[Today's News] from [CBS News.com]
[World]
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 23, 2009
Obama: U.S. Can't Fix the World Alone
President to Tell U.N. General Assembly that Others Must Now Pull Their Own Weight, Not Just Wait for America
(CBS/AP) Seizing a chance to challenge the world, President Obama says the global community is failing its people and fixing that is not "solely America's endeavor."
"Those who used to chastise America for acting alone in the world cannot now stand by and wait for America to solve the world's problems alone," Obama said in a passage of the speech he was delivering Wednesday to the United Nations General Assembly.
The White House released excerpts in advance that carried a remarkably blunt tone.
It comes in Obama's first speech to this world body, a forum like none other for a leader hoping to wash away any lasting images of U.S. unilateralism under President George W. Bush.
In essence, Obama's message is that he expects plenty in return for reaching out.
"We have sought in word and deed a new era of engagement with the world," Obama said, echoing the cooperative theme he promised as a candidate and has since used as a pillar of his foreign policy. "Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility."
He said if the world is honest with itself, it has fallen woefully short.
"Extremists sowing terror in pockets of the world," Obama said. "Protracted conflicts that grind on and on. Genocide and mass atrocities. More and more nations with nuclear weapons. Melting ice caps and ravaged populations. Persistent poverty and pandemic disease."
The president added, "I say this not to sow fear, but to state a fact: the magnitude of our challenges has yet to be met by the measure of our action."
Obama's speech is the centerpiece of a dizzying agenda that will also see him holding pivotal meetings with the new Japanese prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Immersed, Obama foreshadowed his message to world leaders in a speech Tuesday to the Clinton Global Initiative. He spoke of nations interconnected by problems, whether a flu strain or an economic collapse or a drug trade that crosses borders.
"Just as no nation can wall itself off from the world, no one nation - no matter how large, no matter how powerful - can meet these challenges alone," Obama said.
While that point is hardly new, it is sharper because of the political context. Obama follows Bush, who at times questioned the U.N.'s toughness and credibility, particularly in containing Iraq's Saddam Hussein. The U.S.-U.N. relationship wilted.
Obama's team is intent on drawing the contrast.
"The United States has dramatically changed the tone, the substance and the practice of our diplomacy at the United Nations," said Susan Rice, Obama's ambassador to the U.N.
But multilateralism has its limits, particularly as national interests collide.
Obama needs the sway of Russia and China in getting tougher U.N. action against Iran over its potential nuclear weapons program, and neither country is showing interest.
While other world leaders could push for Mideast peace, it was Obama who personally intervened in pulling together the Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Tuesday. He showed some impatience as both sides have been stalled over familiar issues.
The good-will feeling of Obama's fresh government is apparent at the United Nations.
But eight months into his presidency, the problems he inherited are now his own, upping expectations for results. His White House is being pressed to right the war in Afghanistan. And his efforts toward diplomacy with adversaries, chiefly Iran and North Korea, are not meant to be open-ended.
Obama's day starts with his meeting with Hatoyama, who has said he wants to shift Japan's diplomatic stance from one that is less centered on Washington's lead.
Later, Obama was meeting with Medvedev. That session comes just days following Obama's decision to abruptly scrap a Bush-era missile defense plan in Eastern Europe that Russia deeply opposed, swapping it for a proposal the U.S. says better targets any launch by Iran.
Russian leaders rejoiced over Obama's move, but he dismissed any role Russia may have played and called it just a bonus if the country is now less "paranoid" about the U.S.
[U.S.]
AUSTELL, Ga., Sept. 23, 2009
Floods Leave Trail of Victims in Southeast
Thousands Homeless in Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama; At Least Nine Killed
(CBS/ AP) As floodwaters around Atlanta began to recede, residents were packing moving vans with furniture and commiserating about water-logged apartments.
"I'm toast," Penny Freeman, who moved into a first-floor apartment five days ago, said Tuesday. "I don't have a place to stay. I'm losing my mind right now."
Hundreds of millions of dollars in damage is estimated and many affected residents don't have flood insurance, reports CBS Early Show weather anchor Dave Price.
At least nine deaths in Georgia and Alabama were blamed on the torrential downpours in the Southeast. The storms finally relented and relief was in sight with just a slight chance of rain overnight, but the onslaught left many parts of the region in stagnant water.
Washed-out roads and flooded freeways around metro Atlanta caused commuters headaches, though many major arteries had reopened by Tuesday night. Gov. Sonny Perdue asked President Barack Obama to declare a state of emergency in Georgia. Officials estimated $250 million in damage in the state.
Many neighborhoods remained awash in several feet of murky, brown water, even as an emerging sun shed light on the widespread flood damage. Robert Blake, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said people should assume floodwater is contaminated and should be cautious when they return to their homes.
