Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – A rising number of college graduates are filing for bankruptcy protection, says a study by the Institute for Financial Literacy scheduled for release on Tuesday.

In 2006, degree holders accounted for 11.2 percent of bankruptcy protection filers, the study found. By 2010, their proportion rose to 13.6 percent.

Similar trends were observed for holders of two-year associate degrees and graduate degrees. On the other end, high school diploma holders or college dropouts logged a decline in bankruptcy protection applications.

Leslie Linfield, executive director of the Institute, said the new trends challenged beliefs that an advanced education is almost a guarantee for economic success. Linfield said the recession indicated otherwise.

Bankruptcies in the U.S. dramatically rose after the 2008 financial crisis due to less consumer credit available after lenders tightened underwriting benchmarks and lowered loan limits.

Data from the Department of Education released on Monday showed that before students leave university some of them are defaulting on their student loans. For the fiscal year that ended on Sept 30, 2010, student loan defaults went up to 8.8 percent from 7 percent the previous year.

Financial difficulties faced by new graduates and students that led to the loan defaults were particularly felt among those enrolled at for-profit colleges and universities where the default rate in the first two years of payment zoomed to 15 percent from 11.6 percent.

For students enrolled in public educational institutions, the default rate climbed to 7.2 percent from 6 percent. At not-for-profit private institutions, the rate was 4.6 percent, up from 4 percent.

Deputy Education Secretary James Kvaal said there is a strong link between student default rates and joblessness rates..

The data supports an Institute for higher Education Policy study that found that for every borrower who defaults, there are two more who are behind in payments. Only 37 percent of borrowers who began to repay their student loans in 2005 managed to pay their loan fully and on time.

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. president’s special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, is struggling in a critical condition at George Washington University hospital after admission on Friday morning.

“This morning, doctors completed surgery to repair a tear in his aorta. He is in critical condition and has been joined by his family,” said PJ Crowley, the State Department spokesman said in a statement on Saturday.

Earlier on Friday, at the regular briefing, Crowley refused to elaborate on Holbrooke;s condition, saying, “All I can tell you is that the ambassador is at the hospital at the present time, and beyond that I will — we will let you know, as we find out more.”

Crowley also refused to confirm media reports that Ambassador Holbrooke collapsed at Secretary Hillary Clinton’s office, saying on Friday, “It happened on the seventh floor,”

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – In an attempt to prevent President Barack Obama’s plan to bring terror suspects to the United States for trial, the House voted 212-206 on Tuesday to curb the government’s expenses in the fiscal year. The measure targeted funds aimed at transferring inmates from a military holding facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to prisons in the U.S.

The move hurts Obama’s efforts to close the controversial detention camp by next year or his attempts to transfer 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed in America.

“None of the funds made available in this or any prior Act may be used to transfer, release, or assist in the transfer or release to or within the U.S., its territories, or possessions Khalid Sheikh Mohammed or any other detainee held at Guantanamo Bay as of June 24, 2009,” the bill explains.

The bill will be presented to the Senate for approval and would be sent to Obama to sign into law.

Upon assuming power in 2008, Obama had pledged to close down the notorious facility within a year but failed due to unyielding opposition from the U.S. Congress.

Currently, the prison, which is in Cuba’s Guantanamo naval base, holds nearly 170 detainees, including 58, who have been put into indefinite detention without trial.

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – President Barack Obama on Tuesday called fellow Democrats to quit playing games with ordinary Americans’ lives noting that his top priority is ” to do what’s right for the American people, for jobs, and for economic growth.”

Addressing journalists at a press conference in the White House, the President said that he was “focussed on making sure that tens of millions of hardworking Americans are not seeing their paychecks shrink on January 1st just because the folks here in Washington are busy trying to score political points.”

There was a loud murmur from left-leaning Democrats as the President announced his compromise plan with Republicans to create jobs and boost consumer spending along with extending all the tax cuts that are set to expire on Dec. 31.

Democrats were angry with Obama’s nod to continuation of the controversial Bush-era tax cuts announced nearly a decade ago for the wealthiest households, adding billions in staggering addition to the deficit over the next two years.

Vice President Biden, one of the architects of the compromise, did not have much success at the Capitol but he is expected to return on Wednesday to pursue further with Democrats.

There were, however, whispers of approval also in legislative corridors of power as one of the Democrat insider reluctant to be quoted, noted major tax-breaks to boost capital injections, unemployment benefits to continue for 13 months and savings for working couples with tax-breaks.

Obama told journalists at the hurriedly called press conference, “Two million Americans who lost their jobs and are looking for work will be able to pay their rent and put food on their table.”

With an eye on his sulking Democrats, Obama, “I understand the desire for a fight. I’m sympathetic to that. I’m as opposed to the high-end tax cuts today as I’ve been for years,” he said. “But in the meantime, I’m not here to play games with the American people or the health of our economy.”

John D. Podesta, Chief Executive Officer of the Center for American Progress said in a statement, “I think the President was right to choose helping working Americans over a December conflagration,” noting, “President Obama decided he couldn’t abandon the millions of Americans who are struggling to keep their families afloat, who are diligently searching for work, and who simply cannot afford higher taxes right now.”

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The United States on Monday stressed national “solidarity with our South Korean and Japanese allies and noted that these consultations demonstrate the strength of our shared commitment to advancing regional security and stability.”

