| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
2 Unemployment soars to 8.5 pct.; 13 million jobless
By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer
Sat Apr 4, 2:17 am ET
| WASHINGTON - Unemployment zoomed to 8.5 percent last month, the highest in a quarter-century, as employers axed 663,000 more workers and pushed the nation's jobless ranks past 13 million. The hard times were only expected to get harder - a painful 10 percent jobless rate before long.
The current rate would be even higher - 15.6 percent - if it included laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have had to settle for part-time work because they can't do any better. That's the highest on record for that number in figures that go back to 1994.
"Even if the economy continues to show signs of improvement, businesses will cut jobs and trim fats to stay lean and mean," said Sung Won Sohn, economist at the Martin Smith School of Business at California State University, Channel Islands. |
3 ALL BUSINESS: Bank creditors still sitting pretty
By RACHEL BECK, AP Business Writer
Sat Apr 4, 6:33 am ET
| NEW YORK - American taxpayers and stock owners have taken it on the chin in this financial crisis. The same can't be said of bondholders who lent money to the most troubled banks.
The Obama administration is now ordering General Motors Corp.'s creditors to make sacrifices to save the ailing automaker. Yet bondholders of financial companies such as Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. so far have been mostly left off the hook, even though the government has given the banks billions of dollars in bailout money.
Many those bondholders, in fact, are still profiting from their investments so long as they haven't had to sell, while the rest of us deal with vanishing wealth. |
4 Banks could bet on toxic assets with taxpayers' money
By Jonathan Stempel and Karey Wutkowski - Analysis, Reuters
Fri Apr 3, 2:37 pm ET
| NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. banks that received billions of dollars of taxpayer money to bolster their capital could place bets on the same toxic assets that got them into trouble in the first place -- and with government support.
It is unclear whether U.S. regulators will prevent banks receiving government aid from participating as buyers in the $1 trillion Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP) designed to unclog credit markets and bank balance sheets.
But the program, where the government provides much of the financing and shoulders much of the risk, leaves open the prospect that banks, as well as private investors, could buy the troubled securities and loans. This means recipients under the government's $700 billion bank bailout fund, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, might take part. |
5 Obama adviser Summers earned millions from hedge fund
By Roberta Rampton, Reuters
32 mins ago
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lawrence Summers, a top economic adviser to U.S. President Barack Obama, was paid about $5.2 million by hedge fund D.E. Shaw in the past year, financial disclosure forms released by the White House showed on Friday.
Summers, a former U.S. Treasury secretary and Harvard University president, also was paid $2.7 million in speaking fees by a range of organizations and companies, including several troubled Wall Street financial firms, they showed.
The disclosure documents on Summers and other White House officials advising Obama on the global financial crisis covered 2008 and the first few months of this year. Summers became an official adviser on January 20 when Obama took office. |
6 Activists protest bailouts near Wall Street
By Christine Kearney, Reuters
Fri Apr 3, 6:07 pm ET
| NEW YORK (Reuters) - Several hundred demonstrators protested near Wall Street on Friday against the handling of the U.S. economic crisis, government bailouts of private banks and corporations and bonuses paid out at insurer AIG.
Members of worker rights, healthcare and anti-war groups gathered in the rain holding posters that read "Bail Out the Unemployed" and "No More $ For Wall St & War."
They also shouted demands for more jobs. |
7 Mass protest in Rome over financial crisis
by Gina Doggett, AFP
Sat Apr 4, 10:59 am ET
| ROME (AFP) - Several hundred thousand workers, pensioners, immigrants and students filled a Rome park on Saturday in protest at the Italian government's handling of the financial crisis.
Led by Italy's largest union, the left-wing Italian General Confederation of Labour, many wore red hats or waved the CGIL's red flag as helicopters circled above Rome's Circo Massimo, an ancient hippodrome.
"There's too big a gap between what needs to be done and what is being done," CGIL leader Guglielmo Epifani told the throng, with banners reading "Together to Build a Different Future" and "Down with the New Mussolini." |
8 Unrelenting jobless rise imperils US recovery
by Rob Lever, AFP
Sat Apr 4, 5:36 am ET
| WASHINGTON (AFP) - Amid an unrelenting pace of job losses, the US economy faces a race against the clock as it struggles to recover from its worst slump since the Great Depression.
Another hellish month for the US labor market pushed the unemployment rate to a new 25-year high of 8.5 percent with 663,000 jobs axed in March, official data showed Friday.
While some indicators point to stabilizing or modest growth, the key labor market continues to shed jobs massively, potentially derailing any recovery. |
9 Jobless make TV ads pitching themselves for work
By RUSSELL CONTRERAS, Associated Press Writer
Sat Apr 4, 6:32 am ET
| CHELMSFORD, Mass. - Jayna Dinsmore dressed in a sharp pink blouse and black slacks and made the pitch she hoped would end her five months of unemployment: Experienced marketing manager and analyst. Diverse background. Trade show experience.
Only she wasn't talking to an interviewer. She was talking to a TV camera.
