Obama vows to help America's unemployed

WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama vowed on Saturday to work tirelessly to get unemployed Americans back to work now that new statistics have shown a slight improvement on the job creation front.

"My commitment to you, the American people, is that I will focus every single day on how we can get people back to work, and how we can build an economy that continues to make real the promise of America for generations to come," Obama said in his weekly radio address.

The US labor market witnessed a dramatic improvement in November as the number of jobs lost narrowed to 11,000 and the unemployment rate dipped to 10.0 percent, official data showed Friday.

The Labor Department figures showed the labor market nearing positive territory, suggesting the economy is approaching job growth needed to sustain a fragile recovery.

The report was far better than analyst expectations for a loss of 125,000 jobs and a jobless rate unchanged from October at 10.2 percent.

Obama welcomed the data, saying they "reflected a continuing positive trend" of diminishing job loss. But he insisted much more needed to be done to provide Americans with stable, well-paying employment.

"For those who were laid off last month and the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs in this recession, a good trend isn't good enough," he said.

"Trends don't buy the groceries. Trends don't pay the rent or a college tuition. Trends don't fulfill the need within each of us to be productive, to provide for our families, to make the most of our lives, to reach for our dreams."

The president stressed the need for a long-term solution to America's economic woes, arguing that his efforts were necessary to reform the US health care system, give children the best education in the world, achieve energy independence by investing in a clean energy economy, and to deal with the mounting federal debt.

He also said that in the coming days, he will be unveiling "additional ideas aimed at accelerating job growth and hiring," but stopped short of offering specifics.

However, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Friday that Obama could endorse the use of remaining funds of a 700-billion-dollar bailout for the financial industry to fund job creation programs.

Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi said this week that untapped Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) money could fund infrastructure investments like water projects, rapid transit, high-speed rail, and expanding Internet access and helping small businesses.

Critics of the scheme however have suggested using unspent TARP funds to pay down part of the huge US budget deficit projected by the White House to hit 1.502 trillion dollars in fiscal 2010.

According to a report to Congress in October, 317 billion dollars remains to be spent under the fund, including 70 billion repaid by financial institutions bailed out under the program.

Obama said at Thursday's jobs summit at the White House that he was not prepared to wait to push job creation measures -- but warned that government cash was limited given the size of the deficit so he called on the private sector to help.

Other possible approaches include offering small businesses a tax break to take on new workers for job-intensive energy projects.

Republicans on Friday stepped up their assault on Obama, blaming him for "job killing" policies, including his backing for a cap-and-trade system to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

House minority leader John Boehner said any decrease in the unemployment rate was "encouraging" but he warned of a "jobless recovery" and double-digit unemployment.

The Labor Department's highly anticipated jobs report Friday showed an unexpectedly sharp improvement in the troubled labor market, key to building a sustainable recovery from the worst recession in decades.

The readings beat average analyst forecasts of 125,000 jobs lost and a jobless rate unchanged, with the job-loss number the lowest since the economy entered recession in December 2007.

Dubai crisis, holiday sales will dominate trading

NEW YORK – Investors may have to do some emotional juggling as the trading week begins.

While markets around the world continue to assess the fallout from Dubai's worrisome debt problems, investors trying to get a handle on the global economy will also factor in some encouraging U.S. retail sales over the Thanksgiving weekend. The question for many is whether they should focus on the possibility of another spreading credit crisis, or signs that consumer spending in this country may indeed be stabilizing.

News that Dubai's investment arm, Dubai World, could default on $60 billion in debt sent world markets skidding on Thanksgiving, and U.S. stock markets initially followed when trading resumed Friday after the holiday. Wall Street regained some ground as overseas exchanges stabilized and as analysts reported that U.S. banks had relatively limited exposure to the problems in the Persian Gulf city-state.

Stock index futures showed more signs of steadying late Sunday. Dow Jones industrial average futures were up 0.3 percent, while Standard & Poor's 500 futures rose 0.4 percent.

Stock markets were also up as the week's trading began Monday in Asia.

Investors might have had some reassurance from Sunday's news that the United Arab Emirates' central bank will offer additional liquidity to banks, a move designed to keep credit markets from freezing up.

Still, Dubai World's troubles gave a jolt to investors who had set aside many of their concerns about risk during the stock market's almost nine-month rally. Suddenly, they had to worry that the crisis in Dubai could be a harbinger of similar problems in other countries. And if traders decide to hunker down rather than take on more risk, they're likely to keep selling stocks and turn to the relative safety of Treasury bonds and the dollar.

"Markets were getting a bit complacent," said Jeff Mortimer, chief investment officer at Charles Schwab Investment Management. "This is a wake-up call" that the economic recovery is going to be choppy and uneven, he added.

Right now, some analysts aren't worried that the stock rally might be in jeopardy — and say traders may decide to focus on growing evidence of a U.S. economic recovery.

"I don't think it's big enough to be a game-changer," Mortimer said of Dubai's debt problems. "It gets my attention. But does it push the trains off the tracks and is everything lost? Certainly not."

