Nation/World Briefly: Some banks will need more bailout, officials say
Published 9:42 pm Sunday, April 19, 2009
WASHINGTON — Some big banks will need more bailout bucks, Obama administration officials said Sunday, although it is unlikely the government might need to take over any reeling institution.
“We’re confident that, yes, some are going to have very serious problems, but we feel that the tools are available to address these problems,” senior presidential adviser David Axelrod said.
Regulators now are putting the nation’s 19 largest banks through “stress tests” to determine their ability to withstand worsening economic conditions. The government hopes to make the results public in early May.
White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel cited first-quarter reports from major banks showing they are making money as an encouraging sign. “But that doesn’t take away that some are going to need resources,” he said.
Obama to order Cabinet to find $100 million in cuts
President Barack Obama plans to convene his Cabinet for the first time Monday, and he will order its members to identify a combined $100 million in budget cuts over the next 90 days, according to a senior administration official. While the budget cuts would amount to a minuscule portion of federal spending, they are intended to signal the president’s determination to cut spending and reform government, the official said.
No charges for crafters of interrogation policies
President Barack Obama does not intend to prosecute Bush administration officials who devised the policies that led to the harsh interrogation of suspected terrorists, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said Sunday. GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the idea of “criminalizing legal advice after one administration is out of the office is a very bad precedent.”
California: Study links pesticide exposure and Parkinson’s
Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, have provided strong new evidence linking at least some cases of Parkinson’s disease to exposure to pesticides. Parkinson’s is a disorder of the central nervous system that often impairs the sufferer’s motor skills, speech and other functions. Researchers reported that people who lived next to fields where fungicide maneb or the herbicide paraquat had been sprayed were, on average, about 75 percent more likely to develop the disease.
U.N.: Racism summit boycott
The United Nations opens its first global racism conference in eight years today with the U.S. and at least six other countries boycotting the event out of concern that Islamic countries will demand that it denounce Israel and ban criticism of Islam. The Netherlands and Germany announced their boycotts Sunday, while Australia, Canada, Israel and Italy already had said they would not attend. Some European countries are still deciding whether to attend the U.N. conference.
Iran: Defense for U.S. reporter
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a letter Sunday that American journalist Roxana Saberi, convicted Saturday of spying for the U.S. and sentenced to serve eight years in prison, should be allowed to offer a full defense during her appeal. The message was a sign that Iran’s leadership does not want the case to derail moves toward a dialogue with the Obama administration. Ahmadinejad’s letter also referred to Canadian-Iranian blogger Hossein Derakhshan, who has been in an Iranian prison since November on charges of insulting religious figures. Ahmadinejad requested the prosecutor also ensure that he be allowed to fully defend himself, the state news agency reported.
Spain: ETA chief arrested
In a Spanish and French police operation, the accused chief of the Basque militant group ETA was arrested Saturday, the third capture in six months of a leader of the battered but still-dangerous separatist organization, Spanish officials said Sunday. Jurdan Martitegi Lizaso was arrested in southwestern France. Six other ETA suspects were arrested in Spain’s Basque region.
From Herald news services
