ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - An unidentified woman was taken from golfer Tiger Woods' home in Windermere, Florida, by ambulance to a nearby hospital early on Tuesday, authorities said.
"We responded to a medical call. A patient was transported," said Orange County Fire Rescue spokeswoman Genevieve Latham, who said the woman was transported by ambulance overnight.
Latham declined further comment. But WESH-TV, a local station, showed footage of a blond woman being taken on a stretcher into a hospital in Ococee, Florida, and the station said medics were called to Woods' home at 2:36 a.m. (0736 GMT).
Woods, the world's No. 1 golfer, has been the focus of a media storm since he was injured in a minor car crash in the middle of the night outside his home late last month.
He has since admitted to "transgressions" that apparently addressed allegations of marital infidelity.
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Obama keeps focus on jobs, warns no silver bullet


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, battling a public outcry over double-digit U.S. unemployment, on Tuesday will lay out several new steps to boost jobs and confront a challenge that has hurt his popularity.

Building on a jobs forum and road trip to the industrial heartland last week, Obama is expected to discuss extending aid to cash-strapped states, encouraging energy efficiency by weatherizing buildings and using bank-bailout money for jobs.
However, a deficit-wary White House said that this will not amount to a second stimulus package, implying any price-tag associated with the additional measures will be modest.
"What my speech tomorrow will focus on is the fact that having gotten the financial crisis under control ... our biggest challenge now is making sure that job growth matches up with economic growth," Obama told reporters.
U.S. unemployment dipped slightly to 10 percent last month but Americans remain anxious about the economy, nudging Obama's approval ratings to 50 percent or below and potentially dimming his Democratic party's prospects in mid-term congressional elections next November.
The White House separately said Obama was "not going to unveil the silver bullet idea" on Tuesday, because if there was an easy solution out there, it would have already been done.
Under fire from Republicans for bailouts created when they in fact held the White House, Obama will review using some money previously earmarked for a $700 billion bank rescue fund that has been returned to the public purse.
Obama said that some of the money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, will be used to pay down the record U.S. budget deficit, but he was open to other options.
"The question is, are there selective approaches that are consistent with the original goals of TARP, for example making sure that small businesses are still getting lending, that would be appropriate in accelerating job growth, and I will be addressing that tomorrow," Obama said.
The speech, in Washington, is scheduled for Tuesday at 11:15 a.m. EST.
The Treasury said on Sunday that TARP will cost U.S. taxpayers about $200 billion less than previously estimated.
Republicans oppose diverting any of this money from deficit reduction, and Obama is aware of the perils of not tackling the country's record budget shortfall, which hit $1.4 trillion in the financial year that ended in September.
DEFICITS MATTER
Obama told a White House jobs forum on Thursday the best way to cut the deficit in the short-term was to boost jobs and growth, lifting tax revenue and curbing welfare payments. But he also stressed the risk of scaring away investors if the country fails to improve its budget position over time.
Obama signed a $787 billion emergency spending bill in February and is keen to avoid having any additional action tagged as a second stimulus package, not least because two-thirds of this money has still not been spent.
As a result, he is expected to focus on relatively low-cost initiatives that will not significantly add to the deficit.
Beyond exploiting the TARP windfall, the White House is also looking at extending aid to states, which have a gaping $144 billion budget deficit this year and will have to start firing workers like teachers and firefighters unless Washington can find some way to ease their pain.
Renewing unemployment insurance and other welfare support that has already been extended under the emergency stimulus act will be politically hard to resist, with over 15 million Americans out of work and the jobless rate at a 26-year high.
Another idea Obama highlighted at the jobs forum last week was a so-called cash-for-caulkers plan to improve energy efficiency by weatherizing buildings. This recalled the wildly popular cash-for-clunkers deal earlier this year to trade in old gas-guzzling automobiles for new higher mileage rides.
Obama has also mentioned tax incentives to encourage firms to add to payrolls, echoing measures that appear to have helped Germany avoid suffering a steep climb in unemployment despite also going through a severe recession last year.
"I hope he goes for some work-sharing tax credit. The idea is picking up lots of support in Congress. It is hard to envision a quicker way to get unemployment down," said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington.
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BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Car bombs killed at least 112 people in Baghdad on Tuesday, police said, leaving pools of blood, charred buses and scattered body parts in a brutal reminder of the threat from Iraq's stubborn insurgency.

