Tracy Martin (L) and Sybrina Fulton, the parents of Trayvon Martin, participate in a candlelight vigil to mark the anniversary of the shooting death of their son in New York, February 26, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Keith Bedford
Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn Reuters. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng
Hiển thị các bài đăng có nhãn Reuters. Hiển thị tất cả bài đăng
Thứ Sáu, 5 tháng 4, 2013
Thứ Ba, 2 tháng 4, 2013
NRA-funded panel urges training armed guards at schools - Reuters
1 of 4. Former Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR), a consultant of the National Rifle Association, discusses the findings and recommendations of the National School Shield Program at the National Press Club in Washington April 2, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Gary Cameron (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS EDUCATION)
WASHINGTON |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A task force funded by the National Rifle Association, the top U.S. gun rights group, unveiled a plan on Tuesday to train armed security personnel in every school in response to the December school massacre in Connecticut - a proposal swiftly condemned by gun control advocates.
The task force led by Asa Hutchinson - a former Drug Enforcement Administration chief, Republican congressman and Homeland Security Department official - unveiled 225 pages of proposals that follow December's call by NRA Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre for placing armed guards in all schools.
The task force recommended 40 to 60 hours of training - to be developed and carried out by the NRA - for armed security officers or staff members in each school.
"Obviously, we believe they will make a difference in the various layers that make up school safety," Hutchinson told reporters at a news conference marked by unusually heavy security for a media event.
"This is not talking about all teachers. Teachers should teach," Hutchinson added.
The NRA, known for its influence in Congress, has vigorously fought gun control legislation and has touted armed security personnel as the solution to school violence.
President Barack Obama called for new gun control measures after a gunman killed 20 children and six adults on December 14 at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. Gun control advocates appear to be losing momentum in Congress even before the Senate is due to take up legislation this month.
LaPierre's call in the days after the Newtown massacre for armed guards in all American schools was heavily criticized by gun control supporters.
'MISSING THE POINT'
"Once again, the NRA leadership is missing the point," the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a gun control group, said of the task force recommendations.
"The American public is calling for a comprehensive solution that not only addresses tragic school shootings, but also helps prevent the thousands of senseless gun deaths each year," the group added, touting expanded background checks for gun buyers and other gun control proposals in Congress.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said the task force recommendations would fail to keep schools safe and urged Congress to pass new gun control laws.
While the NRA commissioned the task force's study, Hutchinson said his 12-member panel was fully independent. The task force included a former Secret Service head, police and security officers, and representatives from Phoenix RBT Solutions, a law enforcement training firm.
The task force also recommended security accords between schools and law enforcement, state safety standards and improved federal coordination for school safety. It called for adoption of a model state law for armed school staffers and a program to assess threats and support the mental health of students.
The NRA commended Hutchinson for his work and said it would review the recommendations. The group said it was "determined to continue to use every asset at its disposal to help make America's children safe at school."
Mark Mattioli, whose son was among the children killed in Newtown, attended the news conference and said he welcomed the recommendations as "real solutions that will make our kids safer. And that's what we need."
The American Civil Liberties Union said the task force proposals could get the federal government in the business of supplying arms to teachers and heighten the risk that students could be funneled into the criminal justice system.
Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children's Defense Fund, an advocacy group, also condemned the proposal.
The Democratic-controlled Senate, seen as more friendly to gun control legislation than the Republican-led House of Representatives, is due to take up legislation this month.
But proposals backed by Obama to ban assault weapons and crack down on high-capacity ammunition clips appear unlikely to pass, and universal background checks face a tough fight.
The U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to bear arms. No major gun legislation has passed the U.S. Congress since 1994.
At the state level, legislative leaders in Connecticut on Monday agreed to some of the toughest gun regulations in the nation and expected to adopt them this week.
Asked about the Connecticut legislation, Hutchinson said it would be "totally inadequate" for school safety.
(Editing by Will Dunham)
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Thứ Hai, 1 tháng 4, 2013
Connecticut legislative leaders reach tough gun-control deal - Reuters
Residents protest outside the National Shooting Sports Foundation in Newtown, Connecticut March 28, 2013 after receiving robocalls from the NRA, trying to enlist them in efforts to defeat new statewide gun control proposals.
