Election measures against unions, abortion defeated (Reuters)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) ? Controversial ballot measures aimed at banning abortion in Mississippi and reducing public sector union power in Ohio were soundly defeated on Tuesday in local elections that cheered President Barack Obama's Democratic party.

Democrats and Republicans split the two races for governor on the ballot, with Kentucky Democratic governor Steve Beshear handily winning re-election and Mississippi Lieutenant Governor Phil Bryant victorious in Mississippi.

Neither result changed the balance of power, with Bryant succeeding popular outgoing Governor Haley Barbour in Mississippi. But the outcome means Republicans will hold a 29 to 20 lead in governors going into the presidential election cycle in 2012, with Rhode Island held by an Independent.

The nationwide local elections were the last before the presidential primaries and caucuses begin in January.

"The surface headline in 2011 was a good election for Democrats. But dig just a little deeper and you see that the middle story is swing voters," said John Avlon, senior columnist for Newsweek and the Daily Beast.

"Republicans are being put on notice for being too extreme and reaching too far, but Democrats should not misread this as an overall victory."

Labor unions and abortion rights supporters were elated with the results in the two states. This was tempered by a separate vote in Ohio soundly rejecting a requirement in Obama's signature health care reform law that everyone have health insurance.

Ohio is a key swing state won by Obama in the 2008 election, and the strong effort by organized labor turned back the Republican effort to reduce the power of public sector unions in the state. The Republican-backed law lost by about 60 to 40 percent.

Union leaders, who have suffered defeats in Wisconsin and some other states this year, hailed the result.

"Today's defeat of (the Ohio union measure) is a major victory for working families in Ohio and across the country," said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

Ohio Governor John Kasich, who championed the anti-union measure, said the result "requires me to take a deep breath and to reflect on what happened here."

The anti-union law was a centerpiece of the Kasich legislative agenda. The law passed the Republican-dominated assembly in the spring. But opponents were able to gather 1.3 million signatures to put it on the ballot.

While massive union protests against a similar law in Wisconsin earlier this year grabbed national attention, Ohio is more important to unions.

The state has 360,000 public sector union members and the fifth largest number of total union members in the country, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The other closely watched ballot initiative on Tuesday was in Mississippi, where voters were asked to decide whether human life begins at conception, the so-called "personhood amendment" to the state constitution.

If it had passed, Mississippi would have been the first U.S. state to define a fertilized egg as a person, a controversial concept aimed at outlawing abortion, some types of birth control and infertility methods that result in the loss of embryos.

Anti-abortion groups were poised to try to pass such measures in other states.

But the measure went down to defeat with 58 percent opposed and 42 voting in favor, with 80 percent counted. Some voters said the measure was too extreme and were worried about the domino effects of a sweeping constitutional amendment.

There were elections for mayors in eight of the nation's largest 25 cities on Tuesday and incumbents won in Houston, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Baltimore and Charlotte, North Carolina. The incumbent in San Francisco, the first ethnic Chinese mayor in the city's history, was leading in early returns.

Political analysts also were studying the contests for state legislative seats in Virginia and Iowa.

Republicans were trying to win a majority of seats in the Virginia Senate, which would be a bad sign for Obama, who won Virginia in 2008 and hopes to do so again in 2012. Returns from the Virginia Board of Elections late on Tuesday showed Republicans gaining two seats, which would leave the state Senate tied. But one of the seats was closely contested.

Democrats won a special election for an Iowa state Senate seat, keeping their thin 2-seat majority in the chamber. Republicans, who control the Iowa House, had hoped to use a victory to try to overturn the state's approval of same sex marriage.

In another high profile local race, a powerful Republican state Senate leader who spearheaded Arizona's controversial crackdown on illegal immigrants appeared headed for defeat in a recall election, according to early election results.

(Writing by Greg McCune. Additional reporting by Corrie MacLaggan, Patricia Zengerle, Colleen Jenkins, Verna Gates, Ian Simpson. Kay Henderson; James Kelleher; Karin Matz and Lauren Keiper; Editing by Jerry Norton and Peter Bohan)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/democrats/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111109/us_nm/us_usa_election

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Europe debt crisis brings down Italy's Berlusconi (Reuters)

ROME/ATHENS (Reuters) - ? Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi became the biggest political casualty of Europe's debt crisis on Tuesday when he announced he would step down after being stripped of his majority in parliament.

