World Briefly

The Associated Press

Published Monday, March 23, 2009

Dow jumps nearly 500 on gov't plan to soak up bad bank assets; home sales show surprise gain

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street got the news it wanted on the economy's biggest problems — banks and housing — and celebrated by hurtling the Dow Jones industrials up nearly 500 points.

Investors added rocket fuel Monday to a two-week-old advance, cheering the government's plan to help banks remove bad assets from their books and also welcoming a report showing a surprising increase in home sales. Major stock indicators surged more than 6 percent, including the Dow, which had its biggest percentage gain since October.

Analysts who have seen the market's recent false starts are still hesitant to say Wall Street is indeed recovering from the collapse that began last fall. But the day's banking and housing news bolstered the growing belief that the economy is starting to heal, and that is what had investors buying.

"It's just hard to argue that there isn't an improvement in economic activity on the horizon," said Jim Dunigan, executive vice president at PNC Wealth Management.

The market began turning around two weeks ago on news that Citigroup Inc. was operating at a profit in January and February. A spate of more upbeat economic reports helped the market build on its gains, although the rally stalled last Thursday and Friday.

Analysts said they saw more fundamental strength in Monday's buying than they saw at the start of the rally. Dave Rovelli managing director of trading at brokerage Canaccord Adams, said there appeared to be less short covering, which occurs when traders are forced to buy to cover misplaced bets that stocks would fall. Short covering contributed to the market's surge after the Citigroup news.

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Obama administration moves against bad bank assets at the heart of nation's financial crisis

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration aimed squarely at the crisis clogging the nation's credit system Monday with a plan to take over up to $1 trillion in sour mortgage securities with the help of private investors. For once, Wall Street cheered.

The announcement, closely stage-managed throughout the day, filled in crucial blanks in the administration's financial rescue package and formed what President Barack Obama called "one more critical element in our recovery."

The coordinated effort by the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. relies on a mix of government and private money — mostly from institutional investors such as hedge funds — to help banks rid their balance sheets of real-estate related securities that are now extremely difficult to value.

The goal, said Obama, is to get banks lending again, so "families can get basic consumer loans, auto loans, student loans, (and so) that small businesses are able to finance themselves, and we can start getting this economy moving again."

It was a huge gambit and one that came like a tonic to Wall Street, which had panned an earlier outline of the program that lacked detail.

Stocks soared, the Dow Jones industrial average shooting up nearly 500 points, thanks to the bank-assets plan and a report showing an unexpected jump in home sales.

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Did the plane weigh too much? NTSB probing the weight of plane that crashed and killed 14

BUTTE, Mont. (AP) — Investigators will examine whether a single-engine turboprop plane was overloaded when it nose-dived into a cemetery and killed 14 people on board who were heading to a retreat for the ultrarich for a ski trip, a federal official said Monday.

The plane was likely designed to carry a total of 11 people, including two pilots, Mark Rosenker, acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said at a news conference. Officials said seven adults and seven children were killed in the crash Sunday; a relative said there were two 4-year-olds and the other children were ages 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9.

"It will take us a while to understand," Rosenker said. "We have to get the weights of all the passengers, we have to get the weight of the fuel, all of the luggage."

Rosenker said it was possible that a very small child would be on the lap of an adult.

"We are going to have to try to understand how and why there were an additional three people (over the assumed configuration) on the aircraft," Rosenker said. Some luggage was retrievable for weight and measurement analysis, he said.

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Suicide bomber strikes tent with funeral mourners in Iraq, killing at least 23

BAGHDAD (AP) — A suicide bomber struck a tent filled Monday with Kurdish funeral mourners, unleashing a huge fireball that killed at least 23 people in a northern town where Kurds and Arabs are competing for power.

Also Monday, Turkey's visiting president pressed the Iraqi government to crack down on Kurdish rebels who stage cross-border raids into Turkish territory from sanctuaries in northern Iraq.

The provincial security office said 23 people were killed and 34 wounded in the suicide attack in the town of Jalula some 80 miles (120 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad.

A member of the provincial security committee, Amir Rifaat, said 24 people were killed and 28 wounded. The difference could not be immediately reconciled.

Karim Khudadat, whose father was being mourned, said he was receiving visitors when the bomber struck.

"I was with my relatives outside the tent receiving people who came to offer condolences when suddenly the explosion took place," Khudadat said. "Suddenly a huge flame engulfed the tent and I was wounded in my head and legs."

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Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano erupts 5 times, sending smoke plumes 50,000 feet high

WILLOW, Alaska (AP) — Alaska's Mount Redoubt volcano erupted five times overnight, sending an ash plume more than 9 miles into the air in the volcano's first emissions in nearly 20 years.

Residents in the state's largest city were spared from falling ash, though fine gray dust was falling Monday morning on small communities north of Anchorage. The ash began falling around daybreak and continued into midmorning. They were supposed to end by noon.

"It's coming down," Rita Jackson, 56, said early Monday morning at a 24-hour grocery store in Willow, about 50 miles north of Anchorage. She slid her fingers across the hood of her car, through a dusting of ash.

Ash from Alaska's volcanos is like a rock fragment with jagged edges and has been used as an industrial abrasive. It can injure skin, eyes and breathing passages. The young, the elderly and people with respiratory problems are especially susceptible to ash-related health problems. Ash can also cause damage engines in planes, cars and other vehicles.

