WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama cautiously accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on Thursday in Oslo , acknowledging “the considerable controversy” over his award because he’s accomplished little on the world stage in less than a year on the job and has just called for sending 30,000 to 35,000 more U.S. troops to war in Afghanistan .

Given the stature of some past winners, and the ordeals faced by humanitarian leaders who’ve never won, Obama said that “I cannot argue with those who find these men and women, some known, some obscure to all but those they help, to be far more deserving of this honor than I.”

In his acceptance speech at Oslo City Hall on a daylong stop that’s irked some Norwegians because of its brevity, the president wove themes of optimism and realism. He spoke at once of the inevitability of some war and his belief in a ” North Star ” of faith in human progress.

Obama hit on perhaps the central reason for the Nobel committee’s decision when he emphasized his belief that the U.S. must rely more on multilateralism to handle evolving conflicts. European frustration with former President George W. Bush’s unilateral approach, especially toward Iraq , has helped to fuel their investment in Obama as an alternative.

In turn, the president called on other nations to step up their commitments to U.N. peacekeeping efforts, nuclear disarmament and imposing serious sanctions on regimes that pose a threat to world stability.

“It is also incumbent upon all of us to insist that nations like Iran and North Korea do not game the system,” he said. “Those who seek peace cannot stand idly by as nations arm themselves for nuclear war.”

“I do not bring with me today a definitive solution to the problems of war,” Obama said. “There is no simple formula here. But we must try as best we can to balance isolation and engagement, pressure and incentives, so that human rights and dignity are advanced over time.”

Nobel committee Chairman Thorbjorn Jagland , in remarks before Obama’s, defended the choice, saying the prize should be an “instrument for peace rather than stamp of approval” and that “peace must be built again and again.”

Obama used his remarks to praise civil demonstrators in Zimbabwe and Iran and in Myanmar , where he singled out pro-democracy figure Aung Sang Suu Kyi by name.

While embracing the nonviolent messages of Martin Luther King Jr. , who also won the Nobel prize, and Mohandas Gandhi , who did not, the president said that “as head of state sworn to protect and defend my nation, I cannot be guided by their examples alone.”

“Evil does exist in the world,” Obama said. “A nonviolent movement could not have halted Hitler’s armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaida’s leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism. It is a recognition of history, the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.”

Obama becomes the third sitting U.S. president, after Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt , to win the peace prize.

President Jimmy Carter won the prize two decades after his presidency. Former Vice President Al Gore’s Nobel came after the end of the Clinton administration.

In studying past acceptance speeches, Obama and his speechwriting team also pored over the words of nonpresidential winners, including George Marshall , the former secretary of defense and secretary of state and the first career soldier to win the Nobel for his initiative to rebuild Europe after World War II.

Obama arrived in Norway shortly after 8 a.m. local time Thursday, or 2 a.m. EST , the sky dusky and flecked with snow and sleet.

Accompanied by his wife and an official entourage, the president went by motorcade to the Nobel Institute for the ceremonial signing of the guest book. The motorcade passed clusters of onlookers, including children with flags, and protesters with a banner that read, “Obama, you won it now earn it.”

Then he was off to a bilateral meeting with Norway’s prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg , at which Stoltenberg announced that his country was raising its financial commitment to fund the Afghan army and police to $110 million through 2014.

“I only wish that my family could stay longer in this wonderful country, but I still have a lot of work to do back in Washington, D.C. , before the year is done,” Obama said.

The leaders took just two questions, one from each press corps.

Obama told U.S. reporters, in response to a question about whether July 2011 really was a firm date to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan , “I’ve been unambiguous about this, so there should not be a debate. Starting in July 2011 we will begin that transition, that transfer of responsibility.”

He said the pace and tactics would be conditions-based and that the drawdown would not be sharp, “but July 2011 will signal a shift in our mission.”

A Norwegian reporter asked what Obama would do to counter criticism that his Nobel prize was premature.