Berlusconi said he would leave office after parliament approves a budget law that includes reforms demanded by Europe, which is struggling to prevent the debt crisis from spreading to the third largest economy using the euro single currency.

Greece, ground zero of the crisis, is scrambling to win emergency funds to avert bankruptcy as soon as next month, and political parties argued over a new coalition government to replace that of Prime Minister George Papandreou, who has also announced this week that he will step down.

Berlusconi's imminent departure spells the end of the flamboyant billionaire media magnate's 17-year dominance of his country. His failure to implement reforms fueled a party revolt, and votes on the budget measures and his resignation could come as soon as this month.

Berlusconi told his own Canale 5 television station that the only option now was an early election, which could prolong the uncertainty that has sapped market confidence.

President Giorgio Napolitano he would hold consultations on the formation of a new government. Napolitano is thought to favor a technocrat or national unity government for Italy, similar to the solution being put in place for Greece.

That would please markets that have driven the cost of borrowing for Italy's government to 14-year highs. Traders pushed the yield on benchmark 10 year Italian bonds to 6.79 percent, a level unseen since 1997.

Such levels effectively make it unaffordable for Italy to continue to finance its own debt, and are similar to levels that forced Ireland, Greece and Portugal to take bailouts. Italy, however, is widely regarded as being too big to bail out.

Berlusconi's government won a key budget vote on Tuesday after the opposition abstained. But it secured only 308 votes in the 630-seat lower house, eight short of a majority.

Pier Luigi Bersani, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, said Italy ran a real risk of losing access to financial markets.

"I ask you, Mr Prime Minister, with all my strength, to finally take account of the situation ... and resign," Bersani said immediately after the vote.

ON THE ROPES

The news that Berlusconi had finally agreed to resign came after European markets closed but had an immediate positive impact on markets in the United States. The euro jumped against the dollar and U.S. stocks edged up.

Earlier, Berlusconi's key coalition ally Umberto Bossi, head of the devolutionist Northern League, said Berlusconi should be replaced by Angelino Alfano, secretary of the premier's PDL party. "We asked the prime minister to stand down," Bossi told reporters outside parliament.

The center-left opposition said they abstained to lay bare the weakness of Berlusconi's support while allowing formal ratification of the 2010 budget.

Even when Berlusconi goes, there is no guarantee that reforms to cut the debt mountain and boost growth will be quickly implemented, and relief on markets may not last long. There is no agreement among political parties on either a national unity or technocratic government.

Brussels is putting inspectors in place to help supervise Italian reform. An EU economic surveillance mission will start work in Rome on Wednesday.

Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen said Italy was just too big to bail out. "It is difficult to see that we in Europe would have resources to take a country of the size of Italy into the bailout program," he told parliament in Helsinki.

LABOURING IN ATHENS

In Greece, the ruling Socialists and the conservative opposition were laboring to agree on a national unity government, expected to be headed by former European Central Bank vice-president Lucas Papademos.

The aim is to establish a "100-day" government to push a 130 billion euro ($180 billion) bailout package, including a "voluntary" 50 percent writedown for private sector bondholders, through parliament before elections in February.

Papandreou, the son and grandson of prime ministers, said farewell to his cabinet at the meeting, a participant said. He asked ministers to tender their resignations.

"Negotiations are being finalized with Papademos as PM," a Socialist party source told Reuters.

However, some politicians in the opposition New Democracy party were resisting an EU demand for a written commitment to the new bailout program with its harsher austerity measures.

Euro zone finance ministers, meeting in Brussels, agreed on Monday on a roadmap for boosting the currency bloc's 440-billion-euro ($600 billion) rescue fund to shield larger economies like Italy and Spain from a possible Greek default.

But with bond investors increasingly on strike, there are doubts about the efficacy of those complex leveraging plans.

In a sign that Italian banks are increasingly shut out of wholesale money markets, the ECB reported they needed 111.3 billion euros in central bank funding in October, up from 104.7 billion euros in September and a mere 41.3 billion in June.

Even the European Financial Stability Facility, the euro zone's bailout fund, had difficulty finding buyers for its top-notch AAA-rated paper on Monday, drawing barely enough bids for 3 billion euros of 10-year bonds issued to support Ireland.

EFSF head Klaus Regling cited a "very difficult" market climate and uncertainty about the fund's future profile as factors in the weak demand.

