NPR News 2011-09-16 加文本

NPR News 2011-09-16

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Speer.

A bipartisan group of Senators became known over the summer as the Gang of Six, reemerged today as a group of 36. As NPR's David Welna reports, they are pushing a newly formed supercommittee to pursue more ambitious goal for deficit reduction.

In the end, the recommendations made by the Gang of Six Senators for sweeping deficit reduction were not made part of the debt ceiling deal that averted the default in August. But Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad says the new supercommittee should now take a look at them.

“This is a message from a large group of senators to the special committee that we’ll with you, be brave, be bold, go big.”

To which New Hampshire Republican Kelly Ayotte adds:

“Show some courage, go for at least $4T in debt reduction over next 10 years.”

The supercommittee has until Thanksgiving to re-honor at least $1.2T in deficit reduction. David Welna, NPR News, the Capitol.

Syrian activists charged that Turkey has handed over an army defector to Syrian authorities in the wake of his appearance on Syrian State Television, denouncing the anti-government movement. NPR's Deborah Amos reports from Beirut.

Syria's official news agency promoted the broadcast of what it called Confessions of Lieutenant Colonel Hussein al-Harmoush. He was the first army officer to publicly have announced the desertion in June. Al-Harmoush founded a movement encouraging other officers to defect. His appearance on Syrian television is a blow to the opposition and gives regime supporters a boost, says analyst Randa Slim with New America Foundation.

“It's a message by the regime to potential defectors about what's going to happen to them. It's a warning.”

Syrian activists say it's also a betrayal, accusing Turkey of failing to protect the army officer. Turkish officials have made no comment. Deborah Amos, NPR News, Beirut.

More people were filing claims for the first time jobless benefits last week. Labor Department says the number of claims to state unemployment benefits rose by 11,000 to 428,000. In a separate report the government says its consumer price index was up 0.4%. While excluding involved conserved food and energy, economist Tim Greiman says the increase was more subdued.

“Things like food have a lot do to with, you know, just what kind of weather crop we had, you know, food prices can swing pretty wildly from one year to the next. So in order to get sense of underlying inflation trends, we do look at that, at that core measure.”

Federal Reserve has output that the nation's mines and factories rose 0.5% last month.

Move by five of the World Central Banks to provide a limited loan to European Banks has played well on global financial markets. The European Central Bank announced today it will coordinate with the U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan and Swiss National Bank.

Stocks rose on Wall Street today in response to that news. The Dow Jones Industrial Average up 186 points. The NASDAQ gained 34 points.

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Libyan revolutionary forces say they have now entered the outskirts of Muammar Gaddafi's hometown. Gliwan was spokesman for the group of fighters who crossed a major highway overpass at the southwestern entrance of the town of Sirte encountering some resistance from Gaddafi loyalists and Gaddafi fighters have been trying to enter at least three strongholds of the fugitive leader in recent weeks. Gaddafi's whereabouts remain unknown. Meanwhile, two European leaders British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited Tripoli today offering broad support for the country's new rulers.

Labels on cans of tuna that declared that dolphins were not harmed when the tuna was caught violate rules on International Trade. NPR's Christopher Joyce reports on the decision by the World Trade Organization.

Mexico challenged the dolphin-safe labels on cans of Tuna sold in the U.S. three years ago. The labels guarantee that tuna fisheries use nets that don’t accidentally kill dolphins when fishing for tuna. Dolphins often swim near schools of tuna and can be trapped and killed by tuna nets. Mexico argued that American Seafood companies won’t buy their tuna because the companies say Mexico's fishing techniques are dolphin-safe. The WTO did not agree that Mexican canned tuna was treated differently from U.S. canned tuna. But it did accept Mexico's position that the labels are not the best way to guarantee the consumers are informed about harmed dolphins. The WTO also ruled that the labels are more trade restrictive than necessary to protect dolphins. The U.S. government can appeal the ruling. Christopher Joyce, NPR News.

International Revenue Service, Internal Revenue Service or rather, says it appears some people have come clean about overseas assets in exchange for reduced penalties and no jail time. Under this amnesty program concerning off-shore accounts, the IRS says 12,000 people have come forward. 

I'm Jack Speer, NPR News in Washington.