Washington – World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz acknowledged Thursday that he erred in helping a close female friend get transferred to a high-paying job, and he said he was sorry.
His apology didn’t ease concerns among the bank’s staff association, which wants him to resign. The growing controversy has overshadowed major development meetings this weekend and is raising fresh questions about whether Wolfowitz will stay on the job. The White House, however, expressed confidence in him.
At issue are the generous compensation and pay raises of a bank employee, Shaha Riza, who has dated Wolfowitz. She was given an assignment at the State Department in September 2005, shortly after he became bank president.
Wolfowitz said he met Thursday morning with the World Bank’s board and that members were looking into the matter. He declined to discuss what actions, if any, the board could take. A World Bank spokeswoman similarly would not comment on the matter.
The White House voiced its support for Wolfowitz. President Bush appointed Wolfowitz, a main architect of the Iraq war when he served as deputy defense secretary.
Wolfowitz “has our full confidence,” said White House spokesman Tony Fratto.
WASHINGTON
Advisory panel votes down Vioxx successor
A painkiller proposed as a successor to Vioxx should not be approved, a panel of federal health advisers recommended Thursday.
The nonbinding 20-1 vote was on the prescription drug Arcoxia, made by Merck & Co. Inc. A Food and Drug Administration drug-safety expert had told the panel the drug may substantially increase the risk of stroke and heart attack and is no more effective for pain relief than other medicines in the same class.
LOS ANGELES
High winds fan fires, damaging homes
Fires erupted in the hills above Los Angeles Thursday, damaging or destroying several homes.
Wind speeds of more than 50 mph propelled a 35-acre blaze in grass near expensive mountainside homes above the city of Beverly Hills, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Ron Myers said. Fires erupted on the roofs of homes and four were damaged, two severely, Myers said.
About 200 firefighters contained the fire late Thursday.
Smaller fires burned elsewhere in Southern California, including a 15- to 20-acre blaze in Palmdale. Fires caused power outages for more than 100,000 customers in Los Angeles County and surrounding areas.
ATLANTA
Papers taken off block believed to be MLK’s
A small collection of letters, notes and speeches believed to have once belonged to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was taken off the auction block Thursday amid protests from the civil-rights leader’s family. The documents were to be sold Sunday at Gallery 63 on behalf of an anonymous woman said to be King’s childhood friend.
“The papers need to be further evaluated before they go on the open market,” said Gallery 63 owner Paul Brown.
King’s family believes the papers should go to his alma mater, Morehouse College, which bought a larger collection of King papers last year for $32 million.
JERUSALEM
Sharon slightly better, TV station reports
An Israeli TV station reported late Thursday that there has been a slight improvement in former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s condition, but the hospital refused to comment.
Channel 10 TV reported the change, but Sharon remained comatose. He has been unconscious since suffering a massive stroke in January 2006. He is hospitalized in the long-term section of Sheba Medical Center, just outside Tel Aviv.
Sharon turned 79 last month, the second birthday he has passed while unconscious.
JAKARTA, Indonesia
Mud-flood repairs to begin, a year later
Almost a year after a massive flood of mud began, the Indonesian government has pledged at least $275 million to repair the damage from the disaster that just won’t stop.
Thick muck has spewed over hundreds of families’ homes as well as their rice fields, factories and roads since May, when a natural-gas drilling project went wrong in Sidoarjo, on Java. The rupture has belched out more than 1 billion cubic feet of mud, forming a hot sludge lake that covers several square miles.
The money will pay to reroute a railway line, highway and gas pipeline buried under the mud and buy land on which to rebuild the destroyed infrastructure.