Credit: Reuters/ Michelle McLoughlin
Thứ Ba, 19 tháng 3, 2013
Euro drags its feet near 3-month low against dollar as Cyprus worries weigh - Reuters
A picture illustration taken with the multiple exposure function of the camera shows a one Euro coin and a map of Europe, January 9, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Kai Pfaffenbach
TOKYO |
TOKYO (Reuters) - The euro hovered near a three-month low versus the dollar on Tuesday as a plan to tax Cyprus savings accounts to help fund a bank bailout fuelled fears about the stability of euro zone financial institutions.
While Asian investors were relieved to see limited fallout from the Cyprus deal on other euro zone countries so far as the uptick in Spanish and Italian debt yields appeared to be contained, analysts were guarded about the near term.
"Looking at European and U.S. markets yesterday, the injury seems to be shallow. But it would be premature to say it will heal in just two days," said Daisuke Uno, chief strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Bank.
The euro traded at $1.29400, a whisker higher than late U.S. levels, but still close to a three-month low of $1.2882 hit on Monday, with its 200-day moving average of $1.2875 on Tuesday a strong support.
It recouped some of its losses in late Monday U.S. trade after euro zone ministers urged Cyprus to let smaller savers escape the proposed levy on bank deposits.
Against sterling, the euro edged up from a five-week low of 85.34 pence hit on Monday to change hands at 85.78 on Tuesday.
The common currency now faces an uphill battle to recover to Friday's close of $1.3076 as it remains unclear whether the Cypriot parliament will endorse the plan needed to secure financial rescue at a parliamentary debate scheduled for 1600 GMT (12:00 EST) on Tuesday.
"If the plan is voted down, there will surely be fresh selling in the euro," said Tohru Sasaki, the head of Japan rates and FX research at JPMorgan Chase Bank.
Sasaki also noted that euro looks vulnerable as its bounce overnight was smaller than its rebound after the fall triggered by a Greek election last May, when investors were shocked by the ruling coalition failing to win a majority.
"On Monday after the Greek election, the euro almost fully recovered from a 1 percent loss in Asia. But that turned out to be a high for many months to come, as the euro kept falling in the next two months and a half," he said.
STORM IN A TEACUP?
As Nicosia extends its bank holiday until Thursday to avert panic, market players pondered whether savers in larger European countries would get nervous and withdraw funds, although there was no immediate sign of that on Monday.
Analysts at Barclays say they see limited risk of contagion to other countries.
"We consider that the scope of potential contagion to other peripheral countries in terms of deposit outflows and sovereign debt is considerably more limited than if such a decision would have been taken in previous programs. Specifically, we consider the likelihood of a bank run in other periphery countries to be limited, including in Greece," they wrote.
The radical move on deposits had limited impact on Spanish and Italian debt on Monday. Their yield rose but stayed well within their recent ranges.
Commodity currencies, which took a hit in tandem with the euro initially, have recouped most of losses, with Australian dollar trading at $1.0375, not far from five-week high of $1.0415 hit last week.
The currency of resource-rich Australia is in focus as a new leadership takes charge in China, its biggest export market, said Michiyoshi Kato, senior vice president of forex sales at Mizuho Corporate Bank in Tokyo.
"Whether the Aussie-yen can break through 100 depends on whether the new leaders can actually fire up the economy with no manipulation. That would get investors snapping up the Aussie," he said.
On Tuesday, the Australian dollar bought 99.05 yen, inching up from Monday's low of 97.69 against the Japanese currency, which declined across the board as sour risk sentiment on the back of the Cyprus shock softened somewhat.
The dollar rose 0.3 percent on the day to 95.44 yen as investors covered their short bets on the greenback.
"If the dollar-yen manages to break above the top of its 93-96 yen range then it could sail pretty easily to 98. If you look at the corporate price index on a purchasing price parity basis then 97.5 looks like a buffer," said Kato of Mizuho Corporate Bank.
"Of course, if Cyprus blows up, risk sentiment would spike, meaning it might be difficult for it to get there."