The president said his foreign policy goal “is not to win a popularity contest or to get an award” but “to advance America’s interests, to strengthen our economy at home and to make ourselves a continuing force for good in the world. . . .

“If I’m successful in those tasks, then hopefully some of the criticism will subside, but that’s not really my concern. And if I’m not successful, then all the praise and the awards in the world won’t disguise that fact.”

At the Slottet Royal Palace of Norway , the Obamas met with King Harald V, Queen Sonja , Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit.

The queen confessed wishing that she were taller to first lady Michelle Obama , who’s 5 feet 11, and when the queen asked whether the Obamas were accustomed to the crowd of news crews following them, President Obama’s answer was, “Unfortunately.”

MOSCOW - In an electric four-hour solo performance on live television, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said he will think about whether to reclaim the presidency - one of the strongest signals yet that he may run again for Russia’s top office in 2012.

Putin, who also vowed that Russia would step up its efforts against terrorism, spoke during a question-and-answer show on television and radio that highlighted his dominance of Russia’s political scene.

“I will think about it, there is still enough time,” Putin said when asked whether he will run in the next election.

“Don’t hold your breath,” Putin told another person who asked whether he was planning to leave politics.

Putin added he wants to focus now on his job as premier and make sometimes unpopular decisions without having to take electoral considerations into account.

Putin had to shift into the premier’s seat in 2008 following two consecutive terms in office, but since then the presidential term has been extended to six years and Putin is eligible to run again in 2012.

Some 2 million questions were submitted by telephone or on the Internet to Putin’s marathon television show, which was similar to previous call-ins he did when he was president. It clearly demonstrated that he continued to call the shots, overshadowing his designated successor, President Dmitry Medvedev.

Analysts said no one could miss Putin’s desire to reclaim the presidency.

“While he coyly said it’s too early for a decision, it certainly looked like he has already decided” to return to the presidency in 2012, said Nikolai Petrov of the Carnegie Endowment’s Moscow office.

“He’s too much of a professional to unveil his actual plans in such a format. But he did not reject the idea of returning to the presidency, and - unlike in previous comments - he made no mention of Medvedev,” Petrov told The Associated Press.

Olga Kryshtanovskaya, a sociologist who studies the Russian political elite, said Putin had decided to run again even before he stepped down.

“I think it was decided in 2007, when strategy was being planned,” she told the AP. “I think it was decided that Putin should not seek a third consecutive term, but that after four years he could return to the presidency.”

The bookish Medvedev, who has never made a similar TV appearance since his March 2008 election, was in Italy on Thursday to meet with the Italian leaders and the pope.

“If Putin doesn’t rule out running, neither do I rule myself out” for 2012 election, Medvedev told journalists in Rome when asked about Putin’s remarks.

Medvedev also said that he and Putin will act as “responsible politicians” and reach an agreement on the 2012 elections to avoid “elbowing one another” - echoing comments made previously by Putin.

Asked about his relationship with Medvedev, Putin said their common educational background and views allowed them to “efficiently work together.”

Putin, who has cast himself as a paternal figure protecting people from terrorism and economic upheavals, said Thursday that the threat of terrorism remains “very high” following a deadly train bombing that killed 26 people last week. He promised that authorities would act “very harshly” to root out militants.

“We have enough resolve and firmness for that,” he said.

The bombing last Friday of the Moscow-to-St.Petersburg express train fueled fears that Russia could face another wave of terror attacks. It was the first deadly terrorist strike outside the North Caucasus since the bombings of two airliners and a Moscow subway station attack in 2004.

Putin also focused heavily on economy during Thursday’s show, which featured televised links with workers from several industrial towns.

Putin said Russia has “overcome the peak of the crisis” and claimed credit for softening its impact. He added the government will have to spend more money to support the economy in the meantime.

Russia is weathering its worst economic downturn in a decade as commodities prices - the backbone of its economy - collapsed late last year. But it emerged from the recession in the third quarter, its GDP rising by a seasonally adjusted 0.6 percent.

