demonstrate to demand his release.
  • OMAN: Government officials say protests demanding economic reforms by Oman's ruler reached a key oil region in the Arabian peninsula nation.    Workers stage a sit-in at a main oil field in Haima, demanding more state investments in the area.
  • ALGERIA: Pro-democracy protesters' fifth bid in six weeks to march in the capital is put down by police.
  • DJIBOUTI: Soldiers and police filled the streets to foil a planned protest of President Ismail Omar Guelleh by opposition parties.
• 3/5/2011 African Union has lost 50 in Somalia by AP.
      Nairobi, Kenya - More than 50 African Union peacekeepers have died in fighting in Somalia since a major offensive against Islamic militants began two weeks ago.    Al-Shabab, a Somali militant group with links to al-Qaida, instituted a Taliban-style system of rule, with strict edicts enforced by their own courts and public executions.
  
• 3/7/2011 Beijing stiffens rules for all foreign media by Christopher Bodeen, AP.
      Beijing - China's capital further tightened restrictions on reporting by foreign journalist must have government permission, a sign to prevent the formation of a Middle east-style protest movement.    These official jitters were sparked by Internet calls for protest each Sunday similar to those that have toppled countries in North Africa and the Middle East, and the one-party state routinely harasses and imprisons its critics.    In Shanghai at least 17 foreign reporters were detained for turning up at the protest site, People's Square, because they did not have prior permission to be there.
  
• 3/8/2011 Oil tops $105 a barrel as Libyan strife continues - OPEC increases its production by AP.
      Oil prices continued to set post-recession highs as forces loyal to Gadhafi pounded rebels near a key oil port in Libya.    It unclear on how long oil exports will be cut off as traders prepare for the worst-case scenerio.    Crude settled at $105.44 a barrel after going as high as $107 and gasoline averaged between $3.40 and $3.50 per gallon.    OPEC has increased production by 4.7 million more barrels per day to make up for the loss of Libyan crude and the U.S. is evaluating whether to tap strategic reserves to slow the rising price of oil.    The government started to stockpile oil after the 1973 Arab embargo.    The Startegic Petroleum Reserve, located in massive underground deposits in Texas and Louisiana, now holds 727 million barrels of oil, enough to supply the U.S. for 37 days.    The problem exists mostly in Europe, where many refineries rely on Libyan crude.    The stock markets lost about 1 percent so far this month.
  
• 3/8/2011 Greek debt fears boost dollar against the euro by Dow Jones Newswires.
      The dollar bounced back against the euro as a downgrade of Greece's sovereign debt reignited concerns about eurozone government bonds.
  
• 3/9/2011 Energy Dept. ups gas price forecast - $3.70-per-gallon average expected by AP.
      New York - Pump prices are expected to average $3.70 per gallon nationally this spring and summer, with a barrel of oil averaging $102 this year, the U.S. Department of Energy said.    Also said it may reach $3.75 a gallon in June and could spike above $4 this summer getting close to the all-time high of $4.11 a gallon in July of 2008.
• 3/10/2011 Oil installations ablaze in Libya as battles rage by AP.
      Ras Lanouf, Libya - A giant yellow fireball shot into the sky, tailed by thick plumes of black smoke after fighting between rebels and Gadhafi's loyalists set two oil installations ablaze and inflicted more damage on Libya's crippled energy industry.    Gadhafi claimed victory in recapturing Zawiyaq which was not verified, but hit an oil facility as a warning to Europe.
      On the 11th the rebels flee from Libyan oil port and the regime takes Ras Lanouf after unleashing a barrage of heavy fire.
  
  MIDEAST PROTESTS
  • EGYPT: The death toll in Muslim Christian clashes over the burning of a church rises to 13, with about 140 hurt, the bloodiest clashes in years.    Thousands of Christians hold an emotional funeral service after clashes this week between Muslims and Christians killed 13 and wounded 140.
  • YEMEN: The army raids the university campus in Sanaa and opens fire on hundreds of anti-government protesters.    The embattled president proposes that the government draw up a new constitution guaranteeing the independence of the parliament and judiciary, but protesters still demand his ouster.
  • SAUDI ARABIA: The foreign minister warns his government will take stiff action against foreign protesters.    Prince Saud al-Faisal says dialogue, not protests, is the way to achieve reforms.    Activists in the Shiite Muslim minority have issued Internet calls for a "Day of Rage" on Friday.    Saudi police open fire at a rally with efforts to stop planned protests.
  • BAHRAIN: After three weeks of marches thousands of Shiite protesters demand naturalized Sunnis be stripped of citizenship and deported.    An angry faceoff between hundreds of loyalists praising Bahrain's Sunni rulers and Shiites cursing their names breaks out at a schoolyard.    Police and parliament members move in to break up the rival demonstrations.
  • OMAN: Workers at state-owned companies join protests in Oman, calling for pay hikes and greater benefits, resulting in shutdowns and sit-ins with a demand for more media freedom.
  • UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: A group of citizens sign a petition to allow popularly elected parliament, a sign that demands for reform has reached to them.
  • TUNISIA: A court dissolves the party of ousted president and orders all its assets seized, demolishing a key symbol of his autocratic regime.
  • MOROCCO: King Mohammed VI speaking to the nation said he will revise the constitution for the first time in 15 years, aiming to strengthen democracy.
• 3/11/2011 Looming uncertainties cause markets to retreat by AP.
      Stocks retreated sending the S&P 500 index to the lowest level since January, along with an increase in jobless claims, a wider American trade deficit and a slowdown in China's export growth weighed on the market.    With so many uncertainties no one is bidding up this market as the Middle East creates an unpredictable environment for oil and Spain gets downgraded on its credit rating indicating the European crisis if far from solved.
      Moody's downgraded Spain's credit rating citing worries over the cost of the banking sector's restructuring the government's ability to achieve its borrowing reduction targets and grim economic growth prospects.    Spain was hit hard by a burst real estate bubble, which saddled them with nonperforming loans.    The EU can handle Portugal for a bailout, but Spain has the eurozone's fourth-largest economy and could test their limits.
  
• 3/11/2011 African Union backs Ouattara in Ivory Coast by AP.
      Abidjan, Ivory Coast - The African Union handed a resounding victory to Alassane Ouattara in a decision reaffirming him as the legal president of Ivory Coast and saying the country's highest court must swear him in, officials said.    The decision calls on Laurent Gbagbo to leave office which has refused to leave the presidental palace.    The election standoff has degenerated into bloody street battles, and Ivory Coast stands on the brink of civil war.    Pro-Gbagbo troops are accused of gunning down hundreds of civilians who voted for Ouattara.
  
• 3/12/2011 Social Security tax cut boosts shopping in Feb. by AP.
      Americans are using extra money from their tax cuts to buy new cars, clothing, sporting goods and electronics.
      The social security tax reduction helped lift retail sales in February for the eighth straight month and by the largest amount since fall.    The reduction in payroll taxes is giving most Americans an extra $1,000 to $2,000 this year.
  [Comment: This was the biggest lie from Washington form both Democrats and Republicans.    Yes they lowered our Social security tax.    But what they failed to say in this article is that they raised the federal tax back to where it was or even higher which was Obama's tax cut in the previous year.    I myself thought I would be getting an extra $20 take home but when I got my first paycheck I had $7 less on it.    After looking at the rates my federal had gone higher.    So I not only lost money but it put me back to the same takehome that I made from the previous year before I got my last 1 percent raise.    So Obama don't do me any favors.]
  
• 3/13/2011 Gadhafi pushes on against Libyan rebels - Arab League urges imposing no-fly zone by AP.
      Ras Lanouf, Libya - As the no-fly zone was being considered, Gadhafi was advancing on the poorly equipped and loosely organized rebels who have seized much of the country.    Gadhafi's forces pushed the rebels deeper into their territory.    In Cairo, the Arab League asked the U.N. Security Council to impose a no-fly zone to protect the rebels.    The 22-member Arab bloc said that the Libyan governemnt had "lost its sovereignty."
      On the 14th in Benghazi, Gadhafi's forces drive rebels from key stronghold and U.S.' Clinton to meet in Paris with leaders seeking no-fly zone.
      On the 19th Libya tries to avert no-fly zone - U.s. and allies wary of Gadhafi's cease fire, as the rebels say fighting goes on.    Obama ruled out the use of ground troops.
  
  MIDEAST UNRESTS and DEVELOPMENTS
  • YEMEN: Security forces fired live bullets and tear gas on two pro-democracy demonstrations, killing six during a pre-dawn raid.    Police on rooftops fire live bullets and tear gas at protesters, injuring more than 100 people camping near Sanaa University while calling for the president to resign.    Wielding clubs and knives, police and government supporters also attacked protesters.
  • BAHRAIN: Tens of thousands of protesters march on a royal palace hours after clashes with police injuring dozens of activists.    Thousands fo anti-government demonstrators cut off the financial center and drove back police trying to push them from the captial's square in the most disruptive protest since calls for more freedom began a month ago.    Protesters also clashed with security forces and government supporters on the campus of the nation's main university.    Authorities demolished the huge white monument in Pearl Square where Shiite majority have protested to demand greater rights from the Sunni monarchy.
  • IRAQ: Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki rejects calls for regime change, saying protesters are out of step with the will of the people, just after the parliament starts considering a 50 percent pay cut to try to satisfy Iraqis angry over high salaries for officials while poverty is widespread.    Thousands of protesters rallied in mostly Shiite cities to condemn sectarian attacks by security forces against Shiite protesters.
  • EGYPT: Military rulers plan to scrap a law that has restricted the formation of political parties, which would be lifted after a referendum next week.
  • JORDAN: About 10,000 supporters of King Abdullah II march in Amman, nearly three times the number of anti-government protesters who demonstrated earlier in the day.    In Amman, hundreds calling for reforms demonstrated peacefully, rejecting the start of a national dialogue today as insufficient.    The king has the final say on key issues, though the parliament is an elected body.
  • SAUDI ARABIA: More than 200 protest outside the Interior Ministry demanding the release of detainees in the largest demonstration yet in the capital.    King Abdullah promised a mutibillion dollar package of reforms, raises, cash, loans and apartments as an expensive effort to appease residents inspired by the unrest.    He also announced 60,000 new jobs in the security forces which in terms bolsters his kingdom's ability to snuff out protests.
  • LEBANON: Tens of thousands of Lebanese fill a central Beirut square to mark the 2005 protests that ended Syria's 30-year domination of the country.    They also demand that the militant group Hezbollah, seen as a proxy of Syria, give up its weapons.
  • OMAN: Ruler grants lawmaking powers to officials outside the royal family in the boldest reforms yet aimed at quelling protests for jobs and a greater roll in politics.
  • TUNISIA: Authorities order a curfew in a central mining town amid unrest after deadly clashes between police and protesters.
  • MOROCCO: Riot police break up an unauthorized protest in Casablanca by several hundred people, including supporters of a banned Islamic movement.
  • SYRIA: Security forces dispersed protesters calling for political freedom in two towns, Damascus and Daraa, with 3 deaths and 44 hurt.
  • IRAN: A senior Iranian cleric, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, urged Bahrain's majority Shiites to continue protests until death or victory against the Sunni monarchy.
• 3/14/2011 India earns title of world's biggest weapons importer by AP.
      New Delhi - In a race to join the club of global powers, India has hit a new milestone: It's now the world's largest arms importer, overtaking China who is planning to modernize its military, counter Beijing's influence and win international clout.    India has accounted for 9 percent of all international arms imports in the period from 2006 to 2010, and is expected to keep the top spot for the foreseeable future.
  
• 3/18/2011 U.N. OKs no-fly zone for Libya - Security Council acts to protect civilians by The Washington Post.
      United Nations - The U.N. Security Council voted 10-0 to authorize a no-fly zone to protect civilians in Libya from leader Gadhafi's forces.    EU, U.S. and Arab countries will supply jet fighters, bombers and surveillance aircraft to enforce the no-fly zone.    The U.S. has five warships off Libya's coast.
  
• 3/20/2011 Palin warns India of China's rise - She questions military buildup by Katy Daigle, AP.
      New Delhi - U.S. politician Sarah Palin stressed the importance of America's ties with India, saying they're based on the shared values of freedom and free market capitalism, while sounding a warning note on China's rise during a speech in New Delhi.    The trip which also stops in Israel, may be her attempt to burnish her foreign policy credentials ahead of a possible 2012 presidential run.    Palin told an audience of Indian business leaders, professionals and socialites the U.S.-Indian relations were "key to the future of our world.    We're going to need each other, especially as these other regions rise.    Free people in a free country don't wage war on another free country.    I want peace on Earth."
      She questioned the Chinese military's ascent, saying the Communist nation's stockpiling of ballistic missiles, submarines and new age, ultramodern aircraft seemed unjustified when it didn't face an outside threat.    What's with the military buildup?    It can't just be for defensive purposes.
  
• 3/20/2011 Yemen regime fails to halt revolt - Demonstrations grow; protesters seize city by Ahmed Al-Haj, AP.
      Sanaa, Yemen - A crackdown that killed dozens failed to stop massive protests against Yemen's U.S.-backed president Saleh, as crowds of thousands clashed with security forces smashing their protest camps and even seized control of one southern city.    The government brought out tanks and forces to protect key buildings as crowds swelled after a month of daily protests calling for political freedoms and an end to corruption.    In the bloodiest single day of uprising forces killed at least 46 people and hurt hundreds in the capital.    But allies have abandoned the president to join the protesters.
  
  MIDEAST PROTESTS, UNRESTS and DEVELOPMENTS
  • SYRIA: Police sealed off the southern city of Daraa after security forces killed at least 5 protesters as the pro-democracy push is seeping into the regions most repressive places.    Syria is a Sunni country ruled by minority Alawites.
  • BAHRAIN: A Suadi-led force entered Bahrain to support the Sunni monarchy to aid against the majority Shiites seeking to break the dynasty's grip on power.
  • IRAQ: Protesters jeered Saudi Arabia's king as a slave of America and Israel for sending troops to Bahrain.
• 3/20/2011 Egyptians vote in major test of new democracy - Rocks drive away reformer at polls by Maggie Michael and Hamza Hendawi, AP.
      Cairo - Eager for their first taste of a free vote in decades to vote on constitutional amendments sponsered by the ruling military that critics fear could propel the country's largest Islamist group to become Egypt's most dominant political force.    The lines were long as the people of Egypt have come to realize that their vote counts.    Voters were asked to vote yes or no for a package of nine changes, which would open elections to independent candidates, impose presidential term limits and curtail old laws.    Some fear that the National Democratic Party (previous Mubarak party) or the Muslim Brotherhood to organize to get back in.
  
• 3/20/2011 ALLIES ATTACK LIBYA DEFENSES - U.S., Europeans strike to enforce no-fly zone, blunt Gadhafi by Ryan Lucas and Hadeel Al-Shalchi, AP.
      Benghazi, Libya - The U.S. and European nations pounded Gadhafi's forces and air defense with 112 Tomahawk cruise missiles and air strikes, launching the broadest international military effort since the Iraq war in support of the uprising that seemed on the verge of defeat.    The missiles hit 20 coastal targets to clear the way for air patrols to ground Libya's air force.
      On the 21st the U.S. claimed initial success two days into an assault on Libya.
  
• 3/24/2011 Gadhafi forces retreat under fire - Coalition presses attack as NATO ships patrol off Libyan coast by AP.
      Benghazi, Libya - NATO ships patrolled off Libya's coast as airstrikes, missiles and energized rebels forced Gadhafi's tanks to roll back from two key western cities.    The opposition took steps to form a government in the east.    The U.S. can do nothing if Gadhafi digs in, as the coalition lacks U.N. authorization to target him.
      On the 26st Qatar joins missions over Libya as the first Arab nation to participate in coalition's no-fly effort.    French and British jets hit Libyan military targets.
      On the 27th, air raids force Gadhafi retreat, as Libyan rebels regain Ajdabiya.
  
  MIDEAST PROTESTS, UNRESTS, DEVELOPMENTS and ACTION
  • SYRIA: Security forces shoot live ammunition and tear gas near a mosque then raid a neighborhood sheltering anti-governemtn protesters, killing at least 15 people.    Violence erupts nationwide as troops fire on protesters in several cities, and clashes ensue in the capital as the most widespread unrest in years.    Soldiers shoot at protesters in Daraa after crowds set fire to a bronze statue of Syria's late president, Hafez Assad.    To quell anger a day after a deadly crackdown on protesters, Syrian Presidnet Bashar al-Assad released hundreds of political prisoners.    Protests spread from Daraa to other cities, including Damascus.    Security forces fired tear gas and live ammunition killing at least 14 people.    In Latakia crowds burned tires and attacked cars and shops and at least two were killed.
  • YEMEN: The parliament enacts sweeping emergency laws after the nation's embattled president ask for new powers of arrest, detention and censorship to quash a popular uprising demanding his ouster.    The move escalates the showdown between him and a protest movement that's unified military commanders, religious leaders and youth.    Facing growing calls for his resignation, President Ali Abdullah Saleh tells tens of thousands of supporters he's ready to step down.
  • OMAN: Protesters set up a tent camp in the captial to stay until several ministers they accuse of corruption leave.    Oman's ruler, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, has made sweeping Cabinet changes since the start of strikes and sit-ins staged by thousands of workers and pro-reform activists.
  • EGYPT: Egypt's public prosecutor made an unpresedented sweep against top security brass, charging the former interior minister and other officials with aiding the murder and the attempted murder of hundreds of protesters during the uprising that ousted Mubarak.    Thousands flock to Cairo's Square to protest proposed law that would ban protests and to voice fears that the revolution may not have changed much.
  • JORDAN: King Abdullah II blames his appointed prime minister for delaying changes to the political system the monarch proposed in response to calls for more democracy.    They include a new electoral law to replace one critics favors the king's loyalists and has produced a docile parliament.    There has been no action on crafting reform bills since the king proposed them Feb. 9.    Protesters demanding reforms clash with government supporters in Amman, the capital, pelting each other with stones until security forces charge in and beat protesters as unrest intensifies, as more than 100 are hurt.
  • SAUDI ARABIA: Police have arrested some 100 people who took part in protest this month most from the Shiite-dominated eastern towns of al-Hasa and Qatif.    Several hundred Shiite Muslims protest in eastern Saudi Arabia to demand the release of detainees and show support for fellow Shiites protesting the Sunni monarchy in Bahrain.    They called on Riyadh to withdraw its troops from Bahrain.
  • BAHRAIN: Security forces fire tear gas at anti-government protesters after a Shiite cleric vows that their demands for the Sunni monarchy to ease its grip on power will not be silenced by brutal force.
• 3/28/2011 NATO to run Libya air mission - Oil sites among big rebel gains by Ryan Lucas and Hadeel Al-Shalchi, AP.
      Brussels - NATO will assume command of all aerial operations in Libya from the U.S.-led force that has been conducting air strikes against Gadhafi's forces, as rebels continued to regain areas from Gadhafi's forces and surge westward.    International air raids targeted Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte for the first time as rebels quickly closed in on the regime stronghold, that must be overcome for opponents to reach the capital, Tripoli.
  
• 3/29/2011 Tighter or looser grip? Syria awaits - Address by Assad expected by AP.
      Damascus, Syria - President Bashar Assad wavered between cracking down and compromising in the most authoritarian and anti-Western nations as thousands of protesters in a southern city defied security forces who fired tear gas to disperse them.    The unrest in Syria a country of 23 million people could have implications given its role as Iran's top Arab ally and as a front-line state against Israel.    Syria instability could destabilize the entire region.
      The southern city of Daraa parched by drought, rural and impoverished has become the flashpoint for 10 days of anti-government protests in a country that has a history of brutally crushing dissent.    At least 61 people have been killed since March 18, touched off by the arrest of teenagers who scrawled anti-government graffiti on a wall in Daraa, the protest exploded nationwide.    Security forces quickly cracked down, opening fire in at least six locations.
      Assad, 45, is now facing down the most serious threat of his rule, with the government trying to calm the situation with concessions.    Assad is expected to address the nation to announce he is lifting a nearly 50-year state of emergency and moving to annul harsh restrictions on civil liberties and political freedom.
      Nevertheless, troops fired tear gas on some 4,000 people in Daraa who were calling for more political freedoms.
      On the 30th Assad promises to end Syria's emergency laws.    He fired his Cabinet also and the concessions are unlikely to appease protesters demanding sweeping reforms.    Draconian laws have all but eradicated civil liberties and political freedoms but protesters have broken through a barrier of fear now and there is no turning back.
  
• 3/29/2011 Obama: Libya intervention was needed - Rebels close in on Gadhafi's hometown by AP.
      Washington - Defending the first war launched on his watch, Obama declared that the U.S. intervened in Libya to prevent slaughter of civilians that would have stained the world's conscience and been a betrayal of who we are.    He ruled out targeting Gadhafi, warning that trying to oust the leader militarily would be a costly mistake.    Obama never called it a war just that it was in the national interst of the U.S. and its allies to act.
      [Comment: The rest of the story, it was for the oil and the economic recovery.    Whose fooling who?    Without Congress Obama cannot start a war.]
  
• 3/30/2011 World powers agree that Gadhafi must go - Rebels suffer battlefield losses; arming them not discussed at talks by AP.
      London - A sweeping array of 40 world powers called for Gadhafi to step down and hinted at secret talks for an exit as his forces hammered rebels with tanks and rockets, turning them to retreat.
  
• 3/31/2011 Gadhafi forces offset airstrikes - Libyan regime regains momentum, takes rebel cities by AP.
      Ajdabiya, Libya - Gadhafi's ground forces recaptured a strategic oil town and moved within striking distance of another major eastern city, reversing gains made by rebels.    Airstrikes continued and have neutralized Gadhafi's air force and pounded his army, but his forces are better armed and trained, which may bring Western intervention to arm the rebels.
  
  MIDEAST PROTESTS, UNRESTS, DEVELOPMENTS and ACTION
  • SYRIA: President Assad delivers a speech to parliament, but does not declare easing of emergency regulations, instead blames conspirators for protest.    Protests continues in the port city of Latakia.
  • BAHRAIN: A main Shiite opposition leader demands that a Saudi-led force of more than 1,500, invited by the Sunni monarchy, leave the nation immediately.    Authorities arrest a blogger, a sign that the crackdown against dissent continues.
  • YEMEN: Hundreds of thousands of protesters demonstrate in the streets of several cities, demanding president Saleh to resign, who withdrew an offer to step down by the end of the year as political talks collapsed.
  • EGYPT: Military rulers declare presidental elections will be held by November, and Parliamentary elections in September.    The coucil also publishes an interrim constitution liberalizings election laws to allow new parties.
  • OMAN: Several anti-government activists who took part in the protests that started last month are detained.    The protests in Sohar have pressed for more jobs, pay hikes, and a greater role in politics.
• 3/31/2011 Obama revives goal of slashing U.S. oil imports by Julie Pace, AP.
      Washington - President Barack Obama called for a one-third reduction in U.S. oil imports by 2025, reviving a long-elusive goal of reducing America's dependence on foreign supplies as political unrest rocks the Middle East and gasoline prices rise at home.    He offered no new inititives other than a litany of energy proposals he's already called for, boosting domestic oil production, increasing use of biofuels and natural gas, and making more energy-efficient vehicles.    He also embraced nuclear power as a critical part of America's energy future, despite the safety concerns of Japanese disaster.    He needed something to promote since 2012 elections are looming.
  
• 4/1/2011 Libyan conflict drives oil to post-2008 high by AP.
      Crude rose to $106.72 a barrel as fighters loyal to Gadhafi pushed back rebels from key areas in eastern Libya.
      On the 2nd crude rose to $107.94 a barrel as the U.S. and China issued positive economic reports that pointed to increased demand.    The U.S. added 216,000 new jobs last month and the unemployment rate dropped to 8.8 percent, a two-year low.    China reported growing demand for autos and machines as its manufacturing sector grew.
      On the 5th investors were slow to act as oil prices hit $108 a barrel and gasoline was $3.65 a gallon.
      On the 8th natural gas prices droped 2 percent as crude rose to $110.30 a barrel even though U.S. oil supplies have been increasing.
      On the 9th crude rose to $112.79 a barrel after the drop in the dollar and continued jitters about shipments from the world's major oil suppliers.    New fears that election violence in Nigeria could disrupt supplies, and Venezuela had massive blackouts that may have affected some refineries.
      On the 12th crude fell to $109.92 a barrel after talk of a possible cease-fire in Libya, increasing the chance crude would return to world markets soon.    Also, the IMF cut its forecast for U.S. growth this year and Goldman Sachs said that consumers in the U.S. are starting to conserve energy.
      On the 15th natural gas rose 2 percent upon less U.S. supplies and the price of gasoline average was $3.81 per gallon.
      On the 16th after falling crude rose to $109.66 a barrel after U.S. economic data signaled that consumers are growing more optimistic about the economy and costs for businesses and households rose only modestly last month.
      On the 19th crude fell to $107.12 a barrel as the S&P lowered its long-term outlook for U.S. debt, raising concerns about the economy and expectations of cuts in government spending    Another move by China to slow its economy also helped push prices down.    Gasoline prices climbed to $3.83 per gallon.
      On the 21st crude rose to $111.45 a barrel as the dollar weakened against the euro, the British pound and other major currencies and government reported an unexpected drop in crude supplies.    On the 22nd gas prices jumped 20 cents to $3.94 a gallon, with the average above $4.    Obama is forming a team to investigate the role of traders and speculators and find any cause of fraud or manipulation driving gasoline prices higher.    By the 26th gas hit $3.99 a gallon.
      On the 28th crude rose to $112.76 a barrel after Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke predicted the nation's economy will continue to recover and gas prices will level off or drop.
      On the 29th crude rose to $112.86 a barrel during volatile trading by a weaker dollar.
  
• 4/1/2011 More top Libyan officials resign - Gadhafi in hiding still defiant as regime troops advance by AP.
      Tripoli, Libya - Gadhafi struck a defiant stance after two high-profile defections from his regime saying the Western leaders who have decimated his military with airstrikes who should go.    The White House said the dictator's inner circle was clearly crumbling with the loss of Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa, along with a former foreign minister and U.N. General Assembly president.    The rebels see Gadhafi as an injured wolf who is more dangerous than a healthy wolf.
      On the 2nd, Libyan rebels more disciplined as military forces that split from the regime take over at front.    The rebels seem to have a semblance of order among their forces.    So now they have better organized fighters, and the untrained ones will now be used as back up.
  
  MIDEAST PROTESTS, UNRESTS, DEVELOPMENTS and ACTION
  • SYRIA: President Assad sets up committees to replace decades-old emergency laws and investigate civilian deaths in two weeks of unrest, a move to head off massive protests set for today.    Thousands of Syrians shouting "We want freedom!" take to the streets around the country, defying security agents who try to beat them back with gunfire, tear gas and batons, where 3 people are killed, and a total death toll of 75 in two weeks.
  • KUWAIT: The Cabinet resigns over regional developments in reference to turmoil in Bahrain.
  • EGYPT: Three top officials in Mubarak's government have been banned from leaving the nation while under investigation for corruption.    Thousands of people fill Cairo's square to call for military leaders to punish members of Mubarak former administration.
  • BAHRAIN: The detained blogger was free after a day in custody.
  • YEMEN: Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis pack a square in the capital and march in villages and cities across the nation demanding the ruler step down.
  • OMAN: Omani police use tear gas and water cannons to disperse hundreds of protesters demanding the release of people detained in crackdowns by security forces.
  • JORDAN: Police separate hundreds of government supporters and pro-reform activists holding rival rallies in the capital, Amman.
  • TUNISIA: Police fire tear gas at stone-throwing youths in the capital after a demonstration by hundreds of people protesting the country's secular rule.
• 4/3/2011 Syrian arrests grow in face of unrest by Bassem Mroue, AP.
      Beruit - Syrian security agents tightened security and made sweeping arrest as Assad tried to cut off pro-democracy protests that threaten his ruling dynasty.    The death toll is up to 80 people as Syria's despised emergency laws allow security forces to arrest people without charge.
  
• 4/3/2011 Iraqi leader chides 'selective' response to Mideast unrest by Lara Jakes and Qassim Abdul-Zahra, AP.
      Baghdad - Iraq's prime minister Maliki, a Shiite Muslim, called the international crackdown on Libya's Gadhafi "selective," chastising foreign forces for singling out one oppressive Mideast regime without helping peaceful protesters in others.    Maliki is not advocating widespread use of military force, but the Shiite-led Iraqi government has been frustrated with the West's hands-off approach to the crackdown in Bahrain, where Shiite protestsers are challenging a Sunni-based leadership closely allied with Washington.
  [Comment: Maliki feel free to help out, who is stopping you.    Also you are missing the point, Libya's oil exports are messing up the global recovery, whereas the other dictators are not.]
  
• 4/3/2011 Less foreign oil = more U.S. jobs? - Obama: Cut need to boost growth by Darlene Superville, AP.
      Washington - Obama says shifting the U.S. away from imported oil and toward cleaner forms of energy will add momentum to a trend that has led to 1.8 million new jobs in the past 13 months.    Republicans encourage more domestic energy production but accused the administration of stifling that industry's growth by canceling drilling leases, halting drilling off the Gulf Coast and increasing permit fees, resulting in thousands of U.S. workers losing their jobs, forcing companies to move overseas.
  
• 4/6/2011 Columbia trade deal reportedly OK'd by AP.
      Washington - The U.S. and Columbia are expected to announce a deal on a key free trade pact after weeks of intense negotiations in Washington and Bogota focused in part on Columbia's strengthening its protection of unions and labor leaders.    The deal could help the Obama administration win final passage of another free trade agreement with South Korea.
  
• 4/7/2011 Rising oil prices start to strain U.S. economy by Paul Wiseman, AP.
      Washington - Just when companies have stepped up hiring, rising oil prices are threatening to halt the U.S. economy's gains.    Flat wages have left households struggling to pay higher gasoline prices, as oil topped $108 a barrel, and gas at $3.69 a gallon.    The dollar weakened against major foreign currencies.    The higher costs have been driven by unrest in Libya and other oil-producing Middle East countries.    Airlines, shipping companies and other businesses have been squeezed, and expensive energy siphons money that would otherwise be used for household purchases.
  
• 4/7/2011 Portugal seeks bailout as crisis spreads by AP.
      Portugal asked for a bailout to relieve its crushing debt, joining Greece and Ireland as the third European nation to ask for help amid a bruising European financial crisis.    Analysts have predicted it will need up to $114 billion.
• 4/7/2011 Gadhafi to Obama: End airstrikes - Dictator sends plea in rambling letter by Matthew Lee, AP.
      Washington - Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi appealed directly to President Barack Obama to end what Gadhafi called "an unjust war."    Officials shrugged off the letter and said he needs to meet demands to pull back and cease attacks, and step down and leave Libya.
      On the 11th in Tripoli, the African Union delgation met with Gadhafi delegation who accepted their road map for a cease-fire with rebels, who tehy will go talk to next and then have NATO to cease fire.
  
  MIDEAST PROTESTS, UNRESTS, DEVELOPMENTS and ACTION
  • YEMEN: Tens of thousands of demonstrators fill the streets of the southern city of Taiz, defying a government crackdown and demanding the immediate resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.    On the 11th, Saudi Arabia called on Yemen's president to give up power as part of a deal with the protest movement demanding his ouster, as tens of thousands of protesters marched in the capital, Sanaa.
  • BAHRAIN: A hard-line Iranian cleric calls on Bahrain's people to resist their governemtn, underlining the sectarian nature of the unrest in the kingdom, where majority Shiite Muslims are demonstrating against a Sunni monarchy.    The government warns that giving in would allow Shiite Iran a foothold there.
  • SYRIA: President Assad makes gestures in the direction of conservative Muslims in an attempt to lessen criticism of his government.    He lifts a ban on face veils for teachers and closes the country's only casino.    Opposition leaders call for demonstrations the rest of the week to honor more than 80 protesters killed in clashes with government forces.    On the 11th security forces and pro-government gunmen killed four protesters in the port city of Banias after the army sealed it off as hundreds of protesters gathered, undaunted by the regime's use of force to quell unrest.    State TV said nine soldiers were killed in an ambush near the city.
  • OMAN: Oman's prosecutor says a number of people have been arrested for preparing weapons and firebombs for use in an upcoming pro-reform demonstration.
  • EGYPT: Mubarak spoke pubicly for the first time since his ouster, denying corruption allegations.    Hundreds of protesters occupying the heart of Cairo demanded he be brought to trial.
• 4/8/2011 Obama: Trade deal with Columbia to boost U.S. jobs by AP.
      Washington - Obama says a newly finalized free trade pact with Columbia is good for America's economy and workers.    Columbia's President Juan Manuel Santos said it was a win for both nations, and said they agreed to take more steps to protect worker's rights.    The claim is the deal will boost U.S. exports to Columbia by $1 billion per year and support thousands of U.S. jobs.    Congress must approve the pact.
  
• 4/10/2011 GOP wins 1st round in budget fight - Tougher fiscal battles ahead by Charles Babington, AP.
      Washington - Republican conservatives were the chief winners in the budget deal that forced Democrats to accept historic spending cuts they strongly opposed.    The question no longer is whether to cut spending, but how deeply.    Rarely mentioned is the idea of higher taxes to lower the deficit.
  
• 4/13/2011 NATO must 'intensify' Libya role, allies urge - France, Britain push U.S. to step up action by Raf Casert and Don Melvin, AP.
      Luxembourg - France and Britain urged NATO allies and the U.S. to step up the campaign against Gadhafi's forces, exposing a major fault line in the alliance after weeks of airstrikes have failed to oust the Libyan leader.    Paris lamented the limited U.S. military role in Libya and chided Germany for its lack of involvement and said without U.S. involvement in the combat operation they probably can't stop Gadhafi's attacks on rebel cities.    Britain agreed that allies must intensify their efforts.    Libyan opposition said that Gadhafi's soldiers have killed about 10,000 people and injured 30,000 others, with 20,000 people missing and may be in Gadhafi's prisons all unverified.
  [Comment: The EU got most of their oil exports from Libya so you can see their urgency on this situation.]
  
• 4/13/2011 Yen, Swiss franc rise against the U.S. dollar by AP.
      The yen and Swiss franc traded higher against the dollar after Japan boosted the crisis level at the nuclear plant damaged in an earthquake and tsunami a month ago.    Nuclear regulators raised the rating from 5 to 7, the highest level for nuclear accidents, putting it on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, whereas a 5 was equal to the 1979 partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania.    The yen and franc are considered safe-haven currencies; investors tend to buy them during times of international turmoil.
      Of course stocks fell and the prices of goods imported into the U.S. rose in March at the fastest pace since June 2009, led by a gain in crude oil and the biggest jump in food cost since 1994.
  
• 4/14/2011 President details his plan, blast Republicans' by David Espo, AP.
      Washington - President Obama coupled a call for $4 trillion in long-term deficit reductions with a blistering attack on Republican plans for taxes, Medicare and Medicaid, laying down markers for a roiling debate in Congress and the 2012 presidential campaign to come.    Obama said spending cuts and higher taxes alike must be part of any deficit-reduction plan, including an end to Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy.    He proposed an unspecified "debt failsafe" that would go into effect if Congress failed to make sure the national debt would be falling by 2014, relative to the size of the overall economy.    [Comment: Notice he set the year after his possible reelection.]
      Obama continued, "We have to live within our means, reduce our deficit and get back on path that will allow us to pay down our debt.    An we have to do it in a way that protects the recovery, and protects the investment we need to grow, create jobs."    [Comment: I take that as we we have to re-elect someone who can actually do that.]
  
  THE PRESIDENT'S PROPOSAL
  • To cut deficit by $4 trillion over 12 years, spending cut by $2 trillion, taxes would be raised by $1 trillion, including an end to Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy and the rest recouped from lower interest payments on the national debt.
  • Military spending would be reduced by $400 billion through 2023.
  • Domestic programs would absorb $770 billion in cuts.
  • Mandatory programs, such as agricultural subsidies, would be cut by $360 billion.
  • About $480 billion would be saved from Medicare.
  • An unspecidired "debt failsafe" would go into effect if Congress failed to make sure the natioanl debt would be falling by 2014, releative to the size of the overall economy.
      On the 16th, GOP-led House OKs plan to cut about $6 trillion a proposal that may spur a standoff for 2012.
      The House passed a Republican blueprint proposing to fundamnetally overhaul Medicare and combat out-of-control budget deficits with sharp spending cuts on social safety net programs like food stamps and Medicaid.    The plan lays out a fiscal vision cutting $6.2 trillion over the coming decade and passed 235-193 with every Democrat voting "no."    So this sets up a standoff this summer and sets the stage for 2012 elections.
  
  THE HOUSE-PASSED BUDGET a plan by Paul Ryan.
  • Extension of the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 for all income levels.    Reduction in the top income rates from 35% to 25% and scrap the tax breaks and loopholes.
  • Repeal the health care law.
  • Overhaul the Medicare system for seniors, so 54 or younger would get a voucher-style federal payment to purchase coverage from private plans instead of the government making payments to health care providers for services to Medicare beneficiaries.
  • Overhaul of Medicaid, the health care system for the poor.    Program would become a block grant to the states rather than a joint state-federal matching program.    In addition, cuts would total $771 billion over 10 years.
  • Spending cuts of $5.8 trillion over 10 years relative to current levels.
  • Projects a federal deficit of $995 billion in the next budget year, which is $169 billion less than the projected deficit under Obama's budget proposal.
  • Some $659 billion for defense and national security, $3 billion more than Obama requested.
  • No changes to Social Security.
  • Deep cuts in domestic programs such as food stamps and community development.
  • Dismantling of programs established in response to the 2008 financial crisis and the bailout.
      So the question is which budget gets us out of debt?    Which one is more of the same?
  
• 4/15/2011 NATO wants Gadhafi out but won't do it by AP.
      Berlin - The U.S. and its allies are still behind-the-scenes bickering on how to achieve the goals of NATO's stalemated military mission in Libya.
      In Tripoli forces loyal to Gadhafi shelled beseiged western city, killing at least 13 people, and new NATO airstrikes shook Tripoli, and anti-aircraft guns returned fire at NATO warplanes.    Libyan state TV showed video of Gadhafi defiantly pumping his fists in the air as he stood through the sun roof of a car moving quickly through the streets of Tripoli.
      On the 17th Regime's forces shell city in western Libya - Misrata presses NATO to help by Sebastian Abbot, AP.
      Ajdabiya, Libya - Gadhafi's forces poured rocket fire after dawn into Misrata, the only western city still in rebel hands as residents lashed out at NATO for failing to halt the deadly assault, where 5 were killed.
      A human rights group has accused the Gadhafi regime of using cluster bombs in Misrata, munitions that scatter small bomblets over a wide area an can cause indiscriminate casualties and has been banned by most countries.    They denied the charge.
      In eastern Libya, fierce fighting left seven rebels dead, 27 wounded and four missing as the anti-Gadhafi forces sought to push toward the strategic oil town of Brega.
      On the 18th, Gadhafi's forces shelled the eastern edge of Ajdabiya bringing the fight to the front lines rebel town as rebel forces fired back with rockets.
      On the 20th NATO military commanders conceded that they cannot stop Gadhafi's shelling of the rebel-held city of Misrata, where hospitals are overwhelmed with casualties.
  MIDEAST PROTESTS, UNRESTS, DEVELOPMENTS and ACTION
  • EGYPT: Military rulers vow to review the cases of protesters jailed after Mubarak's ouster, an effort to ease rising tension between the pro-reform movement and generals overseeing the transition.    Several provincial governors appointed by Mubarak are fired.    On the 18th corruption charges are filed against the former prime minister and two more senior members of Mubarak's Cabinet.
  • SYRIA: The president orders the release of hundreds of detainees involved in a month of protests seeking to wrest political freedoms from one of the region's most repressive regimes.    The new prime minister announces a Cabinet two weeks after Assad fired the previous one in a bid to quell protests.    On the 18th tens of thousands waving flags take to the streets nationwide, a day after Assad promises to end nearly 50 years of emergency rule.    On the 19th, more than 5,000 anti-government protesters took over the main square in the city of Homs, vowing to occupy the site until Assad is ousted and defying authorities who warn they will not be forced into reforms.    The government blamed the unrest on ultraconservative Muslims seeking to establish a fundamnetal state.    On the 20th Syria did away with the emergency rule but defiant crowds accused Assad of simply trying to buy time while he clings to power, as they want nothing but him to resign.    On the 22nd activists said they were planning the biggest protests today against Assad who has failed to deliver on promised reform.
  • BAHRAIN: The government orders the nation's biggest Shiite party, Al Wefaq, to be dismantled for "threatening peace" in the kingdom after weeks of Shiite-led anti-government protests against its Sunni rulers demanding equal rights and a constitutional monarchy with an elected government.
  • MOROCCO: The Justice Ministry says the king has granted pardons or lightened sentence for 190 prisoners in response to a request from an official human rights body.    King Mohammed VI took the step as small-scale but regular protests by activists demanding greater democratic freedoms continue.
  • YEMEN: On the 18th security forces fire on protesters in Sanaa, as hundreds of thousands, including many women, pack cities nationwide to denounce the president and his remarks on women at rallies.
  • OMAN: On the 18th monarchy says it'll spend about $2.6 billion to address demands for jobs and state aid.
• 4/17/2011 China, other BRICS nations seek changes by Keith B. Richburg, The Washington Post.
      BOAO, China - With the U.S. and Europe still reeling from the 2008 financial crisis, five developing countries led by China are using their combined clout to demand a larger voice and to upend the world's traditional councils of power.
      Brazil, Russia, India, China and new comer South Africa, collectively known by the acronym BRICS, used their third summit meeting to call for restructuring of the World War II-era global financial system and an eventual end to the long reign of the U.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency.
      The five run the gamut politically from vibrant democracies to auhoritarian regimes.    Economically, they are as much competitors as partners.    But they share a sense of exclusion and the idea that the main institutions of global governance - the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization and U.N. Security Council - were formed in a different era when they were economically weak and the U.S. was the dominant superpower.
      The Obama administration came to office trying to engage China to become an influence in the established global order, who now with the backing of BRICS has argued that the existing order itself is unfair and needs reshaping.    Make the U.N. more effective, efficient and representative.
      They are calling for "a broad-based international reserve currency system providing stability and certainty," a slap at the U.S. dollar and Washington's monetary policy, making the dollar to depreciate.
  [Comment: Is this the beginning of the One-World Currency?]
      These countries have agreed to have their development banks provide credit to one another, denominated in their local currencies and not in U.S. dollars.    The BRICS economies together are worth about $12 trillion, compared with $15 trillion for that of the U.S., but estimates are they will pass that by 2020.    Four of the countries will have a growth rate form 4 percent to as high as 9.5 percent.
  
• 4/19/2011 U.S. gets warning on credit rating - Agency says government risks downgrade unless deficit cut by Paul Wiseman, AP.
      Washington - A key credit agency issued an unprecedented warning to the U.S. government, urging Washington to get a grip on its finances or risk losing the nation's sterling credit rating.    Standard & Poor's lowered its long-term outlook for the federal government's fiscal health from "stable" to "negative" and warned of serious consequences if lawmakers fail to reach a deal to control the massive federal deficit.    A loss of the triple-A rating would ripple through the economy, making loans more expensive and credit more difficult to obtain.    On May 16 the government will reach its borrowing limit and on July 8 could not pay its bills.    Of course the Republicans will not raise the debt ceiling until serious reforms that immediately reduce the federal spending and to end the culture of debt in Washington.
      In reponse, stocks suffered their worst slide in a month.    The government is on pace to run a record $1.5 trillion deficit this year, the third consecutive deficit exceeding $1 trillion.    The Federal Reserve and U.S. agencies have lent, spent or guaranteed about $8.2 trillion to lift the economy from the worst slump since the Great Depression.
  
• 4/21/2011 Obama calls GOP plan 'radical' - Still believes deal is within reach by Julie Pace, AP.
      Palo Alto, Calif. - Obama said that congressional Republicans are pushing a radical plan to trim Medicare and Medicaid, ramping up the rhetoric as he and Congress approach crucial decisions on spending and the nation's debt, and then continued his rhetoric that the nation must invest in education, clean energy and research that are vital to future jobs and a strong economy, but nothing about what to cut.    We need cuts now not 12 years from now.
  
• 4/21/2011 More poor turning to cellphones - 30% of adults in 10 states have abandoned landlines by AP.
      In a financial and technological role reversal, a growing number of Americans are getting rid of their old telephones and using only cellphones, a trend being led not by high-tech elite but by people in poorer states as a way to save money.    Government estimates by the fedral CDC show at least 30 percent of adults in 10 states rely entirely on cellphones, with the highest percentage in Arkansas and Mississippi, where many cannot afford to pay for two separate lines.    Kentucky ranked sixth at 31.5 percent and Indiana at 25.2 percent.
  [Comment: I did that back in 2009, not because I was poor, but because AT&T kept raising the price and I was paying about $90 a month for phone/internet connection service.    My wife and I got on her inlaws plan and we only paid $53 a month and I kept the DSL which still cost me $49 a month.    When I moved out I got a promo deal as AT&T was competing with Comcast so it only cost me $24.95 a month for the DSL, and my portion of the cellphone was $23 a month.    So in general you could say people could not afford both.]
  
• 4/22/2011 Obama says task force will probe gas prices - Holder sees no evidence of fraud, manipulation by Julie Pace, AP.
      Reno, Nev. - Obama announced that the Justice Department is assembling a team to root out any cases of fraud or manipulation in oil markets that might be contributing to $4 a gallon-plus gasoline prices.    The national average is $3.84 a gallon.    [Comment: He is mad because he thought the U.S. recovery was coming along and the high gas price is killing it.    If you want to kill something Obama kill Gadhafi since he is causing it.    I shouldn't say that he may do it.]
  
• 4/23/2011 Syria fires on rallies at least 75 killed - Revolt against Assad endures bloddiest day by Bassem Mroue and Elizabeth A. Kennedy, AP.
      Beirut - Syrian security forces fired bullets and tear gas at tens of thousands of protesters across the country, killing at least 75 people in the bloodiest day of the monthlong uprising and signaling that the authoritarian regime was prepared to turn more ruthless to put down the revolt against Assad.
      On the 24th, Syrian secuirty forces fired on tens of thousands of people joining funeral processions after the bloodiest day of six-week uprising, bringing the two-day death toll to more than 120 and prompting two lawmakers and a local religious leader to resign in disgust.
      So far the crackdowns have only served to invigorate protesters whose rage over the bloodshed has all but eclipsed their earlier demands for modest reforms.    Now they are seeking Assad's downfall.    Assad had promised lawmakers that security forces would not shoot protesters.
      On the 25th, Syrian security forces detained dozens of opposition activists and fired from rooftops in a seaside town as authorities turned to pinpoint raids after days of bloodshed brought international condemnation and defections from Assad's regime.
      The aim here is to rattle the opposition's leadership and show that the state's ability to conduct arrest sweeps has not changed.    More than 120 people have died as the the police raids are concentrated in Damascus, Jableh and Homs as at least 25 people were detained and searches for weapons.    Syria has expelled journalists and restricted access to trouble spots and blame a foreign conspiracy and armed thugs caused the strife.    Around 286 police officers have been wounded since the uprising began, and more than 300 people have been killed.
      On the 26th, thousands of soldiers backed by tanks and snipers moved in before dawn to Daraa, where Syria's anti-government uprising began, causing panic in the streets when they opened fire on civilians and went house to house rounding up suspected protesters.    At least 11 people were killed and 14 others lay in the streets either dead or wounded.    So Syria is trying to impose military control on the center of protests against President Assad.    Electricity, water and mobile phone services were cut, security agents conducted sweeps before the sun rose, with snipers firing on everybody who is moving from a mosque.    The U.S. is considering sanctions against the Syrian government in response to the brutal crackdown.    [Comment: We'll that is real smart.    It did not work agaisnt Iran, so why would it work on Iran's offshoot Syria.    Someone better read the prophecy in Daniel about the Syrian rulers.]    Assad said, "Let Obama come and take Syria.    Let Israel come and take Syria.    Let the Jews come."    Now more than 350 people have been killed.
  
• 4/23/2011 Washington state considers $100 fee for electric cars by Robin Hindery, AP.
      Olympia, Wash. - Drivers of electric cars may have left the gas pump behind, but there's one expense they may not be able to shake; paying to maintain the roads.    After years of urging residents to buy fuel-efficient cars and giving them tax breaks to do it, Washington state lawmakers are considering a measure to charge them a $100 annual fee.    State lawmakers grappling with a $5 billion deficit are facing declining gas tax revenue, which means less money for roads.    It finally occurred to the Democrats that electric vehicles put just as much wear and tear on our roads as gas vehicles.    [Comment: Great forethought in design, but the one who wanted them to buy them failed to tell them that so they would buy one.    Probably even used it as a selling point.]
      So now they have to pay their fair share.    Other states are realizing the same problem that Democrats pushed on them.    [Comment: But lets go all the way up the chain of command where the problem began, could it be Obama.]
      Some states are considering a bill to charge drivers of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles based on the number of miles they drive, where some are considering a choice of either.
      Use-based fees could end up costing drivers more.    Washington's 37.5-cents-per-gallon fuel tax costs the average driver about $200 a year, which is equal to driving 12,000 miles in a vehicle that gets 23 mpg.    That tax is added onto the total gasoline purchase and is not dependent on the price of gas.
  
• 4/24/2011 Gadhafi's forces pull back in misrata - U.S. drone hits rocket launcher by Karin Laub, AP.
      Tripoli, Libya - [Comment: See I told you Obama was mad at high gas prices caused by Libya.] Heavy fighting raged anew in Misrata, killing at least 24 people and 75 wounded, as Gadhafi's forces gave up more ground inside Libya's third largest city.    The U.S. said its first Predator drone attack in the country destoryed a government rocket launcher that had menaced civilians in the western city.    Hundreds of people have been killed in rebel-held Misrata.
  
• 4/24/2011 Yemen's leader agrees to step down by AP.
      Sanaa, Yemen - Yemen's embattled president agreed to a proposal by Gulf Arab mediators to step down within 30 days and hand power to his deputy in exchange for immunity from prosecution.    It was a major about-face for the autocratic Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has ruled for 32 years.    A coalition of seven opposition parties said they also accepted the deal but with reservations.    Those parties do not speak for all of the hundreds of thousands of protesters seeking Saleh's ouster, and that a deal would not end confrontations in the streets.    These protests have presented a stunning display of defiance in the face of a crackdown that has included sniper attacks and killed more than 130 people.    The U.S. has watched this uprising closely since Saleh has been an ally in fighting al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
      On the 25th, deep division within opposition appeared to doom an Arab propsoal for Saleh to step down raising the prospect of more bloodshed and instability.    They think Saleh is just maneuvering to buy time and cling to power.
  
• 4/24/2011 Obama honors victims of Armenian massacre by AP.
      Washington - President Obama honored Armenian victims on the anniversary of their massacre in Turkey in 1915 nearly a century ago, but he is stopping short of calling it a genocide.    Historians say up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around World War I, an event widely viewed by scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century.    Turkey denies it was genocide.    [Comment: So why does Turkey control the country that the Armenian race held for thousands of years?]
  
• 4/24/2011 Obama pushes renewable energy to help families by Darlene Superville, AP.
      Washington - Obama says the answer to high gasoline prices is to spend money developing renewable energy sources.    [Comment: I see that Obama still does not understand the word spending cuts.]    "That's the key to helping families at the pump and reducing our dependence on foreign oil" in the long term, he said.    So he wants to boost U.S. oil production, root out illegal activity by traders and speculators and end $4 billion in annual taxpayer subsidies to oil and gas companies.    He wants to use the subsidies to invest in tomorrow's energy sources.    [Comment: Great that will really cut the deficit.]
      The Republican response to this was to cut spending and the bureaucracy that they say burden small businesses and keep them from hiring more.
  
• 4/25/2011 More than 100 reported killed in Southern Sudan by AP.
      Juba, Sudan - More than 100 people have died in violence between government forces and rebel militias in Southern Sudan this past week, raising concerns of instability ahead.    Since its January independence referendum, Southern Sudan has seen a wave of violence that has killed hundreds.
  
• 4/27/2011 Checkpoints, snipers keep Syrian protesters besieged by Bassem Mroue and Diaa Hadid, AP.
      Cairo - Syrian forces heaped more punishment on residents of restive towns, detaining hundreds in raids or at checkpoints, firing on people trying to retrieve the bodies of anti-government protesters and even shooting holes in rooftop water tanks in a region parched by drought.
  
• 4/27/2011 Libyan shelling batters key port by Ben Hubbard, AP.
      Aboard the Red Star 1 - Libyan government forces bombarded the port of Misrata, the sole lifeline of a battered population that has been under siege from all sides for the past two months.    Hundreds of residents, including migrant African laborers, were waiting at the port for the arrival of the Red Star 1, an Albanian ship chartered by the International Organization of Migration to evacuate people from the besieged city.    Everyone scrambled for cover when the rockets began falling, hiding in cars and shipping crates or just fleeing the port area.    The Libyan government denies that it engages in indiscriminate shelling of civilian population centers.
  
• 4/28/2011 Syrian city at rebellion's heart under siege by AP.
      Beirut - The city at the heart of Syria's monthlong uprising ran low on food, water and medicine as the army sent more tanks and troops to crackdown against opponents of President Assad's authoritarian regime.    Five army officers had sided with protesters, and conscripted troops sent into the city were quietly refusing to detain people at some checkpoints and were letting some people through to get supplies.    Since mid-March, more than 450 people have been killed across Syria in the crackdown, with 120 dead just over the weekend.    The repression has only embolded protesters as they continue to warn Assad his regime will collapse unless he ushers in democracy, in order to avoid the nation falling into a period of violence, chaos and civil war.
      On the 29th the Syrian army units have clashed with each other over whether to follow President Assad's orders to crack down on protesters in Daraa, a besieged city at the heart of the uprising.    It is the latest sign that cracks are developing in Assad's base support.    About 200 mostly low-level members of Syria's ruling Baath Party have resigned over his brutal crackdown.
  
  MIDEAST PROTESTS, UNRESTS, DEVELOPMENTS and ACTION
  • LIBYA: The EU has alloted more than $146 million to address dire humanitarian needs and the near constant shelling of Misrata has spurred calls for stronger global intervention to end bloodshed.
  • YEMEN: Seciruty forces fire on an anti-government protest in the capital Sanaa, killing 12 protesters and hurting some 190.    As about 100,000 regime foes fill the square and residents of at least 18 cities and towns launch civil disobedience campaigns to oust president Saleh.
• 4/29/2011 High gas prices slow economy - weather a factor in weak growth by AP.
      The economy slowed as high gas prices cut into consumer spending, bad weather delayed construction projects and federal government slashed defense spending by the most in six years.    The Federal Reserve said the slowdown was a temporary setback and get back on track when gas prices stablize.    Gas prices are still going up as the national average was $3.88 a gallon and is draining most of the supposed extra money that Amerians are receiving from a Social Security payroll tax cut.    [Comment: That is that big lie that I told you about earlier.]
  
• 4/30/2011 Beijing turns to currency to cool inflation - Leaders have long resisted yuan's rise by AP.
      Beijing - Surging inflation that help trigger protests in Shanghai is prompting China's leaders to turn to a tool they long resisted: speeding up the rise of the country's tightly controlled currency.    Rising prices are a political threat to China's communist leaders, and has become their priority to tame.    But they suffered a setback in March, when a double-digit jump in food costs pushed inflation to a 32-month high of 5.4 percent.    How fast to let the yuan gain is a high-stakes balancing act.    A stronger yuan could ease inflation by making oil and other imports cheaper, but could hurt exports and lead to job losses and unrest.
  
• 4/30/2011 Yemini police fire on protesters in port city by AP.
      Sanaa, Yemen - Yemeni palinclothes police opened fire on protesters calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh's ouster in a western port city, while hundreds of thousands poured onto the streets of the capital to mourn protesters slain in the crackdown.    Five protesters were wounded in the shooting in Hodeida on the Red Sea, and both sides then hurled stones at each other.    More than 140 people have been killed in the crackdown.
  
• 4/30/2011 Tunisia admonishes Libya over cross-border incursions by Karin Laub and Ben Hubbard, AP.
      Tripoli, Libya - A battle between Libyan troops and rebels spilled over the western border of Tunisia, drawing sharp rebuke of Gadhafi's regime from the neighboring government.    Clashes along the Tunisia border have escalated, posing a new challenge for Gadhafi in the western half of the country, where he must consolidate his control to cling to power.
  
• 4/30/2011 42 killed in crackdown on Syrian protesters by Bassem Mroue and Elizabeth A. Kennedy, AP.
      Beirut - Thousands of defiant Syrians chanting "We are not afraid!" were met by security forces firing bullets and tear gas in a crackdown on nationwide protests that left 42 people dead.    Many of those killed were villagers trying to break an army blockade of the southern city where the six-week uprising began.    Assad again unleashed deadly force in a determined effort to crush the revolt, but will struggle to recover legitimacy at home and abroad if he stays in power.
  
• 5/1/2011 Taliban vow to attack Afghan officials and military bases by Deb Riechmann, AP.
      Kabul, Afghanistan - The Taliban announced they will begin their spring offensive today, pledging to attack military bases, convoys and Afghan officials after experiencing low morale from heavy battlefield losses.    They said the war in their country will not end until the foreign invading forces pull out of Afghanistan.
  
• 5/1/2011 Taxes at core of deficit-cutting talks - Split reflects views of government's job by Richard Rubin, Bloomberg News.
      Washington - Congress will return from recess to debate how large a tax burden Americans can and should shoulder, an issue at the core of the discussion about reducing the federal budget deficit.    Republicans want to prevent taxes saying federal revenues shouldn't exceed 18 to 19 percent of gross domestic product, the nation's total output, and Senate Republicans want to cap it below 17 percent.
      Obama wants it at 20 percent by the end of the decade and even higher.
      In an economy projected to reach about $24 trillion by the end of the decade, each percentage point represents $240 billion, with a gap by parties at $700 billion a year apart.    Most people know the government spends too much and it is time to get spending under control.
      According to the Congressional Budget Office, tax revenue will average 19.9 percent over the next decade, reaching 20.8 percent in 2021, if Congress doesn't act.    That's in part because of the expiration of income tax cuts at the end of 2012.    [Comment: So there will be taxes after December 12, 2012 the so-called Mayan calender end of the world.]
  
• 5/1/2011 Obama: End $4 billion in gas and oil tax breaks by Jim Kuhnhenn, AP.
      Washington - President Obama says oil companies are profiting from rising gas prices and he wants Congress to end $4 billion in annual tax breaks for the oil and gas industry.    The gas prices have hurt Obama's public approval ratings, so he is blaming it on Exxon Mobil Corp. who reported about $11 billion in profits for the first quarter of this year.    He is trying to find more money for the Democrats to spend on his new energy resources and research, because he will not cut spending on clean energy initiatives.    None of this creates any jobs and most likely will end up costing jobs.
  
• 5/3/2011 OSAMA BIN LADEN - THE HUNT ENDS by AP.
      Washington - When one of Osama bin Laden's most trusted aides picked up the phone last year, he unknowingly led U.S. pursuers to the doorstep of his boss, the world's most wanted terrorist.    That telephone call ended a search for bin Laden's personal courier, the key break in a worldwide manhunt.    The courier, in turn, led U.S. intelligence to a walled compound in northeast Pakistan, where a team of Navy SEALS shot bin Laden to death in an officially kill-or-capture mission.    Helicopters descended into the compound, hovering and dropping the SEALs behind the walls.    One of the Helicopters came crashing down and rolled on its side.    No SEALs were injured, and the mission continued uninterrupted as they found bin Laden who was using a woman as a human shield, and they killed him with a bullet to the head.
      The 40 minute raid was the culmination of years of intelligence work for the CIA.    So his use of couriers to get his messages out to his al-Qaida foot soldiers and senior commanders was what did him in.    One of al-Qaida's No. 3 leader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed gave the nicknames of several of bin Laden's couriers along with another detainee's comments and interrogation techniques.    Along with bin Laden, three adult males killed, bin Laden's son and two al-Qaida facilitators.    But then bin Laden;s body was put aboard the USS Carl Vinson, then placed in the North Arabian Sea, which is questionable.
      After nearly a decade of anger and fear, America rejoiced at the demise of Osama bin Laden, the terror mastermind behind the horrific 9/11 attacks.
  [Comment: Please read Jeremiah Chapter 50 and 51 for some inciteful knowledge of prophecy.]
      The Navy SEALs who killed the terrorist seized a trove of al-Qaida documents and hard drives, DVDs to pore over to locate other presumed successors to him.    The U.S. said a DNA match proved the man behind the attacks of Sept. 11, 2011, was dead.
  
• 5/3/2011 Oil prices settle lower on news of bin Laden by AP.
      President Obama announced bin Laden's death and crude fell 41 cents to settle at $113.52 a barrel after volatile trading, which was driven by uncertainty ver the possibility of extemist retaliation for the death of Osama bin Laden.
      On the 5th crude fell to $109.24 a barrel after a government report showed that supplies of petroleum products are growing as demand weakens in the U.S.
      On the th crude rose/fell to $ a barrel .
      On the th crude rose/fell to $ a barrel .
      On the th crude rose/fell to $ a barrel .
      On the th crude rose/fell to $ a barrel .
  
• 5/4/2011 House Republicans pass bill to foil health car law by AP.
      Washington - House Republicans have advanced their effort to dismantle the new health care law piece by piece by voting to disrupt the flow of funding for health insurance exchanges, an integral part of the law's goal of expanding insurance coverage.    The bill would take away the free hand fo the health and human services secretary in distributing money to the states to help set up the exchanges.    Under the health care law, the secretary can grant funds to the states without going through the congressional budget process.    Of course it will not make it through the Senate.
  
• 5/4/2011 Democrat floats budget plan - Conrad would cut deficit by 44 trillion by Andrew Taylor, AP.
      Washington - The Senate's top Democrat, Kent Conrad, D-N.D., on budget matters said that he's preparing a fiscal blueprint to slash the deficit by $4 trillion in the upcoming decade based on the bipartisan findings of Obama's deficit commission.    He said there would be a complete overhaul of the tax code, stripping out numerous tax write-offs while lowering income tax rates, leaving Social Security untouched.    The tax reform would generate an overall revenue increase of about $1 trillion in the coming decade.
  
• 5/4/2011 Bin Laden unarmed during fatal assault - Raid prompts condemnation - White House changes story on raid of terrorist's compound by AP.
      In Abbottabad, Pakistan they criticized the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden as an "unauthoriized unilateral action" putting strains on an already rocky alliance.    France and Britain questioned how the Pakistani government could not have known the al-Qaida leader was living in a garrison town less tha a two-hour drive for the capital and had apparently lived there for years.
      In Washington, the White House said that Osama bin Laden was unarmed when Navy SEALs burst into his room and shot him to death, and Obama was still debating whether to release gruesome images of bin Laden's corpse to avoid anti-U.S. sentiment.
  
• 5/5/2011 White House advances key Columbian trade deal by AP.
      Washington - Progress on a free-trade deal with Columbia has cleared the way for the White House to seek congressional approval of a single package that includes similar pacts with South Korea and Panama, as Republicans have demanded.
  
• 5/5/2011 Gadhafi froces bomb Libyan port as aid ships dock by Ben Hubbard, AP.
      Misrata, Libya - Gadhafi's forces showered the port area of this besieged rebel city with rockets just minutes after an international aid ship docked, killing four people as part of the regime's bloody attempt to choke off Misrata's remaining lifline.
  
  

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      As of May 6, 2011, I have stopped typing from news articles and began using the Electronic Edition of the Courier-Journal newspaper so from this point on the articles are from those pages and may be shortened in some cases for highlights and space considerations.
  

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• 5/6/2011
  Bin Laden trove gives up secrets Documents from raid yield names, plots to attack U.S. by JoWarrick , Washington Post
      WASHINGTON — Documents seized in the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound have yielded a bonanza of new intelligence, from names and locations of terrorist suspects to chilling details of al-Qaida plots to attack targets in the United States and beyond, U.S. officials said Thursday.
      Among the files recovered from captured computers and flash drives were documents detailing a previ-ously unknown plan to attack the U.S. commuter rail network, intelligence officials confirmed.
      The plan, which described a sabotage attack to occur on this year’s 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, was being actively considered as recently as February 2010, Obama administration officials said.
      There was no evidence the plot advanced beyond the conceptual stage, the officials said.
      Other gleanings from about 100 pieces of computer gear seized Sunday included possible leads on the whereabouts of other senior al-Qaida leaders.    Although intelligence officials declined to comment on specific tips, a key congressional leader briefed on the findings suggested the search for al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, is active again.
      “We have lots of information on him,” said Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., chairman of the House in-telligence committee.    “… I do believe we’re hot on the trail.”
      Rogers predicted the intelligence leads from the bin Laden raid are “going to be a good for the global war on terrorism in the months ahead.”
      The CIA and other intelligence agencies have been working intently since Sunday to download files and images from the computers, hard drives, flash drives and DVDs found in bin Laden’s hideout in the northeastern Pakistani city of Abbottabad.    Navy SEALs who shot and killed the al-Qaida leader hauled away boxes of such material and found phone numbers and cash sewn into bin Laden’s clothing.
      The task of identifying and using intelligence tips has extraordinary urgency, since the raid likely alerted top al-Qaida figures that their safe houses and plans may have been compromised, said a U.S. official familiar with the CIA’s scouring of the bin Laden trove.
      “Other leaders of al-Qaida should be concerned,” said the official, who agreed to discuss the ongoing operation on the condition of anonymity.    “The U.S. government is on to many of them.”
      U.S. officials confirmed the seized computers and files contain references to plots, although in many cases, the documents described plans that appeared to be only aspirational.
  
  Railway plot
      Until this week it wasn’t publicly known that al-Qaida had recently contemplated a railway attack on the Sept. 11 anniversary, although the intelligence community has long known of al-Qaida ambitions to launch terrorist attacks on U.S. rail and subway stations.
      As a precaution, the Department of Homeland Security sent out an alert Thursday advising federal, state and local agencies about the new evidence of a possible rail plot.
      “As of February 2010, al-Qaida was allegedly contemplating conducting an operation against trains at an unspecified location in the United States on the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001,” the department said in its advisory.    “As one option, al-Qaida was looking into trying to tip a train by tampering with the rails so that the train would fall off the track at either a valley or a bridge,” it said.    DHS press secretary Matt Chandler said there is no evidence the plans had been updated since February 2010 and that the plot information was based on “initial reporting, which is often misleading or inaccurate.”
      “We have no information of any imminent terrorist threat to the U.S. rail sector,” Chandler said.    As a precaution, the department has ordered or encouraged additional security measures, in-cluding the deployment of additional security officers at airports and other transportation facilities, he said.
  
  House passes bill to expand coastal drilling by Richard Simon, Los Angeles Times
  WASHINGTON — With high gas prices becoming a hot political issue, the House passed legislation Thursday that would ex-pand offshore energy exploration, even though Congress has yet to pass new drilling safeguards a year after the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
      The Republican-sponsored measure would open the Virginia coast to drilling and expand production in the Gulf, but it faces opposition from the White House and long odds against passage in the Democratic-controlled Senate.    The House vote came as gas-pump politics have broken out in the Capitol.
      A gusher of bills has been introduced: The Big Oil Welfare Repeal Act would scale back industry tax breaks.    The No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels, or NOPEC, Act would permit legal action against the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries for conspiring to restrict supplies or drive up prices.
      And Senate Democrats hope to bring up a measure to end subsidies for oil companies as early as next week.    Lawmakers from both parties are eager to show they feel the public’s pain at the pump — and highlight their party’s differences over energy policy — even though there are limits to what they can do to provide immediate relief.    “Last night, I had a telephone town hall with hundreds of my constituents,” said Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio.    “The overwhelming concern was the high price of gas.”
      House approval of the Restarting American Offshore Leasing Now Act comes after the BP oil spill disaster a year ago led the Obama administration to back off plans to open the eastern Gulf and portions of the Atlantic Coast to oil and gas exploration.
      But with the national average price of gasoline approaching $4 a gallon, the measure passed 266-149 with the support of 233 Republicans and 33 Democrats.
  
  Dollar rises against euro, drops to yen by Associated Press
      The dollar rose sharply against the euro Thursday due to uncertainty over potential actions next month by the European Central Bank regarding interest rates.
      But the dollar fell below 80 Japanese yen, sparking expectations of another intervention in currency markets by Japan.
      The euro tumbled to $1.4530 late Thursday from $1.4849 Wednesday.    The euro had hit $1.4942 Wednesday on expectations that European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet would signal another increase in interest rates was coming in June, but he did not.
      Republic Bancorp shares fell after the Louisville banking company disclosed that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is seeking a $2 million fine over its tax-refund anticipation loan business.
      Louisville-based Texas Roadhouse shares surged more than 4 percent.    There was no company news, and other casual-dining stocks changed little.
  
  Oil drops below $100 on worry about U.S. demand by Associated Press
      Oil plunged nearly $10 to settle below $100 per barrel on Thursday as mounting concerns about the U.S. economy triggered the biggest one-day percentage decline in more than two years.    The decline of $9.44 per barrel brings the week’s loss for oil to $14.13, or 12.4 percent. Crude finished the day at $99.80 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
      On Thursday, worries about the job market ahead of today’s key employment report added to concerns about fuel demand. A higher dollar also contributed to Thursday’s sell-off.    Thursday’s settlement was the lowest since March 16.    The last time oil had a one-day percentage decline this big was April 20, 2009, when a barrel of oil cost less than half as much as it does now.
      “More and more people were saying that oil was just too high,” said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research.    “That got a lot of investors ready to run for the door.    That’s what they’re doing now.”
      Analysts also said the lack of any terrorist retaliation after the killing of Osama bin Laden eased concerns about the safety of the world’s oil fields.    Oil has joined other commodities like silver and cotton in retreat this week. This follows a months-long rally in commodities that was partly driven by lower U.S. interest rates and a weak dollar.    Other energy futures fell sharply as well.    Heating oil fell 17.79 cents to $2.9651 per gallon and gasoline futures lost 15.64 cents to $3.1661 per gallon. Natural gas gave up 26.2 cents at $4.382 per 1,000 cubic feet.
      Earlier in the week, industry and government surveys showed that Americans are buying less gas as pump prices rise.    On Thursday, the U.S. said that the number of people applying for unemployment benefits reached the highest level in eight months.
      That should depress gasoline demand, analysts say, because many Americans drive to work.    “Commuters are the bedrock of gasoline demand,” Cameron Hanover analyst Peter Beutel said.    When people lose jobs, “you’re killing the best part of that demand — the part that will always be there as long as someone has a job.”
      Falling oil prices haven’t affected pump prices yet, however.    A gallon of regular costs more than a dollar more than a year ago and is close to $4 per gallon.    The national average reached $3.985 on Thursday, rising for a 44th consecutive day, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service.
      The average in Louisville was $3.88 per gallon, according to prices posted at www.courier-journal. com/gas.    Economists and investors are increasingly concerned about the impact of higher fuel prices on the American economy.    “Gasoline has certainly put us at a tipping point,” analyst and trader Stephen Schork said.    “The economy is in a precarious situation.”
  
  
• 5/7/2011
  
  Al-Qaida vows to avenge death - Separately, plans for rail attack found by Maggie Michael , Associated Press
      CAIRO — Al-Qaida confirmed the killing of Osama bin Laden on Friday and vowed revenge, saying Americans’ “happiness will turn to sadness” in the first statement by the terror network since its leader was slain in a U.S. commando raid against his Pakistani hideout.
      The confirmation came as documents found in bin Laden’s residence revealed al-Qaida plans for derailing an American train on the upcoming 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.    Terror experts have said bin Laden’s death Monday was a setback for al-Qaida, but the threat of attacks remains and could even spike in coming days from individuals or small extremist groups inspired to take revenge for the killing.
      The statement, dated Tuesday but posted Friday on militant websites, opens the way for the group to name a successor to bin Laden. His deputy Ayman al-Zawahri is now the most prominent figure in the group and a likely contender to take his place.
      “The blood of the holy warrior sheik, Osama bin Laden, God bless him, is too precious to us and to all Muslims to go in vain,” the statement said.    “We will remain, God willing, a curse chasing the Americans and their agents, following them outside and inside their countries.    “Soon, God willing, their happiness will turn to sadness, their blood will be mingled with their tears.”
      The group gave no indication how it will retaliate.    But separate details emerged Friday showing that bin Laden was scheming how to hit the United States hard again.    Materials confiscated by the Navy SEALs who killed the al-Qaida leader in Abbotabad, Pakistan, reveal planning for the rail attack as of February 2010.    One idea outlined in handwritten notes was to tamper with an unspecified U.S. rail track so that a train would fall off the track at a valley or a bridge.    Counterterrorism officials said they believe the plot was only in the initial planning stages.    The FBI and Homeland Security issued an intelligence bulletin with details of the plan to law enforcement around the country.    The bulletin, marked “for official use only,” was obtained by The Associated Press.    Rather than making vehement cries of vengeance, the al-Qaida statement — entitled “You lived as a good man, you died as a martyr” — struck a tone of calmness and continuation.    Although it included praise of bin Laden, much of the 11-paragraph statement was dedicated to underlining that al-Qaida would live on, depicting him as just another in a line of “martyrs” from the group.
      “It is impossible, impossible. Sheik Osama didn’t build an organization to die when he dies,” the statement read.    “The university of faith, Quran and jihad from which bin Laden graduated will not close its doors.”
  
  Syria’s regime kills 30 protesters across nation by Zeina Karam and Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — Syrian security forces opened fire Friday on thousands of protesters demanding an end to the regime, killing at least 30 in a sign that President Bashar Assad is prepared to ride out a wave of rapidly escalating international outrage.
      The U.N. said it’s sending a team to Syria to investigate and the European Union is expected to place sanctions on Syrian officials next week — both significant blows to Assad, a British-educated, self-styled reformer who has tried to bring Syria back into the global mainstream during his 11 years in power.
      In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the U.S. was pressing the Syrian govern-ment to cease “violence against innocent citizens who are simply demonstrating and trying to state their aspirations for a more democratic future.”    Friday’s protests spanned the nation of 23 million, from the capital to the Mediterranean coast to the arid northeast.    The bloodshed was the latest spasm in what has become a weekly cycle of mass protests followed by deadly crackdowns.
      But pressure was mounting on Assad, who insists the unrest is a foreign conspiracy carried out by “terrorist groups.”    More than 580 civilians and 100 soldiers have been killed since the revolt began, rights groups say.     “What it looks like here is a systematic attack on a civilian population, a political decision to shoot to kill unarmed demonstrators and that could very well be a crime against humanity,” Human Rights Watch counsel Reed Brody said.
      Assad, who inherited power from his father in 2000, is determined to crush the revolt that’s now become the gravest challenge to his family’s 40-year dynasty.
      He has tried a combination of brute force, intimidation and promises of reform to crush the unrest, but his attempts have failed so far.
      Still, Syria is a highly unpredictable country, partly because of its sizable minority population, the loyalty of the military and the regime’s web of allegiances to powerful forces including Lebanon’s.
  
  
  MIDEAST ACTION
  • LIBYA: Amnesty International says Moammar Gadhafi’s forces may have committed war crimes in the western rebel-held city of Misrata, and the humanitarian situation is rapidly deteriorating there because of regime efforts to tighten its siege and block access by sea.    Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says killing Gadhafi isn’t the objective of the international military mission in Libya, but his death is not inconceivable.
  • YEMEN: Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis seeking the president’s ouster find a new way to get their message out: releasing tens of thousands of balloons that drift over the presidential palace with the message “Leave, Ali” painted on them.    At the palace, a smaller rally of President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s supporters listens to him de-nounce his foes as terrorists and killers.
  • EGYPT: Ex-Interior Minister Habib el-Adly, Hosni Mubarak’s top security official who led a much-feared security apparatus blamed for widespread rights abuses, is convicted of corruption and money laundering and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
  • BAHRAIN: Security court convicts a Shiite activist, sentencing him to five years in prison for attempted murder of a policeman in anti-government protests.    Abdulla Mohammed Habib can appeal his sentence.
  • TUNISIA: Police fire tear gas at hundreds of anti-government protesters in the heart of the capital, Tunis.    Security forces break up the protest.
  
      Protesters complain the new caretaker government has not followed through with their revolutionary aspirations. nbsp;   Hezbollah and Shiite powerhouse Iran. Serious, prolonged unrest is likely to hurt the regime’s proxy in Lebanon — Hezbollah — and weaken Iran’s influence in the Arab world.
      Even as protests were raging Friday, Syria’s prime minister announced a committee to study ways to combat corruption. In the past, the overtures would have been seen as significant concessions.
      But protesters were largely unmoved, inspired by the uprisings sweeping the Arab world and enraged at the mounting death toll in Syria.
      Now, the protesters are seeking the downfall of the regime.    Thousands of them took to the streets Friday despite a security chokehold on the most volatile areas along with a stepped-up intimidation campaign.
      “The regime has resorted to scare tactics used by Assad’s father in the 1980s,” said Radwan Ziadeh, a visiting scholar at the Institute for Middle East Studies at George Washington University.
      However, Ziadeh noted, the mere fact that people are staging protests despite all these measures shows that the regime’s strategy is backfiring.
  
  Lower gas prices may be coming - $3.50 possible as cost of oil fall by Staff and Wire Dispatches
      The recent drop in oil prices could lead to cheaper gasoline in coming weeks — if you can accept the idea of $3.50 a gallon as cheap.    You probably won’t see a change at the gas station this week-end.    But relief will come soon because oil prices fell 15 percent this week, the steepest decline in 2½ years.    Oil hit a two-year high of $114.83 a barrel in trading Monday.    It closed Friday at $97.18.
      Problems with U.S. refineries have been resolved and gasoline supplies should start to grow this summer as refineries get back into gear, said Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston.    “Combine those extra supplies with still rather high gas prices, and you’re going to see continued pressure” for gas prices to fall, he said.    If oil’s 15 percent drop produces a corresponding decline in retail gasoline prices, $3.50 per gallon or less, down from almost $4, wouldn’t be unrealistic.    Fred Rozell, retail pricing director at Oil Price Information Service, said he expects prices will dip to $3.50.
      Oil fell $2.62 to $97.18 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Friday.    The Department of Energy will release its next short-term price outlook on Tuesday.    In April, the government anticipated a national average of $3.86 during the summer driving season, peaking at $3.91 early in the summer.
      The average in Louisville was $3.87 on Friday, according to prices posted at www.courier-journal. com/gas.    A year ago, the average was $2.96.
      The plunge in oil prices was part of a sharp sell-off in commodities this week.    Analysts say investors got nervous that oil, metal and grain prices had risen over the past few months to unrealistic heights.    Still, traders say the sell-off is likely just a pause in a long-term upward trend for commodity prices.    A stronger U.S. economy and rapidly growing Asian economies will continue to need food, energy and raw materials.
      Before Friday, the national average price of gasoline had increased every day since March 23.    Gasoline prices tend to rise every spring as refineries produce summer gasoline blends that are more expensive to make.
      Friday morning the national average was $3.984 per gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service.    Gas prices are still $1.06 more per gallon than they were a year ago.
  
  
• 5/8/2011
  Videos provide view of hideout - Bin Laden seen watching news coverage of himself by Kimberly Dozier and Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — From a shabby, makeshift office, he ran a global terrorist empire.    The world’s most wanted man watched newscasts of himself from a tiny television perched atop a rickety old desk cluttered with wires.
      For years, the world only saw Osama bin Laden in the rare propaganda videos that trickled out, the ones portraying him as a charismatic religious figure unfazed by being the target of worldwide manhunt.    On Saturday, the U.S. released a handful of videos, selected to show bin Laden in a much more candid, unflattering light. In the short clips, bin Laden appears hunched and tired, seated on the floor, watching television wrapped in a wool blanket and wear-ing a knit cap.
      Outtakes of his propaganda tapes show that they were heavily scripted affairs.    He dyed and trimmed his beard for the cameras, then shot and reshot his remarks until the timing and lighting were just right.
      The videos were among the evidence seized by Navy SEALs after a predawn raid Sunday (early Monday local time) that killed bin Laden in his walled Pakistani compound.
      The movies, along with computer disks, thumb drives and handwritten notes, reveal that bin Laden was still actively involved in planning and directing al-Qaida’s plots against the U.S., according to a senior U.S. intelligence official who briefed reporters Saturday.
      “The material found in the compound only further confirms how important it was to go after bin La-den,” CIA director Leon Panetta said in a statement Saturday.    ”Since 9/2011, this is what the American people have expected of us.    In this critical operation, we delivered.”
      The notes and computer material showed that bin Laden’s compound was a command and control center, where the terrorist mastermind stayed in contact with al-Qaida affiliates around the world through a network of couriers, the intelligence official said.
      Bin Laden was eager to strike American cities again and discussed ways to attack trains, officials said, though it appeared that plan never progressed beyond early discussions.
      Officials said the clips shown to reporters were just part of the largest collection of senior terrorist materials ever collected.    The evidence seized during the raid also includes phone numbers and doc-uments that officials hope will help break the back of the organization behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
      The videos showing miscues by bin Laden that were destined for the cutting room floor were offered as further proof of bin Laden’s death.    President Barack Obama decided not to release photos of bin Laden’s body, which were deemed too gruesome to reveal.    The U.S. has said it confirmed bin Laden’s death using DNA.
      But by selecting unflattering clips of bin Laden, the U.S. is also working to shatter the image he worked so hard to craft.    “It showed that bin Laden was not the superhero he wanted his people to think,” said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., House Homeland Security Committee chairman.
      One video clearly shows the terror leader choosing and changing channels with a remote control, which he points at what appears to be a satellite cable box.    U.S. officials have previously said there was a satellite dish for television reception, but no Internet or phone lines ran to the house.    Cellphones were prohibited on the compound.
      It’s unclear how many tapes were pulled out of the house, and U.S. officials say they’re scouring the intelligence so quickly it has not even been catalogued and counted yet. But there may be a trove of recordings.
      Among the material handed out was an al-Qaida propaganda video, apparently intended for public re-lease, titled “Message to the American People,” likely filmed last fall, the official said. Bin Laden has not released a video since 2007, and officials were unsure why this one had not been released.
      Al-Qaida has confirmed the death of its founder but has not announced a successor.    Intelligence officials have taken that as an indication that the attack dealt a heavy blow to the organization.    The most likely successor, al-Qaida deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, is not as charismatic as bin Laden and is not as popular in the group.    Officials have said he is unlikely to galvanize followers as bin Laden did.
      A task force headed by the CIA is working through the material, combing it round the clock to find clues to plots that might already be under way.
      Arabic speakers have been tapped to help review the intelligence.    The team includes specialists from throughout the national security community, including the code breakers at the National Security Agency, the satellite specialists from National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, and the FBI.
  
  Economy still No. 1 for Obama - Touts clean energy as source of jobs by Darlene Superville, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama reassured the public Saturday that jobs and the economy are his top priority.
      At the end of an emotionally charged week that began with his announcement that Osama bin Laden had been killed in Pakistan during a raid by U.S. special forces, Obama returned to promoting his energy agenda during his weekly radio and Internet address.
      “Although our economy hasn’t been the focus of the news this week, not a day goes by that I’m not focused on your jobs, your hopes and your dreams,” Obama said.
      He recorded the address Friday while visiting an Indianapolis transmissions plant that makes systems for hybrid vehicles.    Obama has been traveling around the country to talk up his plan to reduce U.S. consumption of foreign oil — and the price Americans pay for it — by increasing domestic oil production, encouraging a shift to alternative energy sources and building vehicles that use less fuel.
      He says shifting to jobs like those at the Indianapolis factory will create more jobs and help the economy grow.    “The clean energy jobs at this plant are the jobs of the future, jobs that pay well right here in America,” Obama said. “It’s clean energy companies like this one that will keep our economy growing, create new jobs and make sure America remains the most prosperous nation in the world.”
      Republicans, meanwhile, devoted their weekly message to bin Laden.    Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown praised years of diligent work by the military and by intelligence professionals to pinpoint bin Laden’s location.    The al-Qaida leader’s death, he said, sends a clear message to others like bin Laden.
      “The example will not be lost on other terrorists,” Brown said.    “Any escape they make will be temporary.    Any sanctuary they find will be uncovered.    Those who harm or threaten the American people will be dealt with, on our terms, however long it takes.”
  
  Gadhafi forces attack fuel depot in rebel-held city by Associated Press
      BENGHAZI, Libya — Moammar Gadhafi’s forces rocketed Misrata’s main fuel depot Saturday, intensifying a two-month siege on the rebel-held city that has claimed many civilian lives and prompted warnings of a humanitarian crisis.
      Government forces sent Grad rockets slamming into the depot, which contains vital stores of fuel for cars, trucks, ships and generators powering hospitals and other key sites in a city left darkened by electricity cuts, residents said.
      Fuel tanks were engulfed in flames hours after the early morning attack, as firefighters battled the blazes.    No one was injured, a doctor said.
      The attack raised fears of shortages, though some of the fuel had already been moved to other sites in anticipation of such a strike.    “He wants to bring Misrata’s people to their knees, and make them surrender,” said resident Mohammed Abdullah, speaking by Skype since regular phone lines have been cut.    “Surrendering is impossible.”
      Misrata — the rebels’ only stronghold in western Libya — has experienced some of the heaviest fighting of the conflict.    A rebel spokesman in Benghazi, Abdel-Hafidh Ghoga, confirmed Misrata residents’ reports of a white helicopter “disguised with Red Cross insignia” by regime forces was seen dropping anti-ship mines.    He also said Italy has agreed to sell arms to the rebels, though the Italian Foreign Ministry denied it.    The rebels have been pleading for heavy arms for weeks.
  
  Syrian tanks take key city, expand crackdown by Zeina Karam , Associated Press
      BEIRUT — Government troops in tanks and armored vehicles entered Banias, a key oil-industry city on Syria’s Mediterranean coast Saturday, taking up position in a hilltop Crusader castle and cutting off power and phone lines.
      An activist said three women protesting the crackdown were shot dead.    The move against the city, which had become a bastion of anti-regime protests in recent days, signals an expanding campaign by President Bashar Assad aimed at crushing the country’s seven-week nationwide uprising.
      Ammar Qurabi of the National Organization for Human Rights said the three women were protesting the siege and the cutting of power lines when they were shot by plain clothed security forces or pro-government gunmen.
      Details of the troop deployment in Banias, for weeks the scene of demonstrations demanding regime change, were scarce as phone lines and other communication with the area were mostly cut off.
      Residents were charging their mobile phones on car batteries, and an eyewitness reached by The Associated Press said soldiers arrived in Banias early Saturday on tanks and armored vehicles in a line that stretched for several miles along the coastal highway.
      Soldiers were carrying out house-to-house searches and arrests in al-Marqab district about a mile southeast of the town and in two villages further south, claiming to be looking for weapons and terrorists.
      The witness and activists said the army is occupying the hilltop Marqab Castle, an 11th-century Crusader fortress overlooking Banias.    Several gunboats were off the coast.
      The events in Banias, a day after security forces killed 30 people in nationwide protests, came on the heels of a large-scale military operation in the flashpoint southern city of Daraa.    The 11-day siege, in which about 50 residents were killed, triggered international outrage and condemnation.
  
  
• 5/9/2011
  Muslim-Christian clashes deepen tumult in Egypt by Maggie Michael and Sarah El Deeb, Associated Press
      CAIRO — Relations between Egypt’s Muslims and Christians fell to a new low Sunday after overnight riots left at least 12 people dead and a church burned, adding to the chaos of the nation’s post-revolution transition to democracy.
      The attack on the church was the latest sign of aggression by an extreme, ultraconservative group of Muslims called Salafis, whose increasing hostility toward Egypt’s Coptic Christians in the past few months has met with little interference from the nation’s military rulers.
      Salafis have been blamed for other recent attacks on Christians and others they don’t approve of.    In one, a Christian man had an ear cut off for renting an apartment to a Muslim woman suspected of prostitution.
      The latest strife, which erupted in new clashes Sunday between Muslims and Christians who pelted each other with stones elsewhere in Cairo, also signaled the weakness of the military council that has taken temporary control of Egypt after Hosni Mubarak’s Feb. 11 ouster as president.
      After the overnight clashes in the slum of Imbaba, residents turned their anger toward the military.    Some said they and the police did nearly nothing to intervene in the five-hour frenzy of violence.    The bloodshed began Saturday around sundown when word spread in the neighborhood that a Christian woman who married a Muslim had been abducted and was being held in the Virgin Mary Church.
      The report, never confirmed, sent a large mob of Muslims toward the church.    Christians created a human barricade around the building and clashes erupted.
      Gunfire sounded across the neighborhood, and witnesses said people on rooftops fired into the crowd.    The two sides accused each other of firing first.
      Hundreds of Muslims from the neighborhood lobbed firebombs at the church, homes and shops.    Residents said Christians were hiding in the church. Muslims chanted: “With our blood and soul, we defend you, Islam.”
      Later the same night, the crowd moved to a Christian owned apartment building nearby and set it on fire. Islamic clerics decried the violence, sounding alarm at the growing tension.
  
  MIDEAST ACTION
  • SYRIA: Gunfire and shelling rattle a central city, killing a 12year-old boy, as President Bashar Assad’s harsh regime expands its crackdown on a seven-week uprising by sending tanks and reinforcements to key areas.    Authorities arrest a 10-year-old boy, apparently to punish his parents, and file charges against a key opposition figure who is suffering from cancer.
  • LIBYA: Shortages of basic supplies are making life in Libya difficult for residents, with long lines at gas stations and some shops closed, a result of more than two months of clashes between Moammar Gadhafi’s forces and rebels.
  • YEMEN: Security forces backed by army units open fire on protesters demanding the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, killing three. In all, tens of thousands of protesters mobilize in several cities and towns Sunday.
  • BAHRAIN: The king declares emergency rule will end two weeks early on June 1, an apparent effort to display confidence that authorities have smothered a pro-reform uprising.    It comes hours after the start of a closed-door trial accusing activists of plotting to overthrow the regime.
  • MOROCCO: Thousands demand political reforms during an anti-violence march in Marrakech.    The march was the latest by the Feb. 20 movement, which regularly mounts pro-democracy protests.    This time, they also spoke out against terrorism after the April 28 bombing of a popular cafe.
  
  
• 5/10/2011
  Syrian forces arrest hundreds across country
      BEIRUT - Syrian security forces arrested hundreds of activists and antigovernment protesters in house-to- house raids across the country Monday, part of an escalating government crackdown aimed at stamping out a revolt engulfing the country.    The government’s punishing response triggered new international sanctions Monday, as the European Union imposed an arms embargo.
  
  Energy, metals stocks help market to rise by Associated Press
      Commodity prices recovered some of last week’s losses Monday, helping lift the stocks of energy and materials companies     The broader market also rose despite new worries about Greece’s debt problems.
      Oil prices topped $100 a barrel and pushed energy stocks higher. Marathon Oil Corp. rose 5.3 percent. Baker Hughes Inc., which helps drill for oil and gas, gained 3.4 percent.
      The S&P 500 added 6.09 points to close at 1,346.29.    The Dow Jones industrial average gained 45.94 points to 12,684.68. The Nasdaq composite index rose 15.69 points to 2,843.25.
  
  
• 5/11/2011
  
  FEMA says disaster victims owe $22 million by Ryan J. Foley, Associated Press
      CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — The Federal Emergency Management Agency is asking thousands of Americans who were victims of natural disasters to return more than $22 million in government aid, acknowledging it mistakenly paid many people who were ineligible.
      Documents obtained by The Associated Press show that FEMA is seeking payments from more than 5,500 people who were affected by 129 disasters since 2005, including floods, tornadoes, hurricanes and other calami-ties.    The agency is still reviewing records, and more repayment requests could go out soon, including to victims of Hurricane Katrina.
      FEMA admits the payments were largely its own fault — the result of employees who misunderstood eligibility rules, approved duplicate assistance for costs that were already covered by insurance or other sources or made accounting errors.    But the agency is still obligated to try to recover the money.
      “We are committed to being responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars,” spokeswoman Rachel Racusen said.
      But most of the people who were helped say they used the cash years ago, and they don’t want to be financially punished because of the agency’s errors.
      Justin Van Fleet is one such person. After the raging Cedar River, Iowa, filled his home with 13 feet of water and ruined most of his possessions, Van Fleet pleaded for help from FEMA to get back on his feet.    Broke and living in a FEMA trailer following the 2008 flood, Van Fleet repeatedly submitted paperwork and made countless phone calls arguing his case.    After seven months, the agency gave him more than $20,000, which he said allowed him to move into a house.
      Then in March, a letter arrived with a shocking message: He should never have gotten the money.    And he had just 30 days to pay it all back.    “It literally felt like everything is being taken away from me again,” said Van Fleet, 28, a call center worker.    “It’s like going through the flood again.”
      People who are asked to make repayments have several options.    They may appeal the matter, apply for a hardship waiver that would forgive the debt or establish a payment plan.    But the agency’s missteps illustrate the potential risk of accepting federal help.
      The FEMA aid packages ranged from a few hundred dollars to as much as $27,000. In Van Fleet’s case, the agency concluded that the aid was a duplication of benefits since he had flood insurance.
      Van Fleet said his insurance payout went directly to his mortgage since the same company provided that policy and his home loan.    And the mortgage aid didn’t help him since he could neither rebuild nor sell the house, which was deemed worthless and slated for demolition by the government.
      According to Van Fleet, two FEMA representatives said in 2008 that he should qualify for assistance because he did not receive an insurance payout.    They explained how to appeal, and he prevailed on the third try. Now he is prepared to fight the agency again.
      Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas introduced a bill last month that would give FEMA discretion to waive debts in cases involving the agency’s mistakes.    The measure will be considered today by the Senate committee on homeland security, and Pryor said he hopes to make it law this year despite concerns about federal debt.
      “I think most people would see this as a matter of fairness,” Pryor said.    “This is not the victims’ fault.    They did nothing wrong.    They just followed FEMA’s directions.”
      Since 1982, the agency has been required by federal law to try to recoup improper payments.    But until this spring, collection efforts had been on hold for nearly four years after a federal judge ordered the agency to give victims better, clearer notice about the process and their appeal rights.
      A new process was still awaiting approval by FEMA Agency Administrator Craig Fugate when the De-partment of Homeland Security’s inspector general criticized the agency in December for failing to collect $643 million in improper payments to victims of Katrina and subsequent disasters.    That figure amounted to roughly 9 percent of the $7 billion the agency has given out since Katrina in 2005.
      The inspector general’s report called on Fugate to authorize a way to get the money back.    So FEMA adopted a new process that it says is fairer for those affected, and the letters soon started going out.
      FEMA insists it has fixed many of the problems in the aid program.    The agency has slashed its error rate involving disaster payments from 14.5 percent after Katrina to about 3 percent in 2009, Racusen said.
      FEMA’s National Processing Service Center in Texas continues to review tens of thousands of other cases that might involve improper payments.
      Racusen said the agency started the reviews for newer disasters that were smaller in scope and has not yet notified anyone affected by Katrina or Hurricanes Rita and Wilma.
  
  Court hears challenges to health care law
      RICHMOND, VA. - A federal appeals panel heard arguments Tuesday in two lawsuits challenging the Obama administration’s health care overhaul.
      The three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals focused on the issue of whether the law’s requirement that individuals buy insurance or pay a penalty is constitutional.    Two federal judges in Virginia split on that question. Both sides expect the case will ultimately reach the Supreme Court.
  
  China trade talks end with no breakthroughs
      WASHINGTON - Sharp U.S. criticism of China’s human rights record overshadowed the results achieved at meetings between the world’s two largest economies aimed at resolving disputes over trade and foreign policy.
      After two days of talks, the two sides announced a range of modest agreements aimed at increasing sales opportunities for U.S. companies in China.    But there was no breakthrough on a key U.S. demand — letting China’s currency rise in value at a faster rate against the dollar.
  
  Imams barred from planes - Muslim leaders were headed to North Carolina conference by Mitch Weiss, Associated Press
      CHARLOTTE, N.C. — An attorney said Tuesday that some Muslim religious leaders wearing traditional Arab garb were humiliated when they were wrongly kicked off two flights as they sought to travel to a conference.
      Imams in Memphis, Tenn., and New York were headed to the Charlotte conference when they were asked to leave the planes Friday. They had passed through airport security before being stopped by airline personnel.
      Mo Idlibi, a North Carolina attorney for the imams, said he was considering a lawsuit against the two airlines.    “They look Muslim. But when has it become a crime to fly while appearing to be Muslim?    That’s not a legitimate reason for a pilot or an airline to deny a passenger the right to board a plane or remove them from an aircraft,” he said.
      Federal regulation allows an airline to refuse to transport an individual who it decides is unsafe.    The plane’s captain has ultimate authority. But the decision cannot be made solely on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, ethnicity or sex.
      In Memphis, Masudur Rahman and Mohamed Zaghloul boarded a plane operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines, which runs a connection flight for Delta Airlines.
      According to Idlibi, the aircraft pulled away from the gate, but then the pilot announced the plane was returning to the gate.    There, the imams were asked to go back to the boarding gate because the pilot was refusing to fly with them, the men told Idlibi.
      The men were booked on a flight eight hours later with the same airline.    Atlantic Southeast spokesman Jarek Beem said the company was investigating.    Delta spokeswoman Susan El-liott said Atlantic Southeast would have to address any questions.    Yet Delta issued a news release saying, “Delta joins ASA in extending its sincere apologies to these customers for the inconvenience.”
      Idlibi said the pilot overreacted to the appearance of the men.    Rahman is an adjunct instructor of Arabic at the University of Memphis, while Zaghloul is with the Islamic Association of Greater Memphis.
      In the second case, Idlibi said, American Airlines refused to let Al Amin Abdul Latif, 61, board a Charlotte-bound plane.    And his son, Abu Bakr Abdul Latif, 35, was removed by Port Authority of New York police after the aircraft returned to the gate at LaGuardia Airport.
      When the men returned to the airport Saturday morning, Latif again was denied a seat and had to drive to Charlotte. His son was able to fly there.
      “I felt humiliated,” the elder Latif said.    “I felt disrespected. It made us feel like criminals.”    Latif and his son had passed through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints.    A telephone message left for American Airlines was not immediately returned Tuesday.
  
  Rebels gaining ground in Libya - NATO strikes give them edge in west by Diaa Hadid and Michelle Faul, Associated Press
      TRIPOLI, Libya — In a one-two punch against Moammar Gadhafi’s forces, NATO warplanes struck a command center in the capital, Tripoli, on Tuesday after pounding regime targets around the besieged port of Misrata.
      Rebels hoped the stepped-up attacks could help extend some of their biggest advances to date, in-cluding a major outward push from Misrata.
      The opposition also said it made gains along a long-deadlocked front near the eastern town of Ajdabiya.
      The rebels’ military spokesman, Col. Ahmed Bani, said opposition forces had pushed Gadhafi’s troops out of rocket range on the west side of Misrata and dislodged them from the airport after two days of battles, raising the pros-pect that the siege could be broken.
      Bani said rebels from Misrata and Zlitan, 35 miles west, had joined up to fight in close-range combat that rendered the regime forces’ long-range rockets useless.    Speaking to The Associated Press in the rebel headquarters city of Benghazi, Bani said Gadhafi’s brigades were pushed about 10 miles back from Misrata’s airport.
      “The picture is looking good for us,” he said.    In another boost to the opposition, the U.S. State Department said the first load of nonlethal American military aid for the rebels landed Tuesday at the port in Benghazi.
      Spokesman Mark Toner said the shipment consisted of more than 10,000 meals, with further shipments of medical supplies, boots and protective gear to arrive soon.    The delivery came ahead of planned meetings in Washington this week between U.S. officials and the head of the opposition Transitional National Council.
      The Libyan conflict, dating to mid-February, had seemed stalemated for more than a week, with most of the fighting along the Tunisian border in the far west. The latest airstrikes and overland advances may give the rebels new momentum.
      The rebels control most of eastern Libya, and Gadhafi most of the west, including Tripoli. Exceptions in the west include pockets of embattled rebel-held towns along the border with Tunisia, and Misrata on the coast.
      In eastern Libya, rebels reported advances near the oil oasis of Jalu, and also between the towns of Ajdabiya and Brega after being bogged down on that front for weeks.
  
  Democrats targeting oil company tax breaks by Philip Rucker and Lori Montgomery, The Washington Post
      WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats unveiled a plan Tuesday to save $21 billion in the next decade by eliminating tax breaks for the nation’s five biggest oil companies, a move designed to counter Republican demands to rein in the soaring national debt without new taxes.
      Democrats are seeking to reframe the debate over debt reduction to include fresh revenue as well as sharp cuts in spending.    For the first time, Democratic leaders suggested an equal split between spending cuts and new taxes — “50-50,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
      That represents a larger share for taxes than has been proposed by President Barack Obama or the bipartisan commission he appointed to recommend how to cut the national debt.
      So far, the Democratic tax agenda is focused on ending subsidies for big oil companies, a hugely popu-lar proposal involving what Democrats see as a prime example of wasteful giveaways in the tax code.    By raising the issue, Democrats are trying to force Republicans either to drop their rigid stance against new taxes or to defend taxpayer subsidies for some of the world’s most profitable corporations, including Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, Chevron and ConocoPhillips.
      The proposal came in response to remarks Tuesday by House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who said raising taxes is “off the table.”    A day earlier, he gave a speech demanding more than $2 trillion in spending cuts in exchange for GOP support for an increase in the legal limit on government borrowing that would cover the nation’s bills through the end of next year.
      “We should not be drawing lines in the sand,” Reid told reporters Tuesday.    “It has to be a fair approach to balancing the budget.    We have to do something with domestic programs.    We have to do something on defense. And, of course, we have to do a better job with taxes.”
      Republican leaders affirmed their opposition to tax increases, whether through the elimination of oil company subsidies or any other changes in the tax code.
      “We’re not going to raise taxes,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky told reporters.    “That was decided in last November’s election.    I think the American people pretty clearly believe that we have the deficit problem because we spend too much, not because we tax too.”    The clash over oil company subsidies is the latest flare-up in a broader battle over the most controversial budget issues: Republican demands for cuts to Medicare and other entitlement programs, and Democratic insistence on new revenue     In White House budget talks, which began last week and are expected to stretch into the summer, those two issues have been temporarily set aside as lawmakers from both parties work with Vice President Joe Biden to try to identify common ground.
      Those talks continued Tuesday at Blair House, with the aim of easing passage of a significant increase in the debt limit, currently set at $14.3 trillion.
  
  Gas leaps past $4 at some pumps - Rising oil prices and the approaching summer driving season cited as causes by Chris Otts, The Courier-Journal
      The last thing Clifton resident Tony Profumo wanted to do on Tuesday was buy gasoline.    But with the tank in his mini-Cooper nearly empty, Profumo stopped at the Bader’s Food Mart at Baxter Avenue and Broadway and reluctantly filled up for $4.26 a gallon.    “It’s ridiculous,” he said, adding that he remembers paying 59 cents a gallon at a Dixie Highway station in the late 1990s.    “I’m angry.”
      Gas prices in the Louisville area pushed well past the $4-a-gallon mark at several stations, some stations were charging as little as $3.89 Tuesday afternoon.
      Shane Pochard of Marathon Oil — owner of the area’s Speedway stations and supplier to Marathon branded stations — linked the high pump prices with a steady increase in per-barrel oil prices since January and the approaching summer driving season.
      Oil prices were up 71 cents at $103.26 midday Tuesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, but they have been as high as $113.93 at the end of April.    Pochard suggested that Louisville drivers are “just seeing” the impact.
      Prices at the pump include a federal tax of 18.4 cents per gallon, which goes directly to the Highway Trust Fund to pay for road projects.    The tax hasn’t been raised since 1993.
      If gas prices continue to rise, Profumo said, people will be forced to live close to where they work and to bike or walk more.    “Everything is going to be within the community.”
      Overall bus ridership in April was up about 1.5 percent from a year earlier, TARC executive director Barry Barker said Tuesday.    The increase came despite service cuts and fare increases that took effect last summer, he said.
      Some express routes, such as Oldham County and Breckenridge, have seen spikes, but Barker said he’s not sure TARC will see a dramatic ridership increase like it did when gas prices shot up in 2008.
      “What happened back in ’08 is the fuel jumped quickly, so people went, ‘Oh, good grief, I’ve got to get on the bus,’ ” he said.    “This time around it has gone up gradually.”
  
  
• 5/12/2011
  Longer U.S. stay in Iraq hinted - PM asks for others’ support by Lara Jakes and Rebecca Santana , Associated Press
      BAGHDAD — Iraq’s prime minister offered his clearest opening yet Wednesday for the possibility of extending the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq past their scheduled Dec. 31 departure, saying he would do so if most of the country’s political blocs support the decision.
      Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s comments were just as significant for what he did not say.    On other occasions, he has insisted American troops will not be needed beyond the end of the year.    This time when asked by a reporter whether he personally supports keeping troops in Iraq, he declined to answer.
      “You want to make me say yes or no before I gather the national consensus?” he retorted.    “I will not say it.”
      His words signaled a shift that could open the way for a long-term American troop presence in Iraq, though a top U.S. military officer all but ruled that out.    Al-Maliki said he will meet with political leaders this month to gauge support.    His insistence on a unified decision underscored how difficult it will be for any Iraqi leader to admit needing more military help from the country that invaded eight years ago.
      “I will bring the leaders of the political blocs together.    If they say yes, I will agree, and if they say no, I will reject it,” al-Maliki said at a news conference at his office in the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad.
      He faces an American imposed deadline to decide within weeks whether to ask U.S. troops to stay longer.    A revolving door of U.S. officials, including Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, have passed through Iraq in recent weeks, each appearing intent on getting Iraq to make up its mind.
      The U.S. has suggested it would favor extending the troop presence.    Gates has acknowledged the U.S. has an interest in having more U.S. troops in Iraq after this year.    In an indication that there would be some congressional support, House Speaker John Boehner said after an April trip to Iraq that the U.S. should keep a residual force — potentially up to 10,000 soldiers — in the country.
      The U.S. has always been clear that it must be Iraq who does the asking.
      In an interview Wednesday night, U.S. Lt. Gen. Frank G. Helmick said the U.S. military is focused on leaving in December and is urging Iraqi security forces to acknowledge their weaknesses and try to close those gaps as quickly as possible.
      “How they deal with it, that’s up to them,” said Helmick, the second-highest ranking American general in Iraq.    “I get this sense that people think we’re begging to stay here.    We’re not begging to stay here.    What we are really trying to do is provide the best possible training and leave the Iraqis (in) the best capability that we can leave them in by the end of the year.”
      The U.S. military has about 46,000 troops in Iraq, millions of pieces of equipment and nearly 70 bases.
  
  Tripoli attacked after Gadhafi goes on TV by Associated Press
      TRIPOLI, Libya — A series of NATO strikes were targeting the Libyan capital early today, not long after President Moammar Gadhafi made his first TV appearance in weeks.
      Four explosions in quick succession were heard early today, local time, preceded by a loud whooshing — associated with cruise missiles.
      After the strikes, the wailing of ambulance sirens was clearly heard by reporters staying in a Tripoli hotel.
      It wasn’t immediately clear what the strikes hit. Reporters are not allowed to leave their hotels without government minders.
      The strikes came hours after the Libyan leader made his first TV appearance since a NATO strike on his sprawling compound on April 30, in an attempt to quash rumors that he had been hit by the strikes.    The attack killed one of his sons.    Libyan TV showed Gadhafi meeting tribal leaders, but did not record him speaking.    To authenticate the scene, the camera zoomed in on the date on a TV monitor in the room, and it read Wednesday, May 11.    It was apparently recorded at the hotel where foreign correspondents must reside in Tripoli. Gadhafi did not make himself available.
      The last time Gadhafi had been seen in public was April 9, when he visited a school in Tripoli.
      Meanwhile, pressing to break a two-month siege, rebels in the port city of Misrata said they had captured the local airport and pushed Gadhafi’s forces farther from the city’s western outskirts.
      The reported advances were the latest in a recent flurry of accounts of rebel victories, coinciding with in-tensified NATO airstrikes.
  
  Stock prices decline broadly - Demand drops for commodities by Associated Press
      Tumbling demand for commodities and a drop in the euro led to a broad stock sell-off Wednesday that pulled the Dow Jones industrial average down 130 points.
      Demand for gasoline in the U.S. fell by the largest amount in seven weeks, the Energy Information Ad-ministration said, a signal that consumers are conserving money as gas prices near a national average of $4 a gallon.    Gas futures fell almost 8 percent.    Crude oil fell back below $100 a barrel, a loss of more than 4 percent.
      The average gas price in Louisville on Wednesday was $4.11.    Fewer fill-ups may be an early sign of a broader drop in consumer and business spending as customers forgo trips to malls and restaurants and companies ship fewer products.    That could lead to lower corporate earnings and halt a stock rally that has sent the stock market up 7 percent this year.
      “People are becoming more conservative in their outlook and their spending as oil prices have risen, and that’s making the market become more concerned about growth,” said Quincy Krosby, chief strategist at Prudential Financial.
      The fall in demand for gas means that traders will take a close look at today’s weekly report on first-time applications for unemployment benefits. If they rise, that could indicate companies are cutting back in other areas, Krosby said.    Stocks rose broadly on Friday after a report that companies added more than 200,000 jobs in April. Stocks fell broadly Wednesday, with energy and materials companies suffering the worst declines.    The Dow lost 130.33 points to close at 12,630.03, the S&P 500 fell 15.08 to 1,342.08 and the Nasdaq composite lost 26.83 to 2,845.06.
      “Every time that stocks start to go down a little bit, you’re seeing more selling pile on because people have made so much profit over the past nine months,” said Uri Landesman, of Platinum Partners, a New York-based hedge fund.
      The market’s losses accelerated shortly before noon.    The dollar and government bond prices rose as traders moved money into safer assets.    The dollar rose 0.8 percent against a group of other major currencies. The euro dropped 1.5 percent against the dollar.
      Commodities are still more expensive than they were a year ago.    High oil prices helped push the nation’s trade deficit up 6 percent to $48.2 billion in March from February.    U.S. companies sold more automobiles and other goods and services to customers abroad, but it wasn’t enough to make up for an 18 percent rise in oil imports.
  
  Gas futures fall after demand declines by Associated Press
      Gasoline futures prices tumbled almost 8 percent Wednesday after a government report showed strong evidence that higher pump prices are forcing Americans to drive less. Oil also dropped back below the $100 mark.
      The Energy Information Administration said that U.S. gasoline demand dropped 2.4 percent last week, the largest drop in seven consecutive weeks of declines.    Analysts said motorists are buying less gas with pump prices close to a national average of $4 per gallon.
      With Memorial Day less than three weeks away, analysts now expect that, at most, motorists will use about as much gasoline this summer driving season as they did in 2010.
      The EIA data showed that gasoline supplies increased by 1.3 million barrels last week.    Crude oil dropped $5.67 to $98.21 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
  
  
• 5/13/2011
  Pressure builds on Gadhafi within Libya’s capital by Associated Press
      TRIPOLI, Libya — Pressure is mounting on Moammar Gadhafi from within his stronghold in the Libyan capital, with increasing NATO airstrikes and worsening shortages of fuel and goods.
      Residents said Thursday that there also has been a wave of anti-government protests in several Tripoli neighborhoods this week — dissent that in the past was met with zero tolerance and brutal force.
      Gadhafi’s rebel opposition, meanwhile, received major political boosts from abroad. Britain promised to provide them with police gear, and the Obama administration invited a rebel delegation to the White House for talks today.
      Those announcements followed a new round of NATO airstrikes early Thursday that hit Gadhafi’s fortified compound in Tripoli.    Hours earlier, the Libyan leader had appeared on state TV for the first time since his son was killed nearly two weeks ago.    Rumors were swirling that he had been killed or injured.
      Libyan officials showed reporters the airstrike damage, and one official said Gadhafi and his family had moved away from the Bab al-Aziziya compound some time ago.    A missile appeared to have targeted some sort of underground bunker at the compound, a sprawling complex of buildings surrounded by towering concrete blast walls.
      NATO, which has hit the Libyan capital repeatedly this week, said Thursday’s attack successfully hit “a large command and control bunker complex in downtown Tripoli that was used to coordinate attacks against civilian populations.”
      A local journalist and another resident in Tripoli, reached by telephone from Egypt, told The Associated Press that there have been protests this week in at least three neighborhoods in the capital, accompanied by exchanges of gunfire between opposition activists and Gadhafi forces.    Both spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals.
      When residents of Tripoli tried to protest against Gadhafi earlier in the uprising, gunmen in speeding cars tore through and fired wildly into the crowds, making many fearful to go out in the streets and demonstrate.
  
  Oil rises to near $99 as dollar weakens by Associated Press
      Oil rose Thursday in volatile trading to settle near $99 per barrel, with a weaker dollar offsetting concerns about a slowdown in world demand.    Gas pump prices also rose as flooding on the Mississippi River threatened supplies in some parts of the country.
      Benchmark crude for June delivery gained 76 cents to settle at $98.97 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
      Oil has swung wildly this week — between $95 and $104 a barrel — as economists and traders try to gauge world demand. A weaker dollar boosted oil on Thursday.
  
  
• 5/14/2011
  Social Security, Medicare funds waning faster by Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON —The bad economy has shortened the lifespans of the trust funds that support Social Security and Medicare — the nation’s two biggest benefit programs — the government reported Friday.
      The annual checkup said the Medicare hospital insurance fund will now be exhausted in 2024, five years earlier than last year’s estimate.    The Social Security trust fund is expected to be exhausted in 2036, one year earlier than before.
      The trustees who oversee the two programs said the worsening financial picture emphasizes the need for Congress to make changes soon.
      The longer lawmakers wait, the more likely that they will be forced to impose steep tax increases, deep benefit cuts — or even both — to save the programs.
      By acting sooner, the trustees said, Congress can impose gradual changes that don’t hurt current beneficiaries and give future retirees time to prepare.    “Larger, more difficult adjustments will be necessary if we delay reform,” said Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, chairman of the trustee panel.    “And making reforms soon that are phased in over time would help reduce uncertainty about future retirement benefits.”
      The trustees said they moved the expected date for the Medicare hospital trust fund to be exhausted from 2029 to 2024 because of a weaker economy, which means fewer people working and paying payroll taxes into the fund, and rising health care costs.
      Last year’s report had extended the life of the Medicare fund by 12 years to reflect savings that were in-cluded in the massive overhaul of health care that President Barack Obama pushed Congress to pass in 2010.
      Without the changes in health care law, the administration said, the Medicare trust fund would be exhaust-ed in 2016.
      The savings in the health care legislation are still included in the trustees’ projections but have been up-dated to reflect data on the economy and health care costs in the past year.
  
  Is it actually worse?
      Many experts believe Medicare’s outlook is actually worse because the trustees’ projections assume deep cuts in payments to doctors that Congress routinely waives, and because other cost savings from Obama’s health care law will be difficult to realize.
      The Social Security trust fund was projected to be exhausted a year earlier than the previous projection of 2037.    The trustees said in 2036, the government will be taking in enough in Social Security payroll taxes to pay only about three-fourths of existing benefits.
      The new report projected that the millions of Social Security recipients would receive a small — 0.7 percent — cost of living increase in benefit checks in 2012. In 2010 and 2011, there were no cost of living increases because inflation was low.
      A 0.7 percent increase would not be seen by many Social Security beneficiaries because the extra money would be eaten up by higher insurance premium payments for Medicare.
      The actual benefit increase will be determined based on the performance of the government’s Consumer Price Index.    That figure will be released in October.
  
  Divisions still reign
      Democrats and Republicans agree that Medicare must be addressed soon — but the consensus ends there, even as a bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Vice President Joe Biden holds talks on ways to tackle the mounting U.S. debt.
      Most Republicans and some Democrats in Congress have said they won’t vote to increase the govern-ment’s ability to borrow without significant spending cuts; the U.S. is expected to reach the borrowing limit of $14.3 trillion soon.
      Geithner said Friday that Congress should “move as quickly as possible” to raise the borrowing limit.    He has told lawmakers that he can take steps to delay until Aug. 2 what would be an unprecedented default on the debt.
      Changes to Medicare — the government health insurance program for older Americans — may be part of an agreement to increase the debt ceiling.    But Social Security seems to be off the table.    Many Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., have been adamant that they won’t support cuts in Social Security, even if they target only future retirees.    Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell acknowledged Thursday that changes to Social Security won’t be part of any agreement.
      Democrats and Republicans are sparring over how to fix Medicare.    House Re-publicans have passed a plan that would replace Medicare with a voucher-like payment system for future retirees, but GOP leaders in Congress have acknowledged that the plan is unlikely to pass the Democratic-led Senate.
      Nearly 55 million retirees, disabled people and children who have lost parents receive Social Security benefits, which average $1,077 monthly.    More than 46 million people are covered by Medicare.
      Six trustees oversee Social Security and Medicare, including Geithner, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue.
  
  Taliban fight on after bin Laden - Suicide bombers kill 66 police recruitsby Deb Riechmann, Associated Press
      ISLAMABAD — A double Taliban suicide attack that killed 66 paramilitary police recruits Friday represented the deadliest terrorist strike in Pakistan since Osama bin Laden’s death.    It sent a strong sig-nal that militants mean to fight on to try to avenge the al-Qaida leader.    The strike came as both the Pa-kistani and Afghan wings of the Taliban have been making attacks to prove they remain a potent force and bolster their profiles in case peace talks prevail in Afghanistan.    U.S. and Afghan officials have said they hope the Afghan Taliban will use bin Laden’s death as an opportunity to break their link with al-Qaida — an alliance the U.S. says must be severed if militants want peace in Afghanistan.    But Afghan officials and Pakistani experts say any severing of ties would not happen anytime soon, if at all.
      “The Taliban want to prove that bin Laden’s killing did not really affect them,” said Rahimullah Yusafzai, a Taliban expert in the city of Peshawar, Pakistan.    “I don’t think anybody is talking peace at this stage,” Yusafzai said.    “Everybody is wanting to score something on the ground.    I think the spring fighting, the summer fighting will continue and it will be worse than last year.”
      In claiming credit for Friday’s attack in northwest Pakistan — which also hurt about 120 people, the Taliban said it was avenging the May 2 death of bin Laden.    It cited anger at Pakistan’s military for failing to stop the unilateral U.S. raid on bin Laden’s hideaway.
      In their communications, militants often try to tap into popular sentiments in Pakistan, where anti-Americanism is often stronger than fears of Islamist militants.
      This is despite militant attacks over the past four years claiming the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of civilians.    Before the Taliban claimed responsibility, Liaqat Ali Khan, a senior police official in Peshawar near where the attack occurred, said the primary suspects were militants fighting security forces in the nearby Mohmand tribal region.    The Pakistani Taliban are a loose collection of militant groups, and some news reports later con-tinued to cast doubt on the claim that Friday’s attack was meant to avenge the killing of bin Laden.
      In Afghanistan, where bin Laden’s death has coincided with the start of the spring fighting season, the Taliban have launched a series of attacks, including a two-day battle in the militant stronghold of Kandahar in the south
  
  Gadhafi taunts NATO in broadcast - Regime says 11 clerics killed by Diaa Hadid, Associated Press
      TRIPOLI, Libya — Taunting NATO, Moammar Gadhafi said Friday that he is alive despite a series of air-strikes and “in a place where you can’t get to and kill me.”    The defiant audio recording was broadcast after the Libyan government accused NATO of killing 11 Muslim clerics with an airstrike on a disputed eastern oil town.
      Gadhafi had appeared on state TV but not been heard speaking since a NATO attack on his Tripoli com-pound two weeks ago, which officials said killed one of his sons and three grandchildren.    In a brief recording played Friday on Libyan TV, Gadhafi said he wanted to assure Libyans concerned about a strike this week on his compound in Tripoli.
      “I tell the coward crusaders — I live in a place where you can’t get to and kill me,” he said.    “I live in the hearts of millions.”
      He referred to a NATO airstrike on Thursday that targeted his Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli, saying it had killed “three innocent journalist-civilians.”
      Reporters on Thursday were shown the airstrike damage by Libyan officials, including one who said Gad-hafi and his family had moved away from the compound some time ago.    One missile appeared to have targeted some sort of underground bunker at the compound — a sprawling complex surrounded by towering concrete blast walls.
      Many people “driven by their love for me put in many calls to check on my well-being after they heard of the cowardly missile attack of the crusaders on Bab al-Aziziya last Thursday, May 12,” Gadhafi said in the recording, which lasted just over a minute.
      NATO shrugged off the statement. “We are not targeting him, our targets are solely military,” alliance spokeswoman Carmen Romero said in Brussels.
      Just before Gadhafi’s remarks were broadcast, regime spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said NATO had attacked Brega while dozens of imams and officials from around Libya were gathered there to pray for peace.    Ibrahim said 11 imams were killed in their sleep at a guesthouse and 50 people were hurt.
      NATO, responding to the assertion, said it had hit a military command-and-control center in Brega, 450 miles southeast of Tripoli.    “We’re very careful in the selection of our targets and this one was very clearly identified as a command center,” said an official at NATO’s operational headquarters in Naples, Italy, who spoke under the alliance’s rule that he couldn’t be named.
      NATO has intensified airstrikes in several areas of Libya against regime troops in a bid to weaken Gadhafi’s campaign against a rebel uprising. The sound of two airstrikes could be heard in Tripoli early Friday, though it was not immediately clear what they targeted.
      Ibrahim rebutted comments from Italy’s foreign minister, Franco Frattini, suggesting that Gadhafi may have been wounded and possibly had fled Tripoli for some other place in Libya.    “The leader is in very good health, high morale and high spirits,” Ibrahim said.
      Imams with him when he announced the Brega attack said the slain clerics should be avenged.    The bodies of many of the dead were laid out in two rows.    Most had visible wounds, often to the head but also to legs and other extremities.
      The strike on Brega came as Gadhafi faced mounting diplomatic pressure to end his 42-year hold on power.    In the Hague, Netherlands, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said he would seek arrest warrants on Monday for three senior Libyan leaders for murder and persecution — with Gadhafi expected to be among them.
      And in Washington, the White House said the U.S. and NATO will maintain their military operations in Libya as long as Gadhafi continues to attack his own people.
      The U.S. has been increasing its financial support for the rebels but is not recognizing their transitional council as Libya’s legitimate government.    A delegation from the council met with U.S. officials in Wash-ington on Friday.
  
  Food, gas costs push consumer prices up - Analysts expect decline later in year by Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — U.S. consumers paid more for gas and food in April, pushing inflation to its highest level in 2½ years.    But so far this month, inflationary pressures have begun to ease.
      The Consumer Price Index increased 0.4 percent in April, the Labor Department said.    In the past 12 months, prices have risen 3.2 percent.    That’s the biggest 12-month gain since October 2008.
      Excluding volatile food and energy costs, prices went up 0.2 percent and have risen just 1.3 percent this year.    That’s double the gain posted six months ago, but still under the level the Federal Reserve deems a healthy pace of inflation.
      The costs of new and used cars, clothing, and medical care all rose, pushing up the core index.    Car prices likely increased because of temporary parts shortages caused by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.    Most other prices were subdued.
      Oil prices have fallen from their peak of $114 a barrel earlier this month to about $100 Friday.    The prices of corn and other grains have also fell in recent days.    Economists say gas and food prices should retreat later this year.    High prices are likely slowing the economy in the April-June quarter, but growth should pick up in the second half of this year, they say.
      “With commodity prices now dropping back, it looks like inflation is close to peaking,” said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist for Capital Economics, who expects year-over-year inflation to climb to 3.5 percent before dropping in the second half of the year.
      Cary Leahey, an economist at Decision Economics, said yearly inflation figures should start to fall in the next several months, though core prices should continue to rise.    The Federal Reserve will not need to start raising interest rates until next year to keep inflation in check, he said.
      Gas prices rose 3.3 percent in April.    That accounts for half of last month’s increase.    They’ve soared more than 33 percent in the past year.    Demand in fast-growing developing countries and political turmoil in the Middle East have caused oil prices to rise.    Prices at the pump have since leveled off near $4, up $1.09 from last year.
      Food prices increased 0.4 percent last month.    That’s half the previous month’s increase, which was the largest in nearly three years.    The price of fresh vegetables fell.    Dairy, meat, fish and eggs all rose.    Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has said that the impact of higher food and gas prices should be temporary.    The central bank has also said it is watching closely for any signs of inflation.    Seven months ago, when the core index had risen only 0.6 percent in a year, the Fed was more concerned about falling prices.
  
  Oil rises on lingering refinery concerns by Associated Press
      Oil settled higher Friday, pushed up by lingering concerns that Mississippi River flooding may affect refineries in the U.S. Southeast. Crude settled at $99.65 per barrel, up 68 cents on the New York Mercantile Exchange.    Oil has been volatile this week, ranging from $95 to $104 a barrel.    It gained 2.5 percent for the week after losing 15 percent last week.
      Most refineries in the Gulf states region don’t expect to be affected by flooding from the Mississippi River.    Still, some have lined their facilities with sandbags, moved equipment and prepared other emergency measures.
  
  
• 5/15/2011
  
  Syrians flee to Lebanon to escape violence by Bassem Mroue, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — Hundreds of Syrians fled to neighboring Lebanon on Saturday to escape a violent crackdown against an anti-government uprising that has claimed the lives of more than 800 civilians, Lebanese security officials and a leading human rights group said.
      President Bashar Assad, meanwhile, reportedly has set up a committee to lead a dialogue with the opposition, the latest offer by the regime as it struggles to end the unrest threatening his family’s 40-year-old dynasty.    Protesters have been taking to the streets in a number of cities the past two months to try to force Assad to introduce reforms or resign, as leaders in Tunisia and Egypt already have.    The regime has responded by sending the army onto the streets to counter the demonstrators.
      The Lebanese security officials said gunfire from the western Syrian town of Ta lkalakh was heard on the Lebanese side of the border Saturday.    More than 5,000 Syrians have fled the area in recent weeks, with more than 500 people crossing the border on Saturday alone, they said.
      They said four wounded people were brought to Lebanon and that one later died of his wounds.    The Lebanese security officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with rules.    Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri ordered Lebanese government agencies to work with international aid groups to help the refugees, his office said in a statement.
      The shooting in Ta lkalakh was a day after security forces fired on thousands of protesters at several rallies across Syria, killing at least nine people, said Ammar Qurabi, leader of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria.
      An activist in Syria said army troops were surrounding Ta lkalakh from all sides in Syria, leaving those who want to flee with no choice but to head to Lebanon.    He said the town was hit by heavy machine gun fire and at least three people have died.
      There is a media blackout in Syria, making it impossible to confirm witness accounts independently.    Witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear for their personal safety.
  
  
• 5/16/2011
  Libyan fighting raises anti-aircraft terror threat by Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — The fierce combat in Libya has unleashed a once-hidden arsenal of portable anti-air-craft missiles that the United States fears could easily be siphoned off to terrorist groups, creating a potential threat to commercial aviation that the U.S. is only beginning to confront, government officials and arms experts said.
      The fears are compounded by suspicions that Libyan government and opposition forces are both deploying fighters with ties to terrorists and mercenaries.    With more than 20,000 missile launchers estimated in Libya, there have been unconfirmed reports that some anti-aircraft weapons have already been funneled to North African militants, but there is no solid evidence yet that terrorists have them.
      Troops loyal to Moammar Gadhafi and opposition fighters have frequently used Russian-built anti-aircraft weapons in the two month long civil war, including 30-year-old shoulder- fired models and advanced truck-mounted missile launchers, according to battlefront accounts and an array of combat photographs and video.
      The availability of man portable air defense systems, also known as MANPADS, across the world’s conflict zones has long worried counterterrorism officials.    Passenger flights have never been targeted by such missiles inside the U.S., but there have been nearly a dozen lethal strikes in the past decade in Africa and Asia.
      Surveillance by aerial drones and diplomatic pressure on Libya’s African neighbors to police its porous borders may be the best, if limited, actions the U.S. can take for now.    U.S. military planes can fly above the missiles’ range and use electronic jamming to elude them, but detection and evasion gear are considered too bulky and expensive to install in the world’s civilian aircraft fleets.
  
  Ahmadinejad rejects appointment criticism
      TEHRAN, IRAN - Iran’s president dismissed criticism of appointments and dismissals from his Cabinet without parliamentary approval.    President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s remarks in a televised speech Sunday risked widening a rift with the parliament and with hard-liners intent on limiting his power or impeaching him.    Ahmadinejad decided to streamline his Cabinet by combining eight ministries into four.    The parliament insisted it must approve the appointments of the new ministers, but Ahmadinejad refused. Instead, he appointed caretaker ministers, including himself as oil minister.
  
  
• 5/17/2011
  
  Geithner takes step as U.S. hits borrowing limit
      WASHINGTON - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Monday that he will immediately halt invest-ments in two big government pension plans so the government can continue to borrow money.    The money that the pension funds will lose will be replaced when Congress votes to raise the borrowing limit.
      Geithner informed Congress of his decision in a letter stating that the government had officially reached its $14.3 trillion borrowing limit.    He repeated a warning that if lawmakers do not increase the borrowing limit by Aug. 2, the government is at risk of an unprecedented default on its debt.
      Geithner said unexpected revenue and bookkeeping maneuvers will allow Treasury to continue auctioning debt for another 11 weeks.
  
  EU OKs Portugal bailout; more Greek aid studied - Region struggles with debt crisis by Associated Press
      BRUSSELS — European governments signed off Monday on $110 billion in loans to Portugal and debated giving Greece a second rescue package to avoid a disastrous default.
      Most of the terms for Portugal’s package had emerged in recent weeks, so ministers quickly moved to discussing whether to give Greece more help on top of last year’s $155 billion in loans as it struggles to regain market confidence.
      The market pessimism over Greece’s financial future — most investors expect it will have to renege on its debt deals — shows how the region is still struggling to get a grip on the debt crisis that has dragged on for more than a year.
      The approval of the aid for Portugal was a relatively small step along that way but showed how the European Union is prepared to stick with its existing crisis strategy — providing rescue loans to highly indebted countries to give them time to cut government spending and overhaul their economies in the hope that they will start growing again.
      For Portugal — as for Ireland, which was bailed out in November — one-third of the rescue loans will come from the International Monetary Fund, while the rest would be split equally among Europe’s two bailout funds — one backed by eurozone countries, the other by the European Union budget. In their statement, ministers said Monday that the Portuguese authorities agreed to “encourage” private investors to maintain their exposure to the country “on a voluntary basis” and not pull out funds.    That was a key demand from Finland, which had a hard time getting approval for the rescue package from its parliament.
      However, seeking a voluntary commitment to not pull out funds fell far short of a debt restructuring— a move that most economists say should be part of Europe’s crisis strategy, at the very least for Greece.
      Restructuring a country’s debts means asking — or forcing — private creditors like banks or investment funds to give it more time to repay or forgo some of the money they are owed.
      EU officials have so far vehemently denied that a restructuring of Greece’s debt was on the table, but on Monday a European finance minister conceded for the first time that such a move was being discussed.
      “Of course we discuss all kinds of topics, including restructuring,” Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager said.    “But in public, we are very reluctant about discussing and debating restructuring.”
  
  Oil drops below $98 as U.S. demand falls by Associated Press
      Oil prices dropped Monday as investors returned their attention to weakening demand in the U.S.
      Benchmark oil for June delivery fell $2.28 to settle at $97.37 a barrel on the New York Stock Exchange.    Oil is now down 15 percent in May, while gasoline futures are about 14 percent lower.    Those declines haven’t yet reached the nation’s gas stations, though analysts say prices could fall as much as a quarter or more by Memorial Day on May 30.
  
  
• 5/18/2011
  
  Senate blocks bill to end oil tax breaks by Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — The Senate blocked a bill Tuesday that would repeal about $2 billion a year in tax breaks for the five biggest oil companies, a Democratic response to $4-a-gallon gasoline that might fare better when Congress and the White House negotiate later this year to increase the government’s ability to borrow.
      The repeal was defeated on a procedural vote.    But Democrats hope to build their case to include the measure in a deficit-reduction package being negotiated by key lawmakers and the Obama administra-tion.
      Lawmakers from both parties are demanding deficit reduction as part of deal to increase the govern-ment’s ability to borrow and avoid an unprecedented default on U.S. Treasury bonds.
      “This bill says that even the most rich and powerful among us must do their fair share to help us reduce the deficit,” said Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., the bill’s sponsor.    “Their high-priced lobbyists cannot stop us from doing what is fair and what is right.”
      Opponents said the tax increase would hurt domestic drilling while doing nothing to reduce gas prices.    The vote was 52-48 in favor of the measure, short of the 60 votes needed to advance it.
      Democrats Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mark Begich of Alaska joined with nearly all Republicans in opposing the measure.    Republicans Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine voted for it.
  
  Oil settles lower on weak economic data by Associated Press
      Oil fell again Tuesday after disappointing reports on factory production and new home construction raised more concerns about the U.S. economic recovery and future demand.    The dollar fell against other currencies as well, which helped crude regain some losses.    Crude oil lost 47 cents to settle at $96.91 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It dropped as low as $95.02 at one point in the session.    The price of oil has fallen more than 14 percent from a high of $113.52 on May 2.
  
  
• 5/19/2011
  New U.S. sanctions pressure Syrian leaders
      WASHINGTON — Ratcheting up pressure to halt a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, the Obama administration imposed personal economic sanctions on Syrian President Bashar Assad and his top aides.
      The penalties, announced a day before President Barack Obama’s major speech today on the sweeping political turmoil in the Arab world, suggest the White House is giving up hope that the measured approach it has taken so far can persuade Assad to allow greater freedoms and break with Iran.
      Obama will also announce aid to countries that embrace reforms, hoping to steer a region roiling in violence toward democratic change that lasts.    The gist of what Obama will argue is that the U.S. must help nations modernize their economies and give job opportunities to their young people so democracy can take hold and thrive.
      The Associated Press reports that Obama plans to forgive roughly $1 billion in debt owed by Egypt to free up money for job-creation efforts there.    And he will reveal other steps to bolster loans, trade and international support in Egypt and in Tunisia, the two nations seen as models of hope in a time when protests elsewhere in that part of the world are being violently crushed.
      Obama is also expected to recalibrate the U.S. position on the flailing Israeli-Palestinian peace process.    He will warn both sides that they face greater risks by not coming together on a peace deal than by going their own ways.
  
  The new sanctions
      In a letter to Congress, Obama called the sanctions a response to “continuous escalation of violence against the people of Syria.” However, he did not call for Assad to step down.
      The sanctions came as violence broke out late Tuesday and Wednesday in the western city of Homs and the far northern city of Aleppo, where students clashed with plainclothes security forces.
      A nationwide strike, to be followed by a day of demonstrations Friday, had mixed results.    Merchants and workers in the cities of Homs, Idlib, Qamishli, Dara and Baniyas stayed home, according to Syrian activists.    But daily life was unaffected in Damascus, the capital.
      The latest U.S. sanctions target Assad, the vice president, prime minister and interior and defense ministers, as well as the director of military intelligence and political security.    The measure freezes any assets they hold in U.S. jurisdiction, and make it illegal for Americans to do business with them.
      Since the Syrian regime is not known to keep significant assets in U.S. banks or investments, the move is mostly a message that it is facing growing isolation from the international community.
      It was the first time the government personally penalized the Syrian leader for the actions of his security forces.    More than 850 people have died since the uprising began in March.    Obama’s executive order said the Syrian government leaders were being held to account for “attacks on protesters, arrests and harassment of protesters and political activists, and repression of democratic change.”
  
  Hopes fade
      The Obama administration had pinned hopes on Assad, seen until recent months as a pragmatist and potential reformer who could buck Iranian influence and help broker an Arab peace deal with Israel.    But U.S. officials said Assad’s increasingly ruthless crackdown left them little choice but to stop exempting him from the same sort of sanctions already imposed on Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi.
      While not calling on Assad to step down, the Obama administration came close to it.    “It is up to Assad to lead a political transition or to leave,” the State Department said in talking points prepared for the announcement of sanctions.
      The European Union is expected to tighten its own sanctions as a result of the U.S. action, officials said.
      The Obama administration has condemned the violent crackdown by Syrian security forces, and several weeks ago it imposed similar sanctions on second-tier officials in Damascus.
      But it had faced growing criticism on Capitol Hill and elsewhere for not acting more forcefully.    Human rights groups say the Assad government has killed more than 800 protesters since demonstrations erupted two months ago.
      In his speech today, Obama is expected to explain his varying responses to the wave of uprisings that have spread across North Africa and the Middle East this year.
      Mideast experts said the mixed messages reflect U.S. anxieties — and that of many of its Mideast allies — that Assad’s departure could lead to sectarian warfare in Syria, or perhaps an even more repressive government.    They also warn that Assad may cling to power despite international pressure, and may react by fomenting violence in neighboring Israel and Lebanon.
      Steven Cook, a Mideast specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the reluctance to call for Assad’s ouster shows clear concern about the threat of chaos.
  
  Our military no match for U.S., Beijing general says
      WASHINGTON - Seeking to counter U.S. worries about China’s rapid military growth, a top Chinese general said Wednesday the communist nation’s defense clout lags decades behind the U.S., and that China seeks warmer relations.
      Gen. Chen Bingde, whose position in Beijing is roughly the equivalent of chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, used a 45-minute speech at the National Defense University to play down fears of Chinese intentions.
      “Although China’s defense and military development has come a long way in recent years, a gaping gap between you and us remains,” Chen said through an interpreter, adding “China never intends to challenge the U.S.”
      He said he was optimistic about the future of U.S.-China military relations, which have suffered repeated setbacks.    Early last year China angrily cut off most military-to-military contacts after the U.S. announced a $6.4 billion arms sale to Taiwan, the self-governing island that China considers a renegade province.    Under U.S. law, the Pentagon is obliged to provide Taiwan with sufficient military assets to defend its territory.
  
  Bad weather pushes up wheat, corn prices by Associated Press
      Wheat and corn prices jumped Wednesday as bad weather continued to create problems for crops in the United States and Europe.    Wheat settled up 6.9 percent and corn rose 4.1 percent as part of a broad rally in commodities that included metals, oil and energy products.    Investors are growing concerned that stockpiles of wheat and corn — already at low levels — may shrink even more if harvests are reduced this year.    Cool, rainy weather has delayed planting in parts of the United States.    12 Shares of Humana closed 3.1 percent higher.    The Louisville health insurer’s stock, which is up 46 percent this year, hit a 52-week high of $80.16 earlier in the day.    Louisville-based Papa John’s stock finished up 3.6 percent, after touching a 52-week high of $33.60 during the trading session.
  
  
• 5/20/2011
  
  Gadhafi forces, rebels fight for mountain roads - Strategic asset for both sides by Michelle Faul and Sarah El Deeb, Associated Press
      BENGHAZI, Libya — Moammar Gadhafi’s forces rocketed rebel fighters Thursday in the formidable strongholds and training camps they have built up in the strategic mountain heights southwest of the Libyan capital, rebels said.
      The two sides appeared to be fighting for control of the two highways to the north and south of the Nafu-sa mountain range, which slices across the desert south of Tripoli to the western border with Tunisia.
      Rebels, in particular, have used the roads, bringing in supplies for camps to train fighters for what they hope will be a future push on the capital.
      As the fighting intensified this week, the rebel leadership in the east of the country said Thursday it was getting graphic reports of hospitals overwhelmed with casualties and of wounded having to be loaded onto donkeys and smug-gled past government blockades to get treatment elsewhere.
      The situation in the Nafusa mountains “remains dire, really dire,” said Jalal al-Gallal, a spokesman for the rebel governing council, which is based in the eastern city of Benghazi.
      The mountain range has been one of the few zones of opposition in western Libya since the early days of the uprising against Gadhafi’s four-decade rule in mid-February.    Most of the rebel forces are concentrated in the east.
      The long highways on either side of the mountain range are key to both sides.    The government needs easy passage without harassment from the ridgeline above if it wants to keep control of a huge swath of the west.
      The rebels run supplies from the border.    They also have used the passageway to smuggle back fighters who had fled battles in other parts of the country and ended up in Tunisia, said Omar Hussein, a spokesman for the Nafusa mountain rebels.    Their position on the roads from the mountains to the former rebel stronghold of Zawiya on the north coast and Tripoli beyond made them a target, he said.
      “Gadhafi knows that the rebels’ plan is to come down from the mountains, then head to Zawiya, and from there to Tripoli.    He is trying to delay this march,” Hussein said.
  
  Syria defying sanctions by U.S. - Assad moves to crush dissent by Zeina Karam and Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — Syrian forces kept up a relentless campaign against the country’s two-month uprising Thurs-day, using tanks to shell a besieged border town as President Barack Obama called on Syria’s president to lead his country to democracy or “get out of the way.”
      President Bashar Assad has taken pains to portray confidence and a steely determination in recent days amid signs that his brutal crackdown is terrifying the population into submission.
      The regime’s crackdown on dissent, which has killed more than 850 people, continued ahead of another round of protests planned for after Friday prayers.    Syria’s state-run news agency also condemned new U.S. sanctions, saying they “did not and will not affect Syria’s independent choices and steadfastness.”
      The Syrian army shelled the town of Talkalakh overnight and early Thursday, sparking gun battles that killed at least eight people.    The overnight attack killed at least eight people, bringing the death toll to 34 since the military sealed off the border town Saturday and moved in tanks and troops, two human rights activists told The Associated Press.
      “We heard shelling throughout the night and can still hear gunfire every now and then,” said a Talkalakh resident, who fled across the border to Lebanon as Syrian troops brought in reinforcements.    He said he could see troops patrolling the border and smoke from fires in the town, apparently from homes burning.
      Syrians fleeing to Lebanon in recent days have described horrific scenes of execution- style slayings and bodies in the streets in Talkalakh.    Last week, mass arrests and heavy security kept crowds below previous levels seen during the uprising, suggesting Assad’s sweeping campaign of intimidation is working.
      Syria has banned foreign journalists and prevented coverage of the conflict, making it nearly impossible to independently verify accounts coming out of the country or to gauge the strength of the unprecedented protest movement in one of the most authoritarian regimes in the Middle East.
  
  MIDEAST ACTION
  • BAHRAIN: A security court sentences a prominent Shiite cleric and eight others to 20 years in prison for the alleged kidnapping of a police officer.    The sentences come during a crackdown by the ruling Sunni dynasty against Shiite-led protesters demonstrating for greater freedoms.
  • TUNISIA: Western security officials fear that crucial intelligence on terror groups in North Africa will dry up as repressive but effective security services are reorganized after Arab revolts.    Those worries, expressed by European and Israeli officials, add urgency to reports of foreign fighters suspected of al-Qaida ties crossing into Tunisia.
  • YEMEN: President Ali Abdullah Saleh vows to sign a deal to end his decades-long rule, a spokesman said.    The opposition rejected the promise, accusing the embattled leader of stalling. He’s rejected the agreement before; most recently 24 hours before his latest promise to sign.
  
  Price of crude oil falls to $98.44 per barrelby Associated Press
      Oil dropped below $99 a barrel Thursday, but it’s still too high for the International Energy Agency.
      The IEA, based in Paris, said that even after falling about 13 percent since the beginning of May, petroleum products continue to take a large share of household and business spending around the world and threaten to stall the global economic recovery.    The agency warned of an “urgent need” for refineries to produce more gasoline and bring down pump prices.
      Crude oil fell $1.66 to settle at $98.44 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
  
  
• 5/21/2011
  
  Al-Qaida considered bombing oil tankers - Bin Laden files reveal plot details by Eileen Sullivan and Kimberly Dozier, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Osama bin Laden’s personal files reveal his idea to hijack oil tankers and blow them up at sea last summer, creating explosions he hoped would rattle the world’s economy and send oil prices skyrocketing, the U.S. said Friday.
      The newly disclosed plot shows that while bin Laden was scheming for the next big strike that would kill thousands of Americans, he also believed a relatively simpler attack on the oil industry could create a worldwide panic that would hurt Westerners financially.    U.S. officials said the tanker idea, included in documents found in the compound where bin Laden was killed nearly three weeks ago, was little more than an al-Qaida fantasy.    But the FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a confidential warning to police and the energy industry Friday.
      A copy of the written alert, obtained by The Associated Press, said al-Qaida had sought information on the size and construction of oil tankers, had decided that spring and summer provided the best weather to approach the ships and had determined that blowing them up would be easiest from inside the vessels.
      “We are not aware of indications of any specific or imminent terrorist attack plotting against the oil and natural gas sector overseas or in the United States,” Homeland Security spokesman Matthew Chandler said Friday.    “However, in 2010 there was continuing interest by members of al-Qaida in targeting oil tankers and commercial oil infrastructure at sea.”
      With about half of the world’s oil supply moving on the water, industry and security experts have warned for years that such an attack would be a jolt to global markets.    That’s particularly true if terrorists carried it out in one of the narrow waterways that serve as shipping chokepoints.
  
  NATO bombs 3 Libyan ports by Diaa Hadid and Slobodan Lekic, Associated Press
      TRIPOLI, Libya — NATO fighter jets struck three ports in bombing runs overnight, targeting Moammar Gadhafi’s navy in an effort to protect the rebel-held port of Misrata, the alliance said Friday.    It was the broadest attack on Libya’s naval forces since NATO joined the conflict.
      One bombing run hit the main port of Tripoli, where reporters could see flames and smoke rising above a stricken warship into the night sky.    Other targets were the Khoms port, between Tripoli and Misrata, and Gadhafi’s hometown of Sirte to the east.
      In Brussels, NATO confirmed that its warplanes targeted the ports and accused Libya of using its ships in the escalating conflict, including efforts to mine the harbor in Misrata, Libya’s third-largest city 125 miles southeast of Tripoli.
      Rebels trying to end Gadhafi’s more-than-40-year rule have been struggling to hold Misrata against repeated attacks by Gadhafi’s forces.
      British Maj. Gen. John Lorimer, a communications officer, said British warplanes hit two Libyan corvette warships in the Khoms harbor and “successfully targeted a facility in the dockyard constructing fast inflatable boats, which Libyan forces have used several times in their efforts to mine Misrata and attack vessels in the area.    He said that the port was the nearest concentration of regime warships to the port of Misrata, which Gadhafi has repeatedly attempted to close to humanitarian shipping.
      Mohammed Rashid, general manager of the Tripoli port, said the coast guard boats were used to patrol Libyan waters for immigrant boats trying to make it to Europe and for search-and-rescue activities.
      The port official said some damage was done to the port, but it was minimal.    A government official later said he feared the NATO strike would discourage ships from using the Tripoli port, reducing imports and driving up the cost of basic goods for Libyans.
      Rear Adm. Russell Harding, deputy commander of NATO’s operation, said Gadhafi’s regime was employing more ships in its campaign against rebel fighters.    “Given the escalating use of naval assets, NATO had no choice but to take decisive action to protect the civilian population of Libya and NATO forces at sea,” he said.    “NATO has constantly adapted to the rapidly changing and dynamic situation in Libya and at sea.”
  
  Oil settles above $99; demand for gas falls by Associated Press
      Oil climbed above $99 per barrel in volatile trading on Friday as the dollar weakened and another industry report showed that drivers are buying less gasoline.
      Crude oil rose $1.05 to settle at $99.49 per barrel.    The American Petroleum Institute said gasoline demand fell in April for the first time in three months and dropped 2.2 percent when compared with the same month last year.    The report echoed previous data from the Energy Department and MasterCard Spen-dingPulse.
  
  Questions and answers about Europe’s debt crisis by Associated Press
  
      The arrest and resignation of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, chief of the International Monetary Fund, has put the debt troubles in Europe back in the news. Here’s why that matters to the U.S.:
  Q: The European Union and the International Monetary Fund arranged a bailout for Greece last year.    Why does the country need more?
  A: Greece wasn’t “bailed out.”    It received a loan equal to about $157 billion, to help keep current on its interest payments to banks and other bondholders, and to calm markets.    Greece got the loan after agreeing to deep spending cuts and tax increases.    However, that had the effect of shrinking Greece’s economy by 4 percent, making it more difficult for the country to pay its debts.
  Q: How might the arrest and resignation of Strauss-Kahn factor into all this?
  A: The resignation leaves the IMF without its master negotiator at a crucial moment.    The IMF plays a key role in negotiations among European countries, cajoling Germany and others into helping weaker countries like Greece, Portugal and Ireland.    Many Germans resent covering other countries’ debts. Strauss-Kahn had persuaded these countries to contribute anyway.
  Q: If Greece or other heavily indebted countries run into more trouble, what will happen to the U.S. dollar?
  A: Worries over Europe typically drive down the euro and raise the dollar.    The dollar has gained 4 percent against the euro this month.    “The role of the dollar as a safe haven is quickly coming back into fashion,” said Andrew Wilkinson, senior market analyst at Interactive Brokers.    That’s great if you’re headed to Europe this summer. But for U.S. exporters, it could be a problem.
  Q: What about U.S. government debt?
  A: Treasurys would also be likely to rise if Europe’s debt troubles get worse.
  Q: What would a broader European crisis do to the U.S. stock market?
  A: Stocks would likely fall, analysts say.    For starters, a stronger dollar makes U.S. goods more expensive to foreign buyers.    It’s akin to hiking prices on everything made in the U.S.
  
      Large U.S. companies are increasingly dependent on selling their products and services abroad.    And if banks look unable to cover insurance claims on European government bonds, it could make those who lend to banks nervous and cause interest rates to spike for companies and individuals.    “When there’s trouble in one place everyone feels it,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank.
  