After sending resumes, attending networking events and blogging about her search for employment, Dinsmore joined a small but growing number of unemployed people who have made television commercials about themselves to try to get directly into prospective employers' living rooms. |
10 Obama hails 5,000 more NATO forces for Afghanistan
By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer
38 mins ago
| STRASBOURG, France - President Barack Obama hailed "strong and unanimous support" from NATO allies on Saturday for his stepped-up anti-terror strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan and welcomed their "down payment" promises of 5,000 fresh forces.
The allies rebuffed U.S. appeals for more combat forces to join the war, but the backing Obama did gain at a European summit allowed him to claim an early victory on the world's foreign policy stage.
NATO allies agreed to send up to 5,000 more military trainers and police to Afghanistan, including forces to help protect candidates and voters at upcoming elections. |
11 NATO summit 'has delivered on Afghanistan'
AFP
Sat Apr 4, 10:08 am ET
| STRASBOURG (AFP) - The leaders of the 28 NATO allies have delivered on pledges to support the alliance's mission in Afghanistan, outgoing Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer announced Saturday.
"This summit and this alliance have delivered," he told reporters at the end of the alliance's 60th anniversary gathering in Strasbourg, at which US President Barack Obama had asked for help to support his new Afghan war plan.
According to Scheffer, the allies pledged to boost coalition forces in Afghanistan in order to secure August's key presidential election, to provide more training for Afghan forces and to set aside funds for the Afghan army. |
12 Afghan leader orders review of Shi'ite law
Reuters
Sat Apr 4, 11:18 am ET
| STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered a review of a new law for Afghanistan's Shi'ite minority after Western nations raised concerns over its impact on women's rights, Western officials said on Saturday.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he had voiced grave concern over the Shi'ite Personal Status Law in a phone call to Karzai on Saturday and had "demanded assurances" that the law would not infringe women's rights.
"He (Karzai) has promised there will be a statement made by his Justice Department tomorrow and he has promised that, if necessary, this will return to the Afghan parliament rather than being enacted in practice," Brown told a news conference. |
13 Karzai says anger at Afghan Shi'ite law "inappropriate"
By Golnar Motevalli, Reuters
Sat Apr 4, 10:28 am ET
| KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Saturday concerns expressed by the United States and the United Nations toward a new law for Afghanistan's Shi'ite minority and its impact on women's rights were inappropriate.
Shi'ite Muslims account for some 15 percent of mainly Sunni Muslim Afghanistan and the Shi'ite Personal Status Law has been attacked by Afghan lawmakers for diminishing women's rights.
Karzai has signed the law, but it has not yet come into force as it has not been promulgated in the official gazette. |
14 Karzai rejects criticism of women's law
by Sardar Ahmad, AFP
Sat Apr 4, 10:36 am ET
| KABUL (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai Saturday rejected Western criticism that a new law imposes Taliban-style restrictions on women but ordered a review and vowed to correct anything of concern.
Karzai has come under heavy blame from his allies, including Canada and France, for signing a law that Western media reports say means Shiite women cannot refuse their husbands sex or leave the house without his permission.
He told reporters that concerns may have arisen because of mistranslation or misinterpretation. |
15 Top Pakistan judge to probe woman's flogging
by Nasir Jaffry
Sat Apr 4, 9:29 am ET
| ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan's top judge has ordered a court hearing into the public flogging of a veiled woman, filmed on an amateur video, that has raised alarm about the tightening grip of Islamist hardliners.
The details of her alleged crime were confused, but residents in her village of Kala Killey in Swat, said the woman was accused of illicit relations with an electrician and forced to marry him as part of her punishment.
The footage, apparently from a mobile phone, shows two men pinning down a burka-clad woman by her feet and shoulders, while a bearded man in a turban flogs her 34 times with a whip as she screams in agony. |
16 Obama climate plans face long route for passage
By Ayesha Rascoe, Reuters
Fri Apr 3, 7:31 pm ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate vote this week rejected an effort to put climate-change legislation on a fast track, making it harder for Congress to put limits on greenhouse gas emissions this year.
Democratic leaders and the Obama administration had floated the idea of using the federal budget to move cap-and-trade legislation through Congress. Making the plan part of the budget would enable it to pass with a simple majority.
But the Senate on Wednesday voted 67-to-31 in favor of a measure blocking lawmakers from attaching a cap-and-trade bill to the federal budget. |
17 Arctic may be ice-free in 30 years: study
AFP
Fri Apr 3, 10:40 am ET
| WASHINGTON (AFP) - Some 80 percent of Arctic ice may disappear in 30 years, not 90 as scientists had previously estimated, according to a new study on the impact of global warming.
"The amount of the Arctic Ocean covered by ice at the end of summer by then could be only about 1 million square kilometers, or about 620,000 square miles," said US researchers who authored the study published Thursday.
