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WEST HAWAII TODAY | THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 2015
Runaway tiger
mauls man to
death in Tbilisi
after flood
wrecks zoo
TBILISI, Georgia — A
tiger that broke loose
after severe flooding at
the Tbilisi Zoo mauled
a man to death in the
Georgian capital before
being shot by police
Wednesday, a day after
officials said all the zoo’s
tigers had died.
Zoo Director Zurab
Gurielidze acknowledged
he was to blame for
releasing faulty informa-
tion and said new counts
indicated a tiger cub
and a hyena could still
be on the loose. The city
has remained on edge,
with runaway predators
reportedly seen by some
residents.
The Interior Ministry in
the former Soviet repub-
lic said the tiger was hid-
ing at an abandoned fac-
tory that had been turned
into a construction mar-
ket when he attacked the
man Wednesday. The vic-
tim, who worked at the
market, later died of his
wounds at a hospital.
Police
commandos
rushed to the site and
killed the tiger.
Worker charged with
helping inmates
escape discussed
having them kill her
husband
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y.—
A woman charged with
helping two convicted
murderers escape from a
maximum-security facili-
ty where she worked had
discussed having them
kill her husband, a dis-
trict attorney confirmed
Wednesday.
Clinton County District
Attorney Andrew Wylie
said at a news conference
that Joyce Mitchell had
talked to inmates Richard
Matt and David Sweat
about killing her husband,
Lyle, who also works at
the Clinton Correctional
Facility in Dannemora,
near the Canadian bor-
der.
Sweat
and
Matt
escaped
from
the
170-year-old prison on
June 6 and remain on
the lam. Joyce Mitchell,
a prison tailoring shop
instructor who befriend-
ed the inmates, was
arrested June 12.
Lyle Mitchell arrived
at the state police
barracks
in
Malone
with his attorney late
Wednesday morning to
talk to authorities, the
Press-Republican
of
Plattsburgh reported.
Investigators have no
information that Lyle
Mitchell knew about the
escape plan or assisted in
it, Wylie said.
Iraqi forces
training goal will
not be met due to
lack of recruits
WASHINGTON — The
U.S. will fall way short of
meeting its goal of train-
ing 24,000 Iraqi forces to
fight Islamic State mili-
tants by this fall, Defense
Secretary Ash Carter said
Wednesday on Capitol
Hill where lawmakers
are already skeptical of
the Obama administra-
tion’s strategy to address
threats in the Mideast.
Carter
told
the
House Armed Services
Committee that the U.S.
has received only enough
recruits to train about
7,000 — in addition to
about 2,000 counterter-
rorism service personnel.
Carter said the train-
and-equip mission in
Syria also lacks enough
trainees to fill existing
training sites, primarily
because it’s difficult to
make sure the recruits are
people who can be count-
ed on and are not aligned
with groups like IS.
Greece and
creditors take shots
at each other on eve
of bailout meeting
ATHENS, Greece —
Greece and its creditors
publicly blamed one anoth-
er for an impasse in bailout
talks Wednesday, on the
eve of a eurozone finance
ministers’ meeting billed as
key to their outcome.
Greek Prime Minister
Alexis Tsipras lashed
at rescue lenders for
demanding pension cuts,
and got support from
thousands of Greeks who
hit the streets in Athens
to protest against any
further austerity mea-
sures.
Greek Finance Minister
Yanis Varoufakis was defi-
ant ahead of Thursday’s
meeting of finance chiefs
from the eurozone. Asked
during a visit to Paris on
Wednesday whether the
meeting could produce an
agreement, Varoufakis said,
“I do not believe so,” and
criticized the group for not
making enough “prepa-
rations” to solve Greece’s
“incapacitating debt crisis.”
Greece needs to get
more loans from its cred-
itors before June 30,
when its bailout program
expires and it is scheduled
to make a 1.6 billion euro
($1.8 billion) debt repay-
ment to the International
Monetary Fund.
