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Show Monday, Oct. 5, 2009 Page 2 World&Nation Utah State University • Logan, Utah • www.aggietownsquare.com ClarifyCorrect The policy of The Utah Statesman is to correct any error made as soon as possible. If you find something you would like clarified or find unfair, please contact the editor at statesmaneditor@aggiemail.usu.edu Celebs&People NEW YORK (AP) – Jamaican reggae artist Major Mackerel says he’s been slashed in the head, arm and hand by a New York City man wielding a 2-foot sword. Police say one of the musician’s Brooklyn neighbors was Mackerel arrested and the sword was recovered Sunday morning. Major Mackerel was hospitalized for several hours. He left the hospital with bandages crowning his dreadlocks and wrapped around his left hand, wrist and elbow. NewsBriefs Cuts for School Nurses? SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – By one estimate, Utah’s school nurses serve more children than any other state and advocates worry state budget cuts could only stretch them even thinner. The National Association of School Nurses says that on average each school nurse in Utah serves about 4,900 students. The national average is about 1,100. State lawmakers have already had to cut about 10 percent from one batch of state money used to support school nurses. LateNiteHumor Friday, Oct. 2, 2009 – Top 10 Signs You Have Too Much Money. 10. Actually considering plunking down $29 on that Palin book. 9. Someone mentions the recession, you say, “The what?!?!” 8. When taking the eye test, you hire Vanna White to stand by letters. 7. You have a regular butler for you, and an adorable monkey butler for the kids. 6. Instead of watching “Seinfeld,” you hire Jerry to act out episodes in your living room. 5. You can afford New York Yankee tickets. 4. You’ve prepaid your income tax through the year 2064. 3. That Monopoly dude with the top hat and mustache? Based on you. 2. Bill Gates is your pool guy. 1. People tell you they love the talk show you do with Kelly Ripa. Adviser downplays threat of renewed al-Qaida haven WASHINGTON (AP) – A top U.S. commander’s public plea for more troops in Afghanistan prompted a mild rebuke Sunday from the White House national security adviser, as the administration heads into a second week of intensive negotiations over its evolving Afghan strategy. Retired Gen. James Jones said that decisions on how best to stabilize Afghanistan and beat back the insurgency must extend beyond troop levels to development and governance. And the request by Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, for up to 40,000 more troops is just one of three key elements advisers must consider as they meet this week to plot the way ahead. He added that it is “better for military advice to come up through the chain of command,” rather than off a public stage, referring to McChrystal’s speech in London last week making a case for more troops. But Jones also beat back suggestions that the open campaign could jeopardize the general’s job. McChrystal “is in it for the long haul,” Jones said. “I don’t think this is an issue.” Jones comments came amid growing government fissures over whether to send thousands of additional forces to the fight, and just hours after militant forces overwhelmed U.S. troops at two outposts near the Pakistan border, killing eight Americans. Obama’s senior advisers are set to meet twice this week to debate the Afghan strategy, juggling political pressure from the left to scale back combat troops with arguments from military leaders, including Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that additional forces are needed to secure the country and enable government and economic development advancements. Jones said that Afghanistan is not in imminent danger of falling to the Taliban, and he downplayed fears that the insurgency could set up a renewed sanctuary for al-Qaida. McChrystal has said that insurgents are gaining ground and the U.S. is in danger of failing unless more forces are sent to the fight. “I don’t foresee the return of the Taliban. DURING A FIREFIGHT with Taliban militants, debris and spent shell casing fly as U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Roy Aeschlimann, of Tucker, Ga., with 3rd Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion 5th Marines returns fire, in Nawa district, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009. Taliban militants opened up on the Marine patrol using assault rifles, medium machine guns and snipers. AP photo Afghanistan is not in imminent danger of falling,” Jones said. “The al-Qaida presence is very diminished. The maximum estimate is less than 100 operating in the country, no bases, no ability to launch attacks on either us or our allies.” He said Obama has received McChrystal’s request for additional troops, and the force numbers will be part of a larger discussion that will include efforts to beef up the size and training of the Afghan army and police, along with economic development and governance improvements in Afghanistan. “It would be, I think, unfortunate if we let the discussion just be about troop strength. There is a minimum level that you have to have, but there’s, unfortunately, no ceiling to it,” Jones said. Obama is considering a range of ideas for changing course in Afghanistan, including scaling back, staying put and sending more troops to fight the insurgency. U.S. officials also are waiting for the results of the Afghan elections, as disturbing reports of fraud grow. Peter Galbraith, who was dismissed last week as the deputy special envoy in Afghanistan, argued in a Washington Post opinion piece Sunday that the international community must correct problems