  
• 5/22/2011
  
  NATO hits Libyan targets; gas shortage felt by Diaa Hadid and Slobodan Lekic, Associated Press
      TRIPOLI, Libya —NATO widened its campaign to weaken Moammar Gadhafi’s regime with airstrikes on desert command centers and sea patrols to intercept ships, the military alliance said Saturday, amid signs of growing public anger over fuel shortages in government- held territory.
      In the coastal town of Zawiya, crowds apparently outraged by dwindling fuel supplies tried to stab report-ers in a minibus on a state supervised trip to the Tunisian border.
      The journalists — a Chinese news correspondent and two Britons: a BBC technician and a Reuters video producer — were not harmed.
      The assailants also attacked the government official accompanying the reporters — once unimaginable in Libya and a sign of the growing frustrations of residents struggling to cope with rising food prices and gasoline shortages.
      Gadhafi has remained defiant against the widening NATO attacks and international pressure to step down.    At the same time, however, NATO has come under increasing criticism that it is overstepping the U.N. Security Council’s mandate, which provides for the protection of civilians but not for wider attacks.    The Pan African Parliament, the legislative body of the African Union, plans an emergency session this week to discuss what it calls NATO’s “military aggression.”
      The latest reported NATO raids targeted a facility near the capital Friday and a command and control hub near Sebha, a Gadhafi stronghold deep in Libya’s southwestern desert, a NATO statement said in Brussels.    Three surface-to-air missile launchers were hit near the government held town of Sirte, and three rocket launchers near the rebel-held town of Suntan in the mountains south of Tripoli.
      The attack on the foreign journalists took place as their vehicle was caught in a traffic jam caused by miles long lines of cars waiting for days for fuel, the journalists said.
      Men from the fuel line smashed the bus door and approached the three reporters with a kitchen knife; two others brandished pistols.    They demanded to know where the reporters were from and accused them of filming the gas line.    Attackers slashed the bus tires in an attempt to prevent the reporters from fleeing.
      Several plainclothes security agents fired into the air around the bus to drive back the crowd.    Another security man boarded the bus and pushed out the attackers.    Police led the bus to a nearby station for the reporters’ safety.    Also Saturday, rights group Amnesty International said hundreds of men have disappeared from Misrata, the rebels’ main toehold in western Libya.    The London based group said government forces seized the men in house raids, from mosques and from the front line where some of them were fighting.
  
  
  MIDEAST ACTION
  • YEMEN: President Ali Abdullah Saleh said Saturday he will sign a proposal by Gulf Arab mediators for him to step down, but he warned al-Qaida will take control of the country.    Saleh has pledged before to sign the deal, only to back down at the last minute. It grants him immunity from prosecution if he leaves office within 30 days.
  • SYRIA: Security forces opened fire on a funeral procession for slain anti-government protesters in the city of Homs on Saturday, pushing the number of people reported killed in a two-month uprising to more than 900 and making it one of the deadliest of the Arab Spring.
  
  
• 5/23/2011
  
  Lone wanderers Research suggests Milky Way is full of millions of orphan planets by Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times
      The Milky Way may be filled with millions upon millions of Jupiter-sized planets that have escaped their solar systems and are wandering freely in space, researchers said Wednesday in a finding that seems certain to make astrono-mers rethink their ideas about planetary formation.
      While scientists had thought that about 20 percent of stars had massive planets attached to them, the new results reported Thursday in the journal Nature suggest that there are at least twice as many planets as stars, and perhaps several times as many.
      The finding “is a revelation in the sense that it looks like a quintupling of the number of gas giants in the universe,” said astronomer Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, who was not involved in the research.
      Scientists have long speculated that some planets may be vagabonds in interstellar space, but with these observations, “for the first time, we have fairly strong evidence that, indeed, this is happening,” said Caltech astronomer David Stevenson, who also was not involved in the research.
      The discoverers of the wandering planets speculate that the orphan bodies were ejected from formative solar systems soon after they condensed from the interstellar dust that also formed the stars.
      “If they are ejected, it’s a real puzzle as to how that happened because you have to be kicked out by something bigger than you,” Boss said.
      The finding will have “theorists scratching their heads and sharpening their pencils for some time to come,” he added.
      The orphan planets were discovered by an international team of astronomers headed by Takahiro Sumi of Osaka University in Japan.    The team used the 5.9-foot telescope at Mount John University Observatory in New Zealand to regularly scan the innumerable stars at the galaxy’s center to search for so-called gravitational microlensing events.    Microlensing measures the changes in the brightness of distant, background stars as a passing planet’s gravity bends and magnifies the starlight.    As a result, the star brightens and fades in a pattern distinct from random twinkling.    The duration of brightening indicates the mass of the magnifying object.    Stars can cause a distant object to appear brighter for weeks, while Jupiter-sized objects produce a similar effect for days.
      The Japanese team reported that they observed 10 Jupitersized objects, each at a distance of about 10,000 to 20,000 light-years from Earth.    Close examination of the data showed there were no stars within a billion miles or so of the planets, about the distance from our sun to the outer solar system.    The team therefore concluded that the objects were in orbits much larger than any previously observed or that they are wandering freely through interstellar space.
      Their findings were independently confirmed by a second group of scientists using a 4.2-foot telescope in Chile.
      Because researchers were observing only a very narrow slice of the sky — and because observing the objects requires a very precise alignment of star, object and Earth — they extrapolated that the objects are quite numerous, outnumbering stars in the galaxy by a ratio of at least 2-to-1.
      The authors’ preferred explanation is that the objects were ejected from orbit around the stars where they formed.
      And if so many large objects were ejected, they concluded, then a much larger number of smaller, more easily ejected planets are also out there.    Such planets, the size of Earth or smaller, would be very difficult to detect because they do not emit light and are too far from stars to shine in reflected light.
      “The implications of this discovery are profound,” astronomer Joachim Wambsganss of the University of Heidelberg wrote in a commentary accompanying the study.
      Researchers are now lobbying for the construction of a dedicated orbiting telescope to continue the search for the orphan planets.
  
  
• 5/24/2011
  
  NATO unleashes swarm of airstrikes on capital
      TRIPOLI, LIBYA - NATO warplanes bombarded targets in Tripoli with more than 20 airstrikes early today, striking around Moammar Gadhafi’s residential compound in what appeared to be the heaviest night of bombing of the Libyan capital since the Western alliance launched its air campaign against his forces.
      The strikes all came within less than a half-hour. NATO said in a statement that a number of the strikes hit a vehicle storage facility that has been used in supplying regime forces “conducting attacks on civilians.”
  
  Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said at least three people were killed and dozens wounded.    Italy, Spain spur fresh European debt fears - Countries struggling to balance budgets by William L. Watts, MarketWatch
      Europe’s debt crisis reclaimed the spotlight Monday, sending investors in search of safety after Standard & Poor’s said it might cut Italy’s credit rating and after Spain’s ruling party, which instituted austerity measures, had a poor showing in regional elections.
      “There are signs of the contagion spreading from Spain, even into Italy,” said Nick Stamenkovic, fixed-income economist at RIA Capital in Edinburgh.
      But he noted that public finances in both countries remain much sounder than in Portugal, Ireland or Greece.
      Following a week of anti-government protests, Spain’s ruling Socialist Party suffered widespread losses to the conservative Popular Party in regional elections during the weekend.    The Popular Party held more than 37 percent of the votes versus about 28 percent for the Socialist Party, according to media reports.
      Late last week, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services lowered its outlook on Italy’s A-plus sovereign-credit rating from stable to negative, citing potential political gridlock that could derail the government’s plan to balance its budget by 2014.    The Italian Treasury said it would “intensify” reform efforts but said there was no risk of political gridlock.
      “So far, Italy has been relatively immune to the spread widening affecting peripheral euro-area countries,” said Gary Jenkins, head of fixed income at Evolution Securities.    “Any concern that Italy’s large debt burden is not on a downward trajectory would be of concern not only for Italy, but for the euro area as a whole, as in a worst-case scenario Italy could probably be characterized as too big to bail.”
      Economists said the Spanish election results are a negative for the euro in the short term because they underline resentment over austerity measures.
      On a longer-term basis, however, the Popular Party could be expected at a minimum to continue with the current government’s fiscal consolidation plan if it wins the next general election, set for March, said Antonio Garcia Pascual, an economist at Barclays Capital.
  
  U.S. stocks plunge amid European debt worries - Euro falls against dollar after news by Associated Press
      Three days of bad news about Europe’s debt crisis sent Asian, European and U.S. markets down Monday.
      The Dow Jones industrial average fell as much as 180 points before paring back its losses.    Another steep downgrade of Greece’s credit rating, a warning on Italy’s debt and a major defeat of Spain’s ruling party caused new worries about Europe’s debt crisis.
      That sent the euro lower against the dollar.    A stronger dollar makes it more expensive for other countries to buy U.S. exports, hurting U.S. exporters.    Fears that Europe’s debt troubles could escalate, as they did last year when Greece melted down, sent stocks tumbling across the globe.
      The dollar rose 0.6 percent against an index of global currencies Monday.    The euro dipped briefly to its lowest level against the dollar in two months.
      The bad news began late Friday, when the Fitch ratings agency downgraded Greece’s debt further into junk status.    That gave investors more reason to fear that the country will need more help managing its debts beyond the emergency loan package it received last year.
      Then Standard & Poor’s said Saturday that Italy was in danger of having its debt rating lowered if it could not reduce its borrowing and improve economic growth.    The next day, Spain’s ruling Socialist party was roundly defeated in local elections, potentially jeopardizing the country’s deficit- cutting program.
      The Dow fell 130.78 points to close at 12,381.26, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 15.9 to 1,317.37 and the Nasdaq composite index fell 44.42 to 2,758.9.
      While stocks are reacting strongly to the weekend’s headlines, investors are not selling corporate bonds.    If they were, it would signal that investors were growing wary of risk, said Jack Ablin, chief in-vestment officer at Harris Private Bank.
      “There’s a short-term perception of risk, but I’m not viewing it as necessarily lasting,” Ablin said.
      Still, as investors sought safer assets, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note went as low as 3.10 percent, its lowest level of the year.    The yield moved back up to 3.13 percent in afternoon trading, slightly below the 3.15 percent it traded at late Friday. Bond yields fall when their prices rise.
      Some analysts think a downturn in stocks was overdue.    Markets have wobbled over the past few weeks, but the Dow is still up 7 percent this year.    The index has shrugged off revolutions in the Arab world, attempts by China and other emerging markets to slow growth and the nuclear crisis in Japan.    Now that the U.S. corporate earnings season is over, global news has become the focus.
      “There’s not a lot of good news,” said Randy Bateman, president of Huntington Asset Advisors. “Investors needed an excuse to pull back.”
  
  Oil prices slide as dollar strengthens by Associated Press
      Oil dropped more than 2 percent Monday as the dollar strengthened and an energy research group said it expected the growth in Chinese demand for oil to slow later this year.
      Crude oil fell $2.40 to settle at $97.70 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude dropped as the dollar rose against other currencies.
      Platts reported that the rise in China’s oil use slowed in April, to 9.37 million barrels per day in April, up 8.3 percent from the same period last year, but down from the 10 percent average growth in the first quarter this year.
  
  
• 5/25/2011
  
  Military tradeoffs coming, Gates says - Shrinking budget will limit options by Robert Burns, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned Tuesday that shrinking defense budgets will mean a smaller military and a diminished U.S. role in the world.
      He said that barring a catastrophic world conflict or a new threat to the very existence of the U.S., there will be no foreseeable return to the booming Pentagon budgets of the past decade.    “The money and the political support simply aren’t there,” he said.
      This means the Obama administration and Congress must now decide how much military power the U.S. should give up, how that fits U.S. goals for maintaining global influence, and how to pay for it, Gates said.
      “A smaller military, no matter how superb, will be able to go fewer places and be able to do fewer things,” he said at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative- leaning think tank that is generally hostile to defense cuts.
      His speech marked the culmination of a series of recent remarks in which Gates has acknowledged that the Pentagon’s free-spending ways are ending, while also cautioning against budget cuts so deep as to “hollow out” the military.    Warning against a temptation for the country to lower its guard and relax when threats seem less pressing, he wants his legacy to be that he steered the Pentagon toward long-term stability.
      Gates is a self-described “old Cold Warrior” and one of the longest serving Pentagon chiefs.    He will retire next month, with Leon Panetta replacing him.
      The Pentagon’s budget this year is $530 billion, which Gates called the highest since World War II, ad-justing for inflation.    The Pentagon spends another $150 billion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, al-though those costs are expected to fall in the years ahead.
      President Barack Obama has announced a plan to reduce defense spending by $400 billion over the next 12 years, and some in Congress — as well as some independent analysts — are calling for far deeper reductions.
      Gates also said he hopes Iraq asks that U.S. troops stay beyond their scheduled Dec. 31 departure in order to preserve the relative peace, a stance he took last month after visiting the country.
  
  5 cities to get charging stations for electric cars
      WASHINGTON - To boost use of electric vehicles, the Obama administration is installing charging stations for government vehicles in Washington, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco.    The General Services Administration plans to buy 116 plug-in electric vehicles, including 101 Chevrolet Volts.
  
  Stocks slip as worries over Europe linger by Associated Press
      Continued worries about Europe’s lingering debt crisis overshadowed a small rebound in oil prices and pushed stocks slightly lower Tuesday.
      Oil rose nearly $2, to $99.59 per barrel, after major banks raised their forecasts for crude prices. Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley analysts predicted that a rise in global demand would drive oil prices higher this year. Goldman analysts say oil prices could reach $135 a barrel by the end of 2012.
      Stocks swung between gains and losses throughout the day, with Chevron Corp. and other energy companies posting the largest gains.    Energy companies in the S&P 500 rose 1.3 percent, the most of the 10 sectors in the index.
      The Dow Jones industrial average rose 25.05 points to close at 12,356.21; the Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 1.09 points to 1,316.28, and the Nasdaq fell 12.74 to 2,746.16.
      Stocks had been on a tear for the first four months of the year, lifted by stronger earnings reports, an improving job market and other signs of economic recovery.    But all three major indexes have lost more than 3.5 percent this month, even as earnings remain strong.    Widespread optimism has been shoved aside by a host of concerns, especially the impact of higher oil prices on consumer spending and the risk that Europe’s debt troubles could get worse.
      Markets faced more troubling news about Europe on Tuesday, when Greece’s main opposition party said it opposed the government’s latest attempts to reduce debt.    The news further dampened hopes that the country might be able to repair its finances enough to get another loan package from the International Monetary Fund.
      Ratings agency Moody’s also warned that a restructuring of Greece’s debt would be considered a default.    That would cause borrowing costs for other debtstrapped European countries to soar.
      Uri Landesman, president of hedge fund manager Platinum Partners, said a Greek default could start a chain reaction affecting larger countries such as Spain — the fourth-largest economy in Europe — wreaking havoc on the global economy.
  
  Price of oil near to $100 a barrel again by Associated Press
      Oil rose close to $100 per barrel Tuesday after the dollar weakened and a trio of major investment banks predicted that prices will rise later this year.
      Crude oil added $1.89 to settle at $99.59 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
      Oil also got a boost from reports by Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley that said prices will almost certainly be higher later this year. The investment banks said the recent 15 percent drop was only a brief pause in what will likely be a long-term rise to near-record levels.
  
  
• 5/26/2011
  
  Gas prices likely to fall by summer’s end Memorial weekend fill-ups still painful by Chris Otts, The Courier-Journal
      Even as the traditional summer driving season kicks off this weekend, analysts predict gasoline prices will continue to ease from a spring spike that saw Louisville stations charging well more than $4 per gallon two weeks ago.
      Prices have been declining since and many experts say prices will fall further amid signs of increasing supply and lower oil prices.
      Louisville-area prices averaged about $3.82 per gallon for regular gas Wednesday, according to prices posted on www.courier-journal. com/gas.    The national average was about a penny per gallon less, according to the auto club AAA.
      Later in the summer, as supplies increase, gas prices might dip to between $3.35 and $3.60 a gallon na-tionwide, said Tom Kloza, an industry analyst with the Oil Price Information Service, a Maryland company that tracks oil and gas prices.
      Still, drivers heading on a trip for the Memorial Day weekend aren’t finding any bargains.    On the holiday last year, the average was $2.54.
      On Wednesday, a Franklin Circuit Court judge declined Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway’s request to force Marathon Petroleum, a major gasoline supplier to the Louisville area, to lower.
  
  Senate votes down House budget - Plan included Medicare vouchers by Andrew Taylor, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Joined by several moderate Republicans, Democrats controlling the Senate rejected a controversial House budget plan for turning Medicare into a voucher program for future beneficiaries.
      Five Republicans joined every Democrat in killing the measure, which calls for transforming Medicare into a program in which future beneficiaries — people now 54 and younger — would receive a subsidy to buy health insurance rather than have the government directly pay hospital and doctor bills.
      Democrats said the GOP plan would “end Medicare as we know it,” and they made it the central is-sue in a special election Tuesday in which Democrats seized a longtime GOP district in western New York, rattling Republicans.
      Democrats staged the Senate vote to put Republicans on record regarding the stringent plan by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
      Several moderate Republicans joined Democrats in opposing it.    They were Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, Scott Brown of Massachusetts and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.    Tea-party favorite Rand Paul of Kentucky opposed the plan from the right since it doesn’t actually balance the budget and would add trillions of dollars to the U.S. debt.
      Republicans faulted Democrats controlling the Senate for failing to offer a plan of their own.
      Republicans also immediately forced a vote on President Barack Obama’s February budget proposal, which opened to chilly reviews for failing to aggressively tackle issues such as the long-term future of benefit programs including Medicare and Social Security. Democrats joined Republicans in opposing the plan.
      The decision by Democrats not to advance a budget spares them from a process that would expose rifts within the party over taxes and how far to cut spending on federal benefit programs. It also spares Democrats from a full slate of politically difficult votes.
      Republicans have been blasting Democrats for their failure to produce a budget, saying they’re not living up to their responsibility as the Senate’s majority party.
      “At a moment when our debts and deficits threaten the very future of our nation, Democrats have no excuse for proposing no vision of their own,” Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said.
      The top Republican on the Budget Committee, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, hasn’t offered an alternative, either, although conservative Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Paul offered stringent plans that would bring the budget into balance.
  
  Obama says West still has a world leadership role
      LONDON - President Barack Obama stood in the historic grandeur of Westminster Hall and told England and the world that the growing influence of nations like India, China and Brazil doesn’t mean a diminished role for the U.S. and its European allies.
      “The time for our leadership is now,” Obama declared to members of Parliament, who for the first time gave a U.S. president the honor of addressing them from the 900-year-old hall.    “If we fail to meet that responsibility, who would take our place, and what kind of world would we pass on?”    Obama’s message that U.S. and Europe remain vital on the world stage is one he is sure to carry with him as he heads next to Deauville, France, for a two day summit of the world’s top industrial nations.
  
  Stocks up as crude tops $101 a barrel - Fears about global recovery pace offset by Associated Press
      Stocks closed higher Wednesday for the first day this week as rising oil prices offset worries about the pace of the global economic recovery.    Oil rose nearly $2 to settle at $101.32 per barrel, pushing energy stocks higher.
      Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. led the S&P 500, rising 7 percent. Higher prices for copper, silver and other commodities lifted mine and other material companies. Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. gained 2 percent.
      The Dow Jones industrial average rose 38.45 points to close at 12,394.66. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 4.19 to 1,320.47, and the Nasdaq composite rose 15.22 to 2,761.38.
      Markets have been battered in recent days by new worries over Europe’s debt crisis.    The last time stocks closed higher was Thursday, when investors welcomed a blockbuster initial public offering by the social networking site LinkedIn.
      Greece’s government and opposition party failed to agree Tuesday on how to pare the country’s debts, adding to the uncertainty surrounding Greece’s financial future.    Many analysts believe Greece will eventually have to restructure its debt, possibly by extending interest payments or lowering interest rates.
      Without that restructuring, Greece might default.    That would cause a domino effect, raising borrowing rates for larger European countries and hampering the world economy.
      Japan’s government reported that the country’s exports fell by 12.5 percent in April after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami closed factories and forced manufacturers to stop production.    Japan’s auto shipments were particularly hurt, dropping 67 percent.
      The report added to concerns that the global economy is a long way from returning to health.
      The drop in Japanese exports hit orders for long-lasting goods in the U.S.    The Commerce Department said companies ordered fewer computers, heavy machines, cars and airplanes from factories in April.    The 3.8 percent drop was the biggest in 6 months, reflecting a decline in U.S. business invest-ment.
      Stocks had been on a steady climb since last August until the Japanese catastrophe shook global financial markets in March.    Strong corporate earnings sent stocks back up in April, but markets have stalled in the past three weeks.    The S&P 500 closed at1,363 on April 29, its highest level of the year, and has drifted lower ever since.
      Some analysts say the market may have been rising too far, too fast since the beginning of the year, making stocks seem expensive.    The Dow is still up 7 percent for the year.
  
  Oil settles higher as pump prices slide by Associated Press
      Oil climbed above $101.32 per barrel Wednesday as investors cheered a sharp rise in refining activity in the U.S.    Meanwhile the nation’s gasoline supplies increased and pump prices continued to slide.    Oil rose after the government reported that refinery utilization grew to 86.3 percent last week, up from 83.2 percent the week before.    The increased activity came mainly in the Midwest, where benchmark crude is delivered.    Barclays Capital said crude demand could pick up this summer as power shortages in China worsen.
  
  
• 5/27/2011
  
  $690 billion defense bill advances - In House, measure receives green light by Donna Cassata, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — The Republican- controlled House overwhelmingly passed a $690 billion defense bill Thursday that would limit President Barack Obama’s authority on reducing nuclear weapons and deciding the fate of terrorist suspects.
      Voting 322-96, the House approved the broad defense blueprint, which would provide a 1.6 percent increase in military pay; fund an array of aircraft, ships and submarines; and increase health care fees slightly for working-age military retirees.    The bill meets the Pentagon’s request for $119 billion to fight the wars in Iraq and Af-ghanistan.
      Final passage came shortly after the House narrowly rejected a measure requiring an accelerated timetable and exit strategy for withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan nearly 10 years after the conflict began.
      Obama will begin drawing down some of the 100,000 troops in Afghanistan in July, with all combat forces due out by 2014.    Supporters of the measure, which came up short on a 215-204 vote, said it sends the strongest signal yet to Obama that the initial troop reduction must be more than a token cut.    “It’s more than people are weary,” Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., sponsor of the amendment, said shortly after the vote.    “They’re frustrated and not quite sure what we’re doing there.    We got (Osama) bin Laden.”
      In another sign of exasperation with war, the House overwhelmingly backed a addition to the bill barring any taxpayer dollars for U.S. ground forces or private security contractors in Libya, with the exception of those involved in res-cue missions of U.S. service members.    The vote was 416-5.
      Lawmakers have complained that Obama violated the 1972 War Powers Resolution, failing to seek congressional authorization for the U.S. military operation in Libya.    Obama recently said the U.S. involvement is limited in the NATO-led operation.    He also has said he would not send ground forces to Libya.
      The House bill must be reconciled with a Senate version.    The Senate Armed Services Committee will begin crafting its bill the week of June 13.
      Drawing the threat of a presidential veto, the House bill would limit Obama’s authority to transfer terrorist suspects from the U.S. naval facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to installations in the U.S.
  
  Russian dissent on Libya splits G-8 - Arab issues eclipse economy at summit by Angela Charlton, Associated Press
      DEAUVILLE, France — France says Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi must leave power now, and Britain calls him an appalling dictator, but Russia says NATO has gone too far in its bombing campaign against Gadhafi’s forces.
      Escalating violence in Libya worried a gathering of rich world leaders as much or more than their own debts and joblessness, but they could not agree Thursday on how to punish Libya’s leader or restore peace, highlighting the difficulty in making sure Arab uprisings have peaceful endings.
      In a possible bid to soften Russian resistance to the NATO-led airstrikes, Group of Eight leaders asked Moscow to act as a “mediator” with Libya, according to President Dmitry Medvedev’s spokes-woman.    Natalya Timakova did not elaborate on what kind of role that could be, in comments carried on Russian news agencies.
      President Barack Obama “is leading that initiative to work with the Russians” on Libya, said Mi-chael McFaul, Russia adviser at the National Security Council.
      Obama’s deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, told reporters, “Russia has relations, not just in Libya but across most of North Africa. … We can benefit from those types of consultations and contacts with them.”
      Medvedev met with Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in the Normandy resort of Deauville in a G-8 summit dominated by talk of upheaval in the Arab world.    That overshadowed concerns about deficits and joblessness in the Group of Eight nations: the United States, France, Britain, Russia, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada.
      At talks today, G-8 leaders plan to marshal their combined economic might behind the grassroots democracy movements in Egypt and Tunisia, which overthrew autocrats but also scared off tourists and investors and threaten economic growth.
  
  Major economies growing more slowly
      From the U.S. to Europe and even to booming China, the global economic recovery shows signs of strain.    Most major economies are expected to keep growing, but evidence is mounting that many are struggling to expand as fast as they did last year.
      In China, interest-rate increases intended to slow inflation are hampering growth     European governments are struggling with debt.
  
  
• 5/28/2011
  
  Russia: Gadhafi must go - Former ally offers to mediate exit from Libya by Angela Charlton, Associated Press
      DEAUVILLE, France — Russia abandoned one-time ally Moammar Gadhafi and offered Friday to mediate a deal for the Libyan leader to leave the nation he’s ruled for more than 40 years.
      The striking proposal by a leading critic of the NATO bombing campaign reflects growing global frustration with the Libyan crisis and a desire by the Kremlin for influence in the rapidly changing Arab landscape.    With Gadhafi increasingly isolated and NATO jets intensifying attacks, Russia might also be eyeing Libya’s oil and gas and preparing for the prospect that the lucrative Libyan market will fall into rebel control.
      Early today, two NATO air strikes shook the Libyan capital, Tripoli.    It was not immediately clear what was targeted.
      “He should leave,” Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said of Gadhafi.    “I proposed our mediation … to my partners. Everyone thinks that would be useful.”
      The proposal thrust Medvedev into the spotlight at a summit in France of the Group of Eight rich nations.    Talk of this year’s Arab world uprisings has dominated the summit.    Analysts question whether Russia still has any leverage over Gadhafi, and the leaders of France, Britain and Germany said there’s no point in negotiating directly with the Libyan leader himself.
      “If Gadhafi makes this decision, which will be beneficial for the country and the people of Libya, then it will be possible to discuss the form of his departure, what country may accept him and on what terms, and what he may keep and what he must lose,” Medvedev told reporters.
      South African President Jacob Zuma is also using his party’s ties to Gadhafi to work toward a peaceful outcome, heading to Libya on behalf of the African Union.
  
  G8 supports Arab democracies - $40 billion may grease transitions by Jamey Keaten and Greg Keller, Associated Press
      DEAUVILLE, France — Rich countries and international lenders want to provide $40 billion for Arab nations trying to establish true democracies, officials said at a Group of Eight summit Friday.
      They didn’t fully detail the sources of the money or how it would be used, but the thrust was clearly to underpin democracy in Egypt and Tunisia — where huge public uprisings ousted autocratic regimes this year — and put pres-sure on repressive rulers in Syria and Libya.
      The overall message from President Barack Obama and the other G-8 leaders appeared to warn au-tocratic regimes in the Arab world that they will be shut out of aid and investment, while new democracies are encouraged to open their economies.
      On war-torn Libya, European leaders sought to wield carrot and stick.    French President Nicolas Sarkozy insisted NATO was ratcheting up military pressure against Moammar Gadhafi’s embattled regime, just as British Prime Minister David Cameron said Libya could get a cut of aid if Gadhafi goes.
      “This support will initially be available to Egypt and Tunisia, but will ultimately be there for any country that embraces the path to democracy and reform — and of course that could include, for example, Libya,” Cameron said.    Tunisia’s finance minister said Sarkozy floated the $40 billion figure at talks Friday, in which the prime ministers of Tunisia and Egypt joined the G-8 leaders to seek help after the uprisings scared away tourists and investors.    A French official says $40 billion is the overall goal, but that breakdowns by country and time-tables are still under discussion.    The official was not authorized to be publicly named according to his office policy.
      A group statement from the G-8 leaders said that $20 billion from international development banks could go to Egypt and Tunisia over the next three years.
      Another $10 billion is to come from Persian Gulf countries, and the rest in bilateral aid from other countries, including 1 billion from France, Sarkozy said.
  
  MIDEAST ACTION
  • YEMEN: Yemeni security officials say that hundreds of Islamic militants have seized control of a southern city, killing eight policemen and two civilians in gunfights.    The men took over two banks in Zinjibar as well as the city’s tax bureau and two security offices.    Tribesmen seize a Republican Guard military camp in battles that left dozens dead and prompted airstrikes by government warplanes.
  • LEBANON: A roadside bomb rips through a U.N. convoy carrying Italian peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, wounding six of them in the first such attack since 2008.        Italian Gen. Santi Bonfanti, serving as the second-in-command of the mission known as UNIFIL, rules out suspicions that the blast was specifically targeting Italian forces.    He says that two soldiers underwent surgery.    The explosion strikes as the peacekeepers’ vehicles travel south on the main highway in Sidon.
  • SYRIA: Syrian security forces open fire on anti-government demonstrations, killing at least eight people as thousands take to the streets again Friday despite the near certainty they would face gunfire, tear gas and stun guns, human rights activists and witnesses say.    Protests erupt in the capital, Damascus; the coastal city of Banias; the central city of Homs; and elsewhere.
  • EGYPT: About 10,000 protesters return to downtown Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Friday for what they call a “second revolution” — calling for Egypt’s military rulers to speed up the pace of democratic reforms in a country that is still mapping out its political future.    The protesters carry banners reading “Egyptian revolution is not over” and chant the slogan.    They also call for the speedy trial of ousted President Hosni Mubarak and high-ranking members of his regime.
  • GAZA STRIP: The opening of the Gaza Strip’s main gateway to the outside world this weekend provides a long-awaited relief for its population and hands the Palestinian territory’s Hamas rulers a significant achievement.    But it highlights the deterioration in Egypt’s relations with Israel since protesters forced Mubarak from office in February.    Egypt’s plans to open the Rafah crossing on the nation’s border with Gaza today have prompted Israel’s concerns that Hamas militants would be able to move more freely in and out of the long blockaded territory.
  
  Police, protesters clash; more than 100 injured
      BARCELONA, SPAIN - Riot police firing rubber bullets and wielding clubs clashed with protesters Friday as authorities cleared away a makeshift camp set up as part of a national demonstration against Spain’s economic problems.    More than 100 people were hurt.
      The trouble began when police tried to clear protesters from a main square in Barcelona so sanitation workers could clean it before possible celebrations after a soccer match tonight.
      Many of the protesters, angry over high unemployment, anti-austerity measures and politicians’ handling of the economy, refused to move.    TV images showed officers beating the demonstrators and dragging them on the ground.    Some wound up with bloodied hands and heads, or broken limbs.
      Felip Puig, spokesman for Catalonia’s regional Interior Ministry, said 84 protesters and 37 police were hurt.    He didn’t say how many had been arrested.
  
  Oil up slightly heading into holiday weekend by Paul Sakuma, Associated Press
      Crude oil added 36 cents to settle at $100.59 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Friday.
      Demand for oil and gasoline has been falling, and a Friday report indicated high gas prices have affected other facets of U.S. consumer spending. Still, analysts believe investors were cautious about selling ahead of a long holiday break.    Energy experts say Libya’s 1.5 million barrels of daily oil exports will remain offline for at least several months.    That puts pressure on other oil producers to make up the difference.
  
  Greeks clash on austerity measures
      The European Union’s top finance official urged political leaders in debt-ridden Greece to quickly agree on further austerity measures, but a new government bid to reach a consensus on that issue failed Friday.
      EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said cross-party talks in Athens must continue, despite the main opposition conservatives’ refusal to endorse more cutbacks.
      The commissioner’s warning came after Greek conservative leader Antonis Samaras refused to bend to EU pressure after a crisis meeting.
  
  
• 5/31/2011
  
  Europe checks vegetables after E. coli outbreak
      BRUSSELS - Europeans traded blame Monday over the source of a mysterious bacterial outbreak that has killed 14 people in Germany, sickened hundreds across the continent and forced Russia to ban imports of some fresh vegetables from Spain and Germany.
      Austrian authorities sent inspectors to supermarkets to make sure Spanish vegetables suspected of contamination with enterohaemorrhagic E.coli, also known as EHEC, have been taken off shelves.    Italian authorities have also been checking for suspected contaminated imports.
      Spain said there was no proof that its vegetables are to blame for the outbreak.
  
  Battery production halted after 172 poisoned
      SHANGHAI - China has detained 74 people and suspended production at hundreds of battery factories in a widening crackdown on heavy metals pollution after 172 people were sickened by lead and cadmium poisoning near a battery factory in the city of Taizhou.
  
  Syrians in 2 towns battle government forces
      BEIRUT - Residents used automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades to repel advancing government troops in central Syria on Monday, putting up a fierce fight for the first time in their two-month-old revolt against President Bashar Assad’s autocratic regime.    Until now, the opposition to Assad has taken the form of peaceful protests by unarmed demonstrators.    Activists said residents of the towns of Talbiseh and Rastan, which have been under attack since Sunday, fought back with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, and at least four civilians were killed.
  
  
• 6/1/2011
  
  House rejects increasing debt limit - GOP stresses goal of spending cuts by David Espo, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — House Republicans defeated their own proposal for a $2.4 trillion increase in the nation’s debt limit Tuesday, a political gambit designed to reinforce a demand for spending cuts to accompany any increase in government borrowing.    The vote was 97 in favor of the measure and 318 against. All 97 votes in favor were cast by Democrats.    House Democrats accused the GOP of political demagoguery, while the Obama administration maneuvered to avoid taking sides — or giving offense to majority Republicans.    Private negotiations continue among the administration and key lawmakers on the deficit cuts Republicans have demanded.
      The bill “will and must fail,” said Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., the House Ways and Means Commit-tee chairman who noted he had helped write the very measure he was criticizing.    “I consider defeating an unconditional increase to be a success because it sends a clear and critical message that the Congress has finally recognized we must immediately begin to rein in America’s affection for deficit spending,” he said.
      But Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., accused Republicans of a “ploy so egregious that (they) have had to spend the last week pleading with Wall Street not to take it seriously and risk our economic recovery.”
      He and other Democrats added that Republicans were attempting to draw attention away from their plan to turn Medicare into a program in which seniors purchase private insurance coverage.
      The proceedings occurred roughly two months before the date Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has said the debt limit must be raised. If no action is taken by Aug. 2, he has warned, the government could default on its obligations and risk turmoil that might plunge the nation into another recession or even an economic depression.    The government has already reached the limit of its borrowing authority, $14.3 trillion, and the Treasury is using a series of ex-traordinary maneuvers to meet financial obligations.    Republicans, who are scheduled to meet with Obama at the White House today, signaled in advance that the debt limit vote did not portend a final refusal to grant an increase.
      The vote satisfied what GOP officials said was a desire among the rank and file to vote against unpopular legislation the leadership has said eventually must pass in some form.
      At the same time, the Obama administration and congressional leaders are trying to produce a deficit-reduction agreement in excess of $1 trillion to meet Republican demands for spending cuts.
  
  Wheat drops as Russia acts to resume export by Associated Press
      Wheat prices plummeted 4.6 percent Tuesday after Russia said it will begin exporting wheat again, nearly a year after a drought destroyed more than one-third of its crop.
      The ban on wheat exports will end July 1.    Russia said its winter wheat harvest was good and spring planting was 10 percent ahead of where it was this time last year.
      The news came just as global wheat supplies have been tightening.    The weather has been either too dry or two wet for ideal growing conditions in parts of the United States, Europe and Canada.
  
  
• 6/2/2011
  
  GOP, White House trade fire on Medicare, spending
      WASHINGTON - Face to face at the White House, GOP leaders complained to President Barack Obama on Wednesday that he hadn’t offered a detailed plan of spending cuts and accused him of playing politics over Medicare as the nation careens toward a debt crisis.    The White House said Obama has in fact led on the issue and made clear that he has no intention of dropping what Democrats believe is a winning political issue: accusing the GOP of trying to end the popular health care program for seniors.    Republicans said their plan would save Medicare, not end it; they accuse Obama of failing to present any plans to preserve Medicare or drive down deficits.
      At the heart of the dispute is an Aug. 2 deadline to raise the government’s borrowing limit or risk an unprecedented credit default the White House and even many Republicans say would be disastrous for the U.S. economy.
  
  Gas prices rise in Louisville by The Courier-Journal
      Louisville-area gas prices rose Wednesday to $3.96 at many stations after spending much of the past two weeks drifting lower.
      The jump, which brought the Louisville-area average to $3.83, followed Tuesday’s rise in prices for New York-traded oil contracts to above $102 per barrel for the first time since earlier this month.    Oil prices retreated on Wednesday.    Gasoline in Louisville hit a recent high average price of $4.11on May 12.
  
  Oil retreats amid fears of weakened recovery by Associated Press
      Oil gave back the gains it made in the past few trading days on Wednesday after discouraging economic news.    Crude oil lost $2.41 to settle at $100.29 per barrel Wednesday Prices slipped after reports showed U.S. motorists buying less fuel, private employers adding fewer jobs than expected and U.S. manufacturing growth slowing.    Oil has wavered around $100 per barrel during the past few weeks. It’s come down from highs set in early May following concerns that high fuel prices were putting too much pressure on the economy.
  
  Google says Chinese hackers hit Gmail
      Computer hackers in China broke into the Gmail accounts of several hundred people, including senior U.S. government officials, military personnel and political activists, Google said Wednesday.
      The attacks aren’t believed to be tied to a more sophisticated assault originating from China in late 2009 and early last year.    That intrusion targeted Google’s own security systems and triggered a high-profile battle with China’s Communist government over online censorship, which has made it more difficult for the company to do business in the world’s most populous country.
      The latest duplicity, centered on Jinan, China, appeared to rely on so-called “phishing” scams and other underhanded behavior that hackers often use to obtain passwords.
  
  Auto bailouts to cost taxpayers $14 billion
      Taxpayers will lose about $14 billion in the government’s $80 billion bailout of Chrysler and GM, the White House said Wednesday, portraying the outcome as good news since the losses are far lower than originally anticipated.
      Seizing on the figures, the Obama administration took credit for the resurgence of the U.S. auto industry, assuring taxpayers that the government’s bailout of Chrysler and GM was an investment worth making.
      A report by the National Economic Council noted that as Detroit automakers rebound, the taxpayers’ loss from the bailout will be about $14 billion, or less than 20 percent of the $80 billion that the Bush and Obama administration used to prop up the companies in 2008.    The Treasury had expected losses closer to 60 percent.
      The report was part of a strategy by the White House to draw attention to an industry that’s on the mend.
  
  
• 6/3/2011
  
  House GOP unveils Libya bill - Measure would continue NATO aid by Donna Cassata, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders unveiled a bill Thursday that would allow the U.S. military to stay in a NATO-led operation against Libya but bar the use of any ground troops except to rescue U.S. service members in im-minent danger.    The legislation said President Barack Obama had failed to give Congress a “compelling rationale” for the U.S. operation in Libya and demanded he do so in writing within14 days.    Republicans said it’s designed to achieve two goals: derail a plan to end U.S. involvement in the Libyan operation and signal unhappiness with the administration’s treatment of Congress.
      In a sharp reply to the criticism, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said that Defense Secretary Robert Gates “believes that for the United States, once committed to a NATO operation, to unilaterally abandon that mission would have enormous and dangerous long-term consequences.”
      Obama ordered air strikes in March to back Libyan rebels battling Moammar Gadhafi’s regime after limited consultation with Congress.    More recently, the U.S. has played a support role.    Obama had ruled out U.S. ground forces.
      The 1973 War Powers Resolution requires the president to obtain congressional authorization 60 days after the start of military operations, a deadline that passed last month.
      Addressing frustration among rank-and-file lawmakers, the GOP leadership put together an alternative to anti-war Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s proposal to end U.S. involvement in the conflict.    A vote on the issue was delayed Wednesday, and officials in both parties said it was because the bill from Kucinich, D-Ohio, was gaining ground.
      House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters earlier in the day that Obama needs to explain the U.S. role in Libya with two ongoing, costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.    The House will vote today on the Kucinich bill and the leadership’s alternative.
      On Thursday, NATO hit Tripoli with a series of air strikes, hitting ammunition depots and a missile launcher.
  
  Commodities mixed on signs of slow growth by Associated Press
      Commodity prices were mixed Thursday as economic reports delivered more signs of slower growth.
      Metals fell across the board, while energy and agriculture products were mostly higher following weak reports on factory production, retail sales and jobless benefit applications.
      Oil prices pared earlier losses and settled up slightly after the government reported an unexpected increase in U.S. supplies.    Benchmark crude for July delivery rose 11 cents to settle at $100.40 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.    It had traded as low as $98.46.
  
  
• 6/4/2011
  
  House demands Libya details - Resolution seeks aims from Obama by Lisa Mascaro, Tribune Washington Bureau
      WASHINGTON — The House voted Friday to require President Barack Obama to swiftly report to Congress on the rationale for continued U.S. military engagement in Libya, launching a potential showdown over federal funding for the NATO-led operation.
      Amid mounting anti-war sentiment in Congress, the House voted 268-145 for the resolution, which also said the administration failed to make its case for military action as required by the War Powers Act.
      By bringing the resolution up for a vote, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, was able to halt momentum for a liberal-led proposal by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, to withdraw U.S. forces from Libya immediately. Kucin-ich’s measure was rejected, 265-148.
      The action came amid growing opposition in Congress to overseas military operations, the reflection of an unusual alliance of the anti-war left and newly energized conservatives that also has surfaced on other national security issues.
      An annual defense spending bill is expected to come before the House in a matter of weeks as deficit-slashing dominates debate in Washington.
      As a result, the administration is likely to face new resistance to funding for its military campaigns.
      “Today’s debate on Libya is the first step,” Boehner said Friday.
      “We’ll take further action in the weeks to come.”
      A bipartisan group of senators has introduced a resolution in that chamber supporting the U.S. military mission in Libya, but it also calls on the president to report to Congress on the policy objectives.
      A White House spokesman called the House resolutions “unnecessary and unhelpful.”
      “The administration believes strongly in the concept of consulting with leaders in Congress,” Josh Earnest, a White House spokesman, told reporters aboard Air Force One en route Toledo, Ohio, where the president was speaking Friday.
      The vote came as Libyan rebels forced government troops from three western towns and broke the siege on another and NATO pounded at least 10 targets across the country.    There was no immediate word on casualties.
      The heavy bombing and rebel victories, plus the first publicized diplomatic contact between China and the rebel leadership, reflect the continued erosion of Moammar Gadhafi’s power since the eruption in mid-February of uprisings to end his 42-year rule.
      Local fighters won control of four towns in the western Nafusa mountain range, where government forces have besieged and randomly shelled rebel-held areas for months, a rebel military leader said Friday.
  
  Oil stays locked in at $100-per-barrel mark by Associated Press
      NEW YORK — Oil seems to be stuck at $100 per barrel.
      Despite a gloomy unemployment report, benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude on Friday settled just about where it began the day: down 18 cents at $100.22 per barrel.    Oil has hovered around the $100 mark since early May.    “It’s like there’s a magnet on that $100 level,” independent oil analyst Jim Ritterbusch said.    “As soon as we get $2, $3 away in either direction, it snaps back.”    AAA said gas prices rose less than a penny Friday to a national average of $3.789 per gallon.
  
  
• 6/5/2011
  
  NATO helicopters hit Gadhafi’s troops by Associated Press
      BENGHAZI, Libya — British Apache and French attack helicopters struck targets for the first time in NATO’s campaign in Libya, hitting Moammar Gadhafi’s troops early Saturday near a key coastal oil town, the alliance said. Hours later, at least eight airstrikes were heard in Tripoli.
      The action was a significant step-up in NATO’s operations and a major boost to Libyan rebels, just a day after rebel fighters forced government troops from three western towns and broke the siege of a fourth in yet another erosion of Gadhafi’s power since the eruption in mid-February of the uprising to end his 42-year rule.
      NATO said the helicopters struck troops trying to hide in populated areas, military vehicles and equip-ment.    Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard, commander of the Libya operation, said the engagement “demonstrates the unique capabilities brought to bear by attack helicopters.”
      Until now, NATO has relied on attack jets pounding Gadhafi targets in relentless overnight bombings.
      The helicopters give the alliance a key advantage in close-up combat, flying at much lower altitudes.
      Eight explosions from a rare daytime NATO attack were heard Saturday afternoon in Libya’s capital.    A Libyan government official said it was not immediately clear what was hit.
  
  Pope Benedict backs Croatia’s EU candidacy
      ZAGREB, CROATIA - Pope Benedict XVI strongly backed Croatia’s bid to join the European Union as he arrived in the Balkan nation Saturday but said he could understand fears among euro skeptics of the EU’s “overly strong” centralized bureaucracy.
      Croatia is deeply Roman Catholic.    Benedict is spending the weekend to mark the Croatian church’s national family day, and he was warmly welcomed by thousands of young Croats who braved a steady rain while waiting for Benedict to arrive for an evening prayer vigil.
  
  
• 6/7/2011
  
  Syria: Attack kills 120 troops - Protesters fear harsh retaliation by Zeina Karam, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — Armed men killed 120 Syrian security forces and torched government buildings Monday in a northern region where troops have unleashed deadly assaults on protesters for days, Syria said.
      The government vowed to respond “decisively,” hinting at an even more brutal crackdown by a regime known for ruthlessly crushing dissent.
      If confirmed, the attack in the north would be a turning point in what so far has largely been a peaceful uprising threatening the 40-year rule of President Bashar Assad and his family.
      Opposition activists were skeptical of the official casualty toll, saying the authorities were setting the stage for a new onslaught.    But even they acknowledged there was fighting, although it was not clear who was involved.
      Communications were cut to the area around Jisr al-Shughour on Monday and the details of the attack were impossible to verify, but there have been unconfirmed reports by activists and residents in the past of Syrians and even mutinous troops fighting back against security forces.    The government described the attackers as “armed gangs,” a phrase it often uses to describe the protesters.
      Adnan Mahmoud, the chief government spokesman, acknowledged that Syrian forces had lost control of some areas for “intermittent periods of time” and said residents had appealed to the army to do what was necessary to restore security.
      “We will deal strongly and decisively, and according to the law, and we will not be silent about any armed attack that targets the security of the state and its citizens,” said Interior Minister Ibrahim Shaar.
      The surprisingly high death toll among pro-regime troops would suggest some sort of major lashback against the crackdown against the uprising — though by whom was unknown because of the seal over the area.    Regardless of who carried out Monday’s attack, it shows new cracks in a rule that has held out through weekly protests of thousands of people.
      Human rights activist Mustafa Osso said there were unconfirmed reports of a few soldiers who switched sides and were defending themselves against attacking security forces, but he said the reports suggest the mutiny is limited and “does not pose a threat to the unity of the army yet.”    “The protesters have so far been peaceful and unarmed,” said Osso.
      A Syrian activist speaking on condition of anonymity said there were unconfirmed reports of infighting between security forces.    “The situation is very foggy, it is unclear who is doing the shooting, but the situation is very serious and appears to be getting out of control,” he said.    He said there were fears the army was preparing a major attack.    Before Monday’s killings, the government and some human rights groups had said more than 160 soldiers and security forces had died in the uprising.
      Monday’s state television report said the officers were ambushed as they responded to calls from resi-dents for protection from the armed groups.    It said 20 policemen were initially killed, and then the groups blew up a post office and attacked a security post, killing other forces.
      The report said the armed groups were hiding in homes and firing at security forces and civilians alike, using residents as human shields.
      The government’s unusual admission of the death toll and loss of control appeared to set the stage for an even stronger action to crush a popular uprising that began in mid-March and poses a potent threat to the Assad regime.    Jisr al-Shughour, about 12 miles from the Turkish border, has been the latest focus of Syria’s military, whose nationwide crackdown on the revolt has left more than 1,200 Syrians dead, activists say.    The town was a stronghold of the country’s banned Muslim Brotherhood in the 1980s.    Human rights groups said at least 42 civilians have been killed there since Saturday.    The TV reports could not be independently confirmed.    The Syrian government has severely restricted the media and expelled foreign reporters, making it nearly impossible to independently verify events.
  
  
  MIDEAST DEVELOPMENTS
  • LIBYA: Rebels have detained dozens of civilians suspected of supporting ruler Moammar Gadhafi and at least one has died after apparently being tortured while in custody, Human Rights Watch said Monday.    Also, NATO launched airstrikes in and around Tripoli.
  • YEMEN: A top official said President Ali Abdullah Saleh, recovering in Saudi Arabia from wounds suffered in a rocket attack, would return home within days, a step almost certain to reignite violence.
  
  Greece faces new spending cuts, tax hikes - Referendum may be held on plan by Associated Press
      ATHENS, Greece — Greece’s prime minister said Monday he will consider holding a referendum on additional cutbacks essential for the loan-dependent country to continue drawing on funds from an international bailout, amid persistent anti-austerity protests.
      “I am prepared, for the great changes that we are putting forward, to use even the institution of a referendum, for the broadest possible consent or opinion,” George Papandreou told his ministers during an informal Cabinet meeting that ran for more than seven hours.    Papandreou has been trying to quell dissent within his own governing Socialists as well as widespread anger among Greeks furious that a year’s worth of painful cutbacks have failed to produce the expected results.
      Thousands of people have held peaceful protests outside Parliament in Athens for nearly two weeks, and frustration increased as it became apparent that the government has to impose more spending cuts and tax increases.
      In statements during the meeting and released by his office, Papandreou said he had asked the interior minister to set up legislative conditions that would allow such a move “when it is needed.”    He gave no further details.
      The new plans — $9.3 billion in remedial measures this year and a $32.1 billion package through 2015 — are required if Greece is to continue receiving money from last year’s $160.6 billion program of rescue loans from the International Monetary Fund and other countries that use the euro.    Greece apparently will need more money to cover a funding gap next year and prevent the country from defaulting on its debts.
      Last week, debt monitors from the European Union and IMF said Greece should receive the next $17.5 billion installment of the bailout in early July as long as additional austerity and privatization measures are deemed sufficient.    A final decision is to be taken by the IMF board and the euro zone’s finance ministers later this month.
      But Papandreou, whose PASOK party has a majority of six seats in the 300-member Parliament, faced a potential rebellion from within the Socialists.    Last week, 16 PASOK deputies signed a letter demanding an extensive debate on the measures before they are ratified, with one deputy threatening during an interview on state television not to vote for the reforms otherwise.    A formal cabinet meeting is expected to decide on the new measures Wednesday, and the package will then go to Parliament for ratification later this month.
  
  Oil drops below $100 ahead of OPEC talks by Associated Press
      Oil fell below $100 a barrel Monday as investors and economists await a key OPEC meeting this week and the government’s outlook on U.S. supply and demand.
      Crude lost $1.21 to settle at $99.01 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.    OPEC ministers meeting Wednesday could decide to try to push oil prices lower by increasing production. OPEC officials have said that they believe oil prices are too high and threaten global economic recovery.
  
  
• 6/8/2011
  
  Slowing economy has Obama ‘concerned’ - He urges calm; 59% in poll disapprove of his handling by Martin Crutsinger and Christopher S. Rugaber, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — With few options at hand and his poll numbers sagging, President Barack Obama expressed concern Tuesday about the sudden slowdown in the economy but said he is not worried about a second recession and the nation should “not panic.”
      Obama spoke about the new economic trouble in detail for the first time since a report last week showed job growth slowed sharply in May.    He tried to reassure Americans worried about high unemployment and expensive gas that the U.S. is on a slow, if not steady, path to recovery.
      “I am concerned about the fact that the recovery that we’re on is not producing jobs as quickly as I want it to happen,” Obama said at an appearance with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.    “We don’t yet know whether this is a one-month episode or a longer trend.”
      Either way, there appears to be little Washington can do about it.    Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke, speaking Tuesday in Atlanta, said the economy has lost momentum but said nothing to suggest the Fed was about to take any bold new action to further shore it up.
      And with lawmakers fighting over the nation’s budget deficit and long-term debt, there is no political appetite for a second major federal stimulus bill like the one passed by Congress in 2009.    But Obama is also confronted with figures challenging both the recovery and his re-election.    Disapproval of Obama’s handling of the economy is at a record high, 59 percent, according to a Washington PostABC News survey released as the field of Republican challengers begins to take shape.
  
  Good news for Romney
      The poll found that Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney are tied among all Americans in a hypothetical race for president. It gave Romney a slight edge, less than the margin of error, among registered voters.
      The poll asked Republicans and GOP-leaning independents whom they would vote for if a primary or caucus were held now in their state.    Romney topped the list, with 21 percent, followed by Sarah Palin — who has not entered the race — at 17 percent. No one else reached double digits.
      In another indicator of rapidly shifting views on economic issues, 45 percent of poll respondents trust congressional Republicans over the president when it comes to dealing with the economy, an 11-point improvement for the GOP since March.    Still, nearly as many, 42 percent, side with Obama on this issue.
      Seventeen months before the election, unemployment is 9.1 percent. When Obama took office, it was 7.8 percent. Most economists think the rate will be above 8 percent at election time next year.    No president since World War II has been reelected with unemployment higher than 7.2 percent.
      The day brought the latest in a stream of downbeat economic news, a government report that said busi-nesses advertised fewer job openings in April than in March.    There were 4.6 unemployed people, on aver-age, for each available job in April. In a healthy economy, the ratio is more like 2 to 1.
      Recoveries are often uneven, Obama and his advisers note, especially after severe downturns like the re-cent recession.    The president noted that hiring had been robust for three straight months before the bleak jobs report for May.
      He promoted steps the administration has already taken, such as tax breaks for business investment, and a long-term agenda of debt reduction and spending on education, infrastructure and energy research.
      At a time of high public concern about the economy, discouraging data can make people wonder, “Well, are we going to go back to this terrible crisis?” Obama said.    “And that affects consumer confidence, and it affects business confidence, it affects the capital market.    And so our task is to not panic.”
      In his Atlanta speech, Bernanke stuck to his assertion that the economy’s toughest challenges, notably high gas prices that have squeezed family budgets, are probably temporary.    He noted that households are struggling with higher food and energy prices, falling home prices, tighter lending rules and high unemployment.
  
  Stronger second half?
      But he said gas prices should ease in coming months, along with the economic effects of the Japan earthquake and nuclear crisis.    Once they do, growth is likely to pick up somewhat in the second half of the year, he said.
      “There is not much evidence that inflation is becoming broad-based or ingrained in our economy,” Bernanke said.
      The Fed is about to end its $600 billion program to keep interest rates low by buying federal bonds.    Bernanke’s remarks were an acknowledgment that there isn’t much more the Fed can or will do in the near future.    “We are at a crossroads in terms of Fed policy,” said David Jones, president of DMJ Advisors, a Denver-based consulting firm and the author of books on the Federal Reserve.    “The Fed can do very little in addition to what they have already done in terms of boosting growth.    The trade-off for any minimal help in reducing unemployment would be far outweighed by increased risks to inflation.”
      The economy slowed to a weak 1.8 percent annual growth rate in the first quarter.    Jones said he thinks growth is strengthening only slightly in the current quarter, to about 2.25 percent.    He said he expects growth for the full year to be around 3 percent, about the same as last year.    That’s far less than what’s needed to drive the unemployment rate down more quickly.
      Some worry that the end of the bond-buying program could cause interest rates to creep up, making it more expensive for people and businesses to borrow and spend.    But the Fed is not ending its purchases of bonds.    It will still be the biggest buyer, reinvesting in Treasury bonds as its existing treasury holdings come due. That could help keep interest rates low.
      If the economic growth stopped completely, there are more drastic steps the Fed and Congress could take to forestall a second recession, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.    Among those options, he said, would be extending this year’s Social Security tax cut, which is giving most households $1,000 to $2,000; extending unemployment insurance; and extending a business tax break for investment.
  
  Syrian activists credit mutiny in troop deaths - Regime admits losing grip on area by Zeina Karam, Associated Press
      Syrian soldiers and loss of control over a tense northern town appeared to show extraordinary cracks in an autocratic regime that has long prided itself on its iron control.
      Details about the events in Jisr al-Shughour remained murky on Tuesday.    The government said 120 troops were dead, without explaining the enormous loss of life, and acknowledged losing “intermit-tent” control of the area.
      But reports from residents and activists were the clearest sign yet that the weekly protests of thousands of Syrians are eroding President Bashar Assad’s grip.
      Activists and residents of Jisr al-Shughour told The Associated Press that a number of soldiers joined forces with protesters after days of crackdowns in the region, leading to fighting with officers and security guards in which doz-ens were killed.
      The Jisr al-Shughour resident said people were fleeing the area for the Turkish border about 12 miles away, fearing retaliation from a regime known for ruthlessly crushing dissent.    The government vowed Monday to respond “decisively” to the violence there.
      An alleged army deserter identifying himself as Lt. Abdul-Razzaq Tlass appeared on the Al-Jazeera television network Tuesday, saying he was deserting because of the regime’s “crimes” all over the country.    He called on other officers to protect protesters against the regime.
      Jisr al-Shughour drew the most recent assault by Syria’s military, whose nationwide crackdown on the revolt against Assad has left more than 1,300 Syrians dead, activists say.    A resident said tensions began last week with snipers and security forces firing repeatedly on peaceful protests and then funerals, killing around 30 people.
      The resident said a number of soldiers ultimately defected, angered by the thuggish behavior of pro-government gunmen known as “Shabiha,” a fearsome name that some believe has roots in the Arabic word for “ghost.”
      The resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared reprisals, said the gunmen were terrorizing residents and trying to stir up sectarian tensions.
      Some activists also told of a mutiny, with a few soldiers switching sides and defending themselves against attacking security forces.    Other reports said many Syrians also took up arms to defend them-selves.
  
  Crude oil holds steady before OPEC meeting by Associated Press
      Oil stayed around $99 per barrel Tuesday as investors awaited OPEC’s response to the recent surge in fuel prices.
      The 12-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will meet in Vienna today for the first time since a rash of anti-government uprisings swept through North Africa and the Middle East, threatening production.
      Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members have cranked up oil operations to offset the loss of 1.5 million barrels of daily Libyan exports.    Crude added 8 cents to settle at $99.09 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
  
  
• 6/9/2011
  
  Judges wary of health care law - Appeals panel has tough questions by David G. Savage, Tribune Washington Bureau
      ATLANTA— A top Obama administration lawyer defending last year’s health care law ran into skeptical questions Wednesday from three federal judges here, who suggested they may be ready to declare all or part of the law un-constitutional.
      Acting U.S. Solicitor General Neal K. Katyal faced off against former Bush administration Solicitor General Paul Clement in what has become the largest and broadest challenge to the health care law.    In all, 26 states and the National Federation of Independent Business joined in urging the judges to strike down the law.
      In an ominous sign for the administration, the judges opened the arguments by saying they knew of no case in American history where the courts had upheld the government’s power to force someone to buy a product.
      That argument is at the heart of the constitutional challenge to the health care law and its mandate that nearly all Americans have health insurance by 2014.
      “I can’t find any case like this,” said Chief Judge Joel Dubina of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.    “If we uphold this, are there any limits” on the power of the federal government, he asked.
      Judge Stanley Marcus appeared to agree.    “I can’t find any case” in the past where the courts upheld “telling a private person they are compelled to purchase a product in the open market. … Is there anything that suggests Congress can do this?”
      Katyal argued that health care is unique and unlike purchasing other products, such as vegetables in a grocery store.    “You can walk out of this courtroom and be hit by a bus,” he said.    And if such a person has no insurance, a hospital and the taxpayers will have to pay the costs of his emergency care, he said.
      Katyal argued that Congress could reasonably decide that since everyone will likely need medical care at some time in their lives, everyone who can afford it should pay part of the cost.    And he said the courts should uphold the law under Congress’ broad power to regulate commerce in this country.
      Judge Frank Hull, the third member of the panel, repeatedly asked the lawyers about the possible effect of the court striking down the insurance mandate while upholding the rest of the law.    Hull said the government had exaggerated the importance of the mandate.    It will affect about 10 million people at most, not the roughly 50 million who are uninsured now.    Hull said the other parts of the law will extend insurance to tens of millions of people.
      The Atlanta court is reviewing a decision by U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson in Pensacola, Fla. In January, he struck down the entire 2,700-page law as unconstitutional.
  
  Iran: Nuclear output will triple after facility move
      TEHRAN - Iran is moving its production of higher-enriched uranium to a mountain bunker where it plans to triple output by using more advanced centrifuges, state television reported Wednesday.
      Iran says the declaration is a response to a letter Friday from Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which reiterated “concerns about the possible military dimensions” of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear energy program.
  
  Gadhafi hits rebels as NATO ups airstrikes - Shelling leaves 10 rebels dead by Diaa Hadid and Mike Corder, Associated Press
      TRIPOLI, Libya — Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, increasingly cornered under an upturn in NATO air-strikes, lashed back with renewed shelling of the western city of Misrata on Wednesday, killing 10 rebel fighters.
      The international alliance said it remains determined to keep pounding Gadhafi forces from the air.    But it said it would play no military role in the transition to democratic rule in oil-rich North African country once the leader’s 42-year rule ends.
      In Brussels, NATO Secretary- General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Gadhafi’s days in power are clearly numbered, making it imperative for the international community, the United Nations in particular, to gear up to help Libyans establish a new government.
      “For Gadhafi, it is no longer a question of if he goes, but when he goes,” Fogh Rasmussen told defense ministers from the 28 members of the North Atlantic military alliance.    “We do not see a lead role for NATO in Libya once this crisis is over,” he said.    “We see the United Nations playing a lead role in the post-Gadhafi, post-conflict scenario.”
      The alliance said it was acting in the skies over Libya purely in accordance with the U.N. mandate to protect the Libyan people from Gadhafi.    The resolution did not include any involvement in post-conflict peacekeeping.
      U.S. officials said Defense Secretary Robert Gates pointedly prodded five allied nations to share more of the burden of the NATO-led air campaign against Libya.    None committed to do more.    The officials said Gates used his final NATO meeting before retirement to press Germany and Poland to join the military intervention, and Spain, Turkey and the Netherlands to contribute to strike missions against ground targets.
      Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said NATO is determined to see the end of Gadhafi’s rule.    During a visit to Cairo, he reminded reporters of NATO’s decision over the weekend to extend the Libyan mission for 90 days, into late September.
      “I think it’s very clear that NATO is very committed to this mission and committed to providing the kind of protection for the Libyan people that it has when it took the mission on and to focusing on a way to see Gadhafi out the door,” he said.
  
  
  MIDEAST ACTION
  • SYRIA: Thousands of elite troops led by Syrian President Bashar Assad’s brother converge on a restive northern area.    Syrian forces have lost control of large areas of the northern province, a pro-government newspaper reports, after weeks of protest calling for an end to the regime’s 40-year rule.    The reports raise the prospect of more bloodshed in Syria’s crackdown.    The region borders Turkey, which says it would open the border to fleeing Syrians.
  • YEMEN: Hundreds of armed tribesmen have taken control of part of Yemen’s second-largest city, Taiz, security officials say.    The advance on Taiz shows the government’s already tenuous control over the country has slipped further since President Ali Abdullah Saleh was wounded in a rocket attack and left for medical care in neighboring Saudi Arabia.    Security officials say Taiz, a city of about a million 150 miles south of Sanaa, is quiet after two days of fighting.
  • TUNISIA: Tunisia will hold an election Oct. 23, not in July as planned, because conditions are not yet right for the first vote since the ouster of its autocratic president, the prime minister says.    Tunisia’s fledgling experiment with democracy is being closely watched because the popular uprising there sparked pro-democracy revolts around the region.
  
  Paul wants foreign policy restrained - He calls for vote on Libyan action by James R. Carroll , The Courier-Journal
      WASHINGTON — Sen. Rand Paul on Wednesday urged “a more restrained” foreign policy for the United States, one that recognizes constitutional constraints and the need to cut costs.
      Arguing for a congressional vote on the U.S. military action in Libya, the Kentucky Republican said lawmakers have been left out of foreign policy decisions that the Constitution expressly reserves to Congress.    “In our foreign policy, Congress has become not even a rubber stamp, but an irrelevancy,” Paul said in a speech at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington.
      He has been a frequent critic of the Obama administration’s decision to participate with NATO allies in a military campaign directed at Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
      In Paul’s remarks, he laid out broad principles for American diplomatic and military policies, advocating what he said was President Ronald Reagan’s “less interventionist” approach to global crises.
      “I’d argue that a more restrained foreign policy is the true conservative foreign policy, as it includes two basic tenets of true conservatism: respect for the Constitution and fiscal discipline,” Paul said.    Neither have been at the top of the list of concerns in foreign policy recently.
      “Today in Congress, there is no such nuance, no such moderation of dollars or executive power.”    Paul contended that he is “really a moderate” on foreign policy — between the extremes of the United States being “everywhere all the time” and being “nowhere any of the time.”
      “I believe we are much closer to being everywhere all of the time than nowhere any of the time,” he said.    “And I think this needs to change.”    Reagan, who was president from 1981 to 1989, repeatedly challenged the Soviet Union to reduce its nuclear arms and liberalize its domestic and foreign poli-cies.
      He also used U.S. military forces in a variety of instances, including invading Grenada; using advisers to combat guerillas in El Salvador; attacking Libya several times for its military actions; supporting the government of Lebanon; destroying Iranian oil platforms in the Persian Gulf and protecting Kuwaiti oil tankers there; and bolstering U.S. forces in Panama.
      The Reagan administration also was engulfed in the so-called “Iran-Contra” scandal, a complex arms for- hostages deal in which part of the proceeds from secret U.S. arms sales to Iran were funneled to anti-Communist rebels in Nicaragua.
      Paul has said he intends to introduce a Senate resolution opposing the current intervention in Libya.    The political upheaval in Libya is not a threat to American national security or its defense, the senator told his Johns Hopkins audience.
      “I would disengage from Libya,” he said.    The House last week approved a resolution by House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, that gave the Obama administration two weeks to provide its justifications for supporting military action in Libya.
      White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday that “we believe we are acting consistent” with the War Powers Act of 1973, which limits the president’s ability to send troops into combat without congressional approval.    “On the question of congressional Sen. RAND PAUL consultations and the answering of questions, there have been numerous briefings, both classified and unclassified briefings, on the U.S. participation in the NATO mission as well as on our other actions with regard to Libya,” Carney said.    “And those consultations will continue.    And to the extent that within those consultations there are questions asked that we can answer, we will answer them.”
  
  Divided OPEC leaves production untouched - Oil prices climb amid stalemate by Associated Press
      VIENNA — OPEC unexpectedly left its production levels unchanged Wednesday, causing oil prices to jump, as senior officials said their meeting ended in disarray — a stunning admission for an organization that places a premium on consensus decision making.
      OPEC officials said that because of a policy deadlock, the group will maintain present output ceilings with the option of meeting within the next three months to consider a hike.
      “We are unable to reach consensus to … raise our production,” OPEC Secretary General Abdullah Al-Badri told reporters in comments reflecting unusual tensions in the 12-nation Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
      Saudi oil minister Ali Naimi called it “one of the worst meetings, we’ve ever had,” while analysts covering OPEC for more than 20 years said they could not remember any other time that the group had admitted to such divisions in its ranks.
      Some even saw the abortive meeting as a harbinger of demise for the organization, which produces more than a third of the world’s petroleum.
      “OPEC is … on the point of breakup,” said Marc Ostwald of Monument Securities.    “A broader perspective is that the post-World War II world order is fracturing in a spectacular fashion, be it the EU/Eurozone, the World Bank/IMF (or) OPEC.”
      Other experts were less outspoken but agreed Wednesday’s outcome would weaken the image of OPEC as a major regulator of oil markets.
      “I think there were some tensions,” said Jason Schenker, president of Prestige Economics.    “But everyone has to do business, and countries have different views on what the future of demand looks like.”
      The news caught markets by surprise, sending oil prices sharply higher.    Crude oil rose $1.65 to settle at $100.74 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
      Saudi Arabia and other influential Gulf nations had pushed to increase production ceilings to calm markets and ease concerns that crude was overpriced for nations struggling with their economies.    Those opposed were led by Iran, the second strongest producer in OPEC.
  
  Worries of a slowdown extend market’s slide by Associated Press
      Another lackluster economic report sent stocks down Wednesday, extending a weeklong slide.
      The Federal Reserve report, known as the Beige Book, showed the economy slowed in several U.S. regions for the first time this year.
      The report added to concerns that have been building since mid-April that the economy is stalling.    High oil prices, bad weather and supply chain problems following the tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan have combined to dampen many investors’ outlook for the rest of the year.
      And on Tuesday, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke acknowledged that the U.S. economic recovery was “uneven” and “frustratingly slow,” though he added that he expected growth to pick up in the second half of the year.
      That left many investors on edge.    “What Bernanke basically said was that we have to believe we’re in a soft patch that will pass by itself,” said Randall Warren, chief investment officer at Warren Financial Services.    “That takes a lot of faith.”    The Standard and Poor’s 500 lost 5.38 points to 1,279.56 on Wednesday.    It was its sixth straight loss.    The Dow Jones industrial average fell 21.87 points to 12,048.94, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 26.18 to 2,675.38.
      Energy companies were among the few stocks to gain broadly.    Oil companies like Exxon Mobil, which gained 1 percent, rose after oil settled above $100 a barrel.    The jump in oil prices came after OPEC ministers made an unexpected decision to keep output at current levels.    Investors had been hoping the cartel would increase output, which could have pushed down the price of crude.
      Signs that U.S. supplies were tightening also pushed up oil prices.    The American Petroleum Institute said late Tuesday that U.S. crude inventories fell more than expected.
  
  
• 6/10/2011
  
  Iraq will ask to keep U.S. - troops, Panetta predicts
      WASHINGTON - Leon Panetta, President Barack Obama’s pick to lead the Pentagon, predicted Thursday that Iraq will ask the U.S. to keep some troops there beyond year’s end, the current departure date.
      In wide-ranging testimony at his Senate confirmation hearing, the current CIA director and former Clinton White House budget chief parried questions on the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, and addressed worries that financial pressures will mean deep defense cuts.
      Panetta offered few specifics on how many of the 100,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan should be withdrawn starting in July.    He concurred with Obama’s promise of a significant drawdown but also said the decision should be “conditions based.”    There are about 47,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, none in a declared combat role.
  
  Ministers approve even more austerity measures
      ATHENS, GREECE - The Greek Cabinet approved and submitted to Parliament on Thursday a new round of painful austerity measures and a $73 billion privatization drive essential for the debt-ridden country to continue receiving funds from its international bailout.
      Greece is lagging with changes promised in return for last year’s $160 billion package of rescue loans from European partners and the International Monetary Fund.    Fellow eurozone governments have warned that if it doesn’t enforce new austerity, the aid will be cut off.
      Without the next $17.4 billion installment from its rescue loans due in July, Greece, which is still stuck in recession and locked out of international bond markets, will default on its massive debts.
  
  Tales of mutiny, mayhem in Syria - Refugees tell of chaos in city near Turkish border by Selcan Hacaoglu and Bassem Mroue, Associated Press
      GUVECCI, Turkey — Syrian policemen turned their guns on each other, soldiers shed uniforms rather than obey orders to fire on protesters and three young men who tried to escape were beheaded by forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, fleeing refugees said.
      As more than 2,400 Syrians fled across the open Turkish borders Thursday ahead of tanks and troops who surrounded their hometown, they brought the first accounts of a week of revolt, mutiny and mayhem in Jisr al-Shughour.    The streets were deserted, leaving no resistance against a regime equipped for all-out battle.
      Even safely settled into Turkish camps 12 miles away, the Syrians said that they feared the authoritarian government’s reach and refused to allow their full names to be used.
      A young man who identified himself as Rami said the Syrian reinforcements were mobilized in response to a mutiny among police and soldiers, sharply divided over how to disperse the protesters.
      “It all started with the killing of two protesters a week ago, then policemen who refused orders from the Alawite police chief to fire on civilians clashed at the Emin Asqari police station,” Rami said through an inter-preter.    Other Syrians nodded or interrupted with further details.
      Syria’s ruling elite — including the Assads — belong to the minority Alawite sect.
      “Then, some soldiers deserted also after refusing to fire on the protesters, some took off their uniforms, left their weapons and ran away with their families,” added Rami, a skinny 22-year-old who was studying at a uni-versity in Jisr al-Shughour to become a math teacher.    “Two helicopters also fired randomly on civilians as well as houses that triggered the exodus.”
      Rami said he can’t reach many of his friends.    “I fear for their lives,” he said.    “Assad’s forces beheaded three young men from Latakia when they said they were going to Turkey.    We buried them yesterday in a village across the border.”
      The struggle over Jisr al-Shughour and surrounding Idlib province is a critical test for the 40-year Assad regime — which has said “armed groups” killed 120 security forces in the area this week.
      Syrian activists say that more than 1,300 people have died in the crackdown on the 11-week uprising — most of them unarmed civilians.
      A government spokeswoman countered that 500 security forces had died in the uprising — including 120 who were killed in the Jisr al-Shughour area this week.    Jisr al-Shughour emptied as its residents crossed olive groves and traveled gravel roads, trying to get away from the tanks and elite forces believed to be led by Assad’s younger brother, Maher, residents and an activist said.    Turkey’s foreign minister said that 2,400 Syrians had crossed the border.
      “Almost everyone fled mostly toward nearby villages, but many more are prepared to cross into Tur-key if Assad’s forces start hunting them,” said Rami.    Turkey and Syria once nearly went to war, but the two have cultivated warmer relations in recent years.
      By allowing the Syrian refugees into Turkey, Ankara is playing the role of a humanitarian provider even as it urges the Assad regime to stop its crackdown and implement reforms.
  
  Oil rises on concerns over future supplies by Associated Press
      Oil climbed above $101 per barrel Thursday as investors focused on how the world would meet energy demand in coming months.
      Crude oil rose $1.19 to settle at $101.93 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.    World oil demand is expected to outpace supplies later this year by the widest margin since 2007.    While OPEC has decided not to officially increase oil production, Saudi Arabia and a few other oil-producing nations are expected to boost exports anyway.
      Analysts, however, aren’t sure if it will be enough to meet demand.
  
  
• 6/11/2011
  
  At least 32 die in Syria crackdown by Zeina Karam, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — Syrian forces shelled a town in the nation’s restive north and fired on scattered protests nationwide, killing at least 32 people Friday, activists said.
      Hundreds of Syrians streamed across the border into Turkey, trying to escape the violence.
      A Syrian opposition figure said by telephone thousands of protesters overwhelmed security officers and torched the courthouse and police station in the northern town of Maaret al-Numan, and the army responded with tank shells.    He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
      Syria’s state-run TV appeared to confirm at least part of the claim, saying gunmen opened fire on police stations in Maaret al-Numan, causing casualties among security officials.
      The Local Coordination Committees, a group that documents anti-government protests in Syria, said at least 32 people died in protests and army operations, half of them in the northwestern province of Idlib.    The group said many of the casualties were in Maaret al-Numan.
      About 25 miles to the west in the same province, Syrian troops backed by dozens of tanks massed outside the virtually deserted town of Jisr al-Shughour, shelling nearby villages.    Late Friday, Syrian TV said that troops reached the entrances of the town and detained members of “armed groups.”
      According to activists, many of the troops belong to the army’s elite 4th Division, which is commanded by President Bashar Assad’s younger brother, Maher.    The use of loyalist forces could reflect the regime’s worry over whether regular military units would remain loyal if called upon to crush the uprising in the north.
      Other protests in Syria were in neighborhoods in the capital, Damascus, and the major city of Aleppo, which are vital to Assad’s authoritarian regime.
      Syrians entering Turkey told of revolt and mayhem in Jisr al-Shughour, saying police turned their guns on each other and soldiers shed uniforms rather than fire on protesters.    Nearly 4,000 Syrians had crossed into Turkey by Friday, nearly all of them in the past two days, according to Turkish media.
  
  
  MIDEAST ACTION
  • YEMEN: Nearly 100,000 protest in a main square of the capital, demanding the president’s ouster in the largest rally since Ali Abdullah Saleh left for Saudi Arabia after he was hurt in an attack on his palace.    His evacuation for medical treatment has thrown Yemen into a dangerous political standoff.
  • LIBYA: Regime forces pound the outskirts of the rebel city of Misrata, killing at least 22 people, a doctor at Hikma Hospital says.    He says Moammar Gadhafi’s forces used tanks, artillery and incendiary rockets in the strike on Dafniya, 18 miles west of Misrata, and at least 61 people were hurt.
  • BAHRAIN: Bahrain’s most senior Shiite cleric says there is no chance for talks with Sunni rulers while security forces maintain their clampdown on protesters calling for equal rights and political freedoms.    The sermon by Sheik Isa Qassim underscores the deep discontent among Bahrain’s Shiite majority despite the lifting of martial law-style rules earlier this month and appeals for dialogue by the Sunni monarchy.
  
  GM cuts price on Volt, adds options - Electric car to be sold in all states by Chrissie Thompson, Detroit Free Press
      DETROIT — General Motors opened up orders for the Chevrolet Volt to all 50 states Friday, lowering the base price for the 2012 model by about $1,000 and adding four option packages.
      The 2012 model of the extended- range electric car will start at $39,995, including delivery, and customers may be eligible for a $7,500 federal tax credit.
      GM was able to lower the base price because the car has more optional content now that it’s available nationally, the automaker said Friday.    The 2011 Volt had been available in eight states and Washington and had only three option packages.
      GM is expanding Volt ordering as it prepares to add two shifts totaling 2,500 jobs to the plant that builds the cars on the Detroit-Hamtramck, Mich., border.    Volt engineers seek to cut the car’s cost through powertrain and production improvements, which will mostly be used to make the vehicle profitable, rather than slash the price for consumers.
      GM plans to build 16,000 of the Volt and its European version, the Opel Ampera, this year.    That includes about 3,500 for overseas delivery and 2,500 as demos at dealerships.    Next year, GM plans to build 60,000 Volts, with 45,000 designated for the U.S.
      The Volt plant has discontinued its other two cars, the Cadillac DTS and Buick Lucerne, leaving it free to build just Volts until the 2013 Malibu starts production next year.    The factory also will build the next-generation Chevrolet Impala, expected to start production by 2013.
  
  Germany insists investors pay part of Greek rescue - European Central Bank rejects idea by Bloomberg News
      FRANKFURT — Germany dug in Friday on demands that investors pay some of the cost of a second Greek rescue after European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet rejected direct involvement by his bank.
      “Participation of private creditors in cases of insolvency is indispensable,” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told lawmakers in Berlin, ignoring warnings from credit-rating firms that his proposal to extend Greek debt maturities by seven years would be deemed a default.    A working group set up this week is charged with “finding a good solution for the involvement of the private sector,” Schaeuble said.
      As politicians try to find a plan by June 24 that would share the cost of a new rescue with bondholders, Trichet on Thursday ruled out the Frankfurt based ECB setting an example with its own assets.    While the bank has said it could accept a plan in which investors voluntarily agree to buy Greek bonds to replace maturing debt, Trichet said it has no intention of rolling over its own Greek holdings.
      ECB resistance could leave politicians facing the prospect of asking their taxpayers to finance a Greek shortfall that may amount to $130 billion through 2014.    Trichet also warned against Schaeuble’s approach, saying any solution forcing private-sector involvement amounts to a “credit event” and would be an “enor-mous mistake.”
      “Trichet is really digging his heels in now,” said Tobias Blattner, an economist at Daiwa Capital Markets Europe in London who worked at the ECB until April.    “The ECB has already shouldered the main burden of the crisis.    These are the same politicians that dithered last year and got the ECB to pick up the pieces.”
      The ECB started buying the bonds of distressed governments last spring to help ensure the transmission of its monetary policy in money and credit markets.    Germany’s Schaeuble has called for Greek bondholders to extend the maturities of their debt by seven years to give Greece more time to cut its debt and budget deficit.
      “We’re taking skeptical voices and warnings from the European Central Bank on the involvement of the private sector seriously,” Schaeuble said Friday.    Still, “we have to insist on the participation of the private sector.”
      Governments are trying to agree on a new aid package for Greece by a European Union summit on June 23-24.
      The International Monetary Fund has threatened to withhold its share of what remains of Greece’s original $159 billion bailout until governments guarantee that the country’s financing needs for the next year are covered.
  
  Oil falls on expected rise in Saudi output by Associated Press
      NEW YORK — Oil prices sank Friday on reports that Saudi Arabia will increase production 13 percent from May levels to 10 million barrels per day.    Oil fell $2.64 to settle at $99.29 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
      The move comes just days after OPEC snubbed a Saudi request to raise production quotas. Analysts see it as a Saudi step to reassert their dominance over the cartel.
      “They’re reminding everyone who the sheriff is in town,” independent analyst Jim Ritterbusch said.
  
  
• 6/12/2011
  
  Libyan rebels break into key oil port near Tripoli by Diaa Hadid and Maggie Michael , Associated Press
      ZAWIYA, Libya — Rebels battled their way back into a major oil port just 30 miles west of Tripoli on Sat-urday, forcing Moammar Gadhafi’s troops to close the vital coast highway and key supply route from Tunisia.
      The renewed rebel offensive marked a significant rebound for opposition forces who were crushed and driven from the city nearly three months ago.
      Rebels first took Zawiya in early March but were brutally expelled less than two weeks later in an assault by members of an elite brigade commanded by Gadhafi’s son Khamis.    That had left rebels with tenuous footholds in Libya’s far west.
      On Saturday, Guma el-Gamaty, a London-based spokesman for the rebels’ political leadership council, said opposition fighters had captured a large area on the western side of the city.    A rebel fighter who fled Zawiya in March said “there are clashes inside Zawiya itself.”
      The rebel, identifying himself only as Kamal, said rebels “are back in the city” and he had spoken with them.
      While too early to mark a breakthrough in the stalemated civil war between Gadhafi forces and the rebels, who control roughly the eastern third of Libya, an opposition offensive so near the capital was bound to put a nearly intolerable burden on the regime.    They’ve been riddled by defections, severely hurt by ongoing U.N. sanctioned NATO airstrikes and facing huge resupply problems as a result of the naval blockade that has clamped off ports.
      The international actions are designed to help the 4month-old rebel uprising to drive Gadhafi from nearly 40 years in power in the oil-rich North African country.
      Apparently prompted by the Zawiya clashes Saturday, regime troops closed parts of a crucial coastal road leading from Tripoli west to the Tunisian border.
      Shelling continued sporadically near the rebel-held port city of Misrata, where Gadhafi forces hit towns on the western outskirts of the city, 125 miles east of Tripoli. More than 30 rebels were reported killed in government fire from tanks, artillery and incendiary rockets that rained down on Dafniya, about 18 miles west of Misrata.    Casualty figures came from a doctor at Hikma Hospital in Misrata, who would only give his first name, Ay-man.    He said shelling began Friday morning, intensified toward nightfall and continued periodically Saturday.
  
  
• 6/13/2011
  
  American’s repayment remark angers Iraqis
      BAGHDAD - The suggestion by a U.S. congressman that Iraq repay the U.S. for the money it has spent there has stirred anger, with an Iraqi lawmaker ridiculing the idea as “stupid” and others saying Iraqis should be compensated for hardships they’ve endured.
      Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., suggested during a trip to Baghdad with fellow lawmakers Friday that once Iraq becomes rich and prosperous, it could repay the U.S.    That comment triggered outrage among an Iraqi public and political establishment that had little or no say in the U.S.-led invasion of 2003.
      Iraqis are largely glad to be rid of Saddam Hussein but blame the U.S. for the chaos and sectarian violence that followed the invasion.    “We as a government reject such statements, and we have informed the American embassy … these congressmen are not welcome in Iraq,” government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Sunday.
  
  Syrian forces recapture town by Bassem Mroue, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — Elite Syrian troops backed by helicopters and tanks regained control Sunday of a town where police and soldiers joined the protesters they were ordered to shoot — a decisive assault from a government prepared for an all-out battle to keep power.
      Troops led by the president’s brother shelled Jisr al-Shughour as the gunships hovered overhead, paving the way for scores of tanks and armored personnel carriers to roll in from two directions.
      By early afternoon, the sounds of battle faded.    The army was in control.    Sunday’s developments, and actions by foes of the Syrian government, marked a major departure from what had been a largely peaceful protest movement.
      Among them: the discovery of a mass grave filled with uniformed bodies and the increasing willingness of mutineers and outgunned residents to fight back against the regime.
      President Basher Assad’s response in Jisr al-Shughour, the first town to spin out of government control since the uprising began in mid-March, mirrored his father’s 1980 assault there.    It was a clear message to anyone contemplating further defiance.
      Some of the thousands of Syrians fleeing for the Turkish border said about 60 mutineers were defending the town alongside some 200 unarmed residents.
      Their fate was unknown Sunday, but the government reported three deaths in the fighting: one of its own soldiers and two unidentified men whose bodies were shown to reporters.
      “The Syrian army is fighting itself,” said Muhieddine Lathkani, a London-based Syrian writer and intellectual.    “The army’s response was strong because they did not want the mutiny to become larger.”
      Neighboring Turkey — about 12 miles away — has provided sanctuary for more than 5,000 fleeing Syrians, nearly all of them in the past few days from Idlib province.    Turkey’s prime minister has accused the Assad regime of “savagery.”
  
  
  MIDEAST ACTION
  • LIBYA: Resurgent rebels fight to retake the port city Zawiya, which would put them within striking distance of Tripoli and cut one of Moammar Gadhafi’s last supply lines from Tunisia.    The United Arab Emirates recognizes the rebels’ political group as the sole agent of Libya.
  • JORDAN: King Abdullah II bows to popular demands for elected Cabinets but gives no schedule, saying sudden change may lead to “chaos and unrest.”
  • MOROCCO: About 6,000 people march through downtown Casablanca calling for greater democracy and an end to corruption.
  
  
• 6/14/2011
  
  Libyan rebels breaking out toward Tripoli - German backs Gadhafi’s foes by Hadeel Al-Shalchi and Maggie Michael , Associated Press
      MISRATA, Libya — Libyan rebels Monday broke out toward Tripoli from the opposition- held port of Misrata 140 miles to the east, cracking a government siege as fighters across the country mounted a resurgence in their 4-month-old revolt against Moammar Gadhafi.
      The rebels gained a diplomatic boost as well when the visiting the German foreign minister said the opposition government was “the legitimate representative of the Libyan people.”
      Guido Westerwelle was visiting Benghazi, the capital of the rebel-held east, to open a liaison office and hand over medical supplies.    He stopped short of full diplomatic recognition of the Transitional National Council, as has the United States, awaiting the ouster of Gadhafi from his more than 40-year rule in the oil-rich North African country.
      Germany has refused to participate in NATO airstrikes in Libya and withheld its support for the U.N. resolution that allowed them.
      What started as a peaceful uprising against Gadhafi has become a civil war, with poorly equipped and trained rebel fighters taking control of the eastern third of Libya and pockets of the west.
      But the fighting had reached a stalemate until last week, when NATO began the heaviest bombardment of Gadhafi forces since the alliance took control of the skies over Libya under a U.N. resolution to protect civilians from Gadhafi’s wrath.    NATO has been pounding Gadhafi’s military and government position with increasing vigor and the rebels are on the move.
      In the major fighting near Misrata on Monday, an Associated Press photographer at the rebel front lines said they had pushed along the Mediterranean Sea to within six miles of Zlitan, the next city to the west of Misrata.
      A rebel commander said his forces, using arms seized from government weapons depots and fresh armaments shipped in from Benghazi, planned to have moved into Zlitan, by today.
      U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged the nations of Africa on Monday to sever links with Gadhafi.
  
  Rioters burn police vehicles in China by Christopher Bodeen, Associated Press
      BEIJING — Protesters in southern China’s manufacturing hub torched emergency vehicles in an outburst of anger against police abuse of migrant workers, witnesses said Monday.
      Sunday night’s rioting followed three days of steadily growing unrest in the town of Xintang in Guangdong province, the linchpin of China’s export industry.
      While violent protests in China have become frequent in the past decade, recent weeks have seemed particularly turbulent.
      Thousands of protesters attacked government offices in the central city of Lichuan last week after the alleged beating death of a local city council member while in police custody.     Most of the protests are driven by resentments over social inequality, abuse of power and suppression of legitimate grievances.     The violence in Xintang broke out Friday evening after a pregnant woman was pushed to the ground in a sweep against street vendors, most of whom are migrants from the southwestern province of Sichuan.     Crowds soon gathered, blocking traffic and attacking government offices with bottles and bricks, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Police arrested 25 people accused of inciting the unrest, Xinhua said, adding that no deaths or injuries had been reported.     Tens of thousands of people gathered Sunday night at a major highway interchange, setting fire to more than two dozen emergency vehicles and fighting with police and paramilitary forces, said a salesman at a nearby clothing factory.
  Oil settles at lowest level since May 17 by Associated Press     Oil tumbled Monday to the lowest level in nearly a month after a drop in Greece’s credit rating added to concerns about a slowdown in the European economy.     Crude oil dropped $1.99 to settle at $97.30 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That is oil’s lowest level since May 17.     Reports that Saudi Arabia would boost oil production to10 million barrels per day pushed prices lower late last week.     “You have some guys out there that are pretty fearful of a real drop in oil prices now,” analyst Stephen Schork said.
  
  
• 6/15/2011
  U.S. building drone air base in Persian Gulf
      THE MIDDLE EAST - The United States is building a secret CIA air base in the Persian Gulf region to target terrorists in Yemen, preparing for the possibility that an anti-American faction may take over Yemen and ban U.S. forces from hunting a lethal al-Qaida faction, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.     The anti-al-Qaida effort in Yemen is being run by the Joint Special Operations Command, the top U.S. military counterterrorism outfit, and the CIA provides intelligence support. JSOC forces have been allowed by the Yemeni government to conduct limited strikes there since 2009 and have recently allowed expanded strikes by U.S. armed drones and even war planes against al-Qaida targets who are taking advantage of civil unrest.     The planned CIA base suggests a long-term U.S. commitment to fighting al-Qaida in the region.
  
  Other developments:
  • YEMEN: Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis demonstrated in nearly every major city of the country, demanding trial for the family and close aides of the ailing president.    They were the largest protests since President Ali Abdullah Saleh went abroad for medical treatment for injuries suffered in an attack on his compound.    Some of Saleh’s family and closest aides remained behind.
  • LIBYA: NATO resumed its airstrikes on the capital of Tripoli late Tuesday, blasting at least two targets after military leaders voiced concerns about sustaining the operations if the alliance mission drags on. The targets of the airstrikes were not immediately clear, and there was no word about casualties.
  
  Oil rises on economic report, market rally by Associated Press
      Oil climbed above $99 per barrel Tuesday after a better than- expected retail sales report, a decline in the dollar and a broad rally on Wall Street.     Crude oil gained $2.07 to settle at $99.37 per barrel, rebounding from Monday’s decline on the New York Mercantile Exchange.     Goldman Sachs said Tuesday that “it is only a matter of time” before excess production from Saudi Arabia and other OPEC countries will become “effectively exhausted.” That means the market will need “higher oil prices to restrain demand,” Goldman analyst David Greely said.     In the U.S., motorists have cut back on gasoline purchases for 12 weeks in a row, according to the latest survey by Master-Card SpendingPulse.
  
  
• 6/16/2011
  White House defends U.S. military role in Libya
      WASHINGTON - The White House said Wednesday that President Barack Obama has the authority to continue U.S. military action in Libya even without authorization from critical lawmakers in Congress.     In a 30-page report sent to Congress, the administration argues that the U.S. has a limited, supporting role in the     NATO-led bombing campaign. Because U.S. forces are not engaged in sustained fighting and there are no troops on the ground there, the White House says Obama is within his constitutional rights to direct the mission on his own.
  Greek unrest turns violent - Austerity bill talks collapse by Elena Becatoros and Nicholas Paphitis, Associated Press     ATHENS, Greece — Greece’s prime minister, struggling to ensure Parliamentary approval for a crucial austerity bill, said Wednesday that he would reshuffle his Cabinet and seek a vote of confidence for his new government after coalition talks with opposition parties failed.     The negotiations collapsed as rioters clashed with police in the streets of Athens during a general strike and renewed fears of default rattled global markets.     Prime Minister George Papandreou has been struggling to contain an internal party revolt over a new aus-terity package that is the main condition for continued funding from a $155 billion international bailout.     Without continued funding from the rescue loans, Greece will default on its massive debts — which would unsettle the global economy and undermine the future of the eurozone.     Socialist officials said Papandreou had even offered to step down to clinch a coalition with the opposi-tion conservatives before the talks collapsed, in a dramatic day that saw Greece’s borrowing rates hit new highs and lawmakers being escorted by armed motorcycle guards past protesters into parliament. Police fired repeated volleys of tear gas to repel rioters hurling firebombs and ripped-up paving stones as an anti-austerity rally by tens of thousands of protesters degenerated into violence.     A crowd of youths smashed the windows of a luxury hotel in the square. More than 60 people were injured, including 36 police, as clouds of choking gas wafted through central Athens. Bewildered tourists struggled through the mayhem, dragging their luggage behind them.     Global stocks were closing sharply lower as the events in Greece — which has the worst sovereign credit rating in the world — further destabilized markets.
  
  Syria’s crackdown on dissent expands by Associated Press
      GUVECCI, Turkey — Terrified Syrians ran for their lives Wednesday as elite army units swept through a restive northern province, expanding a deadly operation to crush signs of dissent against President Bashar Assad.     Farther south, tens of thousands took to the streets in the central city of Hama to show solidarity with victims of the crackdown. Hama was the site of a 1982 massacre by the government of Assad’s father and predecessor, Hafez Assad, whose forces shelled the city to crush a Sunni Muslim uprising.     The crisis in Syria has drawn international condemnation and isolation as serious as any in the Assad regime’s 40 years in power. Human rights activists say more than1,400 Syrians have died and 10,000 have been detained as the government struggles to put down the 3-month-old upheaval.     In recent days, Syrian tanks and the government’s most loyal troops have been trying to extinguish any chance that the anti-Assad resistance could gain a base for a wider armed rebellion. They have sealed off strategic areas in the north and east — including the town of Jisr al-Shughour, which was spinning out of government control before the military moved in Sunday.     Maj. Gen. Riad Haddad, head of the military’s political department, said tanks surrounding Maaret al-Nu-man, a town of 100,000, had not entered “yet” — suggesting they were ready to do so. The town sits on the road linking Damascus with Aleppo.
  
  Government says it launched new satellite
      TEHRAN, IRAN - Iran launched a satellite into orbit Wednesday, state TV reported, in a feat that is likely to raise concerns among those who fear Iran’s intentions and nuclear development program.     The report said the locally produced satellite, called Rasad, or observation, was launched successfully by a Safir missile. There was no independent confirmation.     Iran’s decade-long space program has raised alarms in the West, because the same launch technology can be used to fire warheads.
  
  Oil dives below $95 a barrel - Worries over European troubles fuel price drop by Associated Press
      Crude oil plunged $4.56, or 4.6 percent, on Wednesday to settle at $94.81 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That’s the lowest level since late February.     Gasoline prices in the Louisville area continued slipping from $4.11 a month ago to average $3.64 per gallon.     The national average was $3.70 Wednesday morning, according to AAA.     Ongoing economic troubles in Europe, which consumes about 18 percent of the world’s oil, could slow demand for energy. That could end a four-month rally in oil markets that began with supply disruptions in Libya.     With riots in Greece over proposed austerity measures and three big French banks facing potential losses on Greek bonds, fears are intensifying that Greece’s problems could spread to other financially troubled European countries.     “Things are very unsettled right now,” Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research, said. Three years after the banking meltdown in the U.S., investors remain skittish about banks, Lynch said. “Just a whiff of a crisis, and everyone’s ready to bolt.” Oil began a steady rise in February from about $84 a barrel, when unrest swept through Libya and shut down its 1.5 million barrels of daily oil exports, which is less than 2 percent of the world’s crude.     It continued to climb as anti-government protests broke out in other countries in the oil-rich region and concerns grew that shipments from the biggest oil producer in the world, Saudi Arabia, could be disrupted.     Oil hit a three-month high of $113.90 in early May and then headed down as experts warned high energy costs were slowing the global economic recovery. Gasoline demand in the U.S. fell as pump prices hit $4 a gallon or more in a number of states.     Oil fell on Wednesday despite the Energy Information Administration’s report that crude supplies in the U.S. shrank more than expected last week while wholesale gasoline demand increased.     The EIA said gasoline supplies increased last week, though much less than analysts expected.     Industry analyst Jim Ritterbusch said the U.S. continues to sit on a comfortable supply and relatively high pump prices should limit drivers’ trips to the gas station.     “I just don’t see demand improving for gasoline this summer on a sustained basis,” Ritterbusch said.
  
  
• 6/17/2011
  
  Oil continues to hover around 4-month low by Associated Press
      Oil stayed near a four-month low on Thursday as investors continued to worry about the European financial crisis.     Crude oil rose 14 cents to settle at $94.95 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.     Oil dropped more than 4 percent on Wednesday as Greece’s financial troubles deepened. And worries about Europe’s economy continued on Thursday.     “I don’t think anyone is convinced this is going to go away overnight,” PFGBest analyst Phil Flynn said. At the very least “the demand outlook is really murky,” he said.
  
  
• 6/18/2011
  
  Oil falls 2 percent on global economic fears by Associated Press
      NEW YORK — Oil dropped to about $93 per barrel for the first time since February as the European financial crisis kept investors on edge about the banking industry and the prospects for global economic growth this year.     Crude oil fell $1.94 to settle at $93.01 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil has retreated about 6 percent this week.     “There’s still a case for fairly lofty prices later this year, but right now, there’s not that much confidence that the economic picture will improve,” said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service.
  
  Greece steps back from prospect of debt default by Associated Press
      ATHENS, Greece — Greece appeared to step back from the prospect of a devastating debt default Friday after its prime minister quelled chaotic political infighting and Germany softened a contentious demand on the participation of the private sector in a new European bailout.     After two days of dissent inside his Socialist party that threatened to bring down his government, Prime Minister George Papandreou named his main internal rival as finance minister. The move is expected to solidify the support from lawmakers Papandreou needs to pass a $39.5 billion package of steep tax increases and budget cuts so despised inside Greece that riots exploded outside parliament this week.     European donors and the International Monetary Fund require Greece to pass the austerity measures before releasing the next $17 billion loan from a $155 billion package agreed on last year to keep Greece afloat until it can get its struggling economy back on track.     A Greek default could set off an unpredictable chain reaction that would badly hurt European banks, roil markets and make it harder for other indebted countries to cope with their debts, increasing borrowing costs for eurozone countries. Apparently frightened by the prospect of a near-term default, Germany on Friday calmed fears that it planned to force losses on banks and other private investors as part of a second bailout. In recent weeks, German Chancellor Angela Merkel had backed her finance minister’s calls for banks and other private bondholders to give Greece an extra seven years to repay its bonds. Rating agencies as well as the European Central Bank, however, warned that such a move would likely count as a “credit event,” a partial default by Greece that could spread panic on financial markets and hurt Greek banks.     “It is about a voluntary participation of the private sector,” Merkel said after meeting French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Berlin.     Instead, Merkel backed a softer form of private sector involvement, in which banks would be asked to buy Greek bonds as old ones expired.     “As of last night, there were two main obstacles to sealing a package for Greece: disagreement among European policymakers, and Greek politics,” said Nicola Mai, an analyst at JPMorgan. “Following a meeting between Merkel and Sarkozy this morning, the first of these two obstacles appears to have been lifted.”     Moving from his post as defense minister, new Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos faces the immediate task of controlling budget overruns and setbacks in cost-cutting reforms, as well as pushing ahead with a massive privatization drive worth $70.5 billion.     At the same time, he will have to negotiate the vital second bailout package with Greece’s frustrated international creditors.     “The country must be saved and it will be saved,” Venizelos said. “I am leaving defense today to go to the real war.”
  
  
• 6/19/2011
  Obama scorned Libya advice - He decided air war didn’t need Congress by Associated Press
      President Barack Obama decided he could continue the air war in Libya without congressional approval despite rulings to the contrary from Justice Department and Pentagon lawyers, according to published reports.
      The president relied instead on the opinions of other senior administration lawyers that continuing U.S. participation in the air operations against the regime of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi did not constitute “hostilities” triggering the need for congressional permission under the War Powers Resolution, The New York Times reported in its online edition Friday night.
      Among those reported to support the president’s action were White House counsel Robert Bauer and State Department legal adviser Harold H. Koh, the paper said.    Those opposed included Pentagon General Counsel Jeh C. Johnson and acting head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel Caroline D. Krass.    One issue was reported to be whether firing missiles from drones amounted to hostilities.    Presidents can ignore the advice of the Office of Legal Counsel but rarely do so, the newspaper reported.
      The 1973 law prohibits the military from being involved in actions for more than 60 days without con-gressional authorization, plus a 30-day extension.    The 60-day deadline passed last month with the White House saying it is in compliance with the law.    The 90-day mark is today.
      White House spokesman Jay Carney addressed the internal debate over the resolution at his briefing Thursday.    He said “there was a robust process through which the president received the advice he relied on in determining the application” of the War Powers Resolution.
  
  Rebels attacked in error
      NATO said Saturday it mistakenly struck a column of Libyan rebel vehicles in an airstrike near the eastern oil town of Brega on Thursday and expressed regret for any casualties that might have resulted.    NATO said its forces spotted military vehicles where forces loyal to Gadhafi had recently been operating and hit them, fearing they posed a threat to civilians.
      Earlier Saturday, NATO accused Gadhafi’s forces of using mosques and children’s parks as shields for his military operations and said the Libyan leader is “brutally attacking” his people.
  
  Claims of injustice provoke unrest in China – Gaps in income also play role by Tom Lasseter, McClatchy-Tribune News Service
      ZENGCHENG, China — Pulling out his camera, Zhu Bin grinned and pointed as he scrolled through the images. Two cars sat ablaze against a dark sky in one picture, and in the next, thick rows of police tried to keep order with riot shields.
      There, on the street next to the Sun City Hotel and a karaoke bar, it looked like all hell was breaking loose on a sweltering Sunday night.    Underneath the streetlights, a mob of hundreds wandered among the smoke and broken glass.
      The chaos last weekend that shook this city in Guangdong province, one of China’s key industrial bases, was another in a string of especially volatile demonstrations that have swept the country in recent weeks.
      The details vary, but the outbreak points to serious challenges for the Chinese Communist Party on the eve of the 90th anniversary of the party’s founding, which is July 1.    At its root is the fact that after 30 years of rapid economic development, the average Chinese person has almost no legal or political means to pursue grievances against the government and those it protects.
      That’s led to simmering resentment in a nation where there are profound gaps in income and privilege amid a political system whose rigid ways often fuel the very instability the system is designed to avoid.
      Public discussion about the causes of the violence in Zengcheng has followed a familiar line: low wages and bad working conditions for migrant laborers — who make up more than half of Zengcheng’s 818,000 residents — whipped up by criminal gangs.
      But interviews here show that the chaos was stoked by anger that had been building for years at the bullying tactics of both the “chengguan,” meter-maid-like guards who are charged with enforcing municipal ordinances, and the “public security teams,” ad hoc officers cobbled together by neighborhood or village committees.
      The trigger for last weekend’s rioting was the news that a pregnant migrant had been pushed to the ground — initial rumors said killed — during an altercation with security.
      “It’s very common for them to beat people,” said Zhu, 28, who came here from Anhui province and works in a shop selling mahjongg gaming tables.
      Allegations of injustice were a factor in other recent outbursts of rage. Among them: The biggest protests in 20 years to hit Inner Mongolia, in the north of China.    The unrest erupted after a Han Chinese coal truck driver ran over and killed a Mongolian herder who reportedly was part of a group trying to block the vehicle from crossing their land May 10.
      On May 26, a businessman in the province of Jiangxi, just to the north of Guangdong, set off three co-ordinated car bombs that targeted government buildings and killed four people, including himself.    The bomber, Qian Mingqi, had spent nearly a decade trying to recover compensation money that he said a local official took when the government demolished his house.
      Paramilitary police backed by armored vehicles flooded into a town in Hubei province two weeks ago after more than 1,500 residents laid siege to government offices to protest the death of a local legislator during a June 4 police interrogation.
  
  
• 6/20/2011
  
  
  MIDEAST ACTION
  • SYRIA: Troops comb through rebellious villages near the Turkish border, setting fire to homes and a bakery and cutting off a lifeline to thousands of uprooted people stranded in open-air camps.    The military makes mass arrests and sets up checkpoints in the village of Bdama and surrounding areas to bar residents’ flight into Turkey.
  • YEMEN: Government artillery shelling of an area in the south kills 12 al-Qaida-linked militants and hurt three more.    The shelling is concentrated on the Dufas area in Zinjibar, capital of Abyan province.    Militants are taking advantage of internal strife to overrun parts of the nation.
  
  Eurozone delays vote on vital loans to Greece
      LUXEMBOURG - Hours of talks between eurozone finance ministers on the imploding finances of Greece broke up early this morning without the ministers signing off on a vital installment of rescue loans needed to avoid bank-ruptcy next month.
      Greece will get the next $17.13 billion of its existing $157 billion bailout package in early July, but only if it manages to pass $40 billion in new spending cuts and economic reforms by the end of the month, said Jean Claude Juncker, the prime minister of Luxembourg who also leads the regular meetings of the 17 eurozone finance ministers.
      However, Juncker said as long as the Greek parliament supported the new measures, he was certain Greece would get a second bailout — on top of the existing one — that will keep it afloat over the coming years as it works to restore its struggling economy.
  
  
• 6/21/2011
  
  Assad vows reforms; critics shout, ‘Liar! - Syrian leader says ‘saboteurs’ exploiting protest movement by Zeina Karam and Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — Syria’s president promised a national dialogue Monday to consider political reforms, but his vague overtures to a pro-democracy uprising fell flat as protesters took to the streets shouting “Liar!” and demanding his ouster.
      In only his third public appearance since the revolt erupted in March, Bashar Assad returned to a familiar refrain: He blamed the unrest on “saboteurs,” offered modest potential reforms, but gave no sign he’d move toward ending the Assad family’s political domination of 40 years.    Standing before a hand-picked crowd of supporters at Damascus University, Assad presented himself as a beloved leader intent on protecting his people.    He likened some of the country’s troubles to a “germ” that must be fought off.
      He said a national dialogue would start soon and he was forming a committee to study constitutional amendments, including one that would open the way to forming political parties other than the ruling Baath Party.    He acknowledged demands for reform were legitimate, but he rehashed allegations that “sab-oteurs” were exploiting the movement.
      Activists said protests erupted after the speech in several towns, including in the restive northern prov-ince of Idlib, in the cities of Homs, Hama and Latakia in central Syria, and in the southern town of Daraa, where major protests first flared in mid-March.
      Many of those demonstrating — said to number in the thousands — shouted that people want Assad out. In the Damascus suburb of Arbeen, protesters shouted, “Liar! Liar! Liar!” as they marched.
      The opposition estimates more than 1,400 Syrians have been killed and 10,000 detained as Assad un-leashed his military and security forces to crush the protests.
  
  
  MIDEAST ACTION
  • LIBYA: The government said a NATO airstrike west of Tripoli early Monday destroyed a family compound belonging to a close associate of Moammar Gadhafi, killing at least 15 people, including three children.    The alliance said the strike hit a “command and control” center.
  • EGYPT: Ousted President Hosni Mubarak may be suffering a recurrence of cancer that spread to his stomach, his defense lawyer said Monday.    But two other medical officials — one the head of Mubarak’s team of doctors — said he does not have the disease.    Mubarak, 83, will go on trial in August on charges he ordered the killings of protesters during the uprising that ousted him.
  
  EU debt crisis looms for Fed - Officials to consider contingency plans by Associated Press
      If the U.S. economic slowdown weren’t enough to deal with, the Federal Reserve this week must consider a new threat: a resurgent European debt crisis that could imperil the global economy.
      Financial markets have been gripped by fears that Greece will default on its debt.    Other EU nations with heavy debt burdens, — Ireland, Portugal, Spain and perhaps Italy — may be at risk, too.
      As they meet today and Wednesday, Fed officials will likely discuss what they might do to help shield U.S. banks and a still fragile U.S. economy if Europe’s crisis worsens.    Some analysts suggest a panic would cause the Fed to intervene as it did in the 2008 financial crisis, when it lent banks billions.
      “The European debt crisis has the potential to have as big an impact as the subprime mortgage crisis did in the United States,” said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University.    “If it spreads to Spain and Italy, then the global economy could be facing huge problems.”
      Once its meeting ends Wednesday afternoon, the Fed will issue a statement that’s likely to say that it will leave a key interest rate at a record low near zero for “an extended period.”    Many economists say that the U.S. slowdown means the Fed won’t start raising rates until the summer of 2012, about six months later than many thought when the year began.
      Later in the afternoon, the Fed will update its economic forecasts.    And then Chairman Ben Bernanke will hold a news conference — his second session with reporters under his new policy.
      When the European debt crisis first surfaced in the spring of 2010, Bernanke told Congress that it would likely have only a modest effect on the U.S. economy as long as Wall Street stabilized.    He cautioned that the Fed would monitor the developments.
      At the time, the Fed opened a program to ship dollars overseas to pump more cash into the financial system and give European central banks enough dollars to lend to commercial banks. In return, the Fed received European currencies to hold until the dollars were repaid.
      The Fed could resume that effort if the European crisis gets even worse.    It could also pursue stepped-up lending to financial firms through its emergency loan program, called the discount window.    And it could resume the unorthodox loan programs it used during the financial crisis when credit froze up.
      Still, economists say they expect no major announcements from the Fed this week.
  
  Oil steady as worries over Europe continue by Associated Press
      Oil leveled off Monday with investors still concerned about the European financial crisis.    Crude gained 25 cents to settle at $93.26 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.    All eyes remain on Greece, which is trying to implement tough new austerity measures to keep international aid coming to deal with its debt crisis.    Without that aid, investors worry that Greece’s financial troubles could spread to other European countries.    Oil stayed just above $93 per barrel on Mon-day despite rising stock markets.
  
  
• 6/22/2011
  
  Protests turn violent again in Syria; 7 killed
      BEIRUT - Syrian President Bashar Assad’s effort to drown out pro-democracy protests exploded into clashes between government supporters and opponents Tuesday, and security forces opened fire and killed seven people, in-cluding a teenager, activists said.    It was the latest deadly turn in a 3-month-old uprising that appears unbowed by a relentless government crackdown.    The violence flared a day after a speech in which Assad, trying to contain the situation, offered a vague promise of reform, one brushed off as too little, too late, by the opposition, which wants an end to the Assad family’s 40-year authoritarian rule.    In an attempt to blunt the uprising’s momentum, thousands of regime supporters converged on squares in several major cities on Tuesday, shouting, “The people want Bashar Assad!”
  
  Oil up slightly with all eyes on Greece vote by Associated Press
      NEW YORK — Oil settled slightly higher Tuesday ahead of a key vote in Greece on its financial crisis.    Crude oil rose 14 cents to settle at $93.40 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.    Greece’s embattled prime minister won a crucial vote of confidence in parliament later Tuesday.    A failing vote would have thrown into doubt whether Greece would implement new austerity measures required for the next $17 billion in aid from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
  
  
• 6/23/2011
  
  ‘Tide of war is receding,’ Obama - Afghan withdrawal set at 33,000 by ’12 by Ben Feller and Julie Pace, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Beginning to wind down a long and devastating war, President Barack Obama said Wednesday night he will bring home 33,000 troops from Afghanistan by next summer.    “The tide of war is receding,” Obama told a country eager for an exit.
      By the end of this year, 10,000 troops will leave the war zone — fulfilling Obama’s promise — and more than 20,000 additional forces will leave by the summer of 2012, shortly before the presidential election.
      Still, almost 70,000 U.S. troops will remain in an unstable country, fighting in a war bound to see more Americans killed.    Obama said they will leave at a steady pace, but the U.S. combat mission is not expected to end until December 2014 — and even then, a sizable and enduring contingent may remain in a different role.
      Obama’s announcement from the White House came in a perilous political environment, with Americans soured on the war and the economy, many members of Congress pushing him to get troops home even faster, and his Republican presidential rivals taking shots at his leadership at every chance.
      Conceding the economic strain of waging war at a time of rising debt and fiscal constraint, Obama said it is time for America “to focus on nation building here at home.”
      His security team says that Afghanistan, the training ground for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America, is no longer a launching pad for exporting terrorism and hasn’t been for years.    Yet the White House insists the U.S. must maintain a strong fighting force there for now to keep the country from slipping back into a haven for al-Qaida terrorists.
      Obama said the materials recovered during the raid to get Osama bin Laden in Pakistan showed that the terror network was under deep strain.    He said bin Laden himself expressed concern that his network would be unable to effectively replace senior leaders that had been killed.
      “We have put al-Qaida on a path to defeat, and we will not relent until the job is done” Obama said.    Some fellow Democrats suggested Obama wasn’t going fast enough.    “We will continue to press for a better outcome,” said House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California.    Rep. John Ya rmuth, D-3rd District, also said the troops should come home faster.
      “The cost of the war in Afghanistan is not limited to hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars, but also the tremendous sacrifices of the men and women of our military who have done everything we have asked of them during the last 10 years,” the Louisville congressman said.    They deserve a clearly defined mission with es-tablished metrics for success and an exit strategy.
      “Regrettably, the president’s proposal does not meet those basic standards or the expectations of the American people.    I urge President Obama to significantly reduce the number of troops in Afghanistan not in one year, but immediately.    The best way to honor our servicemen and women is to bring them home safely, and as soon as possible.'     Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was cautious about Obama’s plans.
      “No timeline for withdrawal should be so inflexible that it squanders the sacrifice of the generation that responded to the call of duty after the attacks of September 11,” he said.
      The Senate GOP leader said he backed Obama’s surge in December 2009, aimed at defeating al-Qaida, reversing the Taliban’s momentum and strengthening Afghan security forces.
      “Over the last year, our forces have made great progress toward those goals,” McConnell said.    “The drawdown of forces described by the president needs to be conducted in a manner that respects the professional judgment of our military commanders, preserves the security gains of the last year and allows for a slower pace of withdrawal if necessary.”
      Obama reached his withdrawal decision a week after receiving a range of options from Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan.    Some U.S. military commanders have favored a more gradual reduction.    But other advisers have backed a more significant withdrawal that starts in July and proceeds steadily through the following months.
      “The president is commander in chief,” spokesman Jay Carney said.    “He is in charge of this process, and he makes the decision.”    Obama spoke for about13 minutes from the East Room.
      “Of course, huge challenges remain,” he said.    “This is the beginning — but not the end — of our effort to wind down this war.    We will have to do the hard work of keeping the gains that we have made while we draw down our forces and transition responsibility for security to the Afghan gov-ernment.”
      The U.S. and its NATO allies hope to turn over control fully to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.    Significant questions still loom, including whether Afghanistan’s government and security forces will be up to the enormous job within a few years.    Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry said the NATO trained military is ready to take responsibility for fighting Taliban insurgents and securing key parts of the country.
      “There will be some battles, there will be suicide attacks and bomb attacks,” Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi acknowledged.    “But we in the Afghan forces are prepared to replace the foreign forces, and I’m confident the army has enough capacity and ability.”
      Obama is under mounting political pressure to wind down the war, especially now that bin Laden, the man considered to be the face of it, is dead.    U.S. forces found and killed the al-Qaida leader in Pakistan in May, a significant blow to an organization that nevertheless still threatens the United States.
      At least1,500 members of the U.S. military have died and 12,000 have been wounded since the U.S. in-vaded Afghanistan in late 2001.    The financial cost of the war has passed $440 billion and is on the rise given the heavy troop commitment, jumping to $120 billion a year, twice the total of two years ago.
      Most Americans oppose the war and are far more concerned about the economy at home.    An AP-GfK poll released Wednesday found that Obama’s approval rating on handling Afghanistan dipped to 52 percent, falling 13 points from its high of 65 percent in May just after the death of bin Laden.
  
  Report warns of U.S. debt crisis - Budget office urges major policy shift by Andrew Taylor, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — The rapidly growing national debt could soon spark a European-style crisis unless Congress moves forcefully, the Congressional Budget Office warned Wednesday in a study that underscored the stakes for Vice President Joe Biden and negotiators working on a sweeping plan to reduce red ink.
      Republicans seized on the report to renew their push to reduce costs in federal benefit programs such as Medicare.
      The report said the nation’s debt is on pace to equal the annual size of the economy within a decade.    It warned of a possible “sudden fiscal crisis” if it is left unchecked, with investors losing faith in the U.S. government’s ability to manage its fiscal affairs.
      At issue is the $9.7 trillion of U.S. debt held by investors and foreign countries like China, the measure that economists deem most important.    Government accounts like the Social Security trust funds account for the rest of the $14.3 trillion total debt.
      “As Congress debates the president’s request for an increase in the statutory debt ceiling, the CBO warns of a more ominous credit cliff — a sudden drop-off in our ability to borrow, imposed by credit markets in a state of panic,” said House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
      The findings aren’t dramatically new, but the budget office’s analysis underscores the magnitude of the nation’s fiscal problems as negotiators struggle to lift the debt limit and avoid a first ever, market-rattling default on U.S. obligations.    The Biden-led talks have proceeded slowly and are at a critical stage as Democrats and Republicans remain at loggerheads over revenues and domestic programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.
      With Republicans insisting that the level of deficit cuts at least equal the amount of any increase in the debt limit, it would take more than $2 trillion in cuts to carry past next year’s elections.    But that goal is proving elusive, and a top Senate Democrat said Wednesday that it would be insufficient anyway.
      “While I am encouraged by the bipartisan nature of the leadership negotiations being led by Vice President Biden, I am concerned by reports the group may be focusing on a limited package that will not fundamentally change the fiscal trajectory of the nation,” said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D.    “That would be a mistake.”
      But Democratic leaders held a news conference Wednesday to argue for more economic stimulus measures such as a proposal floated by the White House to extend a payroll tax cut enacted last year.    The move demonstrates the continuing appeal of deficit-financed policy solutions, even as warnings of the dangers of mounting debt grow louder and louder.
      “We absolutely need to reduce our deficit.    We know that,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.    “But economists tell us that reducing spending is only half the equation.    The other half is measures to create jobs.”
  
  Congress divided over U.S. role in Libya by Donna Cassata, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama lacks the support of the House for authorizing the U.S. military operation in Libya, Speaker John Boehner said Wednesday as Congress sent conflicting messages about America’s role in the NATO-led mission against Moammar Gadhafi.
      Leading Republicans and Democrats in the Senate are pushing a resolution to give Obama limited authority in the 3-month-old war, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, calling it a “clear statement to our allies, to the world, to the Libyan people and to Gadhafi that we support the administration’s actions on Libya.”
      The measure puts senators at odds with members of the House, including anti-war Democrats and some Republicans, who question the operation’s legitimacy because Obama never sought congressional consent under the law.
      Boehner, speaking to reporters, was asked about the Senate effort led by Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, a Democrat, and Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee.
      “They’re pushing for an authorization in Libya, and I don’t think that is where the House is,” Boehn-er said.    “The fact is the president has not made his case to the members of Congress.    He’s not made his case to the American people.”
      Rank-and-file House Republicans planned to meet Wednesday to weigh two resolutions — one similar to the Senate measure that would allow the mission to continue and another to end the operation.    A vote in the House is likely today.
      Obama did not seek congressional consent when he launched airstrikes against Gadhafi’s forces on March 19.    Lawmakers argue that Obama is violating the 1973 War Powers Resolution, which requires approval of the legislative branch within 60 days, with a 30-day extension.    That deadline has passed.
      The White House, in a report to Congress last week, said the limited U.S. role in the operation did not amount to hostilities and did not require congressional authorization.
  
  Cracks in alliance
      Meanwhile, possible cracks emerged in NATO’s Libyan air campaign Wednesday as Italy expressed concern about the accidental killing of civilians and called for a suspension in hostilities to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid.    But Britain insisted the alliance was “holding strong.”
      Skepticism over the military campaign is growing as weeks of airstrikes have failed to unseat Gadhafi and outrage rises over allegations that airstrikes have caused civilian casualties.    The air campaign continued Wednesday.
  
  Economy stumps Fed chief - Bernanke sees woes extending into 2012 by Associated Press
      The economy’s continuing struggles aren’t just confounding ordinary Americans.    They’ve also stumped the head of the Federal Reserve.
      Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told reporters Wednesday that the central bank had been caught off guard by recent signs of deterioration in the economy.    And he said the troubles could continue into next year.
      “We don’t have a precise read on why this slower pace of growth is persisting,” Bernanke said.    He said the weak housing market and problems in the banking system might be “more persistent than we thought.”
      It was the Fed chief’s most explicit warning yet that the economy will face serious challenges next year.    For several months, he had said the factors working against economic growth appeared to be “transitory.”
      The Fed cut its forecast for economic growth this year to a range of 2.7 percent to 2.9 percent from an April forecast of 3.1 percent to 3.3 percent.    It also cut its forecast for next year to a range of 3.3 percent to 3.7 percent from an earlier 3.5 percent to 4.2 percent.    The Fed also said unemployment would stay higher than it had expected earlier.
      In a policy statement issued at the end of a two-day meeting, the Fed blamed the worsening economic outlook in part on higher energy prices and the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, which slowed production of cars and other products.
      But at a press conference afterward, the second of what the Fed says will be regular question-and-answer sessions with reporters, Bernanke conceded the economy’s troubles are more puzzling and potentially more long-lasting than a pair of temporary shocks.
      The Fed announcement, at12:30 p.m., had little effect on the stock and bond markets. Bernanke began speaking at 2:15, and stocks started falling about 2:30, when he acknowledged that some of the economy’s problems could linger into next year.    The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 80 points for the day.
      The Fed’s statement Wednesday stood in contrast to its more upbeat view when officials last met, eight weeks ago.    At that time, the central bank said the job market was gradually improving.
      Since then, the economic news has been gloomy.    The government reported that the economy grew at an annual rate of only 1.8 percent in the first three months of the year.    It isn’t expected to grow much faster in the current quarter.    The economy added 54,000 jobs in May, far fewer than in the previous two months.
  
  Merkel opposes Greek debt restructuring
      A full-scale restructuring of Greek debt would have “completely uncontrollable” effects on fi-nancial markets and could threaten other countries’ stability, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Wednesday.
      Imposing a so-called haircut on Greek debt — reducing the amount to be repaid — would endanger not only banks and other creditors who hold Greek bonds, but also institutions that sold insurance policies against a default, she said.
      Those credit default swaps have a “significantly higher” face value than the debt itself, and the consequences of them being called on can’t be foreseen, she said.    The comments came as the European Union grapples with how best to keep Greece’s financial problems from becoming a major financial crisis.
  
  Oil retreats after Bernanke’s comments by Associated Press
      Oil prices settled higher Wednesday after the Federal Reserve said U.S. economic growth has slowed but should pick up again soon.    But they retreated in after-market trading as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said some of the economy’s more serious problems could last into next year.
      Crude oil gained $1.24 to settle at $95.41 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.    Expectations of a slower summer travel season have been reflected in oil, which has traded between about $102 and $93 a barrel for most of the month.
      Shares of Republic Bancorp followed other banking stocks lower Wednesday, falling in the final hours of trading as Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke voiced concern about the health of the economic recovery.
      Louisville-based PharMerica gave back some of the previous two days of gains.    The company said on Tuesday it would not comment on market speculation.
  
  
• 6/24/2011
  
  Obama taps into emergency oil - Some question sale of 30 million barrels by Matthew Daly, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Wary of a new surge in gas prices, the Obama administration said Thursday it is selling off 30 million barrels of oil from the country’s emergency reserves as part of a broader global response to lost oil supplies caused by turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa, particularly Libya.
      The release from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve will be the largest ever — amounting to half of a 60 million-barrel international infusion of oil planned for the world market over the next month.    Even so, the 30 million barrels to be sold by the United States represents less than two days’ worth of domestic oil consumption and about three days of oil imports.
      White House officials wouldn’t predict how the release will affect prices at the pump, although the move is intended to increase U.S. supplies during the peak summer driving season.    “We are taking this action in response to the ongoing loss of crude oil due to supply disruptions in Libya and other countries and their impact on the global economic recovery,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said.
      The move comes as retail gasoline prices dropped for the 20th consecutive day, down a penny from Wednesday, to $3.61 per gallon, according to the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report.    That’s about 21 cents lower than a month ago.
      The timing brought criticism from business groups and GOP lawmakers, who accused President Barack Obama of playing politics with U.S. oil reserves, which are intended to address emergencies.
      “The administration’s action will do little to aid consumers while leaving the nation vulnerable to hurricanes or other natural disasters, or a foreign crisis that causes a real supply shortage,” said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.    “By tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the president is using a national security instrument to address his domestic political problems.    This action threatens our ability to respond to a genuine national security crisis.”
      Even some Democrats were puzzled by the move.
      “This decision would have been more timely if made when the disruption in Libyan oil supplies first occurred” in February, said Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee    Still, Bingaman said he hopes the move helps deflate “speculative froth in the markets” and drives prices down.
      The administration said that the uprising in Libya has resulted in a loss of about 1.5 million barrels of oil a day.    High oil prices and the resulting spike in the cost of fuel have contributed to an economic slowdown and put more political pressure on Obama.
  
  Government reaches austerity deal with EU, IMF
      ATHENS, GREECE - Greece’s government and debt inspectors from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund have agreed on a $40 billion austerity package.    Getting the measures through parliament next week is a condition for Greece to get more aid, which it needs to prevent defaulting on its huge debts.    The deal contains an additional $5.4 billion in spending cuts, an EU official said.
  
  Clinton lobbies Democrats to back Libyan mission
      WASHINGTON - Scrambling to turn back a fierce congressional challenge to the president’s military authority on Libya, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton pleaded with House Democrats on Thursday to continue U.S. mili-tary involvement in the NATO led operation.    Republican leaders pushed toward a vote to cut off funds for hostilities.
      Hours after bluntly posing the question, “Whose side are you on?” — Moammar Gadhafi or the Libyan people — Clinton met with Democrats to explain the mission and the stakes if the House votes to bar funds.
  
  Oil tumbles on plan to release reserves by Associated Press
      Oil tumbled Thursday after the International Energy Agency, which includes the U.S., said it will release some of its emergency oil supplies to stave off a possible spike in energy prices.    The agency will make 60 million barrels available over a 30-day period. Half will come from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
      Crude oil fell $4.39 to settle at $91.02 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
      Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research, said the release of oil “creates an immediate glut. “    But they’re not solving the problem of rising demand.
  
  
• 6/25/2011
  
  House rejects U.S. role in Libya - But Republicans fail in bid to cut operation’s funding by Donna Cassata, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — A defiant U.S. House voted overwhelmingly Friday to deny President Barack Obama the authority to wage war against Libya.    But Republicans fell short in an effort to actually cut off funds for the operation in a constitutional showdown reflecting both political differences and unease over U.S. involvement.
      In a repudiation of their commander in chief, House members rejected a measure to authorize the Libya mission for a year while prohibiting U.S. ground forces in the North African nation, a resolution that Obama had said he would welcome.
      The vote was 295-123 with 70 Democrats abandoning the president just one day after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had made an unusual appeal to rank-and-file members.    A Senate committee is to consider the same resolution next Tuesday and is expected to support it, raising the prospect of conflicting messages from Congress.
      Friday’s votes showed lawmakers’ concerns about an open-ended U.S. commitment to a civil war between Moammar Gadhafi and rebel forces looking to oust him — as well as growing weariness among Americans with drawn-out conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
  
  Oil up slightly; markets assess global economy by Associated Press
      NEW YORK — Oil settled slightly higher Friday as investors weighed the latest economic data and the planned release of 60 million barrels of oil onto the world market.    Crude oil rose 14 cents to settle at $91.16 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
      Analysts said investors were still sorting out their positions following Thursday’s surprise announcement from the International Energy Agency.    The U.S. government said the economy grew at a rate of 1.9 percent in the first quarter, slightly higher than the 1.8 percent rate estimated a month ago.
  
  
• 6/26/2011
  
  Obama promotes need for high-tech innovation
      WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama says technological innovations can help create jobs and spur growth in clean energy and advanced manufacturing.
      In his radio and Internet address, the president promoted a plan he outlined Friday in which the government would join with universities and corporations to re-ignite the manufacturing sector with an emphasis on cutting edge research and technologies.
      “Their mission is to come up with a way to get ideas from the drawing board to the manufacturing floor to the marketplace as swiftly as possible, which will help create quality jobs, and make our businesses more com-petitive,” Obama said Saturday.
  
  Romney criticizes Obama’s economic policies in Utah
      SALT LAKE CITY - Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney criticized President Barack Obama’s economic policies Friday at campaign stops in his one-time home state of Utah.
      “Gasoline is too expensive, food’s too expensive, there’s too many people out of work, and there’s nothing to be proud of in Barack Obama’s economic policies,” Romney said from the back of a pickup outside a popular drive-in restaurant.    “My policies will get Americans back to work and let America lead the world as it has in the past.”
  
  
• 6/27/2011
  
  
  MIDEAST, NORTH AFRICAN DEVELOPMENTS
  • YEMEN: The powerful son of Yemen’s embattled leader voiced support for efforts spearheaded by the opposition and the acting president to find a solution to the nation’s political turmoil.    In a statement, Ahmed Saleh, who controls the elite Republican Guards, expressed his support for efforts led by Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and opposition leaders to reach a solution to the current crisis.    Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of anti-government protesters rallied across Yemen, demanding President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s family and members of his inner circle leave the country.
  • MOROCCO: Tens of thousands of people demonstrated around Morocco both for and against a proposed new constitution, just a week before it is to be voted on in a referendum.    In the largest city, Casablanca, government supporters first blocked and then attacked with rocks a march by thousands of activists, wounding many.    King Mohammed VI announced a new constitution June 17 after nationwide protests for greater freedoms in the preceding months.
  
  . Libyan rebels claim advance - West could be a second front by Adam Schreck, Associated Press
      TRIPOLI, Libya — Rebels in Libya’s western mountains said they had advanced and were battling Moammar Gadhafi’s forces in a strategic town southwest of the capital, ramping up pressure against government troops on a second front.
      The rebels’ claim of an advance into the outskirts of the town of Bair al-Ghanam, some 50 miles from Tripoli, follows weeks of intense fighting in the Nafusa mountains in which opposition forces have slowly pushed Gadhafi troops back toward Tripoli.
      Rebels control the eastern third of the country and pockets, including a number of Nafusa mountain towns, in the west.
      The bulk of the fighting in recent months has been focused to the east of Tripoli.    But a push by rebels from the Nafusa mountains could force Gadhafi to commit more troops to the southern and western approaches to the capital.
      A rebel military spokesman in the Nafusa mountains, Gomaa Ibrahim, said opposition fighters and gov-ernment troops have been fighting since early Sunday on the periphery of Bair al-Ghanam.
      Guma el-Gamaty, a spokesman for the rebels’ National Transitional council, said the town is significant because it is only 19 miles south of the city of Zawiya, a key western gateway to the capital and home to a crucial oil refinery.
      Opposition fighters seized control of Zawiya in March before government troops crushed rebel forces there to retake the city. Fighting broke out in the city again earlier this month, briefly cutting access to the vital coastal highway that passes through Zawiya.    The route links Tripoli with the Tunisian border and is one of Gadhafi’s last main supply lines.
      Just over 100 Libyans arrived in Tripoli by ship from the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi early Sunday.    The ferry was operated by the International Committee of the Red Cross, which transported about 300 people in the opposite direction, to Benghazi from Tripoli, on Friday.
      Many of those arriving aboard the “Ionis” ferry on Sunday appeared to be families with small children and elderly people.    While a small number of passengers waved green Libyan flags and chanted pro-Gadhafi slogans, others said they were returning simply to be reunited with loved ones in the west.
  
  
• 6/28/2011
  
  Obama joins deadlocked debt-limit talks - No progress after McConnell meeting by Jim Kuhnhenn, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama plunged into deadlocked negotiations to cut government deficits and raise the nation’s debt limit Monday, and the White House expressed confidence a “significant” deal with Republicans could be reached.
      But both sides only seemed to harden their positions as the day wore on, with the administration insisting on higher taxes as part of the package and Republican leaders flatly rejecting the idea.
      Obama and Vice President Joe Biden met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., for about 30 minutes at the White House and then met with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky for about an hour in the early evening.
      White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama reported after the morning session that “everyone in the room believes that a significant deal remains possible.”    But Carney also affirmed that Obama would only go for a deficit-reduction plan that included both spending cuts and tax increases, an approach that Republicans say would never get through Congress.
      Said Carney, “It’s the only way to get it done if you want to do it right.”
      Obama and Biden spent more time with McConnell than they did with Reid, an indication of the dif-ferences they still need to bridge.
      “The meeting concluded, but they will continue to talk,” McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said afterward.    Hours earlier, McConnell reaffirmed Republican opposition to more tax hikes in a speech from the Senate floor.    “It’s time Washington take the hit,” he said, “not the taxpayers.”
      Democrats have proposed ending subsidies to oil and gas companies, taxing private equity or hedge fund managers at higher income tax rates instead of lower capital gains rates, and limiting itemized deductions for wealthy taxpayers.
      McConnell said any tax increase or new spending would be counterproductive to economic recovery, and he pointed out that Democrats had been unable to pass tax increases on the wealthy when they controlled both chambers of Congress last year.
      “Let’s move past tax hikes, talk about what’s actually possible, and let’s talk about what has and hasn’t worked over the past two years,” he said.
      Reid said, “I hope my Republican colleagues will put the economy ahead of politics.”    Speaking on the Senate floor, he said, “I hope they’ll join us to create jobs and set aside their desire to please the tea party and defeat President Obama.”
      At issue is not just the staggering national debt but a showdown on the federal borrowing limit that carries enormous risks.
      Absent an agreement that cuts long-term deficits, Republicans say they will not vote to increase the nation’s borrowing, which will exceed its $14.3 trillion limit on Aug. 2.    The administration has warned that if Congress does not raise the debt ceiling, it could mean the first U.S. financial default in history and send economic shockwaves around the world.
      To meet government obligations, a two-year increase in the debt ceiling would have to be about $2.4 trillion.    Republicans are insisting on deficit reduction of a similar amount over 10 years.
      So far the financial markets remain unrattled by the impasse, and some say it might take a massive market upheaval to move Congress to pass an increase in the debt ceiling.    That’s what it took in 2008 for Congress to approve the financial bailout known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
  
  Iranian official says OPEC strains solvable by Associated Press
      VIENNA — Iran’s oil minister has acknowledged strains within OPEC after its last meeting exposed deep rifts between his country and rival Saudi Arabia, but he said the organization can solve them internally.
      Monday’s comments by Mohammad Aliabadi and other OPEC officials appeared to be an attempt to patch up the image of the 12-nation oil-producing organization after it ended an abortive June 6 meeting split into two camps.    Iran wanted to keep output steady and supplies tight. The Saudis sought a decision to increase levels.
  
  
• 6/29/2011
  
  Stalemate ends on free-trade agreements
      WASHINGTON - The White House and congressional lawmakers broke a stalemate Tuesday in the long--stalled effort to finalize free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama — pacts President Barack Obama has hailed as a boon for the U.S. economy.
      Key lawmakers from both parties agreed Tuesday to extend aid for American workers displaced by foreign trade through 2013.    The White House, acknowledging concerns from labor unions, had threatened to hold up passage of the pacts unless the Trade Adjustment Assistance program was renewed.    But whether the trade agreements will pass Congress is far from certain.
  
  France’s Lagarde first woman chosen to oversee the IMF by Christopher S. Rugaber and Sarah Dilorenzo, Associated Press
      French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde was chosen Tuesday to lead the International Monetary Fund and will confront a European debt crisis that threatens the global economy.
      When she begins her five-year term next week, Lagarde will be the first female managing director and the 11th European of the 66-year-old global lending organization.
      She will have to prod fellow Europeans to take painful steps to prevent a default by Greece.    She’ll also face pressure from developing nations that want a greater voice at the IMF.    And she’ll be looked upon to restore the IMF’s reputation, tarred by a scandal involving Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the man she’s replacing.    Strauss-Kahn resigned last month after being charged with sexually assaulting a New York City hotel housekeeper.    He has denied the charges.
      “>i>I am deeply honored by the trust placed in me,” Lagarde said in a statement in Paris after Tuesday’s vote.    “I would like to thank the fund’s global membership warmly for the broad-based support I have received.”
      Lagarde, 55, was chosen by consensus, the IMF said.    Her selection became all but assured once the Obama administration endorsed her earlier Tuesday.    Hours later, the IMF’s 24-member board voted to appoint her.    She had also won support from Europe, China and Russia.    Mexico’s Agustin Carstens challenged her, but his candidacy never caught fire.
      Lagarde said her first priority is to unify the IMF’s staff of 2,500 employees and 800 economists and restore their confidence in the organization.
      She also said she wants to meet with Strauss-Kahn, if permitted to by the U.S. government.
      “I want to have a long talk with him, because a successor should talk with their predecessor,” Lagarde said.    “I can learn things from what he has to say about the IMF and its teams.”
      Lagarde has spent much of her career in the United States before entering French politics in 2005.
  
  
• 6/30/2011
  
  Greece passes austerity plan - More than 100 injured in riots by Elena Becatoros and Derek Gatopoulos, Associated Press
      ATHENS — Greece fended off a bankruptcy that would have roiled global markets and threatened the fu-ture of the euro when lawmakers voted Wednesday for controversial austerity measures in the face of violent protests.    More than 100 people were injured in riots.
      Investors cheered the bill — which aims to cut spending and raise taxes by $40 billion and raise $71 billion in privatizations over five years — but, in Athens, the mood was dark.    In a haze of tear gas, protesters hurled anything they could find at riot police and tried to blockade the Parliament building.
      A Greek default would threaten the viability of the euro, the EU’s common currency, and send shock waves through global markets similar to those that kicked off the global financial meltdown after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.
      While world markets rose on the news that the bill passed, Greece is not yet out of the woods.    The bill — along with another that must be passed today on implementing the austerity package — will release the next $17 billion installment of a $157 billion international bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.    Eurogroup head Jean-Claude Juncker indicated after the vote that Greece would get the fifth batch of its bailout loans.
      Many Greeks complain they have already paid dearly in a year that has seen public sector salaries and pensions cut and unemployment rise to above 16 percent.
      “This is bad, the country will be sold for a piece of bread,” said Dimitris Kostopoulos, a 48-year-old insurer who was protesting Wednesday.    “There were many other more appropriate alternatives to this. Parliament has once again betrayed us.”
      The next installment Greece hopes to get will only see it through September, leaving open the question of how the country, burdened with piles of debt, will right itself.
      On Sunday, eurozone finance ministers will meet in Brussels to work on a second bailout for Greece that is hoped will address more long-term problems.    As part of that plan, banks are expected to share some of the burden, possibly by rolling over Greek bonds that they hold, as French banks have already volunteered to do.
      Prime Minister George Papandreou has said the second bailout will be roughly the same size as the first.    But many economists expect even that reprieve will not be enough, and Greece will need a more significant restructuring of its debt.    The specter of continued protests could undermine the government’s ability to implement the austerity measures, which slap taxes on even some of the lowest-paid Greeks and raise consumer taxes during a recession.
  
  IMF urges U.S. to raise ceiling - Default would hurt economy, it says by Christopher S. Rugaber, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — The International Monetary Fund warned U.S. lawmakers Wednesday that a failure to raise the nation’s borrowing limit would pose serious risks to the global economy and financial markets.    The U.S. reached its $14.3 trillion borrowing limit last month.    The U.S. Treasury has said that it can keep the country operating for a couple of months by employing various bookkeeping maneuvers. But if Congress doesn’t raise the borrowing limit by Aug. 2, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has said the country will default on its debt.
      John Lipsky, acting managing director of the IMF, said a default “would have very serious and far-reaching consequences.”    It would rattle markets and send interest rates soaring, making mortgages and other consumer loans more expensive.    Lipsky expressed confidence that Congress will reach a deal before that happens.
      A sharp divide among lawmakers over how to rein in the federal budget deficit has kept Congress from raising the borrowing limit.    Republicans want President Barack Obama and Democrats to agree on spending cuts equal to any increase in the borrowing limit.
      Democrats say the deficit-reduction deal must also include some tax increases.    Republicans say they will not support any proposal that raises taxes.
      The IMF said enacting steep spending cuts or tax increases too quickly could hamper the U.S. recovery.    It advocates raising the borrowing limit and implementing a long-term deficit-reduction strategy.
  
  Oil rebound weakens supply release impact by Associated Press
      NEW YORK — An attempt by the U.S. and other non-OPEC governments to sway oil and gasoline prices appears to have petered out in less than a week.
      Benchmark crude for August delivery gained $1.88, or 2 percent, to settle at $94.77 per barrel Wednesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.    Over two days, oil has nearly recovered the loss from last Thursday when the U.S. and other oil-importing countries said they’d dump emergency oil supplies onto the market. Brent crude, which is used to price many international oil varieties, also rebounded.
  
  
• 7/1/2011
  
  McConnell challenges Obama to meet on debt
      The Senate abandoned plans for a July 4 break as time dwindled for lawmakers to strike a deal on avoiding a government default and cutting federal deficits.    In a challenge to President Barack Obama, the chamber’s top Republican invited him to the Capitol to discuss the impasse with GOP lawmakers.
      Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., invited Obama to meet with Senate Republicans “anytime this afternoon” at the Capitol, belittling the president’s demand to include increased tax revenues as part of a deficit-cutting package.    The White House said Obama had no plans to accept McConnell’s invitation.
  
  Libyan rebels seek more weapons, funds - France says it supplied arms by David Stringer and George Jahn, Associated Press
      LONDON — Libya’s opposition leader said Thursday that rebels need more weapons and funding, as China and Russia raised concerns over revelations that France had supplied arms to civilians fighting Moammar Gadhafi’s forces.
      Mahmoud Jibril, of Libya’s Transitional National Council, said foreign deliveries of military hardware would give the rebels a chance to “decide this battle quickly (and) to spill as little blood as possible.”
      French military spokesman Col. Thierry Burkhard said Wednesday that France had airlifted weapons to Libyan civilians in the western Nafusa mountains south of Tripoli. Guns, rocket-propelled grenades and munitions were delivered in early June, when Gadhafi’s troops had encircled civilians.
      Gadhafi’s prime minister, Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, predicted France “will suffer for this,” saying the arms could end up in terrorists’ hands.
      “Many more French citizens will die because of these acts,” he said in Tripoli, according to a partial transcript of his remarks obtained by The Associated Press.
      China and Russia have questioned whether supplying weapons breached the terms of the United Nations Security Council resolution that authorizes international action in Libya.
      Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said his ministry had asked France for further details.
      State Department spokesman Mark Toner, speaking to reporters in Washington Thursday, said the U.S. would “respectfully disagree” with the Russian assessment.
      “We believe that U.N. Security Council Resolutions 1970 and 1973, read together, neither specified nor precluded providing defense material to the Libyan opposition,” he said.
      Russia abstained in the U.N. vote on Libya.
      British Foreign Secretary William Hague announced Thursday the United Kingdom was sending 5,000 sets of body armor, 6,650 uniforms, 5,000 high-visibility vests and communications equipment to police officers in rebel-held areas.
      He said the supplies would help Libya’s opposition protect civilians and the growing community of dip-lomats and aid workers in eastern Libya.
  
  
  MIDEAST, N. AFRICAN DEVELOPMENTS
  • SYRIA: The death toll from a two-day military siege rose to 19 as Syrian army forces spread through a rebellious mountainous area near the Turkish border.    The action in the northwestern area of Jabal al-Zawiya appears aimed at preventing residents from fleeing to Turkey, where more than 10,000 Syrians are sheltered in refugee camps.
  • BAHRAIN: Bahrain riot police fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse thousands gathered near the square that was the epicenter of the nation’s Shiite-led protests earlier this year.
  • MOROCCO: Moroccans are set to vote today on a new constitution the king has presented as a wide-ranging set of democratic reforms.    Activists say it perpetuates an autocracy.
  • JORDAN: Dozens of Jordanians pelted the parliament with eggs, demanding the dismissal of the prime minister and all parliament members.    The police briefly scuffled with protesters.
  
  Mahmoud Jibril of Libya’s Transitional National Council listens during a news conference Thursday in Vienna, Austria. - Japan, Brazil: More than 100 back U.N. reform
      BRASILIA, BRAZIL - The foreign ministers of Brazil and Japan say more than 100 nations support a proposal to expand the United Nations Security Council. Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota said a reform plan circulating at the U.N. shows a desire for change at the world body.    It does not detail how the change would take place.
      Japan and Brazil are working with Germany and India for all four to get permanent seats on the Security Council, joining the U.S., China, Russia, Britain and France.    There is widespread agreement at the U.N. that the council should be reformed.    But for 30 years, the 192-member General Assembly has been unable to agree on how.
  
  Austerity plan passes amid protests, riots
      ATHENS, GREECE - Greece has faced down street violence and strikes for the sake of financial aid it was promised and needs to avoid bankruptcy.    Now it’s fellow European nations will be expected to craft a second bailout to convince investors the 17-nation eurozone will survive the debt crisis.
      A new austerity package lawmakers cleared in Athens is required to get more rescue loans but will force deep changes on all parts of society.    Minimum wages will be taxed more and key assets like water, gas and oil companies will be sold, possibly to foreigners.
      The lawmakers delivered what was asked in votes Wednesday and Thursday.    Global markets cheered, but anger in the streets of Athens grew — and quickly turned violent.    More than 300 people, nearly half of them police, were injured in two days of mayhem.
  
  More corn may cut food costs by Christopher Leonard, The Associated Press
      ST. LOUIS — U.S. food prices may ease later this year now that farmers have planted the second-largest corn crop in nearly seven decades.
      This year’s corn crop will be 92.3 million acres, the U.S. Agriculture Department said Thursday.    That’s 9 percent larger than the average crop over the past decade.    The only crop bigger in the past 67 years was planted in 2007.
      Many analysts had worried that wet weather this spring would cut the number of corn acres.    But record-high prices are encouraging farmers to use more acres for corn, and less for soybeans and wheat.
      A greater crop estimate drove corn futures down 30 cents in morning trading, to $6.21 per bushel.    That’s the maximum price change allowed by futures exchanges.    Corn rose to a record high of $7.99 per bushel earlier this month.
      More expensive grain has led to food price increases this year.    That could ultimately make everything from beef to cereal to soft drinks more expensive.    For all of 2011, the USDA predicts food prices will rise 3 percent to 4 percent.    A huge harvest in August could slow food inflation.    It typically takes six months for changes in commodity prices to affect retail food prices in the U.S. Analysts say consumers could see some relief at the supermarket by early 2012.
      “All of us who perceived tighter (corn) supplies up to this point, all of us were proven wrong today,” said Jason Ward, an analyst with Northstar Commodity in Minneapolis.
      Industry traders had expected just 90.8 million acres of corn had been planted.    Knowing that far more corn is in the pipeline will likely pull down grain prices dramatically this summer, Ward said.
      Farmers chose to plant corn at the expense of this year’s soybean crop.    They used only 75.2 million acres for soybeans, about 3 percent less than last year.    Farmers have a limited supply of good farmland and usually trade one crop for another on their acreage.
      Backup supplies of corn are expected this year to hit their lowest level since 1995.
  
  Oil drops 11 percent in second quarter
      Oil prices retreated in the second quarter.    The benchmark U.S. price dropped nearly 16 percent in May and June, and closed the quarter with an 11 percent decline.    Having settled at $95.42 per barrel Thursday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude oil is back where it was in late February.    And at $3.54 per gallon, the national average for gasoline is nearly 7 cents lower.
  
  
• 7/2/2011
  
  Gadhafi warns Europe of attacks - Talks of targeting homes and offices by Adam Schreck, Associated Press
      TRIPOLI, Libya — A defiant Moammar Gadhafi threatened Friday to carry out attacks in Europe against “homes, offices, families,” unless NATO halts its campaign of airstrikes against his regime in Libya.
      The Libyan leader, sought by the International Criminal Court for a brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters, delivered the warning in a telephone message played to thousands of supporters gathered in the Green Square, the main square in the capital Tripoli.
      It was one of the largest pro-government rallies in recent months, signaling that Gadhafi can still muster significant support.
      A series of powerful explosions later rattled the capital’s heart, apparently new NATO airstrikes, as Gadhafi supporters cheered, honked horns and fired into the air.    Black smoke could be seen rising from the area near Gadhafi’s Bab al Aziziya compound.
      Gadhafi spoke from an unknown location in a likely sign of concern over his safety. Addressing the West, Gadhafi warned that Libyans might take revenge for NATO bombings.
      “These people (the Libyans) are able to one day take this battle … to Europe, to target your homes, offices, families, which would become legitimate military targets, like you have targeted our homes.”    “We can decide to treat you in a similar way,” he said of the Europeans.    “If we decide to, we are able to move to Europe like locusts, like bees.    We advise you to retreat before you are dealt a disaster.”
      It was not immediately clear whether Gadhafi could make good on such threats.
      In the past, he has supported various militant groups, including the IRA and several Palestinian factions, while Libyan agents were blamed for attacks in Europe, including a Berlin disco bombing in1986 and the downing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, that killed 270 people, mostly Americans.    Libya later acknowledged responsibility for Lockerbie.
      In recent years, however, Gadhafi was believed to have severed his ties with extremist groups when he moved to reconcile with Europe and the United States.    Al-Qaida and other jihadi groups have opposed him since he cracked down in the late 1990s on the Islamist Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which sought to replace his regime with an Islamic state.
      A U.S. State Department spokesman, Mark Toner, said the U.S. would take Gadhafi’s threat of attacks seriously, as his regime has carried out such actions in the past.    Toner said he did not know if there was intelligence to indicate Gadhafi’s regime would be able to carry out such attacks.
  
