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Obama calls Boehner, will speak at 2 pm - USA TODAY Posted: 08 Oct 2013 09:34 AM PDT David Jackson, USA TODAY 12:03 p.m. EDT October 8, 2013 President Obama(Photo: Charles Dharapak, AP) Story Highlights President Obama calls John Boehner on shutdown and debt ceiling Obama says he won't negotiate until government is re-opened President Obama called House Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday, again telling the Ohio Republican he will not negotiate on budget items until the GOP-run House ends the shutdown and raises the debt ceiling. Obama also scheduled a White House statement on the budget shutdown for 2 p.m.; he will also take questions from reporters. "The president is willing to negotiate with Republicans -- after the threat of government shutdown and default have been removed -- over policies that Republicans think would strengthen the country," said a White House readout of the 10:45 a.m. phone call to the House speaker. The readout noted that Obama "repeated what he told (Boehner) when they met at the White House last week." Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck confirmed the conversation, saying that "the president called the speaker again today to reiterate that he won't negotiate on a government funding bill or debt limit increase." STORY: GOP plans bill setting up new fiscal talks The government shutdown is now in its eighth day, as the White House and Congress continue to dispute a new spending plan. The parties also face an Oct. 17 deadline for increasing the nation's $16.7 trillion debt ceiling; failure to do so could lead to a government default on its debts. During an appearance Monday at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Obama pointed out that some House Republicans are seeking a delay of parts of the health care law as part of a new spending plan. Obama said he is willing to discuss budget issues, but "I cannot do that under the threat that if Republicans don't get 100% of their way, they're going to either shut down the government or they are going to default on America's debt so that America for the first time in history does not pay its bills." In its readout of the Boehner phone call, the White House said Obama "also repeated his willingness to negotiate on priorities that he has identified including policies that expand economic opportunity, support private sector job creation, enhance the competitiveness of American businesses, strengthen the Affordable Care Act and continue to reduce the nation's deficit." Boehner, in a news conference, said the nation's leaders should sit down and discuss the budget impasse without conditions. "All we're asking for is to sit down and have this conversation," he said

Higgs boson scientists win Nobel prize in physics - BBC News Posted: 08 Oct 2013 09:06 AM PDT 8 October 2013 Last updated at 10:01 ET   By James Morgan Science reporter, BBC News The Nobel committee decided Englert and Higgs should jointly take the accolade for the boson, discovered at Cern in 2012 Two scientists have won the Nobel prize in physics for their work on the theory of the Higgs boson. Peter Higgs, from the UK, and Francois Englert from Belgium, shared the prize. In the 1960s they were among several physicists who proposed a mechanism to explain why the most basic building blocks of the Universe have mass. The mechanism predicts a particle - the Higgs boson - which was finally discovered in 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider at Cern, in Switzerland. "This year's prize is about something small that makes all the difference," said Staffan Normark, permanent secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. 'On holiday' Professor Higgs is renowned for shying away from the limelight, and he could not be located for interview in the immediate aftermath of the announcement. "He's gone on holiday without a phone," his Edinburgh University physics colleague Alan Walker told the BBC, adding that Higgs had also been unwell. "He is taking a break from all of this, taking some time to relax, because he knows when he comes back he'll have to face up to a media storm." But the university released a prepared statement from Higgs, 84, who is an emeritus professor of theoretical physics: "I am overwhelmed to receive this award and thank the Royal Swedish Academy," he said. The BBC's David Shukman explains exactly what the Higgs boson is "I would also like to congratulate all those who have contributed to the discovery of this new particle and to thank my family, friends and colleagues for their support. "I hope this recognition of fundamental science will help raise awareness of the value of blue-sky research." Francois Englert, 80, said he was "very happy" to win the award, speaking at the ceremony via phone link. "At first I thought I didn't have it [the prize] because I didn't see the announcement," he told the committee, after their news conference was delayed by more than an hour. Higgs was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, but it was in Edinburgh in 1964 that he had his big idea - an explanation of why the matter in the Universe has substance, or mass. His theory involved a missing particle in the Standard Model of physics, which has come to be known as the Higgs boson. Within weeks, Francois Englert independently published his own, similar theory, alongside his now deceased colleague Robert Brout. Three other physicists - Gerald Guralnik, Tom Kibble and Carl Hagen - also made key contributions to the theory, and spoke at the announcement of the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012. Hagen has long argued for the name of the particle to be changed, protesting at the "rock star" status in which Higgs is held. And Higgs, too, has expressed his discomfort with the attention he has received, preferring to call the particle "the scalar boson". Cern director general Rolf Heuer joined physicists celebrating the announcement In a statement on Tuesday, Kibble, of Imperial College London, said he was "glad" the Nobel Prize had gone to the work of Higgs and Englert. "My two collaborators, Gerald Guralnik and Carl Hagen, and I contributed to that discovery, but our paper was unquestionably the last of the three to be published. "It is therefore no surprise that the Swedish Academy felt unable to include us, constrained as they are by a self-imposed rule that the prize cannot be shared by more than three people. "My sincere congratulations go to the two Prize winners, Francois Englert and Peter Higgs." International effort Proving their theory correct took almost half a century and involved creating the biggest and most sophisticated machine humankind has ever built. The man behind the boson - Peter Higgs talks to BBC Scotland The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at Cern lies in a circular tunnel