World Briefly

By The Associated Press | Clanton Advertiser

Published Saturday, February 7, 2009

Obama's stimulus plan sparks Democratic and Republican debate in rare weekend Senate session

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans and Democrats offered starkly different assessments of President Barack Obama's newly renegotiated economic recovery plan Saturday, as the Senate held a rare weekend debate in advance of a key vote on Monday.

Lawmakers are already looking past Senate action to difficult House-Senate negotiations that will test the mettle of a handful of Senate moderates against House Democrats unhappy over more than $100 billion in spending forced from the bill.

Jon Kyl of Arizona, the Senate's second-ranking Republican, said central elements of Obama's plan such as the $500 tax cut for most workers would do little to help the economy, just as last year's $600 rebate checks failed to provide a jolt.

"It was not effective last year," Kyl said. "There's nothing to suggest it's going to be any more effective this year to stimulate the economy."

Saturday's debate came a day after a handful of GOP moderates struck a deal with the White House and Democratic leaders following White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel weighing in to urge Democrats make a final round of concessions.

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Sports Illustrated report: Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids in 2003

NEW YORK (AP) — Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids in his MVP season of 2003 with Texas, according to a report by Sports Illustrated.

The New York Yankees star failed a drug test for two anabolic steroids, four sources told the magazine in a story posted Saturday on its Web site.

His name appears on a list of 104 players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in a 2003 baseball survey, SI said. He reportedly tested positive for Primobolan and testosterone while playing for the Rangers.

Rodriguez declined to discuss the tests when approached by SI on Thursday at a gym in Miami, where he lives in the offseason.

"You'll have to talk to the union," he told a reporter. Calls from SI to union head Donald Fehr were not returned.

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Sheriff: 1 dead, 100 to 125 rescued from ice floe that broke from Ohio's Lake Erie shoreline

OAK HARBOR, Ohio (AP) — A miles-wide ice floe broke away Saturday in Lake Erie, trapping about 135 fishermen, some for as long as four hours. One person fell into the water and later died.

Coast Guard Spokesman Chief Petty Officer Robert Lanier said 134 people in total had been plucked from the ice by late afternoon by authorities using helicopters and air boats. Officials were trying to verify the name of the man who died and notify his relatives, Lanier said.

"We were in no danger," said Norb Pilaczynski of Swanton, Ohio, who was rescued from the lake along with several of his friends. "We knew there was enough ice out there."

Rescuers lowered baskets onto the ice from choppers, and people climbed in and were lifted to safety. Others climbed into whirring air boats that glided across the ice.

The person who died fell into the water while searching with others for a link to the shoreline, Ottawa County Sheriff Bob Bratton said. Others tried CPR before the person was flown to a hospital and pronounced dead, Bratton said.

"We get people out here who don't know how to read the ice," Bratton said. "What happened here today was just idiotic. I don't know how else to put it."

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Though small, Va. company at heart of salmonella scandal reached deep into US food supply

ATLANTA (AP) — From school lunches to nutrition bars and ice cream, the nationwide salmonella outbreak has reached deep into the American food supply — even though many people had never heard of the small company at the center of the investigation until a few weeks ago.

The food manufacturer, Peanut Corp. of America, has just a few plants scattered across the South, but it may be responsible for one of the nation's largest food recalls in history.

Federal investigators on Friday said the Lynchburg, Va.-based company knowingly shipped salmonella-laced products from its Blakely, Ga., plant after tests showed the products were contaminated. Federal law forbids producing or shipping foods under conditions that could make it harmful to consumers' health.

So far, the salmonella outbreak has sickened about 575 people in 43 states and may have contributed to at least eight deaths. The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation and more than 1,550 products have been recalled.

The company has denied any wrongdoing, but said it is investigating.

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Bargain to save Obama's stimulus plan in Senate costs states and schools billions in relief

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama and Senate Republicans bickered Saturday over his historically huge economic recovery plan after states and schools lost tens of billions of dollars in a late-night bargain to save it.

The $827 billion measure is on track to pass the Senate on Tuesday despite stiff opposition from the GOP and disappointment among Democrats, including the new president who labeled it imperfect. Next up: Difficult negotiations between the House and Senate, which are divided over spending for tax cuts, education and aid for local governments.

"We can't afford to make perfect the enemy of the absolutely necessary," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address, sounding a note of pragmatism that liberal followers rarely heard on the campaign trail.

Still, the popular president — six in 10 voters approve of his performance so far — scolded Republicans with a pointed reminder that Democrats, not Republicans, were victorious in November.