In Brussels, the 27 European Union finance ministers failed to agree on how to strengthen banks to cope with the sovereign debt shock without halting lending to businesses and consumers.

Options on the table included offering state guarantees to borrower banks or injecting cash into the European Investment Bank, the EU's project finance arm.

(Additional reporting by Emilia Sithole-Matarise in London, Paolo Biondi in Rome, Sarah Marsh in Berlin, Valentina Za in Milan, John O'Donnell and Jan Strupczewski in Brussels, Jussi Rosendahl in Helsinki; Writing by Paul Taylor and Peter Graff)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111108/bs_nm/us_eurozone

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Defiant Carlos the Jackal on trial in France (AP)

PARIS ? A defiant and smiling Carlos the Jackal, one of the most dreaded terror masterminds of the Cold War, has gone on trial again ? this time over four deadly attacks in France nearly three decades ago.

The 62-year-old Venezuelan, whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, went before a special Paris court on terrorism-linked charges Monday. He is already serving a life sentence handed down for a triple murder in 1975.

Ramirez, who sowed fear across Western European and Middle Eastern capitals during the Cold War, is charged with instigating four attacks in 1982 and 1983 that killed 11 people and injured more than 140 others in France.

He has denied any role in the attacks. The trial is expected to last six weeks, and if convicted, Ramirez could face a second life sentence ? the top penalty in France, which does not have the death penalty.

Wearing a blue jacket, graying beard and wavy hair brushed back, Ramirez smiled as he entered and then identified himself to the court as "a professional revolutionary" ? striking a combative pose from the outset.

With three gendarmes at his side and dark sunglasses in his hands, Ramirez variously raised a fist in defiance, weaved in anti-Zionist rhetoric into his diatribes and smiled to the gallery that included controversial French comic Dieudonne.

"He's in a fighting mood as always," Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, Ramirez's lawyer and amorous partner, told reporters outside the courtroom before the trial began. She said there was "no reason" for the trial nearly 30 years after the events, and accused French prosecutors of putting him on trial for "propaganda or some other interests rather than the ones of justice."

But Francis Szpiner, the lawyer for some civil parties to the case, countered that the trial was important to show that terrorists will always be pursued and to mark "the end of the culture of impunity" for them.

The trial centers on four bombings: Two against French trains, another at a Paris office of an Arabic-language newspaper and yet another at a French cultural center in then-West Berlin.

Those bombings came at least seven years after what French investigators consider was Ramirez's first heyday ? eight attacks over two years starting in December 1973.

Ramirez is serving a life sentence for the 1975 murders of two French secret agents and an alleged informer. He was also the chief suspect in the 1975 hostage-taking of OPEC oil ministers that left three people dead.

French prosecutors claim two attacks in 1982 were carried out to pressure the government to free his girlfriend Magdalena Kopp ? with whom he later married and had a daughter ? and comrade Bruno Breguet.

Five people were killed in the March 1982 bombing of a Toulouse-Paris train ? four five days after a deadline for the release of Kopp and Breguet sent in a letter to France's Embassy in the Netherlands. The letter allegedly contained two fingerprints of Ramirez.

Scores were injured and a young girl was killed the next month in a bombing outside the newspaper office ? the day Kopp and Breguet went on trial in another case. Both were convicted.

In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez said Monday that his government will insist that Ramirez's rights be respected during his trial in France.

Chavez has previously praised Ramirez as a "revolutionary fighter" and has said he doesn't view him as a terrorist.

"We cannot allow any Venezuelan, accused of anything, to be abused in any part of the world," Chavez told reporters at the presidential palace. "We have a responsibility and we are obliged to uphold it."

Chavez said he has instructed Venezuela's foreign minister, Nicolas Maduro, to contact Ramirez and his lawyers to discuss the case.

Chavez spoke shortly after dozens of Ramirez's supporters protested in a Caracas plaza, chanting: "He's not a terrorist! He's a communist!"

The demonstrators, including Venezuelan Communist Party activists, held signs reading "Freedom for Carlos" and "Repatriation for Carlos."

Ramirez's younger brother Vladimir Ramirez led the protest, saying he doesn't expect a fair trial. He urged Chavez's government to intervene and demand that Ramirez's rights be respected.

