NPR News 2012-11-26 加文本

NPR News 2012-11-26

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Nora Raum.

There is guarded optimism in Washington about the chances for a deal to avoid the so-called "fiscal cliff". NPR's Martin Kaste reports on what some hear as the sounds of compromise on the Sunday morning political talk shows.

On ABC's This Week, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said he considered increasing tax revenues even if it means violating the no-tax-increase pledge signed by most congressmen. 

The only pledge we should be making to each other is to avoid becoming Greece.

Graham favours capping deductions, not raising actual tax rates on the rich which Democrats prefer. On the same show, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said he was willing to consider Republican calls for entitlement reform. Retiring Senator Joe Lieberman on cnn's State of the Union, was less optimistic about the likelihood of a deal.

If Congress does nothing, which Congress has gotten pretty good at doing these days. We'll go over the fiscal cliff.

If Congress doesn't act, the deficit will shrink by itself because of automatic budget cuts and the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts. Martin Kaste, NPR News.

Meanwhile, on another television talk show, Senator John McCain says he still has questions about the September 11th attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi that killed four Americans including the U.S. ambassador to Libya. The Arizona Republican says a select committee should be appointed.

There are four committees in the House, four committees in the Senate. They are all holding different hearings, so all turf fights going on as it usually does in these bodies and we need a select committee in order to sort this whole thing out. 

McCain is interviewed this morning on FOX News Sunday. He also said he'd be willing to meet with United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice on her explanation for the attack that he could change his opposition to a possible appointment of Secretary of State.

In an interview with the BBC, British Foreign Secretary William Hague called for the U.S. to take a decisive lead in the search for a solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Larry Miller reports.

With the U.S. election over, Hague says the Obama Administration needs to show the necessary leadership warning that time is running out.

This last chance. We are coming to the final chance, maybe, for a two-state solution in the Israeli Palestinian conflict to be successfully resolved.

Hague says the EU and Arab states can play a role in the peace process, but only the U.S. has crucial leverage with Israel. Meanwhile, an advisor to Palestinian authority President Mahmoud Abbas told the BBC the Gaza conflict shows it's time to press for UN observer status, something the U.S., Britain and Israel consider a roadblock to peace. For NPR News, I'm Larry Miller, in London.

A fire swept through a clothing factory in Bangladesh last night. Officials say at least 109 workers were killed, most of them women.

This is NPR News.

The Massachusetts State Fire Marshal says an explosion in Springfield last week was a result of human error. Stephen Coan says a utility worker responding to reports of a gas leak punctured a pipe. A spark then set off the explosion Friday that damaged 42 buildings. Eighteen people were hurt, most were emergency workers.

A study in Poland finds that exposure to alcohol in the womb can alter a key area of a child's brain. NPR Jon Hamilton reports researchers detected the change using new brain imaging technics.

Researchers in Poland compared the brains of 200 children whose mothers drank during pregnancy with the brains of 30 children, whose mothers did not drink. The scientists used special MRI scanning technics to study the corpus callosum. It's  a bundle of nerves that allows communication between the two halves of the brain. And it's known to be affected by alcohol exposure during pregnancy. The team found that in children whose mothers drank, the bundle was thinner and contained abnormal tissue. Those are changes often found in children with neurological disorders and psychological problems. The research was presented at the Radiological Society of North American meeting in Chicago. Jon Hamilton, NPR News.

The industry group comScore Data says that Black Friday consumers shopped more online this year than in previous years. It says retail sales online topped a billion dollars for the first time, up 26% from last year. Analysts say they don't know if this means that sales won't be quite so brisk tomorrow. Tomorrow is Cyber Monday, which has been the busiest e-commerce day in the U.S. in recent years.

I'm Nora Raum, NPR News, in Washington.