Alaska Airlines on Monday canceled 19 flights in and out of the Anchorage international airport because of the ash.

Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage told only essential personnel to report to work. The Air Force says 60 planes, including fighter jets, cargo aircraft and a 747 commercial plane, were being sheltered.

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Elderly woman found roaming NJ mall 15 years ago is finally identified as Colombian immigrant

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A mute elderly woman known only as "Jane Doe" since she was found wandering in a New Jersey mall 15 years ago has finally been identified.

Lt. Eduardo Ojeda of the New Jersey Department of Human Services police discovered recently that the woman is Elba Leonor Diaz Soccarras, who turns 75 on March 28.

She has Alzheimer's disease and has been bedridden in a New Jersey psychiatric hospital for years. Her identity, partly obscured because she and her daughter had a falling out, was established thanks to tips from the public and Colombian officials.

Ojeda said her case file landed on his desk six year ago and that he exhausted all means to try to determine her identity.

"It was always on my mind, it really kind of bothered me," Ojeda said. "As someone said: 'You don't find peace until you find all the pieces.'"

Soccarras was found at the Woodbridge Center mall in 1994. She was well-dressed and carrying an empty purse, but was disoriented and unable to speak. Her fingerprints yielded no database hits. Unable to determine if she was a U.S. citizen, and therefore eligible for nursing home placement under Medicare, she was committed to a New Jersey psychiatric hospital.

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Study links high intake of red meat, processed meats to greater risk of death

CHICAGO (AP) — The largest study of its kind finds that older Americans who eat large amounts of red meat and processed meats face a greater risk of death from heart disease and cancer.

The federal study of more than half a million men and women bolsters prior evidence of the health risks of diets laden with red meat like hamburger and processed meats like hot dogs, bacon and cold cuts.

Calling the increased risk modest, lead author Rashmi Sinha of the National Cancer Institute said the findings support the advice of several health groups to limit red and processed meat intake to decrease cancer risk.

The findings appear in Monday's Archives of Internal Medicine.

Over 10 years, eating the equivalent of a quarter-pound hamburger daily gave men in the study a 22 percent higher risk of dying of cancer and a 27 percent higher risk of dying of heart disease. That's compared to those who ate the least red meat, just 5 ounces per week.

Women who ate large amounts of red meat had a 20 percent higher risk of dying of cancer and a 50 percent higher risk of dying of heart disease than women who ate less.

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Robin Williams recovering in Cleveland after heart surgery, full recovery expected in 8 weeks

NEW YORK (AP) — Robin Williams was recovering at the Cleveland Clinic after heart surgery that his doctors deemed successful, his publicists said Monday.

The 57-year-old actor had an operation to replace an aortic valve on March 13, publicists Mara Buxbaum and Chris Kanarick said. He was expected to make a complete recovery in the next eight weeks.

"His heart is strong and he will have normal heart function in the coming weeks with no limitations on what he'll be able to do," said Dr. A. Marc Gillinov, a cardiothoracic surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic. "A couple of hours after surgery, he was entertaining the medical team and making us all laugh."

Williams was initially treated at the University of Miami Hospital before being transferred to Cleveland. He had been in Florida earlier this month when he was forced to cancel the remainder of his one-man comedy show, "Weapons of Self-Destruction," after experiencing shortness of breath.

Williams, whose sold-out, multi-city tour is expected to resume in the fall, thanked staff at both hospitals.

"I can't thank them enough for their kindness and dedication while I was in their care," he said in a statement. "I must also thank all the people who have expressed their love and concern for me. I have been deeply touched by their support."

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Fla. student suspended from riding the bus for 3 days after being accused of passing gas

LAKELAND, Fla. (AP) — An eighth-grader was suspended from riding the school bus for three days after being accused of passing gas.

The bus driver wrote on a misbehavior form that a 15-year-old teen passing gas on the bus Monday to make the other children laugh, creating a stench so bad that it was difficult to breathe. The bus driver handed the teen the suspension form the next day.

Polk County school officials said there's no rule against flatulence, but there are rules against causing a disturbance on the bus.

The teen said he wasn't the one passing gas.

Whether he did it or not, he might have gotten off easy. A 13-year-old student at a Stuart school was arrested in November after authorities said he broke wind in class.

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Armstrong to have surgery after breaking his collarbone during crash in race in Spain

BALTANAS, Spain (AP) — Lance Armstrong fractured his collarbone Monday during a race in Spain, leaving in question his participation in the Tour de France in July. The seven-time Tour champion wrote on his Twitter feed that he will have surgery in a couple of days. "I'm alive!" ''Broken clavicle (right). Hurts like hell for now. Surgery in a couple of days. Thanks for all the well wishes," Armstrong wrote.

In a statement released earlier Monday, the 37-year-old said he had "been lucky to avoid one of the most common cycling injuries" in his 17-year career.

"The crash has put my upcoming calendar in jeopardy, but the most important thing for me right now is to get back home and rest up and begin my rehab," Armstrong said.

Armstrong is scheduled to compete in the Giro d'Italia from May 9-May 31. The Tour runs July 4-26.

He was knocked off his bike during a pileup in the first stage of the Vuelta of Castilla and Leon race and was taken to a hospital by ambulance. The American, who crashed about 12.5 miles from the stage's finish, was grimacing and trying to hold his right arm as he entered the ambulance.

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