Archive for November, 2008

Indian forces fight last gunmen in Mumbai hotel

November 29th, 2008 serah

MUMBAI, India – Fire and smoke poured from the landmark Taj Mahal hotel Saturday as Indian forces battled suspected Muslim militants making a last stand inside, just hours after commandos stormed a Jewish outreach center and found six hostages dead.

More than 150 people were killed in the violence that began when gunmen attacked 10 sites across India’s financial capital Wednesday night. Fifteen foreigners, including five Americans, were among the dead.

The bodies of New York Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivkah, were found at the Jewish center. Their newly orphaned son, Moshe, who turns 2 on Saturday, was scooped up by an employee Thursday as she fled the building.

Authorities scrambled to identify those responsible for the unprecedented attack, with Indian officials pointing across the border at rival Pakistan, and Pakistani leaders promising to cooperate in the investigation. A team of FBI agents was ordered to fly to India to investigate the attacks.

In fighting Friday, commandos killed the last two gunmen inside the luxury Oberoi hotel, where 24 bodies had been found, authorities said. Dozens of people — including a man clutching a baby and about 20 airline crew members — were evacuated from the Oberoi earlier Friday.

“I’m going home. I’m going to see my wife,” said Mark Abell, a Briton who had locked himself in his room during the siege.

As fighting stretched into a fourth day Saturday, the Taj Mahal hotel was wracked by hours of intermittent gunfire and explosions, even though authorities said earlier that they had cleared it of gunmen.

Indian forces kept up a counterattack with grenades and trading gunfire with what authorities believed was one or perhaps two militants holed up in the ballroom. TV images showed shattered windows on the building’s first floor.

An hour after dawn, as the two sides traded gunfire, flames erupted and smoke billowed from several windows on the building’s ground floor.

CNN reported the government had cut off their live transmissions from the scene in Mumbai. Authorities have asked not to show live broadcasts of the battle because they believe the gunmen were monitoring the news. Most channels largely obliged.

The capture of the hotel would mark the end of one of the most brazen terror attacks in India’s history.

By Friday evening, at least nine gunmen had been killed and one arrested, said R. Patil, a top official in Maharashtra state, where Mumbai is the capital.

In the most dramatic of the counterstrikes Friday morning, masked Indian commandos rappelled from a helicopter to the rooftop of the Chabad Lubavitch Jewish center as snipers laid down cover fire.

For nearly 12 hours, explosions and gunfire erupted from the five-story building as the commandos fought their way downward, while thousands of people gathered behind barricades in the streets to watch.

The assault blew huge holes in the center, and, at one point, Indian forces fired a rocket at the building.

Soon after, elated commandos ran outside with their rifles raised over their heads in a sign of triumph.

But inside the Chabad House was a scene of tragedy.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Israel’s Channel 1 TV that the bodies of three women and three men were found at the center. Some of the victims had been bound, Barak said. “All in all, it was a difficult spectacle,” he said.

Local media reports, quoting top military officials, said two gunmen were found dead in the building.

Chabad Lubavitch is an ultra-Orthodox Jewish group that runs outreach centers in far-flung areas of the globe. The center in Mumbai served as a synagogue and cultural center for crowds of Israeli tourists and the small local Jewish community, the group said.

Rabbi Zalman Shmotkin, a spokesman for the Chabad Lubavitch movement, said the dead Americans at the Jewish center were Holtzberg; Bentzion Chroman, an Israeli with dual U.S. citizenship; and Leibish Teitlebaum, an American from Brooklyn. Holtzberg’s wife was an Israeli citizen.

Two other U.S. victims of the attack, from a Virginia community that promotes a form of meditation, were identified Friday as Alan Scherr, 58, and daughter Naomi, 13, of Faber, Va. They were killed in a cafe Wednesday night at the Oberoi, said Bobbie Garvey, a spokeswoman for the Synchronicity Foundation.

The State Department confirmed that five Americans had died but offered no details.

The other dead were from Australia, France, Italy, Canada, Japan, Germany, Singapore and a dual British-Cypriot citizen.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said the attackers clearly singled out Jewish and Western targets.

“Our world is under attack. It doesn’t matter whether it happens in India or somewhere else,” she said. “There are Islamic extremists who don’t accept our existence or Western values.”

The gunmen were well-prepared, apparently scouting some targets ahead of time and carrying large bags of almonds to keep up their energy during a long siege. One backpack they found contained 400 rounds of ammunition.