The euro recovered 0.2 percent to 123.495 yen, but it is still down 0.8 percent from late last week.
(Editing by Eric Meijer & Kim Coghill)
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Thứ Năm, 14 tháng 3, 2013
Reuters man on Anonymous hack charge
14 March 2013 Last updated at 19:44 ET
A Reuters social media editor has been charged in the US with conspiring with hacker group Anonymous to break into a website of a former employer, the Tribune Company.
The indictment says Matthew Keys gave members of Anonymous a login and password to the company server.
At least one hacker managed to change the web version of a Los Angeles Times news feature, the indictment says.
The alleged incident occurred before Mr Keys' employment with Reuters.
Neither Mr Keys - a deputy social media editor - nor Reuters have so far commented.
Court date setThe US Justice Department said Mr Keys had been charged in California with one count each of conspiracy to transmit information to damage a protected computer; transmitting information to damage a protected computer and attempted transmission of information to damage a protected computer.
Mr Keys worked for Sacramento-based TV station KTXL FOX 40 - owned by Tribune - as its web producer but his job was terminated in late October 2010, the indictment adds.
He is alleged to have identified himself on an internet chat forum as a former Tribune Company employee and then provided members of Anonymous with the login and password to the Tribune Company server.
The indictment alleges that Mr Keys had a conversation with the hacker who claimed credit for the defacement of the Los Angeles Times website.
The hacker allegedly told him that Tribune Company system administrators had locked him out.
Mr Keys allegedly tried to regain access for the hacker, and when he learned that the hacker had made changes to a page, Mr Keys is said to have responded: "Nice."
If convicted, Mr Keys faces up to 10 years in jail, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000 for each count.
He is scheduled to appear in the Sacramento federal court on 14 April.
Thứ Hai, 4 tháng 3, 2013
Four policemen butchered as Kenyans queue in tense vote - Reuters
1 of 4. A man cycles past a campaign poster promoting infrastructure by Kenya's Prime Minister and presidential candidate Raila Odinga and his running mate Kalonzo Musyoka in the western town of Kisumu, March 3, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Thomas Mukoya
NAIROBI/MOMBASA, Kenya |
NAIROBI/MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) - Kenyans lined up on Monday to vote in a presidential election that will test whether the east African nation can rebuild its image after tribal blood-letting followed a 2007 poll, but the killing of at least four policemen cast an early shadow.
A few hours before voting officially started at 6 a.m. (0300 GMT), four police officers deployed to keep the peace during the vote in the Mombasa port city area were hacked to death by a gang of machete-wielding youths, a senior officer said.
Officials and candidates have made impassioned appeals to avoid a repeat of the tribal bloodshed that erupted over the disputed result of the 2007 election, which killed more than 1,200 people and hurt Kenya's reputation as one of Africa's most stable democracies.
Ambrose Munyasia, chief of police intelligence in the Coast region, said he suspected the gang that attacked the police were linked to the separatist movement, the Mombasa Republican Council, which had sought and failed to have the national vote scrapped and to hold a referendum on independence.
Bernard Otundo, 36, who joined hundreds of others waiting in line before the sun rose over Nairobi, said he was confident the vote would be broadly peaceful.
"Some of us have been here as early as 2 a.m. this morning. I got here slightly after 3 a.m.," he said. "There has been a lot of awareness campaigns against violence and I don't think it will happen this time around, whatever the outcome."
Long lines also built up in other areas of the country.
Outgoing President Mwai Kibaki, barred from seeking a third five-year term, addressed Kenyans before the election saying: "I also make a passionate plea for all of us to vote peacefully. Indeed, peace is a cornerstone of our development."
As in 2007, the race has come down to a high-stakes head-to-head between two candidates, Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta. Once again both will depend heavily on votes from loyalists from their tribes.
WATCHING NERVOUSLY
Though well ahead of six other contenders, polls suggest neither Odinga nor Kenyatta may be able to command enough ballots for an outright victory in the first round. That could set the stage for a tense run-off tentatively set for April 11. A narrow first-round victory for either candidate could raise prospects for legal challenges.