almost 17 miles round. It's so big it's partly in Switzerland, partly in France. It took 10 years and thousands of scientists and engineers to build it. Cern director general Rolf Heuer said he was "thrilled" that this year's prize had gone to particle physics. "The discovery of the Higgs boson at Cern... marks the culmination of decades of intellectual effort by many people around the world," he said. The Nobel Prizes - which also cover chemistry, medicine, literature, peace and economics - are valued at 8m Swedish kronor (£750,000; $1.2m). Laureates also receive a medal and a diploma. The official citation for Englert and Higgs read: "For the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the Atlas and CMS experiments at Cern's Large Hadron Collider". David Willetts, UK minister for universities and science, said the award was "an incredible endorsement of the quality of UK science". Prime Minister David Cameron said: "This brilliant achievement is richly deserved recognition of Peter Higgs' lifetime of dedicated research and his passion for science. "It is also a credit to the world-leading British universities in which this research was carried out. "It took nearly 50 years and thousands of great minds to discover the Higgs boson after Professor Higgs proposed it, and he and all those people should be extremely proud." Best explanation of Higgs boson? Scientists' best theory for why different things have mass is the "Higgs field" - where mass can be seen as a measure of the resistance to movement. The "Higgs field" is shown here as a room of physicists chatting among themselves. A well-known scientist walks into the room and causes a bit of a stir - attracting admirers with each step and interacting strongly with them - signing autographs and stopping to chat. As she becomes surrounded by admiring fans, she finds it harder to move across the room - in this analogy, she acquires mass due to the "field" of fans, with each fan acting like a single Higgs boson. If a less popular scientist enters the room, only a small crowd gathers, with no-one clamouring for attention. He finds it easier to move across the room - by analogy, his interaction with the bosons is lower, and so he has a lower mass. previous slide next slide

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US stocks ease as budget fight continues Posted: 07 Oct 2013 04:29 PM PDT NEW YORK: US stocks on Monday finished lower as a partial US government shutdown entered its second week with no sign of resolution. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 136.34 points (0.90 percent) to 14,936.24. The broad-based S&P 500 tumbled 14.38 points (0.85 percent) to 1,676.12, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gave up 37.38 points (0.98 percent) at 3,770.38. The paralysis in Washington continued to weigh on markets. Analysts have expressed particular concern that the fight over the budget will stymie efforts to raise the budget ceiling, resulting in a US default with damaging economic consequences. However, the market still considers a US default unlikely, said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital. "If the markets were really fearful of a default.... we wouldn't be down a half a percent or three-quarters of a percent," Cardillo said. "We would be down a heck of a lot more." Banking equities were among the hardest-hit. Dow component JPMorgan Chase fell 1.6 percent, Citigroup dropped 2.0 percent and Wells Fargo dipped 1.7 percent. Dow component Boeing dropped 0.4 percent after Japan Airlines announced a massive US$9.5 billion aircraft order with competitor Airbus. The decision challenged Boeing's dominance in the Japanese market. Dow component IBM took a 1.1 percent hit after Barclays downgraded the stock to "equal weight" due to the lack of near-term catalysts for the stock. Other technology companies also suffered, including Microsoft (down 1.7 percent), Amazon (down 2.8 percent), Priceline (down 1.9 percent) and eBay (down 1.8 percent). An exception was Apple, which advanced 1.0 percent after Jefferies upgraded the stock to "buy" following meetings with Asian suppliers who were enthusiastic about upcoming Apple products.-- AFP

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US Congress enters crucial week in budget, debt limit battles - Reuters Posted: 07 Oct 2013 08:03 AM PDT By Richard Cowan WASHINGTON | Mon Oct 7, 2013 11:00am EDT (Reuters) - As the U.S. government moved into the second week of a shutdown on Monday with no end in sight, a deadlocked U.S. Congress also confronted an October 17 deadline to increase the nation's borrowing power or risk default. Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner vowed not to raise the U.S. debt ceiling without a "serious conversation" about what is driving the debt, while Democrats said it was irresponsible and reckless to raise the possibility of a U.S. default. The last big confrontation over the debt ceiling, in August 2011, ended with an 11th-hour agreement under pressure from shaken markets and warnings of an economic catastrophe if there was a default. A similar last-minute resolution remains a distinct possibility this time. Equities investors were unnerved by the apparent hardening of stances over the weekend. U.S. stocks opened sharply lower on Monday and European shares fell to a four-month low. In comments on Sunday television political talk shows, neither Republicans nor Democrats offered any sign of impending agreement on either the shutdown or the debt ceiling, and both blamed the other side for the impasse. "I'm willing to sit down and have a conversation with the president," said Boehner, speaking on ABC's "This Week." But, he added, President Barack Obama's "refusal to negotiate is putting our country at risk." On CNN's "State of the Union" program, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said: "Congress is playing with fire," adding that Obama would not negotiate until "Congress does its job" by reopening the government and raising the debt ceiling. China, the biggest foreign holder of U.S. Treasuries, urged Washington to take decisive steps to avoid a crisis and ensure the safety of Chinese investments. "The United States is totally clear about China's concerns about the fiscal cliff," Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said in the Chinese government's first public comment on the October 17 deadline. "We hope the United States fully understands the lessons of history," Zhu told reporters in Beijing, referring to the downgrade of the U.S. credit rating by Standard & Poor's in 2011. China held $1.277 trillion of U.S. Treasuries as of last July, according to U.S. Treasury data released month. "Who should be worrying most of a possible U.S. default?" asked Deutsche Bank analysts. "Looking at the top holders of U.S. Treasuries, recipients of U.S. social security should be most concerned, followed