In a post-meeting statement National Security Council Deputy Spokesman Ben Chang noted the interaction “as part of the historic Trilateral meetings between our three countries,” represented by U.S. National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan Seiji Maehara, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea Kim Sung-hwan.

Citing the North Korean provocations, Chang said, Donilon emphasized the “timeliness” of the meetings, expressing “the President’s support and personal interest in this Trilateral process.”

The explosive situation in the region was created with Pyongyang’s fatal artillery strike on South Korea’s Yeonpyeong island near the disputed western maritime border, killing two South Korean soldiers and two civilians.

“Consistent with our efforts to strengthen these core alliances over the course of the last two years, Mr. Donilon underscored U.S. solidarity with our South Korean and Japanese allies and noted that these consultations demonstrate the strength of our shared commitment to advancing regional security and stability,” the statement said.

Chang summed up the meeting with a stern warning to North Korea: “The three officials pledged to remain fully coordinated in sending a clear message to North Korea – that if it chooses the path of denuclearization, the road to reintegration into the international community will be open, but if it chooses further provocations and threats, it will further isolate itself.”

Earlier, Japanese Minister Maehara and Korean Minister Sung-hwan met with the U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, for a ministerial trilateral.

Clinton noted that the role of China in the region cannot be denied but the trio rejected Chinese call to return to the six-party talks with North Korea.

In a joint statement, the three leaders “reaffirmed that resumption of the Six-Party Talks will require the DPRK to make sincere efforts to improve relations with the ROK as well as taking concrete steps to demonstrate a genuine commitment to complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization.”

Moreover, President Barack Obama on Sunday night had called China’s President Hu Jintao to discuss global hot spots giving a headache to Americans including North Korea.

During the call, the two presidents discussed the North Korean shelling of a South Korean island on Nov. 23 and the pursuit of a uranium enrichment program by the North.

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – The State Department on Tuesday rubbished voices in the blogosphere calling for ouster of the top U.S. diplomat in the light of damaging reports from leaked State Department cables published by WikiLeaks.

The leaked cables have noted request from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to U.S. diplomats around the world to collect personal data of foreign leaders.

Asked to clarify the subject, P.J. Crowley, the State Department spokesman, told journalists, “By tradition, any document that leaves the Department of State has the Secretary of State’s name on it. She is responsible, but she was not the author of that particular document, and the contents of that came from outside the Department of State.”

Crowley reiterated his earlier views that, “Diplomats are diplomats. That is their job. Diplomats are not intelligence assets.” He added, “it is useful for them to know what is of interest across the government, but this doesn’t change the day-to-day duties of any diplomat anywhere.”

On the alleged directives to collect biometric data and DNA, Crowley told journalists, “There are entities within our government that have certain responsibilities. It is – it’s one thing for that community to provide a wish list across the government that helps people understand what is useful,” noting, “It takes a leap of faith to say that fundamentally changes the day-to-day responsibilities of our diplomats. It doesn’t.”

Crowley requested of journalists to “Please do not infer from one document that this fundamentally changes the role – nothing has changed based on a document that has been issued through the Department for a number of years.”

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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Two million Americans are set to lose their insurance after jobless claims expire on Tuesday. Lawmakers returned from their Thanksgiving break on Monday without voting on extending them.

About 800,000 workers who have been searching for jobs for at least six months will spend the holidays without unemployment insurance, and 2 million by New Year’s Eve. Another 2 million will see their benefits expire by the end of February.

A bill extending unemployment insurance during the holidays failed in the House on Nov. 18 before Congress went on its Thanksgiving recess. Republicans blocked the measure, saying it would add to the deficit.

Lawmakers voted 258-154, short of the two-thirds required to pass the bill. All except 11 votes opposing the measure were from the GOP.

The bill introduced by Reps. Jim McDermott (D-WA) and Sander Levin (D-MI) temporarily extends benefits for three months until February 2011.

Republicans oppose the measure because it would increase the deficit by $12 billion, and add to the $13.795 trillion national debt.

The GOP also argues that some economists believe “prolonged unemployment benefits can theoretically increase unemployment duration by delaying individuals’ intensity to search for work.”

Unemployment nationwide remained 9.6 percent in October. In the long-term, 41 percent of jobless workers have been unemployed for at least six months.

“We are experiencing what can only be described as a jobs crisis, a sustained period of chronic unemployment; and two years of policies that have vastly increased the size and scope of government and added trillions to the debt and have done little to alleviate this problem,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said in last week’s weekly Republican address.

Democrats, however, cite a study by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office saying unemployment benefits increase consumer demand and spending by returning $2 into the economy for every $1 invested.

The AFL-CIO has also stated that, “With five job hunters for every one opening, long-term jobless workers have nowhere else to turn.”

The last extension in July was passed after three attempts that were blocked by Republicans, which means the expiring benefits may still be extended through Democratic efforts in Congress’ lame-duck session during the remainder of the year.

But no vote has been scheduled for the extension, with many bills in the backlog, including an extension of tax cuts for the middle class that Republicans also want for high-income earners. Lawmakers also need to work on a dozen annual appropriations bills for the 2011 fiscal year. They passed a stopgap measure on their last day of session in September before the mid-term elections, temporarily funding government operations.

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