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Federal
Reserve keeps federal funds rate unchanged
WASHINGTON
(AP) — Amid signs the worst of the recession may be over, the
Federal Reserve left a key interest rate unchanged Wednesday, ending
a yearlong stretch of uninterrupted credit easing.
After
11 consecutive rate reductions last year, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan
and his colleagues opted to keep the federal funds rate — the
interest that banks charge each other on overnight loans —
at 1.75 percent, the lowest level in 40 years. The decision was
announced after a two-day closed-door meeting.
“Signs
that weakness in demand is abating and economic activity is beginning
to firm have become more prevalent,” the Fed said in a statement
explaining its decision. “With the forces restraining the economy
starting to diminish ... the outlook for economic recovery has become
more promising.”
Blue
chip stocks rallied after the Fed’s announcement, with the
Dow Jones industrial average
gaining back part of Tuesday’s big loss.
Even
though the Fed opted to hold rates steady Wednesday, it left the
door open to further rate reductions if necessary.
Still,
many economists, believing the economy is on the mend, are not forecasting
additional rate reductions.
Airport
evacuated after explosive residue detected
SAN
FRANCISCO (AP) — Thousands of passengers were evacuated from
San Francisco International Airport for more than two hours Wednesday
after security guards detected explosives residue on the shoes of
a man who then disappeared into the crowd.
A
search of the United Airlines terminal failed to find the man, and
the terminal was reopened mid-morning, with all passengers being
rescreened, said airport spokesman Ron Wilson.
“We’ve
searched the terminal. It’s safe and secure,” Wilson said.
“It’s unfortunate that one individual can cause this madness.”
About
a quarter of the airport was evacuated around 7 a.m., the peak of
the morning travel rush, after the residue was detected on the man’s
shoes at a checkpoint, said airport spokesman Mike McCarron. “When
they went to stop him, he didn’t stop,” McCarron said.
The
explosive material could be anything from fireworks residue to nitroglycerin
tablets, McCarron said. It was detected after a gauze-like material
was wiped across the man’s shoes, then put through a machine.
McCarron
didn’t know whether the residue was discovered in a random
check or if the man raised suspicion. The passenger was described
as a white male in his 40s. Airport officials were unsure if video
cameras at the checkpoint captured the man’s image.
The
incident forced officials to hold all 27 outgoing flights from the
area and affected at least 20 inbound flights, Wilson said. United
is the airport’s largest carrier.
Federal
Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown said passengers
were taken off planes at the some of the gates as a precaution.
At
least 3,000 people were evacuated from the terminal, many of them
left standing outside the building on an unusually cold San Francisco
day, with temperatures in the 30s.
Clues
sought into the cause of crashed airliner
CUMBAL,
Colombia (AP) — Relatives of some of the 92 people aboard a
crashed Ecuadorean airliner began hiking to the wreckage high on
a fog-shrouded volcano in the Andes, as investigators sought clues
into the cause. Authorities said there were no survivors.
Cloud
cover and steep terrain prevented helicopters from reaching the
crash site, and officials said the remains of the dead would have
to be carried down the flanks of the 15,721-foot Nevado del Cumbal
volcano by hand and on horseback.
The
TAME airlines Boeing 727-100 crashed Monday near the mountain’s
windy, freezing summit. Rescuers who reached the wreckage Tuesday
found shards of metal, tattered clothing, photographs and burned
money, but no sign of life.
Before
dawn, a few relatives of passengers, working with a local guide,
departed a base camp set up by rescuers for the three-hour journey
up the volcano.
Colombian
officials later said they did not want families going up the mountain.
In
addition to looking for bodies, authorities said they were also
trying to locate the plane’s flight data recorder. Colombia’s
air force chief, Gen. Hector Velasco, said the plane exploded upon
impact and a large rock broke off from the volcano and landed on
the wreckage.
The
plane was carrying 83 passengers, including seven children, and
nine crew members, TAME said. In addition to Colombians and Ecuadoreans,
there two Spaniards, two Italians, a Mexican and a Cuban aboard,
the airline said.
Suicide
bomber wounds two Israel security agents
TAIBE,
Israel (AP) — A Palestinian suicide bomber threw himself on
an Israeli vehicle parked close to the West Bank border Wednesday,
wounding two members of Israel’s Shin Bet security service
who were sitting inside, police said.
A
statement from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s office, which
is responsible for Shin Bet, said the injured agents were on “an
operational mission” when they were attacked.
Palestinian
security sources and Israeli radio reports identified the bomber
as Murad Abu Asal, 23, and said he had worked as a collaborator
with Israel. He apparently lured the two agents to a rendezvous
near the Israeli city of Taibe, about 100 yards from a checkpoint
that separates Israel from the Palestinian town of Tulkarem in the
West Bank.
Palestinian security sources said collaborators regularly meet with
Israeli security agents in that area.
Israel’s
security forces have a wide network of Palestinian collaborators
who provide intelligence. In one instance last year, a Palestinian
informant shot and killed his Israeli handler and was then shot
dead himself.
The
militant Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for the attack
in a statement faxed to the Associated Press.
“We
will continue with our jihad, and operations and more strikes in
the Zionist depth are coming,
God willing,” the statement said.
Wednesday’s
bombing came a day after Israeli security officials presented Sharon
with a plan aimed at tightening security in Jerusalem, the scene
of two deadly Palestinian attacks in the past week, but there was
no immediate decision whether to adopt the measures.
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