The Star Online: World Updates
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- International space trio lands in Kazakhstan
- U.S. lawmakers abandon deficit-cutting effort
- U.S. lawmakers abandon deficit-cutting effort
| International space trio lands in Kazakhstan Posted: 21 Nov 2011 07:43 PM PST ALMATY (Reuters) - Three astronauts inside a Russian Soyuz capsule parachuted safely back to Earth Tuesday after nearly six months on the International Space Station (ISS), the first landing since NASA retired its space shuttles this summer. U.S. astronaut Mike Fossum, Japan's Satoshi Furukawa and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov landed at 02:26 a.m. BT, shortly before sunrise on the snowbound steppe of central Kazakhstan, NASA TV showed. "The landing was great. Everything's good," said Volkov, flashing a thumbs-up signal after he was extracted from a Soyuz TMA-02 capsule blackened by the extreme temperatures on re-entry to the atmosphere. The closure of NASA's shuttle program means Russian spaceships are the only way to ferry goods and crews to and from the $100-billion (63 billion pounds) ISS, which is shared by 16 nations, until commercial firms develop the ability to transport crews. Russia hopes the textbook landing will help to restore confidence in its space program after the August crash of an unmanned Russian cargo flight suspended manned space missions. The returning crew have been replaced in orbit by NASA's Daniel Burbank and Russians Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin, whose successful launch last week allayed fears that the station would be left empty for the first time in a decade. But the troubles have left the space station with half the usual handover time. The new crew had only six days with the outgoing astronauts to get up to speed on the quirks of life in space and the station's operations. NASA said the Soyuz capsule had landed on its side, not unusual in windy conditions, about 90 km (55 miles) north of the town of Arkalyk. Temperatures at the landing site were 15 degrees Celsius below zero. The three-man crew had spent 167 days in space and their return to Earth took about three-and-a-half hours. Volkov, huddled in a thermal blanket, is a second-generation cosmonaut and was following in the footsteps of his father, NASA said. It called him: "a rising star in the cosmonaut corps." Fossum, second to emerge from the capsule, called his loved ones by satellite phone from the landing site. Furukawa, a 47-year-old professional surgeon, was last to emerge. An assistant mopped sweat from his brow. After initial medical checks in an inflatable tent on site, the returning crew will be taken be helicopter to the city of Kostanai in northern Kazakhstan. The ISS will regain full, six-person occupancy with the late December launch of U.S. astronauts Don Pettit, cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and Andre Kuipers of the European Space Agency. (Additional reporting by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Myra MacDonald) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. | ||
| U.S. lawmakers abandon deficit-cutting effort Posted: 21 Nov 2011 06:17 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers abandoned their high-profile effort to rein in the country's ballooning debt on Monday in a sign that Washington likely will not be able to resolve a dispute over taxes and spending until 2013.
The admission of defeat by Republicans and Democrats on a 12-member congressional "super committee" is likely to cement perceptions among voters and investors that politicians are too divided to tackle trillion-dollar budget deficits and a national debt that now is roughly equal to the U.S. economy. "Despite our inability to bridge the committee's significant differences, we end this process united in our belief that the nation's fiscal crisis must be addressed and that we cannot leave it for the next generation to solve," Republican Representative Jeb Hensarling and Democratic Senator Patty Murray said in a joint statement. But lawmakers will be less willing to compromise as they shift their attention to the November 2012 presidential and congressional elections. The finger-pointing began within minutes of the announcement. President Barack Obama said at the White House that Republicans had scuttled the talks by refusing to consider tax hikes on the wealthy. "They simply will not budge from that negotiating position and so far that refusal has been the main stumbling block that has prevented Congress from reaching an agreement to further reduce the deficit," Obama said at the White House. Republicans blamed Obama for a lack of leadership and said his Democrats had been unwilling to consider a fundamental overhaul of government-run healthcare programs that