Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/21621
6A – Daily News – Saturday, December 18, 2010 WORLD BRIEFING Obama salutes spirit of political compromise WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama signed into law a huge, holiday-season tax bill extending cuts for all Americans on Friday, saluting a new spirit of political compromise as Republicans applauded and liberals seethed. The benefits range from tax cuts for millionaires and the middle class to longer help for the jobless. The most significant tax legislation in nearly a decade will avert big increases that would have hit millions of people starting in two weeks on New Year’s Day. Declared Obama: ‘‘We are here with some good news for the American people this holiday sea- son.’’ ‘‘This is progress and that’s what they sent us here to achieve,’’ Obama said as a rare bipartisan assembly of lawmakers looked on at the White House. The package retains Bush-era tax rates for all taxpayers, including the wealthiest Americans, a provision Obama and congressional liberals opposed. It also offers 13 months of extended bene- fits to the unemployed and attempts to stimulate the economy with a Social Security payroll tax cut for all workers. At a cost of $858 bil- lion over two years, the deal contains provisions dear to both Democrats and Republicans. It repre- sents the most money that Obama was likely to have been able to dedicate over the next year to the slow- ly recovering economy. Yet it also increases the federal deficit at a time when the country is grow- ing increasingly anxious about the red ink. Congress works to pass raft of bills WASHINGTON (AP) — Rushing to finish by Christmas, congressional Democrats worked Friday to secure Senate ratifica- tion of a new arms control treaty and to end the mili- tary’s ban on openly gay service members as they neared the end of two tumultuous years of sin- gle-party government. Legislation to keep the federal government run- ning until mid- to late February was also on the agenda, a matter for nego- tiations with emboldened Republicans who will take control of the House and add to their numbers in the Senate come Janu- ary. President Barack Obama seized one legisla- tive triumph in the lame- duck session as Congress voted early Friday to extend tax cuts and unem- ployment benefits. He was looking for several more on his wish list — the arms control treaty and repeal of the military gay ban — to close out a politically tough year. But the fate of those items were less certain as hard feelings lingered in the Senate. ‘‘This body operates in an environment of coop- eration and comity and that is not in existence today,’’ said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Pakistani officials say 3 US missile attacks have killed 54 PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Three American missile attacks killed 54 alleged militants Friday close to the Afghan bor- der, an unusually high number of victims that included commanders of a Taliban-allied group that were holding a meet- ing, Pakistani officials said. The attacks took place in the Khyber tribal region, which has been rarely struck by American missiles before over the last three years. That could indicate a possible expansion of the CIA-led covert campaign of drone strikes inside Pakistani territory. The Obama adminis- tration has intensified missile attacks in north- west Pakistan since taking office, desperate to weak- en insurgent networks there that U.S. officials say are behind much of the violence against U.S. troops just across the frontier in Afghanistan. The first strike targeted two vehicles in the San- dana area of the Tirah Valley, killing seven mili- tants and wounding another nine. The men were believed to belong to the Pakistani Taliban, one of the country’s largest and deadliest insurgent groups. Later, missiles hit a compound in Speen Darang village where the Lashkar-e-Islam, a Tal- iban affiliate known to be strong in Khyber, were meeting, killing 32 peo- ple, among them com- manders. The third strike took place in Narai Baba village and killed 15 mili- tants, the officials said. WikiLeaks chief says he fears US ready to indict him BUNGAY, England (AP) — The founder of WikiLeaks said Friday he fears the United States is preparing to indict him, but insisted that the gov- ernment secret-spilling site would continue its work despite what he calls a dirty tricks cam- paign against him. Julian Assange spoke from snowbound Elling- ham Hall, a supporter’s 10-bedroom country man- sion where he is confined on bail as he fights Swe- den’s attempt to extradite him on allegations of rape and molestation. RECLINERS LANE STARTING AS LOW AS $299 LANE CEDAR CHESTS STARTING AT $249 BEAUTYREST SETS SIMMONS STARTING AT $499 FREE MATTRESS PROTECTOR VALUED ATUPTO $ 99 Furniture DEPOT 235 S Main St., Red Bluff • 527-1657 www.thefurnituredepot.net HOURS: MONDAY-FRIDAY 9:00-6:00 SATURDAY 9:00-5:00 • SUNDAY 11:00-5:00 He insisted to televi- sion interviewers that he was being subjected to a smear campaign and ‘‘what appears to be a secret grand jury investi- gation against me or our organization.’’ Attorney General Eric Holder has said repeated- ly a criminal investigation of the WikiLeaks’ contin- uing release of some 250,000 secret U.S. State Department cables is under way and that any- one found to have broken the law will be held accountable. The Justice Depart- ment has provided no other public comment on who is under investigation or its legal strategy. NKorea warns SKorea not to go ahead with live-fire drills SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea warned South Korea on Friday not to stage artillery drills on a front- line island the North bombed last month, say- ing it would hit back even harder than in the previ- ous attack that killed four South Koreans. The North warned the South against similar drills before the Nov. 23 shelling that destroyed homes and renewed fears of war on the divided peninsula. South Korea has said it plans one-day, live-fire drills sometime between Saturday and Tuesday on Yeonpyeong, a tiny island that is home to fishing communities and military bases and sits just seven miles (11 kilometers) from North Korean shores. Seoul says the drills’ timing will depend on weather and other fac- tors and, despite the North’s threats, the exer- cises will go ahead as planned. The North, which claims nearby waters and has said it considers such drills an infringement of its territory, responded to similar firing exercises by raining artillery shells on Yeonpyeong, killing two marines and two con- struction workers. The assault was the first by the North to target a civilian area since the end of the 1950-53 Kore- an War, and it has caused anger and shock in the South, where TV screens and newspapers were filled with stunning images of islanders flee- ing their bombed-out, burning homes. Russian doctor feared dismissal MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian cardiologist said he feared dismissal and beat- ing after phoning Vladimir Putin to say that an impres- sive hospital display for the premier was faked. And then, Putin called him back. Ivan Khrenov told Putin during a live call-in show Thursday that his bosses instructed doctors and nurs- es to show fake pay slips and pose as recovering patients surrounded by new equipment during the pre- mier’s November visit to a hospital in the central town of Ivanovo. Khrenov told Putin that the equipment was bor- rowed from other hospitals and the doctors were forced to say their salaries were about $1,000 a month — far less than their real income. Putin’s visit to the hospital was nationally televised — just like the call-in show where Khrenov made his claims. Putin, who has been hobnobbing with ordinary Russians in similar sessions for years, ordered an inves- tigation into a possible embezzlement of the $4,3 million the hospital has received. ‘‘What are you cheering at?’’ Putin asked the applauding audience in the television studio. ‘‘The art of the (hospital) man- agers or doctor’s bravery?’’ If the embezzlement did happen, Khrenov told a Russian news agency Fri- day, he might face a beating or dismissal. ‘‘I will not be surprised if somebody meets me in a dark alley or I’ll be forced to resign ’vol- untarily,’’’ he told Interfax after regional officials called him ‘‘insane’’ and called him to a local prose- cutor’s office and health department for questioning. Chavez granted decree powers by Venezuela CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan law- makers granted President Hugo Chavez broad powers Friday to enact laws by decree, undermining the clout of a new congress that takes office next month with a bigger opposition bloc. Chavez opponents con- demned the move as a power grab, saying the law will be a blank check for the leftist leader to rule without consulting lawmakers. The National Assembly approved the special powers for 18 months. A new congress goes into session Jan. 5 with an opposition contingent large enough to hinder approval of some types of major laws. Opposition lawmak- ers say decree powers now give Chavez a blank check to rule autocratically while ignoring the congress. Chavez has argued he needs decree powers to fast- track funds to help the vic- tims of recent floods and landslides, and also to has- ten Venezuela’s transition to a socialist state. The president’s critics view the law as one of many controversial measures being pushed through in the final weeks of a lame-duck congress. Widow gives back $7.2 B for Madoff’s victims NEW YORK (AP) — Many of Bernard Madoff’s victims who thought they lost everything could get at least half their money back after the widow of a Florida philanthropist agreed Fri- day to return a staggering $7.2 billion that her hus- band reaped from the giant Ponzi scheme. Federal prosecutors reached the settlement with the estate of Jeffry Picower, a businessman who drowned after suffering a heart attack in the swim- ming pool of his Palm Beach, Fla., mansion in October 2009. Picower was the single biggest beneficia- ry of Madoff’s fraud. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara called the forfeiture the largest in Justice Depart- ment history and a ‘‘game changer’’ for those swin- dled by Madoff. He com- mended Picower’s widow, Barbara, ‘‘for agreeing to turn over this truly stagger- ing sum, which really was always other people’s money.’’ ‘‘We will return every penny received from almost 35 years of investing with Bernard Madoff,’’ Barbara Picower said in a statement. ‘‘I believe the Madoff Ponzi scheme was deplorable, and I am deeply saddened by the tragic impact it contin- ues to have on the lives of its victims. It is my hope that this settlement will ease that suffering.’’ The settlement means roughly half of the $20 bil- lion that investors entrusted to Madoff has now been recovered, authorities said. Bone fragments could solve Earhart mystery NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — Three bone fragments found on a deserted South Pacific island are being analyzed to determine if they belong to Amelia Earhart — tests that could finally prove she died as a castaway after failing in her 1937 quest to become the first woman to fly around the world. Scientists at the Uni- versity of Oklahoma hope to extract DNA from the bones, which were found earlier this year by a Delaware group dedicated to the recovery of historic aircraft. ‘‘There’s no guaran- tee,’’ said Ric Gillespie, director of the Interna- tional Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery in Delaware. ‘‘You only have to say you have a bone that may be human and may be linked to Earhart and people get excited. But it is true that, if they can get DNA, and if they can match it to Amelia Earhart’s DNA, that’s pretty good.’’ Lab officials said results of the tests could take week or months.