The gunmen moved skillfully through the blood-slickened corridors of the Taj Mahal and Oberoi hotels, switching off lights to confuse the commandos.

The militants were “very determined,” said an unidentified member of India’s Marine Commando unit, his face wrapped in a black mask.

Andreina Varagona of Nashville, Tenn., who was shot in the right leg and right arm while dining in the Oberoi hotel, said there was almost no time to escape.

“Within two minutes, they were on us,” she said, adding that about a dozen bodies fell to the floor. She dragged herself past the dead and into the restaurant kitchen, where employees were huddled for safety. They picked her up, she said, and carried her out.

Meanwhile, authorities were working to find out who was behind the attacks, claimed by a previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen.

President George W. Bush said the U.S. was working with India and other nations to uncover who was responsible. An FBI team was heading to India to help with the investigation, U.S. officials said.

“My administration has been working with the Indian government and the international community as Indian authorities work to ensure the safety of those still under threat,” Bush said in a statement.

President-elect Barack Obama said he was closely monitoring the situation, and declared that the terrorists “will not defeat India’s great democracy.”

India’s foreign minister said the blame appeared to point to Pakistan.

“According to preliminary information, some elements in Pakistan are responsible for Mumbai terror attacks,” Pranab Mukherjee told reporters.

Indian home minister Jaiprakash Jaiswal said a captured gunmen had been identified as a Pakistani. Patil, the Maharashtra state official, said: “It is very clear that the terrorists are from Pakistan. We have enough evidence that they are from Pakistan.”

Earlier Friday, Pakistani Defense Minister Ahmed Mukhtar denied involvement by his country: “I will say in very categoric terms that Pakistan is not involved in these gory incidents.”

Hoping to head off a crisis between the two nuclear-armed nations, officials in Islamabad agreed to send its spy chief, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shujaa Pasha, to India to help investigate the attacks.

Christine Fair, a South Asia specialist at the RAND Corp., said the group behind the attack “is probably drawing from, in large numbers, Indian operatives, but it probably enjoys a fairly healthy support of Pakistan.”

“The big picture is that there’s probably going to be more of this, not less of this, to come,” she said.

The gunmen apparently came to Mumbai by boat. Authorities stopped a cargo ship off the west coast of Gujarat that had sailed from Saudi Arabia and handed it over to police for investigation, said navy Capt. Manohar Nambiar.

They also stopped a cargo ship that had arrived from Karachi, Pakistan, but released it when nothing suspicious was found on board.

India has been shaken repeatedly by terror attacks blamed on Muslim militants in recent years, but most were bombings striking crowded places: markets, street corners, parks. Mumbai — one of the most populated cities in the world with some 18 million people — was hit by a series of bombings in July 2006 that killed 187 people. Source

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Venezuela’s Chavez welcomes Russian warships

November 26th, 2008 serah

LA GUAIRA, Venezuela – Russian warships sailed into port in Venezuela on Tuesday in a show of strength as Moscow seeks to counter U.S. influence in Latin America. Russia’s first such deployment in the Caribbean since the Cold War is timed to coincide with President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to Venezuela, the first ever by a Russian president.

Russian sailors dressed in black-and-white uniforms lined up along the bow of the destroyer Admiral Chabanenko as it docked in La Guaira, near Caracas, and Venezuelan troops greeted them with cannons in a 21-gun salute. Two support vessels also docked, and the nuclear-powered cruiser Peter the Great, Russia’s largest navy ship, anchored offshore.

Chavez, basking in the support of a powerful ally and traditional U.S. rival, wants Russian help to build a nuclear reactor, invest in oil and natural gas projects and bolster his leftist opposition to U.S. influence in the region.

He also wants weapons — Venezuela has bought more than $4 billion in Russian arms, including Sukhoi fighter jets, helicopters and 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles, and more deals for Russian tanks or other weaponry may be discussed after Medvedev arrives Wednesday.

Russia’s ambitions in Latin America, however, may be checked by global events. Both Venezuela and Russia are feeling the pinch of slumping oil prices, and their ability to be major benefactors for like-minded leaders is in doubt given the pressures of the world’s financial crisis.

The deployment of the naval squadron is widely seen as a demonstration of Kremlin anger over the U.S. decision to send warships to deliver aid to Georgia after its battles with Russia, and over U.S. plans for a European missile-defense system.

But U.S. officials mocked the show of force.

“Are they accompanied by tugboats this time?” U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack joked to reporters in Washington. He noted that Russia’s navy is but a shadow of its Soviet-era fleet.

