Stocks plummet as outlook in Europe dims

Specialists Michael McDonnell, left, and Christian Sanfilippo work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday, May 29, 2012. Stocks are opening higher on Wall street on optimism that China will take action to reverse a slowdown in its economic growth. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Specialists Michael McDonnell, left, and Christian Sanfilippo work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday, May 29, 2012. Stocks are opening higher on Wall street on optimism that China will take action to reverse a slowdown in its economic growth. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Traders fearful of a rupture in Europe's financial system retreated Wednesday from risky investments. They punished stocks and fled to the safety of U.S. bonds, pushing the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note to a record low.

Major U.S. stock indexes fell more than 1 percent. European stocks fell even more, and the euro dropped to a nearly two-year low against the dollar. Borrowing rates for Italy and Spain, both of which are seen as the next problem cases in Europe's debt drama, rose sharply as traders dumped bonds issued by those governments.

Rising demand for low-risk, easily tradable securities pushed the yield on the 10-year Treasury note to 1.64 percent from 1.74 percent late Tuesday. German government bond yields, also seen as safe, turned lower.

The Dow Jones industrial average plunged 147 points to 12,433. The Dow has had a miserable May. It's down 5.9 percent for the month, putting it on track this week to end its first losing month since September.

Concerns about Europe seemed to lurk around every corner: the European Commission said consumer confidence fell sharply in the region last month. Spaniards withdrew money from their banks, spreading fear about that nation's ability to go on without bailouts. Spain's main stock index fell two percent.

An opinion poll in Greece showed that the far-left Syriza party is gaining support ahead of key elections. Syriza opposes the system of bailouts and sharp budget cuts that have kept Greece afloat but also punished its economy. If the party wins, Greece may be forced to exit the euro currency. The shockwaves could topple nations that have received bailouts, like Portugal, and those that might need them, like Italy.

Amid the tumult, Europe's executive branch called on the 17 nations that use the currency to create a "banking union" that can centrally oversee and ? if needed ? bail out the sector.

If Europe's financial crisis plunges it into a deep recession, global economic growth will likely falter, reducing demand for commodities and machines that power growth. Fearing that outcome, traders pushed heavy equipment maker Caterpillar and aluminum company Alcoa to the biggest declines among the 30 companies that make up the Dow.

The euro fell as low as $1.2387, the lowest since the summer of 2010. Benchmark stock indexes plunged 2.7 percent in Spain, 2.2 percent in Italy and 2.4 percent in France.

In other U.S. trading, the Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 17 to 1,315. The Nasdaq composite average slid 37 to 2,833.

Metals, food and energy commodities all fell sharply. Crude oil lost nearly $3 to $88 a barrel, a large move. Crude has been falling steadily since the beginning of May, when it traded as high as $106 a barrel.

Spain's borrowing costs soared to the highest level since the country joined the euro. Traders are worried that Spain won't be able to navigate the real estate crash that forced it to bail out one of its biggest lenders, Bankia.

The yield on Spain's 10-year bonds, a key indicator of market confidence in a country's ability to pay down its debt, shot as high as 6.69 percent, matching the level it hit at the height of the euro crisis late last year.

Agricultural giant Monsanto was one of the few big gainers in a sea of red. The stock jumped 3 percent after the company's CEO told investors that earnings will likely surge 25 percent this year, far more than Wall Street had been expecting. Sales were strong in its seed and chemicals business, including Roundup herbicides.

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion plunged 10 percent to $10 after the company said late Tuesday it had hired a team of bankers to help it weigh its options ? Wall Street jargon for a possible sale or reorganization. RIM's business has been crumbling as smartphone users move to iPhone and Android devices.

___

Daniel Wagner can be reached at www.twitter.com/wagnerreports .

Associated Press

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S.Africa's most famous township gets new theater

JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? Playwright, director and actor John Ledwaba gave up theater during South Africa's turbulent 1980s and left his Soweto home to train to be an anti-apartheid guerrilla. But he soon stopped training to lead the fight through theater, staging powerful works that exposed the horrors of racist rule to the world.

Theater mattered in Soweto in those days. With the opening this week of the first state-of-the-art playhouse in South Africa's most famous township, Ledwaba and others think it can matter again.

Apartheid planners saw Soweto as little more than a dormitory for Johannesburg's black maids and gardeners, mine and factory workers. But it has long been a cosmopolitan center of political and artistic life for black South Africans.

The 150 million rand (about $18 million) Soweto Theatre complex with a 436-seat main stage and two smaller performance spaces is part of an ambitious redevelopment plan by the city of Johannesburg for Soweto.

