NPR News 2012-12-18 加文本

NPR News 2012-12-18

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston.

In the aftermath of Friday's deadly shooting at a suburban Connecticut elementary school that killed 20 children and seven adults, there is a renewed push to address gun control measures. White House spokesman, Jay Carney says, curbing gun violence will be no easy task.

It's a complex problem that will require a complex solution. No single piece of legislation, no single action will fully address the problem.

President Obama is promising to use the power of his office to tackle gun violence. The President is expected to engage the American people as well as lawmakers in the coming weeks.

A Democratic senator, who was a gun rights advocate with an A rating from the National Rifle Association, is the latest lawmaker to indicate he may support a ban on assault weapons. NPR's Craig Windham reports Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia says the mass killing of the young people in Newtown has changed the nation.

Manchin is an avid hunter, but he says the shootings are causing him to take a new look at laws that allow assault rifles and clips of more than 10 rounds of ammunition.

I don't know anyone in the sporting or hunting arena that goes out with an assault rifle. I don't know anybody that needs 30 rounds in the clip to go hunting.

Manchin in an interview on MSNBC says the NRA should be included in the effort to find ways to prevent mass shootings, such as the one in Newtown.

This has changed the dialogue and it should move beyond dialogue, we need action.

Several Democratic lawmakers have said they'll press to reimpose a ban on the sale of assault weapons or to make it harder for people with serious mental health issues to get guns. Craig Windham, NPR News, Washington.

In Spain, unions are calling for mass demonstrations against austerity measures that many blame for rising unemployment and poverty. Lauren Frayer reports from Madrid where protests cap 11 days of strikes by medical workers.

Doctors and nurses occupied Madrid's Central Square, protesting the privatization of local hospitals, one of several cost-cutting measures with which the government hopes to avoid a larger EU bailout. Camilla Vilnius is a doctor skipping work to join the protests.

The problem is that they don't have any cash, so they need to get some money and the only way they can do that is by selling off the health care.

Spain's government says austerity is unavoidable and that demonstrations only make matters worse. Officials say 4,000 surgeries have been canceled in Madrid over the past 11 days while doctors have been on strike. For NPR News, I'm Lauren Frayer in Madrid.

The Census Bureau for the first time is giving U.S. households a chance to respond to government surveys over the Internet. Beginning this week, more than 3 million U.S. households will be asked to respond to the American Community Survey online.

On Wall Street, the Dow was up 58 points.

This is NPR News.

A pro-nuclear party has won Japan's parliamentary election. More than 20 months after a nuclear disaster in the country, anti-nuclear activists are shocked over the Liberal Democratic Party's victory. Following the earthquake and tsunami that caused meltdowns and explosions at a nuclear power plant last year. Public opinion polls supported the phaseout of reactors.

Two washing-machine-size probes that have been orbiting the Moon for almost a year, will make a planned crash landing into its surface later today. The probes have been measuring subtle variations in the Moon's gravity field. And as NPR's reports NASA says its Grail Moon mission has achieved all of its goals.

The two NASA probes have flown close to the lunar surface, producing a high resolution gravity map of the Moon. These data have given scientists their most detailed look yet at the Moon's internal structure and chemical makeup. But Ebb and Flow, as the probes are called, are running out of fuel. Grail project manager David Lehman says NASA will intentionally crash the probes into a mountain near the Moon's north pole.

To avoid what are called historic heritage sites, the various places where the U.S. and the Russians have put soft landers on the Moon.

But the site will be in shadow and with the probes' fuel tanks on empty, NASA says the impact won't be visible from Earth. Vera Nicola Capra, NPR News

A factory fire in Bangladesh that killed 112 people last month was deliberately set. A government committee investigating the blaze says some people who worked at the factory might be involved in the sabotage. But it says no matter who set the fire, the factory owner must be punished for his negligence.

I'm Windsor Johnston, NPR News, Washington.