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Bush: US Taking 'Unprecedented' Action on Economy
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US president says financial crisis has eroded confidence and 'frozen' country's
financial system, making government intervention essential
President Bush, flanked by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, left, and
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, delivers statement about economy, 19 Sep
2008U.S. President George Bush says the government is responding with
"unprecedented action" to what he calls a "pivotal moment" for the country's
economy.The president spoke at the White House Friday, flanked by the country's
top financial officials: Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Federal Reserve
Chairman Ben Bernanke and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman
Christopher Cox.Mr. Bush said the financial crisis has eroded confidence and
"frozen" the country's financial system, making government intervention
essential. He called on lawmakers to cross party lines and approve a bailout
plan as quickly as possible.The plan, which Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson
unveiled earlier, calls for the government to buy up bad debt - essentially
removing it from the financial system.Paulson promised to work with lawmakers
to craft the necessary legislation. He said he hopes Congress will approve
the plan next week.On Capitol Hill, a top lawmaker on the U.S. Senate's banking
committee, Alabama Republican Senator Richard Shelby warned the government's
rescue plan could cost taxpayers up to $1 trillion.President Bush said that
while the rescue plan puts significant taxpayer money at stake, it will "act as
grease for the gears" of a financial system at risk of grinding to a halt. He
also said he will work with lawmakers to reform an outdated regulatory system,
to eliminate weaknesses that allowed the current financial crisis to
spread.World stock markets have rallied since news of the U.S. government
bailout plan was first released late Thursday.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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US Treasury Secretary Outlines Financial Rescue Plan
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Henry Paulson says government must take further 'bold' actions to resolve
current crisis
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson holds news conference at Treasury Department,
19 Sep 2008U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says the government must take
further "bold" actions to resolve the current financial crisis.In a televised
speech Friday, Paulson said the problem grows out of the millions of U.S.
mortgage loans that are in default or foreclosure. When homeowners can not
repay their loans, it damages lenders and investments based on mortgages.The
uncertain value of those investments makes banks reluctant to lend money, and
the lack of loans threatens to stall the economic system.Paulson outlined a
larger program to buy up bad "mortgage backed securities" that will cost
"hundreds of billions" of dollars.He called the cost "significant" but said it
is cheaper than allowing the financial system to stall. He pledged to work with
key members of Congress to fashion a "comprehensive" plan to resolve the
crisis.President George Bush said this is a "pivotal moment" and time for
leaders to come together across party lines to deal with these issues. He said
the U.S. economy faces "unprecedented" problems and the government is taking
unprecedented actions to solve them. Even before Paulson and Mr. Bush spoke,
world stock markets were soaring today on news the U.S. government is
formulating a plan to rescue banks from the bad debts at the center of the U.S.
financial crisis. Investors also were encouraged when U.S. regulators
temporarily protected the stocks of financial companies from a trading practice
called "short selling" that rewards investors when the stock falls. And the
government extended insurance protection to widely-held investments called
"money market mutual funds."Fears of a global financial meltdown forced the
U.S. Federal Reserve and other major central banks early Thursday to pump
hundreds of billions of dollars into the world's financial markets. Earlier
this week, the Federal Reserve gave an $85 billion emergency loan to bail out
the world's biggest insurance company, American International Group (AIG). AIG
nearly collapsed after major losses in the housing crisis.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
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McCain Says Corruption at Root of US Economic Problems
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Republican presidential nominee says there are too many government regulatory
agencies and that they need to be consolidated; Democratic presidential nominee
to address economy later, Friday
Republican presidential candidate John McCain and his vice presidential running
mate Sarah Palin, greet supporters during rally for business leaders in
Wisconsin, 19 Sep 2008 U.S. presidential candidate John McCain, a Republican,
blames corruption in the home mortgage and financial industries for the
nation's economic woes, and has proposed steps to improve regulation and punish
wrongdoing.Speaking in the midwestern state of Wisconsin Friday, Senator McCain
said there are too many government regulatory agencies and that they need to be
consolidated to do their jobs right.He also said the Treasury Department should
develop a consistent policy for its role in helping troubled financial firms,
saying it will not do to "keep making it up as we go along."McCain said his
Democratic rival, Barack Obama, will raise taxes and make things worse for
America's working people.Senator Obama has called on the Treasury and the