  
  MIDEAST ACTION
  • SYRIA: Hundreds of thousands of protesters flooded cities nationwide in what activists describe as the largest outpouring against the regime of President Bashar Assad.    At least 14 people were killed in various clashes, activists say.
  • MOROCCO: Moroccans braved searing temperatures in a vote to overwhelmingly approve a new constitution that King Mohammed VI says will bring democratic reform.    The 98.94 percent approval rating and 72.56 percent turnout appeared to indicate strong belief in promises of reform.
  • YEMEN: President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s son has led a crackdown, arresting dozens of military officers suspected of turning against his injured father, including many from one of the country’s most elite forces, the Republican Guards, military officials said.
  
  Gas falls from Memorial Day - Prices usually hit peak in summer by Associated Press
      NEW YORK — Call it an Independence Day discount.    Gasoline prices usually peak in the summer.    This year, however, they peaked a little earlier, on May 5.    The subsequent slide has made gas about 24 cents per gallon cheaper than it was on Memorial Day.
      The national average stands at $3.55 per gallon, the same average as in Louisville.    That’s the cheapest gasoline has been since late March.    Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service, expects the national average to drop another 25 to 30 cents per gallon this year.
      “Prices will be lower until we get to hurricane season; then who knows?” Kloza said.    Hurricanes that pass through the Gulf of Mexico can disrupt oil production and force fuel prices higher.
      While gas is cheaper than it was on Memorial Day, it’s hardly inexpensive.    It’s still 79 cents more than a year ago.    And the only year gas prices were higher for the July Fourth holiday was 2008, when gas was around $4.10 per gallon.
      The drop in gas prices is due to a decline in oil prices.    Benchmark West Texas Intermediate has given up more than 16 percent since the beginning of May.    The contract for August delivery lost 48 cents to settle at $94.94 per barrel Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
      In London, Brent crude fell 71 cents to settle at $111.77 per barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange.
      Oil fell Friday after China reported that its manufacturing industry cooled off in June, slipping to its slowest pace in 28 months.    Activity slowed as credit tightened due to inflation-fighting measures and weaker overseas demand.    China is still expected to drive world oil demand for years, but a slowdown in manufacturing could temper the demand for fuels.
      In the U.S., however, factory activity picked up in June, in part because of lower fuel prices.    In other Nymex trading for August contracts, heating oil dropped 2.18 cents to settle at $2.9245 per gallon, and gasoline futures added less than a penny to settle at $2.9726 per gallon.    Natural gas fell 6.3 cents to settle at $4.33 per 1,000 cubic feet.
  
  
• 7/3/2011
  
  Greek default averted, but outlook still fragile
      BRUSSELS - Greece was pulled back from impending default Saturday when eurozone finance ministers signed off on a vital loan installment.    But international creditors are showing more concern over whether it can service its debt in the long run.
      Athens will get a $17.39 billion tranche of its existing $159.8 billion rescue package by July 15, in time to meet a raft of bond repayment due dates this month and next, the finance ministers of the 17 nations that share the euro said in a statement Saturday.    The eurozone and the International Monetary Fund also will continue to prop up Greece’s struggling economy in coming years, with a second package of aid to be finalized by September.
  
  
• 7/6/2011
  
  Obama: Do long-term debt deal - He wants talks with both parties’ leaders by Erica Werner, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama prodded Congress on Tuesday to reach a sweeping, long-term deal within the next two weeks to raise the nation’s borrowing limit rather than “kick the can down the road” with a makeshift, short-term solution, and he declared it must include the tax hikes Republicans strongly oppose.
      He said he was summoning leaders of both parties to the White House on Thursday to try to get it done and beat an Aug. 2 deadline to avert a first-ever federal default that could shake economic markets worldwide.
      Obama said he opposed a stopgap, short-term increase, as suggested by some lawmakers.    But he stopped short of ruling out a limited extension, and his spokesman, Jay Carney, later declined to say whether the president would veto such a measure.
      Obama renewed his stand that any deal must include not only spending cuts but also new revenue — tax increases vehemently ruled out by many Republicans in Congress.
      “We need to come together over the next two weeks to reach a deal that reduces the deficit and upholds the full faith and credit of the United States government and the credit of the American people,” Obama said at the White House.
      He said congressional leaders from the House and Senate, both Republicans and Democrats, were being invited to meet on the issue.    That would bring the top eight lawmakers together with Obama and top administration financial officials.
      Despite calling on others to leave ultimatums at the door, Obama stuck to his — that any deal must include new tax revenue.
      “We need to take on spending in the tax code, spending on certain tax breaks and deductions for the wealthiest of Americans,” Obama said. The White House is proposing about $400 billion in increased tax revenues.
  
  No vote on Libya resolution
      Senate Democratic leaders abandoned plans for a test vote Tuesday on a resolution authorizing the U.S. military operation against Libya as Republicans insisted they should instead focus on government spending and the nation’s borrowing limit.
  
  Bill requiring teaching of gay contributions OK’d
      SACRAMENTO, CALIF - California lawmakers sent the governor a bill Tuesday that would make the state the first requiring public schools to include the contributions of gays and lesbians in their social studies curriculum.
      The bill adds lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people to the list of groups that schools must include in social studies lessons.    It also would prohibit materials that reflect adversely on gays.
      Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco said Senate Bill 48 is crucial because of the bullying of gay students.    Republicans called it a well-intentioned but ill-conceived bill.    The legislation leaves it to local school boards to decide how to implement the requirement. It does not specify a grade level for the instruction to begin.
  
  Oil settles near $97 as price forecasts rise by Associated Press
      NEW YORK — Some major investment banks are still betting that oil prices will grow next year despite an emergency injection of crude into world markets from the U.S. and other countries.
      Benchmark crude climbed as high as $97.48 per barrel Tuesday before settling at $96.89 after Barclays Capital raised its 2012 price forecast for Brent crude.    And Goldman Sachs said the International Energy Agency’s decision at the end of June to release 60 million barrels of oil from its reserves won’t cool off prices as much as originally thought.
  
  
• 7/7/2011
  
  Market shrugs off report - Stocks up despite service-sector news by Associated Press
      Stock indexes managed slight gains Wednesday as investors shrugged off slower growth in the U.S. service sector.
      The Institute for Supply Management reported Wednesday that business growth slowed at U.S. service providers in June.    Financial companies and health care providers reported the weakest results.    On the positive side, June marked the 19th consecutive month of growth at service companies, which employ the majority of American workers.
      U.S. stocks opened mixed after a broad sell-off in Europe and another interest rate increase in China.
      Major banks fell sharply after Moody’s lowered Portugal’s credit rating to “junk” status late Tuesday.    That raised fresh concerns about the strength of the European financial system and investment banks’ exposure to possible bond defaults.    Bank of America lost 2.4 percent. JPMorgan Chase dropped 1.2 percent.
      Some investors were surprised that stock indexes held up after the weak economic report. Dorsey Farr, a co-founder of Atlanta investment advisory firm French Wolf & Farr, said attractive stock prices in technology and pharma-ceutical companies helped the market rebound.
      The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 1.34 points to close at 1,339.22. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. was among the index’s biggest losers, dropping 3.6 percent, as a phone-hacking scandal engulfed one of the media giant’s tabloids.    Some British legislators called on regulators to block News Corp. from taking over British Sky Broadcasting.
      The Dow Jones industrial average rose 56.15 points to close at 12,626.02. Caterpillar rose 1.5 percent, the most of any stock in the average, followed by Intel.    The Nasdaq added 8.25 points to 2,834.02.
      China raised a key interest rate for the third time this year in an attempt to curb inflation.    Many U.S. companies have focused on the country as a source of profit growth and hope that interest rate increases there will not lead to an economic slump.
      Among U.S. companies, General Motors gained 1 percent after analysts upgraded the stock.    Walgreen Co. rose 1.5 percent after reporting strong June sales.
      The Dow climbed 648 points last week, its best week in two years.    The gains came as Greece’s parliament approved budget-cutting measures needed before it receives another round of loans.    Nike also reported strong earnings and automakers said their sales rose 7 percent in June compared with the same month a year ago.
      The gains erased nearly six weeks of losses.    The Dow is now up 9.1percent for the year. The S&P 500 index is up 6.5 percent and the Nasdaq composite is up 6.8 percent.
  
  Oil settles off 24 cents as China ups interest by Associated Press
      A stronger dollar and higher interest rates in China kept a lid on the price of oil Wednesday.    Crude oil lost 24 cents to settle at $96.65 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
      The dollar rose as the euro sank after Portugal’s bonds were downgraded to junk status.    Credit ratings agency Moody’s said Portugal, like Greece, will probably need more international financial aid to deal with its debt.    Oil is priced in U.S. dollars and tends to fall as crude becomes more expensive for investors holding foreign money.
  
  
• 7/8/2011
  
  Oil prices higher as rise in demand looms by Associated Press
      Oil prices are rising again as investors bet that the economies of many nations, including the U.S., will improve in the second half of the year, increasing global demand for petroleum.    Crude oil rose $2.02 to settle at $98.67 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
      Gas prices likely will remain choppy, rising or falling within a 20-cent range for the rest of the summer, according to Oil Price Information Service analyst Tom Kloza.    They probably won’t push back to near $4 a gallon, where they were in early May, barring floods or hurricanes that could affect refinery operations.
  
  
• 7/9/2011
  
  . IMF approves $4.2 billion in aid to Greece by Associated Press
      The International Monetary Fund has approved more than $4.2 billion for Greece, the latest installment of a rescue package aimed at helping the country pull back from an impending debt default.
      Friday’s move by the organization’s executive board had been expected after a decision last week by eurozone finance ministers to give Greece their part of a $17.4 billion loan payment that is part of a $259 billion package agreed to last year.
      The IMF’s action, with new Managing Director Christine Lagarde in the chair, came as European banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions were trying to get the private sector involved in helping save Greece from default.
      The 17 countries that use the euro will continue, with the IMF, to prop up Greece’s struggling economy in the coming years with a second package of aid loans to be completed in September.
      Lagarde said the raft of reforms, spending cuts and tax hikes the government has been carrying out as part of conditions to receive bailout funds “is delivering important results: The deficit is being reduced, the economy is rebalancing and competitiveness is gradually improving.”    However, she said, Greek officials still face significant challenges, including meeting a target of getting the nation’s burdensome debt down to 7.5 percent of gross domestic product in 2011 and to less than 3 percent by 2014.
      Lagarde said, “Greece’s debt sustainability hinges critically on timely and vigorous implementation of the adjustment program with no margin for slippage, and continued support from European partners and private sector in-volvement.”
      She said the government’s privatization strategy is a critical step toward boosting investment and reducing the debt burden.
      The European Union and the IMF Fund had said they would refuse to pay out the next installment unless Greek lawmakers approved a new, five-year package of $40 billion worth of spending cuts and tax increases and a $72 billion privatization plan before the end of June.    Greek lawmakers delivered what was asked of them, cheering up global financial markets but provoking violent demonstrations in the streets of Athens.
      Lagarde, a former French finance minister, took over as head of the 187-member lending institution Tuesday, replacing Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who resigned in May to fight charges he sexually assaulted a New York City hotel housekeeper.
  
  Oil falls over 2 percent on weak jobs report by Associated Press
      NEW YORK — Oil tumbled more than 2 percent Friday, giving up most of its gains for the week after the latest government data showed hiring in the U.S. is at a virtual standstill.
      Crude oil fell $2.47 to settle at $96.20 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
      Tom Kloza, an analyst for the Oil Price Information Service, is sticking with his summer gasoline forecast for a national average between $3.25 and $3.75 per gallon.    He noted that demand is expected to expand despite sluggish jobs growth in the U.S.
  
  
• 7/10/2011
  
  NATO: Planes targeted missile launchers
      TRIPOLI, LIBYA NATO - warplanes hit a missile launching position that Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi’s forces used to target the civilians in western Libya, the alliance said in a statement Saturday.
      Government troops had used the missile site outside the rebel-held port city of Misrata to fire indiscrimi-nately on civilians in the area, NATO said.
  
  
• 7/11/2011
  
  Syrian VP calls for transition to democracy - Key opponents boycott dialogue by Diaa Hadid, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — Syria’s vice president called Sunday for a transition to democracy in a country ruled for four decades by an authoritarian family dynasty, crediting mass protests with forcing the regime to consider reforms while also warning against further demonstrations.
      Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa spoke at the start of a two-day national dialogue that opened Sunday in Damascus, with some government critics attending.    But key opposition figures driving the 4-month-old uprising boycotted the meeting, saying they refuse to talk until a deadly crackdown on protesters ends.
      “I hope that we will reach … transition to a pluralistic democratic state that enjoys equality for all citizens who participate in forming their own shining future,” al-Sharaa said.
      His comments highlighted the extent to which the uprising has shaken President Bashar Assad, who inherited power from his father in 2000.    While Assad himself has acknowledged the need for reforms in recent weeks, the high-level call for multiparty democracy was remarkable.
      Still, al-Sharaa also made thinly veiled threats against the protesters and suggested some received direction from abroad.    “Arabs will not obtain their goals if they rely on foreigners,” al-Sharaa said.    “Unauthorized protests that lead to unwanted violence will cause the fall of more civilians and soldiers.”
      As the conference was being held, the Foreign Ministry summoned the American and French ambassadors to protest their visits to the restive city of Hama.
      In Washington, a State Department official said demonstrators in Damascus threw tomatoes, eggs and rocks at the U.S. Embassy there on Friday and Saturday to protest Ambassador Robert Ford’s visit to Hama.
      There were no reports of injuries, but a senior U.S. State Department official said two embassy employees were pelted with food during the 31-hour demonstration.    The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
      The demonstration broke up after an embassy security officer appealed to Syrian contacts, who sent forces to quell the protests.    The official said Ford registered his “displeasure” with the protests during a meeting Sunday with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem.
  
  U.S. suspends Pakistan military aid - Obama aide notes strained relationship by Douglas Birch, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — The Obama administration’s decision to suspend $800 million in aid to Pakistan’s military signals a tougher U.S. line with a critical but sometimes unreliable partner in the fight against terrorism.
      President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, William Daley, said in a broadcast interview Sunday that the estranged relationship between the United States and Pakistan must be made “to work over time,” but until it does, “we’ll hold back some of the money that the American taxpayers are committed to give” to the country’s powerful military.
      The suspension of U.S. aid, first reported by The New York Times, followed a statement last week by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, that Pakistan’s security services may have sanctioned the killing of Pakistani journalist Saleem Shahzad, who wrote about infiltration of the military by extremists.    His bat-tered body was found in June.
      The allegation was rejected by Pakistan’s powerful military establishment, including the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency, which has historic ties to the Taliban and other militant groups and which many Western analysts regard as a state within a state.
      George Perkovich, an expert on Pakistan with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, said Mullen’s comments and the suspension of aid represent “the end of happy talk,” where the U.S. tries to paper over differences between the two nations.
      Daley, interviewed on ABC’s “This Week,” suggested the decision to suspend military aid resulted from the increasing estrangement between the U.S. and Pakistan.    “Obviously there’s still a lot of pain that the political system in Pakistan is feeling by virtue of the raid that we did to get (al-Qaida leader) Osama bin Laden” in May, Daley said.
      Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters traveling with him to Afghanistan on Saturday that the U.S. would continue to press Pakistan in the fight against extremists, including al-Qaida’s new leader, Ayman al-Zawahri.
      The $800 million in suspended aid represents 40 percent of the $2 billion in U.S. military aid to Pakistan, and according to the Times includes money for counter terror operations.
      The report said some of the money represented equipment that can’t be set up for training because Pakistan won’t give visas to the trainers.    About $300 million was intended to reimburse Pakistan for the cost of deploying 100,000 troops along the Afghan border, the newspaper said.
      A senior U.S. official confirmed that the suspension came in response to the Pakistani army’s decision to significantly reduce the number of visas for U.S. military trainers.
      Pakistan army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas declined to comment on the suspension.
  
  
• 7/12/2011
  
  Eurozone may expand powers for bailout fund - Hopes to stop spread of crisis by Associated Press
      BRUSSELS — Eurozone finance ministers say they are ready to make their bailout fund more flexible in an effort to better support struggling governments and stop the currency union’s debt crisis from spreading to larger economies like Italy and Spain.
      Jean-Claude Juncker, who chaired Monday’s meeting of eurozone finance ministers, said that the ministers would also look at giving countries more time to repay bailout loans and lower their interest rates.
      The ministers did not give details on how the region’s bailout fund could be made more flexible.    But tools could include giving the fund the power to buy up distressed debt on the open market to stabilize prices.
      Banks that have been involved in talks over contributions to a second bailout for Greece have also been pushing for eurozone-funded bond buybacks, which could cut the country’s overall debt load and take shaky government bonds off their balance sheets.
      Juncker, who is prime minister of Luxembourg and chairs the eurozone finance ministers group, vowed that the details would be filled in “shortly, and shortly means as soon as possible.”
      It won’t be too soon for financial markets, which sold off European stocks and the bonds of Spain and Italy on Monday amid fears that those two countries would be drawn into the debt turmoil that has led to bailouts for much smaller Greece, Portugal and Ireland.    The fear is that while Europe’s 750 billion euro bailout fund can support those three, Spain and Italy are too big to be bailed out.
      Italy’s FTSE MIB stock index closed off 4 percent, and the euro sagged by more than a percent to $1.4044, for a time dipping below $1.40.
      Italy came into focus after remarks last week by Premier Silvio Berlusconi criticizing his finance minister, Giulio Tremonti, and calling into question the government’s political will to carry through with Tremonti’s proposals to find 48 billion euros in new savings over three years and eliminate the country’s budget deficit by 2014. Berlusconi said Tremonti was “the only one who is not a team player.”
      Italy has a heavy debt load of some 120 percent of gross domestic product but so far has been able to carry that load by selling new bonds at affordable interest rates.    The latest controversy however has seen Italian bond yields creep upward.
      Juncker and EU monetary affairs chief Olli Rehn defended the measures offered Monday as significant, even as markets wait for a more comprehensive, second bailout of Greece after last year’s 110 billion euro rescue failed to put the country back on its feet.
      “You cannot say there is nothing new in this statement because we are referring to enhancing the flexibility and the scope of the EFSF,” he said, referring to the current, temporary bailout fund.    “It is the first time we are saying we want to enhance the flex and scope of the EFSF.”
  
  European markets plunge over debt crisis by Tom Petruno, Los Angeles Times
      European financial markets crumbled Monday as government bond yields surged again in Spain and Italy, deepening fears that the continent’s debt crisis had entered a far more dangerous phase.
      U.S. stocks also were broadly lower. Gold hit a record high in early trading as investors ran for cover, and the euro plunged.
      While European authorities still are wrestling with bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal, the “contagion” from the debt crisis has spread to Spain and Italy in the past week.    Market yields on Spanish and Italian bonds have risen for six straight sessions as investors demand ever-higher returns to buy the countries’ debt — a sign of waning confidence.
      The yield on 10-year Italian bonds soared to 5.68 percent from 5.27 percent on Friday and 4.91 percent a week ago.
      The Spanish10-year bond yield jumped to 6.03 percent from 5.68 percent on Friday.
      Many analysts have warned for months that if the crisis ensnared Spain and Italy, the future of the eurozone and the 12-year-old euro would be threatened because there is no way the rest of Europe could bail out those two huge economies.
      “Spain and Italy are nearly five times the size of Greece, Portugal and Ireland and carry nearly four times the volume of debt,” said Michael Darda, economist at MKM Partners in Stamford, Conn.    “Thus, they are a much larger threat to the integrity of the eurozone itself.”
      European stock markets, which were hammered last week, tumbled again.    The Italian market plummeted 4 percent after diving 7.2 percent last week. Spanish stocks slid 2.7 percent for the day, Portugal slumped 4.1 percent, France fell 2.7 percent and the German market sank 2.3 percent.    The euro plunged 1.7 percent to a four-month low of $1.402 from $1.426 Friday.
      Gold hit a record high early in the session, reaching $1,557.60 an ounce, then eased a bit.    The metal closed at $1,549.20 in New York futures trading, up $7.60 for the day.
      On Wall Street, stocks fell at the opening bell and stayed down.    The Dow industrials ended off 151.44 points at 12,505.76.
  
  China, Europe concern pushes oil price lower by Associated Press
      The latest readings on Chinese inflation and renewed worries about European debt pushed oil lower.    Crude oil fell $1.05 Monday to settle at $95.15 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Ex-change.    Oil started falling after a weekend announcement that inflation in China hit a three-year high in June.
      Meanwhile, European officials disagreed over a second bailout package for Greece.    That uncertainty raised concerns that the economic crisis could spread to Italy and Spain.
  
  
• 7/13/2011
  
  Official: Emissaries say Gadhafi ready to go
      PARIS - France’s foreign minister said Tuesday that the government has had contact with emissaries from Moammar Gadhafi who say the embattled Libyan strongman is “prepared to leave” power.
      It was not immediately clear whether such an offer is credible or amounts to a potential breakthrough in the Libyan crisis.
      Alain Juppe said that while the contacts do not constitute proper negotiations, “We receive emissaries who are saying, ‘Gadhafi is prepared to leave. Let’s discuss it.’ ”
  
  Oil imports drove May trade deficit to $50.2 Billion - Economic impact includes U.S. jobs by Associated Press
      The U.S. trade deficit surged in May to the highest level in more than 2 1/2 years, driven by a big increase in oil imports and a decline in exports.
      The Commerce Department said Tuesday that the deficit increased 15.1 percent to $50.2 billion in May.    That’s the largest imbalance since October 2008.
      Exports declined 0.5 percent to $174.9 billion. Imports rose 2.6 percent to $225.1 billion. Oil prices have fallen since May, so the effect of higher prices should ease some in coming months.
      The deficit is running at an annual rate of $563.2 billion.    That’s 12.6 percent higher than the 2010 imbalance.    A higher trade deficit subtracts from overall economic growth because it means consumers are buying more foreign-made goods and fewer products made by U.S. workers.
      Analysts said the wider deficit in May means that the economy probably grew at an even slower pace in the April-June quarter than they had forecast. Paul Dales, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said he was now looking for economic growth of around 2 percent in the second quarter.    That’s roughly the same pace as the first three months of the year.
      The deficit with China jumped to $25 billion, the largest monthly gap since November.    The deficit with Japan fell 26.4 percent to $2.6 billion.    Japanese imports shrank further because of supply-chain disruptions caused by the March earthquake and tsunami.
      Economists say Japan is starting to rebound and a parts shortage that followed the disasters is beginning to dissipate.    As a result, Japan’s factories should increase shipments to the U.S.
      “As the supply chain disruptions continue to unwind, we expect imports from Japan over the next few months to recover and for the overall trade deficit to modestly widen later this year before leveling off in 2012,” said Troy Davig, an economist with Barclays Capital.
      Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, noted that, while total imports from Japan declined, imports of Japanese auto parts rose.    She said that indicates that Japanese plants were starting to resume more normal operations and supply U.S. factories with critical component parts.
      American companies depend on component parts supplied from Japan.    The supply-chain disruptions have slowed production at U.S. factories, particularly among those companies that make autos and electronics.
  
  Irish downgrade sinks stocks - Europe’s debt woes concern investors by Associated Press
      Hope that the Federal Reserve might consider more economic stimulus wasn’t enough to keep bad news about Ireland from sinking stocks.
      Ireland’s government bonds were downgraded by ratings agency Moody’s to junk status shortly before U.S. markets closed Tuesday, sending stocks sharply lower and erasing the day’s gains.    Ireland joins Greece and Portugal, whose debt was also recently graded as junk.
      The move puts Ireland back on the list of heavily indebted European countries in danger of default.    The country has already received a financial rescue package from other countries.
      If a European country fails to pay its debts, it could cause widespread disruptions in financial markets and lead to a slowdown in lending.    Worries about debt problems in Europe sent stocks down through the first half of June and appear to be having the same effect in July.
      The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 5.85 to close at 1,313.64, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 58.88 to close at 12,446.88 and the Nasdaq composite fell 20.71 to close at 2,781.91 Earlier Tuesday, minutes from the Federal Reserve’s last meeting on June 21-22 were released.    In those minutes, several Fed officials said the government would have to consider new monetary policy to stimulate the economy, especially if growth remains too slow to re-duce the unemployment rate.
      That raised hopes that more economic stimulus might be on the way.    The Dow rose about 60 points after the minutes were released, but it retreated not long after.    Stocks bounced between small gains and losses for most of the day amid fears that Italy would need help managing its debts.    A successful auction of new Italian government bonds and a promise to fast-track that country’s austerity measures helped ease those fears.
      The news sent Milan’s main stock index up 1.2 percent.    A default by Italy, the third-largest economy in Europe, would cause far more damage to the global financial system than one by Greece.
  
  UAW, automakers discuss fuel-efficiency proposal
      The UAW is meeting this week with Detroit automakers to discuss the impact of higher fuel-efficiency regulations proposed by the Obama administration, according a person briefed on the meetings.
      The administration is considering a proposal for cars and light trucks to average 56 mpg by 2025.    Automakers already are working to meet a 35.5 mpg standard due to take effect in 2016.
      The UAW is concerned about the potential impact on jobs as well as wages and benefits if the higher fuel-economy standards force a dramatic shift from selling trucks and sport utility vehicles to smaller cars.
  
  Oil prices surge for no apparent reason by Associated Press
      Oil prices rose $2.28 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Tuesday, reaching $97.43.
      “If you look at the macro-economic headlines, we should be closer to $67 (per barrel) than $97,” analyst Stephen Schork said.    But many traders “are going to keep pushing things to see how far they go.”
      Poor jobs data, the growing U.S. trade deficit, a festering credit crisis in Europe and other recent troublesome reports about the economy could have pulled prices down just as easily, analysts said.
  
  
• 7/15/2011
  
  Obama, leaders take stock of talks - S&P threatens to lower credit rating by Lisa Mascaro, Peter Nicholas and Christi Parsons, Tribune Washington Bureau
      WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama and congressional leaders agreed to a cease-fire in debt negotiations to review which proposals seem most likely to pass the House and Senate and arrive at consensus by Saturday.
      Obama will hold a news conference at the White House at11a.m. EDT today as he presses his case for a large deficit-reduction deal to allow a congressional vote to raise the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt ceiling and avert a federal default next month.
      Both the Republican and Democratic leaders in the House will confer with their rank-and-file membership in separate meetings earlier Friday morning.
      The potential risks of the protracted debt-ceiling debate were underscored Thursday when another financial rating agency, Standard & Poor’s, moved toward a downgrade of the federal government’s credit rating.
      Following a similar move by Moody’s a day earlier, officials at Standard & Poor’s cited uncertainty caused by the debt-ceiling debate, which it said had “only become more entangled” in recent weeks.
      “As a consequence, we now believe that we could lower our ratings on the U.S. within three months,” the firm said.
      That could raise the government’s cost of borrowing money.    The president told the group of lawmakers on Thursday he still believes a plan to reduce deficits by $2 trillion or more can be achieved if both sides move from hardened positions on disagreements over social programs and taxes.
      “It’s decision time,” Obama said, according to a Democratic official familiar with the closed talks, who would describe them only on condition of anonymity.
  
  Need deal soon
      The president told the leaders at the White House meeting that he expected them to find a route to agree-ment within the next 24 to 36 hours.    If not, another meeting could be called this weekend.
      “I want to do the largest deal possible,” Obama told the group.    “We need concrete plans to move this forward.”
      Republicans want cuts greater than the $2.4 trillion it would take to increase the debt ceiling through next year, but they have refused to consider new taxes on wealthy Americans or corporations, as proposed by Democrats in exchange for reductions in Medicare and other programs.
      One proposal offered by the administration would expand a payroll tax cut that expires at the end of this year in exchange for closing credits and loopholes on ethanol, corporate jet owners, oil and gas companies and others.
      Republicans have been open to variations of such proposals, but pulled back on Thursday, a congressional aide said.    The proposal presented Thursday amounted to $200 billion and included limits on itemized deductions for wealthy households, according to a Democratic official familiar with the talks.    The administration also discussed extending unemployment insurance for the jobless.
      Under a plan discussed by the Senate’s top two leaders, Obama would get enhanced authority to raise the debt limit at the same time procedures would be set in motion that could lead to federal spending cuts.
      Word that Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., were at work on the fallback plan came as Obama and congressional leaders met for a fifth straight day in debt-crisis talks at the White House.    McConnell pronounced the session a good one, saying, “We’re going to continue to discuss a way forward over the next couple of days and see what happens.”
      The day’s events were shadowed by warnings from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and JPMor-gan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.    Speaking separately, the two men admonished bickering lawmakers that failure to avoid an unprecedented default could have a devastating effect on an already anemic U.S. economy.    Adding to the urgency, there was growing concern overseas, too.
      A Chinese rating agency, Dagong Global Credit Rating Co., also warned of a possible downgrade.    “We hope that the U.S. government adopts a responsible policy to ensure the interests of the investors,” said Hong Lei, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman.
  
  Some of the options
      One option under discussion by the Senate leaders is creation of a group of lawmakers who could recommend spending cuts, possibly including benefit programs, that would be guaranteed a yes-or-no vote in Congress.
      Another would be to couple any presidential request for a debt increase with spending cuts, including some that have emerged in private talks led first by Vice President Joe Biden, and now by Obama.
      The seriousness of the situation was underscored throughout the day.
      Testifying before a Senate panel, Bernanke said a default would deal a “self-inflicted wound” to the U.S. economy, driving up interest rates and slowing recovery from the deep recession.
      The talks at the White House have been stymied by a dispute over tax increases as part of any deal to cut future deficits.    Obama and Democrats want them; Republicans don’t.
      The concept under discussion by the Senate leaders is a more elaborate version of a plan McConnell of-fered earlier in the week to a less-than-enthusiastic reception from conservatives.
      In his first substantive remarks on McConnell’s initial plan, Speaker John Boehner told reporters, “What may look like something less than optimal today, if we’re unable to get an agreement might look pretty good a few weeks from now.”
      Boehner also took steps Thursday to present a united front with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, of Virginia, his second-in-command.
      Reid criticized Cantor in unusually personal remarks on the Senate floor, saying he “has shown he shouldn’t be at the table.”
      “And Republicans agree he shouldn’t be at the table,” he added, referring to published accounts of other GOP lawmakers criticizing Cantor anonymously.
      After a contentious meeting earlier this week, aides said Thursday’s talks were polite and cordial.    Cantor, who clashed with Obama in an earlier session, did not speak up at Thursday’s meeting, several officials said.
  
  Turkey promotes ‘road map’ to end Libyan strife by Suzan Fraser, Associated Press
      ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey will seek support for a “road map” to help end the Libyan crisis when nations backing NATO’s military mission gather in Istanbul to increase pressure on Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
      U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and some 40 other members of the so-called Contact Group on Libya will hold a fourth meeting today to support a post-Gadhafi era, boost support to the main Libyan opposition group and plan for a political transition.
      Nations participating in the fourth Contact Group meeting were likely to discuss a Turkish proposal to end the Libyan crisis despite Gadhafi’s refusal to stand down, and to set the stage for a democratic transition, a Turkish Foreign Ministry official said Thursday.
      The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with the ministry’s rule, would not provide de-tails of what Turkey was bringing to the table.
      In April, Turkey proposed a peace plan for Libya calling for an immediate cease-fire, the protection of civilians and a democratic transition in the country.
      Foreign Ministry Spokesman Selcuk Unal said he couldn’t give details of the plan, but said it was built on the previous proposal.    It’s an evolving paper,” he said.
      NATO has been bombing Gadhafi’s forces and military sites to enforce a U.N. resolution to protect civilians.    Still, the civil war has fallen into a virtual stalemate, with neither side able to make significant progress.
      NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Thursday dismissed Libyan claims that the alliance’s airstrikes campaign has killed more than 1,100 people, saying the bloc has “no confirmed information” about possible civilian casualties.
      Clinton warned Gadhafi late Wednesday that his days in power are numbered and that the international community will be stepping up pressure on him to leave.    Libyan rebels have enlarged the area under their control in the west and crept closer to a key supply route to the capital Tripoli.
      U.S. officials say pressure seems to be building against the regime after months of apparent stalemate.    They point at three key indicators: dwindling fuel supplies, a cash crisis and reports of low morale among regime troops.    Gadhafi is also facing a cash crisis after Turkey cut off his access, on July 4, to hundreds of millions in Libyan funds held in a Turkish-Libyan bank, they say.
  
  
  • YEMEN: A U.S. airstrike on a Yemeni police station overrun by Islamic militants kills at least six fighters.    The strike targets a region where radical groups believed to have al-Qaida links are exploiting the country’s political upheaval to take over entire towns.    A five-month-old popular uprising seeking to oust longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh has led to a security breakdown across much of Yemen.
  • SYRIA: Security forces opened fire from cars Thursday on thousands of protesters demanding President Bashar Assad’s ouster, killing at least two people in Deir el-Zour, near the border with Iraq, activists say.    Syrians also hold strikes in cities and towns nationwide — part of a new strategy to squeeze the economy as President Bashar Assad tries to crush a four-month-old revolt against his autocratic rule.    The strikes have become a ritual each Thursday, the day before protesters take the streets.
  
  U.S. military chief warns of North Korean threat by Sam Kim, Associated Press
      SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea could see more North Korean provocations as Pyongyang works to strengthen leader Kim Jong Il’s successor, the top U.S. military officer said Thursday.
      Seoul says North Korean attacks last year killed 50 South Koreans as Kim Jong Il’s third son, Kim Jong Un, rose to prominence as heir apparent.
      “A succession plan being executed has been ongoing for some time, and that’s not an insignificant part of the whole provocation cycle,” Adm. Mike Mullen told reporters in Seoul.    The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff also said that North Korea’s “threat remains very real” as it continues to pursue improved nuclear capabilities.
      “I’m not convinced that they won’t provoke again.    I’ve said for a long time that the only thing predictable about North Korea is their unpredictability,” he said.
      Mullen’s visit to South Korea comes amid high tension between the Koreas. Seoul blames a North Ko-rean torpedo for the sinking of a South Korean warship in March 2010 that killed 46 sailors; North Korea denies any role.    North Korea shelled a front-line South Korean island in November, killing four people.
      North Korea also threatened last month to retaliate for the South Korean military’s use of photos of Kim Jong Il and his family for shooting practice.
      “We have a sense of urgency to essentially work on planning to deter the North from further provocations. Whether they will be deterred or not, that’s to be seen,” Mullen said.
  
  Oil falls 2 percent on Bernanke comments by Associated Press
      Oil prices dropped more than 2 percent Thursday after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the government would not immediately pump more cash into economic stimulus programs.
      Crude oil fell $2.36 to settle at $95.69 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
      “They’re not readying the stimulus package right now,” and that’s pushing some investors away, said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service.
      The dollar rose on Bernanke’s comments.    Oil tends to fall as the dollar rises.
  
  
• 7/16/2011
  
  ‘We’re running out of time’ Lawmakers ditch debt talks, begin crafting their own plans by David Espo, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Struggling to avert an unprecedented national default, congressional leaders jettisoned negotiations on a sweeping deficit-reduction package Friday despite a plea from President Barack Obama to “do something big” to stabilize America’s finances.
      Instead, lawmakers embarked on competing fallback plans as a critical Aug. 2 deadline neared, a House Republican version given little chance of success, even by some supporters, and a bipartisan Senate approach holding out more promise to avert what Obama called financial “Armageddon.”
      Late Friday, the Treasury Department announced it was resorting to the final steps in an unusual series designed to avoid exceeding the current $14.3 trillion debt limit.    Numerous officials have cautioned that a default will occur if the limit is not increased by Aug. 2, warning also of a calamitous effect on a national economy struggling to recover from the worst recession in decades.
      At the behest of conservatives, House Republicans announced plans to vote next week on legislation to permit more borrowing automatically if Congress approves a balanced-budget constitutional amendment.    Senate approval of such an amendment seemed extremely unlikely in a vote set for the next few days.
      At the same time, Senate leaders of both parties worked on their own fallback plan to allow Obama to raise the debt limit without a prior vote by lawmakers, discussions that now have expanded to include House officials and top White House aides.
      That plan was likely to include limits on spending across thousands of government programs — and possibly a down payment on cuts, too.
      As part of that proposal, a panel of lawmakers would recommend cuts in benefits programs by the end of the year, with the House and Senate required to vote yes-or-no on the package without possibility of changes.
      “If they show me a serious plan I’m ready to move,” declared Obama at his second news confe-rence of the week, though he said he wanted a far more sweeping deal that might even have raised the age of Medicare eligibility from 65 to 67 if Republicans would increase selected taxes.
      “We are obviously running out of time,” he said.
      Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said, “Now the debate will move from a room in the White House to the House and Senate floors,” — an indication that the daily closed-door talks on Obama’s turf were a thing of the past.
  
  Considering consequences
      The House Republican rank and file were advised in a GOP meeting that, without congressional action, the U.S. would be able to pay only about half its bills after Aug. 2, and separately that a default could cost trillions of dollars in the form of higher interest rates on the debt.
      “No matter what 50 percent you choose to pay, there are things in that 50 percent you don’t pay that would have really severe consequences,” Rep. John Campbell, R-Calif., said later.    “There are people out there who keep saying we don’t need to increase the debt limit at all.    I think this was a way of saying, the people who are saying that need to look at the practical consequences of what they are saying.”    Rep. Paul Ryan, of Wisconsin, chairman of the House Budget Committee, told reporters after the meeting he had discussed the additional costs generated by a default — an event that would be likely to raise interest rates.
      At his news conference, Obama said that would mean “effectively a tax increase on everybody” by affecting car purchasers, students and businesses.    The second White House news conference in a week was a testament to the overriding political and economic significance of the issue that has convulsed Congress as well as the administration.
      Urging lawmakers to cut trillions from deficits at the same time they raise the debt limit, the president said he favored a balanced approach that included spending cuts, changes to huge government benefit programs and higher taxes on wealthy individuals and certain industries.    It was an offer Republicans could — and did — refuse.    “There are going to be no tax hikes because tax hikes destroy jobs,” said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
      While Boehner had earlier shown some flexibility on closing tax loopholes as part of an unprecedented deal with Obama, many Republican lawmakers are adamant that deficit reductions be limited to spending cuts.
      To underscore their conservative priorities, GOP leaders set a vote for next week on a bill they said would cut $111 billion in the budget year starting Oct. 1.    It’d also require a steady fall in spending as a percentage of the overall economy in the next decade.
      Even some of the bill’s supporters conceded it was a symbolic gesture given the realities of divided government.
      “I think everybody knows the president won’t sign this,” Campbell said after the closed-door Re-publican meeting.    “But we’re putting a marker down, and that’s an important step that begins the process of resolving this.”
  
  Libyan rebels get formal backing - U.S. recognition key to $30 billion in assets by William Wan and William Booth, The Washington Post
      ISTANBUL — The United States granted Libyan rebel leaders full diplomatic recognition as the governing authority of Libya on Friday, after five months of fighting to oust longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi.
      The decision at a Istanbul meeting of more than 30 Western and Arab nations is the first step in giving the rebels access to Libya’s frozen U.S. assets, worth more than $30 billion.
      “I am announcing today that, until an interim authority is in place, the United States will recognize the TNC as the legitimate governing authority for Libya,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said, referring to the rebels’ Transitional National Council.    The announcement prompted other ministers to applaud.
      The U.S. announcement was accompanied by an agreement among all nations at the meeting to recognize the rebel council.    Hours later, outside the meeting hall, ministers sent from the Libyan rebel council reacted to their longsought diplomatic status with exuberance but also a mixture of weariness and frustration.    Ali Tarhouni, the rebels’ minister of finance and oil, vented that despite the international recognition they received, it came with no immediate infusion of funds, desperately needed by the cash-strapped rebels.
      “All it has brought is more pledges for money.    If we had as much money as we have had pledges these past few months, we would have no problems.”
      Beside him, the rebels’ minister of finance, Mahmoud Shammam, added that, yes, the opposition needs money, but even more they need weapons, which most Western powers have refused to supply, to fight Gadhafi.    And the new money in frozen assets that may come from diplomatic recognition may not be allowed to go toward weapons.
      Thus far, Kuwait and Qatar have given roughly $100 million to the rebels.    France renewed its pledge on Friday to unfreeze $250 million in assets in coming weeks, and Italy pledged to unfreeze $100 million.
      The United States did not pledge any specific amount, and it may not come for a little while.    The money is tied up in legalities, U.S. officials explained, including U.S. and United Nations sanctions.
      The United States could tell banks to transfer frozen assets directly to the TNC, but that may run into U.N. sanctions still in place.    An alternative being considered by U.S. officials and Libyan rebels is using those assets as collateral for loans the rebels could use as funding.
      The Obama administration’s announcement in Turkey drew immediate criticism from Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, among the most active Republicans on Libya.    “This is incredibly premature,” he said, citing worries about the loyalty of rebels to the U.S.    “I don’t believe the administration can even answer the question, ‘Where will the money go?’”    Libyan rebel leaders in Turkey pointed out they are not asking for U.S. aid but frozen assets that already belong to the Libyan people and has been seized by the U.S.
      According to Clinton, Friday’s move was meant as a clear signal of faith in the Libyan rebels.    For weeks, U.S. officials have deliberately stopped short of official diplomatic recognition because of concerns about whether a post-Gadhafi government set up by rebel leaders would be truly inclusive politically and geographically.
      The U.S. changed its position after hearing a presentation in Turkey by Mahmoud Jibril, the foreign representative of the transitional council, who walked through the rebels’ plans for governing a post-Gadhafi Libya.
  
  
  MIDEAST ACTION
  • SYRIA: Hundreds of thousands of Syrians stage the largest protests since the uprising began, pouring into areas where the government crackdown has been most intense in a sign that security forces can’t break the revolt.    Syrian authorities fire on the crowds, killing at least 17 people and hurting more than 100, activists say.
  • YEMEN: At least 10 Yemenis are killed in fighting between government forces and tribesmen seeking to oust President Ali Abdullah Saleh, target of a five-month-old popular uprising.
  • JORDAN: Riot police with clubs clash with dozens of pro-reform demonstrators trying to set up a protest camp in a central square, injuring at least 15 in the most violent confrontation in the capital since March.    The crackdown comes a day after the prime minister warns he won’t tolerate an open-ended sit-in.
  • EGYPT: Thousands of Egyptians, increasingly impatient with the interim military rulers, rally in the nation’s two largest cities.    They ring a security building with chants of “Oh police, you are thugs” and demand trials for police officers suspected of killing hundreds of activists in the uprising that brought down Hosni Mubarak, former president.
  
      According to Libyan council members, the plan includes having the rebels now based in Benghazi reach out to other Libyan regions not currently represented on the council.    Together they would form an interim government to rule in Gadhafi’s place and then guide the country through the democratic reforms and, ultimately, the election of a new government.    Because the council will be forming an interim governing body, it will not change its name, according to this scenario.    The worry among U.S. and other foreign powers has been that after Gadhafi falls, the oil-rich country could become embroiled in tribal conflicts or ethnic tensions.
      In the mountains south of Tripoli, rebel fighters reacted saying that if being recognized by the United States allows them to secure more guns, they applaud the decision     But opposition soldiers were vehe-ment in their refusal to accept any “road map” that includes Gadhafi and his inner circle.
      “He is a cancer and he needs to be removed,” said Col. Muhammad Khabasha, a top commander in the town of Zintan, where a few thousand men have been fighting since February.
      “Gadhafi will not leave without violence.    The West must understand this,” Khabasha said.    “Gadhafi has eight sons, who have each been brought in power, to have power, each with an army of people behind them.    These people will not leave until the last minute.”
  
  Report: Europe’s banks at risk in another downturn by Howard Schneider, The Washington Post
      ROME — Europe’s banking system remains heavily dependent on government support and would be at risk if another economic downturn hits, the European Banking Authority said Friday in a report that highlights the lingering weakness in a financial system considered integral to a stronger global recovery.
      Europe’s inability to better bolster its banking system and make it less dependent on public support has been a central feature of the region’s economic troubles.    It is related to the sovereign debt crisis, because many banks hold the bonds of heavily indebted European countries.
      But it is also a broader problem: A fragile financial system holds back the economic growth that weakened countries like Greece and Spain desperately need, and is also the pipeline through which the debt problems in one nation can undermine the economy of another.
      In the latest stress test of 91 European institutions, the EBA found a system that would be rocked by a mild recession and a spike in unemployment rates to levels some European nations are already experiencing.    While only eight of the 91 banks failed outright — meaning that the “adverse but plausible” economic assumptions made by the authority pushed their cash and capital buffers below 5 percent of the value of the bank’s assets — another 16 barely passed.
      Many of those firms had been allowed to include recently raised capital, while others survived the test only on the basis of roughly $200 billion in government support.
      The outcome led the EBA, the International Monetary Fund and other European officials to call on national regulators in European countries to make sure that banks quickly improve their balance sheets.    The EBA wants capital plans in place within three months.    The 91 banks covered by the study represent the bulk of Europe’s bank assets.    “The risk outlook for European banks in general is a source of concern,” Andrea Enria, the EBA chairman, said at a London news conference.
      “There is this lingering concern that we have not cleaned our house.”
      That feeling is likely to continue as analysts noted a tension between the study’s generally positive headline findings, the text of the report, and the reality of present-day Europe.    The eight banks that failed, for example, were estimated to need about $4 billion in additional capital, a relatively modest amount.
      However the body of the report was more cautious, and said that a passing grade on this exam was a “necessary but not sufficient” condition for withstanding shocks that may lie ahead.
      Analysts also took issue with the fact that the study excluded the possibility of a default by one or more nations — not because it is unlikely, but because many of Europe’s political leaders have said they would prevent it.    Analysts think that at least one of Europe’s highly indebted countries, most likely Greece, is apt to default at some point.
  
  
• 7/17/2011
  
  ANALYSIS - U.S. future looks bleak without debt deal - Economic damage crippling, long term by Tom Raum, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Horror stories are flying about the damage that might be wreaked should Congress and President Barack Obama fail to cut a deal by the Aug. 2 deadline to increase America’s borrowing limit.    Nearly every American is in harm’s way, either directly or indirectly.
      Without a deal by then, the government would find itself tight on cash and unable to borrow — and have to start deciding which of the 80 million bills due in August it should pay and which it should put off.
      Tough decisions would come immediately: On Aug. 3, some $23 billion in Social Security benefit payments are due to be processed.    On Aug. 4, the Treasury Department must pay $87 billion to investors to redeem maturing Treasury securities. Aug. 15, more than $30 billion in interest payments are due.
      Besides those costs, the U.S. normally pays $5 billion to $10 billion daily to defense contractors, Medicare providers, federal workers and others.
      Obama has said that he cannot guarantee Social Security checks and payments to veterans and the disabled will go out on schedule in the absence of a deal: “There may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it.”
      But he may be challenged on that, because some legal and congressional budget experts question whether he can unilaterally decline to pay Social Security benefits if there are still assets in the program’s trust fund.
      No matter how that issue is resolved, there’s no question that government services, programs and benefits may take an enormous hit.
  
  What would U.S. do?
      No one knows exactly what choices Obama and his top officials would make if the crisis comes.
      The White House Office of Budget and Management is the agency charged with reviewing possible cuts in benefits and payments while the Treasury Department handles cash flow.    All have been mum about their crisis plans, apparently to avoid market speculation or panic.    But Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner insists the deadline is real: “There is no credible way to give Congress more time.”
      One analysis, by the Bipartisan Policy Center, suggests that once the U.S. runs out of cash and loses power to further borrow, it would need to slash spending at once by as much as a whopping 44 percent.    The U.S. now borrows more than 40 cents for every dollar it spends.
      So long as the Treasury has tax revenue coming in, it can still make interest payments to technically avoid default. Some analysts think it would go that way at first, so as to do less harm to the long-term U.S. credit rating.    Default would be a “major crisis,” radiating “shockwaves” through the financial system, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress recently.
      But putting a priority on paying interest on maturing debt to avoid a default would just force spending cuts instead — some of them more likely to hit ordinary people.
      Parks and monuments can be temporarily shut.    That’s been done before.    But is it worth taxpayers’ money to pay the costs of a second trial against former baseball star Roger Clemens if the judge who declared a mistrial in his perjury case last week clears the way?    And what about clinical trials on new drugs or other scientific research projects?    Or completing half-finished highway construction?
      The government is even pondering the prospect of selling off some assets — gold in Fort Knox, buildings, property, even national parklands — to make ends meet, if absolutely necessary.
  
  Some early casualties
      Government contractors are likely to be among early victims, says Paul Light, professor of public policy at New York University.    “No new contracts.    Delayed pay-ments.    Stop-work orders.    I can’t imagine that Obama would ever touch soldiers’ pay.    But you’d get closing of parks, as we’ve seen in Minnesota … freezes on discretionary spending including Medicaid.”
      Minnesota’s state government shutdown may offer a preview of what lies ahead on a larger scale.    State parks were closed. Driver’s licenses weren’t issued.    Beer giant Miller Coors was told it couldn’t sell beer there because its licenses hadn’t been renewed.
      Some conservative congressional Republicans have questioned whether there would really be a crisis if the Aug. 2 deadline were missed.    They note that the government could cut programs instead and still make interest payments — at least for a while.    But Congress’ top two Republicans, House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch Mc-Connell agree that failure to raise the limit may spark an epic economic catastrophe.
      And major rating agencies such as Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s have already signaled that they are poised to lower the nation’s coveted Triple-A credit ratings if no deal is reached and have hinted that the ratings might be lowered even if the U.S. continues to make interest payments on its debt.
      “Global investors will start asking themselves, how long will they get paid if Social Security recipients don’t?” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.    “There would be long-lasting economic damage.    The economy would be back in recession.    Tax revenues would be falling again and the deficit increasing.”
  
  Far higher stakes now
      The U.S. has had short government shutdowns before — most recently in late 1995 and early 1996 — be-cause of political standoffs.
      But now the stakes are far higher because the dispute may capsize the entire U.S. economy — not just shut down government agencies and delay benefit checks.    Any unprecedented default on the U.S. debt would send the price of Treasury bonds tumbling and interest rates soaring.
      And higher rates would not just be on Treasury bills and bonds, but also on a wide variety of consumer and business loans pegged to Treasury rates, from mortgages to credit cards, car loans and student debt.
      A U.S. default, or near-default, could also cause financial panic around the globe as international investors flee Treasury bonds and bills and other dollar-denominated investments.    The value of the U.S. dollar against other major currencies could tank.
      Given the already high U.S. jobless rate and shaky housing markets, it would likely send the economy back into recession swiftly.
      “There’s a huge … misunderstanding about the seriousness of this among the American people,” said Robert Reischauer, former head of the Congressional Budget Office and now director of the Urban Institute.
      “Most people spend their lives worrying about the things that affect them immediately and the things they have some control over.    And this is not one of them.    But it will be very soon,” he said.
  
  Ayatollah says U.S. is Pakistan’s ‘real enemy’
      TEHRAN, IRAN - State TV says Iran’s supreme leader has told Pakistan’s president the U.S. is Pakistan’s real enemy.    Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke Saturday at a meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari.
      It was Zardari’s second visit to Iran in less than a month.    U.S.-Pakistan ties have been on a downward spiral since the May 2 U.S. raid that killed al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani garrison town.
  
  
• 7/18/2011
  
  Bipartisan debt-limit proposal gains favor - Congress poised to take up borrowing, deficit issues by Zachary A. Goldfarb, The Washington Post
      WASHINGTON — A bipartisan effort in the Senate to allow President Barack Obama to raise the federal debt ceiling in exchange for about $1.5 trillion in spending cuts over10 years gained momentum Sunday as leaders agreed they would have to act in the next two weeks to avert a potential default by the U.S. government.
      The growing sentiment for raising the federal limit on U.S. borrowing sets the stage for a week of largely scripted actions on Capitol Hill, where leaders in both chambers are looking to build support for the plan being crafted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
      Republican leaders will first push forward in the House and the Senate with a constitutional amendment to balance the federal budget.    The measure is virtually certain to fail in the Senate, which will then take up the debt limit proposal by midweek.
      If that clears the Senate, the House is expected to revise the measure, adding a proposal to reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion over 10 years — savings that will come through cuts to domestic programs but not new tax revenue.    The plan would also create a new congressional panel that would, by the end of the year, seek to develop a way of reducing the deficit potentially by trillions more through cuts in entitlements and new tax revenue.
      While the debt-limit plan has broad support in the Senate, its prospects in the House are unclear and rely largely on whether House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, will bring the plan up for a vote and how many House Democrats would back it since few Republicans are expected to do so.
      “At a minimum, Congress has a way to take action and avoid default on the U.S. debt. It’s critical,” Jacob Lew, Obama’s budget director, said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
      At the same time, the White House will continue to push for as big a deal as possible to cut the deficit, which would include spending cuts and changes to entitlements as well as increases in tax revenue.
      On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Lew said he hoped the Republicans could compromise with Obama on a big deal. But he did not express optimism.    “The question is: Do we have a partner to work with?” he asked.
      Informal talks between the White House and Congress over the weekend did not appear to move the two sides significantly closer to a big deal.    Leaders face an Aug. 2 deadline to raise the federal debt ceiling or face a potentially damaging default on its obligations.    They say they need to get a piece of legislation under way by week’s end to clear procedural barriers and raise the debt ceiling in time.
      Most lawmakers were focused on the new Senate plan, originally proposed last week by McConnell and further developed by Reid.    Under thait, Obama would be able to raise the debt ceiling three times over the next year for a total of $2.5 trillion.    Congress could also vote on a resolution of disapproval each time, assigning blame to Obama for increasing the nation’s debt.
      Besides the $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, it would create a new committee of12 lawmakers, which would issue a report to Congress by the end of the year on how to cut trillions more from federal deficits in the next 10 years.
      This panel would seek agreement where Obama and Republicans haven’t been able to — primarily over changes to entitlement programs and whether raising new tax revenue should play a key role in cutting the deficit.
      “At the end of the day Republican leaders have made it clear that we will not be the ones to put the government into default,” Sen. Jon Kyl, Ariz., the chamber’s No. 2 Republican, said on ABC’s “This Week.”    “Now the House of Representatives has to make its decision about what it will do.”
      “We basically have to accept this responsibility and do this job and lead,” said the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, Richard Durbin of Illinois, on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
      Obama and Boehner have both shown a keen interest in a “grand bargain,” but the issue of taxes has so far proved intractable.    Such a deal could still be achieved in the coming weeks, though the prospects have dimmed.    Before taking up the McConnell-Reid plan, the House and Senate will consider the Republicans’ “cut, cap and balance” proposal.    The House is slated to vote early this week on a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution that would scale back spending and make it harder to raise taxes.
  
  
• 7/19/2011
  
  Gadhafi government, U.S. officials talk - Meeting described as a first step by Paul Schemm, Associated Press
      TRIPOLI, Libya — Representatives of Moammar Gadhafi’s embattled government held face-to-face talks with U.S. officials in neighboring Tunisia over the weekend, a Libyan government official said Monday, describing the meeting as a first step in opening dialogue.
      A U.S. State Department official confirmed the meeting took place but said it was only to deliver a clear and firm message that Gadhafi must step down.    The U.S. official said it was not a negotiating session and no future meetings were planned.
      The talks came after Friday’s decision by the United States and more than 30 other nations meeting in Istanbul to recognize the eastern-based rebels fighting Gadhafi’s government as the country’s legitimate representatives, added the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the meeting publicly.
      Libyan spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told reporters in Tripoli that the talks were held Saturday in Tunisia, but he refused to say which officials took part.
      “This is a first step, and we want to take further steps,” he said.    “We don’t want to be stuck in the past; we want to move forward all the time,” he told reporters in the corridors of the hotel where foreign journalists are required to reside.    He called it a “a first-step dialogue” to see about repairing relations between the countries, which he said had been damaged by misinformation.
      The U.S. was an active participant in NATO airstrikes against Libyan forces that began March 19 and were authorized under a U.N. mandate to protect Libyan civilians from Gadhafi’s advancing forces.
      The U.S. later turned over command of the air campaign to NATO and now plays a logistical role in the continuing airstrikes.
      Fighting continued Monday around the eastern oil port of Brega.
      In Tripoli, Ibrahim claimed that more than 500 rebels had been killed in five days of failed assaults against the strategic town.    Rebels, however, have only reported a handful of casualties and maintain fighting continues in their attempt to take the oil terminal on the front lines of the civil war.
  
  
  LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
  • SYRIA — The discovery of three corpses with their eyes gouged out sets off a sectarian killing spree that leaves 30 people dead in a chilling sign that the Syrian revolt against President Bashar Assad is inflaming long simmering religious tensions.    The opposition accuses the president’s minority Alawite regime of trying to stir up trouble among the Sunni majority.
  • EGYPT — Egypt’s military rulers commission a top judge to form an electoral commission, starting the process of organizing the country’s first elections after the popular uprising that ousted authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak.
  • YEMEN — About 100 journalists protest in the capital Sanaa against harassment and censorship by authorities.    One newspaper editor says he was forced to distribute his daily in banana boxes to avoid government censors.
  • IRAN — Pegah Ahangarani, 27, a dissident Iranian actress and blogger, was arrested a week ago as she prepared to leave for Germany to write a blog for the Deutsche Welle radio station about the women’s soccer World Cup, the semiofficial ISNA news agency says.
  • UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — Prosecutors in the United Arab Emirates question two witnesses in the trial of five political activists who campaigned for democratic reforms in the Gulf nation and are accused of anti-state crimes.
  • TUNISIA — A 14-year-old boy is killed by a stray bullet fired during a violent protest in the Tunisian town where the uprisings that spread across the Arab world began.
  
  Obama threatens veto over cuts - GOP seeking deep spending reductions by David Espo, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Courting confrontation and compromise alike, House Republicans shrugged off President Barack Obama’s threat to veto legislation to cut federal spending by trillions of dollars on Monday while simultaneously negotiating with him over more modest steps to avert a potential government default.
      The Republican bill demands deep spending reductions and congressional approval of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution in exchange for raising the nation’s debt limit.    But Obama will veto it if it reaches his desk, the White House said, asserting the legislation would “lead to severe cuts in Medicare and Social Security” and impose unrealistic limits on education spending.
      In response, GOP lawmakers said they would go ahead with plans to pass the bill today.    By contrast, neither the administration nor congressional officials provided substantive details on an unannounced meeting that Obama held Sunday with the two top House Republican leaders, Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia.
      Obama said late Monday the two sides were “making progress.”    Several Republicans said privately the decision to vote on veto threatened legislation is paradoxically designed to clear the way for a compromise.    They said conservatives would have a chance to push their deep spending cuts through the House, and then see the measure quickly die either in the Democratic-controlled Senate or by veto.
      Barring action by Congress to raise the $14.3 trillion debt limit, the Treasury will be unable to pay all the government’s bills that come due beginning on Aug. 3, two weeks from Wednesday.    Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky strongly endorsed the measure.
      “Not only is this legislation just the kind of thing Washington needs right now, it may be the only option we have if you want to see the debt limit raised at all,” he said.    Despite his warning, McConnell and Reid have been deeply involved in writing a fallback measure that is viewed in both houses as promising.
      It would allow the president to raise the debt limit by $2.4 trillion in three installments over the next year without a prior vote by lawmakers.    Instead, a panel of House and Senate members would be created to recommend cuts in benefit programs, with their work guaranteed a yes-or-no vote in the House or Senate.
  
  Gold hits record as investors worry - Other safe havens seem risky now by Associated Press
      Gold’s reputation as a safe place for people’s money sent it above $1,600 an ounce for the first time Monday.
      Investors are worried about debt problems on both sides of the Atlantic.    So they bid gold up $12.30 an ounce to settle at $1,602.40.    While a record for the market price, gold is still below its 1980 peak after adjusting for inflation.    In today’s dollars, the $850 ounce of gold in 1980 would be worth about $2,400.
      Gold is looking better by the day because debt problems in the U.S. and Europe are making two other so-called safe havens, the dollar and the euro, seem shaky.    The U.S. could default on its debt on Aug. 2 if Congress and the White House don’t agree to raise the country’s borrowing limit.
      In Europe, investors worry that Greece may default. Italy, Spain and Ireland are also struggling to pay their bills.    Defaults could mean losses for the banks that own bonds issued by those countries, and that could trigger widespread disruption in financial markets.
      Gold has a long history as a way of preserving wealth, said Tom Winmill, portfolio manager of the $96 million Midas Fund.    The fund owns gold and stocks in gold miners.    “In 6,000 years, gold is one of the very few assets that have never gone to zero,” he said. Winmill expects gold to rise to $1,800 by the end of 2012.
      Investors believe gold is safe because it doesn’t depend on a government’s ability to repay a bond, like a Treasury bond or a Greek note.    Neither do other commodities like crude oil, which has the added use of powering automobiles.    “But it’s much easier to pick up a bar of gold than a swimming pool of oil,” said James Steel, an analyst with HSBC.
      Investors are behind much of the increase in the price of gold. Demand from investors rose 26 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, according to industry data.    Demand for gold from dentists for crowns and from companies for use in electronics was flat.    Demand for jewelry rose 7 percent.    The amount of gold held by exchange- traded funds and similar investments is at a record, according to Barclays Capital. Exchange traded funds are a way for investors to own gold without having to store and insure gold bars or coins.    But much of that demand has been from speculative investors, such as hedge funds, said Jon Nadler, senior metals analyst with Kitco Metals.    Gold could plunge if investors regain their confidence that the U.S. won’t default and that the 27-nation European Union won’t be threatened by the region’s debt problems.
  
  Oil loses nearly 2% on stronger dollar by Associated Press
      Growing concern about the U.S. and European economies weighed on oil Monday as prices fell nearly 2 percent.    Crude oil gave up $1.31 to settle at $95.93 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.    Traders worried that Greece’s debt crisis could spread to other European countries.    The price of oil fell as the dollar rose against the euro and other major currencies.    Meanwhile, the approach of an Aug. 2 deadline to raise the nation’s debt ceiling is making everyone nervous, said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research.
  
  
• 7/20/2011
  Senators’ debt-cut plan lifts hopes - Bipartisan proposal targets tax breaks, entitlements by David Espo, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama and a startling number of Republican senators lauded a bipartisan deficit-reduction plan Tuesday that includes $1 trillion in higher taxes as well as cuts to programs such as Medicare, raising hopes of a compromise to repair the nation’s finances while averting a government default.
      Obama said he hoped congressional leaders would “start talking turkey” as soon as today along the lines of the Senate “Gang of Six” proposal, which quickly overshadowed a no-tax-increase alternative that conservatives passed in the House on Tuesday night.
      The president warned that financial markets could soon begin to post worrisome losses unless gridlock is broken and the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt limit is raised.
      The House Republicans’ bill conditions a $2.4 trillion increase in the borrowing cap on a tea party backed plan to require immediate spending cuts and a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget.
      The 234-190 vote sends the “cut, cap and balance” plan to the Democratic- controlled Senate, where it has virtually no chance of passing.
      The vote was along party lines for House members from Kentucky and Indiana, with Republicans sup-porting the bill and Democrats opposing it.    Obama has threatened to veto the bill.    And in a recognition of the political realities, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters before debate began on the bill that it also was “responsible to look at what Plan B would look like.”
      He did not discuss what alternatives he had in mind, although the Senate’s top two leaders, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Harry Reid of Nevada, have been at work on a McConnell proposal that would let the president raise the debt limit without prior approval by Congress.
      Treasury officials say that without an increase in borrowing authority by Aug. 2, the government will not be able to pay all its bills, and default could result with severe consequences for the economy.
      The Gang of Six briefed other senators on the group’s plan.    It calls for deficit cuts of slightly less than $4 trillion over a decade and includes steps to slow the growth of Social Security payments; cut at least $500 billion from Medicare, Medicaid and other health programs; and wring billions in savings from farm subsidies and programs across government.
      The plan would also repeal a long-term-care program established under last year’s health overhaul.
  
  Reducing tax breaks
      The plan envisions tax changes that would reduce existing breaks for a number of popular items while reducing the tax rate for the top income bracket from the current 35 percent to 29 percent or less.    It would reduce but not eliminate tax breaks on mortgage interest, higher-cost health plans, charitable deductions, retirement sav-ings like individual retirement accounts and tax-free savings accounts known as 401(k)s and tax credits for families with children.
      The plan assumes that the taxes paid on large estates would revert to 2009 rates rather than follow a more generous 2010 plan.
      The tax overhaul “must be estimated to provide $1 trillion in additional revenue to meet plan tar-gets,” according to a summary.
      The Gang of Six envisioned a two-stage process in which $500 billion in savings would be enacted swiftly, with the more complicated changes in programs like Medicare and Medicaid to follow.
      The group includes three Democrats, Sens. Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Mark Warner of Virginia and Dick Durbin of Illinois, a member of the leadership.
      The three Republicans, all conservatives, are Sens. Mike Crapo of Idaho, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia.
      In recommending higher government revenues, Republicans in the group challenged party orthodoxy that has held sway for two decades, ever since President George H.W. Bush memorably broke his “no new taxes” pledge to make a deficit reduction deal with congressional Democrats.
      Recently, Republicans who voted to repeal a tax subsidy for ethanol production drew opposition from Grover Norquist, an anti-tax activist who has wielded significant influence inside the party.
      Even so, in the hours after the Gang of Six briefed other lawmakers, at least one member of the Re-publican Senate leadership, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, signed on as a supporter.    So, too, did Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas.
      “We have an opportunity to act like statesmen and avoid a debacle on Aug. 2, and it seems to me that all of our efforts should be focused on that,” said Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss.    He said the plan was well-received at a weekly closed-door meeting of GOP senators.
      Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., asked about possible objections from tea party activists, said the measure “checks every box” for advocates of smaller government, including cuts in government spending and an overhaul of the tax code to eliminate special breaks.    The measure would ensure that both domestic programs and the Pentagon budget absorb cost cuts.
      The plan wouldn’t produce a balanced budget but would reduce deficits as a share of the size of the economy to 3 percent by 2014 and to 2 percent by 2019, levels that would stabilize the debt and ensure that it doesn’t swamp the economy by forcing up interest rates and crowding out investment.
      Obama stopped well short of endorsing the plan, saying administration officials were analyzing it and not all details were known.    But he said it included “a revenue component” along with savings in Medicare and Social Security, making it the sort of balanced approach he has long advocated.
  
  Poll: Many deserve blame
      Majorities of Americans see both Obama and congressional Republicans as not willing enough to compromise in the stalemated budget negotiations, but the public sees the GOP leaders as particularly intransigent, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
      There is also growing dissatisfaction among Republicans with the hard-line stance of their congressional representatives: 58 percent say their leaders are not doing enough to strike a deal, up from 42 percent in March.
      The poll also finds GOP majorities favoring some of the specific changes advocated by the president, including higher income tax rates for the wealthiest Americans.    There is also broad dissatisfaction with Obama’s unwillingness to reach across the aisle: Nearly six in 10 of those polled say he has not been open enough to compromise.
  
  Oil rises amid ongoing uncertainty over debt by Associated Press
      Oil reversed direction again Tuesday, rising 2 percent as traders took cues from the falling dollar and rising stock markets.    Crude oil has fluctuated between $95 and $99 a barrel amid debt concerns in Europe and the U.S.
      “Every day, we hear more about what governments are doing to get their sovereign debt under control,” independent analyst Andrew Lipow said.    “But you don’t see results, and that leads some people to think we’re headed in the wrong direction     Oil rose $1.57 to settle at $97.50 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
  
  
• 7/21/2011
  
  Obama bends on stopgap deal - He opens door to short-term debt deal by Ben Feller, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Running out of time, President Barack Obama signaled Wednesday he would back a short-term deal to prevent the nation’s financial default on Aug. 2, but only if a larger and still elusive deficit-cutting agreement was essentially in place.
      He called lawmakers to the White House in a scramble to find enough votes from both Republicans and his own party.
      The president, pushing for a compromise that would cut the nation’s budget deficit and extend the government’s tapped-out borrowing power, had threatened to veto any stopgap expansion of the nation’s debt limit.
      Obama’s new position reflects the reality: that leaders are nearly out of time to head off unprecedented trouble.    Spokesman Jay Carney said if a divided Congress and the White House can agree on a significant deal, Obama would accept a “very short-term extension” of the debt limit to let bigger legislation work its way through Congress.
      Even a few days matters, given the stakes.    The government will exhaust its ability to borrow money and pay its bills on Aug. 2, an outcome that could sink the country back into recession, halt Social Security checks and other payments, send interest rates higher and erode the nation’s creditworthiness.
      At the White House, Obama met privately with the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate, and then separately with House Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.    All signs pointed to a legislative battle that would play out until the last minute.
      The latest talks centered on a single but complex question: What will it take to muster enough votes from both parties to push legislation through the House and Senate and raise the debt limit by the deadline?    Congressional leaders say they want to prevent default, but they don’t agree on how.
      The separate talks underscored his need to get a bottom line from Democrats in both chambers and the leaders of the Republican-run House.
      His challenge with fellow Democrats is to persuade them to accept changes to Medicare and Social Security.    With Republicans, Obama is opposed by conservatives who refuse to consider tax increases.    Obama wants a mixed approach of higher taxes on the wealthy and spending cuts that share the pain.
      Realistically, the deadline for agreement is this week, not next week, given the time needed to craft, debate, pass and work out possible differences in legislation.
      The Obama administration and Congress also are working on a backup plan to increase the debt limit if no big plan can be reached.    It would allow Obama to raise the ceiling on his own unless overridden by Congress.
      Yet many House Republicans loathe that idea and have pledged to vote against it.
  
  Oil hovers as investors await clarity over debt by Associated Press
      Oil prices are sticking around the same level they’ve been at since the beginning of the month as talks continue over debt issues in Europe and the U.S. that could affect future demand.
      Crude oil rose 54 cents to settle at $98.40 a barrel Wednesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
      Oil investors are waiting for clarity on the debt issues, taking their cue from movement in the dollar and stock markets, analysts say.
      “There’s just a lot of psychology in the market right now,” analyst Jim Ritterbusch said.
  
  
• 7/22/2011
  
  Ambitious deficit cuts revisited - Boehner says they’re ready to deal; but no plan yet by Davis Espo, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — In secretive endgame negotiations, President Barack Obama and House Republican leaders reached anew Thursday for an elusive “grand bargain” deal to cut deficits by $4 trillion or more and prevent a threatened Aug. 2 government default, officials said.
      House Speaker John Boehner declared his rank and file generally stood ready to compromise in order to reach an agreement as a way of “getting our economy going again and growing jobs.”    Obama, in a newspaper opinion piece, said the talks provided an “opportunity to do something big and meaningful.”
      Still — 12 days before the default deadline — officials stressed that no compromise seemed imminent and significant differences remained.
      And new hope of one ran instantly into old resistance: from Republicans opposed to higher taxes and Democrats loath to cut Medicare and other benefit programs.
      In a measure of concern among Democrats, party leaders spent nearly two hours meeting with Obama at the White House late Thursday.    Democratic officials familiar with Obama’s talks with Republicans said that while some cuts could be agreed upon and even enacted relatively quickly, there were major differences on taxes and savings from benefit programs like Medicare and Social Security.
      As an example, there is no agreement on how much additional revenue would be raised via an expected overhaul of the tax code, or how to require Congress to enact cuts to benefit programs.    The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive negotiations.    While talks on a major, long-term agreement continued, a fresh, shorter-term backup plan appeared to be gaining momentum.    Under discussion among some House Republicans, that proposal would cut spending by $1 trillion or slightly more immediately and raise the debt limit by a similar amount — enough to postpone a final reckoning until early in 2012.
  
  Wheeling, dealing
      Both sides maneuvered for political advantage and for leverage in talks about which little was publicly known.    “At the end of the day, we have a responsibility to act,” said Boehner of GOP law-makers.
      But across the Capitol, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blamed some of the same Republicans — “tea party extremists” — of blocking a deal.    The sometimes-conflicting information underscored the frenzied final days before a threatened default, when the Treasury could no longer pay all its bills in full and the economy could go into a tailspin as interest rates spiked.
      Some Democrats confided they were worried Obama would sign off on a deal that cuts benefit programs without raising tax revenue, and they peppered Budget Director Jack Lew — in a closed-door meeting in the Senate — with questions about the high-level negotiations. In an opinion piece in USA Today posted Thursday evening, Obama restated his call for achieving deficit reduction through “historic” amounts of spending cuts but also through “fundamental tax reform.”
      It was a stance Reid emphasized pointedly Thursday.    “My caucus agrees with that — and hope the president sticks with that, and I’m confident he will,” the Nevada Democrat said.
  
  Progress, finally?
      One official said the White House had notified Democratic congressional leaders Wednesday that Obama and the House leaders seemed to be closing in on a deal said to include $3 trillion in spending cuts but only a promise of higher revenues to be realized through comprehensive overhaul of the tax code.
      Boehner walked a difficult line of his own, not wanting to anger conservatives who hoped that they could push far deeper cuts through the Senate in the next few days.    “There is no deal. No deal publicly, no deal privately, there is absolutely no deal,” he told conservative talk show radio host Rush Limbaugh.    “We’re not close to a deal,” said Jay Carney, the White House press secretary.
      Another Democratic official said that in fact progress had been made, but Boehner’s office declined to say as much.    “While we are keeping the lines of communication open, there is no ‘deal’ and no progress to report,” said spokesman Michael Steel.
      The government’s debt stands at a record $14.3 trillion and has been growing by more than $1 trillion a year.    Obama’s request for an increase prompted Boehner to say months ago that any rise must be accompanied by spending cuts of at least the same amount.
  
  The fallback plans
      Publicly, some Republicans insisted they would not entertain any fallback measure as long as a separate House-passed bill was pending in the Senate.    That measure would raise the debt limit by $2.4 trillion while requiring an estimated $6 trillion in cuts and a congressional vote to send the states a constitutional balanced budget amendment for ratification.    Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. an influential conservative, said that bill was “the only one that can pass before the Aug. 2 deadline.”    But Reid said the bill “doesn’t have one chance in a million of passing the Senate,” and privately senior Republicans in both houses were operating on the as-sumption that it would fail when the vote was taken.
      Initially, that vote was set for Saturday, to be followed by an unveiling of an earlier fallback plan crafted by Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.    But at mid-day, Reid declared, without ex-planation, that the Senate would formally reject the House-passed bill today.
      In another measure of the unpredictable nature of the debate, still another proposal — a bipartisan deficit-reduction plan that drew surprising support from Republican senators earlier in the week — appeared to be running into obstacles.    That plan includes $1 trillion in what its authors delicately call “additional revenue” to achieve overall deficit cuts of nearly $4 trillion.    Some Republicans say that means tax increases, a deal killer as far as they are concerned.    Obama latched onto that “Gang of Six” blueprint earlier in the week to announce a final stab at a “grand bargain,” although he and Boehner have been in talks for weeks.
  
  Syrian city besieged in violent crackdown by Associated Press
      BEIRUT — Gunfire and explosions erupted Thursday in the city at the heart of Syria’s anti-government uprising as soldiers launched a massive crackdown, witnesses said.    Terrified residents of Homs cowered inside their homes and used mosque loudspeakers to call for blood donations to help the wounded.
      Details about the siege were sketchy, with most people telling The Associated Press they were too scared even to look out their windows.
      The city has seen some of the most intense violence as the regime tries to stamp out a revolt that has lasted more than four months.
      “I can see smoke billowing from the neighborhood,” a witness said by telephone from the Bab Sbaa area of Homs, about 100 miles from Damascus.    Heavy gunfire crackled in the background.    “We cannot leave our homes.”
      Calls for blood donations raised fears of mass casualties.    But the gunfire was too intense for people to look for victims.
      As darkness fell, another resident said the violence had tapered off, with only intermittent cracks of gunfire.    He said Syrian soldiers in personnel carriers were leaving the area.
      The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisals.    The regime has banned nearly all foreign media and restricted coverage, making it nearly impossible to verify casualty figures or events on the ground.
      Activists say up to 50 people have been killed in Homs since Saturday, a wave of violence that signals a potentially dangerous turn.    According to witnesses and activists, much of the bloodshed has taken on sectarian overtones — a fearsome development in Syria’s religiously mixed society.
      Opposition figures have accused President Bashar Assad’s minority Alawite regime of trying to stir up trouble with the Sunni majority to blunt the growing enthusiasm for the uprising.    The protesters have been careful to portray their movement as free of any sectarian overtones.
  
  India tests its new ‘Attack’ missile
      NEW DELHI - India successfully tested a new quick-reaction tactical missile Thursday and will use it in battlefield support for the army, the Defense Ministry said.    The surface-to-surface “Prahaar” missile — which means “attack” in Hindi — can carry warheads weighing up to 440 pounds and hit targets 93 miles away.    The Defense Ministry said the missile, equipped with high-tech navigation and guidance equipment, was tested successfully off the coast of India’s eastern Orissa state.
  
  Greece gets new bailout with private-sector help - Euro rises on hope debt crisis averted by Associated Press
      BRUSSELS — Euro-zone leaders agreed Thursday to a sweeping deal that will grant Greece a massive new bailout — but likely make it the first euro country to default.    The deal will also radically reshape the currency union’s rescue fund, allowing it to act pre-emptively when crises build.
      The deal resolves a political deadlock between Europe’s top economic authorities over how to save Greece that had investors worried that the debt crisis would spin out of control.
      Faced with the danger of big economies like Italy becoming unstable, the officials sought to exceed expectations at an emergency meeting in Brussels.    The euro-zone countries and the International Monetary Fund will give Greece a second bailout worth $155 billion.
      Banks and other private investors will contribute some $71 billion to the rescue package until 2014 by either rolling over Greek bonds that they hold, swapping them for new ones with lower interest rates or selling the bonds back to Greece at a low price.
      “For the first time since the beginning of this crisis, we can say that the politics and the markets are coming together,” said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. Initial reaction from markets and analysts to Thursday’s deal was cautiously positive.    The euro, which had rallied sharply on expectation of the deal, rose further to gain 1.2 percent against the dollar.
      The involvement of private creditors is widely expected to be considered a “selective default” by the ratings agencies, making Greece the first euro country to be in default — if likely only for a short period of time.
      Because of that, the euro zone will back up any new Greek bonds issued to the banks with guarantees.    Those guarantees are necessary because Greek banks use Greek government debt as collateral for emergency support from the European Central Bank.
      Those bonds would no longer work as collateral if hit with a default rating, meaning Greek banks would lose the ECB support and quickly collapse.
      In the case of bond rollovers or swaps, the new Greek bonds issued to the banks would have long maturities of up to 30 years and low interest rates, according to the Institute of International Finance, the group representing the private-sector creditors.
      French President Nicolas Sarkozy estimated the rates would average 4.5 percent.    That will give Greece more time to get its struggling economy back in shape and cut some 21 percent of its future debt bur-den.
      Leaders agreed to provide the new euro-zone rescue loans to Greece at a 3.5 percent interest rate and with maturities of between 15 and 30 years.    They will have an additional grace period of 10 years.
      “I think this is extremely important to ensure the debt sustainability of Greece,” Barroso said.
      The leaders also overhauled their bailout fund, giving it the power to intervene in countries before they are in a full-blown crisis.
  
  Chrysler bailout ends; U.S. lost $1.3 billion by Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times
      The Chrysler bailout officially ended Thursday when the Treasury Department sold off its remaining stake in the automaker.    The final tally shows the taxpayers lost $1.3 billion.
      Italian automaker Fiat purchased the U.S. government’s 6 percent stake in Chrysler for $560 million, formally concluding the $12.5 billion bailout in 2008 and 2009, the Treasury announced. Including Chrysler’s payment of loans from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, the government received $11.2 billion of the money back.
      As it has indicated before, the Treasury is unlikely to recover the $1.3 billion.    But Tim Massad, the Treasury assistant secretary overseeing the TARP program, declared the bailout a success.
      “With today’s closing, the U.S. government has exited its investment in Chrysler at least six years earlier than expected,” he said.    “This is a major accomplishment and further evidence of the success of the administration’s actions to assist the U.S. auto industry, which helped save a million jobs during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.”
      Administration officials projected in June that the $80 billion in bailouts of Chrysler and General Motors would lose a combined $14 billion, about a third of what was originally projected when the government forced both into bank-ruptcy restructuring in 2009.
      In May, Chrysler reported its first quarterly profit since emerging from bankruptcy in 2009.    Fiat announced separately Thursday that it has also acquired the 1.5 percent stake in Chrysler held by Canada for $125 million.    Fiat now owns 53.5 percent of Chrysler.    That percentage could increase to 58.5 percent by the end of the year.
  
  Better economic news lifts oil prices by Associated Press
      Oil prices topped $100 per barrel in midday trading Thursday for the first time since early June on an improving outlook for the U.S. economy, and as European leaders moved closer to an agreement on giving more financial aid to Greece.
      “We’re getting some good news again,” independent oil analyst Jim Ritterbusch said.    “When that happens, commodities start to look attractive.”
      Crude oil rose 73 cents to settle at $99.13 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It reached $100.16 earlier in the day.
  
  
• 7/23/2011
  
  Debt solution talks collapse – Obama, GOP House leader trade blame; president summons heads of Congress by David Espo, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — House Speaker John Boehner abruptly broke off talks with President Barack Obama on Friday night on a deal to make major cuts in federal spending and avert a threatened government default, sending already uncertain compromise efforts into instant crisis.
      Within minutes, an obviously peeved Obama virtually ordered congressional leaders to the White House this morning for fresh negotiations on raising the nation’s debt limit.    “We’ve got to get it done. It is not an option not to do it,” he declared.
      For the first time since talks began, he declined to offer assurances, when asked, that default would be avoided.    Moments later, however, he said he was confident of that outcome.
      At a rebuttal news conference a short while later in the Capitol, Boehner, R-Ohio, said, “I want to be entirely clear: No one wants default on the full faith and credit of the United States government, and I’m convinced that we will not.”
      The two men offered sharply different accounts of the compromise efforts so far and who was at fault for the collapse.
      “I’ve been left at the altar now a couple of times,” Obama said wryly.    “It’s the president who walked away from his agreement,” Boehner said.    The speaker said Obama wanted higher taxes and not enough spending cuts.
      The president said he had offered an “extraordinarily fair deal” that totaled $2.6 trillion in spending cuts and $1.2 trillion in additional revenue.    Strikingly, the two sides had agreed on two highly controversial changes, according to aides on both sides of the talks.    One would raise the age of eligibility of Medicare gradually from 65 to 67 for future beneficiaries, while the other would slow the increase in cost-of-living raises in Social Security checks.
      The stakes are high in the efforts to find some common ground Barring action by Congress by an Aug 2 deadline, the Treasury will be unable to pay all its bills.    Officials say a default could destabilize the already weakened U.S. economy and send major ripple effects across the globe.    Even by the recent standards of divided government, Boehner’s decision triggered an extraordinary evening in which the two leaders maneuvered for political position on an issue of enormous national import.
      Unspoken, yet unmistakable in all the brinkmanship was the 2012 election campaign, with the White House and both houses of Congress at stake.    In a letter circulated earlier to the House Republican rank and file, Boehner said he had withdrawn from the talks because the president wanted to raise taxes and was reluctant to agree to cuts in benefit programs.
      The disconnect was “not because of different personalities but because of different visions for our country,” he said, and he announced he would now seek agreement with the Democratic- controlled Senate.
      Obama was having none of that, announcing instead a morning White House meeting where he said he expected to hear proposed solutions from the top leaders of both parties in both houses.
      “One of the questions the Republican Party is going to have to ask itself is, ‘Can they say yes to any-thing?’ ” Obama said.
      Private, sometimes-secret negotiations had veered uncertainly for weeks, generating reports as late as Thursday that the two sides were possibly closing in on an agreement to cut $3 trillion in spending and add as much as $1trillion in possible revenue while increasing the government’s borrowing authority of $2.4 trillion.
      That triggered a revolt among Democrats who expressed fears the president was giving away too much in terms of cuts to Medicare and Social Security while getting too little by way of additional revenues.
      Obama said his only requirement for an agreement was legislation that provides the Treasury enough bor-rowing authority to tide the government over through the 2012 election.    Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., agreed in a statement, saying a shorter-term extension was unacceptable.
      His counterpart, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, supported Boehner for “insisting on reducing spending and opposing the president’s call for higher taxes on American families and job creators.”
      The two Senate leaders will be among the lawmakers at the White House meeting called by the president, presumably joined by Boehner and Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader.    Aides on both sides provided details of the abortive talks.
      Republican aides said the White House had raised their demands for tax increases during the week, in the wake of a proposal by the bipartisan “Gang of Six” in the Senate, who called for an overhaul of the tax code that would increase revenue by $1 trillion over a decade.
      Aides also said the two sides couldn’t bridge their differences over the triggers designed to force Con-gress to enact both tax reform and cuts to Medicare and other benefit programs by early next year.
      Earlier in the day, the Senate rejected a House-passed bill that would have raised the debt limit in exchange for spending cuts of an estimated $6 trillion and a vote in Congress to send a constitutional balanced budget amendment to the states for ratification.
  
  Koreas to strive for restart of nuclear arms talks
      BALI, INDONESIA - Top nuclear envoys from rivals North and South Korea agreed Friday to work toward a resumption of stalled nuclear disarmament talks, a significant breakthrough after more than a year of confrontation and esca-lating threats.
      The talks, which the envoys described as constructive and sincere, mark the first such meeting since 2008, when international talks aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons program collapsed.
  
  Thousands defy security forces to protest
      DAMASCUS - Hundreds of thousands of Syrians across the country defied a violent government crack-down Friday, insisting they will not be terrified into submission through bullets, mass arrests and more than four months of attacks by security forces.    At least five people were killed, activists said.    Friday’s action marked a clear attempt to present a united front against President Bashar Assad.
  
  Oil settles near $100 as debt issues linger by Associated Press
      Oil prices rose 74 cents Friday to settle at $99.87 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Ex-change.    Investors worry that failure to resolve debt problems in the U.S. and Europe could cause the global economy to slow and cut demand for commodities such as oil.    Debt issues on both continents have “played havoc with the price of oil in recent weeks,” PFG analyst Phil Flynn said.
      Since the beginning of the month, the price of oil has ranged from about $94 a barrel to just over $100.
  
  
• 7/25/2011
  
  N. Korean official to visit New York this week
      BALI, INDONESIA - A North Korean official will visit the United States this week to discuss the possible resumption of negotiations on ending North Korea’s nuclear programs, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday.
      Clinton invited North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan to visit New York.    The six nation disarmament talks broke off in 2008.
  
  
• 7/26/2011
  
  Maneuvering on debt limit accelerates - Obama, Boehner press their cases by David Lightman and William Douglas, McClatchy Newspapers
      WASHINGTON — With the deadline for raising the nation’s debt limit and prospects for financial-market panic now a week away, a frustrated President Barack Obama warned the nation Monday night that the partisan impasse risks “sparking a deep economic crisis, this one caused almost entirely by Washington.”
      But House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, presenting the case for the Republicans, countered that “the solution to this crisis is not that complicated.    If you’re spending more money than you’re taking in, you need to spend less of it.”
      Obama and the Democrats should just accept the massive spending cut package pushed by the GOP, Boehner said — but Obama, he charged, “wants a blank check today.”
      Obama’s nationally televised address capped a day when Senate Democrats’ and House Republicans’ positions hardened, as each group unveiled deficit-cutting plans Monday that showed the two sides remain sharply divided.
      The key conflict dividing the new plans involved the length of any new debt-limit increase.    Republicans in the House want to increase it in two stages, the first a short-term stopgap that would last through early next year.    Democrats, in a plan promoted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, want a new ceiling that will last through the 2012 elections.
      Obama took the unusual step of getting specific in criticizing the House GOP plan offered earlier Monday by Boehner.
      “A six-month extension of the debt ceiling might not be enough to avoid a credit downgrade and the higher interest rates that all Americans would have to pay as a result,” Obama said.
      Obama said he was still confident that an accord could be reached.    He called on viewers to urge their lawmakers to compromise.    But after he finished speaking, Boehner, in a five minute address, criticized Obama for a “massive spending binge,” including the 2010 health care overhaul.
      Boehner argued, “I’ve always believed the bigger the government, the smaller the people.    And right now, we’ve got a government so big and so expensive it’s sapping the drive out of our people and keeping our economy from running at full capacity.”
      Earlier in the day, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky criticized the Democrats’ plan.
      “There is absolutely no economic justification for insisting on a debt-limit increase that brings us through the next election.    It’s not the beginning of a fiscal year. It’s not the beginning of a calendar year,” McConnell said.
      White House officials say that passing only a shortterm debt-ceiling increase would fail to lift the cloud of uncertainty rising from the controversy, which they say makes business decision-making tentative and contributes to the economic slowdown.
      With no compromise in sight, the two sides positioned themselves for a showdown later this week over rival broad plans aimed at reducing future federal budget deficits, estimated to total $7 trillion over the next decade, while increasing the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt limit.
      If the debt limit is not raised by Aug. 2, the government will exhaust its borrowing authority, which could ignite a global financial panic and send the American economy reeling.
      Both the Republican-controlled House and the Democratic- dominated Senate prepared to take up partisan plans to raise the debt limit and cut deficits.    First votes are expected Wednesday.
      The plans share a number of similarities.    Both would cut discretionary spending by $1.2 trillion and set up special bipartisan committees to find more savings.    And neither plan includes new revenues — a major concession by Democrats.
      Both plans would cut the same amount from programs like education, transportation and other areas where lawmakers have discretionary authority over spending.
      They would take different paths to the goal.    Boehner would impose caps on future spending.    Reid includes no such caps; presumably lawmakers would seek cuts item by item.
      Boehner’s plan would raise the debt limit first by up to $1 trillion, about the same amount as the cuts in discretionary spending, which should give the government authority to borrow through early next year.    An additional $1.6 trillion increase could be authorized after the special joint committee’s plan was adopted.    Reid’s plan would extend the debt limit enough to cover through 2012.
      Reid’s plan includes $1trillion saved by winding down the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.    Many Republicans say such savings should not be counted because those savings are coming anyway — even though the budget they adopted in April included those savings.
  
  KEY POINTS
      The key conflict dividing the new Republican and Democratic plans involves the length of any new debt limit increase.    House Republicans want to increase it in two stages, the first a short-term stopgap that would last through early next year.    Democrats want a new ceiling that lasts through the 2012 elections.
      The plans have some similarities. Both would cut discretionary spending by $1.2 trillion and set up committees to find more savings.    And neither includes new revenues — a major concession by Democrats.
  
  If U.S. defaults, oil could fall, then rise by Associated Press
      Crude oil lost 67 cents to settle at $99.20 per barrel Monday.
      How would a U.S. default affect oil? Independent oil analyst Andrew Lipow thinks it could mean a plunge in oil markets — at first.    The U.S. is the world’s largest petroleum consumer, and if it can’t pay its bills, demand will surely fall, he said.
      PFGBest’s Phil Flynn agreed.    He expects the rise would come later as the dollar’s influence eventually weighs on oil markets.    Prices will soar, heaping additional pressure on the economy, he said.
  
  
• 7/27/2011
  
  GOP delays vote on Boehner’s debt plan - Needs rewrite to boost savings; conservatives still balking by Charles Babington, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Republican leaders in the House decided Tuesday to postpone a vote on a plan to increase the U.S. debt limit and avoid an unprecedented default.    The plan proposed by House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, would trade more than $1trillion in spending cuts for an increase in the government’s borrowing cap that would be nearly as large.
      Meanwhile, head-butting between Democratic President Barack Obama and the Republicans showed no sign of easing.    The White House declared Obama would veto the Boehner bill, assuming it somehow got through the House and the Democratic-controlled Senate.
      Republican Rep. David Dreier said the postponement was because congressional scorekeepers said the bill won’t produce the budget savings promised by Boehner when it was unveiled Monday.
      But Republicans are also struggling to shore up support for the measure among conservatives unhappy over its promised budget cuts.
      Republican leaders had promised a vote today.    Dreier, of California, said the measure could come to a vote on Thursday after it’s modified.
      It was the tea party-backed members of Boehner’s own party who continued to vex him and heavily influence the debt and deficit negotiating terms.
      Their adamant opposition to any tax increases forced Boehner to back away from a “grand bargain” with Obama that might have made dramatic cuts in government spending.    Yet when Boehner turned this week to a more modest cost cutting plan, with no tax hikes, many conservatives balked again.    They said the proposal lacked the more potent tools they seek, such as a constitutional mandate for balanced budgets.
      Earlier in the day, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, chairman of a large group of conservative Republicans, sent a tremor through the Capitol when he said he doubted Boehner had enough support to pass his plan today.    The Boehner bill would require congressional action to raise the debt ceiling this summer, and again before the 2012 elections.
      Obama strongly opposes that last requirement, arguing that it would reopen the delicate and crucial debt discussions to unending political pressure during next year’s campaigns.
      Obama supports a separate bill, pushed by Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada in the Democratic-con-trolled Senate, that would raise the debt ceiling enough to tide the government over through next year.
      According to the Washington Post, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., criticized the Democratic alternative, saying it contains “highly suspect spending reduction features.”    He argued that more than a third of the $2.7 trillion in savings in Reid’s bill would come from winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — money Obama never intended to spend.
      Boehner wasn’t helped by an official congressional analysis late Tuesday that said his plan would produce smaller savings than originally promised — less than $1 trillion in spending cuts over the coming decade rather than the $1.2 trillion he estimated Monday.
      Boehner’s office said it would rewrite the legislation to make sure the spending cuts exceed the amount the debt limit would be raised.
      Earlier, responding to the conservative Republican opposition, Boehner quickly went on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show, and then he began one-on-one chats with wavering Republicans on the House floor during midday roll call votes.
      “He has to convince a few people,” Rep. Tom Petri, R-Wis., observed.
      A serious, almost dire urgency ran through Boehner’s efforts.    The clock was tick-ing down to next Tuesday’s deadline to continue the government’s borrowing powers and avert possible defaults on U.S. loans.
      Boehner’s grasp on the speakership could be weakened if he fails to pass the debt-ceiling plan that bears his name.    Assuming no more than five Democrats support the measure — the same number that backed a GOP balanced-budget bill last week — Boehner can afford to lose no more than 28 of the House’s 240 Republi-cans.
      His allies predicted he’ll make it, and Boehner got a vocal endorsement from his sometimes rival, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va. But holdouts were not limited to the much-discussed freshman class, elected in the tea party-fueled 2010 elections.
      “He can’t get my vote because I felt like that, for long-term solutions to this problem, all these promises we make in cutting spending never seem to occur,” said Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga.
      While Boehner searched for votes, some Americans seemed to edge closer to the notion that the Aug. 2 deadline might pass without a solution.    The stock market fell again, but not dramatically.
      The White House spoke with veterans’ groups about what might happen to vets’ benefits if a deal isn’t reached.
      “I think their main point is in hopes we’d convey to our members that what is needed here is compromise and shared sacrifice to get through this,” retired Navy Vice Adm. Norb Ryan, president of the Military Officers Association of America, said.
      Obama also has said he can’t guarantee Social Security checks and payments to veterans and the disabled would go out on schedule.
      The Senate worked on other issues, waiting to see if Boehner’s bill would pass the House and come its way.    Reid said the Boehner bill could not pass his chamber.
      Reid has his own plan. Like Boehner’s, it would identify about $1.2 trillion in spending cuts to the day-to-day operating budgets of government agencies.    Reid’s proposal, however, would require only one congressional vote to raise the debt ceiling before the 2012 elections.    And it counts an extra $1 trillion in savings from winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
      Credit rating agencies have threatened to downgrade the United States’ gold-plated AAA rating if Congress and the White House don’t extend the debt ceiling and take steps to bring long-term deficits under control.
  
  U.N.: Area under Gadhafi being hurt by shortages
      TRIPOLI, LIBYA - The part of Libya under Moammar Gadhafi’s control is wracked by shortages in fuel, food and cash despite a veneer of normalcy, according to a U.N. fact-finding mission.
      In a report, the United Nations said its weeklong mission to the country identified a lack of fuel, rising food prices, a strained medical system, and a cash crunch as some of the problems besetting Gadhafi’s government.    The rebels control eastern Libya and pockets in the west, while Gadhafi clings to the rest, including the capital of Tripoli.
  
  Oil near $100 a barrel as debt talks continue by Associated Press
      Oil rose Tuesday as lawmakers labored to agree on the nation’s debt limit and the dollar weakened on uncertainty about the economy.
      While congressional leaders bickered over spending and raising the borrowing limit ahead of an Aug. 2 deadline, oil gains were held in check by drooping stock markets and more evidence of sluggish economic growth.
      Crude oil rose 39 cents to settle at $99.59 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
      The uncertainty is making “some … traders seesaw back and forth,” said Michael Lynch, of Strategic Energy & Economic Research.
  
  
• 7/28/2011
  
  GOP builds support for deal on debt by David Espo, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Crisis concerns rising, House Republican leaders shrugged off a White House veto threat and an outbreak of tensions within their own party Wednesday as they built support for legislation to stave off the government default threatened for next week.
      A worried Wall Street sent stocks plunging on fears that political gridlock would prevail.
      “I can’t do this job unless you’re behind me,” House Speaker John Boehner bluntly told his fractious rank and file in the run-up to a scheduled vote today on the bill, which was hastily rewritten to show deeper spending cuts than 24 hours earlier.
      With Boehner facing a major test of his leadership, Democrats disparaged the measure he was working so hard to pass. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called it “a big wet kiss for the right wing,” and all 51 Senate Democrats and two independents pledged to scuttle it if it cleared the House.
      The White House has threatened a veto, saying it doesn’t meet President Barack Obama’s demand for a debt limit increase large enough to prevent a rerun of the current crisis next year, in the heat of the 2012 election campaign.    Instead, Obama backs an alternative Reid offered that also cuts spending yet provides enough additional borrowing authority to tide the government over through next year.
      For all the bluster, there were hints that a compromise might be near.    “Magic things can happen here in Congress in a very short period of time under the right circumstances,” said Reid.
      Without a deal in place by Tuesday, administration officials say that the Treasury won’t be able to pay all the nation’s bills, possibly triggering a default that could prove catastrophic for an economy still recovering from the worst recession in decades.
  
  Dow down nearly 200
      Two days after Obama and Boehner made unprecedented back-to-back speeches on national TV, there was evidence that the debt crisis was becoming a national cause of concern.
      “I don’t think the people who are making the decisions live in the same environment we do,” Shawn Bonner, of Boerne, Texas, said of the two sides, adding: “They’ve both dug in their heels for political statements, and we need them to make decisions to help the country.”
      Markets had big losses for the day.    The Dow Jones industrial average fell almost 200 points and seemed headed for its worst week in nearly a year.
      “Confidence in our political system is beginning to fade,” said Channing Smith, managing director of Capital Advisors Inc.    “As hours pass and the uncertainty builds, I think the market is starting to price in the potential that we might not have a solution by Aug. 2.”
      In Washington, across from the Capitol, a few dozen tea party activists rallied — and seemed as divided as conservatives in the House.    Some issued an online call for Boehner to resign as speaker; others said he deserved time to try and strike the best deal possible.
  
  The two bills in play
      The GOP bill underwent revisions to increase its prospects of passage.    That meant changes that brought projected savings for 2012 to $22 billion, part of a 10-year cut of $917 billion in all that would trigger a $900 billion increase in the debt limit.
      The bill also would establish a special committee of lawmakers to recommend additional cuts that would trigger more borrowing authority if approved.
      While the two parties’ bills differed in key details, they also shared similarities underscoring concessions made by both sides in recent days.    Reid’s bill doesn’t envision a tax increase to cut deficits, a bow to Republicans.
      But neither does the House measure require both houses to approve a constitutional balanced budget amendment for state ratification, a point for Obama and the Democrats.
      If House conservatives torpedo the bill, any follow-up would probably require Democratic votes to pass.    That, in turn, would mean smaller spending cuts than Republicans want in exchange for raising the $14.3 trillion debt limit.
  
  Oil falls as American crude supplies rise by Associated Press
      Oil prices fell Wednesday after news that the nation’s oil and gasoline supplies rose last week with the release of millions of barrels from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
      Crude oil lost $2.19 to settle at $97.40 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
      Commercial crude supplies increased as the U.S. released about 2.3 million barrels as part of the 60-million barrel release announced by the International Energy Agency last month.
      The U.S. eventually will release 30 million barrels from the strategic reserve as part of that plan.
  
  
• 7/29/2011
  
  GOP split snarls vote on debt - Speaker’s scramble for support falls short by David Espo, The Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — An intense endgame at hand, House Republican leaders put off a vote Thursday night on legislation to avert a threatened government default and slice federal spending by nearly $1 trillion.
      GOP leaders announced their decision after an intensive round of meetings with rebellious conservatives.
      The decision created fresh turmoil as a divided government struggled to head off a default threatened after next Tuesday that would leave the Treasury without the funds needed to pay all its bills.
      As the evening slipped by, the White House poked fun at Republicans led by Speaker John Boehner, who has become President Barack Obama’s principal antagonist in a contentious era.    And Senate Democrats pledged to scuttle the measure — if it ever gets to them — to force a final compromise.
      Boehner summoned a string of Republican critics of the bill to his office.    Asked what he and the speaker had talked about, Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said, “I think that’s rather obvious. … There’s negotiations going on.”
      Based on public statements by lawmakers, it appeared that five of some two dozen holdouts were from South Carolina.    The state is also represented by Sen. Jim DeMint, who has solid ties to tea party groups and is a strong critic of compromising on the debt issue.
      A few first-term conservatives slipped into a small chapel a few paces down the hall from the Capitol Rotunda as they contemplated one of the most consequential votes of their careers.
      Asked if he was seeking divine inspiration, Rep. Tim Scott, R-S.C., said that had already happened.    “I was leaning no and now I am a no.”
      Many more congregated in the office of the chief GOP vote counter, California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, perhaps drawn to the 19 boxes of pizza that were rolled in.    Boehner joined them but did not speak to reporters.
      After debate on the bill gave way to the meetings with Boehner, other members took up noncontroversial measures, including whether to rename a post office in Hawaii.
      “Clock ticks towards August 2, House is naming post offices, while leaders twist arms for a pointless vote.    No wonder people hate Washington,” White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer tweeted.    Earlier, Boehner had exuded optimism.    “Let’s pass this bill and end the crisis,” he said.    “It raises the debt limit and cuts government spending by a larger amount.”
      Obama has threatened to veto the measure, and in debate on the House floor, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida savaged it as a “Republican plan for default.”    She said the GOP hoped to “hold our economy hostage while forcing an ideological agenda” on the country.
      Despite the sharp rhetoric, there had been signs that gridlock might be giving way.
      “Around here you’ve got to have deadlock before you have breakthrough,” said Sen. Kent Conrad, DN. D. “We’re at that stage now.
      The Treasury Department moved ahead with plans to hold its regular weekly auction of three-month and six-month securities on Monday.    Yet officials offered no information on what steps would be taken if Congress failed to raise the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt limit by the following day.
      Administration officials have warned of potentially calamitous effects on the economy — a spike in inter-est rates, a plunge in stock markets and a tightening in the job market in a nation already struggling with unemployment over 9 percent.
      White House press secretary Jay Carney outlined White House compromise terms: “significant deficit reduction, a mechanism by which Congress would take on the tough issues of tax reform and entitlement reform and a lifting of the debt ceiling beyond … into 2013.”    In a speech Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell accused Democrats of supporting all the outlines of the Boehner bill except for a second vote to lift the ceiling early next year.
      “It doesn’t allow the president to avoid another national debate about spending and debt until after the next presidential election,” McConnell said.    “This assurance is the only thing the president and Senate Democrats are holding out for right now.”
      The House bill cuts spending by $917 billion over a decade, principally by holding down costs for hundreds of government programs ranging from the Park Service to the Agriculture Department and foreign aid.
      It also provides an immediate debt limit increase of $900 billion, which is less than half of the total needed to meet Obama’s insistence that there be no replay of the current crisis in the heat of the 2012 election campaigns.
      An additional $1.6 trillion in borrowing authority would be conditioned on passage of spending cuts of a greater amount.    The GOP bill’s $917 billion in upfront spending cuts was trillions less than many tea party backed rank-and-file Republican lawmakers wanted, Numerous Republicans grumbled that the legislation didn’t cut more deeply, and Boehner and the rest of the GOP leadership have spent their week cajoling reluctant conservatives to provide the votes needed to pass it.    By most accounts, they were succeeding.    “It gives us a little bit of heartburn because it doesn’t go big enough,” said Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., a first-term lawmaker who said he would vote for the bill as the best one available.
      While the White House and Democrats objected to the House bill, they readied an alternative that con-tained similarities.
      Drafted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, it provides for $2.7 trillion in additional borrowing authority for the Treasury.    It also calls for cuts of $2.2 trillion, including about $1 trillion in Pentagon savings that assume the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.    Even before the House voted, Reid served notice he would stage a vote to kill the legislation almost instantly.
      “No Democrat will vote for a short-term Band-Aid that would put our economy at risk and put the na-tion back in this untenable situation a few short months from now,” he said.
  
  U.S., N. Korea finish first day of nuclear arms negotiation
      NEW YORK - The U.S. said it wants a concrete indication that nuclear armed North Korea is willing to take “irreversible steps” to give up atomic weapons as negotiators wrapped up a first round of talks Thursday.
      Ambassador Stephen Bosworth, the Obama administration’s top envoy on North Korean affairs, and North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan remained silent after meeting privately at the U.S. Mission to the U.N. for about five hours.
      The State Department called the talks “serious and businesslike” and said in a statement they will resume this morning.
  
  Stocks sink on debt deal worries - Early gains faded just before close by Associated Press
      A late sell-off wiped out the stock market’s gains Thursday amid worries brought on by a stalemate over raising the country’s debt limit.
      The market was up for much of the day but started to sink in the last half-hour of trading.    Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in the afternoon that a bill scheduled for a House vote Thursday night wouldn’t get a single Democratic vote in the Senate, meaning it would fail.
      “That gave a catalyst for selling,” said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial.    The Dow Jones industrial average fell 62.44 points to close at 12,240.11.    The index had been up as many 82 points earlier in the day following an unexpected decrease in new claims for unemployment benefits.
      The Treasury Department says the government will run out of money to cover all its bills on Tuesday.    The Dow has fallen every day since Friday because of fears the U.S. might default on its debt if Congress doesn’t raise the country’s borrowing limit.    The Dow is headed for its worst week in just over a year.
      The Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 4.22 points to close at 1,300.67.    The S&P 500 has fallen for the past four days.    The Nasdaq composite index edged up 1.46 points to 2,766.25.
      The Dow is now down 3.5 percent for the week and is headed for its worst week since early July 2010. The S&P 500 is down 3.3 percent for the week, while the Nasdaq is down 3.2 percent.
      Even if the U.S. doesn’t default, investors fear the country might lose its triple-A credit rating.    That could raise interest rates and slow the U.S. economy, which is still recovering from the worst recession in decades.
      “We’re running out of time,” said Phil Dow, director of equity strategy at RBC Wealth Management in Minneapolis.    “It’s getting scary.”
      Even so, markets were less volatile than on Wednesday, when the Dow had its biggest one-day drop since early June.    One reason for optimism: The government said first-time applications for jobless benefits fell to 398,000 last week, the lowest level in four months.    That’s a sign that employers are laying off fewer workers.
      Nearly two stocks fell for every one that rose on the New York Stock Exchange.    Volume was relatively heavy at 4.4 billion shares.
  
  Oil wavers on storm forecast, debt ceiling by Associated Press
      Oil settled virtually unchanged Thursday as traders waited to learn more about the possible impact of a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico, the wrangling over the debt ceiling in Washington and the debt crisis in Europe.
      Tropical storm Don formed near Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula Wednesday and is expected to make landfall near Corpus Christi, Texas, on Friday night or Saturday morning.    Its path is south of the main oil and gas producing regions in the Gulf, but about 500 rigs are in its path.
      On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude rose 4 cents to settle at $97.44 per barrel.
  
  
• 7/30/2011
  
  Senate seeks debt compromise - First it rejects Boehner’s House measure by Lisa Mascaro, Kathleen Hennessey and Christi Parsons, Tribune Washington Bureau
      WASHINGTON — The House passed Speaker John Boehner’s plan for raising the federal debt limit Friday, but it was quickly scuttled by the Senate, where the rough outlines of a compromise to avert possible economic crisis were emerging through the fog of partisan anger and tension.
      House passage of Boehner’s measure came on vote of 218-210, almost along party lines.
      The Senate immediately rejected it, 59-41.    Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., voted in favor of the House bill, but Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was among six Republicans joining all 51 Democrats and two independents in rejecting it.
      The bill would have provided a quick, $900 billion increase in U.S. borrowing authority — essential to allow the government to continue paying all its bills — along with $917 billion in cuts from federal spending.
      The bill had been rewritten hastily overnight to say that before any additional increase in the debt limit could take place, Congress must approve a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution and send it to the states for ratification.    That marked a concession to tea party-backed conservatives and others in the rank and file who had thwarted Boehner’s attempt to pass the bill Thursday night.
          The proposal was a non-starter in the Senate because it releases only enough money to cover federal bills into early next year — forcing another debt ceiling debate in a matter of months.    President Barack Obama had threatened a veto.
      The likely compromise would be similar to major elements of Boehner’s plan, but would drop his requirement that Congress go through another potentially protracted debate over the debt ceiling in a matter of months.
      Instead, it would include a complex mechanism that would attempt to guarantee that Congress will approve further reductions in the long-term federal deficit early in 2012.    The overall goal would be to cut the long-term deficit by more than $2 trillion over the next 10 years, in part by empowering a special congressional committee to propose spending cuts and possibly revenue increases later this year.
      Congress is expected to stay in session over the weekend, with the Senate planning to start its skir-mishing with a possible 1 a.m. EDT Sunday vote.    Initially, the Senate will work on a proposal offered by Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and backed by Obama that would raise the debt limit through 2012 and cut deficits by $2.2 trillion over the next decade.
      Reid’s measure faces opposition from Republicans who are threatening a filibuster, forcing around-the-clock Senate sessions.    Underscoring the legislative maneuvering, House GOP leaders may try to beat the Senate to the punch on its own measure by bringing it up for action in their chamber today.
      With just days remaining to avoid the risk of an unprecedented default, Reid invited Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader from Kentucky, to resume negotiations on a compromise.    Seven GOP senators would be needed to join Democrats to allow a final vote no later than Tuesday, when the Treasury has said the federal government will run out of money to pay all of its bills.    Faced with this prospect, the financial markets ended the week down, falling for the sixth consecutive day.
      McConnell’s office in the Capitol saw a steady stream of GOP senators coming and going.    Several senators were called for a lunch meeting with McConnell as conversations turned to amending the Reid bill in a way that could win Republican support.
      Boehner received a standing ovation when he, also, visited the Senate GOP lunch.    But in public comments, several Senate Republicans were sharply critical of the proceedings in the House and suggested they could be open to a compromise with the Democrats.
      “What’s happening in the House is kind of pathetic,” said Republican Sen. Scott Brown of Mas-sachusetts.    “We need to get everybody to work together for the good of the country not any political party or interest.”
      Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said that “we are all troubled with the delay in resolving this is-sue.”
      The goal, congressional officials indicated, was to develop a compromise that could pass the Senate early next week and then go back to the House and pass it with a bipartisan coalition of votes.
      Any such bill would lose a substantial number of House conservatives who, as the past week has shown, are willing to defy their leaders.    Senate Republicans want to ensure that Boehner can at least bring along a majority of Republicans, however, Senate aides said.    Anything less would greatly weaken the speaker.
      Obama, in a morning statement, called on Congress to compromise.    “We are almost out of time,” Obama said.    “I urge Democrats and Republicans in the Senate to find common ground on a plan that can get support — that can get support from both parties in the House — a plan that I can sign by Tuesday.”
      The negotiations are focusing on a menu of “trigger” mechanisms to bring about further deficit- reduction measures, without resorting to holding the debt ceiling hostage to those votes.
      Both the Boehner and Reid bills otherwise share a similar approach to cutting deficits, each making around $2 trillion in reductions over the next decade and establishing a congressional committee that would be required to recommend further cuts in the months ahead.
      In compiling a new approach, Senate negotiators are being careful to consider the partisan dynamics in the House and to design a measure that finds a political sweet spot that attracts enough votes from the minority party in both chambers.
      Reid and McConnell have 24 hours to craft such an agreement.    One trigger under discussion would mandate deficit reduction measures if the new committee’s recommendations for cuts are not approved by Congress.
      Another option would allow a bipartisan group of five Democratic and five Republican senators to force a vote in that body on recommendations it develops if the new congressional committee stalls.    Deficits could be reduced by spending cuts or tax revenue increases — or both.
  
  U.S., North Korea end nuclear arms talks
      The United States said Friday it will consult with South Korea and other countries involved in formal talks to end North Korea’s nuclear arms program after wrapping up two days of exploratory discussions with diplomats from the North.
      North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan emerged from Friday’s meeting characterizing the discussions as positive and expressing hope for continued talks.
  
  AU forces push militants farther from refugees
      MOGADISHU, SOMALIA - African Union and Somali militant forces traded barrages of fire at a new front line in Mogadishu on Friday as AU forces gained new territory.    The country’s president appealed for more international aid, saying the government can’t feed all the Somalis suffering from famine.
      A United Nations plane landed in Mogadishu with more than 20 tons of nutritional supplements.    A Kuwait Air Force transport plane also unloaded sacks of food.
      The African Union military force fears that al-Shabab militants may try to attack the camps that house tens of thousands of famine refugees, disrupting the distribution of food aid.    A new offensive to push the militant front line farther from the camps began Thursday.
  
  Nation’s GDP report gloomy - Economy struggled to expand in 2Q by Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times
      WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy grew at a weak rate of 1.3 percent from April through June, another sign the recovery is faltering.
      The Commerce Department also scaled back its estimate of economic growth in the first quarter of the year to just 0.4 percent, the lowest figure since the recession technically ended in mid-2009.
      Friday’s second-quarter figures fell short of expectations and are well below the level of growth needed to bring down the nation’s high unemployment rate.    Economists had projected the economy grew at a 1.8 percent annualized rate in the second quarter.
      Kathy Bostjancic, director for macroeconomic analysis at the Conference Board, said the disappointing new data — combined with the ongoing political stalemate over raising the debt ceiling — could push the U.S. economy back into recession.    However, she noted the chances of that are still low.    “Anemic consumption, still-declining state and local government spending, tepid business investment and soft housing activity all combined to offset some strength in exports,” she said.    “Concerns about the weak labor market and rising food and energy prices continue to weigh on consumer confidence.”
      The figures for the nation’s gross domestic product in the second quarter came on the heels of a sharp slowdown in the recovery in the first three months of the year.    After the economy grew at an annualized rate of 3.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, the rate of growth slowed to just 1.9 percent growth from January to March of this year.
      Economists had hoped that the slow first-quarter growth was caused by temporary factors, such as rough winter weather in much of the country and a spike in oil prices caused by unrest in the Middle East.    But the slowdown continued through the second quarter, with the unemployment rate rising from 8.8 percent in March to 9.2 percent in June.
      Last month, the Federal Reserve downgraded its earlier estimate of economic growth for the year.
      The Fed now believes the economy will grow between 2.7 percent and 2.9 percent, down from an April estimate of 3.1 percent to 3.3 percent.
      Friday’s economic data followed better-than-expected jobless numbers Thursday.    New claims for unemployment fell to 398,000, the first time since April the weekly figure dropped below 400,000.
  
  Crude oil prices drop to under $96 a barrel by Associated Press
      Oil fell nearly 2 percent Friday as investors grew uneasy about the U.S. economy’s ability to grow significantly and Congress’ ability to act decisively to prevent a default on the nation’s debt.
      Crude oil for September delivery dropped $1.74 to settle at $95.70 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
      Consumers are conserving money, and that worries traders because slower growth could translate into waning demand for oil if businesses and consumers continue to cut back.
  
  
• 7/31/2011
  
  Progress reported on debt ceiling - Officials say sides agree on general concepts by Washington Post and AP Dispatches
      WASHINGTON — The White House and Republican congressional leaders appeared to make significant progress late Saturday     toward a deal to avert a government default threatened for early next week, according to officials familiar with the talks.
      Under the plan, the nation’s debt limit would rise in two steps by about $2.4 trillion and spending would be cut by a slightly larger amount, the officials said.    The first stage — about $1 trillion — would take place immediately and the second later in the year.
      Congress would be required to vote on a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, but none of the debt limit increase would be contingent on its approval.
      One official said the two sides had settled on general concepts, but added there were numerous details to be worked out — and no assurance of a final agreement.    Still, word of significant progress after weeks of stalemate offered the strongest indication yet that an economy-crippling default might be averted.
      The officials who described the talks did so on condition of anonymity, citing their sensitive nature.
      Earlier in the day Saturday, a sense of desperation settled over the Capitol as rank-and-file lawmakers pleaded with their leaders to set politics aside and strike a bipartisan deal to raise the federal debt limit.
      The bickering left leaders unable to agree on even a modest version of a Democratic plan to cut government spending and raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling.    About 10 p.m. Saturday the Senate agreed to postpone a 1 a.m. vote on the plan until early this afternoon to let negotiations continue.
      Shortly before midnight Saturday, The Associated Press learned that progress was being made.
      “It really shouldn’t be this difficult,” Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said in speech Saturday evening on the Senate floor.    “I believe there’s a bipartisan consensus here in the Senate waiting to lift our country and our future . . . if we stop talking past each other.”
      Throughout the afternoon and into the evening, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., conducted separate talks with the White House in search of an agreement. But the two men were barely speaking to each other, and their anger boiled over onto the Senate floor.
      Reid accused McConnell of blocking the path to compromise that many Senate Republicans were openly eager to embrace.
      “While the Republican leader is holding meaningless press conferences, his members are reaching out to me … to try to move the process forward,” Reid said, referring to a midafternoon news conference where McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, announced that they were in direct talks with President Barack Obama.
      McConnell fired back that he was “more optimistic than my friend, the majority leader,” after negotiating privately with Vice President Joe Biden.    “I think we’ve got a chance of getting there,” McConnell said.
      “We’re going to get a result on a bipartisan basis.    That’s what I’m working on,” McConnell added, complaining that he had been forced to “cut short a conversation with the vice president” to answer Reid’s call for a meaningless procedural vote.    “I’d actually like to get back to work,” he said.
      Unless Congress acts before Tuesday, Treasury officials have said they will begin to run out of cash to pay the nation’s bills.    That could force the government into default, an outcome that could devastate the sputtering U.S. recovery and global financial markets.    Over the past week, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 540 points amid rising anxiety about the debate in Washington.
      On Saturday, talks were focused on somehow combining the debt-limit plans that emerged from biparti-san negotiations among congressional leaders last weekend.    That effort was cut short last Sunday by Democrats, including Obama.    But the next day, Reid and Boehner unveiled strikingly similar bills that would cut deeply into agency budgets and create a 12-member committee to identify further savings by the end of this year.
      The key difference was the length of the debt-limit extension.    Boehner’s bill, which passed the House but died in the Senate, would have granted a reprieve only through February or March.    Unless the committee came up with $1.8 trillion in additional savings, Congress would face another standoff over the debt limit.
      Reid’s bill, which was pending in the Senate, would increase the debt limit into 2013 by counting $1 trillion in savings from winding down the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.    Republicans decried that as an accounting gimmick, although it was one the party enthusiastically embraced in its own budget plan earlier this year.
      To bridge the divide, lawmakers and administration officials were trying to design a mechanism to force the committee to act, giving Republicans their cuts and Obama his debt-limit increase.    Many ideas were in play from both parties, and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, DN. D, said his staff had drafted three into formal legislation.
      But aides said the sticking point remained Republican opposition to a trigger that would force automatic tax increases if the committee failed in its work.    Democrats, meanwhile, opposed any trigger that only cut spending, saying that it would not give Republicans sufficient incentive to work with Democrats toward a compromise.
      As talks continued, McConnell and Boehner appeared briefly to assure the nation that progress was at hand.
      “Our country is not going to default for the first time in history; that is not going to happen,” McConnell said.    “We now have a level of seriousness, with the right people at the table, that we needed.”
      All day Saturday, both parties pressed their partisan attacks.    In the House, Republicans were smarting over the Senate’s quick Friday night defeat of Boehner’s proposal for a short-term debt limit increase.    So the GOP returned the favor Saturday afternoon with a unanimous vote in opposition to Reid’s proposal to increase the debt limit into 2013.
      It was not, however, a real vote.    The Reid measure was still pending before the Senate.    So Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., chairman of the House Rules Committee, drew up his own version of the Reid bill and sent it to its death on the House floor, where 11 Democrats joined Republicans in rejecting the measure, 246-173.
      “There are some good things in Senator Reid’s proposals.    But I will say this: I don’t believe that continuing down the road towards increasing debt ceilings without the kinds of checks necessary is the right thing to do,” Dreier said as he urged fellow Republicans to reject the measure.
      Even by House standards, the debate was particularly rowdy and sharp-edged, as lawmakers in both parties hooted and shouted down their colleagues across the aisle.
      Republican members booed Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who accused Boehner of going “to the dark side” when he rewrote his debt-limit bill to add required passage of a balanced budget amendment — a change designed to appeal to his far-right wing.
      Pelosi turned to look at them, and said it again with emphasis.    “Let me repeat: He chose to go to the dark side.”
      The atmosphere was just as tense and bitter in the Senate, where McConnell delivered a letter to Reid signed by 43 Republicans declaring their opposition to his version of the debt-limit bill.
          Four Republican senators did not sign the letter: Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Scott Brown of Massachusetts.    But there was little evidence that Reid’s bill could muster the 60 votes needed to overcome a Republican filibuster — a fact Reid tacitly ac-knowledged when he rejected McConnell’s offer to stage a vote Saturday evening.
      In his weekly address, Obama repeated his call for a “bipartisan” deal that requires both parties to compromise.
      “It must have the support of both parties that were sent here to represent the American people — not just one faction of one party,” the president said.
      While Conrad said discussions were under way Saturday with a handful of Republicans on trigger mechanisms, Boehner, too, showed signs of paving the way for compromise.    He convened a meeting Saturday afternoon of the Tuesday Group, a bloc of about 45 moderate Republicans whose votes would be key to pushing any deal that emerges from the Senate through the more fractious House.
  
  Pitfalls seen in requiring budget to be balanced by Alison Fitzgerald and Greg Stohr, Bloomberg News
      WASHINGTON — Three out of four Americans favor a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget, polls show.    The question is whether an amendment would create more problems than it fixes.
      House Republicans, before accepting an increase in the $14.3 trillion limit on federal debt to avoid a projected Aug. 2 default, insist on a balanced budget amendment.    After the House Friday approved such a plan by Speaker John Boehner — including its link to passage of a constitutional amendment — the Democratic-controlled Senate promptly rejected the measure.
      Requiring the U.S. government to spend only what it collects in tax revenue each year could deepen economic downturns and limit long-term infrastructure investment, said Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers.
      “If there’s a shock to the economy and revenues weaken, it would be a real drag on the economy,” Prakken said.
      The balanced budget amendment proposal is drawing skepticism even among supporters of the Republican effort to slash federal spending.    The Wall Street Journal editorial page this month came out in opposition.
      “Congress is already ignoring the Constitution in spending on the 1,001 things it’s not authorized to spend on,” said Roger Pilon, director of the Center for Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute, which urges smaller government and lower taxes.    “The problem isn’t with the document.    The problem is with those people who have abandoned their oath to abide by the document.”
      A bill passed by the House earlier this month called Cut, Cap and Balance included a provision that would cap federal spending at 19.9 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product, require that the budget be in balance each year and raise taxes only after a super-majority passed the increase.
      A constitutional amendment requires passage by a two-thirds majority of each chamber of Congress and then ratification by three fourths of the states.
      Lawmakers first considered a constitutional requirement to balance the federal budget in 1956, according to the Congressional Research Service.
      A poll conducted this month for CNN by ORC International found that 74 percent of Americans support a balanced budget amendment, while 24 percent oppose it.    The poll was based on a survey of 1,009 people July 18-20 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
      “It’s a great idea in spirit,” said Tim Kane, an economist at the Kansas City-based Kauffman Foundation.
      He said the government nonetheless must have the ability to borrow and spend so that it can cushion the blow of an economic slowdown through programs such as unemployment insurance, food stamps and aid to states.    Extra economic stimulus would be impossible under many balanced budget proposals.
      To avoid tying the president’s hands in time of war, or worsening a recession, an amendment should require a balanced budget over several years or an economic cycle, Kane said.    Along with Glenn Hubbard, the former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under Republican President George W. Bush, Kane has circulated a proposal that would limit spending to the median of tax revenue over five years.
      “That keeps the spending above cycle during a downturn,” Kane said.
      Prakken agrees, saying an amendment should track a business cycle instead of individual years.    “In recessions you’d be allowed to run a deficit and in good years you can replace that,” he said.
      Adding such caveats to a constitutional amendment would be unprecedented, said Joe Minarik, director of research at the Washington based Committee for Economic Development.
      “Every version of a balanced budget amendment provides some escape hatch based on a vote in the Congress,” said Minarik, who was the chief economist at the Office of Management and Budget under Democratic President Bill Clinton.    “If such an amendment were passed and ratified, it would be the only provision of the Constitution that could be waived.”
      He said the need for exceptions shows that balancing the budget doesn’t reach the standard necessary to include it in the Constitution.
  
  NATO targets Gadhafi’s television transmitters
      TRIPOLI, LIBYA - NATO warplanes bombed three Libyan state TV satellite transmitters in Tripoli overnight, targeting a key propaganda tool that the military alliance said Saturday is used by Moammar Gadhafi’s government to incite violence and threaten civilians.
      There was no comment from Libyan officials on what had been hit, but state TV was still on the air in Tripoli as of Saturday morning.
      NATO said the airstrikes aimed to degrade Gadhafi’s “use of satellite television as a means to intimidate the Libyan people and incite acts of violence against them.”
  
  
• 8/1/2011
  
  OBAMA: DEBT DEAL REACHED - It cuts $2.2 trillion over a decade; votes awaited -- Congress must vote; no initial cuts to Social Security, Medicare - Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., walks to the Senate floor to announce a debt limit deal has been reached by David Espo, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Ending a perilous stalemate, President Barack Obama and congressional leaders announced a historic agreement Sunday night on emergency legislation to avert the nation’s first-ever financial default.
      The dramatic resolution lifted a cloud that had threatened the still-fragile economic recovery at home — and it instantly powered a rise in financial markets overseas.
      The agreement would slice at least $2.2 trillion from federal spending over a decade, a steep price for many Democrats, too little for many Republicans.    The Treasury’s authority to borrow would be extended beyond the 2012 elections, a key objective for Obama, though the president had to give up his insistence on raising taxes on wealthy Americans to reduce deficits.
      The deal, with scant time remaining before Tuesday’s debt-limit deadline for paying government bills, “will allow us to avoid default and end the crisis that Washington imposed on the rest of America,” the president said in an announcement at the White House.    Default “would have had a devastating effect on our economy,” he said.    House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, telephoned Obama at midevening to say the agreement had been struck, then immediately began pitching the deal to his fractious rank and file.
      “It isn’t the greatest deal in the world, but it shows how much we’ve changed the terms of the debate in this town,” he said on a conference call, according to GOP officials.    He added the agreement was “all spending cuts.    The White House bid to raise taxes has been shut down.”    The House Democratic leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, was noncommittal.    “I look forward to reviewing the legislation with my caucus to see what level of support we can provide,” she said in a statement.
      No votes were scheduled in either house of Congress before today, to give lawmakers time to review the package.    Senate approval seems virtually certain; the House could prove more difficult.    Without legislation in place by Tuesday, the Treasury would not be able to pay all its bills, raising the threat of a default that administration officials say could inflict catastrophic damage on the economy.
      If approved, though, a compromise would presumably preserve America’s top credit rating and reassure investors in financial markets across the globe.    Even word of an impending deal earlier in the day by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky sent U.S. stock futures upward.    And before Obama had finished speaking, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei index was up 1.7 percent in early trading.
      While eliminating the threat of default, the plan creates a remarkably short timetable for Congress to debate a huge and politically bruising deficit-reduction plan.    The plan would require a committee of law-makers to come up with $1.5 trillion more in deficit cuts from benefit programs or tax reform before Thanksgiving.    Congress must vote on them by Christmas — or trigger automatic, across-the-board cuts that would hit the Pentagon and domestic programs.
      Pending final passage, the agreement marked a dramatic reach across party lines that played out over six months and several rounds of negotiating, interspersed by periods of intense partisanship.
      “Sometimes it seems our two sides disagree on almost everything,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in floor remarks.    “But in the end, reasonable people were able to agree on this: The United States could not take the chance of defaulting on our debt, risking a United States financial collapse and a worldwide depression.”
      Vice President Joe Biden, who played an important part in this weekend’s negotiations, agreed.    He tweeted, “Compromise makes a comeback.”    Not everyone felt that way.    “Someone has to say no.    I will,” said Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., a contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.
      Across the weeks, Boehner emerged as Obama’s principal Republican antagonist in a contentious new era of divided government, yet struggled to corral his own rank and file at times.    At the end, though, McConnell and Biden provided a negotiating channel to get the deal completed.
      The plan calls for spending cuts and increased borrowing authority for the Treasury in two stages.    In the first, passage of the legislation would trigger more than $900 billion in spending cuts over a decade as well as a $900 billion increase in the government’s borrowing authority.
      The spending cuts would come from hundreds of federal programs across the face of government — accounts that Obama said would be left with the lowest levels of spending as a percentage of the overall economy in more than a half-century.    The increased borrowing authority includes $400 billion that would take effect immediately and $500 billion that would be permitted after Congress had a chance to block it.
      In the second stage, a newly created joint committee of Congress would be charged with recommending $1.5 trillion in deficit reductions by the end of November that would be put to a vote in Congress by year’s end.    The cuts could come from benefit programs such as Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid, as well as from an overhaul of the tax code.
      The committee proposals could trigger a debt limit increase of as much as $1.5 trillion if approved by Congress.    But if they do not materialize, automatic spending cuts would be applied across government to trim spending by $1.2 trillion.
      Social Security, Medicaid and veterans’ benefits would be exempt from those automatic cuts, but payments to doctors, nursing homes and other Medicare providers could be trimmed, as could subsidies to insurance compa-nies that offer an alternative to government-run Medicare.    The deal marked a classic compromise, a triumph of divided government that would let both Obama and Republicans claim they had achieved their objectives.
      As the president demanded, the deal would allow the debt limit to rise by enough to tide the Treasury over until after the 2012 elections.    But Obama’s request to extend the current payroll tax holiday beyond the end of 2011 would not be included, nor his call for extended unemployment benefits for victims of the recession.    Republicans would win spending cuts of slightly more than the increase in the debt limit, as they have demanded.    Additionally, tax increases would be off limits unless recommended by the bipartisan committee, which is expected to include six Republicans and six Democrats.    The conservative campaign to force Congress to approve a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution would be jettisoned.    Congressional Democrats have long insisted that Medicare and Social Security benefits not be cut, a victory for them in the first stage of the proposal.    Yet they would have to absorb even deeper cuts in hundreds of federal programs.
  
  Syrian forces attack before Ramadan - Rebels fight tanks with firebombs by Zeina Karam, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — Syrian security forces backed by tanks and snipers launched an assault Sunday on defiant cities and towns, killing at least 70 people as the regime raced to crush dissent ahead of Ramadan.    Corpses littered the streets after a surge in violence that drew international condemnation.
      Estimates of the death toll, which were impossible to verify, ranged from 75 to nearly 140.    The worst carnage was in Hama, the scene of a 1982 massacre by President Bashar Assad’s late fa-ther and a city with a history of defiance against 40 years of Assad family rule.    Hospitals there were over-whelmed with casualties, witnesses said.
      President Barack Obama called the reports “horrifying” and said Assad is “completely incapable and unwilling” to respond to the legitimate grievances of the Syrian people.    U.N. Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon called for an end to the violence and reminded Syrian authorities that “they are accountable under international human rights law for all acts of violence perpetrated by them against the civilian population.”
      Ramadan, which begins today, will present a critical test for the government, which has unleashed deadly firepower since March yet been able to put down the revolt.    Daily demonstrations are expected to surge during the holy month, when crowds gather in mosques each evening after the dawn-to-dusk fast.
      Though the violence has failed to blunt the protests, the government appears to be hoping it can frighten people from taking to the streets during Ramadan.
      Having sealed off the main roads into Hama almost a month ago, army tanks pushed into the city from four sides before daybreak.    Residents shouted “God is great!” and threw fire bombs, stones and sticks at the tanks, residents said.
      By midmorning, the city looked like a war zone, residents said.    The crackle of gunfire and thud of tank shells echoed across the city, and clouds of black smoke drifted over rooftops.
      Syria has banned most foreign media and restricted coverage, making it difficult to confirm events on the ground.    But interviews with witnesses, protesters and activists painted a grim picture of indiscriminate shelling and sniper fire as residents fought back by erecting barricades and throwing firebombs at their assailants.
      The United States and France enraged the government earlier this month when their ambassadors traveled to Hama in a trip designed to demonstrate solidarity with demonstrators.
  
  
• 8/2/2011
  
  House passes debt- limit bill - Senate approval expected today by David Espo, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Emergency legislation to scrape past an economy- rattling national financial default sped through the House Monday night, a scant day before the deadline for action.
      The moment was made all the more electric by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ first appearance in Congress since being shot in the head six months earlier.
      The vote was 269-161, but all eyes were on Giffords, who drew thunderous applause as she walked into the House chamber unannounced and cast her vote in favor of the bill.
      A final Senate sign-off for the measure is virtually assured today.    “If the bill were presented to the president, he would sign it,” the White House said, an understatement of enormous proportions.
      After months of partisan struggle, the House’s top Republican and Democratic leaders swung behind the bill, ratifying a deal sealed Sunday night with a phone call from House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to President Barack Obama.
      “The legislation will solve this debt crisis and help get the American people back to work,” Boehn-er said a few hours before the vote.    The Democratic leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, was far less effusive.    “I’m not happy with it, but I’m proud of some of the accomplishments in it.    That’s why I’m voting for it.”
      So, too, many of the first-term Republicans whose election in 2010 handed the GOP control of the House and set the federal government on a new, more conservative course.
      “It’s about time that Congress come together and figure out a way to live within our means,” said one of them, Sean Duffy of Wisconsin.    “This bill is going to start that process, although it doesn’t go far enough.”
      The measure would cut federal spending by at least $2.1 trillion over a decade — and possibly considerably more — and would not require tax increases.    The U.S. debt limit would rise by at least $2.1 trillion, tiding the Treasury over through the 2012 elections.
      Without legislation in place by the end of today, the Treasury would run out of cash needed to pay all its bills.    Administration officials say a default would ensue that would severely damage the economy.
      Beyond merely avoiding disaster, Obama and congressional leaders hoped their extraordinary accord would reassure investors at home and around the world, preserve the United States’ AAA credit rating and begin to slow the growth in America’s soaring debt. In all, 174 Republicans and 95 Democrats voted for the bill, while 66 Republicans and 95 Democrats opposed it.
      Giffords, D-Ariz., greeted some fellow lawmakers who crowded around her and blew kisses to others, beaming the whole while.    Her hair was dark and close cropped and she wore glasses — nothing like the image America had of her six months ago when she was shot while greeting constituents outside a supermarket in Tucson.
      Six people were killed and 13 others, including Giffords, were wounded.    Suspect Jared Lee Loughner has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges.
      As for the legislation, after months of wrangling over a deal, there was little time left for lawmakers to decide how to vote.
      The White House dispatched Vice President Joe Biden to the Capitol to lobby recalcitrant Democrats in both houses.
      “They expressed all their frustration,” he conceded after a session with lawmakers of his party in the House.
      He said the deal “has one overwhelming redeeming feature” — postponing the next debt limit battle until 2013 and putting the current fight behind.    “We have to get this out of the way to get to the issue of growing the economy,” he said.
      Republicans lobbied their rank and file as well.    GOP leaders swiftly drew public pledges of support from some first-termers as well as veteran defense hawks — two areas of concern with the agreement.
      Rep. C.W. “Bill” Young, chairman of the committee that handles the defense budget, said, “We’re confident that we can make this happen without affecting readiness and without affecting any of our soldiers.”
      There were critics on both sides of the aisle.    “I did not come to Washington to force more people into poverty,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.
      “At the end of the day, Washington’s spending still has us sprinting toward a fiscal cliff.    And this bill barely slows us down,” said Rep. Mark Mulvaney, R-S.C.
      Already, the legislation was emerging as an issue in the 2012 presidential campaign.
      Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, both Republicans, announced their opposition.
      The final legislation reflected the priorities of the two political parties.
      It would immediately increase the debt limit by $400 billion, with an additional $500 billion envisioned unless Congress blocks it.    At the same time, it would cut more than $900 billion over 10 years from the day-to-day operating budgets of Cabinet agencies.    For the budget year that begins Oct. 1, spending would be held $7 billion below current levels.
      The measure also establishes a 12-member House-Senate committee that will be charged with producing up to $1.5 trillion in additional deficit cuts over a decade.    If the panel succeeds, Congress will be required to vote on the recommendations without possibility of changes.
      If the panel deadlocks or fails to produce at least $1.2 trillion in deficit savings, then spending cuts are to take effect across much of the federal budget.    The Pentagon, domestic agencies and farm subsidies would be affected, as would payments to doctors and other Medicare providers.    But individual benefits under Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and programs for veterans and federal retirees would be exempt.    At the same time, the debt limit would rise by at least another $1.2 trillion, and perhaps — de-pending on the results of the committee’s work — as much as $1.5 trillion.
      Additionally, the legislation requires both the House and Senate to vote on a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution.
      The measure also increases funding for Pell Grants for low-income college students by $17 billion over the next two years, financed by curbs on federal student loan subsidies.
  
  LAWMAKERS WEIGH IN - Paul won’t back debt deal - Coats also believes measure falls short by James R. Carroll, The Courier-Journal
      WASHINGTON — The 11th-hour debt ceiling deal won’t get the support of Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.
      Kentucky’s junior senator issued an open letter Monday on the agreement.
      “The current deal to raise the debt ceiling doesn’t stop us from going over the fiscal cliff,” Paul charged.    “At best, it slows us from going over it at 80 mph to going over it at 60 mph.”
      Paul, who has advocated deep spending cuts, a much smaller federal government and a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget, said the plan to raise the debt ceiling and cut spending “never balances.”
      “This deal does nothing to fix the overreaches of both parties over the past few years: Obamacare, TARP, trillion dollar wars, runaway entitlement spending,” Paul said.    “They are all cemented into place with this deal, and their legacy will be trillions of dollars in new debt.”
      Paul’s position contrasts with that of his Kentucky Republican colleague, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who helped negotiate the final deal.
      Sunday night, McConnell said the agreement would “cut spending more than the president’s requested debt ceiling increase, prevent a national default and protect the economy from tax increases.”
      Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., also announced his opposition to the deal.    The package contains “steps in the right direction,” Coats said, but “it falls significantly short of what is needed to address the severity of this financial crisis.”
      “For months, I have been saying that a credible plan must include at least $4 trillion in spending reductions over a decade and a commitment to restructure entitlement programs and the tax code,” the senator said in a statement.
  
  Oil falls after weak manufacturing reports by Associated Press
      Oil fell Monday as early enthusiasm about a deal on the nation’s debt ceiling turned to concern about the global economy following weak readings on U.S. and Chinese manufacturing.
      Crude oil fell 81 cents to settle at $94.89 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
      The government may continue to pay its bills, but the economy is still sluggish.    Traders noted that spending cuts won’t spark energy demand in the U.S.
      Oil analyst Jim Ritterbusch said soft oil demand will be a rising concern “once the initial hoopla of the debt ceiling deal subsides.”
  
  
• 8/3/2011
  
  Debt ceiling raised; more work remains by David Espo and Christopher Rugaber, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — With scant time to spare, President Barack Obama signed legislation Tuesday to avoid an unprecedented national default that he said would have devastated the U.S. economy.
      Wall Street still crumpled, however, dismayed by reports of new economic weakness and unimpressed by Congress’ prescription.    The Dow Jones industrial average sank by 266 points, its eighth straight losing session, and biggest.
      Moody’s Investors Service, one of the three main ratings agencies, said it was retaining its triple-A rating on U.S. bonds but with a negative outlook to show there is still a risk of a downgrade.
      The compromise to persuade GOP lawmakers to raise the federal debt limit — U.S. borrowing was to collide with it at midnight — will cut federal spending by $2.1 trillion or more over the next decade.    But Obama immediately challenged Republicans to accept higher taxes on the wealthy in a second round of deficit cuts this fall.    They adamantly rejected that idea during the past months.    A stern-faced Obama said at the White House that action to raise the debt limit had been essential but more — and different — steps are badly needed.
      “We’ve got to do everything in our power to grow this economy and put America back to work,” he said, arguing for including revenue increases in the next round of efforts to trim deficits.
      There was little evidence that the GOP resistance would change.
      “The American people agreed with us on the nature of the problem.    They know the government didn’t accumulate $14.3 trillion in debt because it didn’t tax enough,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.    McConnell voted for the bill, as did Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana. But Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Dan Coats of Indiana voted no.    All are Republicans.
      Obama signed the bill less than two hours after the bipartisan 74-26 vote in the Senate.    The House approved the measure Monday night with a 269-161 vote that also reached across party lines.
      The bill allows a quick $900 billion increase in borrowing authority as well as a first installment on spending cuts amounting to $917 billion over a decade.
      A 12-member, House-Senate committee must, by year’s end, propose up to $1.5 trillion in cuts over a decade.    If it deadlocks or Congress rejects its recommendations, the bill would impose across-the-board spending cuts.
      Without legislation in place by day’s end, the Treasury would have been unable to pay all the nation’s bills, leading to a potential default.    Administration officials warned of disastrous consequences for an economy that is struggling to recover from the worst recession in decades.
  
  Sparing the economy
      The deal will probably have only a minor impact on the economy for the next two years.
      Almost all the cuts would be made in 2014 or beyond.    The approach heeds a warning by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and many private economists that cutting too much too soon could harm the economic recovery.
      Yet the deal won’t do much to help the economy either, economists said, at least in the short term.
      Under the deal, discretionary spending, which excludes Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, would be cut $21 billion in 2012 and $42 billion in 2013, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
      The spending cuts would increase to $75 billion in 2015 and $156 billion in 2021, the CBO estimates.
      Reduced government spending could mean less money for highway construction, housing assistance, government-sponsored scientific research or any number of other federal programs.
      Companies that work on Defense Department contracts could suffer too.
  
  Military cuts
      Under the compromise, all security spending — money for defense, homeland security, veterans, foreign aid and intelligence — would be cut from the current level of $687 billion this year to $683 billion in next year’s budget.    Defense would be a share of that $4 billion reduction.    “It’s doable, it’s workable without adversely affecting readiness or the soldiers,” said Rep. C.W. Bill Young, a Florida Republican and chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees military dollars.
      Over a decade, Pentagon spending would be reduced by $350 billion from projected increases.    The White House said in a memo circulated Monday that the reductions “will be implemented based on the outcome of a review of our missions, roles and capabilities that will reflect the president’s commitment to protecting our national security.”
      If lawmakers fail to reach a deal on a second round of cuts, the Pentagon’s budget would be cut automatically by about $500 billion.    That measure is designed as a threat, to make sure congressional negotiators have strong incentives to compromise.
      Delaying the deepest cuts buys time for the economy to recover.    Right now, it can’t absorb shocks very well: Unemployment is still 9.2 percent, people are spending less, worker pay has stagnated and economic growth is the slowest since the end of the recession in June 2009.
      While the deal enables the government to avoid a default, credit agencies could still downgrade their ratings of U.S. debt.    That would make it more expensive for the government to finance its debt, and lead to higher interest rates for everyone.
      A “grand bargain” with reforms to the tax code, cuts in entitlement spending and more long-term deficit reduction would have put the U.S. debt on a sounder footing, economists say.    Some other measures meant to stimulate the economy expire at year’s end.    For example, a 2-percentage-point cut in the Social Security tax that will give most American households $1,000 to $2,000 to spend is set to expire after this year.
      Obama wants to extend the Social Security tax cut, White House spokesman Jay Carney says.    That could prove difficult with a committee focused on finding up to $1.5 trillion in budget cuts at the same time.
  
  Health care on edge
      Medicare and Medicaid were spared from immediate cuts, but it looks like just a temporary reprieve.    Advocates for seniors and lobbyists for the health care industry are worried that the second round of the budget battle could lead to cuts that raise costs for beneficiaries and squeeze providers.
  
  McConnell’s role in talks called ‘pivotal’ by James R. Carroll, The Courier-Journal
      WASHINGTON — At 3:27 p.m. Tuesday, an aide to Sen. Mitch McConnell handed the Kentucky Re-publican a note.    McConnell, dressed in a dark suit and powder-blue Washington power tie, walked across his spacious Capitol office to the phone on his desk.
      “Mr. President, good to hear from you,” McConnell said.    “I enjoyed working with you, and I look forward to another opportunity to do that.”
      The call between President Barack Obama and the Senate’s top Republican was the coda to the debt crisis that had dominated Washington for months.
      In the end, McConnell played a central role in the resolution of that crisis, helping to craft a complex deal that raises the debt ceiling, cuts government spending and gives Congress the herculean mission of overhauling Social Security and Medicare before Christmas.
      “The American people are the win McConnell said in an interview just before the president’s call.    We’re beginning to address our spending problem.”
      Publicly and privately, the veteran lawmaker with the encyclopedic knowledge of Senate history and procedure said he just knew a deal could be done.
      “You didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that default was not an option,” McConnell said.    “And even if you were only a casual observer, you knew that we weren’t going to raise the debt ceiling and do nothing (about spending).”
      But others were a bit more rattled by the frequent breakdowns in negotiations between the White House and congressional leaders, as the United States edged closer to the Aug. 2 default deadline.
      Josh Holmes, McConnell’s chief of staff, recalled an evening in mid-July when he and his boss were getting into the black Chevrolet Suburban assigned to McConnell, headed to dinner.    It had been a hard day, and Holmes said he might have looked a bit disheveled.    “Are you all right?”    Holmes recalled McConnell asking him.    “If this gets any more stressful, I’m going to have to call your mom.”
      McConnell acknowledged his cool “on the exterior.”    “Inside,” he said, laughing, “I am a seething cauldron of anxiety.”    Last week, even when it looked like a debt ceiling plan was far from certain, McConnell was patient.
      The senator said Vice President Joe Biden called him to try to restart stalled negotiations, and McConnell advised him to call back after House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, had a chance to put his debt proposal before his colleagues for a vote.
      Boehner’s plan squeaked through the House, only to be summarily rejected by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
      When Biden called McConnell on Friday, they started the talks again, in a replay of the secret negotia-tions between the vice president and the Senate GOP leader last December that led to the extension of the tax cuts originally enacted during the presidency of George W. Bush.
      There were differences this time.    Unlike in December, McConnell missed all his dinner engagements Friday, Saturday and Sunday, pretty much living in his Capitol office and shuttling with aides back and forth to Boehner’s nearby office suite.
  
  ‘All business’
      There were frequent calls back and forth with Biden and a few with the president.    The vice president calls McConnell and Boehner “Mitch” and “John,” while they call him “Joe.”
      But when Obama was on the line over that long weekend, it was always “Mr. President” among the lawmakers.    It was all business,” McConnell said.    “They had suggestions, we had suggestions … we went back and forth, it was the classic negotiation.”
      Biden and McConnell served more than two decades together in the Senate and have a reputation for forging a strong working relationship.    “My goal was not terribly complicated: avoid default, don’t raise taxes and get as much spending reduction as you can get a left-of-center Senate and a liberal, big spending president to agree to,” McConnell said.
      Speaking after the deal cleared the Senate on Tuesday and was sent to him for his signature, Obama called the debt ceiling debate “long and contentious.”
      White House Press Secretary Jay Carney on Tuesday said the president showed his willingness to compromise, “his willingness to accept the fact that he would not in this environment, in this divided government, get everything that he wanted; that whatever the end product would be would not be the ideal legislation that he, as president, would have written, or that Democrats would have written in the Congress.”
      The deal was done by Sunday evening.
      While McConnell and Reid clashed publicly near the end, the two worked together on a key component of the deal: a congressional “super committee” of 12 House and Senate members that will make recommendaners, on changing the entitlement programs.    Those recommendations are due Nov. 23 and will be voted up or down, without amendments, by the full Congress.
  
  Getting along
      Aides to Reid said he and McConnell are both pragmatists who get along well despite their strong ideological differences.    That relationship helped them keep their behind-the-scenes negotiations going — mostly by phone — even when, for a time, Boehner and Obama weren’t talking to each other.    Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has had his differences with McConnell over the years on campaign-finance reform and tobacco regulation, called the Kentuckian’s role in the debt talks “pivotal.”
      “His sense of timing was extremely well-reasoned,” McCain said.    “I think he had huge impact on the whole process.”
      McConnell deflected credit, pointing out that he and Boehner and their staffs worked closely throughout the final stages of negotiations with the White House.    As for the influence of tea party Republicans, most of whom attacked the final agreement and did not support it, McConnell said he has no hard feelings.
      “If they hadn’t come here, we wouldn’t be having this discussion,” he said.
      Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., voted against the debt-ceiling deal, calling it “a weak compromise.”
      “It doesn’t do enough to provide a stable solution to our nation’s debt crisis,” said Paul, a founder of the Senate Tea Party Caucus.    “It never balances, and it will add at least $7 trillion in new debt on top of our current $14 trillion.    This is not sustainable.”
      McConnell said he knows Paul and others wanted to do more, as did he.
      “My view was, controlling one-half of one-third of the government, (the Republicans) ought to take what we can get in spending reductions, provided there were no tax increases,” McConnell said.
      “This is a wonderful country and, even though the American people most of the time don’t think so, a wonderful system.    We always rise to the occasion when we need to, and this was one of those occasions.”
  