Most deaths were from drowning when cars were swept off roadways. Authorities released a 15-minute 911 call of a storm victim's last moments. Seydi Burciaga, 39, screamed to a dispatcher as water rose to her neck. The dispatcher advised her to try to break a window, but she couldn't.
"I don't want to drown here, please!" Burciaga said.
Rescue crews tried to swim into the water to find her, but the floodwaters were moving too fast and they couldn't spot her, Price reports.
Eddie Stroup, an investigator with the Chattooga County Sheriff's Office, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that 14-year-old Nicholas Osley drowned when he and a friend saw a Jeep in the water and drove it to see if they could help if people were stranded. The current from the nearby Chattooga River swept them away, Stroup said. The friend survived.
After several days of steady rain, the ground was saturated from Alabama through Georgia into eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina. The floods came just months after an epic two-year drought in the region ended with winter rains.
In Tennessee, a man was still missing after jumping into the fast-moving water as part of a bet. Boats and trucks evacuated 120 residents from a retirement center as nearby creeks rose, and several hundred others were ferried from low-lying neighborhoods and motels to dry land.
The devastation surrounding Atlanta was widespread. In Austell, about 17 miles west of downtown Atlanta, Sweetwater Creek overflowed its banks, sending muddy water rushing into a nearby mobile home park where several trailers were almost completely submerged.
"We don't know what to do," said Jenny Roque, 30, who lived there with her husband and four children. "The only thing we have left is our truck."
Just down the road, in the Mulberry Creek subdivision, large houses built just five years ago were partially underwater. Some residents tried to salvage anything.
"There's things that you can't replace, but it's just stuff," said Deborah Golden, whose split-level home was mostly underwater. "But there are four people in our family and we're all safe so we're glad for that."
At one of the largest shelters at the Cobb County Civic Center, Shirley Jones sat with others on green cots, chatting about the fate of their homes. Around them, children played games.
"When I saw the water rising, it brought back bad memories," said Jones, who lived in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. The 72-year-old had moved to the area two months ago.
Jones said rescue efforts this time went much more smoothly. A boat retrieved her from a family member's house.
Before being evacuated, Cordell Albert and her husband Christopher moved their valuables to the second floor of their Powder Springs home. The couple waded through knee-deep water before a raft picked them up.
"I feel lost," she said. "I feel homeless."
[World]
UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 23, 2009
Obama: U.S. Can't Fix the World Alone
President to Tell U.N. General Assembly that Others Must Now Pull Their Own Weight, Not Just Wait for America
(CBS/AP) Seizing a chance to challenge the world, President Obama says the global community is failing its people and fixing that is not "solely America's endeavor."
"Those who used to chastise America for acting alone in the world cannot now stand by and wait for America to solve the world's problems alone," Obama said in a passage of the speech he was delivering Wednesday to the United Nations General Assembly.
The White House released excerpts in advance that carried a remarkably blunt tone.
It comes in Obama's first speech to this world body, a forum like none other for a leader hoping to wash away any lasting images of U.S. unilateralism under President George W. Bush.
In essence, Obama's message is that he expects plenty in return for reaching out.
"We have sought in word and deed a new era of engagement with the world," Obama said, echoing the cooperative theme he promised as a candidate and has since used as a pillar of his foreign policy. "Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility."
He said if the world is honest with itself, it has fallen woefully short.
"Extremists sowing terror in pockets of the world," Obama said. "Protracted conflicts that grind on and on. Genocide and mass atrocities. More and more nations with nuclear weapons. Melting ice caps and ravaged populations. Persistent poverty and pandemic disease."
The president added, "I say this not to sow fear, but to state a fact: the magnitude of our challenges has yet to be met by the measure of our action."
Obama's speech is the centerpiece of a dizzying agenda that will also see him holding pivotal meetings with the new Japanese prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Immersed, Obama foreshadowed his message to world leaders in a speech Tuesday to the Clinton Global Initiative. He spoke of nations interconnected by problems, whether a flu strain or an economic collapse or a drug trade that crosses borders.
"Just as no nation can wall itself off from the world, no one nation - no matter how large, no matter how powerful - can meet these challenges alone," Obama said.
While that point is hardly new, it is sharper because of the political context. Obama follows Bush, who at times questioned the U.N.'s toughness and credibility, particularly in containing Iraq's Saddam Hussein. The U.S.-U.N. relationship wilted.
Obama's team is intent on drawing the contrast.
"The United States has dramatically changed the tone, the substance and the practice of our diplomacy at the United Nations," said Susan Rice, Obama's ambassador to the U.N.
But multilateralism has its limits, particularly as national interests collide.