"A trial isn't beginning today," he told the crowd. "It's simply an official ceremony to finally slap Ilich with 30 more years of prison ... and condemn him to die imprisoned."

Ramirez allegedly took hijackings, bombings and killings in mercenary style, with links for years to causes like the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and in far-left European terror groups during the latter post-World War II years of political, military and economic tensions between the communist and Western worlds.

Safe havens grew scarce and allies turned dubious for Ramirez once the world was upended by the fall of communism in 1989. French secret agents snatched him from his refuge in Khartoum, Sudan, on Aug. 14, 1994, and spirited him to Paris in a sack.

He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison three years later.

Ramirez's detention has been anything but ordinary. While in prison in 2001, he married Coutant-Peyre in an Islamic ceremony. He was also placed in solitary confinement last month after conducting an unauthorized interview with two French news outlets.

His lawyers claim he was denied access to materials needed to prepare for the trial, including two DVDS containing 100,000 pages.

To make its case, the prosecution dug deep into the secret service archives of former communist countries where Carlos enjoyed safe havens during the Cold War, notably East Germany and Hungary.

Along with Ramirez, three alleged accomplices were being tried in absentia: Palestinian Kamal Al-Issawi and Germans Christa-Margot Frohlich and Johannes Weinrich, said to head the European operations of Ramirez and a former member of Germany's violent far-left Red Army Faction.

Weinrich is behind bars in Germany, Frohlich remains at large, and Al-Issawi's whereabouts are unknown to French authorities, who say he dropped off their radar in 2001.

Ramirez, who suffers from Type 2 diabetes, told Europe-1 radio that he misses the family life he said he sacrificed during his years globe-hopping as a freelance terrorist in Middle Eastern and European capitals.

Some allies and ideological brothers met their demise this year. Years ago, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi funded militant movements like that of Carlos The Jackal ? in an interview published last month in France's Liberation newspaper, Ramirez praised Osama Bin Laden as a martyr who served as an "example ... for authentic resisters against imperialism."

___

Eds: Catherine Gaschka and Ingrid Rousseau, and Associated Press writers Christopher Toothaker and Ian James in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111108/ap_on_re_eu/eu_france_carlos_the_jackal_trial

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Big asteroid in closest swing by Earth in 35 years

Lance Benner, research scientist at JPL displays a recent image of asteroid 2005 YU55 near the 230-foot wide radio telescope at the Goldstone Deep Space facility in Ft. Irwin, Calif., is seen, Monday, Nov 7, 2011. The radio telescope has been tracking asteroid 2005 YU55. At closest approach, the quarter-mile-wide space rock will pass within 202,000 miles of our planet at 6:28 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday. (AP Photo/Orange County Register, ) MAGS OUT; LOS ANGELES TIMES OUT

Lance Benner, research scientist at JPL displays a recent image of asteroid 2005 YU55 near the 230-foot wide radio telescope at the Goldstone Deep Space facility in Ft. Irwin, Calif., is seen, Monday, Nov 7, 2011. The radio telescope has been tracking asteroid 2005 YU55. At closest approach, the quarter-mile-wide space rock will pass within 202,000 miles of our planet at 6:28 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday. (AP Photo/Orange County Register, ) MAGS OUT; LOS ANGELES TIMES OUT

This image made from radar data obtained on Nov. 7, 2011 at 11:45 a.m. PST (2:45 p.m. EST/1945 UTC) and provided by NASA shows asteroid 2005 YU55 when the space rock was at 3.6 lunar distances, which is about 860,000 miles, or 1.38 million kilometers, from Earth. The asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier is set to make a close but harmless swing by Earth on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011. Scientists at NASA's Near-Earth Object Program, which tracks asteroids and comets, ruled out any chance of impact. (AP Photo/NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The 230-foot wide radio telescope at the Goldstone Deep Space facility in Ft. Irwin, Calif., is seen, Monday, Nov 7, 2011. The radio telescope has been tracking asteroid 2005 YU55. At closest approach, the quarter-mile-wide space rock will pass within 202,000 miles of our planet at 6:28 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday. (AP Photo/Orange County Register, ) MAGS OUT; LOS ANGELES TIMES OUT

The 230-foot wide radio telescope at the Goldstone Deep Space facility in Ft. Irwin, Calif., is seen, Monday, Nov 7, 2011. The radio telescope has been tracking asteroid 2005 YU55. At closest approach, the quarter-mile-wide space rock will pass within 202,000 miles of our planet at 6:28 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday. (AP Photo/Orange County Register, Leonard Ortiz) MAGS OUT; LOS ANGELES TIMES OUT

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? An asteroid as big as an aircraft carrier is zipping by Earth on Tuesday in the closest encounter by such a massive space rock in more than three decades.