Hours later, the Senate convened a rare Saturday session to debate a compromise forged between GOP moderates and the White House late Friday, a rare burst of comity aimed at securing passage of the bill with a few Republican votes joining the Democratic majority.

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Biden says US will talk to Iran, but warns it must abandon nuclear ambitions

MUNICH (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden warned Saturday that the U.S. stands ready to take pre-emptive action against Iran if it does not abandon nuclear ambitions and its support for terrorism.

But in his first major policy speech as President Barack Obama's No. 2, Biden also declared the U.S. open for talks with Iran and Russia to repair relations. And he reached out to the world with a promise that the Obama administration will work with allies to solve global problems.

"We will draw upon all the elements of our power — military and diplomatic, intelligence and law enforcement, economic and cultural — to stop crises from occurring before they are in front of us," he told the gathering in his 25-minute address.

The much anticipated speech got high marks from world leaders in the audience at this annual security conference.

"I think Vice President Biden came to Munich today in a spirit of partnership," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told AP Television News. "I think he set an ambitious agenda with big goals and high objectives, and he called and challenged us to work with him. I think that's the right spirit."

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Death toll from raging Australian wildfires rises to 25, more feared dead

SYDNEY (AP) — Walls of flame roared across southeastern Australia on Saturday, razing scores of homes, forests and farmland in the sunburned country's worst wildfire disaster in a quarter century. At least 25 people died and the toll could rise to more than 40, police said.

Witnesses described seeing trees exploding and skies raining ash as temperatures hit a record 117 degrees Saturday and combined with raging winds to create perfect conditions for uncontrollable blazes. A long-running drought in southern Australia — the worst in a century — has left forests extra dry.

The fires were so massive they were visible from space. NASA released satellite photographs showing a white cloud of smoke across southeastern Australia.

Police said they believed some of the fires were set deliberately and predicted it would take days to get all the blazes under control.

The threat eased somewhat early Sunday as temperatures fell sharply, winds slowed, and rain began falling in some areas.

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California Medical Board investigates doctor who implanted embryos in mother of octuplets

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The spotlight on the mother of octuplets is turning to the fertility doctor who helped her give birth not once but 14 times by implanting Nadya Suleman with fertilized embryos.

The Medical Board of California investigating the doctor — whom it did not name — to see if there was a "violation of the standard of care," board spokeswoman Candis Cohen said Friday.

She did not elaborate.

Suleman, 33, of Whittier, already had six children when she gave birth Jan. 26 to octuplets. The births to an unemployed, divorced single mother prompted angry questions about how she plans to provide for her children.

But the backlash seems to have extended as well to Suleman's doctor.

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Pink slips in hand, laid-off legions try parties, Internet, chatting up strangers on trains

NEW YORK (AP) — The bar was crowded with well-dressed professionals enjoying drinks and conversation, a typical evening — except that many of them had no job.

The event was a Wall Street Pink Slip Party, where the unemployed mix with recruiters and curious bystanders to network, look for work, and share their stories.

With employers shedding 600,000 more jobs in January, the undercurrent at this party in a Manhattan bar was decidedly glum.

"Wall Street, directly or indirectly, has ruined the best 10 years of my life," said Susan Lange, speaking of colleagues and friends she lost on Sept. 11, 2001, and the sense now, after being laid off from her job as an AIG training manager, that her world has again turned on its head.

"I'm devastated," the 39-year-old woman said.

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Film, TV actor James Whitmore, acclaimed for stage portraits of Truman, Will Rogers dies at 87

LOS ANGELES (AP) — James Whitmore, the many-faceted character actor who delivered strong performances in movies, television and especially the theater with his popular one-man shows about Harry Truman, Will Rogers and Theodore Roosevelt, died Friday, his son said. He was 87.

The Emmy- and Tony-winning actor was diagnosed with lung cancer the week before Thanksgiving and died Friday afternoon at his Malibu home, Steve Whitmore said.

"My father believed that family came before everything, that work was just a vehicle in which to provide for your family," said Whitmore, who works as spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. "At the end, and in the last two and a half months of his life, he was surrounded by his family."

His long-running "Give 'em Hell, Harry," tracing the life of the 33rd president, was released as a theatrical movie in 1975. Whitmore was nominated for an Academy Award as best actor, marking the only time in Oscar history that an actor has been nominated for a film in which he was the only cast member. His Teddy Roosevelt portrait, "Bully," was also converted into a movie.

He later became the TV pitchman for Miracle-Gro plant food, and used the product in his large vegetable garden at his Malibu home.

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