A crisis in 3 acts: Following the impact of a Greek exit from the euro to the US NEW YORK (AP) — The unthinkable suddenly looks possible. Bankers, governments and investors are starting to prepare for Greece to stop using the euro as its currency, a move that could spread turmoil throughout the global financial system. The worst-case scenario envisions governments defaulting on their debts, a run on European banks and a worldwide credit crunch reminiscent of the financial crisis in the fall of 2008. A Greek election on Sunday will go a long way toward determining whether it happens. Syriza, a party opposed to the restrictions placed on Greece in exchange for a bailout from European neighbors, could do well. In the meantime, banks and investors have sketched out the ripple effects if Greek were to leave the euro. ——— Egypt court dissolves Islamist-led parliament, deepening crisis with Muslim Brotherhood, army CAIRO (AP) — Judges appointed by Hosni Mubarak dissolved the Islamist-dominated parliament Thursday and ruled his former prime minister eligible for the presidential runoff election this weekend — setting the stage for the military and remnants of the old regime to stay in power. The politically charged rulings dealt a heavy blow to the fundamentalist Islamic Brotherhood, with one senior member calling the decisions a ‘‘full-fledged coup,’’ and the group vowed to rally the public against Ahmed Shafiq, the last prime minister to serve under Mubarak. The decision by the Supreme Constitutional Court effectively erased the tenuous progress from Egypt’s troubled transition in the past year, leaving the country with no parliament and concentrating power even more firmly in the hands of the generals who took over from Mubarak. Several hundred people gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square after the rulings to denounce the action and rally against Shafiq, the presidential candidate seen by critics as a symbol of Mubarak’s autocratic rule. But with no calls by the Brotherhood or other groups for massive demonstrations, the crowd did not grow. Activists who engineered Egypt’s uprising have long suspected that the generals would try to cling to power, explaining that after 60 years as the nation’s single most dominant institution, the military would be reluctant to surrender its authority or leave its economic empire to civilian scrutiny. ——— China suspends officials in forced abortion case after graphic photos spark uproar BEIJING (AP) — China suspended three officials and apologized to a woman who was forced to undergo an abortion seven months into her pregnancy in a case that sparked an uproar after graphic photos of the mother and her dead baby were circulated online. The moves appeared to be aimed at allaying public anger over a case that has triggered renewed criticism of China’s widely hated one-child limit. Designed to control the country’s exploding population, the policy has led to often violently imposed forced abortions and sterilizations as local authorities pursue birth quotas set by Beijing. Feng Jianmei, 23, was beaten by officials and forced to abort the baby at seven months on June 2 because her family could not afford a 40,000 yuan ($6,300) fine for having a second child, Chinese media reported this week. Photos of Feng lying on a hospital bed with the blood-covered baby, reportedly stillborn after a chemical injection killed it, were posted online and went viral, prompting a public outpouring of sympathy and outrage. A commentary posted on the official website China.org.cn said the forced abortion ‘‘is society’s shame.’’ Another said the case exposed the lack of humanity in some administrative officials. ——— Sandusky trial off until Monday after 8th accuser testifies of repeated alleged sexual attacks BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP) — Jurors in Jerry Sandusky’s case were told Thursday the trial would not resume until next week after prosecutors finished calling to the stand eight young men who claimed the former Penn State assistant coach sexually abused them when they were children. Sandusky’s trial on 52 criminal counts has moved more quickly than many observers have expected, and his lawyers could begin to put on their witnesses as early as Monday. There are two alleged victims have never been identified. Testimony on Thursday included three more accusers, including a young man who claimed the 68-year-old Sandusky raped him as a teen guest in Sandusky’s basement. That witness, now 18, told jurors his abuse began with fondling and forced oral sex and led to several instances of rape in Sandusky’s State College home, where he spent more than 100 nights and where his muffled screams went unanswered by Sandusky’s wife, Dottie, who was upstairs. He said he figured the basement must be soundproof. ——— Neighbors say missing NY doctor’s personality changed before ex-girlfriend was fatally shot BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Neighbors say surgeon Timothy Jorden was meticulous about his work, his appearance and even the landscaping at his home. So they suspected something was askew in his life this spring when he began putting less effort into things he previously approached with such care. The affable doctor also became less friendly and dropped about 75 pounds, they said. They learned this week that police nationwide are searching for Jorden — also a military-trained weapons expert — following the audacious fatal shooting of his ex-girlfriend in a stairwell at the hospital where they both worked. They now wonder if the odd shift in his personality is somehow connected to the death of administrative assistant Jacqueline Wisniewski. ‘‘I saw him at the beginning of the season and noticed how much weight he had lost,’’ said June DuPree, a neighbor of Jorden’s in an exclusive cluster of homes on a lakefront bluff. ‘‘He said, ‘Yeah, I lost a little bit.’ But it was more than a little bit. It was a lot. He wasn’t too friendly that time I saw him. He just didn’t want to talk.’’ In his Lakeview neighborhood south of Buffalo, Jorden, residents say Jorden clearly spent a lot of money to keep the grounds of his white, gabled home by the lake manicured and lush. But this spring, Jorden’s bushes became overgrown, his grass grew knee-high and a kitchen remodeling job was halted. ——— American drivers turn to smaller, better engines; new models offer more mpg, more horsepower DETROIT (AP) — Back when gas was cheap, Americans bought cars with V-8 engines like the Big Block, Cobra Jet and Ramcharger. Acceleration was all that mattered, even in family cars that never made it to full throttle. The 427-cubic inch Chevrolet Tri-Power was the siren song of the gearhead, sending Corvettes roaring down the highway at up to 140 mph. But now, thanks to government regulation and gas-price gyrations, the motors that move the nation’s cars and trucks are shrinking. Whether they drive hulking pickups or family sedans, Americans are increasingly choosing smaller engines that use less fuel, especially four-cylinder models that offer more horsepower than was possible just a few years ago. More than half the new cars and trucks sold in the U.S. through May had four-cylinder motors. That’s up from 36 percent in 2007, and it’s the highest sales percentage since 1998, when the J.D. Power and Associates consulting firm started keeping track. ——— APNewsBreak: FAA felt political pressure on offshore wind farm, debated plane safety remedy BOSTON (AP) — Federal Aviation Administration employees felt political pressure to approve a wind farm planned off Cape Cod and did so amid internal disagreement over the best way to stop the turbines from interfering with radar and compromising airplane safety, according to FAA documents obtained by the project’s opponents. The FAA ultimately decided that the key to safety was modifying the existing radar system at a nearby airfield, rather than ordering an extensive replacement, as recommended by its technical operations team. A replacement could have jeopardized the long-awaited Cape Wind project, which aims to be the nation’s first offshore wind farm, by delaying it three to four years. The FAA’s approval was overturned last year by an appeals court. In an email sent after that decision, an engineer worried about pilots of certain small aircraft flying near Cape Wind by sight, rather than using flight instruments. ‘‘I don’t think air traffic could keep a low flying, search-only (plane) from running into a wind turbine,’’ he wrote. Other documents show FAA workers repeatedly referring to the high-profile project’s political implications, some characterizing it as ‘‘extremely political’’ or ‘‘highly political.’’ Part of a May 2010 internal presentation reads: ‘‘It would be very difficult politically to refuse approval of this project.’’ ——— More al-Shabab militants defect to join Somali gov’t forces, despite threats of former bosses ELASHA BIYAHA, Somalia (AP) — Evil laughter pealed out of the mobile phone. Abshir Ali Mohamed, an al-Shabab defector now wearing a Somali military uniform, had asked his former commander to join him. The commander, an al-Shabab judge known for ordering amputations, said he would instead kill Mohamed. Somali military and government leaders say Mohamed’s defection is an example of a trend growing in their favor, with the East African country’s most notorious militant group losing manpower and ground. The 24-year-old former insurgent left al-Shabab less than two weeks ago and now wears a bright blue patch with a white star — the Somali flag — on the shoulder of his government uniform. ‘‘Al-Shabab is no longer. It’s going to end soon,’’ Mohamed said last week at freshly dug Ugandan-Somali military base on the outskirts of Mogadishu. The base was set up after African Union troops kicked militants out of the towns of Elasha Biyaha and Afgoye. ‘‘Al-Shabab is changing sides because of heavy losses. Those who still fight with them are running away in small groups. They’ve lost weapons. They’ve lost personnel,’’ he continued. More are looking to flee, he said. Somali government spokesman Abdirahman Omar Osman said Thursday that some 500 al-Shabab fighters have defected to the government side. ——— Flying Wallendas have rich daredevil history, though not without tragedy NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. (AP) — When Nik Wallenda sets out for his tightrope walk over Niagara Falls late Friday, he’ll be adding another chapter to his family’s storied daredevil history which dates back more than two centuries. Wallenda has said he is disappointed he is being made to wear a tether by the event’s sponsor, ABC, since his family has performed over the years without such safety precautions. Here’s a look at the first family of funambulists, along with some of their notable feats and tragedies: — The Wallendas trace their fearless roots to 1780 Austria-Hungary, when ancestors traveled as a band of acrobats, aerialists, jugglers, animal trainers and trapeze artists. — John Ringling of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus recruited the Wallendas after seeing them perform in Cuba. In 1928, the family gave its inaugural performance at Madison Square Garden earned a 15-minute standing ovation from an astounded audience, who marveled at them performing without a safety net. — The signature performance of the group that came to be known in the 1940s as ‘‘The Flying Wallendas’’ was the seven-person chair pyramid: Two pairs of performers walk the wire, each supporting another aerialist on a pole. Those two aerialists, in turn, carry a pole upon which the seventh member of the troupe balances in a chair. ——— Gov’t estimates cost of raising a child is $235,000 from birth to age 17 WASHINGTON (AP) — For $235,000, you could indulge in a shiny new Ferrari — or raise a child for 17 years. A government report released Thursday found that a middle-income family with a child born last year will spend about that much in child-related expenses from birth through age 17. That’s a 3.5 percent increase from 2010. The report from the Agriculture Department’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion said housing is the single largest expense, averaging about $70,500, or 30 percent of the total cost. Families living in the urban Northeast tend to have the highest child-rearing expenses, followed by those in the urban West and the urban Midwest. Those living in the urban South and rural areas face the lowest costs. The estimate also includes the cost of transportation, child care, education, food, clothing, health care and miscellaneous expenses.
