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Monday, August 8, 2011 – Daily News 5A WORLD BRIEFING SEALs killed in helicopter crash were on mission to aid Rangers, officials say KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The 30 American service members — most of them elite Navy SEALs — who died when their helicopter was shot down had rushed to help Army Rangers who had come under fire, two U.S. officials said Sunday. The heavy loss shows that covert tactics carry huge risks despite the huge success of the SEAL mission that killed Osama bin Laden more than three months ago. Some of the SEALs who died Saturday were from the same unit that killed bin Laden, although none of the men took part in that mission. The U.S.-led coalition plans to rely more on special operations missions as it reduces the overall number of combat troops by the end of 2014. This weekend, the rescue team had sub- dued attackers who had pinned down the Rangers and were departing in their Chi- nook helicopter when the aircraft was appar- ently hit, one of the officials said. Thirty Americans and eight Afghans were killed in the crash, making it the dead- liest single loss for U.S. forces in the decade- long war in Afghanistan. The Rangers, spe- cial operations forces who work regularly with the SEALs, secured the crash site in the Tangi Joy Zarin area of Wardak province, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) southwest of Kabul, the other official said. The world economy likely to make stock trading volatile NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. investors will have their first chance Monday to react to Standard & Poor’s decision to strip the U.S. government of its top credit rating. But the bigger issues facing Wall Street and stock markets worldwide remain debt-ridden countries in Europe and concerns that the global economy is weakening. The downgrade of U.S. long-term debt from AAA to AA+ wasn’t unexpected and may have little impact on interest rates. But FAITH Continued from page 1A idea to have such a din- ner at a meeting with the Back to School Project committee last year, the idea grew into reality. They formed a dinner committee and raised more than $700 through area churches, Nelson said. “Our desire was to have a dinner where pastors could just relax and enjoy the company,” he said. The dinner is an opportunity for pastors to network with other pastors as well, Nelson said. This year’s dinner, scheduled for Oct. 15, will be at the First Church of God. The event will include draw- ings for prizes donated by area businesses. Nelson hopes to have about 130 guests at the dinner this year, he said. He has invited jail min- isters and chaplains to the dinner as well. Face Down played a set in support of the event next to the golf course Saturday. The band, made up of local youth ages 9 to 16 who only just began playing together a few months ago, has been playing at area events all summer, starting with the Illumination Festival in June. it’s the kind of news that stock markets don’t need when investors are nervous. As a result, financial analysts interviewed Sunday said they expect markets to be volatile this week — and beyond. That view was echoed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who appeared on NBC’s ‘‘Meet the Press’’ Sun- day. ‘‘It is very unlikely that isn’t going to take a while to bottom out,’’ he said of sell- ing in the markets. Beyond the downgrade, though, investors have plenty of reason to be selling. Last week, the Dow Jones industrial average fell nearly 700 points, or 6 percent. Investors were worried because the economic signals in the U.S. and overseas were pointing toward trouble: —On July 29, the government dramati- cally lowered its estimate of how much the economy grew during the first quarter. It had said the economy grew at an annual rate of 1.3 percent, but revised that number down to 0.4 percent. That meant the economy barely grew. Second-quarter growth was also weak, a 1.3 percent rate. Trichet praises budget moves by Italy, Spain FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The European Central Bank says it will ‘‘active- ly implement’’ a bond-purchase program that could boost Spanish and Italian bonds and drive down interest yields that threaten those countries’ budgets. That could help Rome and Madrid fend off market trouble until a strengthened euro- zone bailout fund is approved to help them. The bank did not say Sunday which countries’ bonds it would buy in a statement after a crisis conference call Sunday. But the beneficiaries are expected to be Italy and Spain, market analysts say. Italy and Spain are trying to avoid finan- cial collapses like those that have forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek bailout loans. Geithner will stay as Treasury secretary WASHINGTON (AP) — Timothy Gei- thner has told President Barack Obama that he will remain on the job as Treasury secre- tary, ending speculation he would leave the The band members come from four families and three different churches and get togeth- er once or twice a week to practice, said Lisa Townley. The