Putin used the show to further burnish his common-man appeal, chastising the Russian rich for arrogantly showing off their wealth, saying their fancy imported cars looked as grotesque as golden teeth.

He congratulated a 55-year-old caller on her birthday and promised to send computers to a provincial school in reply to a student’s plea.

He promised more compensation to a widow whose husband was among 75 people killed in a disastrous accident at Russia’s largest hydroelectric plant, and offered wage hikes and more social benefits to others.

“If the situation demands it, I will come to you or to any other place in the Russian Federation, it’s my duty,” he said.

In a careful balancing act in response to a question about Josef Stalin, Putin credited the Soviet dictator for his industrialization drive and World War II victory but denounced the massive repressions under Stalin’s regime.

Delving into foreign policy issues, Putin sharply admonishing the United States for keeping “anachronistic” Cold War-era trade restrictions imposed to penalize the Soviet Union for its refusal to allow free emigration of the Jews.

“The Soviet Union is gone, but they (restrictions) have remained,” he said.

Putin also accused the United States of hampering Russia’s accession into the World Trade Organization.

“Accession into the WTO remains our strategic goal, but some nations, including the United States, are impeding Russia’s WTO bid,” he said.

WASHINGTON - Under pressure from Republicans and an impatient public to fix the sputtering economic recovery, President Barack Obama is refocusing on this politically potent issue by talking job creation with business and labor leaders at the White House.The White House has lacked a unified economic message in recent weeks, with its attention focused instead on health care and Obama’s three-month review of the Afghanistan war. With unemployment in double digits for the first time in decades, Democratic lawmakers are suggesting a second economic stimulus aimed directly at job creation may be needed.

Administration officials are hoping Thursday’s jobs forum, an Obama trip to Pennsylvania on Friday and a major economic speech on Tuesday will help counter Republican critics who contend the administration’s economic recovery efforts have failed and its oversight of the $787 billion stimulus package has been inadequate.

At the jobs forum, Obama planned to defend his administration’s handling of the economy and argue that it would be in far worse shape had Congress not passed the huge stimulus bill earlier this year. Under intense GOP attacks, public support for the stimulus effort has faded.

“I certainly hope it’s more than a photo op,” said the No. 2 House Republican, Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia. “All of us want to do anything we can to get Americans back to work. Past history has been, with this White House, that there’s been a lot of pomp and ceremony with very little follow-through in terms of delivering results.”

Administration officials said they don’t expect major policy announcements from the president, Vice President Joe Biden or members of the Cabinet who were scheduled to be on hand.

“Increasing employment is everyone’s responsibility, from government to businesses to households,” Obama economic adviser Larry Summers said in advance of the forum. “The White House jobs forum will take stock of where we are on the implementation of the Recovery Act and explore new job creation measures, including infrastructure investment, incentives for small businesses, developing our green economy and promoting U.S. exports.”

The nation’s unemployment rate is 10.2 percent, the highest since 1983. Some 15.7 million Americans are out of work. The average jobless worker has been unemployed for more than six months. These sobering statistics spell potentially serious trouble for Democrats in next year’s midterm elections.

The recession technically may be over, but analysts say many of the jobs lost in the downturn probably will not return and high unemployment is likely to persist.

WASHINGTON - The tally of newly laid-off workers seeking unemployment benefits fell unexpectedly for the fifth straight week, a hopeful sign that the job market is slowly improving.

Still, claims remain above the levels that most analysts say would be consistent with an economy that is adding jobs. The unemployment rate is at 10.2 percent and expected to keep climbing into next year.

First-time claims for unemployment insurance dropped by 5,000 to a seasonally adjusted 457,000, the lowest total since the week of Sept. 6, 2008, the Labor Department said Thursday. Wall Street economists expected an increase, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.

A Labor Department analyst said the closing of state unemployment offices for last week’s Thanksgiving holiday was responsible for some of the decline.

