AP News in Brief
Toyota says CEO will hold first news conference since massive recalls
TOKYO (AP) _ Toyota President Akio Toyoda will speak about quality control Friday in his first _ and long awaited _ news conference since the automaker announced massive global recalls last month.
Criticism has been growing that Toyoda, grandson of the company's founder, has largely been invisible amid the automaker's worst crisis since it was founded.
Toyota Motor Corp. said Toyoda and Shinichi Sasaki, the executive overseeing quality, will speak to reporters at the automaker's Nagoya office Friday evening. Other details were not immediately available.
The only media comment so far from Toyoda was a brief, impromptu interview last week with Japanese broadcaster NHK on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He said he was sorry for the worries he had caused customers and insisted that Toyota cars were safe.
Toyota said this week it is considering a recall in the U.S. and Japan for its Prius gas-electric hybrid, which has been plagued with braking problems.
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World stocks tumble after Wall Street decline amid concern about global economic weakness
BEIJING (AP) _ World stocks tumbled Friday as ballooning European debt and a rise in U.S. unemployment claims added to fears the global economy could slip back into recession.
Markets from Tokyo to Hong Kong to Seoul dropped about 3 percent or more after Wall Street was hurt by data showing U.S. unemployment claims rose last week. Wobbly government finances in several European countries also dented buying appetite.
European markets posted smaller losses in early trading Friday after suffering big falls the day before. Oil prices dropped below $73 a barrel, adding to a big slide overnight, while the dollar continued to gain against the euro and also rose against the yen.
Investors were pulling money out of riskier assets such as emerging market stocks and commodities amid concern about the fiscal health of deeply indebted Greece, Spain and Portugal and their ability to borrow more money.
"We are getting into a situation where stimulus is needed to sustain growth but governments may not be able to finance it," said Dariusz Kowalczyk, chief investment strategist for SJS Markets in Hong Kong.
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Job losses from Great Recession about to get worse as government revises employment data
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Job losses during the Great Recession have been huge and they're about to get bigger.
When the Labor Department releases the January unemployment report Friday, it will also update its estimate of jobs lost in the year that ended in March 2009. The number is expected to rise by roughly 800,000, raising the number of jobs shed during the recession to around 8 million.
The new data will help illustrate the scope of the jobs crisis. Analysts think the economy might generate 1 million to 2 million jobs this year. And they say it will take at least three to four years for the job market to return to anything like normal.
"It's going to take a long time to dig out of this hole," said Julia Coronado, senior U.S. economist at BNP Paribas.
Wall Street economists expect the January report will show a tiny increase of 5,000 jobs. That would be only the second monthly gain since the recession began. But it probably wouldn't be enough to hold down the unemployment rate, which is forecast to rise to 10.1 percent. That would match October's 26-year high. And it would be the fourth-straight month of double-digit joblessness.
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Iraqi police say car bomb blast kills 20 Shiite pilgrims on outskirts of holy city of Karbala
BAGHDAD (AP) _ An Iraqi police official says a car bomb explosion on the outskirts of the southern holy city of Karbala has killed at least 20 Shiite pilgrims.
The official says the blast occurred Friday at about 12:15 p.m. just east of Karbala.
He says dozens have been wounded in the blast. A second police official confirmed the casualty toll.
Assailants have targeted Shiite pilgrims in several bomb attacks in recent days.
The latest blast comes during the culmination of a pilgrimage to the city south of Baghdad to mark a Shiite holy day.
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Officials say bomb in southern Pakistan hit bus carrying Shiite Muslim worshippers, 11 dead
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) _ Officials say a motorcycle bomb struck a bus carrying Shiite Muslim worshippers in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, killing at least 11 people.
Karachi has seen a number of blasts aimed at minority Shiites in recent weeks, including one that killed dozens at a procession and sparked riots. Extremists belonging to Pakistan's Sunni Muslim majority have been blamed.
Senior police official Javed Akbar said the bus targeted Friday carried mainly young and female Shiite worshippers heading to a religious gathering.
Dr. Simi Jamali said at least 11 bodies were brought to a local hospital.
Fearing sectarian unrest, police chief Waseem Ahmad appealed to Shiites in the city to remain calm.
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Lawyer puts blame on group leader for kidnapping charges against 10 US missionaries in Haiti
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) _ Ten Baptist missionaries are facing kidnapping charges in Haiti for trying to take 33 children out of the country, and the lawyer for all the defendants is putting the blame on the group's leader.