Scientists ruled out any chance of a collision but turned their telescopes skyward to learn more about the object known as 2005 YU55.

Its closest approach to Earth was pegged at a distance of 202,000 miles at 6:28 p.m. EST. That's just inside the moon's orbit; the average distance between Earth and the moon is 239,000 miles.

The last time a large cosmic interloper came that close to Earth was in 1976 and it won't happen again until 2028.

Scientists at NASA's Deep Space Network in the California desert have tracked the quarter-mile-wide asteroid since last week as it approached from the direction of the sun at 29,000 mph.

Astronomers and amateur skygazers around the world kept watch, too.

The Clay Center Observatory in Brookline, Mass., planned an all-night viewing party so children and parents could peer through research-grade telescopes and listen to lectures. The asteroid can't be detected with the naked eye.

"It's a fantastic opportunity to educate the public that there are things out in space that we need to be aware of" including this latest flyby, said observatory director Ron Dantowitz.

Dantowitz added: "It will miss the Earth. We try to mention that in every breath."

If an asteroid that size would hit, Purdue University professor Jay Melosh calculated the consequences. The impact would carve a crater four miles across and 1,700 feet deep. And if it slammed into the ocean, it would trigger 70-foot-high tsunami waves.

Since its discovery six years ago, scientists have been monitoring the spherical, coal-colored asteroid as it slowly spins through space and were confident it posed no danger.

Asteroids are leftovers from the formation of the solar system some 4.5 billion years ago. Scientists believe their growth was stunted by Jupiter's gravitational pull and never had the chance to become full-fledged planets. Pieces of asteroids periodically break off and make fiery plunges through the atmosphere as meteorites.

Don Yeomans, who heads NASA's Near Earth Object Program, said 2005 YU55 is the type of asteroid that humans may want to visit because it contains carbon-based materials and possibly frozen water.

With the space shuttle program retired, the Obama administration wants astronauts to land on an asteroid as a stepping stone to Mars.

"This would be an ideal object," Yeomans said.

___

Online:

NASA's Near-Earth Object Program: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov

___

Follow Alicia Chang's coverage at http://www.twitter.com/SciWriAlicia

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2011-11-08-US-SCI-Asteroid-Flyby/id-0c95b10f666a49cfabd685dd4a792adb

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Greek premier struggles to end political deadlock

Greece's Prime Minister George Papandreou exits Presidential house after meeting with Greek President Karolos Papoulias, in Athens on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011. Embattled Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou launched efforts to form a four-month coalition government, arguing the move is vital to demonstrating Greece's commitment to remaining in the eurozone.(AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)

Greece's Prime Minister George Papandreou exits Presidential house after meeting with Greek President Karolos Papoulias, in Athens on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011. Embattled Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou launched efforts to form a four-month coalition government, arguing the move is vital to demonstrating Greece's commitment to remaining in the eurozone.(AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)

Greece's prime Minister George Papandreou, left speaks to Greek President Karolos Papoulias, at the presidential house in Athens on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011. Embattled Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou launched efforts to form a four-month coalition government, arguing the move is vital to demonstrating Greece's commitment to remaining in the eurozone.(AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)

FILE - This Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2011 file photo shows Greece's Conservative opposition leader Antonis Samaras addressing conservative members of parliament in Athens. Greece's prime minister struggled Saturday Nov. 5, 2011 to form a temporary coalition government, faced with opposition calls for immediate elections that have extended a political deadlock in the debt-shackled country. George Papandreou has agreed to step aside if necessary to help his Socialist party hammer out a four-month coalition he says is vital to securing a new debt deal worth an additional euro130 billion ($179 billion). But his offer was snubbed hours later by opposition leader Antonis Samaras. "We have not asked for any place in his government. All we want is for Mr. Papandreou to resign, because he has become dangerous for the country," Samaras said in a televised address. "We insisted on immediate elections." (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris, File)

Greece's Prime Minister George Papandreou addresses the media after his meeting with Greek President Karolos Papoulias, at the presidential house in Athens on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011. Embattled Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou launched efforts to form a four-month coalition government, arguing the move is vital to demonstrating Greece's commitment to remaining in the eurozone.(AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis)

ATHENS, Greece (AP) ? Greece's prime minister struggled Saturday to form a temporary coalition government in the near-bankrupt country, extending a political deadlock threatening billions in international rescue funds.