Economists closely watch initial claims, which are considered a gauge of layoffs and a sign of whether companies are willing to hire.

The four-week average of claims, which smooths out fluctuations, dropped for the 13th straight week to 481,250, about 180,000 below the peak for this recession reached this spring.

But the Federal Reserve said in a report Wednesday that employers in most regions are reluctant to hire new workers, even as the economy stages a modest recovery.

Many economists say that claims need to fall to about 425,000 for at least a month to signal that employers are adding jobs. The nation’s economy has lost jobs for 22 straight months.

The department’s employment report for November, to be released Friday, is expected to show that employers shed another 130,000 jobs after cutting 190,000 in October. Economists forecast the unemployment rate will remain at 10.2 percent.

Meanwhile, the number of people claiming unemployment benefits for more than a week rose by 28,000 to 5.5 million, the department said. Analysts had expected a decline.

That total doesn’t include millions of unemployed Americans that are receiving benefits under extended programs paid for by the federal government.

About 4.5 million people were receiving extended benefits in the week ended Nov. 14, the latest data available. That’s an increase of about 300,000 from the previous week. The jump is a result of Congress adding another 14 to 20 weeks of extra benefits last month, the fourth extension since the recession began and the longest total extension on record.

That boosted the total number of weeks a person could collect unemployment to as much as 99 in the hardest-hit states.

Layoffs continued this week. Gannett Co. said it was cutting 26 newsroom jobs at its flagship USA Today newspaper and eliminating 11 positions at USA Weekend magazine. Another media company, the Greenspun Media Group, which publishes the Las Vegas Sun, announced it was reorganizing its operations in a cost-cutting move and would lay off an unspecified number of workers.

Among the states, California had the largest increase in claims, with nearly 15,000, which it attributed to layoffs in the service industry. Illinois, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas had the next largest increases. The state data lag initial claims by one week.

The largest decrease in claims was in Michigan, with a drop of 1,242, which it attributed to fewer layoffs in the auto industry. Indiana, Hawaii, Oregon and the Virgin Islands also reported declines.

WASHINGTON - Despite misgivings, members of Congress seem poised to back President Barack Obama’s plan to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan after getting assurances the commitment isn’t open-ended.

The surge-and-exit strategy that Obama announced Tuesday night marks the largest expansion of the war since it began eight years ago. Critics conceded that Obama will have little trouble early next year getting Congress to provide an added $30 billion or $40 billion to carry it out.

The president’s chief military and diplomatic advisers faced more questioning from lawmakers Thursday after encountering only tepid criticism Wednesday from members of the Senate Armed Services and House Foreign Affairs committees.

Anti-war Democrats, who rose to power because of voter opposition to Bush’s strategy in Iraq, said they are skeptical that the troop buildup is necessary or will work. But at the same time, party leaders - who were among Obama’s biggest supporters in his campaign for president - said it was unlikely that they would try to block the deployments or the money he wants.

Critical to winning Democratic support was a July 2011 deadline that Obama set to begin troop withdrawals.

Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said setting the date will “produce the sense of urgency in the Afghan government that has been lacking up to now.”

Republicans won assurances from Defense Secretary Robert Gates that the 2011 withdrawal date was flexible. They otherwise supported the troop buildup because it fulfills a request by U.S. commanders in Afghanistan for more soldiers and Marines.

“Once we achieve our objectives - an Afghanistan that can defend itself, govern itself, control its borders and remain an ally in the war on terror - then we can reasonably discuss withdrawal, a withdrawal based on conditions, not timelines,” said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, told Gates, “You’ve struck exactly the right balance.”

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday, “In July 2011, we’ll start to transition security responsibilities to Afghan forces.”

But there has been “no determination of how long that will take,” Mullen said on CBS’ “Early Show.”

Gates said Wednesday the president was committed to begin pulling at least some troops out by the target date. But the president will have the authority to change gears after the Defense Department conducts a formal assessment in December 2010.