By wire sources
in brief
Fed is moving
toward rate hike
WASHINGTON — The Federal
Reserve took note Wednesday of a
strengthening U.S. economy and
appears on track to raise interest
rates this year for the first time in
nearly a decade.
But Chair Janet Yellen declined
to say just when or how fast the Fed
would act.
In a statement after its latest policy
meeting, the Fed noted that the job
market, the housing industry and
consumer spending are all improv-
ing. At the same time, it made clear it
wants to see further economic gains
and higher inflation before raising
rates from record lows.
Even after the Fed begins raising
rates, Yellen stressed at a news con-
ference that it will likely do so very
gradually.
Once the Fed begins raising short-
term rates, the impact will range
widely. Other rates — for mortgages,
auto loans, corporate borrowing —
could head higher. Stock and bond
prices could be squeezed.
All but two of its 17 policymakers
signaled their belief that the Fed will
raise its key short-term rate at some
point this year. That rate has been
held near zero since 2008. Many
analysts predict that if the economy
keeps improving, the Fed will raise
rates in September.
The Fed’s decision, which had been
expected, was approved on a 10-0
vote.
Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist
at Northern Trust, noted that the
policymakers appear sharply divided
over how aggressively the Fed will
raise rates: Five expect one increase
this year, five foresee two increases
and five three increases. Two don’t
expect any increase this year.
At her news conference, Yellen said
of a timetable for the first rate hike:
“I can’t give an ironclad prom-
ise, but I think it’s clear from our
summary of economic projections
that we anticipate that the econo-
my will grow, that the labor mar-
ket will improve, that inflation will
move back up to 2 percent. And if
economic conditions unfold in the
way that most of my colleagues and
I anticipate, we see it as appropriate
to raise rates.”
The Fed’s statement noted that
some economic sectors remain sub-
par. It said, for example, that while
the job and housing markets had
improved, business investment and
exports remained “soft.”
Business investment has been hurt
by a plunge in oil prices, which have
caused cutbacks at energy compa-
nies. And U.S. exports have been bat-
tered by the rising value of the dollar,
which makes American goods more
expensive overseas.
In a quarterly assessment of the
economy, the Fed sharply lowered its
estimate of growth this year, from a
range of 2.3 percent to 2.7 percent
estimated in March to just 1.8 per-
cent to 2 percent. The downgrade
reflects the economy’s contraction in
the January-March quarter, which
resulted in part from a brutal winter.
The Fed also predicted that the
unemployment rate would be 5.2
percent to 5.3 percent by year’s end.
Three months ago, it thought unem-
ployment would drop to a range of 5
percent to 5.2 percent by the end of
the year. The rate is now 5.5 percent.
The job market has added an aver-
age of 217,000 jobs a month this year.
The unemployment rate is down
from 6.3 percent a year ago and 7.5
percent two years ago.
There are still lingering problems
in the labor market. Though average
hourly earnings rose 2.3 percent in
May from a year ago, wage increas-
es remain generally sluggish. Other
labor market indicators — from the
number of people jobless for more
than six months to the number of
part-time workers who would prefer
full-time jobs — remain at levels the
Fed views as subpar.
Beyond employment, the central
bank has yet to achieve its other
mandate — promoting stable prices.
Inflation has remained persistently
below the Fed’s 2 percent annual tar-
get. Too-low inflation tends to hold
back economic growth.
But in its statement, the Fed
seemed to suggest that inflation
might soon move back up to its tar-
get rate: It said energy prices, which
have tumbled in the past year and
have held down overall inflation,
“appear to have stabilized.”
The Fed wants to take care to
avoid spooking investors, who are
already on edge over the likelihood
of a rate hike and the threat of
a default by Greece’s government.
Asked about the standoff between
Greece and its creditors, Yellen said
that if no agreement is reached, “I
do see the potential for disruptions
that could affect the European eco-
nomic outlook and global financial
markets.”
BY MARTIN CRUTSINGER
AP ECONOMICSWRITER
BUT JUSTWHEN STILL UNCLEAR