In an impassioned plea to parliament late Friday, George Papandreou agreed to step aside as premier if necessary to help hammer out a coalition, offering to include the conservative opposition party ? a possibility swiftly rejected by its leader.

Papandreou said a new coalition government would need four months to secure the new euro130 billion ($179 billion) rescue agreement and demonstrate the country's commitment to remaining in the eurozone.

"Cooperation is necessary to guarantee ? for Greece and for our partners ? that we can honor our commitments," Papandreou said at a meeting Saturday with President Karolos Papoulias, hours after his Socialist government narrowly survived a confidence vote.

"I am concerned that a lack of cooperation could trouble how our partners see our will and desire to remain in the central core of the European Union and the euro."

But Papandreou's plea was snubbed by conservative opposition leader Antonis Samaras.

"We have not asked for any place in his government. All we want is for Mr. Papandreou to resign, because he has become dangerous for the country," Samaras said in a televised address. "We insist on immediate elections."

Samaras was due to meet the president at 1:00 p.m. (1100GMT) Sunday.

Frustrated with Greece's protracted political disagreements, the country's creditors have threatened to withhold the next critical euro8 billion ($11 billion) loan installment until the new debt deal is formally approved in Greece.

Greece is surviving on a euro110 billion ($150 billion) rescue-loan program from eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund. It is currently finalizing a second major deal: to receive an additional euro130 billion ($179 billion) in rescue loans and bank support, with banks agreeing to cancel 50 percent of their Greek debt.

Midway through his four-year term, Papandreou was forced by his austerity-weary Socialist party into seeking cross-party support after he abandoned a disastrous proposal to hold a referendum on a new European debt deal ? which prompted havoc on world markets and anger from creditors.

Papandreou's popularity has been battered by two years of punishing austerity, causing crippling strikes, violent protests and sharp drop in living standards for ordinary Greeks who face repeated rounds of tax hikes and cuts in pension and salaries.

Late Friday, Papandreou won a confidence vote in the Socialist-led parliament on a pledge that he was willing to quit and form a caretaker coalition.

But he insisted an immediate election would paralyze government and endanger the new rescue deal.

The conservative snub left Papandreou with limited options: negotiating with conservative splinter groups and independents to attract consensus, and possibly invite respected non-politicians to join the effort.

"(Papandreou) will not resign immediately and he cannot resign before there is a new government. What remains to be seen is how flexible he will be in seeking a different governmental makeup," Ilias Nicolacopoulos, a prominent political analyst told AP television.

"There will be a tough game of poker."

___

Theodora Tongas contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-11-05-EU-Greece-Financial-Crisis/id-71371b67e2ce4a9a976b7e9672500fbf

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Andy Rooney: Each Sunday he looked at the everyday (AP)

NEW YORK ? It would be interesting to know what Andy Rooney would say now about the great beyond.

But if there's a hereafter for the once lovably cantankerous commentator on CBS News' "60 Minutes," he, even as a new arrival, would already have some pointed reactions ? and some bones to pick.

Sure, it's Paradise. But who can sleep with all that harp-playing? Maybe he's still miffed about the long line at the Pearly Gates. And, though he was never a fashion plate, he might have a beef with wearing white after Labor Day.

That was Rooney's style during his 92-year life and remarkable career. He shrewdly observed the world he shared with the rest of us, and then gave voice to the everyday vexations and conundrums that afflict us all.

"I probably haven't said anything here that you didn't already know or have already thought," he declared in his final "60 Minutes" essay ? his 1097th ? on Oct. 2, 2011. "That's what a writer does."

Despite his decades as a "60 Minutes" fixture, Rooney was a writer, not a talking head. Words, not vamping for the camera, were his stock in trade since his first "60 Minutes" essay in 1978, just as words were his business for more than 30 years before that.

Rooney, who died Friday, had been a champion of words on TV ever since he joined CBS in 1949 as a writer for the red-hot "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts." Within a few years he was also writing for such CBS News public-affairs such as "The Twentieth Century" and "Calendar."