  Oil drops under $94 on economy concerns by Associated Press
      Oil settled below $94 per barrel Tuesday as investors continued to worry about weak consumer spending and sluggish economic growth.    Crude oil lost $1.10 to settle at $93.79 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
      Crude has dropped for five straight trading days, losing almost $4 a barrel, as oil supplies grew in the U.S. and reports on manufacturing pointed to tepid growth in the U.S. and China.    Analysts expect the Energy Department to report another increase in U.S. reserves today.
  
  
• 8/4/2011
  
  Economy struggling to find steady footing - Odds increase for new troubles by Paul Wiseman and David K. Randall, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Shoppers won’t shop.    Companies won’t hire.    The government won’t spend on economic stimulus — it’s cutting instead.    And the Federal Reserve is reluctant to do anything more.
      Without much to invigorate growth, the economy may be in danger of slipping into a stupor like the one Japan has failed to shake off for more than a decade.    And Wall Street is spooked.    The Dow Jones industrial average barely broke an eight day losing streak Wednesday, finishing up about 30 points.    A nine-day losing streak would have been the Dow’s first since February 1978.
      Even with the gain, the Dow has fallen 828 points, or 6.5 percent, in the past nine trading days.    Investors didn’t even pause to celebrate the resolution of the debt-ceiling standoff in Washington.
      Stunned by news last week that the economy barely grew in the first half of 2011, economists are lowering their forecasts for the full year and recalculating the odds that the economy will slide back into recession.
      Kurt Karl, chief U.S. economist at Swiss Re, has cut his 2011 forecast for growth this year to 1.8 percent from 2.6 percent.    And he has bumped up the likelihood of another recession to 20 percent from 15 percent.
      “The last week has made it much more likely that corporate profit estimates will be revised lower,” said Nick Kalivas, a vice president of financial research at MF Global.
      The stocks that have fallen the furthest have been those of companies that fare best in economic expansions. Industrial companies such as Caterpillar and Boeing, energy companies such as Exxon Mobil and Chevron, and such retailers as Amazon and Coach have all fallen by more than the broader stock market.
      Investors have pushed government bond yields to their lowest level of the year.    The 10-year Treasury note now yields 2.6 percent.    Bond yields typically fall when the economy is weak because nervous investors view bonds as a safe place to park their money, and there’s less chance that inflation will erode their value.
      The economy started sputtering early in the year.    Economists at first thought the slowdown would be temporary, the result of a short-term rise in gasoline prices and an earthquake in Japan that disrupted shipments of auto parts and electronics.
      But the weakness persisted. And it worsened as a political fight over debt and deficits raised the risk that the U.S. government would not be able to pay all its bills.
      “It now seems fairly clear that those shocks have done a lot more damage than we expected,” says Leo Abruzzese, global forecasting director for the Economist Intelligence Unit.    “They seem to have had a devastating effect on confidence.”
  
  Concerns about U.S. demand send oil lower by Associated Press
      Oil fell to its lowest level in five weeks Wednesday as more signs of a slowing U.S. economy raised concerns about potentially weaker demand for everything from gasoline to natural gas used to cool homes.
      Crude oil dropped $1.86 to settle at $91.93 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
      “Traders are fixated on a weakening economy and all the talk of austerity seems to be driving home a message of lower consumption,” energy consultants Cameron Hanover wrote in a note to clients.    “It is not just here, either.    Economic data from the euro-zone, China, Japan and the U.S. all seem to be disappointing.”
  
  
• 8/5/2011
  
  Amid fiscal strife, all eyes on jobs data - Stock plunge adds worry by Kevin G. Hall, Tribune Washington Bureau
      After a 10-day pounding of stock prices, today’s jobs report is likely to play an outsized role either in calming the waters or deepening fears that the U.S. economy is sliding back toward recession.
      Stocks plummeted Thursday as investors fretted about weakening economic conditions and emergency steps announced by the European Central Bank that only heightened worries that big economies, led by Italy and Spain, are in deep trouble. Asian stock markets also tumbled today.
      The Dow was down more than 300 points much of Thursday, and plunged further in the final hour of trading to finish with a 512.76-point drop at 11,383.68.    The S&P 500 fared no better, off 60.27 points to close at 1,200.07.    The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 136.68 points to end at 2,556.39.
      Thursday’s drop was the Dow’s biggest point decline since Oct. 22, 2008, when the credit crunch had the U.S. financial system in meltdown.    “We are continuing to be bombarded by worries about the global economy,” said Bill Stone, chief investment strategist at PNC Financial.
      The selloff Thursday spread across financial markets and offered investors no place to hide.    Gold and silver prices fell, as did crude oil and other commodities.    Investors sought safety in U.S. bonds, with the yield, or interest rate, falling on 10-year bonds.
      Investors paid so much for one-month Treasury bills that they were certain to lose money.    The risk of losing even more on other investments seemed even greater.
      The financial-market volatility heightens attention to today’s Labor Department monthly report on jobs, which has been dismal for two consecutive months.
      Still, there are reasons to think the July jobs report may reverse the skid, with most forecasters projecting growth in the range of 90,000 to 120,000 new jobs.
      Wednesday’s ADP National Employment Report, which gauges private payrolls, estimated that 114,000 private-sector jobs were created in July.    The payroll processor’s report at times has been a good gauge for the government report that comes two days later, but at other times, it’s misfired wildly.
      Another positive sign for jobs came Thursday, when the government reported that during the week that ended July 30, first-time claims for unemployment benefits were little changed at 400,000.    That was lower than had been forecast, and the four-week average for these claims is at the lowest point since mid-April.
      If roughly 100,000 jobs were added in July, that wouldn’t be enough to knock down the unemployment rate, a painful 9.2 percent in June.    But after only 18,000 new jobs were reported in June and a subpar 54,000 in May — later revised down to just 25,000 — a triple-digit monthly gain would look and feel like an improvement.
      By most accounts, the economy is at a turning point: It could slide into recession, or it could reacce-lerate.
      There are some positive indicators, including strong July retail sales by big chain stores.    And General Motors reported Wednesday that July sales surpassed the same month last year by 7.8 percent.
      Those positive signs were dampened by the Commerce Department’s report Tuesday on real income and consumption. It showed wages and income flat, and consumption down for the first time in two years, as consumers and businesses sat on the sidelines.
      It all has many economists worried about a double- dip recession.    “Are we in a recession, again?” asked the title of a research note Thursday by economists at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York.
      “We now believe there is a 35 percent chance of recession in the next year, about double where we put the odds this spring,” Michelle Meyer and her fellow economists wrote.
      The U.S. economy this year already has weathered a sharp spike in oil prices, supply- chain woes caused by Japan’s devastating earthquake, European financial turmoil and a self-inflicted wound to confidence from Washington’s manufactured threat of a default on the national debt.    All this led Meyer to warn that “the economy is one shock away from falling into recession.”
  
  Europe targets debt problems - Central bank starts buying bonds again by Bloomberg News
      The European Central Bank resumed bond purchases Thursday and will offer banks more cash to stop the region’s debt crisis from engulfing Italy and Spain, ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said.
      “We were not unanimous but with overwhelming majority with regards to the bond purchases,” Trichet told reporters in Frankfurt after the central bank kept its benchmark interest rate at 1.5 percent.
      ECB purchases of Irish and Portuguese bonds during the press briefing didn’t stamp out investor concern the 21-month crisis would spread to Italy and Spain.    European officials are trying to protect the continent’s third and fourth-largest economies from being forced to seek external aid.
      Market fallout from the debt crisis in Europe, the political standoff on the U.S. government’s borrowing limit and concern about slower global growth prompted central banks around the world to take action this week to protect their economies.
      Wednesday, the Swiss central bank unexpectedly cut interest rates and said it will take steps to stem the franc’s record-breaking gains against the euro and the dollar.
      Thursday, Japan sold yen to halt an appreciation, while Turkey’s central bank reduced its key rate to a record low of 5.75 percent.    The Bank of England kept its key rate at 0.5 percent.
      European leaders last month agreed on a second bailout package for Greece that included voluntary contributions from private- sector bondholders and widened the scope of the European rescue fund.
      Governments must still ratify the plan, which would empower the European Financial Stability Facility to start buying debt on the secondary market.
      “The objective of stabilizing markets cannot wait until parliaments have passed new legislation,” said Paul Mortimer-Lee, global head of market economics at BNP Paribas in London.
      The financial stability fund “should be operational in our view as soon as possible,” Trichet said.    “What we expect is that the (fund) will be effective and efficient in its interventions.”
      Earlier, European Commission President Jose Barroso sought more firepower for the euro region’s $623 billion rescue fund.    “Markets remain to be convinced that we are taking the appropriate steps to resolve the crisis,” he told European leaders in a letter released in Brussels Thursday.
  
  Oil falls to its lowest level in six months by Associated Press
      Oil tumbled to a six-month low Thursday as investors and energy traders grew more concerned about the U.S. and global economies.
      Oil dropped amid a Wall Street sell-off in which major indexes fell more than 4 percent.    Fred Rozell, retail pricing director at Oil Price Information Service, said the recent slide in oil could push gasoline 20 to 35 cents per gallon lower over the next month.
      Crude oil fell $5.30, or 5.8 percent, to settle at $86.63 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange — the steepest drop since an 8.7 percent tumble May 5.
  
  
• 8/6/2011
  
  S&P drops U.S. credit ranking - Move could cost billions a year by Zachary A. Goldfarb, The Washington Post
      NEW YORK — Standard & Poor’s downgraded the United States’ credit rating on Friday night for the first time in history, dealing a huge symbolic blow to the world’s economic superpower in what was a sharply worded critique of the American political system.
      Analysts say that, over time, the downgrade could push up borrowing costs for the U.S. government, costing taxpayers tens of billions of dollars a year.    It could also drive up interest rates for consumers and companies seeking mortgages, credit cards and business loans.
      Lowering the nation’s rating one notch below AAA, the credit rating company said “political brink-manship” in the debate over the debt had made the U.S. government’s ability to manage its finances “less stable, less effective and less predictable.”    It said the bipartisan agreement reached this week to find at least $2.1 trillion in budget savings “fell short” of what was necessary to tame the nation’s debt over time and predicted that leaders would not be likely to achieve more savings later.
      The decision came after a day of furious back-and-forth between the Obama administration and S&P.    Government officials fought back hard, arguing that S&P made a flawed analysis of the potential for political agreement and had mathematical errors in its initial report, which was submitted to the Treasury earlier in the day.    The company had overstated the U.S. deficit over 10 years by $2 trillion, officials said.
      The downgrade will push the global financial markets into uncharted territory after a volatile week fueled by concerns over a worsening debt crisis in Europe and a faltering economy in the United States.
      The AAA rating has made the U.S. Treasury bond one of the world’s safest investments — and has helped the nation borrow at extraordinarily cheap rates to finance its government operations, including two wars and an expensive social safety net for retirees.
      Treasury bonds have also been a stalwart of stability amid the economic upheaval of the past few years.    The nation has had a AAA rating for 70 years.
      A downgrade could also have a cascading series of effects on states and localities.
      But the exact impact of the downgrade won’t be known until at least Sunday night, when Asian markets open, and perhaps not fully grasped for months.    Analysts say the initial effect on the markets may be modest because they have been anticipating an S&P downgrade for weeks.
      Federal officials are also examining the impact of a downgrade in large but esoteric financial markets where U.S. government bonds serve an extremely important function.    They were generally confident that markets would hold up, but were closely monitoring the situation.    Regulators said that the downgrade would not affect how banking rules treat Treasury bonds — as risk-free assets.
      The ratings action fueled partisan wrangling Friday night. Allies of President Barack Obama said it under-scored his call for a “grand bargain” that would trim $4 trillion from the federal budget involving a mix of tax revenues and spending cuts.
      Republicans criticized Obama’s handling of the economy.    “Standard & Poor’s rating downgrade is a deeply troubling indicator of our country’s decline under President Obama,” said Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
      S&P has angered government officials with aggressive warnings over the past few months of a potential downgrade.    Those warnings, so far, have not worried government bond markets.
      What’s more, the two other major credit rating companies, Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings, have said they would preserve the nation’s AAA rating for now.    S&P’s downgrade was as much a political critique as a financial conclusion.    It is based on a view that American political leaders would be unable to come up with at least $4 trillion in savings, which is needed to bring the nation’s debt to a manageable level over the next decade.
      The debt deal reached earlier this week proposed spending cuts in two phases.    Democrats and Republicans agreed to the first round, worth nearly $1 trillion.
      But a congressional committee must decide the remaining $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion — and S&P questioned whether that would ever happen. S&P added that it expects that the upper income Bush-era tax cuts will continue, despite vows from Obama to end the breaks next year. “The majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues.”
  
  Italy seeks to balance budget - Move comes amid financial crisis by Associated Press
      Italy pledged Friday to work swiftly for a constitutional amendment requiring the government to balance its budget, as Rome feverishly tried to assure domestic and foreign investors its finances are sound and calm nervous markets in Europe.
      Premier Silvio Berlusconi said at a news conference that the government will “speed up measures” in its budget law approved last month by Parliament, “with the possibility of reaching a balanced budget by 2013 instead of 2014” as first planned.
      His conservative government, now more than three years into its five-year term, will also work to amend the constitution to include a requirement for a balanced budget, Berlusconi said.
      Berlusconi, saying he conferred by phone with world leaders, announced that G-7 finance ministers will meet “within days” about the financial crisis.
      Later, his spokesman clarified that convening an “extraordinary meeting” of the G-7 finance ministers was still “at the reflection stage” with no decision yet taken, although Italy favored one.
      Concern over the crisis was trans-Atlantic.    President Barack Obama spoke separately by phone with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel about the latest developments in Europe’s sovereign debt crisis, the White House said.
      Berlusconi, in turn, said at the news conference that he was set to speak to Obama later Friday.
      The uncertainty stemming from the 17-nation’s shared currency — used by some 330 million people across the continent — sent European shares plummeting this week, and was also seen as contributing to sending U.S. stock markets lower.
      Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti said a balanced budget could be achieved by 2013 by speeding up reform of Italy’s extensive, and expensive, social welfare system, which includes national health care and generous retirement payments.
      Italy’s Parliament went on vacation for a month earlier this week, but on Friday, responding to the quickly worsening economic nervousness, officials of the two chambers said key committees would keep working throughout Au-gust.
  
  Oil falls as investors focus on weak economy by Associated Press
      Oil prices dropped nearly 2 percent Friday as investors shrugged off U.S. job gains and focused on lingering concerns about the global economy.
      Crude oil fell $1.70 to $84.93 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.    Employment data early Friday had helped push crude as high as $88.32.
      “There’s just a lot of pessimism out there now,” said Andrew Lebow, a senior vice president and oil broker at MF Global.
      But oil’s drop could bring relief to motorists.    Lower oil prices should push down gasoline prices, which are down from a peak in May.
  
  
• 8/7/2011
  
  Credit downgrade rattles fiscal faith - Obama: We ‘must do better’ on debt by Paul Wiseman, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — The real danger from the downgrade of U.S. government debt by Standard & Poor’s isn’t higher interest rates.    It’s the hit to the nation’s fragile economic psyche and rattled financial markets.
      S&P’s decision to strip the U.S. of its sterling AAA credit rating for the first time and move it down one notch, to AA+, deals a blow to the confidence of consumers and businesses at a dangerous time, economists say.    The agency is “striking at the heart of what makes the global economy tick,” said Chris Rup-key, chief financial economist for the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.    “It isn’t just dollars and cents.”
      One economist, Paul Dales of Capital Economics, worried Saturday that the downgrade could trigger another financial crisis that sends Western economies back into a recession.
      The Obama administration made its displeasure known quickly after the downgrade was announced Friday.    The Treasury Department said S&P had acted on an analysis that had a $2 trillion error.
      On Saturday, the administration appeared to soften its tone.    White House press secretary Jay Carney, without referring directly to the downgrade, said President Barack Obama believes Washington “must do better” tackling the deficit.
      The timing of S&P’s decision could hardly be worse for the U.S.    The economy added117,000 jobs in July, more than expected.    But other economic indicators, including manufacturing, consumer spending and overall growth, are getting weaker.
      In normal times, in another country, a downgrade in a sovereign debt rating probably would force its government to pay higher interest rates to persuade investors to keep buying its debt.
      If that happened, it would drive up the rates that consumers pay on mortgages and auto loans, which often are tied to the government’s interest rate.
      But the United States is a special case.    Treasury debt is considered the safest in-vestment in the world — even after the downgrade.    Investors don’t doubt the U.S. government’s ability to repay the $9.8 trillion it owes.
      “Anytime there’s a problem anywhere on the planet, investors come to the safety of the U.S., and they don’t go anywhere else,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.
      Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities, agrees that the S&P downgrade is unlikely to drive up interest rates right away.
      But he says that’s partly because the economy is so weak that borrowers aren’t competing for money and driving rates higher.
      In three to five years, he says, loan demand will be higher.    When that happens, a U.S. Treasury with a dinged credit rating will be vying with private borrowers for loans and investments, and rates will likely rise.    “The greater consequences are going to be in the intermediate and long-term,” he says.    “If it didn’t mean anything, S&P wouldn’t have downgraded us.”    Already, there were signs that the downgrade itself would become a volatile political issue.    Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the S&P decision showed that Democrats’ preferred solution to long-term debt, a mix of tax increases on the wealthy and budget cuts, was the right answer.    House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said he hoped Democrats would learn they can’t “tinker around the edges” of the U.S. debt problem.    And Republican presidential candidates for 2012 laid blame on Obama.    S&P had called for $4 trillion in U.S. deficit reduction.    The deal cut by Congress last week called for only about $2 trillion in the next decade.    The rating agency said it wasn’t enough to address America’s debt problem.    It also said its decision reflected its loss of confidence in the U.S. political system.    Republicans and Democrats didn’t reach a deal on debt reduction until hours before the federal government’s borrowing limit was to expire, which some say would have trigged a U.S. default on its debt or massive, immediate government cuts. Economists say the downgrade, the first since the U.S. received the top rating in 1917, will rattle al-ready- worried consumers and businesses.    Some fear that the Dow Jones industrials, which fell 512 points on Thursday alone because of fears about the economy and European debt, will plummet Monday when investors get to vent their anxiety.    An early sign of what’s to come may emerge today U.S. time, when Asian markets open.
      America’s reputation has already taken a hit abroad.    China, the largest foreign holder of U.S. debt, on Saturday demanded that the United States tighten its belt and overcome its “addiction to debt” in the wake of the S&P downgrade.
  
  Downgrade’s impact may be big or small - Experts are split on bottom line by The Washington Post
      Commentators are split as to whether Standard & Poor’s downgrade of U.S. debt will have major nega-tive consequences for the U.S. and world economy, or whether it will be basically meaningless.
      Why It Might Matter: If U.S. debt is downgraded, many other debt instruments likely will be downgraded as well.    When Moody’s put U.S. debt on review for downgrade during the debt ceiling standoff, it also put on notice 7,000 other bonds, worth a total of $130 billion, that rely directly on revenue from federal government payments, such as certain kinds of municipal bonds.
      Bonds that are indirectly dependent on the federal government, such as those issued by hospitals that receive Medicare payments, or defense firms reliant on Pentagon contracts, could get downgraded as well.    In addition, many everyday interest rates — such as those for mortgages, car loans and credit cards — are pegged to U.S. Treasurys, meaning that if a downgrade forces up interest rates on U.S. debt (which is likely, but will depend on how the markets react), interest rates for those will shoot up as well.    This would raise the cost of borrowing across the system, depressing the economy.
      Why It Might Not: Ratings generally are used as a proxy to determine the financial health of entities that investors may not know much about.    But everyone knows about the health of the U.S. government, and now that the debt ceiling debate has passed, no one thinks it is going to default anytime soon.    Thus, investors who might normally be inclined to not buy or keep AA-rated debt could make an exception for U.S. Treasurys.
      Indeed, some pension and money market funds have considered loosening their rules to allow higher holdings of U.S. debt in the event of a downgrade.    Further, AA is still a very high rating. AA firms have statistically identical performance to AAA ones, according to the Fitch rating agency.    Just this past January, S&P downgraded Japan’s debt from AA- to AA, and markets more or less didn’t care.
  
  
• 8/8/2011
  
  Markets react to debt downgrade - Global woes also worry investors by Chip Cutter and Pallavi Gogoi, Associated Press
      NEW YORK — U.S. investors will have their first chance today to react to Standard & Poor’s decision to strip the U.S. government of its top credit rating.    But the bigger issues facing Wall Street and stock markets worldwide remain debt ridden countries in Europe and concerns that the global economy is weakening.
      Friday’s first-ever downgrade of U.S. long-term debt from AAA to AA+ wasn’t unexpected and may have little impact on interest rates.    But it’s the kind of news that stock markets don’t need when investors are already nervous.
      In a sign of early fallout, Middle East markets tumbled Sunday on their first day of business after the downgrade.    Egypt’s benchmark EGX30 index fell more than 4 percent, and other Gulf markets also were sharply lower. Israel’s benchmark TA-25 index plunged 7 percent to close at 1,074 points.
      Early today, Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average was down1.3 percent at 9,178.30 and South Korea’s Kospi dropped 1.6 percent to 1,913.58.    Hong Kong’s Hang Seng tumbled 2.6 percent to 20,409.01 while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 pared its initial sell-off to be down 1 percent at 4,062.70.    Even before the downgrade, the Dow Jones industrial average last week fell nearly 700 points, or 6 percent. Investors were worried because economic signals in the U.S. and overseas were pointing toward trouble:     On July 29, the government dramatically lowered its estimate of how much the economy grew during the first quarter.    It had said the economy grew at an annual rate of 1.3 percent but revised that number down to 0.4 percent. Second- quarter growth was also weak, a 1.3 percent rate.
      European officials are trying to help Italy — the world’s eighth largest economy — avoid the kind of bailouts that Greece, Portugal and Spain were forced to accept to prevent them from defaulting on their debt.    And those bailouts haven’t solved all the problems in those countries.
      Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, said he expects a negative reaction today to the S&P action and “it is very unlikely that (this) isn’t going to take awhile to bottom out.”
      But he cited more than just the downgrade: “It depends on Europe, not the United States,” Greenspan said.    “The United States was actually doing relatively well, sluggish but going forward until Italy ran into trouble.”    He said that half of U.S. corporations operate in Europe and that the region “has been a very important driving force in the overall earnings of U.S. corporations.”
      On Sunday, finance officials from major industrial countries, seeking to calm nervous global markets, pledged increased cooperation to attack economic problems.
      Finance officials from the Group of Seven industrial countries issued a joint statement late Sunday saying they were committed to taking all necessary measures to support financial stability and growth.
      The first reports on the economy during the third quarter have been mixed. Manufacturing, which helped pull the economy out of the recession, fell to its weakest level since July 2009 — the month after the recession officially ended.    The Labor Department said117,000 jobs were created last month.    But that came after 99,000 jobs were created in May and June combined — and 250,000 new jobs are needed each month to reduce unemployment.    As a result, financial analysts interviewed Sunday said they expect markets to be volatile this week — and beyond.    “We are in uncharted territory and, therefore, should all brace for volatility over a number of days if not weeks,” said Mohamed El-Erian, CEO and co-chief investment officer of the bond mutual fund company PIMCO.
      Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said he expected the downgrade to cause a selloff today.    “There’s a lot of fear and misunderstanding and confusion, and that all could come out in the stock and bond markets,” he said.
      Greenspan noted that S&P had “hit a nerve” with its downgrade.    The ratings agency said it was lowering the U.S. rating not just because of the country’s debt load, but because S&P doesn’t believe Congress has the ability to resolve the country’s debt problems.
      Investors may get more insight on Tuesday, when the Federal Reserve holds a regularly scheduled meeting on the economy and interest rates.    It’s expected the central bank will state that interest rates will need to remain at their current low levels for at least another year.    Even with this bleak outlook, the stock market could recover if European leaders make progress in averting another debt crisis in that region, said Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer’s Investment Research.
      Still, there are so many economic and political problems that any rally may well be very short-lived.
  
  Bipartisanship and blame
      Two senators said Sunday that Standard & Poor’s decision to downgrade the U.S. credit rating speaks to the need for more bipartisan compromise — but they also said the blame lay with the other party.
      Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., called S&P’s decision a “tea party downgrade.”    He said he believes that tea party supporters in the House are holding up progress.
      Sen John McCain, R-Ariz., said he too would like to see more cooperation, but he said President Barack Obama is at fault.    McCain said the president failed to lead and did not present a clear plan during the debt-ceiling debate.
  
  Syria intensifies crackdown; neighbors voice anger by Bassem Mroue, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — Syrian troops fired on mourners at a funeral and raided an eastern city Sunday, killing at least 59 people in an intensifying government crackdown on protesters.    Outrage was intensifying as well: Syria’s Arab neighbors forcefully joined the international chorus of condemnation against President Bashar Assad’s regime for the first time.
      Even the king of Saudi Arabia — whose country does not tolerate dissent and lent its military troops to repress anti-government protests in neighboring Bahrain — harshly criticized the Syrian government and said he was recalling his ambassador in Damascus for consultations.
      More than 300 people have died in the past week, the bloodiest in the five-month uprising against Assad’s authoritarian rule.    Not all were killed by bullets or tank shells: In the besieged city of Hama, where the government has cut off electricity and communications, a rights group said eight babies died because their incubators lost power.
      Sunday’s worst violence was in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, where at least 42 people were killed.
      “The city was bombed by all types of heavy weapons and machine gun fire before troops started entering,” an activist in the city said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
      “Humanitarian conditions in the city are very bad because it has been under siege for nine days,” the activist said.    “There is lack of medicine, baby formula, food and gasoline.    The city is totally paralyzed.”
      The government’s crackdown on mostly peaceful, unarmed protesters demanding political reforms and an end to the Assad family’s 40-year rule has left more than 1,700 dead since March, according to activists and human rights groups.    Assad’s regime disputes the toll and blames a foreign conspiracy for the unrest, which at times has brought hundreds of thousands of protesters into the streets.
      The regime intensified the crackdown a week ago on the eve of Ramadan, the holy month in which many Muslims fast from dawn to dusk, then eat festive meals and gather in mosques for special nightly prayers.    The government has been trying to prevent the large mosque gatherings from turning into more anti-government protests.
      Saudi King Abdullah demanded “an end to the killing machine and bloodshed” and said Syria must enact speedy and comprehensive reforms to avoid a future of chaos.
      The 22-member Arab League, which had been silent since the uprising began, said Sunday it is “alarmed” by the situation and called for the immediate halt of all violence.    On Saturday, the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council criticized Syria’s “use of excess force.”
  
  
• 8/9/2011
  
  WALL ST. DIVES AFTER DOWNGRADE - Sixth-worst drop in 112 years; Obama tries to shore up confidence by Stan Choe, Associated Press
      NEW YORK — Fear has taken over on Wall Street.    The Dow Jones industrial av-erage fell 634.76 points Monday, the first trading day since Standard & Poor’s downgraded American debt.    It was the sixth worst point decline for the Dow in the last 112 years and the worst drop since December 2008.    Every stock in the S&P 500 index declined.
      Hoping to calm a nervous nation, President Barack Obama dismissed the unprecedented downgrade in the nation’s credit rating from AAA to AA+, insisting investors will stand by the United States even as stock markets plunged. Obama said Washington can fix its ills by showing more political will.
      “Markets will rise and fall, but this is the United States of America,” Obama said.    “No matter what some agency may say, we’ve always been and always will be a triple-A country.”
      But the S&P downgrade wasn’t the only catalyst for Monday’s market retreat.    Investors worried about the slowing U.S. economy, escalating debt problems threatening Europe and the prospect that fear in the markets would reinforce itself, as it did during the financial crisis in the fall of 2008.
      “‘What’s rocking the market is a growth scare,” said Kathleen Gaffney, co-manager of the $20 billion Loomis Sayles bond fund.    “The market is under a lot of stress that really has little to do with the downgrade.”    Instead, Gaffney said, investors are focused on worries about another recession and “how Europe and the U.S. are going to work their way out of a high debt burden” if economic growth remains slow.
      The Vix, a measure of market volatility and fear among investors, shot up 50 percent.    That was its steepest rise since February 2007.    The Dow was down 5.5 percent at 10,809.85.    The sharp drop extended Wall Street’s almost uninterrupted decline since late July, when the Dow was flirting with 13,000.    It fell below 11,000 for the first time since November.
      The S&P 500 fell 79.92, or 6.7 percent, to 1,119.46.    The Nasdaq composite index fell 174.72, or 6.9 percent, to 2,357.69.
  
  Fear everywhere
      Fear is spreading quickly through the market, said Dimitre Genov, senior portfolio manager with Artio Global Investors.    “It’s becoming a vicious cycle and could feed into consumers reducing their demand as well.”
      Stock markets in Asia began Monday’s global rout.    The main stock index fell al-most 4 percent in South Korea and more than 2 percent in Japan.    European markets opened later and fell, too, with Germany down 5 percent and France 4.7 percent. In the U.S., stocks fell even as Moody’s, another major credit rating agency, stood by its top rating of AAA for the United States.    It said it could downgrade the U.S. if it doesn’t cut its deficit, “but it is early to conclude that such measures will not be forthcoming.”
      Asked under what scenario the United States could regain its AAA rating, David Beers, head of sovereign ratings at S&P, said Monday, “We don’t anticipate a scenario at the moment where the United States could quickly return to AAA.”
      S&P officials said that five countries, including Canada and Australia, have lost their AAA ratings from S&P and then regained them.    The shortest time that it took a country to regain an AAA rating was nine years and the longest was 18 years.    Investors desperately looked for safe places to put their money and settled on U.S. government debt — even though it was the target of the downgrade Friday, when S&P removed the United States from its list of the lowest-risk countries.
      The price of Treasurys rose sharply, and yields, which move in the opposite direction from price, plunged.    The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.34 percent from 2.57 percent Friday.    That matches its low for the year, reached last week.    Before Friday, there was widespread concern that a downgrade would push yields up and increase borrowing costs for the government, businesses and consumers.
      “This is largely a flight to safety,” said Thomas Simons, money market economist with Jefferies & Co.    “The bond market is really trading off of what’s going on in the stock market.”    Money flowed out of stocks and into Treasurys.
      Another refuge is gold, which set a record. It rose $61.40 an ounce to settle at $1,713.20.
  
  Political ramifications
      S&P, in its downgrade, criticized dysfunction in the American political system.
      And Obama sought Monday to use the downgrade as leverage against a Congress whose members are on an August vacation.    He said it ought to compel a smart compromise from the bipartisan committee of lawmakers that will soon be tasked with shaping up to another $1.5 trillion in difficult deficit reduction.
      Obama said he would offer his own recommendations, although the White House suggested that would likely mean ideas Obama has already presented in recent weeks.    Obama on Monday said Congress should ask wealthy Americans to pay more in taxes and should make adjustments in programs like Medicare.    Both ideas face fierce political opposition.
      “I assure you, we will stay on it until we get the job done,” the president assured. But Congress remains in divided political hands, limiting Obama’s ability to keep that promise.
      Republican candidates hoping to challenge Obama next year have placed blame for the downgrade on Obama, tying it to his larger economic agenda.    Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who leads the GOP field in fundraising and early polls, said the downgrade was a “deeply troubling indicator of our country’s decline under President Obama.”
      Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., who has shown strength in the early voting state of Iowa, accused Obama of “destroying” the U.S. credit rating.
      Counting Monday, the Dow has dropped in10 of the last 12 trading days.    It is down more than 1,900 points, or 15 percent, since July 21.
      The Russell 2000 index of small stocks has now lost nearly 25 percent from its most recent high on April 29.    A decline of 10 percent or more is considered to be a correction.    And a drop of 20 percent or more is said to be the start of a bear market.
      The Nasdaq and S&P 500 are both down about 18 percent since the end of April.    The Dow is down 16 percent.    The last bear market for the S&P 500 ran from October 2007 until March 2009.    The index lost 57 percent of its value.
      Despite the slide the last 2 1/2 weeks, the S&P 500 index, at 1,119, is 7 percent higher than its close of 1,047 late last August, just before the Federal Reserve announced a program to support the economy.    And the Dow’s percentage drop of 5.5 didn’t make the list of its 20 worst days.
  
  Additional downgrades
      S&P on Monday downgraded mortgage lenders Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other agencies linked to long-term U.S. debt. Fannie and Freddie own or guarantee about half of all U.S. mortgages.    Their down-grade could eventually mean higher mortgage rates.
      S&P also lowered the ratings for farm lenders; long-term U.S. government backed debt issued by 32 banks and credit unions; and three major clearinghouses, which are used to execute trades of stocks, bonds and options.
      All the downgrades were from AAA to AA+.    The downgrade of the mortgage giants Fannie and Freddie reflected their “direct reliance” on the U.S. government, S&P said.
      Worries about the U.S. economic recovery have been building since the government said that economic growth was far weaker in the first half of 2011 than economists expected.
      The economy grew at a 1.3 percent annual rate from April through June, below economists’ expectations.    It expanded at just a 0.4 percent rate in the first quarter.    The first half of 2011 was the slowest since the end of the recession.    The Federal Reserve will meet today, but economists don’t expect much to come out of the meeting.    The central bank’s key interest rate is already at a record of nearly zero, where it has been since 2008.
  
  Seeking safety, investors latch on to gold’s luster - Price hits record as stocks tumble by Associated Press
      The price of gold streaked past $1,700 an ounce for the first time Monday.    Anxious investors sought safety in the metal as stocks tumbled around the world after the U.S. lost its AAA credit rating.
      Gold’s allure stems in part from fears that the world’s major economies are dangerously indebted.
      Its value, unlike that of a currency, doesn’t hinge on whether countries can make their bond payments.
      A debt crisis in Europe threatens to destabilize financial markets. Investors are worried that Spain or Italy, two of the world’s major economies, could get priced out of the bond markets and default on their debts.
      That’s one reason gold has appealed to investors.    While the euro currency has been pressured because of concern that European countries could default, the value of gold isn’t tied to any country’s balance sheet.
      Gold soared $61.40, or 3.7 percent, to settle at $1,713.20 on Monday.    It reached a record high of $1,723.40 per ounce during the day.
      Still, adjusted for inflation, an ounce of gold remains below its 1980 peak of $850, which translates into about $2,400 in today’s dollars.
      Investors have turned to gold as the appeal of the dollar — the world’s biggest reserve currency and traditionally a safe bet for investors — has ebbed.
      The dollar has lost some of its allure because of concerns about the country’s ability to pare its debt, the flagging U.S. economic recovery and measures the Federal Reserve has taken to support the economy.
      Gold’s price has nearly doubled since the start of 2009, and its climb accelerated this summer.
      The metal has become another currency, said George Gero, vice president at RBC Global Fu-tures.    The euro and dollar are weighed down by debt concerns, and there was concern about the yen and Swiss franc, which investors also regard as safe havens, after moves by the central banks of Switzerland and Japan last week to curb the gains in their currencies.
      “Investors have been concentrating on acquiring an asset that preserves purchasing power,” Gero said.
      Last week’s panicked stock selling also heightened gold’s appeal.
  
  Europe begins buying debt - Move to tame crisis is risky by Bloomberg News
      FRANKFURT — European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet started buying Italian and Spanish assets Monday in his riskiest attempt yet to tame the sovereign debt crisis.
      With governments failing to act swiftly enough to stop contagion from Greece’s fiscal meltdown, it has fallen to the ECB to battle a crisis that’s now threatening the survival of the euro.    Buying Italian and Spanish debt may require the ECB to massively expand its balance sheet and open it to accusations of bailing out profligate nations, breaching a key principle in the euro’s founding treaty and undermining its credibility.    Germany’s Bundesbank opposes the move.
      “The ECB’s credibility unfortunately has taken a real battering and it is now at the mercy of gov-ernments,” said Tobias Blattner, a former ECB economist now at Daiwa Capital Markets Europe in Lon-don.    He estimates the central bank will have to buy about $287 billion of Italian bonds and $85 billion of Spanish securities to make an impact.
      Italy has $2.6 trillion in outstanding debt.    The ECB bought Italian and Spanish bonds Monday morning, according to five people with knowledge of the transactions, driving their 10-year yields down to 5.39 percent and 5.30 percent respectively from above 6 percent on Friday.    Both reached euro era records last week.
      ECB policy makers had to step up their response to the debt crisis after a failure to enter the Italian and Spanish bond markets last week helped fuel a global rout.
      “It looks like the ECB has decided to bring out the bazooka,” said Douglas Borthwick, head of foreign- exchange trading at Stamford, Conn.-based Faros Trading.
      Fears of a further slump when markets opened this week were compounded by Standard & Poor’s decision on Friday to strip the U.S. of its AAA credit rating.
      The Group of Seven nations issued a statement Monday morning saying it will take “all necessary measures to support financial stability and growth.”
      Although ECB bond purchases could act as a “circuit breaker,” they are not a solution, said Micha-la Marcussen, head of global economics at Societe Generale.
      “The real solution is for the euro area to move to some form of fiscal union,” Marcussen wrote in a note to clients Monday.    “We see the next step in this process to increase the size of the EFSF to at least 1.5 trillion euros ($2.1 trillion).    This will be politically difficult, and all the more so at a time when the most recent adjustments to the EFSF are still pending ratification by national parliaments.”
  
  Oil down 6.4 percent after credit downgrade by Associated Press
      Oil plunged to its lowest price of the year Monday, another sign that the U.S. economy is in trouble and demand for oil and gas could fall.    The slide followed Friday’s announcement that ratings agency Standard & Poor’s no longer considered U.S. government debt one of the safest investments in the world.
      Crude oil fell $5.57, or 6.4 percent, to settle at $81.31per barrel Monday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
      In the past two weeks, oil prices have dropped nearly $16 per barrel.    Analysts think oil will remain volatile this week as traders look for clarity on where the economy is headed.
  
  
• 8/10/2011
  
  STOCKS REBOUND ON FED PLEDGE - Guarantee of low interest rates calms investors, fuels late rally by wire dispatches
      The Federal Reserve guaranteed super-low interest rates for two more years Tuesday — an un-precedented step to arrest the alarming decline of the stock market and the economy.
      The step gave a quick dose of encouragement to stock market investors who have been fleeing for weeks.    The Dow Jones industrial average finished a wild day with a 429.92-point gain, most of it coming during a furious rally in the final hour.
      The rally erased two-thirds of the Dow’s decline the day before.    The Dow’s 4 percent gain to 11,239.77 was exceeded by the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, which added 4.7 percent, and the Nasdaq’s 5.3 percent gain.
      The Fed set its target for interest rates near zero in 2008 as a response to the financial crisis that fall.    Until Tuesday it had stopped short of saying how long it would keep rates low.    But guaranteeing low rates until mid-2013, was also a sign that the Fed expects the economy to stay weak for two more years, longer than the Fed had previously indicated.    It has already been more than two years since the end of the recession.
      The Fed’s projection of a weak economy into 2013 is also bad news for President Barack Obama, who must fight a re-election campaign next year.    Already, some of Obama’s Republican challengers have blamed the S&P downgrade on him.    S&P itself blamed the country’s long-term debt problems and dysfunctional politics.
      The central bank left open the possibility of a third round of bond purchases designed to hold interest rates down and push stock prices up.    The second round, announced last year, led to an extended rally for the stock market.
      Low interest rates for two more years could make the stock market a better bet because bonds will return less money.    That appeared to be at least part of the reason stocks rallied so much after investors had a chance to digest the Fed’s statement.
      The Fed’s commitment could also give the economy a lift by signaling to banks that Treasury securities aren’t going to pay much for at least another two years.    That may entice banks to seek bigger returns by lending to small businesses and consumers, said Thomas Simons, money market economist at Jefferies & Co.
      “I think this is what the Fed’s intention is,” Simons said.    “The Fed is thinking at some point this is going to turn into loan creation.”    The stock rally came after 2 1/2 weeks of almost uninterrupted declines.    Those were fueled first by uncertainty about the federal debt ceiling.    Then came concerns about a new recession and out-of control European debt.
      When it came late Friday, Standard & Poor’s downgrade of the U.S. credit rating by one notch from the top level of AAA to AA+ only added anxiety.    On Monday, the first day of trading after it was announced, the Dow fell 634 points.    Even counting Tuesday’s gains, the Dow is down 11.6 percent since July 21 — almost 1,500 points.    The Dow’s biggest one day gain since March 2009 came one day after its worst point decline since 2008.    The Fed’s announcement of a two-year timeframe for any rate increase underscored a stark reality: A sluggish economy and painfully high unemployment have become chronic.
      “The tone of the Fed’s statement is very downbeat.    They are very nervous about the economy,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.    “This is unprece-dented for the Fed to indicate they are ready to keep rates low for two more years.”    Not everyone was as impressed as investors on Wall Street appeared to be.    University of Oregon economist Timothy Duy called the move “weak medicine” and said he wanted to see the Fed commit to buying more Treasury bonds.
      The Fed did hold out the promise of further help down the road but did not spell out what else it might do.
      The central bank’s decision was approved on a 7-3 vote, with three Fed regional bank presidents who have been worried about inflation objecting.    It was the first time since November 1992 that as many as three Fed members have dissented from a policy statement.
      Dean Maki, chief U.S. economist at Barclays Capital, said the dissent suggests that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke would have trouble building consensus for another round of bond purchases.    The Fed used significantly more downbeat language to describe current economic conditions.    It said that so far this year the economy has grown “considerably slower” than the Fed had expected and consumer spending “has flattened out.”    It also said that temporary factors, such as high energy prices and the Japan crisis, only accounted for some of the recent economic weakness.
      Bob Doll, chief equity strategist at investment firm BlackRock, said he expects stocks to continue to rally because a slowly growing U.S. economy won’t harm corporate profits.
      “Corporate America has demonstrated that it can generate good growth and profits despite a weaker U. S. economy,” Doll said.
  
  International pressure on Syria grows by Associated Press
      BEIRUT — Syrian President Bashar Assad came under a new barrage of international pressure Tuesday with the Turkish foreign minister urging him to stop killing protesters.    U.S. officials, meanwhile, said the Obama administration is preparing to demand his departure.    As Assad held more than six hours of talks with the Turkish minister, his military unleashed fresh attacks on restive areas — attacks that activists said killed more than 20 people.    Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said he met Assad in the capital Damascus and discussed “concrete steps” to end the violent crackdown on protesters.    Rights groups say about 1,700 people have been killed since March.    An aggressive new military offensive that began with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan a week ago has killed several hundred.
      Davutoglu did not say what steps they discussed or whether Assad agreed to consider them.
      In Washington, officials said the administration will call outright for Assad to give up power and hit the regime with new sanctions.    The State Department signaled for the first time that efforts to engage Syria are finally over.
      The White House is expected to lay out the tougher line later this week.
      Syria blames the unrest on extremist and terrorist groups seeking to destabilize the country, though most of those killed are unarmed, peaceful protesters.
  
  Riots erupt in more British cities - Thousands of police patrolling London by David Stringer and Raphael G. Satter, Associated Press
      LONDON — Thousands more police officers flooded London streets Tuesday in a bid to end Britain’s worst rioting in a generation as nervous shopkeepers closed early and some residents stood guard to protect their neighborhoods.    The unrest spread across central and northern England on a fourth night of violence driven by poor, diverse and brazen crowds of young people.
      Scenes of ransacked stores, torched cars and blackened buildings frightened and outraged Britons and brought demands for a tougher response from law enforcement.
      London’s Metropolitan Police department put thousands more officers in the streets and said that by today there would be 16,000 — almost triple the number present Monday.
      London saw no new unrest late Tuesday, but the chaos spread to other cities.    A police station in the central England city of Nottingham was firebombed by a 40-strong mob, and hundreds of youths battled police in the northwestern city of Manchester.    Stores, offices and nursery schools across London closed early amid fears of fresh rioting.    Many usually busy streets had an eerie calm as cafes, restaurants and pubs also decided to shut down for the night.
      Some London residents prepared to defend their homes and stores.    Outside a Sikh temple in Southall, west London, residents stood guard and vowed to defend their place of worship.    Another group marched through Enfield, in north London, aiming to deter looters.
      In Nottingham, police said rioters had hurled firebombs through the window of a police station in the Canning Circus area of the city, but there were no reports of injuries.    Eight men were arrested at the scene, where firefighters doused a blaze.
      In Manchester, hundreds of youths rampaged through the city center, hurling bottles and stones at police and vandalizing stores.    A women’s clothing store on the city’s main shopping street was set ablaze, along with a disused library in nearby Salford. Looters targeted stores selling designer clothes and expensive consumer electronics.
      Neither Manchester nor Nottingham had previously been involved in unrest.    There also was minor unrest for the first time in the central England locations of Leicester, Wolverhampton and West Bromwich.
      Britain’s riots began Saturday when an initially peaceful protest over a police shooting in London’s Tottenham neighborhood turned violent.    That clash has morphed into a general lawlessness that police have struggled to halt with ordinary tactics.    While the rioters have run off with sneakers, bikes, electronics and leather goods, they also have torched stores apparently just for the fun of seeing something burn.
      Police said they were considering the use of plastic bullets — blunt-nosed projectiles designed to deal punishing blows to rioters without penetrating the skin.    Such weapons still are used to quell riots in Northern Ireland but have never been used by police on Britain’s mainland.
      The government rejected calls by Conservative lawmaker Patrick Mercer and some members of the public for strong-arm riot measures that British police generally avoid, such as tear gas and water cannons.
      So far more than 560 people have been arrested.
  
  
• 8/11/2011
  
  The market chases its tail amid fears - Europe’s debt crisis casts pall by Tom Petruno, Walter Hamilton and Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times
          LOS ANGELES — Hopes that world financial markets had bottomed were dashed Wednesday as worries over Europe’s debt crisis infected France and investors focused on a fading outlook for the U.S. economy.
      European stock markets plummeted to new two-year lows Wednesday, and sellers swarmed again on Wall Street after a sharp rebound a day earlier.    The Dow Jones industrial average sank 519 points, or 4.6 percent, to its lowest level since September, capping another session of extreme swings.
      The market’s extraordinary gyrations now are feeding on themselves, analysts say.
      “You’re seeing people taking profits quickly in this environment,” said Ryan Larson, head trader at RBC Global Asset Management in Chicago.
  
  Oil up more than 4% on supplies, demand by Associated Press
      Oil rose more than 4 percent Wednesday after the government said crude supplies shrank more than expected last week and a new report forecast strong global demand.
      Crude oil rose $3.59 to settle at $82.89 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
      Andrew Lebow, MF Global senior vice president, said he expects oil prices to swing from gains to losses until there is more stability in the stock markets.
      The Energy Information Administration said Wednesday that U.S. crude supplies fell last week by 5.2 million barrels.
  
  Record number of Americans are dropping pay TV subscriptions
      Americans are canceling or forgoing cable and satellite TV subscriptions in record numbers, according to an analysis by The Associated Press.    The U.S. subscription-TV industry first showed a small net loss of subscribers a year ago.    This year, that trickle has turned into a stream.    The chief cause appears to be persistently high unemployment and a housing market that has many people living with their parents, reducing the need for a separate cable bill.
      But it’s also possible that people are canceling cable, or never signing up in the first place, because they’re watching cheap Internet video.
  
  
• 8/12/2011
  
  Obama assails politics in U.S. - Poll results spread the blame around by Darlene Superville, Associated Press
      HOLLAND, Mich. — Seeking to align himself with a public fed up with economic uncertainty and Washington gridlock, President Barack Obama declared Thursday, “There is nothing wrong with our country.    There is something wrong with our politics.”
      His toughly worded message — Obama said there was frustration in his voice, in case anyone missed the point — came amid a series of polls showing that people are disgusted with political dysfunction and are dispensing blame all around, including on him.
      Obama aired his frustration with Washington’s ways before turning his focus on his reelection campaign with a pair of big-money fundraisers in New York City.
      The president’s quick stop in Holland, Mich., was his first official trip outside of Washington in more than a month, after being confined to the nation’s capital to deal with the debt debate.
      He said Americans are right to be worried about the country’s 9.1 percent unemployment rate and the stock market fluctuations.
      The contentious and partisan debt debate in Washington this summer, he said, has done little to help.
      “Unfortunately what we’ve seen in Washington in the last few months has been the worst kind of partisanship, the worst kind of gridlock, and that gridlock has undermined public confidence and impeded our efforts to take the steps we need for our economy,” Obama said during remarks at a factory that makes advanced batteries for alternative-fuel vehicles.    A Washington Post poll released this week showed widespread and deep discontent with Washington.    Nearly 80 percent said they were dissatisfied with the way the country’s political system works, compared with 60 percent in November 2009.    Seventy-one percent said the federal government is mostly focused on the wrong things, up from 55 percent in October 2010.
      Both Obama and congressional Republicans were targets of unhappiness, with only 19 percent of people polled saying that Obama had made progress in solving the country’s major problems, and just 10 percent saying that about Republicans.
      At the same time, 28 percent said Obama had made things worse, while 35 percent said congressional Republicans had done that.
  
  Postal Service looks at job cuts, benefits changes
      The financially strapped U.S. Postal Service is considering cutting as many as 120,000 jobs.
      Facing a second year of losses totaling $8 billion or more, the agency also wants to pull its workers out of the retirement and health benefit plans covering federal workers and set up its own benefit systems.
      Congressional approval would be needed for either step, and both could be expected to face severe opposition from postal unions, which have contracts that ban layoffs.
  
  Oil prices rise after optimistic jobs report by Associated Press
      Oil prices rose Thursday after positive news about the jobs market calmed anxious investors and sent stocks soaring.
      The price of crude oil gained $2.83 to finish at $85.72 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
      “My feeling is right now that the price of oil is going to be dependent on what happens to the stock market overall,” PFGBest analyst Phil Flynn said.
      Oil, like the stock market, has been volatile. Benchmark crude has ranged from $78 to nearly $86 a barrel this week.
  
  4 European nations ban short-selling to avert panic by The Associated Press
      PARIS — France, Italy, Spain and Belgium are banning short-selling amid efforts to calm market turmoil that has sent bank shares gyrating wildly and aggravated worries about Europe’s huge debts.
      The European Union’s markets supervisor, the ESMA, announced the move late Thursday night after boosting surveillance of stormy markets earlier in the day.
      In a short sale, a trader hopes to make a profit by betting on the decline in the price of a share.    The practice has been blamed for contributing to market volatility.
      The ESMA said that the four countries have announced “or will shortly announce new bans on short-selling or on short positions” as of today.    The French market regulator, the AMF, announced late Thursday that it is banning for 15 days net short-selling on 11 stocks — including those of banks Societe Generale, BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole and leading insurers.
      Greece banned it Monday.
      French bankers and officials scrambled to soothe investors’ nerves after days of suggestions that France could be the next major economy to lose its triple-A credit rating.
      By late in the day, those efforts appeared to have an effect, but economists said the rebound remained very fragile.
      The European Union’s markets supervisor said regulators were increasing surveillance of financial markets.
      Bank of France head Christian Noyer blamed “unfounded rumors” for plunges in the shares of top banks and said the country’s financial institutions were sound.    The country’s market regulator warned of sanctions against anyone who fuels or profits from rumors that fed the sell-off.
      Noyer said that French banks’ first-half earnings “confirmed their solidity in a difficult economic environment.”
      France is taking pains to assure markets that it won’t be the next nation to see its credit rating downgraded.
      Attention will be on France’s release of second- quarter GDP figures today.    Some have warned that France could suffer if it has to spend significant new money to bail out more struggling eurozone states.
  
  
• 8/13/2011
  
  Another court rejects linchpin of health reform by wire reports
      ATLANTA — A federal appeals panel struck down the centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s sweeping health care overhaul Friday, moving the argument over whether Americans can be required to buy health insurance a step closer to the U.S. Supreme Court.
      The divided three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the so-called individual mandate, siding with 26 states that had sued to block the law.    But the panel didn’t go as far as a lower court that had invalidated the entire overhaul as unconstitutional.
      The 11th Circuit’s ruling is the latest contradictory judicial opinion on the health care debate.    The federal appeals court in Cincinnati upheld the individual mandate in June, and an appeals court in Richmond has heard similar challenges to the law.    Several lower court judges have also issued differing opinions on the debate.    Legal observers long expected the case would ultimately land in the Supreme Court, but experts said Friday’s ruling could finally force the justices to take the case.
      “There needs to be a pronouncement that’s nationwide,” said Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law.    “It would be almost impossible to implement it if we have splintered decisions from different geographic circuits.    The Supreme Court may feel now it has to take it.”
      J. Peter Rich, a Los Angeles- based health care attorney, said the Supreme Court has never weighed in on an issue such as the provision requiring individuals to buy health insurance.
      “They have never ruled on this specific issue,” he said.
      Rich said it’s not unconstitutional for individual states to have such requirements, noting that Massa-chusetts has a similar law in place.    However, the high court has yet to weigh in on whether a federal requirement passes muster.
      The provision requiring all Americans to carry health insurance or face a tax penalty has been at the cen-ter of the legal debate.    The law does not allow insurers to turn away the sick or charge them outrageous premiums.    To cover their health care costs, others — particularly the young and healthy — will need to pay premiums to keep costs from skyrocketing.    The potential tax penalties are meant to ensure they will do so.
      The Obama administration also has a little-known fallback if it loses the court battle.    The government can borrow a strategy that Medicare uses to compel consumers to sign up for insurance.
      Medicare’s “Part B” coverage for doctor visits carries its own monthly premi-um.    Yet more than nine in 10 seniors sign up.    The reason: Those who opt out when they first become eligible face a lifelong tax penalty that escalates the longer they wait.
      The key difference is that the Medicare law doesn’t require that seniors buy the Part B coverage. Experts say Obama’s overhaul could also be changed in a similar fashion.
      White House adviser Stephanie Cutter said the administration was confident Friday’s ruling would not stand.
      “Individuals who choose to go without health insurance are making an economic decision that affects all of us.    When people without insurance obtain health care they cannot pay for, those with insurance and taxpayers are often left to pick up the tab,” Cutter said.
      The plaintiff states and other critics argued the law violates people’s rights, while the Justice Department countered that the legislative branch was exercising a “quintessential” power.    The decision, penned by Chief Judge Joel Dubina and Circuit Judge Frank Hull, found that “the individual mandate contained in the Act exceeds Congress’ enumerated commerce power.”
      “What Congress cannot do under the Commerce Clause is mandate that individuals enter into contracts with private insurance companies for the purchase of an expensive product from the time they are born until the time they die,” the opinion said.
      Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus said in a dissent that the majority ignored the “undeniable fact that Con-gress’ commerce power has grown exponentially over the past two centuries, and is now generally accepted as having afforded Congress the authority to create rules regulating large areas of our national economy.”
      The 11th Circuit isn’t the first appeals court to weigh in on the issue.    But the At-lanta- based court is considered by many observers to be the most pivotal legal battleground yet because it reviewed a sweeping ruling by a Florida judge.
      U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson’s ruling not only struck down a requirement that nearly all Americans carry health insurance but also threw out other provisions ranging from Medicare discounts for some seniors to a change that allows adult children up to age 26 to remain on their parents’ coverage.
      The 26 states urged the 11th Circuit to uphold Vinson’s ruling, saying that letting the law stand would set a troubling precedent that “would imperil individual liberty, render Congress’ other enumerated powers superfluous, and allow Congress to usurp the general police power reserved to the states.”
      On Friday, the National Federation of Independent Business, which joined the states in the challenge, urged the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the rest of the health care overhaul.    The federation has argued the law would cost small businesses millions by forcing them to provide health insurance for employees.
      The Justice Department countered that Congress had the power to require most people to buy health insurance or face tax penalties because Congress has the authority to regulate interstate business.    It said the legislative branch was exercising its “quintessential” rights when it adopted the new law.    During oral arguments in June, each judge worried aloud if upholding the landmark law could open the door to Congress adopting other sweeping economic mandates.
  
  Uncertain demand brings down oil prices by Associated Press
      Oil prices fell slightly Friday as mixed economic reports offered few clues about future energy demand.
      Retail sales improved slightly in July.    But consumer sentiment fell to its lowest level in more than 30 years.    Crude oil prices ended the day down 34 cents at $85.38 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
      “The economic uncertainty is so great that basically any good news is a boost to commodities markets as well as stocks,” said Michael Lynch, president of Strategic Energy & Economic Research.
  
  
• 8/14/2011
  
  Italy set to adopt deep austerity cuts by Alessandra Rizzo, Associated Press
      ROME — Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi predicted Saturday that parliament would quickly adopt his government’s emergency austerity package, which raises taxes, cuts political jobs and consolidates small towns.
      Berlusconi also said the $64.8 billion package won praise from European leaders including German Chan-cellor Angela Merkel and the European Central Bank.    Berlin confirmed Merkel’s remarks.
      “I have received great appreciation,” Berlusconi told the ANSA news agency.    “It was not just the Italian position to be in question — the euro was in question, therefore Europe itself.”    The package — a mix of spending cuts and tax increases, including a “solidarity tax” for high-earners — aims to calm market turmoil and make sure Italy is not the next victim of Europe’s debt crisis.
      One provision will require towns with fewer than 1,000 residents to merge with larger communities, a change that affects about 1,970 of Italy’s 8,094 municipalities, according to the government.
      The measure is expected to raise $28.5 billion next year and $36.3 billion in 2013, but analysts say it is not clear if it will spur Italy’s low economic growth.
      The country is expected to grow only by about 1 percent this year and has one of the highest debts in the 17-nation eurozone.    The European Central Bank last week began buying Italian and Spanish bonds to try to stop those countries’ borrowing costs from soaring.
      The news measures were passed in an emergency decree approved by the Cabinet Friday evening after days of frantic negotiations.    The decree was effective immediately but must be turned into law by parlia-ment within 60 days.
  
  
• 8/16/2011
  
  Gadhafi fires first scud missile, U.S. says
      WASHINGTON - A U.S. military official said Monday that Libyan government forces fired a scud missile for the first time in this year’s conflict with rebels, but it landed east of Brega early Sunday and hurt no one.
      The official said that the missile launch was detected by U.S. forces and that it landed in the desert 50 miles outside Brega.
      Meanwhile, the Obama administration expressed hope Monday that Libyan rebels have broken the military stalemate with forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi, but stopped short of predicting rebel victory after months of in-conclusive battles.
      U.S. officials said they are encouraged by recent rebel advances near the capital of Tripoli and the apparent defection of Interior Minister Nassr al-Mabrouk Abdullah from Gadhafi’s inner circle.
  
  Europe targets debt crisis - Bond markets propped up, but no Eurobonds by Associated Press
      The European Central Bank revealed Monday that it splashed out $32 billion last week — more than it has ever done before — to prop up the bond markets of Italy and Spain.
      News of the big bond purchases came a day before the leaders of Germany and France were to meet to discuss the debt crisis that has engulfed Europe for 18 months.    Speculation that German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy would be considering proposals for the eurozone to issue jointly guaranteed government debt appear to have been dashed, however.
      Merkel has long ruled out eurobonds, and Economy Minister Philipp Roesler joined the chorus Monday, describing jointly guaranteed debt as “the wrong way” out of the crisis.
      Today’s meeting in Paris comes after a week of turmoil in financial markets, which was partly blamed on Europe’s sprawling government debt crisis.
      France and Germany, which together account for almost half of the eurozone’s economic output, are taking the lead in pushing for reforms aimed at pulling the bloc out of its debt crisis.
      “That is and remains a path of consolidation, of reform, strict adherence to a reworked stability pact that also includes sanctions,” said Steffen Seibert, Merkel’s spokesman.
      The discussions will center on “measures for better agreement of financial policies,” paving the way for enhanced economic governance, he said.    Officials for both Merkel and Sarkozy reiterated that eurobonds would not be on the agenda.
      Eurobonds would be a major step toward the bloc’s economic integration, and are billed by supporters as an overnight solution to the debt crisis.    Italy, Greece, Belgium and Luxembourg are among the nations calling for eurobonds.
      German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told news magazine Der Spiegel that eurobonds are out of the question as long as the currency zone’s 17 nations still run their own budget policy.
      Different interest rates for eurozone nations, he added, are needed to provide “incentives and the possibility of sanctions to enforce solid financial policy.”
  
  Oil up over 2% on broad rally
      Oil jumped to the highest level in more than a week alongside a broad rally on Wall Street and a report that Japan’s economy contracted less than feared in the months after the earthquake and tsunami in March.
      Monday’s 2.6 percent rise, to more than $87 per barrel, all but erased losses from a roller coaster ride in oil markets last week.    Crude oil prices tumbled last Tuesday to its lowest level this year, though its cur-rent trading range of between $80 and $90 per barrel is still well above last year’s average of $79.64 per barrel.
  
  
• 8/17/2011
  
  Fitch Ratings keeps U.S. debt at AAA
      WASHINGTON - Fitch Ratings said Tuesday that it would keep its rating on long-term U.S. debt at the highest grade, AAA, and said the outlook remained stable.    But it warned that it could lower the outlook to negative if Congress fails to trim future deficits.
      Fitch’s rating was the best given by the three major credit rating agencies.    Last week, Standard & Poor’s set off a maelstrom in the stock market after it downgraded long-term U.S. debt to the second-highest level, AA-plus, for the first time.    The third agency, Moody’s Investors Service, still lists the U.S. debt at AAA but says its outlook is negative.
      Treasury spokesman Anthony Coley added that Fitch’s report “underscores the importance of Congress taking additional actions to address our long-term fiscal challenges.”
  
  Panetta: No larger cuts - ‘Devastating effects’ seen for security by Robert Burns, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Large new defense spending cuts would “terribly weaken” U.S. national security, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Tuesday in a joint interview with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
      Panetta expressed optimism about progress by American-led forces against the Taliban in Afghanistan and by NATO forces in support of anti-government rebels in Libya.    He cited those conflicts as examples of why severe cuts to spending on defense and diplomacy would be dangerous.
      Panetta said the Pentagon is prepared to make $350 billion in cuts over the next 10 years, as agreed by Congress.    But he warned of dangers to the national defense if bigger reductions are required.
      The recent deficit compromise reached between the White House and Congress set up a special bipartisan committee to draft legislation to find more government cuts.    If the committee cannot agree on a deficit-reduction plan by year’s end or if Congress rejects its proposal, it would trigger some $500 billion in additional reductions in projected national security spending.
      “This kind of massive cut across the board, which would literally double the number of cuts that we’re confronting, that would have devastating effects on our national defense; it would have devastating effects on certainly the State Department,” Panetta said.
      Clinton said Americans should understand that in addition to preserving military strength, it is in the nation’s security interests to maintain the State Department’s role in diplomacy and development.    She suggested that the political stalemate over spending cuts has put that in jeopardy.
      “It does cast a pall over our ability to project the kind of security interests that are in America’s interests,” she said, calling for “a responsible conversation” about preparing for the future.
  
  Euro bonds shunned - Not ready for ‘last resource’ by Bloomberg News
      German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday they’ll press for closer European economic integration with tougher deficit rules and stricter supervision to stamp out the debt crisis.
      The leaders met as investors clamored for indications that they would do more to end the euro- area debt crisis as their economies sputter.    At a joint briefing in Paris after a two-hour meeting at Sarkozy’s Elysee Palace, the two leaders:
  
  • Rejected issuing so-called euro bonds backed jointly by the countries using the euro.
  • Rejected calls to expand a $633 billion rescue fund for European countries in danger of default.
  • Called for a financial transaction tax, which was rejected in 2010.
  • Proposed debt limits be written into national law.
  • Proposed forming a “euro council” to be headed by European Union President Herman van Rompuy established as part of a planned “economic government” for Europe.    “It’s very obvious that in order for this to work we need a stronger convergence in finance and economic policy within the euro zone and Germany and France are at the vanguard of that effort,” Merkel said.
  
      While joint euro-region bond sales may come eventually, their introduction now would put the “most stable countries of the euro zone in grave danger,” Sarkozy said.
      “Euro bonds — we can imagine having them one day,” he said.    “But it will be at the end of a process of integration, not the beginning.”
      “People always seem to have the feeling that there is one method that we’ll spring us out of the crisis and in this context there seems to be that the last resource we have is euro bonds,” Merkel said.    “I don’t think Europe has come to its last resource and I don’t think we can solve the problem with a single big bang.”
      Rather, “we need to work steadily and step by step to win back confidence.    I don’t think that euro bonds will help us now with this.”
      Sarkozy added that the current European Financial Stability Facility is “sufficient.”
      “It’s hugely disappointing and what they say is not going to work,” said Marchel Alexandrovich, an economist at Jefferies International Ltd. in London.    “They think they have all the time in the world and they don’t.”    Malcolm Barr, an economist with JPMorgan Chase in London, said Merkel and Sarkozy’s lead “may be helpful in suggesting unity of purpose.”
      “But tough questions about sanctions for fiscal misbehavior and the degree of sovereignty nations are prepared to pool remain unanswered,” he said.
  
  Stocks dive on debts abroad - New recession concern lingers by Associated Press
      Worries about Europe’s economic and debt problems sent stocks to their first loss in four days Tuesday.
      The major indexes bounced up and down in another volatile day.    The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 120 points in the first half hour of trading after a report showed that Germany’s economy stalled last quarter and dragged down growth for Europe.
      The Dow pared most of its losses by noon, but resumed its drop after the leaders of France and Germany tried to calm worries about Europe’s debt problems by pushing for long-term political solutions.    Investors were hoping for immediate financial measures like the introduction of a single bond jointly backed by the eurozone’s members.    The Dow fell as many as 190 points in the early afternoon before again recovering.
      At the close, the Dow was down 76.97 at 11,405.93. It was the first time in seven trading days that the Dow rose or fell by less than 100 points.    The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 11.73 to 1,192.76 and the Nasdaq composite fell 31.75 to 2,523.45.
      “The real question the market is trying to answer is: Are we going to have another recession or not?” said John Burke, head of Burke Financial Strategies with $200 million in assets under man-agement.    “Today, the answer is maybe yes because it doesn’t look like Europe has figured out a so-lution to its debt.”
      A proposal for a Europe-wide tax on financial transactions also hurt stocks, said Nick Kalivas, vice president at broker MF Global.    “It’s another slap in the face to the banking system” and would cut into profits and limit trading, he said.    “The path toward economic growth still looks pretty uncertain.”
      In the U.S., economic reports on Tuesday were mixed: Housing remains weak, but factory output rose last month at its fastest pace since an earthquake in Japan disrupted global manufacturing in March.
      “Investors don’t know which way to go here,” said Paul Brigandi, senior vice president of Direxion Funds, which has about $7 billion in assets under management.    On one side, he said buying looks attractive because stocks are cheaper after the S&P 500’s 10.4 percent drop from July 21 to Monday.    But on the other side, selling looks appealing because of worries about the global economy and debt problems in both the United States and Europe.
  
  Oil falls on poor German report
      Oil fell Tuesday on renewed concerns about Europe’s biggest economy.
      Crude oil gave up $1.23 to finish at $86.65 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.    Early in the day, Germany said its economy grew only 0.1 percent from April to June.    That was well below expectations and showed Germany was not immune to Europe’s financial troubles.
      “If Europe weakens further, we could be talking about a recession in the eurozone,” independent analyst Jim Ritterbusch said.    “That means a stronger dollar, and when that happens, it’s usually bearish for oil.”
  
  
• 8/18/2011
  
  Obama crafts jobs plan - President sets speech in Sept. by Associated Press
      President Barack Obama will propose new ideas to create jobs and help the struggling poor and middle class in a major speech after Labor Day.
      Then he will try to seize political advantage by spending the fall pressuring Congress to act on his plan.
      Obama’s plan is likely to contain a mix of tax cuts, jobs-boosting construction projects and steps to help the long-term unemployed, a senior administration official told said.    The official emphasized that Obama’s proposals would be fresh ones, not a rehash of plans he has pitched for many weeks and still supports, such as his idea of an “infrastructure bank” to finance construction jobs.
      On a related front, Obama will also present a specific plan to cut the staggering national debt and to pay for the cost of his new short-term economic ideas.    His version will challenge the new “supercommittee” of Congress to go beyond its goal of $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction.
      Confirming the deficit-reduction part of his plan directly, Obama told a rural town hall crowd in Illinois on Wednesday, “I don’t think it’s good enough for us to just do it part way.    If we’re going to do it, let’s go ahead and fix it.”
      Obama’s major economic speech will come right after the Sept. 5 Labor Day holiday.    Republicans were underwhelmed.
      Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, said via Twitter that Obama could scrap the speech and just hand over a detailed plan to Congress.    “Seriously, just drop it in the mail.    Podium not required,” Buck’s tweet said.
      Obama will seek to use his economic proposals as leverage against Republicans in Congress, hoping to show a nation disgusted with gridlock that he is the one trying to get results.    Obama’s reelection campaign and the White House are also sure to use any specific ideas from the president as a way to blunt attacks from the Republicans hoping to run against him in next year’s presidential election.    Already, Obama has been pre-viewing his line of attack.
      “My attitude is, get it done,” he said in one Iowa town hall Monday.    “And if they (lawmakers) don’t get it done, then we’ll be running against a Congress that’s not doing anything for the American people, and the choice will be very stark and will be very clear.”
  
  Oil up on signs of higher demand
      Oil rose Wednesday as traders focused on an unexpectedly large drop in U.S. gasoline stockpiles and a weaker dollar.
      Crude oil rose 93 cents to finish at $87.58 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.    Oil rose early in the day on reports that the U.S. gas supply fell more than expected last week.    The Energy Information Administration said supplies fell by 3.5 million barrels last week to 210.1 million barrels.
      PFGBest analyst Phil Flynn said the drop in gasoline supplies is a promising sign for the economy: “It suggests that demand ... is improving a little bit.”
  
  
• 8/19/2011
  
  Worldwide worries sink stocks - Some investors turn to gold, Treasurys by Nathaniel Popper and Tom Petruno, Los Angeles Times
      NEW YORK — With another big drop in U.S. stocks, the rush to safety has reached new levels.
      The desire to shift money in the traditional haven of Treasury bonds Thursday led investors to accept the lowest-ever rate on a 10-year government bond.    The yield briefly fell below the once unthinkable level of just below 2 percent.    At the end of the day it was 2.06 percent, down from 2.16 percent a day earlier.
      Gold, another favorite of anxious investors, continued to climb to new highs, trading at $1,824 an ounce, 48 percent higher than a year ago.    The shifts into gold and Treasury bonds came after the stock market snapped three calm days with a sharp drop.    “It’s really a creeping crisis of confidence that is showing,” said Steve Ricchiuto, Mizuho Securities chief economist.
      Many bond market pros say that no one who’s buying 10-year bonds yielding near 2 percent believes that it’s a great long-term return.    But investors know that a weakening economy usually translates into lower interest rates, or at least keeps a lid on rates.    That’s enhancing Treasuries’ traditional role as a haven, regardless of Standard & Poor’s downgrade of the government’s debt rating.
      “You’ve got some price insensitive (bond) buyers coming out of stocks and going into Treasuries,” said Mike Kastner, a partner at Halyard Asset Management in White Plains, N.Y.    “I think it’s a deer-in-theheadlights type reaction — nobody knows what to do.”    After falling as much as 528.61 points, the Dow Jones industrial average closed at 10,990.58, down 419.63, or 3.7 percent, with all but one of its 30 components shedding value.    The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 53.24, or 4.5 percent, to 1,140.65, with energy slammed the hardest.    The sharpest drop came in the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index, which ended down 131.05, or 5.2 percent, at 2,380.43.
      “We were ready for some kind of pullback, but it’s surprising as to how big it is today.    It speaks to the general volatility,” said Ken Tower, a senior analyst at Quantitative Analysis.
      The stock rout erased more than $600 billion of U.S. market value.    The S&P 500 has tumbled 16 percent from its April 29 high, matching the retreat between April 23 and July 2, 2010, previously the biggest contraction of the bull market that began in March 2009.    The decline from April 29 through Aug. 8 left the S&P 500 within 29 points of entering a bear market.    European shares and the Russell 2000 index entered a bear market last week, falling at least 20 percent from their previous highs.
      “It’s almost like a worldwide buyers strike,” Michael Mullaney, who helps manage $9.5 billion at Fiduciary Trust in Boston, told Bloomberg News.    “There’s a general malaise on global economic activity.”
      Some traders said the best they could say about Thursday was that key stock indexes held above their recent lows.    The Dow, for example, ended 271 points above its 11-month closing low of 10,719 reached Aug. 10.
      “Some days, investors are only willing to see the glass half empty, and that certainly seems to be the case today,” said Bill Stone, chief investment strategist at PNC Asset Management Group.
      Investors started this week at ease, pushing stocks higher after several upbeat earnings reports and a burst of merger activity.    That ended Thursday when Wall Street turned its attention once again to European financial system troubles.
      The European Central Bank revealed that an unnamed bank had borrowed $500 million through a gen-erally unused emergency program.    This was followed by a report indicating that U.S. regulators were giving extra scrutiny to the U.S. branches of European banks.
      Both reports revived fears that European banks are vulnerable to the sovereign debt problems wracking the continent’s weaker economies.    With memories of the Lehman Bros. collapse still very raw, the prospect of a European bank failing was enough to unnerve many investors.
      European bank stocks helped drag leading indexes down 5.5 percent in France and 5.8 percent in Germany.    Before U.S. markets opened, the Labor Department said the number of new people filing for unemployment benefits last week had risen slightly.    A later report showed the sales of new homes had fallen more sharply than expected in July. Investors, though, appeared most disappointed by the Philadelphia Fed’s index of economic activity in the mid-Atlantic region, which plummeted to a negative 30.7 this month, down from a positive 3.2 in July.    It was the lowest reading since March 2009, at the depth of the last recession.    Goldman Sachs economists observed that similar past declines have “only been observed in or immediately prior to reces-sions,” with one exception.
  
  Allies: Syria’s Assad must go - U.S. joins in call and new sanctions by Matthew Lee, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Executing a global squeeze play, the U.S. and its European allies demanded an end to four decades of brutal family dictatorship in Syria on Thursday and levied new sanctions on President Bashar Assad’s gov-ernment.
      The unified stance isolates Assad further as he presses a military campaign against protesters.    But the diplomacy left many questions unanswered, including how the demand for Assad’s ouster can be backed up without military intervention, and who inside the Syrian government or among the country’s fragmented opposition might take his place.
      The messages from Washington, London, Paris, Berlin and Brussels coincided with a U.N. report recommending that Syria be referred to the International Criminal Court for investigation of possible crimes against humanity, including summary executions, torturing prisoners and targeting children in the crackdown on demonstrations.
      Much of Syria was quiet Thursday, although activists reported shooting about noon in the flashpoint city of Latakia.
      Rights groups say Assad’s forces have killed nearly 2,000 people since mid-March.    The military assault on civilians has escalated since Ramadan began, with security forces killing hun-dreds and detaining thousands.
      Activists said security forces killed 18 people across the country Wednesday, the same day Assad assured U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that military and police operations had stopped.
      In Thursday’s coordinated statements, President Barack Obama and the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Canada and the European Union called for Assad to resign, saying his repression of demonstrations inspired by this spring’s Arab uprisings made him unfit to lead.    The resignation calls were the first explicit demands from the U.S. and its allies for Assad to step down, although condemnation of his actions had been growing for weeks.
  
  Economists fear global recession - Anxiety fuels stock sell-off by Associated Press
      Discouraging economic data from around the globe have heightened fears that another recession is on the way.
      Fresh evidence emerged Thursday that U.S. home sales and manufacturing are weakening.    Signs also surfaced that European banks are increasingly burdened by the region’s debt crisis and sputtering economy.
      The rising anxiety ignited a huge sell-off in stocks that led many investors to seek the safety of U.S. Treasurys.
      Economists say the economic weakness and the stock markets’ wild swings have begun to feed on themselves.    Persistent drops in stock prices erode consumer and business confidence.    Individuals and companies typically then spend and invest less. And when they do, stock prices tend to fall further.
      “A negative feedback loop … now appears to be in the making” in both the United States and Europe, Joachim Fels and Manoj Pradhan, economists at Morgan Stanley, said in a report Thursday.    Both economies are “dangerously close to a recession. … It won’t take much in the form of additional shocks to tip the balance.”
      The risk of a recession is now about one in three, according to Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
  
  
  Among the worrisome economic signs:
  • A survey of regional manufacturers by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia shows that manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region contracted in August by the most in more than two years.    The steep drop, on top of a smaller decline in a New York Fed survey this week, means U.S. manufacturing activity probably contracted in August, economists said.    It would be the first decline since July 2009, a worrisome sign because manufacturing has been a key source of U.S. growth in the two years since economists say the Great Recession ended.
  • U.S. home sales fell in July for the third time in four months, the National Association of Realtors said. Sales lag behind last year’s pace — the weakest since 1997.    “There seems to be a correlation between the stock market and home prices,” said Andrew Davidson, a New York-based mortgage industry consultant.
  • In Asia, Japan’s exports fell for a fifth straight month.    The world’s No. 3 economy has fallen into a recession since its earthquake and tsunami in March.    That’s diminishing a key buying market for many countries’ exports.
  • Consumer prices rose 0.5 percent in July, mostly due to more expensive gas and food.    The “core” price index, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, rose 0.2 percent.
  
  Oil drops amid demand fears
      Oil fell sharply Thursday along with a broad sell-off in stocks triggered by worries about the global economy.
      High unemployment, a weak housing market and concerns about European bank debt suggested the economy will continue to stall in coming months, hurting demand for energy.    Those concerns rippled through energy markets, lowering prices for oil.
      Gasoline, on average, cost $3.59 a gallon Thursday.    Crude oil fell $5.20 to finish at $82.38 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
      Arch Coal’s stock dropped 9.4 percent, as investors’ fears about the U.S. and global economies continue to weigh on Wall Street.    Texas Roadhouse shares fell nearly 9 percent after the Louisville-based casual dining chain announced a change in leadership.    The stock is down more than 23 percent this year.
  
  European banks battered
      European bank stocks tanked Thursday as fears about the institutions’ ability to get access to funding and concerns over the anemic pace of the global economic recovery intensified.
      Analysts said the plunge seemed to be, at least in part, a reaction to increasing signs that banks are struggling with liquidity, or access to the cash they need to run their day-to-day operations.
      A number of European banks are already dependent on last-resort credit from the European Central Bank because of banks’ wariness to lend to one another.    Many banks are heavily exposed to bad debt from troubled countries such as Greece, Portugal and Italy.
  
  
• 8/20/2011
  
  At least 20 more Syrian protesters die by Zenia Karam, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — Syrian security forces killed at least 20 protesters Friday despite promises by President Bashar Assad that military operations against the 5month-old uprising are over.    The killings, which came as thousands poured into the streets across Syria, suggest the autocratic leader is either unwilling to stop the violence or not fully in control.    Assad, who inherited power from his father in 2000, is facing the most serious international isolation of his rule.    On Thursday, the United States and its European allies demanded he step down.
      Military operations have subsided in the past few days, following a fresh crackdown on major flashpoint cities that started at the beginning of the month to root out anti-government protesters.
      But persistent gunfire and shootings, along with Friday’s killings, underscore the difficulty of any kind of diplomatic pressure achieving results without military intervention.
      Human rights groups said Assad’s forces have killed nearly 2,000 people since the uprising erupted in mid-March.    A high-level U.N. team recommended Thursday that the violence in Syria be referred to the International Criminal Court over possible crimes against humanity.
      “Bye, bye Bashar, see you in The Hague!” protesters shouted Friday in the central city of Homs as crowds filled the streets, spurred on by the international condemnation.
      ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said he has received reports of atrocities in Syria but has no jurisdiction “at this stage” because Damascus does not recognize the court.
      He said he could begin investigating at the request of the U.N. Security Council.    Syria’s U.N. ambassador said a U.N. humanitarian assessment team will arrive in Damascus on Saturday.
      The International Committee of the Red Cross said it is optimistic Syrian authorities will grant it access to all detainees in the country “within weeks.”
      The number of protesters Friday seemed markedly lower than in previous weeks.    But amateur video posted online by activists showed thousands of protesters in various areas.
      “We will not sell the blood of our martyrs,” read a banner in Hilfaya.
      A day after President Barack Obama made his first explicit call for Assad to step down, European Union officials said Friday the bloc’s 27 member states were considering more economic sanctions against Syria, including an oil embargo.
  
  Ex-Gadhafi deputy defects, rebels say by Associated Press
      BENGHAZI, Libya — Libyan rebels say a close Moammar Gadhafi associate who was once the No. 2 top regime official has defected, another blow to the increasingly isolated Libyan leader.
      Abdel Salam Jalloud helped Gadhafi stage the 1969 coup that propelled Gadhafi to power and transformed     Libya from a monarchy to a republic. He was Gadhafi’s most trusted deputy for two decades but began to clash with the leader starting in the 1990s.    Rebel spokesman Mahmoud Shammam said Friday that Jalloud had fled to a rebel-held area in the western mountains and was on his way to Europe.    Pictures showing Jalloud in the western town of Zintan appeared on rebel Facebook pages.    Another rebel official, Abdel-Hafiz Ghoga, said Jalloud’s defection, “gives us assurance that Gadhafi is weakening.”
      Meanwhile, Gadhafi’s forces launched a counterattack in a strategic western city Friday, firing rockets, mortar shells and antiaircraft guns to keep the rebels from advancing toward the nearby capital.
      NATO’s bombing campaign has made it difficult for the regime to send massive reinforcements to Za-wiya, enabling the rebels to maintain a foothold in their biggest prize in months.    But Friday’s onslaught by regime forces signaled that an opposition push toward Tripoli, Gadhafi’s main stronghold, would be bloody.
      As fighting intensified, the International Organization for Migration announced plans to start evacuating Egyptians and other foreigners.
  
  Oil finishes lower for week
      Oil ended the day below $83 a barrel on Friday, finishing down about 4 percent for the week, on fears that another recession could cut demand for energy.    Crude oil fell 12 cents to finish at $82.26 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after earlier rising as high as $83.55 per barrel.
      Benchmark crude remains well above its lowest point in the past year.    It finished at $71.63 a barrel last Aug. 24.    Crude got some support Friday from a weaker dollar, which hit a new post-World War II low against the Japanese yen.
  
  Europe’s strained banks fuel pessimistic outlook by Howard Schneider, The Washington Post
      BERLIN — As investors dumped stocks Friday on both sides of the Atlantic, a growing suspicion that Europe’s banks are on shaky ground offered more evidence that the struggling global economic recovery is in trouble.
      The increasing mistrust of Europe’s banks is threatening to drag down the continent’s already sluggish economy and prompting new worries for American financial firms that do business with their European counterparts.
      The concerns about the health of Europe’s financial firms are making it harder for them to raise money.    In turn, they are under pressure to charge more for loans.    Though not as severe, the resulting credit crunch has echoes of three years ago when Wall Street’s meltdown prompted fearful banks and businesses in the U.S. and elsewhere to stop lending each other money, choking off the economy’s lifeblood.
      The trouble in the European banking sector comes as policymakers are struggling to address the continent’s spreading debt crisis and deal with stalled economic growth.    New indicators out this week showed that growth in Germany, long the region’s economic dynamo, had slowed nearly to a standstill.
      Deutsche Bank analyst Matt Spick said perceived weaknesses in European banks, coupled with the economic slowdown, is creating a “toxic funding crisis” that could leave the financial firms strapped for cash and forced to curb lending.    In European trading, bank stocks continued to drop Friday, after steeper losses a day earlier.    The French bank Societe Generale plunged nearly 16 percent in the past two days, while two other French banks, BNP Paribas and Credit Agricole, fell about 11 percent and 9 percent respectively over that period.
      Germany’s Deutsche Bank lost 7.5 percent in the past two days, and Britain’s RBS was off more than 16 percent.    More broadly, the Stoxx 50, an index of bluechip companies in the 17-nation euro zone, finished Friday down 2.15 percent.
      As European banks lose trust in each other, the rates they charge each other for loans have been rising.    The pace of borrowing by European banks, meanwhile, has slowed.
      And U.S. money-market funds, a crucial source of dollars that European banks need to operate, have pulled back from lending them money, pushing up the prices those banks must pay.    A least one European financial firm recently tapped the last-resort dollar loans offered by the European Central Bank, spooking global investors.
      At the heart of the problem are bonds issued by heavily indebted countries from Ireland to Italy and bought by banks throughout the17-nation euro currency zone.    The purchasing banks viewed the bonds as virtually risk-free investments.    But the bonds have turned out to be Europe’s version of subprime mortgage loans.
  
  Gold hits a new high as Wall Street swings amid fears of new recession
      Investors flocked to gold Friday, sending it to the latest of a series of records, as fears about recession in the world’s major economies infected financial markets.
      The metal soared as high as $1,881.40 an ounce.    It’s been on a tear this summer, rising more than 15 percent in August alone.    In the same three weeks, the Standard & Poor’s 500stock index has fallen about 12 percent.
      Gold logged its biggest weekly gain since February 2009, according to FactSet data.
      As an investment, the metal has climbed because of investors’ concern about the uncertain state of the global economy, diving stock markets and moves by central banks around the world to weaken their currencies.
  
  Hewlett-Packard has become an underdog as it sheds businesses
      Hewlett-Packard, one of the world’s largest technology companies, finds itself the underdog as it ditches most of its consumer businesses to become more like the well-oiled, corporate- focused machines of rivals IBM and Oracle.
      HP will no longer make smartphones and tablet computers and wants to leave the PC business after spending a decade assembling itself into a technology conglomerate by buying such companies as PC maker Compaq Com-puter for $19 billion in 2002 and smartphone pioneer Palm for $1.8 billion last year.
      HP’s stock plunged 20 percent Friday, a day after the restructuring announcement.    That’s a strong signal that investors are doubtful about HP’s ability to thrive without businesses that have helped set it apart from rivals.    Even though the PC division that HP wants to sell or spin off is the company’s least profitable, it accounts for nearly a third of revenue.
  
  
• 8/21/2011
  
  Rebels claim to attack Tripoli - Explosions, shooting heard in Libyan capital by Karin Laub, Associated Press
      TRIPOLI, Libya — Libyan rebels said they launched their first attack on Tripoli in coordination with NATO late Saturday, and Associated Press reporters heard unusually heavy gunfire and explosions in the capital.    The fighting erupted just hours after opposition fighters captured the key city of Zawiya nearby.
      Gunbattles and mortar rounds were heard clearly at the hotel where foreign correspondents stay in Tripoli.    NATO aircraft made heavy bombing runs after nightfall, with loud explosions booming across the city.
      “We planned this operation with NATO, our Arab associates and our rebel fighters in Tripoli with commanders in Benghazi,” Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, the head of the rebel leadership council, told the Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera.    Benghazi, hundreds of miles east of Tripoli, is the rebels’ de fac to capital.
      Abdel-Jalil said they chose to start the attack on Tripoli on the 20th day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which fell on Saturday.    The date marks the ancient Islamic Battle of Badr, when Muslims conquered the holy city of Mecca in A.D. 624.
      A couple hours after the rebels said they had attacked Tripoli, state television ran what appeared to be a live audio message by embattled Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.    He did not appear on television but sounded like he was calling the message in on a poor phone line which crackled at times.    He announced the time and date twice to prove that he was speaking live.
      Gadhafi condemned the rebels as traitors and “vermi” who are tearing Libya apart and said they were being chased from city to city — a mirror image of reality.
      “Libyans wanted to enjoy a peaceful Ramadan,” he said.    “Instead they have been made into refugees.    What are we?    Palestinians?”
      Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim appeared on Libyan television to deny there was an uprising in Tripoli. But he acknowledged that there was some kind of unusual activity.
      “Sure there were some armed militants who escaped into some neighborhoods and there were some scuffles, but we dealt with it within a half hour and it is now calm,” he said.
      The claims from both sides could not immediately be independently verified.
      If the rebels did attack Tripoli, it would be the first time in the 6-month-old uprising.    The rebels made early gains in the revolt, capturing most of the east of the country and rising up in a few other major cities such as Zawiya and Misrata.    But Gadhafi’s forces fought back and until a week ago, the civil war had been mired in a stalemate.
      Last weekend, rebels from the western mountains near the border with Tunisia made a dramatic advance into Zawiya, just 30 miles west of Tripoli, and captured parts of the city.    Gadhafi appeared increasingly isolated as the fighters advanced closer to Tripoli, a metropolis of 2 million people, from the west, south and east and gained control of major supply roads into the capital.
      After hard-fought battles for a week in Zawiya, the rebels finally wrested the city’s oil refinery, central square and hospital from Gadhafi’s forces and drove them out in a major victory on Saturday that clearly swung momentum in their favor.
      Hours later, the attack on Tripoli was claimed.
      Col. Fadlallah Haroun, a military commander in Benghazi, said the battles marked the beginning of Operation Mermaid — a nickname for Tripoli.    He also said the assault was coordinated with NATO.    Haroun said that weapons were assembled and sent by tugboats to Tripoli on Friday night.
      “The fighters in Tripoli are rising up in two places at the moment — some are in the Tajoura neighbor-hood and the other is near the Matiga (international) airport,” he told the Arabic satellite channel Al-Jazee-ra.    Tajoura has been known since the beginning of the uprising in February as the Tripoli neighborhood most strongly opposed to Gadhafi’s regime.
      Earlier Saturday, the government organized a trip for reporters to the airport to show them it was still in government hands.
      A representative for Tripoli on the rebel leadership council said rebels were surrounding almost every neighborhood in the capital, and there was especially heavy fighting in Fashloum, Tajoura and Souq al-Jomaa.    Those three neighborhoods have been bubbling with discontent ever since the beginning of the Libya uprising.    They paid the highest price in deaths when demonstrators took the streets in anti-Gadhafi protests, only to be met with live ammunition from government militiamen.    “We don’t have exact numbers yet, but we are hearing that many fighters have fallen — very likely over 100,” said Mohammed al-Harizi.    U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman visited Benghazi on Saturday.    “Gadhafi’s days are numbered,” he said.    “The best-case scenario is for Gadhafi to step down now. … That’s the best protection for civilians.”
  
  Golden decade for defense companies coming to end by Associated Press
      The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are winding down, Osama bin Laden is dead, and the federal gov-ernment is deeply in debt.    This spells the end of what was a golden decade for the defense industry.    In the decade since the Sept. 11 attacks, the annual defense budget has more than doubled to $700 billion, and annual defense industry profits have nearly quadrupled, approaching $25 billion last year.    Now defense spending is poised to retreat, and so are industry profits.    “We’re about to go into the downhill side of the roller coaster here,” said David Berteau, a defense industry analyst at the Center for Strategic and Inter-national Studies.
      Congress agreed last month to cut military spending by $350 billion over the next 10 years.    The defense budget will automatically be cut by another $500 billion over that period if lawmakers fail to reach a deficit-cutting deal by November.
      Defense industry stocks have already begun to suffer; they are lagging the S&P 500 in recent months.    During the last defense spending downturn, which lasted from 1985 to 1997, defense stocks underperformed the broader market by 33 percent, according to an analysis by RBC Capital Markets.
      The Sept. 11 attacks forced the world's biggest and best-funded military to quickly retool itself.    It needed to develop technologies, weapons and strategies to find and fight an elusive network of terrorists that seemed more sophisticated and dangerous than ever imagined.
      The U.S. spent $1.3 trillion in the 10 years following the attacks chasing al-Qaida and fighting two wars.    That was on top of baseline military spending in excess of $4 trillion.
      “After 9/2011 the floodgates opened,” said Eric Hugel, a defense industry analyst at Stephens Inc.
      The defense budget grew from $316 billion in 2001 to $708 billion in 2011.    Federal spending on homeland security, which includes everything from airport security to border control, also rose dramatically.
  
  Is Syria’s Assad doomed?
      For more than five months, Syrians have been stepping out of their homes and mosques with unfathomable bravery in a quest for freedom and human rights.    Bashar al-Assad, the inheritor of a regime that has stifled the country for four decades, has responded by killing thousands of his citizens and torturing and im-prisoning many more.    Yet, knowing the risks, Syrians refuse to cower.    President Obama and the leaders of Canada, France, Britain and Germany called on Thursday for Assad to step down.    It’s damaging that it took Obama so long to do so; odd that even now he wouldn’t speak it (the White House issued a written statement and put Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton before the cameras); and unfortunate that two days before he issued the statement, Clinton said, “It’s not going to be any news if the United States says Assad needs to go.”    But the Obama statement is news, and welcome news at that.    The administration coordinated its call for Assad’s departure with allies.    It paired the statement with a ratcheting-up of sanctions that will increase financial pressure on the Assad regime.    Most of all, Thursday’s statements by Obama and fellow leaders will spur the Syrian opposition to intensify its planning for a post-Assad era and will assure ordinary Syrians that they have the world’s moral support.
      Does Obama’s say-so guarantee that Assad is doomed?    Of course not.    We’ve seen in Libya that even with military action, which isn’t contemplated in Syria, the longevity of discredited regimes is impossible to predict.    Ultimately, much depends on how long soldiers and security agents remain willing to shoot at their fellow citizens.    In Egypt, that willingness lasted barely a week.    In Burma, it has endured for years.    Outsiders aren’t very good at predicting the breaking point.
      But Obama’s statement declared the breaking point will come.    “It is clear that President Assad believes that he can silence the voices of his people by resorting to the repressive tactics of the past,” it said.    “But he is wrong.”
      We think Obama is correct, and the newly strengthened U.S. position — clear language, strong sanctions, allied coordination — can only hasten the day.
  
  
• 8/22/2011
  
  Libyan rebels overrun Tripoli - Gadhafi in hiding as his control, defenders evaporate by Karin Laub, Associated Press
      TRIPOLI, Libya — Libyan rebels raced into Tripoli on Sunday, meeting little resistance as Moammar Gadhafi’s defenders melted away and his 42-year rule rapidly crumbled.
          Euphoric rebels celebrated with residents of the capital in Green Square, the symbolic heart of the fading regime.
  Gadhafi’s whereabouts were unknown, though state TV broadcast his bitter pleas for Libyans to defend his regime.    Opposition fighters captured his son and one-time heir apparent, Seif al-Islam, who along with his father, faces charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands.    Another son was in contact with rebels about surrendering, the opposition said.
      “It’s over, frizz-head,” chanted hundreds of jubilant men and women massed in Green Square, using a mocking moniker of the curly haired Gadhafi.    The revelers fired shots in the air, clapped and waved the rebels’ tricolor flag.    Some set fire to the green flag of Gadhafi’s regime and shot holes in a poster with the leader’s image.
      By the early hours of today, rebels controlled large parts of the capital.    They set up checkpoints alongside residents — many of them secretly armed by rebel smugglers in recent weeks.    But pockets of regime fighters remained: In one area, reporters with rebels were stopped and told to take a different route because of regime snipers nearby.
      “We were waiting for the signal and it happened,” said engineer Nour Eddin Shatouni, 50, who was among the residents who flowed out of their homes to join the celebrations.    “All mosques chanted ‘God is great’ all at once.    We smelled a good scent, it is the smell of victory.    We know it is the time.”
      The seizure of Green Square held profound symbolic value and marked a stunning turn in the tide of the 6-month-old Libyan civil war.    The regime has held pro-Gadhafi rallies there nearly every night since the revolt began in February, and Gadhafi delivered speeches to his loyalists from the historic Red Fort that overlooks the square.
      The sweep into the capital came after rebel fighters advanced 20 miles from the west in a matter of hours — taking town after town and overwhelming a major military base meant to defend Tripoli, 16 miles from the city.    All the way, they met little resistance; residents swarmed onto streets in welcome.
  
  Cities celebrating
      Thousands of Libyans also celebrated in the streets of Benghazi, the rebels’ de facto capital in the east.    Firing guns into the air and shooting fireworks, they cheered and waved the rebel tricolor flags, dancing and singing in the city’s main square.    Gadhafi’s ongoing defiance raised the potential of a last-ditch fight over Tripoli, home to 2 million. Regime spokesman Moussa Ibrahim claimed the regime has “thousands and thousands of fighters” and vowed: “We will fight.    We have whole cities on our sides.    They are coming en masse to protect Tripoli to join the fight.”
      But it appeared that key parts of Gadhafi’s military were peeling away.
      The rebels’ way into Tripoli was opened when the military unit in charge of protecting Gadhafi and the capital surrendered, ordering troops to drop their weapons, rebel information minister Mahmoud Shammam said.
      In a sign of the coordination among rebels, as the main force moved into the city from the west, a sec-ond force of 200 opposition fighters from the city of Misrata further east landed by boat in the capital, bringing weapons and ammunition for Tripoli residents to join the rebellion, said Munir Ramzi of the rebels’ military council in Misrata.    The rebels’ speedy leap forward in just a few hours was a stunning reversal for Gadhafi, who earlier this month had seemed to have a firm grip on his stronghold in the western part of Libya, despite months of NATO airstrikes on his military.    Rebels had been unable to make any advances for weeks, bogged down on the main fronts with Gadhafi’s troops in the east and center of Libya.
      NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Gadhafi’s regime was “clearly crumbling” and the time to create a new democratic Libya has arrived.    In a statement, he added that NATO will keep striking his troops if they make “any threatening moves toward the Libyan people.”
  
  Lightning advance
      The rebel force that moved toward Tripoli on Sunday, taking town after town, was greeted by thousands of jubilant civilians who rushed from their homes to cheer long convoys of pickups packed with fighters shooting in the air.    One man grabbed a rebel flag that was draped over the hood of a car and kissed it, overcome with emotion.    Some of the fighters were hoarse, shouting: “We are coming for you, frizz-head,” a mocking nickname for Gadhafi.    In villages, mosque loudspeakers blared “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great.”
      Once they reached Tripoli, the rebels took control of one neighborhood, Ghot Shaal, on the western edge of the city.    They set up checkpoints as a convoy of more than 10 trucks rolled in to advance further into the city.    Resistance was minimal, with rebels reporting occasional fire from snipers on rooftops.
      Rebel chief Mustafa Abdel- Jalil confirmed from Benghazi that the rebels arrested Gadhafi’s son Seif al-Islam but refused to give the details of the capture.
      In the Netherlands, the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, said his office would talk to the rebels today about Seif al-Islam’s transfer for trial.    “It is time for justice, not re-venge,” he said.
  
  An early victory
      The day’s first breakthrough came when hundreds of rebels fought their way into a major symbol of the regime — the base of the elite 32nd Brigade commanded by Gadhafi’s son, Khamis — 16 miles from the big prize: Tripoli. Re-bels said they met little resistance.
      At the base, the rebels also freed more than 300 prisoners from a regime lockup, most of them arrested during the heavy crackdown on the uprising in towns west of Tripoli.    The fighters and the prisoners — many looking weak and dazed and carrying scars and bruises from beatings — embraced and wept with joy.
  
  Assad says his regime remains in control
      BEIRUT - Syrian President Bashar Assad said Sunday that his regime was in no danger of collapse and warned against any foreign military intervention in his country.
      In his fourth public appearance since a revolt against his family’s 40-year rule erupted in mid-March, Assad insisted that security forces were making inroads against the uprising.
      The Syrian leader has come under mounting criticism over the brutal military offensive that has used tanks, snipers and gunboats to try to crush the uprising.
  
  Stocks fueling economic anxieties by Christopher Rugaber, Associated Press
      NEW YORK — The stock market is starting to feed economic fear, not just reflect it.
      Stocks have fallen four weeks in a row.    Some on Wall Street worry that the resulting blow to confidence, not to mention 401(k) statements, has set off a spiral of fear that could push prices even lower, cause people and businesses to pull back and tip the economy into a new recession.    “I’m nervous that fear will lead companies to stop hiring and people to stop spending,” says Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist of Wells Capital Management, famous for his usually bullish take on the markets.
      A home sales report last week showed more sales than usual fell apart at the last minute, signaling that falling stocks and dismal economic news gave buyers cold feet.    At least 16 percent of deals were canceled before closings last month, four times the rate in May.    The Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index ended Friday at 1,123.53, down 5 percent for the week.    The average is down 16 percent in the four-week losing streak.    One reason for the drop: fear that a new recession, if not certain, is more likely now.
      The run of bad economic news started last month when the government said the economy grew much more weakly in the first half of this year than thought.    Growth, at an annual rate of 0.8 percent, was the slowest since the recession ended in June 2009.    The economic weakness has made investors more likely to sell stocks at the first hint that things are getting worse.    And last week, they got signs aplenty.
      A regional survey by the Federal Reserve said manufacturing had slowed in the mid-Atlantic states by the most in more than two years.    Existing home sales fell in July for the third time in four months. One report showed that exports from Japan, the world’s third-biggest economy, had slumped for the fifth straight month.    Japan is still reeling from the effects of an earthquake and tsunami in March.    The housing market, which usually helps lead economic recovery, keeps getting worse.    The plunging stock market and scary economic news won’t make it any better.    News from Europe got worse, too. Its economy has slowed significantly — even in Germany, which has been its greatest source of strength.    Fear spread that European banks, already ailing because they hold bonds from nations struggling with debt, were having trouble getting short-term loans to pay for daily activities.
      Investors are responding to the risk by putting their money where they feel safe.    Demand for the 10-year U.S. Treasury note was so high last week that the yield dipped below 2 percent for the first time in 50 years.    And the price of gold has set one record after another, topping $1,800 an ounce last week.
  
  
• 8/23/2011
  
  Gadhafi regime nears collapse - Whereabouts of 42-year Libyan strongman remain a mystery Rebel forces control most of Tripoli, but loyal pockets remain - Capture will be victory, rebels say by Karin Laub, Associated Press
      TRIPOLI, Libya — The son and heir apparent of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, Seif al-Islam, resurfaced free and defiant early today, a day after rebels claimed to have captured him, boasting in a bizarre reappearance that his father’s loyalists still control parts of Tripoli and would crush the rebellion.
      Seif al-Islam’s sudden — even surreal — arrival at a Tripoli hotel where foreign journalists are staying threw the situation in the capital into confusion.    It underlined the potential for Gadhafi, whose whereabouts remain unknown, to lash back even as his grip on power seemed to be slipping fast.
      Rebels say they control the large majority of Tripoli, but on Monday they were still fighting pockets of fierce resistance from regime loyalists firing mortars and anti-aircraft guns.    Rebel spokesman Mohammed Abdel-Rahman, who was in Tripoli, said the “danger is still there” as long as the elder Gadhafi remains on the run.    He warned that pro-Gadhafi brigades are positioned on Tripoli’s outskirts and could “be in the middle of the city in half an hour.”
      The rebel leadership seemed stunned that Seif al-Islam was free.    The leadership’s spokesman, Sadeq al-Kabir, had no explanation and could only say, “This could be all lies.”
      He couldn’t confirm whether Seif al-Islam escaped rebel custody, but he did say that another captured Gadhafi son, Mohammed, had escaped the home arrest that rebels had placed him in a day earlier.    On Monday, the rebels had said Seif al-Islam was captured, but didn’t give details on where he was held.    The Netherlands- based International Criminal Court — which indicted Seif al-Islam and his father — had confirmed his capture.
      Seif al-Islam, with a full beard and wearing an olivegreen T-shirt and camouflage trousers, turned up early Tuesday morning at the Rixos hotel, where about 30 foreign journalists are staying in Tripoli under the close watch of regime minders.
      Riding in a white limousine amid a convoy of armored SUVs, he took reporters on a drive through parts of the city still under the regime’s control, saying, “We are going to hit the hottest spots in Tripoli.”
      The tour covered mainly the area that was known to still be under the regime’s control — the district around the Rixos hotel and nearby Bab al-Aziziya, Gadhafi’s residential compound and military barracks.    The tour went through streets full of armed Gadhafi backers, controlled by roadblocks, and into the Gadhafi stronghold neigh-borhood Bu Slim.    At Bab al-Aziziya, at least a hundred men were waiting in lines for guns being distributed to volunteers to defend the regime.    Seif al-Islam shook hands with supporters, beaming and flashing the victory sign.
      “We are here.    This is our country.    This is our people, and we live here, and we die here,” he told AP Television News.    “And we are going to win, because the people are with us.    That’s why we’re are going to win.    Look at them — look at them, in the streets, everywhere!”
      When asked about the ICC’s claim that he was arrested by rebels, he told reporters: “The ICC can go to hell,” and added, “We are going to break the backbone of the rebels.”
      In Benghazi, the de facto rebel capital hundreds of miles east of Tripoli, the head of the rebel National Transitional Council said the rebels have no idea where Gadhafi is or whether he is even in Tripoli.
      “The real moment of victory is when Gadhafi is captured,” Mustafa Abdel-Jalil said.    An Obama administration official said the U.S. had no indication that Gadhafi had left Libya.
      President Barack Obama said the situation in Libya reached a tipping point in recent days after a five month NATO led bombing campaign.    But he acknowledged that the situation remained fluid and that ele-ments of the regime remained a threat.
      The Obama administration official said the U.S. believes 90 percent of the capital is under rebel control, while regime loyalists still control Sirte and the southern city of Sebha.    The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly.
      Gadhafi’s forces remained active, firing off a short-range Scud missile Monday near Sirte, Gadhafi’s hometown and one of the few remaining cities still under his control, said U.S. military officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.    It wasn’t clear where the missile landed or if anyone was hurt.
      It was only the second Scud missile fired during this year’s conflict.    On Aug. 15, Libyan government forces launched one near Sirte that landed in the desert outside Brega, injuring no one.
      NATO vowed to keep up its air campaign until all pro-Gadhafi forces surrender or return to their barracks.    The alliance’s warplanes have hit at least 40 targets in and around Tripoli in the past two days — the highest number on a single geographic location since the bombing started in March, NATO said.
      A day after the rebels rode into the city of 2 million, the situation remained volatile.    Even though rebels claimed they were in control of most of Tripoli, they still appeared to be on the defensive, ducking for cover during frequent clashes with regime fighters.    Stores were shuttered and large areas were lifeless, including the old gold market, in the past a draw for tourists.
      Throughout the day, the rebels sent reinforcements to the city from the north, south and southeast, and a rebel field commander said more than 4,000 fighters were part of the final push to bring down the regime.    Rebels manned checkpoints on the western approaches to the city Monday, handing out candy to motorists and inquiring about their destinations.
      Intense gun battles erupted throughout the day.
  
  Syrians say Assad regime next to fall - Masses, experts point to Libya by Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — Taking inspiration from the rapid unraveling of the regime in Libya, thousands of Syrians poured into the streets Monday and taunted President Bashar Assad with shouts that his family’s 40year dynasty will be the next dictatorship to crumble.
      Assad, who has tried in vain to crush the 5-monthold revolt, appears increasingly out of touch as he re-fuses to acknowledge the hundreds of thousands of people demanding his ouster, analysts say.    Instead, he blames the unrest on Islamic extremists and thugs.    But many observers say Assad should heed the lessons of Libya.
      “Gadhafi is gone; now it’s your turn, Bashar!” protesters shouted in several cities across the country hours after Assad dismissed calls to step down during an interview on state TV.    Security forces opened fire in the central city of Homs, killing at least one person.    “Leaders should know that they will be able to remain in power as long as they remain sensitive to the demands of the people,” Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, according to Turkey’s Anatolia news agency.    Turkey, a former close ally of Syria and an important trade partner, has grown increasingly frustrated with Damascus over its deadly crackdown.    The violence has left Syria facing the most serious international isolation in decades, with widespread calls for Assad to step down.
      Human rights groups say more than 2,000 people — most of them unarmed protesters — have been killed in the government’s crackdown on the uprising. Britain’s Defense Secretary Liam Fox told BBC radio that Assad would “be thinking again in light of what has happened in Tripoli overnight.”
      “There is an unavoidable change in the area — and I think the message to those in that region is that if you do not allow change to be a process it can become an event,” he said.
      Syria presented a different case than other Arab nations swept by unrest this year.    A military intervention has been all but ruled out, given the quagmire in Libya and the lack of any strong opposition leader in Syria to rally behind.    The U.S. and other nations have little leverage to threaten further isolation of Assad.
  
  Rebels’ next fight could be unity, learning to lead by Ryan Lucas, Associated Press
      CAIRO — Libya’s rebels began as a disparate group of former government insiders, Western leaning intellectuals, businessmen and even a smattering of ex-Islamist militants.    But they were united by one goal: unseating Moammar Gadhafi.
      They won international recognition by forging a leadership council that espoused democracy.    With Gadhafi’s regime on its last legs, the question now is whether the opposition can take over the plundered country and lead it effectively.
      The task of putting Libya back together after six months of civil war and 42 years of Gadhafi rule is all the more difficult because the nation has no experience at the ballot box or with democratic institutions.    Gadhafi ran the country according to his whims and idiosyncratic political philosophy and didn’t tolerate dissent.
      “The rebels want a Libya reconciled with itself, that is democratic, whatever that may mean,” said George Joffe, a Libya expert at Cambridge University.    “But the way in which they’re going to do that isn’t clear. … There are absolutely no basic structures they can use.”
      Without any practical experience to fall back on, the council has done an imperfect job of managing the territory under rebel control since the uprising began Feb. 15, when youth activists started protesting in Benghazi.    As the demonstrations spread and the revolt gained steam, more experienced hands rushed to join the movement and fill the leadership void.
      Eventually, the rebellion formed the National Transitional Council. Members are representatives from each rebel-held city, and are selected by similar local councils.
      Heading the NTC is Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, a pious former justice minister who joined the rebels in the uprising’s first high-level defection.    Despite past links with the Gadhafi regime, he enjoys the respect of broad swaths of the rebel public for his criticism while minister of the tight control of security forces.    But he isn’t considered a strong leader or a dominating personality.
      Abdul-Jalil is one of several former regime members who make up a powerful bloc on the council.    The group includes the head of the rebels’ acting Cabinet, Mahmoud Jibril, as well as the rebels’ chief diplomat, Ali al-Essawi.
      Jibril, educated at the University of Pittsburgh, helped draw up ambitious visions for the fu-ture.    One of them, titled “Libya 2025: A Look Ahead,” called for a restricted role for the state, free expression and the opening of the free market.
  
  Oil prices fall on Libya news by Associated Press
      Oil prices fell in London on Monday on the prospect that exports from Libya will return to the market.    It will be at least several months before Libya is producing enough oil to resume exports.    Libyan oil is typically sent to Europe.    Brent crude, which is used to price many international oil varieties, dropped 92 cents to $107.70 per barrel in London.    Crude oil fell briefly, then rose to $83.42.
  
  Libyan oil return could take years
      It could be a year or more before Libya produces enough oil to start exporting it in large amounts again.    But once the oil starts flowing, it should bring the price of gasoline down even further.
      International oil prices fell Monday because of the prospect that those shipments will hit the market again.
      The shipments stopped six months ago as the rebellion in Libya raged.    The conflict damaged pipelines and fields and forced out foreign oil engineers who once helped the nation export 1.5 million barrels of oil daily.
  
  
• 8/24/2011
  
  Perry holds execution record as governor by Robert Barnes, Washington Post
      Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry brings to the presidential race a law-and-order credential that none of his competitors can match — even if they wanted to.
      In his nearly 11 years as chief executive, Perry, now running for the GOP presidential nomination, has overseen more executions than any governor in modern history: 234 and counting.    That’s more than the combined total in next two states —Oklahoma and Virginia — since the death penalty was restored 35 years ago.    The number is partly explained by sheer longevity at the helm of a huge state that has mastered the complicated legal maze of carrying out capital punishment.
      But Perry has hardly shrunk from the task.    Perry vetoed a bill that would have spared the mentally retarded and sharply criticized a Supreme Court ruling that juveniles were not eligible for death.    He has found during his tenure only one inmate on Texas’s death row he thought should receive the lesser sentence of life in prison.
      Perry has been unapologetic.    “If you don’t support the death penalty and citizens packing a pistol, don’t come to Texas,” he wrote in his book lauding states’ rights, “Fed Up!” Polls show that capital punishment remains both popular and controversial.    All of Perry’s main competitors, including President Barack Obama, support the death penalty.
  
  U.S., Europeans draft sanctions on Syria by Associated Press
      UNITED NATIONS — European nations and the United States circulated a draft U.N. Security Council resolution Tuesday seeking an arms embargo and other sanctions aimed at stopping the Syrian government’s ongoing crackdown on opposition protesters.
      But the supporters faced immediate opposition from veto-wielding Russia.    Asked whether it was the right time to slap sanctions on Bashar Assad’s regime, Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters, “No. We don’t think so.”
      The draft resolution calls for an asset freeze against 23 key Syrian figures.
      They include Bashar Assad, his younger brother, Maher, who is believed to be in command of much of the current bloody crackdown, and his millionaire cousin, Rami Makhlouf, who controls the mobilephone network and other lucrative enterprises in Syria and has been the target of many protesters’ rage.    Meanwhile, Syria’s fragmented opposition took steps toward forming a national council, but serious divisions and mistrust among the members prevented them from presenting a unified front against President Bashar Assad’s regime more than five months into the country’s uprising, participants said.    The draft also calls for an asset freeze against two companies controlled by Makhlouf, Bena Properties and Al Mashreq Investment.
  
  Oil settles above $85
      NEW YORK — Oil rose slightly Tuesday on encouraging global economic news.    Prices climbed after reports of better-than-expected manufacturing activity in China and Europe.    And stocks rose in the U.S. ahead of an expected announcement from the Federal Reserve on Friday about stimulating the nation’s economy.
      Oil’s rise was tempered by uncertainty about Libya, where unrest continued as the Gadhafi regime appeared near collapse.    Analysts don’t expect Libya’s crude to reach the market until next year or 2013.    Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude rose $1.02 to finish at $85.44 a barrel.
  
  
• 8/25/2011
  
  Deficit shrinks, a little bit - At $1.28 trillion, would rank third by Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — After months of unrelieved gloom and discord, Congress and President Barack Obama are starting to make a dent in the federal budget deficit.    It’s projected to shrink slightly to $1.28 trillion this year, and bigger savings from this month’s debt ceiling deal are forecast over the next decade.    No one’s celebrating.    There will be plenty of red ink for years to come.
      The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected Wednesday that annual budget deficits will be reduced by a total of $3.3 trillion over the next decade, largely because of the deficit reduction package passed by Congress earlier this month.    The office also forecast persistently high unemployment, a troubling political prospect for President Barack Obama in the crucial months of his campaign to win a second term.
      Even with the anticipated big savings, annual budget deficits are expected to total nearly $3.5 trillion over the next decade — and much more if Bush-era tax cuts scheduled to expire at the end of next year are extended.    In all, nearly $8.5 trillion would be added to the national debt over the next 10 years if the tax cuts and certain spending programs are kept in place, the budget office report said.
      The national debt now stands at more than $14.6 trillion.
      The numbers help illustrate the urgency facing a new joint committee in Congress that is charged with finding $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion in budget savings over the next decade.    Some lawmakers are calling for an even bigger package, a tall order given the bitter debate that produced this month’s debt deal.
      “CBO’s report is yet more evidence that Congress faces a twin challenge of a sluggish near-term economy and a still very serious long-term debt threat,” said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., chairman of the Senate Budget Committee.    “Congress cannot afford to ignore either challenge.”
      Most of this year’s improvement comes from higher than anticipated 2010 tax collections in the spring.
      At $1.28 trillion, this year’s deficit would be the third highest, surpassed only by those of the past two years.
  
  N. Korea reportedly ready to halt tests
      MOSCOW - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il says his country is ready to impose a nuclear test and production moratorium if international talks on its atomic program resume, in Pyongyang’s latest effort to restart long-stalled aid-for disarmament talks.
      It remains to be seen, however, whether Kim’s reported gesture at a summit Wednesday with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will satisfy the most skeptical of the five other nations at talks meant to end the North’s nuclear weapons ambitions — the United States, South Korea and Japan.
      U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that Kim Jong Il’s reported offer was “a welcome first step” but not enough to restart six-party disarmament talks.
  
  Deficit forces France to raise its taxes
      PARIS - The French government acknowledged Wednesday that the country’s economy is slowing and announced $16 billion in new taxes to ensure it reaches its deficit- reduction targets.
      The measures, including higher income taxes on high-wage earners and stiffer levies on alcohol, tobacco and soda, come as the nation tries to safeguard its AAA credit rating — something considered critical to the stability of the 17-nation euro zone.
      Emergency programs put together for Greece, Ireland and Portugal — and potentially needed to help Spain and Italy — hinge on the region’s stronger economies and their ability to borrow money at the lowest possible rates.
  
  Survey: Health benefits at risk by Tom Murphy, Associated Press
      Nearly one of every 10 midsized or big employers expects to stop offering health coverage to workers after insurance exchanges begin operating in 2014 as part of President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul, according to a survey by a major benefits consultant.
      Towers Watson also found in its July survey that another one in five companies are unsure about what they will do after 2014.    Another big benefits consultant, Mercer, found in a June survey of large and smaller employers that 8 percent are either “likely” or “very likely” to end health benefits after the exchanges start.    The surveys, which involved more than 1,200 companies, suggest that some businesses feel they will be better off dropping health-insurance coverage once the exchanges start, even though they could face fines and tax headaches.    The percentage of companies that are already saying they expect to do this surprised some experts, and if they follow through, it could start a trend that chips away at employer-sponsored health coverage, a long-standing pillar of the nation’s health system.
      Such a move could lead to more taxes for both companies and employees, since health benefits currently are not taxed, and companies could be fined for dropping coverage.    It also would give their employees a steep compensation cut if they don’t receive a pay raise, too.
      A large majority of employers in both studies said they expect to continue offering benefits after these exchanges start.    The Obama administration took issue with the Towers Watson survey, pointing out that studies by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and nonprofits like Urban Institute reached different conclusions.
  
  Global oil higher on supply fears
      International oil prices finished slightly higher on Wednesday because it was unclear when supplies of Libyan crude will return to global markets.
      London-traded Brent crude rose 84 cents to end at $110.15 per barrel.
      Meanwhile, crude trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 28 cents to end at $85.16 per barrel in New York as traders waited for possible moves by the Fed to stimulate the economy.    Hurricane Irene’s march toward oil refineries along the Atlantic Coast may push oil and gasoline prices higher later in the week, if it appears supplies could be interrupted.
  
  
• 8/26/2011
  
  Irene pushes up cost of oil
      Oil rose Thursday as concerns grew about the potential impact of Hurricane Irene on U.S. oil and gas supplies.    Crude rose 14 cents to finish at $85.30 per barrel in New York.
      Analyst Tom Bentz with BNP Paribas Commodity Futures in New York thinks Irene is pushing up oil because of the possible problems that coastal flooding could cause for refineries and shipping.    Refiner-ies in Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia produce nearly 8 percent of the country’s gasoline and diesel fuel, so gas prices should rise, too.
  
  
• 8/27/2011
  
  Bernanke to Congress: act - Urges policies to spark hiring by Associated Press
      Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has a message for Congress: Do more to stimulate hiring and growth, or risk delaying the economy’s return to full health.
      Bernanke held out the prospect Friday that the Fed might take further steps later to help the economy, but he offered no new plans for now.
      At a time when Congress has focused on shrinking budget deficits, Bernanke agreed that doing so is important for the long term.    But he warned lawmakers not to “disregard the fragility of the current economic recovery.”
      Investors had hoped Bernanke would use his much-anticipated speech at an economic conference in Jackson Hole to unveil some aggressive measure to jolt the economy.
      He did say that the Fed’s September policy meeting will be extended to two days, instead of the scheduled one, to permit a “fuller discussion” of the central bank’s options.
      “He appears to be saying that the Fed has largely played its part and that the politicians need to step up their game,” said Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics.
      Investors seemed to take comfort from Bernanke’s view that the job market and the economy will return to full health in the long run and the notion that the Fed might provide more help.    After initial losses, the Dow Jones industrial average closed up 134 points. Broader stock indexes also gained.
      Bernanke’s speech came shortly after the government said the economy grew at a scant 1 percent annual rate in the April-June quarter — even slower than previously estimated.
      The economy is still hobbled by a depressed housing market, high oil prices and fears that the European debt crisis will deteriorate into a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis.    The Dow has lost about 11 percent of its value since late July on fears that the economy might slip back into recession.
      On Friday, Bernanke blamed this summer’s political squabbling over raising the federal debt limit for undermining consumer and business confidence.    And he warned that further gridlock in Washington would “pose ongoing risks to growth.”
      The Fed chief noted that the depressed housing sector has delayed a full recovery in the broader economy.    He said the home market should gradually return to health — a process he said the government should support.
      The most powerful weapon the Fed has left would be a third round of bond purchases.    Critics, from congressional Republicans to some Fed officials, have raised concerns that the Fed’s Treasury purchases could ignite inflation and speculative buying on Wall Street, while doing little to aid the economy.
      Bernanke pushed back against that notion in his speech.    He said that with oil and other commodity prices easing, he expects long-term inflation to remain low well into 2012.
  
  Slow economic growth hits oil
      Oil held above $85 per barrel Friday on news that the economy didn’t grow as fast as previously expected.    Slower growth lowers energy demand.
      The government said Friday that the U.S. economy grew at a rate of just 1 percent from April to June, down from previous estimates of 1.3 percent.    Crude rose 7 cents to $85.37 per barrel in New York.
      Hurricane Irene, which could reach North Carolina’s Outer Banks today with winds around 100 mph, could stifle fuel supplies in coming days, but analysts said prices shouldn’t rise by much.
  
  Debt crisis has officials revisiting Eurobonds by Howard Schneider, THE WASHINGTON POST
      Europe’s financial crisis is forcing officials to revisit an issue they brushed aside in the heady rush a decade ago to launch the euro as a common currency — how to yoke together their economies and issue common bonds to pay for roads, schools and the deficits run by individual member countries.
      Eurobonds were widely considered a crucial ingredient for any full-fledged monetary union in Europe.    But these bonds, which would be backed by all the countries in the euro area, were too politically controversial at the time.    The idea has returned as an urgent issue of debate.
      Some European countries face soaring interest rates for their individual bonds, and the spiking cost of borrowing has raised concerns about whether these governments will be able to pay their bills.
      The result has been a series of government bailouts and a continental debt crisis that threatens to undermine the global economy.
      The debate pits economically weaker countries of southern Europe, which could win easier access to borrowed money, against stronger ones in the north, which worry that they could be on the hook for their neighbors’ extravagant ways.    Imagine roommates who want to share a credit card but worry about the one who’s always splurging for new designer clothes.
      Amadeu Altafaj Tardio, a spokesman for the European Commission’s economic and monetary affairs committee, said the “construction” of the euro was left unfinished when it was introduced between 1999 and 2002.
      Eurobonds “mean telling the people, the citizenry, that you are ready to share risks,” Tardio said.    “That would be the strongest support for the euro area. It makes sense in the context of a monetary union. . . . Politically it does not seem feasible.”
      But if Europe’s crisis has proved one thing, it’s that steps considered impossible at one point become urgently needed at another.
      In the past 18 months, leaders such as European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have crossed previously declared red lines to prevent countries from defaulting on their bond payments, which could touch off a market panic or even break up the currency zone.
      The opposition to eurobonds is strong in Germany, the largest European economy and a make-or-break voice in many discussions.
  
  
• 8/28/2011
  
  Iran tells Assad to listen to protesters
      BEIRUT - Syria’s closest ally, Iran, warned Saturday that a power vacuum in Damascus could spark an unprecedented regional crisis while it urged President Bashar Assad to listen to some of his people’s “legitimate demands.”    Thousands of protesters, meanwhile, insisted they will defy tanks and bullets until Assad goes.    The 5-month-old uprising in Syria has left Assad with few international allies except for Iran.
  
  
• 8/30/2011
  
  Economy team complete - Obama names labor expert by Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama tapped labor economist Alan Krueger for a top administration post Monday as the White House scrambles for solutions to repair an ailing U.S. economy ahead of the 2012 election.
      Obama announced Krueger’s nomination to chair the White House Council of Economic Advisers.    The president said he expected Krueger, a former Treasury Department official and Princeton University economist, to provide him with unvarnished economic guidance, not partisan political advice.
      “That’s more important than ever right now,” Obama said.    “We need folks in Washington to make decisions based on what’s best for the country, not what’s best for any political party or special interest.”
      The announcement rounding out the president’s economic team comes a week ahead of Obama’s highly-anticipated announcement on a new jobs initiative.
      With the U.S. unemployment rate stubbornly stuck above 9 percent and much of the public deeply dissatisfied with Obama’s handling of the economy, the president has promised a new set of jobs proposals.
      “Our great challenge as a nation remains how to get this economy growing faster,” Obama said.    “That’s our urgent mission.”
      Obama has already called for an extension of a payroll tax cut that expires at the end of the year and he wants to continue jobless benefits.
      Aides are considering other measures, including tax incentives for businesses to hire and direct infusions of government money into construction projects.
      The president has said he intends to call for additional long-term deficit reduction to help pay for the short-term spending his proposals would require.
  
  U.S. consumers help boost oil
      Oil prices rose Monday after the government said consumers spent more in July, easing concerns about another recession.    Oil rose $1.90 to finish at $87.27 per barrel in New York.
      The report is an encouraging sign about the economy despite weak demand for gasoline, PFGBest analyst Phil Flynn said.    “The consumers may be saying they’re not that confident but they’re spending is telling a different story,” he said.
  
  EU recovery at risk? - Spillover from financial market turmoil is a concern by Associated Press
      BRUSSELS — Turmoil in global financial markets threatens the economic recovery in the European Union, the bloc’s top economic official said Monday.
      The warning from EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn came after a turbulent summer for markets across the globe, as investors worried about a potential new U.S. recession, the eurozone’s ability to resolve its debt crisis and the health of European banks.
      “The financial markets and the real economy move now more in synchrony, which makes me seriously concerned about continued financial turbulence spilling over to and potentially harming the recovery of the real economy,” Rehn told European lawmakers.
      That statement is a sharp turnaround from comments in recent months, when Rehn consistently pointed out that growth in the EU was strengthening despite the market jitters.
      As a result, the European Commission now has a somewhat bleaker view of economic growth in Europe than this spring, Rehn said, adding that a new forecast will be released Sept 15.
      In May, the Commission, the EU’s executive arm and economic watchdog, predicted the 27country bloc would grow 1.8 percent this year, while the eurozone would expand 1.6 percent.
      The European Parliament’s economic affairs committee had called Rehn, as well as European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet and Eurogroup Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker, to an emergency hearing on the eurozone’s problems.
      Investor concerns over the currency union have been worsened by delays in implementing a second bailout for Greece and changes to the eurozone’s bailout fund, which were agreed at a summit on July 21.
      Eurozone countries remain locked in discussions over Finland’s demand to receive collateral to secure its contributions to the Greek rescue.
  
  
• 8/31/2011
  
  Oil rises amid supply fears
      Oil rose to near $89 per barrel Tuesday on expectations that supplies will be tighter in the wake of Hurricane Irene.
      The storm forced several refineries and petroleum terminals to reduce production or shut down altogether.    The East Coast may deal with lower fuel supplies in coming weeks, and traders are betting oil and gasoline prices will rise. Meanwhile, another tropical storm — Katia — is strengthening to a hurricane out in the Atlantic and may eventually head toward the U.S.
      Crude rose $1.63 to finish at $88.90 per barrel in New York.
  
  
• 9/1/2011
  
  Solar firm that got U.S. loan closes
      A California solar-panel maker once touted by President Barack Obama as a beneficiary of his administration’s economic policies — as well as a $535 million federal loan — is laying off 1,100 workers and filing for bankruptcy.
      Solyndra LLC of Fremont, Calif., had become the poster child for government investment in green technology.    The president visited the company in May 2010 and noted that Solyndra expected to hire 1,000 workers to manufacture solar panels.    Other state and federal officials such as former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Energy Secretary Steven Chu also visited the company’s facilities.
      But hard times have hit the nation’s solar industry. Solyndra is the third solar company to seek bankruptcy protection this month.
  
  Power returns, gas price rises
      The price of natural gas, a major energy source for power plants, jumped nearly 4 percent Wednesday as power started to come back in the Eastern U.S. following widespread outages caused by Hurricane Irene.
      In other energy trading, crude oil fell 9 cents to finish at $88.81 per barrel in New York.
      More than three-quarters of the 9.4 million outages were restored during the past few days.    The recovery will boost energy demand along the East Coast, increasing the output from natural gas-fired generators.
  
  
• 9/2/2011
  
  Oil up 12 cents on U.S. reports
      Oil prices rose slightly Thursday on positive U.S. economic reports on manufacturing and retailing.
      Crude oil rose 12 cents to settle at $88.93 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices fluctuated during the day, touching a low of $88.21 and a high of $89.90.    Forecasters said there was an 80 percent chance a tropical depression could form in the Gulf of Mexico, a system that has prompted two major producers to remove crews from a handful of production platforms.    Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil said they would also cut off a tiny amount of production.
  
  
• 9/3/2011
  
  Feds sue biggest U.S. banks over risky mortgages by Pallavi Gogoi, Associated Press
      NEW YORK — In a sweeping move, the government sued 17 financial firms Friday, including the largest U.S. banks, for selling Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac billions of dollars worth of mortgage-backed securities that turned toxic when the housing market collapsed.    Among the 17 targeted by the suits were Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., JP Morgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs.    The suits were filed Friday by the Federal Housing Finance Agency which oversees Fannie and Freddie, the two agencies that buy mortgages loans and mortgage securities issued by the lenders.    Total cost for the securities bought by Fannie and Freddie affected by the suits: $196 billion.
      The government didn’t give a dollar amount of how much it seeks in damages, but said it wants to have purchases of the securities canceled, be compensated for lost principal, interest payments as well as attorney fees and costs.    The lawsuits allege the financial firms broke federal and state laws with the sales.    Home mortgage- backed securities were risky investments that collapsed after the real estate bust and fueled the 2008 financial crisis.    In the suits filed in federal or state court in New York and the federal court in Connecticut, the U.S. said the securities were sold with registration statements and prospectuses that “contained ma-terially false or misleading statements and omissions.”
      FHFA said the banks and mortgage lenders also falsely represented that the mortgage loans in the securities complied with underwriting guidelines and standards.    They also included representations “that significantly overstated the ability of the borrower to repay their mortgage loans.”
      The 17: Ally Financial Inc. (formerly GMAC LLC), Bank of America Corp., Barclays Bank PLC, Citigroup Inc., Countrywide Financial Corp., Credit Suisse Holdings Inc., Deutsche Bank AG, First Horizon National Corp., General Electric Co., Goldman Sachs & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co., HSBC North America Holdings Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. and its unit First Franklin Financial Corp., Morgan Stanley, Nomura Holding America Inc., The Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, and Societe Generale.
  
  No jobs added in August - Slow hiring spurs U.S. recession fears by Paul Wiseman, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Employers added no jobs in August — an alarming setback for the economy that renewed fears of another recession and raised pressure on Washington to end the hiring standstill.
      Worries flared Friday after release of the worst jobs report since September 2010.    Total payrolls were unchanged, the first time since 1945 that the government reported a net job change of zero.    The unemployment rate stayed at 9.1 percent.
      The stock market plunged in response.    The Dow Jones industrial average fell 253 points, or more than 2 percent.
      Analysts say the economy cannot continue to expand unless hiring picks up.    In the first six months of 2011, growth was measured at an annual rate of 0.7 percent.
      Companies are mostly keeping their payrolls intact.    They’re not laying off many workers, but they’re not hiring, either.    Without more jobs to fuel consumer spending, economists say another recession would be inevitable.    Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of economic growth.
      Like a wobbling bicycle, “you either reaccelerate or you fall over,” said James O’Sullivan, chief economist at MF Global.    ”Something has to give.“    Consumer and business confidence was shaken this summer by the political standoff over the federal debt limit, a downgrade of long-term U.S. debt and the financial crisis in Europe.    Tumbling stock prices escalated the worries.
      Even before it stalled last month, job growth had been sputtering.    The economy added 166,000 jobs a month in the January- March quarter, 97,000 a month in the April-June quarter and just 43,000 a month so far in the July-September period.
      ”Underlying job growth needs to improve immediately in order to avoid a recession,“ said HSBC economist Ryan Wang.
      The dispiriting job numbers for August will heighten the pressure on the Federal Reserve, President Barack Obama and Congress to find ways to stimulate the economy.
      So far, the Fed has been reluctant to launch another round of Treasury bond purchases.    Its previous bond-buying programs were intended to force down long-term interest rates, encourage borrowing and boost stock prices.
      On Thursday, Obama will give a televised speech to a joint session of Congress to introduce a plan for creating jobs and spurring economic growth.
      Even for people who do have jobs, income growth is stalled.    That will hold back their ability to spend.    The only sure way to reduce the risk of recession is with more hiring, economists say.
      ”The importance of job growth cannot be overstated,“ said Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at MFR Inc.
      The economy needs to add roughly 250,000 jobs a month to rapidly bring down the unemployment rate.    The rate has been above 9 percent in all but two months since May 2009. Roughly 14 million Americans are unemployed.
  
  EU bans oil from Syria; 13 protesters die by Elizabeth A. Kennedy, ASSOCIATED PRESS
      BEIRUT — The European Union banned oil imports from Syria on Friday in a move that is expected to cost the regime millions of dollars each day as it tries to crush an uprising that has railed against the country’s authoritarian government for more than five months.    President Bashar Assad’s assault on protests continued, killing at least 13 people, activists said.
      Security forces fired on thousands of anti-government protesters and surrounded mosques to prevent worshippers from streaming into the streets to join the rallies.    The U.N. estimates about 2,200 people have been killed since March as protesters take to the streets every week, despite the near-certainty that they will face a barrage of bullets and sniper fire.
      But the regime is in no imminent danger of collapse, leading to concerns violence will escalate.    On Friday, Syrian protesters marched under the slogan “Death Rather Than Humiliation” — reflecting a growing frustration among activists that their largely peaceful gatherings have failed to crack the regime.    Recent weeks have seen a subtle change in tone among some protesters who are calling on Syrians to take up arms and inviting foreign military action like the intervention that helped topple the Libyan government.    Although the calls to arms aren’t widespread, there are fears that a prolonged stalemate could serve to radicalize the movement and lead to more bloodshed.    The EU oil ban follows other international sanctions.
      But the oil embargo is significant because Damascus gets about 28 percent of its revenue from the oil trade and sells fuel to France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.
  
  Libyan rebels circle city - Gadhafi hometown in negotiations by Paul Schemm, Associated Press
      TRIPOLI, Libya — Rebels pushed closer to Moammar Gadhafi’s birthplace Friday, despite extension of a deadline for the town’s surrender and talks with tribal leaders aimed at avoiding bloodshed.    With the capital of Tripoli firmly in their hands, the rebels are in no rush to assault the loyalist-held town of Sirte, rebel officials said, hoping the town would surrender without attack.    But the rebels also are moving forces into position in case an assault is needed.    “Military action will be the last option, because after the fall of the capital, we are not in a hurry,” said Khaled Zintani, a spokesman for the rebels in the remote mountain town of Zintan.
      Tribal elders inSirte had asked that a delegation from Zintan be sent to Sirte to help with negotiations, he said, because of a long history of bad blood with rebels from towns closer to Sirte.
      Despite the extension of a Sirte surrender deadline to Sept. 10, the rebel forces haven’t stopped advancing, said another rebel spokesman, Abdel-Hafiz Ghoga.    Rebel brigades have pushed to the town of Wadi Hawarah, just 30 miles from Sirte, he said.
      “The rebels at the front line are very eager to move without delay,” he said.    “They live in harsh conditions there in the middle of the desert, and in hot weather.”
      Gadhafi is still a fugitive and there’ve been conflicting reports on his location.    Gen. Omar al-Hariri, a rebel military commander, suggested Friday that Gadhafi might either be in a suburb of Tripoli or in the town of Bani Walid, 90 miles southeast of Tripoli.    But he also acknowledged that the former Libyan leader probably has hideouts elsewhere.
      “We are after him and we will find him,” he said.    “He called us rats, but he is the larger rat.”    The rebels have said they are concentrating their forces on three strongholds still held by Gadhafi loyalists: Sirte, Bani Walid and the southern city of Sabha.    But even with Gadhafi still on the run, rebel leaders are already trying to stabilize Libya.
      A Libyan official said at least five foreign oil and gas companies have returned to the country in recent days to try to get production going again.    Libya’s economic future could hinge on its lucrative oil and gas sectors, whose production ground to a halt during the insurgency against Gadhafi.
  
  U.N. agency ‘increasingly concerned’ on Iran, nukes by George Jahn, Associated Press
      VIENNA — The U.N. nuclear agency said Wednesday it is “increasingly concerned” about intelligence information suggesting that Iran continues to work secretly on developing a nuclear payload for a missile and other components of a nuclear weapons program.
      In its report, the International Atomic Energy Agency said “many member states” are providing evidence for that assessment, describing the information it is receiving as credible, “extensive and comprehensive.”    The report was made available Friday to The Associated Press, shortly after being shared internally with the 35 agency member nations and the U.N. Security Council.    It also said Tehran has started installing equipment to enrich uranium at a new location, an underground bunker that is better protected from air attack than its present enrichment facilities.
      Enrichment can produce both nuclear fuel and fissile warhead material. Tehran, which says it wants only to produce fuel with the technology, is under four sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions for refusing to freeze enrichment, which it says it needs only for fuel. Iran denies secretly experimenting with a nuclear weapons program.    But it has blocked a four-year attempt by the U.N. agency to follow up on intelligence that it secretly designed blueprints linked to a nuclear payload on a missile, experimented with exploding a nuclear charge and conducted work on other components of a weapons program.
      In a 2007 estimate, the U.S. intelligence community said that although Iran had worked on a weapons program, such activities appeared to have ceased in 2003.    But diplomats say a later intelligence summary avoided such specifics, and the U.N. agency has expressed growing unease that such activities may be continuing.
  
  Lackluster August hiring batters stocks by Associated Press
      A dismal jobs report caused stocks to plunge Friday.    The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 253.31 points, wiping out its gain for the week. All 30 stocks in the average fell.
      No jobs were added in the U.S. last month, the government said early Friday.    It was the worst employment report in11months and renewed fears that another recession could be on the way.    The yield on the 10year Treasury note briefly fell below 2 percent and gold jumped $48 an ounce as cash flowed into investments seen as less risky than stocks.
      “It’s certainly ugly,” said Jeff Kleintop, chief market strategist at LPL Financial.
      The U.S. jobs news came out midday in Europe, dragging stock markets lower in afternoon trading. Indexes in Germany and France were already sinking on news that talks between Greece and international lenders over that coun-try’s debt crisis were breaking down.    Germany’s DAX closed down 3.4 percent; France’s CAC-40 lost 3.6 percent.
      The lack of hiring in the U.S. last month surprised investors.    Economists were expecting 93,000 jobs to be added.    Previously reported hiring figures for June and July were revised lower.    The average work week declined and hourly earnings fell.    The unemploy-ment rate held steady at 9.1 percent.    The rate has been above 9 percent in all but two months since May 2009.
      Kleintop said the jobs report didn’t change his view that the economy was headed for a stretch of weak economic growth, not a recession.    He said the figures were likely skewed by unusual events that may have made employers reluctant to add jobs in August.
      The Labor Department’s report relies on data collected from surveys of households and businesses in the second week of August.    That’s right after Standard & Poor’s removed the country’s AAA credit rating and fears mounted that Europe’s banking crisis could spread to the United States.    Television screens were filled with images of riots in London.    “I’m not surprised that businesses weren’t doing too much hiring in that environment,” Kleintop said.
      The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 11,240.26.    It was the biggest fall in two weeks.    The Dow gained 329 points in the first three days of the week, turning the index positive for the year on Wednesday.
      The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 30.45 points to 1,173.97 and the Nasdaq composite fell 65.71 to 2,480.33.    Cash poured into Treasurys and gold, assets believed to be safer bets during a weak econ-omy.
  
  Crude oil prices drop nearly 3%
      Oil prices fell Friday along with the prospects for global economic growth as the government reported the economy added no jobs last month.    Crude fell $2.48 to finish at $86.45 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.    The U.S. jobs report follows a weak manufacturing report from China and concerns that the lingering debt crisis in Europe continues to hold back economic growth there.
      Concerns about the economy, the dollar and increased supply from Libya overwhelmed worries that the interruptions of oil and gas production caused by Tropical Storm Lee in the Gulf of Mexico might squeeze supplies and push oil prices higher.
      Bank of America shares fell on reports that the Federal Reserve asked it for a contingency plan in case business conditions worsen.
      Gannett Co., parent of The Courier-Journal, fell with other newspaper publishers’ shares after an industry report of a decline in second-quarter advertising revenue.
  
  
• 9/4/2011
  
  Congress split on job creation - Lawmakers return as approval sags by David Espo, The Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Congress returns to work this week, divided over measures to create jobs.
      After a five-week break, Republican and Democratic leaders alike promise action to try and ease the country’s 9.1 percent unemployment rate and boost an economy that is barely growing.    President Barack Obama goes first Thursday night with a speech to lawmakers and a prime-time national television audience.
      But there is little overlap so far in the measures that Republicans and Democrats are recommending, and the rest of the yearend congressional agenda is top-heavy with items that relate to government spending and less directly to job creation.
      A new committee, comprised of lawmakers in both parties from both houses and armed with extraordinary powers, is expected to hold its first meeting this week as it begins work on a plan to make long-term deficit cuts.    The panel was created as part of last month’s agreement to reduce red ink and avert a government default. It faces a Nov. 23 deadline for action.
      More immediately, parts of the Federal Aviation Administration will shut down Sept.16 unless Congress approves a measure to keep operations running.    Federal money for highway construction jobs runs out two weeks later without separate legislation.
      The Obama administration seeks more money for disaster relief in the wake of Hurricane Irene, and a partial government shutdown would occur Oct. 1 unless lawmakers enact an interim spending bill to cover most federal agencies.
      With any or all of these measures, there is an opportunity for partisan gridlock or compromise, and it isn’t entirely clear which the public might prefer.
      In a late-August Associated Press-GfK poll, only12 percent of those surveyed said they approved of the job Congress is doing, and 87 percent disapproved.    A separate Gallup survey, taken in mid-month, found 13 percent approved and 84 percent disapproved.
      “Everybody is kind of in trouble with the electorate,” said Republican pollster Bill McInturff.    He recently distributed an analysis that concluded the negotiating surrounding last month’s agreement to avoid a default is ‘an extremely significant event that is profoundly and sharply reshaping views of the economy and the federal government.’    It has led to a scary erosion in confidence in both, at a time when this steep drop in confidence can be least afforded.
      But if the public was offended by the bickering before the deal, there isn’t much evidence the compromise on the nation’s borrowing limit did much to restore confidence in Congress’ ability to address economic problems.
      A Fox News poll last month showed opinion was split on the compromise, with Republicans overwhelmingly opposed, independents solidly against it and Democrats narrowly in favor. But even those statistics masked a deeper divide.
      Obama is considering tax breaks to provide businesses an incentive to hire new employees.    He also is expected to call for new spending on construction projects and to seek an extension of jobless benefits.
  
  
• 9/6/2011
  
  Rebels close in around Gadhafi stronghold
      TARHOUNA, LIBYA - Thousands of rebel fighters closed in around one of Libya’s last pro-Gadhafi strongholds Monday, but held back on a final assault in hopes of avoiding a bloody battle for the town of Bani Walid.
      The standoff came as rebel leaders in Tripoli said Libya’s transition to democratic rule would begin with a “declaration of liberation” that was unlikely to come before Gadhafi’s forces last strongholds were defeated and the fugitive former dictator had been captured.
      The declaration would mark the start of an eight month deadline for Libya’s transitional council to arrange the vote for a national assembly.
  
  U.S. weakness spreads - World markets fear slump here by Carloa Piovano, Associated Press
      LONDON — World stock markets took a beating Monday over fears that the U.S. economy was heading back into a recession just as the European debt crisis was heating up and the eurozone’s economic indicators were slump-ing.
      Any troubles in the world’s largest economy cast a long shadow over the markets, and a report Friday that the U.S. economy failed to add any new jobs in August caused European and Asian stock markets to sink sharply Monday.
      But the news from Europe was also discouraging.    Wall Street, which was closed Monday due to the Labor Day holiday, braced for losses today after the yields in so-called peripheral eurozone countries — Greece, Italy and Spain — rose sharply against those of Germany, whose bonds are widely considered a safe haven.
      Although retail sales in the 17nation eurozone rose unexpectedly in July, a survey of the services sector Monday showed a slowdown across the continent for the fifth consecutive month.    The purchasing managers’ index for the eurozone showed the services sector was still growing — unlike the manufacturing sector — but only barely.    That will add pressure on the European Central Bank to keep interest rates on hold when it meets this week.
      “There’s so much uncertainty, so much fear, that investors don’t know what to do,” said David Ko-tok, chairman and chief investment officer at Cumberland Advisors.
      “I don’t remember the last time stocks were so cheap and nobody wanted them.”    Investors were also shaken by signs that the Italian government’s commitment to its austerity program is wavering.    Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government has backtracked on some deficit cutting measures, prompting EU officials to urge Italy to stick to its promised plan.
      The difference in interest rates between the Greek and benchmark German 10-year bonds, known as the spread, spiraled to new records on Monday, topping 17.3 percentage points.    Yields on the Greek bonds were above 18 percent.
      Mario Draghi, the incoming chief of the European Central Bank, told a conference in Paris that among the common currency’s problems was a lack of coordinated fiscal policies and that the solution was more integration.
      He dismissed the idea of eurobonds — debt issued jointly by the eurozone coun-tries.    Some have argued this would help weaker countries borrow more easily because they wouldn’t have to pay such high interest rates.    But stable countries like Germany would likely see their rates rise.
      Instead, Draghi suggested the eurozone should adopt rules that would require more budget discipline.
      Renewed jitters over the eurozone debt crisis also contributed to the slump in financial stocks amid concerns the banks would need to raise new capital.    Deutsche bank closed down 8.9 percent in Frankfurt, while Societe Generale in Paris shed 8.6 percent.
      The U.S. unemployment crisis has prompted President Barack Obama to schedule a major speech Thursday night to propose steps to stimulate hiring. Until then, however, traders coming back from the U.S. holiday weekend will have little to hold onto.
      The August jobs figure was far below economists’ already tepid expectations for 93,000 new U.S. jobs and renewed concerns that the U.S. recovery is not only slowing but actually unwinding. U.S. hiring figures for June and July were also revised lower, only adding to the gloom.
      Many traders have already pulled out of any risky investments — such as stocks, particularly financial ones, the euro and emerging market currencies — and piled into safe havens: U.S. Treasuries, the dollar, the Japanese yen and gold.
      With Wall Street closed, investors focused their selling in Asia and Europe, where the equity losses Monday were some of the heaviest this year.    “We’ve got some rough riding ahead,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank in Chicago, adding he was “concerned that we could see a second wave of selling when most traders are back at their desks.”
      Dow futures were down 1.8 percent at 11,010 points while the broader S&P 500 futures were 2.0 lower at 1,145.70.
      After Asian indexes closed lower, with the Japan’s Nikkei 225 shedding 1.9 percent, European shares booked sharp losses. Britain’s FTSE 100 closed the day down 3.6 percent to 5,102.58. Germany’s DAX slumped a massive 5.3 percent to 5,246.18, and France’s CAC-40 tumbled 4.7 percent to 2,999.54.
      The health of the U.S. economy is crucial for the wider world because consumer spending their accounts for a fifth of global economic activity.    The U.S. imports huge amounts from Japan and China and is closely linked at all levels with the European market.    The U.S. has seen a slump in consumer and business sentiments.
      Traders were hoping for signs that the Federal Reserve might take action at its September meeting to support the economy — perhaps a third round of bond purchases, dubbed quantitative easing III or QE3, analysts said.
      “Right now the possibility has increased,” said Linus Yip, a strategist at First Shanghai Securities in Hong Kong.    “I think they have to do something. The markets are expecting QE3.”
  
  
• 9/7/2011
  
  Gadhafi loyalists flee into Niger - Former leader not with them, however by Maggie Michael, Associated Press
      TARHOUNA, Libya — Convoys of Moammar Gadhafi loyalists, including his security chief, fled across the Sahara into Niger on Tuesday in a move that Libya’s former rebels hoped could lead to the surrender of his last strongholds.
      Still, efforts to negotiate the peaceful handover of one of the most crucial of those bastions, the city of Bani Walid, proved difficult.
      Tribal elders from Bani Walid who met Tuesday with former rebels were confronted by angry residents of the city, including Gadhafi supporters, who fired in the air and sent them fleeing, mediators said.    Many in Bani Walid remain deeply mistrustful of the forces that have seized power in Libya and are reluctant to accept their rule.
      Some former rebels depicted the flight to Niger as a major exodus of Gadhafi’s most hardcore backers.    But confirmed information on the number and identity of those leaving was scarce as the convoy made its way over 1,000 miles across the desert.
      Gadhafi himself isn’t in the convoys, the U.S. State Department said.
      The convoys included armed contingents of Tuareg tribal fighters from Niger, who have long been en-listed as mercenaries for Gadhafi’s regime, Niger officials said.    A Gadhafi opponent said the convoys also carried gold and cash belonging to the regime.
      U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the U.S. has urged Niger to detain anyone who might be subject to prosecution in Libya, confiscate weapons and impound any state property that was illegally taken out of the country.
      A significant move to escape by the top echelons of Gadhafi’s military and security services could bring an important shift in Libya.
      Gadhafi opponents who toppled his regime by taking Tripoli last month have been struggling to uproot the last bastions of his support, particularly in Bani Walid, Sirte and the southern city of Sabha.    They say those residents have been prevented from surrendering because of former regime figures in their midst.
  