Steven Sack, acting chief executive officer of the new theater, said black South Africans were once "living at the margins of our society." The theater, he said as he proudly led reporters on a tour Monday, is part of efforts to change that.

Sack said the next step in redevelopment plans is the renovation of the nearby Jabulani Amphitheater, which has since the 1950s hosted concerts as well as major funerals and political events. In 1985, one of Nelson Mandela's daughters, Zindzi, stood in Jabulani to read his refusal of an offer from the white racist government to free him from prison on condition he renounce violence.

Since apartheid ended in 1994 and Mandela became South Africa's first black president, Soweto has seen the building of new parks, homes, museums and malls, the paving of more roads and the renovation of schools and stadiums.

"The Suitcase," the production that will open the Soweto Theatre on Friday, brings together some of South Africa's best-known and most beloved talent. The play is based on a story by the late Es'kia Mphahlele about poverty, desperation and hope. The production has music by Hugh Masekela, choreography by Gregory Maqoma, and is directed by James Ngcobo. The lineup of internationally known South African artists underlines the ambitions behind the Soweto Theatre.

The new theater resembles a giant child's toy with walls clad in bright blue, yellow and red tiles and a tent-like entrance covered in an awning of white canvass. Sophisticated and modern, it contrasts sharply with the community halls where plays in Soweto were once performed.

Ledwaba had one bit of advice for the new theater's management: "Please, no weddings and parties!" He wants a stage devoted to theater where audiences can see sophisticated and challenging work.

"I come from a history of using theater to fight," Ledwaba said.

When he was a young actor, Ledwaba remembers casts and crews bringing their own lights, sets and costumes to halls for performances, then clearing everything out so that the hall could be used for the next activity ? a wedding, a political meeting, a funeral. Audiences sat on rows of plastic chairs that could be stacked out of the way to make way for dances.

Theater companies back then had to be mobile, so souvenirs ended up scattered or lost, Ledwaba said. One of his own few mementoes, hanging on a wall in the bedroom he uses as a study in his four-room Soweto home, is a poster showing him in character in "Black Dog Inj' Emnyama," a play that toured the world.

Ledwaba played a character closely based on his own experiences during the explosion of youthful militancy in Soweto in the 1970s. Ledwaba and other cast members created "Black Dog" with famed protest theater director Barney Simon in 1984, the year Ledwaba toyed with becoming a guerrilla fighter, but went back to Soweto to create and perform.

Playwright and director Selaelo Maredi ? who, like Ledwaba, began performing in Soweto at the start of a theater career that took him around the world ? said Soweto theater drew not just large audiences, but police informers sent to find out what black South Africans were thinking and saying. Maredi toured U.S. colleges with "Survival," a play set in a prison that he and three other actors developed in Soweto in the 1970s to explore themes of oppression and resistance.

Maredi laments that Sowetans lost the habit of going to the theater, reluctant to venture into the streets of an increasingly turbulent and crime-ridden area in the 1970s and 1980s and now distracted by other diversions, including satellite TV and shopping mall cinemas.

Maredi hopes to see an off-Broadway to Broadway system created in Soweto with the opening of the new theater. Artists at the gleaming new theater, he said, can work with small acting troupes across the township to develop shows that will help Sowetans tell their stories, and bring them back to the theater.

Sack said he envisioned plays moving from Soweto's halls to the new theater he oversees.

Actor-activists inspired South Africans to defeat apartheid. Artists say they can still inspire today, in a post-apartheid nation determined to defeat crime, violence against women and government corruption. Maredi's latest play explores the challenges women face in post-apartheid South Africa, with actresses speaking out against horrifying rape statistics.

Maredi said, "We need theater more today than we did during apartheid."

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Obama on Afghan: Leave on time, no 'perfect' end

President Barack Obama speaks at a news conference at the NATO Summit in Chicago, Monday, May 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)

President Barack Obama speaks at a news conference at the NATO Summit in Chicago, Monday, May 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato)

President Barack Obama walks off stage at the end of his news conference at the closing of the NATO Summit in Chicago, Monday, May 21, 2012. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama speaks at the start of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) meeting on Afghanistan at the NATO Summit in Chicago, Monday, May 21, 2012. From left are, British Prime Minister David Cameron, left, and Gen. John R. Allen, Commander of the International Security Assistance Force. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama mingles before the meeting on Afghanistan during the NATO Summit, Monday, May 21, 2012, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The NATO leaders gather as the opening session of the NATO Summit begins in Chicago, Sunday, May 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

CHICAGO (AP) ? President Barack Obama and leaders around the globe locked in place an Afghanistan exit path Monday that will still keep their troops fighting and dying there for two more years, acknowledging there never will be point at which they can say, "This is all done. This is perfect."

