NPR News 2010-04-23 加文本

NPR News 2010-04-23

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh.

President Obama is telling Wall Street that sweeping change is on the way. He's pushing to overhaul the financial regulatory system and outlined that plan in New York's Cooper Union college today. Meanwhile, bipartisan negotiations on an overhaul bill are underway in the Senate. As NPR's Audie Cornish tells us, Democratic Party leaders are anxious to get going on debate.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says if there is some breakthrough agreement between Democrats and Republicans, he is more than willing to help get it to the Senate floor.

"But to those Republicans determined to stand in the way and do the big bankers' bidding, know this: no matter how hard you try to distort and distract this debate, Wall Street reform is coming."

A procedural vote will be held next Monday evening on whether or not to move forward with debate on the bill. Republicans involved in the negotiations say the way the bill deals with derivatives and with failing financial giants are still major sticking points. Audie Cornish, NPR News, the Capitol.

The Coast Guard says a burning oil rig has sunk in the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast. Eileen Fleming of member station WWNO reports some workers from the rig are still missing.

The Deepwater Horizon platform exploded Tuesday night and has been burning furiously ever since. Fireboats have been constantly dousing the rig with water, pushing it farther below the surface. Most of the 126 people on board escaped; seventeen were injured. Meantime, the Coast Guard continues searching for 11 workers still missing. Crews covered nearly 2,000 square miles around the rig. That's about 40 miles off the tip of Louisiana. Meantime, rig owner Transocean of Houston and BP which contracted for the rig are being sued by the family of a missing Mississippi man alleging the companies were negligent. The Department of the Interior has said the rig was inspected and no violations were found. For NPR News, I'm Eileen Fleming in New Orleans.

Protests in the Thai capital are growing more deadly. A string of small explosions went off near the scene of a standoff between anti-government activists and security forces. Reports out of Bangkok say three people are dead, scores more injured. The BBC's Rachel Harvey is on the scene.

There have been five confirmed explosions. The police are saying that they believe at least three of those, possibly all, but at least three, were caused by grenades, M79 grenades. The area where these explosions appear to have been concentrated is in and around an intersection where several hundred soldiers have been deployed and are facing the barricades that had been set up by those anti-government protesters. So it has been a very tense area in recent days.

That's the BBC's Rachel Harvey reporting from Bangkok.

After a day of solid declines, the Dow's recovering. At last check, the Dow was up ten points at 11,135. NASDAQ's up 14.

This is NPR News.

The CEO of Massey Energy is defending the company against claims it has a poor safety record at its mines including the West Virginia site where 29 people were killed in an explosion earlier this month. Despite mounting demands from shareholders for Don Blankenship to resign, the board has decided to support him.

Phone company CenturyLink is buying Qwest in a stock swap worth more than ten billion dollars. NPR's Jeff Brady reports the combined company will be based in Louisiana.

Qwest currently has headquarters in Denver and operates in 14 mostly western states. It's likely the Qwest name will be replaced by CenturyLink for many customers, though a final decision hasn't been made. Both companies have been steadily losing landline customers to cable and wireless providers. Speaking during a conference call with analysts, CenturyLink CEO Glen Post says he has no specific plans to enter the wireless business, though he did comment on an arrangement Qwest has to provide Verizon's wireless service to its customers.

"Whether it's like the partnership or we say honest that Qwest ties with Verizon that will work from there and make new decisions in the months and years ahead."

Shareholders and regulators still must approve the deal before it closes next year. Jeff Brady, NPR News, Denver.

Tens of thousands of airline passengers stranded for more than a week in Europe are finally taking off. Most scheduled flights are back on line after being disrupted by volcanic ash that spread from Iceland and across much of Europe. Some airlines are running special flights or expanding capacity to help clear the backlog, but the problem is far from over. Shifting winds are sending ash plume over Scandinavia, prompting new limits on parts of Scotland, Norway, Sweden and Finland.

I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News.