Federal Reserve to use their emergency powers to maintain the flow of credit,
ensure mortgages remain available and provide capital to the financial
system.Obama is due to announce more details of his own economic plan Friday.In
a separate development, the McCain campaign says the husband of Alaska Governor
Sarah Palin, the vice presidential nominee, will not testify in a legislative
probe into a possible abuse of power.Todd Palin is among 13 people subpoenaed
by a legislative council investigating the governor's firing of the state's
public safety commissioner. The ex-commissioner says he was let go after he
refused to dismiss a state trooper who was involved in a bitter divorce from
the governor's sister.The McCain campaign says the probe is politically
motivated.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
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North Korea Pledges to Restart Nuclear Reactor
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Pyongyang says US has not fulfilled its obligations under multinational
agreement to get rid of North's nuclear weapons
A senior North Korean official says his country is beginning to restore a
disabled nuclear facility capable of producing weapons material. Pyongyang
says the United States has not fulfilled obligations under a multinational
agreement to get rid of the North's nuclear weapons. VOA's Kurt Achin reports
from Seoul.North Korean diplomat Hyun Hak Bong announced his country's
intentions Friday following a meeting with a South Korean counterpart in
North-South border village of Panmunjeom.Hyun says the process of disabling
North Korea's main nuclear facility has been stopped, and the process of
restoring it is now ongoing.In this 27 Jun 2008 file photo provided by China's
Xinhua News Agency, ruins of Yongbyon nuclear complex's cooling tower are
seenNorth Korea agreed last year to fully disable its nuclear facility at
Yongbyon as part of a broader multinational deal aimed at ending its nuclear
programs altogether. In a separate phase of the deal, North Korea provided a
nuclear declaration to its negotiating partners - South Korea, China, Russia,
Japan, and the United States.The six-nation process hit a wall in August, when
the United States decided not to remove North Korea from a State Department
list it accuses of sponsoring terrorism. Washington says its promise to do
that was contingent on North Korea committing to steps for proving that its
nuclear declaration is accurate.Hyun, the North's envoy, disagrees.Hyun says
the verification issue is a separate issue from Pyongyang's removal from the
terrorism list. He accuses the United States of imposing a one-sided condition
that is not part of the agreement.South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan,
speaking Friday to journalists in Seoul, agreed with U.S. officials that
verifying North Korea's declaration was always part of the deal.Yu says all
parties in the six nation talks understood that the North Korean declaration
and its verification were intertwined. He says removing Pyongyang from
terrorism list does not necessarily require the verification process to be
completed - just that North Korea agree on the principles for carrying it out.
North Korea, says Yu, fully understands that.Yu suggested the North may be
threatening the restoration of its Yongbyon facility as a means of gaining
diplomatic leverage.North Korea demolished the facility's cooling tower earlier
this year in a carefully choreographed public demonstration it was disabling
Yongbyon. Analysts say it would take months - possibly years - to fully
resume the reactor's operations.
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Worsening China Milk Scandal an International Concern
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China's quality watchdog confirms the toxic chemical melamine was found in 10
percent of the liquid milk sampled from three of the country's top dairy
suppliers
China's tainted milk scandal has worsened, with tests now showing liquid milk
is also affected. Visiting U.S. and European officials in charge of consumer
safety have expressed concern about the problem as product recalls continue.
Daniel Schearf reports from Beijing.Customers return milk powder products at
supermarket in Chengdu, in Sichuan province, 18 Sep 2008 China's quality
watchdog confirms the toxic chemical melamine was found in 10 percent of the
liquid milk sampled from three of the country's top dairy suppliers.The
industrial chemical used in plastics was previously found only in powdered milk
after thousands of infants became sick with kidney stones.The scandal is
widening as U.S. and European officials are in China for talks Friday on
product safety. Robert Madelin is the director-general for health and consumer
protection for the European Commission. He says the delegations want a full
explanation."The issue between governments, between regulators, is, are we
being immediately open with each other?" he asked. "Then there is a duty on
economic operators to be open, and there I would expect each regulator to
punish delay within their own jurisdiction."Twenty-two Chinese dairies have
been found selling products tainted with melamine. The chemical is high in
nitrogen and is believed to have been used in watered-down milk to make it
appear higher in protein. At least two of the dairies exported to countries in
Asia and Africa. So far no tainted milk products have been reported outside
China. But in Hong Kong, authorities found tainted dairy products from the
Yili group, and were pulling them from the shelves.Nancy Nord, the acting
chairwoman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, said Friday the
scandal underscores the need for dialogue on safety issues. "We always have to
be very vigilant that we don't see this kind of thing surface in other areas.