  Postal service warns it’s near default
      WASHINGTON - Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe warned that the Postal Service is on “the brink of default” as he battles to keep his agency solvent.
      Without legislation by Sept. 30, the agency “will default on a required $5.5 billion payment to the Treasury,” Donahoe told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Tues-day.    By next August or September, it could run out of money to pay salaries, he said.    He doesn’t want taxpayer money but relief from the requirement that it make advance payments to cover future retiree medical benefits.    But because of the way the federal budget is organized, the money counts as income to the government, so eliminating it would make the federal deficit appear larger.
  
  Senate Democrats try to add disaster aid
      Senate Democrats unveiled legislation Tuesday providing $6 billion in new disaster aid to help victims of Hurricane Irene and past disasters back to Hurricane Katrina.
      A Senate Appropriations panel responsible for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s budget approved the measure by voice vote.
      At the same time, the measure’s author said that with disaster aid funds running low, it may be necessary to add more immediate disaster aid to a stopgap funding bill expected to be enacted before the FEMA funding measure.
      The moves could spark a battle with tea party-backed House Republicans, who say Congress should cut federal spending elsewhere to pay for disaster aid.
  
  Europe may hold firm on interest - Inflation fears have eased by Associated Press
      FRANKFURT, Germany — The European Central Bank is expected to make clear Thursday that its key interest rate will stay firmly on hold at 1.5 percent as inflation fears ease and eurozone governments struggle with the currency union’s debt crisis.    Some economists and market participants, however, speculate that simply keeping rates steady won’t be enough to get Europe out of its predicament, no matter what the bank says now.    They think any sudden worsening of the debt crisis or a reversal for the eurozone’s fragile economic recovery could force a rate cut in weeks and months ahead.
      “Recent indicators suggest that this recovery has faltered,” said Dermot O’Leary, an analyst with Goodbody Stockbrokers in Dublin who expects a rate cut as early as the first part of next year.
      On Thursday, when no change is expected after the bank’s 23member governing council meets at its headquarters in Frankfurt, the focus will be on President Jean-Claude Trichet’s news conference.
      In particular, traders will seek confirmation of hints he dropped last week that the central bank is softening its assessment of inflation risks.
      Trichet told a European Parliament committee that the bank’s view of inflation was “under study.”    That was a noticeable shift away from the earlier view that inflation risks were “on the upside,” tilted toward unexpectedly high price rises.
      Economists took it as a strong hint that the central bank’s key rate is now on long-term hold after two increases in April and May, which were aimed at normalizing credit costs after their record lows during the 2007-2009 financial crisis.
      Turmoil caused by the eurozone’s government debt crisis and fears it could weigh on growth have cemented those views.
      Indicators of business and consumer optimism have sagged, an indication that the market volatility is shaking the wider economy, not just the financial sector.    Second-quarter eurozone growth disappointed at 0.2 percent, as the currency’s largest economy, Germany, grew by a bare 0.1 percent.
      At the same time, the leaders of the 17 countries that use the euro are struggling to contain a crisis caused by bond market fears that some countries have taken on too much debt and will default, inflicting crippling losses on a shaky European banking system.    The European Central Bank is a key player in that struggle through its emergency program to buy Italian and Spanish bonds on financial markets.
  
  Soaring gold price fuels brazen crime - Necklaces being pulled off women by Thomas Watkins, Associated Press
      LOS ANGELES — Gus Rodriguez looks more like a soldier than a jewelry store security guard.    He wears a Beretta handgun strapped to his bulletproof vest, sunglasses wrapped around his shaved head and pepper spray in a bulging breast pocket.
      “I am not afraid,” the former Ecuadorean military man said, patting his pistol.    “They call me Rambo.”
      After a summer of brazen attacks on gold stores, parts of downtown Los Angeles now look more like a war zone than a commercial corridor.
      The gold fever that has driven prices to an all-time high is also fueling gold thefts.
      “It’s really bad,” said the owner of Abel’s Jewelry, one of scores of gold stores lining Broadway, a grubby street through the heart of downtown Los Angeles.    “You work all your life trying to have something for the family, and they want to take it all in one day.”
      The beauty of gold, from a criminal standpoint, is that it’s easy to fence.    Rings and necklaces can be melted down — destroying the evidence — and sold. Precious items such as diamonds are harder to alter and easier to trace.
      Abel, the jewelry store owner, asked his last name not be used for fear of bringing unwanted attention from criminals.    His store has been robbed twice this year, most recently about two months ago when three men smashed his glass displays and made off with about $10,000 worth of gold.
      There were at least six Los Angeles gold store robberies in June and July.    On Aug. 22, four men with hammers were arrested outside a jewelry store, Los Angeles police Lt. Paul Vernon said.
      Police think these thefts were carried out by gang members who covered their faces with hoods and hats, then rushed into stores and swiped what they could in a matter of seconds.    One surveillance video shows a shopkeeper being blasted with pepper spray while robbers destroy display cabinets and grab what they can.
      “Certainly the surging gold prices motivated these people to want to do these smash-and-grabs,” Vernon said.    “They are not trading what they steal at the market value of gold.    Even if they get it half that, they are making a pretty penny.”
      In Oakland, police say dozens of women have had gold necklaces yanked from their necks on the street.
  
  Oil tumbles on fears for Europe
      Oil slipped Tuesday on fears that the U.S. and Europe are headed for a prolonged economic slump.    Crude oil lost 43 cents to $86.02 per barrel in New York.
      Analysts said investors continue to be spooked by a steady drumbeat of disappointing economic news.    “It’s going to be a nerve-wracking 12 months,” analyst and trader Stephen Schork said.    “A lot of people are just trying to get their bearings.”
      Earlier this year, economists predicted that a rebounding global economy would push world oil demand to record levels in 2011.    Now, analysts aren’t so certain.
      China and other developing nations are still going to drive oil demand.    But they won’t grow as fast if consumers in the U.S. and Europe cut back on purchases of clothing, toys, electronics and other goods that are made in foreign factories.
      “Oil demand both domestically and globally will fall short of most expectations during the current second half of 2011,” independent analyst Jim Ritterbusch said.
  
  
• 9/8/2011
  
  Oil jumps on storm worries
      Oil surged nearly 4 percent Wednesday on the expectation that tropical storms will further hamper oil production in the Gulf of Mexico and squeeze supplies.
      Crude jumped $3.32 to finish at $89.34 per barrel in New York.
      The government said Tropical Storm Lee forced oil companies to evacuate as many as 232 platforms over the weekend, more than a third of those operating in the region.    The evacuations cut production of about 4 percent of the oil consumed daily in the U.S. By Wednesday workers had returned to all but 21 platforms.
      Now that Tropical Storm Lee has passed, traders are watching Tropical Storm Maria in the Atlantic.    It’s still 3,000 miles from the U.S., but analysts are betting it will be the next of many storms to hamper production this hurricane season, which runs through November.    The National Hurricane Center expects as many as18 named storms this year, with as many as half of them at hurricane strength.
  
  
• 9/9/2011
  
  Obama: Job plan ‘right thing to do’ - The $447 billion plan offers tax relief for workers, employers
  
  HIGHLIGHTS
  • EMPLOYEE TAX CUTS — A deeper payroll tax cut for all workers.    Obama’s proposals would cut that tax to 3.1 percent for all workers next year.    Estimated cost: $175 billion.
  • EMPLOYER TAX CUTS — A payroll tax cuts for all business with payrolls up to $5 million.    Obama’s proposal would cut the current 6.2 percent share of the payroll tax that employers pay to 3.1 percent.    Estimated cost: $65 billion.
  • PUBLIC WORKS — The president proposes spending $30 billion to modernize schools and $50 billion on road and bridge projects.    He also calls for an “infrastructure bank” to help raise private sector money.    Estimated total cost: $105 billion.
  • UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS — If approved by Congress, the plan would continue assistance to millions of people who are receiving extended benefits under emergency unemployment insurance set up during the recession.    Estimated cost: $49 billion.
  • LOCAL GOVERNMENT AID — The economy has forced state and local governments to lay off workers.    Obama proposes spending to guard against layoffs of emergency personnel and teachers.    Cost: $35 billion.
  
      “The people of this country work hard to meet their responsibilities.    The question tonight is whether we’ll meet ours.”    President Barack Obama
      WASHINGTON — Barack Obama, looking to jolt both the U.S. economy and his presidency, proposed a $447 billion plan for creating jobs in a high-profile, nationally televised speech before Congress on Thursday.
      Obama, facing a tough re-election fight next year, looked to stem the eroding confidence in his leadership as the mood of Americans darkens and emboldened Republican presidential challengers assail his record.
      The newest and boldest element of Obama’s plan would slash the payroll tax for the Social Security pen-sion program both for tens of millions of workers and for employers, too.    It also includes $105 billion in public works projects and the renewal of $50 billion in unemployment benefits for about 6 million Americans at risk of losing jobless insurance.
      “This plan is the right thing to do right now,” Obama said after a divided body rose in warm unison to greet him.    “You should pass it.    And I intend to take that message to every corner of this country.”
      Obama did not venture an estimate as to how many jobs his plan would create.    He promised repeatedly that his plan would be paid for, but never said how, pledging to release those details soon.
      Obama acknowledged the political prism through which his speech was being viewed.    His approval rating is at or near the low point of his presidency, and the Republican campaign to unseat him is in full swing.
      “But the millions of Americans who are watching right now, they don’t care about politics,” Obama said.    They have real life concerns.    Many have spent months looking for work.
      “The people of this country work hard to meet their responsibilities.    The question tonight is whether we’ll meet ours,” he said.
      Obama didn’t outline how he would pay for the package, but promised it “will not add to the deficit.”    His advisers said the administration will outline a “dollar for dollar” budget to pay for it.
      To a Congress that just emerged from the discordant debt-ceiling debate, the president promised “a more ambitious deficit plan” that he will release on Sept. 19.    Obama said that proposal would include measures to trim back Medicare and Medicaid, ideas that have been controversial among many Democrats.
      The jobs plan was almost $150 billion larger than administration officials had previously indicated, helping Obama portray the proposal as bold.    Economists said a plan of that scope might have a no-ticeable impact on the economy very soon after enactment.
      But the size of the proposal also could create sticker shock in Congress, where, even in advance of the address, many GOP lawmakers are wary of spending money to stimulate the economy, and others may simply prefer to wait to take action for what they hope is a Republican president in 2013.
      Obama did not predict how many jobs the plan would create, a noteworthy omission, given the sales job he is about to kick off.    But the point, along with the speech itself, is fraught with political risk; the president doesn’t want to be measured against an official set of projections as he is running for re-election in 2012.
      In an obvious prod to his two chief political opponents in Congress, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, the president specifically mentioned the aging Brent Spence Bridge carrying I-75 and I-71 between Covington in Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati as a potential target of his jobs program.
      “There are private construction companies all across America just waiting to get to work,” Obama said.    “There’s a bridge that needs repair between Ohio and Kentucky that’s on one of the busiest trucking routes in North America.”
      The double-truss bridge was opened in 1963.    It is listed as “functionally ob-solete” by the National Bridge Inventory.
      At the heart of the president’s plan is some $245 billion in tax relief for individuals and businesses, going well beyond the payroll tax holiday the Congress adopted last winter.    Obama would expand that cut for workers, providing a $1,500 tax savings to the typical American family that saw a cut of $1,000 in the first round.
      Obama would also cut the payroll tax in half for businesses with payrolls of less than $5 million, and de-clare a complete payroll tax “holiday” for employers who hire new workers or give wage increases to current employees.    All companies would be eligible, but the break would be limited to the first $50 million in new payroll spending.
      “Part of the way you increase growth is you increase demand,” said one senior administration offi-cial, noting that other elements of the plan create jobs for as little as $30,000 each.    “We think this is the right balance of getting money in people’s pockets” and investing directly in job creation, the official said.    The other major chunk of the proposal is $140 billion that would go directly to putting people to work, largely by updating the nation’s roads, bridges and schools.    Some $35 billion of that would go to states to keep teachers, police and firefighters on the job.    The president also proposes reforming the unemployment insurance program to prevent 5 million Americans who are looking for work from losing their benefits.    Officials say his “Bridge to Work” program improves upon a controversial Georgia state program that helps pay displaced workers performing temporary or voluntary work.    Obama says his plan would make sure the workers earn minimum wage.
  
  FBI agents search bankrupt solar firm
      FREMONT, CALIF. - The FBI carried out executed search warrants Thursday at the headquarters of California solar panel manufacturer Solyndra, which received more than $500 million in federal loans before filing for bankruptcy last week.
      Agents swarmed the company’s headquarters as part of an investigation with the Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General into the manufacturer once touted by President Barack Obama as a beneficiary of economic stim-ulus, FBI spokeswoman Julianne Sohn said.    Sohn said she couldn’t provide details about the investi-gation, including what agents were gathering in the company’s offices as the search continued hours after the early morning raid.
  
  Senate group pushing more cuts in debt by Peter Wallsten, The Washington Post
      WASHINGTON — More than two dozen senators from both parties met privately this week to revive hopes of a grand debt-cutting bargain, exploring how to push the new debt “super committee” to find far more than its assigned goal of $1.5 trillion in deficit reductions.
      The senators want at least $3 trillion slashed from the deficit over the next decade.    They also plan to press the committee to pass a major tax overhaul to lower rates and close special-interest loopholes as well as make changes to entitlement programs such as Medicare, according to several participants.    The effort comes as the 12-member committee begins to map out its plans before a November deadline, and it threatens to undercut the chances for President Barack Obama to win passage for portions of his jobs plan.
      “I don’t think I’m speaking out of school that it was a unanimous feeling among a large group of senators from both sides of the aisle,” said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., one of the meeting participants.    “Most people are far more focused on this super committee than any speech the president’s going to give.”    Another member of the group, Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said the senators want to “encourage” the super committee “to reach for a higher number.”    He said the super committee should “compromise with one another and do what parts of each party will not like, for the greater good, because that’s really what most of the people in the country want.”
      Obama, too, is expected to press the committee to exceed its current deficit cutting goal. White House aides have said the president will deliver another speech soon laying out his ideas for deficit reduction.
      The White House also says that the costs of Obama’s jobs plan will ultimately be offset by cuts elsewhere.    Several people familiar with the discussions said the lawmakers felt that, after the pomp and ceremony of Obama’s joint-session speech fades, the center of political and policy gravity on Capitol Hill will be the work of the special committee, co-chaired by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas.    Under the debt-ceiling deal made by Obama and GOP lawmakers, deep cuts would automatically take effect in national security and other areas if the super committee fails to reach agreement or if Congress fails to pass legislation by December.
      One senior Democratic aide called Obama’s jobs plan largely “dead on arrival” because its expect-ed price tag would roughly cancel out the one year’s worth of savings that many lawmakers hope the super committee will find.
  
  Oil continues to hug $89 level
      Oil stayed around $89 a barrel Thursday, ahead of President Barack Obama’s speech on jobs and the economy.    Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said earlier in the day that the Fed will consider various ways to stimulate the economy when it meets later this month, but he gave no specifics.    High U.S. unemployment and Europe’s debt crisis have kept oil between $80 and $90 per barrel for more than a month as investors worry about diminished demand for fuel in the sluggish economy.    Crude oil fell 29 cents to finish at $89.05 per barrel in New York.
  
  
• 9/10/2011
  
  Fears on Europe, U.S. drag Dow down 300 - Plunge wipes out week’s gains by Associated Press
      The problems that have weighed on investors all summer — European debt and fear of a new recession in the United States — hammered the stock market Friday. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 300 points.
      The dive erased the week’s gains for stocks and sent the Dow below 11,000.    It had not closed below that level since Aug. 22, after several weeks of extraordinary volatility.
      The European Central Bank said Juergen Stark, a top official, was quitting nearly three years before the end of his term in 2014, revealing deep disagreement on how to solve Europe’s economic problems.
      Traders fear that one of the continent’s heavily indebted economies could default, an event that’d ripple through the global banking system, making it difficult for other European nations to borrow money.    Such an outcome could tip the world economy back into recession.    In the U.S., economic growth is already slowing, and unemployment is stuck above 9 percent.
      Friday was also the first chance for the markets to react after President Barack Obama presented a $447 billion jobs program.    It is not clear to traders that the plan will get through a bitterly divided Congress.
      The Dow finished down 303.68 points, its steepest drop in more than three weeks.    It closed at 10,992.13.    The average approached a 400-point drop at some points Friday.
      “Markets always vacillate between fear and greed, and today we’re coming down pretty much all on the fear side,” said Kim Caughey Forrest, equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group.
      The Standard & Poor’s 500 closed down 31.67 at 1,154.23.    The Nasdaq is down 61.15 at 2,467.99.    All three indexes finished down for the week. Investors drove the yield on the 10-year Treasury note to 1.92 percent, its lowest since the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis began keeping daily records in 1962.    The yield was 1.99 percent a day earlier.
      Wall Street traders have poured cash into U.S. government debt all summer, driving the price up and the yield, which moves in the opposite direction, down.
      Even after Congress narrowly met a deadline for raising the government’s debt limit, barely avoiding a default for the country, investors think U.S. government can be counted on to pay its bills.
  
  Europe ponders boosting its growth to reduce debt by Associated Press
      After months of talk that Europe can only be saved by cutting its spending, a growing chorus of voices is calling for a new tack, encouraging governments to instead stimulate growth — even if it means spending money.    As a slowdown in the global economic recovery threatens to undo Europe’s austerity efforts, experts are reviving a fundamental debate on how best to dig out of the high debt/low growth crisis.
      One view has been to cut debt regardless of short-term consequences on growth.    But as slower growth eats away at those austerity plans’ progress, economists have been reconsidering the merits of boosting growth to lower debt.    Germany, which is shouldering much of the cost of propping up its weaker eurozone neighbors, has been one of the most fervent advocates of spending cuts.    The European Cen-tral Bank has also chimed in, hounding countries like Italy to pass austerity measures as a sign they’re worthy of receiving help.
      Even nations like France that are in better shape have been trying to calm skittish investors — and drive down borrowing rates — by promising to cut costs.    But those measures have drawn fierce criticism that they risk driving the recovery into reverse and heap more pain onto those who can least afford it.
      Instead, the U.S. and others have a different answer: It’s growth, stupid.
      As President Barack Obama unveiled a huge plan to boost job creation, U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner called on other governments to strengthen economic growth as he prepared to meet officials from the world’s most developed economies in Marseille, France, on Friday.    The argument Geithner and others put forth is that the best deficit-reducer is growth: When the economy hums, it offsets spending and drives down both the size and the propor-tion of deficits.    Rather than trying to scrimp their way back to prosperity, world economies need to spend money to make money.
      “The best strategy for reducing public debt is to promote growth-enhancing fiscal policies,” the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development recommended in a report this week.
      What’s more, many argue that the danger of too much austerity is that it can put a stranglehold on growth by weighing companies down with taxes and making it harder for them to borrow money and hire more workers.    That will only feed a viscious cycle of indebtedness.
      Charles Wyplosz, an economics professor at Geneva’s Graduate Institute, says it’s unreasonable to ask any economy in recession to reduce its deficit.    “Governments have to support growth before they think about reducing deficits,” he said.    “It’s not the time to punish countries.    It’s the time to stop the crisis.”
  
  Woes in Europe send oil lower
      Oil and gasoline futures tumbled Friday on growing concerns about Europe’s economy.    Crude fell $1.81 to finish at $87.24 per barrel in New York.
      Prices dropped after the European Central Bank said a top official was leaving unexpectedly.    Juergen Stark, the bank’s top economist, resigned for personal reasons, but analysts took his departure as a sign of deepening divisions over how to solve Europe’s debt crisis.
      Europe is a major consumer of diesel fuel, and its economic problems have sent tremors through world markets.
  
  
• 9/12/2011
  
  Athens: New property tax to erase shortfall
      THESSALONIKI, GREECE - Greece’s cash-strapped government said Sunday it would impose a new property tax on top of existing austerity measures, to compensate for a revenue shortfall threatening to disrupt its vital interna-tional bailout program.
      The government also decided, in a symbolic move aimed at a public angry at politicians, to dock a month’s pay from all elected officials — from the head of state to Greece’s 325 mayors.
  
  
• 9/13/2011
  
  Obama demands action - Jobs plan includes tax hikes on wealthy by Erica Werner, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — In a sharp challenge to the GOP, President Barack Obama proposed paying for his costly new jobs plan Monday with tax hikes that Republicans have already rejected, and he accused them of political motives if they still refuse to go along.    “The only thing that’s stopping it is politics,” Obama declared.
      The president’s proposal drew criticism from House Speaker John Boehner, who’d previously responded in cautious but somewhat receptive tones to the $447 billion jobs plan made up of tax cuts and new spending that Obama first proposed in an address to Congress last Thursday.
      “It would be fair to say this tax increase on job creators is the kind of proposal both parties have opposed in the past.    We remain eager to work together on ways to support job growth, but this proposal doesn’t appear to have been offered in that bipartisan spirit,” Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said.
      The biggest piece of the payment plan would raise about $400 billion by eliminating certain deductions, including on charitable contributions, that can be claimed by wealthy taxpayers.    Obama has proposed that in the past — to help pay for his health care overhaul, for example — and it’s been shot down by Republican lawmakers along with some Democrats.
      Yet by daring Republicans anew to reject tax hikes on the rich, Obama could gain a talking point as the 2012 presidential campaign moves forward, if not a legislative victory.
      At a Rose Garden event Monday, Obama brandished his jobs bill in the air and surrounded himself with police officers, firefighters, teachers, construction workers and others he said would be helped by it.    Adopting a newly combative tone that’s been welcomed by dispirited Democrats, Obama said he was sending the bill to Capitol Hill and demanded immediate action.    “This is the bill that Congress needs to pass.    No games.    No politics.    No delays,” Obama said.
      Even as Obama was accusing Republicans of playing politics, he and his Democratic allies were marshaling an aggressive political response.
      Obama was traveling to Boehner’s home state of Ohio today to promote his jobs plan, and following that with a trip Wednesday to North Carolina.
  
  Republicans block $7 billion aid package
      Republicans blocked an effort Monday by Senate Democrats to quickly pass a $7 billion aid package for victims of recent natural disasters like Hurricane Irene, tornadoes in the Midwest and the South and floods along the Mississippi, Missouri and other rivers.
      On a 53-33 vote, the Senate rejected an attempt by Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to bring up a bill that Democrats had hoped to use to replenish the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s depleted disaster fund.    Democrats needed 60 votes to advance the measure.    Reid said FEMA has spent almost $400 million in the past two weeks on emergency help like food and shelter following Irene and has only about $300 million left.
  
  BofA cutting 30,000 - Bank counters investor exodus by Associated Press
      Bank of America is slashing 30,000 jobs as part of an effort to reverse a crisis of confidence among investors — the largest single job reduction by a U.S. company this year.
      What CEO Brian Moynihan is trying to save the nation’s largest bank. Investors have cut its market value by half this year.    The bank faces huge liabilities over soured mortgage investments and concerns over whether it has enough capital to withstand more financial shocks.
      The cuts, which affect Bank of America’s consumer businesses, represent 10 percent of the Charlotte, N.C. bank’s work force.    The bank said it hopes the cuts and other measures will result in $5 billion in annual savings by 2014.
      The bank has already cut 6,000 jobs this year.    It also said it would look for cost savings at its other businesses in a six-month review that will begin next month.
      “It’s as if someone has hit the panic button,” said Bert Ely, president of banking consultant Ely & Co.
      Moynihan has been taking other steps to shore up the bank’s standing.    He shook up the bank’s top management ranks last week and has been selling parts of the company to raise cash.    Last month Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. invested $5 billion in the company.
      Moynihan has struggled to calm investors ever since he took the top job in January 2010.    He is reversing the empire-building strategy of his predecessor, Ken Lewis, who stepped down amid controversy over the purchase of Merrill Lynch during the financial crisis.    Lewis also engineered the ill-fated acquisition of Countrywide Financial Corp., then the country’s largest mortgage lender, which has led to heavy financial losses, lawsuits and regulatory probes.
      Moynihan is now taking a knife to the company, hoping to shrink it down to a more manageable size even if it means losing the bragging rights of being the nation’s largest bank.    “We don’t have to be the biggest company out there,” Moynihan said.
      Bank of America’s stock has lost 48 percent this year, largely because of problems related to poorly-written mortgages at Countrywide.
      Just in the first half of the year the bank paid out $12.7 billion to settle claims from investors that it sold them securities backed by faulty mortgages.
      Some investors and analysts worry that the job cuts will lead to poor customer service and the bank will lose market share to rivals at a time when there are signs that the economy is slowing down.    They also wonder if the job cuts are enough to produce the profits the bank needs to overcome the spiraling costs from its mortgage business.
  
  Investors fearing default by Greece - Stocks tumble across Europe by Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times
      The dreaded “D” word among those struggling with Europe’s economic crisis is no longer just “debt.”    Try “default.”
      European politicians, who denied for months that bankruptcy was an option as Greece struggled to bring down an enormous budget deficit, are now beginning to acknowledge the possibility.
      Nervous investors appear to increasingly believe default is just around the corner.    They have withdrawn billions of dollars from Europe’s stock markets over the past few weeks.    Beyond cold-shouldering Greece, investors are punishing European banks that hold huge piles of government debt and pulling back on lending money to traditionally safe countries such as Italy.
      On Monday, fears that Athens is heading inexorably toward default and deepening doubts over whether Europe’s leaders have the political will or skill to keep the debt crisis from spiraling out of control sent the region’s stocks tum-bling.
      Banks in France and Germany scrambled to assure investors that they could survive their exposure, but were hammered all the same.
      In a separate move, Britain unveiled a radical plan to overhaul its banking system to protect ordinary consumers if the institutions’ riskier activities go disastrously wrong, as they did during the global financial meltdown three years ago.
      The sharp selloff in the markets reflected the growing sense that Greece, with one bailout behind it and another one promised, is nearly out of time.    Athens is caught in a dispute over the pace of its spending cuts with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, which have threatened to withhold the next installment of emergency loans, worth about $11 billion, if it doesn’t speed up reforms.
      Without the cash infusion, Greece will probably go bust by the end of October, and the default could trigger a worldwide credit crunch.
      The drop in the markets also followed official statements and media reports out of Germany suggesting that Berlin, Europe’s paymaster, was beginning to prepare for a Greek default.
      Athens proposed a property- tax hike over the weekend to help slash its massive budget deficit.    But skepticism prevails over its ability to follow through, and speculation remains rife among investors that bankruptcy is inevitable.
  
  OPEC cuts oil demand forecast on concerns about economic recovery
      OPEC on Monday sharply revised down its forecast for world oil demand for this year and expected consumption would remain weak in 2012.
      The 12-nation group that supplies about a third of the world’s crude oil slashed its global oil demand forecast by 150,000 barrels per day for 2011 and by 40,000 barrels per day for 2012, citing “turbulence in world economic recovery.”
  
  Smaller corn surplus could push food prices higher next year
      Food prices could rise next year because an unseasonably hot summer likely damaged much of this year’s corn crop.
      The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated Monday that a surplus of 672 million bushels will be left over at the end of next summer, well below levels that are considered healthy.
  
  Oil declines as demand eases by Associated Press
      Drivers and businesses will use a little less fuel than previously thought this year, and that hurt international crude prices Monday.    Brent crude, used to price many international oil varieties, fell 52 cents to end at $112.25 a barrel in London.
      Prices fell after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries sharply cut its forecast for world oil demand, saying it saw slower economic growth “in almost every major economy.”
      In New York trading, crude oil rose 95 cents to finish at $88.19 per barrel.
  
  
• 9/14/2011
  
  Poverty hits record 46 million in the U.S. by Hope Yen, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — The ranks of the nation’s poor have swelled to a record 46.2 million — nearly 1 in 6 Americans — as the prolonged pain of the recession leaves millions still struggling and out of work.    And the number without health insurance has reached 49.9 million, the most in over two decades.
      The figures are in a Census Bureau report, released Tuesday, that offers a somber snapshot of the economic well-being of U.S. households for last year when joblessness hovered above 9 percent for a second year.    The rate is still 9.1 percent at the start of an election year that’s sure to focus on the economy and President Barack Obama’s stewardship of it.
      The overall poverty rate climbed to 15.1 percent, from 14.3 percent the previous year, and the rate from 2007-2010 rose faster than for any similar period since the early 1980s when a crippling energy crisis amid government cutbacks contributed to inflation, spiraling interest rates and unemployment.    For last year, the official poverty level was an annual income of $22,314 for a family of four.
      Measured by total numbers, the 46 million now living in poverty are the most on record dating back to when the census began to track in 1959.    The 15.1 percent tied the level of 1993 and was the highest since 1983.
      Mississippi had the highest share of poor people, at 22.7 percent, according to calculations by the Census Bureau.    New Hampshire had the lowest share,at6.6percent.
      The share of Americans without health coverage rose from16.1percent to16.3percent, according to Census Bureau revisions. The increase was due mostly to continued losses of employer-provided health insurance in the weakened economy.
  
  Obama urges Congress to act on his jobs plan
      COLUMBUS, OHIO - Imploring Congress to follow his lead, President Barack Obama lobbied lawmakers Tuesday to adopt his nearly $450 billion jobs plan, promising it would help workers in the construction industry and rebuild crumbling schools.
      “My question to Congress is, what on earth are we waiting for?” he said.
      From a high school in the critical electoral state of Ohio, Obama gave a fiery speech to plug his plan.    The outdoor audience was receptive to the point of adopting his refrain and chanting it back to him, shouting, “Pass this bill!”
      He tailored his latest pitch to how his proposed legislation would help education, built around a $25 billion spending initiative for school renovations.
      Republican lawmakers who control the House flatly oppose his plans to pay for his plan by raising taxes on wealthier Americans.
  
  Oil rises over likely storm disruptions
      Oil prices rose Tuesday on the anticipation that a recent tropical storm caused a major disruption in supplies.
      The government will report petroleum supply levels today.    According to a poll by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos., the storm likely cut U.S. supplies last week by 2.9 million barrels of oil and 400,000 barrels of gasoline.
      Tropical Storm Lee hammered the Gulf Coast earlier this month, forcing oil platforms and refineries to shut down temporarily.    U.S. regulators said nearly 900,000 barrels of daily oil production were idled in the Gulf while the storm passed over.
      Crude added $2.02 to finish at $90.21per barrel in New York.
  
  
• 9/15/2011
  
  Lawmakers investigate failed firm’s $528M loan by Kevin Freking, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — House Republicans questioned Wednesday whether the White House rushed approval of a $528 million loan guarantee for a now-bankrupt solar panel manufacturer once cited as the kind of renewable energy firm worthy of federal stimulus money.
      Solyndra Inc. was a major presence in Washington and spent millions of dollars on lobbying there, particularly about the Energy Department’s loan guarantee program.    And its executives raised thousands of dollars for President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats.    The collapse of the Fremont, Calif.-based firm once touted by Obama ultimately left taxpayers on the hook for $528 million, raising questions if the loan was rushed to accommodate a company event in September 2009 that featured Vice President Joe Biden.
      The congressional panel examining the loan disclosed emails that appeared to show senior staff at the Office of Management and Budget chafing over having to do “rushed approvals” of federal loan guarantees designed to help jumpstart the renewable energy industry in the U.S.    “We would prefer to have sufficient time to do our due diligence reviews and have the approval set the date for the announcement rather than the other way around,” said one of the emails from an unnamed OMB aide to Biden’s office.
      Solyndra has since filed for bankruptcy and shed 1,100 workers, saying it couldn’t compete with foreign manufacturers of solar panels.    Under a loan guarantee, the government will cover a loan in the event of a default. Normally, private banks provide the loans, but Solyndra borrowed the money from the Federal Financing Bank; its bankruptcy filings showed got almost $528 million in federal loans.
  
  A referendum on Obama? - Republicans celebrate win by Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Republicans called their win in a New York City congressional race Wednesday a repudiation of President Barack Obama’s policies on the economy and Israel as public and private polls showed his approval ratings plummeting in a district that he carried handily in 2008.
      Rep.-elect Bob Turner outpolled state Assemblyman David Weprin in a light-turnout election.    He will replace former Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner, who resigned in disgrace earlier this year in a sexting scandal.
      Represented by Democrats since the 1920s, the district includes portions of Brooklyn and Queens, is home to three times as many registered Democrats as Republicans and is nearly 40 percent Jewish.
      However, Democratic officials and the White House insisted that the race was not a referendum on Obama as he seeks reelection with a stagnant economy and unemployment stuck at 9.1 percent.
      Concerns that surfaced in the race included an administration policy in the Mideast that some Jews find not sufficiently supportive of Israel.
  
  France, Germany try to help calm fears of Greek default by Associated Press
      ATHENS, Greece — Greece is an “integral” part of the eurozone, the leaders of Greece, France and Germany said in an emergency teleconference Wednesday night that aimed to calm markets and temper talk of an imminent default by Greece.
      German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy also stressed to Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou “that it is more indispensable than ever to fully implement the decisions adopted July 21” by eurozone leaders “to ensure the stability of the eurozone,” the French president’s office said in a statement.
      Fears that Greece is rushing toward default — and the idea that it should return to its own currency — have roiled global markets for days.    The main fear is that a Greek bankruptcy could destabilize other financially troubled European countries such as Portugal, Ireland, Spain or Italy.    It also would affect banks, many of which are large holders of Greek government bonds.    Moody’s on Wednesday downgraded the credit ratings of two French banks, Societe Generale and Credit Agricole.
      Merkel and Sarkozy pressed the Greek leader on the “importance they attach to the strict and effective implementation” of the Greek economic rehabilitation program.
      Sarkozy’s office said Papandreou “confirmed his absolute determination to take all measures necessary to implement the ensemble” of Greece’s commitments.    The changes “are indispensable for the Greek economy to find the path of sustainable and balanced growth.”
      The euro ticked up by a less than penny to $1.37 after the talks.
      Greece currently relies on funds from last year’s $150 billion international bailout to service its debt and pay salaries and pensions.    But the lifeline could be cut if the country continues to miss fiscal and policy targets.
      Additional austerity measures announced in recent days, including a new property tax, will ensure that Greece achieves its fiscal targets this year and next year, and will lead to the country posting primary growth, government spokesman Elias Mossialos said.
      Greece is posting a primary deficit, which means it spends more than it makes even before interest on outstanding debt is taken into account.
      Many investors are convinced Greece will not be able to fix its public finances under its current economic plans.    Interest rates on the country’s 10-year government bonds soared to new highs in recent days, hitting the alarming level of 25.3 percent on Wednesday, more than 23 points higher than the German equivalent.
      “We are confronted with the most serious challenge of a generation,” European Union Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.    “This is a fight for the economic and political future of Europe. … This is a fight for European integration itself.”
  
  Oil drops on decline in retail spending
      Oil prices dropped below $89 per barrel Wednesday as the latest government data showed that retail sales were flat in August.    Crude oil prices fell $1.30 to finish the day at $88.91 in NewYork, while Brent crude lost 12 cents to end at $109.65 in London.
      The Energy Information Administration said Wednesday that wholesale gasoline demand in the U.S. dropped 2.7 percent last week.    That mirrors private surveys that show a sustained drop in how much retail gas is being bought.
      Petroleum demand isn’t just falling in the U.S.    Other industrialized parts of the world, especially Europe, are pulling back on fuel consumption amid a stagnant global economy.
  
  
• 9/16/2011
  
  Panel caps defense budget - Slices $26 billion off Obama’s request by Donna Cassata, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Pressured to slash government spending, a Senate panel unanimously approved a $513 billion bill on Thursday that freezes the Pentagon budget at this year’s amount, slicing about $26 billion from President Barack Obama’s request.
      On a vote of 30-0, the Senate Appropriations Committee pushed ahead legislation that would provide a 1.6 percent pay raise for military personnel and would trim nearly 600 military programs.
      The measure also would provide nearly $118 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.    It would trim $5 billion for U.S. troops in Afghanistan and $1.6 billion for training of the Af-ghan Security Forces that U.S. commanders had identified as an “overstated requirement.”
      The bill reflects the spending level spelled out in the debt accord reached this past summer by Obama and congressional Republicans amid the clamor in Washington for fiscal belt-tightening and deficit cutting.    It stands as the first installment in defense cuts of $350 billion over a decade.
      The committee sidestepped two amendments that would have reverberated diplomatically in Istanbul, Moscow and Jerusalem.    Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., wanted to prohibit money for a new early-warning radar in Turkey unless the Obama administration could assure Congress that all its data could be used to protect Isra-el.    The radar is part of NATO’s missile defense system designed to counter ballistic missile threats from Iran.
      Kirk insisted on the U.S. siding with Israel in increasingly hostile relations between Turkey and Israel.    He withdrew his amendment but can bring it up when the Senate considers the bill.
      He also offered a measure to stop any sharing of missile defense data with Russia, citing its ties with Iran and the possibility that information about the U.S. early warning system and timing could be shared with Tehran.
      A similar amendment is contained in the defense bill that sets policy.    Kirk withdrew his amendment and said he would wait until the Senate considers that bill.
      The Securities and Exchange Commission budget would total $1.4 billion, a 19 percent increase.    The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees the risky trading of complex financial instruments known as derivatives, is budgeted at $240 million, an 18 percent increase.
      Those increases came at the expense of agencies such as the IRS, which would absorb a 4 percent cut from current levels.
  
  Postal Service eyes cutting mail centers by Randolph Schmid, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — The financially troubled Postal Service said Thursday that it may close more than 250 mail processing facilities across the country and plans to reduce service standards for first-class mail in an effort to cut costs.
      The steps are part of a broad effort to cut costs for the agency that lost $8.5 billion last year and is facing even more red ink this year as the Internet siphons off the lucrative first-class mail and the stagnant economy holds down the growth of advertising mail.
      Over the past five years, mail volume has declined by more than 43 billion items.
      “We are radically realigning the way we process and deliver the mail,” said Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe.    Postal officials said 252 processing facilities across the country will be reviewed over the next three months for possible closing.    Currently there are 487 such offices.    That’s in addition to about 3,700 local post offices also being reviewed for closing.    Closing the mail-processing facilities could affect 35,000 workers.
      One of the mail processing facilities on the list for possible closing is the Louisville Annex, which is on Crittenden Drive across from Louisville International Airport.
      David Walton, a local spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service, said there are no immediate plans to close the facility, though “there's always a chance.”
      The Crittenden Drive facility has post office boxes, a retail area and the city's only bulk-mail acceptance unit. It employs 18 people, Walton said.
      He said that if the center were to close, all of the employees would be transferred to the Postal Service’s processing and distribution center on Gardiner Lane.
      The Postal Service also plans to reduce current delivery standards for first-class mail.    Such mail is now supposed to be delivered in one to three days, depending on how far it has to go.    That will be changed to two to three days, meaning mailers could no longer expect next-day delivery in their local community.
      The closings and service changes could save the post office as much as $3 billion annually and are part of an effort to reduce annual costs by $6.5 billion.    Other savings are being sought through requests that Congress allow the post office to eliminate mail delivery on Saturdays.
  
  Boehner says tax changes needed - Wants deficit panel to lay groundwork by David Espo, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON— House Speaker John Boehner is urging the deficit “supercommittee” to lay the groundwork for a broad overhaul of the U.S. tax code, rejecting Democrats’ talk of tax increases but leaving open the pos-sibility that the government’s take could rise as a result.
      Tax increases “are not a viable option” for the committee, Boehner said Thursday in a speech to the Washington Economic Club, ruling out many of the proposals that President Barack Obama is expected to send to the 12-member panel next week.    “Tax reform should include closing loopholes.    Not for the purposes of bringing more money to the government, but because it’s the right thing,” he said.
      Meanwhile, White House officials disclosed that Obama intends to visit Cincinnati next week to urge public support of his $447 billion proposal to cut into the nation’s 9.1 percent unemployment rate.    The political symbolism of the site was unmistakable — a crowded bridge that links Boehner’s Ohio with Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell’s Kentucky, a span the president has cited as repair work his jobs program would make possible.
      Separately, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama will not recommend any budget savings from Social Security when he makes recommendations to the deficit-cutting committee next week, despite signaling support for that idea in earlier debt-cutting talks with Boehner.
      Carney declined to say what, if any, recommendations the president might make to find savings from Medicare.
      The “supercommittee” of 12 lawmakers is charged with developing legislation to reduce deficits by $1.2 trillion or more over a decade.    It has almost unlimited authority to recommend changes in federal spending and taxes. Its deadline is Nov. 23.
      Boehner said businesses “are not going to hire someone for a $4,000 tax credit if government mandates impose long-term costs on them. … The president’s proposals are a poor substitute for the pro-growth policies that are needed to remove barriers to job creation.”
      The centerpiece of Obama’s jobs program is a one-year extension of Social Security payroll tax cuts for workers, expanded to include businesses.    He also seeks other tax breaks, along with an extension of unemployment benefits, aid to states that would permit them to hire teachers and first responders, and construction money for roads and bridges.
  
  UK, French leaders visit new Libyan government by Kim Gamel, Associated Press
      TRIPOLI, Libya — British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy offered broad support for Libya’s new rulers Thursday, promising to unfreeze billions in assets and aid in the search for Moammar Gadhafi, even as revolutionary forces tried their first significant assault on his hometown, Sirte.    The Western leaders — the first to visit since Tripoli fell last month — got a welcome worthy of rock stars from jubilant Libyans grateful for NATO airstrikes that turned the tide of the war in their favor.
      Staff at a Tripoli hospital applauded the pair as they visited patients who’d been wounded in the fighting, and schoolchildren in the eastern city of Benghazi wore T-shirts that said “Generations will never forget the favors and sup-port from Great Britain” and “Sarkozy: Benghazi loves you.”
      But tight security in both cities was a reminder that Gadhafi is still on the run and his supporters are holding out in three major strongholds, including his hometown. In a surprise advance, revolutionary forces entered the outskirts of Sirte, 250 miles southeast of Tripoli along the Mediterranean coast, Thursday and faced rocket fire, according to a member of the military council from the nearby city of Misrata, which was leading the assault.
  
  Turkey to allow U.S. radar site near Iran by The Washington Post
      WASHINGTON — The Obama administration signed an accord this week with Turkey to allow a cor-nerstone of a missile shield over Europe.    The agreement will allow the installation of a U.S. radar station close to Iran.
      After nearly two years of talks with Washington, Turkey said Wednesday that it would let the U.S. military operate a high-powered X-band radar station about 400 miles west of its border with Iran.    Along with similar radars deployed on U.S. Navy ships in the Mediterranean Sea, the station would provide early warning of missiles launched from Iran.
      Turkey signed the pact despite heavy pressure from Iran and another neighbor, Russia.    They have criticized the missile shield as a stalking horse to neutralize their own defenses.
  
  Oil price climbs to almost $90
      Oil climbed near $90 per barrel Thursday on efforts to stabilize Europe’s fragile economy.
      Crude oil added 49 cents to end at $89.40 per barrel in New York while Brent crude jumped $2.65 to finish at $112.30 in London.    Analyst Jim Ritterbusch warned that Europe is still far from solving its prob-lems.    Investors worry that Greece’s financial troubles will spread and further slow a eurozone market that consumes almost 18 percent of the world’s oil.
      In other commodities, natural gas fell 16.1 cents, or 4 percent, to $3.878 per 1,000 cubic feet.
  
  
• 9/17/2011
  
  EU toughens budget rules, stalls on Greece - Meeting hears from Geithner by Gabrielle Steinhauser, Associated Press
      WROCLAW, Poland — The European Union’s 27 countries overcame a year of infighting to agree Friday to tougher budget rules that make it easier to punish overspending governments, but failed to produce any new measures that might contain the debt turmoil threatening it.
      Polish finance minister Jacek Rostowski said his EU counterparts approved the measures at their meeting in Wroclaw, Poland, where the officials were under international pressure to show some progress.
      U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s presence at Friday’s informal meeting — the first time for an American Treasury chief — was an indication of the fears that Europe’s turmoil will hurt the global economic recovery.    Although the new rules will not ease immediate market concerns about debt, they are a first indication that Europe’s states are willing to give up some sovereign powers to bolster longer-term confidence.
      The yearlong delay and the complicated voting procedures that define the final deal, however, suggest more progress will be hard to come by.
      “I don’t say that it is perfect,” European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said of the compromise deal.    “But it is a very significant improvement.”    Under the new rules, it will be easier to put sanctions on governments that breach the EU’s limits on debts and deficits, because in most cases a state would have to rally a majority of governments to stop the punishment.    That is a reversal of pow-ers, since until now, a majority was necessary to impose sanctions.    Governments that are found to ignore warnings can also be punished.
      In the years before the current crisis, many European states — including Germany and France — had broken the EU rule requiring deficits to be kept below 3 percent of gross domestic product.    Experts say that the lack of accountability has helped cause the rise in government debt that is currently afflicting the region.    The eurozone ministers are under pressure to find solutions to the debt crisis that has hobbled their 17-nation currency union for almost two years.
      Yet Friday’s meeting produced little concrete progress toward snuffing out the more immediate crisis, in which high interest rates threaten to cut indebted countries off from bond market financing. Greece, Ireland and Portugal have needed international bailout loans to avoid defaulting on their debts, and eurozone officials are trying to keep default fears from pushing Spain or Italy, regarded as too big to bail out, into default.    Eurozone officials said they would not decide until October on whether Greece had met conditions to receive the next installment from its original $151 billion bailout, required to keep it from a default that could trigger wider financial havoc among Europe’s shaky banks.
      They also could not agree to resolve a dispute over Finland’s demand for collateral to cover its contribution to a second $150 billion bailout agreed when the first did not put Greece back on its feet.
  
  Oil falls as U.S., E.U. clash on debt
      Oil prices dropped Friday as the U.S. pushed Europe to act more decisively over how to handle the debt crisis in Greece.
      Crude oil gave up $1.44, about 1.6 percent, to end the day at $87.96 per barrel in New York.    Brent crude, which is used to price many varieties of foreign oil, lost 8 cents to finish at $112.22 in London.
      U.S. Treasury chief Timothy Geithner is meeting with European finance ministers in Poland, which may suggest the U.S. is growing more concerned about Europe’s direction.    A weakened global economy drives energy prices lower and the lack of a certainty about Europe has been pressuring the energy sector.
  
  
• 9/18/2011
  
  Ban on gay troops ends Tuesday - Fear of discovery has already eased by Julie Watson, Associated Press
      SAN DIEGO — Night-long celebrations will mark the countdown to the end of the U.S. military’s ban on openly gay troops, and even more partying will take place once it’s lifted Tuesday.
      But in many ways, change is already here.    Countless subtle acts over the past months have been reshaping the military’s staunchly traditional society in preparation for the U.S. armed forces’ biggest policy shift in decades.
      For some gay and lesbian service members, the fear of discovery dissipated months ago, when a federal court halted all investigations and discharge proceedings under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that barred gays from serving openly.
      Several have come out to their peers and commanders, and a few have since placed photographs of their partners on their desks or attended military barbecues and softball games with their significant others.
      In San Diego, about 200 active duty personnel made up the nation’s first military contingent to participate in a Gay Pride march this summer, carrying banners identifying their branches of service.    An Army soldier had tears, saying she was touched by the thousands cheering them on, after hiding her identity for so long.    “We’re Gay.    Get Over it,” stated the cover page of the Marine Corps Times distributed to bases worldwide.
      The headline offended some, but for many it echoed their sentiment that repeal is a non-issue.    Pentagon officials say they have found no evidence that the repeal has disrupted forces or harmed unit cohesion.
      Air Force Capt. Diane Cox, whose gay son served in the Navy, said she got into heated debates with service members vowing not to take showers and share rooms with homosexuals before Congress voted to repeal the law.    But after the military held sensitivity training to explain the new rules, “everybody just shut up.”
      Jokes are still told, but the harsh remarks have stopped, she said.
      “ I’m really surprised how everything settled down as much as it has,” said Cox, an emergency room nurse at Travis Air Force base, near Fairfield, Calif.    “Some of the best, most honorable people have had the military pin medals of honor on them for combat, and then they’ve gotten kicked out over this.    It’s shameful.    I’m glad it’s done.”
      Many no doubt will continue to keep their personal lives private.    But gay service members say their jobs already feel easier.    They no longer use code words or change pronouns in their conversations to protect their careers.
      Air Force Lt. Col. Victor Fehrenbach, 42, said the differences may be subtle but the impact is profound.    He came out on national TV in 2009 after the Air Force started discharge proceedings, which were later stalled by the repeal process.    He reported for duty two days later and was congratulated by colleagues.
      “I realized this was the first time I wouldn’t have to lie.    There was a great sense of relief, a great sense of pride that I had never felt before,” Fehrenbach said.
      More than 2 million troops have undergone courses on how to deal with seeing same-sex partners kissing after a ship comes home or see a gay service member hold hands with someone at the mall.
      Some adjustments will take time, Fehrenbach said, like seeing troops with their same-sex partners at military balls.
      “It will be great if some do it,” he said.    “But they should just realize they’ll get some looks.    And that’s OK.”
      Lance Cpl. Anthony Hernandez, who is stationed at Twenty-nine Palms, Calif., said the issue still divides Marines.    “The way I think of it, if you’re willing to put your life on the line for your country, then what’s the problem if you’re gay.”
      His older brother, Danny, was discharged under “don’t ask, don’t tell” last year.    He plans to apply to re-enlist after celebrating Tuesday.
  
  Obama seeks new tax rate for wealthy by Lori Montgomery, The Washington Post
      WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Monday plans to call for a new minimum tax rate on millionaires as part of a comprehensive rewrite of the U.S. tax code to force the wealthiest Americans to pay the same share of income in taxes as middle-class families.
      In a twist on Obama’s long-standing assertion that the wealthy should do more to tame the soaring national debt, the proposal would target the top 0.3 percent of taxpayers, many of whom reap huge benefits from lower rates on capital gains and dividends, which form the bulk of their earnings.
      While the idea has little chance of winning congressional approval, it could help shape a populist message for Obama and other Democrats heading into the 2012 presidential campaign.
      According to a White House official who asked for anonymity because the proposal has not been announced publicly, Obama plans to call it the “Buffett Rule” after Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor who has long complained that the system taxes him at a far lower rate than his employees.    While wages are taxed at rates ranging from 10 percent to 35 percent, investment earnings are taxed at 15 percent.
      White House officials would offer no details of the proposal, which will be the centerpiece of Obama’s recommendations to a special congressional committee working to craft a bipartisan debt-reduction plan before Thanksgiving.    The “supercommittee” is aiming for at least $1.5 trillion in savings over the next decade, a target that will be hard to hit without significant tax increases or cuts to entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security.
  
  
• 9/20/2011
  
  Obama takes aim at wealthy - Gives plan for lower deficit, higher taxes by Jim Kuhnhenn, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — In a blunt rejoinder to congressional Republicans, President Barack Obama called for $1.5 trillion in new taxes Monday, part of a total 10-year deficit reduction package totaling more than $3 trillion.
      He vowed to veto any deficit reduction package that cuts benefits to Medicare recipients but does not raise taxes on the wealthy and big corporations.    “We can’t just cut our way out of this hole,” the president said.
      The president’s proposal would predominantly hit upper income taxpayers but would also reduce spending in mandatory benefit programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, by $580 billion.
      It also counts savings of $1 trillion over 10 years from the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.
      The deficit reduction plan represents an economic bookend to the $447 billion in tax cuts and new public works spending that Obama has proposed as a short-term measure to stimulate the economy and create jobs.
      And it gives the president a voice in a process that will be dominated by a joint congressional committee charged with recommending deficit reductions of up to $1.5 trillion.
      His plan served as a sharp counterpoint to Republican lawmakers, who have insisted that tax increases should play no part in taming the nation’s escalating national debt.
      Obama’s plan would end Bush-era tax cuts for top earners and would limit their deductions.    “It’s only right we ask everyone to pay their fair share,” Obama said from the Rose Garden at the White House.
      In issuing his threat to veto any Medicare benefits that aren’t paired with tax increases on upper-income people, Obama said: “I will not support any plan that puts all the burden for closing our deficit on ordinary Amer-icans.”
      Responding to a complaint from Republicans about his proposed tax on the wealthy, Obama added: “This is not class warfare.    It’s math.”
      The Republican reaction was swift.    “Class warfare isn’t leadership,” House Speaker John Boehner said in Cincinnati.
      “Veto threats, a massive tax hike, phantom savings, and punting on entitlement reform is not a recipe for economic or job growth — or even meaningful deficit reduction,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement issued minutes after the president’s announcement.    “The good news is that the Joint Committee is taking this issue far more seriously than the White House.”
      Obama’s proposal comes amid Democratic demands that Obama take a tougher stance against Republicans.
      And while the plan stands little chance of passing Congress, its populist pitch is one that the White House believes the public can support.
      The core of the president’s plan totals just over $2 trillion in deficit reduction over10 years.    It would let Bush-era tax cuts for upper income earners expire, limit deductions for wealthier filers and close loopholes and end some corporate tax breaks.
      It also would cut $580 billion from mandatory programs, including $248 billion from Medicare.    It also targets subsidies to farmers and benefits programs for federal employees.
      Officials cast Obama’s plan as his vision for deficit reduction, and distinguished it from the negotiations he had with House Speaker John Boehner in July as Obama sought to avoid a government default.
      As a result, Obama’s proposal includes no changes in Social Security and no increase in the Medicare eligibility age, which the president had been willing to accept this summer.
      Administration officials also said that Obama’s $1.5 trillion in new taxes is a goal that Congress could achieve through a broad overhaul of the tax code.
      They said the president’s specific proposals represent one way to get to that goal under the existing tax code.
      Coupled with about $1 trillion in cuts already approved by Congress and signed by the president, overall deficit reduction would total more than $4 trillion, a number many economists cite as a minimum threshold to bring the nation’s debt under control.
  
  
  HIGHLIGHTS OF OBAMA’S PROPOSAL
      Key elements of the $3 trillion deficit reduction package that President Barack Obama unveiled Monday. The proposals cover a 10-year period:
  • NEW TAXES: $1.5 trillion in new revenue, which would include about $800 billion realized over 10 years from repealing the Bush-era tax rates for couples making more than $250,000.    It also would place limits on deductions for wealthy filers and end certain corporate loopholes and subsidies for oil and gas companies.    The president has proposed many of these measures in his budgets before, but Congress has not acted on them.
  • MEDICARE AND MEDICAID: $248 billion in reductions to Medicare.    About 90 percent of the Medicare cuts would be squeezed from service providers such as drug companies, hospitals and nursing homes.    Starting in 2017, the plan would significantly increase what many seniors pay for premiums, copayments and deductibles.    Medicaid and other federal health care programs would be cut by about $73 billion.    Among the proposals would be measures designed to reduce federal Medicaid payments to states.
  • OTHER MANDATORY SPENDING: $260 billion in cuts to other mandatory spending programs, including $33 billion by ending income support payments to farmers.    The plan also would reduce federal workers’ paychecks by 1.2 percent over three years, saving the government about $21 billion over 10 years.    The plan estimates savings of nearly $78 billion by reducing waste and abuse in federal programs.
  • MILITARY COMMITMENTS: $1 trillion saved by ending combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.    Republicans and some independent budget analysts say this is a gimmick because the troop drawdowns were already under way and amount to an accounting adjustment.    But Republicans have used the figure in their budget calculations, too.
  • INTEREST SAVINGS: $430 billion in savings from lower interest payment on the national debt.    The figure combines the president’s $3 trillion in deficit reduction and the $1 trillion that Congress approved and the president signed in August.
  
  New probe sought in Solyndra case
      WASHINGTON - The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee is calling for an independent investi-gator to look into a $528 million loan approved by the Energy Department for a now bankrupt solar energy company.
      Republican Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday that an outside lawyer is needed to probe the loan approved for California-based Solyndra Inc., which declared bankruptcy this month and laid off its 1,100 workers.
      The FBI and the Energy Department’s inspector general are already investigating the Solyndra loan, which has become a flashpoint in a partisan debate over subsidies for so-called green jobs.
      Smith said an outsider is needed to determine “whether politics played a role” in the loan.
  
  Military gay ban comes to a close by Robert Burns, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — The military says it’s ready for the lifting today of a ban on gays serving openly.    Supporters of repeal applaud the historic change as a victory for equal rights.
      Pentagon press secretary George Little said Monday that the military is prepared for the end of the current policy, commonly known as “don’t ask, don’t tell,” under which gays can serve as long as they don’t openly acknowledge their sexual orientation and commanders are not allowed to ask.
      Last week, the Pentagon said 97 percent of the military has undergone training in the new law.    Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Joint Chiefs chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, and President Barack Obama have all certified that allowing openly gay service members will not undermine military effectiveness or recruiting.
      For weeks the military services have been accepting applications from openly gay recruits while waiting for repeal before processing the applications.
      Lifting the ban also will mean a halt to pending investigations, discharges and other administrative proceedings.
      Existing standards of personal conduct, such as those pertaining to public displays of affection, will continue regardless of sexual orientation.    There also will be no immediate changes to military benefits. All service members are entitled to benefits such as designating a partner as life insurance beneficiary or as designated Wounded Warrior caregiver.
  
  Stocks pull back on Greece concerns - Country trying to avoid default by Bloomberg News
      Stocks fell, halting a five-day rally in U.S. benchmark indexes, and the euro weakened amid concern Greece will fail to qualify for more financial aid needed to avoid default.
      The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index retreated 11.92 points to close at 1,204.09 after plunging as much as 2.3 percent.
      Stocks trimmed losses as Greece’s Finance Ministry said it had a “productive and substantive discussion” with international officials who will determine if the country gets more bailout funds.
      In the U.S., President Barack Obama called for $1.5 trillion in tax increases over the next decade to help trim the deficit and the Federal Reserve will discuss the economy at a two-day meeting starting tomorrow.
      “The markets are saying the odds are very high of a Greek default,” Frederic Dickson, who helps oversee $28 billion as chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co. in Lake Oswego, Oregon, said in a telephone inter-view.
      “Investors expected more action to resolve the Greek debt crisis or provide economic relief to Europe,” he said.    “People are expecting a lot from the Fed this week,” he said, which leaves room for disappointment.
      Greece’s ability to avoid default hangs in the balance as international monitors assess whether Prime Minister George Papandreou can meet conditions of rescue loans and the Greek leader canceled a planned weeklong U.S. visit.
      Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos held a conference call with the heads of the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund mission to Athens.    The talks will continue in another teleconference tomorrow evening, a statement from the Greek Finance Ministry said.
      The inspectors, nicknamed the “troika” by investors, are empowered to judge whether the government is eligible for an aid payment due next month and on track for a second rescue package approved by EU leaders July 21.
      European leaders are squabbling over terms of the July agreement and the prospect that they will be forced to channel more money to keep Greece in the currency union.
      “The timing of a Greek default remains in the hands of the troika and it is difficult to believe that they will decide to pull the plug at this stage because of the potential impact upon the other troubled sovereigns and the banking sector,” Gary Jenkins, a strategist at Evolution Securities in London, wrote in a note to clients today.    “Who knows what contingency plans they have prepared behind closed doors,” he wrote.
  
  Oil falls more than 2 percent
      Oil dropped more than 2 percent Monday on growing concerns about Europe’s ability to solve its credit crisis.
      Crude oil lost $2.26 to finish at $85.70 per barrel in New York.    Brent crude fell $3.098 to end at $109.14 in London.
      Analyst Stephen Schork said energy traders are looking for greater assurances that the eurozone leaders, especially Germany, remain committed to bankrolling aid programs for weaker members.
      “The northern European countries are tired of paying for their neighbors on the Mediterranean,” he said.    “You need some sort of assurance that the Germans will play ball.”
  
  
• 9/21/2011
  
  Ban on gay troops ends - ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy repealed by Robert Burns , Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — The U.S. military passed a historic milestone Tuesday with the repeal of the ban on gays serving openly in uniform, ending a prohibition that President Barack Obama said had forced gay service members to “lie about who they are.”
      Defense Secretary Leon Panetta pledged not to allow other issues of equal opportunity, such as allowing women to serve in combat roles, to be ignored or set aside.
      “I am committed to removing all of the barriers that would prevent Americans from serving their country and from rising to the highest level of responsibility that their talents and capabilities warrant,” Panetta said at a Pentagon news conference.    “These are men and women who put their lives on the line in the defense of this country, and that’s what should matter the most.”
      Repeal of the 18-yearold legal provision — commonly known as “don’t ask, don’t tell,” under which gays can serve as long as they don’t openly acknowledge their sexual orientation — took effect at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.
      Appearing with Panetta for what was probably his final Pentagon news conference as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retiring Navy Adm. Mike Mullen said that with the new law allowing gays to serve openly, the military is a stronger, more tolerant force with greater character and honor.
      “I still believe that it was first and foremost a matter of integrity, that it was fundamentally against everything we stand for as an institution to force people to lie about who they are just to wear a uniform,” Mullen said.    “We are better than that.”
      Some in Congress still oppose the change, arguing that it could undermine order and discipline.    But top Pentagon leaders have said it won’t hurt the military’s ability to recruit or to fight wars.
      Obama issued a statement saying he is confident that lifting the ban will enhance U.S. national securi-ty.
      “As of today, patriotic Americans in uniform will no longer have to lie about who they are in order to serve the country they love,” he said.    “As of today, our armed forces will no longer lose the extraordinary skills and combat experience of so many gay and lesbian service members.”
      The head of Pentagon personnel put out a memo at a minute after midnight Tuesday.    “All service members are to treat one another with dignity and respect regardless of sexual orientation,” the memo from Clifford Stanley said.    “The Department of Defense is committed to promoting an environment free from personal, social or institutional barriers that prevent service members from rising to the highest level of responsibility possible regardless of sexual orientation.”    Advocacy groups cele-brated across the country.    At a San Diego bar, current and former troops danced and counted down to midnight.    “You are all heroes,” said Sean Sala, a former Navy operations specialist.    “The days of your faces being blacked out on the news — no more.”    In Iraq, a spokesman for U.S forces put out a statement noting that all troops there had been trained for the change.    Last week, the Pentagon said 97 percent of the military had undergone training in the new law.
      For weeks, the military services have accepted applications from openly gay recruits, while waiting for repeal to take effect before processing the applications.
      With the lifting of the ban, the Defense Department will publish revised regulations to reflect the new law allowing gays to serve openly.    The revisions, such as eliminating references to banned homosexual service, are in line with policy guidance issued by top Pentagon officials in January, after Obama signed the legislation that did away with the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
      The lifting of the 18year-old ban also halts all pending investigations, discharges and other administrative proceedings that were begun under the Clinton-era law.    Existing standards of personal conduct, such as those pertaining to public displays of affection, will continue regardless of sexual orientation.
      There also will be no immediate changes to eligibility standards for military benefits.    All service members already are entitled to certain benefits and entitlements, such as des-ignating a partner as one’s life insurance beneficiary or as designated caregiver in the Wounded Warrior program.    Service members who were discharged under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law will be able to re-enlist.
  
  IMF: ‘Dangerous’ economy - Slow growth seen as threat by Howard Schneider, The Washington Post
      The world economy is entering a “dangerous new phase” of slowing growth and eroding con-fidence that threatens to undermine economic activity even further, the International Monetary Fund warned Tuesday in its pri-mary annual forecast.     “Global activity has weakened and become more uneven; confidence has fallen sharply recently; and downside risks are growing,” the fund said in its World Economic Outlook, published ahead of this week’s annual meet-ings.
      The semiannual report took aim at high public debt in the United States and Europe, particularly the 17-nation euro area’s inability to reach political agreement over how to deal with Greece’s plunge toward default and the continent’s weakened banking system.
      At a press conference, IMF economic counselor Olivier Blanchard issued what he referred to as a “call to arms” for European governments in particular to shore up their banks and use stronger measures to secure the finances of highly indebted countries.
      The IMF’s report said that if European banks begin acknowledging possible losses on their holdings of Greek and other government bonds, it could tip the world into a new recession.
      “We can’t assume we have another three months or six months or a year,” he said.
      The IMF, the United States and world markets are urging a long-term solution to Greece’s shrinking economy.    Such an agreement has been approved in principle but remains stalled in practice as the region’s 17 national parliaments argue over the details.
      Meanwhile, as if to emphasize the region’s difficulties, Standard & Poor’s downgraded Italy’s credit standing on Tuesday, saying that slow growth and weak political leadership had shaken confidence in the country.
      Italy’s annual deficit is not as bad as that of other euro area countries, but it has a massive amount of outstanding debt and its economy is among the worst performing in the world.
      The downgrade is one in a series the rating agency has issued to governments, including the United States, that have large amounts of outstanding debt.
      Italy is considered too big for the type of bailout being used to prop up Greece, and a default on its bonds would be ruinous to major German and French banks that have tens of billions of dollars invested there.
      A sharp drop in German investor confidence also indicated that “the recovery is long gone” in that country, according to a research note published by the Capital Economics consulting firm.
      IMF projections show the world economy growing by 4 percent this year and next, down from earlier forecasts of 4.3 percent for 2011 and 4.5 percent for 2012.
      U.S. growth is projected at 1.5 percent for this year and 1.8 percent for 2012.
  
  Expectations of Fed aid raise oil
      Oil climbed to near $87 per barrel Tuesday on expectations the Fed will announce new measures to stimulate the U.S. economy.
      Crude rose $1.11 to finish at $86.92 per barrel in New York.    The Federal Reserve started a two-day meeting on Tuesday.    The Fed has pumped money into the economy before by buying billions of dollars in bonds, and that helped boost oil and gasoline last fall.
      Independent oil analyst Jim Ritterbusch said if the economy gets extra government support, investors will likely expect energy demand to rise.
  
  
• 9/22/2011
  
  Fed moves to drive down loan rates by Martin Crutsinger, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve will use more than $400 billion to try to drive down long-term interest rates, make home and business loans cheaper and invigorate the economy.    Analysts said the moves would provide only a slight economic benefit.
      The action the Fed announced Wednesday is modest compared with its previous steps.    The Fed won’t expand its $2.9 trillion holdings; it’s just rebalancing them.
      It will sell $400 billion of its shorter-term Treasurys to buy longer-term Treasurys by June 2012.    And it will reinvest principal payments from its mortgage-backed securities, to help keep mortgage rates at super-low levels.
      Fed policymakers announced the moves after a two-day meeting.    Three members out of 10 dissented from the decision.    The Fed acted despite criticism from Republicans who have warned that such steps could ignite inflation.
      “The actions the Fed has taken are helpful,” said Josh Feinman, global chief economist at DB Advisors.    “They will help hold down long-term rates, but they’re no panacea.”    The Fed left open the possibility of further action to try to strengthen the economy.
      Stocks dropped immediately after the announcement around 2:20 p.m., then continued falling.    The Dow Jones industrial average closed down about 283 points.
      But the yield on the 10-year Treasury note tumbled to 1.86 — the lowest since the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis started keeping daily records in 1962.    The 10-year yield is used to peg rates on a variety of loans, including long-term mortgages.
      The plan the Fed unveiled Wednesday, dubbed “Operation Twist,” resembles a program the Fed used in the early 1960s to “twist” long-term rates lower relative to short-term rates.
      In its statement, the Fed noted that the economy is growing slowly, unemployment is high and housing remains in a slump.    Under its plan, the Fed will extend the average maturity of its holdings from six years to eight years.    The Fed has directed the New York Fed to buy Treasurys with remaining maturities of six to 30 years, and to sell an equal amount of securities with maturities of three years or less.
      Analysts say the shift in the Fed’s portfolio could reduce borrowing costs and perhaps raise stock prices.
      “This is a measured response to weak economic conditions,” said David Jones, head of DMJ Advisors and the author of four books on the Fed.    “The Fed is still trying, but it can only do so much.”
      In June, the Fed completed a $600 billion bond-buying program that many economists have credited with keeping rates low.
      Jones said that just the market anticipation of the Fed’s Operation Twist had sent long-term rates down by around 25 basis points for the 10-year bond.    He said that without the Fed’s move, those rates would have risen.    With the move, he predicted the 10year bond would probably fall by another 5 basis points.
      When the Fed announced it would expand its September policy meeting from one to two days, economists anticipated some new action.    Chairman Ben Bernanke had said the Fed was considering a range of options.
      Wednesday’s move came despite a rift within the central bank.    The three members who dissented also did so at the Fed’s August meeting — the most negative votes in nearly two decades.    The three dissenters — Richard Fisher, Narayana Kocherlakota and Charles Plosser, all regional Fed bank presidents — have said the Fed’s policies may risk high inflation.    They favor giving the economy more time to heal.
  
  Oil falls on Fed stimulus doubts
      Oil dropped Wednesday as the Federal Reserve announced a new stimulus plan that some analysts said would not do enough to spark the economy and boost demand for oil and gas.    Crude gave up $1 to finish at $85.92 per barrel in New York.
      “The market is saying, ‘Thank you very much Ben Bernanke,’ but it’s not enough to get our banks out of trouble,” PFGBest analyst Phil Flynn said.
      Oil prices fell Wednesday though U.S. supplies dropped more than expected last week.    The Energy Information Administration said the nation’s oil inventories shrank by 7.3 million barrels.
  
  Democrats, tea party defeat House measure
      WASHINGTON - In a rebuke to GOP leaders, the House rejected a measure Wednesday providing $3.7 billion for disaster relief as part of a bill to keep the government running through mid-November.
      The surprise 230-195 defeat came at the hands of Democrats and tea party Republicans.
      Democrats were opposed because the measure contains $1.5 billion in cuts to a government loan program to help car companies build fuel-efficient vehicles.    Many GOP conservatives felt the underlying bill permits spending at too high a rate.    The Republican leaders return to the drawing board as they seek to make sure the government doesn’t shut down at the end of next week.
  
  Angel Food Ministries halts food program
      ATLANTA - Angel Food Ministries is going out of business after 17 years of providing discounted groceries to needy families across the country.    It cited the economic downturn affecting many of its customers as its downfall.    The multi-million dollar food nonprofit plans to halt operations immediately, according to a statement provided to The Associated Press.
      Angel Food was started in 1994 by pastors Joe and Linda Wingo with 34 families in Monroe, Ga.    At its height, the organization grew through a network of churches to feed more than 500,000 families a month in 35 states, including Kentucky.
  
  Obama prepares to revamp ‘No Child’ by Lyndsey Layton, Washington Post
      WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is poised to broaden federal influence in local schools by scrapping key elements of No Child Left Behind, the Bush administration’s signature education law, and substituting his own brand of school reform.    While unpopular with Republicans in Congress and some in the educational establishment, the move is drawing applause from governors around the country struggling to meet the demands of the 9-year-old law.    Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan are scheduled Friday to detail plans to waive some of the law’s toughest requirements, including the goal that every student be proficient in math and reading by 2014 or their schools could face escalating sanctions.    In exchange for relief, the administration will require states to adopt changes that could include the expansion of charter schools, linking teacher evaluation to student performance and upgrading academic standards.    For many students, the most tangible impact could be what won’t hap-pen.    They won’t see half their teachers fired, their principal removed or school shut down because some students failed to test at grade level — all potential consequences under the current law.
      “It’s a momentous development,” said Jack Jennings, president of the nonpartisan Center on Education Policy.    The White House is essentially rewriting the law, he said, leaving Congress on the sidelines.
      Duncan said the administration has no choice, driven by mounting pressures on schools caused by the law and no clear sign that Congress will fix its flaws.
      “My absolute preference is for Congress to fix it for the entire country,” Duncan said.    “But there’s a level of dysfunction in Congress that’s paralyzing.    And we’re getting to the point that this law is holding back progress.”
      Despite broad agreement about the law’s flaws, talks on Capitol Hill have floundered.
      “I’m dealing with people who don’t want to compromise and want to slow walk everything and a leadership on the Republican side that doesn’t want to give anything to Obama to sign,” said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
  
  Stocks fall as Fed plans bond purchase by Bloomberg News
      Stocks slumped, giving the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index its biggest decline in a month, as the Federal Reserve announced plans to buy $400 billion of long-term debt, citing risks to the economic outlook.
      Caterpillar and Dow Chemical fell more than 5 percent, pacing losses among companies most tied to the economy.    Financial shares in the S&P 500 slid 4.9 percent as a group, to a two-year low, as Moody’s In-vestors Service cut its ratings on Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo.
      The S&P 500 fell 35.33 points to 1,166.76 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 283.82 points to 11,124.84.
      “The markets apparently were hoping for a large, magic Vitamin C pill for an anemic economy that feels like it’s catching the flu,” said Barton Biggs, co-founder of hedge fund Traxis Partners.
      The Fed will replace some bonds in its portfolio with longer- term Treasuries in an effort to further reduce borrowing costs and keep the economy from relapsing into a recession.
      “There are significant downside risks to the economic outlook, including strains in global financial markets,” a Fed statement said.
      Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said in an Aug. 26 speech that the central bank still has tools to stimulate the economy, without signaling he will use them.    He echoed comments of dissenting members of the Federal Open Market Committee who said then that U.S. economic data aren’t pointing to a recession.
      “Markets took note of the Fed’s downward revision of the economic outlook and upgrading of downside financial risks,” Mohamed A. El-Erian, CEO of Pacific Investment Management Co. in Newport Beach, Calif., wrote in an email. Pimco is the world’s largest bond-fund manager.    “They recognize that while Fed pur-chases can influence Treasury and mortgage valuations, it is limited in its ability to deliver economic outcomes.”
      The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index of companies most tied to economic growth lost 4.2 percent.
  
  
• 9/23/2011
  
  Global recession fear hammers stocks - Dow off 391; oil, metal prices drop by Francesca Levy, Associated Press
      NEW YORK — Investors began giving in to fears Thursday that a global recession is already under way, and stock markets shuddered around the world.
      Selling started in Asia, picked up speed in Europe and sent Wall Street near its worst finish of the year.    The Dow Jones industrial average lost 391 points and at one point was down more than 500, a return to the volatility that gripped the market this summer.
      One financial indicator after another showed that investors are losing hope that the global economy can keep growing.    The price of oil and metals such as copper, which depend on economic demand, fell sharply.    Traders bought Treasury bonds and the dollar for safety.
      FedEx, a company that ships so many goods it is considered a barometer of the U.S. economy, had to lower its earnings forecast for the year because customers are putting off purchases of electronics and other gadgets from China.
      The Dow fell 391.01 points, or 3.5 percent, and closed at 10,733.83.    The selling was not just steep but broad: Nineteen stocks on the New York Stock Exchange fell for every one that rose.
      “Markets rely on confidence and certainty.    Right now there is neither,” said John Canally, an economic strategist at LPL Financial, an investment firm in Boston.
      It was the second consecutive rout in the stock market since Wednesday afternoon, when the Federal Reserve announced a change in strategy for fighting the economic slowdown — a bid to lower long-term interest rates and get people and companies to spend more money.
      Economic news was bad around the world.    A closely watched survey in Europe indicated a recession could be on the way there, and a manufacturing survey suggested a slowdown in China, which has been one of the hottest economies.
      “The probability of going back into recession is higher now than at any point in the recovery,” said Tim Quinlan, an economist at Wells Fargo.    He put his odds of a recession at 35 percent.
      Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund, said the world economy was “entering a dangerous phase.”    She told an annual meeting of the IMF and World Bank that nations need credible plans to get their debt under control.
      In the United States, investors poured money into American government debt, which they see as less risky than stocks even as the nation wrestles with how to tame its long-term budget problems.
      The yield on the 10-year Treasury note hit 1.71 percent — the lowest since the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis started keeping daily records half a century ago.    It was 3.66 percent as recently as February, when the economic forecast was brighter.
      Yields fall as investors buy bonds and send their prices higher.    Small yields are a sign that investors are just looking for a safe place to put cash.
      “They want to get their money back,” said Guy LeBas of Janney Capital Markets.
  
  Ahmadinejad prompts walkout - Once again, speech at U.N. causes stir by Associated Press
      UNITED NATIONS— American diplomats led a walkout at the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday as Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fiercely attacked the United States and major West European nations as “arrogant powers“ruled by greed and eager for military adventurism.
      The two U.S. diplomats, who specialize in the Middle East, were followed out of the chamber by diplomats from more than 30 countries, including 27 European Union members and Australia.    Israel boycotted the speech. Ahmadenijad’s fiery anti U.S. and anti-Israeli rhetoric has been a staple of the General Assembly’s ministerial meetings.
      Last year, Ahmadinejad provoked a walkout by the U.S. and others when he said that a majority of people in the United States and around the world believe the American government staged the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in an attempt to assure Israel’s survival.
      Ahmadinejad’s speech pitted the poverty and unhappiness of most countries against the riches and power of the U.S. and unnamed European nations that he accused of perpetuating wars, causing the current global economic crisis and infringing on “the rights and sovereignty of nations.”
      “It is as lucid as daylight that the same slave masters and colonial powers that once instigated the two world wars have caused widespread misery and disorder with far-reaching effects across the globe since then,” Ahmadine-jad said.    “Do these arrogant powers really have the competence and ability to run or govern the world?”
  
  GOP lawmaker takes shots at solar industry by Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — A Republican House chairman blasted the solar industry Thursday, calling loans to so-lar panel manufacturers, such as ill-fated Solyndra Inc., a poor bet and predicting that the solar industry itself could collapse in the United States.    An industry group immediately disputed the remark by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., citing a report that solar panel installations were up nearly 70 percent in the second quarter of 2011.
      Issa, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the $528 million loan to the now-bankrupt California solar energy company is just one example of the Obama administration’s failed attempt to create green jobs.
      “It is reasonable to predict that we could have the collapse of the entire solar panel manufacturing business in America,” he said.    More than 100,000 Americans are employed in solar, making it the fastest-growing industry in America, said Rhone Resch, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association.    The debate over solar came as Issa’s committee released a report titled, “How Obama’s Green Energy Agenda is Killing Jobs.”
  
  Oil falls sharply on global worry
      Oil prices fell more than 6 percent Thursday as gloomy data showed a world economy at risk of slipping into recession.    When the economy slows, so does demand for oil.
      Oil has dropped 29 percent from a three-year high of $113.93 a barrel on April 29.
      On Thursday, crude oil plunged $5.41 to end the day at $80.51 per barrel in New York.    Oil finished at the lowest point since Aug. 9.
      But at over $80 a barrel, oil remains nearly $6 more expensive that at this time last year.
  
  
• 9/24/2011
  
  Another budget impasse - Government needs resolution next week by Charles Babington, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Just a week away from a possible government shutdown, lawmakers boxed themselves into a new budget impasse Friday.
      With Congress’ approval ratings already at an all-time low, a tit-for-tat over disaster aid left Republicans and Democrats — and both the House and Senate — in a faceoff that’s all too familiar to millions of Americans.    Deep partisan disputes pushed the government to the edge of a partial shutdown in April and to the brink of a debt ceiling crisis in late July.
      The Democratic-controlled Senate on Friday blocked a Republican House bill that would provide stopgap federal spending, plus aid for people battered by hurricanes, tornadoes and other natural disasters.    The legislation also calls for $1.6 billion in spending cuts to help defray the disaster costs.
      Democrats say it’s unfair to require spending cuts to accompany badly needed emergency aid, but the big issue for them is that the GOP measure would tap several clean-energy programs.
      Republicans say that with a $14 trillion-plus national debt, business- as-usual spending is no longer acceptable and tradeoffs are necessary.
      Congressional Republicans suggested that voters will find it outrageous that Democrats won’t accept a mere $1.6 billion in spending cuts.    Democrats are hoping voters will find it manipulative to let natural-disaster victims wonder whether federal aid will be denied because lawmakers want to cut gifts to automakers.
      As always, the likelihood is that Congress will find a last-minute way to avoid a shutdown of many federal agencies when the fiscal year ends Friday.
      The Senate plans to vote Monday on a Democratic bill that would not require spending offsets to release new money for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which could run out by next week.    GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is confident Republicans will block the Democrats’ counter-move with a filibuster.    It takes 41 votes to sustain a filibuster in the 100-member Senate, and the Republicans hold 47 seats.
      If the GOP succeeds, the Senate could accept the House Republican bill it rejected on Friday, or legislative leaders could try to negotiate their way past the logjam.    Congress is not scheduled to be in session next week, and House leaders said they don’t plan to call their members back to Washington.
      The governors of four hurricane- damaged East Coast states — two Republicans and two Democrats — said in a statement that “federal assistance for the victims of storms and floods should be beyond politics.”
      Lawmakers are quarreling over deeply held principles but a minuscule amount of money in an annual discretionary budget of more than $1.3 trillion.    The sticking point in a bill the House passed 219-203 is a $1.5 billion cut for an Energy Department program that subsidizes low-interest loans to help car companies and parts man-ufacturers retool factories to meet more stringent fuel-economy standards.    The Senate rejected the bill 59-36.
  
  Solar firm leaders won’t talk - Decline to testify before House panel by Matthew Daly , Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Top executives from a bankrupt California solar energy company declined to testify Friday before a congressional hearing investigating their half-billion dollar government loan.
      Solyndra Inc. CEO Brian Harrison and the company’s chief financial officer, Bill Stover, invoked their Fifth Amendment right to decline to testify to avoid self-incrimination.
      Harrison told the House Energy and Commerce Committee: “On advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer any questions.”    Stover did the same.
      Lawmakers from both parties said they were disappointed, but said that silence from the two executives would not stop them from pursuing their investigation into a $528 million loan that Solyndra received from the Energy Department in 2009.
      The panel’s chairman, Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., compared the Solyndra loan to the Great Train Robbery in England in the 1960s.
      “It appears we have a great heist of over half a billion dollars and … maybe even co-conspirators called the U.S. government,” Upton said.
      Upton faulted the Obama administration for its role in the loan, saying at a minimum the Energy Department did not complete due diligence on the company, which lost hundreds of millions of dollars in the years before the loan was approved.
      He called the loan a “reckless use of taxpayer dollars on a company that was known to pose serious risks before a single dime went out the door.”
      Meanwhile, fallout from the Solyndra controversy continued. A solar company slated to get a separate Energy Department loan guarantee said Friday it has been told the guarantee will not be approved in time to meet a federal deadline.    The Energy Department said earlier this month it would provide a partial guarantee for a $344 million loan to San Mateo, Calif.-based SolarCity to install solar panels on 160,000 homes across 124 military bases in 33 states.
      But SolarCity said in a letter to Congress that the project now appears to be dead.
      “In the past 48 hours, DOE has informed us … they will be unable to finalize the loan guarantee” by Sept. 30, the company said in a letter to Upton and other committee leaders.    “The reason provided was the increased documentation requirements that are the result of the current congressional investigation into the Solyndra bankruptcy.”
      The announcement came after two other solar firms, First Solar and Solar Trust of America, said they would not be able to accept loan guarantees worth about $4 billion for major solar projects in Southern California because they could not meet the Sept. 30 deadline.
      Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, California Gov. Jerry Brown and other elected officials were in attendance in June when Solar Trust of America broke ground on its1,000-megawatt Blythe solar project.
      Salazar said this week that First Solar is one of the most innovative companies in the solar industry.    The Arizona-based company has two other projects awaiting final DOE approval.
      SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive called his company a victim of Solyndra, and urged Congress to extend the Sept. 30 deadline by a few weeks to allow his project and others to move forward.
      DOE says as many as 10 projects worth more than $6 billion face the Sept. 30 deadline.    “It’s a shame to pull the plug on this project just because of the Solyndra bankruptcy,” Rive said.
      An Energy Department official confirmed that the SolarCity project would not close by Sept. 30, but would not say the reason.
      Spokesman Damien LaVera said in an email that the department has consistently said it will not close any deal until rigorous technical, legal and financial reviews have been completed.
      “Failure to close a loan application does not indicate that a project doesn’t have merit or a strong business case to succeed, but rather that all of the extensive due diligence and legal documentation simply cannot be completed” by Sept. 30, LaVera said.
  
  Business Recession fears still rising - World leaders try to ease them by Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — The world’s economic powers struggled Friday to get on top of a European debt crisis threatening to dump the global economy back into recession.    Officials gathered for three days of talks pledged to push ahead to fulfill the goals of a program in which the Group of 20 major economies pledged stronger cooperation to jump-start global growth and help Greece avoid a destabilizing default.
      But private economists questioned whether the latest action plan unveiled by the G-20 Thursday went far enough to deal with market worries that a Greek default is a virtual certainty threatening to destabilize other highly indebted European nations.
      All of the discussions on European debt were occurring around the annual meetings of the 187nation International Monetary Fund and its sister lending agency, the World Bank.
      Before those talks, the G-20 finance officials, including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, pledged a bold effort to deal with the debt crisis and encouraged Europe to move quickly to implement its promises to help Greece.
      The G-20 statement had little impact on the markets’ sour mood, with stocks continuing to fall in Asia and Europe.    Wall Street, which saw the Dow Jones industrial average plunge 391 points Thursday, initially headed lower Friday but managed to finish up slightly.    Private economists predicted more down days for stocks in coming weeks as investors continue fearing the results of a Greek debt default.
      Global economist Jay Bryson, of Wells Fargo Securities, contrasted the G-20’s statement with the bold program the G-20 put forward in London in April 2009 at the height of that financial crisis with billions of dollars of support put forward to boost economic growth and provide a financial backstop for the IMF to rescue countries in trouble.    “You’ve got to back up words with actions,” he said of Thursday’s statement, which he said was an example of “political paralysis.”
      Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University’s Martin Smith School of Business, said the great concern is that if Greece doesn’t make further painful cuts in government spending and ends up defaulting on its debt, the shock waves will rock big banks in France and Europe with heavy exposure to Greek debt and will cause fearful investors to flee the bonds of other heavily indebted nations such as Italy and Spain, which have far bigger economies.    “The fear in the markets is that the problem will spread to much bigger economies such as Spain and Italy.    Europe would not have the resources to handle a crisis of that magnitude,” Sohn said.
      The finance ministers at the Washington meetings said they believed the 17 nations using the common euro currency were getting the message that they needed to move much more quickly to reform surveillance procedures and boost economic support.
  
  Oil falls below $80 per barrel
      Oil fell for a third straight day on Friday on worries that the global economy is headed for recession and could cut demand for crude.
      “People are just afraid that demand is going to be affected in a negative way and that’s pulling prices back down,” said Tom Bentz of BNP Paribas Commodity Futures.
      A day after it plunged more than 6 percent, crude fell 66 cents to finish at $79.85 per barrel.    The price of oil still is almost $5 a barrel more than a year ago.    Analysts expect it to stay between $75 and $90 a barrel until the economic picture is clearer.
  
  
• 9/25/2011
  
  Obama plan offers only a dent - Jobless rate could endure for years by Tom Raum, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Even if Congress heeds President Barack Obama’s demands to “pass this bill right away” and enacts his jobs and tax plan, the unemployment rate probably still would hover in nosebleed territory for at least three more years.
      Why?    Because the 1.9 million new jobs the White House says the bill would produce in 2012 falls short of what’s needed to put the economy back on track to return to pre-recession jobless levels of under 6 percent, from today’s rate of 9.1 percent.
      That’s how deep the jobs hole is.    The persistent weakness of the U.S. economy has left 14 million people unemployed and more than 25 million unable to find fulltime work.
      Economists of all stripes pretty much agree that it will be a long, hard road no matter what Congress does.    Right now, the Republicans who run the House and the Democrats who lead the Senate aren’t finding much common ground.
      Obama estimates his American Jobs Act would lower unemployment by just a single percentage point by next year, to just more than 8 percent, heading into the 2012 presidential election.
      Burned before by making overly optimistic job-creation predictions, the White House turned to prominent outside economists to crunch the numbers.    The projection of 1.9 million new jobs, a 1 percentage point drop in the unemployment rate and a 2 percentage point increase in the gross domestic product under Obama’s plan came from Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics.
      But Zandi said his forecast also is based on an assumption that “the president’s entire package is passed by the end of the year,” a slim prospect given the current divided leadership in Congress, and that there are no other budgetary policy changes.
      “I assumed that it would be paid for,” Zandi said. “I didn’t know when I did that simulation how the president proposed to pay for it.”
      Since then, Obama has said he would pay for his $447 billion package with permanent income tax increases of about $150 billion a year, mostly on wealthy individuals and corporations, in addition to spending cuts.    That’s drawn criticism from Republicans, who say any tax increases could further stall the fragile recovery.
      Zandi, who has advised both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, said he’s still sticking with his forecast, mainly because the stimulus in the plan, including a temporary reduction in Social Security taxes for both employees and employers and infrastructure spending, would come in 2012 and be paid for later.
      But there is one feature Obama doesn’t emphasize.    Zandi said his job-creation fig-ure only applies to 2012.    “Beginning in 2013, and certainly into 2014, the plan is a drag on the economy because the stimulus starts fading away,” he said.    “So by 2015, the economy is in the same place as now, as if there were no jobs package.”
      Also, Zandi said, his forecast does not leave any room for a new recession.    If that happens, all bets are off.
  
  World Bank ramps up aid for drought region
      WASHINGTON - The World Bank says it’s increasing aid to countries in the drought-ravaged Horn of Af-rica to $1.88 billion through 2014.    The figure includes $500 million already allocated to the region.    Saturday’s announcement came at a “mini-summit” on the humanitarian response in the East African region.    The president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, says its role in addition to addressing today’s disaster is to build resilience for tomorrow.
      The bank said more than 13 million people need immediate aid.    The U.N. estimates tens of thousands have died in these countries.
  
  Iran’s nuke setbacks may be sabotage - Signs are there, experts contend by Douglas Birch, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Iran’s star-crossed nuclear and energy programs have suffered a rash of setbacks, mishaps and catastrophes in the past two years.    Assassins killed three scientists with links to Iran’s nuclear programs.    The Stuxnet computer worm, which infected computers worldwide, zeroed in on a single target in Iran — devices that can make weapons-usable uranium.
      Dozens of unexplained explosions hit the country’s gas pipelines, and Iran’s first nuclear power plant suffered major equipment failures as technicians struggle to bring it on line.    Has Iran just been unlucky?    Probably not.
      The chief of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Fereidoun Abbasi, told journalists at a meeting in Vienna last week that the U.S. was supporting an Israeli assassination campaign against his scientists.    Abbasi’s comments came almost a year after motorcyclists attached a bomb to the door of his car in Tehran.    He and his wife barely escaped.    As for the three killings, Iranian President Ahmadinejad said Friday that the killers had been caught and confessed to being “trained in the occupied lands by the Zionists.”    He accused the International Atomic Energy Agency of being under the control of the U.S. and said the watchdog agency had “illegally and unethically” released the names of Iran’s nuclear researchers, making them targets.
      Although Israel and Britain won’t discuss Iran’s claims, the U.S. has said it wasn’t involved in the kill-ings.
      “We condemn any assassination or attack on a person — on an innocent person,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said after the latest killing in July.    Former U.S. officials point out that assassinations are outlawed by the U.S., which condones drone strikes against terrorists as acts of war against combatants.    But there is little doubt the Obama administration is pursuing a program of high-tech sabotage to disrupt Tehran’s suspected weapons-related nuclear efforts.    “I have no doubt that the U.S. and other countries were behind industrial sabotage aimed at the program of concern,” said Mark Fitzpatrick, a former State Department official, referring to Iran’s nuclear program.
      Tehran said it is pursuing nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.    International inspectors said Iran has refused to explain suspected weapons work since 2008.    But the U.S. and other countries accuse Iran of making all of the necessary preparations to build a nuclear arsenal.
      Publicly, the Obama administration has pushed for tougher sanctions and further diplomatic isolation to pressure Iran to abandon weapons-related work.    At the same time, former officials said, the U.S. and its allies have secretly ramped up covert actions aimed at slowing Iran’s nuclear progress toward a bomb.    “As Iran moves closer to being able to produce a nuclear weapon, concerned countries are increasingly concentrating on ways to prevent it from being able to cross that line,” said Fitzpatrick, now at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
      Ex-officials said the U.S. has been careful to target only those facilities suspected of playing a role in weapons work and avoid casualties or other collateral damage.
      One former senior intelligence official said the U.S. considered a scheme to use a burst of electro-magnetic energy to knock out power to one suspected Iranian weapons-related site but rejected the plan because of the risk of causing a widespread power outage.    The former official would speak about classified matters only on condition of anonymity.
      The suspected sabotage campaign is widely seen as an alternative to military confrontation with Iran, which some experts say could have disastrous consequences for the Middle East.
      A secret January 2010 U.S. diplomatic memorandum published by the Wiki-Leaks anti-secrecy organi-zation quoted a German government official as saying that a program of “covert sabotage” against Iran, including explosions, computer hacking and engineered accidents, “would be more effective than a military strike whose effects in the region could be devastating.”
      The U.S. may be the world’s leader in the dark art of high-tech industrial sabotage.
      According to an official CIA history, the Reagan administration was convinced the Soviet Union was engaged in the wholesale theft of Western technological secrets.    It arranged for the shipment of doctored computer chips, turbines and blueprints to the U.S.S.R. that disrupted production at chemical plants and a tractor fac-tory.
      A former member of the National Security Council in the Reagan administration, Thomas C. Reed, wrote in his 2004 book that during the Cold War, the CIA tampered with the computer code embedded in Canadian components of a new trans-Siberian gas pipeline system.    In 1982, a surge in pressure caused a three-megaton blast in the Siberian forest visible from space.
      The U.S. doesn’t consider Iran an innocent victim.    Washington has accused Tehran of sponsoring terrorist groups in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon; sending arms to the Taliban in Afghanistan; and aiding al-Qaida’s leadership in Pakistan.    The Iran Human Rights Documentation Center has said Iranian intelligence agents have killed more than 160 expatriate political activists.
      Art Keller, a retired CIA officer who worked in the Middle East and South Asia, said Stuxnet’s self-de-struct mechanism and focus on a single target suggest the program was vetted by U.S. government lawyers concerned about limiting collateral damage.    “These are all the hallmarks of a U.S. covert action,” he said.
  
  World powers try to contain EU debt crisis - Geithner: Swift action necessary by Martin Crutsinger, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Global finance officials pledged Saturday to take bolder moves to confront a Euro-pean debt crisis that threatens to plunge the world into another deep recession.
      But sharp disagreements over exactly what to do cannot offer much reassurance to markets rocked by uncertainly in recent weeks.
      The U.S. and other countries outside of Europe fear the economic fallout at home from the European crisis.    They are raising the pressure on Europeans to settle their differences and agree on a plan to rescue heavily indebted European nations.    Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner bluntly told officials at a meeting of the International Monetary Fund that time was running short to stave off potential domino-style defaults in Europe.
      European governments, he said, need to join with the European Central Bank to provide stronger support to calm market fears.
      Geithner said that the ECB — the central bank for the 17 nations that use the euro as a common currency — should make sure that the financially troubled countries trying to reform their economies can get loans at affordable rates and that European banks have access to the capital necessary to continue operating.
      Fears that Greece is in danger of defaulting on its debt have rattled U.S. and global markets.
      Such a development would add to the stress for major banks in France and Germany that have a large exposure to Athens’ debt.    It also would further strain heavily indebted Portugal and Ireland, and even big-ger economies such as Italy and Spain.
      For the week, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 6.4 percent, its worst performance since Oct. 10, 2008, when it dropped 18 percent at the height of the U.S. financial crisis.    “The threat of cascading default, bank runs and catastrophic risk must be taken off the table,” Geithner told the IMF’s policy committee.    “Decisions as to how to conclusively address the region’s problems cannot wait until the crisis gets even more severe.”
      Mark Carney, the head of Canada’s central bank, called for “overwhelming” the problem by more than doubling the current 400 billion euro rescue fund to1 trillion euros, an amount that would equal $1.35 trillion.
      The IMF panel, which sets policy for the 187-nation lending institution, wrapped up discussions at its annual meeting with a statement pledging to work decisively and in a coordinated way to deal with Europe’s debt crisis.    Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke represented the U.S. at the meeting.    The statement was similar to pledges of increased support made Thursday by finance officials from the Group of 20 major world economies.    Both statements were short on specifics.    The IMF statement said the fund stood ready to back further efforts to deal with the crisis beyond bailout support for Greece, Portugal and Ireland.
      “Today, we agreed to act decisively to tackle the dangers confronting the global economy,” the IMF’s managing director, Christine Lagarde, told reporters.
      It’s a critical first test for Lagarde, who took over in June from Dominique Strauss-Kahn.    He had guided the fund’s response to the 2008 global financial crisis but was forced to step down in May after facing criminal charges in New York that included attempted rape of a hotel maid.    Prosecutors there later dropped the charges because of concerns about the accuser’s credibility.
      Lagarde refused to comment on reports that holders of Greek debt may be forced to accept bigger losses as a condition of further support to Greece to meet its payments.    She said that the 17 countries in the eurozone should honor the commitments made in July to revamp their rescue fund and countries receiving the aid should keep making the difficult decision on austerity plans to get control of their deficits.    It’s implementation first and foremost,” she told reporters.    “No qualification.”
      German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told reporters that a second bailout package for Greece may have to be re-evaluated because of Athens’ problems in fulfilling earlier financial promises.
      This re-evaluation could include changing the terms of the voluntary contribution from banks and other private investors to the rescue effort for Greece.
  
  
• 9/27/2011
  
  Shutdown impasse cleared - FEMA has disaster relief money to cover this week by AP
      WASHINGTON — Ending weeks of brinkmanship, Congress finessed a dispute over disaster aid Monday night and advanced legislation to avoid a partial government shutdown this weekend.
      The breakthrough came hours after the Federal Emergency Management Agency indicated it had enough money for disaster relief efforts through Friday.    That allowed lawmakers to jettison a $1 billion replenishment that had been included in the measure — and to crack the gridlock it caused.
      The Democratic-controlled Senate approved the measure on a bipartisan vote of 79-12, sending it to the Republican-controlled House for a final sign-off.
      Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said it was a “reasonable way to keep the government operational.”
      “It’s a win for everyone,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.    The events assured no interruption in assistance to areas battered by disasters such as Hurricane Irene, and also that the gov-ernment would be able to run normally when the new budget year begins on Saturday.    The agreement also ended the latest in a string of political standoffs between Democrats and Republicans over deficits, spending and taxes that have rattled financial markets and coincided with polls showing congressional approval ratings at historically low levels.
      “This compromise should satisfy Republicans … and it should satisfy Democrats,” said Reid, who added that Budget Director Jacob Lew had informed him that FEMA did not need any additional funding to meet its needs for the final days of the budget year.
      But not even the dispute-resolving agreement prevented Democrats from proceeding to a politically charged vote earlier in the evening that was designed to force Republicans to decide whether immediate aid to disaster victims or deficit concerns held a higher priority.    And the rhetoric was far harsher during the day on the Senate floor, when Mary Landrieu, D-La., unleashed an unusually personal attack on House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., saying the weeklong controversy started when he said, “Before we can provide help we need to find offsets in the budget.”    She called that “the Cantor doctrine” and said the controversy “could have been avoided if Cantor had just said, ‘I’m sorry, but I made a mistake.’    But instead of saying that, he doubled down,” she said.    Laena Fallon, a Cantor spokeswoman, responded that the Virginia Republican had “never said the things she alleged, he has only suggested that we ought to provide disaster aid dollars to those who need them in a responsible way — something that she’s voted to block despite the urgent need.”    In fact, House Republicans insisted that any new disaster aid for the expiring budget year be offset by cuts elsewhere in the budget.    Hours earlier, FEMA spokeswoman Rachel Racusen said the agency had $114 million left in its relief fund, enough to last until Thursday or Friday, the final business day of the current budget year.
  
  Health law case put on faster track - High court t could rule next year by Tribune Washington Beacon
      WASHINGTON — The Obama administration set the stage Monday for the Supreme Court to rule early next year on the constitutionality of the president’s health care law by declining to press for a full appeal in a lower court.
      The Justice Department announced it will forego an appeal to the full 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.    Such an appeal to the 10-member court could have taken months and delayed a final decision from the high court until at least 2013.
      In August, a 2-1 panel of the 11th Circuit became the first appellate court to declare unconstitutional the new requirement that all Americans have health insurance.
      Now, the administration can appeal directly to the Supreme Court and ask the justices to schedule the case to be heard and decided during the term that begins next week and ends in June.    If the court follows that schedule, the justices will hand down a ruling on Obama’s signature legislation just as the election campaign moves into high gear.
      At issue for the court is whether Congress can use its power to “regulate commerce” to require that all Americans who have taxable income certify by 2014 that they have health insurance.    If not, they must pay a tax penalty that begins at $95.
      The two judges based in Atlanta concluded Congress had overstepped its power by regulating the be-havior of people who do not wish to buy insurance.    This refusal to buy is not commerce, the judges said.
      The administration’s lawyers say this requirement is a reasonable regulation to prevent freeloaders from taking advantage of taxpayers.    Hospitals now spend tens of billions of dollars each year to provide emergency care to people who lack insurance or the ability to pay.    The new law also requires insurers to offer coverage to those who have pre-existing medical conditions.
  
  Stocks up on Europe hopes - Dow, S&P and Nasdaq climb by AP
      Stocks had their biggest gains in more than two weeks Monday after European officials vowed to take action to resolve the region’s debt problems.    The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 272 points, making up about a third of last week’s losses.
      Financial officials met in Washington this weekend and pledged to take bolder steps to fight Europe’s debt crisis, which threatens to slow the global economy.    President Barack Obama called on European leaders to move more quickly to address the crisis.
      German leaders want banks and private institutions that hold Greek bonds to take a bigger loss on those holdings to reduce Greece’s debt burden.    European officials have talked about increasing the size of Europe’s $595 billion rescue fund by allowing it to take loans from the European Central Bank. Pressure is also mounting for the central bank to lower interest rates.
      “The news leaking out of Europe is giving investors hope that the politicians and central bankers in Europe might be putting together a plan,” said Channing Smith, managing director of Capital Advisors Inc.    “The devil’s in the details.”    The Dow Jones industrial average shot up 272.38 points to close at 11,043.86.    It was the biggest gain since Sept. 7. JPMorgan Chase & Co. jumped 7 percent to $31.65, the most of the 30 stocks in the Dow.
      The Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 26.52 to 1,162.95 and the Nasdaq composite rose 33.46 to 2,516.69.
      Investors have been on edge about Europe’s debt problems for months.    The Dow plunged 6.4 percent last week, its biggest drop since the week ended Oct. 10, 2008 at the height of the financial crisis.
      The market’s volatility has made many investors nervous.    Since the first week of August, the Dow has closed up or down more than 200 points a total of 16 times.    There were only four swings of 200 points or more in the other seven months of 2011.
      President Barack Obama said in a town hall meeting that Europe’s financial crisis “is scaring the world” and that the actions the region’s leaders have taken so far “haven’t been as quick as they need to be.”    Greece is at risk of defaulting on its debt next month if it does not receive the next installment of a bailout package.
      If that happens, banks that hold Greek bonds would lose money.    Analysts also worry that the economies in Europe and the U.S. could slip into another recession.
      News that sales of new homes in the U.S. fell to a six-month low briefly sent indexes lower in morning trading, but by midday the Dow and S&P were higher.
  
  Oil wavers on slow economy
      Oil hovered around $80 a barrel Monday after new home sales dropped to a six-month low, adding to worries about energy demand in the slowing economy.
      Crude oil rose 39 cents to finish at $80.24 per barrel in New York.    Crude has traded between about $79 per barrel and $90 per barrel this month.
      It is “just a wild, wild ride now and people are just very nervous at this point,” oil trader Stephen Schork said.    “I think it’s a real concern that we just very well might be in another recession.”
      The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering taking civil action against Standard & Poor’s for its rating of a 2007 mortgage debt offering.    Such action could be just the first shot in a legal assault against the major credit rating agencies.
      The three major agencies — S&P, Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings — gave high ratings to mortgage investments that turned out to be worthless and contributed to the 2008 financial crisis.
      If the SEC charges S&P with violating securities laws, it would mark the first time it’s brought an enforcement action against a top rating agency.
  
  
• 9/28/2011
  
  Health insurance costs up - Spike blamed on medical expenses by Tony Pugh, McClatchy Newspapers
      WASHINGTON — After modest increases last year, the cost of job-based health insurance for families and individuals has jumped sharply this year, even though insurers are paying less in benefits as cash-strapped American workers opt for less medical care.
      For the estimated 150 million workers with employer-sponsored coverage, the average cost of family health insurance jumped 9 percent this year to $15,073, while the price of individual coverage rose 8 percent to $5,429.    Both increases are the largest since 2005.    Each far outpaced a national 2 percent hike in wages and a 3.2 percent rise in inflation, according to an annual survey of nearly 2,100 businesses that the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust released Tuesday.    Premiums for family and individual coverage had increased only 3 percent and 5 percent, respectively, in last year’s survey.
      “We don’t know if this is a onetime jump and premiums will go back down again next year or whether we’re entering a period of higher increases.    We really don’t know, and we won’t know until next year,” said Drew Altman, president and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation.
      What is clear, however, is that family coverage premiums have climbed 113 percent since 2001, compared with a 34 percent rise in workers’ wages and a 27 percent increase in inflation over the period.
      Employers still absorb the bulk of insurance costs.    They pay an average of 72 percent, nearly $11,000, toward the cost of family coverage.    Workers pay about 28 percent, an average of $4,129.    For single coverage, workers pay about 18 percent, or $921, in premiums, while employers pay the rest, about $4,508.
      The rising costs are why more employers and workers are opting for cheaper, high-deductible health plans that require patients to pay $1,000 or $2,000 in medical costs before their coverage kicks in.    The survey found that 31 percent of covered workers are in high-deductible plans, up from 10 percent in 2006.
      Karen Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, said the increasing cost of medical care was the main culprit behind the rate increases.    Rising medical costs also helped pave the way for the landmark 2010 Affordable Care Act, which overhauled the nation’s healthcare system.
  
  Greece passes a new tax - Move aimed at debt crisis by Associated Press
      The leaders of Germany and Greece met in Berlin on Tuesday, buoying stock markets around the world with hopes they were finally preparing a comprehensive solution to the European debt crisis.
      Greece must receive an $11 billion rescue loan before mid-October to stave off bankruptcy, a collapse that would send shock waves through financial markets in Europe and the rest of the world.    But creditors have demanded more efforts to raise revenue.
      In response, Greek lawmakers approved a controversial new property tax Tuesday evening, passing it 154 votes to 143 against in the 300-member parliament.
      Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government downplayed speculation of bold new moves ahead of her meeting Tuesday with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou but the simple gathering itself buoyed spirits in financial markets.
      The current plan is to have Greece implement painful debt reduction measures in exchange for rescue loans. Greece relies on funds from last year’s $149 billion package, and European leaders have also agreed on a second bail-out, although some details of that remain to be worked out.
      Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said his country will get the money.    “The disbursement will be decided in time, in line with the course of our funding needs,” he said Tuesday.    Speaking over chants from protesting ministry employees and tax office workers outside his department, Venizelos said Greek had made great efforts to achieve its fiscal targets, but that a “hyper-effort” was necessary to fully meet its commitments.
      But experts say the current course of austerity is untenable.
      There is growing speculation in the markets that Greece’s bailout creditors will look to impose bigger losses on Greece’s private bondholders as well as recapitalizing Europe’s banks and boosting the size of the eurozone’s rescue fund.    Talk of such a comprehensive package has helped turn sentiment around in stock markets this week following last week’s turmoil.
      So far, there’s been no confirmation from Europe’s capitals that such a comprehensive solution is being planned.
      Venizelos said representatives from the International Monetary Fund, European Commission and European Central Bank will return to Athens this week.    The so-called troika suspended their review in early September amid talk of missed targets and budget shortfalls.
      In Berlin, Papandreou told a conference of the Federation of German Industries that “we are borrowing to repay.”
  
  Oil rises more than 5 percent by Associated Press
      Oil rose more than 5 percent Tuesday on hopes that European leaders are closer to drafting a plan to contain the region’s debt crisis.
      Investors are encouraged that another recession can be avoided and demand for energy products will improve if Greece doesn’t default on its debt.    Crude oil rose $4.21 to finish at $84.45 per barrel in New York.    “We just follow what the economy is doing these days,” said Tom Bentz, an analyst at BNP Paribas Commodity Futures.
  
  
• 9/29/2011
  
  Obama appeals health law defeat - Reform case going to Supreme Court by Mark Sherman, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Raising prospects for a major election year ruling, the Obama administration launched its Supreme Court defense of its landmark health care overhaul Wednesday, appealing what it called a “fundamentally flawed” appeals court decision declaring the law’s central provision unconstitutional.
      Destined from the start for a high court showdown, the health care law affecting virtually every American seems sure to figure prominently in President Barack Obama’s campaign for reelection next year.    Republican contenders are already assailing it in every debate and speech.
      The administration formally appealed a ruling by the federal appeals court in Atlanta that struck down the law’s core requirement that individuals buy health insurance or pay a penalty beginning in 2014.
      At the same time, however, the winners in that appellate case, 26 states and the National Federation of Independent Business, also asked for high court review Wednesday, saying the entire law, and not just the individual insurance mandate, should be struck down.
      The Supreme Court almost always weighs in when a lower court has struck down all or part of a federal law, to say nothing of one that aims to extend insurance coverage to more than 30 million Americans.
      The bigger question had been the timing.    The administration’s filing makes it more likely that the case will be heard and decided in the term that begins next week.
      Repeating arguments it has made in courts across the country in response to many challenges to the law, the administration said Congress was well within its constitutional power to enact the insurance requirement.
      Disagreeing with that, the 26 states and business groups said in their filings that the justices should act before the 2012 presidential election because of the uncertainty over costs and requirements.
      On the issue of timing, their cause got an unexpected boost from retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, who said voters would be better off if they knew the law’s fate law before casting their ballots next year.
      The 91-year-old Stevens said that the justices would not shy away from deciding the case in the middle of a presidential campaign and would be doing the country a service.    “It would be better to have that known about than be speculated as a part of the political argument,” Stevens said in his Supreme Court office.
      Although the Atlanta appeals court struck down the individual insurance requirement, it upheld the rest of the law.    The states and the business group say that would still impose huge new costs.
      The law would extend health coverage mainly through subsidies to buy private insurance and an expansion of Medicaid.
  
  Greek bailout could change - Terms may be renegotiated by Associated Press
      BERLIN — German Chancellor Angela Merkel hinted that the second Greek bailout package might have to be renegotiated amid increasing market speculation Wednesday that European leaders want to force private holders of Greek bonds to take bigger losses.
      Merkel didn’t rule out altering the terms to the package worth about $148 billion, saying the decision must be based on how Greece’s debt inspectors, the so-called troika of the European Community, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, judge Athens’ recent austerity efforts.
      “So we must now wait for what the troika finds out and what it tells us: Do we have to renegotiate or do we not have to renegotiate?” she said in an interview with Greece’s ERT television Tuesday night.
      In another development, Finland’s government — which had threatened to pull out of a rescue plan for Greece — voted in Parliament Wednesday to approve expanding the powers of the eurozone bailout fund and increasing Finland’s share in it.    But Finland has not dropped its demand for guarantees, or collateral, for its share of any future eurozone loans.
      Greece was saved from default last year by an initial multibillion- dollar bailout, and the planned second rescue package includes a voluntary participation by private bondholders, who agreed to write off about 20 percent on their Greek debt holdings.
      But many economists and analysts maintain that Greece, mired in a deep recession worsened by the same austerity measures implemented in return for bailout loans, must have its total debt reduced by as much as 50 percent if it is to have a chance of recovering.
      The Financial Times reported that as many as seven of the eurozone’s 17 members want the banks to take a bigger hit on their Greek bond holdings to allow this to happen.
      The newspaper said Germany and the Netherlands are at the forefront of the calls for the private sector to take a bigger hit, with France and the European Central Bank said to be fiercely resisting the move.
      Greece “will not get back on its feet without a serious reduction in debt” of at least 50 percent, said Ottmar Issing, a former chief economist of the European Central Bank.
  
  Oil loses most gains for week by Associated Press
      Oil gave up almost all of its gains for the week as the U.S. and Europe appeared to have little appetite for more fuel.
      Concerns about fuel demand grew Wednesday when the U.S. reported unexpectedly large crude supplies and weak gasoline demand.    In Europe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel suggested that a bailout package for Greece might have to be renegotiated.
      Crude fell $3.24 to end the day at $81.21 per barrel in New York.    That wiped out big increases on Monday and Tuesday.
  
  
• 9/30/2011
  
  Beshear appeals to Obama about coal jobs by Roger Alford, Associated Press
      FRANKFORT, Ky. — Gov. Steve Beshear has again appealed to President Barack Obama to change federal policies that he said are costing jobs in Kentucky’s coal mining industry.
      In a letter to Obama earlier this week, Beshear said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is knocking Kentuckians out of high-paying jobs by obstructing the opening of new mines and the expansion of existing ones.
      The letter, obtained by The Associated Press, was a follow-up to a meeting last week between Beshear and Obama at the Cincinnati- Northern Kentucky Airport, where they discussed the need to create jobs.
      “In Kentucky, there is a key step you can take toward that goal — implement fair and reasonable policies for the coal permitting process,” Beshear wrote.    “Kentucky has experienced tremendous frustration over the uncertainty and overreaching policies of the Environmental Protection Agency.”
      Beshear said the EPA has unduly delayed 75 mining permits in Eastern Kentucky that would have created crucial jobs at a time when the nation is struggling to pull the economy out of the doldrums.
      The governor urged the president to help find a reasonable way to protect the environment while supporting the mining industry.
      “Simply put, the actions by the EPA are obstructing a substantial opportunity to create and maintain high-paying jobs, and have the potential to devastate job creation and affordable energy across the nation,” Beshear wrote.
      Beshear, who is seeking a second term in the Nov. 8 election, has been facing criticism from opponents who claim he hasn’t done enough to shield the coal industry from EPA politics.
      But in the letter, Beshear explained in great detail his efforts to break the federal logjam on new mining permits and his frustration when a “mutually acceptable solution” that he and his top aides had worked out with the EPA’s southern region administrator was rejected by EPA headquarters.
      “We must have a reasoned and pragmatic approach to the regulation of the coal industry from the EPA or all industries that rely on affordable energy, not the coal industry, will suffer,” Beshear said.
  
  Germany keeps alive hopes for euro’s future - Bailout fund can act faster by Associated Press
      BERLIN — Germany kept alive hopes that the 17-nation euro currency can survive the sprawling debt crisis when lawmakers in Europe’s largest economy voted overwhelmingly Thursday in favor of expanding the powers of the eurozone’s bailout fund.
      The vote strengthened Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center right coalition, which had struggled to win sup-port from a bloc of rebellious members, and could bolster her ability to negotiate new European crisis measures.
      While many investors and experts believe new steps will be required, such as letting Greece write off more of its debt, the Bundestag’s approval of the fund’s new powers and scope is “an important step for stabilizing the eurozone,” said Michael Kemmer, head of Germany’s Bank Federation.    “With that, they have set a course that leads out of the debt crisis.”
      The $600 billion fund will be able to buy government bonds and lend money to banks and governments before they are in a full-blown crisis, making Europe’s response to market jitters more rapid and pre-emptive.
      Germany, which pays the lion’s share of European bailouts, became the 13th member of the eurozone to support the expansion of the rescue fund, the so-called European Financial Stability Facility.
      Cyprus and Estonia also passed the proposed expansion Thursday.
      Austria’s parliament is widely expected to pass the measure today, (( the same day Germany’s upper house of parliament is set to finalize Thursday’s vote, while the Netherlands is expected to approve it next week.
      The biggest remaining hurdle is the final country to vote — Slovakia — where the government will not have enough support to pass it if the leader of the junior coalition Freedom and Solidarity party follows through with threats to vote against the fund’s expansion.    Its parliament is to vote later in October.
      In Berlin, 523 lawmakers in parliament, the Bundestag, voted in favor of expanding German participation to guarantee loans of up to 211 billion euros, compared with 123 billion euros so far.
      Eighty-five voted against it and three abstained.
      “It was a strong statement of Angela Merkel’s position.    She has the backing and the support of the coalition and she is able to negotiate on the European level,” Peter Altmeier, the parliamentary whip for Merkel’s Christian Democrats, said after the tally was announced.
      The lingering problem, however, is that investors are resigned to the fact that Greece will have to default — imposing tougher losses on bondholders.
  
  Debit card fees on purchases start
      Bank of America will start charging debit card users $5 a month to pay for purchases.    The move comes as the cards increasingly replace cash and as banks look for ways to offset the loss of revenue from a new rule that will limit how much they can collect from merchants.
      Paying to use a debit card was unheard of before this year and is still a novel concept for many consumers.    But several banks have recently introduced or started testing debit card fees.    That’s in addition to the spate of other unwelcome changes checking account customers have seen in the past year.    Bank of America will begin charging the fee early next year.
      Bank of America’s announcement carries added weight because it is the largest U.S. bank by deposits.    Customers will be charged only if they use debit cards for purchases in any given month, said Anne Pace, a bank spokeswoman.
  
  Oil rebounds, rising 93 cents
      Oil rebounded Thursday after encouraging economic news in the U.S. and Europe.    Crude oil rose 93 cents to end the day at $82.14 per barrel in New York.    Thursday’s rise continues this month’s roller coaster ride for oil prices.    Oil tumbled 8 percent from Wednesday to Friday last week, then rebounded 6 percent by Tuesday, then fell nearly 4 percent Wednesday.    Tepid economic growth in the U.S. and other major world economies has forced experts to backtrack on demand forecasts for this year.
  
  
• 10/1/2011
  
  U.S. approves solar loan guarantees
      WASHINGTON - The Energy Department approved four more solar-energy loan guarantees Friday worth nearly $5 billion, hours before a controversial loan program was set to expire.
      Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the department completed deals on four projects, including two that were sold late this week by Arizona based First Solar Inc., a major solar manufacturer that had been seeking three federal loan guarantees for projects in California.    The sales were announced Friday along with the loan guarantees.
      The loans were approved under the same program that paid for a $528 million loan to Solyndra LLC, a now-bankrupt solar panel maker that has become a symbol for critics of the Obama administration’s green energy program.
      Even as the loan program continued, the Justice Department took steps Friday to take away control of Solyndra from its management and transfer it to a court-appointed trustee.    Solyndra, which filed for Chapter11bankruptcy protection in early September, faces a criminal investigation by the FBI, as well as scrutiny from congressional investigators and inspectors general at two federal agencies, Energy and Treasury.
  
  Panel rules in favor of Lexmark printers     Printer maker Lexmark International on Friday said the U.S. International Trade Commission has banned 24 companies from importing off-brand laser toner cartridges for Lexmark printers.    Lexmark said the commission ruled Tuesday that the cartridges infringe on 15 of the company’s patents.    The ITC order will take effect after a two-month presidential review period, Lexmark said. Lexmark filed the suit in August 2010.    The ITC is a six-judge panel with jurisdiction over imports and exports.
  
  Oil falls to last year’s price by Associated Press
      Oil prices have fallen to where they were a year ago, dropping 31 percent since May on worries about the global economy.    Crude oil fell $2.94 Friday to end the day at $79.20 per barrel in New York.    Prices haven’t finished that low since Sept. 29, 2010.
      The Commerce Department said that Americans are earning less money, which could affect consumer spending and oil demand.    October is usually a slow month in the oil business.
      Printer maker Lexmark International fell despite a U.S. International Trade Commission ruling that banned 24 companies from importing off-brand laser toner cartridges for Lexmark printers.    Almost Family shares rose, but the stock is still well short of its recent high of $25.72 on July 29.
  
  
• 10/2/2011
  
  Obama energy chief defends loans - Program helps nation, Chu says by Matthew Daly, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — The Obama administration’s energy chief, facing increased pressure over the failure of solar panel maker Solyndra, is defending a loan guarantee program that has provided billions of dollars for solar energy and other renewable energy projects.
      Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Saturday that a stimulus act program that expired Friday will help develop the world’s largest wind farm in Oregon, several large solar power farms in California and Nevada, and the installation of solar panels on 750 rooftops in 28 states, and other projects.
      The loan program has become a rallying cry for critics of the Obama administration’s green energy program after a California solar panel maker declared bankruptcy despite receiving a $528 million federal loan.    The company, Solyndra LLC, has laid off its 1,100 workers.
      Chu didn’t mention Solyndra in a speech at the Solar Decathlon, an event sponsored by the Energy Department.    Students competed to build model solar homes in the event, which was won by the University of Maryland.
      But Chu said loan guarantee projects will generate clean energy to power more than 2.5 million homes.    Combined with other programs run by the department, the clean energy loans are expected to support as many as 60,000 jobs, he said, though Republican lawmakers have disputed that figure.
      Damien LaVera, a department spokesman, said the clean energy loan program has awarded 28 loans worth more than $16 billion since 2009.    Much of the spending has come recently, including more than $6 billion in the past week alone for seven separate projects.
      The heightened pace of the loans has led some Republicans to question whether the administration, in its haste to award loans and beat a Sept. 30 deadline, may be stumbling into another Solyndra-like debacle.    Republicans are also increasingly directing their criticism toward Chu specifically for decision related to Solyndra.
      The U.S. faces a choice, he said, to sit on the sidelines or try to win the “clean energy race” with China, Germany and other countries.
  
  
• 10/3/2011
  
  Nation imposes tax on fatty foods
      COPENHAGEN, DENMARK - Denmark imposed a “fat tax” Saturday on foods such as butter and oil as a way to curb unhealthy eating habits.    It is equal to $2.90 per 2.2 pounds of saturated fat in a product.
      It will increase the price of a burger by around 15 cents and raise the price of a small package of butter by around 40 cents.    It was approved by large majority in a parliament in March to help increase the life expectancy of Danes.
  
  
• 10/4/2011
  
  White House sends Congress trade pacts
      WASHINGTON - The White House sent three proposed trade agreements to Congress on Monday, putting the deals with South Korea, Colombia and Panama on a path toward final passage after years of political limbo.
      President Barack Obama said the deals would make it easier for U.S. companies to sell their products overseas, and he called on Congress to approve them without delay.
      Republicans agree with Obama on the substance of the proposed agreements, but the two sides were locked in procedural fights for months.
  
  Economic plans spur battle - Obama and GOP spar on proposals by Julie Pace, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Seeking to gain political advantage, President Barack Obama insisted Monday that Congress vote on his entire $447 billion economic plan this month.
      Republicans promptly rejected that move, calling for both sides to find common ground in their competing proposals to stimulate growth.
      Obama demanded that Republicans spell out their objections to his plan, expressing confidence that the public supports his call for more spending on public works projects and on job security for teachers and police officers.
      “Ultimately, they’ve got to do the right thing for the American people,” Obama said of lawmakers.
      Republicans have already specified which pieces of Obama’s plan they could support, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Monday that some of those measures would get a vote this month.
      But he said the Republican- controlled House would not act on the president’s jobs bill in its entirety.    “This all or- nothing approach is unreasonable,” the Virginia Republican said.
      The differing approaches highlighted the challenges facing both a president eager to deflect blame for a weak economic recovery and congressional Republicans seeking to counter by projecting an air of cooperation.
      Since introducing the bill three weeks ago, the president has mounted a steady public campaign, traveling to politically important states and to districts of key Republican leaders to press for passage.    On Tuesday, Obama planned to stump for the bill in the Dallas suburbs.    Obama’s jobs plan would reduce payroll taxes on workers and employers; extend benefits to long-term unemployed people; spend money on public works projects; and help states and local governments keep teachers, police officers and firefighters on the job.    He would pay for the plan with tax increases on wealthier Americans and by closing corporate loopholes.
      In a letter to the president Monday, House Republican leaders said Obama’s jobs bill “represents opportunities for common ground between Democrats and Republicans.”    The letter asked Obama to consider GOP regulatory measures and “that in the spirit of putting country before party, you will call on the Senate to follow the House in passing these measures, and commit to signing them into law should they reach your desk.”
      White House officials said the president isn’t prepared to bargain at this point.
      “We’re not going to start off by saying, well, let’s negotiate this first piece, when in fact we’ve written the legislation,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
  
  S&P falls to yearly low - Index on edge of bear market by Associated Press
      The latest setback in Greece’s financial crisis sent the Standard and Poor’s 500 index to its lowest level of the year, putting it on the edge of a new bear market.
      The index, the benchmark for most U.S. stock funds, has fallen 19.4 percent since its high for the year April 29.    A 20 percent drop would signify a bear market, ending a bull market that began in March 2009.    The S&P 500 has gained 76 percent since then, including dividends. European markets slumped, dragging U.S. stocks down along with them, after Greece said it will miss deficit reduction targets it agreed to as part of its bail-out deal.    Benchmark indexes in Germany, France and Spain all fell 2 percent.
      The Dow Jones industrial average fell 258.08 points to 10,655.30.    The S&P 500 lost 32.19, or 2.9 percent, to 1,099.23.    That’s below its closing low of 1,119 for the year, reached Aug. 8.
      Indexes measuring smaller stocks fell even more than the Dow and S&P, which are dominated by large companies.    The Nasdaq composite slid 79.57, or 3.3 percent, to 2,335.83.    The Russell 2000 index of small companies plunged 5.4 percent to 609.49.
      “The market is continuing to trade based on what is happening in Europe, and that is going to overshadow everything else,” said Quincy Krosby, market strategist at Prudential Financial.    “The math (for the Greek bailout) didn’t add up a year ago, and the math doesn’t add up today.    The market knows that and is waiting for the Europeans to acknowledge it.”
      The renewed concerns about Europe’s debt problems pushed the euro down to $1.32 versus the dollar, a nine-month low.    The stronger dollar could hurt large U.S. companies that rely on exports by making their products more expensive overseas.
      Coca-Cola fell 3.2 percent to $65.42. Caterpillar, which sells construction equipment globally, lost 4.5 percent to $70.55.    Boeing, another large exporter, dropped 3.7 percent to $58.25.
      “Everything that is coming out of Greece suggests that the dollar is only going to strengthen, which doesn’t bode well for the international firms,” said J.J. Kinahan, chief options strategist at T.D. Ameritrade.    “It’s tough to be bullish on anything at the moment.”
      The Dow briefly turned higher after 10 a.m., when the Institute of Supply Management said its gauge of U.S. manufacturing did better than Wall Street had predicted in September.
      The Dow and S&P turned mixed within 20 minutes, then took a sharp slide shortly after noon.
  
  Oil hits lowest price since ’10
      The price of crude oil dropped below $78 per barrel to its lowest level in more than a year in New York trading Monday as fears of another recession grew.
      Investors are concerned about a pair of recent announcements that point to weaker demand and even lower energy prices this year.
      Greece, at the center of the European debt crisis, said over the weekend that it will miss its lower spending targets despite severe cost-cutting.
      And China’s manufacturing sector appeared to cool off in September.
  
  
• 10/5/2011
  
  Fed chief: Recovery ‘close to faltering’ - Bernanke delivers blunt warning to Congress by Martin Crutsinger, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke bluntly warned Congress on Tuesday of what most of America has sensed for some time: The economic recovery, such as it is, “is close to faltering.”
      The central bank chief spoke on a day when the stock market spent most of the trading hours in bear market territory — down 20 percent from its most recent highs in April.    A late-day rally helped the market finish higher.
      Bernanke’s exchange with lawmakers seemed to capture the growing belief that no one is prepared to help the global economy in any meaningful way anytime soon.    Speaking in unusually frank terms, he also captured the nation’s sour economic mood.
      The Fed chief was asked about protests around Wall Street, which went on for an 18th day as demonstrators railed against corporate greed and expressed frustration over the economy.
      Bernanke replied, “I think people are quite unhappy with the state of the economy and what’s hap-pening.    They blame, with some justification, the problems in the financial sector for getting us into this mess.    And they’re dissatisfied with the policy response here in Washington.    And at some level, I can’t blame them.”
      “Certainly, 9 percent unemployment and very slow growth is not a very good situation,” he added.    “That’s why they are protesting.”
  
  Eye on Europe
      Throughout the day, traders and U.S. policymakers kept one eye on Europe, where a debt crisis has dragged on more than a year.    Investors worry that a messy default by Greece could hurt European banks and their American counterparts.    On Tuesday, the Greek finance minister said the nation has enough money to pay pensions, salaries and bondholders through the middle of next month — and that was seen as good news.    Bernanke told Congress there was little the Fed could do about Europe’s problems: “Unfortunately, we are innocent bystanders here.”
      Bernanke said he believes the Fed’s latest move to help the economy would be “meaningful but not an enormous support” for the economy.    The program, known as Operation Twist, is designed to lower long term interest rates so people and businesses will spend more money.    “It should help, somewhat, on job creation and growth,” the Fed chief told Congress.    “It’s particularly important now that the economy is close, the recovery is close to faltering.”
      “We need to make sure that the recovery continues and doesn’t drop back and that the unemployment rate continues to fall,” he added.    The Fed has used most of its tools to help the econ-omy.    It said this summer that it expects to keep interest rates super-low into 2013.    Congress is inclined to cut, not raise, spending.    Europe is resisting bold steps to save its most troubled economies.    And fears are rising that a recession is on the verge of seizing Europe and eventually spreading around the world.    “We have already taken interest rates down to zero … and this Congress doesn’t seem to be able to do anything,” said David Wyss, former chief economist at Standard & Poor’s.    “So not much good is going to happen.”
  
  Markets respond
      Investors seem to think so.    Stocks sank early Tuesday on fears about Europe, before rising in late morning on Bernanke’s suggestion that the Fed might be open to doing more to help.    Then they tumbled again in the afternoon, only to surge in the final 30 minutes of trading on a report that European leaders might be working on a plan to prop up banks there.
      The Standard & Poor’s 500 index finished the day up 2.3 percent at 1,123.95, or about 33 points above what would be considered bear market territory.
      Economists at Goldman Sachs forecast in a note this week that Europe could fall into recession by winter.    That would push the U.S. economy to “the edge of recession” by early 2012, said Andrew Tilton, an economist with the firm.
      Even if a global recession can be avoided, the U.S. economy faces a bleak outlook.    Some economists fear that Congress could worsen things by cutting taxes or raising taxes this year or next.
      Tilton forecasts overall economic growth of just 1.7 percent this year, followed by a scant 0.5 percent annual rate in the first three months of next year.    For all of 2012, he projects 1.4 percent growth. Normal growth is more like 3 percent.
      European finance ministers suggested Tuesday that holders of Greek debt might have to absorb larger losses than originally thought.    Banks that hold Greek bonds would suffer.    A re-cession in Europe would also hurt U.S. exports to the region.    Still, Wyss said, “Policy seems to be as frozen there as it is in Washington.”
  
  Dim outlook
      U.S. lawmakers have their own challenges with debt. Congress is intent on cutting spending over the next several years.    At the same time, Congress might let a Social Security tax cut expire at year’s end.    Income tax cuts could expire in 2012.    Based on those assumptions, economists at Bank of America Merrill Lynch expect growth below 2 percent this year, next year and in 2013.    For most Americans, such weak expansion would feel like a recession.    And it wouldn’t reduce chronically high unemployment.    The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said last month that the unemployment rate will remain near 9 percent through the end of 2012.
      In his testimony, Bernanke said the Fed is prepared to support the economy.    But he made clear that its efforts to force down long-term interest rates are no “panacea.”    “Fostering healthy growth and job creation is a shared responsibility of all economic policymakers, in close cooperation with the private sector,” he said.
      Yet the likelihood of significant help from Congress appears dim.    President Barack Obama’s $447 billion job-creation bill has run into resistance from Republicans and even some Democrats in Congress.    House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says the Republican-led House won’t vote on Obama’s plan its entirety.
  
  Stopgap measure covers 6-week span by Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — The House passed a spending bill Tuesday to fund the government for six weeks, delaying a series of battles over spending and policy that include everything from labor law and environmental regulations to abortion and the Pentagon budget.
      The 352-66 vote sent the measure to President Barack Obama in time to avert a government shutdown at midnight.    That ended a skirmish over disaster aid that seemed to signal far more trouble ahead as Obama and a bitterly divided Congress begin working on ironing out hundreds of differences, big and small, on a $1 trillion-plus pile of 12 unfinished spending bills.
      Fifty-three Republicans defected on the measure, which was calibrated to spend money at rates equal to an August budget deal between Congress and Obama that permits too much spending for many conservatives.
      For weeks officials fought over disaster aid after the House insisted that $1 billion in emergency aid for victims of Hurricane Irene and other natural disasters should have been offset by cuts elsewhere in the budget.    House and Senate Democrats opposed the idea, particularly over cuts to a loan program that helps automakers retool factories to meet new fuel standards.
      But a face-saving compromise last week — the Senate dropped both the $1 billion in aid and the cuts to clean-energy programs — paved the way for Tuesday’s vote. Debate lasted just minutes.
      “We need to keep the doors of the government open to the American people who rely on its programs and services,” said the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky.    “Furthermore, our economy cannot handle the instability that comes with the threat of a government shutdown.”
      A far more difficult task looms: passing the 12 annual spending bills that lay out the day-to-day operating budgets for Cabinet agencies and departments.
      On one hand, the task is made easier by the fact that the GOP controlled House, the Democratic- run Senate and the president are in agreement on an overall $1 trillion-plus budget for the day-to-day operations of government agencies.    The August budget deal restored $24 billion in cuts sought by Republicans in their April budget.
      Still, there remains plenty of disagreement over which programs should be increased and which should be cut the deepest.    Republicans are pressing cuts to foreign aid and to preserve some budget gains for the Pentagon; Democrats and Obama want funding increases for job training and Pell Grants.
      The short-term measure sets a Nov. 18 deadline to wrap up the unfinished spending bills, but it’s by no means a sure thing that a bitterly divided Congress and the White House will be able to do so.    The loss of 53 Republicans for Tuesday’s vote illustrates the difficult hand that GOP leaders must play in the negotiations.    That’s because to pass the final legislation will require Republicans to seek support from Democrats to counter any defections.
  
  China accused of cyber espionage
      WASHINGTON - The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee accused China Tuesday of waging a campaign of cyber espionage aimed at stealing U.S. industrial secrets. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said Chinese efforts to pilfer U.S. technological know-how via the Internet have reached an “intolerable level,” and called on the U.S. and its allies to pressure Beijing to stop.
      China is both a major U.S. economic partner and the nation’s biggest foreign creditor.    “In Washington there has been this big dance around the 800-pound gorilla in the room,” Rogers said.
      China denies the allegations.
  
  Emails show doubt about energy loans - Administration ignored risks by The Washington Post
      WASHINGTON — Career White House officials and savvy private investors alike worried last year that the Energy Department’s strategy for investing in clean-energy companies was dangerously flawed and likely to backfire, ac-cording to partial emails released Monday.    “Bad days are coming,” one White House budget analyst wrote of the companies the Energy Department chose to back in the Obama administration’s signature effort to spur clean technologies and create jobs.
      Another wrote that top officials seemed “completely oblivious” to mounting risks in their first pro-ject: a $535 million government- backed loan to a now shuttered solar panel manufacturer, Solyndra.
      Their broader concern was that Obama’s energy agency was not making careful enough choices in the companies that it backed with loans, or carefully monitoring those companies.    The emails, covering from late 2009 until May 2010, were released by the Democratic minority on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and capture only part of the administration’s internal debate about Solyndra.    But this portion revealed that two private investors and some career federal employees warned top White House advisers about what they considered the Energy Department’s blind spots.
      In early April 2010, concern mounted at the Office of Management and Budget when news broke that Solyndra’s independent auditors had questioned whether the company could continue as a “going concern.”    OMB officials had felt rushed in approving the major loan to Solyndra in September 2009.
      Eight months later, when the Fremont, Calif.based company sought to go public, auditors highlighted the firm’s mounting debts and paltry revenue.
      “DOE . . . has one loan to monitor and they seem completely oblivious to this issue,” one Office of Management Budget analyst said April 2, 2010, “and to make it worse it was the key thing I said they needed to watch.”
      The unnamed analyst complained that the agency’s loan monitoring was “problematic” and not a priority, despite the large sums that taxpayers would have to repay if the projects failed.
      “Interesting in light of DOE’s recent statement to OMB staff that Solyndra project was on schedule and on budget,” another OMB analyst wrote back that day about the auditors’ findings.    “I eager(ly) await DOE’s monitoring system.”    In an ongoing exchange that day, the analysts discussed the bad news they believed was looming inside the projects the Energy Department had backed.
      “What’s terrifying is that after looking at some of the (loan guarantee projects) that came next, this one (Solyndra) started to look better,” one OMB staffer said to another.    They remarked on how the Energy Department was still considering granting Solyndra more funding in a second loan application.
      “Possible to close and default on one before closing on a second???    Could be a new record,” one wrote.
      On May 21, an OMB analyst reacted incredulously to learning of President Obama’s pending visit to Solyndra on May 25.    The event had been scheduled by the White House to showcase the administra-tion’s use of stimulus money.
      “Hope doesn’t default before then,” the staffer wrote.    Even venture capitalists such as Steve Westly, whose firm had invested in companies that the Obama administration helped with stimulus funds, questioned the Energy Department’s judgment and Obama’s pending trip.    He emailed senior Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett urging that the White House reconsider the trip because there was a high likelihood that the company would fail.    The president did make the visit.
  
  European banks may get credit lift by Associated Press
      The European Central Bank could boost emergency credit offerings Thursday to help shore up a banking system that has come under increasing pressure from the eurozone debt crisis.
      Economists say the meeting in Berlin is much less likely to result in a cut in the bank’s benchmark refinancing rate from the current 1.5 percent.
      The eurozone’s troubled banks will be a major topic at the meeting and at the subsequent news conference, the last such appearance for bank President Jean-Claude Trichet before his eight-year term expires Oct. 31 and he hands over to successor Mario Draghi.
      Many economists expect the ECB will open its credit window wide for banks to borrow, as it did during the financial crisis that followed the 2008 collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers. Analysts say the central bank could decide to offer unlimited credit for six months or a full year, and could also buy asset backed securities known as cov-ered bonds from banks.
      That would provide support to European banks that are having difficulty borrowing normally from other banks.    Banks are reluctant to lend because they fear Greece could default on its government bonds and cause losses that mean other banks would not pay them back.
      The European Central Bank already regularly offers short term credit for as long as 3 months, but extending the loan period means banks are less vulnerable to market turmoil.    It made a special six-month credit offer in August, and 114 banks borrowed $66.40 billion.
      Protecting banks would be a key challenge if financially troubled Greece defaults on its debts, either in a coordinated way with eurozone governments’ approval or a disorderly default in which the country simply runs out of money.
  
  Oil hits new low for 2011, again
      U.S. crude oil prices dropped for a third day, giving up $1.94 to end at $75.67 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.    It’s down 17.2 percent so far this year.
      Oil fell early in the day as Greece, the center of Europe’s financial crisis, said it has enough money to pay its bills until November.
      Europe’s leaders are still deciding whether to give it more emergency loans.    “If they don’t work out a deal to handle Greece’s credit problems, then confidence goes away in their ability to handle other eurozone countries with budget problems,” PFG Best analyst Phil Flynn said.
  
  
• 10/6/2011
  
  Jobs bill gets millionaire tax - Reid amends bill on its arrival in Senate by Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Struggling to deliver the big jobs package proposed by President Barack Obama, Senate Democrats are using the issue to force Republican senators to vote on tax increases for millionaires, picking up on a White House theme that the wealthiest Americans aren’t paying their fair share.
      Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Wednesday he’s changing Obama’s jobs package to add a 5 percent tax on income above $1million, a plan sure to be blocked by Republicans.
      The $447 billion package still includes Obama’s proposals to cut payroll taxes and provide funds for teachers, firefighters, the jobless and infrastructure.    The tax on millionaires is expected to provide funds for the package, so it wouldn’t add to the deficit.
      Democrats are banking on Republicans to oppose the higher taxes on million-dollar earners and Obama’s call for new spending aimed at cutting joblessness, leaving them open to a charge of protecting the wealthy at the ex-pense of the unemployed.
      “Republicans will be hard-pressed to explain why they allowed teachers and firefighters to be laid off, rather than have millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
      Reid said he plans to bring the bill up for a Senate vote next week, although without GOP support, it won’t get the 60 votes to advance.
      Republican leaders said they won’t support tax increases, even on the wealthy, because they would hurt an already weak economy.    “I understand our Democrat friends want to jettison entire parts of the bill altogether — not to make it more effective at growing jobs, not to grow bipartisan support,” said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.    “No, they want to overhaul the bill to sharpen its political edge.”
      The new 5 percent tax would be applied to adjusted gross income above $1 million — income before itemized deductions are subtracted — including income from capital gains and dividends.    The top tax rate on earned income is 35 percent.    The top capital gains tax rate is 15 percent.    The increase would raise $450 billion in the next decade, paying for the whole jobs package, Reid said.    It’d take effect Jan. 1, a year earlier than the tax increases in Obama’s original package.
      Obama has said raising taxes in a weak economy isn’t a good idea and, campaigning for his jobs bill last month, he noted his tax increases wouldn’t kick in until 2013.    “Nobody is talking about raising taxes right now,” he said.
  
  2nd Solyndra loan pushed last summer
      WASHINTON - The Obama administration’s Department of Energy was poised last summer to give Solyndra a second major taxpayer loan of $469 million, even as the company’s financial situation was growing more dire.
      The Energy Department was actively pushing to provide the second loan guarantee to the troubled solar-panel manufacturer in April and May 2010, when Solyndra’s auditors warned the company was in danger of closing due to its rapidly mounting debts and expenses, according to complete e-mails just released by a House committee investigating the original loan.
      The agency didn’t shelve the idea until October 2010, a Department of Energy spokesman has confirmed.    That was the month that Solyndra executives and investors first warned the department that the company was facing the threat of having to liquidate without emergency cash.
      Solyndra, which suddenly shut down on Aug. 31 and sought bankruptcy protection, has left taxpayers on the hook for repaying that first half-billion-dollar loan.
  
  Europe struggles to stem fear over health of banks by Associated Press
      European countries are wrangling over how to address rising market panic about the health of their banks, with some pushing for a concerted effort to recapitalize struggling lenders while others are reluctant to put up more tax-payer money.    The International Monetary Fund, which has been a key player in the eurozone’s debt crisis, renewed a call Wednesday on the continent’s leaders to quickly steel banks against worsening market panic.    The IMF has said as much as $266.74 billion may be needed to boost banks’ capital buffers, although some of that money could come from private investors.
      “We’re not saying that banks are weak, we’re not saying that banks are in trouble,” said Antonio Borges, the head of the IMF’s Europe program.    “We’re simply saying that no banking sector in the world can survive a general loss of confidence.”
      That call found some support from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said she would support a Europe-wide plan to recapitalize banks if such a move was deemed necessary.
      Banks are required to hold a certain amount of low-risk assets that can absorb losses on their investments, but many analysts say those cushions are way too small in light of the worsening eurozone crisis.    “If there is a common view that banks aren’t sufficiently capitalized for the current market conditions” financial firewalls should be built, Merkel said in Brussels after a meeting with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.
      She said “common guidelines” on the right amount of capitalization were necessary, adding that this should be addressed at an EU summit of this month.
  
  Oil rises after positive signs
      Oil rebounded Wednesday from 12month lows on positive U.S. economic news and signs European banks might get some help.    Crude jumped $4.01 to finish at $79.68 per barrel in New York.    Prices earlier in the week fell to the lowest level since September 2010.
      Pressure from the International Monetary Fund and word of a potential plan to recapitalize troubled European banks encouraged investors and traders.
  
  
• 10/7/2011
  
  Obama tries to apply heat over jobs bill by Ben Feller, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — A combative President Barack Obama challenged a divided Congress on Thursday to unite behind his jobs bill or get ready to be run “out of town” by angry voters.
      Hoping to use public frustration and economic worry as leverage, he called his proposal an insurance plan against a painful return to recession.    In a news conference long on restatements of his ideas, Obama laid bare the dynamic that now is Washington: The era of compromise is over.
      Frustrated over getting nowhere with Republicans, Obama promised to keep “hammering way until something gets done.”
      Despite Obama’s taunts, Republicans showed no signs of switching positions.    Instead, they pressed unsuccessfully for a symbolic vote later in the day so they could demonstrate their opposition to the bill the president submitted three weeks ago.    They also predicted that they would prevail next week when Democrats try to advance a reworked version, which Obama supports, with a tax on millionaires.    Speaking at a forum just about the same time as Obama, House Speaker John Boehner said the president has decided to “give up on governing, give up on leading.”    Said Boehner: “We’re legislating.    He’s campaigning.”    Obama’s news conference marked a continua-tion of his recent feistiness and his party’s attempt to depict Republicans as protectors of the rich.    Obama plans to keep it up through his campaign as he seeks a second term amid persistently high unemployment and lower approval ratings for himself.    Obama defended his own tactic of campaigning for a jobs bill that appears to have no chance of passing as it is.    When asked about his willingness to negotiate to help the millions of unemployed, he said he had gone out of his way every time, to little avail.
      “The question then, is, will Congress do something?” the president said.    “If Congress does something, then I can’t run against a do-nothing Congress.    If Congress does nothing, then it’s not a matter of me running against them.    I think the American people will run them out of town, because they are frustrated.”
      Obama conceded that voters have grown deeply exasperated and cynical, and he tried to put the re-sponsibility largely on Congress.    At one point Obama even told his media questioners to accept a “little homework assignment” and “go ask Republicans what their jobs plan is.”
      The political positioning came with the American economy weakening and at a risk of sinking as a conse-quence of Europe’s debt crisis.    Nearly one-third of the unemployed people in the United States — almost 4.5 million people — have been out of work for a year or more.
      Obama would not say whether he agreed with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s warning this week that any economic recovery “is close to faltering.”    The president said the country stands to face deeper problems without action, particularly if a payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits are not extended.
      He has presented a $447 billion plan that would cut some taxes and increase spending on schools, roads and other public projects.    He has proposed covering the cost of that, and therefore avoiding another pile of public debt, in part by raising taxes on wealthier people and corporations.
      It is likely that Congress will pass Obama’s proposal to extend and expand the Social Security payroll tax cuts that took effect Jan. 1, the costliest part of the overall jobs plan.    Other elements could also clear Congress by the end of the year, including a renewal of unemployment benefits.    Yet Republicans strongly oppose Obama’s proposed spending and also are against raising taxes on anyone.    Giving a bit of ground on his own plan, Obama endorsed a new proposal by Senate Democrats to tax millionaires — not households making $250,000 or more — to pay for his jobs program.
      “If the goal is to create jobs, then why are we even talking about tax hikes?” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.    Republicans also shrugged off Obama’s complaints that they have not explained their opposition or proposed alternatives, saying they have done both plenty of times and won’t back any sort of tax hike.
      About 392,000 households would get hit by the Senate Democrats’ proposed 5.6 percent tax on income above $1 million, according to an analysis by the Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank.    In 2013, the first year the tax would take effect, those households would see their taxes increase by an average of $110,500, according to the analysis.
  
  Senate delays its vote on sanctioning China by Jim Abrams, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — A Senate vote to impose sanctions on China for its unfair currency practices was put off Thursday, delayed by the partisan divisions that have come to characterize this Congress.
      The bill, which makes it easier to raise tariffs against Chinese goods if China keeps its currency un-dervalued, is now set for a likely vote Tuesday, when it is expected to pass with bipartisan support.
      Partisanship won the day Thursday when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., couldn’t agree on what amendments would be allowed, and Democrats used their majority powers to push through a rule change that restricts the offering of non-relevant amendments to legislation.    The China currency legislation, years in the making, reflects frustration at the failures by the current and past administrations to change Chinese policy with diplomacy, and the Chinese economic onslaught that saw the trade deficit with China hit $273 billion last year.    It targets the practice of keeping the yuan undervalued against the dollar, making Chinese exports cheaper and U.S. products sold in China more expensive.
      Economists say the yuan is 25 percent to 30 percent undervalued, with some putting the figure as high as 40 percent, giving Chinese producers a significant advantage against American competitors.
      Sen. Lindsey Graham, RS. C., cited estimates that China has cost the U.S. some 2 million manufacturing jobs in the last decade.    “We cannot continue to let China flaunt the rules,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, DN. Y., said.    If action isn’t taken, “we may never recover as a country.”    The legislation, even if it passes the Senate, is still a long way from becoming law.    House supporters of a similar bill say they have 225 co-sponsors, enough to pass it, but Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, might halt it.    He said it’s “pretty dangerous” to tell another nation how to set monetary policy.
      The White House is noncommittal, but has emphasized the importance of working through diplomatic and global channels.    President Barack Obama said at a news conference Thursday that China “has been very aggressive in gaming the trading system to its advantage and to the disadvantage of other countries, particularly” the U.S.
  
  U.S. won’t surrender clean energy to China
      WASHINGTON - The U.S. must not surrender development of clean energy to China and other countries, despite the failure of a solar-panel manufacturer that filed for bankruptcy after taking a half-billion dollar government loan, President Barack Obama said Thursday.
      He said the government should continue loan guarantees to help green energy companies compete with countries that spend billions to subsidize solar panels and other renewable energy components.    So-lyndra, which failed last month, blamed its demise partly on Chinese imports.
      Fighting back against GOP criticism of a $528 million loan to Solyndra, Obama said he disagrees with a Republican congressman who said the U.S. “can’t compete with China” to make solar panels or wind turbines.    “I’m not going to surrender to other countries technological leads that could end up determining whether or not we’re building a strong middle class,” Obama said.
  