The blasts, most detonated by suicide bombers, ripped through crowded areas close to government buildings, which should have been under tight security after previous devastating attacks in the capital in recent months.
The bombings undermine Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's claims to have brought security to the country before a national election now scheduled for March 6, and could rattle foreign oil chiefs due in Iraq this weekend for a major contract auction.
"We had entered a shop seconds before the blast, the ceiling caved in on us, and we lost consciousness. Then I heard screams and sirens all around," said Mohammed Abdul Ridha, one of the 425 wounded in the series of at least four blasts.
Baghdad security spokesman Major General Qassim al-Moussawi gave a lower death toll of 63. It was not possible to explain the discrepancy with the numbers provided by police sources. The Health Ministry said it was difficult to determine the exact number because many bodies had been blown to pieces.
Smoke billowed and sirens wailed as emergency workers removed the dead in black body bags. Pools of blood had formed next to burned-out minibuses, police vehicles and dozens of crumpled cars at one bomb site, the blast leaving a huge crater.
"What these gangs are doing are criminal acts which express their bankruptcy and disappointment ... after what the Iraqi people and its political powers have achieved," Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi said in a statement.
Analysts said the attacks, similar to spectacular bombings in the Iraqi capital in October and August, were meant to shake faith in Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim-led government.
The earlier blasts were blamed on Sunni Islamist insurgents and members of Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath party.
"It's the same style and the same vital targets. There is one political motive -- to show that the government has failed to provide security," said analyst Hazim al-Nuaimi.
OIL AUCTION STILL ON
In one attack, a suicide bomber blew up his vehicle in the car park of a courthouse, after getting through a checkpoint, police said.
Another blast, this time a parked car bomb and not a suicide bomber, struck a temporary building used by the Finance Ministry after its main premises were devastated in the August bombing.
A third bomber blew himself and his car up near a training center for judges.
The first blast of the day struck a police checkpoint in south Baghdad about 30 minutes before the other three. It, too, was a suicide bomber in a car packed with explosives.
Iraq's Oil Ministry said it would not cancel the planned tender of oilfield development contracts on December 11 and 12, which executives from the world's main oil companies are due to attend. The deals are seen as crucial to Iraq's efforts to raise the cash required to rebuild after years of war and destruction.
NEW INSURGENT TACTIC
Overall violence in Iraq has fallen sharply in the last two years, and November's monthly civilian death toll was the lowest since the 2003 U.S. invasion.
But Iraq's security forces, now largely working alone after U.S. troops pulled out of urban centres in June, have struggled to prevent major attacks that experts say require strong intelligence-gathering to prevent.
A handful of U.S. soldiers were at the scene of one blast site, collecting evidence, while Iraqi police looked on.
Tuesday's attacks were the worst in Baghdad since October 25, when two massive truck bombs killed 155 people at the Justice Ministry and the offices of the governor of Baghdad.
After each attack, the government ordered tighter security and Maliki promised the culprits would be captured.
The bombings mark a change of tactics for Sunni Islamist insurgent groups such as al Qaeda. Rather than frequent, smaller-scale attacks against soft targets such as markets, they now appear to be aiming for spectacular and less frequent strikes against state targets.
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Poll: 26% think Obama deserves Nobel

Good news/bad news Q Poll on war and peace for Barack Obama.
Approval for the Afghanistan escalation is up by nine points in the past month -- voters now think the war is a good idea by a 57-to-35 percent margin.
A healthy 60 percent favor his new troop surge, according to the Quinnipiac survey, which has a two percent margin of error.
But only 26 percent think the president, who has been in office for less than a year, deserves to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Q: "The jump in public support for Obama’s war policy comes as voters say 66 – 26 percent he does not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize he will be awarded this week, and 41 percent say the Nobel committee’s choice of Obama for the award causes them to think less of it, while 6 percent say it makes them think better of the prize and 49 percent say it makes no difference."
The whole release, which has crosstabs, after the jump.
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Baucus flame burned for US attorney job

The AP goes to Billings for the scoop on Max Baucus's girlfriend/staffer/US Attorney nominee Melodee Hanes, who had been eying a federal prosecutor's job for a long time.
Hanes' ex-husband described their recent divorce as "amicable" but said it was a good idea that her name was withdrawn from consideration as Montana's US attorney.
Hanes, whom colleagues describe as a skilled courtroom lawyer with a passion for prosecutor child abusers, may have taken a job with Baucus in the hopes that it would eventually lead to the appointment, sources tell the wire. Their extramarital romance was, reportedly, an unexpected detour from that path.
The AP's Matthew Brown:
In Montana, Yellowstone County Attorney Dennis Paxinos described Hanes as an accomplished criminal prosecutor. Being named U.S. attorney "was the career path she was working on" since at least 2002, said Paxinos, a Republican and Hanes' former boss.That year Hanes left her deputy county attorney job to work on Baucus' re-election campaign. The move into politics was based on the assumption that it could lead to the federal prosecutor's job, according to Paxinos."I don't think it was ever her intent to fall in love with a senator," he said.When Hanes put in her name for U.S. attorney — soon after President Obama was elected last November — John Sarcone, county attorney in Polk County, Iowa, said he submitted a letter of recommendation for her. Hanes, who gravitated to child abuse cases over her two decades in private practice and as a prosecutor, had worked in Sarcone's office from 1986 to 1998."She was out to do justice and she did a good job," Sarcone said.Hanes divorced Thomas Bennett, a Billings pathologist, after a 12-year marriage in December 2008, according to court records. She left Baucus' office in June to take a top position within the Justice Department in Washington.Bennett said in an interview that he had "misgivings, mostly as a private citizen" about his ex-wife's nomination for federal prosecutor given her close personal ties to Baucus.
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Chavez: Venezuela acquires thousands of missiles


CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - President Hugo Chavez said Monday that Venezuela has received thousands of Russian-made missiles and rocket launchers as part of his government's military preparations for a possible armed conflict with neighboring Colombia.
"They are preparing a war against us," Chavez said during a televised address, repeating a charge he has been making for months. "Preparing is one of the best ways to neutralize it."
Both Colombia and Washington deny having any plans to attack Venezuela, but Chavez argues they are plotting together a military offensive against Venezuela. Chavez says his government is acquiring more weapons as a precaution.
"Thousands of missiles are arriving," Chavez said. The former paratrooper-turned-president did not specify what type of missiles, but said Venezuela's growing arsenal includes Russian-made Igla-1S surface-to-air missiles and rocket-propelled grenades.
Chavez, who has been feuding with Colombia for months, claims an agreement between Bogota and Washington allowing the U.S. military to increase its presence at seven Colombian military bases poses a threat to his country. Colombia says the deal is only to help it fight the war on drugs and insurgents inside its territory.
Chavez also said Monday that Russian tanks, including T-72s, will be arriving "to strengthen our armored divisions."
Venezuela has bought more than $4 billion worth of Russian arms since 2005, including 24 Sukhoi fighter jets, dozens of attack helicopters and 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles. In September, Russia opened a $2.2 billion line of credit for Venezuela to purchase more weapons.

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