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WORLD
U.S. financial turmoil grips South America
WASHINGTON – While the United States wrestled with financial meltdown this fall, Latin American leaders often boasted their economies were models of stability in an otherwise tumultuous global landscape.
Such confidence gave way, however, to panic last week, as the effects of the U.S. credit crunch and an international downturn wreak havoc on Latin America’s formerly booming economies.
Wednesday, Oct. 22, Brazilian officials stoked investor fears by allowing the country’s two biggest state banks, Banco do Brasil and Caixa Economica Federal, to buy stakes in private financial firms. Many of the country’s largest banks have seen their stock prices plummet, while smaller banks have been strangled by the global credit freeze.
Just a day earlier, Argentina’s government shocked the financial world by announcing its plan to nationalize the country’s private pension system, which holds about $30 billion in assets, a move that conjured memories of the country’s 2001 economic collapse.
Afghanistan presses for peace talks with militants
KABUL, Afghanistan – As the crisis in Afghanistan deepens and some Western officials warn the battle against insurgents cannot be won militarily, the Afghan government is pushing hard for peace talks with Taliban-led militants despite warnings they could backfire.
Fazil Hadi Shinwari, the head of the government-appointed national council of religious scholars, told the Chicago Tribune in an interview that the Saudi royal family agreed to President Hamid Karzai’s pleas to mediate negotiations. He said the Taliban had agreed to initial talks in Dubai and had sent two passports of Taliban negotiators through him to be cleared for travel.
The Taliban denies any plans to talk, but if they happen, the meetings would mark the first time Taliban representatives have sat down to negotiate with the U.S.-backed Afghan government since being driven from power in late 2001.
NATIONAL
Palin: ‘If only people knew how frugal we are’
PITTSBURGH – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin insisted in an interview with the Chicago Tribune Oct. 23 that she did not accept $150,000 worth of designer clothes from the Republican Party and “that is not who we are.”
“That whole thing is just, bad!” she said. “Oh, if people only knew how frugal we are.”
“It’s kind of painful to be criticized for something when all the facts are not out there and are not reported,” Palin said, insisting the clothes are not worth $150,000 and were bought for the Republican National Convention. Still, she has been wearing pricey clothes at campaign events this fall. She said they will be given back, auctioned off or sent to charity. Most of them, she said, haven’t even left the belly of her campaign plane.
More problems arise over Stevens jury
WASHINGTON – After sitting through a four-week trial, the jury in Sen. Ted Stevens’ corruption case had a near meltdown Oct. 23 following just two days of deliberations.
First, 11 jurors sought to boot the 12th from the panel after they complained she had been “rude, disrespectful and unreasonable” and had engaged in “violent outbursts.” Then, after U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan had resolved the problem and jurors went home for the day, he had to call an emergency hearing at 6:30 p.m. because a second juror learned a relative was so sick or near death that she might have to leave the trial and go to Texas.
There’s little indication the problems on the jury have anything to do with the actual deliberations in the case, which involve determining whether Stevens is guilty of making false statements on his Senate financial-disclosure forms.
However, they could have an effect on the makeup of the jury and therefore the trial’s outcome. Judge Sullivan asked for lawyers on both sides of the case to offer up their preference by 9 a.m. Friday. They have two options if the juror with a sick relative can’t return to the trial: bring in one of the alternate jurors who has already been dismissed or proceed with just 11 jurors.
LOCAL/BSU
Graffiti cleanup volunteers needed
Saturday, Nov. 15 the Boise Police Department will partner with neighbors for “Keep Boise Beautiful Day” to clean up graffiti and volunteers are needed. The department is looking for 75 volunteers to participate in the cleanup activities from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. All necessary materials will be provided. Volunteers should dress appropriately for cleaning and painting activities. Call 373-5489 to volunteer. A representative will return phone calls within 24 hours of the time the call is received. Registered volunteers will start at 7200 Barrister, meeting in the front parking lot at 10 a.m.
Sali’s office must move
U. S. Rep. Bill Sali’s congressional office will almost certainly move if the Republican congressman is re-elected, a spokesman said Oct. 23.
Sali took over office space in the Hoff Building on Boise’s Bannock Street from former Idaho Rep. Butch Otter when Otter became governor and Sali was elected to Congress in 2006.
Sali represents Idaho’s 1st Congressional District, but his office is located in the 2nd District. The dividing line runs through western Boise. Canyon County lies entirely in the 1st District.
Committee on House Administration rules state “district office space must be located within a member’s district unless there is no suitable office space in a federal building in the member’s district.”
Boise State to honor veterans
Boise State University is set to honor veterans both on and off campus with a new memorial sculpture, “Salute,” that will grace the northeast side of the Student Union Building.
The dedication of the sculpture will take place at noon Nov. 11 and will be followed by “Pieces of War: A Veterans Day Evening Performance with Poet Kenny Carnes” at 7 p.m. in the Student Union Hatch Ballroom. Both events are free and open to the public. Free parking will be available in the Lincoln Parking structure on the corner of University Drive and Lincoln Avenue during the events.
Kay Kirkpatrick’s installation design was chosen after Boise State’s art advisory board reviewed scale model finalists’ comment cards from the university’s students, faculty, staff and the public.
“Salute” is a metal-and-stone sculpture featuring the silhouette of a soldier saluting.
WHAT THE?
Go ahead, mate, there’s no way you’ll get caught
A group of young man encouraged one of their drunken friends to jump on top of the roof and hood of a Lamborghini Murcielago parked outside a pub in Dereham, England. They recorded it on their mobile phones and later sent the video via Bluetooth; anyone nearby on the Bluetooth network could play the video. Of course, the car’s owner soon saw the film and arrests immediately followed.
We’re not really rowdy and drunk at all … well, usually
After a newspaper wrote that students at Bloomsburg University engaged in rowdy and alcohol-fueled parties, the student government president complained the stories “painted [the] students with a broad and negative brush and are both inaccurate and extremely unfair.” A few weeks later he was arrested for drunken driving.
Anybody got a big eraser?
As a loving tribute to his common-law wife of 15 years, a Welsh steelworker had a life-size image of her tattooed on his back, which took 20 hours and cost about $1,800. Shortly thereafter, she ran off with a 25-year-old Latvian fitness instructor.
COMPILED BY ARBITER STAFF