that allowed the fraudulent voting, including replacing election staff. Socialists trounce conservatives in Sunday’s Greek election ATHENS, Greece (AP) – Greece’s Socialists trounced the governing conservatives in a landslide election Sunday, with voters angered by scandals and a faltering economy ousting Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis halfway through his second term. Humbled by his New Democracy party’s worst electoral performance ever, Karamanlis, 53, resigned as its leader and said a new chief is needed for the party founded by his late uncle Constantine Karamanlis 35 years ago. George Papandreou, 57, now follows in the footsteps of his father, Andreas Papandreou – who founded his Panhellenic Socialist Movement party, or PASOK – and grandfather and namesake George Papandreou, both of whom served several terms as prime ministers. “We bear a great responsibility to change the course of the country. ... We know that we can make it,” Papandreou, a former foreign minister, told jubilant supporters lighting flares and waving PASOK flags depicting the party’s symbol of a green rising sun outside his party headquarters in central Athens. “I know the potential of the country very well, a potential being drowned by corruption, favoritism, lawlessness and waste,” Papandreou said. “We must all believe again we can succeed ... we cannot waste a single day.” Results from 87.65 percent of votes counted showed PASOK winning with 43.93 percent, compared to 34.03 percent for New Democracy. Turnout was at 70.44 percent. Voting is compulsory in Greece, although penalties for failing to vote are no longer enforced. The result gives PASOK a solid majority of 160 seats in the 300-member parliament, bringing the party back to power after five years of conservative governance. Papandreou’s victory, along with a recent election win by socialists in Portugal, bucks a European trend that has seen a conservative surge in the continent’s powerhouse economies, including most recently in Germany, where Chancellor Angela Merkel won re-election last week. “This is a historic victory for PASOK, which means great responsibility for us,” senior party official and former minister Evangelos Venizelos said. Papandreou will now have to deal with a faltering economy that is expected to contract in 2009 after years of strong growth, while the budget deficit will probably exceed 6 percent of economic output. In contrast to Karamanlis, who advocated an austerity program of freezing state salaries, pensions and hir- ing, Papandreou has promised to inject up to 3 billion ($4.4 billion) to jump-start the economy. However, his government will likely have to borrow heavily just to service the ballooning debt – set to exceed 100 percent of GDP this year – and keep paying public sector wages and pensions. Papandreou has pledged to limit borrowing by reducing government waste and going after tax dodgers. Thousands of cheering supporters mobbed a smiling Papandreou as he arrived at the central Athens headquarters while the results trickled in. Others drove through the city honking their horns. Karamanlis, looking tired and downcast, congratulated his rival. “From the depths of my heart, I wish to thank the voters who backed us in these elections. I wish to congratulate George Papandreou for his victory,” he said in a brief speech in central Athens. “We hope he succeeds in the great challenge of facing the economic situation.” Karamanlis announced the early election just halfway through his second four-year term in an ultimately failed gamble to win a strong new mandate to tackle Greece’s economic woes. But he had already been trailing in opinion polls when he called the election last month. WASHINGTON (AP) – Job hunters will face long odds well into next year. As the unemployment rate inches closer to 10 percent, most businesses are nowhere close to hiring again. Uncertain about prospects for recovery – the economy’s and their own – employers cut 263,000 jobs in September, the government said Friday. Unemployment crept up to 9.8 percent. As the economy slowly turns around, sales are slowly growing and many companies are starting to make money again. But they’re doing it by cutting costs, squeezing more work out of fewer employees and relying on part-timers and cheap overseas labor. Until companies are confident the recovery is here to stay, they will probably keep laying off workers. The economy lost 62,000 more jobs in September than in August, and the unemployment rate notched up from 9.7 percent to a new 26-year high. Most economists say the recession is probably over. But the recovery isn’t robust enough to embolden businesses to hire again. “Fear is a large factor for many companies,” said Michael Williams, dean of the graduate school of business at Touro College in New York. “What happens after the government’s stimuli end? Does the recovery morph into something durable, or is there an abyss on the other side?” President Barack Obama called the jobless figures a sobering reminder that progress to reverse the recession will come in fits and starts. Employers are expected to continue cutting payrolls for six to nine more months. Economists think the jobless rate will go as high as 10.5 percent around the middle of next year before declining gradually. It could take three or four more years for unemployment to fall to normal levels. The worst recession since the Great Depression has already claimed 7.2 million jobs, and analysts figure 750,000 more jobs could disappear over the next six months. The drumbeat of job losses is creating fear that Americans won’t start spending again and the recovery may fizzle. Despite economic recovery, employers still aren’t ready to hire |