"That's compared to today's ice extent of 4.6 million square kilometers, or 2.8 million square miles," they added, warning the development "raises the question of ecosystem upheaval." |
18 Gay marriages expected to begin in Iowa April 24
By AMY LORENTZEN, Associated Press Writer
Sat Apr 4, 9:34 am ET
| DES MOINES, Iowa - Gay marriage, seemingly the province of the nation's two coasts, is just weeks away from becoming a reality in the heartland and apparently it will be years before social conservatives have a chance to stop it.
The Iowa Supreme Court on Friday unanimously upheld a lower-court ruling that rejected a state law restricting marriage to a union between a man and woman. Now gays and lesbians may exchange vows as soon as April 24 following the landmark decision.
The county attorney who defended the law said he would not seek a rehearing. The only recourse for opponents appeared to be a constitutional amendment, which couldn't get on the ballot until 2012 at the earliest. |
19 Iowa's top court brings gay marriage to America's heartland
By Ben Arnoldy, The Christian Science Monitor
Fri Apr 3, 5:00 am ET
| Iowa's top court legalized same-sex marriage Friday, giving advocates a victory beyond the liberal coastal states into the more conservative American interior.
The supreme court justices drew explicit parallels to civil rights struggles by blacks and women, holding that the state's ban on same-sex marriage was a violation of the equality promised in the Iowa constitution.
"If a simple showing that discrimination is traditional satisfies equal protection, previous successful equal protection challenges of invidious racial and gender classifications would have failed," the court said in its ruling. |
20 Republicans want a more restrained budget approach
By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer
Sat Apr 4, 6:28 am ET
| WASHINGTON - American families are having to sacrifice, and Republicans say the federal government should follow their example.
Budget plans offered by Republicans hold down deficits while addressing the struggling economy, health care and retirement security, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin said Saturday in the Republican radio and Internet address.
"The budget House Republicans offered gives Americans a real choice," said Ryan, top Republican on the House Budget Committee. "It curbs spending, creates jobs and controls the debt. |
21 Kraft Foods offers salmonella timeline
By GARANCE BURKE, Associated Press Writer
Sat Apr 4, 2:22 am ET
| FRESNO, Calif. - Kraft Foods Inc., the company whose testing led to the nationwide pistachio recall, said Friday it first heard there was salmonella in its trail mix in late 2007, but could not trace the possible source to tainted nuts from California until two weeks ago.
Workers at one of Kraft's manufacturers in Illinois turned up a contaminated batch of fruits and nuts in December 2007. Then, in September of last year, another positive sample appeared.
Only after thousands of tests could the company pinpoint the source for the second positive test as California-based Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella, Inc., said Kraft spokeswoman Susan Davison. |
22 Maine lobstermen chafe at rope ban to help whales
By CLARKE CANFIELD, Associated Press Writer
37 mins ago
| ROCKLAND, Maine - Frank Thompson was among the scores of unhappy lobstermen who delivered millions of feet of rope to a warehouse in this fishing community.
He said the fishing rope piled high in his pickup truck and trailer was still good, except for one thing: Come Sunday, it will be illegal.
A new federal regulation, years in the works, outlaws the use of floating rope that connects millions of lobster traps on the ocean bottom and sometimes entangles endangered North Atlantic right whales. |
23 States pull back after decades of get-tough laws
By DEBORAH HASTINGS, AP National Writer
1 hr 43 mins ago
| For the last four decades, the laws of the land were all about dropping the hammer on crime by locking away criminals for a very long time.
Some carried scary names like "Three Strikes and You're Out," as in cast out of society. The harshest penalties for drug offenders, the Rockefeller laws, were named after a New York governor battling a 1970s heroin epidemic.
Nearly half the country and the federal government have adopted some kind of hardcore laws, while "get tough on crime" became the mantra of politicians running for everything from the local city council to the president of the United States. |
24 Analysis: In US, Europe a delicate political topic
By TED ANTHONY, AP National Writer
2 hrs 28 mins ago
| He came and he saw, but he didn't play the conqueror. Instead, Barack Obama journeyed to Europe, as he put it, to pay attention.
...
But examine how Europe has played in American discourse over the past few weeks and you'll find a flurry of uneasy interludes - images driven by economic troubles, yes, but also by a persisting cultural suspicion that goes all the way back to the first American settlers.
Just last month, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., invoked the specter of an imminent "Europeanization of America" if the Obama administration's economic initiatives went forward unfettered. Neil Cavuto on the Fox Business Network last week denounced Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., as "Sweden in a suit," for promoting a bill that would try to keep bailed-out financial institutions from paying their employees hefty bonuses. And there were the British analysts all over cable news whose accents were, more than once, played for laughs. |
25 U.S. envoy says Darfur on brink of deeper crisis
By Andrew Heavens, Reuters
Sat Apr 4, 11:08 am ET
| KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Darfur is on the brink of a deeper humanitarian crisis following Khartoum's expulsion of aid groups and needs a new relief push within weeks, the U.S. special envoy to Sudan said on Saturday.
Envoy Scott Gration spoke as he traveled through north Darfur a month after Sudan expelled 13 foreign aid groups and closed three local organizations it accused of helping build a war crimes case against the country's president.
