NPR News 2011-05-20 加文本

NPR News 2011-05-20

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Louise Schiavone.

One million dollars cash bail has been set for former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn. A grand jury in New York has indicted him after a hotel maid accused him of sexual assault. Strauss-Kahn has been jailed since the weekend and asked to be released on bail this afternoon, that request now granted. His lawyers note that he has surrendered his passport, pledges not to flee the country and has asked to be confined to the home of his daughter, who is a student at Columbia University in New York, that request granted.

President Obama used a wide-ranging speech at the State Department to ratchet up pressure on Syria and Iraq. NPR's Michele Kelemen reports the president also expressed strong support for democratic transitions in the Middle East and North Africa.

Just a day after the US slapped sanctions on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, President Obama urged the Syrian leader to end his brutal crackdown on protesters. "The Syrian people have shown their courage in demanding a transition to democracy. President Assad now has a choice: He can lead that transition or get out of the way." He called the unrest in the Middle East an opportunity and said he's making it his top priority to support democratic change. He also called for renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, but said it has become more difficult with Hamas now poised to be part of a unity government. The US considers Hamas a terrorist organization. Michele Kelemen, NPR News, the State Department.

The FBI has requested a DNA sample from Unabomber Ted Kaczynski in connection with the infamous 1982 Tylenol poisonings. NPR's Carrie Johnson reports federal investigators are taking a second look at evidence in an old case.

Convicted Unabomber Ted Kaczynski says in court papers that the FBI wants his DNA to find out whether he was involved in putting cyanide in Tylenol pills decades ago. An FBI spokeswoman in Chicago says Kaczynski hasn't provided investigators with the sample. She says the bureau has tried to get DNA from numerous other people as part of their broad reexamination of the evidence in the unsolved 1982 poisonings. For the record, Kaczynski says in the court filings that he never had any potassium cyanide, the key component in those deadly Tylenol capsules. He's currently living in a federal supermax prison in Colorado, serving a life sentence for his part in bombings that killed three people. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.

Government forecasters are sizing up the tropical storm season that starts June 1st. They advise people to be ready for as many as 18 named tropical storms and three to six major hurricanes.

Sales of previously occupied homes fell 0.8% last month. On Wall Street near the close, the Dow was up 42 points at 12,602.

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The business social networking site LinkedIn today became the biggest Internet IPO since Google went public in 2004. Public trading opened robustly with shares trading at close to 100% above the 45-dollar initial public offering price.

Doctors in Houston say surgery to rebuild a portion of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords' skull was a big success. Carrie Feibel with member station KUHF reports that Giffords was very eager for this next step in her treatment.

Surgeons at Memorial Hermann Hospital implanted a synthetic piece that was custom fitted for the hole in Giffords' skull. Until this was done, Giffords had to wear a helmet to protect her head during physical therapy and her two trips to Florida for the shuttle launch. Doctor Dong Kim says that aside from some pain and nausea after the surgery, Giffords was doing quite well. "I started calling her Gorgeous Gabby today, and I think, and she hasn't looked in the mirror yet, but as soon as she does, she'll be very pleased." Doctors also placed a permanent shunt in Giffords to drain fluid from around her brain into her abdomen. For NPR News, I'm Carrie Feibel in Houston.

Gasoline may be hovering around four dollars a gallon, but the American Automobile Association says that's not going to stop people from driving to holiday destinations. The AAA forecasts about 30.9 million people will drive over the Memorial Day weekend.

NBC Sports Group Chairman Dick Ebersol's stepping down. At age 63, he had run NBC Sports since 1989. This just three weeks before the International Olympic Committee opened broadcast rights bidding.

Louise Schiavone, NPR News, Washington.