could swamp the economy in coming decades as the population ages. The panel waited until after U.S. markets closed at 4 p.m. (9:00 p.m. BT) to formally declare the effort dead, but shares on Wall Street had already hit a one-month low due to fears of out-of-control government debt in Europe and the United States. Japan's Nikkei index opened lower on Tuesday, hitting its lowest level in eight months. UNCERTAINTY AHEAD The committee's failure to agree on $1.2 trillion (766.6 billion pounds) in deficit reduction sets up a year of uncertainty on taxes and spending that could further rattle investors already shaken over euro zone debt woes. Congress is now set to deliver those budget savings through automatic cuts to defence and domestic programs, but some Republicans have vowed to prevent them from hitting the military. Obama said he would veto any effort to do so. He will have to contend with a concerted lobbying effort by his own defence secretary to preserve the Pentagon's budget. "If Congress fails to act over the next year, the Department of Defence will face devastating, automatic, across-the-board cuts that will tear a seam in the nation's defence," Defence Secretary Leon Panetta warned. Credit-rating agencies, already dismayed by Washington's inability to produce a credible plan to tackle the country's debt, could downgrade U.S. debt if the cuts are rolled back. Standard & Poor's said the news validated its decision to issue a first-ever U.S. credit downgrade in August. Moody's Investors Service said that failure, by itself, would not lead to a rating change. Fitch said it would finish its assessment of the U.S. rating by the end of the month. It said previously that failure by the super committee to reach agreement would likely result in a negative outlook. Congress will have to deliver close to $4 trillion in savings to ensure that the national debt, now at $15 trillion, does not swamp the economy, budget experts say. "The United States is on a perilous debt course, and today's announcement does nothing to alter it," said Maya MacGuineas, head of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget think tank. In the coming weeks, Democrats will scramble to extend economy-boosting measures, such as a tax cut for workers and enhanced jobless benefits, which are due to expire at the end of the year. Analysts say the economy could suffer if they are not extended, but Republicans are likely to insist on spending cuts to offset their $168 billion cost. Keeping up the pressure on Republicans, Obama will renew his call for Congress to pass the payroll tax cuts during a trip to New Hampshire on Tuesday. Obama has kept his distance from the talks, choosing instead to emphasise a job-creation package that has been blocked by Republicans. Aides say the collapse of the super committee will help him paint Republicans as obstructionist as he campaigns for re-election. Congressional leaders set up the super committee after a fierce budget battle brought the government to the brink of default in August. The panel bypassed the usual Capitol Hill power centers in an effort to find common ground where other efforts had come up short. During the talks, Republicans showed a new willingness to move from their staunch opposition to tax increases as they pushed for an overhaul that would have closed tax breaks and lowered rates. Democrats rejected the proposal after they determined it would have led to a lower tax burden for the wealthy. Outside the negotiating room, interest groups like the conservative anti-tax Americans for Tax Reform and the seniors' lobby AARP pushed hard to protect their turf. Several groups said they were happy the panel had fallen short. "Simply put, no deal is better for America than a bad deal," said the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a liberal group. Democratic Senator John Kerry, a member of the super committee, said those outside of Congress were as much to blame for defeat as those who hold elected office. "There is an enormous ideological divide in politics today, and today's outcome underscores the rigidity and unwillingness of forces outside of Congress to allow for rational consensus," Kerry said in a statement. (Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Rachelle Younglai, Kim Dixon, Susan Cornwell, Donna Smith, Alister Bull and Dave Clarke; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Peter Cooney) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. | ||
| U.S. lawmakers abandon deficit-cutting effort Posted: 21 Nov 2011 06:01 PM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers abandoned their high-profile effort to rein in the country's ballooning debt on Monday in a sign that Washington likely will not be able to resolve a dispute over taxes and spending until 2013.
