NPR News 2011-07-30 加文本

NPR News 2011-07-30

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

President Obama says the looming debt crisis is a burden that Congress could easily lift if it just chooses to do so. NPR's Ari Shapiro reports the president decided to make a statement at the White House this morning after a night when House Republicans could not pull together to vote on a bill.

The president says the two parties are not miles apart. As he put it, there are plenty of ways out of this mess. But the deadline is only four days off.

"If we don't come to an agreement, we could lose our country's AAA credit rating, not because we didn't have the capacity to pay our bills — we do — but because we didn't have a AAA political system to match."

As the president spoke, House and Senate leaders worked on competing bills. The parties will continue working through the weekend. Ari Shapiro, NPR News, the White House.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell accuses Democrats of trying to build opposition to the House Republican plan to, in his words, keep the crisis alive.

"Speaker Boehner's been doing the hard work of governing, working day and night to put together a bill that can actually pass the House of Representatives and end this crisis now. And he should be commended for his efforts. What about over here in the Senate? Well the contrast couldn't be starker."

House Speaker Boehner reworked his plan in an attempt to win over conservatives who complained the proposal didn't make deep enough cuts. A main change is a provision that ties an additional increase in the debt ceiling to congressional approval of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. The House is expected to vote on a revised plan tonight.

Bells toll for Bano Rashid, an 18-year-old Muslim girl killed in last week's massacre in Norway. Rashid's funeral was the first of those to be held for 77 people killed when the self-confessed attacker Ander Behring Breivik opened fire at a youth camp. Earlier, he had bombed Oslo's government district. The government says it is investigating police's response to the terrorist attack.

The man suspected of planning to attack soldiers from Fort Hood, Texas has made his first court appearance. From member station KUT in Austin, Matt Largey has details.

Private First Class Naser Abdo appeared in federal court in Waco, charged with possession of an unregistered firearm. The 21-year-old Abdo was arrested Wednesday at a motel near Fort Hood, where authorities found bomb-making components and instructions. The complaint unsealed in court today said Abdo had enough materials to build two bombs, and that he admitted he planned to blow them up at a restaurant popular with Fort Hood soldiers. As he left the courtroom, Abdo shouted the name of the army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood in 2009. Abdo, who's been AWOL from his post at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, is being held without bond. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison. For NPR News, I'm Matt Largey in Austin.

Before the close, the Dow was down 196 points.

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More heavy fighting's reported out of Somalia's capital after what the authorities call a threat to emergency relief aid airlifted into the troubled Horn of African  nation. NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reports that Somali soldiers backed by African Union peacekeepers clashed with Islamist militants.

The African peacekeepers say they seized territory in Mogadishu under the control of al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab insurgents after they apparently threatened displaced people's camps in the Somali capital. The African Union and the fragile Western-backed transitional government say the military strike will improve security and allow aid agencies to deliver food to people who fled drought, famine and conflict in other parts of Somalia. The fighting on Thursday came a day after the first airlift into Mogadishu by the UN World Food Program. Al-Shabab has banned the WFP from its zones, saying it promotes a Western agenda. Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, NPR News, Nairobi.

Thousands of anti-government protesters in Syria are urging those who've been standing on the sidelines of the four-month-old uprising in their country to break their silence despite the continued government crackdown. Today, crowds held rallies across the country. Activists accused government troops of firing live ammunition and tear gas at them. They say at least four people were killed, but that figure has not been independently verified.

Weaker-than-expected economic growth in the second quarter in the US as well as the ongoing debt impasse are certainly affecting US stocks. Before the close, Dow Jones Industrials down 97 points at 12,143 in trading of 3.4 billion shares; NASDAQ down 10 at 2,756.

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