Townley Family Band leads the worship team at Olive Branch Baptist Church in Corn- ing. Three of the Town- ley children play in Face Down. Other band mem- bers are from Dairyville and Red Bluff. They volunteered to play at the event Satur- day, and even offered T- shirts and bumper stick- ers with the band logo for sale. Other musicians were scheduled to play through the rest of the event. Fundraising contin- ued through Sunday afternoon. The event was a second attempt at Lariat Bowl after a first event got rained out in March, Nelson said. Before this weekend, the dinner committee had raised a little more than $300, he said. They are hoping to raise more in the coming months. For more informa- tion, or to donate to the Pastors Appreciation Dinner, contact First Church of God, at 1005 S. Jackson St., or 527- 5717. You may also call Susan McFadyen at 527- 2720. Have a news tip? Call 527-2151, Ext. 112 DEBT Continued from page 1A by the intransigence of elected officials compared to his first tenure as governor from 1975 to 1983. Issues that used to be nonpartisan are now politicized, he said. ‘‘There’s nothing in the Republican Party historically that demands the level of obsessional dogmatism that I see,’’ Brown told The Associated Press in a telephone interview this week. ‘‘On the other side, the Democrats all vote togeth- er, too. So we’re really missing the independent, robust debate that democracy assumes.’’ A prelude to this summer’s angry showdown in Wash- ington, D.C., came this spring in Wisconsin, a historically moderate and progressive state. Decades of divided govern- ment there ended last fall after Republicans won the gover- nor’s office and majorities in both houses of the Legislature. Democratic lawmakers fled the state and thousands of protesters stormed the Capitol for weeks after Gov. Scott Walker and legislative Republicans tried to approve a major rollback of public employee benefits and collective bargain- ing rights for government workers. Walker eventually signed the changes into law, but six Republicans and three Democrats face recall elections this month. ‘‘The rhetoric and the division between the parties proba- bly goes to the high points precisely when control of institu- tions is in doubt,’’ said University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin. The tone is especially sharp because many Americans are afraid about the future of the country, said Sal Russo, a long- time Republican operative based in Sacramento and founder of the Tea Party Express, a well-funded wing of the populist movement. But voters — and those they elect to state offices and Congress — have sharply different views on what the future should be, he said. ‘‘There’s people who are in office today with very differ- ent visions,’’ Russo said. ‘‘It’s difficult if somebody wants to make government much smaller and somebody wants to make government much bigger. How do you compromise on that?’’ Months of haggling in Congress over budget cuts pushed Standard & Poors to downgrade the U.S. credit rating for the first time in history Friday. David Beers, global head of sov- ereign ratings at S&P, said the key consideration was ‘‘the nature of the debate and the difficulty in framing a political consensus.’’ Many Democrats blamed the debt ceiling impasse on lawmakers aligned with the tea party who were swept into Congress last year with little experience in government and a no-compromise approach. But Russo, whose group is one of many factions in the movement, said he supports toning down the rhetoric. He said compromise is sometimes essential in government, and the eventual deal on the debt ceiling was an example of the imperfect balance it requires. ‘‘I would say to conservatives, ‘Well, you lost in 2006 and 2008, and those people don’t agree with you.’ And to those liberals, ‘Hey, you lost in 2010,’’’ he said. Yet many in office oppose compromise. That’s left lead- Ask about our Open Fit Technology Discreet and Comfortable administration. The Treasury Department released a statement Sunday saying Geithner had informed the president of his decision to remain in the administration. Geithner is the only remaining top offi- cial on Obama’s original economics team. In late June, people close to Geithner said he was considering leaving after the debt limit was raised in August. They said he was tired of commuting to New York, where his son will be finishing up his last year in high school. However, various administration officials including White House chief of staff William Daley had been lobbying Geithner to stay. Geithner has enjoyed a close work- ing relationship with Obama. Police say at least 8 shot to death in suburban Ohio COPLEY, Ohio (AP) — A family argu- ment Sunday in Ohio ended in the shooting deaths of eight people in two places, includ- ing an 11-year-old, and two more people were wounded, authorities said Sunday. One person shot five people to death in one location, then two more were killed nearby before police killed the gunman, police Chief Michael Mier told WKYC-TV. The shootings happened in a wooded, residential neighborhood of older homes outside Akron, and police shot the gunman to death, Copley Township officers said. The neighborhood remained blocked off by police Sunday afternoon. Jeff Kirby of nearby Norton said he was visiting his mother’s home a block from the shootings around 10:30 a.m. when he heard gunfire — about 15 shots with several paus- es between them. Kirby, 53, said the last gunfire he heard occurred about the same time he heard sirens in the neighborhood. 