Obama, presiding over a 50-nation war coalition summit in his hometown, summed up the mood by saying the Afghanistan that will be left behind will be stable enough for them to depart ? essentially good enough after a decade of war? but still loaded with troubles.

The war that began in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will finish at the end of 2014.

"I don't think there's ever going to be an optimal point where we say, 'This is all done. This is perfect. This is just the way we wanted it,'" Obama said as the NATO summit closed. "This is a process, and it's sometimes a messy process."

Obama never spoke of victory.

Afghan forces for the first time will take over the lead of the combat mission by the middle of 2013, a milestone moment in a long, costly transition of control. Even in a backup role, U.S. forces and all the rest will face surprise attacks and bombings until the war's end.

Wary of creating a vacuum in a volatile region, the nations also promised a lasting partnership with Afghanistan, meaning many years of contributing tax dollars, personnel and political capital after the end of their soldiers' combat.

The United States has already cut its own deal with Afghanistan along those lines, including a provision that allows U.S. military trainers and special forces to remain in Afghanistan after the war closes.

In an escalating election-year environment, Obama was as at the center of the action in Chicago, beaming and boasting about the city's performance in hosting the event. Noisy protesters loaded the city's streets at times, which Obama called just the kind of free expression NATO defends.

Tensions with Pakistan undermined some of the choreographed unity. Pakistan has not yet agreed to end the closure of key transit routes into Afghanistan ? retaliation for American airstrikes that accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers months ago ? and the issue hung over the summit.

Obama had no official talks with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, although the two chatted briefly. Obama spoke of progress on the standoff but he added: "I don't want to paper over real challenges there. There's no doubt that there have been tensions."

On Afghanistan, led by Obama, the partners are in essence staying the course. They stuck with a timeline long established and underscored that there will be no second-guessing the decision about when to leave.

Since 2010, they have been planning to finish the war at the end of 2014, even as moves by nations such as France to pull combat troops out early have tested the strength of the coalition. The shift to have Afghan forces take the lead of the combat mission next year has also been expected. Leaders presented it as a significant turning point in the war.

It will be "the moment when throughout Afghanistan people can look out and see their own troops and police stepping up to the challenge," said the NATO chief, Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

What the world is poised to leave behind is an Afghanistan still riddled with poverty, corruption and political instability.

Yet, out of money and patience, the U.S.-led partnership said it is confident Afghanistan will be stable and prepared enough to at least be able to protect itself ? and, in turn, prevent its territory from becoming a launching pad for international terrorism.

Questioned about what will happen if Afghanistan eventually falls apart, Obama signaled there is no turning back. "I think that the timetable that we've established is a sound one, it is a responsible one. Are there risks involved in it? Absolutely."

British Prime Minister David Cameron said the leaders were "making a decisive and enduring commitment to the long-term future of Afghanistan. The message to the Afghan people is that we will not desert them. And the message to the insurgency is equally clear: You cannot win on the battlefield. You should stop fighting and start talking."

The political stakes are high for the U.S. president, who will go before voters in November with tens of thousands more troops in Afghanistan than when we took office. His emphasis will remain that he is methodically winding down the war after closing out the one in Iraq; U.S. voters desperate for better economic times have long stopped approving of the war mission.

NATO said it will keep providing "long-term political and practical support" to Afghanistan after 2014 but added: "This will not be a combat mission."

Despite the size of the coalition, the war remains a United States-dominated effort.

The U.S. has 90,000 of the 130,000 foreign forces in the war. Obama has pledged to shrink that to 68,000 by the end of September but has offered no details on the withdrawal pace after that, other than to say it will be gradual.

The fighting alliance called negotiation the key to ending the insurgency in Afghanistan, but avoided mentioning the Taliban by name. The insurgents walked away from U.S.-led talks in March, and urged the NATO nations to follow the lead of France in pledging to remove combat forces ahead of schedule.

The alliance agreed on a fundraising goal to underwrite the Afghan armed forces after the international fighting forces depart.

The force of about 230,000 would cost about $4.1 billion annually ? the bulk of it paid by the United States and countries that have not been part of the fighting force.

U.S. and British officials said during the summit that pledges total about $1 billion a year so far and that fundraising is on track to make up the rest. French President Francois Hollande said the U.S. had requested a little less than $200 million but was non-committal, saying France was "not bound by what Germany or other countries might do."

