World/Nation Briefs October 5, 2011
<p>Miguel Sandel of Middleborough, Mass., rakes cranberries into a loading tube during an afternoon harvest at the Hannula cranberry bogs in Carver, Mass., Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2011. Massachusetts cranberry farmers are expecting a robust crop this fall. Researchers said that growing conditions this summer were optimal, with enough hot days interspersed with the right amount of rain. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)</p>
Democrat wins West Virginia governor's race
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Democrat Earl Ray Tomblin overcame weeks of Republican attack ads to win the West Virginia governor's race Tuesday, successfully distancing himself from the Obama administration and the president's health care plan.
Tomblin, who has been acting governor for the past year, will finish the final year of a term left vacant by Joe Manchin, a well-liked governor who stepped down after he won a U.S. Senate seat.
The race was fraught with negative ads from both sides and narrowed in the final weeks. The national parties spent millions of dollars on each campaign.
With 96 percent of precincts reporting, Tomblin had 50 percent of the vote compared with Republican Bill Maloney's 47 percent, according to unofficial results.
Tomblin campaigned as the rightful heir to Manchin. He said together they helped shape policies that created pain-free balanced budgets and revenue surpluses at a time when other states continued to struggle during the recession.
Obama lost West Virginia in 2008 and remains wildly unpopular here, but Tomblin got a replay of last year's U.S. Senate special election, when Manchin beat back efforts to tie him to Obama.
Democrats outnumber the GOP by nearly 2-to-1 in West Virginia, but they are considered more conservative than their national counterparts on both social and fiscal issues, supporting gun rights and cutting taxes.
Bernanke warns Congress about economy's slide
WASHINGTON - Europe has a debt crisis. America has a jobs crisis. Corporate profits could be in trouble. World financial markets are in turmoil. And no one seems prepared to ride to the rescue.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke bluntly warned Congress on Tuesday of what most of America has sensed for some time: The economic recovery, such as it is, "is close to faltering."
Bernanke's exchange with lawmakers seemed to capture the growing belief that no one is prepared to help the global economy in any meaningful way anytime soon. Speaking in unusually frank terms, he also captured the nation's sour economic mood.
Christie won't seek Republican nomination
TRENTON, N.J. - New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie firmly declared Tuesday that "now is not my time" to run for president, dashing the hopes of Republicans still searching for someone other than former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who has failed to win over skeptical conservatives, or Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is falling in polls as quickly as he had risen.
After months of insisting that no, no, he wouldn't run - and then a long weekend of well maybe - Christie made it final in a news conference at the New Jersey Statehouse. That means it's basically down to Romney and Perry battling to take on President Barack Obama, three months before the first GOP nomination voting.
Christie was the latest, perhaps last, hope of some establishment Republicans who had already been rejected by Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan and others who declined to run for president in 2012.
Copter crashes into New York City's East River
NEW YORK - A helicopter with five people aboard crashed into the East River on Tuesday afternoon after taking off from a launch pad on the riverbank, killing one passenger and injuring the others.
New York Police Department divers pulled the dead woman from about 50 feet of water about an hour after the Bell 206 helicopter went down around 3 p.m. All the passengers appeared to be British tourists, police said.
The pilot, Paul Dudley, and three passengers were bobbing in the chilly water, and it looked as though a man was diving down and coming back up, possibly in an attempt to rescue the remaining passenger, witnesses said.
Officers jumped in and pulled out two women and a man, police spokesman Paul Browne said. The women were in critical condition, and the man was stable. All were hospitalized. The pilot made his own way to the riverbank and remained at the scene.
Islamic militants launch bombing in Somali capital
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Al-Qaida-linked militants launched their deadliest single bombing in Somalia on Tuesday, killing 70 people and demonstrating how the group that blocked aid to famine victims can still mount devastating violence even after most of its fighters fled the capital in August.
A truck loaded with drums of fuel exploded outside the Ministry of Education on one of central Mogadishu's busiest streets, where students and their parents were registering for scholarships offered by the Turkish government.
Rebels of the al-Shabab militant group immediately claimed responsibility.
- The Associated Press