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Russia Welcomes US Proposal to Ease Bilateral Tension

Russia is welcoming signals from Washington that the United States wants to ease strained relations with Moscow.

US Vice President Joe Biden, left, meets with the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Sergei Ivanov in Munich, 08 Feb 2009

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov spoke to reporters Sunday at a security conference in Munich. His comments came one day after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said it is time to repair what he called "a dangerous drift" in U.S.-Russian ties.

Ivanov applauded the Biden message, describing the vice president's call to "hit the restart button" in bilateral ties as "very positive."

Russian-U.S. ties have grown increasingly strained in recent years over NATO efforts to expand eastward and U.S. plans for a missile defense shield in Europe. Moscow also voiced strong objections to the Bush administration's support for an independent Kosovo.

For its part, the United States condemned the 2008 Russian military invasion of Georgia, and Moscow's subsequent recognition of two Georgian breakaway territories as independent countries.

Russia also has hinted it could drop its threat to deploy short-range Iskander missiles on European Union borders in the western Kaliningrad region, if the U.S. missile deployment is scrapped.

In his Saturday speech, Vice President Biden said the Obama administration will emphasize diplomacy, democracy and development over the use of military force. But he said Washington will not hesitate to defend its interests with force when necessary.

Biden also said the United States will continue to develop missile defenses to, in his words, counter a growing Iranian capability. But he said Washington will do so in consultation with its NATO allies and Russia.

Obama To Host Town Hall Meeting In Ft. Myers

Obama To Host Town Hall Meeting In Ft. Myers

FT. MYERS (CBS4) ―

President Barack Obama will host a town hall meeting in Ft. Myers on Tuesday to talk about his $900 billion economic stimulus and recovery plan.

Tickets for the event will be available Monday morning at the Harborside Event Center and will available on a first-come, first-serve basis. The White House said the president selected Ft. Myers because the city's unemployment rate spike to ten percent over the last year. CBS4 reporter Michael Williams will be in Ft. Myers for the presidential visit and have live updates beginning at 5 p.m.

On Monday, Obama will host a similar town hall meeting in Elkhart, Indiana where he will also commemorate Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday.

Nearly 600K jobs lost in Jan.; more pain ahead

Employers ax payrolls by most since `74; jobless rate at 7.6 percent, with more pain ahead

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The nation lost nearly 600,000 jobs last month, the worst showing in a third of a century, as a vicious cycle of cutbacks by consumers forced ever more layoffs by beleaguered employers. The unemployment rate catapulted to 7.6 percent, the highest in 16 years, and seems headed for double digits.

AP - A sign on the downtown civic plaza directs citizens who need to file unemployment information to a satellite ...">

AP - A sign on the downtown civic plaza directs citizens who need to file unemployment information to a satellite ...

Some 3.6 million jobs have disappeared so far in a deepening recession, which is shaping up as the biggest job killer in the post-World War II period and is raising pressure on President Barack Obama and Congress to agree quickly on a huge economic stimulus plan to stop the hemorrhaging.

On Wall Street, investors optimistically assumed action was on the way and pushed stock prices higher. The Dow Jones industrials gained more than 217 points, and all broad stock indexes surged nearly 3 percent.

Battered by the recession, employers slashed a net 598,000 jobs in January, the most since 1974, the Labor Department reported Friday. The jobless rate surged from 7.2 percent in December to 7.6 percent, and economists and government officials all agreed the toll was certain to go higher.

"These numbers demand action," Obama declared, urging Congress to waste no time in completing work on the economic recovery package.

"If we drag our feet and fail to act, this crisis will turn into a catastrophe. We'll continue to get devastating job reports like today's month after month, year after year."

The jobs lost so far since the recession began in December 2007 are the most of any downturn in the post-war period. About half the losses occurred just in the past three months.

Layoffs this month are likely to be just as bad. And job seekers' prospects aren't likely to become noticeably better until 2011 -- at the earliest -- when job growth should return to a more healthy pace, analysts said.

Louis DiFilippo, 30, who was laid off in October from a food store in Washington, recalls seeing sales slowing. "I saw that something had to give," he remembers, "but I was hoping that it wouldn't be my position."

Unable to find a new job, he's going back to school.

Even if the recession were to end by fall -- a best-case scenario -- the economy and the job market would remain feeble for some time. Economists predict anywhere from 2 million to 3 million or more jobs will disappear this year and the unemployment rate probably will climb to 10 percent or higher by the spring of 2010.

"We're talking years -- not months -- before we see a decent recovery in the jobs market," predicted Sung Won Sohn, economist at the Martin Smith School of Business at California State University. "It is going to get worse before it gets better."

The pink slips are hitting all categories of workers -- blue collar, while collar, those without high school diplomas and those with college degrees. And they're sparing few occupations or corners of the country.