A World War II veteran who reported for the military newspaper Stars and Stripes, he came from an ink-on-dead-trees brand of journalism that he never renounced. (During his CBS career, he had a syndicated newspaper column and published 16 books.) So it was logical that he would join "60 Minutes" with its inception in 1968. After all, the legendary creator of "60 Minutes," Don Hewitt, is well remembered for insisting that, even on the visual medium of TV, the words should come first and the pictures follow. A decade later, Rooney was 59. At an age when many people might be pondering retirement, he took his seat before the camera to deliver his first "60 Minutes" essay.

Beetle-browed and rumpled, he wasn't telegenic by conventional standards. But nobody minded, or even noticed. Viewers listened to his words and his wry delivery, and he caught on.

One reason is clear: He tapped into experiences common to his audience.

In his opinion pieces, he drew from a wellspring of random nuisances and absurdities, noting how life often doesn't add up, especially in the modern day. This nettled him mightily, and his essays gave us license to be irked, too, as we tapped into our own inner fuddy-duddy.

One Sunday, for example, Rooney focused on motion-picture credits. There are too many of them. They take too long. Who cares, anyway? Things were better when he was a kid, without all those names cluttering the screen and wasting everybody's time.

Another week, he marveled that, "If I'm so average American, how come I've never heard of most of the musical groups" ? such as Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Usher ? "that millions of other Americans apparently are listening to?"

He raised topics on which we all could readily agree: how packages misleadingly are bigger than the volume of product they contain, and how "computers make it easier to do a lot of things, but most of the things they make it easier to do don't need to be done." Amen!

He validated things in his own wry style that everybody knows: Like, how air travel stinks and how "nothing in fine print is ever good news."

He took notably bold stands on certain major issues. He was one of television's few voices to strongly oppose the war in Iraq when it began.

But there were easy targets, too. "There are a lot of know-nothing boobs who don't appreciate the modern art being put up in public places in all our cities," he declared peevishly one week. "I know this is true, because I'm one of those know-nothing boobs."

Then, occasionally, he strayed into areas beyond his understanding. For example, he dismissed Kurt Cobain's 1994 suicide as, in effect, a selfish act. What did Cobain know about suffering? The 27-year-old rock star hadn't suffered through a war or the Depression! (The next week, he apologized on the air.)

He could play rough.

"One of my major shortcomings ? I'm vindictive," he pleasantly acknowledged in a 1998 interview with The Associated Press. "I don't know why that is. Even in petty things in my life I tend to strike back. It's a lot more pleasurable a sensation than feeling threatened."

He summed up: "There's no question I have a negative streak, which has served me well."

Indeed. But if Rooney sometimes championed a get-off-my-lawn brand of crankiness, there was usually a twinkle in his eye and a "we're-in-this-together" tone to his writing that gave comfort to his flock.

"I've done a lot of complaining here," he acknowledged in his farewell commentary, and voiced a parting complaint: He doesn't like being famous, nor does he like being bothered by fans. "I walk down the street now or go to a football game and people shout, `Hey, Andy!' And I hate that." No autographs, please.

"But of all the things I've complained about, I can't complain about my life." Without even being told, his fans always knew that beneath Rooney's grumbling was gratitude for all the good things ? his family, his job, his country ? that life had given him. His fans identified with that, too.

Oh, sure, there were viewers who grew weary of his act, of his comments on the fleeting and the mundane (which, in a popular parody of Rooney, would begin as "Didja ever notice ...?" ? a phrase he insisted he had never used). Detractors thought he had long outstayed his welcome.

Even so, as he delivered his final essay ? which he titled "My Lucky Life" ? he spoke for much of the "60 Minutes" audience when he said, "This is a moment I have dreaded. I wish I could do this forever. I can't though."

Then he insisted he wasn't retiring: "Writers don't retire and I'll always be a writer."

For Rooney, it all came down to the writing, the words: simple, succinct, sometimes pungent, sometimes funny. And not many of them in a single serving.

His voice is stilled now, but never fear: If there are computers in heaven doing needless tasks, or forms containing fine print, or "the dullest" Olympic sport of curling, odds are Rooney is writing a cantankerous response.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111105/ap_en_ot/us_andy_rooney_tribute

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