He told reporters by phone he had just visited Zamzam refugee camp, where buildings run by the ousted aid groups remain closed, health services were hit and water reserves were close to running dry. |
26 Ticketmaster subpoenaed over reselling
Reuters
Fri Apr 3, 6:23 pm ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ticketmaster has been subpoenaed or received other requests for information from the U.S. Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission and the New Jersey Attorney General's office, the company said in an email obtained by an industry blog.
The law enforcement agencies were interested in Ticketmaster's relationship with its reseller TicketsNow, in particular controversial sales of tickets to Bruce Springsteen shows in New Jersey on May 21 and 23, said the email displayed on TicketNews.com.
"We have received a number of subpoenas and demands for sworn information about TicketsNow and its broker clients," Ticketmaster said in the email. |
27 NATO agrees new chief at protest-marred summit
By Crispian Balmer and Sophie Hardach, Reuters
2 hrs 49 mins ago
| STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - NATO named Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as its next leader on Saturday, averting a damaging split with Turkey at a summit celebrating the 60th anniversary of the military alliance.
The meeting of the 28-nation group, jointly hosted by France and Germany, prompted days of demonstrations and culminated in violent clashes between police and anti-NATO protestors.
Demonstrators set ablaze a former frontier post on the Franco-German border and police fired teargas and shock grenades to try to contain the violence. At least 50 people were injured. |
28 PM says Saddam loyalists infiltrated Iraq's Sahwa militia
by Arthur MacMillan, AFP
Fri Apr 3, 3:37 pm ET
| BAGHDAD (AFP) - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told Iraqis on Friday that Al-Qaeda rebels and Saddam Hussein loyalists had infiltrated a pro-government militia that had helped to tame the country's deadly insurgency.
The premier used an hour-long interview on state-run television to say that rogue elements existed within the Sahwa, also known as the Awakening and Sons of Iraq, and that they would be hunted down and brought to justice.
"Our intelligence reports confirm that Al-Baath and Al-Qaeda have infiltrated Sahwas," Maliki told Al-Iraqiya, referring to executed dictator Saddam's political party and the notorious Islamist extremist group. |
29 Twitter co-founder wants to build 'independent' company
by Chris Lefkow, AFP
Fri Apr 3, 2:23 pm ET
| WASHINGTON (AFP) - Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said Friday following a report that Google was seeking to purchase the hot micro-blogging service that his goal was to build a "profitable, independent company."
Stone, in a brief post on the Twitter blog, said that "it should come as no surprise that Twitter engages in discussions with other companies regularly and on a variety of subjects.
"Our goal is to build a profitable, independent company and we're just getting started," Stone said in the post, which he called "a response to the latest Internet speculation about where Twitter is headed." |
30 States move against in-state tuition for illegal immigrants
By Daniel B. Wood, The Christian Science Monitor
Fri Apr 3, 5:00 am ET
| Los Angeles - Of all illegal immigrants, young people who were brought to the US as children have been the ones most likely to win concessions from the public. But the recession appears to be changing that, driving sentiment against educational benefits for undocumented college students.
Some states are explicitly refusing to allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition fees at colleges, reversing a previous trend. In-state tuition tends to be two to three times less than what out-of-state students pay.
Since 2006, four states - Georgia, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Arizona - have made undocumented students ineligible for in-state tuition rates. In Arizona, the ban came through a voter initiative after legislation was vetoed by the governor. |
31 Airline passengers revolt against hours spent on the tarmac
By Alexandra Marks, The Christian Science Monitor
Fri Apr 3, 5:00 am ET
| New York - If you're stranded on a plane for more than three hours, should the airline be required to make sure you have food, water, and clean bathrooms? Or should it take you back to the terminal?
That's the heart of a fierce debate going on in Washington, one that has very real consequences for hundreds of people every month who end up parked on the tarmac for more than three hours.
The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported this week that in January, almost 60 planes sat stranded on the tarmac for more than three hours. Another 39 diverted from their original destination were also delayed for three hours or more. Sixteen planes were delayed 10 hours or more because of being diverted. |
32 US-Iran thaw could bolster Afghanistan rebuilding efforts
By Anand Gopal, The Christian Science Monitor
Fri Apr 3, 5:00 am ET
| Kabul, Afghanistan - In a crowded section near the western edge of the capital sits a sprawling new university compound, a structure of ornate white stone and blue-tiled domes.
As hundreds of students here file in for morning classes, many say they have one country to thank for helping to improve higher learning in this education-starved country: Iran.
The $100 million university is one of Iran's many development projects across Afghanistan - and just the type of contribution Washington wants to bring positive change to this troubled country. |
33 In Thailand, populist protesters turn the tables on the government
By Simon Montlake, The Christian Science Monitor
Fri Apr 3, 5:00 am ET
| Bangkok, Thailand - By day, the red-clad crowds thin under a broiling sun. By nightfall, they arrive in their thousands for another night of fiery antigovernment speeches, spicy snacks, and twangy country music.