“I don’t think there’s any question about … who the region looks to in terms of political, economic, diplomatic and as well as military power,” McCormack said. “If the Venezuelans and the Russians want to have, you know, a military exercise, that’s fine. But we’ll obviously be watching it very closely.”

When Russia sent two strategic bombers to Venezuela in September, some drew comparisons to the Soviet Union’s deployments to Cuba during the Cold War.

But both countries have shown signs of trying to engage President-elect Barack Obama, and Chavez told reporters that it’s ludicrous to invoke the Cold War to describe these naval exercises.

“It’s not a provocation. It’s an exchange between two free countries,” Chavez said Monday night.

The ship maneuvers inside Venezuela’s economic zone in the eastern Caribbean will begin Dec. 1, enabling sailors to practice reconnaissance, anti-drug patrols, anti-terrorism and search and rescue operations. Rear Adm. Luis Morales said the training, including anti-aircraft exercises with Venezuela’s newly bought Sukhoi fighter jets, will not involve live ammunition.

The maneuvers “should be viewed largely as a propaganda exercise,” said analyst Anna Gilmour at Jane’s Intelligence Review.

“Pragmatic Russian policy suggests that it will content itself with a brief high-profile visit, rather than a longer-term deployment that could cause severe tensions with the U.S., at a time when Russia may be looking to re-engage with the new administration,” she said.

Medvedev’s tour to Peru, Brazil, Venezuela and Cuba was planned before the financial crisis, and Russia must now downsize its ambitions in Latin America because its pockets are no longer so deep, said Fyodor Lukyanov, the editor of Russia in Global Affairs Magazine.

“Russia will have to put off big projects like the construction of a gas pipeline across South America,” Lukyanov said. The proposed natural gas pipeline is Chavez’s brainchild, a controversial and ambitious plan for which he has explored Russian investment.

But Russia still has an economic interest in selling more weapons and boosting business in Latin America, and Venezuela can help “open the doors,” noted Venezuelan political scientist Ricardo Sucre Heredia.

“It’s a win-win relationship for the two countries,” Sucre said. “Russia gains in terms of its international power and its presence, and Venezuela gains in terms of having an ally.” SOurce

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Obama to introduce his economic team today

November 24th, 2008 serah

CHICAGO – Eager to calm economic anxieties, President-elect Barack Obama is rolling out an economic vision that will require congressional cooperation even before he settles into his new desk in the White House’s Oval Office.

Obama will introduce his new economic leadership team Monday, a key step toward enacting a huge new economic recovery plan that aims to save or create 2.5 million jobs over the next two years.

The plan is likely to far exceed the $175 billion Obama proposed during the campaign. It would include an infusion of money for infrastructure projects, new environmental technologies and tax cuts for low- and middle-income taxpayers. It will not call for tax hikes for the wealthy.

Obama aides on Sunday called on the new Congress to pass by the Jan. 20 inauguration legislation that meets Obama’s two-year goal of saving or creating 2.5 million jobs. Democratic congressional leaders said they would get to work when Congress convenes Jan. 6 with bigger Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.

With the wounded economy worsening, the Obama team’s new assertiveness was a recognition he needed to soothe financial markets with signs of leadership. It also foreshadowed a more hands-on role by Obama to influence congressional action during the final weeks of the transition.

Heading his economic team will be Timothy Geithner as treasury secretary and Lawrence Summers as head of the National Economic Council. Obama also has settled on New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as his commerce secretary.

“We don’t have time to waste here, ” Obama senior adviser David Axelrod said. “We want to hit the ground running on January 20.”

Echoing that, the second-ranking House Democrat, Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, said, “We expect to have during the first couple of weeks of January a package for the president’s consideration when he takes office.”

While Obama and his team are focused on the work of the new Congress, they also weighed in work pending before the current one.

Axelrod warned automakers seeking billions in government help to stave off collapse to devise a plan to retool and restructure that they can present to Congress next month. Otherwise, he said, “there is very little taxpayers can do to help them.”

The emphasis on the economy began Saturday when Obama outlined the framework to save or create 2.5 million jobs by the end of 2010. The scope of the recovery package is far more ambitious than Obama had spelled out during his presidential campaign, when he proposed $175 billion of spending and tax-cutting stimulus. The new plan will be significantly larger and incorporate his campaign ideas for new jobs in environmentally friendly technologies — the “green economy.” It also would include his proposals for tax relief for middle- and lower-income workers.

But there were no plans to balance the tax cuts with an immediate tax increase on the wealthy. During the campaign, Obama said he would pay for increased tax relief by raising taxes on people making more than $250,000.