by the Fed and then China." Democratic Senator Charles Schumer, whose constituency includes Wall Street and New York's financial hub, said Boehner would be forced to act as the deadline for the nation's debt ceiling gets closer, calling it "too dangerous" to not raise the U.S. debt limit and saying any default could lead to an economic "recession, depression or worse." "The economy could collapse. Will it? No one's certain, but there's a high enough chance that no one - no one - should risk it," Schumer told CNN's "New Day." SHUTDOWN, DEBT CEILING ISSUES MERGED The two issues of the Federal government shutdown and the debt ceiling started out separately in the House but have been merged by the pressure of time. Conservative Republicans in the House have resisted funding the government for the current fiscal year until they extract concessions from Obama that would delay or defund his signature healthcare law, which launched October 1. Many of the conservatives want a similar condition placed on raising the debt ceiling, but in his list of debt-ceiling demands Sunday, Boehner did not mention the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. "It's time to talk about the spending problem," said Boehner, including measures to rein in costs of entitlement programs such as the Social Security retirement system and Medicare, the government-run health insurance program for seniors. Harry Reid, leader of the Democratic-led Senate, is expected to decide soon on whether to try to open formal debate on a "clean" bill, without extraneous issues attached, to raise the U.S. Treasury's borrowing authority. Passage of such a measure would require at least six of the Senate's 46 Republicans to join its 54 Democrats in order to overcome potential procedural hurdles that opponents of Obamacare could erect. According to one Senate Democratic aide, the debt limit hike might be coupled with a new initiative to reform the U.S. tax code and achieve long-term savings in Social Security and Medicare, whose expenses have soared along with the population of retirees. Republican lawmakers have floated other ideas, such as a very short debt limit increase, which would create time for more negotiations at the expense of further market uncertainty, and repeal of a medical device tax. The tax is expected to generate some $30 billion over 10 years to help pay for healthcare insurance subsidies under Obamacare. Some Democrats favor repealing the tax, but they insist that replacement revenues be found and repeal be considered only after the government reopens and the debt limit is raised. MAJOR PROBLEMS IN HOUSE Agreement in the Senate would send the tangle of issues back into the House, where the Republican caucus has adopted a hard line on both Obamacare and the debt ceiling. There may be enough votes in the House to pass a clean bill, according to some analysts. That would require almost all of the House's 200 Democrats and about 20 of its 232 Republicans to vote in favor. But taking such a vote would require Boehner to violate his policy against bringing a vote on any legislation favored by less than a majority of House Republicans. Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson issued a statement on Monday attacking what he called "Boehner's credibility problem," including the speaker's assertion that there are not enough votes in the House to pass a clean bill. "There is now a consistent pattern of Speaker Boehner saying things that fly in the face of the facts or stand at odds with his past actions," Jentleson said. "Americans across the country are suffering because Speaker Boehner refuses to come to grips with reality." For the moment, neither side is moving toward accommodation, and the stakes rise with the passage of time. For any deal to work, negotiators probably would have to choreograph a multipronged approach that allows all sides to declare victory, even if it is one that sets up another battle in mid-November or December. White House officials were firm on Monday that Obama will not negotiate under the threat of a default and repeated that it is up to Congress to raise the U.S. borrowing cap. While the shutdown itself is unlikely to cause major disruption in the markets, a fight over the debt ceiling could. From July 31 thru August 2 during the debt-limit standoff in 2011, the S&P 500 index lost 3 percent, and the deadlock led to a downgrade of the U.S. credit rating to AA-plus from AAA by S&P. The outlooks from Moody's and S&P, the only agency so far to have lowered its rating on U.S. debt, are both at "stable," but Fitch Ratings has indicated a negative outlook for the U.S. debt rating. All three agencies have said the U.S. debt profile has improved substantially over the past two years, with gross domestic product growth, while slow, proving to be persistently positive and the budget deficit trending lower. Fitch said in a note last week that the U.S. rating is at risk in the current showdown over the debt ceiling because failure to raise it sufficiently in advance of the deadline raises questions about the full faith and credit of the United States to honor its obligations. Political gridlock remains the greatest risk to the U.S. outlook, Fitch said in the note on October 1, the first day of the partial government shutdown. "This 'faith' is a key underpinning of the U.S. dollar's global reserve currency status and reason why the US 'AAA' rating can tolerate a substantially higher level of public debt than other 'AAA' sovereigns," Fitch said. (The story has been filed again to correct that China is the biggest foreign holder of U.S. debt in paragraph nine. The error also appeared in previous updates.) (Additional reporting by Susan Heavey, Thomas Ferraro, Dan Burns, Ben Blanchard in Beijing and Walker Simon in New York; Editing by Fred Barbash, Claudia Parsons, Vicki Allen and Bill Trott)

