Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/107996
8A Daily News – Wednesday, February 6, 2013 WORLD BRIEFING Obama asks for shortterm budget to delay cuts WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is asking Congress for a short-term deficit reduction package of spending cuts and tax revenue that will delay the effective date of steeper automatic cuts now scheduled to kick in on March 1. Obama said the looming cuts would be economically damaging and must be avoided. The president reiterated his insistence on long-term deficit reduction that combines taxes and cuts, a blend that faces stiff resistance from anti-tax Republicans in Congress. Obama made his case Tuesday afternoon in the White House briefing room, just minutes after the Congressional Budget Office released revised budget projections that showed the deficit will drop to $845 billion this year, the first time during Obama's presidency that the red ink would fall below $1 trillion. The budget office also said the economy will grow slowly in 2013, hindered by a tax increase enacted in January and by the automatic spending cuts scheduled to take effect this spring. It is those cuts that Obama is seeking to put off with less onerous measures. Neither the president nor White House aides specified what those measures should be. ''There's no reason that the jobs of thousands of American who work in national security or education or clean energy, not to mention the growth of the entire economy, should be put in jeopardy just because folks in Washington couldn't come together to eliminate a few special interest tax loopholes or government programs that we agree need some reform,'' he said. to a tornado shelter and apparently had running water, heat and cable television. US lawsuit casts blame for financial crisis on Standard & Poor's Ala. boy held Superdome hostage officials seems OK worried MIDLAND CITY, Ala. (AP) — By all accounts, a about power 5-year-old in Alabama endured an unforgettable outage horror: Held for a week in a closet-size bunker underground, a captive of a volatile killer, his only comforts a Hot Wheels car and other treats passed to him by officers. Yet after being whisked to safety by federal agents in a raid that left his kidnapper dead, the boy appeared to be acting like a normal kid: He was running around, playing with a toy dinosaur and other action figures, eating a turkey sandwich and watching ''SpongeBob SquarePants,'' relatives and Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson said. ''We know he's OK physically, but we don't know how he is mentally,'' Betty Jean Ransbottom, the boy's grandmother, told The Associated Press on Tuesday. She added that she feared the ordeal would stay with the child, who turns 6 on Wednesday, the rest of his life. Meanwhile, authorities grateful for a happy ending embarked on a careful investigation. Agents swept the 100-acre property for explosives for a second day as part of an investigation so painstaking that authorities had not yet removed the body of the abductor, 65year-old Jimmy Lee Dykes, officials said. FBI officials have offered few details publicly about the standoff and the raid that ended it. For days, officers passed food, medicine and other items into the bunker, which was similar NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Concerned the Superdome might not be able to handle the energy needed for its first Super Bowl since Hurricane Katrina, officials spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on upgrades to decayed utility lines, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. The improvements apparently weren't enough, however, to prevent an embarrassing and puzzling 34-minute power outage during the third quarter of the game between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers on Sunday. Two days later, officials still had not pinpointed the cause of the outage. The Superdome's management company, SMG, and the utility that supplies the stadium, Entergy New Orleans, announced Tuesday that they would hire outside experts to investigate. ''We wanted to leave no stone unturned,'' Entergy spokesman Chanel Lagarde told the AP. He said the two companies had not been able to reach a conclusion on the cause and wanted a third-party analysis. ''We thought it was important to get another party looking at this to make sure we were looking at everything that we need to examine,'' Lagarde said. SMG Vice President Doug Thornton told a news conference at City Hall later Tuesday that the hiring of a third party does not signify a disagreement between SMG and Entergy. Bulgaria links Hezbollah to bus attack SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Hezbollah was behind a bus attack that killed five Israeli tourists in Bulgaria last year, investigators said Tuesday, describing a sophisticated bombing carried out by a terrorist cell that included Canadian and Australian citizens. The first major announcement in the investigation carried broad diplomatic implications, as countries that consider the Shiite militant group to be a terrorist organization called on Europe — which has resisted such a move — to crack down on the group. Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said two of the suspects had been living in Lebanon for years — one with a Canadian passport and the other with an Australian one. He said investigators had traced their activities back to their home countries. ''We have wellgrounded reasons to suggest that the two were members of the militant wing of Hezbollah,'' Tsvetanov said after a meeting of Bulgaria's National Security Council. A third suspect entered Bulgaria with them on June 28, he said, without giving details. NOW ACCEPTING FOR PAWN • ATVs • Motorcycles • Autos • Trailers • Boats • Jet Skis Inside Storage • Bay Alarm Protected Gold Exchange Business of the Year www.redbluffgoldexchange.com facebook.com/redbluffgoldexchange 423 Walnut St. Red Bluff 528-8000 T-F 10 am-5:30 pm Sat. 10 am-4 pm WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government says Standard & Poor's knowingly inflated its ratings on risky mortgage investments that helped trigger the 2008 financial crisis. The credit rating agency gave high marks to mortgage-backed securities because it wanted to earn more business from the banks that issued the investments, the Justice Department alleges in civil charges filed in federal court in Los Angeles. The government is demanding that S&P to pay at least $5 billion in penalties. The case is the government's first major action against one of the credit rating agencies that stamped their approval on Wall Street's soon-to-implode mortgage bundles. It marks a milestone for the Justice Department, which has long been criticized for failing to act aggressively against the companies that contributed to the crisis. S&P, a unit of New York-based McGraw-Hill Cos., called the lawsuit ''meritless.'' Egypt's president welcomes Ahmadinejad CAIRO (AP) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad discussed the crisis in Syria with his Egyptian counterpart Tuesday in the first visit by an Iranian leader to Cairo in more than three decades, marking a historic departure from years of frigid ties between the regional heavyweights. Ahmadinejad's threeday visit, which is centered around an Islamic summit, is the latest sign of efforts by Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi to improve relations, which have been cut since Iran's 1979 revolution. Community Events Planning Meeting "11 DAYS OF ROUND UP" – 2013 If your group or organization is planning an event in the days leading up to the Best 3-Day Rodeo in the West PLEASE SEND REPRESENTATIVES TO ATTEND THIS IMPORTANT MEETING! Western-themed events planned to precede and coordinate with the Red Bluff Round-Up need to receive maximum promotion by the Chamber of Commerce, The Daily News and other media in advance of the "11 Days," and as those fun-filled days unfold! When: Wednesday, February 6 10:00 a.m. – 12 Noon Where: Tehama County Farm Bureau 275 Sale Lane, Red Bluff Your Hosts: This advertisement Sponsored as a Community Service by: DAILY NEWS RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY Please call or e-mail to say you'll be there, and what group(s) you'll be representing! (530) 527-6220 or e-mail: info@redbluffchamber.com