NPR News 2010-05-11 加文本

NPR News 2010-05-11

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Craig Windham.

President Obama's latest nominee to the US Supreme Court, Elena Kagan, says she's grateful for what she called "the honor of a lifetime". Mr. Obama says he chose Kagan in part because she understands that law is not an intellectual exercise, a thought echoed by Kagan.

"Law matters because it keeps us safe, because it protects our most fundamental rights and freedoms and because it is the foundation of our democracy."

Kagan is currently US solicitor general, a job in which she represents the government in cases before the high court. But she's never been a judge, a point already being emphasized by key Senate Republicans. NPR's Mara Liasson reports the White House is emphasizing Kagan's record as a consensus builder.

Whether former Harvard Law School dean Elena Kagan will actually be able to create 5-4 progressive majorities on a court dominated by conservatives is still just a theory, but the president cited it as one of Kagan's chief strengths

"These traits were particularly evident during her tenure as dean. At a time when many believed that the Harvard faculty had gotten a little one-sided in its viewpoint, she sought to recruit prominent conservative scholars and spur a healthy debate on campus."

The battle lines are already being drawn on Capitol Hill, with Republicans saying they'll withhold judgment about her nomination before they decide how to vote or whether to filibuster, and the Democrats are already pushing for an up-or-down vote. Mara Liasson, NPR News, Washington.

At least 85 people are dead and nearly 300 others wounded in Iraq after a day of militant attacks and bombings across that country. NPR's Peter Kenyon in Baghdad reports two car bombs were detonated as workers were leaving a fabric factory in the town of Hilla.

It was the worst attack in a day that saw the toll of dead and wounded climbed by the hour. In Baghdad, the day began with cars of gunmen racing up to several checkpoints and opening fire on Iraqi soldiers and policemen. The police were also targeted in a series of bombings in western Anbar province. From shootings in the northern city of Mosul to three bomb attacks in the southern oil hub of Basra, Iraqis bore the brunt of a raging day of violence that officials called an effort to destabilize a country already struggling to form a new government. Peter Kenyon, NPR News, Baghdad.

The BP oil corporation is trying new ways to stop the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. Chief Executive Tony Hayward tells NPR’s "All Things Considered" that one approach involves trying to jam debris into valves at the wellhead.

"What we're doing is lining up to pump material into it to seal it, something that is referred to as a top kill or junk shot."

Hayward says crews are also preparing to lower a new more compact containment dome over the wellhead.

The White House is praising steps taken by the European Union nations to ease concerns about the debt crisis that sparked a rally on Wall Street. The Dow up nearly 400 points.

This is NPR.

Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown says he will step down by September at the latest. It's a move he hopes will pave the way for his Labour Party to work out a deal with the centrist Liberal Democrats to form a governing coalition. Britain's Conservative Party won the most seats in recent parliamentary elections but fell short of a majority. The leaders of both the third-place Liberal Democrats and the Labour and Conservative parties have been talking.

A leading Roman Catholic cardinal in Austria is accusing another cardinal of blocking investigations into alleged sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli has the story from Rome.

Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schonborn has told journalists that in 1995, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then top Vatican doctrinal watchdog and now Pope Benedict XVI, wanted to investigate Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer widely suspected of being a pedophile, but he was blocked by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, then second-in-command to Pope John Paul II. Sodano, now dean of the College of Cardinals and still highly influential, has not commented on the charges. Last month, the National Catholic Reporter ran a series of articles that accused Sodano of turning a blind eye to another case of clerical sex abuse. That one involved Father Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, later discovered to have been a serial sexual molester and to have(having不符合语法规则) fathered several children. Sylvia Poggioli, NPR News, Rome.

A jury in San Diego County, California has convicted a man of killing his girlfriend after finding flirtatious text messages on her cell phone from a stranger. The woman's body was discovered by her teenage son. The man faces a sentence of 26 years to life in prison.

Rechecking Wall Street, the Dow up 4% today, the NASDAQ was up 5%.

I'm Craig Windham, NPR News in Washington.