Retailers' reports that Thanksgiving weekend sales were respectable may be a pleasant distraction for the stock market. Store owners said shopper traffic was up from a year ago, and held steady through the weekend after a big surge Friday. However, consumers were focusing on the basics, as expected.

Investors have been concerned that rising unemployment would make consumers reluctant to spend on nonessentials. The market will get stores' official take on the weekend on Thursday, when many of the big companies release their sales results for November.

The first few days of December will also bring key economic reports including the Labor Department's November employment report, scheduled for Friday. The number of jobs being lost each month has generally been declining, with 190,000 slashed in October, and economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect that number to have fallen to 130,000 in November.

The unemployment rate, meanwhile, is forecast to remain stable at 10.2 percent.

Analysts have been questioning whether the stock market has gotten ahead of the actual economic recovery, especially since some of its recent advance has been due to the dollar's weakness. Many investors were theorizing that the falling dollar would help guarantee that U.S. interest rates would remain stable, making it easier for companies to borrow. Moreover, when the dollar is down, companies that do business with other countries find it easier to sell their goods and services overseas, and their profits rise when those sales are translated into dollars.

Stocks have been on a fairly steady churn higher since hitting 12-year lows in March. Even with Friday's sell-off, the Dow is still up more than 57 percent from the March bottom.

The Dow lost 1.5 percent on Friday, but was down less than 0.1 percent for the holiday-shortened week. U.S. markets were closed Thursday for Thanksgiving and closed three hours early on Friday.

The S&P 500 index tumbled 1.7 percent Friday, and was essentially flat for the week after a big rally Monday was offset by Friday's declines.

In other economic data expected this week, the Institute for Supply Management releases its monthly readings on the manufacturing and service sectors.

Economists predict the ISM manufacturing index, due out Tuesday, dipped to 55 in November from 55.7 in October. A reading above 50 indicates growth in the sector. The ISM service-sector index, due Thursday, is forecast to have risen to 51.5 last month from 50.6 in October.

Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification

Ferry death toll rises to 62

DHAKA, Bangladesh — Authorities say the death toll from a weekend capsizing of a ferry in southern Bangladesh has risen to 62 after the recovery of an additional four bodies.

Local police official Mohammad Bayezid said Monday rescuers plucked four bodies overnight from River Tetulia, where the overcrowded triple-deck ferry capsized.

The M.V. Coco was packed with hundreds of travelers leaving Dhaka to head home for the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha when it went down late Friday. It started to take on water as it arrived at Nazirhat town in the coastal district of Bhola, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of the capital.

Rescuers said most of the bodies were pulled out from inside the submerged cabins and hulls of the ferry.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — A rescue ship righted a capsized ferry on Sunday, easing the work of those searching the submerged cabins for scores believed trapped inside more than a day after the boat sank in southern Bangladesh. So far, 58 people have been confirmed dead, authorities said.

The M.V. Coco was packed with hundreds of travelers leaving Dhaka to head home for the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha when it went down late Friday. It started to take on water as it arrived at Nazirhat town in the coastal district of Bhola, 64 miles (104 kilometers) south of the capital.

Gas torches were used to cut open submerged cabins, and local residents joined divers to search for survivors inside the ferry in the Tetulia River. Operations picked up Sunday — more than 36 hours after the accident — when a rescue ship used iron ropes to right the submerged ferry, exposing more than a dozen bodies inside its water-filled hull, local police official Mohammad Mahmud said.

The recovery took the total number of dead to 58 — most of them women and children — before the search was suspended for the night, Mahmud said.

Authorities said there were no passenger lists, so it was unclear how many people were aboard the vessel, but Dhaka's private ETV television station said it could have been carrying more than 1,500 people. Officials would not say how many remained unaccounted for; Dhaka's mass circulation Prothom Alo daily said it could be 50. The boat was approved to carry 1,000 people.

Hundreds of anxious relatives massed on the sandy river bank and searched for their missing loved ones over the weekend.

Some complained that rescue work was slow as officials were on holiday for Saturday's Eid celebration.

"The ferry sank just before midnight Friday, but rescuers did not arrive until the morning," said survivor Sohel Hossain.

On Sunday evening, the anger bubbled over, and some people who had been waiting for hours for their news of the missing briefly threw stones at rescuers, Monaj Kumar Sohag, a local journalist said from the scene. No one was hurt from the protest, he said.

Some survivors said the boat hit a shoal as it approached the dock in Nazirhat, splitting the hull. As passengers scrambled to abandon the vessel, it tipped and partially sank.

"As I saw water in the lower deck, I jumped through the window and swam ashore," Shahidul Islam, a survivor, said Saturday. "Many passengers were frightened after seeing water in the lower deck and started rushing out, causing the boat to tilt on one side."

Ferries are a key mode of transport in the delta nation of 150 million people. Accidents blamed on lax rules, overcrowding and faulty boats are common.

Rare Charles Darwin book found on toilet bookshelf

LONDON — An auction house says it is selling a rare first edition of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" found in a family's guest lavatory in southern England.

Christie's auction house said Sunday the book — one of around 1,250 copies first printed in 1859 — had been on a toilet bookshelf at a family's home in Oxford.