The admission of defeat by Republicans and Democrats on a 12-member congressional "super committee" is likely to cement perceptions among voters and investors that politicians are too divided to tackle trillion-dollar budget deficits and a national debt that now is roughly equal to the U.S. economy. "Despite our inability to bridge the committee's significant differences, we end this process united in our belief that the nation's fiscal crisis must be addressed and that we cannot leave it for the next generation to solve," Republican Representative Jeb Hensarling and Democratic Senator Patty Murray said in a joint statement. But lawmakers will be less willing to compromise as they shift their attention to the November 2012 presidential and congressional elections. The finger-pointing began within minutes of the announcement. President Barack Obama said at the White House that Republicans had scuttled the talks by refusing to consider tax hikes on the wealthy. "They simply will not budge from that negotiating position and so far that refusal has been the main stumbling block that has prevented Congress from reaching an agreement to further reduce the deficit," Obama said at the White House. Republicans blamed Obama for a lack of leadership and said his Democrats had been unwilling to consider a fundamental overhaul of government-run healthcare programs that could swamp the economy in coming decades as the population ages. The panel waited until after U.S. markets closed at 4 p.m. (9:00 p.m. BT) to formally declare the effort dead, but shares on Wall Street had already hit a one-month low due to fears of out-of-control government debt in Europe and the United States. Japan's Nikkei index opened lower on Tuesday, hitting its lowest level in eight months. UNCERTAINTY AHEAD The committee's failure to agree on $1.2 trillion (766.6 billion pounds) in deficit reduction sets up a year of uncertainty on taxes and spending that could further rattle investors already shaken over euro zone debt woes. Congress is now set to deliver those budget savings through automatic cuts to defence and domestic programs, but some Republicans have vowed to prevent them from hitting the military. Obama said he would veto any effort to do so. He will have to contend with a concerted lobbying effort by his own defence secretary to preserve the Pentagon's budget. "If Congress fails to act over the next year, the Department of Defence will face devastating, automatic, across-the-board cuts that will tear a seam in the nation's defence," Defence Secretary Leon Panetta warned. Credit-rating agencies, already dismayed by Washington's inability to produce a credible plan to tackle the country's debt, could downgrade U.S. debt if the cuts are rolled back. Standard & Poor's said the news validated its decision to issue a first-ever U.S. credit downgrade in August. Moody's Investors Service said that failure, by itself, would not lead to a rating change. Fitch said it would finish its assessment of the U.S. rating by the end of the month. It said previously that failure by the super committee to reach agreement would likely result in a negative outlook. Congress will have to deliver close to $4 trillion in savings to ensure that the national debt, now at $15 trillion, does not swamp the economy, budget experts say. "The United States is on a perilous debt course, and today's announcement does nothing to alter it," said Maya MacGuineas, head of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget think tank. In the coming weeks, Democrats will scramble to extend economy-boosting measures, such as a tax cut for workers and enhanced jobless benefits, which are due to expire at the end of the year. Analysts say the economy could suffer if they are not extended, but Republicans are likely to insist on spending cuts to offset their $168 billion cost. Keeping up the pressure on Republicans, Obama will renew his call for Congress to pass the payroll tax cuts during a trip to New Hampshire on Tuesday. Obama has kept his distance from the talks, choosing instead to emphasise a job-creation package that has been blocked by Republicans. Aides say the collapse of the super committee will help him paint Republicans as obstructionist as he campaigns for re-election. Congressional leaders set up the super committee after a fierce budget battle brought the government to the brink of default in August. The panel bypassed the usual Capitol Hill power centers in an effort to find common ground where other efforts had come up short. During the talks, Republicans showed a new willingness to move from their staunch opposition to tax increases as they pushed for an overhaul that would have closed tax breaks and lowered rates. Democrats rejected the proposal after they determined it would have led to a lower tax burden for the wealthy. Outside the negotiating room, interest groups like the conservative anti-tax Americans for Tax Reform and the seniors' lobby AARP pushed hard to protect their turf. Several groups said they were happy the panel had fallen short. "Simply put, no deal is better for America than a bad deal," said the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a liberal group. Democratic Senator John Kerry, a member of the super committee, said those outside of Congress were as much to blame for defeat as those who hold elected office. "There is an enormous ideological divide in politics today, and today's outcome underscores the rigidity and unwillingness of forces outside of Congress to allow for rational consensus," Kerry said in a statement. (Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Rachelle Younglai, Kim Dixon, Susan Cornwell, Donna Smith, Alister Bull and Dave Clarke; Writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Peter Cooney) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
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