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Obama cites stimulus effect on economy

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama said Wednesday the U.S. economy is moving in the right direction partly because of the federal economic stimulus bill.

Speaking at a highway construction site in Virginia's Fairfax County with U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Obama said workers who would have been laid off are instead finding jobs on projects such as the Fairfield County Parkway Extension, funded by the $787 billion stimulus bill.

"The fact is, as difficult as these times are -- and they're profoundly difficult for a whole lot of people all across the country -- we are moving in the right direction," Obama said. "Our economy is in better shape today than it was when I took office when we were hemorrhaging 700,000 jobs a month."

The stimulus spending, he said, "has spurred job creation and economic growth with projects like the one that I'm talking about here today."

Earlier in the day, Obama met with his national security advisers to discuss the war in Afghanistan, the White House said.

Obama met in the Situation Room with Vice President Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, Special U.S. envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrook, and the U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, among others, officials said.

The meeting comes as McChrystal is reportedly asking for up to 40,000 more troops for Afghanistan and Obama is moving to make a decision on the future of the U.S. war effort in the country.

It was the fifth gathering of the president's war advisers to review Afghanistan policy, The New York Times reported.

Obama backs second round of payments

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama said Wednesday he supports additional $250 economic recovery payments to 50 million seniors, veterans and people with disabilities.

The one-time payments were approved as part of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, otherwise known as the stimulus bill, and were given to Social Security and Supplemental Security Income recipients to help make up the loss of retirement savings in the stock market crash.

Obama said he now supports issuing another round of payments.

"Even as we seek to bring about recovery, we must act on behalf of those hardest hit by this recession," he said in a White House statement. "This additional assistance will be especially important in the coming months, as countless seniors and others have seen their retirement accounts and home values decline as a result of this economic crisis."

White House, senators mull reform

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- The stage was set Wednesday for U.S. Senate and White House negotiators to begin hammering out a compromise healthcare reform package, officials said.

The goal of the negotiators is to craft a legislative package that can win at least 60 votes in the Senate from Democrats and perhaps a few Republicans -- enough to avoid a GOP filibuster, The Washington Post reported.

The newspaper said President Barack Obama's top legislative liaisons were to be joined by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, budget chief Peter Orszag and health-reform director Nancy-Ann DeParle in a Wednesday afternoon meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn.

The Post said lawmakers were looking to Obama to use the sessions to iron out such continuing disputes as the inclusion of a government-run "public option" alternative and whether employers should be mandated to offer their workers health insurance.

"As we've said throughout this process, the White House stands ready to assist Leader Reid and Chairmen Baucus and Dodd in moving the reform effort forward," an official White House statement said.

New poll bad news for Sen. Specter

HARRISBURG, Pa., Oct. 14 (UPI) -- Fewer than one-third of Pennsylvania voters believe U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter should be elected to another term, a poll released Wednesday indicates.

Specter, 79, who switched parties to become a Democrat in April, is seeking a sixth term in 2010. The survey by Susquehanna Polling and Research found 59 percent of those polled said someone else deserves a chance to sit in the Senate, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported.

Jim Lee, president of the polling company, called Specter's numbers "near fatal."

But the senator does better in match-ups against his likely opponents. In a Democratic primary, he would get 44 percent of the vote to 16 percent for Rep. Joe Sestak.

Specter is in a statistical dead heat against former Rep. Pat Toomey, who almost defeated him in the Republican primary in 2004 and is next year's favorite to win the GOP nomination. While 42 percent said they would vote for Specter, 41 percent picked Toomey, 12 percent were undecided and 4 percent liked neither Specter nor Toomey.

Susquehanna polled 700 registered voters who have voted in at least one general election since 2005 between Oct. 7 and Oct. 12. The margin of error is 3.7 percent either way.

Temple Mount clashes prompt U.N. plea

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have increased in recent weeks and both sides should refrain from provocations, a top U.N. official said Wednesday.

Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs B. Lynn Pascoe, speaking to the U.N. Security Council in New York, said disputes this month at the Temple Mount site in Jerusalem, sacred to both Jews and Muslims, illustrate the need for calm and restraint.

"Even with the full determination and support of the international community to achieve a two-state solution, the essential ingredient is political will from the parties to meet their obligations and negotiate an end to the conflict," Pascoe said in the regular monthly report on the conflict to the 15-member council.

Citing clashes in Jerusalem between Israeli police and Muslim worshippers at al-Aqsa mosque, Pascoe said "bitter accusations" from extremists on both sides are making it harder to reach a solution on the issue of the Old City of Jerusalem.

"The repeated call of the Quartet on Israel to refrain from provocative actions in East Jerusalem and on the Palestinian Authority to refrain from incitement remains more relevant than ever," he said.

Clinton unveils Whitman statue in Moscow

MOSCOW, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Wednesday unveiled a statue of U.S. poet Walt Whitman at a new monument at Moscow State University in Russia.

Noting the Whitman statue was a response to the statue of Russian poet Alexander Pushkin placed on the campus of George Washington University in Washington 10 years ago, Clinton compared Whitman's 19th century poetic accomplishments to modern relations between Russia and the United States.

"Just as Pushkin and Whitman reset poetry, we are resetting our relationship for the 21st century," Clinton said while flanking Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov. "And that relationship is not just between our two governments, but most importantly, it is between the Russians and American people."

After the ceremony, Clinton delivered a speech at the school in which she said some in the U.S. and Russian governments must move past a Cold War mentality to address issues of today.

Clinton said such people put up roadblocks on issues such as missile defense because "they don't trust each other," CNN reported Wednesday.

She also called on the nations to seek common ground, saying they "shouldn't end all cooperation" simply because they don't agree on all issues.

"Let's be smarter than our past," Clinton said.

On Tuesday, Clinton's meetings with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Lavrov didn't result in breakthroughs on arms control, Afghanistan or possible sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program, CNN said.

"We are different countries; we have different historical experiences, different perspectives," she said. "But we are planting those disagreements in a much broader field of cooperation, and hopefully we are enriching the earth in which this cooperation can take root."