Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/44711
6A Daily News – Friday, October 14, 2011 WORLD BRIEFING Hedge fund exec gets 11 years NEW YORK (AP) — Raj Rajaratnam, the hedge fund billionaire at the center of the biggest insider-trading case in U.S. history, was sen- tenced Thursday to 11 years behind bars — the stiffest punishment ever handed out for the crime. ''His crimes and the scope of his crimes reflect a virus in our business culture that needs to be eradicated,'' U.S. District Judge Richard J. Holwell said. ''Simple justice requires a lengthy sentence.'' The 54-year-old founder of the Galleon Group hedge fund was also fined $10 million and ordered to forfeit $53.8 million in what the judge said were illicit profits from trading on confidential corporate information. Prosecutors said Rajaratnam made as much as $75 million in all by cultivating a net- work of friends, former classmates and other tip- sters at various compa- nies and investment firms who supplied him with early word on such things as mergers and earnings announce- ments. In return, they received kickbacks or a chance to get in on the action. Among the companies he profited from were Google, IBM, Hilton Hotels, Intel, Advanced Micro Devices and Goldman Sachs. Boehner, Obama talk jobs, tax overhaul WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker John Boehner and President Barack Obama talked about jobs legislation Thursday in a 10-minute phone call today, the Ohio Republican's office said. Boehner told Obama that Republicans are will- ing to address new trans- portation and infrastruc- ture spending but ''in a fiscally responsible way.'' The Boehner-Obama conversation took place as Senate Republicans intro- duced legislation aimed at creating jobs by overhaul- ing the nation's tax laws, cutting business rules and boosting offshore oil exploration. The GOP bill is called the ''Jobs Through Growth Act'' and doesn't include a single item in President Barack Obama's jobs legislation, which Senate Republi- cans killed in a Tuesday night vote. ''They believe that government and spending creates jobs,'' said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. ''We believe business and growth creates jobs.'' Cain is taking a path less traveled ATLANTA (AP) — Reveling in the national spotlight, Herman Cain is pledging to bolster his fledgling White House campaign. He'll need to — and quickly — if he has any hope of winning the Republican nomination. The unlikely presidential contender has little cam- paign organization in Iowa, New Hampshire and other states where voting begins in less than three months. And he has- n't done much else in those places to capitalize on his recent surge in polls. ''We are now going to ramp up,'' Cain promised this week. By that he means exe- cuting what aides call a 50-state strategy — for a nomination contest that's determined state by state. It's a nontraditional path that other candidates have tried unsuccessfully. Cain's campaign, which can seem almost over- whelmed by the attention that comes with a big rise in polls, argues that com- peting in the early voting states, while important, is not the only way to win the party's nomination. His aides note that Barack Obama's 2008 campaign fanned out across the country and was successful. But Obama competed vigor- ously in the early voting states, too. Panetta warns lawmakers WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense leaders and members of Congress drew a line in the sand Thursday, saying the Pentagon must be spared from any budget cuts beyond an initial plan to slash at least $450 billion over the next 10 years. The military, they said, must not take even deeper cuts — a looming threat if lawmakers fail to agree on $1.2 trillion in federal budget savings by Thanksgiving and instead allow automatic cuts to kick in. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Presi- dent Barack Obama shares his view that the Pentagon should be shielded from any addi- tional budget cutting. Appearing before the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Panetta and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chair- man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, pounded home their message that fur- ther cuts would create national security risks and devastate the mili- tary. ''I don't say that as scare tactics, I don't say it as a threat, it's a reali- ty,'' Panetta said. He said the initial $450 billion reduction will ''take us to the edge'' but any more than that would hollow out the force and ''badly damage our capabilities for the future.'' Obama says Iran officials must be held accountable WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama said Thursday that officials at the ''highest levels'' of the Iranian gov- ernment must be held accountable for a brazen and bizarre plot to assassi- nate the Saudi ambassador to the United States on American soil, insisting leaders of the world will believe the U.S. case with- out dispute once they absorb the details. U.S. officials, mean- while, confirmed the Obama administration has had direct contact with Iran over the allegations. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, met with Iranian offi- cials at Iran's mission to the U.N. on Wednesday — a highly unusual contact for two countries that do not have diplomatic rela- tions. Obama would not say whether Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, or its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, knew of the alleged plan. Yet he called it part of a pattern of ''dangerous and reckless behavior'' by the Iranian government and said people within that government were aware of a murder-for-hire plot. The U.S. considers it an attempted act of terrorism. ''We believe that even if at the highest levels there was not detailed opera- tional knowledge, there has to be accountability with respect to anybody in the Iranian government engaging in this kind of activity,'' Obama said in a news conference tied to the state visit of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. Oversimplified arguments on both sides of Romney health plan CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Mitt Romney's rivals are trying to tie him to President Barack Obama's national health care overhaul, but they're getting tangled up themselves in the process. The rest of the Repub- lican presidential field sees no essential differ- ence between the health care law Romney enact- ed as governor and what they love to call Oba- macare, and they con- tend it has brought noth- ing good to Massachu- setts. But they're over- simplifying the issue, as is Romney in defending himself. During Tuesday's debate in New Hamp- shire, Texas Gov. Rick Perry pressed Romney on his decision as gover- nor to require residents to obtain health insur- ance and suggested doing so has forced insurance premiums up. Attention Teachers of Tehama County Through a Child's Eyes This year pre-promoted and published as a stand- alone section Wednesday, November 30th, 2011 Deadline to enter your students: Thursday, October 19th An Entry Form and Contest Rules will be faxed to the Tehama County Schools by: Thursday, October 13th Please check your inboxes. For the students: 6 Cash Prizes for 1st (Grand Prize) & 2nd prize winners, will be awarded. Two in each of the 3 grade groups: • 2nd – 3rd Grades • 4th – 5th Grades • 6th, 7th & 8th Grades Contact Nadine Souza @ 527-2151 ext 132 if you have any questions. D NEWSAILY 527-2151 RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY OC O C O S C nsouza@redbluffdailynews.com