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Thousands lose limbs in Haiti earthquake

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- Untold thousands of Haitians have lost limbs in this month's devastating 7-magnitude earthquake, health workers say.

Mirta Roses, director of the Pan American Health Organization, told the Miami Herald that the number of amputations has been enormous, with some hospitals reporting up to 30 such procedures per day shortly after the Jan. 12 disaster.

"My impression (is that) there will be thousands of amputations -- an that nearly half (of the amputees) may have lost more than one limb," she told the newspaper.

The island's only full-time prosthetics manufacturer and amputation clinic, Healing Hands for Haiti, was virtually destroyed the temblor.

"This is a country where people, even before the earthquake, relied on their physical abilities," Helping Hands board member Dr. Colleen O'Connell told the Herald. "Everything in this country is done by hand. Even getting around in this country on roads with potholes doesn't lend itself to anybody with a mobility problem."

Dr. Patrick DeHeer of the foundation Wound Care for Haiti told the newspaper that amputees who don't get proper follow-up care are at risk for poor blood flow and heart problems.

Petraeus: Afghan surge not like Iraq's

TAMPA, Fla., Jan. 25 (UPI) -- The U.S. troop surge in Afghanistan will take longer to produce results than the surge in Iraq, the top U.S. commander in the region says.

Gen. David Petraeus, head of the U.S. Central Command, told Monday's New York Times in Tampa, Fla., that unlike the 2007 Iraq surge, which resulted in violence falling sharply within months, it would be "difficult" to predict the injection of 30,000 fresh troops into Afghanistan would produce similarly speedy results.

"I have not assessed that Afghanistan could be turned as quickly as Iraq was turned -- that it will be difficult to assemble all the same factors that we were able to bring together in Iraq to reduce the violence as rapidly," said Petraeus, who commanded U.S.-led forces in Iraq during that surge.

Petraeus told the Times, "It will get harder before it gets easier and that will result from offensive operations intended in Helmand (province) and others to take away Taliban sanctuaries and safe havens."

The newspaper said the first Marine Corps elements of the surge announced by President Barack Obama last month have arrived in Helmand, while an Army battalion is now in the process of deploying.

Deadly blasts rock hotel area in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- Car bombs tore through security barricades of three hotels and an apartment building in Baghdad, killing at least 36 people and wounding 71, officials said.

Bombers struck the perimeters of the Palestine, Sheraton and Hamra hotels in what officials said was a coordinated attack involving three blasts, The Washington Post reported.

Not immediately clear was whether the bombings were connected to Monday's execution of "Chemical Ali," the cousin of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, the Post said. An Iraqi government spokesman said Ali Hassan al-Majid was executed for orchestrating the poison gas attacks that killed more than 5,000 Kurds in 1988.

Television images showed that concrete blast walls designed to protect the hotels -- homes to foreign media organizations and private companies -- tumbled to the ground.

Witnesses said the attacks began when two men opened fire on the security checkpoint at the Hamra compound. As guards fled the bullets, the men opened the gate and a minibus laden with explosives drove past the blast walls. Although the guards shot the minibus driver, the bomb tore through an apartment building, breaking glass and crumbling walls of homes and hotels nearby, the Post reported.

Officials told the Kuwait News Agency KUNA a suicide bomber was seen driving his vehicle along Abo Nawas Street, where the security barrier for the hotels collapsed when the blasts occurred.

Obama outlines help for middle class

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama pledged to rebuild middle class security so when the economy improves "working Americans are free to pursue their dreams again."

The federal government must "reverse the overall erosion in middle class security so that when this economy does come back, working Americans are free to pursue their dreams again," Obama said Monday to the Middle Class Task Force when outlining proposals he'll discuss in his State of the Union Wednesday. "There are a variety of immediate steps we can take to do just that."

Among the proposals Obama said he plans to discuss Wednesday and include in his budget proposal to Congress next week are ones that would:

-- Nearly double the child and dependent care tax credit for families making less than $85,000 a year by increasing their tax credit rate from 20 percent to 35 percent of qualifying expenses.

-- Limit a student's federal loan payments to 10 percent of his or her income above a basic living allowance.

-- Create a system of automatic workplace IRAs, by requiring all employers to offer an option for employees to enroll in a direct-deposit IRA.

-- Expand tax credits to match retirement savings and enact new safeguards to protect retirement savings.

-- Expand support for families caring for elderly relatives.

Vice President Joe Biden outlined the proposals to the task force before Obama spoke, saying, "Every day, middle class families go to work and help make this country great. ... These common sense initiatives will help these families cope with these challenges."

Obama and Biden reviewed what the administration has done during the last year to help pull the country out of the economic doldrums, including the economic stimulus package, measures designed to help free up credit, put people back to work and improve the nation's infrastructure, among other things.

The proposals Obama outlined Monday weren't expected to add to the budget deficit he has promised to reduce.

"None of these steps alone will solve all of the problems facing the middle class," Obama said "But hopefully some of these steps will re-establish some of the security that has slipped away in recent years. Because in the end, that's how Joe and I measure progress -- not how the markets are doing, but how the American people are doing."

Gallup: Obama polarizing in first year

PRINCETON, N.J., Jan. 25 (UPI) -- The gap between the major parties' job approval ratings for U.S. President Barack Obama is the largest for any president in his first year, Gallup said Monday.

Eighty-eight percent of Democrats said they approve of the job Obama is doing in office while 23 percent of Republicans did, Gallup said of its review of Obama's approval ratings after his first year in office.

The 65 percentage point gap between Republicans and Democrats is the largest split for any president in his first year, exceeding the previous mark of 52 points for Bill Clinton, the Princeton, N.J., polling agency said.

Overall, Obama averaged a 57 percent job approval rating among all Americans from his inauguration to the end of his first full year Jan. 19, Gallup said Monday.

When Obama took office, his approval rating was among the highest for an incoming president since World War II, pollsters said. However, he quickly lost GOP support, with his approval rating among Republicans dropping below 30 percent in mid-February and below 20 percent in August.

Obama's approval ratings among Democrats exceeded 80 percent throughout the year, Gallup said.

Minister: Suu Kyi to be released in Nov.

YANGON, Myanmar, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's pro-democracy leader, will be released in November when her house arrest sentence ends, a minister said.

Home Minister Maj. Gen. Muang Oo announced her release date during a meeting Thursday of government officials, CNN reported Monday.

Myanmar government officials also said Tin Oo, vice chairman of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, will be released Feb. 13 at the end of his six-year term.

Suu Kyi was sentenced to 18 additional months of house arrest in May after U.S. citizen John Yettaw trespassed on her property, leading to her trial on charges of subversion and violating terms of her house arrest.

Suu Kyi has appealed her sentence to Myanmar's Supreme Court in Yangon. CNN reported the court would decide within a month whether to proceed with the case.

The military junta has kept the Nobel Peace Prize winner under house arrest for about 14 of the past 20 years. The junta has ruled Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, since 1962.