NPR News 2013-06-16 加文本

NPR News 2013-06-16

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Korva Coleman.

Police in Turkey have stormed the city park filled with anti-government protestors in the past hour. They again used tear gas and water cannon to dislodge hundreds of people. The protest began many days ago in opposition to the government's plan to develop the park. And protestor Eski Kuchu  Shanuk says there is meaning behind the continuing protests. 

This thing is not about against the government, it's about public businesses.

Turkey's president says he is now willing to let the park development case be handled by a judge, but he warned lingering protestors in the park they would be thrown out today by security forces if they did not leave.

Facebook and Microsoft are releasing limited information on data the companies have provided to the government. NPR's Debbie Elliott reports the firms have been negotiating with national security officials to reveal more details about the surveillance.

Facebook, Microsoft and Google have pressured the Obama administration to disclose how the web companies comply with national security orders. But the government is only allowing them to release aggregate numbers on all government inquiries, ranging from local missing person's probes to orders under the federal intelligence surveillance act. Facebook says it received between 9,000 and 10,000 requests in the last half of 2012, affecting between 18,000 and 19,000 Facebook users. For the same period, Microsoft says it received between 6,000 and 7,000 criminal and national security  warrants, subpoenas and orders affecting between 31,000 and 32,000 accounts. Google says it's waiting to be able to reveal more meaningful information that singles out national security surveillance. Debbie Elliott, NPR News.

The family of an elderly Minneapolis man is disputing a report he commanded a Nazi-led unit that committed war crimes during World War II. As Matt Sepic of Minnesota Public Radio reports the allegations about the 94-year-old came to light in an Associated Press story published this week.

The AP says Michael Karkoc was a commander of the Ukrainian Self Defense Legion, while there are no documents linking him to specific war crimes. The report says the unit was known to have massacred civilians under direction of the SS. The story says Karkoc moved to the U.S. in 1949 after lying to immigration officials about his past, but in the tatement, his son Andrij Karkoc calls the story defamatory.

It's allegation,  heresay, implication, association or conjecture and notably lacking in proof or evidence.

The  Simon Wiesenthal Center and other Jewish groups are asking the U.S. Justice Department to investigate.  For NPR News, I'm Matt Sepic, in St. Paul.

A moderate candidate in Iran has won that country's presidential election. According to Iranian media Hassan Rouhani has cleared majority of the vote over more hardline candidates.

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Religious conservatives are in Washington for the meeting of the faith and freedom coalition. Speakers have included the Chairman of the Republic National Committee, Reince Priebus, he is asking religious conservatives to back new efforts by the GOP to expand their membership. He says it would help if GOP members did a better job of explaining their party's background.

We don't tell our history anymore as a party, we've lost our history. We are the party of equality, freedom, opportunity, it's our party that has a rich history, but you wouldn't know it because we don't say it.

The Republic National Committee recently issued a report linking the future success of the party to more tolerate attitudes on social issues such as same sex marriage. Priebus didn't discuss this.

Attorneys are closer to seat a jury in the second degree murder trial of a former Neighborhood Watch volunteer who says he shot and killed Trayvon Martin in self-defense. Yesterday the judge asked jurors to come back Tuesday. As Amy Green of member station WMFE reports.

The potential jurors will face more questioning on issues like guns and race. Among the potential jurors is a black woman who disagrees Martin was targeted because of his race. And that a potential juror is a white woman who volunteers for a local arts festival and worries about negative publicity for Sanford. So amendment faces trial in Sanford. Attorneys will select six jurors and four alternates. They will be sequestered throughout the trial. For NPR News, I'm Amy Green, in Orlando.

A large group of Syrian military officers has defected to Turkey. There are seventy-one officers in the group including six generals. It's thought to be the largest mass desertion of senior troops from the Syrian government in several months.

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