“There won’t be any tax increases in the January package,” said one Obama aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the details of the Obama package have not been fleshed out.

Obama could delay any tax increase to 2011, when current Bush administration tax cuts expire.

House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio urged Obama to make that explicit. “Why wouldn’t we have the president-elect say, `I am not going to raise taxes on any American in my first two years in office?’”

Some economists have endorsed spending up to $600 billion to revive the economy. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and former labor Secretary Robert Reich, a member of Obama’s economic advisory board, both suggested $500 billion to $700 billion.

“I don’t know what the number is going to be, but it’s going to be a big number,” Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee said. “It has to be. The point is to, kind of, get people back on track and startle the thing into submission.”

Axelrod and Schumer appeared on ABC’s “This Week”; Hoyer and Boehner appeared on “Fox News Sunday”; Goolsbee appeared on CBS’ “Face the Nation”; and Reich appeared on CNN’s “Late Edition.”

Source

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Obama aide promotes job plan, warns automakers

November 23rd, 2008 serah

WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama wants the new Congress to approve massive spending and fresh tax cuts in January, “a big number” probably far distancing a $175 billion campaign proposal, so he can sign it after taking office, top aides said Sunday.

Obama over the weekend outlined the framework of a plan to save or create 2.5 million jobs by the end of 2010 and prepared to introduce leaders of his economic team Monday. Aides said they soon would fill in the details and Democratic lawmakers, already working with transition officials, pledged to act quickly when Congress convenes Jan. 6, two weeks before the inauguration.

“We don’t have time to waste here, ” Obama senior adviser David Axelrod said. “We want to hit the ground running on January 20th.” Echoing that, the second-ranking House Democrat, Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, said, `We expect to have during the first couple of weeks of January a package for the president’s consideration when he takes office.”

Axelrod also warned automakers, seeking billions in government help to stave off collapse, to devise a plan to retool and restructure. Otherwise, he said, “there is very little taxpayers can do to help them.”

During the campaign Obama had proposed a $175 billion economic recovery package. The new one will be significantly larger and would incorporate his campaign ideas for new jobs in environmentally friendly technologies — the “green economy.” It also would include his proposals for tax relief for middle- and lower-income workers.

But aides said the plan would not offer an immediate tax increase on wealthy taxpayers. During the campaign, Obama said he would pay for increased tax relief by raising taxes on people making more than $250,000.

“There won’t be any tax increases in the January package,” said one Obama aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the details of the Obama package have not been fleshed out.

Obama could delay any tax increase to 2011, when current Bush administration tax cuts expire.

House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio urged Obama to make that explicit. “Why wouldn’t we have the president-elect say, `I am not going to raise taxes on any American in my first two years in office?’”

Advisers would not discuss a specific size of the new plan, though some economists have endorsed spending up to $600 billion to revive the economy. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., suggested $500 billion to $700 billion.

“I don’t know what the number is going to be, but it’s going to be a big number,” Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee said. “It has to be. The point is to, kind of, get people back on track and startle the thing into submission.”

While Obama in the weekend Democratic radio address said his plan “will mean 2.5 million more jobs by January of 2011,” aides said the figure was a net sum of jobs created and jobs saved that would otherwise disappear without government help.

Axelrod said the president-elect’s transition team was gratified by the stock market’s positive reaction to Obama’s choice of Timothy Geithner as treasury secretary. The market soared almost 500 points on Friday with word Obama had settled on the 47-year-old Geithner (pronounced GITE-ner) to lead his new economic team.

“The response has been great, and it should be — Tim Geithner is uniquely qualified to do this job,” Axelrod said.

Among the most pressing economic issues is the fate of the auto industry. Congress last week rebuffed appeals for help from executives from GM, Chrysler and Ford. Congressional leaders urged them to return next month with a specific reorganization plan that spelled out how much money they need and how they intended to remain financially viable.

Axelrod said “the signal sent by Congress was the right one.”

The auto executives did not make a strong impression during congressional hearings last week — appearances that were further undermined upon news that they had flown to Washington in corporate jets.

Axelrod couldn’t resist taking a jab at the executives. “I hope that they will come back to Washington in early December — on commercial flights — with a plan,” he said.

While news of Obama’s probable treasury secretary rallied markets on Friday, the Dow had lost a staggering 873 points, more than 10 percent of its value, and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index had sunk to its lowest level since 1997 in the previous two days.

