Obama asks business leaders to do their part

As corporate profits rise and Wall Street earnings soar, President Barack Obama is pressing American business leaders to create more jobs and find ways for struggling middle-class families to share in the nation's economic recovery.

Obama says the private sector has to do its part to ensure that "we're not simply creating an economy in which one segment of it is doing very well, but the rest of the folks are out there treading water."

"I don't know exactly where your future customers come from if they don't have jobs," Obama said Thursday during the first meeting of his newly created jobs and competitiveness council.

The president asked the 22-member council, comprised of business and labor leaders, to come up with new ideas for increasing hiring and boosting economic growth. He listed streamlining regulations and reforming tax laws as steps he would consider for creating jobs and bringing down the unemployment rate, stuck at about 9 percent.

While many Americans are either without jobs or are under employed, corporate profits continue to rise and 2010 saw record-setting earnings for some Wall Street banks. Still, many of those companies and banks are keeping trillions of dollars on the sidelines, wary of investing while the economic recovery is still fragile.

Some members of the council said their companies' economic data are showing the signs of economic disparity.

Shoppers wary of GM foods find they're everywhere

You may not want to eat genetically engineered foods. Chances are, you are eating them anyway.

Genetically modified plants grown from seeds engineered in labs now provide much of the food we eat. Most corn, soybean and cotton crops grown in the United States have been genetically modified to resist pesticides or insects, and corn and soy are common food ingredients.

The Agriculture Department has approved three more genetically engineered crops in the past month, and the Food and Drug Administration could approve fast-growing genetically modified salmon for human consumption this year.

Agribusiness and the seed companies say their products help boost crop production, lower prices at the grocery store and feed the world, particularly in developing countries. The FDA and USDA say the engineered foods they've approved are safe - so safe, they don't even need to be labeled as such - and can't be significantly distinguished from conventional varieties.

Organic food companies, chefs and consumer groups have stepped up their efforts - so far, unsuccessfully - to get the government to exercise more oversight of engineered foods, arguing the seeds are floating from field to field and contaminating pure crops. The groups have been bolstered by a growing network of consumers who are wary of processed and modified foods.

Many of these opponents acknowledge that there isn't much solid evidence showing genetically modified foods are somehow dangerous or unhealthy. It just doesn't seem right, they say. It's an ethical issue.

China's Web police block US ambassador's name

China widened its Internet policing after online calls for protests like those that swept the Middle East, with social networking site LinkedIn and searches for the U.S. ambassador's name both blocked on Friday.

Searches for Ambassador Jon Huntsman's name in Chinese on popular microblogging site Sina Weibo were met with a message saying results were not available due to unspecified "laws, regulations and policies."

A video circulating online shows Huntsman, who has been mentioned as a potential Republican presidential candidate, scanning the crowd at the site of a tiny protest in Beijing last weekend. An unidentified Chinese man asked Huntsman what he was doing there and whether he wanted to see chaos in China. Huntsman walked away from the scene after that comment.

The U.S. Embassy was aware that Huntsman's name was being "restricted on some searches" on China's domestic Internet, spokesman Richard Buangan said, but declined further comment on the issue.

He said the ambassador and some family members were passing through the bustling Wangfujing shopping street on Sunday and it was a coincidence that they were there at the same time as the planned protest.

Pakistan puts CIA contractor on trial for murder

A Pakistani court adjourned on Friday the trial of a CIA contractor charged with killing two Pakistanis until March 3, dismissing U.S. demands for his release.

The contractor, Raymond Davis, shot dead two men in the eastern city of Lahore last month. He said he acted in self-defense and the United States says he has diplomatic immunity and should be repatriated.

The case has inflamed anti-American sentiment in Pakistan and is straining relations between the allies. Pakistani efforts against Islamist militants on its border with Afghanistan are seen as crucial to ending the war in neighboring Afghanistan.

"He (Davis) said that he should be given immunity ... a discussion will be held on this at the next hearing," said Asad Manzoor Butt, a lawyer for the families of the two men Davis killed.

Davis, a former U.S. special forces officer, has been charged with double-murder and faces possible execution.

There have been conflicting accounts about the identity of the two victims with Davis and a police report indicating they were armed robbers while Pakistani media and some officials have portrayed them as innocent victims.

With public anger and anti-American feeling running high, President Ali Asif Zardari's unpopular government had little choice but to let the case go through the courts.

"He should be treated the same way he treated Pakistanis," said Muzammil Mukhtar, a laborer in a factory near Kot Lakhpat jail, where Davis has been detained since February 11 and where his trial began on Friday.

Earthquake survivor: I'm one of the lucky ones

We drove through the streets of the earthquake affected suburb of Brighton, on the outskirts of Christchurch, and came across a collapsed two-story building where Adele Stokes, covered in dust, was picking though the wreckage, looking for anything she could salvage.

Her relatives had just arrived with their two young sons when the 6.3 magnitude quake struck Christchurch on Tuesday at 12.51 p.m.

Still visibly shaken up days after the quake, Adele looks at the tonnes of rubble that could have so easily have crushed her, her family and friend to death. And if the pub had been opened, as it was due to later that afternoon, Adele says there would definitely have been fatalities.

"It was terrible, it started shaking -- moving from side to side and the walls were caving in. Then the floor dropped. We somehow managed to escape and get the kids out. I don't know how we did it. I really don't."

It was Adele's neighbor Dale Lynn who helped pull them to safety. His house was still standing after the quake violently shook the city, but then he heard the yelling and screams coming from next door.

The air was filled with dust and he couldn't see anything. All he could hear were cries for help. He and his son followed the noise and quickly found them - pulling them all to safety. And other than a few cuts, bumps and bruises, everyone else got out unscathed.

Adele is aware she's lost everything but continues to smile. She knows how fortunate she is just to be alive. Her friend Melissa arrives and gives her a huge hug, repeating over and over again: "Thank god you are safe."

Melissa is a policewoman who lives down the road. She drove past Adele's house after the quake and feared the worst. Melissa says she tried desperately to reach Adele on the phone but got no answer. The two women can now laugh. Adele explains she'd lost her mobile phone in the debris until a friend found it -- banged up but remarkably still working.

Adele has decided to leave Christchurch for a while. With no home, she's taking off in a camper van and heading north. It's been a tough few days but as she walks off carrying just a handful of retrieved possessions, Adele reminds me, she's one of the lucky ones.