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Obama proposes small business loan plan

NASHUA, N.H., Feb. 2 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama, speaking in Nashua, N.H., Tuesday introduced a loan program that would use bank bailout money to help small businesses get loans.

The proposal, a new Small Business Lending Fund, would allocate $30 billion to community banks to provide the loans, Obama said during a speech at Nashua High School North. The fund would be created with the Troubled Asset Relief Program money repaid by bailed-out banks.

"These are the small, local banks that work most closely with our small businesses -- that provide them their first loan, and watch them grow through good times and bad," Obama said. "The more loans these banks provide to creditworthy small businesses, the better a deal we'll give them on capital from this fund."

The Small Business Lending Fund, which requires legislation, would be limited to community banks and smaller financial institutions with assets less than $10 billion, the White House said in a fact sheet. A primary function of the new fund would be offering capital with incentives to increase small-business lending that has tightened during the economic malaise.

He acknowledged it would take time to correct the economic problems that took years to create.

"We're making progress here, but it can't come fast enough," Obama said.

Repeating themes he voiced frequently last week, Obama stressed jobs would be the top focus for 2010, saying it was "absolutely critical" that Congress acts to help create an environment favorable for employment.

"I ran to solve problems for the next generation. I ran to get the hard things done," Obama said.

Obama also spoke of improving education, investing in innovation and providing a "world-class" education to U.S. students from kindergarten through post-secondary education.

He drew long and loud applause when he spoke of his plan to pursue healthcare reform, vowing not to walk away from efforts to reform the healthcare system.

"We should keep working to get it done ... this year," Obama said to a standing ovation.

Concluding with comments on reducing long-term deficits, Obama said it was time for the federal government to prioritize and make tough choices.

"That's why I continue to make investments in job growth this year ... in education ... in science and technology and innovation," he said. "Those are smart investments."

Obama noted his State of the Union and budget proposals include eliminating more than 120 government programs, either by consolidating programs that are duplicative or eliminating ones that are ineffective.

Obama called on both parties to come together to work to reduce the deficit, thanking that both chambers passed a pay-as-you-go bill that would require any increase in federal spending be accompanied by a corresponding decrease.

"We've come through a tough year and a tough decade, but ... that determination to do what's right that has always been at the core of the American people ... should fill us all with optimism about what lies ahead," Obama said. "So let's put aside the small things. Let's come together and do what's hard and do what's necessary ... to fulfill the promise of this great country in our time."

Haitian parents try to give children away

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- Haitian parents unable to find food for their children have been begging relief workers to take them out of the country, officials say.

Tom DiFilipo, head of the Joint Council on International Children's Services, called it an "unbelievably common occurrence."

"The country was a disaster to start with," DiFilipo told The Miami Herald. "Now you are living in a camp where there is no sanitation, disease is rampant. Then you get a chance to get your child out of that -- and it may be the only thing you've got. You want to keep your child alive, but there's only one way to do it: try to get your child into another country."

Officials estimate the Jan. 12 earthquake doubled the number of orphans in Haiti to 760,000.

While Haitian parents approach aid workers and journalists, begging them to take them to the United States or Europe, Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive has created roadblocks to taking children out. The United States has also said the only Haitian orphans who will be granted visas will be those whose adoptions were already in progress before the quake.

Authorities fear children with surviving parents or other relatives might be removed from Haiti prematurely. There are also fears children could fall into the hands of child traffickers.

Obama's attending U.S.-EU summit up in air

BRUSSELS, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama doesn't plan to attend a U.S.-European Union summit in May, with a spokesman saying EU leadership questions may be a factor.

The European Union president, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, reportedly was angry over the apparent decision, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

"Because of the changes involving the establishment of a EU council president and a European Commission president on top of the rotating EU presidency, I think it's taking some time to work through exactly how various high-level meetings will happen," U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. "But we look forward to ongoing dialogue."

A White House official said the decision was a matter of scheduling, adding that since the summit wasn't on Obama's agenda, it couldn't be considered canceled.

European officials told the Times a transition to a new governance system under the Lisbon Treaty has been difficult. As the first president of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy, and the new EC foreign affairs leader, Catherine Ashton, acclimate themselves and fill their staffs, Spain has taken a greater role in planning the European Union's agenda and summits.

"Some confusion between new and old may have been a factor," a European official said. "This is a special moment in Brussels (home base for the European Union), with a tectonic shift to a new structure, so there is a hole in the middle, and we are trying to fill it."

Iran to execute nine more protesters

TEHRAN, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- Nine Iranians alleged to have taken part in last year's anti-government riots are to be executed, semi-official media reported Tuesday.

Iran's Fars News Agency quoted a senior judiciary official as saying the hangings will be in addition to two others last week, CNN reported.

"The two people who were executed, as well as the other nine who will soon be executed, had certainly been arrested during the recent riots," the Iranian official reportedly said. "Each had belonged to an anti-revolutionary group, had aspired to sow dissent and to uproot the regime."

Observers say the most recent demonstrations, held on the Dec. 27 Muslim holy day Ashura, resulted in at least seven people being killed and hundreds arrested. Like the anti-government demonstrations that swept Iran last summer, they stemmed from allegations that the June 12 presidential vote re-electing hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was rigged.

CNN reported authorities last week hanged Mohammed Reza Ali Zamani, 37, and Arash Rahmanipour, 20. They had been convicted of being enemies of God and of plotting to topple the Islamic republic.

Poll: Most Britons support euthanasia

LONDON, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- Britons hold mostly favorable views on euthanasia and assisted suicide, an Angus Reid Public Opinion poll released Tuesday indicated.

The polling firm said that among a representative national sample of 2,004 British adults, 71 percent supported legalizing euthanasia in Britain, while 18 percent opposed the idea.

Overall, it said, 61 percent of Britons think people who help a person to commit suicide should not be prosecuted.

The poll also found that at least three-quarters believe legalizing euthanasia would establish clearer guidelines for doctors to deal with end-of-life decisions. Some 84 percent said it would provide people who are suffering an opportunity to ease their pain.

Pollsters, meanwhile, found that less than half -- 46 percent -- of Britons agree with the arguments that legalizing euthanasia would leave vulnerable people without sufficient legal protection. Only 30 percent agreed that legalization would send the message that the lives of the sick or disabled are less valuable.

The online poll was conducted Jan. 26-27 and carried a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points, pollsters said.

Poll: Palestinians want Abbas to stay

GAZA, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- A clear majority of Palestinians want Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to stay in office until the next presidential elections, a poll indicates.

A poll released Tuesday by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion indicated 57.6 percent of respondents want Abbas to stay in office. The president, whose term expired last year, has threatened to resign and to refuse to run in new elections if Israel continues to resist ending its possession of the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

Nabil Kukali, the center's director-general, said the polls showed nearly half of Gaza residents polled said they believe Abbas' announcement is a maneuver in the dispute between the Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas.

Kukali added the Palestinian public has indicated only serious peace negotiations can end the schism and reinstate unity.

"Eighty-two-point-one percent of the Palestinian society in Gaza consider the Egyptian document as a good basis for a reconciliation and a settlement of the internal Palestinian dispute," Kukali said.

The document calls for a 3,000-man security force in Gaza, reconciliation between the Hamas and Fatah factions and coordination between the Hamas government in Gaza and Abbas' Palestinian Authority.

The poll included a random sample of 1,450 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip age 18 and older. The sampling error was set at 2.57 percentage points.