  U.S. to design health coverage basics - Advisers weigh cost against benefits by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — The federal government is taking on a new role in the nation’s health care, designing a basic benefits package for millions of privately insured Americans — a framework for the Obama administration was to be released today.
      The report by independent experts from the Institute of Medicine lays out guidelines for deciding what to include in the new “essential benefits package,” and how to keep it affordable for small businesses and taxpayers, as well as scientifically up to date.
      The advisers recommended that the package be built on mid tier health plans currently offered by small employers, expanded to include certain services such as mental health, and squeezed into a budget.    They did not spell out a list of services to cover, but they did say that treatments should be cost-effective.
      Until now, designing benefits has been the job of insurers, employers and states.    But the new health care law requires insurance companies to provide at least the federally approved package if they want to sell to small businesses, families and individuals through new state markets set to open in 2014.
      Existing workplace plans won’t be required to adopt the federal model, but employers and consumer advocates alike predict it will become the nation’s benchmark for health insurance over time.
      “The federal government has never before attempted to define what constitutes essential medical benefits for Americans with private insurance,” said Stephen Finan, a policy expert for the American Cancer Society.
      With Republicans branding President Barack Obama’s health care law as a government takeover, the administration reacted cautiously to the recommendations.
      Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement that officials would hold “listening sessions” around the country before any decisions are made, a process that could take months.
      “Before we put forward a proposal, it is critical that we hear from the American people,” Sebelius said.
      The law would expand coverage to about 30 million uninsured people.
      Actually, work on the benefits package is already well under way within Health and Human Services.
      Employer groups — particularly those representing low wage industries — want to keep benefits fairly basic.    Since the government is going to be subsidizing coverage for millions of people, a generous plan will drive up costs for taxpayers, they argue.
      But consumer and patient advocacy groups want to make sure their priorities are included.    The health care law requires that essential benefits include outpatient, hospital, emergency, maternal, newborn and children’s care, prescription drugs, mental health and substance abuse treatment, rehabilitation, labs, prevention and wellness.    But Congress gave the administration lots of leeway to determine the specifics.
      The Institute of Medicine panel stressed that the package has to be affordable if Obama’s overhaul is going to stand the test of time.    The panel used the analogy of a shopper at the supermarket. One option is to fill up your cart with all the groceries you want, and find out the cost at the register.    “The other option is to walk into the store with a firm idea of what you can spend and to fill the cart carefully,”    the advisers said.    “The committee recommends that (the administration) take the latter approach.”
  
  Oil above $82 on good EU news
      Oil prices rose Thursday as Europe’s central bank tried to strengthen the region’s financial system.
      Crude oil jumped $2.91 to finish at $82.59 per barrel in New York.    It’s the second straight day of higher prices after falling to 12-month lows earlier in the week.
      Europe’s financial woes scared many investors out of oil markets this year, said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service.    When Europe’s situation seems to improve, in-vestors rush back in, lifting prices, he said.    A stronger European and world economy means demand for oil will rise.
  
  
• 10/8/2011
  
  Obama fundraiser pushed Solyndra loan by Matthew Daly, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — An Energy Department adviser and former fundraiser for President Barack Obama pushed for a California solar company to receive a half-billion federal loan, despite pledging to recuse himself because his wife’s law firm represented the company, newly released emails show.
      The emails show that Steve Spinner, a former Obama fundraiser who helped monitor a clean energy loan guarantee program, was more actively involved in a loan for Solyndra LLC than administration officials have acknowledged.
      The emails, released by the administration in response to congressional investigators, show that Spinner was actively involved in a planned September 2009 trip by Vice President Joe Biden to Solyndra’s Fremont, Calif., headquarters for a groundbreaking ceremony.    Biden did not go on the trip but spoke via satellite.
      Solyndra declared bankruptcy last month after receiving a $528 million federal loan.
      In the emails, Spinner, who founded a sports fitness company, repeatedly pushed Energy Department and White House budget officials to ensure that the loan was finalized before Biden’s planned trip.    The loan closing was announced at the groundbreaking ceremony on Sept. 4, 2009.    “What is he waiting for?”    Spinner wrote in an Aug, 28, 2009 email to a DOE official.    “I have the OVP (Office of the Vice President) and WH (the White House) breathing down my neck on this.    They are getting itchy to get involved.”
      Later that day, Spinner asked the same DOE official to “walk over there and force him to give you the answer.”    The emails refer to a DOE official who was evaluating the Solyndra loan.
      A White House official declined to comment when asked if Spinner’s conduct was appropriate.    The Obama administration allowed news organizations to read the emails on Friday as it prepared to send them to investigators for the House Energy and Commerce Committee.    The panel has been looking into Solyndra and at the $38 billion loan guarantee program.
  
  Libyans push into town of Gadhafi by Hadeel al-Shalchi, Associated Press
      SIRTE, Libya — Revolutionary fighters assaulted Moammar Gadhafi’s hometown from all sides Friday in what they hope will be a final all-out offensive to crush resistance in the most important bastion of regime loyalists.
      Libya’s new leaders say Sirte’s fall is critical to formally declaring liberation and setting a time line for elections, even if fighting persists elsewhere and the ousted leader is nowhere to be found.
      It’s been more than six weeks since the former rebels seized control of the capital and most other parts of the country.    Smoke drifted over the skyline and explosions thundered throughout the besieged city, as long lines of civilians fleeing by car formed at checkpoints manned by revolutionary forces.    Anti-Gadhafi fighters pushed into the Mediterranean coastal city from the west, east and south in heavy fighting, trying to squeeze his supporters into a smaller and smaller perimeter.
      The two sides battered each other with rockets, mortar shells and tank fire, as Gadhafi snipers fired down on fighters advancing through housing complexes.
      Friday’s push marked the largest new assault on the city in weeks.    The former rebels had said they were delaying a final push to allow civilians to escape.    A U.S. administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said that 80 percent of the city had been secured.
      The official said the remaining area might take more time to capture.    NATO airstrikes have been critical to the rebels’ successes.    Fighters entering through the western gate on Friday quickly advanced to within a mile of the city center but faced heavy resistance from a loyalist force of about 800 men, according to one commander’s estimate.    At least 12 revolutionary fighters were killed and 195 were wounded, doctors said.    Ambulances sped down Sirte’s main avenue to a field hospital.
  
  Oil prices near $83 per barrel
      Oil prices climbed to near $83 per barrel Friday as a volatile week for crude ended with news of a burst of hiring in the U.S. Prices have recovered from 12-month lows.
      However, traders said they aren’t sure where the market is headed after a mixed economic news this week.    “The market is clearly confused,” analyst and trader Stephen Schork said.    “You just can’t make any conclusive opinions about where prices are going.”
  
  Fitch cuts its credit ratings for Spain, Italy by Bloomberg News
      Spain and Italy, the euro region’s fourth- and third-largest economies, were downgraded by Fitch Ratings on worries they’ll struggle to improve finances as Europe’s debt crisis rises.
      Spain had its foreign and local currency long-term issuer default ratings cut to AA from AA+, while Italy had the same set of ratings to A+ from AA-, the company said.    The outlook for both countries is negative.    Fitch also maintained Portugal’s rating at BBB-, saying it would complete a review of that ranking in the fourth quarter.    The downgrades reflect “the intensification of the euro zone crisis,” which “constitutes a significant financial and economic shock,” Fitch said.
      Spain and Italy are scrambling to avoid the fallout from the debt crisis as Greece moves closer to default.    Borrowing costs for both nations surged to euro-era record highs in August, prompting the European Central Bank to prop up their bonds on the secondary market.
      “There are two things Italy needs to do. One is to work on reacquiring a sufficient level of international credibility to maintain its financial house in order,” Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne said after a speech Friday in Montreal.    “The other thing that you need is to increase the purchasing capability of the Italian public.”
      Fitch’s cut of Italy was its first since October 2006.    It follows downgrades of Italy by Moody’s Investors Service on Oct. 4 and Standard & Poor’s on Sept. 19, which both cited concerns that the nation’s weak economic growth means it’ll struggle to cut Europe’s second-largest debt, at 120 percent of gross domestic product.    Fitch has now lowered Spain’s rating — which was AAA until 2010 — twice as the deepest austerity measures in 30 years fail to convince investors the nation can stem the surge in its debt burden.    Moody’s also warned “all but the strongest euro-area sovereigns” are likely to see further downgrades, when it cut Italy’s rating for the first time in almost two decades.    Fitch said it expects Spanish growth to remain below 2 percent a year through 2015.    Still, the nation’s debt burden will peak at 72 percent of GDP in 2013, below the forecast for the euro area on average, the firm said. Italy gave final approval last month to a $73 billion austerity plan meant to balance the budget in 2013; convincing the ECB to start buying Italian and Spanish bonds Aug. 8.
  
  
• 10/9/2011
  
  We’re just like you, protesters tell world - Occupy Wall Street diverse in all things by Jocelyn Noveck, Associated Press
      NEW YORK — As other protesters chanted vigorously, Nancy Pi-Sunyer stood off to the side at the Occupy Wall Street rally, clutching her sign, looking a little like a new teacher on the first day of school.    In a way, she was: At 66, this retired teacher was joining a protest for the first time in her life.
      “I was too young for the civil rights movement,” Pi-Sunyer said earlier this week as she joined thousands of protesters marching in lower Manhattan.    “And during the Vietnam War, I was too serious a student.    Now, I just want to stand up and have my voice be heard.”
      As the protests have expanded and gained support from new sources, what began three weeks ago as a group of mostly young people camping out on the streets has morphed into something different: an umbrella movement for people of varying ages, life situations and grievances, some of them first time protesters.
      There are a few common denominators among the protesters: their position on the left of the political spectrum, and the view that the majority in America — the “99 percent,” in their words — isn’t getting a fair shake.    But beyond that, though, there’s a diversity of age, gender and race — in part because of the recent injection of labor union support, and fueled by social networks — that’s striking to some who study social protests.
      “Most people think this is a bunch of idealistic young kids,” said Heather Gautney, a sociology professor at Fordham University and an analyst of social protests.    “But the wider movement is remarkably more diverse than it’s been portrayed.    I’ve seen a lot of first-time protesters, nurses, librarians.    At one protest, the younger element seemed actually to be in the minority.”
      Pi-Sunyer, who lives in Montclair, N.J., was drawn into the fray Wednesday the same way many were — via social networks.    She saw a post from a friend on Facebook and realized it was time to join.    “I just decided to get off the couch and be in control,” she said, holding a hand-lettered sign: “Wise OWLS Seek Economic Justice 4 All.”    (OWLS was a play on the initials for Occupy Wall Street — with an “l” for little people.)    “I was oblivious before.    I can’t be oblivious now.”
      Nearby, a speaker in lower Manhattan’s Foley Square yelled into a microphone: “I’m tired of sticking my hand in my pocket, and only getting my leg!”    The so-called “Granny Brigade” pulled out guitars and played a song.    The crowd milled, bearing an endless variety of signs: “Make Banks Pay!”    “Corporate Greed is Not Patriotic!”    “Give My Professor Health Insurance, Please!”    “Food is A Basic Human Right!”    “Bernanke Burnout!” An optimistic one: “This Is The First Time I’ve Felt Hopeful In a Long Time!” And a pessimistic one: “Even My Union is Corrupt!”
      Cherie Walters wasn’t carrying a sign — she WAS a sign.    Both the front and back of her shirt were covered in scrawled slogans.    “I came here from MICHIGAN because the top 20 percent are waging class warfare against the rest of the U.S.,” it read in part.    Walters, 58, also a former teacher, had driven all the way from Michigan with her husband, Rich.
      Her biggest gripe: credit card swipe fees, which she said were killing smaller business-es.    She also was worried about unemployment in her state.    “I’m very angry at how poverty is degrading our people,” she said. As she spoke, a much younger protester interrupted to hand her a leaflet on health care reform.
      Cherie and Rich Walters protested during the Vietnam War, as students at Central Michigan University.    Compared with those anti-war protests, she said, this one was far more diverse — “different ages, colors, even languages,” she said.
      Such diversity is what organizers hoped for, said Patrick Bruner, Occupy Wall Street spokesman.
  
  ‘Budget zombie’ cuts called gimmick by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — They’re calling it the zombie in the budget.
      It’s a long-term-care plan the Obama administration has put on hold, fearing it could go bust if actually implemented.    Yet while the program exists on paper, monthly premiums the government may never collect count as reducing federal deficits.
      Real or not, that’s $80 billion over the next 10 years.
      The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports program, CLASS for short, may just keep lurching along indefinitely.    It would join other peculiar creatures of the federal budget such as “trust funds” that are actually more like IOUs and Medicare cuts that can be counted twice.
      “It’s a gimmick that produces phantom savings,” said Robert Bixby, executive director of the Con-cord Coalition, a nonpartisan group that advocates deficit control.
      “That money should have never been counted as deficit reduction because it was supposed to be set aside to pay for benefits,” Bixby added.    “The fact that they’re not actually doing anything with the program sort of compounds the gimmick.”
      The program was created under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, and arguably provided much of the 10-year, $143 billion in savings claimed under the law.    But now some Capitol Hill aides have dubbed CLASS a “budget zombie.”
      The administration recently asked Congress to hold off on money for implementing CLASS as it tries to find a way to make it solvent for the long run.    The chief financial expert for CLASS left the government, saying the program’s staff was abruptly reassigned.
      CLASS was a priority of the late Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, who envi-sioned a voluntary, long-term- care insurance plan sponsored by the government, without the overhead costs of private insurers, or the rigorous prescreening they require.
      CLASS beneficiaries would pay an affordable monthly premium while they were healthy and working.    In exchange, they could collect a modest daily cash benefit if they became disabled.    Congress included CLASS in the health care law, specifying it must be self-sustaining.
      Kennedy’s idea was to give families some financial breathing room.    The burden of long-term care is growing.    Most families cannot afford to hire a home health aide for a frail elder, let alone pay nursing home bills.    Long-term care is usually provided by family members, often a spouse who may also have health problems.
      But a central design flaw dogged CLASS from the beginning.    Unless large numbers of healthy people willingly sign up during their working years, soaring premiums driven by the needs of disabled beneficiaries would destabilize it, eventually requiring a taxpayer bailout.    The main reason the program produced budget savings in its first 10 years was a rule that enrollees pay in for at least five years before collecting benefits.
      The chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees money for Health and Human Services says the administration is playing a shell game.
      “They’ve shelved it, but they’re keeping it around,” said Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont.    “The only logical reason I can see is that they need the money — even though there is no money there — to make Obamacare work.”
      Absolutely not, says the administration.    “We are looking at the CLASS program from every angle,” Kathy Greenlee, assistant HHS secretary for aging, blogged recently.    “We are doing our due diligence.”    The administration will soon release a report with recom-mendations about how to proceed, she added.    Although Greenlee did not give any hints, one option is to go back to Congress for additional legal authority to revise the program.
      Meanwhile, supporters of CLASS are getting concerned.    Many groups that pushed for the health care law also backed CLASS.    They wrote Obama recently, saying he doesn’t need any additional authority from Congress to go forward.
      “The people who care about this program are just getting angry,” said Connie Garner, a former Kennedy aide who is directing a coalition of CLASS supporters.
      Don’t expect CLASS to go away easily.    If the congressional supercommittee tackling the debt decides to recommend repeal, the panel would have to come up with about $80 billion in other cuts — pos-sibly real and painful — to offset the hypothetical savings from CLASS.
      “They’ll probably ignore it,” said Bixby, the deficit hawk.    “I think they’re not sure what they’re dealing with.”
  
  
• 10/10/2011
  
  Europe debt plan mapped - Germany to aid banks strategy by Bloomberg News
      Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, racing to stamp out the euro debt crisis threatening to engulf the financial system, gave themselves three weeks to devise a plan to recapitalize banks, get Greece on the right track and fix Europe’s economic governance.
      “By the end of the month, we will have responded to the crisis issue and to the vision issue,” the French president said in Berlin at a joint briefing with the German chancellor before they dined at her office.
      Under rising pressure to defuse turmoil that’s raged for 18 months, and facing growing concern Greece is headed to a default, Merkel said European leaders will do “everything necessary” to ensure that banks have enough capital.    Sarkozy said they would deliver a plan by the Nov. 3 Group of 20 summit.
      “Maybe they’re still running one step behind, but they are at least discussing the right things,” said Carsten Brzeski, an economist at ING Group in Brussels.
      While the heads of Europe’s two biggest economies reiterated their intention to keep Greece in the euro, they left it to international auditors, known as the “troika,” to guide the next steps.    Sarkozy didn’t repeat the line he used10 days ago that “we can’t let Greece fail.”
      The focus on Europe’s banks and the search for what each called a “durable” solution for Greece signal a willingness to accept a debt restructuring there, an outcome Sarkozy has resisted.    Investors may be pushed to take a bigger share of the losses, effectively spiking a debt swap that was part of a July 21 bailout that would impose a 21 percent write-off.
      “This in my opinion kills the July deal for sure and sets up a more credible and deeper Greek debt restructuring,” said Jacob Kirkegaard of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.
      After their eighth bilateral summit in 20 months, the two leaders unveiled no new agreement on what role should be played by the bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, amid reports that they differed on how to use it.
      “We will recapitalize the banks,” Sarkozy said.    “We’ll do it in complete agreement with our German friends because the economy needs it, to assure growth and financing.”
      European banks need as much as 200 billion euros of capital, Antonio Borges, the International Monetary Fund’s European department head, said last week.
      European leaders are bracing for the consequences of a Greek default.    German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung that euro governments may have come up short on the scale of Greek debt write downs when they reached the agreement in July.    He cited a “great risk” that the crisis could spread further.
  
  Oil prices up 3 percent-plus by Associated Press
      Oil prices rose more than 3 percent Monday after France and Germany agreed to strengthen Europe’s banks.    The move by the eurozone’s two biggest nations helped ease concerns about the global economy.    Analysts said they’re increasingly confident that there won’t be another recession, and that means world oil demand should continue to grow.    Crude rose $2.68 to $85.66 per barrel in New York.
  
  
• 10/12/2011
  
  Senate snuffs Obama’s bill - President promises to try other methods by Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate killed President Barack Obama’s $447 billion jobs package Tuesday, and the White House and congressional leaders were already moving on to other ways to cut the nation’s painfully high unemployment rate.
      The plan would have combined payroll tax cuts for workers and businesses with $175 billion in spending on roads, school repairs and other infrastructure, as well as unemployment assistance and help to local governments to avoid layoffs of teachers, firefighters and police.
      Forty-six Republicans joined with two Democrats to stall the vote on the plan.    The roll call was kept open to allow Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen to vote, but it would have taken 60 votes in the 100-member Senate to keep the legislation alive.
      Both parties were sure to wield the vote as a political weapon ahead of next year’s presidential election, with Democrats accusing the Republicans of failing to approve a measure to ease high unemployment and Republicans accusing Obama’s party of trying to raise taxes that would kill jobs.    Obama said Republicans will “have a hard time explaining why they voted no on this bill — other than the fact that I proposed it.”
      The bill, despite Obama’s exhortations, had not been expected to get a single Republican vote, despite Obama’s weeks-long effort to drum up support for a measure he said would reduce the jobless rate from its current 9.1 percent.    Democratic defections ensured the measure would fail to win a simple majority, much less the 60 votes needed to overcome Republican stalling tactics.
      Anticipating defeat, Obama promised to try again in smaller bites.    “If they don’t pass the whole package we’re going to break it up into constituent parts” and try to push them through separately, he told members of his jobs council.
      Obama says the plan would be an insurance policy against a double- dip recession and that continued economic intervention is essential given slower-than hoped job growth.    “Democrats’ sole proposal is to keep doing what hasn’t worked — along with a massive tax hike that we know won’t create jobs,” Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said.
  
  China plan clears Senate - Bill would threaten to raise trade tariffs by Jim Abrams, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Tuesday to threaten China with higher tariffs on Chinese products made cheaply through an artificially undervalued currency, which lawmakers blame for destroying U.S. jobs.
      But the House isn’t likely to take up the bill, which some U.S. businesses say could trigger a trade war.
      The 63-35 vote showed a broad bipartisan consensus that it’s time to confront China over its aggressive trade policies.
      “There are always people who don’t want to stand up to China, and I think they are, frankly, un-dercutting our ability to stop the hemorrhaging in our manufacturing jobs,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio.
      “I understand that some on Wall Street don’t like this bill,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.    “They are wrong about this.”
      Still, the bill could die in the House, where a companion measure lacks the support of the GOP leadership.
      House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, like the many large multinational companies that oppose the legislation, has said it would be dangerous to dictate another country’s currency policies, and he can prevent the bill from being considered.
      House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said Tuesday that the White House should make its position clear before the House acts.    The White House and President Barack Obama haven’t come out against the bill but have shown they aren’t comfortable with it, saying they are concerned about any legislation that might violate international trade rules.
      Bill advocates say it would make U.S. goods more competitive and support more than 1 million new jobs.    Critics say it would provoke Chinese retaliation and hurt Americans in one of their fastest-growing markets.
      China’s trade surplus with the U.S. has increased from $10 billion 20 years ago to $273 billion last year.
  
  Protesters turn eyes to homes of the rich - New York march targets big CEOs by Verena Dobnik, Associated Press
      NEW YORK — Now it’s personal: Hundreds of protesters held a “Millionaires March” on Tuesday past the homes of some of the wealthiest executives in America, stopping to chant “Tax the rich!” and “Where’s my bailout?”
      Walking in pairs in line on the sidewalk because they had no march permit and didn’t want to be charged with blocking traffic, members of the Occupy Wall Street movement and other groups made their way up Manhattan’s East Side, along streets such as Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue, where some of the richest New Yorkers live in townhouses and luxury apartments.
      They paused outside buildings where media mogul Rupert Murdoch, banker Jamie Dimon and oil tycoon David Koch have homes, and decried the impending expiration of New York’s 2 percent “millionaires tax” in December.
      “I have nothing against these people personally.    I just think they should pay their fair share of taxes,” said Michael Pollack, an office worker in a law firm.
      He held up a sign with a saying attributed to department store founder Edward Filene: “Why shouldn’t the American people take half my money from me?    I took all of it from them.”
      For the past 3½ weeks, protesters have besieged a park in lower Manhattan near Wall Street, denouncing corporations and the gap between rich and poor.    The uptown march marked the first time the movement has identified specific people.
      When it reached Park Avenue and East 93rd Street, protesters stopped at a building where they said Dimon, who is JPMorgan Chase’s chairman and CEO, has an apartment. Marchers screamed, “Where’s our bailout?” and “How do we end this deficit?     End the war, tax the rich!”
      Dimon got supportive words Monday from Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is himself a billionaire executive but whose East Side townhouse was not on the protesters ‘list of targets.
      Dimon has “brought more business to this city than maybe any other banker in (the) modern day,” the mayor said.    “To go and picket him, I don’t know what that achieves. …He pays his taxes.”
      Marcher Bahran Admadi, a former taxi driver and art dealer who is now unemployed, claimed that he has “nothing personal” against the rich.
      “But some of them take people’s blood,” he said.
      Outside one building, protesters placed a giant replica of a check against a door. It was made out to “The top one percent” for $5 billion — the overall size of the impending state tax cut for New Yorkers making $250,000 or more.
      There were no immediate reports of any arrests.
      In Washington, six people were arrested Tuesday for demonstrating inside a Senate office building.    More than 125 protesters in Boston were arrested overnight after they ignored warnings to move from a downtown green space, police said.    An environmental group had recently planted $150,000 worth of shrubs, and officials said the protesters were doing damage.
      The protest in New York City came as state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said the financial industry, which shed 4,100 jobs in late spring and summer, could lose nearly 10,000 more on Wall Street by the end of 2012.
  
  Oil wavers on revised demand
      Oil prices wavered Tuesday after OPEC cut its estimate for world oil demand for this year and said it expects no growth in demand for 2012.
      After falling in early trading, crude oil rose 40 cents to finish at $85.81 per barrel in New York.
      Oil prices have risen for six straight days as fears that the world economy is headed toward a recession began to ease.    Also, hopes are rising that Europe is taking steps to resolve its debt crisis.
  
  
• 10/13/2011
  
  Congress OKs trade pacts - Bipartisan backing for three agreements by Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Congress approved free-trade agreements Wednesday with South Korea, Colombia and Panama, ending a four-year drought in the forming of new trade partnerships and giving the White House and Capitol Hill the opportunity to show they can work together.
      In rapid succession, the House of Representatives and Senate voted on the three pacts, which the ad-ministration says could boost exports by $13 billion and support tens of thousands of American jobs.    None of the votes was close, despite opposition from labor groups and other critics of free trade agreements who say they re-sult in job losses and ignore labor rights in the partner countries.
      “We don’t do much around here that’s bipartisan these days,” said Republican Sen. Rob Portman, who was U.S. Trade Representative during the George W. Bush administration.    “This is an example of where we can come together … realizing that with14 million Americans out of work, we need to do things to move our economy forward.”
      President Barack Obama said passage of the agreements was “a major win for American workers and businesses.”    “Tonight’s vote, with bipartisan support, will significantly boost exports that bear the proud label ‘Made in America,’ support tens of thousands of good-paying American jobs and protect labor rights, the environment and intellectual property,” he said.
      The agreements will lower or eliminate tariffs that American exporters face in the three countries.    They also take steps to better protect intellectual property and improve access for American investors in those countries.    The House also passed and sent to Obama for his signature a bill to extend aid to workers displaced by foreign competition.    Years in the making, the votes came just a day after Senate Republicans were unified in rejecting Obama’s $447 billion jobs initiative.
      The agreement with South Korea, the world’s 13th-largest economy, is the biggest such deal since the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada in 1994.
      The votes were 278-151 for South Korea, 300-129 for Panama and 262-167 for Colombia.    The Senate votes were 83-15 for Korea, 77-22 for Panama and 66-33 for Colombia.
      Despite the strong majorities, the debate was not without rancor.    Republicans criticized Obama for taking several years to send the agreements to Congress for final approval. Many among Obama’s core supporters, including organized labor and Democrats from areas hit hard by foreign competition, were unhappy that the White House was espousing the benefits of free trade.
      Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, said the “job-killing” agreements were a “complete flip-flop for Obama, who won crucial swing states by pledging to overhaul our flawed trade policies.”
      Democratic opposition was particularly strong against the agreement with Colombia, where labor leaders long have faced the threat of violence.
      “I find it deeply disturbing that the United States Congress is even considering a free-trade agreement with a country that holds the world record for assassinations of trade unionists,” said Rep. Maxine Waters.
  
  
  HIGHLIGHTS
  • The administration says the deals with South Korea, Colombia and Panama could boost exports by $13 billion and support tens of thousands of American jobs.
  • The agreements will lower or eliminate tariffs that exporters face in the three countries.
  • The pacts take steps to better protect intellectual property and improve access for American investors in those countries.
  
  Oil falls on weak demand forecast
      Oil prices fell slightly Wednesday after a group of energy experts cut its forecast for global crude demand.
      The International Energy Agency joined OPEC in trimming its demand forecasts for this year and 2012.    The IEA, which is based in Paris, still expects world demand to hit a record this year, but more slowly than previously expected.    The IEA’s outlook came after a similar prediction from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries on Tuesday.
      Crude oil fell 24 cents to end the day at $85.57 per barrel in New York.
  
  
  • Alcoa fell 2.4 percent after a disappointing quarterly profit report that it said was the result of European customers “dramatically” cutting orders on economic uncertainty.
  • Chrysler rose after the automaker and the United Auto Workers reached a tentative agreement on a new contract.
  
  
• 10/14/2011
  
  House passes abortion bill - Would require dual insurance plans by Jim Abrams, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON— The House on Thursday returned to an abortion issue that nearly sank President Barack Obama’s health care law last year with legislation that bars an insurance plan regulated under the new law from covering abortion if any of its customers receive federal subsidies.
      Providers that offer abortion coverage would have to set up identical plans without abortion coverage to participate in the health insurance exchanges to be created under the new law.
      The legislation, which passed 251-172, is unlikely to be considered by the Democratic-led Senate and faces a veto threat from Obama. But it gives House Republicans, focused this year on cutting spending and reducing the size of the federal government, a chance to reaffirm their credentials on social conservative issues.
      Democrats chided Republicans for wasting time better spent on promoting job growth.
      Supporters of the bill, including author Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa., say they are trying to close loopholes in the health care act that could lead to violations of the longstanding prohibition of the federal funding of abortion.
      Opponents warn that millions of middle- and low-income women who receive partial subsidies to buy insurance would be denied abortion coverage.    They said most providers were unlikely to set up separate plans, one with abortion coverage.
      The legislation also strengthens conscience protections for anti-abortion health care provid-ers.    Again there is divergence between bill supporters saying they are merely clarifying existing law and opponents saying it will lead to hospitals denying emergency care to pregnant women.
      The legislation revives the debate that almost scuttled the health care act.    Former Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., leading a rebellion of anti-abortion Democrats, joined Pitts in pushing through an amendment that imposed tight restrictions on abortions in the proposed government-run insurance plan.    When the Senate wouldn’t go along, Stupak got Obama to sign an executive order reaffirming the Hyde Amendment, a 1976 provision named af-ter the late Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., that bans all federal funds for abortion except in cases of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is at risk.
      Pitts argued that the executive order can be rescinded at any time and the new health care act is not bound to follow the Hyde Amendment. As a result, said Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., the law, “when phased in fully in 2014 will open up the floodgates of public funding for abortion in a myriad of programs.”
      But the White House, in issuing its veto threat, said the health care law preserves the ban on federal funding and the legislation “intrudes on women’s reproductive freedom and access to health care and unnecessarily restricts the private insurance choices that women and their families have today.”
      Under the law, federally subsidized health care plans can offer abortion coverage but they have to set up separate accounts to segregate federal funds from funds that can be used for abortion coverage.
      Pitts said these are nothing more than “accounting gimmicks” that won’t stop taxpayer money from being used to fund abortions.
      Democratic opponents were particularly upset about the conscience clause, saying it would lead to pregnant women being denied emergency treatment.    “When the Republicans vote for this bill today they will be voting to say women can die on the floor and health care providers don’t have to intervene,” said Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California.
  
  House panel votes to slash U.N. funding
      A deeply divided House panel approved a Republican bill Thursday that would slash U.S. contributions to the United Nations, rejecting Democratic complaints that the measure would end U.S. involvement in the world peacekeeping body.    One week after cutting $50 million for a U.N. organization that helps women and children in developing countries, the House Foreign Affairs Committee targeted the billions of dollars the U.S. contributes to the U.N.
      Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., the committee chairwoman and a fierce critic of the U.N., said the legislation would give the U.S. leverage in pushing for change.    The party-line vote was 23-15 vote. It’s unclear when the full House will consider the measure, and it has little chance in the Democratic-led Senate.
  
  Officials draw line in NYC protests by Verena Dobnik, Associated Press
      NEW YORK — New York City officials ordered Wall Street protesters to clear out their sleeping bags and tarps, setting the stage for a showdown today between police and the demonstrators, who vowed to do all they could to stay put.
      The owner of the private park where the protesters have camped out for nearly a month said it has become trashed and unsanitary.    Brookfield Properties planned to start a section by- section power-washing of Zuccotti Park at 7 a.m.
      “They’re going to use the cleanup to get us out of here,” said Justin Wedes, 25, a part-time public high school science teacher from Brooklyn.    “It’s a de facto eviction notice.”
      The demand that protesters clear out sets a turning point in a movement that began Sept. 17 with a small group of activists and has swelled to include several thousand people at times, from all walks of life.    The demands are varied but they’re united in blaming Wall Street and corporate interests for the economic pain all but the wealthiest Americans have endured since the financial crisis.    There was a frantic scramble in the park Thursday.    Hundreds of protesters scrubbed benches and mopped the park’s stone flooring in a final-hour effort to get Brookfield to abandon its plan     A last-ditch protest was planned at midnight.
      Protesters would be allowed to return after the cleaning, which was expected to take 12 hours, but Brookfield said it plans to start enforcing regulations that have been ignored.    No more tarps, no more sleeping bags, no more storing personal property on the ground.
      In other words, no more camping out for the Occupy Wall Street protesters, who’ve been living at Zuccotti Park for weeks and triggered a movement against unequal distribution of wealth that has inspired similar protests nationwide and forced politicians in both parties to take notice.
      The NYPD says it will make arrests if Brookfield requests it and laws are broken.
  
  Oil price falls on China’s drop
      The price of oil fell nearly 2 percent Thursday as the global economic slowdown took a toll on China.    A drop in China’s export growth last month showed that it’s been affected by the sluggish U.S. and European economies.
      Crude fell $1.34 to end the day at $84.23 a barrel in New York.
  
  EU wants voluntary deal on Greece
      The European Commission and France want a deal in which private creditors take losses on Greek bonds to remain voluntary to avoid triggering big payouts on bond insurance, officials said Thursday.    That clashes with several other countries’ push for steeper write downs.
      On July 21, European leaders agreed that as part of a second bailout for Greece, banks and other private investors would voluntarily swap or roll over their existing Greek government bonds for ones with easier repayment terms, such as lower interest rates, longer maturities or a lower face value.    Banks said that that would result in write downs of some 21 percent of their Greek debt holdings.
  
  
• 10/15/2011
  
  Piece of health law abandoned - Long-term care plan was to open in 2013 by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — The Obama administration pulled the plug Friday on a major program in the president’s signature health overhaul law — a long-term care insurance plan dogged from the beginning by doubts over its financial solvency. Targeted by congressional Republicans for repeal, the long-term care plan became the first casualty in the political and policy wars over the health care law     The program had been expected to launch in 2013.
      “This is a victory for the American taxpayer and future generations,” said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.    “The administration is finally admitting (the long-term care plan) is unsustainable and cannot be implemented.”
      Proponents, including many groups that fought to pass the health care law, have vowed a vigorous effort to rescue the plan, insisting that Congress gave the administration broad authority to make changes.
      Known as CLASS, the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports program was supposed to function as a self-sustaining voluntary insurance plan, open to working adults regardless of age or health.    Workers would pay an affordable monthly premium during their careers, and could collect a modest daily cash benefit of at least $50 if they became disabled later in life.    Beneficiaries could use the money for services to help them stay at home, or to help with nursing home bills.
      But a design flaw dogged CLASS from the beginning. Unless large numbers of healthy people willingly sign up during their working years, soaring premiums driven by the needs of disabled beneficiaries would destabilize it.
      After months insisting that problems could be resolved, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius finally admitted Friday she doesn’t see how that can be done.
      “Despite our best analytical efforts, I do not see a viable path forward for CLASS implementation at this time,” Sebelius said in a letter to congressional leaders.    The law required the administration to certify that CLASS would remain financially solvent for 75 years before it could be put into place.
      “The CLASS Act was a budget gimmick that might enhance the numbers on a Washington bu-reaucrat’s spreadsheet but was destined to fail in the real world,” said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
  
  Solyndra loan was unusual, officials say
      WASHINGTON - Two senior Treasury officials said Friday they had never seen a loan restructuring similar to a half-billion dollar Energy Department loan to a failed solar panel maker.    The loan to Solyndra Inc. was restructured earlier this year so that private investors moved ahead of taxpayers for repayment on part of the loan in case of a default.
      Treasury officials Gary Grippo and Gary Burner told a House committee they had never seen that occur in a federal loan.    Grippo is a deputy assistant treasury secretary and Burner is chief financial officer at the Federal Financing Bank, which made a $528 million loan to Solyndra.    Both men stopped short of saying the loan restructuring illegal, as some Republicans allege.
  
  G-20 wrangling over bill to fix Europe’s crisis by Associated Press
      Finance chiefs from the Group of 20 rich and developing nations wrangled Friday over whether the eurozone should pick up the whole bill for its escalating debt crisis, or whether the rest of the world should help out more.
      The International Monetary Fund — the world’s lender of last resort for cash-strapped countries — has until now funded about a third of the cost of the bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal.    But while some, including the United States, are arguing that Europe has more than enough money to spend its way out of the crisis, others are pushing for more support as the currency union’s debt troubles risk dragging the world economy back into recession.
      In recent days, markets have been buoyed by hopes that the 17 nations that use the euro will sort out key aspects of a more aggressive solution to their debt crisis in time for an EU summit Oct. 23 and a Group of 20 meeting in early November.
      Any such deal is going to be extremely costly.    As well as shoring up Europe’s weaker banks, the eurozone has to develop a strategy to stop large economies like Italy and Spain from joining the bailout club.    To do that, the region’s bailout fund, the $608 billion European Financial Stability Facility, is expected to soon start buying their bonds on the open market — in the hope that it’ll support their prices and keep a lid on their borrowing costs to allow them to carry on funding themselves in the markets.
      But most economists, and a growing number of European officials, believe the EFSF is far too small to stabilize both countries and recapitalize banks in other cash-strapped countries.    While the eurozone is working on ways to maximize the impact of its limited resources, there is a growing drive to get the IMF to offer up more cash.    But any effort to get the IMF to play a more hands-on approach, by possibly joining the EFSF in bond market interventions, is likely to meet with some resistance as well as require changes to the IMF’s legal framework. U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Friday that he was in favor of maintaining IMF support, but stressed that Europe had enough money to resolve its troubles on its own.
  
  Oil prices rise as recession fear eases
      A series of encouraging economic reports sparked oil prices Friday to the highest level in nearly a month.
      Investors shrugged off falling demand forecasts that came out earlier this week and focused instead on growing U.S. consumer spending, a rise in bank lending in China and a meeting of world leaders to discuss Europe’s debt crisis.    Crude rose $2.57 to end at $86.80 per barrel in New York, the highest level since Sept. 20.
      “You’re seeing one big sigh of relief” across world financial markets, independent analyst Jim Ritterbusch said.    “Three weeks ago, it looked like we were definitely headed for a recession.”
  
  China goes on corn-buying spree
      China has made one of its biggest-ever purchases of corn on overseas markets, buying 900,000 metric tons of U.S. corn and showing that growing Chinese demand will play an ever larger role in global grain prices.
      The country was a net exporter of corn until 2009 but is now struggling to keep up with growing demand for the grain — which is mainly used in China as animal feed — as incomes increase and people incorporate more meat into their diets.
      The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Thursday that China had made the purchase, which comes despite an expected record grain harvest in China this year.
      China’s corn consumption probably totaled 176 million tons in the crop year that started Oct. 1, 2010, according to the department.
      The purchase was necessary to help fill China’s dwindling corn reserves, said Hanver Li, chairman of the market research firm Shanghai JC Intelligence Co. Ltd., on Friday.
  
  
• 10/16/2011
  
  Leaderless protests have many baffled - Experts: Approach may have perks by David B. Caruso, Associated Press
      NEW YORK — They were out to change the world, overthrow the establishment and liberate the poor, but first somebody would have to do something about those bongo drums.    At the Occupy Wall Street protest camp in Manhattan, protesters agonized over what to do about drum players who had turned part of the site into an impromptu dance floor.    The neighbors were complaining about the racket.    The protesters had tried to put a time limit on the noise, but the drummers were refusing to obey.    “It’s an issue, definitely,” protester Kanene Holder, 31, said Friday night.    “We’ll have to work it out.”    Reining in a few pesky percussionists would seem to be an easy task for a movement seemingly on the verge of becoming a political force.    But one month after it burst onto the scene and inspired similar protests across the country, the Occupy Wall Street protest remains stubbornly decentralized, complicating everything from enforcing camp rules to writing a national platform.
      On Saturday the protesters marched on bank offices and into Times Square.    Although their message against corporate greed has struck a nerve with many Americans, the lack of leaders in Manhattan and at other protest camps has baffled many.
      In Minneapolis, Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek has been meeting every morning with a delegation of protesters — “at least, the ones who come forward and say they are the organizers,” Stanek said.    “It’s a little difficult because it seems like each day it’s been a completely different group of folks.”
      Protesters say the decentralization is deliberate and note that other movements, like the 1960s civil rights effort, began in a similarly disorganized way.    It also calls to mind the Arab Spring, which had influential protesters but no clear leaders, at least initially.
      And some academics who have studied dissent movements say that although being “leaderless” has some drawbacks, it could also have advantages.    Chief among them: It has allowed people with very different backgrounds — like union workers and anarchists — to rally behind the same broad message against corporate greed, without actually agreeing much on where the country should go from here.
      “They have achieved popular support so much quicker than the anti-war movement, or civil rights movement,” said Todd Gitlin, an expert on political dissent at Columbia University.
      From its earliest days, the people at the heart of Occupy Wall Street have worked hard to make it a movement without leaders.    The original call for the demonstration came from the editors of the Canadian anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters in mid-July.    But since then, no one on the publication’s staff has been actively involved in organizing or leading the protests.
      The two men who came up with the idea, Adbusters co-founder Kalle Lasn, 69, and editor Micah White, 29, have yet to go to New York to see the demonstration.
      The large group of activists who began meeting to plan the occupation in midsummer came from a variety of groups and backgrounds, and they resolved from the start that they wouldn’t elect leaders, appoint a central planning council, or even name lead negotiators to deal with New York’s police or City Hall.    “A lot of people can’t handle that — it goes to their head,” said Joey Pearson, 29, a laid-off auto worker from Cincinnati.
      Instead, decisions at the camp in lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park are made at a “general assembly” of protesters that sometimes numbers in the thousands, while the nitty-gritty work of organizing the encampment is carried out by a large number of autonomous work teams that largely function without central oversight.
  
  Rioters take over protest in Rome by Meera Selva, Associated Press
      ROME — Italian riot police fired tear gas and water cannons Saturday in Rome as violent protesters hijacked a peaceful demonstration against corporate greed, smashing bank windows, torching cars and hurling bottles.    Elsewhere, hundreds of thousands nicknamed “the indignant” marched without incident in cities across Europe, as the “Occupy Wall Street” protests linked up with long-running demonstrations against European governments’ austerity measures.
      Heavy smoke billowed in downtown Rome as a small group broke away and wreaked havoc in streets close to the Colosseum and elsewhere in the city.    Clad in black with their faces covered, protesters threw rocks, bottles and incendiary devices at banks and Rome police in riot gear.    With clubs and hammers, they destroyed bank ATMs, set trash bins on fire and assaulted at least two news crews from Sky Italia.
      Riot police charged the protesters repeatedly, firing water cannons and tear gas.    About 70 people were injured, according to news reports, including one man who tried to stop the protesters from throwing bottles.    TV footage showed one young woman with blood covering her face, while the ANSA news agency said a man had lost two fingers when a firecracker exploded.
      In the city’s St. John in Lateran square, police vans came under attack, with protesters hurling rocks and cobblestones and smashing the vehicles.    Fleeing the violence, peaceful protesters stormed up the steps outside the Basilica, one of the oldest in Rome.
      “People of Europe: Rise Up!” read one banner in Rome.    Some activists turned against the violent group, trying to stop them and shouting “Enough!” and “Shame!” Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno blamed the violence on “a few thousand thugs from all over Italy, and possibly from all over Europe, who infiltrated the demonstration.”    Some Rome museums were forced to close down and at least one theater canceled a show.    Protesters also set fire to a building, causing the roof to collapse, reports said.    The Defense Ministry denied reports it was one of its offices.    Premier Silvio Berlusconi called the violence a “worrying signal,” and added that the perpetrators “must be found and pun-ished.”
  
  
• 10/17/2011
  
  Protesters flex their muscles - Peaking?     Or just getting started? by Verena Dobnik, Associated Press
      NEW YORK — The Occupy Wall Street movement has close to $300,000, as well as storage space load-ed with donated supplies in lower Manhattan.    It stared down city officials to hang on to its makeshift headquarters, showed its muscle Saturday with a big Times Square demonstration and found legions of activists demonstrating in solidarity across the country and around the world.
      Could this be the peak for loosely organized protesters, united less by a common cause than by re-vulsion to what they consider unbridled corporate greed?    Or are they just getting started?
      There are signs of confidence, but also signs of tension among the demonstrators at Zuccotti Park, the epicenter of the movement that began a month ago today.    They have trouble agreeing on things like whether someone can bring in a sleeping bag, and show little sign of uniting on any policy issues.    Some protesters eventually want the movement to rally around a goal, while others insist that isn’t the point.
      “We’re moving fast, without a hierarchical structure and lots of gears turning,” said Justin Strekal, a college student and political organizer who traveled from Cleveland to New York to help.    “… Egos are clashing, but this is participatory democracy in a little park.”    Even if the protesters were barred from camping in Zuccotti Park, as the property owner and the city briefly threatened to do last week, the movement would continue, Strekal said.    He said activists were working with legal experts to identify alternate sites where the risk of getting kicked out would be relatively low.    Wall Street protesters are intent on hanging on to the momentum they gained from Saturday’s worldwide demonstrations, which drew hundreds of thousands of people, mostly in the U.S. and Europe.    They’re filling a cavernous space a block from Wall Street with donated goods to help sustain their nearly month-long occupation of a private park nearby.    They’ve amassed mounds of blankets, pillows, sleeping bags, cans of food, medical and hygienic supplies — even oddities like a box of knitting wool and 20 pairs of swimming goggles (to shield protesters from pepper-spray attacks).    Supporters are shipping about 300 boxes a day, Strekal said.    The space was donated by the United Federation of Teachers, which has offices in the building.
      Close to $300,000 in cash also has been donated, through the movement’s website and by people who give money in person at the park, said Bill Dobbs, a press liaison for the movement.    The movement has an account at Amalgamated Bank, which bills itself as “the only 100 percent union-owned bank in the United States.” Strekal said the donated goods are being stored “for a long-term occupation.”
      “We are unstoppable! Another world is possible!” Kara Segal and other volunteers chanted in the building lobby as they arrived to help unpack and sort items, preparing them to be rolled out to the park.    While on the streets moments of madness occasionally erupt in the protest crowd, order prevails at the storage site.    It doubles as a sort of Occupy Wall Street central command post, with strategic meetings that are separate from “general assembly” free-for-alls in the park.    One topic Sunday was data entry: protesters are working to log donors’ names and addresses in a databank.
      The movement has become an issue in the Republican presidential primary race and beyond, with poli-ticians from both parties under pressure to weigh in.    President Barack Obama referred to the protests at Sunday’s dedication of a monument for Martin Luther King Jr., saying the civil rights leader “would want us to challenge the excesses of Wall Street without demonizing those who work there.”    Activists around the U.S. said they felt Saturday’s protests energized their movement.    “It’s an upward trajectory,” said John St. Lawrence, a Florida real estate lawyer who took part in Saturday’s Occupy Orlando protest, which drew more than 1,500 people.    “It’s catching people’s imagination and also, knock on wood, nothing sort of negative or dis-crediting has happened.”
  
  Arab League stops short of barring Syria - Impasse reveals deep divisions by Maggie Michael, Associated Press
      CAIRO — Gulf nations seeking to suspend Syria’s membership in the Arab League over its bloody crackdown on protesters failed to gain enough support Sunday to push the measure through, reflecting deep divisions among the body’s 22 nations.
      Arab foreign ministers met behind closed doors at the group’s Cairo headquarters for an initial three-hour session without Syria’s representative, then took a break and reconvened for talks with Syrian diplomats that lasted late into the night.
      Just after the meeting with Syrian diplomats, Qatar Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim made no mention of a possible suspension and instead gave Syria a 15-day deadline to enact a cease-fire.
      The group also agreed to create a panel led by Qatar to oversee the situation in Syria and said a national dialogue between Syrian officials and the opposition would occur at league headquarters.    “A national dialogue in 15 days is one of the most important decisions of the day,” bin Jassim said.
      The national dialogue is to include members of the opposition from outside Syria as well as inside.    If the meeting and a cease-fire don’t take place within the allotted time frame, the league will meet again in an emergency session, members said.    To suspend Syria’s membership, at least two thirds of the alliance would have had to support the measure. A bloc of six Gulf nations, including Saudi Arabia, led the push for the move along with recognition of the opposition leadership, the Syrian National Council, said an Arab diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.
      Many Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, already have withdrawn ambassadors from Syria to protest the regime’s bloody response to the protests.    But the diplomat said a significant bloc of nations was opposed, including Sudan, Algeria, Lebanon and Yemen, whose leader also faces a serious uprising.    According to Arab League diplomats, Mideast heavyweight Egypt did not indicate yet which side it is on.    Suspension of an Arab League member is rare.    Although the move would not likely have a direct, tangible impact on Syria, it would constitute a major blow to President Bashar Assad’s embattled regime by stripping Damascus of its Arab support and further deepening its isolation.
      The group suspended Libya’s membership earlier this year after Moammar Gadhafi’s violent crackdown on protesters there, but has since reinstated Libya under the country’s new leadership.    Syria’s ambassador to the Arab League, Youssef Ahmad, held up a document he said was shared with the Arab foreign min-isters.    In it, he alleged, was proof that weapons from Israel had been found in Syria among the protesters.
      “The Syrian opposition is also getting logistical support from Arab countries,” he said in public re-marks to the body.    Damascus often claims outside forces are fomenting the violence.    The opposition denies that, opposing foreign intervention.
  
  
• 10/18/2011
  
  Long-term care in limbo - White House now appearing to waffle by Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — The White House appeared to waffle Monday on the fate of a financially troubled long-term-care program in President Barack Obama’s health overhaul law, as supporters and foes heaped criticism on the administration.
      At stake is the CLASS Act, a major new program intended to provide affordable long-term care insurance.    Last Friday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the administration wouldn’t proceed with the plan because she hasn’t been able to find a way to make the program financially solvent.
      On Monday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office issued a ruling that cleared the way for repealing the CLASS Act, but the administration rejected that step, creating considerable confusion. Backers and opponents said the White House is trying to have it both ways.
      “I feel like somebody just called me about how to do really good pet care after they shot my dog,” said Larry Minnix, president of LeadingAge, a trade group representing nonprofit nursing homes, which are strong supporters of CLASS.
      Paying for long-term care for a frail, elderly family member is a major financial dilemma for America’s middle class.    Medicare only covers short-term nursing home stays, for patients in re-hab.    And to become eligible for Medicaid, people have to spend most of their assets, akin to im-poverishing themselves.    The Community Living Assistance Services and Supports program was supposed to help provide an answer.
      A long-standing priority of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, it was supposed to function as a self-sustaining voluntary insurance plan, open to working adults regardless of age or health.
      Workers would pay an affordable monthly premium during their careers and could collect a modest daily cash benefit of at least $50 if they became disabled later in life.    The money could go for services at home or to help with nursing home bills.
      But a central design flaw dogged CLASS.    Unless large numbers of healthy people willingly sign up during their working years, soaring premiums driven by the needs of disabled beneficiaries would destabilize it, eventually requiring a taxpayer bailout.
      After months insisting that could be fixed, Sebelius said Friday that she didn’t see how.    “Despite our best analytical efforts, I do not see a viable path forward for CLASS implementation at this time,” she said in a letter to congressional leaders.
      Officials said they discovered they couldn’t make CLASS both affordable and financially solvent while keeping it a voluntary program open to virtually all workers, as the law required.    The law also mandated that the administration certify CLASS would remain financially solvent for 75 years before it could be put into place.
      In its ruling, CBO said repealing CLASS would have no impact on the deficit.    Without a viable program, the government wouldn’t see savings of more than $80 billion from premiums that would have been collected in the early years, before CLASS started paying benefits on a large scale.
  
  Oil falls on new demand worry
      NEW YORK — Oil prices fell Monday as Europe’s ongoing debt crisis fueled concerns about future energy demand.
      Benchmark crude finished down 42 cents at $86.38 per barrel in New York, while Brent crude, used to price international varieties of oil, fell $2.07 to end at $110.16 a barrel in London.
      Oil has tumbled about 24 percent since May on fears of a slowdown in the global economy. Investors focused on weak gasoline demand in the U.S. and budget problems in Greece.
  
  
  In other energy trading, heating oil lost 4.2 cents to finish at $3.0136 per gallon.
  • Indiana-based engine maker Cummins lost 5.4 percent, despite Jefferies analysts’ upgrading the stock to “buy” with a $115 price target.
  • Gannett’s stock fell 8.7 percent following a third-quarter earnings miss.    The Courier-Journal’s parent reported lower revenue and advertising sales but higher online revenue.
  
  
• 10/19/2011
  
  Libyans close to total victory over loyalists by Rami Al-Shaheibi, Associated Press
      BANI WALID, Libya — Revolutionary forces celebrated the capture of one Moammar Gadhafi stronghold and closed in Tuesday on the last holdouts in the fugitive leader’s hometown of Sirte, putting total victory in their eight-month uprising just a few city blocks away.
      U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton offered millions of dollars in new aid to Libya, en-couraging the country’s unsteady new leadership to commit to a democratic future free of retribution.    “I am proud to stand here on the soil of a free Libya,” Clinton said on a visit to the capital, Tripoli.    “The United States was proud to stand for you in your fight for freedom and we will continue to stand with you as you con-tinue this journey.”
      Although two months have passed since Gadhafi fled the capital, Libya’s new leaders have refrained from declaring national “liberation” until the fall of Sirte, which Gadhafi transformed from a fishing village into a modern city after he seized power in 1969.
      On Tuesday, revolutionary forces pushed from the east into the small pocket of the city under the control of Gadhafi loyalists and captured a vegetable market, although they came under heavy fire from snipers and rocket-propelled grenades on the rooftops of residential buildings and homes along major streets.    Abdul-Hadi Ali, fighting with the revolutionary forces, said the battle for Sirte, 250 miles southeast of Tripoli, was essentially finished. Clinton acknowledged in unusually blunt terms that the U.S. would like to see the ousted dictator dead.    “We hope he can be captured or killed soon so that you don’t have to fear him any longer,” Clinton said at a town hall-style gathering.
  
  NATO targets Afghan militants by Associated Press
      KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan and NATO forces have stepped up their fight against a militant network that is considered the most dangerous threat facing coalition forces in Afghanistan, defense officials said Tuesday.
      The Haqqani network is the main target of an operation along the Afghan side of the Afghan-Pakistani border, where the militants operate.    The group, which is linked to both the Taliban and al-Qaida, has been blamed for high-profile attacks in the Afghan capital, including last month’s 19-hour siege against the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.    “They create problems for both countries,” the Afghan army chief of staff, Gen. Sher Mohammad Karimi, said at a news briefing.    The U.S. has been trying to coax Pakistan to go after the Haqqani network.    The issue is a main cause of tension between the U.S.-led coalition and Pakistan.    Afghan and NATO officials said they are tiring of Pakistan’s inability or reluctance to confront the insurgent group.    That has prompted the U.S. to step up missile strikes against the network in Pakistan.
  
  
• 10/20/2011
  
  U.S., N. Korea set talks for next week by Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Raising hopes for a new era of rapprochement with nuclear armed North Korea, the Obama administration said Wednesday it would sit down with the reclusive regime for a fresh round of atomic weapons talks and appoint a full-time envoy with the task of persuading Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program.
      Disarmament efforts are saddled with a history of deceit and mistrust, but the meetings in Geneva on Monday and Tuesday represent another step forward after last year’s military attacks on South Korea that led to threats of war.    They are the second set of nuclear discussions between the U.S. and North Korea since July, after a three-year freeze in diplomacy.
      “We’re looking for more progress,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said from Washington.    “We’re not seeking to reward North Korea in any way by holding these talks.    And we certainly don’t want to have talks just for the sake of talking.    We want to see a seriousness of purpose and a commitment to moving this process forward to taking the steps that they’ve already committed to take.”
      As Washington intensifies its engagement with Pyongyang, it is turning to seasoned diplomat Glyn Da-vies to lead the efforts.
      Davies — the U.S. ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency — will replace current envoy Stephen Bosworth, though both will be meeting next week with the North Korean delegation led by Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan.
  
  Turkish troops pursue rebel Kurds into Iraq by Suzan Fraser, Associated Press
      ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish soldiers, air force bombers and helicopter gunships launched an incursion into northern Iraq Wednesday, hours after Kurdish rebels killed 24 soldiers and wounded 18 in attacks along the border.
      Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan canceled a visit to Kazakhstan and held a nationally televised news conference to announce that Turkey had launched the “hot pursuit” operation, wording that officials often use to describe cross-border offensives.    “We will never bow to any attack from inside or outside Turkey,” he said.
      Turkey’s chief of the military and the interior and defense ministers rushed to the border area to oversee the anti-rebel attacks, and the United States and NATO both issued statements supporting the offensive, the largest in more than three years.    NTV television said Turkish troops have gone some 2.5 miles into Iraq and that helicopters were ferrying commandos. Dogan news agency said more than 20 Kurdish rebels were killed in ensuing clashes.    Neither report identified its sources. The incursion appeared to be limited in scope. Turkey last staged a major ground offensive against Iraq in early 2008.    Wednesday’s offensive began hours after the rebels, who are fighting for autonomy in Turkey’s southeast, staged simultaneous attacks on military outposts and police sta-tions near the border towns of Cukurca and Yuksekova.    Dogan news agency said about 200 rebels were believed to have launched Wednesday’s attacks.    The rebel group, called the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, said fighting was taking place in two areas close to the mountainous border.    In Baghdad, an Iraqi government spokesman was not available for comment.
  
  Greek cuts stir riots in Athens by Elena Becatoros, Associated Press
      ATHENS, Greece — Hundreds of youths smashed and looted stores in central Athens and clashed with riot police during a massive anti-government rally against painful new austerity measures that won initial parliamentary approval in a vote Wednesday night.    The rioting came on the first day of a 48-hour nationwide general strike that brought services in much of Greece to a standstill, grounding flights for hours, leaving ferries tied up in port and shutting down customs offices, stores and banks.    More than 100,000 people took to the streets of the Greek capital to demonstrate against the austerity bill, which includes new tax hikes, further pension and salary cuts, the suspension on reduced pay of 30,000 public servants and the suspension of collective labor contracts.
      Creditors have demanded the meaures before they give Greece more funds from a $152 billion package of bailout loans from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund.    Greece says it will run out of money in mid-November without the $11 billion installment. But Greek citizens said they already are reeling from more than1½ years of austerity measures.    “There is desperation, anger and bitterness,” said Nikos Anastasopoulos, head of a workers’ union for an Athens municipality, as he joined the demonstration early in the day.
      The bill won initial approval in the 300-member Parliament late Wednesday, with 154 deputies voting in favor on principle and 141 against.    A second vote, on the bill’s articles, is due today.    Only after that procedure will the bill have passed.    A communist party backed union has vowed to encircle Parliament today in an attempt to prevent deputies from entering the building for the procedure.    But Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos insisted there was no choice but to accept the hardship.
  
  Oil prices slide on weak economic news
      NEW YORK — Oil prices tumbled more than 2 percent Wednesday, as stock markets fell and government data indicated the U.S. economy remains weak.
      The Federal Reserve’s “Beige Book” showed only a slight increase in consumer spending last month while the economy expanded modestly in the Fed’s 12 bank regions.    And while home builders started new projects at the fastest rate in almost a year and a half, the pace remained far below what economists consider strong.
      A weak economy means less demand for oil. Benchmark crude fell $2.24, or 2.5 percent, to end the day at $86.29 a barrel in New York.
  
  
• 10/21/2011
  
  BLOODY END TO BRUTAL REGIME - Libyans call for unity after Gadhafi’s death by AP and Washington Post Dispatches
      WASHINGTON — Dragged from hiding in a drainage pipe, a wounded Moammar Gadhafi raised his hands and begged revolutionary fighters: “Don’t kill me, my sons.”    Within an hour, he was dead, but not before jubilant Libyans had vented decades of hatred by pulling the eccentric dictator’s hair and parading his bloodied body on the hood of a truck.
      The death Thursday of Gadhafi, two months after he was driven from power and into hiding, decisively buries the nearly 42-year regime that had turned the oil-rich country into an international pariah and his own personal fiefdom.
      It also thrusts Libya into a new age in which its transitional leaders must overcome deep divisions and rebuild nearly all its institutions from scratch to achieve dreams of democracy.
      “We have been waiting for this historic moment for a long time.    Moammar Gadhafi has been killed,”    Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said in the capital of Tripoli.    “I would like to call on Libyans to put aside the grudges and only say one word, which is Libya, Libya, Libya.”
      President Barack Obama told the Libyan people: “You have won your revolution.”
      Although the U.S. briefly led the relentless NATO bombing campaign that sealed Gadhafi’s fate, Washington later took a secondary role to its allies.    Britain and France said they hoped that his death would lead to a more democratic Libya.    Other leaders have fallen in the Arab Spring uprisings, but the 69-year-old Gadhafi is the first to be killed.    He was shot to death in his hometown of Sirte, where revolutionary fighters overwhelmed the last of his loyalist supporters Thursday after weeks of heavy battles.
      Also killed in the city was one of his feared sons, Muatassim, while another son — one-time heir apparent Seif al-Islam — was wounded and captured. An AP reporter saw cigarette burns on Muatassim’s body.
  
  Questions linger
      Bloody images of Gadhafi’s last moments raised questions over how exactly he died after he was cap-tured wounded, but alive.    Video on Arab television stations showed a crowd of fighters shoving and pulling the goateed, balding Gadhafi, with blood splattered on his face and soaking his shirt.
      Gadhafi struggled against them, stumbling and shouting as the fighters pushed him onto the hood of a pickup truck.    One fighter held him down, pressing on his thigh with a pair of shoes in a show of contempt.    Fighters propped him on the hood as they drove for several moments, apparently to parade him around in victory.    Later footage showed fighters rolling Gadhafi’s lifeless body over on the pavement, stripped to the waist and a pool of blood under his head.    His body was then paraded on a car through Misrata, a nearby city that suffered a brutal siege by regime forces during the eight-month civil war that eventually ousted Gadhafi.    Crowds in the streets cheered, “The blood of martyrs will not go in vain.”    Thunderous celebratory gunfire and cries of “God is great” rang out across Tripoli well past midnight.    People wrapped revolutionary flags around toddlers and flashed V for victory signs as they leaned out car windows.    Martyrs’ Square, the former Green Square from which Gadhafi made many defiant speeches, was packed with revelers.    In Sirte, the ecstatic former rebels celebrated the city’s fall after weeks of fighting by firing endless rounds into the sky, pumping their guns, knives and even a meat cleaver in the air and singing the national anthem.
      But now the question is whether forces united in their hatred of Gadhafi can come together and govern a country that has never known democracy.
      “The challenge was, and still is, to regain security in the cities,” which are effectively under the control of local militias and awash in arms, Jibril said.
      Gadhafi leaves such a vacuum that interim leaders are not even sure what kind of laws they can use to try the thousands of pro-Gadhafi prisoners detained during the conflict.    Different tribes may jockey for power, and conflicts are likely between Islamists and more secular Libyans.
      The interim government is expected to officially declare the country liberated on Saturday, triggering the appointment of a new temporary government and a timetable for elections, expected in about eight months.    The outpouring of joy reflected the deep hatred of a leader who had brutally warped Libya with his idiosyncratic rule.    After seizing power in a 1969 coup that toppled the monarchy, Gadhafi created a “revolutionary” system of “rule by the masses,” which supposedly meant every citizen participated in government but really meant all power was in his hands.    He wielded it erratically, imposing random rules while crushing opponents, often hanging anyone who plotted against him in public squares.
  
  Supporting terror
      Abroad, Gadhafi posed as a Third World leader, while funding militants, terror groups and guerrilla armies.    His regime was blamed in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and the downing of a French passenger jet in Africa the following year, as well as the 1986 bombing of a German discotheque fre-quented by U.S. servicemen that killed three people.
      Thursday began with revolutionary forces bearing down on the last of Gadhafi’s heavily armed loyalists, who in recent days had been squeezed into a block of buildings of about 700 square yards.    A large convoy of vehicles moved out of the buildings, and revolutionary forces moved to intercept it, said Fathi Bashagha, spokesman for the Misrata Military Council, which commanded the fighters who captured Gadhafi.    At 8:30 a.m., NATO warplanes struck the convoy, a hit that stopped it from escaping, according to French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet.
      Fighters then clashed with loyalists in the convoy for three hours, with rocket- propelled grenades, anti- aircraft weapons and machine guns.    Gadhafi and other supporters fled on foot, with fighters in pursuit, he said.    A Gadhafi bodyguard captured as they ran away gave a similar account to Arab TV stations.    Gadhafi and several bodyguards took refuge in a drainage pipe under a highway nearby.    After clashes ensued, Gadhafi emerged, telling the fighters outside, “What do you want?    Don’t kill me, my sons,” according to Bashagha and Hassan Doua, a fighter who was among those who captured him.
      Bashagha said Gadhafi died in the ambulance from wounds suffered during the clashes.    Abdel-Jalil Abdel-Aziz, a doctor who accompanied the body in the ambulance during the 120-mile drive to Misrata, said Gadhafi died from two bullet wounds — to the head and chest.    A government account of Gadhafi’s death said he was captured unharmed and later was mortally wounded in the crossfire from both sides.    Amnesty International urged the revolutionary fighters to give a complete report, saying it was essential to conduct “a full, independent and impartial inquiry to establish the circumstances of Col. Gadhafi’s death.”
      As word spread of Gadhafi’s death, jubilant Libyans poured into Tripoli’s central Martyr’s Square, chanting “Syria! Syria!” — urging the Syrian opposition to strongman Bashar Assad on to victory.    “This will signal the death of the idea that Arab leaders are invincible,” said Egyptian activist and blogger Hossam Hamalawi.    “… All this will bring down the red line that we can’t get these guys.”    Thursday’s final blows to the Gadhafi regime allow Libya’s interim leadership, the National Transitional Council, to declare the entire country liberated.
      It rules out a scenario some had feared — that Gadhafi might flee into Libya’s southern deserts and lead a resistance campaign.    Following the fall of Tripoli on Aug. 21, Gadhafi loyalists mounted fierce resistance in several areas, including Sirte, preventing the new leadership from declaring full victory.
  
  Gadhafi’s fate shifts heat to Yemen, Syria by Liz Sly, The Washington Post
      DAMASCUS, Syria — As the Arab Spring claimed its first dead dictator, the spotlight swung to the other revolts still simmering across the region, in Yemen and, perhaps the most intractable struggle of all, in Syria.    Moammar Gadhafi was the third of the region’s leaders to be ousted by his own people in less than eight months but the first to meet a bloody end.    His death came two months after rebels drove his forces from Tripoli and began setting up a new government.    Scenes of his corpse being dragged through his hometown of Sirte rekindled revolutionary sentiments across the region, along with hopes that his violent demise will give pause to the despots who remain.    In the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, thousands of people swarmed into Change Square to celebrate and to call for the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
      In the Tunisian capital, Tunis, where it all began in January with the flight of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, young men took to the streets wrapped in Libyan flags and drivers honked their horns into the night in celebration.    “Now all these tyrants who thought they would rule forever are trembling,” Khelil Ezzaouia, a leader of the secularist Ettakatol party, said at a town hall meeting in a glitzy mall in Tunis as campaigning ac-celerated ahead of the Arab Spring’s first free election on Sunday.    But it was the implications of Gadhafi’s fate for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that most seemed to capture the imagination of commentators across the region.    Assad is showing no sign of faltering despite nearly eight months of protests against his rule.    “Ben Ali fled.    Mubarak is on trial.    Gadhafi was killed.    The greater the tyrant’s resistance to his people the worse his punishment,” tweeted Essam al-Zamel, a writer at the Saudi newspaper al-Yawm, referring also to Egypt’s deposed President Hosni Mubarak.    “It seems that Bashar will be crucified to death in the center of Damascus.”
      Syrian demonstrators took to the streets in several towns and cities across the north and south, and in the eastern city of Deir al-Zour, to cheer Gadhafi’s demise.
      Activists said they hoped it would reinvigorate a protest movement that has shown signs of withering in the face of a sustained government crackdown.    Some expressed hope that the end of the NATO bombing campaign in Libya would free Western forces to come to the aid of Syrian protesters, who want a no-fly zone like the one that facilitated Libya’s revolution.    “Maybe NATO will be free now to involve themselves in Syria.    At least we hope so,” said Omar al-Muqdad, an activist from the southern town of Daraa who fled to Turkey in the early months of the uprising.
      There still seems little prospect of that, however. President Barack Obama, speaking in Washington, is-sued a warning to Arab dictators but did not suggest that the U.S. would step up efforts to remove them.
      “Today’s events prove once more that the rule of an iron fist inevitably comes to an end,” he said.    “Across the Arab world, citizens have stood up to claim their rights. … And those leaders who try to deny their human dignity will not succeed.”    Obama has called on both Saleh and Assad to step aside, but there has not yet been a concerted effort by world powers to force their ouster, as was the case with Libya.    Russia and China have blocked action at the U.N. Security Council against their ally Syria.    And Yemen’s gulf neighbors have been reluctant to pressure Saleh for fear of jeopardizing his role in the fight against al-Qaida.
  
  EU to cut funding of assistance to poor
      BRUSSELS - The European Union confirmed plans to cut more than three-quarters in funding of a $690 million program that helps feed 18 million of its poorest citizens.
      The EU’s farm commissioner said he was “appalled” that six nations continue to block the extension of the full program after New Year’s Day.    “It is a proof of egoism in an EU where we need solidarity more than ever,” Dacian Ciolos said after the meeting of EU farm ministers.
      The reduced program of —113 million ($155 million) comes at a time of rising unemployment and con-sumer food prices as European countries try to slash budgets in the face of the economic crisis.
  
  Senate rejects slimmed-down Obama jobs bill by Andrew Taylor, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Despite a campaign-style push this week by President Barack Obama, the Senate on Thursday scuttled pared-back jobs legislation aimed at helping state and local governments avoid layoffs of teachers and firefighters.
      Obama’s three-day bus tour through North Carolina and Virginia — states crucial to his reelection race next year — didn’t change any minds among Senate Republicans, who killed Obama’s latest jobs measure with delaying tactics just as they killed his broader $447 billion jobs plan last week.    Thursday’s $35 billion measure combined $30 billion for state and local governments to hire teachers and other school workers with $5 billion to help pay the salaries of police officers, firefighters and other first responders.    The White House says the measure would support almost 400,000 education jobs for one year.    Republicans call that a temporary “sugar high” for the economy.    Despite the negative vote, Obama and his Democratic allies act like they’ve found a winning issue in repeatedly pressing popular ideas such as infrastructure spending and boosting hiring of police officers and fire-fighters.    The sluggish economy and lower tax revenues have caused many teachers’ jobs to be cut in recent years.
      After the failure of the jobs measure last week, Democrats vowed to try to resurrect it on a piece by piece basis, even though the strategy doesn’t seem to have any better chance of success. But Democrats are trying to win a political advantage through repeated votes.
      They’re also pressing for passage of a poll-tested financing mechanism — a surcharge on income exceeding $1 million.
      An AP-GfK poll taken Oct. 13-17 found 62 percent of respondents favoring the surcharge as a way to pay for jobs initiatives     Just 26 percent opposed the idea.
      Republicans say the president is more interested in picking political fights with them than seeking compromise.    Still, they don’t seem to be afraid of a politically weakened Obama. Not a single Republican backed the president in last week’s vote.
      But several Democrats opposed the underlying measure, even though they voted in favor of at least allowing debate to begin. Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent, said the stimulus style jobs bill spends money the country doesn’t have and takes revenue away from a special “supercommittee” charged with cutting the deficit.
  
  Greece approves cuts - Austerity riots injure over 100 by Nicholas Paphitis, Associated Press
      ATHENS, Greece — Greek lawmakers passed a deeply resented new austerity bill Thursday, caving in to the demands of international creditors in order to avoid national bankruptcy, as a second day of riots left one protester dead and more than 100 people wounded.
      The austerity measures won 154-144 in the 300-member parliament despite dissent from a prominent Socialist lawmaker who voted against a key article of the bill.    The vote was expected to pave the way for a vital $11 billion payout from creditors within weeks so Greece can stay solvent.
      Clouds of tear gas choked central Athens ahead of the vote as riot police intervened to separate rival demonstrators who fought for several hours with firebombs and stones outside parliament.
      A 53-year-old construction worker died of heart failure after attending a mass rally, while 74 protesters and 32 police officers were hospitalized with injuries, police and state hospital officials said.    Several dozen more injured protesters received first aid from volunteer medics who set up a makeshift treatment site on Athens’ main Syntagma Square.    Police said they detained 79 people suspected of violent conduct.
      After initial hours of calm, the rioting erupted when hundreds of masked anarchist youths attacked a peaceful rally of about 50,000 people outside parliament, pelting them with firebombs and jagged chunks of marble.    The Communist-backed union members counterattacked, and chaos ensued before riot police fired volleys of tear gas to separate them.
      Greece now heads into a series of tough negotiations in Brussels involving the 17 finance ministers of the eurozone and European leaders.    The meetings are crucial because efforts to get Greece back on track financially have been failing.
  
  Gadhafi’s death to ease oil flow
      NEW YORK — It will still be several months before Libya can export as much oil as it did before it descended into civil war earlier this year.    But the killing of Moammar Gadhafi reduces the chance that violence will get in the way as Libya cranks up production again.
      And as Libyan crude returns, it could lower the price of oil on the international markets and gasoline at American pumps.    The price of oil jumped 35 percent between Feb. 15, when protests started in Benghazi, and April 29, when oil hit almost $114 per barrel, the highest since 2008.
  
  
• 10/22/2011
  
  Poll: Anger growing over economy, politics by Laurie Kellman, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — More than one-third of the country supports the Wall Street protests, and even more —58 percent — say they are furious about America’s politics.
      The number of angry people is growing as reservoirs of resentment grip the country, according to the latest Associated Press-GfK poll.
      Some 37 percent of people back the protests that have spread from New York to cities across the country and abroad, one of the first snapshots of how the public views the “Occupy Wall Street” movement.
      A majority of protest supporters are Democrats, but the anger about politics in general is much more widespread, the poll found.
      “They’ve got reasons to protest, but they’re protesting against the wrong people,” Jan Jarrell, 54, a retired custodian from Leesville, S.C., said of the protests.    “They need to go to Washing-ton.    They’re the ones coming up with all the rules.”
      “Occupy Wall Street” has been called the liberal counterpoint to the tea party movement.    But there’s a key difference.    Tea party activists generally say govern-ment is the problem.    The Wall Street protesters generally say that government can provide some solutions and the free market has run amok.
      Of the Americans who support the Wall Street protests, 64 percent in the poll are Democrats, 22 percent are independents and just 14 percent are Republicans.
      Many more Americans — 58 percent — say they are furious about the country’s politics, more than the 49 percent who said so in January.
      Nearly nine in 10 say they are frustrated with politics and nearly the same say they are disappointed — findings that suggest people deeply resent the political bickering over such basic government responsibilities as passing a federal budget and raising the nation’s debt limit.
  
  Obama signs 3 new trade deals - Pacts may create thousands of jobs by Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama signed off Friday on the first three, and possibly the last — free trade agreements of his administration, deals with South Korea, Colombia, and Panama that could be worth billions to American exporters and create tens of thousands of jobs.
      The three deals were years in the making — and the difficulty of bringing them to fruition make it unlikely there will be another bilateral trade agreement during Obama’s current term.
      Obama signed them with none of the ceremonial fanfare that normally accompanies such triumphs.    Republicans, while supportive of the deals, continue to find fault with Obama’s trade policies.    And nearly three-fourths of House Democrats voted against the trade measures.
      The agreements will bring to 20 those countries that have free trade relations with the United States.
      Trade will not go away as an issue, as the administration pushes ahead with a major Pacific rim trade pact, Congress and the White House scuffle over China, and Republicans take aim at Obama’s policies during the presidential campaign.
      But, “I don’t see this administration coming up with new free trade agreements,” said National Foreign Trade Council president Bill Reinsch.    “For the next six months we ought to go after trade liberalization in manageable pieces.”
      Republicans accuse the administration of moving too slowly to find new free trade partners, resulting in U.S. exporters losing out to foreign rivals.    The administration says it is promoting free trade but wants to assure that the other side is playing by the rules, that basic worker and environmental rights are observed and that deals promote U.S. job growth.
  
  Good economic news helps lift oil prices
      NEW YORK — Oil prices rose Friday on encouraging economic news from the U.S. and Europe, raising hopes for stronger demand in the months to come.
      Benchmark crude rose $1.33 to finish the day at $87.40 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price many international kinds of oil, fell 20 cents to end at $109.56 a barrel in London.
      Benchmark crude prices rose as European finance ministers approved the next round of bailout loans for Greece, which should head off a disastrous default that could impact other countries in the region and slow their economies.
  
  
• 10/23/2011
  
  Three real jobs bills pass by Elaine L. Chao, MCT Information Services
      President Obama may have predicted gloom and doom when his “jobs bill,” sequel to the trillion-dollar 2009 stimulus bill, failed to pass.    But its defeat is actually good news for America’s near- and long-term economic prospects.
      Other good news came when Congress ratified three free trade agreements that will create lasting jobs.    They had been stalled for years because of the president’s inaction.    Let’s hope the White House learns the right lesson from the jobs-bill episode, and that these welcome advancements toward free trade begin a trend.
      The president’s latest stimulus- jobs plan was a distressingly familiar hodge-podge.    There was class warfare (tax increases), special-interest giveaways (“infrastructure bank”), unsustainable spending (propping up unionized state and local government payrolls) and political stunts (ludicrously inadequate hiring tax credit and protectionist “Buy America” provisions).
      Announced in a hastily-called post-Labor Day televised joint session of Congress before the bill was even drafted, the president’s plan was haunted from the get-go by the air of re-election campaign desperation, the track record of previous policy failure, and the half-trillion dollar price tag.    That there was no sense of surprise or outrage when the plan was defeated a few weeks later is quite remarkable, in view of America’s ongoing unemployment crisis.    The official unemployment report counts14 million Americans as out of work.
      And even that horrific number understates the problem. Millions of Americans have lost hope, stopped looking and been out of the workforce for so long that they are no longer factored into the unemployment statistic.
      And there is the problem of “underemployment.”    More than 9 million American workers are what the Bureau of Labor Statistics refers to as “involuntarily part-time” because their employer reduced their work hours or they have simply been unable to find a full-time job.
      Even with 23 million Americans and their families suffering so personally from the lack of job creation, there still was not a critical mass of support for a presidential “jobs plan.”    That certainly attests to a widespread lack of faith in its content.    Hopefully, the White House is beginning to realize that there is no getting around the fact that its record on jobs is going to be measured in the coming year on private- sector job creation, rooted in an economic environment favorable (over the long term) to free enterprise.`    Most Americans, employed or unemployed, no longer find debt-fueled, or tax fueled, temporary government spending stimulus credible.
      Yet even amid the fog of Washington rancor and rhetoric these past few months, some real bipartisan progress was made in an arena critical to America's near- and long-term economic prosperity.    That was the belated ratification of the Korea, Panama and Columbia free-trade agreements.    President Obama has long spoken eloquently on the virtues of free trade agreements.
      Before the London G-20 summit in 2009, the president declared: “We should embrace a collective commitment to encourage open trade and investment, while resisting the protectionism that would deepen this crisis.”    Yet his administration failed until now to advance trade agreements that could have been rat-ified in 2009 and been helping to create jobs since then.    And his first stimulus bill in 2009 and the stimulus-jobs bill he championed this fall both contained protectionist measures.
      Experts at the U.S. International Trade Commission anticipate that the trade agreement with South Korea alone could foster 280,000 jobs for Americans and boost U.S. exports by more than $12 billion.    Columbia is the third largest economy in Central and South America and there will no longer be tariffs on 80 percent of the consumer and industrial goods that the U.S. exports there.    Panama will eliminate 88 percent of that country’s tariffs on U.S. consumer and industrial goods.
      To help America’s unemployed, in these trade agreements should be the seeds of a new administration approach to economic recovery. This administration has been unrelentingly hostile to America’s private sector, and workers suffer for it.    To promote American competitiveness and job creation, the administration should advance more trade agreements and start providing America’s private sector immediate and significant relief from punitive and un-predictable taxation and excessive regulations.
      Elaine L. Chao served as U.S. Secretary of Labor from 2001-2009 and is now a Distinguished Fellow at The Heritage Foundation (heritage. org).
  
  
• 10/24/2011
  
  Libya finally declared free - But questions over Gadhafi death linger by Kim Gamel , Associated Press
      TRIPOLI, Libya — Its interim rulers declared Libya liberated Sunday after an eight-month civil war, launching the oil-rich nation on what’s meant to be a two-year transition to democracy.
      But they laid out future plans with an Islamist tone that could rattle their Western backers.
      The joyful ceremony formally marking the end of Moammar Gadhafi’s 42 years of tyranny was also clouded by the mounting pressure from leaders of the NATO campaign that helped secure victory to investigate if Gadhafi, dragged hurt but alive out of a drainage ditch last week, was then executed by his captors.    The circumstances of the dictator’s death are still unclear.
      But critics said the gruesome spectacle of his blood-streaked body laid out as a trophy for a third day of public viewing in a commercial freezer tests the new leadership’s commitment to the rule of law.
      Britain’s defense secretary, Philip Hammond, said the Libyan revolutionaries’ image had been “a little bit stained” by Gadhafi’s violent death.    Both he and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said a full investigation is necessary.
      Gadhafi’s capture and the fall of his hometown of Sirte, the last loyalist stronghold, set the stage for the long-awaited declaration of liberation, delivered by the head of the National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil.    He urged Libya to eschew hatred.
      “You should only embrace honesty, patience and mercy,” he told a flag-waving crowd of several thousand at the declaration ceremony in the eastern city of Benghazi, the birthplace of the uprising against Gadhafi.
      He laid out a vision for a new Libya with an Islamist tint, saying Islamic Sharia law will be the “basic source” of legislation and current laws contradicting Islamic teachings will be nullified.    Abdul-Jalil thanked those who fought and fell in the war, saying they “are somewhere better than here, with God.”    Displaying his own piety, he then stepped aside from the podium and knelt to offer a prayer of thanks.
      Using Sharia as the main source of legislation is stipulated in the constitution of neighboring Egypt.    Still, Egyptian laws remain largely secular as Sharia does not cover all aspects of modern day life.    In Brussels, neither the EU nor NATO wanted to address the issue of Sharia law. A NATO official said it’s for the Libyans to decide on their system.
      Anti-Gadhafi forces enjoyed strong Western political and military support during their revolt, especially from the U.S., Britain and France, and NATO airstrikes were key to their victory.    Abdul-Jalil also paid tribute to the Gulf Cooperation Council, a six-nation alliance led by Saudi Arabia, the Arab League and the E.U President Barack Obama congratulated Libya on the declaration.    “After four decades of brutal dictatorship and eight months of deadly conflict, the Libyan people can now celebrate their freedom and the beginning of a new era of promise,” Obama said.    In Brussels, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen welcomed the declaration and said NATO’s mission in Libya “is very close to completion,” referring to the alliance’s decision to end air patrols Oct. 31.    For a third day, Gadhafi’s body remained on display Sunday in a commercial freezer in the port city of Misrata, which suffered from a weeks-long bloody siege by regime forces in the spring.    Libyan leaders say he died in the crossfire during battles.
      Acting Libyan prime minister Mahmoud Jibril said he wouldn’t oppose an inquiry into Gadhafi’s death, but there’s “no reason” to doubt the credibility of an official report that he died in crossfire.
      The vast majority of Libyans seemed unconcerned about the circumstances of the hated leader’s death.    “If he (Gadhafi) was taken to court, this would create more chaos, and would encourage his supporters,” said Salah Zlitni, 31, who owns a pizza parlor in Tripoli.    “Now it’s over.”
  
  
• 10/25/2011
  
  Obama rolls out revised mortgage refinance program by Kevin G. Hall, McClatchy Newspapers
      WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has rebooted a failing effort to help some homeowners refinance their homes, making it easier for some who owe more than their house is worth to get a new loan.
      But the new effort, announced Monday, stops far short of tackling broader problems weighing down the housing sector.
      “If you meet certain requirements, you will have the chance to refinance at lower rates, which could save you hundreds of dollars a month and thousands of dollars a year in mortgage payments,” President Barack Obama said in Las Vegas as he unveiled the changes coming to the Home Affordable Refinance Program, launched two years ago to great fanfare.    “Second, there will be lower closing costs, and certain refinancing fees will be eliminat-ed — fees that can sometimes cancel out the benefit of refinancing altogether.”    The program was established to help borrowers whose mortgages are owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac to take advantage of historically low lending rates and refinance.    Fannie and Freddie own or guarantee about half of the nation’s $10 trillion in outstanding mortgages.
      The refinance program never quite took off.    It’s helped about 800,000 homeowners — well below the more than 4 million originally envisioned.
      Among the reasons for its lukewarm performance are numerous fees, high closing costs, bureaucratic hassles with appraisals in a declining market and liability issues tied to the former loans.    All are addressed in the revised program, which will operate until the end of 2013.
      But the biggest problem was the continued decline in home prices.    That left more and more borrowers underwater, the term for owning a home worth less than the value of its mortgage.    Anywhere from one-quarter to one-third of all homeowners are believed to be underwater on their mortgages.
      The changes announced Monday by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates Fannie and Freddie, lift a cap that had limited the refinance program to borrowers whose homes had lost no more than 25 percent of their value relative to their outstanding mortgage.    That limit has been removed.
      Additionally, although borrowers must be current on their loan, there’s no longer disqualification if they had at some earlier point been delinquent on mortgage payments.
      “This gets potentially more people eligible to qualify,” said Paul Leonard, vice president of government affairs for the Housing Policy Council, the trade group for mortgage servicers, who collect payments on behalf of mortgage lenders and investors.
      Industry groups greeted the changes with qualified support.
      “It’s a good tool in the toolbox,” said David Stevens, president of the Mortgage Bankers Association.    While the changes help, he cautioned, they won’t do anything for the 4.2 million delinquent homeowners.    They also don’t apply to millions of mortgages held outside Fannie and Freddie.
      Many problem loans were in states such as Nevada where housing prices soared to unsustainable levels.        Fannie and Freddie had tougher underwriting standards and didn’t have nearly the delinquency and default problems of those linked to Wall Street banks that pooled mortgages into complex bonds.
      “The real question is what do you do in those cases?    There is no FHFA or institution in conservatorship by the government who can step in and say, ‘You are going to rewrite these loans,’ ” Stevens said.    “The only way you could actually address those is to fund the negative equity or pay to refinance those through some other program.”
      There’s little appetite in Congress to force lenders to eat the losses when refinancing underwater loans or to subsidize them with taxpayer money.    The administration acknowledged Monday’s plan is no pana-cea.
      “This is just one piece of a broader strategy to help the housing market,” Gene Sperling, head of the National Economics Council, said during a conference call with reporters.    He declined to project how many homeowners might benefit from the changes.
      But Mark Zandi, chief economist for forecaster Moody’s Analytics, estimated that 2.85 million mortgages will have been refinanced under the program from inception until the new end-date of Dec. 31, 2013.
      “While I think this was a very positive step, it isn’t a magic bullet for the housing market and economy,” he said.    “Policymakers will thus very likely have to do more to support the housing market and economy.”
  
  SIZING UP THE PLAN
  
      Here are some of the major questions and answers about the Obama administration’s latest bid to help troubled homeowners:
  
  Q: What is the program?
  
  A: The Home Affordable Refinance Program was started in 2009. It lets homeowners refinance their mortgages at lower rates.    Borrowers can bypass the usual requirement of having at least 20 percent equity in their home.    But many “underwater” borrowers — those who owe more than their homes are worth — couldn’t qualify under the program.    As of Aug. 31, about 800,000 homeowners, and just 72,000 underwater homeowners, have refinanced through the administration’s program.    The administration had estimated that the program would help more than 4 million homeowners.
  
  Q: Why did so few benefit?
  
  A: Mainly because those who had lost the most in their homes weren’t eligible.    Participation was limited to those whose home values were no more than 25 percent below what they owed their lender. Another problem: Homeowners must pay thousands in closing costs and appraisal fees to refinance.    Typically, that adds up to 1 percent of the loan’s value — $2,000 in fees on a $200,000 loan.
  
  Q: What changes is the administration making?
  
  A: Homeowners’ eligibility won’t be affected by how far their home’s value has fallen.    And some fees for closing, title insurance and lien processing will be eliminated.    So refinancing will be cheaper.    The number of homeowners who need an appraisal will be reduced, saving more money. Some fees for those who refinance into a shorter-term mortgage will also be waived.
  
  Q: Who’s eligible?
  
  A: Those whose loans are owned or backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, which the government took control of three years ago.    Homeowners can determine whether their mortgage is owned by Fannie or Freddie by going online: Freddie’s loan tool is at freddiemac.com/mymortgage; Fannie’s is at fanniemae.com/loanlookup.
  
  Q: How many homeowners will be eligible?
  
  A: The government estimates that up to 1 million more people could qualify.    Moody’s Analytics says the figure could be as high as 1.6 million.    Both figures are a fraction of the 11 million or more homeowners who are underwater, according to CoreLogic, a real estate data research firm.
  
  Q: When will it start?
  
  A: Fannie and Freddie will issue the full details of the plan lenders and servicers Nov. 15, officials say.    The revamped program could be in place for some lenders as early as Dec. 1.
  
  Vatican proposal calls for economic reform
      VATICAN CITY - The Vatican called Monday for radical reform of the world’s financial systems, including the creation of a global political authority to manage the economy.
      The proposal by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace calls for a new world economic order based on the “achievement of a universal common good.”    It follows Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 encyclical that blamed a profit at- all-cost mentality for the global financial meltdown.
      Vatican pronouncements on the economy are meant to guide world leaders as well as the global church
  
  Oil rises above $91 on signs of growth
      Oil prices jumped more than 4 percent Monday, reaching the highest level in more than two months, on signs of economic growth in the U.S. and Asia.
      “The market was being held back by fear” of a recession, PFGBest analyst Phil Flynn said.    “We haven’t seen stellar economic numbers so far, (but) they haven’t been recessionary.”
      Crude rose $3.87 to finish at $91.27 per barrel in New York.
      Prices rose after news of a string of acquisitions and a better profit forecast from Caterpillar sparked a rally on Wall Street.    The Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 were up about 1 percent.
  
  
• 10/26/2011
  
  Wall Street protesters try patience of cities by Meagan Barr, Associated Press
      NEW YORK — Fed up with petty crime, the all-night racket of beating drums, the smell of human waste and the sight of trampled flowers and grass, police and neighbors are losing patience with some of the anti-Wall Street protests around the U.S.
      In Oakland, Calif., police in riot gear fired tear gas and bean bags before daybreak Tuesday to disperse about 170 protesters who had been camping in front of City Hall for the past two weeks, and 75 people were arrested.
      The mayor of Providence, R.I., is threatening to go to court to evict demonstrators from a park.
      And businesses and residents near New York’s Zuccotti Park, the unofficial headquarters of the movement that began in mid-September, are demanding something be done to discourage the hundreds of protesters from urinating in the street and making noise at all hours.    “A lot of tourists coming down from hotels are so disgusted and disappointed when they see this,” said Stacey Tzortzatos, manager of a sandwich shop near Zuccotti Park. In Philadelphia, city officials have been waiting almost two weeks for Occupy Philly to respond to a letter containing a list of public safety and health concerns.    Complaints include smoking in tightly packed tents, camp layouts that hinder emergency access and exposure to human waste.
      Stephen Campbell, a protester in Boston, said the troublemakers are the minority.    “We have a policy here: no drugs, no alcohol,” he said. Oakland city officials initially were supportive of the protesters, with Mayor Jean Quan saying that sometimes “democracy is messy.”    But tensions reached a boiling point after a sexual assault, a beating and a fire were reported, and paramedics were denied access to the camp, according to city officials.    They also cited complaints about threatening behavior and concerns about rats, fire hazards and public urination.
      When police moved in, they were pelted with rocks, bottles and utensils from people in the camp’s kitch-en area, but no injuries were reported.    Protesters were taken away in plastic handcuffs.    Protesters disputed the city’s claims.    Lauren Richardson, a student from Oakland, said that volunteers collected garbage and recycling every six hours, and that rats had infested the park long before the camp went up.
      In New York, planned a meeting to vote on a resolution that proposed portable bathrooms funded by local donors, said Julie Menin, head of the board.    The resolution also requested that loud noises, like drumming, chanting and the blast of air horns, be limited to two hours during the day.
      “Drumming has been going on late at night,” she said.
      Menin said the neighborhood doesn’t want the protesters kicked out.    “We do not want the city to use force in any way,” she said.    “And we think it’s possible to address quality- of-life issues.”
  
  Dispute leaves European plan to save euro at risk
      The Italian government and a broad European plan to save the euro were both at risk Tuesday, with Premier Silvio Berlusconi locked in a high-stakes battle with coalition partners to muster support for emergency growth mea-sures demanded by the European Union.
      Markets are looking to the EU’s grand plan — promised in time for an EU summit today — for a turnaround in the debt crisis that will avert a potential global recession.
      But the plan risked being delayed, yet again, as governments failed to agree on details.    Berlusconi’s government, meanwhile, showed little sign of meeting the EU’s demands for re-forms, a prerequisite for the grand plan to go ahead.
  
  Doubts on debt plan drive down oil prices by Associated Press
      International oil prices fell Tuesday on disappointing corporate earnings in the U.S. and doubts that European leaders can agree on a plan to resolve that region’s debt crisis.
      The price of Brent, used to peg oil imported into the U.S., fell 53 cents to end the day at $110.92 per barrel in London.
      Another key variety of crude saw higher prices on Tuesday.    The U.S. benchmark crude — known as West Texas Intermediate — rose $1.90, or 2.1 percent, to finish at $93.17 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That is its highest level since early August.
  
  
• 10/27/2011
  
  Oil prices fall on big increase in supplies
      Oil prices dropped more than 3 percent Wednesday after the government said U.S. supplies grew much more than expected.
      Crude oil fell $2.97 to end the day at $90.20 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
      The Department of Energy reported an increase of 4.7 million barrels in the nation’s storage tanks last week.    Analysts expected supplies to grow by only 200,000 barrels, according to Platts, the energy-in-formation arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.
      For most of the year U.S. oil supplies fell as drivers and businesses burned less fuel and refineries cut inventories. Imports climbed last week, boosting supply.
  
  
• 10/28/2011
  
  Big questions remain on European debt fix by Bernard Condon, Associated Press
      NEW YORK — After 14 summit meetings, stock market turmoil and even a fistfight between Italian lawmakers, European leaders have agreed on a rescue package that will keep the debt crisis there from dragging the world into recession.
      That’s the hope, at least. A bailout fund for the continent will be beefed up, and banks will take a 50 percent loss on their holdings of Greek government bonds.    The banks will also put more money aside to cushion the blow from future losses.
      Here are some questions and answers about what happened and what it means.
  
  Q: What was the original problem?
  A: The Greek government spent too much, didn’t collect enough in taxes and had to sell bonds to make up the difference.    It ran up budget deficits well beyond limits set by the European Union, a group of 27 nations that allow goods and workers to cross their borders freely.
      When Greece fell into recession two years ago, bondholders worried they wouldn’t get their money back.    To make sure they did, the EU started lending money to Greece, essentially allowing it to use new debt to pay off old debt.
      Greece shares a currency, the euro, with 16 countries, so its problems are Italy’s problems, and Spain’s, and Germany’s, too.
  
  Q: Is the risk from Europe gone?
  A: No. Even if the rescue package keeps Greece and the European banks afloat, the crisis has already damaged the European economy.    Some manufacturers have slashed production and hoarded cash. Banks are demanding higher rates for loans, if they’re lending at all.
  
  Q: How vulnerable is the U.S.?
  A: Some good news out Thursday suggests the U.S. is in better shape to weather any blow.    The economy grew almost twice as fast over the summer as it did in the spring.    But it’s still dangerously weak.
  
  Q: Will the bailout plan be enough to keep the debt crisis from spreading?
  A: Maybe. There are a lot of unknowns. Because the banks are accepting losses on Greek bonds, Greece won’t owe as much as it did before.    But it still has too much debt and needs for its economy to grow if it hopes to repay it.    The new plan sees Greek debt falling to 120 percent of the country’s economic output by 2020 — a level believed to be sufficient to ease investors’ fears.    Its debt had been expected to grow to 180 percent.    But it’s uncertain whether Greece can dig itself out of recession amid riots, strikes and despair.
  
      Problems lurk at the European banks, too.    The plan calls for banks to raise 106 billion euros, or about $150 billion, as a cushion against future losses.    But that might not be enough to protect against losses on holdings of Greek, Italian and other countries’ bonds.
  
  Protesters rally around vet - Survived Iraq to be injured in Oakland by Terry Collins, Associated Press
      OAKLAND, Calif. — The Iraq War veteran who apparently suffered a fractured skull in clashes between police and Occupy Wall Street protesters felt so strongly about economic inequality that he left his apartment each night to sleep alongside demonstrators in San Francisco and Oakland, his roommate said Thursday.
      The veteran, Scott Olsen, 24, joined the protests after his day job as a network engineer, Keith Shannon said.
      Police action in at least two states this week has put other Occupy protest camps on edge as people wonder how long the patience of officials and neighbors will hold.
      It’s not known what object hit Olsen during Tuesday’s clash, which involved tear gas and projectiles.    The group Iraq Veterans Against the War said police were responsible.    Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan said officials will investigate whether officers used excessive force.    Olsen has become a rallying cry, with demonstrators in the original Occupy Wall Street camp in New York City marching in support of their counterparts in Oakland and a movement website declaring, “We are all Scott Olsen.”
      In Las Vegas, a few dozen protesters held a vigil for Olsen.
      Elsewhere, officials took steps to close some of the camps.    In Nashville, Tenn., they imposed a curfew, saying conditions at a camp at the state Capitol were worsening.    In Providence, R.I., officials told protesters they were violating multiple city laws by camping overnight at a park.
      And tea party activists on Thursday accused officials in at least four cities of giving preferential treatment to the protesters.    Tea party groups in Richmond and Charlottesville, Va., Washington and Atlanta said protesters have openly defied police and local officials without consequence.
      Olsen served two tours of duty in Iraq and makes a good living at a San Francisco software company.    And yet, his roommate said, Olsen felt strongly about the wealth disparity between the rich and everyone else.    “He felt you shouldn’t wait until something is affecting you to get out and do something about it,” said Shannon, who served in Iraq with Olsen.
      Olsen had planned to be in San Francisco Tuesday night, but he changed course when Iraq Veterans Against the War decided to support protesters in Oakland after police cleared an encampment outside City Hall.
      Joshua Shepherd, 27, a Navy veteran who was standing nearby when Olsen got hit, said he didn’t know what hit him.    “It was like a war zone,” he said.
      A hospital spokesman said Olsen was upgraded to fair condition and moved into an intensive care unit on Thursday.    His uncle said his parents were flying in from Wisconsin to be with him.
      People at OPSWAT, the security software company where Olsen works, were devastated after learning of his injuries.
      They described him as a humble, quiet man.    Olsen had been helping to develop security applications for U.S. defense agencies, building on expertise gained while in Iraq, said Jeff Garon, the company’s director of marketing.
      Olsen was awarded seven medals while serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, which he left as a lance corporal in November 2009 after serving for four years.
      His tours of duty in Iraq made him more serious, Shannon said.    “He wasn’t active in politics before he went in the military, but he became active once he was out. … The experience in the military definitely shaped him.”
  
  Suit seeks military benefits for gays - Group: Marriage act is unconstitutional by Jay Lindsay, Associated Press
      BOSTON — A group of gay and married military personnel sued the U.S. government Thursday for the same benefits as straight military couples, arguing it’s a matter of justice and national security.
      The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court says the government’s Defense of Marriage Act violates their constitutional rights.    It asks the military to recognize their marriages and provide spousal benefits such as medical coverage and the right to be buried together in military cemeteries.
      Under the act, the Pentagon is required to ignore same-sex marriages, which are legal in six states and Washington, D.C., and were legal for a time in California.
      Last month, the U.S. military ended its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which barred openly gay people from serving.
      The Service members Legal Defense Network filed the lawsuit on behalf of eight retired or active service members.
      “It’s about justice for gay and lesbian service members and their families in our armed forces rendering the same military service, making the same sacrifices, and taking the same risks to keep our nation secure at home and abroad,” executive director Aubrey Sarvis said in a statement.
      The lawsuit calls the continued denial of benefits to gay spouses “a threat to national security.”    It argues that given the extreme mental and physical demands of modern warfare, the military has already recognized that “service members who are distracted by thoughts that their loved ones are not being cared for may render the service members less effective combatants.”
      Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, which opposed the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” said Thursday’s lawsuit is an attempt to impose throughout the military a definition of marriage that’s ac-cepted in just a handful of states.    If the plaintiffs prevail, gay personnel would have to be treated as if they were married, even if they live in states where gay marriage isn’t legal, she said.    In addition, there would be pressure to extend the same marriage benefits to service members in committed gay relationships who aren’t legally married, she said.
      The lawsuit names as defendants Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki.
      In a statement, Pentagon spokesman Capt. John Kirby said officials will evaluate the complaint and consult with the Justice Department, while continuing to follow the law.    Kirby noted that service members can already designate some benefits to anyone they choose, regardless of sexual orientation.
  
  Positive news sends oil up 4%
      Oil jumped more than 4 percent Thursday as the U.S. economy grew and Europe appeared to turn the corner on its debt crisis.
      Crude oil rose $3.76 to end the day at $93.96 per barrel in New York.    That’s the highest it’s been since the first week of August.
      “Everyone’s feeling pretty good,” PFGBest analyst Phil Flynn said. “But who knows what will happen next week?”
      Flynn said the U.S. still isn’t growing fast enough to reduce its 9.1percent unemployment rate, and austerity measures won’t boost energy demand.
  
  
• 10/29/2011
  
  Energy loans reviewed - White House orders step after solar case by Matthew Daly, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — On the defensive over a half-billion-dollar loan to a now-bankrupt solar company, the White House has ordered an independent review of similar loans made by the Energy Department, its latest response to rising criticism over Solyndra Inc.
      Friday’s announcement came as House Republicans prepared for a possible vote next week to subpoena White House documents related to the defunct California company.    White House officials said the review would assess the health of more than two dozen other loans and loan guarantees made by the Energy Department program that supported Solyndra.
      Congressional Republicans have been investigating the company’s bankruptcy amid embarrassing revelations that federal officials were warned it had problems but continued to support it and sent President Barack Obama to visit the company and praise it publicly.
      “Today we are directing that an independent analysis be conducted of the current state of the Department of Energy loan portfolio, focusing on future loan monitoring and management,” White House chief of staff Bill Daley said.    “While we continue to take steps to make sure the United States remains competitive in the 21st century energy economy, we must also ensure that we are strong stewards of taxpayer dollars.”
      Daley said the review would be conducted by former Treasury official Herb Allison, who oversaw the Troubled Asset Relief Program, part of the 2008 Wall Street bailout.    The review wouldn’t look at the Solyndra case but would evaluate other loans worth tens of billions of dollars and recommend steps to stabilize them if they appear to have problems like the loan to Solyndra.
      The White House has already refused a request by the Republican- controlled House Energy and Commerce Committee for all of its internal communications about Solyndra, which closed its doors and filed for bankruptcy protection this year, costing 1,100 jobs.
      GOP Reps. Fred Upton of Michigan and Cliff Stearns of Florida said the subpoena was necessary because the White House has denied its requests for documents. Upton leads the Energy and Commerce panel, while Stearns leads a subcommittee on investigations.
      Recently released emails and other documents show that White House officials participated in decisions regarding the Solyndra loan.
      The panel is seeking documents that might shed light on actions by White House officials in connection with the original 2009 loan to Solyndra as well as a restructuring of the deal that took place earlier this year.
      Solyndra, of Fremont, Calif., was the first renewable-energy company to receive a loan guarantee under a stimulus-law program to encourage green energy and was frequently touted by the Obama administration as a model.
      Solyndra is under criminal investigation by the FBI.
  
  EU ponders whether rebuilt bailout fund is up to the task by Michael Birnbaum, The Washington Post
      ATHENS, Greece — European leaders are hoping that the right mix of financial engineering, salesmanship and perhaps a bit of Chinese largesse can help put an end to the threats of government default that have been roiling the continent’s economy.
      Their newly redesigned bailout fund, known as the European Financial Stability Facility, is a crucial piece of the emergency rescue program approved this week at a summit of senior government officials.    But there’s a risk.    Many analysts already say they’re afraid that the European Financial Stability Facility will prove inadequate and underfunded, and that the new rescue package is at best a stopgap measure until the region’s debt crisis escalates further.
      The dangers became clearer Friday when the rate Italy must pay for borrowing money over the long term spiked above 6 percent, a level considered unsustainable for a government.    This increase in borrowing costs means investors are worried that Italy, the euro zone’s third-largest economy, could have trouble paying its bills even after the rescue fund gets more firepower to aid cash-strapped nations.
      In the plan issued this week after days of marathon talks, it’ll fall to the EFSF to try to keep such elevated borrowing costs from turning into a full-fledged meltdown, in Italy or anywhere else in the euro region.
      Also unclear is if the hefty debt relief provided to Greece will improve its economic situ-ation.    Nor is it clear whether a measure aimed at shoring up Europe’s banks, weighed down by troubled government bonds, will work.    Yet the most urgent question may be whether a redesigned rescue fund, envisioned as Europe’s chief firefighting weapon, is up to the task.
      The EFSF was approved in May 2010 and has provided bailouts for the heavily indebted governments of Portugal and Ireland.    But with Germany insisting that the fund be capped at $600 billion, it’s never been able to develop the overwhelming financial force advocated by the U.S. and others as the only way to assure investors that Europe’s debts will be repaid.
      Klaus Regling, EFSF head, and other European officials will appeal to investors worldwide in an effort to expand the fund’s reach.
  
  Oil falls a day after big gains
  Oil prices fell Friday as investors acknowledged that Europe needs to tighten its belt for years to get through a credit crisis and factory production stalled in Japan.    Crude oil fell 64 cents to end the day at $93.32 per barrel in New York.    Prices have seesawed for weeks while Europe tried to deal with Greece’s debt troubles.
      Europe will likely see energy demand fall while Greece and other countries cut spending to get their national debts under control.    Meanwhile one of the continent’s biggest oil suppliers, Libya, is expected to resume exports this year after an eight month stoppage because of unrest there.
  
  
• 11/1/2011
  
  Catholic groups’ ire at Obama grows - Birth control, abortion at issue by Jerry Markon, The Washington Post
      WASHINGTON — A battle between Catholic groups and the Obama administration has flared in recent days, fueled by the new health care law and divisions over access to abortion and birth control.
      The latest dispute centers on a decision by the Department of Health and Human Services in late September to end funding to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to help victims of human trafficking, or modern-day slavery.    The church group had overseen nationwide services to victims since 2006 but was denied a new grant in favor of three other groups.
      The bishops organization, in line with the church’s teachings, had refused to refer trafficking victims for contraceptives or abortion.
      The American Civil Liberties Union sued, and HHS officials said they made a policy decision to award the grants to agencies that would refer women for those services.
      The bishops conference is threatening legal action and accusing the administration of anti-Catholic bias, which HHS officials deny.
      The fight escalates an already difficult relationship between the government and some Catholics over several issues.    The bishops fiercely oppose the administration’s decision in February to no longer defend the federal law barring the recognition of same-sex marriage.
      Dozens of Catholic groups also have objected in recent weeks to an HHS mandate, issued under the health care law, that requires private insurers to provide women with contraceptives without charge.
      In the case of the trafficking contract, senior political appointees at HHS stepped in to award the new grants to the bishops’ competitors, overriding an independent review board and career staffers who had recommended the bishops be funded again, according to federal officials and internal HHS documents.
      That prompted a protest from some staffers inside HHS, who said the process wasn’t fair, people familiar with the matter said.    Their concerns have been reported to the HHS inspector general’s office.    HHS officials denied any bias.
  
  G-20 urged to act on economy by Bloomberg News
      The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development urged Group of 20 governments and central banks to “act decisively” to restore confidence as it lowered its growth forecasts for the U.S. and the euro area.
      The U.S. economy, the world’s largest, will expand 1.7 percent this year and1.8 percent next, the Paris-based organization said in a report Monday.    In May, it forecast U.S. growth of 2.6 percent and 3.1 percent respectively.
      The euro-area economy may grow 1.6 percent in 2011 and 0.3 percent in 2012 instead of a previously predicted 2 percent in each.
      Monday’s forecasts underline the challenges facing G-20 leaders before they gather in Cannes, France, later this week to seek a coordinated response to a cooling global economy and Europe’s spreading sovereign debt crisis.    The OECD, which advises member governments on economic policy, said that growth has been undermined by poor policies.
      “Much of the current weakness is due to a generalized loss of confidence in the ability of policymakers to put in place appropriate responses,” the OECD said.    The G-20 should “act deci-sively to restore confidence” and “the outlook will likely be better than anticipated if comprehensive action is taken.”
      Central banks in developed nations should keep interest rates on hold or cut them “where possible,” the OECD said. G-20 economies as a whole will grow 3.9 percent this year and 3.8 percent in 2012, it said.
      Key to global growth prospects is the outlook for the euro area, where leaders agreed on Oct. 27 to increase the size of their bailout fund to $1.4 trillion and write down Greek debt by 50 percent.
      The OECD urged the region’s leaders to put their plan into action “promptly and forcefully,” saying that the outlook for growth will be “gloomier” if they fail to follow through.
      The agreement “has to be not only adopted but implemented,” OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria said.
  
  Oil prices rise 18% in October
      Crude oil prices slipped 13 cents Monday to end the month at $93.19 per barrel.    Oil soared 17.7 percent in October on the expectation that the world’s thirst for petroleum would keep growing despite economic struggles in the West.    “Oil demand is higher worldwide,” said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service.    “Other parts of the world, most notably South America, are consuming a lot of our (petroleum) products.”
      Independent oil analyst Andrew Lipow expects oil to hit $100 per barrel by the end of the year.
  
  • Shares of Honda fell sharply after the Japanese automaker said flooding in Thailand is causing a parts shortage, and it will slash U.S. production by half through Nov. 10 and close its factories for a day Nov. 11.
  • Humana shares rose more than 5 percent after the Louisville managed-care company boosted its profit outlook.
  
  
• 11/2/2011
  
  Health fund probe uncovers more losses by John Heilprin, Associated Press
      GENEVA — A global health fund investigating its own losses in grant money said Tuesday that 12 more reviews turned up an additional $20 million of mismanagement, alleged fraud and misspending.
      The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria posted the results — contained in three fraud probes, eight audits and an internal review of travel involving about $1 billion in grant money — on its website.    Earlier probes by the fund’s internal watchdog, the inspector general’s office, had detected about $53 million in losses, according to fund documents provided by senior officials.    The fund’s board chairman, Simon Bland, said it has now reviewed about one-seventh of $14 billion in grants disbursed but it would be misleading to extrapolate the percentage of corruption turning up in fund programs.    He said the fund, which has approved more than $22 billion in grants since its creation in 2002 as a major financing tool, is demanding repayment of the money — and two new cases in Nigeria and India could lead to criminal charges.    The fund says it has recovered $19 million in misspent or undocumented money so far.
      “We think the Global Fund standards of accounting are really high,” Bland said.    “We will not tolerate misuse of our resources.”
      In Nigeria, the probe found $22 million in unauthorized foreign currency exchanges by a not-forprofit center in Abuja, that diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars to nonfund accounts.    In India, at least $872,000 had been misappropriated, some transferred to a shell corporation and used to rent and renovate an official’s home.
      A third probe was in Mauritania, where $6.73 million in potential fraud and other losses were found but the country has already paid back $4.2 million.
      Auditors also looked at grants in Dominican Republic, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, South Sudan, Swaziland and Togo, and examined almost a half-billion dollars in fund programs run by Washington, D.C. based Population Services International.    Completion of the latest investigations and audits was delayed until after the end of a six-month review of the fund’s financial controls by an outside panel created in the wake of reports on the losses that prompted intense scrutiny from donors over the misuse of some grant money.
      The Global Fund suspended grants — or put in place new safeguards — in Djibouti, Mali, Mauritania and Zambia.    The European Commission and some nations had decided to withhold hundreds of millions of euros from the fund until they could be reassured.
  
  Greek turmoil drops U.S., world stocks by Associated Press
      A wave of selling swept across Wall Street and stock markets around the world Tuesday after Greece’s prime minister said he would call a national vote on an unpopular European plan to rescue that nation’s economy.
      The Dow Jones industrial average finished down 297.05 points.    It swung in 100 point bursts throughout the day as investors reacted to sometimes conflicting headlines about the next steps in Greece’s long running debt crisis.    Treasurys and other assets considered safe surged.    The stocks of major banks, including Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase, were hit hard.
      Intense selling roiled markets in Europe. Italy’s main stock index dropped 6.8 percent. France’s fell 5.4 percent and Germany’s fell 5 percent.    The Dow closed at 11,657.96. It was the biggest drop since Sept. 22.    The Dow has lost 573 points, or 4.7 percent, in the last two days.
      The S&P 500 lost 35.02 points to 1,218.28. Some analysts took comfort that the S&P closed above 1,215.    A drop below that level would erase nearly all of the market’s gains in October.    The Nasdaq composite dropped 77.45, or 2.9 percent, to 2,606.96.
      The value of the dollar rose, and bond prices jumped so dramatically that analysts said they were stunned.    Analysts said the bond action reflected fears that the turmoil in Greece would tear at the fabric of Europe’s financial system and create a crisis that could engulf the entire European Union, which together forms the world’s largest economy.
      “This brings all of the concerns about Europe back to the front burner,” said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James.    “If this ends up turning into a financial catastrophe in Europe, then no one will escape it.”
      The prime minister of Greece said unexpectedly Monday that he would put the European rescue plan to a popular vote, the first referendum to be held in Greece since 1974.    The plan requires banks that hold Greek national bonds to accept 50 percent losses to help keep the Greek economy afloat.    It also beefs up a European bailout fund and requires banks to strengthen their financial cushions.    There were also late reports that Greek lawmakers dissented from the plan, raising the possibility that Greece’s government would not last until a confidence vote on Friday.
      International creditors have demanded that Greece enact painful tax increases and drastic cuts in public welfare programs, and Greeks have shown their hostility to those measures in violent protests and strikes.
  
  Oil prices fall with stocks
      Oil dropped Tuesday with the stock market, as a surprise call for a referendum in Greece threatened to derail a plan to bolster Europe’s banks.    Crude fell $1 to end the day at $92.19 per barrel in New York.
      The benchmark price dropped more than 4 percent, to $89.17 a barrel, after Greece’s prime minister called a referendum in his country on Europe’s debt deal.
      Oil prices recovered as some analysts wondered if the vote, set for January, would happen at all.    The prime minister faces a no-confidence vote Friday, and some members of his own party have turned against him.
  
  
• 11/3/2011
  
  Fed: Growth will be weaker than forecast - Still, no further actions taken by Associated Press
      The Federal Reserve offered a bleaker outlook Wednesday for the U.S. economy, which it thinks will grow much more slowly and face higher unemployment than it had estimated in June.
      The Fed’s gloomier forecast shows the recovery from the recession continues to fall short of expectations.    Some economists said it makes the Fed more likely to act further to try to boost the economy, though probably not until early next year.
      One option would be a program similar to the Fed’s $600 billion in Treasury bond purchases, which it completed in June.    Some economists think the Fed could buy mortgage-backed securities instead, which could more directly support the depressed housing market by lowering loan rates.
      Speaking at a news conference Wednesday, Chairman Ben Bernanke said that if conditions worsen, the Fed would consider buying more mortgage-backed securities. He wouldn’t specify what would trigger such a move.    “Bernanke did not go out of his way to dampen growing expectations” that another round of purchases is coming, said Dana Saporta, an economist at Credit Suisse.    “If anything, he stoked those expectations.”
      Still, a more aggressive effort to boost the economy would likely face resistance within the Fed.    Ian Shepherdson, of High Frequency Economics, said the economy would have to deteriorate before the Fed would start another round of purchases.
      The Fed now predicts the economy will grow no more than 1.7 percent for 2011.    For 2012, it foresees growth of about 2.7 percent.    Both forecasts are roughly a full percentage point lower than its June forecast.
      The Fed sees unemployment averaging 8.6 percent by the end of 2012.    In June, it had predicted unemployment would drop next year to as low as 7.8 percent.    The rate is now 9.1 percent.
      The Fed’s gloomier outlook is similar to many private economists’ forecasts.    Bank of America Merrill Lynch, for example, expects only 1.8 percent economic growth this year and 2.1 percent in 2012.    Those growth rates are far too low to drive down unemployment.
      At his news conference, his third this year, Bernanke acknowledged that the pace of growth will likely remain “frustratingly slow.”    “We remain prepared to take action as appropriate to make sure the recovery continues,” he said.
      Even so, the Fed said the economy had improved since nearly stalling in the spring.    As a result, it’s putting off any new actions so it can gauge the impact of steps it’s already taken.    Fed policymakers made the announcement after a two-day meeting.    In a statement, the officials said consumers have stepped up spending. Still, they said the economy continues to face significant risks, including the debt crisis and risk of recession in Europe.
      At his news conference, Bernanke cited Europe’s debt crisis as a particular concern.    He said the crisis could threaten confidence and hold back growth.
      The vote on the Fed’s policy statement was 9-1.    Charles Evans, the president of the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank, dissented.    The statement said Evans wanted to take stronger action to try to boost the economy.
      The vote was a shift from the previous two Fed meetings, when three members dissented for the opposite reason: They opposed the Fed’s continued efforts to keep rates at super-lows, for fear it could ignite inflation.    Those three members, known as inflation “hawks,” dropped their opposition this time.
  
  
• 11/4/2011
  
  GOP senators block Obama construction bill - Republicans object to surcharge on rich by Andrew Taylor, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Republicans in the Senate Thursday dealt President Barack Obama the third in a string of defeats on his stimulus-style jobs agenda, blocking a $60 billion measure for building and repairing infrastructure like roads and rail lines.
      Supporters of the failed measure said it would have created tens of thousands of construction jobs and lifted the still-struggling economy.    But Republicans unanimously opposed it for its tax surcharge on the wealthy and spending totals they said were too high.
      The 51-49 vote fell well short of the 60 votes required under Senate procedures to start work on the bill.    Every Republican opposed the president, as did Democrat Ben Nelson of Nebraska and former Democrat Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., who still caucuses with the party.
      Obama’s loss was anything but a surprise, but the White House and its Democratic allies continue to press popular ideas from Obama’s poll-tested jobs package in what Republicans say is nothing more than a bare-knuckle attempt to gain a political edge by invoking the mantra of jobs but doing little to seek compromise.
      “The truth is, Democrats are more interested in building a campaign message than in rebuilding roads and bridges,” said Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.    “And frankly, the American people deserve a lot better than that.”
      “Their goal is to do everything they can to drag down this economy, to do anything they can to focus attention negatively on the president of the United States in hopes that he can get my job, perhaps, and that President Obama will be defeated,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.    “So let’s not talk about campaign speeches here on the Senate floor.    Let’s talk about reality.”
      After Republicans blocked Obama’s infrastructure plan, the president’s Democratic allies immediately killed a competing GOP infrastructure plan that would have extended existing highway and transit spending programs and paid for the spending with a $40 billion cut in unspent funding for other domestic programs.
      The White House opposed the measure over its spending cuts and provisions that would block recent clean air rules and make it harder for the administration to issue new rules.
  
  Help for businesses
      The House on Thursday passed two bills making it easier for small, privately owned businesses to raise the capital needed to expand with fewer federal restraints.
      The bills remove Securities and Exchange Commission restrictions that now make it difficult for small businesses both to solicit funds from wealthy investors and to use the Internet to attract small-scale donors.    The measures enjoyed wide bipartisan support and follow the near-unanimous passage Wednes-day of two similar bills aimed at relaxing SEC rules for small entrepreneurs and community banks seeking to gather capital.
  
  U.S.: China is top cyber spy - Russia also threat to economy, it says by Ellen Nakashima, The Washington Post
      WASHINGTON — Online industrial spying by China and Russia presents a growing threat to the U.S. economy and its national security, the top counterintelligence agency said Thursday, abandoning the caution American officials typically display when asked to name the countries they consider most responsible for cyber-economic espionage.
      Billions of dollars of trade secrets, technology and intellectual property are being siphoned each year from the computer systems of U.S. government agencies, corporations and research institutions to benefit the economies of China and other countries, the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive said.
      Its report to Congress was released Thursday.    The hackers come from many countries and range from foreign intelligence services to corporations to criminals, according to the report, which leaves no doubt as to who are the most intent on stealing secrets.
      “Chinese actors are the world’s most active and persistent perpetrators of economic espeonage,” the report states.    In addition, it says, “Russia’s intelligence services are conducting a range of activities to collect economic information and technology from U.S. targets.”
      At a news conference accompanying the report’s release, Robert “Bear” Bryant, the national counterintelligence executive, called online spying “a quiet menace to our economy with notably big results.”
      “Trade secrets developed over thousands of working hours by our brightest minds are stolen in a split second and transferred to our competitors,” Bryant said Both China and Russia have routinely denied such charges, and a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy expressed outrage at the report by the counterintelligence office, whose focus is in-telligence threats to the United States.
      “We are opposed to willfully making unwarranted allegations against China as firmly as our opposition to any forms of unlawful cyberspace activities,” embassy spokesman Wang Baodong said in an e-mail.
      A senior U.S. intelligence official, who conducted a media briefing about the report Wednesday on the condition of anonymity, said the government’s unusual candor in naming particular countries was prompted by the severity of the threat.
      “From a counterintelligence standpoint and the threat to our national economy, I think we have to suggest and say who we consider the foreign intelligence services and the countries that are doing the most harm,” the of-ficial said.
      Though conclusive proof of who is behind a computer heist of data is often difficult to obtain, he said: “We have information that certainly the Chinese and Russians are interested in our technology. … It’s part of China and Russia’s national policy to try to identify and take sensitive technology which they need for their development.”
      With the domestic and world economies lagging, and U.S. unemployment above 9 percent, cutting-edge technology is key to U.S. economic growth.    But it is that very technology that is being targeted by countries such as China, as part of a broader strategy to build its own economy and become a global powerhouse.
      In fact, China has set up Project 863 to acquire U.S. technology and sensitive economic information in clandestine fashion for just that purpose, the report said. Last year, Google announced that proprietary data were stolen by hackers in China, which experts called part of a vast campaign of economic espionage.
  
  House Dems blast state voter ID laws
      WASHINGTON, D.C. - House Democrats asked secretaries of state in all 50 states to oppose new voter identification laws because they threaten the right to vote for many Americans.
      “Today we are witnessing a concerted effort by Republican lawmakers across several states to place a new obstacle in front of minorities, low-income families and young people who seek to exercise their right to vote,” Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, said at a news conference Thursday.
      Democrats made the plea in a letter asking the secretaries of state to put aside partisan considerations and be vigilant against fraud and protect access to the polls for all citizens.
  
  Egypt’s military sparks outcry by Hamza Hendawi, Associated Press
      CAIRO — Fear that Egypt’s ruling generals are working to perpetuate their hold on power is causing a political furor, threatening a “second revolution” as the Nov. 28 election for a new parliament looms.    The outcry has been prompted by a proposal from the military-appointed Cabinet to shield the armed forces from any oversight and give the generals a veto over legislation dealing with military affairs.    The measure also is designed to curtail the likely influence by Islamist lawmakers over the writing of a new constitution.
      The proposal, which requires the adoption of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to be binding, has united both Islamists and liberals — groups that helped engineer the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak — in its condemnation.    Egypt’s best-known reform proponent, Mohamed ElBaradei, decried the document as “distorted” and demanded its withdrawal.
      “There is a difference between a civilian democratic state that guarantees man’s basic rights and military guardianship,” he said.    The Islamic fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s largest and most powerful political group, is leading the opposition to the document, saying it usurped the “people’s will.”    “This route goes against the will of the people, and will lead to another revolution,” said Saad el-Katatni, spokesman of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice party.    “We call on the people of Egypt to reject the document to protect their rights.”    If approved, the measure would reduce the powers of lawmakers to select a panel to write the constitution.    The proposal also would declare the armed forces the protector of “constitutional legitimacy,” wording that is widely interpreted as giving the military final say over major national policies.
  
  Attack on city breaks day-old pact
      HOMS, SYRIA - Syrian tanks mounted with machine guns fired on the city at the center of the country’s uprising Thursday, defying a day-old agreement between the Syrian government and the Arab League to end nearly eight months of bloodshed, activists said.    At least 12 people were killed in the tank fire and other violence in Homs, according to two main Syrian activist groups.    A government crackdown on dissent and what appears to be growing sectarian bloodshed has turned Homs, Syria’s third largest city and home to some 800,000 people, into one of the country’s deadliest areas.
  
  Oil rises on cut in interest rates
      Oil rose, closing at a three-month high in New York, after the European Central Bank unexpectedly lowered interest rates and as Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said the nation won’t hold a referendum.
      Crude oil rose $1.56 to $94.07 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
      “We’re living headline-to-headline today,” said Phil Flynn, vice president of research at PFGBest in Chicago.    “There’s a lot of conflicting information out here, which is making the market very volatile.”
  
  
• 11/5/2011
  
  White House rejects Solyndra subpoena
      WASHINGTON - The White House strongly rebuffed a subpoena from House Republicans seeking all communications about a failed solar panel manufacturer that received a half-billion dollar federal loan guarantee.    In a letter to two top Republicans on the House energy panel, White House Counsel Kathy Ruemmler says partisan politics is driving the request.
      The White House has already turned over 85,000 pages of documents on Solyndra.    The company filed for bankruptcy and laid off 1,100 workers after receiving $528 million in federal backing.
      Ruemmler said those documents show no wrongdoing or political favoritism by the ad-ministration.    House Republicans have used Solyndra to highlight what they see as President Barack Obama’s failure to create jobs.
  
  G-20 rejects extra aid for Europe in fighting debt woes - Leaders: Eurozone must help self first by Gabriele Steinhauser, Associated Press
      CANNES, France — Europe failed to get the leaders of the world’s wealthiest economies to help out with its debt troubles, but everyone left a G-20 summit Friday relieved that at least they forced the Greek prime minister not to hold the world hostage with a bailout vote.
      It took a public berating of Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, and Greece’s politics are in upheaval as a result, but the shaky bailout plan appears back on track.
      Investors had hoped the Group of 20 nations would lend the struggling eurozone a hand — but the G-20 leaders said Europe must help itself first.    They said the International Monetary Fund could be beefed up to help more, but not for at least three more months.    The debt crisis that rocked the 17-nation currency union for the past two years has reached a new high and now threatens to push the world economy into a second reces-sion.
      Despite the political firepower at the summit — which included the leaders of Europe, China, Russia, Brazil, India and the U.S., among others — meeting was overshadowed by political turmoil in Greece and worries about Italy, which accepted IMF supervision of its reform efforts.
      The IMF move was an highly unusual intervention into the affairs of one of the world’s leading economies.
      Europe’s own rescue efforts, cobbled together at several crisis meetings last week, left open many important questions, making cash-rich countries like China, Russia or Brazil reluctant to commit more than just words.
      “It’s important that the IMF sees its resources reinforced,” Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, told reporters.
      But any decisions on how to reinforce the IMF were left until February.    The lack of detail disappointed markets, with stocks, bonds and the euro falling.    Italy’s borrowing rates hit new highs.
      With their own finances already stretched from bailing out Greece, Ireland and Portugal — and traditional allies such as the U.S. wrestling with their own problems — eurozone countries were looking to the IMF to use its financial re-serves and rescue experience to help prevent the debt crisis from spreading to its larger economies, such as Italy and Spain.
      The most likely way that the eurozone could still get additional financing is through a special account under the auspices of the IMF, into which individual countries could make payments.
      Those investments could then be used to boost the currency union’s own bailout fund, the — $606 billion European Financial Stability Facility.
      But German Chancellor Angela Merkel and IMF chief Christine Lagarde said that at the two-day meeting, not a single country made a firm commitment to participate.
  
  Oil ends week with slight rise
      Oil prices rose slightly Friday as concerns about the European financial crisis were balanced by improving jobs data in the U.S.    Crude rose 19 cents to end the week at $94.26 per barrel in New York.    Benchmark oil prices have climbed sharply in the last month because of lower supplies and rising demand in the Midwest.
      Tighter supplies tend to lift prices, but analyst and trader Stephen Schork said the increase also has been fueled by a general “euphoria” that the U.S. seems to have avoided another recession.
  
  
• 11/6/2011
  
  Iran’s nuclear gains touchy topic - West expressing many concerns by Joby Warrick, The Washington Post
      WASHINGTON — A new spike in anti-Iran rhetoric and military threats by Western powers is being fueled by fears that Iran is edging closer to the nuclear “breakout” point, when it acquires all the skills and parts needed to build an atomic bomb, Western diplomats and nuclear experts said Friday.
      The United States, backed by key European and Middle Eastern allies, is increasing the pressure on Tehran ahead of next week’s anticipated release of a U.N. report on Iran’s nuclear activities.
      The U.N. nuclear watchdog is expected to reveal new details about Iran’s research into the physics of a nuclear detonation.    Iran has long denied any intention to build a nuclear weapon.
      Apart from the report’s findings are deepening concerns that Iran is preparing to cross a threshold that will bring the country’s ruling clerics within easy grasp of nuclear arms, diplomats and weapons experts say.    Western governments are particularly alarmed by Iran’s recent efforts to boost the purity level of its enriched uranium while moving key parts of its nuclear program into underground bunkers, they say.
      “We’re moving into very stormy seas,” said Olli Heinonen, who retired last year as the chief inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Vienna- based U.N. watchdog that conducts regular inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities.
      Although Iran’s nuclear program has weathered a damaging cyberattack and numerous other setbacks since 2009, its apparently successful deployment of advanced centrifuges in recent months could lead to a dramatic rise in the production of enriched uranium, Heinonen said.
      Iran’s first-generation centrifuges “were not good enough for most reasonable breakout scenarios,” Heinonen said.    “But the concern now is over whether it’s possible for them to ramp up production with these more advanced centrifuges,” which are estimated to be up to six times more efficient.
      He noted that Iran’s atomic energy chief recently announced that he would soon have “good news” about the country’s nuclear program.    Similar pronouncements in the past have been followed by the unveiling of new nuclear technology or results of successful tests.
      Western officials also have expressed dismay over recent Iranian decisions to redeploy the country’s newest centrifuge machines to the newly built complex known as Fordow, where they will be used to create a more purified type of enriched uranium that is closer to weapons-grade.    Fordow was built into the side of a small mountain and is regarded as less vulnerable to airstrikes.
      After watching Iran struggle last year to contain the damage from the computer virus known as Stuxnet, U.S. officials have followed the migration to Fordow with increasing dismay, said Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear policy expert with the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, a nonprofit research group.
      “After Stuxnet, there was a sense that we still had some time, but the Iranians kept on going,” Lewis said.    “They said, ‘Fine, we’ll just put it under the mountain.’    And that move now looks a lot more aggressive.”    In response, U.S., British and French officials have sharpened their rhetorical attacks against Iran amid a flurry of news reports suggesting that Israel’s government is weighing a pre-emptive strike.    The Israeli military announced Wednesday that it had tested a new model of a long-range missile and said warplanes had conducted training exercises simulating long-distance missions.    President Barack Obama, speaking at the Group of 20 summit on Thursday, cited the “need to maintain the unprecedented pressure on Iran,” while French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned that “France would not idly stand by” if Israel faced a threat to its survival.
      Iran’s nuclear progress comes at a time when the country’s leadership is strained by scandal, political infighting and international controversy over allegations that it plotted to assassinate a Saudi diplomat in Washington.    On Friday, tens of thousands of Iranians demonstrated against the United States in central Tehran, some of them carrying placards bearing photos of nuclear scientists that many Iranians believe were assassinated by Western agents.    “Obama, terrorist,” one of the signs read.
  
  Most of the jobless no longer draw benefits by Christopher S. Rugaber, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — The jobs crisis has left so many people out of work for so long that most of America’s unemployed are no longer receiving unemployment benefits.
      Early last year, 75 percent were receiving checks. The figure is now 48 percent — a shift that points to a growing crisis of long-term unemployment.
      Nearly one-third of America’s 14 million unemployed have had no job for a year or more.
      Congress is expected to decide by year’s end whether to continue providing emergency unemployment benefits for up to 99 weeks in the hardest-hit states.    If the emergency benefits expire, the proportion of the unemployed receiving aid would fall further.
      The ranks of the poor would also rise.    The Census Bureau says unemployment benefits kept 3.2 million people from slipping into poverty last year.    It defines poverty as annual income below $22,314 for a family of four.    Yet for a growing share of the unemployed, a vote in Congress to extend the benefits to 99 weeks is irrelevant.
      They’ve had no job for more than 99 weeks, so they’re no longer eligible for benefits.    Their options include food stamps or other social programs. Nearly 46 million people received food stamps in August.
  
  Deadlock vexes Greek premier by Derek Gatopoulos, Associated Press
      ATHENS, Greece — Greece’s prime minister struggled Saturday to form a temporary coalition government in the near-bankrupt country, extending a political deadlock threatening billions in international rescue funds.
      In a plea to parliament late Friday, George Papandreou agreed to step aside as premier if necessary to help hammer out a coalition, offering to include the conservative opposition party — a possibility swiftly rejected by its leader.
      Papandreou said a new coalition government would need four months to secure the new $179 billion rescue agreement and demonstrate the country’s commitment to remaining in the eurozone.
      “Cooperation is necessary to guarantee — for Greece and for our partners — that we can honor our commitments,” Papandreou said at a meeting Saturday with President Karolos Papoulias, hours after his Socialist govern-ment narrowly survived a confidence vote.
      “I am concerned that a lack of cooperation could trouble how our partners see our will and desire to remain in the central core of the European Union and the euro.”
      But Papandreou’s plea was snubbed by conservative opposition leader Antonis Samaras.
      “We have not asked for any place in his government.    All we want is for Mr. Papandreou to resign, because he has become dangerous for the country,” Samaras said in a televised address.    “We insist on immediate elections.”
      Samaras was to meet the president today.    Frustrated with Greece’s protracted political disagreements, the country’s creditors have threatened to withhold the next critical $11 billion loan installment until the new debt deal is formally approved in Greece.    Greece is surviving on a $150 billion rescue-loan program from eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund.    It is finalizing a second major deal to receive an additional $179 billion in rescue loans and bank support, with banks agreeing to cancel 50 percent of their Greek debt.    Midway through his four-year term, Papandreou was forced by his austerity- weary Socialist party into seeking cross-party support after he abandoned a proposal to hold a referendum on a new European debt deal, which prompted havoc on world markets and anger from creditors.    Papandreou’s popularity has been battered by two years of punishing austerity measures, causing crippling strikes, violent protests and sharp drops in living standards for ordinary Greeks.    They have faced repeated tax hikes and pay cuts.
  
  
• 11/7/2011
  
  Ky. budget outlook bleak - Experts: Coming 2 years will be tight by Tom Loftus, The Courier-Journal
      FRANKFORT, Ky. — State budget experts predict a bleak financial outlook for the next two years that offers little hope of raises for teachers and state workers or funding increases for recently cut state programs.
      While state revenues are expected to continue inching upward, some moves made by Gov. Steve Be-shear and the General Assembly to save money in the current budget crisis can’t be repeated next year.    Also, millions of dollars in federal stimulus money that propped up the 2010-12 budget can’t be anticipated in 2012-14.
      State Sen. Bob Leeper, chairman of the budget committee, reported last month that the state general fund is facing a deficit of at least $337 million in the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2012.    “Without question the next budget is going to be tighter than the current one,” said Leeper, a Paducah independent who caucuses with the Senate’s Republican majority.    “Last time we had federal money we could move around, and some of the one-time strategies we used the last time can’t be used again to save money.”
      Rep. Rick Rand, the Bedford Democrat who chairs the House committee, does not have as gloomy an outlook. But Rand said: “The budget’s going to be tight again next year. … There may be some loosening in some areas, but we’re going to have to continue to hold the line on spending.”    Beshear administration Budget Director Mary Lassiter said that while the state is seeing a recovery predicted in state revenues, it’s very modest.
      The gubernatorial candidate elected Tuesday will take office Dec. 13 and must propose a 2012-14 budget to the General Assembly in January.    It must be based on a state revenue forecast made in late December by a team of experts called the Consensus Forecasting Group.    Last month, in a preliminary forecast, that group predicted that state general fund revenues would total about $9 billion this year and increase by $164 million, or 1.8 per-cent, in 2012-13.
  
  Expecting a crunch
      But Leeper cited several factors that predict that the state is likely to have less, not more, money than it needs next year to maintain education, human services and public safety at current levels, while pay viceing some bills that are sure to go up.
  
  
  Those reasons include:
  • The current year’s spending is based not only on about $9 billion in anticipated revenue, but about $133 million originally budgeted to be carried over from the 2010-11 fiscal year and spent on recurring expenses this year.    This money is not available next year because the current year’s budget leaves almost no ending balance to be carried over.
  • Also, the current budget was balanced in part by pushing the 24th and final payment for state employee payroll during this fiscal year to the first day of the 2012-13 fiscal year.    By making only 23 payroll payments this year, the state saves $72 million.    But this money can’t be saved again next fiscal year because even if the one-day delay in making the final payroll is repeated next year, the state must make 24 payroll payments in 2012-13.
  • During the economic crisis, the state restructured its payment schedule on debt service for bonds in a way that saved about $130 million in the current year.    Next year it resumes making its regular debt payments, meaning the cost for debt ser budget goes up $130 million.
  • Other obligations loom. The state contribution to the badly underfunded Kentucky Retirement Systems must be increased under a 2008 law that calls for increased appropriations to the pension fund.    And, while not mandated by law, legislators and the governor will likely want to provide some increase for the rising cost of teacher and state employee health insurance.
  
      Leeper considered such factors and made various assumptions to conclude that while the state will end the current fiscal year with a $95 million surplus, it faces a $337 million deficit in 2012-13.
      “Actually that’s a very conservative estimate,” Leeper said.    “It doesn’t in-clude any increases in the next budget for Medicaid, corrections or education.”    It also assumes that actions Beshear must take in meeting a legislative mandate to find savings of $189 million in the current year’s budget won’t cause additional problems for next year’s budget.    Beshear has not said how he plans to meet this mandate.    He said in an interview last month, “By late November, early December, we will have to make a call if we feel like we’re going to have to make some more reductions for the current fiscal year.”
  
  Time running out
          Rand and Leeper said they are concerned that the state is already more than four months into the fiscal year, and no action has been taken to find the $189 million in mandated savings.    “Every day that goes by just makes it that much more difficult to make those cuts,” Rand said.
      Both chairmen prefer that the governor cut recurring costs to balance the current budget, rather than achieving one-time savings (for example, selling state property) or tapping part of an anticipated surplus this year to close the gap.    “If the governor does things other than cut recurring spending, then that number for the deficit that I have for next year will increase dramatically,” Leeper said.
      Lassiter said her office is working on balancing the current year’s budget, but she did not know when the administration would announce its plans.    As for whether it will cut recurring spending or take other steps to balance the budget, she said, “I would say some of both.”    Leeper said one other factor likely to squeeze the state budget is the outcome of debt reduction talks in Congress.    “However that works out, it’s pretty clear that the tendency of the federal government is going to be to push more to the states,” he said.
      The state budget funded 1 percent raises for teachers and state workers in 2009 and 2010.    It funded no raises in the 2011 and 2012 fiscal years.    As for whether the next budget can afford them, Rand said, “I hope that we’re able to, but I can’t promise that we’ll be able to.”
  
  
• 11/8/2011
  
  Syrian troops storm rebellious area - Opponents say Homs is disaster by Zeina Karam, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — Syrian troops stormed a restive neighborhood in Homs on Monday, kicking in doors and making house-to-house arrests in an area that has spiraled out of government control after nearly a week of deadly assaults, activists said.
      The regime is scrambling to clear out Baba Amr, a major center of resistance and reprisal, as Damascus faces potential fallout from the Arab League for defying a peace plan brokered by the 22-nation body with persistent violence.    According to activists, more than 110 people have been reported killed in the past week in Homs, Syria’s third-largest city.    The Arab League scheduled an emergency meeting in Cairo on Saturday.    It was not clear what action the league would take if the bloodshed continues, although it could isolate Syria by suspending or freezing its membership.    That would be a major symbolic blow to a nation that prides itself on being a powerhouse of Arab nationalism.
      Despite increasing international pressure, President Bashar Assad still has a firm grip on power and has shown no signs of moving to stop the crackdown on a nearly 8month-old uprising against his regime.    He blames the bloodshed on “armed gangs” and extremists acting out a foreign agenda, portraying himself as the lone force who can ward off the radicalism and sectarianism that have bedeviled neighbors in Iraq and Lebanon.
      The government reportedly has been facing strong resistance from army defectors who have taken refuge in Baba Amr and surrounding areas in Homs, which has a population of some 800,000 about 100 miles north of Damas-cus.
      A key opposition group, the Syrian National Council, declared the city a “disaster area” on Monday and appealed for international intervention to protect civilians and for sending Arab and international observers to oversee the situation.    In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said most Syrians want a peaceful resolution without foreign interference.
  
  Oil price up as U.S. supply falls
      Oil prices climbed to the highest point since late July on Monday as traders focused on declining U.S. petroleum supplies and also bet that Europe would solve its debt crisis.    Crude rose $1.26 to end the day at $95.52 per barrel in New York.    Besides political developments in Europe, analysts said investors are paying closer attention to shrinking oil, gasoline and diesel supplies in parts of the U.S.
      The U.S. government reported last week that total petroleum stocks are down 62.6 percent from a year ago and are 5.6 percent lower than the five-year average.
  
  
• 11/9/2011
  
  Court weighs invasion of privacy by GPS - Do tracking devices require a warrant? by Robert Barnes, The Washington Post
      WASHINGTON — The government is free to attach a GPS device to the car of any American and record that person’s public movements for a month or more without a warrant or suspicion of wrongdoing, a government lawyer contended before the Supreme Court Tuesday.
      “You could tomorrow decide that you put a GPS device on every one of our cars, follow us for a month — no problem under the Constitution?” asked Chief Justice John Roberts.
      It is allowed under the court’s own precedents, replied Deputy Solicitor General Michael Dreeben, and is no different than if the FBI “put its team of surveillance agents around the clock on any individual and follow that individual’s movements as they went around on the public streets.”
      But to many of the justices, something did seem different. In an intense hour-long exchange in which the Big Brother of George Orwell’s novel “1984” was referenced six times, the justices wondered how technology has changed a person’s reasonable expectation of privacy.
      The justices pondered a world in which satellites can zero in on an individual’s house, cameras record the faces at a crowded intersection and individuals instantly announce their every movement to the world on Face-book.    They wondered about the government placing tracking devices in coats or on license plates.    “How do we deal with this?”    Justice Samuel Alito asked.    “Do we just say, ‘Well, nothing is changed,’ so that all the information that people expose to the public is fair game?”
      The court is trying to apply the Constitution’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures at a time when devices such as a GPS can in essence do police work.
      The court, Dreeben said, has already settled the greater question: “What a person seeks to preserve as private in the enclave of his own home or in a private letter or inside of his vehicle when he is traveling is a subject of Fourth Amendment protection.”    He added: “But what he reveals to the world, such as his movements in a car on a public roadway, is not.”
      In 1983, the court ruled in United States vs. Knotts that police were within their power to track a car traveling from one state to another with a beeper device they had placed in a can of chemicals used for drug production.    “A person traveling in an automobile on public thoroughfares has no reasonable expecta-tion of privacy in his movements from one place to another,” it said.
      The case at hand, Dreeben said, is directly analogous. It involves Antoine Jones, a suspected District of Columbia drug kingpin, who was convicted in part with evidence gathered from the use of a GPS device placed on his car that tracked his movements on public roads for 28 days.
      His conviction was overturned when a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the use of the GPS and length of surveillance required a warrant.    Investigators had obtained one, but it expired before they attached the device to his car.    Other appellate courts have held that GPS surveillance does not require a warrant.    The justices displayed varying degrees of alarm about the government’s theory.    “If you win this case, then there is nothing to prevent the police or the government from monitoring 24 hours a day the public movement of every citizen,” Justice Stephen Breyer said.    Dreeben said the court should hold those concerns for a case in which there was an abuse.    “This case does not involve universal surveillance of every member of this court or every member of the society,” he said.    “It involves limited surveillance of somebody who was suspected of drug activity.”
      He estimated the times federal investigators have used GPS tracking is in the “low thousands.”    The justices also appeared conflicted about where to draw a constitutional line.    Stephen Leckar, representing Jones, said police should be required to persuade a judge to issue a warrant for each use of a GPS device.    But the justices wondered how that squared with their previous rulings that no warrant is needed when the person being targeted was being monitored in public places.    “If there is no invasion of privacy for one day, there is no invasion of privacy for 100 days,” Justice Antonin Scalia said.
      “If you win this case, then there is nothing to prevent ... the monitoring (of) the public movement of every citizen.”    JUSTICE STEPHEN BREYER
  
  Big asteroid zips close to Earth
      LOS ANGELES - An asteroid as big as an aircraft carrier zipped by Earth Tuesday in the closest encoun-ter by such a massive space rock in more than three decades.    Scientists ruled out any chance of a collision but watched through telescopes to learn more about the object known as 2005 YU55.    Its closest approach to Earth was pegged at a distance of 202,000 miles at 6:28 p.m.    That’s just inside the moon’s orbit; the average distance between Earth and the moon is 239,000 miles.    The last time a large rock came that close to Earth was in 1976, and it’s not due to happen again until 2028.
  
  Iran working on nukes, U.N. says by George Jahn, Associated Press
      VIENNA — The U.N. atomic energy agency said Tuesday that Iran is suspected of conducting secret experiments to develop nuclear weapons.    The report is the strongest sign yet that Iran seeks to build a nuclear arsenal, despite claims to the contrary.
      With Israel threatening a military response, the report opens the way for a new confrontation between the West and Iran.    In Washington, officials said the report confirms U.S. suspicions about the military nature of Iran’s program and that the Obama administration is considering pressuring Iran with more sanctions if it fails to answer questions posed by the new information.
      In its latest report on Iran, the International Atomic Energy Agency outlines its knowledge on the Islamic Republic’s alleged secret nuclear weapons work, including:
  
  • Clandestine procurement of equipment and design information needed to make such arms.
  • Explosives testing and detonator development to set off a nuclear charge.
  • Computer modeling of a core of a nuclear warhead.
  • Preparatory work for a nuclear weapons test.
  • Developing and mounting a nuclear payload onto its Shahab 3 intermediate range missile — a weapon that can reach Israel.
  
      Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said his government has issued a directive not to comment until Israel has studied the report in depth.
      But ahead of the report’s release, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned of a possible Israeli military strike against Iran’s nuclear program.     He told Israel Radio he didn’t expect any new U.N. sanctions on Tehran to persuade it to stop its nuclear defiance, adding, “We continue to recommend to our friends in the world and to ourselves, not to take any option off the table.”    The “all options on the table” phrase is often used by Israeli politicians to mean a military assault, and Israeli government members have engaged in increased saber rattling recently, suggesting an attack was likely a more effective way to stop Iran’s nuclear program than continued diplomacy.
  
  U.N.: 3,500 dead so far in Syrian uprising by Zeina Karam, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — The death toll in the Syrian uprising has soared to at least 3,500 people, the United Nations said Tuesday, a sobering measure of the scope of a military crackdown that has bloodied city after city but failed to crush the 8-monthold revolt against President Bashar Assad’s regime.
      Under the strain of daily killings, some Syrians see a dangerous fracturing of society as long-festering resentments over religion, sectarian identity and poverty bubble to the surface.    Moreover, there were new signs that an uprising that has so far been largely unarmed is increasingly starting to fight back, threatening a rise in the bloodshed.
      The dangers have been on display this week in the country’s third-largest city, Homs.    This week, security forces have been besieging the city for the third time this year to stamp out what has been the epicenter of the revolt.    Most notably this time, dissident troops have been putting up a stiff defense as security forces blast their way into rebellious neighborhoods.    Amid the fighting, there have been tit-for-tat sectarian killings suspected to be between Sunni Muslims, who largely back the protests, and Alawites, a Shiite sect that makes up the backbone of Assad’s regime.
      In Geneva, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said the count of 3,500 dead throughout the uprising was likely a conservative figure.
      “We are deeply concerned about the situation and by the government’s failure to take heed of in-ternational and regional calls for an end to the bloodshed,” said Ravina Shamdasani.
      She said the new death toll comes from a variety of credible sources on the ground both within and out-side Syria that are then corroborated by the U.N. human rights office.
      Syria has seen the bloodiest crackdown against the Arab Spring’s eruption of protests.    Deaths in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen have numbered in the hundreds.    Libya’s toll is unknown and likely higher than Syria’s, but the conflict differed there: Early on it became an outright civil war be-tween two armed sides.
      Syria, in contrast, has developed into a murderous grind.    Though internationally isolated, Assad appears to have a firm grip on power with the loyalty of most of the armed forces, which in the past months have moved from city to city to put down uprisings.    In each place, however, protests have resumed.
      In Homs, one of Syria’s most diverse cities with a population of about a million people, security forces have been assaulting Sunni- majority districts that have been the center of protests, raiding homes and fighting dissident troops — particularly in the neighborhood of Baba Amr.
      At least 110 people have been killed in Homs in the past week, according to activists, 40 of them from Baba Amr where electricity, water and phone lines have been cut.
  
  Mars moon probe is launched
      MOSCOW - Russia has launched an unmanned probe on a daring mission to reach Phobos, a moon of Mars, and to fly samples of its soil back to Earth.    The Phobos-Grunt (Phobos-Soil) craft was successfully launched by a Zenit-2 booster rocket early Wednesday Moscow time from the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
      The return vehicle is expected to carry up to 7 ounces of soil from Phobos back to Earth in August 2014.    The $170 million endeavor would be Russia’s first interplanetary mission since Soviet times.
  
  Fannie Mae sees losses widen, asks taxpayers for $7.8 billion
      Mortgage giant Fannie Mae is asking the federal government for $7.8 billion in aid to covers its losses in the July-September quarter.    The government-controlled company says it lost $7.6 billion in the third quarter.    Low mortgage rates reduced profits, and declining home prices caused more defaults on loans it had guaranteed.
      Fannie has received $112.6 billion so far from the Treasury Department — the most expensive bailout of a single company.    The government rescued Fannie Mae and sibling company Freddie Mac in September 2008 to cover their losses on soured mortgage loans.
      Fannie’s July-September loss attributable to common shareholders works out to $1.32 per share.    That compares with a loss of $3.5 billion, or 61 cents per share, in the third quarter of 2010.
  