___

Associated Press writer Julie Pace and Jamey Keaten contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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Geraldo Rivera (again) says Trayvon Martin's 'thug wear' got him profiled

Geraldo Rivera insisted again Friday that Trayvon Martin?s hoodie represented a kind of ?thug wear? that could have alarmed George Zimmerman, who shot Martin to death. The hoodie debate is not over.

By Patrik Jonsson,?Staff writer / May 19, 2012

Geraldo Rivera speaks on the "Fox & Friends" television program in New York. Referring to Trayvon Martin, Rivera said Friday that people wearing hooded sweatshirts are often going to be perceived as a menace.

Richard Drew/AP

Enlarge

After troves of evidence in the Trayvon Martin shooting case was released this week, veteran talk show host Geraldo Rivera on Friday pointed at the ?thug wear? the slain Florida teen was wearing to suggest urban-style garb invites suspicion.

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The long-time raconteur reporter made similar comments in March, where he partly blamed ?the way the young men look? ? particularly wearing so-called ?hoodies? ? for the shooting (to the embarrassment, he said at the time, of his son).

?I?ll bet you money, if he didn?t have that hoodie on, that nutty neighborhood watch guy wouldn?t have responded in that violent and aggressive way,? he told Fox News? Bill O?Reilly at the time.

In a later interview with Trayvon?s parents, Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton, Rivera apologized for suggesting that Trayvon?s clothes played a role in his death on Feb. 26.

Trayvon Martin case: Online fund for George Zimmerman now being tapped

But amid a national debate about how young black men?s fashion choices can jar public perceptions, Rivera buckled back down on the idea again this week after prosecutors released more than 200 pages of transcripts, as well as video and audio recordings, as part of the discovery process in the trial.

Zimmerman is awaiting trial on second degree murder charges after a special prosecutor in April reversed a local police decision to set him free. Police had concluded that there was no probable cause not to believe Zimmerman?s self-defense claim.

New evidence revealed this week ? including a report that indicates the presence of marijuana compounds in Martin?s system, as well a video clip from the convenience store where Martin bought iced tea and a bag of candy minutes before the shooting ? begins to suggest an explanation for what happened, Rivera told Bill O?Reilly on Friday.

?The marijuana is probably a lot less powerful than the surveillance video at the 7/11,? Rivera said, going on to say that Martin was ?dressed in that thug wear ? look at the size of him, he?s not a little kid.? He adds, ?Trayvon Martin looks just like people who had been burglarizing and victimizing that neighborhood for the past 6 months.?

On the other hand, a central tenet of the prosecution?s case is that Zimmerman falsely and recklessly ?profiled? Martin as a criminal. Though Martin had done nothing wrong, the Retreat at Twin Lakes neighborhood had experienced several burglaries leading up to the shooting, and Zimmerman, who started a local watch group, had urged residents to contact him if they had anything to report about the incidents, which were in some cases tied to young black men.

Zimmerman described Martin in a non-emergency call to police dispatch as a ?suspicious ? black male,? acting like he was ?on drugs or something.? The FBI, however, found no evidence that Zimmerman uttered any racial slurs, which some listeners thought they heard in one of the 911 recordings.

Indeed, it?s how appearances and prejudices can change an encounter that?s at the heart of the Trayvon Martin court case, Mr. O?Reilly suggested. Admitting later that he was playing devil?s advocate, O?Reilly said to Rivera that bringing suspicion to bear because of someone?s appearance is inappropriate. ?You?re racially profiling!? O?Reilly said.

Rivera explained that ?a reasonable comparison? is a fair way to judge people, but O?Reilly countered that Zimmerman could have been ?looking for action ? he wants to be Inspector Clouseau.?

Moreover, Rivera?s contention that Martin?s appearance gave pause to Zimmerman?s response cuts right to the question of why, as police have wondered, Zimmerman didn?t simply shout a friendly, ?Hey, can I help you?? instead of following and confronting Martin.

One police document suggested that ?the encounter between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin was ultimately avoidable by Zimmerman, if Zimmerman had remained in his vehicle and awaited the arrival of law enforcement, or conversely if he had identified himself to Martin as a concerned citizen and initiated dialogue in an effort to dispel each party?s concerns.?

While some have criticized Rivera?s view of the hoodie as a symbol of criminality, he does put his finger on the populist nuances of the broader Trayvon Martin debate.

In the weeks after the shooting, thousands of Americans donned hoodies to protest both what they believed was a case of racially motivated profiling and racial injustice. Last week, an entrepreneur quickly sold out of a stockpile of gun targets depicting someone, presumably Martin, in a hoodie.

Trayvon Martin case: Online fund for George Zimmerman now being tapped

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