Like night following day, the latest Thai protests are a reaction to the fall of a government last December amid chaotic demonstrations by royalists wearing yellow. This time, the color theme is tomato red. And, once again, vengeful crowds have surrounded the prime minister's compound to demand his resignation, threatening to pitch a divided, weary nation back into an all-out battle for political supremacy.
So far, the weeklong protests have been peaceful. Organizers defied a court order to end their blockade, but haven't sought to break into the compound, as their opponents did last year. On the perimeter walls, artists have put their spin on the political drama, lampooning Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and the royalist protesters who enabled his takeover, which was sealed by a controversial judicial ruling. |
34 Europe's Afghan response includes praise, limits
By SLOBODAN LEKIC, Associated Press Writer
3 mins ago
| STRASBOURG, France - European leaders enthusiastically praised President Barack Obama's new Afghan strategy at a NATO summit Saturday but held their ground on a central disagreement and offered only military trainers and extra security forces for upcoming elections.
Violent anti-war protests that marred the alliance's 60th anniversary celebrations were a stark reminder that much of Europe has no appetite for the other, costlier half of Obama's Afghan equation: more combat troops.
"I am pleased that our NATO allies pledged their strong and unanimous support for our new strategy," Obama said. "We'll need more resources and a sustained effort to achieve our ultimate goals." |
35 Afghan president orders review of marital law
By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 7 mins ago
| KABUL - The Afghan president said Saturday he had ordered a review of a new law that critics say makes it legal for men to rape their wives, responding to criticism from around the world that included sharp comments from President Barack Obama.
The law, signed by President Hamid Karzai last month, is intended to regulate family life inside Afghanistan's Shiite community, which makes up 10 percent to 20 percent of the country's 30 million people. Under one article legislating the frequency of sexual relations between Shiite husbands and wives, husbands have the right to sex every fourth night unless the wife is ill.
The United Nations Development Fund for Women has said the law "legalizes the rape of a wife by her husband." |
36 Iraqi police: 2 gay men killed in Baghdad slum
By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer
2 hrs 25 mins ago
| BAGHDAD - The bodies of two gay men have been found in Baghdad's Shiite slum of Sadr City after a leading cleric repeatedly condemned homosexuality, an Iraqi police official said Saturday.
The killings come after Shiite cleric Sattar al-Battat repeatedly condemned homosexuality during recent Friday prayers, saying Islam prohibits homosexuality. Homosexual acts are punishable by up to seven years in prison in Iraq.
The two men were believed killed Thursday by relatives who were shamed by their behavior, said the official. Police said they suspected the killings were at the hands of family members because no one has claimed the bodies or called for an investigation. |
37 Khmer Rouge story a vague one for young Cambodians
By SUSAN POSTLEWAITE, Associated Press Writer
36 mins ago
| PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Dum Sum An, street vendor of fried rice and noodles, is too young to have known Cambodia's 1970s reign of terror. For her, the trial of Khmer Rouge high-ups in the courthouse nearby means crowds of spectators who need to be fed.
The 24-year-old woman, like many of her generation, has only a cursory knowledge of the horrors wrought on the country during the group's four-year hold on power. She says she came to Phnom Penh for a job and earns $60 to $100 a month from her tin-roofed stall 100 yards from the custom-built courthouse.
"I don't have time to follow the trial," she said. |
38 Slowdown's gift to Beijing: cleaner air
By TINI TRAN, Associated Press Writer
46 mins ago
| BEIJING - Last summer, Xu Demin struggled to cut emissions from his coal-fired factories as part of China's all-out effort to clean the air for the Beijing Olympics.
He could have simply waited six months. This spring, overseas demand for his farming and construction machinery plummeted, forcing him to close two plants and lay off 300 workers.
The global economic slowdown is helping to accomplish what some in China's leadership have striven to do for years: rein in the insatiable demand for coal-powered energy that has fed the country's breakneck growth but turned it into one of the world's most polluted nations. |
39 Police, protesters clash in France at NATO summit
By SCOTT SAYARE and THOMAS SEYTHAL, Associated Press Writers
1 hr 35 mins ago
| STRASBOURG, France - Hundreds of protesters attacked police and set a hotel and customs station ablaze Saturday in this historic Alsatian city on the German border chosen by NATO summit organizers as a symbol of European unity.
First lady Michelle Obama and other spouses canceled a visit to a cancer hospital out of concern for security, the French president's office said, after hundreds of protesters took up positions near the hospital they were to visit.
Most protesters marched peacefully, calling for an end to war and decrying NATO as a tool of Western imperialism. |
40 Analysis: Obama's trip: Big cheers, some results
By JENNIFER LOVEN, AP White House Correspondent
1 hr 49 mins ago
| STRASBOURG, France - Stop after stop, crowds are thronging, leaders gushing, headlines blaring. Even a roomful of foreign reporters applauded after President Barack Obama's London news conference.
They love him over here. But are they giving him anything else to take home?