Vesicle traffic' research wins Nobel Prize - CBC.ca Posted: 07 Oct 2013 08:06 AM PDT Two Americans and a German-American won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for discovering how key substances are transported within cells, a process involved in such important activities as brain cell communication and the release of insulin. James Rothman, 62, of Yale University, Randy Schekman, 64, of the University of California, Berkeley, and Dr. Thomas Sudhof, 57, of Stanford University shared the $1.2 million US prize for their research on how tiny bubbles called vesicles act as cargo carriers inside cells. This traffic control system ensures that the cargo is delivered to the right place at the right time and keeps activities inside cells from descending into chaos, the committee said. Defects can be harmful, leading to neurological diseases, diabetes and disorders affecting the immune system. At a glance WHO WON?: Americans James E. Rothman, professor of biomedical sciences at Yale University; Randy W. Schekman, professor of cell and developmental biology at the University of California, Berkeley; and German-born Thomas C. Suedhof, professor in the School of Medicine at Stanford University.  FOR WHAT?: For their discoveries of how hormones, enzymes and other key materials are transported within cells, a process known as "vesicle traffic." SIGNIFICANCE: The discovery solves the mystery of how animal cells organize their internal transportation system to direct molecules to the correct place. This helps explain how certain illnesses, including diabetes, tetanus and many immune diseases, work.  "Imagine hundreds of thousands of people who are travelling around hundreds of miles of streets; how are they going to find the right way? Where will the bus stop and open its doors so that people can get out?" Nobel committee secretary Goran Hansson said. "There are similar problems in the cell." The winners' discoveries in the 1970s, `80s and `90s have helped doctors diagnose a severe form of epilepsy and immune deficiency diseases in children, Hansson said. In the future, scientists hope the research could lead to medicines against more common types of epilepsy, diabetes and other metabolism deficiencies, he added. Schekman said he was awakened at 1 a.m. at his home in California by the chairman of the prize committee, just as he was suffering from jetlag after returning from a trip to Germany the night before. "I wasn't thinking too straight. I didn't have anything elegant to say," he told The Associated Press. "All I could say was 'Oh my God,' and that was that." He called the prize a wonderful acknowledgement of the work he and his students had done and said he knew it would change his life. "I called my lab manager and I told him to go buy a couple bottles of Champagne and expect to have a celebration with my lab," he said. 'This is not an overnight thing' In the 1970s, Schekman discovered a set of genes that were required for vesicle transport, while Rothman revealed in the 1980s and 1990s how vesicles delivered their cargo to the right places. Also in the '90s, Sudhof identified the machinery that controls when vesicles release chemical messengers from one brain cell that let it communicate with another. "This is not an overnight thing. Most of it has been accomplished and developed over many years, if not decades," Rothman told the AP. Thomas Suedhof is one of three people to win the 2013 Nobel Prize in medicine. (The Associated Press) Rothman said he lost grant money for the work recognized by the Nobel committee, but he will now reapply, hoping the Nobel prize will make a difference in receiving funding. Sudhof, who was born in Germany but moved to the U.S. in 1983 and also has U.S. citizenship, told the AP he received the call from the committee while driving toward the city of Baeza, in southern Spain, where he was due to give a talk. "I got the call while I was driving and like a good citizen I pulled over and picked up the phone," he said. "To be honest, I thought at first it was a joke. I have a lot of friends who might play these kinds of tricks." The medicine prize kicked off this year's Nobel announcements. The awards in physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economics will be announced by other prize juries this week and next. Each prize is worth 8 million Swedish kronor ($1.2 million). 'Fundamental' research Rothman and Schekman won the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for their research in 2002 — an award often seen as a precursor of a Nobel Prize. Sudhof won the Lasker award this year. "I might have been just as happy to have been a practicing primary-care doctor," Sudhof said after winning that prize. "But as a medical student I had interacted with patients suffering from neurodegeneration or acute clinical schizophrenia. It left an indelible mark on my memory." Other prizes The panel that selects the winner of the Nobel Prize for literature says it will announce its decision on Thursday. That means the dates of all the 2013 Nobel Prize announcements have been set. The physics prize will be announced on Tuesday and chemistry on Wednesday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday, and the economics award is set for Oct. 14. Jeremy Berg, former director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, said Monday's announcement was "long overdue" and widely expected because the research was "so fundamental, and has driven so much other research." Berg, who now directs the Institute for Personalized Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, said the work provided the intellectual framework that scientists use to study how brain cells communicate and how other cells release hormones. In both cases, vesicles play a key role by delivering their cargo to the cell surface and releasing it to the outside, he told the AP. So the work has indirectly affected research into virtually all neurological disease as well as other diseases, he said. Established by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the Nobel Prizes have been handed out by award committees in Stockholm and Oslo since 1901. The winners always receive their awards on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896. Last year's Nobel medicine award went to Britain's John Gurdon and Japan's Shinya Yamanaka for their contributions to stem cell science.

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UPDATE 2-Libya, Somalia raids show US reach, problems - Reuters Posted: 06 Oct 2013 09:16 AM PDT Sun Oct 6, 2013 11:32am EDT * Libyan wanted for 1998 embassy bombings seized in Tripoli * Libyan prime minister seeks explanation for "kidnapping" * Somali port raid on al Shabaab fails to take target * Kerry: "Terrorist organisations can run but they can't hide" By Ghaith Shennib and Abdi Sheikh TRIPOLI/MOGADISHU, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Two U.S. raids in Africa show the United States is pressuring al Qaeda, officials said on Sunday, though a failure in Somalia and an angry response in Libya also highlighted Washington's problems. In Tripoli, U.S. forces snatched a Libyan wanted over the bombings of the U.S. embassy in Nairobi 15 years ago and whisked him out of the country, prompting Secretary of State John Kerry to declare that al Qaeda leaders "can run but they can't hide". But the capture of Nazih al-Ragye, better known as Abu Anas al-Liby, also provoked a complaint about the "kidnap" from the Western-backed prime minister; he faces a backlash from armed Islamists who have carved out a share of power since the West helped Libyan rebels oust Muammar Gaddafi two years ago. In Somalia, Navy SEALS stormed ashore into the al Shabaab stronghold of Barawe in response to the attack last month on a Kenyan mall but, a U.S. official said, they failed to capture or kill the unnamed target among the Somali allies of al Qaeda. Kerry, on a visit to Indonesia, said President Barack Obama's administration was "pleased with the results" of the combined assaults early on Saturday: "We hope this makes clear that the United States of America will never stop in its effort to hold those accountable who conduct acts of terror," he said. Two years after Navy SEALs finally tracked down and killed al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, a decade after al Qaeda's Sept. 