NPR News 2013-07-27 加文本

NPR News 2013-07-27

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh.

The White House has announced plans to move two more detainees out of the US prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. NPR's Dina Temple-Raston reports the prisoners are from Algeria.

By law, in order to transfer a detainee at Guantanamo, President Obama has to issue a certification 30 days before the prisoners moved. The Pentagon started that clock for two Algerian detainees. It told Congress that the administration plans to move two Algerian prisoners. The certification amounts to a guarantee from the president that the detainees won't return to terrorism. There are still 166 men at Guantanamo. Eighty-six of them have been approved to transfer. But to move them, the administration has to show Congress that the detainees will be monitored. The Algerian government has a robust counter-terrorism program and will be able to keep an eye on their returnees. Dina Temple-Raston, NPR News.

The Justice Department says it will not seek the death penalty against Edward Snowden if Russia sends him back to the US to face trial on espionage charges. In a letter to his Russian counterpart, Attorney General Eric Holder also says Snowden will not be tortured. NPR's Carrie Johnson reports on the latest efforts to bring the former NSA contract worker to justice.

In an open letter to the Russian justice minister, US Attorney General Eric Holder says Edward Snowden will not be mistreated if he's returned to his homeland for trial. Snowden's been living in a transit center in the Moscow airport for four weeks. And he sought asylum from Russia on the grounds that he can't get fair treatment by the US. But the attorney general counters those claims. He says Snowden will be provided a lawyer and will get a jury trial, as well as the right to appeal if he's found guilty of sharing classified information about NSA surveillance. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.

San Diego Mayor Bob Filner has announced he'll undergo two weeks of intensive therapy at a behavior counseling clinic for allegedly sexually harassing women.

“I apologize to the citizens and staff members who have supported me over the years. I apologize to the people of San Diego. And most of all, I apologize to the women I've offended.”

They included a retired Navy rear admiral and a dean at San Diego State University, who were the latest in a series of women to accuse Filner of inappropriate behavior, such as kiss or groping. The mayor is under mounting pressure from members of his Democratic Party to resign from the position he has held for less than a year, but Filner is refusing to step down.

Ariel Castro is getting life without parole and 1,000 years on top of that for kidnapping, raping and inflicting other abuses on three women held hostage at his Cleveland home for ten years. In exchange for pleading guilty today, Castro was spared the death penalty.

Before the closing bell, Dow was up three points. This is NPR News.

Spanish authorities have arrested the driver of a train that sped through a curve and derailed late Wednesday killing at least 78 people. An American was among the dead. Five other US citizens were among the scores injured in what's described as one of Europe's worst rail disasters. Lauren Frayer reports investigators are also examining other devices that may shed more light on what caused the crash in northern Spain.

These trains are equipped with a sort of black box like you would have on a plane. And investigators are looking at those black boxes, trying to figure out what’d be the train was going at, what the odometer and the information that the driver was able to see. They are also looking at videos because there were some surveillance videos along the track that recorded the moment of the accident and recorded actually the way the train was moving quite quickly through this curve and suddenly derailed and the cars then piled up one after another.

Lauren Frayer reporting. Spain, meanwhile, is observing a period of national mourning for the dozens of people who were confirmed dead.

The Japanese owner of the nuclear plant crippled in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami is trying to do damage control after being criticized for not being forthcoming with the public. Today Tepco's president told the media that the company delayed telling people that radioactive water likely leaked into the sea because it was not 100% certain and didn't want to cause mass panic. The president apologized and said he as well as Tepco's VP will forfeit 10% of their salaries for a month.

US stocks are trading slightly higher with the Dow gaining just three. It's at 15,559 before the closing bell.

I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News in Washington.