It's a mixed bag: some success, several failures and much still to be determined. |
41 Fujimori swings at Peru's ex-presidents in defense
By CARLA SALAZAR, Associated Press Writer
Sat Apr 4, 8:26 am ET
| LIMA, Peru - A defiant former President Alberto Fujimori on Friday called his murder and kidnapping trial political persecution and said the charges reflect a double standard since his predecessors never faced trial for alleged abuses during their presidencies.
On the second and final day of his personal defense in the 15 month-trial, Peru's former leader told a packed court that proof of persecution is the fact that he is the only president from Peru's 20-year conflict with leftist guerrillas to be tried for military atrocities.
The 70-year-old Fujimori, who governed Peru from 1990-2000, faces 30 years in prison for allegedly authorizing military death squad killings of 25 people in two early 1990s massacres and the kidnappings of a businessman and a journalist when he sent troops to close Congress and the courts in 1992. |
42 NATO leaders pick Dane as new secretary-general
By SLOBODAN LEKIC and SELCAN HACAOGLU, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 26 mins ago
| STRASBOURG, France - NATO leaders appointed Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as NATO's new secretary-general Saturday after overcoming Turkish objections to a leader who angered Muslims around the world by supporting the right to caricature the Prophet Muhammad.
NATO's outgoing head, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said NATO's 28 member nations reached unanimity after a series of Turkish "concerns" were addressed at the alliance's two-day, 60th-anniversary summit.
Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters that his government's requests had included the closure of a Kurdish satellite television broadcaster based in Denmark; the establishment of contacts between NATO and Islamic countries; appointment of a Turk as an aide to Fogh Rasmussen and senior NATO command positions for Turkish generals. |
43 Ragtag Afghan force trying to keep Taliban at bay
By FISNIK ABRASHI, Associated Press Writer
Sat Apr 4, 3:00 am ET
| JALREZ VALLEY, Afghanistan - On a wind-swept hill at the foot of snowcapped mountains, a ragtag collection of farmers, students and other unemployed men snapped to attention, rifles slung across their shoulders, new black boots shining.
After three weeks of training, the newest U.S.-funded experiment in protecting the countryside from Taliban insurgents was on display this week for this village in central Afghanistan's Wardak province. Dozens of American and French military officers mingled with hundreds of Afghans who came to watch.
Among the 243 security guards was Zekeria, a tall, skinny man with a scraggly salt-and-pepper beard who has only one finger on his right hand - the trigger finger. For the job he has signed up to do, that might be enough. |
44 Obama set to ease Cuban ban on travel, money
By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer
Sat Apr 4, 10:38 am ET
| WASHINGTON - The Obama administration intends to allow Americans to visit relatives in Cuba and send money back to their families on the communist island nation, senior U.S. officials said Saturday.
President Barack Obama plans to announce the policy change before the Summit of the Americas April 17-19 in Trinidad and Tobago, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not been made.
Although some restrictions have been eased temporarily in legislation Obama signed last month, lifting the bans would meet a pledge he made during the presidential campaign and could signal a new openness with Cuba. |
45 Cambodian PM downplays clashes on Thai border
By SOPHENG CHEANG, Associated Press Writer
Sat Apr 4, 6:56 am ET
| KOH SLA, Cambodia - Cambodia's prime minister on Saturday downplayed the border clashes that killed at least three Thai soldiers near a disputed 11th century temple as a mere "incident" between neighbors that would not erupt into a war.
Military commanders from both sides said calm had been restored after Friday's fighting, in which troops exchanged fire with assault rifles and rocket launchers along Cambodia's northern border near Preah Vihear temple.
Thailand acknowledged that three of its soldiers had been killed and 12 wounded. Cambodia said its military suffered no casualties. |
46 Islands resent crackdown of tax havens by G-20
By BEN FOX, Associated Press Writer
Fri Apr 3, 8:36 pm ET
| TORTOLA, British Virgin Islands - More than 400,000 companies share a few local addresses in this tiny Caribbean financial center, where their incorporation papers are kept in a gray two-story building.
The vast majority have no employees on the island. All conduct their business elsewhere and many avoid paying taxes back home.
And yet the British Virgin Islands welcomes their business, which provides more than half of the government's revenue, making it one of the Caribbean's most prosperous places. |
47 Iraqi forces arrest more U.S.-allied Sunni guards
Reuters
Sat Apr 4, 9:11 am ET
| BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi forces have arrested two Sunni Arab neighborhood guards, a security spokesman said on Saturday, after a string of other arrests in Baghdad that raised tensions.
U.S.-backed Sunni Arab fighters who switched sides to fight al Qaeda in late 2006 have been key to reducing violence in the capital and elsewhere, but many have been dismayed by the past week's arrests and attacks on guards accused of criminal acts.
Baghdad security spokesman Qassim al-Moussawi said the two were detained in the capital's southern Dora district four days ago. He did not say why. |
48 Zimbabwe sets 100-day target for economy
Reuters
Sat Apr 4, 7:00 am ET
| HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's new government hopes to start seeing results from an economic recovery plan after 100 days, state media reported on Saturday.