Attorney Edwin Coq said Laura Silsby knew the group couldn't remove the youngsters without proper paperwork, while he characterized the other nine missionaries as unknowingly being caught up in actions they didn't understand.
"I'm going to do everything I can to get the nine out. They were naive. They had no idea what was going on and they did not know that they needed official papers to cross the border. But Silsby did," Coq said Thursday after a magistrate charged the 10 at a closed hearing.
Silsby waved to reporters but declined to answer questions as the missionaries were taken back to the holding cells where they have been held since Saturday. Haitians left homeless by the Jan. 12 earthquake sat idly under tarps in the parking lot, smoke rising from a cooking fire.
Silsby had expressed optimism before the hearing. "We expect God's will be done. And we will be released," she told reporters.
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People urged to stay home as storm that could bring 2 feet of snow moves toward DC area
WASHINGTON (AP) _ The threat of up to 2 feet of snow in parts of the Mid-Atlantic caused airline cancellations Friday, school closures and emptied Virginia's Statehouse.
Those who can work from home should do so, said Joan Morris, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Transportation. Across the region, state officials were deploying thousands of trucks and employees and had hundreds of thousands of tons of salt at the ready.
"This is not a good mix," Morris said. "Heavy, wet snow with gusting winds is going to make it a very tough storm for us. I expect visibility will be very poor in spots, and we'll have to deal with drifting snow."
The National Weather Service issued a warning stretching from Baltimore to northern Virginia and parts of West Virginia. Total accumulations of 16 inches to 24 inches are expected.
The weather service warns that the mix of heavy snow and strong winds would make travel Friday night "very hazardous or nearly impossible."
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Brown's centrist course as he takes over Senate seat could invite conservative criticism
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Scott Brown says he's a different kind of Republican, a centrist willing to work with Senate Democrats to fix health care and the ailing economy.
But his independent bent is likely to be sorely tested in a bitterly divided Senate where party loyalty is often at a premium.
As it is, Brown was sworn in Thursday a week earlier than he had planned. He spent his earliest minutes as a senator facing questions on whether he will stick with the GOP in the partisan fight over President Barack Obama's choice of a union attorney, Craig Becker, for a top labor job.
Brown tried to maintain a middle-of-the-road posture. "I'm going to look at everybody's qualifications and make my own decision," he said.
Brown can expect more tough balancing acts like that as he seeks to put his own stamp on a Senate seat held for nearly a half-century by the late liberal lion Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts. For New England Republicans in Congress, whose ranks have thinned in recent years, it is the only way to survive.
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Lawyer: Michael Jackson's doctor plans surrender Friday; prosecutors may not be ready for him
LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Michael Jackson's doctor plans to seek his day in court Friday _ whether or not he's been charged in the singer's death.
After waiting all week to face a likely charge of manslaughter, Dr. Conrad Murray and his frustrated legal team plan to surrender at a Los Angeles courthouse.
"We are going to be at the courthouse at 1:30 (p.m.) for his surrender," said Miranda Sevcik, spokeswoman for Murray's legal team. "We see no reason to perpetuate the arbitrary situation any longer."
The legal gamesmanship follows several days of negotiations in which Murray's lawyers tried to arrange with prosecutors for the Houston doctor to surrender for booking and arraignment.
Those plans were derailed by haggling between prosecutors and law enforcement officials over whether the physician should be arrested or allowed to turn himself in.
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Thrashers trade marquee goal scorer Ilya Kovalchuk to Devils for 3 players and a draft pick
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) _ The last time Lou Lamoriello pulled off a major trade for a marquee scorer, the New Jersey Devils won a Stanley Cup.
The Devils chief executive made his biggest trade since 2000 on Thursday night, acquiring Ilya Kovalchuk from the Atlanta Thrashers in a five-player blockbuster deal.
In getting the 31-goal scorer from the Thrashers, the Devils shipped defenseman Johnny Oduya, rookie forward Niclas Bergfors, junior prospect Patrice Cormier and a first-round draft pick this year to the Thrashers for Kovalchuk and former Devils defenseman Anssi Samlema. The teams also swapped second-round draft picks this year.
Lamoriello refused to say that the 26-year-old Kovalchuk would be the final piece of the puzzle for the Devils this season.
"The puzzle always has a lot of pieces," Lamoriello said. "It's how they mesh together. There is never a missing piece. It's how they mesh."