In addition to Geithner, Obama planned to announce on Monday the selection of Larry Summers, as head of the National Economic Council. Geithner would have chief responsibility for tackling the economic slowdown and credit crunch. At the New York Fed, he has played a critical role in the government’s response to the financial crisis and has worked closely with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke, the Fed chairman.

Summers, 53, treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton and one-time president of Harvard University, will advise Obama from the White House. Summers would help coordinate federal response.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is Obama’s pick to be commerce secretary, adding a prominent Hispanic and one-time rival for the Democratic nomination to his expanding Cabinet. Obama planned to announce the nomination after Thanksgiving, according to a Democratic official familiar with the discussions. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the negotiations and did so on condition of anonymity.

Richardson was U.N. ambassador under President Bill Clinton and later energy secretary. He also served in the House from 1983 to 1997.

Axelrod appeared on “Fox News Sunday” and ABC’s “This Week.” Schumer was on ABC, Hoyer and Boehner on Fox and Goolsbee was interviewed on “Face the Nation” on CBS.

Source

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Bruce Springsteen ‘Dreams’ Big On New Album

November 18th, 2008 serah

As expected, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s new album, “Working on a Dream,” will arrive Jan. 27 via Columbia. Excerpts from the title track debuted during NBC’s NFL halftime show last night (Nov. 16).

The album includes 12 new songs plus the bonus tracks “The Wrestler” (from the Mickey Rourke-starring film of the same name) and “A Night With the Jersey Devil” (which Springsteen gave away free online on Halloween).

As with 2007’s “Magic,” Springsteen worked with producer Brendan O’Brien on basic tracks and brought in the E Street Band as needed during tour breaks. “All the songs were written quickly — we usually used one of our first few takes,” he says.

Springsteen and company will return to live duty Feb. 1 as part of the Super Bowl XLIII halftime show in Tampa, Fla.

Here is the track list for “Working on a Dream”:

“Outlaw Pete”
“My Lucky Day”
“Working on a Dream”
“Queen of the Supermarket”
“What Love Can Do”
“This Life”
“Good Eye”
“Tomorrow Never Knows”
“Life Itself”
“Kingdom of Days”
“Surprise, Surprise”
“The Last Carnival”

Bonus tracks:
“The Wrestler”
“A Night With the Jersey Devil”
Source

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U.S. to Kill Wild Horses as Upkeep Costs Rise?

November 18th, 2008 serah

Thousands of wild mustangs kept in U.S. government holding pens may have to be killed as costs escalate for their upkeep, according to a new federal report released this week.

The report, issued by the Government Accountability Office—the watchdog agency for the U.S. Congress—examined long-term options for successfully managing unadoptable horses.
About 30,000 animals removed from western rangelands are currently being cared for by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM)’s Wild Horse and Burro Program.

This year, with adoptions dwindling and hay prices rising, holding costs are expected to exceed U.S. $27 million, or about 74 percent of the program’s budget.

This level of funding is not enough to control wild populations while keeping older, unadopted animals alive, BLM officials said.

(Related: “Horses Suffer, Owners Struggle With Soaring Feed Prices” [September 8, 2008].)

The report comes at a critical time: A decision regarding the fate of thousands of mustangs is expected on Monday when BLM’s National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board meets in Reno, Nevada.

Slaughterhouse Fear

About 33,000 mustangs, often called wild horses, roam the dusty open plains of ten western states, with about half of the population in Nevada.

With few predators, wild horse herds nearly double every five years. To make room for livestock and farming operations on public lands, government-hired cowboys round up about 10,000 mustangs annually.

Horses are then put into holding facilities to be adopted or sold, or to live out the remainder of their lives. Some animals can live for 15 years in pens.

The 1971 Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act calls wild horses “living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West.” Continued on Next Page >>

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Paulson, Bernanke defend $700 billion bailout

November 18th, 2008 serah

WASHINGTON – Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke waged a stout defense on Capitol Hill Tuesday of their management of a $700 billion financial bailout just one week after the administration abandoned the original strategy behind the rescue.

Focusing the program on infusing billions into banks — and possibly other types of companies — to pump up their capital and bolster lending to customers was deemed a faster and more effective approach to stabilizing the financial system than buying rotten assets from financial institutions, the centerpiece of the original plan, Paulson said.

Buying those toxic debts would have required a “massive commitment” of the bailout money, Paulson said in testimony before the House Financial Services Committee. As economic and financial conditions quickly worsened, it became clear that the first installment of the money — $350 billion — for that purpose “simply isn’t enough firepower,” he said.