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, the twin operation demonstrated the reach of U.S. military forces in Africa, where Islamist militancy has been in the ascendant. But the forays also threw a spotlight on how Somalia remains a fragmented haven for al Qaeda allies more than 20 years after Washington intervened in vain in its civil war and on how Libya has descended into an anarchic battleground on the Mediterranean that stretches deep south into the Sahara. Disrupting the organisation of its most aggressive enemy in an oil-rich state that is awash with arms and sits on Europe's doorstep may have been more the priority in seizing Liby than putting on trial a little known suspect in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people. LIBYA RISKS One Libyan security official, himself a former commander of Islamist rebels against Gaddafi, warned that al Qaeda and its allies would prepare a violent response to the snatching of Liby as he returned to his suburban home from dawn prayers. Clearly aware of the risks to his government of complicity in the U.S. raid, Prime Minister Ali Zeidan said in a statement: "The Libyan government is following the news of the kidnapping of a Libyan citizen who is wanted by U.S. authorities. "The Libyan government has contacted U.S. authorities to ask them to provide an explanation." Abdul Bassit Haroun, a former Islamist militia commander who works with the Libyan government on security, said the U.S. raid would show Libya was no refuge for "international terrorists". "But it is also very bad that no state institutions had the slightest information about this process, nor do they have a force which was able to capture him," he told Reuters. "This means the Libyan state simply does not exist." He warned that Islamist militants, like those blamed for the fatal attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi a year ago, would hit back violently: "This won't just pass," Haroun said. "There will be a strong reaction in order to take revenge because this is one of the most important al Qaeda figures." SOMALI CHAOS Somalia's Western-backed government said it did cooperate with Washington, though its control of much of the country, including the port of Barawe, just 180 km (110 miles) south of the capital Mogadishu, is limited by powerful armed groups. "We have collaboration with the world and with neighbouring countries in the battle against al Shabaab," Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon said when asked of Somalia's role in the raid. U.S. forces have used airborne drones to kill Somalis in the past and last year SEALs freed two kidnapped aid workers there. Somali police said seven people were killed in Barawe. U.S. officials said their forces took no casualties but had broken off the fighting to avoid harming civilians. They failed to capture or kill their target during fighting around dawn at a seaside villa that al Shabaab said was one of its bases. A Somali intelligence official said a Chechen commander, who might have been the Americans' target, was wounded. In Somalia, al Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab told Reuters no senior figure was present when the Americans came ashore. He said: "Ordinary fighters lived in the house and they bravely counter-attacked and chased off the attackers." A U.S. official was quoted as saying the raid was planned in response to the Westgate mall attack by al Shabaab gunmen in which at least 67 died last month. The group said it was hitting back at Kenyan intervention in Somalia, which has forced it from much of its territory. It also targeted Westerners out shopping. AFRICAN VIOLENCE From Nigeria in the west, through Mali, Algeria and Libya to Somalia and Kenya in the east, Africa has seen major attacks on its own people and on Western economic interests, including an Algerian desert gas plant in January and the Nairobi mall as well as the killing of the U.S. ambassador in Libya a year ago. The trend reflects a number of factors, including Western efforts to force al Qaeda from its former base in Afghanistan, the overthrow of anti-Islamist authoritarian rulers in the Arab Spring of 2011 and growing resentment among Africa's poor with governments they view as corrupt pawns of Western powers. Western intelligence experts say there is evidence of growing links among Islamist militants across northern Africa, who share al Qaeda's goal of a strict Islamic state and the expulsion of Western interests from Muslim lands. Liby, who has been reported as having fled Gaddafi's police state to join bin Laden in Sudan in the 1990s before securing political asylum in Britain, may have been part of that bid to consolidate an operational base, analysts say. Wanted by the FBI, which gives his age as 49 and had offered a $5 million reward for help in capturing him, Liby was indicted in 2000 along with 20 other al Qaeda suspects including bin Laden and current global leader Ayman al-Zawahri. Charges relating to him personally accused him of discussing the bombing of the Nairobi embassy in retaliation for the U.S. intervention in the Somali civil war in 1992-93 and of helping reconnoitre and plan the attack in the years before 1998. Obama, wrestling with the legal and political difficulties posed by prisoners at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, has said he does not want to send more suspects there. But a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council said it was still not decided where Liby would be tried. His indictment was filed in New York, making that a possible venue for a civilian, rather than military, trial. It was unclear where Liby was on Sunday. U.S. naval forces in the Mediterranean, as well as bases in Italy and Germany, would provide ample facilities within a short flight time. Neighbours and Libyan Islamist militia sources said the capture of Liby appeared to go smoothly. "As I was opening my house door, I saw a group of cars coming quickly from the direction of the house where al-Ragye lives. I was shocked," said one neighbour in the residential district in southern Tripoli. "They kidnapped him." Libyan premier Zeidan has been appealing for aid to restore security from the Western powers that helped topple Gaddafi. But with the sprawling country of six million in deepening chaos, its oilfields at times shut by protests and power in the hands of rival bands, little has been forthcoming.

