World briefly
Published 10:13 pm Friday, December 19, 2008
Blagojevich says he won’t quit job
CHICAGO — An unwavering Gov. Rod Blagojevich served notice Friday that he has no intention of quitting over his corruption arrest, declaring with an almost Churchillian flourish: “I will fight. I will fight. I will fight until I take my last breath. I have done nothing wrong.”
The 52-year-old Democrat is charged with scheming to sell President-elect Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat for big campaign contributions or a lucrative job for himself. Prosecutors built their case on Blagojevich’s wiretapped conversations.
DNA matches missing Fla. girl
ORLANDO, Fla. — Skeletal remains found in the woods are the Florida 3-year-old who has been missing since June, but they don’t reveal any clues about how she was killed, a county medical examiner said Friday.
A utility worker stumbled upon the remains last week, less than a half-mile from where the girl lived. DNA tests confirm that the remains match Caylee Anthony’s genetic profile, said the medical examiner, Dr. Jan Garavaglia.
Caylee’s mother, 22-year-old Casey Anthony, was indicted in October on first-degree murder and other charges, even though no body was found. She has insisted that she left the girl with a baby sitter in June, but she didn’t report her missing until July.
Obama completes economic team
CHICAGO — Completing his Cabinet a month before taking office, President-elect Barack Obama named officials to oversee transportation, labor, trade and small business policy Friday but warned that economic recovery won’t be nearly as swift.
“It will take longer than any of us would like — years, not months. It will get worse before it gets better. But it will get better if we are willing to act boldly and swiftly,” Obama said — and he promised to do just that.
CDC: Tamiflu doesn’t seem to work well
ATLANTA — The medical arsenal against the flu just got weaker.
Government health officials said Friday that a leading flu medicine, Tamiflu, might not work against all cases of the flu this year. The most common flu bug right now is overwhelmingly resistant to Tamiflu, they said.
The alert is “an early heads-up” for doctors. If current trends continue, they may need to change how they treat patients this flu season, said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.