NPR News 2010-11-07 加文本

NPR News 2010-11-07

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Nora Raum.

President Obama is on a trade mission to India. US companies are sending nearly ten billion dollars in exports to that country. NPR's Scott Horsley reports Mr. Obama sees India's fast-growing market as a big opportunity for US employers.

An Indian power company's buying gas turbines from GE. An Indian airline is buying 737s from Boeing. These are the kinds of deals President Obama wants to see more of. His goal is to double US exports in five years and he expects India to be a big market.

"For America, this is a jobs strategy. As we recover from this recession, we are determined to rebuild our economy on a new, stronger foundation for growth."

While exports to India have grown rapidly in recent years, Mr. Obama says they could be much bigger. He'll be talking in the coming week about how to lower trade barriers while visiting New Delhi and the Indian business capital of Mumbai. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Mumbai.

The president is to stay in India until Tuesday and then travel to Jakarta, Indonesia. Some air carriers have canceled flights into Jakarta because of ash spewing from a volcano 280 miles away. Mount Merapi unleashed its most powerful eruption in a century yesterday, sending gas, rocks and debris down its slopes at speeds of 60 mph. Officials say at least 100 people have died since it began erupting two weeks ago.

A tropical storm warning is still in effect for the southeastern Bahamas and the northern coast of the Dominican Republic because of tropical storm Tomas. It battered parts of Haiti yesterday as a hurricane. Officials say at least six people died.

More than 100 people were arrested last night in Oakland, California at the end of an angry demonstration. They were protesting the sentencing of a former transit police officer convicted of killing an unarmed black passenger. NPR's Richard Gonzales reports demonstrators say the two-year sentence was too light.

The demonstration began soon after word of the sentencing of former officer Johannes Mehserle reached Oakland from Los Angeles, where his trial was held. After a four-hour rally and at sunset, demonstrators took to the streets. But unlike July, when Mehserle was convicted and demonstrators trashed downtown stores, this action was different. The march has moved into a residential neighborhood.

...inflation rate at an Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank conference on Jekll Island, Georgia, where 100 years ago a secretive meeting of top bankers led to the Fed's creation. Bernanke says the Fed is just using different tools to accomplish the same results it would be seeking if it could still cut short-term rates. For NPR News, I'm Steve Beckner in Jekyll Island, Georgia.

Senator-elect Marco Rubio of Florida said today the election this week showed voters want to make a course correction from the spending in deficits over the past two years. Rubio delivered the Weekly Republican Address.

You're listening to NPR News from Washington.

Officials with the Suffolk County, New York Board of Elections say they made a mistake. They have reported that Democratic Congressman Tim Bishop had won a fifth term, but a routine check of voting machine memory cards showed instead of leading by about 3,500 votes, Bishop is trailing Republican Randy Altschuler by a little fewer than 400.

The World Health Organization reports an acute outbreak of polio is occurring in the Republic of Congo with 120 suspected cases and nearly 60 deaths. Lisa Schlein in Geneva reports the country has been polio-free since 2000.

WHO calls this outbreak "unusual" in that most cases are in young adults instead of children under five who normally are the victims of this paralytic disease. Spokesman Oliver Rosenbauer says the disease is more fatal for adults than for children.

"Usually in children, it has a case fatality rate of about five to ten percent. In adults, it has a case fatality rate of about 20 to 25 percent. And what we’re seeing here is approximately 50 percent case fatality rate."

WHO and other agencies are launching at least three nationwide vaccination campaigns to stem the outbreak. Rosenbauer says it's critical to immunize the entire population of four million adults and children alike. For NPR News, I'm Lisa Schlein in Geneva.

Actress Jill Clayburgh died yesterday. Her husband said she died at her home in Lakeville, Connecticut after a 21-year battle with leukemia. She was 66. Clayburgh was best-known for portrayals of empowered women including in the 1978 film "An Unmarried Woman", for which she was nominated for an Oscar.

I'm Nora Raum, NPR News in Washington.