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Debating the Fed's decision: Does the US economy still need so much help from bond purchases?
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Reserve's decision to postpone any pullback in its economic stimulus immediately ignited a debate: Was the Fed right or wrong to delay the inevitable?
• Investors had anticipated a small cut in the Fed's $85 billion in monthly bond purchases, which are intended to keep long-term borrowing rates low to encourage spending. A pullback would have signaled that the Fed felt the economy had shown steady improvement.
• Was the Fed right to hold off? Here's the case for slowing the purchases -- and the case against it.
• -- THE CASE FOR SLOWING BOND PURCHASES:
• If not now, when? That's what many economists were asking.
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Syrian official: Roadside bomb targets bus in central province, killing 19
• DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) -- A Syrian official says a roadside bomb has targeted a bus in the country's central province, killing 19 people.
• The official at the governor's office in Homs province says Thursday's explosion in the village of Jbourin also wounded four people on the bus. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
• The village is predominantly Alawite, a minority sect to which President Bashar Assad belongs, but it also has Christians and Sunnis. It was not immediately clear why the bus was targeted.
• Syria's civil war, which has left more than 100,000 dead since the crisis erupted in March 2011, has taken increasingly sectarian overtones. Most of the rebels trying to overthrow Assad belong to the majority Sunni sect.
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Christians of southern Egyptian town get no respite after army wrest control from militants
• DALGA, Egypt (AP) -- Islamic militants on motorbikes drive by Sameer Hanna (Continued on page 27)
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