  Oil price rises to 3-month high
      Oil rose to a three-month high after Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi agreed to resign following parliament’s approval of an austerity plan.
      Crude oil rose $1.28 to $96.80 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest since July 28.
      An Energy Department report today will probably show that U.S. inventories of distillate fuel, a category that includes heating oil and diesel, fell 2.2 million barrels last week, according to the median estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.    That size drop would leave inventories at the lowest level in 31 months.
  
  
• 11/10/2011
  
  European debt crisis drives down markets - Dow index loses almost 400 points from Wire Dispatches
      NEW YORK — Trouble on two fronts in the European debt crisis sent U.S. stocks tumbling Wednesday to their biggest losses since summer.    The Dow Jones industrial average fell nearly 400 points as all major American market indexes lost at least 3 percent of their value.
      Stocks fell after borrowing costs in Italy spiked to dangerous levels, a sign that investors are losing faith in Italy’s ability to repay its national debt.
      Earlier Wednesday, stocks around the world also finished lower, and in early trading in Tokyo today, the Nikkei market index was shedding an additional 2 percent.    “Italy is potentially too big to bail out, but that’s the problem,” said Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer’s Investment Research.    “
  It’s spiraling out, and the question is now, how do you fix it?”
      In Greece, meanwhile, power- sharing talks aimed at avoiding a default broke down in chaos.
      “The market loves a quick solution, and we’re obviously not getting one,” said Mark Lehmann of JMP Securities.
      The Italian economy is more than six times larger than that of Greece, which so far has been the center of the continent’s debt problem.    American investors are worried that the consequences from Europe could include a freeze in lending, disintegration of the euro currency or another bruising recession.
      They sold stocks as a result.    The Dow finished down 389.24 points, at 11,780.94.
      “It’s just like a scary movie as it never ends,” said Keith Wirtz, who oversees $16.7 billion as chief investment officer at Fifth Third Asset Management in Cincinnati.    “The overarching problem is that most of the economies in Europe can’t sustain the size of their governments.    We’re going to have this headache for a long time to come.”
      Only one stock in the Standard & Poor’s 500, Best Buy, finished higher for the day.
      Financial companies were among the hardest hit because they would suffer first if Europe’s debt problem spins out of control.    Morgan Stanley stock plunged 8 percent and Goldman Sachs 7 percent. In regulatory filings last week, Morgan Stanley reported it had $1.8 billion in liabilities related to Italy, and Goldman said it had $28 billion in all of Europe.
      Markets fear that a chaotic default by Greece would lead to huge losses for European banks.    That could cause a global lending freeze similar to what happened after the investment house Lehman Bros. fell in 2008.
      The Dow’s 389-point drop was the worst since Sept. 22.    The S&P, the broadest major index, fell 3.7 percent, losing 46.82 to 1,229.10, in its worst day since Aug. 18.    The Nasdaq composite index lost 105.84, or 3.9 percent, at 2,621.65.
  
  Mars probe gets stuck in Earth orbit
      MOSCOW - A Russian spacecraft on its way to Mars with 12 tons of toxic fuel is stuck circling the wrong planet: ours.    And it could come crashing back to Earth in a few weeks if engineers can’t coax it back on track.
      Space experts were hopeful Wednesday that the $170 million Phobos-Ground space probe’s silent engines can be fired to send it off to Mars.
      If not, it will plummet to Earth.    But most U.S. space debris experts think the fuel on board would explode harmlessly in the upper atmosphere and never reach the ground.
      Shortly after the launch early Wednesday, neither engine on the probe fired.    So the spacecraft couldn’t leave orbit as it flew between 129 and 212 miles above Earth.    And that orbit is already deteriorating, according to American satellite tracking.
  
  Obama tells agencies to cut out ‘swag’
      WASHINGTON - Government freebies handed out at conferences — T-shirts, mugs, etc. — will be cut back under an executive order President Barack Obama signed Wednesday, looking to cast himself as a frugal steward of taxpayer dollars.
      Under the latest move in his “We Can’t Wait” campaign — which seeks to castigate Congress for not moving faster on boosting the economy — Obama signed a measure aimed at cutting waste and promoting “more efficient spending” across the federal government.
      In addition to stopping federal agencies from using taxpayer dollars to buy plaques and other “unnecessary promotional” swag, the president is instructing them to rely more on video teleconferencing than travel, to limit the numbers of cellphones, smart phones, tablets and laptops that are issued to employees, to stop printing documents that can be posted online and to cut the federal fleet of vehicles.
  
  Home prices drop in most cities
      Home prices dropped in nearly three quarters of U.S. cities over the summer, dragged down by a decline in buyer interest and a high number of foreclosures.
      The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that the median price for previously occupied homes fell in the July-September in 111 out of 150 metropolitan areas tracked by the group.    Prices are compared with the same quarter from the previous year.
      Fourteen cities had double-digit declines.    The median price in Mobile, Ala., dropped 17.7 percent, the largest of all declines.    Phoenix and Allentown, Pa., Atlanta, Las Vegas and Miami also experienced steep declines.
      Eight cities saw double-digit price increases.    The largest was in Grand Rapids, Mich., where the median price rose 23.7 percent. South Bend, Ind., Palm Bay, Fla., and Youngstown, Ohio, also saw large price increases.
      The national median home price was $169,500 in the third quarter, down 4.7 percent from the same period last year.
  
  Dip in corn harvest to boost prices
      The government slightly reduced its estimate for next year’s corn supply, a move that could keep food prices high.
      The Department of Agriculture estimates that a smaller harvest will leave farmers with 843 million bushels of corn at the end of next summer.
      That’s lower than last month’s forecast of 866 million bushels.    Wednesday’s crop forecast is the first since farmers harvested most of their corn crop last month.
      Tight supplies next year will likely increase corn prices, which hit record levels in June on fears of a shortage.
      Corn prices affect broader food inflation because corn is an ingredient in everything from animal feed to cereal to soft drinks.    It takes about six months for corn prices to trickle down to products at the grocery store.
  
  Oil price up as supplies shrink by Associated Press
      Oil prices climbed above $97 per barrel Wednesday on signs that the U.S. is consuming more fuel.    Crude rose 40 cents to $97.20 per barrel in New York.
      The government said diesel demand is sharply higher compared to a year ago.    But U.S. consumption of other petroleum products — especially gasoline — is still weak.
      Analysts said the data shows that farmers, shipping companies and other major U.S. industries are burning more fuel — evidence the economy is strengthening.
  
  
• 11/11/2011
  
  Balanced-budget amendment gets House vote by Andrew Taylor, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — House GOP leaders have scheduled a vote next week on a constitutional amendment that would require a balanced federal budget.
      But they’re shelving a version of the amendment that tea party activists favored.    Instead, the Republican leaders are pressing for Democratic votes in hopes of actually passing the measure.    That’s what happened in 1995, with lots of help from Democrats.
      The amendment requires that Congress not spend more than it receives in revenues unless three-fifths of both the House and the     Senate vote to do so. It also requires the president to submit a balanced budget to Congress.
      “The American people are demanding action,” said the amendment’s sponsor, Rep. Robert Goo-dlatte, R-Va.    “Our constituents understand what it means to live within their means and they expect nothing less from the federal government.    A balanced- budget amendment to the Constitution is the only way to ensure that Congress curtails its spending.”    The amendment still faces a decidedly uphill battle, even though Republicans control the House with larger numbers than they had in 1995, when a balanced-budget amend-ment sailed through the chamber with 300 votes.    It fell just one supporter short of the required twothirds margin in the Senate.
      There appear to be fewer Democratic backers now than there were in 1995,when 72 House Democrats voted for the amendment.
      GOP conservatives had rallied behind another version of the balanced-budget amendment that would put a tight cap on the federal budget and require a two-thirds vote in Congress to raise taxes.    But there’s no way many Democrats would vote for that version.
      To amend the Constitution, it takes a two-thirds vote in both House and Senate and ratification by 38 states.    At least 48 Democratic votes are needed to get the required two-thirds margin in the GOP-con-trolled House.
  
  Oil price rises to near $98
      Oil prices jumped more than 2 percent Thursday as investors cheered political shake-ups in Greece and Italy, and layoffs appeared to be easing in the U.S.
      Crude rose $2.04 to finish at $97.78 a barrel in New York.
      Greece and Italy turned to economists to lead them out of their debt crises.    Greece chose Lucas Papademos as prime minister.    In Italy, Mario Monti received increasing support to replace outgoing Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
      The leadership changes were taken as a sign that Italy and Greece are serious about reducing their debts.
  
  
• 11/12/2011
  
  Distillers toast Korea trade pact - Bourbon makers eye bigger share of major market by Gregory A. Hall, The Courier-Journal
      Koreans spend $10 billion a year on alcohol, including about $4 billion for whiskey. But bourbon and Tennessee whiskey accounts for only about $7 million of the total, according to Brown-Forman spokesman Phil Lynch — whose company is looking now to change that.
      He and other Kentucky distillery representatives say recent passage of a free trade agreement with South Korea could make Heaven Hill’s Evan Williams bourbon, Brown-Forman’s Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey and other American liquors bigger players in the world’s 10thlargest liquor market.
      “We’ve got lots of room to grow,” Lynch said.
      Before the new trade agreement, which still needs the approval of the South Korean parliament, American distillers had to pay an extra 20 percent tariff to sell their goods within that nation.
      In part because of that, American whiskeys currently make up 2 percent of the South Korean market, according to industry groups.    The more popular liquors in South Korea are soju, a local drink similar to vodka, and Scotch whisky, upon which tariffs won’t be reduced as quickly.
      “It’s not a huge market for us, but we think it has significant potential,” Lynch said.    “It’s not going to grow overnight, but we will increase our marketing and sales efforts in Korea as a result of this free trade agreement.”
      Any added sales could help sustain a boom in bourbon production in Kentucky, where distillers have invested $100 million in recent years on expansions largely to meet international demand.
      “We’re expanding at the largest rate since Prohibition,” said Eric Gregory, president of the Kentucky Distillers’ Association, with an estimated increase of more than 300 jobs in the last decade.    Overall, the industry accounts for about 3,200 direct jobs and $125 million a year in state and local tax revenues, he said.
      Lynch said the growth of Jack Daniel’s has led to new jobs and increased production at its Lynchburg, Tenn., distillery — and the South Korea deal could keep that going.    He wouldn’t predict how many new jobs could be created by Korean whiskey sales.
      U.S. distilled spirits exports reached $1.05 billion last year, with Kentucky bourbon and Tennessee whiskey accounting for more than $700 million of that, according to industry groups.    In all, suppliers saw about $2.6 billion in sales last year for bourbon and Tennessee whiskey, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.
      The South Korean agreement — one of three that received final approval from Congress on Oct. 12 — is the largest since the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.    The other new trade agreements are with Colombia and Panama.    Overall, the South Korea deal alone could expand exports of American goods by $11 billion and support 70,000 jobs, according to the White House.    Critics of the trade deal questioned the expected gains for the region’s whiskey producers, arguing that Koreans prefer local products and scotch.    But American distillers believe they can make inroads.
      Lynch said that in other markets where Scotch whisky has been dominant, “we can introduce Jack Daniel’s and slowly but surely gain market share.    And that’s what we hope to do in Korea, now that we’re going to be more on an equal footing, in terms of competing against other whiskeys and the locally produced soju.”
      Heaven Hill President Max L. Shapira, whose company is the largest independent family-owned distiller, said turning Korean tastes to bourbon will be medium- and long-range projects.
      The more-favorable terms in the United States’ free trade agreement with South Korea than Europe’s South Korea agreement will help in the short term, Gregory said.    While the U.S. agreement will end tariffs on bourbon and whiskey immediately, the European Union’s agreement that impacts Scotch whisky phases them out over several years.
      “At least for a couple years, we’re going to be able to get a little bit of a leg up,” Gregory said.     [Comment: Just what we need a bunch of drunk Koreans.]
  
  Japan joins effort for Pacific free trade bloc
      HONOLULU - A push to build a Pacific free trade bloc gained ground Friday with Japan’s decision to join in, as Asian-Pacific leaders gathering in Hawaii for an annual summit.
      Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in opening the meeting of foreign and economic ministers of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum that many forces outside the region, such as the economic crisis in Europe, will have an impact on it.    “And the stakes are high for all of us,” she said.
      The summit is focused on creating jobs and businesses through investment in infrastructure and providing access to financing for the poor.
  
  Agency shielded Solyndra - No alarm sounded about failing firm by Joe Stephens, The Washington Post
      WASHINGTON — At a number of points in its troubled history, the solar company Solyndra faced dire financial problems that threatened its survival.    Yet at each crisis, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and officials at his agency failed to take steps that critics say could have limited taxpayer losses when the company collapsed last summer.
      Instead, Energy Department officials monitoring the solar panel manufacturer and its $535 million federal loan stepped in with financial assistance, or worked to dispel concerns raised by industry analysts and other Obama administration staffers, according to previously confidential documents analyzed by The Washington Post.
      The officials raised no public red flags even as Solyndra executives presented a glowing picture last summer to Capitol Hill lawmakers, describing a growing company when internal sales figures suggested one that was in serious trouble.
      The newly obtained documents, along with other records obtained in recent weeks, offer the clearest picture yet of Solyndra’s deteriorating finances and the Energy Department’s extraordinary efforts to prop up the company.    Chu, who is scheduled to testify next week before a House investigating subcommittee, is likely to be questioned about his agency’s willingness to invest millions more taxpayer dollars in the firm, even after the White House had abandoned hopes of a rescue.
      The documents also capture escalating tension as staffers at the White House, its Office of Management and Budget, and the Energy Department came to grips with Solyndra’s likely demise.    Working deep into the night and into the weekend, they fretted at times about political fallout from the collapse, noting that Solyndra had been a centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s effort to promote clean technology businesses.
      By Aug. 9, with Solyndra weeks away from a bankruptcy filing, OMB career staff mocked supportive comments offered by Jonathan Silver, then the head of Energy’s loan program.    Silver had been quoted in an article saying that Solyndra was “significantly misunderstood” and experiencing the normal “bumps in the road” for a startup company.
      “Wow … I wonder if he was unaware of the true situation at Solyndra, or if he was trying to salvage something by showing DOE confidence,” an OMB staffer wrote in one e-mail.
      Republican critics have accused the administration of favoring Solyndra because its largest investors were funds linked to Obama fundraiser George Kaiser, who has denied involvement in arranging the loan.    Emails released this week show that Kaiser and his associates discussed how to win federal contracts and additional loan assistance, and they believed that Chu was “apparently staying involved” in Solyndra’s second loan application.    Energy officials say Chu was not involved.
      White House spokesman Eric Schultz said concerns about the agency’s actions are one reason the administration is independently reviewing its loan portfolio.    Former Fannie Mae president Herb Allison will recommend ways to ensure better loan monitoring and implement an early warning system.
      Energy Department spokesman Damien LaVera said the agency tried to help Solyndra recover so workers could keep their jobs and taxpayers would be repaid.    He said that Chu and other officials publicly supported Solyndra based on information available at the time.
      “At each step in the due diligence for and monitoring of this project, we took actions based on analysis of loan program experts that were intended to maximize the ability of the taxpayer to recover resources,” LaVera said.
      “We relied on data provided by the company under penalty of the law and certified by outside auditors that indicated revenue grew more than 40 percent from 2009 to 2010 and was projected to continue to grow in 2011.”
  
  U.N. agency shares Iran nuclear evidence by George Jahn, Associated Press
      VIENNA — In a show-and- tell based on secret intelligence, the U.N. atomic agency shared satellite im-ages, letters and diagrams with 35 nations Friday as it sought to underpin its case that Iran apparently worked secretly on devel-oping a nuclear weapon.
      Iran’s chief envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency rejected the presentation as based on material fabricated by the U.S. and its allies.    “There is no indication and proof that Iran’s activities is toward military purposes,” he told reporters, in comments that those inside the closed meeting said essentially matched his statement to that gathering.
      Western diplomats said the briefing was a convincing supplement to a report presented earlier this week.
      Based on 1,000 pages of research and nearly a decade of probing Iran, that document included evidence that the agency says indicates the Islamic republic is working on the clandestine procurement of equipment and designs to make nuclear arms.     “While some of the activities identified in the annex have civilian as well as military applications, others are specific to nuclear weapons,” the report stated.     Among these were indications that Iran has conducted high-explosives testing and detonator de-velopment to set off a nuclear charge, as well as computer modeling of a core of a nuclear warhead. The report also cited preparatory work for a nuclear weapons test, and development of a nuclear payload for Iran’s Shahab 3 intermediate-range mis-sile — a weapon that can reach Israel. The report also implicated a “foreign expert” as helping Tehran on some of its alleged experiments, saying he worked on ways to set off a nuclear blast through a sophisticated multipoint explosives trigger.     But there are indications that the expert — identified by diplomats and media reports as former Soviet scientist Vyacheslav Danilenko — was even more deeply involved. Before Friday’s meeting, diplomats said Danilenko’s son-in-law had told the agency Danilenko also helped Iran build a related project, a large steel chamber to contain the force of the blast set off by such explosives testing.
  
  Oil price nears $100 per barrel
      NEW YORK — The price of oil is flirting with $100 per barrel for the first time since the summer, as fears fade that Europe’s debt crisis will spread and trigger another recession.
      On Friday, benchmark crude rose $1.21 to end the day at $98.99 per barrel in New York.    Prices climbed as high as $99.20 earlier in the day.    Brent crude, which is used to price many foreign oil varieties, increased 45 cents to finish at $114.16 in London.
      Higher oil prices will lead to more expensive gasoline, since gas is refined from crude.
  
  
• 11/13/2011
  
  Obama courts Pacific region - He sees its economic power, forges ties by Ben Feller, Associated Press
      HONOLULU — Placing high hopes on the economic power of Pacific rim nations, President Barack Obama declared the Asia-Pacific region the heart of explosive growth for years to come.    For businesses, he said, “this is where the action’s going to be.”
      Obama was in Hawaii courting Asian powers Saturday as he sought to improve a beleaguered U.S. jobs outlook.    His move comes as his administration has poured attention and capital into deepening relations with Asia as a source of trade, jobs and security ties.
      “There is no region in the world that we consider more vital than the Asia-Pacific region,” Obama told chief executives gathered for a regional economic summit.
      For the U.S., his outreach also reflects worries over Europe’s economic troubles and the need for the U.S. to tap the enormous base of potential consumers in the emerging nations of Asia.
      Underscoring the region’s importance to the U.S., Obama — as expected — announced the broad outlines of an agreement to create a transpacific trade zone encompassing the U.S. and eight other nations.    He said details must still be worked out, but said the goal was to complete the deal by next year.    “I’m confident we can get this done,” he said.
      On a day of heavy diplomacy, the president also was looking to contain deepening worries over Iran amid a fresh U.N. atomic agency report that Iran is working secretly on a nuclear weapon.    On the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific economic summit, Obama met with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and was to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.    The timing of the meetings with the Russian and Chinese leaders was especially significant as he seeks to increase world pressure on Iran.    Obama is the host of the APEC gathering, a non-binding forum that draws 21nations from across a vast Asia-Pacific region.    Obama chose to host the event in his home state of Hawaii to illustrate his ties and economic commitment to the Pacific region, although security threats may well dominate his private meetings.
      “The United States is a Pacific power and we’re here to stay,” Obama said.
      He called the transpacific trade zone agreement a model for the Asia-Pacific region and for other trade pacts.    Obama said the trade zone would increase U.S. exports and help create jobs, a top priority.
      The eight nations joining the U.S. in the zone would be Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.    A central topic for Obama and Noda will be Japan’s interest in joining the trade bloc.    Obama will be in Honolulu through Tuesday, when he leaves for Australia before ending his trip in Indonesia. He will attend a security summit of Asian nations.
  
  ‘Occupy’ protesters told they face eviction
      OAKLAND, CALIF. - Oakland officials have twice issued eviction notices to an Occupy Wall Street en-campment, and officials elsewhere urged an end to similar gatherings as pressure against the protests mounted after three deaths in different cities, including two by gunfire.    For the second time in as many days, Oakland officials warned protesters Saturday that they do not have the right to camp in a plaza overnight and face immediate arrest.    Police and a city official would not say whether police were preparing to forcibly clear the camp.    A man was fatally shot at the Oakland site on Thursday.
  
  Health law ruling likely next year - Could affect presidential race by Michael Doyle and David Lightman, McClatchy Newspapers
      WASHINGTON — Supreme Court justices appear poised to thrust themselves and the Obama ad-ministration’s signature health care law smack into the middle of the 2012 election.
      As early as Monday, the justices will reveal whether they will consider one or more challenges to the law.    If they do, as every court watcher expects, the program that opponents call “Obamacare” will dominate both the legal and political docket throughout the election year.
      “This decision could come right in the middle of everything,” said Dennis Goldford, a professor of politics and international relations at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.    If the challenge is considered, the court is likely to hear oral arguments by mid-April.    A ruling is likely to come out around the last week of June.
      Whoever wins the Republican nomination is expected to make repeal of the health care law a centerpiece of the campaign against President Barack Obama.
      If the Supreme Court upholds the mandate that requires nearly everyone to buy coverage by 2014, “it will give the Obama campaign something to trumpet, but it could help mobilize the opponents,” Goldford said.
      Views of the health care law hardened long ago.    An October survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 51 percent of U.S. residents surveyed have an unfavorable view of the law, while 34 percent have a favorable view.    Many Democrats won’t back down from touting the law. Republicans won’t stop criticizing it.
      “I’ve said time and time again: Obamacare is bad news,” former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said during a recent debate.
      Texas Gov. Rick Perry calls the health care law a job-killer.    Texas Rep. Ron Paul finds that because of the law, “already insurance premiums are going up.”    Many Democrats, in turn, embrace it.    Add to that another classic clash: The court’s ruling will rivet attention to the president’s power of appointing Supreme Court justices.    The court itself could become a campaign issue, depending on the ruling’s scope.    Expect to hear the phrase “unelected judges” a lot.    The one thing Democrats and Republicans agree on is they want a Supreme Court ruling.    They have every reason to expect one.
      Six separate petitions concerning the health care law are before the court and were scheduled for private consideration at a conference last Thursday.    It takes at least four justices to agree in private for a case to be granted a full hearing.    The petitions reflect not only high-level interest in the law, but also the con-flicting interpretations provided by lower appellate courts.    The Supreme Court often agrees to hear cases to resolve these so-called “circuit splits.”
      Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. argued in a legal brief that “review is especially appropriate” because the split circuits differ over a central piece of a law “to address a matter of grave national importance.”
      The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers four states including Kentucky, upheld the law formally called the Affordable Care Act.    The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, covering Florida and other Southern states, upheld most of the law but struck down the individual mandate.    The politically controversial mandate requires an individual to either buy insurance or pay a fee.
      “The (law) is without precedent both in its coercive impositions on the states and in its effort to force individuals to engage in commerce so that the federal government may regulate them,” attorney Paul Clement wrote for Florida and the other states in their challenge to the law.    Formerly the Bush administration’s solicitor general, Clement is a good bet to be tapped as the lead attorney for the health care law’s opponents.    A final decision, though, will turn in part on exactly which petition is accepted.    Some petitions, which are probably a long shot, call for the entire law to be struck down, while others focus on the individual mandate.    Almost any ruling is likely to trigger a fresh round of political warfare. Democrats plan to stress the benefits already in place — 26 major provisions went into effect last year and 17 more have been implemented this year.    Most insurers can no longer deny coverage to children because of preexisting conditions and must allow dependent children up to age 26 to remain on parents’ policies.
  
  Arab League votes to suspend Syria - Civilian deaths prompt action by Aya Batrawy, Associated Press
      CAIRO — In a surprisingly sharp move, the Arab League voted Saturday to suspend Syria over the country’s bloody crackdown on an eight-month uprising and stepped up calls on the army to stop killing civilians.
      The decision was a humiliating blow to a regime that prides itself as a bastion of Arab nationalism, but it was unlikely to immediately end a wave of violence that the U.N. estimates has killed more than 3,500 people since mid-March.
      “Syria is a dear country for all of us and it pains us to make this decision,” Qatar’s Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim told reporters.    “We hope there will be a brave move from Syria to stop the violence and begin a real dialogue toward real reform.”
      In Damascus, pro-regime demonstrators threw eggs and tomatoes at the Qatari Embassy to protest the vote.
      The 22-member Arab League will monitor the situation and revisit the decision in a meeting Wednesday in the Moroccan capital, Rabat, bin Jassim said, a move that appeared to give Syrian President Bashar Assad time to avert the suspension.
      But Syria has been unwilling to heed previous calls to end the violence.    Saturday’s vote came after Damascus failed to carry out a Nov. 2 peace deal brokered by the Arab League that called on Syria to halt the attacks and pull tanks out of cities.
      More than 250 Syrian civilians have been killed so far this month, including12 on Saturday in attacks in the restive city of Homs, the Damascus suburbs and elsewhere, according to activist groups.
      President Barack Obama praised the Arab League, highlighting what he called the group’s leadership in seeking to end attacks on peaceful protesters.
      “These significant steps expose the increasing diplomatic isolation of a regime that has systematically violated human rights and repressed peaceful protests,” he said.    Arab League diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to brief reporters, said that if Syria doesn’t adhere to its demands, the organization will work to unify the disparate Syrian opposition into a coalition similar to that of Libya’s National Transitional Council.    A next step would be to recognize the opposition as the sole representative of the Syrian people in a move that would symbolically isolate Assad’s regime even further.
      In his statement, bin Jassim called on all factions to meet this week to unify their message as a step toward dialogue with the Syrian government, but many within the opposition refuse to negotiate with the regime.    Still, there is little to stop Assad now from calling upon the scorched earth tactics that have kept his family in power for more than four decades.    A longtime pariah, Syria grew accustomed to shrugging off the world’s reproach long before the regime started shooting unarmed protesters eight months ago.
      An international military intervention has been all but ruled out, given the quagmire in Libya and the lack of any strong opposition leader in Syria to rally behind.    International sanctions, some of which target As-sad personally, have failed to persuade him to ease his crackdown.
  
  
• 11/14/2011
  
  Police move on Occupy Portland - Defiant protesters hit streets after eviction from parks by Terrence Petty, Associated Press
      PORTLAND, Ore. — Several hundred protesters, some wearing goggles and gas masks, marched past authorities on a downtown street Sunday, hours after riot police forced Occupy Portland demonstrators out of a pair of weeks-old encampments in nearby parks.
      Police moved in just before noon and drove protesters into the street after dozens remained in the camp in defiance of city officials.    Mayor Sam Adams had ordered that the camp shut down Saturday at midnight, citing unhealthy conditions and the encampment’s attraction of drug users and thieves.    More than 50 protesters were arrested in the police action, but officers did not use tear gas, rubber bullets or other so-called non-le-thal weapons, police said.
      After the police raid, the number of demonstrators swelled throughout the after-noon.    By early evening, dozens of officers brandishing nightsticks stood shoulder-to-shoulder to hold the protesters back.    Authorities retreated and protesters broke the standoff by marching through the streets.
      Demonstrators regrouped several blocks away, where they broke into small groups to discuss their future.    Some advocated occupying foreclosed homes, others wanted to move onto the Portland State University campus or to the shores of the Willamette River.
      In the hours after the midnight eviction deadline, the anti-Wall Street protesters and their supporters had flooded the park area even as authorities in other cities across the nation stepped up pressure against demonstrators, arresting dozens of people.
      At one point overnight, the Portland crowd swelled to thousands.    As dawn ar-rived, riot police had retreated and most of the crowds had gone home, but protesters who have been at the two parks since Oct. 6 were still there.
      It didn’t last.    Police moved in later as demonstrators held a midday “general assembly” meeting to discuss their next moves.    “We were talking about what we were going to do and then they just started hitting people,” said protester Mike Swain, 27.    “Seems like a waste of resources to me.”
  
  Deficit panel co-chair not sure deal coming
      WASHINGTON - The Republican co-chair of a committee in charge of slashing the nation’s deficit on Sunday called deliberations a “roller coaster ride” and gave no indication that a deal could be struck before the panel’s Thanksgiving deadline.
      Texas Rep. Jeb Hensarling said the panel will fail unless Democrats agree to significant “structural” changes to entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security.    When asked whether that could be done in a matter of days, he said, “We haven’t given up hope.”
  
  Progress seen on Pacific trade bloc
      KAPOLEI, HAWAII - Asia-Pacific leaders said further freeing up trade is crucial to a lasting global eco-nomic recovery as they wrapped up an annual summit that produced tangible progress toward a U.S.-backed regional trade bloc.    The plan to forge a Pacific free trade zone got a big boost Sunday when leaders of Canada and Mexico joined Japan in expressing support for the deal.    The news was a coup for President Barack Obama, who made progress on the pact one of his top priorities for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.    It comes after Japan said Friday it wants to join the nine nations already involved in talks on what has been dubbed the Trans-Pacific Partnership.    China has appeared reluctant to endorse the Pacific trade pact, likely wary of being drawn into what has become a U.S.-led initiative that encroaches on its own sphere of influence in Asia.
  
  Arab vote puts more pressure on Syria by Associated Press
      BEIRUT — Syria’s embattled regime, facing growing isolation from the West and its neighbors over its bloody crackdown on an eight-month uprising, called for an urgent Arab summit Sunday.    The crisis raised regional tensions, with Turkey sending a plane to evacuate nonessential personnel after a night of attacks on embassies by regime loyalists angry over an Arab League vote Saturday to suspend Syria’s membership.    The 22-member bloc’s rare, near-unanimous vote — only Lebanon, Yemen and Syria were opposed — put Damascus in direct confrontation with other Arab powers, including Qatar and Saudi Arabia, who pushed for the suspension.    The vote was a major boost for the Syrian opposition.
      Violence continued elsewhere; activists reported at least 14 people killed in shootings by security forces in several parts of Syria.    The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said seven of the deaths were in Hama when regime forces fired on opposition protesters who infiltrated a loyalist rally.
      Syria’s call for a summit to discuss its unrest was seen as another possible bid by President Bashar Assad to buy time.    Arab League officials did not immediately respond to the request.    The league has said it would meet again Wednesday in Rabat, Morocco, to reconsider the vote.
  
  Rival Libyan militias clash by Associated Press
      WARSHEFANA, Libya — Rival militias clashed on the outskirts of the Libyan capital for a fourth day Sunday in the deadliest and most sustained violence since the capture and killing of Moammar Gadhafi last month.
      Fighters exchanged rocket, mortar and machine- gun fire, witnesses said.    The fighting, which has killed at least 13 people since late last week, raised new concerns about the ability of Libya’s transitional government to disarm thousands of gunmen and restore order after an eight-month civil war.
      Libya’s interim leader, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, said his National Transitional Council brought together elders from the feuding areas — the coastal city of Zawiya and the nearby tribal lands of Warshefana — over the weekend and that the dispute has been resolved.
      “I want to assure the Libyan people that everything is under control,” he said Sunday. But as he spoke, fighting continued.
  
  
• 11/15/2011
  
  Police clear Occupy Oakland camp - Little resistance during arrests by Terry Collins, Associated Press
      OAKLAND, Calif. — Police in riot gear cleared out Oakland’s weeks-old anti-Wall Street encampment early Monday, arresting Occupy demonstrators and removing tents from a downtown plaza after issuing several warnings over the weekend.
      Protesters appeared to put up little resistance, and officers could be seen calmly leading some dem-onstrators away in plastic handcuffs.    Warnings from authorities had been similar to those issued before officers used tear gas and bean bag projectiles to clear the encampment Oct. 25.
      Officers made 32 arrests during Monday’s raid, Police Chief Howard Jordan said, adding that there were no reports of injuries to officers or protesters.    After officers blocked off the streets surrounding Frank Ogawa Plaza, some demonstrators gathered near the barricades and vowed to return.
      But by 9 a.m., most of the demonstrators had left the area.    “Where we go from there is up to timing and chance,” said Shon Kae, who’s on Occupy Oakland’s media committee.    “We just do what seems right at the time, and we’ll roll with the punches.”    “There is no secret plan.    We all have to just keep on with the struggle,” he said.
      The action came a day after police drove hundreds of anti-Wall Street demonstrators from weeks-old encampments in Portland, Ore., arresting more than 50 people.
      Oakland officials stepped up calls for an end to their city’s encampment after a man was shot and killed Thursday near the plaza.    Police issued a fourth cease-and-desist order Sunday night telling dem-onstrators they couldn’t camp there.    Mayor Jean Quan had allowed protesters to reclaim the disbanded site after facing criticism following the Oct. 25 raid.
      In his first statement since being hit in the head and seriously injured in the raid, Marine Corps veteran Scott Olsen said Monday he was feeling a lot better but still had a lot of work to do in rehab.
      Olsen’s plight has become a rallying cry for the Occupy Wall Street movement, with shrines set up in his honor throughout the nation.    The 24-year-old posted a statement on his Google+ account, which was verified by his roommate Keith Shannon.    “You’ll be hearing more from me in the near future and soon enough we’ll see you in our streets!” he wrote.
      The camp grew substantially after the Oct. 25 raid, although city officials said Sunday that the number of tents had dropped by about 30 to150 since Nov. 8.
  
  Syria defiant as pressure mounts on Assad by Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times
      BEIRUT — Pressure was mounting Monday on the embattled regime of President Bashar Assad as Euro-pean foreign ministers agreed to extend sanctions against Syria and King Abdullah of Jordan called on Assad to step down.    Syria remained defiant.    “The Syrian people should not be worried because Syria is not Libya,” the country’s foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem, said in a nationally televised address.
      Syria is entering its eighth month of unrest, which, according to the United Nations, has resulted in about 3,500 dead, mostly civilians, in a government crackdown on protesters.    The Assad regime says armed Islamic “terrorists” are behind a U.S.-backed “conspiracy” that has killed more than 1,000 security personnel.
      “If Bashar has the interest of his country, he would step down,” King Abdullah told the BBC in an interviews.    But Abdullah cautioned that a handover alone wouldn’t be sufficient to end the upheaval in Syria.
      “If he was to say I’m going to step down, but let’s have new elections, let’s reach out to the people, let’s get this as a national dialogue, then it would work,” Abdullah told the BBC.    “But if you’re just going to remove one person and put another person in, I think that you’ll continue to see more of the same.”    Abdullah’s comments came after the Arab League moved to suspend Syria on Sunday because of what Arab ministers called its failure to implement a league-brokered peace plan meant to ease the crisis in Syria.    The Arab League pact mandated that Damascus withdraw forces from populated areas, release prisoners and start a dialogue with the opposition, among other steps.
      Al-Moallem labeled the league’s decision “a very dangerous step.”    But he did issue an apology for attacks on foreign missions in Syria by pro-Assad loyalists after the league’s action.
      Whether the faltering peace plan can be revived remains unclear.    Arab ministers gave Syria until Wednesday to demonstrate that it was complying.    On Sunday, Syria’s reeling government put out an “urgent” call to Arab leaders for further talks in the apparent hope of tempering Arab condemnation and forestalling the prospect of foreign intervention in its crisis.
      European Union foreign ministers agreed to extend a travel ban and freeze the assets of 18 more Syrians associated with a violent crackdown, according to news reports.    Their names will be released today.    Plans were also approved to prevent Syria from accessing funds from the European Investment Bank, the reports said.
  
  Russian, U.S. crew blasts off for station by Associated Press
      MOSCOW — A Russian spacecraft carrying an American and two Russians blasted off Monday from the snow-covered Kazakh steppes in a faultless launch that eased anxiety about the future of U.S. and Russian space programs.
      The Soyuz TMA-22 lifted off as scheduled at 8:14 a.m. from the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome to carry NASA astronaut Dan Burbank and Russians Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin on a mission to the International Space Station.
      The launch had been delayed for two months due to the crash of an unmanned Progress cargo ship in August.    The failed launch raised doubts about future missions to the station, because the rocket that crashed used the same upper stage as the booster rockets carrying Soyuz ships to orbit.    NASA had warned that the space outpost would need to be abandoned temporarily for the first time in nearly 11 years if a new crew could not be launched before the last of the station’s six residents flew back to Earth in mid-November.    Russian officials traced the Progress launch failure to an “accidental” manufacturing flaw.
  
  Justices take health-care case - Ruling on overhaul likely before election by Robert Barnes, The Washington Post
      WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court said Monday that it will hear a challenge to the healthcare overhaul act passed in 2010, with a decision on President Barack Obama’s most controversial domestic achievement likely to come in the summer of his reelection campaign.
      The court said it will decide whether the Affordable Care Act exceeded Congress’s power by requiring almost all Americans to have health insurance by 2014 or pay a penalty, a powerful constitutional question that will likely make it the court’s most highprofile ruling since Bush vs. Gore in 2000.
      As a mark of the importance of the case to the court headed by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., justices said they will hear 5½ hours of oral arguments on the constitutional question and related issues.    Oral arguments will most likely be held in March over one or two days, with a decision expected before the court recesses in late June.
      The White House welcomed the court’s announcement.    “We know the Affordable Care Act is constitutional and are confident the Supreme Court will agree,” White House spokesman Dan Pfeiffer said in a statement.
      Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky countered that the massive law is both unpopular in polls and with voters.    “Senate Republicans have argued that this misguided law represents an unprecedented and unconstitutional expansion of the federal government into the daily lives of every American,” McConnell said.
      Accepting appeals from a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, justices said they would consider:
  
  • Whether Congress was acting within its constitutional powers by requiring all Americans to have at least a basic form of health insurance by 2014. Those who do not would be required to pay a penalty on their 2015 income tax returns.
  • Whether other parts of the law can go forward if the so-called individual mandate is found unconsti-tutional.    Lower courts have differed on the question, but the administration says the law’s more popular features, such as prohibiting insurance companies from denying coverage to those with preexisting conditions, cannot work financially without the mandate that all join the system.
  • Whether Congress is improperly coercing states to extend Medicaid, the subsidized health care for the poor and disabled, to those with incomes of 133 percent of the federal poverty level.    Medicaid is a shared expense of the federal and state governments, and the federal government would pay100 percent of the additional cost through 2016.    The percentage would decline after that.
  • Whether the issue is ripe for a decision. Some lower court judges have said the penalty for not having insurance is the same as a tax, and thus cannot be challenged until someone actually has to pay it in 2015.    The Atlanta court is the only one of four appellate courts that found the mandate unconstitutional.    The federal appeals court in Cincinnati upheld the entire law, as did appellate judges in Washington, D.C., in recent days.    The appellate court in Richmond, Va., ruled a judicial decision on the law cannot be rendered until 2015, after the penalties for not having insurance have gone into effect.    Challengers went to court within minutes after Obama signed the bill in March 2010, and more than 25 lawsuits eventually were filed. More than half the states have objected to the act, which was passed by a Democratic-controlled Congress.
  
      On Monday, the court accepted the case brought by Florida and 25 other states, as well as the National Federation of Independent Businesses.
      Both the challengers and the administration have urged the court to take the case, saying uncertainty about the law’s constitutionality needed to be resolved as quickly as possible.    The administration has said the act should be upheld as a valid exercise of federal power, just as Social Security and the Civil Rights Act were found to be constitutional.
      A new poll suggests that the individual mandate is increasingly popular.    A CNN/ORC International poll, conducted Nov. 11-13, found 52 percent of those questioned approved of mandatory health insur-ance, while 47 percent are opposed. In the June poll, 44 percent approved and 54 percent disapproved.
      It appears that all justices will take part in the decision.
      Conservative groups had called on Justice Elena Kagan to recuse herself because she worked for the Obama administration as solicitor general.    Liberal groups had said Justice Clarence Thomas faced a conflict because of the political activities of his wife.    Justices make their own decisions about whether they should recuse themselves.
  
  THE ISSUES
  
  The questions the Supreme Court asked lawyers to argue:
  • Does Congress have the power to mandate that Americans buy health insurance or pay a penalty?
  • If the requirement to buy insurance is unconstitutional, is the whole law unconstitutional? What other parts of the law, if any, could survive?
  • Is Congress illegally coercing states to expand Medicaid, the subsidized health care for the poor and disabled, by threatening to withhold funding from states that refuse?
  • Since the penalty for not buying health insurance doesn’t go into effect until federal income taxes are due in 2015, are legal arguments currently brought against the health-care overhaul premature?
  
  Oil slips near $98 per barrel
      NEW YORK — The price of oil fell to near $98 per barrel Monday as investors continued to worry about Europe’s debt problems.
      Benchmark crude gave up 85 cents to end the day at $98.14 per barrel in New York, while Brent crude, used to price many international varieties, lost $2.27 to finish at $111.89 per barrel in London.
      The European debt crisis has yanked oil prices up and down for the past few months as traders assess whether massive debt burdens in Greece and Italy will mean bank failures.    An economic slowdown would mean weaker demand for oil.
  
  
• 11/16/2011
  
  Occupy protesters rousted in New York - Camp gone; judge backs city’s move by Verena Dobnik, Associated Press
      NEW YORK — Hundreds of police officers in riot gear raided the Occupy Wall Street encampment in New York City early Tuesday, evicting hundreds of demonstrators and demolishing the tent city that was the epicenter of a movement protesting what participants call corporate greed and economic inequality.
      The police action began about 1 a.m. and lasted several hours as officers with batons and plastic shields pushed the protesters from their base at Zuccotti Park.    Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said about 200 people were arrested, including dozens who tried to resist the eviction by linking arms in a tight circle at the center of the park.    A member of the City Council was among those arrested during the sweep.
      By 4:30 a.m., the park was empty, wiped clean of any traces of the camp that had been there since Sept. 17.    Tents and sleeping bags were hauled to the dump. Workers used power washers to blast the stone plaza clean.
      Later Tuesday, state Supreme Court Justice Michael Stallman upheld the city’s dismantling of the encampment, saying that the protesters’ rights to free speech did not entitle them to camp out indefinitely in the plaza.
      Stallman denied a motion by the demonstrators seeking to be allowed back into the park with their tents and sleeping bags.
      The protesters “have not demonstrated that they have a First Amendment right to remain in Zuccotti Park, along with their tents, structures, generators and other installations to the exclusion of the owner’s reasonable rights … or to the rights to public access of others who might wish to use the space safely,” Stallman wrote.
      The plaza, near the financial district, is open to the public, but is privately owned.
      New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he ordered the sweep because health and safety conditions had become “intolerable” in the crowded plaza.
      Hundreds of ousted protesters spent the day marching through Manhattan, chanting and looking for a new place to gather.    There were skirmishes between protesters and police.    Several journalists were arrested while trying to cover the marches.
      At least 22 people were arrested after trying to move to an empty lot belonging to a church, Trinity Wall Street, that has been sympathetic to the movement.
      Journalists were kept at a distance from covering the overnight raid, and at least six were arrested, handcuffed and hauled onto police buses along with hundreds of protesters.    Reporter Karen Matthews and photographer Seth Wenig of The Associated Press were taken into custody, an AP reporter and other witnesses said.    Journalists videotaped police picking up protesters and tossing them over barricades.
  
  Postal Service losses growing - Expects to run out of money next Sept. by Hope Yen, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — The U.S. Postal Service said Tuesday it has lost $5.1 billion in the past year, pushing it closer to imminent default on a multibillion-dollar payment and to future bankruptcy as the weak economy and increased Internet use drive down mail volume.
          The financial losses for the year ended Sept. 30 came despite deep cuts of more than 130,000 jobs in recent years and the closing of some smaller post offices.
      Losses will only accelerate in the coming year, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe warned, citing faster-than-expected declines in first-class mail.    He implored Congress to take swift, wide-ranging action to stabilize the ailing agency’s finances as it nears a legal deadline Friday to pay $5.5 billion into the U.S. Treasury for future retiree health benefits.
      Congress is expected to grant a reprieve, but that will only delay the day of reckoning for an agency struggling for relevance in an electronic age.    Based on current losses, the Postal Service says it will run out of money — or come dangerously close — next September, forcing it to halt service.
      “We are at a point where we require urgent action,” Donahoe said.
      In the event of a shutdown, private companies such as FedEx and UPS could handle a small portion of the material the post office moves, but they do not go everywhere.    No business has shown interest in delivering letters everywhere in the country for a set rate of 44 cents for a first-class letter.    For the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, the post office had income of $65.7 billion, down $1.4 billion from the previous year.    Expenses totaled $70.6 billion.
      The loss of $5.1 billion was less than a previous estimate of $10 billion, but only because the $5.5 billion payment — originally due Sept. 30 — was deferred until Nov. 18 with the approval of Congress.
      In 2010, losses totaled $8.5 billion.    Mail volume this past year totaled168 billion pieces, compared with 171 billion in 2010, a decline of 1.7 percent.    The Postal Service does not receive tax money for its operations.
      Postal officials have asked Congress for permission to reduce mail delivery to five days a week, which many lawmakers oppose, and to eliminate or reduce the annual payments of about $5.5 billion to prefund retiree health benefits.    The agency also wants the return of at least $6.9 billion it says was overpaid into federal retirement funds.
      The service also seeks more layoffs.
  
  Emails link layoffs, vote - Energy Dept. sought delay on Solyndra by Joe Stephens, The Washington Post
      WASHINGTON—The Obama administration, which gave the solar company Solyndra a half billion- dollar loan to help create jobs, asked the company to delay announcing that it would lay off workers until after the hotly contested November 2010 midterm elections that imperiled Democratic control of Congress, newly released emails show.
      The announcement could have been politically damaging because President Barack Obama and others in the administration had held up Solyndra as a poster child of its clean-energy initiative, saying the company’s new factory, built with the help of stimulus funds, could create 1,000 jobs.    Six months before the midterm election, Obama visited Solyndra’s California plant to praise its success, even though outside auditors had questioned whether the operation might collapse in debt.
      As the 2010 election approached, Solyndra found itself foundering, and it warned the Energy Department that it would need an emergency cash infusion.    A Solyndra investment adviser wrote in an Oct. 30, 2010, email, without explaining the reasons, that Energy Department officials were pushing “very hard” to delay making the layoffs public until the day after the election.    The announcement ultimately was made on Nov. 3, one day after the election.
      Emails describing the events were released Tuesday as part of a House Energy and Commerce Committee memo, provided in advance of Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s scheduled testimony before the committee’s investigative panel on Thursday.    As a result of the 2010 election, that committee is now controlled by Re-publicans, whose aggressive nine-month investigation into Solyndra has focused partly on whether politics played a role in the company’s selection for a federal loan.
      The White House has said tough scrutiny of the department’s oversight efforts is warranted and has launched its own independent review of the loan program.    Although the president has publicly supported Chu, senior White House officials in February circulated an outside adviser’s recommendation that Chu be replaced because of anticipated political controversy over the energy loans.
      On Tuesday, Energy Department spokesman Damien LaVera declined to confirm events described in the emails or to identify who at the department may have urged the delay in the layoff announcement.    He stressed, however, that “decisions about this loan were made on the merits.”
      In an interview aired Tuesday on NPR, Chu said that politics did not enter into any decisions he or his staff made regarding Solyndra and that there was no way to foresee the company’s demise.
      White House spokesman Eric Schultz said the emails reflected “nothing more than the White House being given a heads-up about an upcoming press release from Solyndra.”
  
  Bloodbaths fuel Syrian crisis - Regime soldiers die in ambush by Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — Army defectors ambushed dozens of Syrian troops, and regime forces gunned down civil-ians, during one of the bloodiest days of the 8month-old uprising, which appeared Tuesday to be spiraling out of President Bashar Assad’s control.
      Up to 90 people were killed in a gruesome wave of violence Monday, activists said.    The extent of the bloodshed came to light only on Tuesday, in part because corpses lying in the streets did not reach the morgue until daylight.    As the bloodshed spiked, Assad’s former allies were turning on him in rapid succession — a sign of profound impatience with a leader who has failed to stem months of unrest that could explode into a re-gional conflagration.
      Turkey, Jordan and the 22-member Arab League all signaled they were fed up with Assad’s response and were ready to pressure him to go.
      Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said Tuesday he no longer has confidence in the gov-ernment led by Assad, a 46year-old eye doctor who inherited power from his father 11 years ago.    “No regime can survive by killing or jailing,” said Erdogan, who cultivated close ties with Assad before the uprising began in March.    “No one can build a future over the blood of the oppressed.”
      Erdogan, who disrespectfully addressed Assad by his first name, warned that the brutal crackdown threatens to place him on a list of leaders who “feed on blood.”
      Turkey also canceled plans for oil exploration in Syria and threatened to cut electricity supplies to the country, which is burning through the $17 billion in foreign reserves the government had at the start of the uprising.    Turkey provides about 7 percent of Syria’s electricity.    A day earlier, Jordan’s King Abdullah II said Assad should step down; the king is the first Arab leader to publicly make such a call.    And over the weekend, the Arab League took a near-unanimous vote to suspend Damascus from the regional body.    In a sign that Saudi Arabia’s rulers now foresee an end to Assad’s rule, the former Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Turki Al Faisal, told reporters in Washington that it was “inevitable” that Assad would step down.
      Despite the widespread condemnation, Assad is unlikely to end the crackdown, said Fadia Kiwan, a political science professor at Beirut’s St. Joseph University.    The reason is simple: His regime would al-most certainly fall if the crackdown ends, she said.
      Although activists say the anti-government protesters have remained largely peaceful, an armed insurgency has developed in recent months targeting Assad’s military and security forces.    Thirty-four sol-diers were killed Monday in an ambush in Daraa, the birthplace of the uprising, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.    The brazen attack by army defectors suggests a new confidence among troops who have sided with the protesters and highlights the potential for an armed confrontation to es-calate.    Amateur video provided by activists showed what appeared to be an army tank and other military vehicles engulfed in flames in Daraa.    Other footage showed a fire at the end of an alley sending up a plume of smoke, followed by an explosion.    “That’s the free army!” a man shouted as gunshots rang out. Other videos showed tanks on city streets firing their cannons and crowds of people running from the sound of automatic gunfire.    The Arab League will meet today in Morocco, and the group is expected to formally suspend Syria.
  
  Nuclear defiance taps into pride in Iran - Issue has united conflicting groups by Brian Murphy, Associated Press
      TEHRAN, Iran — Banners proclaiming Iran’s “obvious right” to nuclear technology are draped over building facades.
      State media describe the head of the U.N. atomic watchdog agency as an American puppet and dismiss claims about nuclear weapons advances as U.S. falsehoods.
      At Tehran University, a group of hard-line students started a petition urging Iran to withdraw from an international treaty regulating nuclear development.
      There’s no doubt Iran carefully stage-manages much of its backlash to Western pressures over its nuclear efforts.    But not all.
      Iran’s defiance remains one of the few patches of common ground in a nation with multiple divisions — hard-liners against opposition groups, power struggles between the ruling clerics and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and infighting among parliament factions.
      “Iranians don’t agree on much these days, but you could say the nuclear issue is one where they more or less speak in a common voice,” said William O. Beeman, a University of Minnesota professor who follows Iranian affairs.
      He said that gave some breathing room to Iran’s ruling system.
      “That’s a big advantage,” he said.    “They can concentrate on the fight with the U.S. and others and — with this case at least — don’t have to deal with internal tensions.”
      For Western leaders and their allies, the showdown with Iran is without much nuance — a nonnegotiable drive to halt suspected steps toward a nuclear weapon.
      But within the Islamic Republic, the nuclear question is deeply intertwined with powerful elements — such as national pride and efforts to become an Islamic leader in scientific progress — that have left little room for concessions to Western pressures.
      Iran’s latest onslaught suggests compromise remains elusive as Western officials examine possible tougher sanctions and leave open the option of military action.    The next step comes this week when the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency board meets in Vienna and could refer the report to the U.N. Security Council.
      “There is a major perception gap,” said Theodore Karasik, a security expert at the Dubai based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis.    “What the West sees as a potential threat, Iran sees as their right.”
      Iran’s state-scripted nuclear narrative has gone into overdrive after last week’s report by the IAEA, which alleged that Iran conducted secret weapons-related tests and is close to developing a nuclear warhead.
      For years, Iran has claimed it only seeks reactors for energy and research.
      State TV and other news outlets hammered the IAEA report as a tool for U.S. and Israel pressure.    In the central city of Isfahan, more than 2,000 university students chanting “Down with the U.S.” and “Death to Israel” joined a human chain outside a uranium conversion facility in a show of support for Iran’s nuclear program.
      The demonstrators urged the Iranian government to block access of the IAEA inspectors to Iranian nuclear facilities and said they were ready to sacrifice themselves to defend the country’s nuclear rights, according to state media reports.
  
  Oil again nears $100 a barrel by Associated Press
      NEW YORK Oil prices climbed to near $100 per barrel Tuesday on encouraging news about the U.S. economy.    Benchmark crude rose $1.23 to end the day at $99.37 per barrel in New York.    The benchmark price hasn’t been that high since July 26. Brent crude, which is used to price many foreign oil varieties, climbed 50 cents to finish at $112.39 in London.    Prices jumped after the Commerce Department said that retail sales rose in October for the fifth-straight month.    Consumer spending increased for electronics, appliances, hardware and building supplies. Sales also rose at grocery stores and bars.
  
  
• 11/17/2011
  
  Congress far from deficit deal - Democrats disclose counteroffer on cuts by David Espo, ASSOCIATED PRESS
      WASHINGTON — As the nation’s debt soared past $15 trillion, congressional Republicans and Democrats struggled Wednesday to salvage a yearlong assault on federal deficits, their efforts hampered by disagreements over taxes and the future of expensive benefit programs.
      The talks at a standstill, Democratic officials familiar with the work of Congress’ debt-reduction supercommittee disclosed they had floated a secret counteroffer late last week to generally accept a Republican framework for a $1.5 trillion compromise, while differing on numerous key details.
      Democrats signaled a willingness to cut spending by $876 billion, including $225 billion from Medicare and $50 billion from Medicaid, these officials said, and raise tax revenue by $400 billion, far less than they had earlier demanded.
      They also recommended using $700 billion in unspent funds from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for a jobs program along the lines President Barack Obama wants, plus steps to protect the upper middle class from the alternative tax and extending financing for doctors who treat Medicare patients.    The supercommittee has until Nov. 23 to approve legislation that cuts future deficits by at least $1.2 trillion over a decade.    Failing that, automatic spending cuts totaling that amount would take effect beginning in 2013.
  
  Obama pledges U.S. will stay in Pacific by Ben Feller, Associated Press
      CANBERRA, Australia — President Barack Obama vowed today to expand U.S. influence in the Asia-Pacific region and “project power and deter threats to peace” in that part of the world even as he reduces defense spending and winds down two wars.
      “The United States is a Pacific power, and we are here to stay,” he declared in a speech to the Australian parliament.
      The U.S. and smaller Asian nations have grown increasingly concerned about China’s claims of dominion over Pacific waters and the revival of old territorial disputes, including confrontations over the South China Sea.    China says it has sovereignty over the vast sea.    His speech came several hours after announcing he would send military aircraft and up to 2,500 Marines to northern Australia for a training hub to help allies and protect American interests across Asia.    He said the U.S. is not afraid of China, by far the biggest and most powerful country in the region.
      China was immediately leery of the prospect of an expanded U.S. military presence in Australia.    Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said there should be discussion as to whether the plan was in line with the common interests of the international community.
      For Obama, Asia represents both a security challenge and an economic oppor-tunity.    “With most of the world’s nuclear powers and some half of humanity, Asia will largely define whether the century ahead will be marked by conflict or cooperation, needless suffering or human progress.”
      Virtually everything Obama is doing on his nine-day trip across the Asia-Pacific region has a Chinese subtext, underscoring a relationship that is at once cooperative and marked by tensions over currency, human rights and military might.    China’s military spending has increased threefold since the 1990s to about $160 billion last year, and its military recently tested a new stealth jet fighter and launched its first aircraft carrier.    A congressional advisory panel said Wednesday that China’s buildup is focused on dealing with U.S. defenses and exploiting weaknesses.    The panel, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, urged the White House and Congress to examine China’s military expansion and pressed for a tougher stance against what it called anticompetitive Chinese trade policies.
      Obama avoided a confrontational tone in his speech. “We’ve seen that China can be a partner, from reducing tensions on the Korean Peninsula to preventing proliferation.    We’ll seek more opportunities for cooperation with Beijing, including greater communication between our militaries to promote understanding and avoid miscalculation.”
      In a note of caution, however, he added: “We will do this, even as we continue to speak candidly with Beijing about the importance of upholding international norms and respecting the universal human rights of the Chinese people.”
  
  Syria’s world isolation grows - Arab League suspends regime by Paul Schemm, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — Syria’s president faced a growing challenge to his iron rule from home and abroad Wednesday, with renegade troops launching their most daring attack yet on the military and world leaders looking at a potential regime without Bashar Assad.
      France recalled its ambassador to Damascus in the wake of recent attacks against diplomatic missions and increasing violence stemming from the 8-month-old uprising. French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe warned that “the vise is tightening” around Assad, and a government spokeswoman said Paris is working with the Syrian opposition to find an alter-native to the regime.    The move comes as the 22member Arab League formally suspended Damascus over Assad’s crackdown on opponents, which the U.N. estimates has killed more than 3,500 people, and threatened economic sanctions if the regime continues to violate an Arab-brokered peace plan.
      “Economic sanctions are certainly possible if the Syrian government does not respond,” said Qatari Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim.
      Gamal Abdel Gawad, an Arab affairs expert in Cairo, said the League’s vote suggests Arab leaders are scrambling to influence a future Syria n regime.    “Regime change is unavoidable,” he said.    Britain’s Foreign Office said its ambassador will remain in Syria despite France’s action.
      In Washington, a State Department spokesman said U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford, who was withdrawn over security concern, still plans to return to Syria next week.
  
  Oil passes $100; gas prices eventually will rise by Chris Kahn, Associated Press
      NEW YORK — Oil prices hit $100 a barrel on Wednesday after a six-week surge that might drive gasoline prices higher in coming months and slow the fragile economic recovery.
      For now, there are a few reasons to explain why oil has jumped 30 percent higher since early October.
      One is promising: The U.S. economy continued to show signs of strength, meaning that the thirst for fuel might grow.    The other factor is troublesome, as concerns rise about potential disruptions to critical — and tightening — world oil supplies, including unrest in the key oil-producing areas of the Middle East and Africa.
      The price run-up has led an increasing number of investors, such as major investment funds, pension funds, money managers and other speculators, to flood back into commodities markets.
      “This thing is on fire,” independent oil trader Stephen Schork said.    “Everyone’s gobbling oil up.”
      The benchmark oil price rose by 3.2 percent on Wednesday, ending the day at $102.59 per barrel, after a Canadian pipeline company announced that it would ship crude away from a key Midwest delivery point.    It’s the first time since July that oil rose above the $100 mark.
      So far, the jump in prices hasn’t pushed gasoline prices higher.    They are being held in check because motorists are driving less than they did during the summer.    Refineries also are allowed to make cheaper winter blends of fuel.
      Still, if oil holds above $100 per barrel for long, gasoline will inevitably rise from the national average of $3.402 on Wednesday.    Analysts are already predicting pump prices above $4 per gallon in the spring.
  
  
• 11/18/2011
  
  Occupy protesters march nationwide - 200-plus arrested, most in New York by Karen Matthews, Associated Press
      NEW YORK — Occupy Wall Street protesters clogged streets and tied up traffic around the country on Thursday to mark two months since the movement’s birth and signal they aren’t ready to quit, despite the breakup of many of their encampments by police.
      More than 200 people were arrested, most of them in New York.    The demonstrations — which took place in Los Angeles, St. Louis, Washington and other cities — were for the most part peaceful.    Most of the arrests were for blocking streets, and the traffic disruptions were brief.
      Chanting “All day, all week, shut down Wall Street,” more than 1,000 protesters gathered near the New York Stock Exchange and sat down in several intersections.    Helmeted police broke up some of the gatherings, and operations at the stock market were not disrupted.
      As darkness fell, a crowd of several thousand people, their ranks swelled by union members, jammed Manhattan’s Foley Square, where their chants boomed off the surrounding courthouses and other government buildings.    From there, they began a march over the Brooklyn Bridge.
      The protests came two days after police raided and demolished the encampment at New York’s Zuccotti Park that had served as headquarters of the Occupy movement.    “This is a critical moment for the movement given what happened the other night,” said demonstrator Paul Knick, a software engineer from Montclair, N.J.    “It seems like there’s a concerted effort to stop the movement, and I’m here to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
      At least 177 people were arrested in New York.    Some were bloodied during the ar-rests.
      One man was taken into custody for throwing liquid, possibly vinegar, into the faces of several police officers, authorities said.    Many demonstrators were carrying vinegar as an antidote for pepper spray.
      A police officer needed 20 stitches on his hand after he was hit with a piece of thrown glass, police said.
      In Los Angeles, about 500 sympathizers marched downtown between the Bank of America tower and Wells Fargo Plaza, chanting, “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!” More than two dozen people were arrested.
  
  Chu defends solar loan - Energy chief says politics had no role by Matthew Daly, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — An unapologetic Energy Secretary Steven Chu defended a half-billion-dollar government loan to a solarpanel manufacturer that went bankrupt, even as he told a House committee Thursday he was unaware of dozens of key details that led to the debacle over Solyndra Inc.
      Under hours of hostile questioning from Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Chu declined several opportunities to say he was sorry, but acknowledged that in hindsight the deal was “extremely un-fortunate” and “regrettable.”
      “Certainly knowing what I know now, we’d say ‘no,’” Chu said during a daylong hearing before the energy panel’s subcommittee on investigations.
      “But you don’t make decisions fast-forwarding two years in the future and then go back.”
      Congressional Republicans have been using Solyndra’s bankruptcy to score points ahead of next year’s elections, accusing the Democratic administration of wasteful spending and having a misguided energy program.
      Chu insisted that politics played no role in his department’s decision to loan Solyndra Inc. $528 million before it went bankrupt and laid off 1,100 workers.
      Testifying under oath on a widening controversy, Chu took responsibility for the disastrous 2009 loan, but said he was unaware of many details about the loan or financial problems that Solyndra faced — including predictions by Energy Department staff two years ago that the company was likely to face severe cash-flow problems.
      Chu repeatedly said he didn’t know until recently of Solyndra’s problems.
      Contradicting assertions by several committee Republicans, Chu also said no one from the White House ever contacted him to make a political decision on the loan.
  
  Syria’s president still has support of Russia, China by Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — As his Arab neighbors abandon him and his allies in Moscow warn of impending civil war, Syrian President Bashar Assad still has a strong bulwark to prevent his meeting the same fate as the leaders of Egypt, Tunisia or Libya anytime soon.    His key advantages are the support of Russia and China, fear among many Syrians about a future without Assad, and the near-certainty that foreign militaries will stay away.    But after eight months, the popular uprising is morphing into an increasingly bloody armed conflict that will test Assad’s strongest allegiances.
      “This is all looking very much like a civil war,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday in Moscow, expressing alarm over an attack this week by the Free Syrian Army, a group of army defectors determined to bring down the regime.
      There was no sign that Russia’s support for Damascus was wavering; indeed, Lavrov appeared to be condemning anti-regime forces for the escalating bloodshed.    Lavrov also urged Syrian and opposition forces alike to cease violence and negotiate.
      “It is not a secret that along with the peaceful demonstrators, whose strivings and demands we support, there is more and more participation from groups of armed people who have an entirely different agenda from reform and democracy in Syria,” he said.    Asked about Lavrov’s remarks, U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Washington does not view the conflict as a “civil war.”
      “ Let’s be very clear that the primary author of the violence in Syria is the Assad regime,” Toner said.
  
  Obama’s assertive policy unsettles China - Its government puzzled by shift by Christopher Bodeen, Associated Press
      BEIJING — President Barack Obama’s sudden moves to contest rising Chinese power are setting its government on edge, even if its public response has been muted.    During his swing through the Asia-Pacific region, Obama has unveiled a plan for an expanded U.S. Marines presence in Australia, advocated a new free-trade area that leaves out China, and called on Beijing not to buck the world order.    China’s government is trying to understand the shift. Its academic experts have been asked to review the initiatives and submit options on how to respond.
      “The U.S. is overreacting,” said Zhu Feng, an international relations expert at Peking University asked to study Washington’s moves.    He said Obama’s actions may bewilder China’s government.
      Meanwhile, state media are warning of a new U.S. containment strategy.    “The U.S. sees a growing threat to its hegemony from China.    Therefore, America’s strategic move east is aimed in practical terms at pinning down and containing China and counterbalancing China’s development,” the official Xin-hua News Agency said in a commentary.
      Obama told Australia’s parliament on Thursday that the U.S. intends “to deter threats to peace” and will remain an Asia-Pacific power.    Today, Obama will become the first U.S. president to attend a summit of East Asian leaders, a region that China sees as its rightful sphere of influence.
      Obama is also pushing for the rapid expansion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a U.S.-backed free trade agreement that so far has drawn mostly smaller countries.    Japan and Canada have expressed interest in joining, while Beijing has been left out. In Indonesia, today, Obama is appealing to nations large and small for help with the America’s security agenda, as he seeks to build some regional political balance to China’s rising might. During his visit, he is trying to prod for some progress over the hotly contested South China Sea, a vital shipping channel.
  
  Panicky investors worry about euro
      ROME - Fear spread from country to country in Europe on Thursday as panicky investors worried the euro currency union could be heading toward an ugly breakup.
      Spain and even France, one of the continent’s core economic engines, were forced to pay sharply higher interest rates to raise cash to fund government spending.    While the European Central Bank was suspect-ed of intervening in bond markets to fight the rise in the borrowing rates, many analysts say it needs to act more aggressively to contain the crisis.    But Germany, Europe’s paymaster, once again blocked any such move on concerns it would let profligate governments off the hook.
      Uncertainty is now even eroding the appeal of top AAA-rated government bonds from countries like France as investors prepare for worst-case scenarios like the deconstruction of the eurozone.    Meanwhile in Rome, against the backdrop of anti-austerity protesters clashing with riot police, Italy’s new premier, Mario Monti, appealed to Italians on Thursday to accept sacrifices to save their country from bankruptcy, but pledged economic growth and greater social cohesion in return.
  
  Spain’s woes rattle markets
      NEW YORK — A spike in borrowing costs for the Spanish government renewed worries about Europe’s debt crisis and pushed stocks lower.
      A stalemate over cutting the budget deficit also pulled the market down.    Tech-nology stocks sank after NetApp and Applied Materials predicted lower earnings.    An auction of 10-year government bonds left Spain paying interest rates of nearly 7 percent, the highest rate since 1997 and a level that economists see as unsustainable.    Greece and Ireland received rescue loans from the European Union after their bond yields topped that level.
  
  
• 11/19/2011
  
  Egypt’s Islamists confront military - Activists fear it will cling to rule by Ben Hubbard, Associated Press
      CAIRO — Tens of thousands of Islamists and young activists massed Friday in Tahrir Square, confronting Egypt’s ruling military council with the largest crowd in months to protest the generals’ attempt to give themselves special powers over a future elected government.
      While united against the army, however, conservatives and liberals were jockeying among themselves for votes in parliamentary elections only 10 days away.
      The stakes are higher for all sides than at any time since the uprising ousted President Hosni Mubarak in February.    The victors will help choose who will draft a new constitution, thus defining the character of post-revolutionary Egypt.    Most of this year’s rallies in Tahrir Square since Mubarak’s ouster have been led by liberal- or leftleaning groups, but Islamists dominated Friday’s protest. Members of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s best-organized group, carried signs and waved flags bearing the logo of its Freedom and Justice party.    Elsewhere, ultraconservative Salafis in long robes and bushy beards called for Islamic Sharia law.
      For most of the day, liberal groups showed little organized presence.
      The mobilization by the Brotherhood, which had until recently avoided confrontation with the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, reflects a shift in the group’s position.    It has threatened to es-calate its protests if plans to give permanent political powers to the military are not scrapped.
      “The army has no role in ruling people,” said Hani Hegazi, who came by bus from outside Cairo with other Brotherhood members.    “Its only job is to protect the country. We want civilian rule chosen through democracy.”
      Other protesters carried banners reading “Down with military rule.    Egypt our country is not a military camp.”    Many had Egyptian flags, while some religious conservatives waved flags calling the Quran, Islam’s holy book, “our constitution.”    The rally’s primary target was a document floated by the government that declares the military to be the guardian of “constitutional legitimacy,” suggesting it would have the final word on major policies, and possibly legislation, even after a new president is elected.
      The document, meant to spell out guiding principles for the new constitution, would shield the military and its budget from civilian oversight. An early version of it also said the military would appoint 80 members of the 100-person constitutional committee — a move that would vastly diminish the new parliament’s role.
      Groups across the political spectrum rejected the document, calling it an attempt by the military to perpetuate its rule.    The Brotherhood has said the document “reinforces dictatorship,” and last-minute negotiations between the government and the Brotherhood failed to break the impasse.
      “All of us are scared that the army could try to hold on to power,” said Walid Farouq, 32, who wore the long beard and traditional robe of ultraconservative Muslims.    “It is time for a civilian government.”
      The military originally promised to transfer power to an elected civilian government within six months of Mubarak’s ouster.    But a vague, new timetable suggests that presidential elections won’t be held until 2013.    Specific dates have been set for only parliamentary balloting, set to begin Nov. 28 and drag into March.
      Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, Egypt’s military ruler, fueled speculation he might seek the presidency when he strolled through downtown Cairo in September in civilian attire, shaking hands and patting shoulders.    The military has denied it has any intention of staying in power.
  
  16 slain as Syria OKs observers by Associated Press
      BEIRUT — Syria agreed in principle Friday to let dozens of Arab observers in to oversee a peace plan, a significant concession from a hardline regime that loathes outside interference.    But critics say the regime is just stalling, trying to deflect international pressure while continuing its bloody crackdown on an 8-month-old uprising which the U.N. estimates has killed more than 3,500 people.    The acceptance came after surprisingly heavy pressure from the Arab League, which brokered the peace plan and suspended Syria from the 22member alliance for failing to abide by it.    On Wednesday, it gave Damascus three days to accept an observer mission or face economic sanctions.    Global pressure on Syrian President Bashar Assad was rising.    Britain appointed a top diplomat to be its pointman in dealing with Syria’s opposition; French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe urged the U.N. Security Council to set stronger sanctions.    But Russia, which holds veto power in the council, urged caution in moving against Damascus.    Violence has grown in Syria this week, as army dissidents who sided with protesters grew bolder, fighting back against regime forces and even assaulting military bases.    Activist groups said security forces killed at least 16 anti-government protesters Friday in what’s become a weekly ritual on Fridays, the main day for protests in Syria as thousands of people stream out of mosques following afternoon prayers.
  
  Oil ends below $98 a barrel by Associated Press
      NEW YORK — Oil prices fell below $98 per barrel Friday to the end a volatile week that mixed jitters about Europe’s debt with the prospect of tighter oil supplies and improving economic conditions in the U.S.
      The price of oil ended the week lower than it began.    On Friday benchmark crude fell $1.41 to finish at $97.41 per barrel in New York, in light trading before the Thanksgiving holiday week.    The sharp price fluctuations will ripple through energy markets, but analysts say this week’s ups and downs probably won’t have much effect on retail gasoline prices.
  
  
• 11/20/2011
  
  Failure of deficit deal would pose hard choices - Payroll tax cuts, jobless aid for millions are scheduled to expire unless Congress acts by Andrew Taylor, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — If the deficitcutting supercommittee fails, Congress will face a crummy choice.    Lawmakers can allow payroll tax cuts and jobless aid for millions to expire or they extend them and increase the nation’s $15 trillion debt by at least $160 billion.
      President Barack Obama and Democrats on the deficit panel want to use the committee’s product to carry their jobs agenda.    That includes cutting in half the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax and extending jobless benefits for people who have been unemployed for more than six months.
      Also caught up in what promises to be a chaotic legislative dash for the exits next month is the need to pass legislation to prevent an almost 30 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors.    Several popular business tax breaks and relief from the alternative minimum tax also expire at year’s end.
      A debt plan from the supercommittee, it was hoped, would have served as a sturdy, filibuster-proof vehicle to tow all of these expiring provisions into law.    But if the panel fails, as appears likely with Wednesday’s deadline nearing, a dysfunctional Congress will have to sort it all out.
      There’s no guarantee it all can get done, especially given impact on those measures on the spiraling debt.    Instead of cutting the deficit with a tough, bipartisan budget deal, Congress could pivot to spending enormous sums on expiring big-ticket policies.    If lawmakers rebel against the cost, they would bear responsibility for allowing policies such as the payroll tax cut, enacted a year ago to help the economy, to lapse.
      Last year’s extensions of jobless benefits and first-ever cut in the payroll tax were accomplished with borrowed money.
      The 2 percent payroll tax cut expiring in December gave 121 million families a tax cut averaging $934 last year at a total cost of about $120 billion, according to the Tax Policy Center.
      Obama wants to cut the payroll tax by another percentage point for workers at a total cost of $179 billion and cut the employer share of the tax in half as well for most companies, which carries a $69 billion price tag.
      “The notion of imposing a new payroll tax on people after Jan.1 in the midst of this recession on working families is totally counterproductive,” said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois.
      Letting extended jobless assistance expire would mean that more than 6 million people would lose benefits averaging $296 a week next year, with1.8 million cut off within a month.
      Economist say those jobless benefits — up to 99 weeks of them in high unemployment states — are among the most effective way to stimulate the economy because unemployed people generally spend the money right away.
      “We will have to address those issues,” Durbin said.
      Extending benefits to the longterm unemployed would cost almost $50 billion under Obama’s plan.    Preventing the Medicare payment cuts to doctors for an additional 18 months to two years would in all likelihood cost $26 billion to $32 billion more.
      Lawmakers also had hoped to renew some tax breaks for business and prevent the alternative minimum tax from sticking more than 30 million taxpayers with higher tax bills.    Those items could be addressed retroactively next year, but only increase the uncertainty among already nervous consumers and investors.
      This time, Obama wants them to be paid for.    But a move by Democrats to try to finance jobs measures with hundreds of billions of dollars in savings from drawing down troops in Iraq and Afghanistan has gotten a cold shoulder from top Republicans.
      “I’ve made it pretty clear that those savings that are coming to us as a result of the wind-down of the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan should be banked, should not be used to offset other spending,” said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.    He did not address whether war savings could be used to extend expiring tax cuts.
  
  U.S. budget woes could strike missile defense by Desmond Butler, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — A breakdown in high-stakes budget talks in the U.S. Congress could threaten plans for a missile defense shield in Europe.
      Negotiators have shown little sign they will be able to meet next week’s deadline for reducing the deficit by $1.2 trillion.    If they fail to agree, a new law mandates cuts throughout the federal government, including a big slice of the defense budget.
      It’s not known what military spending would be cut, but an expensive program aimed primarily at defending Europe isn’t likely to be spared.
      The U.S. sees the missile defense system, aimed at countering a threat from Iran, as part of its contribution to the NATO military alliance.    With the U.S. often complaining that it makes a disproportionately large contribution to NATO, missile defense could be especially vulnerable to budget-cutters.
      “A missile defense system for NATO? It’s going to be hard to keep people committed if they think the U.S. is picking up the tab for Europe,” said Kurt Volker, who was ambassador to NATO at the end of former President George W. Bush’s administration.
      Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said the European missile defense program could be threatened if the special negotiating panel, known as the “supercommittee,” fails to work out a deal.
      That suggestion, though, may have been intended mostly to nudge lawmakers to resolve their differences and avoid the automatic cuts to one of their favorite programs.
      It’s still possible that supercommittee members could set aside intense partisan differences and reach a deal by Wednesday.    And if they don’t, Congress may find a way to cancel the cuts before they take ef-fect in 2013.
      That may only delay the scaling back of the U.S. military role in Europe.    A decade-long expansion of military spending appears to be coming to an end, and the Obama administration has indicated it is pivoting its foreign policy toward Asia, where it sees the greatest opportunities and threats of coming decades.
  
  Bloody Cairo clash - Over 500 hurt in Tahrir Square by Aya Batrawy, Associated Press
      CAIRO — Egyptian riot police firing tear gas and rubber bullets stormed Cairo’s Tahrir Square Saturday to dismantle a protest tent camp, setting off clashes that injured more than 500 people days before the first elections since Hosni Mubarak’s ouster in February.    The scenes of protesters fighting with blackclad police forces were reminiscent of the 18-day uprising that forced an end to Mubarak’s rule.    Hundreds of protesters fought back Saturday, hurling stones and setting an armored police vehicle ablaze.    The violence raised fears of new unrest during parliamentary elections due to begin in nine days.    Public anger has risen over the slow pace of reforms and apparent attempts by Egypt’s generals to retain power over a future government.    Witnesses said the clashes began when riot police dismantled a small tent camp commemorating the hundreds of protesters killed in the uprising and attacked about 200 peaceful demonstrators who had camped in the square overnight in an attempt to restart a longterm sit-in.    “Violence breeds violence,” said Sahar Abdel-Mohsen, an engineer who joined in the protest after a call went out on Twitter urging people to come to Tahrir to defend against the police attacks.    “We are tired of this, and we are not leaving the square.”    Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas, and beat protesters with batons, clearing the square at one point and pushing the fighting into surrounding side streets of downtown Cairo.    State TV, quoting the Health Ministry, reported that 507 people were injured, including 19 policemen.
      After nightfall, protesters swarmed back into the square in the thousands, setting tires ablaze in the street that filled the area with acrid, black smoke.    Police retreated, leaving protesters free to barricade themselves inside the square. The air was still thick with tear gas.
      “The people want to topple the regime,” shouted enraged crowds, reviving the chant from the early days of the uprising. Human rights activists accused police of using excessive force.
      At least four protesters, including a prominent activist, Malek Mostafa, were injured in the eyes as a result of orders to target protesters’ heads, said Ghada Shahbender, a member of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights.
      “It is a crime,” she said.    “ … I heard an officer ordering his soldiers to aim for the head.”
      State TV described the protesters as rioters.    A day earlier, tens of thousands of Islamists and young activists had massed in Tahrir Square to protest Egypt’s ruling military council.
      That crowd, the largest in months, was mobilized by the Muslim Brotherhood and focused its anger on a document drafted by the military that spells out guiding principles for a new constitution.    Under those guidelines, the military and its budget would be shielded from civilian oversight.    An early version of it also said the military would appoint 80 members of the 100-person constitutional committee — a move that would vastly diminish the new parliament’s role.    Groups across the political spectrum rejected the document.    Nasser Ezzat, who is unemployed, said he traveled from southern Egypt to Tahrir because he wanted to help finish the revolution that people died for.    He arrived Friday, after leaving his pregnant wife in the city of Sohag.    “I dream of a fairer Egypt for my unborn daughter, one without police harassment and corruption,” he said Saturday.
  
  Troops attack foes of regime in Syria by Bassem Mroue, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — Syrian troops stormed a central town and a northwestern region in search of regime oppo-nents Saturday, activists said.    The attacks came a day after the government agreed in principle to allow the Arab League to send observers to oversee a peace plan proposed by the 22member bloc.    At least 15 people were killed, activists said.
      The attacks on the town of Shezar in the central province of Hama and on the restive Jabal al-Zawiya region near the Turkish border came as pressure mounted on Damascus to end its eight-month crackdown on anti-government protesters.    The unrest has killed more than 3,500 people since mid-March, according to U.N. estimates.
      The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and another activist group called the Local Co-ordination Committees said electricity and phone lines were cut in the Jabal al-Zawiya region in the northwestern province of Idlib, where army defectors have been active for months.    At least 15 people were killed, about half of them in Idlib province.
  
  
• 11/21/2011
  
  Defeat looms for debt panel - No sign of compromise on spending cuts, tax hikes by Andrew Taylor, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — A special deficit-reduction “supercommittee” appears likely to admit failure today, unable or unwilling to compromise on a mix of spending cuts and tax increases required to meet its assignment of saving taxpayers at least $1.2 trillion over the coming decade.
      The panel is sputtering to a close after two months of talks in which the members were never able to get close to bridging a fundamental divide over how much to raise taxes to address a budget deficit that forced the government to borrow 36 cents of every dollar it spent last year.
      Members of the bipartisan panel, formed during the summer crisis over raising the government’s borrowing limit, spent their time Sunday in testy performances on television talk shows, blaming each other for the impasse.
      In a series of television interviews, not a single panelist seemed optimistic about any last-minute breakthrough.    And it was clear that the two sides had never gotten particularly close, at least in the official exchanges of offers that were leaked to the media.    Aides said any remaining talks had broken off.
      “There is one sticking divide.    And that’s the issue of what I call shared sacri-fice,” said panel co-chair Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., on CNN’s “State of the Union.”    “The wealthiest Americans who earn over a million a year have to share too.    And that line in the sand, we haven’t seen Republicans willing to cross yet.”    Republicans said Democrats’ demands on taxes were simply too great and weren’t accompanied by large enough proposals to curb the explosive growth of so-called entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid.    “If you look at the Democrats’ position it was ‘We have to raise taxes.    We have to pass this jobs bill, which is another almost half-trillion dollars.    And we’re not excited about entitlement reform,’ ” countered Republican Jon Kyl of Arizona on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”    Under the committee’s rules, any plan would have to be unveiled today, but it appeared that Murray and co-chair Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas would instead issue a statement declaring the panel’s work at a close, aides said.    “Put a bow on it. It’s done,” an aide to a supercommittee Republican said.    Failure by the panel would trigger about $1 trillion over nine years in automatic across-theboard spending cuts to a wide range of domestic programs and the Pentagon budget, starting in 2013, according to the Con-gressional Budget Office.    This action, called a “sequester,” would also generate $169 billion in saving from lower interest costs on the national debt.
      Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says the required cuts of up to $454 billion to the Pentagon would be “devastating” and leave a “hollow force,” and defense hawks of Capitol Hill promise to unwind them.    But that effort will be complicated by the insistence of other lawmakers that the overall amount of the budget cuts be left in place.
      “I can’t imagine that, knowing of the importance of national defense, that both Democrats and Republicans wouldn’t find a way to work through that process so we still get the $1.2 trillion in cuts, but it doesn’t all fall on de-fense,” Kyl said.
      The panel’s failure also sets up a fight within a battle- weary, dysfunctional Congress over renewing a payroll tax cut and jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed, both of which are set to expire at the end of the year.    Both proposals are part of President Barack Obama’s $447 billion jobs plan.    Extending the current 2 percentage point payroll tax cut isn’t a popular idea with many Republicans, but allowing it to expire could harm the economy, economists say.    So too would a cutoff of unemployment benefits averaging about $300 a week to millions of people who have been out of work for more than six months.
      Serious negotiations ended Friday after Democrats rejected a $644 billion offer composed of $543 billion in spending cuts, fees and other nontax revenue, as well as $3 billion in tax revenue from closing a special tax break for corporate purchases of private jets.    It also assumed $98 billion in reduced interest costs.
      Officials familiar with the offer said it would save the government $121 billion by requiring federal civilian workers to contribute more to their pension plans, shave $23 billion from farm and nutrition programs and generate $15 billion from new auctions of broadcast spectrum to wireless companies.
      “Our Democratic friends are unable to cut even a dollar in spending without saying it has to be accompanied by tax increases,” Kyl said.
      On Saturday, Sen. Rob Portman floated an even smaller plan, said a lawmaker directly familiar with the panel’s work. It, too, was rejected.    The lawmaker required anonymity because of the secrecy of the talks.    The committee faces a Wednesday deadline.    But members would have to agree on the outlines of a package by today to allow time for drafting and assessing by the Congressional Budget Office.
      Over the past couple of weeks, the two sides have made a variety of offers and counteroffers, starting with a more than $3 trillion plan from Democrats that would have increased tax revenues by $1.3 trillion in exchange for further cuts in agency budgets, a change in the measure used to calculate cost-of-living increases for Social Security beneficiaries, and curbs on the growth of Medicare and Medicaid.    “We put on the table a proposal that required tough compromises on both sides, and they never did that,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., the only House Democrat on the panel to participate in late-stage bipartisan talks.    Republicans countered with a $1.5 trillion plan that included a potential breakthrough — $250 billion in higher taxes gleaned as Congress passes a future tax reform measure.    But the plan was trashed by Democrats, who said it would have lowered tax rates for the wealthy too far while eliminating tax breaks that chiefly benefit the middle class.
  
  RAMIFICATIONS
      If Congress can’t cut $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years, the Budget Control Act will do it for them beginning in January of 2013 unless a postponement is worked out.
      Here are some programs that would face cuts in the first year: DEFENSE: $54.7 BILLION PER YEAR
      Reductions would include ship building and other procurement programs; the size of the military; military-related civilian jobs; and contractors.
  
  DOMESTIC: $54.7 BILLION PER YEAR
      Reductions would include Medicare payments to providers and insurance companies (up to 2 percent); Border Patrol; Justice Department, IRS and EPA among other agencies.
  
  SAFEGUARDED PROGRAMS
  
  PROTECTED DEFENSE PROGRAMS
      War financing; the president can also exempt military pay from cuts.
  
  PROTECTED DOMESTIC PROGRAMS
      Social Security; Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Plan; food stamps; child nutrition; Supplemental Security Income; refundable tax credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit; veterans benefits; Pell Grants; federal employ-ees’ retirement.
  
  Police burn tents to clear Cairo site - Protesters want military rulers out by Sarah el Deeb, Associated Press
      CAIRO — Egyptian soldiers and police set fire to protest tents in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and fired tear gas and rubber bullets in a major assault Sunday to drive out thousands demanding that the military rulers quickly transfer power to a civilian government.    At least 11 protesters were killed and hundreds were injured.
      It was the second day of clashes marking a sharp escalation of tensions on Egypt’s streets a week before the first elections since the ouster of longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak in February.
      The military took over, promising a swift transition to civilian rule.    But the pro-democracy protesters who led the uprising have grown increasingly angry with the ruling generals, and suspect they’re trying to cling to power even after an elected parliament is seated and a new president is voted in.
      Street battles continued throughout the day and long into the night, spreading to side streets and sending a wave of injured to makeshift clinics on the streets.
      The military-backed Cabinet said in a statement that elections set to start Nov. 28 would be on time and thanked the police for their “restraint” — language likely to enrage the protesters even more.
      “We’re not going anywhere,” protester Mohammed Radwan said after security forces tried unsuccessfully to push the crowds out of Tahrir, the epicenter of the uprising.
  
  Blasts stun Syrian capital - Motorcyclists hit party offices by Zeina Karam, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — Rocket-propelled grenades hit the headquarters of Syria’s ruling party Sunday, bringing the violence that has engulfed much of the country to the heart of its capital for the first time, activists said.
      The attack on the building in Syria’s capital of Damascus apparently caused no damage or casualties.    But it could mark a significant shift in the eightmonth uprising against President Bashar Assad.    Until now, the capital has remained relatively untouched.
      The pre-dawn attack awoke many Syrians, who reported hearing two loud blasts, but details could not be confirmed.    The foreign minister denied an attack had taken place, and Syrian television broadcast footage of the building looking undamaged.
      The Free Syrian Army, a group of military defectors, claimed responsibility, highlighting the growing militarization of the revolt following months of largely peaceful protests.
      “This is an escalation that would signal a new phase in the Syrian uprising,” said Thabet Salem, a Damascus-based analyst.    “It gives a new dimension to the whole situation, which had been so far re-stricted to (government) action, and reaction from the opposition,” he said.
      Syria has placed severe restrictions on the work of journalists, making it extremely difficult to confirm events.
      The country’s embattled but defiant president vowed to pursue his bloody crackdown on dissent, saying it was his “duty” as president to crush the militants he blames for the unrest.
      Syria’s uprising against Assad, although largely peaceful, has grown more violent in recent weeks as frustrated protesters realize the limits of peaceful action.    Army dissidents who sided with the protests have also grown bolder, fighting back against regime forces and even attacking military bases and raising fears of a civil war.    Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem dismissed the idea of civil war, saying such talk was “wishful thinking” by the West.
      The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said unknown gunmen on motorcycles threw a stun grenade and fired RPGs at the Baath party headquarters, hitting the outside wall of the building.    Two other grenades missed the target, it said.
      Omar Idilbi, spokesman of the Local Coordination Committees’ activist network, also said the per-petrators were masked men on motorcycles.    But he cast doubt on the claim of responsibility by the Free Syrian Army, saying the target was suspicious.    “The Baath party headquarters is not a military or security base to be attacked by the FSA,” he said.
  
  
• 11/22/2011
  
  Deficit cutters just can’t cut it - ‘Supercommittee’ of Congress fails by David Espo, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Congress’ supercommittee conceded defeat Monday in its quest to conquer a government debt that stands at a staggering $15 trillion, unable to overcome deep and enduring political divisions over taxes and spending.
      Stock prices plummeted at home and across debt-scarred Europe as the panel ended its brief, secretive existence without an agreement.    Republicans and Democrats alike pointed fingers of blame, maneuvering for political advantage in advance of 2012 elections.
      The impasse underscored grave doubts about Washington’s political will to make tough decisions and left a cloud of uncertainty over the U.S. economy at the same time that Greece, Italy, Spain and other European countries are reeling from a spreading debt crisis and recession worries.
      Lawmakers of both parties agreed action in Congress was still required, somehow, and soon.
      “Despite our inability to bridge the committee’s significant differences, we end this process united in our belief that the nation’s fiscal crisis must be addressed and that we cannot leave it for the next generation to solve,” the panel’s co-chairs, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, said in a somber statement.
      They added it was not possi ble to present “any bipartisan agreement” — omitting any reference to the goal of $1.2 trillion in cuts over a decade that had been viewed as a minimum for success.
      President Barack Obama — criticized by Republicans for keeping the committee at arm’s length — said refusal by the GOP to raise taxes on the wealthy was the main stumbling block to a deal.    He pledged to veto any attempt by lawmakers to repeal a requirement for $1 trillion in automatic spending cuts that are to be triggered by the supercommittee’s failure to reach a compromise, unless Congress approves an alternative approach.
      Those cuts are designed to fall evenly on the military and domestic government programs beginning in 2013.    Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and lawmakers in both parties have warned the impact on the Pentagon could be devastating.
      In reality, though, it is unclear if any of those reductions will ever take effect, since next year’s presidential and congressional elections have the potential to alter the political landscape before then.
      The brief written statement from Murray and Hensarling was immediately followed by a hail of recriminations.    Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Republicans had “never found the courage to ignore the tea party extremists” and “never came close to meeting us halfway.”    But Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., who authored a GOP offer during the talks, said, “Unfortunately, our Democratic colleagues refused to agree to any meaningful deficit reduction without $1 trillion in job-crushing tax increases.”    Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., blamed the Democrats and the White House.    But Rep. John Yarmuth, D-3rd District, said the impasse reflected the deep ideological divisions that make cooperation in Congress ex-tremely difficult.
      In a statement, McConnell said, “For those of us who hoped that this committee could make some of the tough decisions President Obama continues to avoid, the Democrats’ rejection of not one but two good-faith Republican proposals is deeply disappointing.”    Yarmuth called that “totally disingenuous.”
      “What he calls a goodfaith proposal was actually something that would have increased the national debt by $550 billion and lowered the tax rate for millionaires when most people think we ought to be raising them,” Yarmuth said.    The Louisville congressman said he was not surprised by the supercommittee’s failure because he did not see how a dozen lawmakers were going to find a package that could have passed the Republican- controlled House and the Democratic-controlled Senate.    McConnell said the $1.2 trillion in cuts that are scheduled to occur automatically in January 2013 in domestic programs and defense because there was no deal was “good news.”
      Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., attacked Obama for not taking an active role in the deficit panel’s final effort at compromise.    “We’re in the two-minute drill of the fourth quarter, but our nation’s quarterback, President Obama, is completely disengaged,” Coats said in a statement.    “He’s not even on the sidelines, let alone on the playing field.”
      Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., called the collapse of the talks “regrettable.”    There were elements of other GOP budget proposals that had bipartisan support, he said.
      “President Obama could have participated by pushing consensus elements of his Bowles-Simpson Commission plan rather than choosing to stay out of the process,” Lugar said in a statement.    “The hard work now returns to the full Congress to face many difficult issues over the next year to pay for continuing critical operations of government and national security while attempting to reduce overall spending,” the senator said.    “Republicans will need to press even harder for spending cuts, entitlement reform, and budget-balancing initiatives that have been opposed by Democrats.    We will also need to continue pressing for comprehensive tax reform.”
      It was unlikely the outcome of the talks would materially improve Congress’ public standing — already well below 20 percent approval in numerous polls.    And the panel’s failure left lawmakers confronting a large and controversial agenda for December, including Obama’s call to extend an expiring payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits.    Democrats had wanted to add those items and more to any compromise, and lawmakers in both parties also face a struggle to stave off a threatened 27 percent cut in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients.
  
  U.S. focuses on oil for Iran sanctions
      WASHINGTON - Thwarted internationally, the Obama administration cobbled together a new set of best-available sanctions against Iran on Monday that underlined its limited capacity to force Tehran to halt its suspected nuclear weapons program.
      The U.S. action was coordinated with Britain and Canada, but not with countries such as Russia and China that have far greater economic investments in the Islamic republic.    The American sanctions target Iran’s oil and petrochemicals industry and Iranian companies involved in nuclear procurement or enrichment activity.    The U.S. also declared Iran’s banking system a center for money laundering — designed as a stern warning to financial institutions around the world to think twice before doing business with Tehran.
      President Barack Obama said Iran had a choice: come clean on its nuclear program and reap the benefits of closer economic cooperation with the world, or face even more pressure.
      “Iran has chosen the path of international isolation,” Obama said in a statement.
  
  UCal Davis chief placed on leave - Occupy group was pepper-sprayed by Jason Dearen, Associated Press
      SAN FRANCISCO — Videos of riot police repeatedly pepper spraying a row of seated, non-violent Occupy Wall Street protesters at a California university have sparked outrage, an investigation and calls for the college chancellor’s resignation.
      It also set off a debate about whether the officers were justified and how far they can go to disperse peaceful demonstrators.
      While many students, lawmakers and even the university’s chancellor saw the officers’ actions as excessive, some experts on police tactics say depending on the circumstances, pepper spray can be a better crowd control measure than dragging protesters away or swinging at them with truncheons.
      “Between verbalized commands and knock-down, dragout fights, there’s quite a bit of wiggle room,” said David Klinger, a former Los Angeles Police Department officer and instructor at the University of Missouri- St. Louis.    “When you’ve got a bunch of people who are clearly noncompliant, locking arms, it doesn’t look good (on camera).”    Soon after the spraying on Friday at University of California, Davis, video recordings spread across the Internet.    The footage of an officer casually spreading an orange cloud over protesters while spectators screamed in horror joined other much-discussed pepper-spray incidents, such as the 84-year-old activist hit in the face in Seattle and a Portland, Ore., woman who was sprayed in the mouth.
      The university announced Monday that it has placed the police chief and two officers on administrative leave to restore trust.
      Still, nearly 2,000 students and residents gathered Monday at the main quad to hear speeches and chant slogans against police and university officials.    Students who were peppersprayed opened the protest, saying they now feel unsafe on campus.
      “We were just kids sitting down in a circle singing,” said mechanical engineering student David Buscho, 22, of San Rafael, Calif. “It felt like hot glass … I was paralyzed with fear.”
      Pepper spray is an inflammatory agent that derives its active ingredient from chili peppers.    When the spray is deployed, it causes nearly instant inflammation, resulting in dilation of the capillaries in the eyes, paralysis of the larynx and a burning sensation on the skin.
      Buscho said students were yelling at police Friday that they were peacefully protesting.    One of the helmeted officers began pointing a spray can directly at protestors’ faces, he said.
      “I had my arms around my girlfriend.    I just kissed her on the forehead and then he sprayed us,” he said.    “Immediately, we were blinded. … He just sprayed us again and again and we were completely powerless to do anything.”
      The protest Friday was held in support of the overall Occupy Wall Street movement and in solidarity with protesters at the University of California, Berkeley who were struck by police with batons on Nov. 9.    Nine UC Davis students hit by pepper spray were treated, and two were taken to hospitals and later released, university officials said. Ten people were arrested.
  
  Hezbollah picks off CIA spies in Lebanon by Matt Apuzzo, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Hezbollah has partially unraveled the CIA’s spy network in Lebanon, severely damaging the intelligence agency’s ability to gather vital information on the terrorist organization at a tense time in the region, former and current U.S. officials said.
      Officials said several foreign spies working for the CIA had been captured by Hezbollah in recent months.    The blow to the CIA’s operations in Lebanon came after top agency managers were alerted last year to be especially careful handling informants in the Middle East country.
      Hezbollah’s longtime leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, boasted in June on television he had unmasked at least two CIA spies who had infiltrated the ranks of the organization, which the U.S. considers a terrorist group allied with Iran.
      Though the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon officially denied the accusation, American officials concede that Nasrallah was not lying and the damage spread like a virus as Hezbollah methodically picked off the CIA’s informants.
      To be sure, some deaths are to be expected in these shadowy spy wars.    It’s an extremely risky business and people get killed.    But the damage to the agency’s network in Lebanon has been greater than usual, several former and current U.S. officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about security matters.
      The Lebanon crisis is the latest mishap involving CIA counterintelligence, defined as the undermining or manipulating of the enemy’s ability to gather information.    Former CIA officials have said the once-essential skill has been eroded as the agency shifted from outmaneuvering rival spy agencies to fighting terrorists. In the rush for immediate results, former officers say, tradecraft has suffered.
      The most recent high-profile example was the suicide bomber who posed as an informant and killed seven CIA employees and wounded six others in Khost, Afghanistan, in December 2009.
      Former and current intelligence officials are waiting to see how CIA Director David Petreaus, who took the helm in September, will handle this fiasco.    While in the military, the retired four-star developed a reputation for exacting standards and holding people accountable.
  
  Egypt’s Cabinet offers to resign - Unrest worsens; death toll at 26 by Maggie Michael, Associated Press
      CAIRO — Egypt’s armyappointed government offered to resign Monday, trying to stem a spiraling crisis as thousands of protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square clashed for a third day with security forces.
      The violence has killed at least 26 people and wounded at least 1,750, and posed the most sustained challenge yet to the rule of the military.    The crowds in Tahrir, which had grown to well over 10,000 after nightfall, broke out into cheers with the news of the Cabinet’s move, chanting “God is great.”    But there was no sign the concession would break their determination to protest until the military steps down completely and hands over power to a civilian government.
      Beating drums, the protesters quickly resumed their chants of “The people want the ouster of the field marshal,” a reference to Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of the council of generals that has ruled the country since the Feb. 11 fall of President Hosni Mubarak.
      The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which Tantawi heads, did not immediately announce whether it would accept the mass resignation.    Many Egyptians had seen the government, headed by Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, as a facade for the military and either unable or unwilling to press ahead with democratic reform or take action to stem increasing turmoil and economic crisis around the country.
      The anger, however, has been focused on the generals themselves, whom many activists accuse of acting as abusively as Mubarak’s regime and of intending to maintain their grip on power.
      The turmoil comes only a week before Egypt is to start key parliamentary elections, which many had hoped would be a landmark in the transition to a democracy.    Instead, they have been overshadowed by the standoff over the military.
      Activists think that no matter who wins the vote, the generals will dominate the next government as much as they did Sharaf’s.    The military says it will hand over power only after presidential elections, which it has vaguely said will be held in late 2012 or early 2013.
      If Monday’s resignations are carried out, a crucial question will be who will replace the Cabinet.    Some in the square demand the military immediately hand over all its authority to a national unity government.
      “We are not clearing the square until there is a national salvation government that is representative and has full responsibility,” said activist Rami Shaat.
      Violence has steadily escalated since the clashes began Saturday, when police tried to clear several hundred protesters in the square.    Repeated attempts to clear the protesters from Tahrir have failed, and a death toll that quadrupled overnight from Sunday has only brought out more and angrier protesters.    The protests have spread to other cities, including Alexandria, where one of the deaths occurred.    Throughout the day Monday, black-garbed security forces fired tear gas, rubber bullets and — many protesters said — live am-munition at young men in the streets around Tahrir.
  
  Turkey: Syria can’t oppress people forever by Selcan Hacaoglu, Associated Press
      ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey warned Syria’s president Monday that he can’t continue to oppress his people with tanks and guns forever, even as Syrian soldiers opened fire on at least two buses carrying Turkish citizens, witnesses and officials said. In separate attacks, Syrian security forces killed at least 13 people during raids in central Syria on Sunday, activists said.
      The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees said most of the deaths were in the city of Homs, a hotbed of dissent against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime.
      The attacks on the buses, which wounded two people, appeared to be retaliation for Turkey’s mounting criticism of Assad, whose military crackdown on an 8-month-old uprising against his rule has killed nearly 4,000 people.
      “You can only continue with tanks and guns to a cert ain point — the day will come when you will go,” Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a speech at an international religion conference in Istanbul.    “Sooner or later, the oppressed will win.”    It wasn’t clear whether Erdogan was aware of Monday’s attacks on the buses when he spoke.    The Turkish leader has grown increasingly critical of the actions by the Syrian regime.    He said last week that the world must urgently “hear the screams” from Syria and do something to stop the bloodshed.    Turkey has allowed Syr-ian refugees and military defectors to take refuge on its soil, and Syria’s political opposition has used Turkey as a place to meet and organize.
      Assad’s deepening isolation and the growing calls for his ouster are a blow to a family dynasty that has ruled Syria for four decades.
      Any change to the leadership could transform some of the most enduring alliances in the Middle East and beyond.
  
  ANALYSIS - Panel reflects public’s divide on economy by Charles Babington, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — The supercommittee’s failure reflects the nation’s divide: Americans crave both the Republicans’ demand for low taxes and the Democrats’ insistence on protecting social programs.    So far, no group or leader has persuaded them they can’t have both and there’s no quick solution in sight.
      It’s possible the stalemate won’t be broken by the time of the 2012 elections, nearly a year away.    Some GOP strategists think Republicans can oust President Barack Obama and win control of both chambers of Congress.
      That would enable them to enact much of their agenda, and Americans could render a judgment on its results.
      Or perhaps Democrats will score big victories that will force Republicans to yield some ground.    The bipartisan supercommittee’s collapse stems from an all-too-familiar reality of modern politics. Republican lawmakers respond to activists who overwhelmingly oppose higher taxes.    And Democrats answer to activists who will tolerate no nicks in Medicare, Social Security and other programs without steeper taxes on the wealthy.    The same differences pushed the nation to the brink of default last summer, prompting the firstever downgrade of the government’s creditworthiness.
      Yet no leader or group has convinced enough Americans that everyone must accept some pain to bring taxes and government services more closely in line.    So the federal debt hit $15 trillion last week.    The government suffered another embarrassment Monday, immediately spooking U.S. markets and possibly unsettling foreign markets in the days ahead.    Nineteenth Century Americans venerated Kentuckian Henry Clay as “the Great Compromiser” for helping resolve knotty national problems.    Today, that title would almost surely be hurled as an insult, especially at a rally or caucus to nominate someone for Con-gress.
      The supercommittee’s six Democrats and six Republicans knew they would be criticized for failing to reach an accord.    But they saw a worse fate in straying too far from their respective parties’ uncompromising stands on taxes and social programs.
      Congress reflects the public divide over tax and spending priorities.    A Quinnipiac poll found that 73 percent of Republicans want to address the deficit with spending cuts only, while only a third of Democrats hold that view.
  
  
• 11/23/2011
  
  Deadlines loom for Congress - Debt panel’s demise steps up pressure to vote on extending tax cuts, jobless aid by Alan Fram, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Congress’ failed deficit-cutting “supercommittee” has faded away, but the pressure on lawmakers to confront a stack of expensive economic issues is only growing.
      Before leaving town for Christmas and New Year’s, lawmakers must decide whether to renew payroll tax cuts that have meant an average of nearly $1,000 for more than 120 million families this year.    Congress also must determine whether to extend unemployment benefits for millions of long-term jobless Americans.
      Without action, both expire Jan. 1.    Also on the list is whether to prevent a 27 percent cut in Medicare reimbursements to doctors that occurs on New Year’s Day.    Figuring out how to avoid a mid-December government shutdown is also on the agenda.    Protecting the payroll tax cuts, jobless benefits and doctors’ payments could cost $200 billion or more.    But faced with a limp economy, the huge federal debt, next year’s presidential and congressional elections, and the supercommittee’s finger-point-ing, partisan breakdown, clashes over each are inevitable.
      “Right now people are so mad and suffering so much from fiscal fatigue that it’s really hard to say what they want,” Steve Bell, a longtime Senate Republican budget aide, said of lawmakers.    He studies economic policy at the moderate Bipartisan Policy Institute.
      There had been some hope of including language dealing with the payroll tax, jobless benefits and Medicare payments to doctors in whatever debt-cutting proposal the supercommittee produced.    That would have improved their chances of approval because Congress was to consider the debt panel’s package under special expedited procedures.    Without that protection, the fate of the payroll tax, unemployment and Medicare proposals is more clouded, with battles expected over the size of each andhow— if at all — topay for them.
      “There at least would have been some sugar for everybody’s taste buds” if the proposals were part of a supercommittee package, said Joseph Minarik, a former Democratic congressional aide and now research director for the nonpartisan, business-led Committee for Economic Development.
  .
  Seeking consensus
      Helping the chances for eventual enactment of the three proposals is a consensus among many econo-mists that each initiative helps the economy by pumping billions of dollars into it.    The action is likely to start in the Democratic-led Senate, where leaders are expected to force a vote on a proposal to extend the payroll tax cut.    The proposed extension would be paid for by boosting levies on people earning $1 million or more per year — making it certain to fail but providing Democrats with a vote they hope to use against GOP candidates next year.
      “Tell them, ‘Don’t be a Grinch,’ ” Obama told a cheering crowd in Manchester, N.H., on Tuesday, saying that’s the message they should send Congress.    “Don’t vote to raise taxes on working Americans during the holidays.”
      In response, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, issued a statement noting that in September, Republicans told Obama “that we stand ready to have an honest and fruitful discussion with him regarding the payroll tax extension, and that invitation stands.”
      In a deal with Obama last year, Congress cut the 6.2 percent payroll tax — which helps finance Social Security — to 4.2 percent for this year.    That has saved 121 million families an average $934 this year, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.
      Obama has proposed cutting it to 3.2 percent next year at a cost of $179 billion, plus adding another $69 billion in payroll tax breaks for employers.    With Republicans and some Democrats wary of the na-tional debt — which surpassed $15 trillion last week — the cost could shrink.
  
  Joblessness, health
      Meanwhile, Democrats also want to renew unemployment benefits that provide up to 99 weeks of cov-erage before extra benefits expire Jan. 1.    Without the added coverage, benefits — which average under $300 a week — would last a maximum of 26 weeks.
      Without action, more than 2 million people would lose unemployment coverage by mid-February, ac-cording to the Labor Department.    It would cost an estimated $45 billion to renew the extra benefits for a year.    Preventing the cut in Medicare payments to doctors is estimated to cost more than $20 billion next year.    It’s a near certainty that Congress will address it because of the clout that Medicare and doctors have with lawmakers.    Within minutes of Monday’s announcement that the supercommittee had failed, the American Medical Association said the 27 percent cut would “force many physicians to limit the number of Medicare and TRICARE patients they can care for in their practices.”    TRICARE is the military’s health plan.
      House leaders don’t plan to bring the jobless benefits, payroll tax or Medicare reimbursement measures to the chamber’s floor next week.    Congress is also behind on nine spending bills covering everything from the Pentagon to the environment.    Most government agencies are functioning on temporary authority that expires Dec. 16.
  
  Transitional team to govern until June
      TRIPOLI, LIBYA - Libya’s interim prime minister announced the formation Tuesday of a transitional government that will lead the oil-rich country until parliamentary elections are held by the end of June.    Prime Minister Abdurrahim el-Keib said his focus was on forming a government that would represent all of Libya.
  
  Egypt leader offers concession by Maggie Michael, Associated Press
      CAIRO — Egypt’s military leader promised a faster transition to civilian rule, saying Tuesday that presidential elections will be held by the end of June.    But that concession was immediately rejected by tens of thousands of protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square who responded with chants of “leave, leave” now.    Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi vowed landmark parliamentary elections will start on schedule on Monday, the first vote since longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak was ousted in an uprising nine months ago.    And he said the military was prepared to hold a referendum on immediately transferring power to a civilian authority if people demand it.    “Our demands are clear,” said Khaled El-Sayed, a protester from the Youth Revolution Coalition and a candidate in the upcoming parliamentary election.    “We want the military council to step down and hand over authority to a national salvation government with full authority.”
      El-Sayed also demanded that the commander of the military police and the Interior Minister, who is in charge of the police, be tried for the “horrific crimes” of the past few days, when 29 people were killed in clashes, most of them in Cairo.
      The standoff culminated four days of clashes and demonstrations around the country that have con-stituted the most sustained challenge so far to nine months of military rule.    It plunges the country deeper into a crisis that may only hamper the democratic transition the protesters are fighting for.    Among those reportedly arrested were three Americans, including Luke Gates, a 21-year-old Indiana University student.
      In a televised address to the nation, Tantawi did not mention a specific date for the transfer of power, although the presidential election has long been considered the final step in the process.    The military has previously floated the end of next year or early 2013 as the date for the presidential vote.    “The armed forces, represented by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, has no desire to rule and puts the country’s interests above all.    It is ready to hand over responsibility immediately and return to its original duty of defending the country if the people want that and through a public referendum if it is necessary,” he said.    In his brief address, Tantawi sought to cast the military as the nation’s foremost patriots and angrily denounced what he called attempts to taint its reputation.    He didn’t mention the four days of protests in Tahrir Square.
      By nightfall, Tahrir was jammed with a massive crowd of tens of thousands who immediately rejected Tantawi’s proposals with chants of “erhal,” or leave.    “We are not leaving, he leaves,” chanted the protesters.    “The people want to bring down the field marshal,” they shouted in scenes reminiscent of the uprising that ousted Mubarak nine months ago.
  
  Turkey’s PM urges Assad to resign by Zeina Karam, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — Turkey’s prime minister said Tuesday that Syria’s president must step down over the country’s crackdown on dissent, ratcheting up the pressure on the increasingly isolated Bashar Assad.
      Turkey’s call came as Syrian activists reported that five people — including four children — were killed Tuesday.    “For the welfare of your own people and the region, just leave that seat,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said in a televised speech.    He reminded Assad of the bloody end of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and those of past dictators, including Adolf Hitler.
      “If you want to see someone who has fought until death against his own people, just look at Nazi Germany, just look at Hitler, at Mussolini, at Nicolae Ceausescu in Romania,” he said.    “If you cannot draw any lessons from these, then look at the Libyan leader who was killed just 32 days ago.”    World leaders are turning on Assad in quick succession.    The military crackdown on an 8-monthold uprising against Assad’s regime has killed nearly 4,000 people.    The Local Coordination Committees, a key activist network, and the Britishbased Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said four children between the ages of 10 and 15 were killed by gunshots fired at random from a military checkpoint near the town of Houla in the restive Homs province.    A fifth person was killed by security forces in the district of Khaldieh, the groups said.    The LCC said Syrian forces backed by tanks and armored vehicles stormed the area of Houla and were besieging the district of Bayada in Homs, a hotbed of dissent against Assad’s regime.
      Syria places severe restrictions on the work of journalists and bans most foreign journalists from the country, making confirmation of events on the ground difficult.
      Erdogan’s warning came the day after Syrian soldiers opened fire on at least two buses carrying Turkish citizens, witnesses and officials said, apparent retaliation for Turkey’s criticism of Assad.
      “To protect travelers, espcially those returning from the hajj, is a country’s honor,” Erdogan said, referring to the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
  
  Oil price up on Mideast strife
      NEW YORK — Oil prices rose Tuesday on concerns that Middle East strife could disrupt supplies and on hopes that Europe’s debt crisis wouldn’t lead to worldwide financial gridlock.
      West Texas Intermediate crude, the benchmark used to price oil in much of the U.S., rose $1.09 to end at $98.01 a barrel in New York.    Brent crude, which is used to price oil produced in many foreign coun-tries, rose $1.99 to finish at $108.65 a barrel in London.
      Oil prices rose on worries that new international sanctions on Iran would reduce the flow of oil from the world’s fourth biggest oil producer.    Also large, violent protests in Egypt stirred fears that upheaval in the region could spread and disrupt supplies.    Egypt is not a major oil producer, but it does control important energy supply lines and wields considerable influence in the region.
      The worst fears about Europe’s debt crisis — that it could lead to a lending crisis and financial gridlock around the world — were allayed somewhat Tuesday by the announcement of an International Monetary Fund plan designed to help prevent the debt crisis in Europe from spreading.
  
  
• 11/24/2011
  
  Debt impasse casts shadow - Battle lines drawn for 2012 elections by Jim Kuhnhenn, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — The failure of Congress’ deficit-reduction supercommittee adds a new dimension to the 2012 political contests, drawing political battle lines around broad tax increases and massive spending cuts that are to begin automatically in 2013.
      President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger will be forced to debate alternatives for reducing deficits, made more urgent by the consequences of congressional inaction.
      The dividing lines already are sharply drawn, with Obama supporting deficit reduction that includes a mix of spending cuts and tax increases on the wealthy, while Republicans have declared themselves averse to tax hikes.
      An election that has been shaping up as a referendum on Obama’s stewardship of the economy now will require the candidates to offer competing forward-looking deficit- reduction plans to avoid cuts and tax hikes that neither side wants to see materialize.
      For Obama, that is a more favorable place to be, drawing contrasts with his opponent and arguing for higher taxes on the rich rather than defending his oversight of an economy that could still be suffering from high un-employment and slow growth next November.
      Beginning in 2013, the federal government faces two oncoming trains. When the supercommittee was unable to find agreement by Wednesday, it triggered spending cuts of $1.2 trillion starting in January 2013 and extending over 10 years.    Half of the cuts would come from defense spending, the other from education, agriculture and environmental programs, and, to a lesser extent, Medicare.
      At the same time, tax cuts adopted during the presidency of George W. Bush will expire at the end of 2012, meaning an increase for every taxpayer.
      Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said the cuts would “tear a seam in the nation’s defense.”    Meanwhile, the tax increases would hit a still-fragile economy, raising prospects of an-other recession.
      Washington’s recent history of tackling fiscal problems shows Congress does not act unless faced with a dire deadline.    It extended Bush-era tax cuts in 2010 just days before they expired, it avoided a government shutdown by hours and it put off a debt crisis this summer in the face of a government default.
      “The next big event, barring some movement from Congress, may just well be the 2012 election,” said Kevin Madden, a former senior House leadership aide and an outside adviser to Republican Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.    “Then we look to either a new president and a new Congress, or the same president and the same Congress to restart it all.”
      Election years do not lend themselves to big legislative initiatives.    Lawmakers are too busy seeking re-election to take stances that could cost them votes.
  
  EGYPT - World critical of military rulers by Aya Batrawy, Associated Press
      CAIRO — International criticism of Egypt’s military rulers mounted Wednesday as police clashed for a fifth day with protesters demanding the military cede power immediately.    A rights group raised the death toll for the wave of violence to at least 38.
      The U.N. strongly condemned authorities for what it deemed an excessive use of force.    Germany, one of Egypt’s top trading partners, called for a quick transfer of power to a civilian government.
      The U.S. and U.N. secretary general have already expressed concern over the use of violence against mostly peaceful protesters.    Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, deplored the role of Egypt’s security forces in trying to suppress protesters.    The brutal beating of already subdued protesters, are deeply shocking, as are the reports of unarmed protesters being shot in the head, she said.    “There should be a prompt, impartial and independent investigation and accountability for those found responsible for the abuses ... should be ensured.”    Clashes resumed for a fifth day despite a promise by the head of the ruling military council Tuesday to speed up a presidential election to the first half of 2012, a concession swiftly rejected by tens of thousands of protesters in Tahrir Square.    The military previously floated late 2012 or early 2013 as the likely date for the vote, the last step in the process of transferring power to a civilian government.    The clashes are the longest spate of uninterrupted violence since the 18-day uprising that toppled the former regime in February.
  
  Medvedev: Russia may target U.S. missile shield by Vladimir Isachenkov, Associated Press
      MOSCOW — Russia threatened Wednesday to deploy missiles to target the U.S. missile shield in Europe if Washington fails to assuage Moscow’s concerns about its plans, a harsh warning that reflects deep cracks in U.S.-Russian ties despite President Barack Obama’s efforts to “reset” relations with the Kremlin.    President Dmitry Medvedev said he still hopes for a deal with the U.S. on missile defense, but he strongly accused Wash-ington and its NATO allies of ignoring Russia’s worries.    He said Russia will have to take military countermeasures if the U.S. continues to build the shield without legal guarantees that it will not be aimed against Russia.    The U.S. has repeatedly assured Russia that its proposed missile defense system wouldn’t be directed against Russia’s nuclear forces, and it did that again Wednesday.
      “I do think it’s worth reiterating that the European missile defense system that we’ve been working very hard on with our allies and with Russia over the last few years is not aimed at Russia,” said Capt. John Kirby, a Penta-gon spokesman.    “It is … designed to help deter and defeat the ballistic missile threat to Europe and to our allies from Iran.”    Medvedev and other Russian leaders have made similar threats in the past, and the latest statement appears to be aimed at the domestic audience ahead of Dec. 4 parliamentary elections.
      Medvedev, who is set to step down to allow Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to reclaim the presidency in March’s election, leads the ruling United Russia party list in the parliamentary vote.    A stern warning to the U.S. and NATO issued by Medvedev seems to be directed at rallying nationalist votes in the polls.    White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said the U.S. will continue to seek Moscow’s cooperation, but it must realize “that the missile defense systems planned for deployment in Europe do not and cannot threaten Russia’s strategic deterrent.”
      But Medvedev said Moscow will not be satisfied by simple declarations.    “When we propose to put on paper in the form of precise and clear legal obligations, we hear a strong refusal,” he said.
      Medvedev warned that Russia will station missiles in its westernmost Kaliningrad region if the U.S. continues its plans without offering firm and specific pledges.    He didn’t say whether the missiles would carry conventional or nuclear warheads.
      Medvedev also warned that Moscow may opt out of the New START arms control deal with the U.S. and halt other arms control talks, if the U.S. proceeds with the shield.
  
  
• 11/25/2011
  
  Egypt’s military says vote won’t be delayed by Maggie Michael, Associated Press
      CAIRO — Egypt’s military rulers said Thursday that parliamentary elections will start on schedule next week despite escalating unrest, and they rejected protesters’ calls for them to step down now.
      That would amount to a betrayal of the people’s trust after the military took over from ousted president Hosni Mubarak, the ruling generals said.    “The election will be held on time with all of its three stages on schedule,” said Maj. Gen. Mamdouh Shaheen, one of two members of the ruling military council who spoke at a tele-vised news conference.
      That suggested the council led by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, Mubarak’s defense minister for 20 years, has no intention of making more concessions under pressure from tens of thousands of protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
      A second council member, Maj. Gen. Mukhtar el-Mallah, said stepping down immediately would be a be-tray the trust “placed in our hands by the people.”    He said protesters do not represent the whole of Egypt.    “We will not relinquish power because a sloganchanting crowd said so. … Being in power is not a blessing.    It is a curse.    It’s a very heavy responsibility.”    Earlier in the day, the military apologized for the deaths of dozens of pro-democracy protesters since Saturday and vowed to prosecute those responsible.
      Tahrir Square was quieter Thursday after five days of intense clashes, which left nearly 40 dead and more than 2,000 injured. Police and protesters agreed to a truce negotiated by Muslim clerics; it went into force around 6 a.m. and was holding by sunset, when thousands streamed into the square to join protesters there.    Thousands chanted “we are not leaving, he leaves,” referring to Tantawi.    Others chanted: “Go away, marshal. Egypt will not be ruled by a field marshal.”
      Voting is scheduled to begin on Monday and will be staggered over a three month period.    The military’s apology left many of the protesters unmoved.    “What we want to hear is when they’re leaving,” said protester Khaled Mahmoud.
      “The army is like the police: a tool of suppression,” said Mayada Khalaf, a female protester.    “Where was the army when the shooting was going on?”
  
  Yemen protesters reject power transfer by Jamal Al-jashini, Associated Press
      SANAA, Yemen — A U.S.backed deal for Yemen’s authoritarian president to step down fell far short of the demands of protesters who fought regime supporters on the streets of Sanaa in clashes that left five dead Thursday.    The pact ending President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 33-year rule provides for just the slightest changes at the top of the regime, something the U.S. administration likely favored to preserve a fragile alliance against one of the world’s most active al-Qaida branches based in Yemen.
      The plan drawn up by the nation’s oil-rich Gulf neighbors doesn’t directly change the system Saleh put in place over three decades to serve his interests.    “It gives an opportunity for regime survival,” said Yemen expert Ibrahim Sharqieh at the Brookings Doha Center.    “The only one we’ve seen changing here is the president, but the state institutions and everything else remain.”
      Saleh signed the agreement Wednesday in the Saudi capital Riyadh, transferring power to his vice president within 30 days.    If it holds, he’ll be the fourth dictator pushed from power this year by the Arab Spring uprisings.    But the deal leaves much more of the old regime intact than the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya — something that will almost certainly translate into continued unrest.    Protesters who have been in the millions for nearly 10 months were out again Thursday, rejecting a provision that gives Saleh immunity from prosecution.
      Throughout his rule, Saleh consolidated power through wily tactics that included exploiting tribal and regional rivalries and putting close relatives and confidantes in key security positions.    For years, he ac-cepted funds from the West to fight Islamist militants, then turned around and used some of those militants to help fight his enemies.
      Ruling party and opposition members say Saleh signed the deal under heavy pressure from the U.S. and Saudi governments and that he feared possible sanctions against him and his family, who are suspected of having huge fortunes stashed in foreign banks.    Some doubt that the deal marks the end of political life for the president, who has proved to be a wily politician and suggested in remarks after the signing ceremony that he could play a future political role in the country, along with his ruling party.
      Yemen is the poorest country in the Arab world and even before the uprising, the government exerted only weak authority over most of the country.    The uprising led to a collapse in security that created a vacuum al-Qaida militants exploited to gain a firmer foothold in the country.    The militants even seized some territory in the south.
      The U.S. has long considered Saleh a necessary though unreliable partner in fighting terror, training and funding his special forces to fight Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, which has been linked to plots against U.S. targets.
      Sharqieh said both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia had reasons to ease Saleh’s departure while not calling for deeper regime change.    Saudi Arabia, a deeply conservative hereditary monarchy, fears the pro-de-mocracy uprisings sweeping the Arab world will spread to its shores and worries that collapsing security in Yemen will also spill trouble over its borders.
      With this deal, the U.S. may want to appease the protesters while ensuring it can still count on Yemen to fight al-Qaida.    “Saudi Arabia does not want to see a successful youth revolution on its southern border, and Washington does not want security in Yemen to be in the hands of those protesting in Change Square,” said Sharqieh, referring to the Sanaa square that is the center of the protest movement.
      Saleh is transferring power to Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi.    In the coming days, an opposition group that signed the deal will name a prime minister, whom Hadi will swear in.    The new prime minister will then form a national unity government, evenly divided between the opposition and Saleh’s ruling party.    Hadi will also announce a date for presidential elections, to be held within 90 days.     The deal ensures that Saleh’s party will play a large role in the country’s future.    More importantly, it does not mention Saleh’s son, Ahmed, who commands the elite Republican Guard, or his other relatives and associates who command security forces.    These units are often the enforcers of Saleh’s regime and could remain more loyal to him and his associates than to a new coalition government.
      Under the plan, the new government will also appoint a committee to “restructure” security forces, including the army, the police and the intelligence services.    But it remains unclear what powers it will have to push through its suggested reforms.
      Inside Yemen, many of the protesters who have braved lethal government crackdowns to demonstrate for democratic reforms rejected the deal.
      Security forces and pro-Saleh gunmen opened fire on a protest march in Sanaa, killing five protesters, said Gameela Abdullah, a medic at the local field hospital.
  
  Syria may face Arab League sanctions by Bassem Mroue, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — An Arab League committee on Thursday gave Syria 24 hours to agree to allow an observer mission into the country, or it could face sanctions that include stopping financial dealings and freezing assets.    The bloodshed in the country continued, meantime, with activists reporting at least 15 people killed, including civilians and security forces.    Thursday’s threat was a humiliating blow to Damascus, a founding member of the Arab League.    It comes as international pressure mounts on President Bashar Assad to stop the brutal crackdown on an uprising against his rule.
      The U.N. says has at least 3,500 have been killed since mid-March.    Syria is the scene of the bloodiest crackdown against the Arab Spring’s eruption of protests.    Deaths in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen have numbered in the hundreds.    Libya’s toll is unknown and likely higher than Syria’s, but that conflict differed: Early on it became an outright civil war between two armed foes.    The Cairo-based Arab League called on Damascus to agree to an observer mission by today, or else the League will meet Saturday to decide on sanctions.    In a statement released after the committee met, the group said punishment could include ceasing trade with the Syrian government apart from strategic goods that affect the Syrian people.    Other sanctions could include stopping flights to Syria and ending dealings with Syria’s central bank.
      The Arab League already has suspended Syria’s membership over the bloodshed and Syria’s failure to abide by an Arab peace plan it signed.    Thursday’s meeting took place in a hotel rather than at the League’s headquarters in the central Tahrir Square, where there have been clashes between Egyptian security forces and protesters calling for the ruling military to step down.    Also Thursday, the European Union said protect-ing civilians caught up in Syria’s crackdown on antigovernment protests “is an increasingly urgent and important aspect” of responding to the bloodshed there.    Alongside the diplomatic efforts, violence continued, with clashes reported between troops and army defectors near the town of Rastan and in Houla, both in the restive central province of Homs.    The province has been one of the most volatile regions throughout the uprising.
      The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees said the toll included at least four civilians.
      French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, who has called the situation in Syria “no longer tenable” and accused Assad’s regime of “repression of a savagery we have not seen in a long time,” has suggested that aid groups like the Red Cross use special EU corridors to bring medical supplies to places like Homs.
  
  
• 11/26/2011
  
  Egypt showdown nears - U.S., protesters press military to hand over power to civilians by Sarah El Deeb, Associated Press
      CAIRO — The U.S. increased pressure Friday on Egypt’s military rulers to hand over power to civilian leaders, and the generals turned to a Mubarak-era politician to head a new government in a move that failed to satisfy the more than 100,000 protesters who jammed Tahrir Square.
      The demonstrators rejected the appointment of Kamal el-Ganzouri as prime minister, chanting “Illegitimate! Illegitimate!” and setting up a showdown between the two sides only three days before key parliamentary elections.
      The size of the rally and the resilience of protesters in the face of violence used by security forces in this week’s deadly street battles have won back for the movement much of the strength it projected during the 18-day uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak in February.
      Protesters say they will not leave the iconic square until the military rulers led by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi step down and a civilian presidential council is formed to run the country until a new leader is elected.
      The military’s appointment of el-Ganzouri, its apology for the death of protesters and a series of partial concessions in the past two days suggest that the generals are struggling to overcome the most serious challenge to their ninemonth rule, with fewer options now available to them.
      Significantly adding to their predicament, the Obama administration brought its position on the crisis closer to the protesters’ demands, urging the military to fully empower the next interim civilian government.
      “We believe that Egypt’s transition to democracy must continue, with elections proceeding expedi-tiously, and all necessary measures taken to ensure security and prevent intimidation,” the White House said in a statement.
      “Most importantly, we believe that the full transfer of power to a civilian government must take place in a just and inclusive manner that responds to the legitimate aspirations of the Egyptian people, as soon as possible,” it said.
      The adjustment in the Obama administration’s approach is significant because the Egyptian military, the nation’s most powerful institution, has in the past 30 years forged close relations with successive U.S. administrations, re-ceiving $1.3 billion annually in aid.    It followed the public U.S. endorsement of the military’s original time-table for the transfer of power by late 2012 or early 2013.    The choice of el-Ganzouri, who served as prime minister under Mubarak between 1996 and 1999, deepened the anger of the protesters, already seething over the military’s perceived reluctance to dismantle the legacy of the ousted president’s 29-year rule.
      Hundreds of protesters moved from Tahrir Square and began a sit-in outside the headquarters of the Cabinet, a few blocks away, vowing to prevent el-Ganzouri from entering.    “The military council must go,” the crowd chanted, “Military men must not rule.”
      The protest movement launched an attempt to unify its demands and present an alternative to el-Gan-zouri. Twenty-four protest groups, including two political parties, announced they were creating their own “national salvation” government.    They demanded the military hand over power to a presidential council led by Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei with deputies from across the political spectrum.
      “El-Ganzouri is over and done with.    We want young people to take charge of the country,” said Hamdi Arban, a 50-yearold lawyer in Tahrir Square.    “We will stay here and we won’t get our rights except from here.”
      Basma el-Husseini, who directs a cultural center and was also in Tahrir, dismissed the 78-year-old el-Ganzouri as a man with little energy to keep up with the multitude of challenges facing Egypt.    “They (the generals) don’t get the power of the people. All they are doing now is play for time to make people fed up.”
      Addressing a televised news conference, el-Ganzouri said the military has given him greater powers than his predecessor, Essam Sharaf, who was installed by the military months ago and has been criticized as a mere facade for the council of generals.    El-Ganzouri insisted he wouldn’t have accepted the job if he believed Tantawi had any intention of staying in power.
      “The powers given to me exceed any similar mandates,” he said.    “I will take full authority so I’m able to serve my country.”
      But el-Ganzouri appeared uncomfortable, grasping for words and repeatedly pausing as he spoke, giving rambling answers when pressed whether he could form a government that will satisfy the public when many prominent figures have shunned joining the new administration.    The military inadvertently sparked the ongoing unrest by pushing plans for a political “guardianship” role for itself and immunity from civilian oversight even after a new parliament is seated and a new president is elected.    The last straw came when the military ordered the use of force against a small protest in Tahrir Square last weekend and then launched a failed, joint army-police raid to evacuate a larger crowd.    Nearly 40 protesters have died in the past week.    The latest crisis has overshadowed Monday’s start of Egypt’s first parliamentary elections since Mubarak was replaced by Tantawi.    The vote, which the generals say will be held on schedule despite the unrest, is now seen by many activists to be serving the military’s efforts to project an image of itself as the nation’s savior.
  
  Army stands with Syrian regime as sanctions loom by Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — The Syrian military vowed Friday to “cut every evil hand” that targets the nation’s security, a defiant stance by the regime as it faces the possibility of sweeping economic sanctions from the Arab League.    The military statement could signal darker days to come in an eight-month revolt against President Bashar Assad that’s turning more violent daily.
      Until recently in the uprising, most bloodshed came as security forces fired on mainly peaceful protests.    But there have been growing reports of army defectors and armed civilians fighting Assad’s forces — a development that some say plays into the regime’s hands by giving government troops a pretext to crack down with overwhelming force.    “The choice offered by the regime appears clearcut: preservation of As-sad’s rule or collective destruction,” the International Crisis Group said in a report this week.    Assad blames the unrest on a foreign plot to destabilize Syria, saying extremists and terrorists — not true reformers — are driving the calls to oust him.    On Friday, the military blamed terrorists for a Thursday attack in Homs, saying six elite pilots and four technical officers were killed in an ambush.    Though many Syrians resent police and intelligence agencies that they blame for oppressing the uprising, they respect the armed forces, seen as a bulwark against Israel.
      Unlike the armies of Tunisia and Egypt, Syria’s military has stood fiercely by the country’s leader as Assad faces down an extraordinary protest movement.    In the past 40 years, Assad and his father be-fore him stacked key military posts with members of their minority Alawite sect — an offshoot of Shiite Islam — ensuring the armed forces’ loyalty by melding the army’s fate with the regime’s.    Syria is mostly Sunni Muslim.
      “Many regime supporters are terrified about their future and thus liable to resist till the bitter end,” the Brussels-based ICG said in its report.    “A majority of Alawite officials, security officers and ordi-nary citizens, along with segments of the Christian community and some secularists, have become convinced that their fate is either to kill or be killed.”
      Also Friday, a U.N. human rights panel expressed alarm at reports of Syrian security forces torturing children.    The Geneva-based Committee against Torture says it’s gotten “numerous, consistent and substantiated reports” of rampant abuse.
  
  Yemen clashes kill 2, may signal power struggle by Jamal Al-Jashini, Associated Press
      SANAA, Yemen — Heavy fighting between rival army units shook Yemen’s capital Friday, killing two soldiers in what could signal the start of a power struggle just days after autocratic President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to end his 33-year rule.    The clashes pitted Central Security forces commanded by Saleh’s nephew, Col. Yehia Saleh, against troops from the First Armored Division, headed by Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who defected and joined the protesters in March.    The crackle of automatic weapons and the heavy thud of mortars echoed across the city.
      One soldier from each side was killed before the fighting stopped around dawn, a security official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.    The two units have clashed in the past, but Friday’s fighting was the first showdown since Saleh signed a U.S.-backed proposal Wednesday in the Saudi capital Riyadh.    Under the agreement, Saleh agreed to pass power to Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi within 30 days, after a new government sworn in by the vice president passes a law protecting Saleh and his associates from prosecution.
      Hadi is also to call for early presidential elections to be held within 90 days.    Also Friday, opposition parties that signed the Gulf deal selected Mohammed Basindwa as prime minister, said opposition leader Abdullah Obal.    Under the deal’s terms, the vice president is expected to charge him in the next few days with forming a national unity government.
      Basindwa, though an independent, has held numerous positions in Saleh’s government, including foreign and information minister.
  
  Italy’s borrowing rates skyrocket
      A week into his new job, Premier Mario Monti is running out of time to reassure nervous investors that his government has a strategy to deal with Italy’s crippling debts.
      The nation’s borrowing rates skyrocketed Friday after a grim set of bond auctions, with a new auction looming Tuesday.    Another borrowing debacle could ratchet up fears that Italy has entered a debt spiral driving it toward bankruptcy and the 17-nation eurozone into its most acute crisis yet.
      Monti’s government of so-called “technocrats” is battling to convince investors that it has a successful strategy to reduce the country’s $2.6 trillion debt.    But Friday’s dismal bond auction results for the eurozone’s third largest economy temporarily battered Europe’s stock markets.
  
  
  Also Friday:
  • Hungary has slammed Moody’s decision to downgrade its credit rating to junk status, describing it as another unjustified financial attack against the country.
  • Standard & Poor’s downgraded Belgium’s financial standing from AA+ to AA, citing the country’s government stalemate and a looming European recession.
  
  Venezuela receives gold shipment
      President Hugo Chavez’s government began repatriating Venezuela’s gold reserves from European banks Friday as the first shipment arrived on a flight from Paris.
      Troops guarded the shipment in a caravan of at least five armored vehicles that carried the gold to the Central Bank in Caracas.    Chavez announced in August that his government would retrieve more than 211 tons of gold held in U.S. and European banks.
  
  Oil up to near $97 a barrel
      NEW YORK — Oil rose Friday after a see-sawing session in post-holiday, lowvolume trading, but was down slightly for the week.
      The benchmark for crude oil in the U.S. rose 60 cents to settle at $96.77 a barrel.    It dropped $1.84 on Wednesday, before markets in the U.S. were closed for the Thanksgiving holiday.    On the week, oil lost 0.7 percent.
      Oil had fallen earlier as Europe’s debt crisis continued to undermine confidence the continent will avoid recession next year.
  
  
• 11/27/2011
  
  Protesters, troops tangle in Egypt - Military chief, opponents meet by Hadeel al-Shalchi, Associated Press
      CAIRO — Fresh clashes between security forces and Egyptian protesters demanding the military step down broke out Saturday in front of the Cabinet building, leaving one man dead, as violence threatened to overshadow Mon-day’s parliamentary elections.
      Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of the ruling military council that took power after Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February, met separately with opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei and presidential hopeful Amr Moussa, a former head of the Arab League.    State TV reported the meetings but gave no details.    Kamal el-Ganzouri, the new prime minister, whose appointment by the military on Friday touched off a wave of anger among protesters accusing the army of trying to perpetuate the old regime, held a series of meetings trying to sway youth groups to his side.
      State TV said el-Ganzouri, who is unpopular in part because he served under Mubarak, offered Cabinet positions and is pondering the formation of an advisory council to be composed of leading democracy advocates and presidential hopefuls.
      The suggestion, however, failed to disperse the protesters, with nearly 10,000 packing into Cairo’s central Tahrir Square as organizers called for another mass rally today.    Twenty-four protest groups, including two political parties, have announced they are creating their own “national salvation” government to be headed by ElBaradei with deputies from across the political spectrum.    ElBaradei said he would be willing to form such a government to manage the country’s transition, and that if he were officially asked to put a government together, he would give up the idea of running for president in order to focus on the current phase of transition.    Outside the Cabinet building, hundreds of protesters set up camp, spending the night in blankets and tents to prevent el-Ganzouri, 78, from entering to take up his new post. Early Saturday, they clashed with security forces who allegedly tried to disperse them.    An Associated Press cameraman saw three police troop carriers and an armored vehicle firing tear gas as they were being chased from the site by rock-throwing protesters.
      The man who was killed was run over by one of the vehicles, but there were conflicting accounts about the circumstances surrounding the death.
      The Interior Ministry expressed regret for the death of the protester, identified as Ahmed Serour, and said it was an accident.    Police didn’t intend to storm the sit-in but were merely heading to the Interior Ministry headquarters, located behind the Cabinet building, when they came under attack by angry protesters throwing firebombs, it said in a statement.    The ministry claimed security forces were injured and the driver of one of the vehicles panicked and ran over the protester.
      One of the demonstrators, Mohammed Zaghloul, 21, said he saw six security vehicles heading to their site.
      “It became very tense, rock throwing started and the police cars were driving like crazy,” he said.    “Police threw one tear gas canister and all of a sudden we saw our people carrying the body of a man who was bleeding really badly.”
  
  
• 11/28/2011
  
  Islamist party to lead next government
      RABAT, MOROCCO - An Islamist party won the most seats in Morocco’s parliamentary elections and will now be chosen to lead the next government, according to final results released Sunday.
      The Justice and Development Party won 107 seats in the 395-seat legislature after the nationwide vote Friday, almost twice as many as its nearest competitor.
      The king will choose someone from the party to form a coalition out of the dozen parties in the new parliament.
      Morocco, a close U.S. ally, has been swept by pro-democracy protests decrying lack of freedoms and widespread corruption.    King Mohammed VI sought to defuse tensions by giving parliament more power and by moving legislative elections up a year.
  
  Independent to form unity government
      SANAA, YEMEN - Yemen’s vice president issued a decree Sunday assigning a veteran independent politician to form a national unity government, Yemen’s state TV reported, part of the power transfer deal signed by the president last week.    The TV said Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi’s decree followed the part of the accord that required the new government to include equal numbers of ministers from the opposition and President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s party.
      The choice for premier, Mohammed Basindwa, an independent, held several positions in Saleh’s government, including foreign and information minister.    The U.S. welcomed the accord.
      Saleh signed the deal after stalling for several months, as thousands of people demonstrated practically every day demanding his ouster.
  
  Arab League approves sanctions on Syria - Unprecedented act pressures Damascus by Maamoun Youssef, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — In an unprecedented move against an Arab nation, the Arab League on Sunday approved economic sanctions on Syria to pressure Damascus to end its deadly suppression of an 8-month-old uprising against President Bashar Assad.
      But even as world leaders abandon Assad, the regime has refused to ease a military assault on dissent that already has killed more than 3,500 people.    On Sunday, Damascus slammed the sanctions as a betrayal of Arab solidarity and insisted a foreign conspiracy was behind the revolt, all but assuring more bloodshed will follow.
      The sanctions are among the clearest signs yet of the isolation Syria is suffering because of the crackdown.
  Damascus has long boasted of being a powerhouse of Arab nationalism, but Assad has been abandoned by some of his closest allies and now his Arab neighbors.    The growing movement against his regime could transform some of the most enduring alliances in the Middle East and beyond.
      At a news conference in Cairo, Qatari Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim said 19 of the League’s 22 member nations approved a series of tough punishments that include cutting off transactions with the Syrian central bank, halting Arab government funding for projects in Syria and freezing government assets.    Those sanctions are to take effect immediately.
      Other steps, including halting flights and imposing travel bans on some as-yet unnamed Syrian officials, will come later after a committee reviews them.
      “The Syrian people are being killed but we don’t want this.    Every Syrian official should not accept killing even one person,” bin Jassim said.    “Power is worth nothing while you stand as an enemy to your people.”
      He added that the League aims to “to avoid any suffering for the Syrian people.”
      Iraq and Lebanon — important trading partners for Syria — abstained from the vote, which came after Damascus missed an Arab League deadline to agree to allow hundreds of observers into the country as part of a peace deal Syria agreed to early this month to end the crisis.
      Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby said the bloc will reconsider the sanctions if Syria carries out the Arab-brokered plan, which includes pulling tanks from the streets and ending violence against civilians.
  
  
• 11/29/2011
  
  U.N.: Syria killed, tortured children - Report on investigation turns up pressure on Assad by Zeina Karam, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — A U.N. investigation concluded Monday that Syrian forces committed crimes against humanity by torturing and killing hundreds of children, including a 2-year-old girl reportedly shot to death so she wouldn’t grow up to be a demonstrator.
      The inquiry added to mounting international pressure on President Bashar Assad.    On Sunday, the Arab League approved sweeping sanctions to push his embattled regime to end the violence against mostly unarmed protesters.
      The report by a U.N. Human Rights Council panel found that at least 256 children were killed by government forces between mid-March and early November, some of them tortured to death.
      “Torture was applied equally to adults and children,” said the assessment, released in Geneva.    “Numerous testimonies indicated that boys were subjected to sexual torture in places of detention in front of adult men.”
      The report was compiled by a panel of independent experts who were not allowed into Syria.    However, the commission interviewed 223 victims and witnesses, including defectors from Syria’s military and security forces.
      The panel said government forces were given “shoot to kill” orders to crush demon-strations.    It quoted one former soldier who said he decided to defect after seeing an officer shoot a 2-year-old girl in Latakia, then claim he killed her so she wouldn’t grow up to be a demonstrator.    The list of alleged crimes committed by Syrian forces “include murder, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence,” said the panel’s chairman, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, a Brazilian professor.    “We have a very solid body of evidence.”
      At least 3,500 people have been killed since March in Syria, according to the U.N.
      Syrian officials did not comment directly on the U.N. findings.    However, the regime reacted sharply to the Arab League sanctions, betraying a deep concern over the economic impact.
      Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem called the Arab League action “a declaration of economic war” and said Syria had withdrawn 95 percent of its assets in Arab countries.
      Chaos in Syria could send unsettling ripples across the region.
      Syria borders five countries with which it shares religious and ethnic minorities.    As they struggled with how to respond to Assad’s brutal crackdown, world leaders have been aware of the country’s web of allegiances, which extend to Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah movement and Iran’s Shiite theocracy.
      The latest sanctions include cutting off transactions with Syria’s central bank, and are expected to squeeze an ailing economy that already is under sanctions by the U.S. and the European Union.    The net effect of the sanctions could cripple Syria’s economy.
  
  First vote held since uprising by Associated Press
      CAIRO — Egyptians cast aside worries over a new wave of unrest and waited patiently and peacefully in long lines Monday to vote in the first parliamentary elections since Hosni Mubarak’s ouster.
      They were determined to reap the fruits of their uprising and have their choices count after decades of rigged polls.    The vote is expected to be the fairest and cleanest in living memory and more than anything else, it will serve as a litmus test of whether Egypt will go down a more Islamic path as other countries swept up in Arab Spring uprisings have done.
      “I have hope this time,” said Amal Fathy, 50, a government employee, as she waited to vote in Cairo.    “I may not live long enough to see change, but my grandchildren will.”
      Since the uprising that forced Mubarak out nearly 10 months ago, Egyptians had looked forward to this day in expectation of a celebration of freedom after years of stifling dictatorship.    But deep disappointment with the military rulers who replaced the old regime and a new wave of protests and clashes that began 10 days ago left the country polarized and uncertain about the future.
  
  Europeans push debt solutions - In one plan, nations would cede some control of budgets by Paul Wiseman, Associated Press
      PARIS — European leaders rushed Monday to stop a rampaging debt crisis that threatened to shatter their 12-year-old experiment in a common euro currency and devastate the world economy.
      One proposal would have countries cede some control over their budgets to a central European authority.    In a measure of how rapidly the peril has grown, that idea would have been unthinkable even three months ago.
      Allowing a central European authority to have some control over the budgets of sovereign nations would create a fiscal union in Europe in addition to the monetary union of the 17 countries that share the euro currency.
      Some analysts have said it would be a leap toward creating a United States of Europe. It would force the nations of Europe to swallow their national pride, cede some sovereignty and agree to strengthen ties with their neighbors.
      “The common currency has the problem that the monetary policy is joint, but the fiscal policy is not,” Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, said in Berlin.
      The monetary union has existed since the euro was created in 1999, but the European Union, which includes the 17 euro nations and 10 others that use their own currencies, has no central authority over taxing and spending.
      Countries like Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Greece and Italy overspent wildly for years and built up monstrous debt.
  
  Retail sales help drive up oil prices - Improved view of debt fix in Europe also a factor by Associated Press
      NEW YORK — Oil prices climbed above $98 per barrel Monday after shoppers pumped up holiday retail sales in the U.S., and investors bet that Europe would find a last-minute solution to its financial crisis.
      Benchmark crude rose $1.44 to end the day at $98.21per barrel in New York.    Brent crude, which is used to price foreign oil — including much imported by U.S. refineries to make gasoline — rose $2.26 to finish at $108.02 a barrel in London.
      Benchmark oil has recovered much of the ground it lost since Nov. 16, when it hit $102.59 a barrel.    Prices rebounded Monday following strong holiday sales in the U.S, where shoppers spent nearly $1billion more on Black Friday than they did a year ago.    The robust sales are a promising sign that consumers are opening their wallets a little wider.
      “The U.S. is probably doing better than we gave it credit for,” PFGBest analyst Phil Flynn said.    “Consumers are buying more, and that’s going to get manufacturers to produce more products, and it’ll take more energy to make and distribute those goods.”
      Meanwhile European leaders are considering new solutions to their credit problems, with little time to left to preserve the euro currency and perhaps head off a recession in the region.    Among the ideas is a plan for eurozone countries with the best credit to pool their resources to assist the most indebted members of the 17-nation currency block.
      Some analysts say the euro could collapse in days unless action is taken.
      Oil prices climbed along with a surge in world stock markets. Stock indexes in Italy, Germany and France rose more than 4 percent on Monday.    In the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average, the Standard & Poor’s 500 and the Nasdaq all rose.
  
  
• 11/30/2011
  
  Embassy stormed in Iran - Protesters: British compound ‘spy den’ by Nasser Karimi, Associated Press
      TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian protesters stormed the British Embassy in Tehran on Tuesday, hauling down the Union Jack, torching an embassy vehicle and pelting buildings with petrol bombs.
      The assault began as an apparent state-approved show of anger over the latest Western sanctions to punish Iran for defiance over its nuclear program.    The hours-long attack on the embassy and a residential complex for staff could push already frayed diplomatic ties toward the breaking point.    The chaotic scenes were reminiscent of the seizing of the U.S. Embassy in 1979.
      Iran’s parliament approved a bill Sunday to downgrade relations with Britain, one of America’s closest allies with diplomatic envoys in the Islamic Republic.
      Calling Tuesday’s attack “outrageous and indefensible,” British Prime Minister David Cameron said Iran’s failure to defend the embassy and its staff was a disgrace and would have “serious consequences.”
      He said all embassy staff had been accounted for and praised Britain’s ambassador to Iran for handling a “dangerous situation with calm and professionalism.”    Sorting out who to blame may be difficult.
      The late-afternoon demonstration outside the British Embassy was organized by progovernment groups at universities and Islamic seminaries, and could not have taken place without official sanction.    But such anti-Western rallies often draw ultraconservative factions such as the “basiji,” a paramilitary group run by the powerful Revolutionary Guard that is directly controlled by Iran’s ruling theocracy.
      Riot police initially clashed with mobs in attempts to hold them back, but protesters surged past cordons and scaled the walls at the embassy complex, which they pelted with petrol bombs and stones.    Flames shot out of an SUV parked outside the brick building and occupiers tossed papers apparently looted from an office.
      “Death to England!” some shouted outside the compound in the first significant assault of a foreign diplomatic area in Iran in years.
      Inside the compound, protesters replaced the British flag with a banner in the name of 7th century Shiite saint, Imam Hussein.
      Protesters chanted for the closing of the embassy and called it a “spy den” — the same phrase used after militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and held 52 hostages for 444 days.
      In that siege, protesters tossed out papers from the compound and pulled down the U.S. flag. Washington and Tehran have had no diplomatic relations since then.
      It wasn’t clear Tuesday if the protesters entered the main embassy building.    In another part of Tehran, about 300 protesters entered a complex used by embassy staff and replaced British flags with Iranian ones, the official IRNA news agency said.
  
  Home prices falling again - Down in 17 of 20 large cities by Derek Kravitz, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Home prices are falling again in most major cities after posting small gains over the summer and spring.    The report suggests the housing market remains weak and won’t recover any time soon.
      The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index released Tuesday showed prices dropped in September from August in 17 of the 20 cities tracked.    That was the first decline after five straight months in which at least half the cities in the survey showed monthly gains.
      A separate index for the July-September quarter shows prices were mostly unchanged from the previous quarter.
      Americans are reluctant to buy a home more than two years after the recession officially ended.    High unemployment and weak job growth have deterred many would-be buyers.
      Even the lowest mortgage rates in history haven’t been enough to lift sales.
      David M. Blitzer, chairman of S&P’s index committee, said that while the steep price declines seen between 2007 and 2009 appear to be over, home prices are down from the same time last year with no sign of easing.
      “Any chance for a sustained recovery will probably need a stronger economy,” he said.
      The largest monthly price declines were in Atlanta, San Francisco and Tampa, Fla. And prices in Atlanta, Las Vegas and Phoenix fell to their lowest points since the housing crisis began four years ago.    Blitzer called the new lows reached in those three cities a “bit disturbing.”
      Portland, Ore., New York and Washington were the only cities to show monthly price increases in September.
      A majority of the cities tracked by the survey posted modest price increases from April through August, the peak buying months. The monthly changes are not adjusted for seasonal factors.
      Even with the gains, home prices were down in all but two major cities in September from the same month one year ago.
      Sales of previously occupied homes are on pace to match last year’s dismal figures — the worst in 14 years.And sales of new homes are shaping up to be the worst since the government began keeping records a half century ago.    Some people can’t qualify for loans or meet higher down payment requirements.    Many with good credit and stable jobs are holding off because they fear prices will keep falling.
      “The psychology of home buyers is still being weighed down by economic uncertainty, keeping them on the fence when it comes to buying homes,” said Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow.com, which measures home values.
  
