NPR News 2011-12-22 加文本

NPR News 2011-12-22

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Barbara Klein.

The latest numbers on the housing market show at least a little improvement. The National Association of Realtors says that sales of existing homes rose 4% from the month before. This after the association yesterday revised sales over the past four years downward. NPR's Chris Arnold reports sales are still sluggish.

Home sales were up a bit last month while home prices fell 3.5% from a year ago. Foreclosures keep putting downward pressure on prices. Economist Mark Zandi, heads of Moody's Analytics, said he is not too excited by these latest numbers.

“Yeah, the housing market really is going nowhere fast. You know, it's not falling. That's good. In terms of demand, the crash is over, but no real sign of a substantive pickup yet. And I, you know, think we are going to see that until it has better conditions in the job market.”

Zandi says until prices start drifting lower, that keeps home buyers and mortgage lenders nervous. Chris Arnold, NPR News, Boston.

The government is taking steps to ensure commercial pilots are rested before they get into the cockpit. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced new scheduling rules.

“It will ensure that pilots have a greater number of consecutive hours off duty each week.”

Pilots are also to be given ten consecutive hours between shifts. Currently they have eight. Safety advocates have been pushing for the restrictions for years, but the effort got a boost after a 2009 crash in Buffalo, New York. Investigators concluded the pilots were likely sleep-deprived.

More than four years after a deadly mine disaster in Utah, federal prosecutors say they are still considering criminal charges. As NPR's Howard Berkes reports, the Justice Department is allowing a key deadline to pass next week.

Nine coal miners and rescuers died at Utah's Crandall Canyon Mine in 2007, and both Congress and federal regulators strongly urged a criminal investigation. The Labor Department even put on hold more than a million dollars in civil penalties, citing possible interference with the criminal probe. That hold expires at the end of next week, and a spokeswoman for the US Attorney for Utah says her office will not seek an extension. That means the civil cases will proceed. The spokeswoman says the criminal investigation also continues, but she declined to say whether criminal charges will actually be filed. Mine disasters have rarely resulted in serious charges against company officials. Howard Berkers, NPR News.

World markets are down after Europe Central Bank said it's pumping more than 600 billion dollars of cheap long-term loans into the banking system to avoid a credit crunch. But it's having the unintended consequence of highlighting the gravity of Europe's crisis, and that's dampening investor confidence.

At the last check on Wall Street, the Dow was down 30 points at 12,072; the NASDAQ was off 38 points at 2,564.

This is NPR.

Congressional lawmakers say they aren't giving up on finding a compromise on extending the payroll tax cut before it expires at the end of the year. House Speaker John Boehner is pushing for a year-long extension. Democrats in the House want them to hold an upper-down vote on a bipartisan Senate-approved bill calling for a two-month extension.

Thousands of North Koreans are pouring into Pyongyang’s central square to pay their respects to Kim Jong-il during an official mourning period. The North Korean leader died Saturday. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports his body is lying in state, and a funeral is planned for next week.

Thousands of cheerful mourners filed through Kim Il-Sung Square as heavy snow fell in the capital Pyongyang. Weeping citizens walked past a picture of Kim Jong-il hanging on the People's study House, where a picture of his father Kim Il-sung usually is. Security is tight across North Korea in preparation for Kim's funeral and the succession of his son Kim Jong-moon. In Seoul, meanwhile, the opposition Democratic Party called for the resignation of South Korea's Intelligence chief Won Seo-hoon. Won admitted yesterday that he learned of Kim's death not from his spies but from North Korean state television. Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Seoul.

Defense attorneys for Bradley Manning accused of stealing and releasing a massive amount of classified documents to Wikileaks. Votes started and ended their case today. In a hearing to determine whether the Army intelligence analyst should be court-martialed, his lawyers called two witnesses to the stand. One who testified to seeing Manning's fits of rage while in Iraq. Closing arguments are scheduled for tomorrow.

I'm Barbara Klein, NPR News in Washington.