59 dead as Syria intensifies crackdown BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian troops fired on mourners at a funeral and raided an eastern city Sunday, killing at least 59 people in an intensifying government crackdown on pro- testers. More than 300 people have died in the past week, the bloodiest in the five- month uprising against authoritarian Presi- dent Bashar Assad. Syria’s Arab neighbors forcefully joined the growing international chorus of condem- nation against Assad’s regime for the first time on Sunday. Even the king of Saudi Arabia — whose country does not tolerate dissent and lent its military troops to repress anti-government protests in neighboring Bahrain — harshly criticized the Syrian government and said he was recalling his ambassador in Damascus for consultations. ‘‘The kingdom of Saudi Arabia ... demands an end to the death machine and bloodshed and calls for acts of wisdom before it is too late,’’ said a statement by Saudi King Abdullah. The 22-member Arab League, which had been silent since the uprising began, said Sunday it is ‘‘alarmed’’ by the situation in Syria and called for the immediate halt of all violence. Not all were killed by bullets or tank shells: In the besieged city of Hama, where the government has cut off electricity and communications, a rights group said eight babies died because their incubators lost power. Sunday’s worst violence was in the east- ern city of Deir el-Zour, where at least 42 people were killed. Record swim from Havana to Florida Keys scheduled HAVANA (AP) — American endurance swimmer Diana Nyad made final prepara- tions Sunday to dive into the waters off Cuba in a bid to become the first person to swim the Florida Straits without the aid of a shark cage. Tanned and freckled from long hours training in the open seas of the Caribbean, the 61-year-old Nyad said it has been a life- long dream and she hopes her feat, if suc- cessful, will inspire people to live vigorous- ly during their golden years. ‘‘I also want it to be a moment for thou- sands, and I dare say millions of people my age, who are going to look and say, ’60!’’’ Nyad said at a news conference. ‘‘The joke is 60 is the new 40, and it’s true. We are a younger generation than the 60 that went before us.’’ ers such as House Speaker John Boehner struggling to try to appease tea party members of his own caucus and work with Democrats at the same time. He hesitated in a ‘‘60 Minutes’’ interview last December when asked for his views on pursu- ing compromise with Democrats. ‘‘When you say the word ‘compromise,’ a lot of Ameri- cans look up and go, ‘Uh-oh, they’re gonna sell me out.’ And so finding common ground, I think, makes more sense,’’ he said then. The difficulty in reaching middle ground was apparent as far back as 2009 in California, when then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called lawmakers into a midyear emer- gency session to deal with a $42 billion deficit. After two weeks of round-the-clock sessions that lasted overnight, majority Democrats found enough GOP votes to pass a bud- get that included temporary tax increases. Soon after, angry conservatives forced Republican law- makers to dump the GOP leaders in both houses of the Leg- islature. One of them, former Assemblyman Mike Villines, said he had flashbacks to 2009 as he watched the congres- sional debate over the debt ceiling. ‘‘The bipartisan focus gets dissolved and people go into war mode,’’ said Villines, now a public relations consultant. ‘‘It was so strong, and so strong within both parties against their own leadership.’’ The conflict over the way forward is only likely to inten- sify as the parties jockey for control in 2012. In addition to a great divide between Democrats and Republicans, both par- ties face vocal internal factions. Bob Hertzberg, a former California Assembly speaker who is part of two statewide groups attempting to restructure the state’s government, said the angry tone is not healthy but that politicians must learn to adapt to the new reality. ‘‘It’s our challenge as a democracy to figure it out and still be leaders,’’ he said. ‘‘... It’s just harder.’’ Professional Personal Convenient • Premium Digital Hearing Aids for every budget • FREE hearing evaluations • Service/Repair, Red Bluff Community Center 1500 So. Jackson Wed., August 10, 2011 10:00 am - 3:00 pm 1-800-488-9906 Appointments CALL Limited all makes and models • Batteries & accessories • Preferred provider for most insurance plans: Including PERS, Carpenters, Blue Cross/ Blue Shield, etc. • Low monthly payment plan available • Trial Period/ Satisfaction Guaranteed Performed for proper amplification selection only.