The new unity government of President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai faces the daunting task of reversing years of economic decline marked by hyper-inflation and severe food and fuel shortages.
The administration has said its short-term emergency recovery programme STERP will require $8.5 billion over the next two to three years. It will depend heavily on help from Western donors and Harare wants financial assistance from countries in the regional grouping SADC. |
49 Egypt police beat and detain 18 protesters: witnesses
Reuters
Sat Apr 4, 10:14 am ET
| KAFR EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) - Egyptian police beat and detained at least 18 members of an anti-government protest group on Saturday during a demonstration to demand the release of two activists, eyewitnesses said.
A security source said 25 people had been detained, including journalists covering the event and lawyers involved in the court case.
Witnesses said the protesters chanted slogans against President Hosni Mubarak and the Egyptian security forces. The witnesses and security source declined to be named. |
50 Somali wants aid agencies to register with government
By Ibrahim Mohamed and Abdi Sheikh, Reuters
Sat Apr 4, 7:28 am ET
| MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's prime minister has ordered all aid agencies working in the lawless Horn of Africa nation to register with the new government for their own safety.
The country is suffering one of the world's worst humanitarian catastrophes. A two-year Islamist rebellion has killed more than 16,000 civilians, driven another 1 million from their homes and left about 3 million dependent on food aid.
Complicating operations for aid workers, large parts of south and central Somalia are under the control of hardline al Shabaab insurgents and allied Islamist fighters. |
51 Malaysia's Mahathir rejoins main UMNO party
By Julie Goh, Reuters
Sat Apr 4, 5:41 am ET
| PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (Reuters) - Former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad has rejoined the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) in what may be a move designed to boost the ruling coalition's chances in by-elections next week.
Mahathir, who ruled for 22 years until 2003, submitted his application to rejoin the party on Saturday. It was accepted by new Prime Minister Najib Razak, a day after he took over the Southeast Asian country.
Mahathir still wields some influence within (UMNO), which he quit in a huff last year after months of criticism against the policies of his successor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. |
52 Gays killed in Baghdad as clerics urge clampdown
By Wisam Mohammed and Khalid al-Ansary, Reuters
Sat Apr 4, 8:28 am ET
| BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two gay men were killed in Baghdad's Sadr City slum, a local official said on Saturday, and police said they had found the bodies of four more after clerics urged a crackdown on a perceived spread of homosexuality.
Homosexuality is prohibited almost everywhere in the Middle East, but conditions have become especially dangerous for gays and lesbians in Iraq since the rise of religious militias after U.S.-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein six years ago.
"Two young men were killed on Thursday. They were sexual deviants. Their tribes killed them to restore their family honor," a Sadr City official who declined to be named said. |
53 Slovaks vote in run-off presidential election
Reuters
Sat Apr 4, 4:34 am ET
| BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Slovakia voted in a run-off election for the largely ceremonial post of president on Saturday, choosing between the incumbent president and the strongest opposition candidate.
The election was expected to test support for Prime Minister Robert Fico, who has endorsed current President Ivan Gasparovic, a year before the ex-communist EU member and euro zone newcomer holds a parliamentary election.
Gasparovic won the first election round with 46.70 percent of the vote, and analysts expected the 68-year-old lawyer to be re-elected for his second and the final term. |
54 Luxembourg, Austria challenge tax haven listing
By Paul Carrel and Anna Willard
Fri Apr 3, 3:19 pm ET
| PRAGUE (Reuters) - Luxembourg on Friday said it should be taken off a "grey list" of countries that do not comply fully with standards for catching tax cheats, as France called for sanctions on uncooperative states.
The Group of 20 leading industrialized and emerging nations pledged on Thursday to crackdown on jurisdictions that fail to cooperate in cross-border tax evasion cases.
Pushed by France and Germany, the G20 agreed that countries should sign up to global rules on sharing tax information, with a commitment to cooperate when cheating is suspected. |
55 NATO soldier, eight Afghans killed
by Sharif Khoram, AFP
Fri Apr 3, 1:46 pm ET
| KABUL (AFP) - Gun battles and bomb strikes killed eight Afghan civilians and an international soldier in the NATO-led force trying to quell the extremist insurgency dogging Afghanistan, officials said Friday.
The fresh violence came as US President Barack Obama warned his NATO allies that they face a greater risk of terror attacks than America and he needs their help to defeat Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.
In one incident, a bomb ripped through a vehicle carrying workers for a private road construction company in the central province of Ghazni and killed four men, Ab Band district chief Allah Dad Halimee told AFP. |
56 Eight killed in Islamabad suicide attack: police
by Masroor Gilani and Nasir Jaffry, AFP
1 hr 29 mins ago
| ISLAMABAD (AFP) - A suicide bomber killed up to eight paramilitary police at a tented camp in Pakistan's capital late Saturday, the second such attack in Islamabad in less than two weeks, officials said.
