Senate confirms Geithner as treasury secretary
Senate confirms Geithner as treasury secretary
WASHINGTON — New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy Geithner won confirmation Monday as President Barack Obama’s treasury secretary despite personal tax lapses that turned more than a third of the Senate against him.
“Tim’s work and the work of the entire Treasury Department must begin at once. We cannot lose a day, because every day the economic picture is darkening, here and across the globe,” Obama told the audience before Geithner was sworn into office by Vice President Joe Biden.
The Senate voted 60-34 to put Geithner in charge of the administration’s economic team as it races to halt the worst financial slide in generations. The swearing-in followed less than an hour later, the administration seeking to emphasize that it was wasting no time in trying to address the financial crisis.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Geithner has made amends — he has paid the taxes and penalties — and possesses the talent the nation needs to steer the nation out of the crisis.
Geithner, 47, served as undersecretary of the treasury for international affairs during the Clinton administration. As president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, he’s been a key player in the government’s response to collapsing financial institutions and the housing and credit markets since last summer.
Octuplets born alive, are ‘screaming and kicking’
BELLFLOWER, Calif. — A woman gave birth to eight babies in Southern California on Monday, the world’s second live-born set of octuplets.
The mother, who was not identified, gave birth to six girls and two boys weighing between 1.8 pounds and 3.4 pounds, doctors at Kaiser Permanante Medical Center told KCAL9.
“It’s a surprise,” Dr. Karen Maples said. “Eight newborns are in stable condition, and they’re doing quite well.”
Doctors estimated the delivery of the babies lasted five minutes.
“They were all screaming and kicking around very vigorously,” Dr. Harold Henry told the TV station.
Shooting near embassy
SAN’A, Yemen — Gunmen in a car exchanged fire Monday with police at a checkpoint near the U.S. Embassy in Yemen’s capital, hours after the embassy received threats of a possible attack, Yemeni and American officials said.
No one was injured, and the two gunmen fled the scene, said a Yemen Interior Ministry official. He said three suspects in the area were detained.
Yemen has also been the site of numerous high-profile, al-Qaida-linked attacks, including the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in the Gulf of Aden, which killed 17 American sailors.
An attack on the U.S. Embassy in September involving gunmen and explosives-packed vehicles killed 17 people, including six militants. Al-Qaida later claimed responsibility for that attack.
Gitmo transfers to go on
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The re-emergence of two former Guantanamo Bay prisoners as al-Qaida terrorists in the past week won’t likely change U.S. policy on transfers to Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon said Monday.
More than 100 Saudis have been repatriated from the U.S. military’s prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Saudi Arabia, where the government puts them through a rehabilitation program designed to encourage them to abandon Islamic extremism and reintegrate into civilian life.
The online boasts by two of these men that they have joined al-Qaida in Yemen underscore that the Saudi system isn’t fail-safe, the Pentagon said. Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman, said the U.S. sees the Saudi program as admirable.
Iceland’s government collapses into turmoil
REYKJAVIK, Iceland — Iceland’s coalition government collapsed Monday after an unprecedented wave of public dissent, plunging the island nation into political turmoil as it seeks to rebuild an economy shattered by the global financial crisis.
Prime Minister Geir Haarde resigned and disbanded the government he’s led since 2006. Haarde was unwilling to meet the demands of his coalition partner, the Social Democratic Alliance Party, which insisted on choosing a new prime minister in exchange for keeping the coalition intact.
Iceland has been mired in crisis since October, when the country’s banks collapsed under the weight of debts amassed during years of rapid expansion.
Associated Press