Gulf Coast eases storm prep as Karen is downgraded - USA TODAY Posted: 06 Oct 2013 08:52 AM PDT Janet McConnaughey and Stacey Plaisance, Associated Press 11:34 a.m. EDT October 6, 2013 Red flags warn swimmers to stay out of the Gulf of Mexico as a squall from Tropical Storm Karen moves offshore at Gulf Shores, Ala., on Oct. 5.(Photo: Jay Reeves, AP) Story Highlights Voluntary evacuations in effect in some parts of Louisiana The storm's winds were down to 35 mph. Expected to move across or near the southeast Louisiana coast late Saturday or early Sunday NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Much of the Gulf Coast was returning to normal Sunday as the storm Karen, downgraded to a tropical depression, lumbered off Louisiana's extreme southeast coast. The storm threatened to unleash heavy rains on low-lying areas, but southeastern Louisiana parishes had lifted evacuation orders, and Plaquemines Parish closed a shelter where more than 80 people had taken refuge Saturday. "We got some rain, no street flooding, so we're looking pretty good. … We're not expecting any flooding," Plaquemines Parish spokeswoman Caitlin Campbell said Sunday morning. All tropical storm warnings had been discontinued. The National Hurricane Center in Miami said the storm would likely downgrade further and move later Sunday near or over parts of southeastern Louisiana. It was drifting to the northeast near 2 mph with maximum sustained winds of 30 mph, and was expected to cross near or over the Florida Panhandle sometime Monday. Rain accumulations of 1 to 3 inches were expected. Even as some preparations were dropped, forecasters and emergency officials warned residents to keep an eye on developments. Wind and waves uncovered tar balls on the beaches of Grand Isle, La., and crews headed out Sunday to check on them, Mayor David Camardelle Jr. said. He was sure they were from the 2010 Gulf oil spill. "After a spill like that in the Gulf of Mexico, anytime low pressure stirs up the Gulf it comes back and stirs up the oil on the beach. Tar balls have been spread all over. We always expected it," he said. In Lafitte, La., Mayor Timothy Kerner said he was relieved the storm lost steam and didn't continue to push up the tide in his flood-prone community. The water lapped at the edge of the main roadway through town in some low-lying areas but stopped short of flooding streets and lawns. "Everything's good," Kerner said Sunday morning. "It's looking really good for Lafitte. The tide is already starting to recede, so we're in great shape." Kerner said crews would work to remove the sandbags placed in low-lying stretches of shoreline along Bayou Barataria, which empties into the Gulf of Mexico. He said the precautionary measure was worth it: "It's always easier to pick up sandbags than to clean up a flood." Some of the flood gates closed Saturday to protect waterways from storm-driven tides were reopened Sunday. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had not done so by 9 a.m., but Plaquemines Parish was opening the floodgate at Empire, about 40 miles up the Mississippi River from the Gulf of Mexico. Vessel traffic at the mouth of the Mississippi River, halted since Friday morning, resumed at 12:15 a.m. Sunday, the Coast Guard said. The Port of New Orleans remained busy, port officials said in a news release, with some of the nine ships at dock there still working cargo. Two cruise ships delayed by the storm were expected at New Orleans on Sunday, Carnival Cruise Lines said in a news release. In Mississippi, Emergency Management Agency spokesman Brett Carr said the state's National Guard was demobilized Saturday and emergency operations were being scaled back. Similar action was taken in Florida, with the state emergency response team returning to normal operations. Pensacola saw wind and some clouds Sunday, though the surf was less rough than earlier in the weekend. In Alabama, intermittent heavy rains moved across the coast and winds were brisk, but the weather didn't keep tourists off the beach. A few people fished in the surf. Authorities said dangerous rip currents were still present, and double red flags flew to indicate no one should enter the water. Stephie Burford of Warrior, Ala., kept one hand on her visor, the other holding her coffee, as she went for a morning walk on the sand. "This wind is just tearing you up," she said. I didn't even consider bringing my beach umbrella or coming out here to do anything but just walk because the wind is so bad." ———— Plaisance reported from Lafitte, La. Associated Press reporters Melissa Nelson and Suzette Laboy in Pensacola, Fla., and Jay Reeves in Gulf Shores, Ala., contributed to this story. Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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House approves federal worker back pay as shutdown enters 5th day - Chicago Tribune Posted: 05 Oct 2013 08:23 AM PDT WASHINGTON— The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives unanimously approved a bill on Saturday that would retroactively pay 800,000 furloughed workers once the now 5-day-old government shutdown ends. The measure now goes to the Democratic-led Senate for concurrence. The White House has said that President Barack Obama will sign it into law. There is no end in sight to the shutdown, and there are still no bipartisan negotiations as Washington entered the fifth day of a partial government shutdown on Saturday even as another, more serious conflict over raising the nation's borrowing authority started heating up. The U.S. House of Representatives prepared for a Saturday session but with no expectations of progress on either the shutdown or a measure to raise the nation's $16.7 trillion debt ceiling. Congress must act by Oct. 17 in order to avoid a government debt default. Republican House Speaker John Boehner tried on Friday to squelch reports that he would ease the way to a debt ceiling increase, stressing that Republicans would continue to insist on budget cuts as a condition of raising the borrowing authority. On the shutdown, Boehner said Republicans were holding firm in their demand that in exchange for passing a bill to fund and reopen the government, President Barack Obama and his Democrats must agree to delay implementation of Obama's health care law. The launch date for Obamacare health insurance exchanges came and went on Oct. 1, meaning Republicans are now in a more difficult political position of trying to stop something that has already begun. Although essential government functions like national security and air traffic control continue, the economic and policy effects of the shutdown are amplified the longer hundreds of thousands of federal workers remain at home and unpaid. Negotiations on tax and free trade treaties are on hold, enforcement of sanctions against Iran and Syria are being hindered, and a government tester of dangerous consumer products spends his days at home. "Do not mistake this momentary episode in American politics as anything more than a moment of politics," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters at an Asia-Pacific leaders conference in Bali, Indonesia, on Saturday. "Nothing will diminish our commitment to Asia...we will continue to fulfill our responsibilities and our engagement around the world," said Kerry, who is standing in for Obama after the president cancel his Asian trip. TEMPERS FRAY Nerves and sometimes tempers frayed on Friday after several weeks of long sessions of Congress and non-stop posturing. "This isn't some damn game," said Boehner, responding to a Wall Street Journal article that quoted an unidentified White House official saying Democrats were "winning" the shutdown battle. The Democratic president reiterated that he was willing to negotiate with Republicans, but said, "We can't do it with a gun held to the head of the American people." "There's no winning when families don't have certainty over whether they're going to get paid or not," Obama told reporters when he visited a downtown Washington lunch spot that was offering a discount to furloughed federal government workers. The shutdown began on Tuesday when the Republican-led House of Representatives refused to approve a bill funding the government unless it included measures designed to delay or defund key provisions of Obama's signature legislation, the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which are now being implemented. Obama again appealed to Boehner to bring a "clean" funding bill - without reference to the health reforms - to a vote in the House, where many Democrats believe it could pass with a combination of Democrats and a few of the majority Republicans. POSSIBLE MANEUVER Democratic leaders in the House said on Friday they were working on a maneuver that, if successful, would force a vote on legislation to fully reopen the federal government.