That is why it is so very critical that we have these kinds of conversations at
the senior levels, at the policy levels, and then at the technical level," she
said. "We need to make sure that we have got the appropriate lines of
communication open so that we can deal with these issues as appropriate when
they come up."So far, four babies have died and over 6,000 made sick after
drinking formula made from tainted powdered milk. No adults have been made
sick.The economic fallout from the scandal is not yet clear, but China's dairy
industry is expected to be hard hit.The coffee chain Starbucks has already said
it will stop using Mengniu brand milk in its 300 plus stores in China.
Authorities ordered tainted products to be recalled and vowed to punish those
responsible.Eighteen people have been arrested so far and several dairy company
executives have been fired.
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Putin Rejects Cold War, Backs Economic Integration
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Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says his nation is seeking full
integration into world economy, will not be dragged into another Cold War with
West
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
says his nation is seeking full integration into the world economy and will not
be dragged into another Cold War era with the West. Mr. Putin was speaking to
Russian officials and business leaders in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.On
Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Russia is becoming
"increasingly authoritarian" and "aggressive." At an event hosted by the
German Marshall fund, Rice delivered her strongest comments to date about
Russia's invasion of Georgia and other recent actions. She said the U.S. goal
is to make clear to Russia's leaders that their choices are putting Russia, in
her words, "on a one-way path to self-imposed isolation and international
irrelevance."She said that for Russia to reach its full potential, it must be
fully integrated into the international political and economic order. She said
Russia is in the "precarious position of being half in and half out."In Moscow,
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said Thursday that relations with the United
States remain a priority for Russia. He said it would be politically
short-sighted to squander the achievements and potential in relations by
reviving stereotypes of the past.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
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Israeli PM Attempts to Unify Governing Party
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Tzipi Livni says there is no need to change set-up of Kadima's coalition with
ultra-Orthodox Shas Party
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni sIsraeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has
called a meeting of the governing Kadima Party to try to unify the base after
narrowly winning the party's leadership election.Livni told party officials
Friday there is no need to change the set-up of Kadima's coalition with the
ultra-Orthodox Shas Party.Livni must form a coalition in the coming weeks to be
sworn in as prime minister. If she fails, Israel is likely to hold a
parliamentary election early next year.She won Kadima's leadership contest
Wednesday by just one percentage point. Her rival, Transport Minister Shaul
Mofaz, did not attend the Kadima meeting Friday. He said Thursday that he was
quitting politics.Kadima chose a new leader to replace Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert, who plans to resign in the coming days to fight corruption
allegations.Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu is demanding an
election be called immediately, saying it would be the most democratic way to
pick Israel's next prime minister.Livni met Thursday with Eli Yishai, the
leader of the Shas Party, Kadima's coalition partner. Shas officials has
established several conditions for remaining in the coalition. Shas rejects
negotiations on the status of Jerusalem and wants more funding for welfare
projects that benefit the party's low-income supporters.Israel considers all of
Jerusalem its eternal capital, while Palestinians demand the city's eastern
sector as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
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Swazi Voters Choose New Parliament
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Critics call elections a sham because political parties have been banned and
most power rests with king
Voters in Swaziland are voting Friday in parliamentary elections that critics
are calling a sham because political parties have been banned and most power
rests with the king. VOA's Scott Bobb reports from our Southern Africa Bureau
in Johannesburg.Many of Swaziland's 400,000 eligible voters turned out early to
vote. The head of the observer mission of the Pan-African Parliament, Mary
Mugyenyi said the balloting was orderly."The election officials are conducting
the exercise in a manner that is very well organized. People are lining up in
an organized manner. They seem to be choosing freely who they want to vote
for," she said.Candidates were competing for 55 seats in the new parliament.