It’s crucial that the administration be nimble in assessing changing conditions and adapt the bailout strategy accordingly, the Treasury chief said. “If we have learned anything throughout this year, we have learned that this financial crisis is unpredictable and difficult to counteract,” Paulson said.

Last week, Paulson changed course and said the government would not use any of the $700 billion to buy bad assets from banks. That had been the focus of the plan Paulson and Bernanke originally pitched to lawmakers.

Going forward, the ability of Treasury to use the bailout program for capital injections and to take other steps to stabilize the financial system — including any actions needed to prevent the disorderly failure of a major financial institution — “will be critical for restoring confidence and promoting the return of credit markets to more normal functioning,” Bernanke told the panel.

Paulson said the department will focus on rolling out a capital injection program to pour $250 billion into banks in return for partial ownership stakes in them. Treasury on Monday confirmed that it supplied $33.56 billion to 21 banks in a second round of payments. That followed the initial $125 billion allocated to nine of the country’s largest banks, and brought the total earmarked payments to $158.56 billion.

Treasury also will search for new ways to boost the availability of auto loans, student loans and credit cards, which have been become harder to get due to the credit crisis.

Specifically, the department along with the Federal Reserve, is exploring using some of the bailout money to bankroll a new loan facility designed to help companies that issue credit cards, make student loans and finance car purchases. Paulson said he expected putting up only a “relatively modest share” of the bailout money for this facility.

Paulson repeated his opposition to using some of the bailout money to provide guarantees for mortgages at risk of falling into foreclosure, another huge source of distress for the economy.

In a break with the administration, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair, also testifying before the panel, pressed anew for using $24 billion of the bailout money to help some American households avoid foreclosure. As foreclosures mount, the government is “clearly falling behind the curve,” she said.

So far, the Treasury Department has pledged $250 billion for banks and has agreed to devote $40 billion to troubled insurer American International Group_ its first slice of funds going to a company other than a bank. That leaves just $60 billion available from Congress’ first bailout installment of $350 billion.

Paulson said he is not planning to initiate another capital injection program beyond those already announced. Thus he’s unlikely to tap the remaining $350 billion before the Bush administration leaves office on Jan. 20. That would mean the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama would decide whether and how the money should be spent.

The idea behind the capital injection program is for banks to use the money to rebuild reserves and lend more freely to customers. However, banks do have the leeway to use the money for other things, such as buying other banks, paying dividends to investors or bonuses to executives. That has touched a nerve with some lawmakers.

Locked-up lending is a prime reason why the U.S. is suffering through the worst financial crisis since the 1930s. All the fallout from the housing, credit and financial crises have badly hurt the economy, which is almost certainly in recession, analysts say.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the panel, has been tapped by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to draft an aid package for Detroit. The auto companies are seeking $25 billion for emergency loans. SOurce

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Obama marks Veterans Day with wreath-laying

November 11th, 2008 serah

CHICAGO – President-elect Obama honored fallen troops Tuesday by placing a wreath at a memorial and making a Veterans Day pledge to the many Americans who have served in the military.

“Let us rededicate ourselves to keep a sacred trust with all who have worn the uniform of the United States of America: that America will serve you as well as you have served your country,” Obama said in a statement. “As your next commander in chief, I promise to work every single day to keep that sacred trust with all who have served.”

One week after winning the presidential election, Obama took a brief break from his primary tasks of mapping out his administration and monitoring the economic crisis to mark Veterans Day at the bronze soldiers memorial between the Field Museum and Soldier Field in Chicago.

The Illinois senator, who will inherit wars in Iraq and Afghanistan from President Bush, was accompanied by Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran who lost her legs in combat. She later ran unsuccessfully for Congress and now is the Illinois governor’s veterans affairs director.

On a brisk autumn day, Obama moved a pre-positioned wreath a few feet closer to the front of the memorial that bore the phrase “dedicated to the defenders of our liberty.” He and Duckworth bowed their heads briefly and then each saluted.

In his statement Obama praised “the extraordinary service and selfless sacrifice of our nation’s veterans” who have “defended the American people and stood up for American values.”

“Since 9/11, a new generation of American heroes has borne a heavy load in facing down the threats of the 21st century, and their families have been asked to bear the painful absence of a loved one. These Americans are the best and bravest among us, and they are all in our thoughts and prayers,” he added.

Aside from the short public appearance, Obama as huddling in private with top advisers planning for the transfer of presidential power in January. His aides say no Cabinet positions are to be announced this week, though White House staff positions may come later in the week.

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