“We’re not just going to throw these guys in the swimming pool and walk away,” Gates said of the Afghan security force.

Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of a military spending panel, told reporters he anticipates the Pentagon asking for $40 billion for the war early next year and Congress approving it.

“It’s not likely that there would be any circumstances where the president would lose this battle,” he said.

The football player and TV personality were eliminated Tuesday from “Dancing with the Stars.” Irvin failed to capture enough viewer votes to keep him in the competition, while Dacascos lost his spot during a last-ditch dance-off.

Former Dallas Cowboys receiver Irwin finished his run on the hit ABC show with his highest score of the season: He earned 23 points out of 30 for his fox-trot with professional partner Anna Demidova on Monday’s episode.

Judges’ scores are combined with viewer votes to determine which contestants are eliminated each week.

“Last night was a great night, and to see the audience here standing up, it’s their way of saying they appreciate the hard work,” Irwin said after learning his fate.

Dacascos collected a paltry 19 points for his misguided samba on Monday with a substitute partner after his usual pro, Lacey Schwimmer, fell to the flu. She was back for Tuesday’s episode, when the couple danced-off against Aaron Carter and Karina Smirnoff.

The “Iron Chef America” host’s trick-filled cha-cha earned praise from the judges, but Carter’s jive was more impressive.

Dacascos said being on the show was “one of the greatest experiences of my life.”

“It’s certainly much harder than it looks on television,” he said. “The bond you create with the pro dancers, my dancer, the other celebrities, it’s really special.”

Tuesday’s results show also featured performances by Rod Stewart, country singer Colbie Caillat and Ballas Hough, the rock band created by pro dancers Mark Ballas and Derek Hough. Ballas and his partner, actress Melissa Joan Hart, were eliminated from the competition last week.

Hough is still in the running for the mirrorball trophy with his partner, model Joanna Krupa.

Besides Carter and Krupa, remaining contestants include reality TV star Kelly Osbourne, singer Mya and entertainer Donny Osmond. Each will perform two dances on Monday’s episode.

SHE might be considered one of Hollywood’s sexiest stars, but Salma Hayek hates her body.

The actress - who is married to French billionaire François-Henri Pinault - has revealed how she won a “Best Body Award” - but was too embarrassed to accept it.

“I won a ‘Best Body Award’ from Fitness Magazine and I was too embarrassed to accept it,” Salma said. “I actually don’t have a good body, but if everybody thinks so, I guess it means I’m a good actress.

“I have acted the part of the girl who has a very good body. If you know how to dress, there’s some tricks you can pull.”

Salma, 43, also revealed what she’d be doing if she didn’t make a success of her acting career.

“Growing up, I thought about wanting to be a contortionist or maybe a trapeze artist,” she said. “I would have loved to do something gymnastic. I had another fantasy. Have you ever heard of the group ‘Up With People?’ They’re not a circus troupe, but they came to our city in Mexico when I was a kid doing motivational performances and singing songs about the power we have to change things.

“I had a dream of going away with them - just going from town to town and being in their show to help promote world peace. That was my real secret fantasy.”

Hayek - who got wed earlier this year - recently revealed that she’s still struggling to adjust to married life, especially her husband’s traditions.

“Eating oysters for Christmas is a weird one I didn’t know about,” she said. “I had no idea that would be happening. I’m used to turkey. It takes some getting used to.”

NEW YORK - Irving Penn, whose photographs revealed a taste for stark simplicity whether he was shooting celebrity portraits, fashion, still life or remote places of the world, died Wednesday at his Manhattan home. He was 92.

The death was announced by his photo assistant, Roger Krueger.

“He never stopped working,” said Peter MacGill, a longtime friend whose Pace-MacGill Galleries in Manhattan represented Penn’s work. “He would go back to similar subjects and never see them the same way twice.”