  
• 12/01/2011
  
  Stocks zoom after banks act - Fear of global crisis ebbs by Daniel Wagner, Associated Press
      A move by the world’s central banks to lower the cost of borrowing exhilarated investors Wednesday, sending the Dow Jones industrial average soaring 490 points and easing fears of a global credit crisis similar to the one that followed the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers.
      It was the Dow’s biggest gain since March 2009 and the seventhlargest of all time.
      Large U.S. banks were among the top performers, jumping as much as 11 per-cent.    Markets in Europe surged, too, with Germany’s DAX index climbing 5 percent. Worries about the financial system — and the reluctance of the European Central Bank to intervene — have caused borrowing rates for European nations to skyrocket.    Wednesday’s decision reduced the rates banks pay to borrow dollars — a move that aims to make loans cheaper so that banks can continue to operate smoothly.
      “The central banks of the world have resolved that there will not be a liquidity shortage,” said David Kotok, chairman and chief investment officer of Cumberland Advisors.    “And they have learned their lessons from 2008.    They don’t want to take small steps and do anything incrementally, but make a big bold move that is credible.”
      Wednesday’s action by the banks of Europe, the U.S., Britain, Canada, Japan and Switzerland represented an extraordinary coordinated effort.
      In another attempt to free up cash for lending, China on Wednesday reduced the amount of money its banks are required to hold in reserve.    It was the first easing of monetary policy in three years, and analysts are expecting more.    Growth in China, which has the largest economy after the European Union and the U.S., could be crucial to sustaining any recovery after the debt crisis.
  
  Doubts still exist
      But amid the market’s excitement, many doubts loomed. Some analysts cautioned that the banks did nothing to provide a permanent fix to the problems facing heavily indebted European nations such as Italy and Greece.    It only buys time for political leaders.
      “It is a short-term solution,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank.    “The bottom line on any central bank action is that it papers over the problems, buys time and in some respects takes pressure from politicians. … If nothing’s done in a week, this market gain will disappear.”
      American and European banks are connected by contracts, loans and other financial ties, meaning that a European financial crisis would punish U.S. bank stocks     Wednesday’s action relieved some investor concerns.    JPMorgan Chase & Co. jumped 8.4 percent, the most of the 30 Dow components.    Morgan Stanley rose 11.1 percent and Citigroup Inc. 8.9 percent.
      European banks rely on dollars to cover loans they have promised to consumers and businesses and pay for investments in U.S credit markets.    They traditionally have tapped short-term funding from U.S money market mutual funds and other banks.    But money market funds have been pulling dollars from Europe in recent months, and lending between banks has dried up.
      In response to the new rates, the euro rose sharply, while U.S. Treasury prices fell as demand weakened for ultra-safe assets.
      The Dow rose 4.2 percent to close at 12,045.    It has more than gained back the 564-point slump it had last week. It is up 813 points, or 7.3 percent, so far this week.
      The last time the Dow closed up more than 400 points was Aug. 11.
      The Standard & Poor’s 500 closed up 52, or 4.3 percent, at 1,247.    The Nasdaq composite index closed up 105, or 4.2 percent, at 2,620.
      Seven stocks rose on the New York Stock Exchange for every one that fell.    Volume was heavy at 5.7 billion shares.
      Surging commodity prices lifted the stocks of companies that make basic materials such as steel.    U.S. Steel gained 15.3 percent, the most in the S&P 500. AK Steel Holding Corp. added 13.4 percent.
      Energy stocks also leaped. Alpha Natural Resources rose 15.2 percent, and Peabody Energy14.3 percent.
      The act by the central banks took some pressure off the financial system, which has signaled in recent days that many banks were losing faith in their trading partners.
      And it offered hope that more help was on the way.
      “People are taking comfort that it’s globally coordinated,” said Peter Tchir, who runs the hedge fund TF Market Advisors.    Any successful plan would have to reduce borrowing costs for Italy and other indebted nations, Tchir said.
      Italy’s borrowing costs edged lower Wednesday, but the nation was still paying more than 7 percent interest for 10-year borrowing — a dangerously high level.
  
  Q&A: BANK PLAN
      WASHINGTON — The plan central banks announced Wednesday could ease financial strains that threaten Europe’s common currency.
      The Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the central banks of Canada, Japan and Switzerland said they’d make it easier for banks to get the dollars they need to lend.
      Still, the plan doesn’t address the root of Europe’s crisis: Debt burdens are overwhelming Spain, Italy and some other nations. A default by one or more could topple the entire continent’s economy.
      Here are some questions and answers about the move.
  
  Q. What did the Fed and other central banks do?
  A. They agreed to make it easier for banks to obtain U.S. dollars to fund loans all over the world.    This should loosen credit, which had tightened because of Europe’s financial crisis.    Many banks lend in dollars because so much trade and investment is denominated in the U.S. currency.
  Q. How would this help?
  A. The Fed and the other central banks are easing interest rates.    And the ECB will reduce the collateral banks must provide to get dollar loans.
  Q. How will we know if this plan works?
  A. One sign will be what happens when the ECB offers dollar loans.    Most analysts expect many more banks to take advantage of the loans.
  Q. Will this do anything for governments like Greece and Italy that are on the verge of default?
  A. Not really.    It might help calm investors.    It could slightly lower rates that those countries pay.    But it won’t reduce their debt burdens.
  Q: How did Europe get into this mess?
  A: The euro made the continent a potent economic bloc, and banks lent at low rates even to weaker countries like Greece.    Governments got away with overspending because they could borrow at low rates until their debts became devastating.
  
  Syrian ministers now facing Arab travel ban by Hadeel al-Shalchi, Associated Press
      CAIRO — The Arab League unveiled a list of top Syrian officials facing a travel ban Wednesday, and Turkey imposed tough new sanctions against Damascus as pressure intensified for President Bashar Assad to end his regime’s violent effort to suppress an 8-month-olduprising.    The 17 officials who could be banned from traveling to other Arab nations include the defense and interior ministers, along with close members of Assad’sinner circle.    Assad’s millionaire cousin, Rami Makhlouf, who has controlled the mobile phone network and other lucrative enterprises in Syria, and the president’s younger brother Maher, who is believed to be in command of much of the crackdown, also wereon the list.Despite the diplomatic squeeze, Syrian forces reportedly besieged several areas as the revolt showed no sign of slowing down.    Activists said more than a dozen people were killed Wednesday, although thefigure was impossible to confirm independently.
          Syria has largely sealed off the country as its forces try to crush a remarkably resilient uprising against Assad’s autocratic rule.    The United Nations says at least 3,500 people have been killed since the crackdown began in March.
      “Every bullet fired, every bombed mosque has eliminated the legitimacy of the Syrian leadership and has widened the gap between us,” Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said at a news conference in Ankara, Turkey, in announcing the new sanctions.    “Syria has squandered the last chance that it was given.”
      Turkey’s move comes on top of sanctions already imposed by the Arab League, the United States and the European Union — punishing an already wobbling economy.    Turkey and Syria did $2.4 billion in trade last year, according to the Turkish Embassy in Damascus.
      The sanctions will hurt the regime and chip away at Syria’s business classes — a dangerous develop-ment for Assad.
      Syrian business leaders have long traded political freedoms for economic privileges in Syria, where the prosperous merchant classes are key to proppingup the regime.    “The government’s economic maladies will spark more defections from the armed forces and weaken Assad’s support among the monied class, which will be pushing for the government to negotiate a power transfer,” sanctions expert George A. Lopez of the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies said ina statement.    He said the sanctions could bring down the regime in six to nine months by dramatically limiting Assad’s access to cash and further limiting the revenues of the business elite.
      The opposition has tried to rally the largely silent, but hugely important, business elite.    But Assad’s opponents have failed so far to galvanize support in Damascus and Aleppo — the two economic centers inSyria.    The sanctions, however, could weaken their resolve.
  
  N. Korea claims fast strides in nuclear work
      SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - North Korea said Wednesday it is making rapid progress on work to enrich uranium and build a light-water nuclear power plant.
      The statement by the country’s Foreign Ministry added that North Korea has a sovereign right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy and that “neither concession nor compromise should be allowed.”
      Concerns about North Korea’s atomic capability took on renewed urgency in November 2010 when the country disclosed a uranium enrichment facility that could give it a second route to manufacture nuclear weapons, in addition to its existing plutonium-based program.
  
  Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood favored by Maggie Michael, Associated Press
      CAIRO — Partial results Wednesday showed the Muslim Brotherhood emerging as the biggest winner in Egypt’s landmark parliamentary elections, and leaders of the once-banned Islamic group demanded to form the next government, setting the stage for a possible confrontation with the ruling military.
      The generals who took over after the February fall of Hosni Mubarak have said they will name the government, and the parliament would have no right to dissolve it.    They have also sought to wrest from the new parliament the more long-reaching and crucial role of running the process for writing the new constitution.
      But the Brotherhood’s confidence was riding high after the unexpectedly large turnout this week for two days of voting.    Millions lined up at the polls for the first of multiple rounds of balloting in their country’s first free election in living memory.
      Even before polls closed Tuesday, Mohammed Mursi, head of the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, said the majority in parliament must form a coalition government.    Another top Brotherhood Sobhi Saleh, said Mursi’s comments were a message to the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces not to act unilaterally.
      “You can’t come and say, ‘I choose the government and I sack the government.’    Its over, the people have emerged,” Saleh said.    “If you impose a government on me that I don’t endorse, you are creating tension in the relationship.”
      The high turnout, he said, shows that Egyptians want a fully empowered parliament and that “you, yourself, are subject to the people’s authority,” referring to the generals.
      Final results from the round, which covered nine of Egypt’s 27 provinces, will be issued Thursday night.
      The Brotherhood appeared certain it had surpassed already high expectations.    Saleh, for example, boasted that the group won 50 percent.
      But the true extent of its win was not yet known.    In rural provinces in particular, the main party of the ultraconservative Islamist Salafis, who are more hardline than the Brotherhood, cut into the Brotherhood vote.
      In other places, the main liberal- secular grouping made a strong showing.
      A collision between the military and the Brotherhood over the next stage of the transition would add yet another layer of turmoil in the nation of 85 million.
  
  Oil above $100 on banking plan
      NEW YORK — The price of oil finished trading above $100 Wednesday for the first time in two weeks, as the U.S. and other countries made it easier for banks to lend money and keep the global economy growing.
      The Federal Reserve said it will team up with the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the central banks of Canada, Japan and Switzerland to increase the flow of dollars around the world.
      Benchmark crude rose 57 cents to finish at $100.36 per barrel in New York.    Brent crude, used to price many foreign kinds of oil, rose 12 cents to end at $109.98 per barrel in London.
  
  
• 12/2/2011
  
  U.N.: Syria now in civil war with 4,000 dead by Frank Jordans, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — Syria has entered a state of civil war with more than 4,000 people dead and an increasing number of soldiers defecting from the army to fight President Bashar Assad’s regime, the U.N.’s top human rights official said Thursday.    Civil war has been the worst-case scenario in Syria since the revolt against Assad began eight months ago.    Damascus has a web of allegiances that extends to Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah movement and Iran’s Shiite theocracy, raising fears of a regional conflagration.    The assessment that the bloodshed in Syria has crossed into civil war came from the U.N. High Commissioner for Human imposed by the European Union, the Arab League and Turkey were aimed at persuading Assad to end his crackdown.    On Thursday, the EU announced a new round of sanctions against Syrian individuals and businesses linked to the unrest.    The new sanctions target 12 people and 11 companies, and add to a long list of those previously sanctioned by the EU.    The full list of names of those targeted will not be known until they are published today in the EU’s official journal.    The 27-member bloc also imposed some sanctions on Syria’s ally Iran in the wake of an attack this week by a mob on the British Embassy in Tehran, the Iranian capital.    British Foreign Secretary William Hague has accused Iran of supporting Assad’s crackdown.
      Rights, Navi Pillay. The conflict has shown little sign of letting up.    Activists reported up to 22 people killed Thursday, adding to what has become a daily grind of violence.
      “We are placing the (death toll) figure at 4,000, but really the reliable information coming to us is that it’s much more than that,” Pillay said in Geneva.    “As soon as there were more and more defectors threatening to take up arms, I said this in August before the Security Council, that there’s going to be a civil war,” she added.    “And at the moment, that’s how I am characterizing this.”
      U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner declined to call it a civil war.
      “The overwhelming use of force has been taken by Assad and his regime,” Toner said.    “So there’s no kind of equanimity here.”
      Toner said Assad’s government has taken Syria down a dangerous path, and that “the regime’s bloody repression of the protests has not surprisingly led to this kind of reaction that we’ve seen with the Free Syrian Army.”
      The Free Syrian Army, a group of defectors from the military, has emerged as the most visible armed challenge to Assad.    The group holds no territory, appears largely disorganized and is up against a fiercely loyal and cohesive military. International intervention, such as the NATO action in Libya that helped topple longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, is all but out of the question in Syria.    But there is concern that the conflict in Syria could spread chaos across the Middle East.    Syria borders five countries with whom it shares religious and ethnic minorities and, in Israel’s case, a fragile truce. Recent economic sanctions
  
  
  MIDEAST DEVELOPMENTS
  • EGYPT - Egypt’s election commission delays the announcement of final results for first-round parliamentary elections until today.    The commission previously said results from the two-day balloting would be announced late Thursday.
  • YEMEN - Clashes between Yemeni soldiers and armed tribesmen in the restive southern city of Taiz kill 13 people, the Defense Ministry and a security official say.    A hotbed of opposition to the government and Yemen’s secondlargest city, Taiz has been regularly shelled by the military responding to hit-andrun attacks by tribesmen.    The fighting has raged despite longtime President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s agreement to step down.
  • TUNISIA - Tunisia’s central bank is warning about the state of the economy and urging the swift formation of a government to bring investment back to the North African country.    Tunisians overthrew their long-ruling dictator in January.
  
  
  Oil lower ahead of jobs report by Associated Press
      NEW YORK — Oil prices ended slightly lower Thursday after a four-day surge, as traders await a key U.S. jobs report.
      Benchmark crude fell 16 cents to finish at $100.20 per barrel in New York.    Brent crude lost $1.27 to end the day at $108.71 in London.
      Prices had risen every trading day since Thanksgiving.    They were boosted by tension over Iran’s nuclear program, strong retail sales in the U.S. and an effort by the Federal Reserve and central banks of other nations to increase the flow of dollars to foreign banks.
      Now traders are awaiting the November unemployment report, which will be released by the Labor Department today.    High unemployment has been a drag on the economy and has cut into energy demand.    Wholesale gasoline demand in November was at the lowest level in more than seven years.
  
  
• 12/3/2011
  
  U.S. jobless rate declines- 8.6 percent mark is lowest since March 2009 by Christopher S. Rugaber, The Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — The unemployment rate, which has refused to budge from the 9 percent neigh-borhood for two and a half years, fell in November, driven, in part, by small businesses that finally see reason to hope and hire.
      Economists say there is a long way to go, but they liked what they saw.    The rate fell to 8.6 percent, the lowest since March 2009, two months after President Barack Obama took office.    Unemployment passed 9 percent that spring and had stayed there or higher for all but two months since then.
      The country added120,000 jobs in November, the Labor Department said Friday.    Private employers added 140,000 jobs, while governments cut 20,000.
      The economy has generated 100,000 or more jobs five months in a row — the first time that has hap-pened since April 2006, well before the Great Recession.
      “Something good is stirring in the U.S. economy,” Ian Shepherdson, an economist at High Frequency Economics, said in a note to clients.
      The stock market rallied at the opening bell, after the report came out, but finished flat for the day.    It was still up 787 points for the week. The only bigger point gain in a week was in October 2008, when stocks lurched higher and lower during the financial crisis.
      The report showed that September and October were stronger months for the job market than first estimated.    For four months in a row, the government has revised job growth figures higher for previous months.
      September was revised up by 52,000 jobs, for a gain of 210,000.    October was revised up by 20,000, for a gain of 100,000.
      Unemployment peaked at 10.1 percent in October 2009, four months after the Great Recession ended.    It dipped to 8.9 percent last February and 8.8 percent last March but otherwise was at or above 9 percent.
      The rate fell not just because people found jobs.    About 300,000 people simply gave up looking for work, and were no longer counted as unemployed.    People routinely enter and leave the workforce, though 300,000 is more than usual.
      Obama, who faces a re-election vote in less than a year and a presidential campaign that will turn on the economy, seized on the decline to argue for expanding a cut in the tax that workers pay toward Social Security.
      The tax cut affects 160 million Americans.    It lowers a worker’s Social Security tax by up to $2,136 a year.    Someone earning $50,000 a year saves $1,000 with the tax cut.    It will expire Dec. 31 unless Congress acts.
      Republicans and Democrats have supported an extension but differ on how to pay for it.    The Senate on Thursday defeated plans from both parties.    Republicans had proposed paying for the cut by freezing the pay of federal workers through 2015.    Democrats wanted to raise taxes on people making $1 million or more a year.
      “Now is not the time to slam the brakes on the recovery.    Right now it’s time to step on the gas,” Obama said Friday.
  
  Small firms advance
      Inside the unemployment report, one of the most closely watched indicators of the economy’s health, were signs of improvement for small businesses, which employ 500 or fewer people and account for half the jobs in the private sector.
      The government usesasurvey of mostly large companies and government agencies to determine how many jobs were added or lost each month.    It uses a separate survey of households to determine the unemployment rate.
      The household survey picks up hiring by companies of all sizes, including small businesses and companies just getting off the ground.
      It also includes farm workers and the self-employed, who aren’t included in the survey of companies.
      The household survey has shown an average of 321,000 jobs created per month since July, compared with an average of 13,000 the first seven months of the year.
      When the economy is either improving or slipping into recession, many economists say, the household survey does the better job of picking up the shift because it detects small business hiring.
      “We might finally be seeing new business creation expand again, which is critical to the sustainability of the recovery,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial, a financial services company.
      The National Federation of Independent Business, a smallbusiness group, said Friday that its own survey of small companies in November found that more of them are planning to add workers than at any time since September 2008, when the financial crisis struck.
      LogicBoost, a Washington, D.C., software consulting firm with 19 employees, has hired a sales worker and a marketing worker in the past three months and planned to post an opening for a software engineer Friday.
      “Business is going gangbusters,” CEO Jonathan Cogley said.    “It would be great if the economy were stronger.    I think we’d be growing even faster.”
      Outside Detroit, Grace Dersa opened the Frank Street Bakery this week with her husband.    They took the $60,000 gamble after seeing signs that the local economy is improving.    They, too, plan to add a worker soon.
      “When we go to a restaurant here, there’s a 30-minute to twohour wait. Homes are selling in this area,” Dersa said.    “People are spending.”
      Indeed, Americans dropped a record $52.4 billion over the Thanksgiving weekend, according to the National Retail Federation, a trade group. A separate report from MasterCard found spending was up almost 9 percent from last year.
  
  Other positive signs
      The unemployment report was the latest encouraging indicator for the economy.    Other reports this week have shown that factories are producing more, construction is growing, and people are buying more cars.
      The accelerating debt crisis in Europe has loomed over the economy for months.    An economic collapse there would hammer sales of U.S. exports.    And if the crisis caused banks to stop lending money, the world economy would suffer.
      But there are signs that Europe is moving toward a solution.    Earlier this week, six central banks around the world made it easier for commercial banks overseas to borrow American dollars to do business.    The coordinated action calmed financial markets and bought time for politicians to work something out.
      The leaders of Germany and France appear to be pushing for stronger rules to make sure European governments are responsible with their budgets, the first step in a strategy to save the euro currency from collapse.
  
  Strict Islamists gain in Egypt’s initial vote by Maggie Michael, Associated Press
      CAIRO — Egypt’s ultraconservative Islamist party said Friday it plans to push for a stricter religious code in Egypt after claiming strong gains in this week’s initial round of voting for parliament, the first elections since Hosni Mubarak’s ouster.    Egypt’s election commission announced only a trickle of results Friday and said 62 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in the highest turnout in Egypt’s modern history.    Abdel-Mooaez Ibrahim, the head of High Election Commission, jokingly described it as “the highest since the time of pharaohs.”
      Preliminary counts leaked by judges and individual political groups indicated that the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm took the largest share of votes.    Close behind was the ultraconservative Is-lamist Nour Party and a coalition of liberal parties called the Egyptian bloc, according to those unofficial counts.
      That trend — if confirmed and if extended over more rounds of voting — would give the religious parties a popular mandate in the struggle to win control from the military that took over from Mubarak and ultimately reshape a key U.S. ally.
      The Islamist Nour Party expects to get 30 percent of the vote, party spokesman Yousseri Hamad said.
      A strong showing would put them in a position to influence policy, although it’s unclear how much power the new parliament will have with the ruling generals still in overall control.    For example, the military, which is not keen to see Egypt delivered to radical Islamists, maintains that it — not the largest bloc in parliament — will choose the prime minister and Cabinet once all parliamentary voting rounds are completed.    It is also poised to closely oversee the drafting of a new constitution.
      The Nour Party’s purist pursuit of strict Shariah, or Islamic law, would also face tough opposition from a diverse array of youth activists in the streets, Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority, as well as liberal and secular political parties pushing for more social and political freedoms — perhaps forcing it to veer less toward the large role that religion plays in Saudi Arabia.    The Nour Party is the main political arm of the hard-line Salafi movement, which was inspired by the Saudi-style Wahhabi school of thought.    Salafists are newcomers on Egypt’s political scene.    They long shunned the concept of democracy, saying it allows man’s law to override God’s.    But they formed parties and entered politics after Mubarak’s ouster to position themselves to ensure Shariah law is an integral part of Egypt’s new constitution.
      The more moderate and pragmatic Muslim Brotherhood has been around since 1928 and has for dec-ades been the largest and best organized opposition movement in Egypt, despite being officially outlawed until Mubarak’s ouster.    Seeking to broaden its political appeal, the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party has described its election platform as civil but with an Islamic background, setting them up to be more rival than ally to the harder-line Islamists.
      Hamad said his party is willing to cooperate with the Muslim Brotherhood as well as with secular and lib-eral forces “if it will serve the interest of the nation.”
      Results announced Friday by the election commission showed only three of the individual candidates winning in the first round, while the rest must enter runoffs.
  
  Human rights council: act to end Syria abuses by Alexandra Zavis, Los Angeles Times
      BEIRUT — The United Nations’ top human rights forum condemned Syria for “gross and systematic violations” Friday after an independent panel found evidence suggesting the country’s security forces had committed crimes against humanity.    The resolution approved by the U.N.Human Rights Council in Geneva adds to pressure on President Bashar Assad’s increasingly isolated government, which has faced multiple rounds of sanctions for its violent crackdown on an 8-month-old uprising. Diplomats said it was also a call to action by the U.N. Security Council, General Assembly and International Criminal Court, although there was no direct mention of those bodies in the approved version of the text.    It referred the report to the “main bodies” of the U.N. and urged them to “take appropriate action.”    It also established the post of a special human rights investigator to probe abuses in Syria.    Syria’s allies on the Security Council, Russia and China, in October vetoed a resolution con-demning Assad’s handling of the unrest, in part because they said it could set the stage for a Libya-style military in-tervention.
      Russia and China were among four countries that voted against the resolution at a special session of the Human Rights Council.
      Of the council’s 47 members, 37 voted in favor of the resolution and six others abstained.
      The independent panel of experts commissioned by the council released a report Monday documenting what it described as systematic, widespread and gross violations of human rights — including the torturing and killing of children, shooting unarmed demonstrators and even raping detainees.    U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay urged the council to refer the alleged crimes to the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands, saying more than 4,000 people — including 307 children — had been reported killed since March, when major protests against Assad’s regime began.    “The Syrian authorities’ continual ruthless repression, if not stopped now, can drive the country into a full-fledged civil war,” Pillay said.    “The international community needs to take urgent and effective measures to protect the Syrian people.”
      Syria’s ambassador to U.N. offices in Geneva, Fayssal al-Hamwi, said the panel’s report was “not objective.”    Syrian authorities dispute the U.N. figures and blame the bloodshed on armed gangs backed from abroad, which they say have killed more than 1,100 security force members.
      But Reuters news agency quoted the U.S. ambassador, Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, as saying evidence left no doubt about the complicity of Syrian authorities.    “We’ve set the stage in a very sub-stantive way for strong action by the U.N. if other entities choose to take the opportunity,” she said.
      In Syria, government media outlets and opposition activists reported large demonstrations for and against Assad’s regime on Friday, when protesters regularly take to the streets after midday prayers.    At least 13 people were reported killed, including two who allegedly died under torture, according to the Local Coordination Committees, a major opposition group. Journalists are heavily restricted in Syria, making it difficult to verify either side’s account.
  
  Oil up to near $101 a barrel
      NEW YORK — Oil prices rose more than 4 percent this week after a series of developments suggested that higher oil demand and tighter global supplies lay ahead.
      Benchmark crude rose 76 cents on Friday to finish the week at $100.96 per barrel in New York.    Prices climbed almost every day after ending at $96.77 a barrel a week ago.
      Brent crude rose 97 cents to finish at $109.68 a barrel in London.
      Prices jumped early Friday after the government reported that the unemployment rate dropped last month to 8.6 percent — the lowest level since March 2009.
  
  
• 12/4/2011
  
  25 die in Syria; defectors battle army - Arab bloc wraps up its sanctions by Bassem Mroue, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — Violence sweeping across Syria killed 25 people on Saturday, most of them in a battle between troops and a growing force of army defectors who have joined the drive to oust the country’s autocratic president, activists said.
      The Arab League, meanwhile, agreed on the details of economic and diplomatic sanctions against Presi-dent Bashar Assad’s regime.
      Syria’s revolt began with peaceful protests in mid-March, but the response was a brutal crack-down.    The unrest has steadily grown bloodier as defectors and some civilians take up arms, prompting the United Nations’ human rights chief to refer to it this week as a civil war and urge the international community to protect Syri-an civilians.
      Sanctions by the United States, the European Union, Turkey and the 22member Arab League have failed to blunt the turmoil but are leaving Assad’s regime increasingly isolated.
      Arab League ministers met in Qatar Saturday to finish work on the bloc’s penalties against 19 Syrian officials subject to a travel ban.    Among them are Cabinet ministers, intelligence chiefs and security offi-cers, but the list does not include Assad.
      Many of the Arab sanctions announced last Sunday went into effect immediately, including cutting off transactions with Syria’s central bank, halting Arab government funding for projects in Syria and freezing government as-sets.
      Flights between Syria and its Arab neighbors will stop Dec. 15.    The Arab League also agreed to ban the supply of all weapons to Syria.    The league suspended Syria’s membership in November.
      The worst violence on Saturday took place in the restive northwestern city of Idlib.    Pre-dawn clashes between regime forces and defectors killed seven soldiers and policemen, as well as five defectors and three civilians, according to a British-based group of Syrian activists called the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
      Elsewhere, security forces killed one civilian in the southern province of Daraa, six in the central region of Homs and three others in areas near Idlib, the observatory said.
      The U.N.’s top human rights official said this week that Syria is in a state of civil war and that more than 4,000 people have been killed since March.
      Until recently, most of the bloodshed in Syria was caused by security forces firing on mainly peaceful protesters, but there have been growing reports of army defectors and armed civilians fighting regime forces.
      November was the deadliest month of the uprising, with at least 950 people killed in gunbattles, raids and other violence, according to activist groups.
      In the west of the country, Syrian troops detained at least 27 people in the village of Talkalakh on the border with Lebanon and set fire to the homes of nine activists who were on the run, the observatory said.
      Talkalakh is within walking distance of Lebanon, and bullets hit at least two Lebanese civilians on their side of the border Friday.    Witnesses said that they had heard hours of explosions and heavy machine- gun fire coming from the village.    Syria’s state-run SANA news agency confirmed the arrests in Talkalakh, saying that those detained were “terrorists” involved in smuggling weapons, drugs and bringing in fighters from Lebanon.    The regime blames armed gangs acting out a foreign conspiracy for Syria’s unrest.
  
  Egyptian group promises to be ‘fair’ by Aya Batrawy, Associated Press
      CAIRO — Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, emerging as the biggest winner in the first round of parlia-mentary elections, sought Saturday to reassure Egyptians that it would not sacrifice personal freedoms in promoting Islamic law.
      The deputy head of the Brotherhood’s new political party, Essam el-Erian, said the group isn’t interested in imposing Islamic values on Egypt, home to a sizable Christian minority and others who object to being subject to strict Is-lamic codes.    “We represent a moderate and fair party,” el-Erian said of his Freedom and Justice Party.    “We want to apply the basics of Shariah law in a fair way that respects human rights and personal rights.”    The comments were the clearest indication that the Brotherhood was distancing itself from the ultraconservative Islamist Nour Party, which appears to have won the secondlargest share of votes in the election’s first phase.    The Nour Party espouses an interpretation of Islam similar to that in Saudi Arabia, where women must be veiled.
  
  
• 12/5/2011
  
  Putin’s party loses favor in election by Lynn Berry, Associated Press
      MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s party struggled to hang onto its majority in Russia’s par-liamentary election, polls and official results showed early today, suggesting Russians were wearying of the man who has dominated Russian politics for more than a decade.    Rival parties and election monitors said even a result of about 50 percent was inflated, alleging ballot- stuffing and other significant violations.    Many expressed fears the vote count would be manipulated. Putin wanted to see his United Russia party do well in Sunday’s election as a sign of popular support for his return to the presidency in a vote now three months away.    Despite the setback, he was still expected to have little trouble reclaiming the job he held from 2000 to 2008.
      He’s systematically destroyed any potential challengers and most Russians don’t see any credible alter-natives, despite rising dissatisfaction with his strongman style.    Grumbling over pervasive official corruption and the gap between ordinary people and the superrich has become widespread.
      About 60 percent of Russia’s 110 million registered voters cast ballots, down from 64 percent four years ago.
  
  Arab League, Syria discussing monitors
      BEIRUT - Syria said Sunday it is still negotiating with the Arab League over the bloc’s request to send observers into the country, as tightening sanctions by Arab and other nations fail to halt the eightmonth crackdown on anti-gov-ernment protesters.
      New violence killed at least nine people Sunday, opposition activists said.
  
  Fighting between army, rebels kills 28
      SANAA, YEMEN - Clashes between the Yemeni army and tribal fighters in the southern city of Taiz have left at least 28 people dead over the past three days, activists and medical officials said Sunday, despite a power transfer deal signed by the president aimed at ending the country’s political crisis.
      Mohammed al-Shogaa, a doctor at a makeshift field hospital, said that government forces’ shelling of residential areas since Friday had killed 13 civilians, among them three children. Activists and residents said at least eight tribal fighters were killed, while the Defense Ministry said that seven army troops died.
  
  Islamists dominate Egyptian vote - Runoff elections set for today, Tuesday by Sarah el Deeb, Associated Press
      CAIRO — Islamist parties captured an overwhelming majority of votes in the first round of Egypt’s parliamentary elections, setting up a power struggle with the much weaker liberals behind the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak 10 months ago.
      A hard-line religious group that wants to impose strict Islamic law made a strong showing with nearly a quarter of the ballots, according to results released Sunday.    The tallies offer only a partial sign of how the new parliament will look.    There are still two more rounds of voting in 18 of Egypt’s 27 provinces in the next month and runoff elections today and Tuesday to determine almost all the seats allocated for individuals in the first round.    But the grip of the Islamists on the next parliament seems set, especially considering their popularity in provinces voting in the next rounds.    The High Election Commission said the Islamic funda-mentalist Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party got 36.6 percent of the 9.7 million valid ballots cast.    The Nour Party, a more hard-line Islamist group, captured 24.4 percent.
      The strong Islamist showing worries liberal parties, and even some religious parties, who fear the two groups will work to push a religious agenda. It’s also left many of the youthful activists behind the uprising that ousted Mubarak feeling that their revolution has been hijacked.
      Since Mubarak’s February fall, the groups that led the uprising and Islamists have been locked in a fight over Egypt’s new constitution.
      The new parliament will be tasked, in theory, with selecting a 100-member panel to draft the new constitution.    But adding to tensions, the ruling military council that took over from Mubarak has suggested it will choose 80 of those members, and said parliament will have no say in naming a new government.
      “The conflict will be over the soul of Egypt,” said researcher Nabil Abdel-Fattah.
      The Brotherhood has been the most organized and cohesive political force in these elections.    But with no track record of governing, it isn’t yet clear how it’ll behave in power.    The party has positioned itself as a moderate Islamist party that wants to implement Islamic law without sacrificing personal freedoms.
      The next step in the complex process is a round of runoffs between more than 100 individual candidates competing in the first round for about 50 seats.
  
  
• 12/6/2011
  
  Russian election rigged, say critics by Associated Press
      MOSCOW — Several thousand protesters took to the streets Monday night and accused Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s party of rigging this weekend’s parliamentary election in which it won the largest share of the seats.    Police detained about 300 activists.    A group of several hundred marched toward the Central Elections Commission near the Kremlin, but were stopped by riot police and taken away in buses.    Estimates of the number of protesters ranged from 5,000 to 10,000.    They chanted “Russia without Putin” and accused his United Russia party of stealing votes.    Putin’s United Russia won about 50 percent of Sunday’s vote, a result that opposition politicians and election monitors said was inflated because of ballotbox stuffing and other vote fraud. It was a significant drop from the last election, when the party took 64 percent.
      The loss of seats in the State Duma appears to mean little because two of the three other parties win-ning seats have been reliable supporters of government legislation.
      Nevertheless, it was a symbolic blow to a party that had become virtually indistinguishable from the state.    The result has also energized the opposition and poses a challenge to Putin, the country’s dominant figure, in his drive to return to the presidency.
  
  Tensions arise between Islamists in Egypt by Ben Hubbard, Associated Press
      CAIRO — A runoff Monday for Egypt’s first-round parliamentary elections exposed tensions between competing Islamist parties that have so far dominated the vote.    In the southern province of Assiut, supporters of the hard-line Islamist Gamaa Islamiya attacked and chased away campaign workers from the Muslim Brotherhood outside a polling station where the two groups were facing off in a vote.    Supporters of one Brotherhood candidate said they received death threats and one of their clerics was beaten up by campaign workers of Gamaa Islamiya — an ex-militant group now running a political party.    The Freedom and Justice party of the Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest and best organized political group, is in the lead so far, according to official results released on Sunday.    Gamaa Islamiya is part of the second-place Al-Nour alliance with the ultraconservative Salafis, hard-liners who seek to impose strict Islamic law on Egypt.    The elections are the first since Hosni Muba-rak’s ouster in an uprising in February and are the freest and fairest in living memory.    Voters are choos-ing individual candidates and parties; runoffs on Monday and Tuesday will determine almost all the seats allocated for individ-uals in the first round, about a third of parliament’s 498 seats.    The two leading Islamist blocs of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis took an overwhelming majority of the first-round vote for parties with 60 percent, a huge blow to the liberal and youthful activists who drove the uprising.    But the tallies offer only a partial indication of how the new parliament will look.    There are still two more rounds of voting in 18 of the country’s 27 provinces over the coming month.
      But the grip of the Islamists over the next parliament appears set, particularly considering their popularity in provinces voting in the next rounds.    The runoffs are unlikely to alter the Islamists’ domi-nance.
      The first round of voting includes the capital Cairo and the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria in Egypt’s north. Turnout in Cairo Monday was very weak, with little drama.
      But in Assiut, tensions between Islamists were simmering.
      The city is filled with signs exhorting residents to follow Islamic teachings and women to wear the hijab, or Muslim headscarf.
      “The hijab is obligatory,” one sign says.
  
  Oil retreats on revived E.U. fears
      NEW YORK — Oil prices fell from twoweek highs Monday on reports that Standard & Poor’s may downgrade credit ratings for the wealthiest European nations, dealing a serious blow to hopes for saving the euro.
      Oil markets reacted swiftly to the news.    Benchmark crude fell about 2 percent in afternoon trading, ending the day about where it began, at $100.99 per barrel, up just 3 cents.    Brent crude fell15 cents to finish at $109.53 a barrel in London.
  
  
• 12/7/2011
  
  Deaths in Syria climb higher - Clinton meets with opponents of Assad by Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — Dozens of bodies were dumped in the streets of a Syrian city at the heart of the country’s nearly 9-month-old uprising, a grim sign that sectarian bloodshed is escalating as the country descends further toward civil war.
      The discovery in the streets of Homs came as the United States stepped up pressure Tuesday on the regime of President Bashar Assad to end its crackdown on the anti-government protests.    U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met in Geneva with Syrian opposition figures and Washington said it was sending its ambassador back to Damascus.
      Up to 50 people were killed in Homs on Monday, but details about what happened in Syria’s third-largest city only came to light Tuesday with reports of retaliatory attacks pitting members of the Alawite sect against Sunnis.
      The sectarian violence is a dire development in Syria, and one that opposition members say plays directly into the regime’s hands.    Since the uprising began, Assad portrayed himself as the lone force who can ward off the radicalism and sectarianism that have bedeviled neighbors in Iraq and Lebanon.
      Opposition figures have accused Assad’s minority Alawite regime of trying to stir up trouble with the Sunni majority to blunt enthusiasm for the uprising.
      “It was an insane escalation,” activist Mohamed Saleh said by telephone from Homs.    “There were kidnappings and killings in a mad way.    People are afraid to go out of their homes.”
      Thirty-four of the dead were shot execution-style, their bodies dumped in a public square, according to Saleh and others who monitor the violence, including the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
      With 4,000 people dead across Syria in the uprising, the conflict is no longer just a matter of gov-ernment forces firing on peaceful protesters looking to topple Assad’s autocratic regime.
      Clinton held a rare meeting with Syrian opposition figures in Geneva, telling a group of seven Syrian pro-reform activists that she wanted to hear their plans to establish a new democratic government if they are successful in prying Assad from power.    Her invitation was a step short of endorsement.
  
  Egypt’s Brotherhood skirts clash with army by Maggie Michael, Associated Press
      CAIRO — The leader of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group expected to dominate the country’s next parliament, said it does not seek to get into a power struggle with the ruling military council over the formation of the government.    Egypt’s military, which took control of the country from Hosni Mubarak upon his ouster in February, is insisting that it — not the parliament — will choose the next prime minister and his Cabinet, setting the stage for a contest over who will chart the nation’s future course.    Activists already critical of the military’s handling of the transition period have been pushing the generals to shed their powers and deliver the country to full civilian rule.    The Brotherhood, which is leading the first round of parliamentary elections, had said previously it was expecting to form the Cabinet if its lead holds up over subsequent rounds of voting that finish in March.    However, Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie is now sounding a less confrontational tone.
      “We must live in harmony, not only with the military council, but with all of Egypt’s factions, or else the conclusion is zero,” Badie told the private Al-Mehwar TV station in an interview late Monday.    “There will be reconciliation between the three powers: the parliament, the government and the military ruling coun-cil.”
      Badie tried to play down a potential conflict with the military, saying: “They will not insist and we will not insist.”
      In a clear sign that the military is not giving up its powers over choosing the executive, Gen. Hassan el-Rueini, a member of the military council, said again that the new parliament will not have the authority to form a government.
      The voting for parliament is being held in stages, with the election for the lower house scheduled to conclude in January and the upper house in March.    The Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party won about 37 percent of the first-round vote for the lower house, according to partial results released Sunday.    The Al-Nour party won nearly a quarter of the vote for the ultraconservative Salafis, who seek to impose strict Islamic law in Egypt.
  
  Obama: U.S. will support gays by Anne Gearan, Associated Press
      GENEVA — The Obama administration bluntly warned the world against gay and lesbian discrimination Tuesday, declaring the U.S. will use foreign assistance as well as diplomacy to back its insistence that gay rights are fully equal to other basic human rights.    In unusually strong language, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton compared the struggle for gay equality to difficult passages toward women’s rights and racial equality, and she said a country’s cultural or religious traditions are no excuse for discrimination.
      “Gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights,” she said.
      Clinton’s audience included diplomats from Arab, African and other nations where homosexuality is criminalized or where brutality and discrimination against gay people is tolerated or encouraged.
      She said nothing about consequences or penalties the U.S. might apply to nations it judges poor protectors of gay rights, but she spoke shortly after President Barack Obama directed the State Department and other agencies to make sure U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance promote gay rights.    Clinton named no countries with specifically poor records on gay rights, although the U.S. has already pointed to abuses against gays by such friends as Saudi Arabia.    The Obama administration already supports the broad principles of equality Clinton articulated, but making those principles an explicit challenge to other nations is new.
  
  ‘Fair shot, share’ for all - Obama says middle class is in jeopardy by Ken Thomas, Associated Press
      OSAWATOMIE, Kan. — Declaring the American middle class in jeopardy, President Barack Obama on Tuesday outlined a populist economic vision that will drive his re-election bid, insisting the U.S. must reclaim its standing as a country in which everyone can prosper if provided “a fair shot and a fair share.”    While never making an overt plea for a second term, Obama offered his most comprehensive lines of attack against the candidates seeking to take his job, only a month before Republican voters begin choosing a presidential nominee.
      In a high school gym where patriotic bunting lined the bleachers, Obama presented himself as the one fighting for shared sacrifice and success against those who would gut government and let people fend for themselves.    He did so knowing the nation is riven over the question of whether economic opportunity for all is evaporating.
      “Throughout the country, it’s sparked protests and political movements, from the tea party to the people who’ve been occupying the streets of New York and other cities,” Obama said.
      “This is the defining issue of our time,” he said in echoing President Theodore Roosevelt’s famous speech here in 1910.
      “This is a make-or-break moment for the middle class and all those who are fighting to get into the middle class,” Obama said.    “At stake is whether this will be a country where working people can earn enough to raise a family, build a modest savings, own a home and secure their retirement.”
      Obama offered a sweeping indictment of economic inequality and unleashed his own brand of prairie populism.     He spoke for nearly an hour, reselling his ideas under the framework of “building a nation where we’re all better off.”    Obama attempted to sum up the pain and peril for a society where the middle class is struggling and called for individual responsibility.
      “Rebuilding this economy based on fair play, a fair shot and a fair share will require all of us to see the stake we have in each other’s success,” he said.
  
  
• 12/8/2011
  
  Assad says he doesn’t control Syria’s troops
      BEIRUT - Syria’s president denied he ordered the deadly crackdown on a nearly 9-month-old uprising in his country, claiming he is not in charge of the troops behind the assault.
      “They’re not my forces,” President Bashar Assad told ABC’s Barbara Walters when asked whether Syrian troops had cracked down too hard on protesters.    “They are military forces (who) belong to the government.    I don’t own them.    I’m president.    I don’t own the country.”
      The U.N. estimates more than 4,000 people have been killed in Syria since the uprising began in March.
  
  U.S. on multiple tracks in Europe’s debt crisis by Martin Crutsinger, Associated Press
      FRANKFURT, Germany — U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is darting across Europe with a stark message: The continent’s leaders must act quickly and convincingly to defuse a debt crisis that is threatening the global economy.
      His visit this week comes on the eve of a summit of European leaders Friday that could yield a plan for resolving the crisis.    Optimists hope a deal would persuade investors to lend to countries, like Italy and Spain, that are straining under crushing debt burdens.
      Geithner’s trip to five European cities is the most visible part of a broader drive the United States has been making, publicly and privately, to nudge Europe to resolve its crisis.
      The United States has plenty at stake.
      A still-fragile U.S. economy remains vulnerable to any financial contagion that might erupt in Europe.    If banks that are sitting on piles of European government debt cut off lending, the global economy would suffer.    The flow of U.S. exports would slow. A panic could send stocks tumbling worldwide.
      And with President Barack Obama facing re-election in 2012, the outcome of Europe’s crisis carries risks for the president personally.
  
  
  Besides Geithner’s trip to press European officials, the U.S. is acting in other ways:
  • The Federal Reserve took a leading role last week in crafting a plan with other central banks to make it easier for banks to borrow U.S. dollars and continue lending.    The move is a short-term fix that doesn’t lighten Europe’s debt load, but it excited investors, who drew hope that the top economic powers can jointly resolve the crisis.
  • Obama met privately last month with the leadersof Germany and France to discuss the crisis at a summit in France.    Through such personal diplomacy, Obama has been sending an overarching message: Do whatever it takes to fix the crisis.
  • Vice President Joe Biden, on a trip Sunday to Greece, the first country felled by the debt crisis, warned that time is running short for European leaders.
  • The U.S., the biggest contributor to the International Monetary Fund, is supporting its bailout programs for Greece, Portugal and Ireland. Speaking Tuesday in Berlin, Geithner said: “I am here in Europe to emphasize how important it is for the United States and the global economy as a whole that Germany and France succeed, alongside the other nations, in building a stronger Europe.”
  
      Analysts say the administration is arguing that Europe must unite behind a single solution that leaves no eurozone nation behind.
  
  
• 12/9/2011
  
  Partial remains of 274 troops sent to landfill
      WASHINGTON - The Air Force dumped the incinerated partial remains of at least 274 American troops in a Virginia landfill, far more than the military had acknowledged, before halting the secretive practice three years ago, records show.
      The landfill dumping was concealed from families who had authorized the military to dispose of the remains in a dignified and respectful manner, Air Force officials said. There are no plans, they said, to alert those families now.
      The Air Force had maintained that it could not estimate how many troops might have had their remains sent to a landfill.
      Air Force and Pentagon officials said last month that determining how many remains went to the landfill would require searching through the records of more than 6,300 troops whose remains have passed through the mortuary since 2001.
  
  Obama nominee for consumer job blocked
      WASHINGTON - The battle over the future of a new financial watchdog office escalated Thursday with Senate Republicans blocking confirmation of the man President Barack Obama named to head the office and Obama countering by holding out the possibility of appointing the nominee when Congress is on recess.
      Senate Republicans were near unanimous in voting to stop a former Ohio attorney general, Richard Cordray, from becoming director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency they said had too much power and too little accountability.
      The vote had immediate consequences.    Without a director, the agency designed to shield consumers from the excesses behind the 2008 financial crisis is unable to operate at full strength.
      Republicans said that until the Obama administration agrees to changes at the agency, they will keep blocking the president’s pick from taking charge.
  
  Brotherhood balks on military decision
      CAIRO - Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group set to dominate the new parliament, accused the country’s military rulers Thursday of trying to undercut the authority of elected legislators even before the house is seated.
      The Brotherhood said it is boycotting a council appointed by the ruling generals to oversee the drafting of the new constitution and stayed away from a meeting to set up the panel on Thursday.    In theory, the new parliament will form a 100member assembly to write the constitution.    But the military council says election results showed the parliament won’t be representative, so they’re naming a council to ensure the process is shielded from extremist religious ideas.
  
  New euro accord to include 23 countries, official says by Gabriele Steinhauser, Associated Press
      BRUSSELS — The president of the European Council said a new treaty will include 17 euro states plus six other European Union states — but not all 27 EU members.    Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, said the countries would provide up to $268 billion in extra resources to the International Monetary Fund.
      French President Nicolas Sarkozy said early today he would have preferred a treaty among all the members of the EU, but he could not because of the British position.    He said the new accord should be ready by March.    Sarkozy said the British proposed that they be exempted from certain financial regulation.    “We could not accept this” because a lack of sufficient regulation caused the current problems, Sarkozy said. German Chancellor Angela Merkel praised the plan.
      “I have always said, the 17 states of the eurogroup have to regain credibility,” she said.    “And I believe with today’s decisions this can and will be achieved.”
      The new treaty is meant to set up much tighter rules on national fiscal policy for the 17 countries that use the euro in an attempt to solve the worsening debt crisis, an EU official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential information.    Germany and France in particular had heralded the new treaty as an important step to emerge from the crisis, which has already dragged Greece, Portugal and Ireland into multibillion euro bailouts, but the failure to get all 27 EU countries to agree will likely be seen as a huge setback for European unity.
      At the same time, the new treaty — which is likely to introduce more automatic sanctions for overspenders and force states to include debt brakes in their constitutions — will draw the 17 country eurozone much closer together.    To convince financial markets that Europe’s economy-crushing debt crisis is a one-time event, states will be forced to give up some central parts of their sovereignty, especially when it comes to deciding how much money to spend.
  
  
• 12/10/2011
  
  Obama sees 8% jobless rate - Drop ‘possible’ by Nov. election by Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Setting a new bar for the nation’s economy, President Barack Obama said the United States unemployment rate could fall to 8 percent before he faces re-election next November.    The unemployment rate, currently at 8.6 percent, hasn’t been at or below 8 percent since he took office in January 2009 amid a global economic crisis.
      In a “60 Minutes” interview to air Sunday night, the president was asked whether he would get the rate back down to 8 percent before next fall’s general election.    “I think it’s possible,” Obama said, according to excerpts of the interview provided by CBS.    “But … I’m not in the job of prognosticating on the economy.    I’m in the job of putting in place the tools that allow the economy to thrive and Americans to succeed.”    Obama said that he didn’t overpromise or underestimate the task of reviving the nation’s economy.
      “I always believed that this was a long-term project,” he said.    “For individual Americans, who are struggling right now, they have every reason to be impatient.    Reversing structural problems in our economy that have been building up for two decades, that was going to take time.    It was going to take more than a year.    It was going to take more than two years. It was going to take more than one term.    Probably takes more than one president.”
      In the interview, Obama likened himself to a sea captain guiding a ship through a bad storm.    So long as the boat is rocking and people are getting sick, he said, people will blame the captain.    “People are going say, ‘You know what?    A good captain would have had us in some smooth waters and sunny skies, at this point,’ ” he said.    “And I don’t control the weather.    What I can control are the policies we’re putting in place.”
  
  Europe forges fiscal union - Leaders see way out of crisis; UK says no by Gabriele Steinhauser, Associated Press
      BRUSSELS — Working almost to exhaustion and persuading countries one by one, European leaders have agreed to redefine their continent — hoping that by joining their fiscal fortunes they might stop a crippling debt crisis, save the euro currency and prevent worldwide economic chaos.
      Only one country said no: Britain.    It will risk isolation while the rest of the continent plots its future.
      The coalition came together in a marathon negotiating session among the 27 European Union heads of government — hard bargaining that began with dinner Thursday evening and ended after 4 a.m. Friday.    The agreement — with 23 countries in favor and three more saying they are open to the idea — would force countries to submit their budgets for central review and limit the deficits they can run.
      A crisis over sovereign debt that consumed Greece and spread to Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain threatened to explode into a worldwide financial crisis capable of forcing the global economy into recession.
      “This is the breakthrough to the stability union,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.    “We are using the crisis as an opportunity for a renewal.”
      To prevent excessive deficits, countries in the treaty will have to submit their national budgets to the European Commission, the executive body of the EU, which will have the power to send them back for revision.
      They must also bring their budgets close to balance.    Except in special circum-stances, the budget deficit of a country must not exceed 0.5 percent of gross domestic product, the amount of goods and services produced by its economy.    An unspecified “automatic correction mechanism” would punish the rule-breakers.
      Germany and France insist that fiscal union is the best way to regain market trust, badly shaken by the escalating financial crisis. Most economists think it will not be enough.
      They say the euro countries need to have enough money on hand to guarantee everyone can pay their debts.    Euro leaders put off until March a decision on whether to provide money on top of a 500 billion euro, or $668 billion, bailout fund for euro countries.    Britain said no for two reasons: Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party includes a strong anti-EU element, and Cameron, despite trying deep into the night, failed to win an exemption from regulation for the British financial industry.
      The other leaders would have none of it: Bankers and lack of regulation are viewed on the continent as a prime cause of the financial crisis.    “What was on offer is not in Britain’s interest, so I didn’t agree to it,” Cameron said.    “We’re not in the euro, and I’m glad we’re not in the euro.    We’re never going to join the euro, and we’re never going to give up this kind of sovereignty that these countries are having to give up.”
  
  Trade deficit shrinks again - Dips for fourth straight month by Christopher S. Rugaber, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — The U.S. trade deficit narrowed in October to its lowest point of the year after Americans bought fewer foreign cars and imported less oil.
      The shrinking trade gap boosted growth over the summer and may do so again in the final three months of the year.    But economists worry the trend could reverse next year, especially if Europe’s debt crisis worsens.
      The Commerce Department said Friday that the trade deficit shrank 1.6 percent to $43.5 billion.    It was the fourth straight monthly decline.
      Overall imports fell 1 percent to $222.6 billion, which largely reflected a 5 percent decline in oil imports.
      The average price of imported oil fell for the fifth straight month to the lowest level since March.    Oil prices rose last winter because of turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa.
      Exports slipped 0.8 percent to $179.2 billion, the first drop after three months of gains.    Shipments of industrial supplies, such as natural gas, copper and chemicals, fell. Exports of autos and agricultural goods also dropped.
      A lower deficit is the latest sign that the economy has rebounded after nearly stalling in the spring.    It boosts economic growth because it typically means foreign nations are buying more American goods.    That can lead to more jobs and higher consumer spending, which fuels 70 percent of economic activity.
      Economists expect the deficit to widen in the coming months.    Oil prices are increasing and Europe is likely to import fewer U.S. goods as its economy weakens.    At the same time, U.S. businesses are stocking up on foreign goods as consumer demand improves.
      “Exports to Europe are bound to weaken substantially, while imports will pick up steam as U.S. companies rebuild inventory,” Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, said in a note to clients.
      Excluding oil, the trade deficit rose to $19.1 billion in October from $17.6 billion the previous month.
      Imports of consumer goods increased in October, as retailers stocked up for the holiday shopping season.    The U.S. imported more televisions, toys and games, audio equipment and other household goods.
  
  EU nears pact; oil prices rise
      Oil prices rose for the first time in three days, as the European Union moved closer to a plan that promises to fix the eurozone debt crisis.
      Benchmark crude rose $1.07 Friday to end the week at $99.41 per barrel in New York.    Brent crude, which is used to price foreign oil imported by some U.S. refineries, added 53 cents to finish at $108.47 in London.
      Massive debts in several European nations have rattled investors for months.    Experts say the eurozone is headed back into recession and a drop in energy demand is inevitable.
  
  
• 12/11/2011
  
  Protests challenge Putin - Opponents claim electoral fraud by Vladimir Isachenkov, Associated Press
      MOSCOW — In the largest anti-government protests that post-Soviet Russia has ever seen, tens of thousands of people rallied Saturday to criticize electoral fraud and demand an end to Vladimir Putin’s rule.    Police showed surprising restraint and state-controlled TV gave the nationwide demonstrations unexpected airtime, but there is no indication the opposition is strong enough to push for real change from the prime minister or his ruling party.    Nonetheless, the prime minister seems to be in a weaker spot than a week ago, before parliamentary elections.    His United Party lost a substantial share of its seats, although it keeps a majority.    The independent Russian election-observer group Golos said Saturday the United Party “achieved the majority mandate by falsification,” international observers reported widespread irregularities, and the outpouring of protesters undermines Putin’s image as a strong and beloved leader.    Putin “has stopped being the national leader — in the eyes of his team, the ruling political class and society,” analyst Alexei Malachenko of the Moscow Carnegie Center wrote on his blog.    Putin, who was the president of Russia in 2000-2008 before stepping aside because of term limits, will seek a new term in the Kremlin in the March presidential elections.    The protests have tarnished his campaign, but there is not yet any obvious strong challenger.    The most dramatic of Saturday’s protests saw a vast crowd jam an expansive Moscow square and adjacent streets, packed so tight that some demonstrators stood on others’ toes.    Although police estimated the crowd at 30,000, aerial photographs suggested far more, and protest organizers made claims ranging from 40,000 to 100,000 or more.
      Elsewhere in Russia, 7,000 protesters assembled in St. Petersburg, and demonstrations ranging from a few hundred people to a thousand took place in more than 60 other cities.    Police reported only about 100 arrests nationwide.
      The police restraint was one of several signs that conditions may be easing for the beleaguered opposi-tion.    In a surprise move, Moscow gave permission for up to 30,000 people to rally and police took no action when the crowd appeared to far exceed that.
      State-controlled television, which generally ignores or disparages opposition groups, broadcast footage not only of the huge Moscow protest but in several other cities as well.
      United Russia official Andrei Isayev on Saturday acknowledged that the opposition “point of view is extremely important and will be heard in the mass media, society and the state.”
      Yet the concessions may be only a way of buying time in hope the protests will wither away.    The opposition says the next large Moscow protest will be on Dec. 24.    What it will do in the interim to keep morale high is unclear.
      In addition, the social media that nourished Saturday’s protests may be coming under pressure.    A top official of the Russian social network Vkontakte said this week his company has been pressured by the Federal Security Service to block opposition supporters from posting.    On Friday, he was summoned by the service for questioning.
  
  EU deal seen as sovereignty threat - Economic chaos has sparked shift by Raf Casert, Associated Press
      BRUSSELS — Sovereignty isn’t what it used to be — just ask two dozen nations in Europe.
      In a fundamental shift approved in the dead of night, most of continental Europe has decided to cede a surprising amount of control over how it spends its money to an ill-defined pan-European body.
      And this just weeks after two of the countries — Greece and Italy — replaced their leaders because of pressure from foreign investors.
      Even the Dutch prime minister, whose nation has spent centuries building barriers to protect its people from the sea, says it’s a brave new world: “You cannot stay behind the dikes,” Mark Rutte said.    Britain, a fiercely independent island nation, was the only country insisting on keeping full control over its finances.    This is what three years of financial chaos have wrought.    Even if the European dream was to build an evercloser union on the ashes of World War II, it was always assumed that nations would maintain the essence of their independence even as they plowed ahead with closer ties.    All throughout this year, right up to the festive season, financial markets have ensured otherwise.
      European Union leaders said Friday that 26 of its 27 member countries are open to joining a new treaty tying their finances together to solve the euro crisis.    Under the deal, member states would have to put the way they spend their money under tight surveillance from Brussels and face the possibility of sanctions if they stray from fiscal dogma.
      For the rest, it all means a significant abandonment of self-determination.    “It is a fundamental step forward, but anybody who believes that within nation states we still control our sovereignty is deeply mis-taken,” said Piotr Maciej Kaczynski of the Centre for European Policy Studies.
      The European Union once abounded with lofty egalitarian visions of small nations carrying the same relative weight in the EU as big countries to create a better future.
      Now there are fears that everybody will be forced to walk the line set out by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose close cooperation has turned them into a new political animal: “Merko-zy.”
      From the 1980s, European nations that had rolled across each other’s borders in tanks only four decades earlier started scrapping them instead, to steadily create a single continental space where travelers and workers can mostly move at will.    When the euro currency was launched a dozen years ago to eventually unite the financial fate of 17 nations, nationhood and continental cooperation blended even further.    “We live in a world which is so interlinked that we cannot perceive sovereignty as untouchable objects any more,” Kaczynski said.    The balance between national independence and supranational oversight has been changed by the crisis.    And in that sense, Friday’s deal might have been a tipping point in European history.    Where once empires and powerful kingdoms ruled, the 19th century gradually spread a quilt of nation states over the continent.
      It was the order of the day until not so very long ago, giving people a sense of identity and common bond within each nation, often juxtaposed against its neighbors in every wind direction.
      Beyond the Belgian capital where Friday’s deal was reached, there is a stark reminder what it also brought: endless rows of whitewashed graves, reminders of two world wars at the heart of Europe which largely were fought in the name of the same nation state.
      Up to now, with each step of a more united Europe, the sense of loss of sovereignty seemed marginal, the advantages largely outweighing the near invisible loss.    But, everything changes when money is in-volved.
      On top of the EU impact, globalization and a neversleeping financial market have further diminished the clout of sovereignty.
      In Greece, former prime minister George Papandreou was forced to resign after his shock an-nouncement of a referendum on a European bailout spooked markets and the European Union.
  
  
• 12/12/2011
  
  Clegg: EU treaty veto ‘bad for Britain’ by Cassandra Vinograd, Associated Press
      LONDON — Deep cracks are emerging in Britain’s coalition government, with one of its top officials lashing out at Prime Minister David Cameron on Sunday for deciding to block European Union treaty changes designed to save the euro.
      Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg called the decision “bad for Britain” and said he is “bitterly disappointed” over the outcome of last week’s EU summit during which Britain was the only nation to reject a tighter fiscal alliance in the bloc aimed at ending Europe’s worst financial crisis in generations.    Cameron rejected the invitation to join 26 other EU members to approve changes to the bloc treaty in a move that isolated Cameron from the bloc and raised doubts about whether Britain realistically can remain an EU member.
      Last year, Clegg’s Liberal Democrats party joined with Cameron’s larger Conservative Party in Britain’s first governing coalition since World War II following an inconclusive national election.
      The coalition has an 84seat majority in the 650seat House of Commons.    One of its biggest ideological differences involves EU rules and regulations and the degree to which they affect government decisions and London’s standing as Europe’s top financial market.
      The Conservatives have long contained “euro-skeptics,” while the Lib Dems are the most pro-EU of any major British party.    Clegg warned of a danger that Britain “will be isolated and marginalized within the European Union.”    He said he’ll do everything he can “to ensure this setback does not become a permanent divide.”
  
  Syrian troops clash with defectors by Associated Press
      BEIRUT — Syrian troops battled army defectors Sunday in clashes that set several military vehicles ablaze.    The fighting and other violence around the nation killed at least eight people, activists said.    For the first time, a violent act of protest against President Bashar Assad’s regime spilled over the border into Jordan, where a dozen Syrians attacked their embassy Sunday in the capital, Amman, hurting at least two envoys and four other consulate staff.
      The 9-month-old uprising has grown more violent in recent months as oncepeaceful protesters take up arms and defected soldiers who’ve joined the uprising fight back.    The U.N. says more than 4,000 have been killed since March.    Opposition activists called for a general strike starting Sunday in a bid to squeeze Damascus and push it to stop its bloody crackdown.    Assad has refused to buckle under Arab and international pressure to step down and has shown no sign of easing his crackdown, which has included assaults by the military on unarmed protesters.    Now, fighting between loyalist forces and defectors calling themselves the Free Syrian Army threatens to push the confrontation into civil war.
      The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said two people died in the clash with defectors in Kfar Takharim.    Two other people who went missing days ago were tortured to death in the central province of Homs, and one person was shot at a checkpoint in the southern province of Daraa, it said.
      The group also said two people were killed in the central province of Homs, and the body of another person who had been missing for days was also found Sunday.    Two more people were killed in the Damascus suburb of Douma, and another person in Hama in central Syria.    Another activist group, the Local Coordination Committees, put Sunday’s death toll at 18.    It was impossible to resolve the dis-crepancy or independently verify either death count.
      Syrians are to vote today in municipal elections for the nation’s 14 provinces: the first test of Assad’s reforms since the uprising began.
  
  
• 12/13/2011
  
  U.N. says death toll in Syria passes 5,000
      BEIRUT - The death toll from Syria’s crackdown on a 9-month-old uprising has exceeded 5,000 people, the top U.N. rights official said Monday, as Syrians closed their businesses and kept children home from school as part of a general strike to pressure President Bashar Assad to end the bloodshed.
      Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said at least 300 children are among those killed in the regime’s attempts to stamp out the revolt.
      Pillay recommended that the Security Council refer Syria to the International Criminal Court, the perma-nent war crimes tribunal, for investigation of possible crimes against humanity.
  
  New Jersey Nets owner to take on Putin
      MOSCOW - After a week of challenges to his authority, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin faces a new one from one of Russia’s richest and most glamorous figures: The billionaire owner of the New Jersey Nets says he will run against him in March.    Monday’s announcement by Mikhail Prokhorov underlines the extent of the discontent with Putin.    It comes after Saturday’s nationwide protests against Putin and his party, United Russia.    Tens of thousands of people gathered in the streets to denounce alleged election fraud favoring United Russia in Dec. 4 parliamentary elections.
  
  PROTESTERS BLOCK PORT GATES by Terry Collins, Associated Press
      OAKLAND, Calif. — Hundreds of Wall Street protesters blocked gates at some of the West Coast’s busiest ports Monday, causing the partial shutdown of several in a day of demonstrations they hope will cut into the profits of the corporations that run the docks.
      The closures affected some of the terminals at the ports in Oakland, Calif., Portland, Ore., and Longview, Wash., though it was not immediately clear how much the shutdowns would affect operations and what the eco-nomic loss would be.
      From California to Vancouver, British Columbia, protesters picketed gates, beating drums, carrying signs such as “Shutdown Wall St. on the Waterfront” and causing longer wait times for trucks.    There were a handful of arrests but no major clashes with police.
      While the demonstrations were largely peaceful and isolated to a few gates at each port, local officials in the union that represents longshoremen and, in some cases, port officials, determined that the conditions were unsafe for workers.
      In Oakland, shipping companies and the longshoremen’s union agreed to send home about 150 workers, halting operations at two terminals.    In Longview, Wash., workers were sent home.    And in Portland, authorities closed two terminals after arresting two people carrying weapons.    Kari Koch, an Occupy spokeswoman, said the two were not part of the demonstration.    “We do not send out folks with guns,” she said.
      The movement, which protests what it sees as corporate greed and economic inequality, is focusing on the ports as the “economic engines for the elite” in its most dramatic gesture since police raids cleared out most remaining Occupy tent camps last month.    It was unclear whether demonstrators could significantly disrupt or force more port closures as they did last month during an overnight shift at the Port of Oakland.
      Protesters are most upset by two West Coast companies: port operator SSA Marine and grain exporter EGT.    The bank, Goldman Sachs, owns a major stake in SSA Marine and has been a frequent target of protesters.    Protesters say they are standing up for workers against the port companies, which have had high-profile clashes with union workers lately.    Longshoremen at the Port of Longview, for example, have had a longstanding dispute with EGT.    The union that represents longshoremen says it doesn’t support the shutdowns.
      In Oakland, officials urged protesters to consider the impact on workers.    Port workers and truck drivers say the protests will hurt them.
      Several hundred people picketed at the port before dawn and blocked some trucks from at least two entrances.    A long line of big rigs sat outside one of the entrances, unable to drive into the port.    “Christian Vega, 32, who sat in his truck carrying a load of recycled paper from Pittsburg, Calif., said the delay was costing him $600.    It only hurts me and the other drivers.    We have jobs and families to support and feed,” he said.
  
  U.S. fading as world leader by David Ignatius, The Washington Post.
      WASHINGTON — Is American power in decline, relative to the rest of the world?    That question is at the center of a provocative study by the U.S. intelligence community exploring what the world might look like in 2030.
      The answer, judging by comments from a panel convened to discuss the topic, is that America faces serious trouble: The U.S. economy is slowing, relative to its Asian competitors, which will make it harder for the country to assert its traditional leadership role in decades ahead.    That, in turn, could make for a less stable world.
      This pessimism among intelligence analysts contrasts sharply with the relentlessly upbeat prognostications made by politicians, especially the field of Republican presidential candidates, who describe an America of perpetual sunshine and unchallenged leadership.    That’s certainly not the view of this nonpartisan group.
      The unclassified study, titled “Global Trends 2030,” is being prepared by the National Intelligence Council, which is part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.    This is the fifth such study (the first, published in 1996, looked toward 2010) and the only one to radically question U.S. staying power.
      In preparing the 2030 document, the analysts decided to focus on America’s role in shaping the global future.    “You have to be intellectually honest that there are changes in the U.S. role, and the role of rising powers,” that will affect events, explains Matthew Burrows, a counselor at the National Intelligence Council and the principal author of the report.
      Burrows and other contributors met in Washington early this month to hear outside comments — and it was an eye-opening discussion.    A somewhat pessimistic paper on the U.S. economic outlook, prepared by Uri Dadush of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, was criticized at this meeting for not being pessimistic enough.
      The baseline scenario offered by Dadush was that America would avoid economic icebergs and stabilize its deficit and debt problems.    The U.S. economy would grow an average of 2.7 percent annually between 2010 and 2030, and the country’s share of G-20 GDP would decline from about a third to about a quarter.
      Dadush offered a second, bleaker picture, where breakup of the eurozone triggers a huge financial crisis that spreads to the U.S.    After several years of deep recession, the U.S. begins to expand, but anemically.    Under this forecast, U.S. growth would average just 1.5 percent through 2030.    “Seen as a country on the downslide, the United States is both incapable of leading and disinclined to lead,” wrote Dadush about the more negative version.
      A disturbing consensus emerged among the analysts that something closer to the pessimistic scenario should be the baseline.    Fred Kempe, the president of the Atlantic Council, the think tank that hosted the meeting, sums up the views of these analysts and of a similar exercise last month by the World Economic Forum when he warns that the biggest national- security threat is “the danger of receding American influence on the world stage.”
      My own view (I was asked to critique the presentations as an independent journalist) is that the key issue is how the United States adapts to adversity. That offers a slightly more encouraging picture: Relative to competitors, America still has a more adaptive financial system, stronger global corporations, a culture that can tap the talents of a diverse population and an unmatched military.    The nation’s chronic weakness is its political system, which is nearing dysfunction.    If the U.S. can elect better political leadership, it should be able to manage problems better than most competitors.
      What other trends does the National Intelligence Council foresee in 2030? Burrows explained that the study will look at 15 or so “disruptive technologies” and their potential impact; it will examine governance, and the growing gap between the pace of economic and political change and the ability of local, national and global governance to respond; and it will forecast likely conflicts — and assess ways that cyber, bio and other new weapons could empower individuals and small groups.
      Here’s the most interesting footnote to this gloomy exercise. Burrows said that as he discusses his 2030 project with analysts around the world, he finds them much less downbeat about America’s prospects.    “The Chinese are the first ones to say that we are too pessimistic about our future,” he reports, and Brazilian and Turkish analysts have said much the same thing.
      Burrows noted that the nonpartisan report will be released after the 2012 presidential elec-tion.    But the issue of America’s future will surely be at the heart of the coming campaign.
  
  2012 federal deficit may be under $1 trillion by Associated Press
      The federal government is on pace to run a deficit below $1 trillion for the first time in four years, modest progress in the face of intense debate in Washington over spending.
      The Treasury Department said Monday that the deficit was $137 billion in November.    That brings the total for the first two months of the budget year to $236 billion — $55 billion less than the same two months last year.
      Part of the reason is an accounting quirk.    The Congressional Budget Office estimates the government will run a $973 billion deficit for the 2012 budget year, which began on Oct. 1.    That’s lower than last year’s $1.3 trillion imbalance.
  
  Investors questioning European relief plan -Stocks, euro fall; Italians go on strike by Frances D’Emilio, Associated Press     LONDON — Doubts rebounded Monday over Europe’s ability to solve its debt crisis and rescue the imperiled euro, as investors worried that plans for closer fiscal unity will bring little immediate relief and expose the continent’s deep political divisions.
      British Prime Minister David Cameron was the only leader among the European Union’s 27 members to refuse last week to join a plan under which nations submit their budgets for central EU review and limit the deficits they can run.
      As the rift between Britain, which has its own currency, and the 17 nations that use the euro created uncertainty about the deal’s implementation, ratings agencies Moody’s and Fitch warned that the plan did not even properly address the problem of lowering European debt.
      Stocks and the euro fell sharply Monday — to $1.3183 from $1.3370 — as market confidence in the plan and Europe’s ability to end the crisis ebbed.
      In Italy, one of the continent’s most troubled economies, workers angry about government austerity reforms went on strike and held nationwide rallies.    Strikes idled some Fiat auto plants and forced Milan’s famed La Scala opera house to cancel a performance.
      Germany’s DAX ended the day 3.4 percent lower, Milan’s stock index was down 2 percent and Italy’s borrowing rates rose, indicating growing fears about its financial future.    Italy’s 10year bond yield rose 0.52 of a percentage point to 6.76 percent, closing in on the 7 percent level that forced fellow eurozone nations Greece, Ireland and Portugal to take bailouts.
      Under the deal, a central European authority would oversee their future budgets and impose tougher spending controls.    The participants would also agree to automatic penalties if countries spend too much.
      Cameron defended his actions in the House of Commons on Monday, telling U.K. lawmakers the fiscal pact that envisions using the EU’s executive arm as a budget watchdog could face even more political hurdles.    The British leader was greeted with cheers from his own euroskeptic Conservatives but jeers from opposition lawmakers.
      “The choice was a treaty without proper safeguards or no treaty, and the right answer was no treaty.    It was not an easy thing to do, but it was the right thing to do,” Cameron said.
      In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton backed Britain’s position, telling reporters “the role that the U.K. has played in Europe will continue.”    But French President Nicolas Sarkozy blasted Britain for dividing the continent.
      “There are clearly two Europes,” Sarkozy was quoted as telling Le Monde newspaper.    “One that wants more solidarity among its members and more regulation, the other which is attached only to the logic of the single market.”
  
  
• 12/14/2011
  
  Tax cut bill clears House - Includes oil pipeline that Obama opposes by David Espo, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Defiant Republicans pushed legislation through the House Tuesday night that would keep alive Social Security payroll tax cuts for some 160 million Americans at President Barack Obama’s request — but also would require construction of a Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline that has sparked a White House veto threat.
      Passage, on a largely partyline vote of 234-193, sent the measure toward certain demise in the Democratic-controlled Senate, triggering the final partisan showdown in an already quarrelsome year of divided govern-ment.
      The legislation “extends the payroll tax relief, extends and reforms unemployment insurance and protects Social Security — without job-killing tax hikes,” Republican House Speaker John Boehner declared after the mea-sure had cleared.
      Referring to the controversy over the Keystone XL pipeline, he added, “Our bill includes sensible, bipartisan measures to help the private sector create jobs.”
      On a long day of finger pointing, however, House Democrats accused Republicans of protecting “millionaires and billionaires,” and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., derided the GOP-backed pipeline provision as “ideological candy” for the tea party set.
      After the House vote, the White House urged Congress on in finishing work on extending the tax cuts and jobless aid.    Press secretary Jay Carney issued a statement that didn’t mention the pipeline but renewed Obama’s insistence that the legislation be paid for, at least in part, by “asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share” in higher tax levies.
      Lawmakers “cannot go on vacation before agreeing to prevent a tax hike on 160 million Americans and extending unemployment insurance,” he said.
      Republicans mocked Obama’s objections to their version of the bill.    “Mr. President, we can’t wait,” said House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, employing a refrain the White House often uses to criticize Republicans for failing to take steps to improve the struggling economy.
      Voting in favor of the legislation were 224 Republicans and 10 Democrats, while 179 Democrats and 14 Republicans opposed it.
      At its core, the measure included key parts of the jobs program that Obama asked Congress to approve in September.
      The Social Security payroll tax cuts approved a year ago to help stimulate the economy would be extended through 2012, avoiding a loss of take-home income for wage-earners.
      An expiring program of unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless would remain in place, although at reduced levels that the administration said would cut off aid for 3.3 million.
      A third major component would avert a threatened 27 percent cut in payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients.
  
  
• 12/15/2011
  
  Balanced budget efforts defeated
      WASHINGTON - The Senate voted Wednesday against changing the Constitution to require a balanced budget as Congress hit yet another dead end in its search for a way out of its fiscal morass.    Two proposals for balanced budget amendments were doomed by the partisanship that dominates Congress.    All but one Republican voted against a Democratic measure, and every Democrat opposed the GOP-backed ver-sion.    Amendments to the Constitution must be approved by two-thirds of the House and Senate and three-fourths of state legislatures.
  
  China levies new tariffs on some U.S. cars - Beijing claims damage from foreign subsidies by Elaine Kurtenbach, Associated Press
      SHANGHAI — China has imposed duties on imports of some U.S.-made vehicles, claiming damage from foreign automakers because of dumping and subsidies in the latest round of trade friction between the two countries.
      China’s Commerce Ministry said Wednesday that the duties would be imposed for two years on imported cars and sport utility vehicles with engine displacements of more than 2.5 liters.    The duties range from 2 percent to 21.5 percent.    The ministry’s notice named General Motors Co., Chrysler Group Ltd., Mercedes-Benz U.S. International Inc., BMW’s factory in Spartanburg, South Carolina and Honda of America Manufacturing Co. as among the companies affected.
      China and the U.S. are at odds over a slew of trade issues.    Beijing also has imposed tariffs on imports of U.S. chicken, among other products, while the U.S. has filed complaints against Chinese tariffs on steel and subsidies for wind power equipment.
      In October, seven U.S. solar panel companies filed a federal trade complaint against Chinese companies they accuse of dumping solar products on global markets to depress prices.
      U.S. trade officials have long complained that China’s own subsidies to its auto industry, along with preferential access to cheap credit from state-owned banks, amount to unfair trade practices.
      Under international trade rules, countries are allowed to impose punitive tariffs to offset damage from both dumping and unfair subsidies.
      The Commerce Ministry said its investigation had found “substantial damage” to its automakers caused by dumping and subsidies.
      General Motors, in a statement, said that it was working with its partners to gauge the impact of China’s decision and to “seek a solution consistent with a constructive global trade environment.”
      GM’s imports account for less than half of 1 percent of its domestic production in China, the company said.
      China’s domestic automakers have been struggling to keep or gain market share in recent months as demand has slowed after years of torrid growth.
      Meanwhile, foreign-branded autos, made in China or imported, have fared better among Chinese car buyers who apparently believe they offer better quality or image value.
  
  OPEC keeps current crude output
      OPEC agreed in Vienna on Wednesday to keep crude output at a daily 30 million barrels, but left it up to its 12 members to voluntarily honor that ceiling without overshooting it, reflecting their differences over prices and output.
      Before the talks, Iran had sought lower production for the cartel, which would raise prices.    But it apparently bowed to Saudi Arabia, which wanted to maintain levels and which effectively sets OPEC policy as its largest producer.
      Despite the compromise, Saudi-Iranian tensions overshadowed much of the meeting.
      OPEC said the target includes Libya, which is raising production after its civil war ended.
  
  
• 12/16/2011
  
  Defense bill sent to Obama - Senate OKs much-debated measure, 86-13 by Donna Cassata, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Congress passed a $662 billion defense bill Thursday after months of wrangling over how to handle captured terrorist suspects without violating Americans’ constitutional rights. A last-minute compromise produced a truce.
      The Senate voted 86-13 for the measure and will send it to President Barack Obama for his signature.    The bill would authorize money for military personnel, weapons systems, the wars in Af-ghanistan and Iraq and national security programs in the Energy Department for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.
      The legislation is $27 billion less than Obama wanted and $43 billion less than Congress gave the Pentagon this year, a reflection of deficit-driven federal budgets, the end of the Iraq war and the drawdown in Afghanistan.
      In a rare show of bipartisanship, the House voted 283-136 for the measure late Wednesday Two provisions have created the most controversy.
      One would require military custody for foreign terrorist suspects linked to al-Qaida or its affiliates and involved in plotting or attacking the United States.    The suspects could be transferred to civilian custody for trial, and the president would have final say on determining how the transfer would occur.
      Under pressure from Obama and his national security team, lawmakers added language that says nothing in the bill may be “construed to affect the existing criminal enforcement and national security authorities of the Federal Bureau of Investigation or any other domestic law enforcement agency with regard to a covered person, regardless whether such covered person is held in military custody.”
      The attorney general, in consultation with the defense secretary, would decide on whether to try the individual in federal court or by military tribunal.    The president could waive the entire requirement based on national security.
      The second provision would deny suspected terrorists, including American citizens seized within the U.S., the right to trial and subject them to indefinite detention.    The provision includes a Senate-passed compromise that says nothing in the legislation may be “construed to affect existing law or authorities relating to the detention of United States citizens, lawful resident aliens of the United States, or any other persons who are captured or arrested in the United States.”
      Conservative Republicans, Democrats and civil rights groups have warned that the provision would let the government hold U.S. citizens indefinitely.
      “If these provisions deny American citizens their due process rights under a new, nebulous set of directives … it will serve as an unprecedented threat to our constitutional liberties,” said Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo.
      Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she and several other lawmakers will introduce legislation to ensure that no U.S. citizen is held indefinitely without trial.
  
  Deal will avert government closure - Talks yield $1 trillion spending measure by David Espo, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Congressional negotiators reached agreement Thursday on a compromise spending bill to avert a weekend federal shutdown.
      They also worked toward a deal renewing the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits for another year but prepared a shorter version as a fallback.
      Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told reporters he was still optimistic that bipartisan talks on yearlong extensions of the Social Security payroll tax cut and unemployment coverage would succeed.    But as a “Plan B,” he said, they also were working on a two-month extension, which would also prevent cuts in Medicare reimbursements for doctors during that period.
      For the first time, Democratic and Republican leaders expressed optimism at prospects for swift compromise on their payroll tax standoff and a spending battle that had threatened to shutter federal agencies starting at midnight Friday.
      A deal on a $1 trillion spending bill was reached after Republicans agreed to drop language that would have blocked President Barack Obama’s liberalized rules on people who visit and send money to relatives in Cuba.    But a GOP provision will stay in the bill thwarting an Obama administration rule on energy efficiency standards critics said would make it hard to buy inexpensive incandescent light bulbs.
      The House is expected to approve the spending measure today, and the Senate could follow suit, possibly the same day.    Donald Stewart, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said talks aimed at agreeing to a yearlong extension of the payroll tax measure will continue.
      “We’re 12 hours into this debate, they just started talking,” he said when asked about the two-month version of the bill.    “I wouldn’t hit the panic button.”
      Bargainers were considering the two-month extension of this year’s payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits bill because so far, they haven’t agreed how a yearlong extension would be paid for, said a Democratic aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private talks.     The two-month bill would cost $40 billion, according to the aide.    It would be paid for from a list of around $120 billion in savings that bargainers are considering, including sales of the broadcast spectrum and raising fees that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac charge to back mortgages, the aide said.
      Without congressional action, the payroll taxes would rise and extra benefits for the long-term unemployed would expire Jan. 1.    Doctors’ Medicare payments would be automatically reduced that day by 27 percent, a reduction that could prompt some to stop seeing Medicare patients.
      Democrats abandoned their demand for a surtax on milliondollar incomes that they wanted to include in the measure.
      The year-end, $1 trillion spending measure would lock in cuts that Republicans extracted from Democrats in negotiations conducted months ago.    It funds 10 Cabinet departments, including the Pentagon and dozens of smaller agencies, awarding a slight increase to the military and veterans’ programs while cutting most other domestic programs.
  
  Putin denounces protesters - Uses broadcast to offset unrest by Natasha Abbakumova, The Washington Post
      MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin worked to soften his authoritarian image Thursday, hinting at democratic concessions but also pushing back at protesters who have rocked Russia in recent weeks, saying they’d been paid to show up.    Using a marathon televised question-and-answer session as his first full-scale response to demonstrations after a disputed parliamentary election earlier this month unsettled Russia’s stolid political order, Putin portrayed himself as tough but reasonable, agreeing that not all was perfect in the country he has led for 12 years.    If protests are “the result of ‘Putin’s regime,’ then it is good,” he said.    “These are absolutely normal things as long as all the actions are within the law.”    But he gave no indication he’d agree to one of the protesters’ key demands, to rerun the parlia-mentary election in which his United Russia party was dealt a major blow, even amid allegations that ballot-stuffing offset even greater losses.    Still, he said he might be willing to allow small political parties to register, to put Web cameras in every polling place as a measure against fraud and to surrender some of the Kremlin’s control over regional politics.    And in comments to reporters after the show, he added that if he were re-elected president, he’d consider freeing billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was arrested in 2003 on charges of tax evasion and embezzlement that many saw as politically motivated.    Many of the questions he was asked had a harsher edge than in years past.    Russians asked Putin about corruption, the sagging economy, the elections and his response to protesters who dispute the Dec. 4 vote and the notion that Putin will coast to an easy victory in presidential elections in March.
      “There is nothing new about the falsification claims and the opposition’s discontent with the election results,” Putin said, adding that it happens after every election around the world.
      Putin, looking at ease, is running for president after term-limits forced him out of the job three years ago, though he retained his power in the prime minister’s job.    His September declaration that he and President Dmitry Medvedev had planned years ago to make a switch angered many Russians who resented the implication that they had no say in who led them.    But few expect that Putin will lose the March election, setting him on the path toward being Russia’s top leader for 18 years — and perhaps 24 if he stays for an extra term.
      Protest organizers’ reaction to the broadcast was swift and dismissive.
      “Putin has not understood anything from the recent rallies,” said Vladimir Ryzhkov, an opposition leader, on Echo of Moscow radio.
      Many queries reflected a sense that government is unresponsive and corrupt, and Putin said that needed to change, but also implied that without him, Russia would face terrorism and poorer finances.
  
  
• 12/17/2011
  
  ANALYSIS Exit opens door for Iran - Iraq pullout has promise, threat by Robert H. Reid, Associated Press
      CAIRO — The U.S. military’s departure from Iraq opens the door to expanded Iranian influence in the Middle East, though that door could close fast if Iran’s closest Arab ally Bashar Assad falls from power in Syria.    That’s among the uncertainties looming over the Middle East in the wake of President Barack Obama’s decision to remove all U.S. troops by the end of this month, fulfilling a campaign promise to end the unpopular war and abandoning efforts to negotiate an extension of the year-end deadline agreed to by the Bush administration in 2008.
      At first glance, that would make Iran the big winner, especially if the U.S. move heralds a tectonic shift of power in the strategic Persian Gulf region.    But the tumult from the Arab Spring, on top of the end of the nearly nineyear Iraq War, has made the rivalry between Iran and the U.S.’s Arab allies even trickier and predictions more cloudy.
      No longer will tens of thousands of American troops be stationed along Iran’s western border.    They are leaving behind an Iraqi government dominated by Shiite Muslim parties beholden to the Iranians, who sheltered them for years when Saddam Hussein and his Sunni- dominated Baath regime were in power.
      With the American military presence reduced to a few hundred members of an embassy-based liaison mission, Iran is likely to step up infiltration of Iraq’s intelligence services — the key to manipulating Iraq’s internal politics — and expand its links to both Shiite and Kurdish politicians, to the alarm of the country’s Sunni minority.
      As the second-most populous country in the Gulf, with some of the world’s largest proven petroleum reserves, an avowedly pro-Iranian Iraq would be a game changer in the power struggle between Iran and the U.S.-backed, conservative Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia.
      Iran already wielded considerable influence in Iraq even when U.S. troop strength approached 170,000.    Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite who had been cool toward Iran, has moved closer to pro-Iranian groups since a political crisis in 2010 nearly cost him his job.
      With the American military gone, Tehran’s prospects for bolstering those ties in Iraq look bright.
      At closer examination, the future appears less certain. Much will depend on how the key players — including the United States — maneuver diplomatically through the new environment created by the end of the war.
      “The United States must succeed in limiting and countering Iranian influence in Iraq and in creating Iraqi forces that can defend the country,” wrote analyst Anthony Cordesman of the Center for International and Strategic Studies.
      Iran’s ability to manipulate a post-America Iraq is by no means unlimited, in part due to a flowering of Iraqi nationalism that survived the horrific bloodshed of the Sunni-Shiite sectarian war.
      Many ordinary Iraqi Shiites harbor bitter memories of the 1980-1988 war with Iran, when young Shiite soldiers bore the brunt of the casualties.    Among the Sunni minority, hostility to Iran runs even deeper, and much of the talk of Iranian domination stems from overblown comments by Sunni politicians seeking to discredit their Shiite political rivals.
      “The Iraqis have no desire to be a client state of their Persian neighbor,” said Doug Ollivant, senior fellow at the New America Foundation.    “This is a real threat … but the threat is overstated.”
      An Iranian strategic victory in Iraq could also be checkmated by a regime change in Syria, where Assad is facing mounting resistance to his family’s autocratic 40-year rule.
      The fall of Assad would be the biggest blow to Iran since the Iran-Iraq war and would render Tehran’s international isolation nearly complete.
  
  Syrians protest; Arabs halt talks by Bassem Mroue, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — Tens of thousands of Syrians, some of them calling for their president’s execution, pro-tested against the authoritarian regime Friday, as the Arab League indefinitely delayed a meeting on the crisis because of divi-sions over how to stop the bloodshed.    Security forces opened fire during protests and conducted security raids in several places around the nation, killing at least 10 people, most of them in Syria’s rebellious central region, activists said.    The army also sent reinforcements into a southern area where military defectors recently launched deadly attacks on regime troops.
      The protesters urged Arab leaders to move quickly to try to end the violence, saying the Arab League’s delays were allowing the regime of President Bashar Assad more time to kill.    “The Arab League is killing us,” read some of the banners held at Friday’s demonstrations.
      The 22-member League has proposed a peace plan, suspended Syria’s membership and imposed sanc-tions but hasn’t been able to agree on the next steps after Syria refused to allow monitors to ensure compliance with the peace plan.
      It was supposed to meet today, but an Arab League diplomat said divisions among members over what to do next forced a delay.    Instead, a smaller group of five Arab foreign ministers tasked with oversee-ing the implementation of the body’s demands on Syria will meet today in Doha, Qatar, he said.    The U.N. Security Council is waiting to see what the Arab League does before it acts.    Because of Russia’s strong objections to sanctions, Western powers want to follow the Arab League’s lead.    The diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the details, said Iraq, Egypt, Algeria, Sudan, Lebanon and Oman seek an Arab-led solution and reject Western interference.    Another camp led by Gulf nations, with Tunisia and Libya, wants the help of the international community in pushing for Assad’s ouster, he said.
  
  Egypt’s military in clashes with protesters again by Aya Batrawy, Associated Press
      CAIRO — Soldiers stormed an anti-military protest camp outside Egypt’s Cabinet building Friday, beating women with sticks and hurling chunks of concrete and glass onto protesters from the roof of parliament in a resurgence of turmoil just a day after millions voted in parliamentary elections.    At least three protesters were shot to death in the clashes, including prominent Muslim cleric Sheik Emad Effat, from Al-Azhar, Egypt’s most eminent religious institution, activists said.    Hundreds more were hurt.    The heavyhanded assault was apparently an effort to clear out protesters who have been camped out in front of the building for three weeks demanding the ruling military leave power.
      But the mayhem — which came despite promises from the army-appointed prime minister that the protesters would not be cleared by force — threatened to spark a new round of violence after deadly clashes between youth revolutionaries and security forces in November that lasted for days and left more than 40 dead.
      Several female protesters cowered on the pavement as military police beat them with truncheons and long sticks.    Soldiers were seen dragging another woman away by her hair.    Plainclothes and uniformed security officers threw slabs of concrete and stones on protesters from atop the parliament build-ing, according to state TV footage, videos and photos posted by protesters on social networking sites.    Protesters threw fire bombs and rocks, setting part of parliament on fire.
      “It’s pretty ironic that the military is throwing rocks at protesters from the parliament building, where a sign is hanging that says democracy is the power of the people,” protester Mostafa Sheshtawy said.
  
  
• 12/18/2011
  
  SENATE WRAPS UP YEAR, BUT TUMULT NOT OVER - Spending bill approved; tax cut is for 2 months - House to vote Monday; many members angry by Andrew Taylor, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Saturday to avert for two months a payroll tax increase and the cutoff of benefits for the long-time unemployed.
      But the action also will force a reluctant President Barack Obama to make an election-year choice between unions and environmentalists over whether to build an oil pipeline through the heart of the country.
      A House vote on the legislation is set for Monday.    However, House GOP leaders held a conference call Saturday with rank-and-file lawmakers in which strong anger was expressed about the Senate bill, including its lack of House-approved cuts in last year’s health care law and its failure to erase cuts in doctors’ payments.
      “You can’t have an economic recovery with this,” said Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., said of the bill.    “If the Senate is incapable of doing that, we don’t have to accept it.”
      A House GOP aide said afterward, “Members are overwhelmingly disappointed in the Senate’s decision to just ‘kick the can down the road’ for two months.”
      The Senate’s 89-10 vote belied a tortuous battle between Democrats and Republicans that produced the compromise extension of the expiring tax breaks and jobless benefits and forestalled cuts in doctors’ Medicare reimbursements.
          It capped a year of government marked by raucous partisan fights that tumbled to the brink of a first-ever U.S. default and three federal shutdowns, only to see eleventh-hour deals emerge.    It also put the two sides on track to revisit the payroll tax cut early next year as the fights for control of the White House and Congress heat up.
      By 67-32, senators gave final congressional approval to a separate $1 trillion bill financing the Pentagon and scores of other federal agencies through next September.    That measure avoided a shutdown of government offices that would have occurred this weekend.
      The tax legislation delivers tax cuts and jobless benefits that some Republicans opposed.    It’s also a rebuff of Obama’s original demands for a yearlong payroll tax reduction for 160 million workers that was to be even deeper than this year’s cut, to be paid for by boosting taxes on the highest-earning Ameri-cans.
      Instead, the $33 billion cost will be paid by raising fees that government-backed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will charge to back new mortgages or refinancings, beginning next year.
      A provision forces Obama to decide within two months on whether to allow construction of the proposed 1,700-mile Keystone XL pipeline, which is to deliver up to 700,000 barrels of oil daily from tar sands in Alberta, Canada, to refineries in Texas.    The language requires him to issue the needed permit unless he declares the pipeline would not serve the national interest.
  
  
  SPENDING BILL HIGHLIGHTS
  • $518 billion for the Pentagon’s core budget, a 1 percent boost, excluding overseas operations.
  • $115 billion for Pentagon war costs in Iraq and Afghanistan, $43 billion less than for 2011.
  • $7.2 billion to sustain and modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
  • $11.8 billion for the IRS, an almost 3 percent budget cut.
  • $39.6 billion for homeland security programs, a 5 percent cut.    But border security and immigration enforcement are increased.
  • $8.4 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency, a 6 percent cut from the president’s request.
  • $4.3 billion for the Indian Health Service, a 6 percent increase.
  • $30.7 billion for health research, a 1 percent increase.
  • $14.5 billion for Title I grants to schools, virtually the same as last year.
  • $11.6 billion for grants to school districts for special needs children.
  • $4.3 billion for Congress’ own budget, a 5 percent cut.
  • $122.2 billion for veterans programs.
  • $3.5 billion for low-income heating and utility subsidies, a cut of about 25 percent.
  • $53.3 billion for foreign aid and the State Department’s budget.
  • $8.1 billion for disaster aid.
  • Changes in the Pell Grant program that keep the maximum award at $5,550 but limit the number of semesters the grants may be received and make income eligibility standards tighter.
  
  
  THE MEASURE ALSO CONTAINS POLICY PROVISIONS, INCLUDING:
  • Block detainees in Guantanamo Bay from being transferred to the United States.
  • Block new energy efficiency regulations for light bulbs.
  • Prohibit the District of Columbia government from funding abortions for poor women.
  • Ban federal funding of needle exchange programs that help prevent the spread of AIDS among drug users.
  • Delay new Labor Department regulations limiting coal dust in mines.
  • Require the government to use the E-verify system to make sure new federal hires are eligible to work in the U.S.
  • Block EPA or state regulators from requiring clean water permits for the construction of timber roads.
  • Delay voluntary guidelines on the food industry to limit marketing to children of foods that have high fat, sugar or sodium levels.
  
  Military crackdown kills 9 in Egypt by Sarah El Deeb, Associated Press
      CAIRO — Hundreds of Egyptian soldiers swept into Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Saturday, beating pro-testers and tossing journalists’ TV cameras off balconies in the second day of a crackdown on anti-military activists that has left nine dead and hundreds injured.    The military — fresh after the first rounds of parliament elections that it claimed bolstered its status as the country’s rulers — appeared determined to stamp out protests demanding it transfer power immediately to civilians.    TV footage, pictures and eyewitness accounts showed a new level of force being used in the past two days.    Military police openly beat women protesters, slapped elders on the face, and pulled the shirt off of at least one veiled woman as she struggled on the pavement.
      They beat and gave electric shocks to men and women dragged into detention, many of them held in the nearby parliament or Cabinet buildings, witnesses said. Aya Emad, a 24-yearold protester, had a broken nose and an arm in a sling.    She said troops dragged her by her headscarf and hair into the Cabinet head-quarters.    She said soldiers kicked her on the ground, an officer shocked her with an electrical prod and another slapped her.
      With Egypt in the midst of multistage parliamentary elections, the violence threatens to spark a new cycle of fighting after deadly clashes between youth revolutionaries and security forces in November that lasted for days and left more than 40 dead.    The clashes in November involved the widely disliked police force. But in a key difference, this time the police have stayed away and the crackdown is being led entirely by the military.
      That could indicate a new confidence among the military that it has backing of the broader public — after elections held under its watch that saw heavy turnout, were largely peaceful and the fairest and freest in living memo-ry.
      Ahmed Abdel-Samei, who came to check on Tahrir Square, said he opposes protests.    “Elections were the first step.    This was a beginning to stability,” the 29-year-old said.    “Now we are going 10 steps back.”
      Noor Noor, an activist who was beaten up trying to protect Emad, said, “Public opinion is addicted or naturally inclined to favor stability or the illusion of it.    But in time, it will be hard for the army to cover everything up.”
      The heavy-handed crackdown could galvanize the military’s opponents and even some in the public who praised the army for delivering clean elections.    Among those killed Friday was an eminent 52-year-old Muslim cleric from Al-Azhar, Egypt’s most respected religious institution.
      At the funeral Saturday of Sheik Emad Effat, who was shot in the chest, hundreds chanted “Retribu-tion, retribution,” and marched from the cemetery to Tahrir.
  
  
• 12/19/2011
  
  North Korea’s ‘Dear Leader’ Kim Jong Il dies by Jean H. Lee, Associated Press
      SEOUL, South Korea — Kim Jong Il, North Korea’s mercurial and enigmatic leader whose iron rule and nuclear ambitions dominated world security fears for more than a decade, has died.    He was 69.
      Kim’s death 17 years after he inherited power from his father was announced Monday by the state television from the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.    The country’s “Dear Leader” — reputed to have had a taste for cigars, cognac and gourmet cuisine — was believed to have had diabetes and heart disease.    North Korea has been grooming Kim’s third son to take over power from his father in the impoverished nation that celebrates the ruling family with an intense cult of personality.
      South Korea put its military on “high alert,” and President Lee Myung-bak convened a national security council meeting after the news of Kim’s death.    The two Koreas remain technically in a state of war more than 50 years after the peninsula’s Cold Warera armed conflict ended in a cease-fire.
      In a “special broadcast” Monday, North Korea’s state media said Kim died of a heart ailment on a train due to a “great mental and physical strain” Saturday during a “high-intensity field inspection.”
      Kim is believed to have suffered a stroke in 2008, but he had appeared relatively vigorous in photos and video from recent visits to China and Russia and in numerous trips around the country.
      Kim Jong Il inherited power after his father, revered North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, died in 1994.    He had been groomed for 20 years to lead the communist nation founded by his guerrilla fighter-turned- politician father.
      In September 2010, Kim Jong Il unveiled his third son, the 20-something Kim Jong Un, as his successor, putting him in high-ranking posts.
      Even with a successor, there had been some fear among North Korean observers of a behind-the-scenes power struggle or nuclear instability upon the elder Kim’s death.
      Kim Il Sung, who for years fought for independence from Korea’s colonial ruler, Japan, from a base in Russia, emerged as a communist leader after returning to Korea in 1945 after Japan was defeated in World War II.
      With the peninsula divided between the Sovietadministered north and the U.S.-administered south, Kim rose to power as North Korea’s first leader in 1948.    The North invaded the South in 1950, sparking a war that would last three years, kill millions of civilians and leave the peninsula divided by a Demilitarized Zone that today remains one of the world’s most heavily fortified.
      In the North, Kim Il Sung meshed Stalinist ideology with a cult of personality that encompassed him and his son.    Their portraits hang in every building in North Korea and on the lapels of every dutiful North Korean.
      Kim Jong Il, a graduate of Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung University, was 33 when his father anointed him his eventual successor.    Even before he took over as leader, there were signs the younger Kim would maintain — and perhaps exceed — his father’s hard-line stance.
      South Korea has accused Kim of masterminding a 1983 bombing that killed 17 South Korean officials visiting Burma, now known as Myanmar.    In 1987, the bombing of a Korean Air Flight killed all 115 people on board; a North Korean agent who confessed to planting the device said Kim ordered the downing of the plane downing himself.
      Kim Jong Il took over after his father died in 1994, eventually taking the posts of chairman of the National Defense Commission, commander of the Korean People’s Army and head of the ruling Worker’s Party while his father remained as North Korea’s “eternal president.”
      He faithfully carried out his father’s policy of “military first,” devoting much of the country’s scarce resources to its troops — even as his people suffered from a prolonged famine — and built the world’s fifth-largest military.
  
  Military, activists vie for Egypt -Generals’ seem to be winning favor by Hamza Hendawi, Associated Press
      CAIRO — Egypt’s ruling military and the revolutionaries who demand they immediately step down fought in the streets a third day Sunday — and competed fiercely for the support of a broader public that has grown tired of turmoil since the fall of Hosni Mubarak 10 months ago.
      The generals seem to be winning the fight for the public, despite a heavy-handed crackdown on protesters around Cairo’s Tahrir Square using a roughness that rivaled even that of Mubarak’s widely hated police force.    A man died in police custody Sunday; a lawyer said he was refused medical attention.
      The protesters have tried to drum up Egyptians’ anger at the military by spreading videos and photos of military police savagely beating young men and women to the ground with sticks and truncheons — and the resonant scene of a woman in a conservative headscarf being stripped half naked by soldiers who stomp her chest.
      But so far their efforts to win public sympathy don’t seem to be gaining traction in the face of the military’s bid to depict the crowds of hundreds in the streets as hooligans and vandals, not the idealistic activists who succeeded in bringing down Mubarak.    At least 10 protesters have been killed and 441 others hurt in the three days of violence, according to the Health Ministry.
      “The military has failed in everything except ... its stunning success in making people hate the revolution, its history and its revolutionaries,” prominent columnist Ibrahim Eissa wrote in an editorial in the independent pro-revolution newspaper, Al-Tahrir.
      Led by a general who served for 20 years as Mubarak’s defense minister, the military has been methodically seeking to discredit the activists, accusing them of illegally getting foreign funds and being part of a plot hatched abroad to destabilize Egypt.    Meanwhile, the generals have sought to portray themselves as key players in the 18-day revolt that felled Mubarak and hence have earned the right to rule.
      In a statement posted on its Facebook page Sunday, the ruling military council called the clashes part of a “conspiracy” against Egypt. It said its forces had the right to defend the “property of the great people of Egypt.”    Their campaign plays on Egyptians’ frustration with continued instability and economic woes since Mubarak’s fall.    Many are now more focused on the multistage parliamentary elections that began last month and continue through March.    Islamist parties have so far overwhelmingly dominated the vote, with liberals and secular parties far behind.
      That trend continued with the announcement Sunday of results from the second of three rounds of voting, held last week.    Of about 160 seats up for grabs in the second round, the Muslim Brotherhood won 29 and another more conservative Islamic party, Al-Nour, won 23.    Two liberal groups — the Wafd Party and the Egyptian Bloc — won nine and seven seats, respectively.    The rest will be determined in a run-off vote to be held later this week.
  
  
• 12/20/2011
  
  Military tries to discredit protesters
      CAIRO - Egypt’s military rulers tried to discredit the pro-democracy movement Monday, portraying a detained protester as a woman of questionable morals and accusing the media of sabotage.
      The verbal attacks by a member came hours after troops in riot gear swept through Tahrir Square before daybreak, firing on protesters and lobbing tear gas into the crowds.    At least three people died.    The death toll from four days of street clashes is 14.
  
  N. KOREA MOURNS LATE LEADER - Kim Jong Il’s youngest son, the ‘Great Successor,’ may try to prove mettle by Rafael Wober, Associated Press
      PYONGYANG, North Korea — North Koreans marched by the thousands Monday through their capital to mourn Kim Jong Il, many weeping and flailing their arms in grief over the death of the man they called “Dear Leader.”
      North Korean state media proclaimed his youngest son, Kim Jong Un, a “Great Successor,” while the world watched for any signs of a turbulent transition to the untested leader in an unpredictable nation known to be pursuing nuclear weapons.
      South Korea’s military went on high alert following Kim’s death after 17 years in power.    North Korea said Kim died of a heart attack Saturday while on a train trip.    President Barack Obama agreed by phone with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to closely watch developments.
      On the streets of North Korra’s capital, Pyongyang, people wailed while children and adults laid flowers at key memorials.
      “How could the heavens be so cruel?    Please come back, gener-al.    We cannot believe you’re gone,” Hong Son Ok shouted, her body shaking wildly during an interview with North Korea TV.    A foreigner who teaches at a university in Pyongyang said students looked very serious but didn’t show any emotion.    “There was a blanket of silence,” the teacher said.    “People were going about their business. … People looked a little stunned and very serious, but composed and respectful.”
      He was 69, according to official records.    The death could set back efforts by the U.S. and others to get Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions, because the untested successor may seek to avoid any perceived weakness as he moves to consolidate control.    “The situation could become ex-tremely volatile.    What the North Korean military does in the next 24-48 hours will be decisive,” said Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who has made several high-profile visits to North Korea.
      The death comes at a sensitive time for North Korea as it prepares for next year’s 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung.    The preparations include massive construction projects throughout the city.
      Seoul and Washington will worry that Kim Jong Un “may feel it necessary in the future to precipitate a crisis to prove his mettle to other senior leaders,” said Bruce Klingner, an analyst at The Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington.
      North Korea conducted at least one short-range missile test Monday, a South Korean official said.
      The test “undoubtedly is connected” to Kim Jong Il’s death, said Konstantin Makienko of the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies.    Its goal is to show the world that “the armed forces of this country now are completely battle-ready,” he said.
      The U.S. is still looking for better relations with the North Korean people despite the “evolving situation” there, said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
      However, U.S. officials said Kim’s passing and assumption of power of his son, Kim Jong Un, will likely delay anticipated developments on resuming nuclear disarmament talks with the North and supplying the nation with food aid.
  
  Oil prices settle slightly higher by Associated Press
      NEW YORK — Oil prices rose slightly Monday after a sharp, 7 percent drop last week and an encouraging report about housing that pointed to higher oil demand. Benchmark Monday rose 35 cents Monday to end at $93.88 per barrel in New York.    Brent crude, which is used to price foreign oil that’s imported by U.S. refineries, rose 29 cents to finish at $103.64 per barrel in London.
      The volume of oil trading slowed on Monday with only two, holiday-shortened weeks left in the year.    Many oil traders continue to sell their remaining investments for 2011 in an end-of-the-year purge that helped push oil prices nearly 7 percent lower last week.
      Speculators “aren’t going to wait until Dec. 31,” independent analyst Jim Ritterbusch said.    “They’re always going to try to beat other people out the door.”
  
  
• 12/21/2011
  
  Dozens of defectors, activists slain in Syria
      BEIRUT - Security forces pursuing anti-government activists and army defectors shot dead at least 47 people in Syria on Tuesday, pushing the toll in two days of violence to nearly 150 even as the regime prepared to allow in foreign monitors under an Arab League plan aimed at stopping the bloodshed.
      Syrian state television showed pictures of military maneuvers and said they were meant to show its forces are ready to “repulse any aggression the enemies of our nations might think about.”
      Activist groups said about 100 people were killed Monday, the same day Syria agreed to the monitors after weeks of stalling.    About 70 of the dead were said to be army defectors.    The groups said Tuesday’s toll was at least 47 and possibly as high as 62.
  
  Oil prices jump more than 3%
      NEWYORK— Oil prices soared on promising economic news out of Europe and the United States.    Benchmark crude rose $3.34, or 3.6 percent, Tuesday to end the day at $97.22 per barrel in New York.    Brent crude, which is used to price foreign oil that’s imported by many U.S. refineries, rose $3.09, or 3 percent, to finish at $106.73 per barrel in London.
      PFGBest analyst Phil Flynn said that oil traders are increasingly concerned about the political instability in Kazakhstan, which exports about 1.3 million barrels of oil per day.
      The Central Asian nation has been battling political protests that have resulted in about 15 deaths in the last month.
      Over the weekend, Kazakhstan’s president imposed a state of emergency in one city, and the interior minister said firearms will be deployed in skirmishes with protestors.
      “That’s really gotten everyone’s attention today,” Flynn said.
  
  
• 12/22/2011
  
  Obama to Boehner: Pass it - He says 2-month tax cut is the sole option by Ben Feller and Martin Crutsinger, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Careening toward a politically toxic tax hike, President Barack Obama implored House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, on Wednesday to get behind a two-month stopgap until a longer-term deal could be struck early next year, calling it the only real way out of a mess that is threatening the paychecks of 160 million workers and isolating House Republicans.
      But all sides seemed to end the day where they began.
      Boehner remained insistent on a full-year extension of the existing payroll tax cut before Jan. 1, urging Obama to haul Senate Democrats back to town to talk to his chosen negotiators.
      “Let’s get this done today,” Boehner told Obama, according to a speaker’s aide, who required anonymity to characterize a private conversation.
      But the Capitol was emptying out fast, and the Senate showed no inclination to return, having already passed a bipartisan twomonth tax cut it thought had settled the matter.
      For taxpayers, and for an economy starting to show some life again, the standoff was all holiday gloom.    Americans braced for smaller paychecks starting in January if Congress doesn’t break the deadlock.
      The tax cut, which took effect this year, benefits 160 million Americans — $1,000 a year, or nearly $20 a week, for someone making $50,000 and as much as $4,272, or $82, a week for a household with two high-paid workers.    The tax cut is set to expire Jan. 1.    If lawmakers don’t renew it for 2012, analysts say the economy would slow as individuals and families looked to spend less.
      “It will limit my spending from week to week,” said Jennifer Stempel, an office manager from Denver.
      She said that could mean making fewer impulse buys at the grocery store, packing her lunch each day and rejoining a carpool she quit after gas prices declined.    “I was starting to relax about (travel expenses), but now I don’t know,” Stempel said.
      The tax cut is part of legislation that would also renew benefits for the long-term unemployed. If they aren’t renewed, starting in January, nearly 6 million people would lose weekly checks averaging about $300, the primary income source for most.    Smaller paychecks and reduced spending would coincide with a still-vulnerable period for the U.S. economy.
      “A failure to extend the payroll tax holiday and the extended unemployment benefits would be a serious hit to the economy,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.    “The risk of a recession would rise and be uncomfortably high, particularly early next year, when the fallout from Europe’s troubles will be the greatest.”
      The reliably conservative editorial page of the Wall Street Journal blasted both Boehner and Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the GOP leader, for how they handled the matter.
      “The GOP leaders have somehow managed the remarkable feat of being blamed for opposing a one-year extension of a tax holiday that they are surely going to pass,” the paper’s editorial said.
      The White House made clear that the time for talks was over for this year.
      “The negotiating has happened already,” presidential spokesman Jay Carney said, referring to the Senate bill the White House insists was sealed with Boehner’s blessing.
      He and other House members call it a poor and unworkable tax policy.
  
  Activists: Syrian forces kill over 100 in village by Bassem Mroue, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — As government troops advanced on a village in northwestern Syria, activists say, the terrified residents fled into a valley for fear of being arrested or worse.    What happened next, one of the activists said, was “an organized massacre.”    The troops surrounded the valley and unleashed a barrage of rockets, tank shells, bombs and gunfire in an hours-long assault, according to two human rights groups and a wit-ness, killing more than100 people and leaving no survivors in one of the bloodiest days of a crackdown by President Bashar Assad against a nine-month popular uprising.    The White House said it’s “deeply disturbed” by Tuesday’s attack; France called it a “murderous spiral”; and the Arab League reminded Assad’s regime of its responsibilities to protect its civilians.    The U.N. says more than 5,000 people have died since March as Syria has sought to put down the uprising — part of the Arab Spring of protests that toppled long-serving unpopular leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
      Members of Syria’s opposition said the bloodshed outside the village of Kfar Owaid, 30 miles from the northern border with Turkey in Idlib province, was evidence of the authoritarian regime’s intent to intensify its crackdown on the uprising before Arab League observers arrive today.
      “It was an organized massacre,” said Rami Abdul- Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britishbased activist group.    “The troops surrounded people, then killed them.”
      Syrian officials didn’t comment.
      Kfar Owaid is part of the rugged mountainous region of Jabal al-Zawiyah, the scene of clashes between troops and army defectors, and weeks of intense anti-government protests.    One Kfar Owaid villager who’s an anti-government activist said scores of residents and activists had fled to the nearby Budnaya Valley ahead of the advancing troops.    He said security forces had lists of names of those who organized massive anti-regime protests in the village.
      Those who fled to the valley were surrounded by troops, said the activist, who identified himself only as Abu Rabih for fear of government reprisal.    The troops then opened fire with tanks, rockets and heavy machine guns, he said, adding that they also used bombs filled with nails to increase the number of casualties.
      He said 110 people were killed, with 56 buried in Kfar Owaid on Wednesday.    Others were buried in nearby villages.    Abdul- Rahman corroborated the Kfar Owaid witness account.    His group, which uses a network of local activists to collect information on the crackdown, said 111 people from the village were killed Tuesday.    All of those in the valley were unarmed civilians and activists, with no armed military defectors among them, the rights groups said.
  
  Oil prices rise on lower supply
      NEW YORK — Oil prices rose Wednesday after a government report showed a sharp drop in U.S. crude supplies.    Benchmark crude rose $1.43 to finish at $98.67 a barrel in New York.    Brent crude was up 98 cents, ending at $107.71 a barrel in London.    Oil inventories typically fall at the end of the year because refiners draw down inventories for tax reasons, but Wednesday’s drop was far larger than expected.    The Energy Information Administration said that inventories fell by 10.6 million barrels.    Analysts on average forecast a drop of 2.3 million barrels, according to Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill.
  
  
• 12/23/2011
  
  Islamist party to head coalition Cabinet
      TUNIS, TUNISIA - A moderate Islamist party will run most of Tunisia’s government ministries in a new coalition Cabinet presented Thursday, the first since the country’s first post-uprising elections.
      Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali of the long-banned Islamist party Ennahda said the 41member government will focus on boosting the economy and fighting corruption.
  
  Bombs tear through Baghdad - At least 69 dead in wave of attacks after U.S. exits by Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Associated Press
      BAGHDAD — A wave of 16 bombings ripped across Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 69 people in the worst violence in Iraq for months.    The apparently coordinated attacks struck days after the last American forces left the country and in the midst of a major government crisis between Shiite and Sunni politicians that has sent sectarian tensions soaring.
      The bombings may be linked more to the U.S. withdrawal than to the political crisis, but altogether, the developments heighten fears of a new round of Shiite-Sunni sectarian bloodshed like the one a few years back that pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war.
      There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But the bombings bore all the hallmarks of al-Qaida’s Sunni insurgency.    Most appeared to hit Shiite neighborhoods, although some Sunni areas were also targeted.    In all, 11 neighborhoods were hit by either car bombs, roadside blasts or sticky bombs attached to cars.    There was at least one suicide bombing, and the blasts went off over several hours.
      Al-Qaida has long sought to sow chaos and provoke the type of Shiite militant counterattacks that defined Iraq’s insurgency.    At least 14 blasts went off in the morning two more in the evening.
      The deadliest attack was in the Karrada neighborhood, where a suicide bomber driving an explosives-laden vehicle blew himself up outside the office of a government agency fighting corruption.    Two police officers said the bomber, who was driving an ambulance, told guards that he needed to get to a nearby hospital, and they let him through.
      At least 25 people were killed and 62 injured in that attack, officials said.    Overall, officials across the city put the death toll at 69, with 169 injured.
      Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Shiiteled government this week accused Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, the top Sunni political leader, of running a hit squad that targeted government officials five years ago and put out a warrant for his arrest.
      Because Thursday’s large-scale attack likely took weeks to plan, the violence was not likely a direct response to the tensions within the government.
      Also, al-Qaida opposed Sunni cooperation in the Shiite-dominated government in the first place and is not aligned with Sunni politicians, so it likely does not feel any responsibility to press for a Sunni role in Iraq’s power structure.
  
  Oil rises again, touches $100
      NEW YORK — Oil prices rose for the fourth day in a row Thursday amid signs of an improving U.S. economy and concerns about global supplies.
      The price of benchmark crude rose 86 cents to finish at $99.53 per barrel in New York.    At one point in the session it hit $100.05. Brent crude, which is used to price crude produced in many foreign countries and is important for U.S. gasoline producers, rose 18 cents to end at $107.89 per barrel in London.
      A series of positive reports in the U.S. suggested that the economy is slowly im-proving.    That has sent stock prices and oil prices higher this week.
      Investors got a double-barrel of encouraging news Thursday, as the Labor Department said unemployment claims last week dropped to the lowest level in more than three and a half years, and a private report said leading economic indicators pointed to a strengthening economy.
      On Tuesday, a report showed housing construction was picking up in the U.S. And on Wednesday, the Energy Information Administration reported a dramatic drop in the nation’s oil supplies last week. Gasoline demand was down 2.6 percent from last year through the first nine months of the year, according to government data.    Drivers cut back amid high pump prices and economic worries.
      “That’s an astonishing amount,” said Andrew Lipow, an independent oil analyst.    He expects gasoline demand to fall slightly next year, though the decline won’t be as great if the economy improves.
  
  
• 12/24/2011
  
  House OKs payroll tax cut - After considerable politicking, 2-month extension signed into law by Andrew Taylor, Associated Press
      WASHINGTON — Congress delivered a last-minute holiday tax cut extension to 160 million American wage-earners Friday, just when it appeared they and millions of unemployed workers were going to be left with coal in their stockings.
      It was a major political victory for President Barack Obama, a big slice of humble pie for House Republicans and a blow to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who will have an angry band of tea party lawmakers to deal with when Congress returns to Washington next month.    Voice-vote approvals of the two-month special measure by the Senate and House came in mere seconds, just days after House Republican leaders had insisted that reopening negotiations on a full-year bill was the only way to persuade them to prevent a tax increase Jan. 1.    Obama immediately signed the bill into law.
  
  
  BILL HIGHLIGHTS
  • Retains through Feb. 29 the current 4.2 percent rate for Social Security payroll taxes paid by 160 million workers, instead of letting the rate rise to 6.2 percent Jan. 1.
  • Renews federal benefits averaging $300 a week for the long-term unemployed through Feb. 29.
  • Prevents 27 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors; extends other health care fees until Feb. 29.
  • Requires president to approve construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to Texas within 60 days unless he declares the project would not serve the national interest.
  
      “I said it was critical for Congress not to go home without preventing a tax increase on 160 million working Americans, and I’m pleased to say that they got it done,” a buoyant-looking Obama said at the White House before dashing off for his delayed holiday vacation in his home state of Hawaii.
      The legislation buys time for talks early next year on how to finance the yearlong extensions — negotiations that promise to be contentious.
      The measure will keep in place a 2 percentage point cut in the Social Security payroll tax — worth about $20 a week for a typical worker making $50,000 a year — and prevent almost 2 million unemployed people from losing jobless benefits averaging $300 a week.    Doctors will win a reprieve from a 27 percent cut in their Medicare payments, the product of a 1997 cut that Congress has been unable to fix permanently.
      Republicans did claim a major victory, winning a provision that would require Obama to make a swift decision on whether to approve construction of the Canada- to-Texas Keystone XL oil pipeline, which could generate thou-sands of construction jobs.    To stop construction, Obama, who had wanted to put the decision off until after the 2012 election, would have to declare it was not in the nation’s interest.
      Boehner had been open to the Senate’s version of the legislation a week ago, even though it would have punted the issue into February and given Democrats a proven political issue.    But tea party forces and some in his own leadership revolted, insisting on picking a holiday fight with Democrats, and Boehner felt no choice but to go along.
      The battle turned out to be a loser for House Republicans, earning the ire of swing voters and many in the GOP establishment, but when Boehner capitulated Thursday, he felt the lash from hard-core conservatives.
      “Even though there is plenty of evidence this is a bad deal for America … the House has caved yet again to the president and Senate Democrats,” said Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan.
      The two-month version’s $33 billion cost will be covered by a 0.1percentage point increase on guarantee fees on new home loans backed by mortgage giants Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae — at a likely cost of about $17 a month for a homeowner with a $200,000 mortgage.
  
  Oil nears $100 on security fears by Jonathan Fahey, Associated Press
      NEW YORK — Oil prices rose above $100 a barrel Friday as worries over global security issues outweighed weak economic data in the U.S. Benchmark crude ended the day at $99.68 per barrel in New York, up 15 cents.    It rose as high as $100.23 during the session.    Brent crude finished 7 cents higher at $107.96 a barrel in London.    Tensions between Iran and western nations, along with unrest in Syria, Bahrain, Kazakhstan and Iraq have raised worries that oil supplies could be disrupted if the unrest spreads or grows more serious.
      While none of those situations has disrupted oil supplies yet, traders say it is too dangerous to sell oil or bet that oil prices will fall with tensions so high near so many key oil-producing regions.    Even small disruptions in oil supplies boost prices.
      Among the biggest worries is Iran, the world’s fourth biggest producer of crude.    The U.S. and Europe may tighten sanctions against Iran over the West’s fear that Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb.    Iraq is expected to become the fastest growing producer in the Middle East as it tries to tap its enormous oil reserves.    But a surge in violence since the U.S. troops left spurs worries that Iraq won’t be able to increase production as fast as hoped.
  
  
• 12/25/2011
  
  Kim Jong Un gets show of support
      PYONGYANG, N. KOREA - North Korea hailed Kim Jong Il’s son as “supreme leader” of the 1.2 millionstrong military, ramping up its campaign to install him as the nation’s next leader even as the mourning for his father continued a week after his death.    Kim Jong Un made a third visit Saturday to the palace where his father’s body is lying in state — this time as “supreme leader of the revolutionary armed forces” and accompanied by North Korea’s top military brass, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.    The new title and public show of support from the military leadership sent a strong signal that the nation will maintain Kim Jong Il’s “military first” policy for the time being.
  
  Libyans celebrate their independence
      TRIPOLI, LIBYA - For the first time in more than four decades, Libyans on Saturday celebrated the 60th anniversary of the country’s independence from Italy and France.    Under Moammar Gadhafi’s 42-year rule, the celebration was scrapped and instead, only the 1969 date of his coup was marked.
      “Today we begin the building of Libya as our forefathers have done,” Prime Minister Abdurrahim el-Keib said during the celebration.    “We call on our sons to build Libya after its destruction.”    His remarks were part of an official ceremony in the capital Tripoli.    Thousands of people flocked to the capital from around the country in hopes of breaking bread on an 7-mile-long set of tables planned along Tripoli’s coast as part of the ceremony.    However, the dinner was canceled due to security reasons and infighting among former rebel groups, officials said.
  
  Tens of thousands protest Putin - They demand free elections by Vladimir Isachenkov, Associated Press
      MOSCOW — Tens of thousands of Russians jammed a Moscow avenue Saturday to demand free elections and an end to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s 12-year rule, in the largest show of public outrage since the protests 20 years ago that brought down the Soviet Union.    Gone was the political apathy of recent years as many shouted “We are the Power!”    The demonstration, bigger and better organized than a similar one two weeks ago, and smaller rallies across Russia encouraged opposition leaders hoping to sustain a broad protest movement ignited by a fraud-tainted parliamentary election Dec. 4.
      The enthusiasm also cheered Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader who closed down the Soviet Union on Dec. 25, 1991.    “I’m happy that I have lived to see the people waking up.    This raises big hopes,” Gorbachev, 80, said on Ekho Moskvy radio.
      He urged Putin to follow his example and give up power peacefully.    If Putin stepped down now, he’d be remembered for the positive things he did, Gorbachev said.    The former So-viet leader, who has grown increasingly critical of Putin, has little influence in Russia today.    But the protesters have no central leader and no candidate capable of posing a serious challenge to Putin, who intends to return to the presidency in a March vote.    In a fair election, the veteran Communist Party leader would pose the strongest threat, and he’s joined the Kremlin in disparaging the protests.
      Even at Saturday’s rally, the crowd jeered some of the speakers.    The various liberal, nationalist and leftist groups that took part appear united only by their desire to see “Russia without Putin,” a popular chant. Putin, who gave no public reaction to the protest Saturday, initially derided the demonstrators as paid agents of the West.    He also said sarcastically that he thought the white ribbons they wore as an emblem were condoms.    Putin has since come to take their protests more seriously, and in an effort to stem the anger he has offered a set of reforms to allow more political competition in future elections.
      Kremlin-controlled TV covered Saturday’s rally, but gave no air time to Putin’s harshest critics.
      Estimates of the number of protesters ranged from the police figure of 30,000 to120,000 offered by the organizers.    Demonstrators packed much of a broad avenue, which has room for nearly 100,000 people, about some 1.5 miles from the Kremlin, as the temperature dipped well below freezing.    The crowd was largely young, but included a sizable number of middle-aged and elderly people, some of whom limped slowly to the site on walkers and canes.
      A stage at the end of the avenue featured banners reading “Russia will be free” and “This election Is a farce.”
      Heavy police cordons encircled the participants, who stood within metal barriers, and a police helicopter hovered overhead.
      Alexei Navalny, a corruption- fighting lawyer and popular blogger, electrified the crowd when he took the stage.    He soon had the protesters chanting “We are the power!.”    He spent 15 days in jail for leading a protest Dec. 5 that unexpectedly drew more than 5,000 people and set off the chain of demon-strations.
      Putin’s United Russia party lost 25 percent of its seats in the election, but hung onto a majority in par-liament through what independent observers said was widespread fraud.
  
  
• 12/27/2011
  
  Arab monitors head to Syria amid crackdown by Zeina Karam, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — The Arab League sent monitors to Syria on Monday even though President Bashar Assad’s regime has only intensified its crackdown on dissent in the week since agreeing to the Arab plan to stop the bloodshed.
      Activists say government forces have killed several hundred civilians in the past week.    At least 23 more deaths were reported Monday from intense shelling in the center of the country, just hours before the first 60 monitors were to arrive.
      The opposition says thousands of government troops have been besieging the Baba Amr district of in the central city of Homs for days and the government is preparing a massive assault on the area.
      France expressed strong concerns about the continued deterioration of the situation in Homs.    Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero demanded Syrian authorities allow the Arab League observers immediate access to the city.
      “The repression and unprecedented violence committed by the Damascus regime must cease and everything must be done to stop the drama going on behind closed doors in the city of Homs,” the French statement said.
      In Cairo, an Arab League official said this monitoring mission was the Syrian regime’s “last chance” to reverse course.
      “Will they facilitate the mission’s work or try and curb its movements?    Let’s wait and see,” the official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
      The Arab League plan agreed to by Assad last Monday requires the government to remove its security forces and heavy weapons from city streets, start talks with opposition leaders and allow human rights workers and journalists into the country.
      The monitors are supposed to ensure compliance, but so far there is no sign that Assad is im-plementing any of the terms, much less letting up on his brutal crackdown.
  
  
• 12/28/2011
  
  U.S. doesn’t challenge China currency moves
      WASHINGTON - The Obama administration on Tuesday declined to label China a currency manipulator after seeing recent increases in the value of the yuan compared to the dollar.
      The decision angered some manufacturing groups that have accused Beijing of artificially holding down the value of its currency to gain trade advantages.    A cheaper yuan makes Chinese goods less ex-pensive when shipped to the United States.    It also makes U.S. goods more expensive in China.
      The Treasury Department said China promised at two high-level meetings last month to make the yuan’s exchange rate more flexible.
  
  Syrians rally against regime - Arab League monitors arrive by Bassem Mroue, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — Tens of thousands of defiant Syrian protesters thronged the streets of Homs Tuesday, calling for the execution of President Bashar Assad shortly after his army pulled its tanks back and allowed Arab League monitors into the city at the heart of the uprising.
      The pullback was the first sign the regime was complying with the league’s plan to end the 9month-old crackdown on mostly protesters.    Video released by activists, however, showed forces firing on protes-ters even while the monitors were inside the city.    One of the observers walked with an elderly man who pointed with his cane to a fresh pool of blood on the street that he said had been shed by his son, killed a day earlier.
      The man, wearing a red-and-white checkered headdress, then called for the monitor to walk ahead to “see the blood of my second son” also killed in the onslaught.
      “Where is justice?    Where are the Arabs?” the old man shouted in pain.
      Syrian tanks had been heavily shelling Homs for days, residents and activists said, killing dozens even after Assad signed on early last week to the league plan.    The plan demands the government remove its security forces from city streets, start talks with opposition leaders and allow human rights workers and journalists into the country.
      But a few hours before the arrival of the monitors, who began work Tuesday to ensure Syria complies with the league’s plan, the army stopped the bombardment and pulled some of its tanks back.    About 60 monitors arrived in Syria Monday night — the first foreign observers Syria has allowed in since March, when the uprising against Assad’s authoritarian rule began.    The League said a team of 12 visited Homs.
      On Monday alone, security forces killed at least 42 people, most of them in Homs.    Activists said security forces killed at least 16 people Tuesday, including six in Homs.
      One group put Tuesday’s toll at 30, including 13 in Homs province.    Different groups often give varying tolls.    With foreign journalists and human rights groups barred from the country, they are virtually impossible to verify.
  
  Oil price passes $101 a barrel
      NEW YORK — The price of crude oil climbed above $101a barrel in light holiday trading on growing U.S. consumer confidence and tension in the Middle East.
      Benchmark crude rose $1.66 Tuesday to end at $101.34 per barrel in New York.    Brent crude rose $1.31 to finish at $109.27 per barrel in London.
      Prices have risen in the past week as encouraging U.S. economic news pointed to stronger future demand.    The New Yorkbased Conference Board said its Consumer Confidence Index jumped almost 10 points from November, to 64.5.    That level hasn’t been seen since April and was near a post-recession peak.
      Tensions in the Middle East also boosted oil prices. Iran has threatened to block oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the busiest routes for crude shipments, if the West tries to embargo Iran’s oil exports.
  
  
• 12/29/2011
  
  Monitors in Syria, but violence continues
      BEIRUT - Arab League monitors gathered accounts about the Syrian government’s crackdown on dissent in the city of Homs Wednesday as fresh violence flared just dozens of miles away.    Activists said troops opened fire on thousands of unarmed protesters, killing at least six.
      Though President Bashar Assad’s regime has made concessions to the observers, including the release of nearly 800 prisoners, the military pressed ahead with a campaign to put down mostly peaceful protests.
      The 60 monitors are supposed to be ensure the regime is complying with a plan to end a crackdown the U.N. says has killed more than 5,000 people since March.
  
  U.S. to sell fighters to Saudi Arabia
      WASHINGTON - U.S. officials say the Obama administration is poised to announce the sale of nearly $30 billion worth of F-15 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia.    Officials say the deal will send 84 new fighter jets and upgrades for 70 more, for a total of $29.4 billion.    About a year ago, the administration got the go-ahead from Congress for a 10-year, $60 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia.
  
  U.S. warns Iran on threat - Vital oil passage could be shut down by Tarek el-Tablawy, Associated Press
      TEHRAN, Iran — The U.S. warned Iran on Wednesday against closing a vital Persian Gulf waterway that carries onesixth of the world’s oil supply, after Iran threatened to choke off traffic through the Strait of Hormuz if Washington imposes sanctions targeting the country’s crude exports.
      The increasingly heated exchange raises new tensions in a standoff that has the potential to spark military reprisals and spike oil prices to levels that could batter an already fragile global economy.
      Iran’s navy chief said Wednesday that it would be “very easy” for his country’s forces to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the passage at the mouth of the Persian Gulf through which about 15 million barrels of oil pass daily.    It was the second such warning by Iran in two days, reflecting Tehran’s concern that the West is about to impose new sanctions that could hit the country’s biggest source of revenue, oil.
      “Iran has comprehensive control over the strategic waterway,” Adm. Habibollah Sayyari told state-run Press TV, as the country was in the midst of a 10day military drill near the strategic waterway.
      The comments drew a quick response from the U.S.
      “This is not just an important issue for security and stability in the region, but is an economic lifeline for countries in the Gulf, to include Iran,” Pentagon press secretary George Little said.    “In-terference with the transit or passage of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz will not be tolerated.”
      Separately, Bahrain-based U.S. Navy 5th Fleet spokeswoman Lt. Rebecca Rebarich said the Navy is “always ready to counter malevolent actions to ensure freedom of navigation.”
      Rebarich declined to say whether the U.S. force had adjusted its presence or readiness in the Gulf in response to Iran’s comments, but said the Navy “maintains a robust presence in the region to deter or counter destabilizing activities, while safeguarding the region’s vital links to the international community.”
      Iran’s threat to seal off the Gulf, surrounded by oil-rich Gulf states, reflect its concerns over the prospect that the Obama administration will impose sanctions over its nuclear program that would severely hit its biggest revenue source.    Iran is the world’s fourth-largest oil producer, pumping about 4 million barrels a day.
      Gulf Arab nations appeared ready to at least ease market tensions.    A senior Saudi Arabian oil official told The Associated Press that Gulf Arab nations are ready to step in to offset any potential loss of exports from Iran.    The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the issue.
      Saudi Arabia, which has been producing about 10 million barrels per day, has an overall production capacity of over 12 million barrels per day and is widely seen as the only OPEC member with sufficient spare capacity to offset major shortages.
      What remains unclear is what routes the Gulf nations could take to move the oil to markets if Iran goes through with its threat.    About 15 million barrels per day pass through the Hormuz Strait, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.    There are some pipelines that could be tapped, but Gulf oil lead-ers, who met in Cairo on Dec. 24, declined to say whether they had discussed alternate routes or what they may be.
  
  Morgan Stanley to cut 580 jobs
      Of the 1,600 job cuts announced earlier this month by Morgan Stanley, 580 will be at its home base in New York.
      The relentless tug of the dismal economy is hitting employees in the banking sector hard, and it’s no surprise that many of the job cuts are hitting the epicenter of the financial industry.    Citigroup, with its headquarters a short drive up Park Avenue from Morgan Stanley in Manhattan, said recently that it would eliminate 4,500 jobs, or about 1.5 percent of its global workforce of 267,000, over the next few quarters.
  
  Oil trades near one-week low
      Oil traded near the lowest level in a week in New York after a report showed U.S. crude stockpiles surged last week, indicating fuel demand may be weakening as Europe’s debt crisis threatens to slow the global economy.
      Futures were little changed after sliding 2 percent yesterday, the first decline in seven days, as record lending by the European Central Bank signaled the growing risk of the region’s crisis.    U.S. inventories increased 9.57 million barrels last week, according to the industry-funded American Petroleum Institute.
      Crude for February delivery was at $99.45 a barrel, up 9 cents, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.    The contract yesterday fell $1.98 to $99.36 in the biggest decline in two weeks.
  
  
• 12/30/2011
  
  Egyptian forces raid offices of NGO groups by Associated Press
      CAIRO — Egyptian security forces stormed the offices of10 human rights and pro-democracy groups Thursday, including several based in the U.S., accused by the country’s military rulers of destabilizing security by fomenting protests with the help of foreign funding.
      The raids on 17 offices throughout Egypt are part of the ruling generals’ attempt to blame “foreign hands” for the unrest that continues to roil Egypt since the 18-day revolt that ousted longtime leader Hosni Mubarak in February, but that activists say failed to topple his regime.    Among the offices ransacked were the U.S.-headquartered National Democratic Institute, Freedom House and the International Republican Institute, which is observing Egypt’s staggered parliamentary elections.
      The Obama administration demanded Egyptian authorities immediately halt the raids on non-governmental organizations, saying they are “inconsistent” with long-standing U.S-Egypt cooperation.    The U.S. State Department called on the Egyptian government “to immediately end the harassment of NGO staff, return all property and resolve this issue.”    Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the U.S. ambassador to Egypt and the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East have spoken to Egyptian officials about the situation and “made very clear that this issue needs immediate attention.”
      The raids on the NGOs were the first since Mubarak’s ouster, though Egyptian officials have been levying accusations for months that the civil society groups serve a foreign agenda.    The Interior Ministry said the raids on 10 nonprofit organizations were part of the investigation into foreign funding of rights groups.
      By far the largest recipient of foreign funding in Egypt is the military itself, which has for more than 30 years received about $1.3 billion in annual U.S. security assistance.
  
  Monitors’ presence boosts Syrian protests by Zeina Karam, Associated Press
      HOMS, Syria — The presence of Arab League monitors in Syria has re-energized the anti-government protest movement, with tens of thousands turning out over the past three days in cities and neighborhoods where the observers are expected to visit.    The huge rallies have been met by lethal gunfire from security forces apparently worried about multiple mass sit-ins modeled after Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
      On Thursday, security forces opened fire on tens of thousands protesting outside a mosque in a Damascus suburb and killed at least four.    The crowd had gathered at the mosque near a municipal building where cars of the monitors had been spotted outside.
      Troops fired live ammunition and tear gas to disperse large protests in several areas of the country, including central Damascus, killing at least 26 people nationwide, activists said.    A key activist network, the Local Coordination Committees, said it has documented the names of130 people, including six children, who died since the Arab League monitors arrived in Syria on Monday night.
      The ongoing violence, and new questions about the human rights record of the head of the Arab League monitors, are reinforcing the opposition’s view that Syria’s limited cooperation with the observers is nothing more than a farce for President Bashar Assad’s regime to buy time and forestall more international condemnation and sanctions.
      Still, the presence of outside monitors has invigorated frustrated protesters and motivated them to take to the streets again in large numbers after months of demonstrations met by bullets had dashed their hopes of peaceful change.
      “We know the observers won’t do anything to help us,” said Yahya Abdel-Bari, an activist in the Damascus suburb of Douma.    “But still, we want to show them our numbers, to let them know what is really happening here,” he said.
      The 60 Arab League monitors, who began work Tuesday, are the first Syria has allowed in during the nine-month anti-government uprising.    They are supposed to ensure the regime complies with terms of the Arab League plan to end Assad’s crackdown on dissent.    The U.N. says more than 5,000 people have died in the uprising since March.
      The plan, to which Syria agreed on Dec. 19, demands that the government remove its security forces and heavy weapons from cities, start talks with the opposition and allow human rights workers and journalists into the country.    It also calls for the release of all political prisoners.
  
  Payroll cut raises fear about future of Social Security by Jia Lynn Yang, The Washington Post
      WASHINGTON — By extending the payroll tax cut, Congress and the administration have quietly made a critical change in how Social Security is funded, one that some worry could undermine the program’s foundation if lawmakers keep renewing the tax cut.
      For the first time in the program’s history, tens of billions of dollars from the government’s general reve-nue pool are being funneled to the Social Security trust fund to make up for the revenue lost to the tax cut.    Roughly $110 billion will be automatically shifted from the Treasury to the trust fund to cover this year’s cut,according to the Social Security Board of Trustees.    An additional estimated $19 billion will be necessary to pay for the two-month extension.
      The tax cut is supposed to be temporary.    But as squabbles over this issue and the Bush tax cuts have revealed, short-term tax cuts in Washington have away of sticking around longer than planned, especially as economic growth remains slow, and lawmakers are wary of raising anyone’s tax bill.
      The prospect of policymakers continually turning to the payroll tax for economic stimulus troubles ex-perts, some lawmakers and both public trustees of the Social Security trust fund.    Their concern: Social Security will lose its status as a protected benefit owed to every working American and become politically vulnerable, like any other government program.
      “It’s a grave step for Social Security,” said Charles Blahous, one of two public trustees for Social Security and a research fellow with the Hoover Institution.    “It just seems to me the program, both financially and politically, will be on a lot rockier footing.”
      Robert Reischauer, the other public trustee and president of the Urban Institute, said extending the pay-roll tax cut another year during high unemployment seems justified.    But it “could, if it continues for a substantial period of time, undermine one of the foundational arguments that makes the Social Security program inviolate.”
  
  Sears, Kmarts in Ky., Ind. on closings list
      Sears Holdings on Thursday released a partial list of Sears and Kmart stores that the company will close, including some in Kentucky and Indiana but none in the Louisville area.
      The list included 79 of the 100 to 120 stores that Sears Holdings says it plans to close after disappointing holiday sales.    In Kentucky, it includes a Sears Hardlines store in Middlesboro and Kmarts in Winchester and Hazard.    In Indiana, it includes a Sears in Anderson and Kmarts in St. John and In-dianapolis.
      Sears Holdings has not said how many layoffs the closings would cause.    Each store to be closed typically employs 40 to 80 people, according to the company.
  
  Price of crude climbs to nearly $100 per barrel
      NEW YORK — Oil prices climbed to almost $100 per barrel Thursday on stronger jobs and housing data in the U.S.    Benchmark U.S. crude added 29 cents to end the day at $99.65 per barrel in New York.
      Oil rose late in the day after the government reported that claims for jobless benefits fell to a four-week average of 375,000.    That’s the lowest level in three and a half years.    The National Association of Realtors also reported that contracts to buy homes rose last month to the highest level in a year and a half.
      Both reports pointed to stronger economic growth as 2011 ends, and that could lead to rising energy demand in 2012.
      So far, however, U.S. petroleum demand remains relatively weak when compared with a year ago.    The Energy Information Administration said oil demand has dropped by 7.8 percent from the same time last year, and gasoline by 5.6 percent.
  
  
• 12/31/2011
  
  Defiant Syrians protest, emboldened by monitors by Zeina Karam, Associated Press
      BEIRUT — In the largest protests Syria has seen in months, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets Friday in a display of defiance to show an Arab League observer mission the strength of the opposition movement.
      Despite the monitors’ presence in the country, activists said Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar Assad killed at least 22 people, most of them shot during the anti-government demonstrations.    In a further attempt to appeal to the monitors, dissident troops who have broken away from the Syrian army said they have halted attacks on regime forces to reinforce the activists’ contention that the uprising against Assad is a peaceful movement.    While opposition activists are deeply skeptical of the observer mission, the outpouring of demonstrators across Syria underscores their wish to make their case to the foreign monitors and take advantage of the small measure of safety they feel the monitors brought with them.
      The nearly 100 Arab League monitors are the first that Syria has allowed into the country during the uprising, which began in March.    They are supposed to ensure the regime complies with terms of the League’s plan to end Assad’s crackdown on dissent.    The U.N. says more than 5,000 people have died as the government has sought to crush the revolt.
      Friday’s crowds were largest in Idlib and Hama provinces, with about 250,000 people turning out in each area, according to an activist and eyewitness who asked to be identified only as Manhal because he feared government reprisal.    Other big rallies were held in Homs and Daraa provinces and the Damascus suburb of Douma, according to Rami Abdul-Raham, who heads the British- based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
      Haytham Manna, a prominent Paris-based dissident and human rights defender, said the observers’ presence has emboldened protesters.
      “Whether we like it or not, the presence of observers has had a positive psychological effect, en-couraging people to stage peaceful protests — abasic condition of the Arab League peace plan,” he said.    The observers began their mission Tuesday in Homs, often referred to by many Syrians as the “Capital of the Revolution.”    Since then, they have fanned out in small groups across Syrian provinces, including the restive Idlib province in the north, Hama in the center and the southern province of Daraa, where the revolt began.
      The orange-jacketed observers have been seen taking pictures of the destruction, visiting families of victims of the crackdown, and taking notes.
      On Friday, they were within “hearing distance” from where troops opened fire on tens of thousands of protesters in the Damascus suburb of Douma, activist Salim al-Omar said.    Thousands turned out in the city of Idlib to welcome the observers, filling a large square and chanting, “The people want the fall of Bashar.”    But the ongoing violence and questions about the human rights record of the head of the Arab League monitors are reinforcing the opposition’s view that Syria’s limited cooperation with the observers is merely a ploy by Assad to buy time and forestall more international condemnation and sanctions.
  
  Raids startle Egypt’s activists - Rights groups denounce action by Maggie Michael, Associated Press
      CAIRO — It was an unusually intense raid on prodemocracy groups backed by some of Egypt’s closest allies, including the United States: Special commandos in full gear sealed office doors shut with wax, demanded computer passwords, carted away boxes of documents and searched the bathrooms.    Rights groups on Friday denounced the startling show of force in the raids on 10 organizations a day earlier and accused Egypt’s ruling generals of trying to silence critics as the country approaches the first anniversary of the revolution that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak.
      Less than two weeks after the military violently crushed street protests leaving dozens killed and hundreds injured, some warned Thursday’s raids were a sign of a fiercer crackdown ahead of new protests planned for Jan. 25, the anniversary of the start of the 18-day mass uprising.    The sweep was also a dramatic escalation in the military’s campaign to portray the protests against its rule as a plot by “foreign hands” against Egypt.    The choice of targets was significant: The raided groups are not youth activists known for protests but ostensibly neutral groups working to promote democratic institutions, such as an independent judiciary, election monitoring and election campaign training.
      Notably, three of them were American organizations funded in part by the State Department — an in-dication Egypt’s military, which receives some $1 billion a year from Washington, was willing to strain ties with a longtime ally in going after them.    Raided were the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute and Freedom House, which have helped to train political parties how to run campaigns and encourage political involvement of women and young people.
      Military and judiciary officials said the groups were suspected of funneling foreign funds to foment protests and instability and “influence public opinion in non-peaceful ways.”    The groups and other rights organizations dismissed the accusations as an attempt to taint the broader revolution.
      “The bottom line here is that the state unleashed its dogs in the media and in the government to tarnish our reputation so when we stand up against the military generals, we would be stripped of our credibility in front of public opinion,” said Negad el-Borai, a rights advocate and a lawyer.
      Government officials and media have been warning for months of action against groups receiving foreign funds.    Activists noted a government fact-finding panel’s report that Islamic groups were also receiving funds from Gulf countries, including Qatar and Kuwait, but said those groups were not targeted.    That, they said, indicated the regime is going after causes linked to the secular, liberal protesters who have been denouncing the military’s rule.    Germany’s Konrad Adenauer Foundation, a think tank with links to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party, was raided, as were at least two Egyptian non-governmental groups — one aiming to strengthen an independent judiciary and another that monitors government budgets.    The other organizations were not identified. The U.S. ambassador to Egypt, Anne Patterson, spoke Friday with members of the ruling military council and “received as-surances that the raids will cease and property will be returned immediately,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.    The heavy hand of the raids startled even the Americans.    A U.S. official said Washington had provided the Egyptian government with details on the groups and thought its concerns were resolved.
  
  In a first, leading U.S. export is fuel - Refiners turn abroad to sell by Chris Kahn, Associated Press
      NEW YORK — For the first time, the top export of the United States, the world’s biggest gas guzzler, is — wait for it — fuel.
      Measured in dollars, the nation is on pace this year to ship more gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel than any other single export, according to U.S. Census data going back to 1990.    It will also be the first year in more than 60 that America has been a net exporter of these fuels.
      Just how big of a shift is this?    A decade ago, fuel wasn’t even among the top 25 exports.    And for the past five years, America’s top export was aircraft.
      The trend is significant because for decades the U.S. has relied on huge imports of fuel from Europe in order to meet demand.    It only reinforced the image of America as an energy hog.    And up until a few years ago, whenever gasoline prices climbed, there were complaints in Congress that U.S. refiners were not growing quickly enough to satisfy domestic demand; that controversy would appear to be over.
      Still, the U.S. is nowhere close to energy independence     America is still the world’s largest importer of crude oil.    From January to October, the country imported 2.7 billion barrels of oil worth roughly $280 billion.
  
  
  Fuel exports, worth an estimated $88 billion in 2011, have surged for two reasons:
  • Crude oil, the raw material from which gasoline and other refined products are made, is a lot more expen-sive.    Oil prices averaged $95 a barrel in 2011, while gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon — a record. A decade ago oil averaged $26 a barrel, while gasoline averaged $1.44 a gallon.
  • The volume of fuel exports is rising.    The U.S. is using less fuel because of a weak economy and more efficient cars and trucks.    That allows refiners to sell more fuel to rapidly growing economies in Latin America, for example.    In 2011, U.S. refiners exported 117 million gallons per day of gasoline, die-sel, jet fuel and other petroleum products, up from 40 million gallons per day a decade earlier.
  
      There’s at least one domestic downside to America’s growing role as a fuel ex-porter.    Experts say the trend helps explain why U.S. motorists are paying more for gasoline.    The more fuel that’s sent overseas, the less of a supply cushion there is at home.
      Gasoline supplies are being exported to the highest bidder, says Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at Oil Price Information Service.    “It’s a world market,” he says.
      Refining companies won’t say how much they make by selling fuel overseas. But analysts say those sales are likely generating higher profits per gallon than the fuel sold in the U.S.    Otherwise, they wouldn’t occur.
      The value of U.S. fuel exports has grown steadily over the past decade, coinciding with rising oil prices and increased demand around the globe.
  
  Oil price ending 2011 near $100
      NEW YORK — The price of oil soared in 2011 and will finish about 19 percent higher, on average, after a volatile year dominated by concerns about global supplies.
      And high oil and gasoline prices are expected to continue weighing on the economy as it struggles to grow in 2012.
      Benchmark crude gave up 82 cents to finish at $98.83 per barrel on Friday, the final trading day of the year.
      In 2011, crude prices averaged $95.09 per barrel in New York.    That’s up from $79.64 in 2010 and $62.11 in 2009.    The Energy Department expects prices to rise further in 2012 to an average of $98 per barrel.    After starting the year at $91.38 per barrel, oil prices jumped in February as an anti- government rebellion began in Libya.
      About 1.5 million barrels of daily oil exports were cut off during the Libyan upris-ing.    That’s less than 2 percent of what the world uses, but with demand rising to 88 million barrels per day, every last drop mattered.
  
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This file created on October 28, 2011, and updated on November 16, 2011, and December 31, 2011.

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