The book will be auctioned on Tuesday, the 150th anniversary of the publication of the famous work. Christie's said the book is likely to sell for 60,000 pounds ($99,000).

Darwin's "The Origin of Species" outlined his theory of natural selection, the foundation for the modern understanding of evolution.

Celebrations around the world this year have marked the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth.

On the Net:

• Darwin's Collected Works: http://darwin-online.org.uk/

Formerly conjoined twins in stable condition

MELBOURNE, Australia — Formerly conjoined Bangladeshi twins spent their first night in separate beds and were in serious but stable condition Wednesday following a marathon surgery to separate the toddlers, who were born joined at their heads.

Trishna and Krishna, who turn 3 next month, shared a section of skull, blood vessels and brain tissue. They were separated Tuesday after 25 hours of delicate surgery and reconstruction by a team of 16 surgeons and nurses.

"It was amazing to see," said Leo Donnan, chief of surgery at Royal Children's Hospital. "The girls look very different."

He said the girls are in serious but stable condition in the intensive care unit.

It is too early to know whether the girls suffered any brain damage during the marathon operation — an outcome doctors said was a 50-50 chance. The girls will remain in an induced coma for monitoring for several days.

Andrew Greensmith, a plastic surgeon from New Zealand, called the surgery painstaking and remarkable.

Greensmith was holding the girls' heads at the final moment of separation, when the beds were pushed apart millimeter by millimeter.

"It was quite bizarre to see them apart for a change ... quite surreal," he told New Zealand radio network NewstalkZB.

He said the surgery went smoothly.

"We were prepared for potentially catastrophic things happening at some point, major bleeding which we may have trouble stopping, all sorts of possibilities. But we had none of that at all," he said.

Before the surgery, doctors had said there was a 50 percent chance the girls could suffer brain damage and a 25 percent chance one of the sisters would die.

Trishna and Krishna were found in an orphanage in Bangladesh in 2007 by a representative from the Children First Foundation, who brought to them to Australia.

Missy the Million Dollar Cow highlight of agricultural fair's final weekend

TORONTO — Toronto's annual Royal Agricultural Winter Fair is wrapping up this weekend with a visit from a very wealthy guest: Missy the Million Dollar Cow.

The three-year-old dairy cow, bred in P.E.I. and previously owned by Alberta's Morsan Farms, was sold at auction Thursday for $1.2 million.

The sale, to two buyers from the U.S. and Denmark, makes Missy only the second cow in Canada to crack the million dollar mark.

Morsan Farms marketing manager Chris Parry says while the buyers have the rights to the genetically-superior Missy's embryos, she won't be leaving Canada.

Instead, she'll remain in Ponoka, Alta., where she's been for nearly two years.

Parry says Missy could have as many as 75 children over the course of her life.

"She's quite a character. She has the personality that she knows people like her," says Parry.

"She likes to show herself off."

Missy wasn't the only high-profile celebrity to appear at the 87th annual fair, commonly known in Toronto as the Royal.

Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, were on hand for the opening ceremonies earlier this month.

The fair continues until Sunday.

Government unveils new citizenship guidebook

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney unveiled a new and larger version of the citizenship guidebook for prospective immigrants on Thursday, one that emphasizes the importance of getting a job, obeying the law and the nobility of serving in the military.

The new 62-page guidebook, Discover Canada: The Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship, is what newcomers aged 18 to 54 will use to prepare for their citizenship test.

Kenney said when you become a citizen, you inherit certain obligations.

"And one of those responsibilities is to know who we are, from where we came, what values define us and to live in accordance with those values," he said in Ottawa on Thursday.

Under the subheading "citizenship responsibilities," prospective citizens are reminded that rights come with duties, including obeying the law, voting in elections, serving on a jury, taking responsibility for oneself and one's family by getting a job, and volunteering.

The guide says while military service isn't compulsory, serving in the armed forces is a "noble way to contribute to Canada and an excellent career choice."

Kenney said the guide also includes a more detailed history of Canada, something he said the previous booklet published in 1997 under the Liberals was lacking.

"It didn't explain what the poppy represents, didn't talk about the equality of men and women, didn't address the nationalist movement in Quebec. It was, I think, in a way, unintentionally promoting a certain degree of historical ignorance. And I think we've corrected that."

In discussing gender equality, the new guide says Canada's openness doesn’t include "barbaric cultural practices that tolerate spousal abuse, honour killings, female genital mutilation or other gender-based violence."

Opposition parties gave the guide mixed reviews.

"There's not a lot on Canada as a majestic land with boreal forests, Great Lakes. Not enough celebration of the UNESCO sites that we have," said NDP immigration critic Olivia Chow.

"Those are areas that I would love to see in this [guide] so new Canadians can explore this beautiful land of ours."

While Chow said she "appreciates seeing some of the darker side of history — whether it's the Japanese internment or the residential schools for aboriginal people [or the] Chinese head tax," she would have liked to have seen more discussion of shared common Canadian values.

Bloc Québécois citizenship and immigration critic Thierry St.-Cyr says the guide "minimizes the concept of the Quebec nation."

"What we see in this document is a way of saying, well, Quebec is just a province amongst others and it's no more [a] founding nation."

The booklet will also be made available to schools.