Senate OKs jobless benefits debate
WASHINGTON, April 12 (UPI) -- The U.S. Senate voted 60-34 Monday to take up the debate about whether to continue extended unemployment benefits.
Four Republicans -- including newly elected Scott Brown of Massachusetts, George Voinovich of Ohio, and Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe of Maine -- joined 56 Senate Democrats to allow the $9 billion jobless benefits bill to come up for discussion, The New York Times reported.
Conservatives contend any additional federal spending should be accompanied by corresponding spending cuts. But given the current high unemployment rate of 9.7 percent as the country edges out of deep recession, Democrats say adding to the federal deficit is warranted to help out about 200,000 out-of-work people whose benefits have expired.
"Let us help the families who are struggling in this difficult economic time," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said.
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., countered that Washington needs to exercise the same fiscal restraint as average Americans.
"We refuse to do the same things that families across this country do every day and that's make a choice about priorities," Coburn said.
If the legislation reaches President Barack Obama's desk, it would continue the benefits only through early May, giving lawmakers time to reach agreement on a longer-term fix.
Obama: Nuke summit 'impressive'
WASHINGTON, April 12 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama said Monday the nuclear security summit in Washington would lead to "specific, concrete actions" to make the world safer.
The president came out of the Oval Office in between bilateral meetings with other world leaders and was asked by waiting reporters his thoughts on the international gathering on nuclear arms.
"It's impressive," Obama said. "I think it's an indication of how deeply concerned everybody should be with the possibilities of nuclear traffic, and I think at the end of this we're going to see some very specific, concrete actions that each nation is taking that will make the world a little bit safer."
One solid action came from Ukraine, which promised Monday to get rid of its supply of highly enriched uranium by the next summit two years from now.
Earlier, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden told foreign leaders and dignitaries assembled in Washington a nuclear weapons-free world is an achievable goal.
The vice president told the luncheon gathering the United States "is committed to reducing the number of nuclear weapons in our arsenal and reducing their role in our defense." He cited the START treaty signed by the United States and Russia last week as a concrete step toward that commitment.
Biden said Obama "has committed our country to seek peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons."
He said he hoped the representatives of more than 40 nations assembled for the nuclear summit can agree "controlling all nuclear materials that can produce a bomb is in the interest of every one of us gathered around this table and everyone in the world."
"As world leaders, we all know that there are extremist groups and non-state actors seeking that capability right now, seeking to gain access to nuclear materials to make a nuclear bomb," Biden said.
Obama spent the day conducting separate bilateral meetings with the leaders of several countries, including Chinese President Hu Jintao.
Forty-six countries, the United Nations, the European Council and the International Atomic Energy Commission gathered in Washington to discuss ways to secure vulnerable nuclear material worldwide, the White House said.
Medvedev: Russia could back out of treaty
WASHINGTON, April 12 (UPI) -- Russia's president says he might withdraw from the recently signed U.S.-Russia nuclear disarmament treaty if U.S. missile plans in Europe create "imbalance."
Speaking on ABC's "Good Morning America" Monday, Dmitry Medvedev said American missile defense plans in Europe could conflict with language in the START treaty stating there is an "interconnection between the strategic offensive arms and missile defense." "(If) the other party radically multiplies the number and power of its missile defense system," Medvedev said, "obviously that missile defense system is indeed becoming a part of the strategic offensive nuclear forces, because it's capable of blocking the action of the other side. So an imbalance occurs, and this would be certainly the reason to have a review of that agreement."
Should Russia consider the European missile defense program, long a sticking point in negotiations, a threat, Medvedev said, he would have to consider a "premature end" to the agreement.
The treaty, signed Thursday, would reduce American and Russian nuclear arsenals by a third over seven years.
Kyrgyzstan president warns of violence
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, April 12 (UPI) -- The president of Kyrgyzstan, forced from office and into hiding by rioting protesters last week, said any attempts to arrest him would end in bloodshed.
Kurmanbek Bakiyev, issued the warning after speaking to about 500 supporters in southern Kyrgyzstan, The New York Times reported Monday.
"Let them try to come and take me," Bakiyev said to reporters after the rally. "Let them try to destroy me. There will be blood."
Leaders of the interim government in Bishkek confirmed Monday their intention to arrest Bakiyev, the Times reported.
Bakiyev fled the capital Wednesday after violent protests over his alleged corrupt and repressive rule left more than 80 killed and hundreds wounded.
Kyrgyzstan is strategically important to the United States as the site of a large American air base supporting the NATO war effort in Afghanistan. American officials denied there are plans to involve the United States in resolving Bakiyev's status.
"The U.S. Embassy has no plans to shelter Mr. Bakiyev or help him leave Kyrgyzstan," the embassy said in a statement. "Reports to the contrary are completely inaccurate."