Man believed to have set himself on fire on the Mall in Washington - NBCNews.com Posted: 05 Oct 2013 08:56 AM PDT Gary Cameron / Reuters Police investigate the scene where a man apparently set himself on fire Friday on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. By M. Alex Johnson, Staff Writer, NBC News Passersby on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., ripped off their shirts to help extinguish the flames after a man apparently set himself on fire Friday, witnesses and authorities said. Washington D.C. Fire spokesman Tim Wilson told NBC News the unidentified man was suffering from life-threatening injuries when he was flown by helicopter to Washington Medical Center. Mitch Smith of the the National Park Police told Reuters he was in critical condition. The incident, which was reported at 4:24 p.m. ET, occurred on Seventh Street Southwest near the National Air and Space Museum, the Park Police said. Witnesses told several media organizations, including NBC Washington, that they saw the man pour gasoline on himself from a red canister and then set himself ablaze. There was a red plastic fuel container near where the incident happened, Reuters reported. Nearby joggers stopped and ripped off their shirts to smother the flames, NBC Washington reported. Nicole Didyk, an environmental engineer for the Federal Aviation Administration, told Reuters she was out for a run when she saw spotted a man with small flames on him. "There were five gentlemen hitting him with their T-shirts," Nicole Didyk, an environmental engineer for the Federal Aviation Administration, told Reuters. "When he fell over his arms were all white. He was burned really bad." She said the man thanked people who helped put the fire out. Watch the top videos on NBCNews.com NBC News' Simon Moya-Smith and Reuters contributed to this report.  This story was originally published on Fri Oct 4, 2013 5:41 PM EDT

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US stocks climb despite budget impasse Posted: 04 Oct 2013 04:32 PM PDT NEW YORK: US stocks rebounded with solid gains on Friday despite a budget deadlock that kept the government partially shut down for the fourth day in a row. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 76.10 points (0.51 per cent) at 15,072.58. The broad-based S&P 500 rose 11.84 (0.71 per cent) to 1,690.50, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite added 33.41 (0.89 per cent) at 3,807.75. "Equities climbed throughout the session while showing little concern over the lack of progress in the Capitol Hill stalemate," Briefing.com analysts said in a market note. "While the end result of the shutdown remains unclear, today's end result for equities was crystal clear. The major averages settled near their highs as all 10 sectors registered gains." On Thursday the Dow closed below the 15,000 mark for the first time in a month as the budget battle between Democrats and Republicans appeared increasingly likely to roll into a face-off over raising the debt ceiling by the October 17 deadline. Social media companies were adding buzz to Wall Street. Micro-messaging service Twitter revealed a much-awaited initial public offering plan after markets closed Thursday. The IPO was expected to be the most sought-after since Facebook's market debut in May 2012. Facebook jumped 3.9 per cent after announcing it will start selling advertising on its Instagram photo- and video-sharing social network, which competes with Twitter's Vine service. Sandwich shop chain Potbelly found hungry investors for its initial public offering. Shares skyrocketed to US$30.77, more than double the IPO price of US$14. Union Pacific, operator of the largest railroad network in the US, fell almost 1.0 per cent after updating its third-quarter earnings forecast, below analyst estimates, and announcing it expected flat volumes in the quarter year-over-year. Electric car maker Tesla gained 4.4 per cent, regaining half of the loss from the previous two days after an Internet video of a fire on one of its vehicles went viral. -- AFP

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Mom: Capitol chase suspect had post-partum depression - USA TODAY Posted: 04 Oct 2013 08:55 AM PDT After a car chase ended in the driver's death, officials are trying to figure out who the woman behind the wheel was. The car was registered to Miriam Carey of Connecticut. VPC Kevin Johnson, Donna Leinwand Leger and Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY 12:09 p.m. EDT October 4, 2013 A federal agent removes evidence from the apartment complex where Miriam Carey is believed to have lived in Stamford, Conn., on Oct. 4, 2013.(Photo: John Minchillo, AP) Story Highlights FBI searches suspect's condo in Stamford, Conn. She was let go from her job as a dental hygienist last year The woman's one-year-old daughter was taken into protective custody The 34-year-old Connecticut woman who was shot and killed by police after a harrowing high-speed chase from the White House to Capitol Hill suffered from post-partum depression, her mother told ABC News. Miriam Carey, a dental hygienist from Stamford, Conn., was identified as the driver of the black luxury sedan that first rammed a barrier at the White House, then sped to Capitol Hill, defying attempts by armed police to stop her Thursday afternoon. She was shot and killed fleeing her car near the Hart Senate Office Building Afterward, police discovered Carey's 1-year-old daughter was in the backseat of her black Infiniti throughout the ordeal. The child, who was not injured, was taken to a hospital for a precaution and placed in protective custody. Authorities who descended on Carey's condo in Stamford have not determined a motive for her bizarre behavior through downtown Washington, D.C. A Facebook page dedicated to the memory of Miriam Carey . Law-enforcement authorities have identified Carey, 34, as the woman who, with a 1-year-old child in her car, led Secret Service and police on a harrowing chase in Washington from the White House past the Capitol Thursday, attempting to penetrate the security barriers at both national landmarks before she was shot to death, police said. The child survived.