U.S. job recovery will be slow, some say
WASHINGTON, July 2 (UPI) -- The U.S. job market is facing heavy headwinds and isn't likely to improve in the short term, economists said.
The decline in automobile sales in June is one cause for alarm, The New York Times reported Wednesday. Sales in June dropped 28 percent at Ford Motor Co., 21 percent at Toyota and 18 percent at General Motors Corp.
Layoffs at car companies are one concern but the reluctance of consumers to spend in a time of tightening credit at banks is a signal that many production lines -- and even jobs in banking -- will slow down.
"It's a slow-motion recession," Ethan Harris, an economist at Lehman Brothers told the Times.
Harris said expects two years of "sub-par growth … growth that's not enough to generate jobs."
The official unemployment rate jumped 1 percent to 5.5 percent in the past year but the figure clouds the issue by not counting those who have given up looking for work and full-time workers now working part time.
The U.S. Labor Department says the adding in those groups puts the unemployment rate at 9.7 percent, the Times reported.
Minister sees 'potential' for new talks
NEW YORK, July 2 (UPI) -- Iran's foreign minister said he sees "potential" for a new round of talks concerning Teheran's nuclear program.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said government leaders were "carefully examining" an incentives package presented by the United States and its negotiation partners and would respond within weeks, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
"We see the potential for a new round of talks," Mottaki said at Iran's U.N. mission in New York. "The two sides are trying to see if they can arrive at a new modality."
He also held out the possibility of Iran freezing its uranium enrichment work during negotiations.
U.S. officials reacted cautiously to Mottaki's comments, emphasizing other Iranian leaders offered no indication they would suspend the activity, the main precondition to talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- the United States, France, Russia, Britain and China -- plus Germany, the Journal said.
The incentives package includes help in developing Iran's civilian nuclear program and economic assistance. Iran countered with a package focusing on developing international groups to address issues such as storing nuclear fuel to efforts to stabilize the Middle East.
Mottaki said melding "the two packages can put together a good agenda."
Two die in Israeli bulldozer rampage
JERUSALEM, July 2 (UPI) -- At least two people died and another 30 were wounded when a man driving a bulldozer plowed into a bus and other vehicles Wednesday in Jerusalem, police said.
The bulldozer also rammed into several cars and struck pedestrians before police killed the driver, CNN reported.
The rampage lasted 4-5 minutes on Jaffa Road, one of the longest and oldest streets in Jerusalem.
"(A) tractor made its way down the road, crushing everything in sight," a police spokesman said. "The tractor was driven by a terrorist. We can clearly say this was a terrorist incident."
Police said they didn't know whether the man was the driver of the bulldozer or whether the vehicle was hijacked. A motive wasn't known.
Police said the driver was an Arab resident of east Jerusalem, Ynetnews.com reported.
Zion Shetreet, who witnessed the attack, told Ynetnews.com the vehicle "turned into the road very suddenly and started trampling over the cars standing in the stoplight. I started yelling for people to shoot him. I saw some security guards running out of a nearby building and they were aiming Uzis at him."
Suspected spree killer arrested
GRANITE CITY, Ill., July 2 (UPI) -- A man suspected of killing eight people in Illinois and Missouri was arrested Tuesday outside a bar in Granite City, Ill.
Illinois State Police told the Sauk Valley Newspapers in Illinois that Nicholas Troy Sheley surrendered without incident to a plainclothes trooper. Samantha Butler said she tipped off police after recognizing Sheley in a sandwich shop and then seeing him in a bar, Bindy's.
A $25,000 reward had been posted for information leading to the arrest of Sheley, 28, of Sterling, Ill.
Sheley was wanted for a home invasion in mid-June when he allegedly began his killing spree last week. The first victim, a 93-year-old man, was found dead in the trunk of Sheley's car in Sterling.
He also is accused of killing two men, a woman and a child found in a Rock Falls, Ill., apartment, about 115 miles west of Chicago. Two more victims, Jill and Tom Estes of Sherwood, Ark., allegedly were killed outside a motel in Festus, Mo., and dumped behind a nearby gas station.
He allegedly killed another man in Galesburg, Ill.
Sheley's wife, Holly, told the Sterling Daily Gazette her husband, a construction worker, is a "regular society guy" when he's sober.
"At this point right now, if I could say that he was possessed ... and people would actually believe it, I could say he was, because this is not Nick," Holly said. "Without drugs, without alcohol, Nick is kind-hearted. He's caring. He has respect for people. He's a hard worker. He's a loving dad."
GOP insiders: McCain campaign aimless
WASHINGTON, July 2 (UPI) -- U.S. Republican Party strategists say they are becoming increasingly alarmed by the way likely presidential nominee John McCain is running his campaign.
Citing mainly anonymous sources within the party, the Washington Web site Politico reported Wednesday that GOP leaders are blasting strategic choices made by Sen. McCain, R-Ariz., criticizing what they see as its lack of organization and worrying about its lack of fundraising acumen.
"It's not just message or not having just one single meta-theme to compete with Obama," a source described as a veteran Republican strategist with close ties to McCain's top advisers told the Web site. "It's not just fundraising, which is mediocre. And it's not even just organization, which is (just) starting or nonexistent in many states."
Politico said some Republican officials are optimistic because there is still time for McCain's campaign to right itself. But most voiced grave concerns about aimlessness within a campaign that has failed to take advantage of a four-month head start on Democrats and has showed few signs of gaining traction.
"McCain's campaign seems not to have a game plan. I don't see a consistent message," Ed Rollins, a veteran of Republican presidential campaigns, told the Web site.