Obama needs the sway of Russia and China in getting tougher U.N. action against Iran over its potential nuclear weapons program, and neither country is showing interest.
While other world leaders could push for Mideast peace, it was Obama who personally intervened in pulling together the Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Tuesday. He showed some impatience as both sides have been stalled over familiar issues.
The good-will feeling of Obama's fresh government is apparent at the United Nations.
But eight months into his presidency, the problems he inherited are now his own, upping expectations for results. His White House is being pressed to right the war in Afghanistan. And his efforts toward diplomacy with adversaries, chiefly Iran and North Korea, are not meant to be open-ended.
Obama's day starts with his meeting with Hatoyama, who has said he wants to shift Japan's diplomatic stance from one that is less centered on Washington's lead.
Later, Obama was meeting with Medvedev. That session comes just days following Obama's decision to abruptly scrap a Bush-era missile defense plan in Eastern Europe that Russia deeply opposed, swapping it for a proposal the U.S. says better targets any launch by Iran.
Russian leaders rejoiced over Obama's move, but he dismissed any role Russia may have played and called it just a bonus if the country is now less "paranoid" about the U.S.
[U.S.]
AUSTELL, Ga., Sept. 23, 2009
Floods Leave Trail of Victims in Southeast
Thousands Homeless in Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama; At Least Nine Killed
(CBS/ AP) As floodwaters around Atlanta began to recede, residents were packing moving vans with furniture and commiserating about water-logged apartments.
"I'm toast," Penny Freeman, who moved into a first-floor apartment five days ago, said Tuesday. "I don't have a place to stay. I'm losing my mind right now."
Hundreds of millions of dollars in damage is estimated and many affected residents don't have flood insurance, reports CBS Early Show weather anchor Dave Price.
At least nine deaths in Georgia and Alabama were blamed on the torrential downpours in the Southeast. The storms finally relented and relief was in sight with just a slight chance of rain overnight, but the onslaught left many parts of the region in stagnant water.
Washed-out roads and flooded freeways around metro Atlanta caused commuters headaches, though many major arteries had reopened by Tuesday night. Gov. Sonny Perdue asked President Barack Obama to declare a state of emergency in Georgia. Officials estimated $250 million in damage in the state.
Many neighborhoods remained awash in several feet of murky, brown water, even as an emerging sun shed light on the widespread flood damage. Robert Blake, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said people should assume floodwater is contaminated and should be cautious when they return to their homes.
Most deaths were from drowning when cars were swept off roadways. Authorities released a 15-minute 911 call of a storm victim's last moments. Seydi Burciaga, 39, screamed to a dispatcher as water rose to her neck. The dispatcher advised her to try to break a window, but she couldn't.
"I don't want to drown here, please!" Burciaga said.
Rescue crews tried to swim into the water to find her, but the floodwaters were moving too fast and they couldn't spot her, Price reports.
Eddie Stroup, an investigator with the Chattooga County Sheriff's Office, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that 14-year-old Nicholas Osley drowned when he and a friend saw a Jeep in the water and drove it to see if they could help if people were stranded. The current from the nearby Chattooga River swept them away, Stroup said. The friend survived.
After several days of steady rain, the ground was saturated from Alabama through Georgia into eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina. The floods came just months after an epic two-year drought in the region ended with winter rains.
In Tennessee, a man was still missing after jumping into the fast-moving water as part of a bet. Boats and trucks evacuated 120 residents from a retirement center as nearby creeks rose, and several hundred others were ferried from low-lying neighborhoods and motels to dry land.
The devastation surrounding Atlanta was widespread. In Austell, about 17 miles west of downtown Atlanta, Sweetwater Creek overflowed its banks, sending muddy water rushing into a nearby mobile home park where several trailers were almost completely submerged.
"We don't know what to do," said Jenny Roque, 30, who lived there with her husband and four children. "The only thing we have left is our truck."
Just down the road, in the Mulberry Creek subdivision, large houses built just five years ago were partially underwater. Some residents tried to salvage anything.
"There's things that you can't replace, but it's just stuff," said Deborah Golden, whose split-level home was mostly underwater. "But there are four people in our family and we're all safe so we're glad for that."
At one of the largest shelters at the Cobb County Civic Center, Shirley Jones sat with others on green cots, chatting about the fate of their homes. Around them, children played games.
"When I saw the water rising, it brought back bad memories," said Jones, who lived in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. The 72-year-old had moved to the area two months ago.
Jones said rescue efforts this time went much more smoothly. A boat retrieved her from a family member's house.
Before being evacuated, Cordell Albert and her husband Christopher moved their valuables to the second floor of their Powder Springs home. The couple waded through knee-deep water before a raft picked them up.
"I feel lost," she said. "I feel homeless."
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