Kenya's neighbors are watching nervously, after their economies felt the shockwaves when the violence five years ago shut down trade routes running through east Africa's biggest economy. Some landlocked states have stockpiled fuel and other materials.
The United States and other Western countries are worried about the election in a country seen as a vital ally in the regional battle against militant Islam. Adding to election tensions, al Shabaab militants, battling Kenyan peacekeeping troops in Somalia, issued a veiled threat days before the vote.
The West also frets about the outcome of the presidential race.
Kenyatta, 51, has been indicted for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court after he was accused with his running mate, William Ruto, of instigating the post-2007 vote violence. He denies the charges. But, if he wins, it would present a diplomatic dilemma for Western nations that donate hundreds of millions dollars a year to Kenya.
"There are those who said that Uhuru and Ruto will not run because we are facing cases in Europe, but God has opened that road for us so that people can decide," Kenyatta told a rally in Nairobi's central park on Saturday, where thousands of supporters gathered, some chanting, "Uhuru, Uhuru".
Like other candidates, Kenyatta called on his supporters to vote peacefully and promised he would accept any result.
To try to prevent a repeat of the contested outcome that sparked the violence after the December 2007 vote, a new, broadly respected election commission is using more technology to prevent fraud, speed up counting and increase transparency.
This could lead to a swifter announcement of results, after delays in 2007 fuelled the crisis. Provisional figures may emerge within hours of polls closing, although the commission has seven days to declare the official outcome.
Kenya has passed a new constitution since 2007, police chiefs have deployed extra forces to maintain security and there is a more independent judiciary which commands greater respect. Officials have appealed to candidates to raise any challenges in the courts and not on the streets.
URGING PEACE
Even so, Odinga has already raised a warning flag, telling Reuters that the commission had by "design or omission" failed to register all voters in his strongholds, putting him at a disadvantage, a charge the commission denies.
"We know and we hope there will be no rigging this time," Odinga, who narrowly lost the 2007 race, told a Nairobi stadium filled with supporters.
"We are urging all our supporters to be peaceful because you are winning," said the 68-year-old, a veteran of Kenyan politics who may now have his last shot at the presidency.
Many Kenyans, hoping for a peaceful vote, say memories of the brutal killings by gangs armed with machetes, knives and bows and arrows are still fresh enough to deter a repeat. Many want to see a calm vote and a result to help Kenya's economy.
"By the end of the day, I want to see the youth with jobs," said Tonny Wamagata, 30 who works on a casual basis as a bus conductor. He lined up with many others at a polling station in a church on the outskirts of Nairobi.
Yet many are still wary, particularly in places where violence flared last time. Shopkeepers have run down stocks and some people in mixed tribal areas have returned to their homelands elsewhere, a few worried by threatening leaflets.
Michael Ochieng, in the tense city of Kisumu on the shores of Lake Victoria where businesses were looted five years ago, said reports of such leaflets in areas of the Rift Valley, another site of slaughter after 2007, did not bode well.
He spoke of growing animosity between Odinga's Luo tribe and Kenyatta's Kikuyu, in a contest where many voters will make their decision based on tribal loyalties not ideology.
Alongside the presidential race, there are hotly contested elections for senators, county governors, members of parliament, women representatives in county assemblies and civic leaders.
In the teeming slum of Kibera in central Nairobi, where Luos and Kikuyus live side by side, the sight on the election's eve of the orange T-shirts of Odinga supporters walking alongside the red ones of Kenyatta backers encouraged some.
But Samuel Kitai, 60, a grain miller who is neither Kikuyu nor Luo and whose store was looted in 2007, was taking no chances. Pointing inside his largely empty corrugated iron shack, he said: "I usually have maize here, rice and everything, but now you can see the store is empty."
(Additional reporting by Hezron Ochiel in Kisumu, Drazen Jorgic, Beatrice Gachenge and George Obulutsa in Nairobi; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Stephen Powell and Christopher Wilson)
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Thứ Hai, 25 tháng 2, 2013
Abe vows to revive Japanese economy, sees no escalation with China - Reuters
1 of 5. Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe participates in a media conference at a Washington hotel, February 22, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Jason Reed
WASHINGTON |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told Americans on Friday "I am back and so is Japan" and vowed to get the world's third biggest economy growing again and to do more to bolster security and the rule of law in an Asia roiled by territorial disputes.