(Photo: Facebook) Her mother, Idella Carey, told ABC News on Thursday night that her daughter began suffering from post-partum depression after giving birth to her daughter, Erica, last August. "A few months later, she got sick," she said. "She was depressed. ... She was hospitalized." Idella Carey said her daughter had no history of violence and that she had no idea why she was in Washington on Thursday. The New York Daily News quoted Carey's former boss, dentist Brian Evans, as saying that she "fell down some stairs and she had a pretty significant head injury" in recent years. Autoplay Show Thumbnails Show Captions Last SlideNext Slide Evans also said that Carey, who was let go last year, had a temper and became incensed over being told to quit parking in a handicapped spot at the medical building in Hamden, Conn., where she worked. That created friction between them, he said. Carey's former employer in Connecticut, dentist Barry Weiss, told NBC Connecticut that she was a bit "headstrong" on a few occasions but was otherwise "an average employee." Weiss also that said Carey "could be a bit rough," and after complaints from patients, was fired in August 2012. "Nothing would have led us to think she would have done this," said Weiss. Another former boss, dentist Steven Oken, for whom she worked eight years, described Carey as a "non-political person" who was "always happy." Court records also show that Carey was sued last year by her condo association for failure to pay fees since 2010 on the Stamford home she owned since 2009. The lawsuit, involving $1,759 plus collection costs, was settled in February, the Associated Press reports. U.S. Capitol Police Chief Kim Dine said the incident "appears to be an isolated, singular matter, with, at this point, no nexus to terrorism." Two federal officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly, told USA TODAY that all shots were fired by law enforcement officers. One official said no gun was recovered from her car. "This does not appear to be in any way an accident," Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier said Thursday. She noted that Carey twice tried to breach security barriers and struck a uniformed Secret Service officer near the White House. The chaotic events began at 2:12 p.m. ET when the driver rammed a temporary barrier at 15th and E Streets NW, hitting the officer, said Secret Service chief Ed Donovan. Other Secret Service officers chased the woman east on Pennsylvania Avenue but did not shoot. Lanier said Capitol Police officers pursued the speeding car eastbound and tried to stop it in Garfield Circle, just west of the Capitol lawn. A 23-year-veteran officer suffered non-life-threatening injuries when he crashed into a barrier. Police had the woman's car surrounded but she escaped, ramming a Secret Service vehicle as she fled. Lanier said police then fired their first shots at the suspect. The driver made her way onto Constitution Avenue before eventually stopping in the 100 blocks of Maryland Avenue NE, near the Hart Senate Office Building. Contributing: The Associated Press

Shutdown Prompts Obama to Skip Asia Trip - Voice of America Posted: 04 Oct 2013 08:54 AM PDT President Obama has canceled an upcoming trip to Asia because of the partial U.S. government shutdown, which entered its fourth day on Friday. The White House announced late on Thursday that the president made his decision to cancel visits to Indonesia and Brunei based on the difficulty in moving forward with foreign travel in the face of the shutdown and his plans to continue pressuring Republicans to allow a vote to reopen the government. The White House said Secretary of State John Kerry will lead U.S. delegations to both countries, as well as to Malaysia and the Philippines. Kerry will attend the APEC summit in Bali in place of the president. Earlier on Thursday, Obama said a simple bill to fund the government with nothing else attached -- such as provisions regarding his signature health care plan, nicknamed "Obamacare" -- would pass the House of Representatives. Obama accused Republican House Speaker John Boehner of catering to a small group of conservative Republican extremists who want to defund or delay the health care plan as part of the next budget. Boehner says Obama is refusing to negotiate. The speaker says all he wants is a discussion on the health care law and what he calls "fairness" for the American people. Democrats say they will reject any Republican efforts to partially reopen the government. Clean funding bill Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told CNN television Thursday that Boehner reneged on a promise to allow a vote on a clean funding bill, even after Democrats agreed to accept Republican spending levels. Reid said Boehner is afraid Republicans would oust him as speaker and urged Boehner to remember that the country is more important than his job. The shutdown has furloughed more than 800,000 federal workers and closed down all but the most essential government services, including air traffic control, Border Patrol, and most food inspectors. The Voice of America is continuing to broadcast, but national parks and museums are closed, telephone calls for income tax help are unanswered, and some medical research projects are suspended. With the shutdown prompting Obama to cancel his Asia trip, he will be missing the second APEC summit in a row. VOA White House correspondent Dan Robinson said this throws into question the United States' commitment to the Asia Pacific region. "As you know, President Obama was not able to go to the APEC summit in Vladivostok last year because of the U.S. presidential election campaign. This is bound to raise further questions in Asia among those who are questioning U.S. commitment not only to the strategic pivot but to the whole regional focus or rebalancing of U.S. economic interests in the region," said Robinson. Robinson also said fears have been growing for some time that economic strain is causing the U.S. to lose focus on security issues. "There have been serious questions beginning at least a year ago about the U.S. budget sequestration and the fact that the United States couldn't get a budget done and concerns about the U.S.maintaining security relationships. Now, the U.S. military strategic pivot is moving forward, analysts say, but again there are these nagging questions about whether the full U.S. government has been engaged or can be engaged in this Asia rebalance," he explained.

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