NPR News 2011-02-17 加文本

NPR News 2011-02-17

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

An Egypt-inspired uprising is becoming more violent in Yemen. Thousands of police officers and anti-government demonstrators fought in the streets of the capital Sana’a today. There’re reports that tonight university students were being blocked for joining the demonstrations, which have been raging for six days. Reuters news service reported that elsewhere in Yemen police gunfire hit two protesters, killing one of them.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says it is time to seize what she calls a “historic moment” for democratic change. Michele Kelemen says the remarks came in a meeting with civil society activists from around the world.

Across the Middle East, people are calling on governments to be more accountable, Clinton says, adding the US is backing peaceful efforts of reform. She says the US is ready to help with legal support and financial aid.

“We are more than doubling our financial support for efforts to respond to threats to civil society, to help human rights workers who have been arrested, activists who’ve been intimidated, journalists who have been censored.”

Egyptian activist Sherif Mansour told that that for too long the US had what he called “biased relationships” with governments in the region.

“Let’s be honest. The record of the US foreign policy on Egypt and on Tunisia is not very good.”

Support for civil society, he said, should no longer be an afterthought. Michele Kelemen, NPR News, Washington.

With concerns over stability in Egypt, questions are being raised about the US role in the region. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says it remains a job for American diplomats, not the military.

“It is difficult for me to imagine circumstances in which we would send US ground forces in any of those situations.”

Gates speaking to members of Congress in defense of the president’s 2012 budget proposal.

Testifying today before members of Congress, Virginia’s attorney general says his challenge to federal health care legislation is very modest, compared to what the federal government wants to do. NPR’s Jamie Tarabay reports Ken Cuccinelli claims the federal government wants to dramatically change the law to expand its power.

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli says the health care case is as much about liberty as it is about health care.

“If the power that the federal government for the first time is exercising is allowed to stand, then it can be applied across the economy and across the lives of our citizens in ways that are not part of the discussion now because they don’t have anything to do with health care.”

Cuccinelli spoke before the House Judiciary Committee. He was the first attorney general to win a ruling from a federal judge that a key provision in the new law was unconstitutional. He’s since filed a petition with the Supreme Court. Jamie Tarabay, NPR News, Washington.

US stocks still gaining ground, Dow’s up more than 60, more than 0.5% at 12,289, but NASDAQ up 21 at 2,825.

This is NPR News.

Florida’s newly elected governor is scraping a proposed high-speed rail line that links Orlando and Tampa. The governor said no to more than $2 billion in federal funding. Steve Newborn with member station WUSF reports Florida’s loss could become California’s gain.

Republican Governor Rick Scott says the risks outweigh the potential benefits.

“First, capital cost overruns from the project could put Florida taxpayers on the hook for an additional $3 billion. Second, ridership and revenue projections are historically overly-optiistic and would likely result in ongoing subsidies that state taxpayers would have to incur.”

Scott’s decision comes on the heels of similar rejections by new Republican governors in Ohio and Wisconsin. Some observers believe the bulk of the federal money would not go to a proposed high-speed rail project in California. From NPR News, I’m Steve Newborn in Tampa.

Wisconsin lawmakers are preparing to vote on a plan that puts the state against organized labor. Hundreds of public employees reports saying possibly thousands at risk of losing most of their collected bargaining rights were struggling to delay action. Yesterday, they kept to hearing going for hours and camped out of the state Capitol overnight. Republican Governor Scott Walker maintains the measure’s necessary to address Wisconsin’s projected 3.6-billion-dollar budget deficit.

Industry output down for the first time in 19 months in the US. The Federal Reserve says production dipped 0.1% last month in large part because of decline in output by utilities, but the government says manufacturers increased their output.

I’m Lakshmi Singh, NPR News.