Abe had firm words for China in a policy speech to a top Washington think-tank, but also tempered his remarks by saying he had no desire to escalate a row over islets in the East China Sea that Tokyo controls and Beijing claims.
"No nation should make any miscalculation about firmness of our resolve. No one should ever doubt the robustness of the Japan-U.S. alliance," he told the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"At the same time, I have absolutely no intention to climb up the escalation ladder," Abe said in a speech in English.
After meeting U.S. President Barack Obama on his first trip to Washington since taking office in December in a rare comeback to Japan's top job, he said he told Obama that Tokyo would handle the islands issue "in a calm manner."
"We will continue to do so and we have always done so," he said through a translator, while sitting next to Obama in the White House Oval Office.
Tension surged in 2012, raising fears of an unintended military incident near the islands, known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. Washington says the islets fall under a U.S.-Japan security pact, but it is eager to avoid a clash in the region.
Abe said he and Obama "agreed that we have to work together to maintain the freedom of the seas and also that we would have to create a region which is governed based not on force but based on an international law."
Abe, whose troubled first term ended after just one year when he abruptly quit in 2007, has vowed to revive Japan's economy with a mix of hyper-easy monetary policy, big spending, and structural reform. The hawkish leader is also boosting Japan's defense spending for the first time in 11 years.
"Japan is not, and will never be, a tier-two country," Abe said in his speech. "So today ... I make a pledge. I will bring back a strong Japan, strong enough to do even more good for the betterment of the world."
'ABENOMICS' TO BOOST TRADE
The Japanese leader stressed that his "Abenomics" recipe would be good for the United States, China and other trading partners.
"Soon, Japan will export more, but it will import more as well," Abe said in the speech. "The U.S. will be the first to benefit, followed by China, India, Indonesia and so on."
The United States and Japan agreed language during Abe's visit that could set the stage for Tokyo to join negotiations soon on a U.S.-led regional free trade agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
In a carefully worded statement following the meeting between Obama and Abe, the two countries reaffirmed that "all goods would be subject to negotiations if Japan joins the talks with the United States and 10 other countries.
At the same time, the statement envisions a possible outcome where the United States could maintain tariffs on Japanese automobiles and Japan could still protect its rice sector.
"Recognizing that both countries have bilateral trade sensitivities, such as certain agricultural products for Japan and certain manufactured products for the United States, the two governments confirm that, as the final outcome will be determined during the negotiations, it is not required to make a prior commitment to unilaterally eliminate all tariffs upon joining the TPP negotiations," the statement said.
Abe repeated that Japan would not provide any aid for North Korea unless it abandoned its nuclear and missile programs and released Japanese citizens abducted decades ago to help train spies.
Pyongyang admitted in 2002 that its agents had kidnapped 13 Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s. Five have been sent home, but Japan wants better information about eight who Pyongyang says are dead and others Tokyo believes were also kidnapped.
Abe also said he hoped to have a meeting with new Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who takes over as president next month, and would dispatch Finance Minister Taro Aso to attend the inauguration of incoming South Korean President Park Geun-hye next week.
(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason and Doug Palmer; Editing by David Brunnstrom and Paul Simao)
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Thứ Năm, 21 tháng 2, 2013
Ending long break, White House and Republicans renew budget talks - Reuters
U.S. President Barack Obama discusses the automatic budget cuts scheduled to take effect next week, while in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in the White House complex in Washington February 19, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Larry Downing
WASHINGTON |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After weeks without talks on the U.S. budget crisis, President Barack Obama called Republican leaders on Thursday to discuss the harsh "sequestration" cuts to government spending due to begin in just over a week.
In what might be just the start of long negotiations to prevent the $85 billion in cuts, Obama spoke to House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The conversations were "good," White House spokesman Jay Carney said, but he declined to provide details.
A McConnell spokesman said it was the first outreach from Obama since the New Year's Eve "fiscal cliff" deal.