Swaziland's king, Mswati III, chooses the 10 remaining parliament members as
well as the next prime minister and cabinet.Swaziland is one of the few
remaining absolute monarchies. Although a two-year-old constitution allows
political activity, political parties have been banned for 35 years and as a
result candidates ran as independents.On the eve of the vote, police blocked
protests by trade unions and opposition politicians who tried to blockade
border posts. Several leaders were reportedly detained.A leader of the banned
Peoples United Democratic Movement or PUDEMO, Vincent Dlamini, said they were
protesting an undemocratic system established by royal decree."We are demanding
that elections must be held under a multi-party democratic system. This current
system came into place by the banning of political parties in 1973," he
said.Monitor Mugyenyi said Swaziland falls short of meeting a major principle
of free and fair elections because of the ban on political parties. But she
noted that the system was adopted after popular constitutional
consultations."The majority of the population, ordinary person identifies
political parties with violence and there is a general feeling that political
parties would divide the Swazi people," said Mugyenyi.But opposition leader
Dlamini says 70 percent of the Swazi population is rural and controlled by
village chiefs loyal to the monarchy."The chiefs run the rural areas, and the
villages, on behalf of the monarch and they tend to intimidate people. They
tend to evict those who do not conform to the dictates of the ruling regime,"
said Dlamini.Supporters of the monarchy say the system serves to protect Swazi
traditions and avoids violent confrontation which has afflicted some other
countries in the region.But analysts say popular discontent is rising with an
expensive monarchy that is seen by some as failing to address rising food and
fuel prices, 40 percent unemployment and one of the world's highest incidences
of HIV/AIDS.
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Wounded US Marine Tells Tale of Combat in Iraq, Recovery
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Nick Popaditch, tells story of his road to recovery in a new book called 'Once
a Marine'
A U.S. Marine Corps tank commander seriously injured in Iraq, Nick Popaditch,
tells the story of his road to recovery in a new book called Once a Marine. As
Mike O'Sullivan reporst, the author offers a close-up look at the challenges
facing wounded war veterans.Nick Popaditch with his family in 2003The Marines
have a reputation for being tough, and pride themselves on being at the center
of the action. Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant Nick Popaditch was at center
stage in Baghdad April 8, 2003, as Coalition forces moved to the heart of the
city. Popaditch was perched atop his M1A1 tank, grinning and puffing on a
cigar as an Associated Press photographer captured his image, with the statue
of fallen Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in the background. The picture of the
grinning Marine would be seen around the world, as would later images of
Saddam's statue being toppled.One year later, Popaditch was again at the center
of events at the fiercely fought first Battle of Fallujah. He says the Marines
had a clear advantage in training and equipment, but the insurgent fighters
knew the neighborhoods and could blend in with the local population."And that's
one advantage he carries over us because he can walk around unarmed," said
Popaditch. "He can stage weapons around the town. He can get very close to
you, look at things, make his plan. Generally, they're going to get the first
shot off on any given firefight, so the best thing you can do in that sort of
situation is just be hard to kill."Nick Popaditch and his wife April in 2004
before leaving for IraqPopaditch and his tank crew were tracking down
insurgents in a narrow alley. As they reached a cross-street, an insurgent on
a rooftop fired a rocket-propelled grenade, or RPG, which hit the turret of the
tank. Popaditch, his head jutting up above the tank's armor line, prepared to
return fire as another insurgent shot a second round. The RPG exploded on
Popaditch's helmet.He was dazed and bleeding badly, but survived with help from
his crew, as well as Navy corpsmen and medical personnel at a field hospital -
but not without lasting injuries."I'm missing my right eye," he said. "My right
eye is anatomically gone. My left eye is 92 percent blind. There's eight
percent of vision remaining in it. So the technical term, I guess, would be
legally blind.The adjustment has taken several years and has been difficult.
There were repeated surgeries, battles to be fought with government
bureaucrats, and the Marine was facing an uncertain future. "When I got hit, at
that point in my life, I was everything I ever wanted to be," said Popaditch.