Vanishing jobs and evaporating wealth from sinking home values, 401(k) retirement plans and other investments have forced consumers to retrench. Those spending cutbacks have, in turn, led companies to pull back and slash jobs. As the cycle persists, the economy's problems are feeding on each other.

With no replacement work to be found, the ranks of unemployed workers climbed to 11.6 million. In addition, 7.8 million people were working part time. That category includes those who would like to work full time but whose hours were cut back or those who were unable to find full-time work.

The average work week in January stayed at 33.3 hours, matching the record low set in December.

More than 200,000 state government employees were expected to stay home without pay Friday in California, which began its first-ever furloughs to save money. And Cessna Aircraft Co. has told remaining workers that it plans to cut the work week of some production lines to just three or four days.

If part-time employees, discouraged workers and others are factored in, the unemployment rate would have been 13.9 percent in January, the highest in records going back to 1994.

In other January figures:

-- Factories slashed 207,000 jobs. That was the largest one-month drop since October 1982, partly reflecting heavy losses at plants making autos and related parts.

-- Construction companies cut 111,000 jobs, professional and business services 121,000, retailers 45,000 and leisure and hospitality companies 28,000.

-- There were gains for education and health services, as well as in government jobs, but those were swamped by the losses elsewhere.

The average time it took for an unemployed person to find any job -- full or part time -- rose to 19.8 weeks in January, compared with 17.5 weeks a year earlier. And the number of "long-term" unemployed -- those out of work for 27 weeks or more -- climbed to 2.6 million from 1.4 million a year earlier.

The recession is likely to turn out to be the longest since the 1930s. The two record holders since then -- downturns in the mid-1970s and early 1980s -- each lasted 16 months. This recession, which would reach that milestone in April, probably won't end until September, Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com, and other analysts said.

Some Americans have been hit harder than others. The unemployment rate for blacks jumped to 12.6 percent in January, a 15-year high. The rate for Hispanics climbed to 9.7 percent, the highest since 1995.

"The job market is unraveling," Zandi said. "Businesses are panicked. They are fighting for survival and slashing payrolls to conserve cash, and there's no sense this is going to stop any time soon."

Caterpillar Inc., Pfizer Inc., Microsoft Corp., Estee Lauder Cos., Time Warner Cable Inc., and Sprint Nextel Corp. are among the companies slicing payrolls. Manufacturers -- especially car makers -- construction companies and retailers have been particularly hard hit by the recession. Talbots Inc., Liz Claiborne Inc., Macy's Inc. and Home Depot Inc. are all cutting jobs. So are Detroit's General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co.

For all of 2008, the economy lost a net total of 2.9 million jobs, according to revised figures. That marked the biggest annual loss on record.

Many economists predict the current quarter, in terms of lost economic growth, will be the worst of the recession.

"Gird yourself," said Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics. "We'll be seeing some just awful numbers on the economy for the coming months."

AP Economics Writer Christopher S. Rugaber contributed to this report.

Scores confirmed dead in worst fires in Australia's history

(AndrewBrownbill/EPA)

A bushfire burns in the Bunyip Forest near the township of Tonimbuk in Victoria

Sophie Tedmanson, Sydney

The deadliest bushfires in Australia's history are still raging across the south of the country, leaving hundreds of homes destroyed and towns decimated.

Described as “hell on earth”, Victoria is currently ablaze with 26 fires, including one with a 60-mile firefront. They began yesterday amid record-breaking temperatures and left a trail of death and devastation across the state, burning through 350,000 hectares. 50 fires are also now burning across the border in New South Wales, where temperatures reached 46C today.

The Australian Army has been called in to assist the thousands of weary firefighters who have been battling the blazes over the past 24 hours, and the government has announced a $10 million (£4.5 million) emergency relief fund to help the thousands of Victorians now left homeless. The fires are now officially the worst in Australia's history, surpassing the death toll of the Ash Wednesday fires which claimed 76 lives when they tore through Victoria and South Australia in February, 1983.

Kevin Rudd, the Australian Prime Minister, toured the worst-affected areas earlier today, offering support to people who had lost everything, and was even a shoulder to cry on for one devastated man.

“Hell in all its fury has visited the good people of Victoria in the last 24 hours,” Mr Rudd said. “And many good people now lie dead.”

John Brumby, the emotional Victorian Premier, said it was one of the “darkest days in Victoria’s history” and described the deadly inferno as “hell on earth”.

The death toll – which has been climbing by the hour – now stands at 84. There are fears it will rise as many people are still missing in the worst affected areas. Two children are among the dead and 18 people remain in critical condition in hospital with burns and other life-threatening injuries.