Unlike that impasse, which produced drama in Congress and stormy meetings at the White House, both sides have so far not engaged in high-profile negotiations on how to avoid the government cuts, which few in Washington favor.
The reductions are due to begin on March 1, but their immediate effects are unlikely to be severe because they will be phased in gradually over seven months.
That lag could give politicians at least a few weeks to reach a solution before another budget trigger date - a deadline for funding the government - comes up at the end of March.
Republicans want to replace the across-the-board sequester cuts by finding other more-targeted spending reductions.
But congressional Democrats have put forward a $110 billion plan that includes not only spending cuts but also tax increases, which are opposed by Republicans.
Obama has expressed doubt a deal can be struck by March 1.
"At this point, we continue to reach out to Republicans and say this is not going to be good for the economy, it's not going to be good for ordinary people," the president told radio talk show host Al Sharpton.
"But I don't know if they're going to move and that's what we're going to have to keep pushing over the next seven, eight days," he told Sharpton.
In what looks like a coordinated campaign to win public support for a broader deficit reduction package that includes more tax revenue, the White House and government agencies have warned frequently in recent days of severe damage from the cuts.
They could curb economic growth, lead to some 750,000 lost jobs and decimate public services like law enforcement and air traffic control, the administration says.
RHETORIC TONED DOWN
But officials seemed to tone down some of their warnings on Thursday as Obama made contact with Republicans.
White House spokesman Carney distanced himself from a phrase used by outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, whose department would be hit with the heaviest cuts at $46 billion. Panetta said this month the United States risked becoming a "second-rate power" if sequestration went ahead.
"I don't think the issue here is the language you use to describe it, because every characterization you make of it, if you're being honest about it, is negative," Carney said when asked who would be a first-rate power if the United States were second-rate. "The impact will be negative. It will harm our national security," Carney said.
It could be months before any meat plants are shut down because of a furlough of meat inspectors, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said, because USDA employees get from 30 to as many as 120 days notice of impending layoffs, he said.
"I'm not sure what it is in the food safety area," said Vilsack whose agency has raised the prospect of the furlough repeatedly in the past two weeks.
An official with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the White House's Office of Management and Budget had yet to tell the department how much to cut if there is no deal in Congress to stop the sequester.
"It's fair to say that nothing really changes on March 1," the official said. "We're all going on estimates until OMB informs us of what the actual percentage cut will be."
The country's top Wall Street regulators are not expecting layoffs or furloughs. Both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have so far mostly downplayed the impact of the cuts.
That means traders, financial firms and publicly traded companies are unlikely to need to prepare, for now, for any major immediate disruption of financial markets.
In addition, the U.S. public seems only dimly aware of the sequester, according to a poll released Thursday.
In findings which may help explain the lack of urgency in Congress so far, about 43 percent of those polled had only heard a little about the planned cuts.
ONE FISCAL BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
While the White House and Republican leaders were discussing sequestration, others in Congress were thinking about the next big budget fight: the government funding deadline on March 27.
The Republican chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Hal Rogers from Kentucky, is preparing a stopgap funding bill to avoid a government shutdown at the end of March.
The plan assumes the cuts remain in effect for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends September 30. That would cut the overall fiscal 2013 budget for discretionary expenditures, including the military, to around $974 billion from $1.043 trillion.
Essentially, it is a recognition of the huge gulf between Democrats and Republicans over how to replace the cuts.
"It's the chairman's intention to keep them separate," a Rogers aide said. "You don't want to risk a government shutdown on top of sequestration."
A series of fiscal crises over how to reduce the budget deficit and $16 trillion national debt have rocked Washington and eroded business confidence.
James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, said the U.S. economy was ready to take off if only Washington could sort out the budget.
"If the U.S. could get rid of the cloud of uncertainty associated with medium- and long-term fiscal uncertainty it would be a huge positive for the U.S. economy, far surpassing any temporary negative effects of passing tax increases or spending cuts," he told reporters in New York.
(Additional reporting By David Lawder, Patrick Rucker, Sarah Lynch, David Morgan and Charles Abbott in Washington and Jonathan Spicer in New York; Writing by Alistair Bell; Editing by Todd Eastham)
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