Penn, who constantly explored the photographic medium and its boundaries, typically preferred to isolate his subjects _ from fashion models to Aborigine tribesmen _ from their natural settings to photograph them in a studio against a stark background. He believed the studio could most closely capture their true natures.

Between 1964 and 1971, he completed seven such projects, his subjects ranging from New Guinea mud men to San Francisco hippies.

Penn also had a fascination with still life and produced a dramatic range of images that challenged the traditional idea of beauty, giving dignity to such subjects as cigarette butts, decaying fruit and discarded clothing. A 1977 show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art presented prints of trash rescued from Manhattan streets and photographed, lovingly, against plain backgrounds.

“Photographing a cake can be art,” he said at the 1953 opening of his studio, where he continued to produce commercial and gallery work into the 21st century.

Penn’s most recent work was a series of still-life photos made of ceramics that he and his wife had collected in Europe. “They were as dynamic and as powerful as anything he had done in his 70-year career,” MacGill said.

Thirteen of Penn’s photographs are being auctioned Thursday at Christie’s, including “Guedras in the Wind,” a 1971 image of two Moroccan women, with an estimated pre-sale price of $40,000 to $60,000. A Penn photo, “Cuzco Children,” sold for $529,000 last year, including an auction house premium of 20 percent.

Penn’s career began in the 1940s as a fashion photographer for Vogue, and he continued to contribute to the magazine for decades thereafter.

He stumbled into the job almost by accident, when he abandoned his early ambition to become a painter and took a position as a designer in the magazine’s art department in 1943. Staff photographers balked at his unorthodox layout ideas, and a supervisor asked him to photograph a cover design.

The resulting image, on the Oct. 1, 1943, cover of Vogue, was a striking still-life showing a brown leather bag, a beige scarf, gloves, oranges and lemons arranged in the shape of a pyramid.

In subsequent photographs for the magazine, Penn further developed his austere style that placed models and fashion accessories against clean backdrops. It was a radical departure at a time when most fashion photographers posed their subjects with props and in busy settings that tended to draw attention from the clothes themselves.

The approach made him a star at the magazine, where his work eventually appeared on as many as 300 pages annually. Penn believed his success depended on keeping the reader _ rather than the model _ in mind.

“Many photographers feel their client is the subject,” he explained in a 1991 interview in The New York Times. “My client is a woman in Kansas who reads Vogue. I’m trying to intrigue, stimulate, feed her. … The severe portrait that is not the greatest joy in the world to the subject may be enormously interesting to the reader.”

He left the magazine in 1944 to join the military _ serving with the American Field Service in Italy and then as a photographer in India _ but returned to Vogue in 1946, taking travel assignments in addition to his fashion work.

Penn relished the chance to work in foreign locales, recalling in his 1974 book, “Worlds in a Small Room,” that he had often daydreamed “of being mysteriously deposited (with my ideal north-light studio) among the Aborigines in remote parts of the earth.”

In the 1950s, Penn moved into portraiture. He photographed not only the famous _ actors, musicians and politicians _ but also ordinary people. He published a series of pictures in 1950-1951 featuring plumbers, salesmen and cleaning women in New York City, Paris and London. The Getty Center in Los Angeles currently is exhibiting some of the photos.

His celebrity portraits included closely cropped images of Miles Davis, Spencer Tracy, Georgia O’Keeffe and Pablo Picasso, the last peering apprehensively from beneath a wide-brimmed hat. He once said that his formula for capturing meaningful portraits was to photograph his subjects relentlessly, often over a period of several hours, until they were forced to let down their guard.

A 2000 exhibit organized by the Art Institute of Chicago on his portraiture work said, “Penn’s manipulation of formal design elements such as light and shadow, and his ability to capture a significant gesture, expression, or mood, ultimately reveal something intriguing about his subjects.”

An exhibit of 14 large prints of cigarette and cigar butts at the Museum of Modern Art in 1975 was more controversial. It was lauded by some critics as a powerful elevation of the banal to the monumental, but criticized by others as self-indulgent.