"I was a gunnery sergeant, I was a tank commander, a platoon sergeant, I was
off in a foreign land helping defend an oppressed people. I mean, this was
everything I ever wanted to be in my life. I was very happy."Popaditch says he
learned discipline and focus as a young marine recruit, and as he coped later
on with his wartime injuries, those traits helped him through a difficult
transition. He says Marine Corps values inspired his book, and that the old
saying Once a Marine, Always a Marine, inspired its title. Popaditch credits
his wife, April, with helping him adjust to their new civilian life. April
says that Marine Corps spouses share a sense of mission, as the husbands go to
war and the wives are left with family responsibilities and worries."Nobody
ever tells you they expect you to be like Wonder Woman or a superhero, but for
some reason you feel the same way as the Marine does," he said. "You feel like,
I've got big shoes to fill. Even sometimes with the pain that you feel for
what you're going through, you're always putting on a stronger front for
people."Cover of Nick Popaditch's Once a Marine bookToday, the couple lives
with their son in San Diego, where Popaditch is studying at the local campus of
the state university."I'm a junior at San Diego State [University]," said Nick
Popaditch. "I'm a communications major. I like to joke that apparently
civilians communicate a little differently than we do in the Corps, so I'm
learning, I'm being re-educated. But you know, one of the things I would love
to do is teach high school, so that's one of my goals."Popaditch is proud of
the job he did in Iraq and says he feels no anger about his injuries, not even
to the insurgent who wounded him."No anger at him," he said. "In the book, we
even joke that if I was to bump into him today, I'd probably tell him 'nice
shot,' because it was."Nick Popaditch says he joined the Marines as a teenager
looking for a challenge. He found one, and learned the skills to face his new
challenges.
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Scientists Find Guaranteed Shares Can Avert Collapse of Fisheries
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Researchers say strategy reverses mindset that has brought fishing industry to
brink of disaster
Scientists say giving fishermen guaranteed shares of the catch will
prevent further collapse of the world's fisheries and replenish fish
stocks. As VOA's Jessica Berman reports the researchers say the
strategy reverses a mindset that has brought the fishing industry to
the brink of disaster. Tuna fish in Japan (file photo)The world's fisheries
are in serious trouble. Experts say one-fourth of them have collapsed as a
result of
over-fishing. At the current rate, a study published in Science two
years ago predicted that the entire industry would go the same way by
the middle of the century.To protect fisheries, countries and communities have
established catch quotas where fishermen compete for stocks. Christopher
Costello, an economics professor at the University of California Santa
Barbara, says this results in a race to fish, where independent
fisherman buy bigger boats and larger nets, all in an effort to outdo
the competition. But Costello says a plan called catch shares
could turn the endangered fishing industry around. Under the plan, a
community or co-op would give each licensed fisherman a percentage of
the catch. "So you as a fisherman know exactly how many fish you are
allowed to harvest during that season. Nobody can take those fish away
from you. No matter how fast I go out and fish, you can fish as slowly
and efficiently as you want to in order to harvest that total catch
that you are allowed to. So, what you find is that the season length
extends tremendously," he said.Costello says a fishing season
might be extended in some waters up to eight months compared to two or
three days when a fishing quota is met.Experts say the benefit
of catch shares is that it guarantees each fisherman a percentage of
the catch and gives them a desire to want to protect fisheries. They
liken catch shares to shares in a company. As the fisheries prosper,
so do the profits for fishermen.Costello and colleagues at the
University of California and the University of Hawaii studied data on
11,000 commercial fisheries around the world between 1950 and 2003.In
a study published in Science, researchers found the collapse rate was
cut in half among 121 fisheries that were managed by catch share
systems compared to traditional commercial fisheries."The point
of this paper is not that catch shares are the panacea to the fisheries
crisis; but that systems where fisherman have a financial incentive to
care about the long run health of systems can prevent the crisis," said
John Lynham, an economics professor at the University of Hawaii.Some
environmental groups have been critical of catch share strategies
because they believe the plan privatizes a public resource. But
scientists say the evidence shows less pressure on commercial fisheries
as a result of catch shares both saves and revives fisheries. And
co-author Steve Gaines of the University of California says the results
are consistent around the world. "Our study shows that the average
response to catch shares was consistently positive regardless of the
area where they occur or the type of species they catch. Stewardship
promotes ecological recovery, which in turn increase profits. It is
truly a win-win situation," he said.This week, the European
Union announced a full review and plans to overhaul its fishing
policies that it says depletes fish stocks and penalizes commercial
fisheries that play by the rules.
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