Witnesses said the inferno was like a nuclear bomb and have told of trees "exploding" with the intensity of the heat. They recounted seeing burned-out cars abandoned as their owners scrambled to reach safety.

Strathewen resident Mary Avola escaped the flames but her husband of 43 years, Peter, died after they fled their home in separate cars trying to reach a nearby sporting oval.

"He was behind me in another car. He was behind me for a while and we tried to reach the oval but the gates were locked," Mrs Avola told Melbourne's Herald Sun website. "He just told me to go and that's the last time I saw him." Authorities have since found his body.

Marie Jones, who was visiting Kinglake, where about 12 people perished, told Melbourne’s The Age newspaper that a badly-burnt man had arrived at the property where she was staying with his baby daughter, and told her his wife and other child had been killed.

"He was so badly burnt - his little girl was burnt, but not as badly as her dad, and he just came down and he said 'Look, I've lost my wife, I've lost my other kid, I just need you to save [my daughter]'," Ms Jones told the newspaper.

700 homes have so far been confirmed lost, with 550 in the area of Kinglake and Kinglake west, about 30 miles north-east of Melbourne, where many of the deaths occurred.

David Jarwood, a spokesman for the Victorian Country Fire Association, referred to the Kinglake complex – two major fires that have joined – which is blazing its way through the area north of Melbourne.

“It is now burning its way into quite rugged terrain, heading towards the Alpine National Park, so it will take many days to get it under control,” Mr Jarwood told The Times.

Another fire is threatening Beechworth in Victoria’s north east.

Other fire-affected areas include the regional city of Bendigo, in central Victoria, and the town of Marysville in the Yarra Valley, which has been destroyed with only one building left standing. In Victoria, 14,000 homes are also without power.

Mr Jarwood said many of the deaths occurred when people waited too long to evacuate their homes and were trapped when the fire hit their vehicles. Six people died in an horrific car crash at Kinglake while they tried to outrun the blaze.

As the Prime Minister announced the emergency bushfire relief fund and the support of the Army, other Australian states banded together with Victoria, with the Premiers of South Australia and New South Wales offering to send firefighters and equipment across the border.

Mr Brumby said the Army would be “providing logistics and support”.

“That will tend to be in terms of fuel, logistic support, dozers, some personnel and they will help control what is a very difficult situation,” Mr Brumby said.

Several of the fires are believed to have been deliberately lit, and arsonists are hampering firefighting efforts with some blamed for relighting fires that had already been extinguished.

Yesterday the temperature reached 46.4C – Melbourne’s hottest day on record. However, conditions look set to improve as the level has lowered across most of the state, and the forecast for the next few days is for more mild temperatures in the low 20s.

NATO commander: Afghanistan drug raids imminent

Play Video 13 News, WVEC Hampton Roads – Waste, fraud in Iraq repeated in Afghanistan

• Slideshow: Afghanistan
• Play Video Video: A strategy in Progress Reuters
• Play Video Video: U.S. Forces pay out for Afghan civilian deaths AP

Reuters – U.S. soldiers keep watch near a site where a captured roadside bomb exploded in Naad Ali district of …

MUNICH – In an effort to strike at a key income source for Taliban militants, the top NATO commander said Sunday that operations to attack drug lords and labs in Afghanistan will begin within the "next several days."

Gen. John Craddock, who also heads the U.S. European Command, also said that the U.S. and its allies are making progress in their efforts to fill the need for more troops, equipment and intelligence gathering in Afghanistan. He, however, would not disclose any specific commitments he got this weekend as world leaders met at a security conference here.

NATO defense ministers, during a meeting last fall in Hungary, authorized troops in Afghanistan to launch the drug attacks, but there had been questions about whether allies would be willing to follow through. Money from Afghanistan's booming illicit drug trade has been blamed for pumping up to $100 million a year into the coffers of resurgent Taliban fighters.

"Activities and actions will occur soon that will be helpful," Craddock told reporters. "We've got to get started."

The U.S. delegation to the security conference, led by Vice President Joe Biden, was expected to talk to allies this weekend about the ongoing need for support in Afghanistan. Craddock said he still needs about 5,000 NATO troops to bolster Afghan forces during the coming elections, and he is confident he will get them from other NATO nations.

At the same time, he said he still has a critical need for trainers that he has yet to fill, and the expected announcement about a forthcoming build-up in U.S. forces has been delayed as the Pentagon juggles the numbers in the face of an ongoing review by the new Obama administration.

Allies, said Craddock, "expected they would be asked to step up and do more. Now it's a matter of political will."

Leaders have speculated that good will surrounding the inauguration of President Barack Obama would generate greater efforts by NATO allies to send additional resources to Afghanistan. Pentagon officials have said they expect to send as many as 30,000 more troops there, including several brigades in the coming months.

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