It was the latest in a wave of bomb attacks that have killed more than 1,700 people in the nuclear-armed key US ally since government forces fought gunmen holed up in a radical Islamabad mosque in July 2007.
The violence underscores the enormity of the challenge facing the United States, which has unveiled a sweeping new strategy to defeat Islamist militants in south Asia, putting Pakistan at the heart of the fight against Al-Qaeda. |
57 Obama swoops into Prague for EU-US summit
by Jan Flemr, AFP
1 hr 52 mins ago
| PRAGUE (AFP) - Barack Obama flew into Prague on Saturday for a summit with EU leaders, making his first venture behind the erstwhile Iron Curtain on the third leg of his maiden European tour as US president.
Obama will be using his visit to the Czech Republic -- current holder of the rotating EU presidency -- to deliver a keynote speech on nuclear proliferation, as the world awaits a threatened North Korean missile launch.
Together with Poland, the Czech Republic is to host elements of a nuclear missile defence shield, initiated by Obama's predecessor George W. Bush, that Russia regards as a threat to its security. |
58 Czech leaders hope to talk Obama into radar
by Sophie Pons, AFP
Fri Apr 3, 1:53 pm ET
| PRAGUE (AFP) - The Czech Republic's prime minister hopes to persuade US President Barack Obama not to abandon a controversial missile shield project in Eastern Europe when he visits Prague this weekend.
"I will tell him that we, unlike him, are complying with the ratification" of diplomatic and military contracts on the missile shield signed in 2008, outgoing Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said recently on the Czech Radio.
Washington's new policy of dialogue with Moscow has increased anxiety among Prague and Warsaw leaders who support a radar base on Czech soil and anti-missile interceptors in Poland despite loud protests from Russia. |
59 S. Africa delay Zuma corruption verdict
AFP
Fri Apr 3, 12:06 pm ET
| JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - South African prosecutors on Friday delayed an announcement on their corruption case against South Africa's likely next president Jacob Zuma, with general elections less than three weeks away.
The head of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party is set to go to trial in August on charges of fraud, money laundering and racketeering linked to an arms scandal that has rocked South African politics for years.
The National Prosecuting Authority had earlier said it would announce Friday how it would proceed with the case, but spokesman Tlali Tlali told reporters the announcement had been delayed to Monday. |
60 Nazi camp guard wins right to stay in US
AFP
Sat Apr 4, 10:48 am ET
| WASHINGTON (AFP) - A Nazi death camp guard accused of helping to kill some 29,000 Jews during World War II has won the right to remain in the United States for now, an immigration judge has ruled.
A Virginia judge said late Friday that John Demjanjuk, 89, who faces expulsion to Germany on war crimes charges, can remain at his Ohio home while the case is further examined.
Demjanjuk's defense team has argued his imminent expulsion to Germany and near-certain arrest on arrival would constitute torture given his age. |
61 Economic crisis drives the mothers of invention
by Samuel Gardaz, AFP
Sat Apr 4, 9:09 am ET
| GENEVA (AFP) - Crisis is the mother of invention, if one believes the bright sparks behind the gizmos, contraptions, novelties and potions at the international inventions exhibition in the Swiss city of Geneva.
While others fret over the economic turmoil, many of the 710 exhibitors from 45 countries here relish it as a driver of innovation, whether they are trying peel shrimps, save coral reefs, build robots or cart skis around.
"Look at World War II: when people had tough times, that's when they found the simplest or cheapest solutions," said the inventor of the "skikart" ski carrier on wheels. |
62 Floggings, stonings could begin in Pakistan's scenic Swat valley
By Saeed Shah, McClatchy Newspapers
Fri Apr 3, 3:46 pm ET
| MINGORA, Pakistan - A hundred miles northwest of Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, the Swat valley offers a chilling vision of what much of the country could become.
Where tourists once frolicked, extremists are laying the groundwork for religious courts to dispense brutal punishments under their harsh interpretation of Islamic law.
The leader of the group, Sufi Mohammad, said penalties including flogging, chopping off hands and stoning to death must be available to Swat's Islamic courts. |
63 Afghanistan and NATO: Why Europe May Not Be Up to the Fight
By VIVIENNE WALT/STRASBOURG, Time Magazine
Sat Apr 4, 1:05 am ET
| Barack Obama arrived in Strasbourg on Friday for this weekend's NATO summit enthusing about the military organization, which he described at a joint press conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy as "the most successful alliance in modern history." That it may have been. But Obama's praise contrasts starkly with the scathing assessment of the state of NATO, now 60 years old, by European military analysts, who say that the gap in military capability between the United States and Europe has grown so big that in some places battlefield communication between NATO forces and their US allies has become difficult. "It is such a deep divide that there is a risk that NATO will become an irritant for the Americans, rather than a partner of choice," says James Arbuthnot, a British Conservative Party politician who chairs the Parliament's select defense committee. The apparent problem-free warmth between Obama and other NATO leaders over the state of the alliance, he believes, "is an illusion." |
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