“A beautiful print is a thing in itself, not just a halfway house on the way to the page,” he once said.

Accordingly, he spent countless hours in his studio creating prints with costly platinum salts _ a process that had been mostly abandoned at the turn of the 20th century, but favored by Penn because of its glowing results. (Most photographic prints use a solution of silver on the paper rather than platinum.) He would paint the platinum solution on the paper himself to create the effects he sought.

“Over the years I must have spent thousands of hours silently brushing on the liquid coatings, preparing each sheet in anticipation of reaching the perfect print,” Penn wrote in his 1991 book “Passage: A Work Record.”

Penn donated photographs to the National Portrait Gallery and the National Museum of American Art in Washington, and his archives are at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Born in Plainfield, N.J., in 1917, Penn studied at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art from 1934 to 1938, and worked as an assistant at Harper’s Bazaar in 1939.

Penn married fashion model Lisa Fonssagrives in 1950, and for decades afterward she remained one of his favorite subjects. She died in 1992. One of his 1950 photos of her sold at auction in 2004 for more than $57,000.

Penn was the older brother of filmmaker Arthur Penn, who directed “The Miracle Worker,” “Bonnie and Clyde” and “Night Moves.”

He had a son, Tom, with Fonssagrives. His wife also had a daughter, Mia, from a previous marriage.

NEW YORK - President Barack Obama says he expects unemployment will be a “big problem” for at least another year.

Speaking during taping of “The Late Show” with David Letterman, Obama called the $787 billion economic stimulus program that Congress enacted earlier this year a “tourniquet” that stopped the economic bleeding. Without that spending, he said another 1.5 million jobs, or more, would have been lost.

But Obama said it’s going to take time for the economy to become whole again. As he put it, “Unemployment is going to be a big problem for at least another year.” The nation’s unemployment rate hit 9.7 percent in August. Most economists expect it to top 10 percent next year.

Obama said he’s confident the economy will come back stronger than ever.

MALIBU, Calif. (AP) — A Wells Fargo & Co. executive who oversees foreclosed properties hosted parties and spent long summer weekends in a $12 million Malibu beach house, moving into the home just after it had been surrendered to Wells Fargo to satisfy debts, neighbors said.

The previous owners of the beachfront home in Malibu Colony — a densely built stretch of luxury homes that has been a favorite of celebrities over the years — were financially devastated in Bernard Madoff’s massive fraud scheme, real estate agent Irene Dazzan-Palmer said.

The couple signed the property over to Wells Fargo last spring, and the bank subsequently denied requests to show the house to prospective buyers, Dazzan-Palmer said.

Residents in the gated community told the Los Angeles Times that a woman they believe was Cheronda Guyton took up occupancy at the home in May. Residents said they obtained Guyton’s name from the community’s guards, who had issued her a homeowner’s parking pass.

Residents also wrote down the license plate number of a 2007 Volvo sport-utility vehicle they say was parked in the home’s garage. A check of state motor vehicle license plates by the Times found the vehicle was registered to Guyton.

Guyton is a Wells Fargo senior vice president responsible for foreclosed commercial properties, resident Phillip Roman said.

“It’s outrageous to take over a property like that, not make it available and then put someone from the bank in it,” said Roman, who lives a few homes away from the property.

Residents said Guyton, along with her husband and two children, often hosted guests at the home, including a large party the last weekend of August. Malibu Colony is about 25 miles from downtown Los Angeles.

Wells Fargo said in a written statement that it would conduct a thorough investigation of the allegations by neighbors, but said it wouldn’t “discuss specific team member situations/issues for privacy reasons.”

Guyton’s home number is unlisted, and attempts to reach her at her Los Angeles office after work hours were unsuccessful.

The bank’s agreement with the prior owner required it to keep the home — a 3,800-square-foot, two-story structure built in the early 1990s — off the market for a period of time, Wells Fargo said in the statement. The bank said it planned to list the property for sale soon.