NPR News 2013-09-22 加文本

NPR News 2013-09-22

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

President Obama is blasting House Republicans for the spending bill they passed today that keeps the government running but only if Obamacare is stripped of funding, and he challenged Congress to raise the debt limit so the government can pay its bills. NPR's Scott Horsley reports the president said America is not a debt-beat nation.

Speaking at a Ford assembly plant near Kansas City, Obama said failing to raise the debt limit would be like not making the payments on a truck you've already driven.

“There are consequences to that. The bill collector starts calling you, right? Your credit goes south, and you've got all kinds of problems. Same is true for a country.”

Obama accused Republicans of holding the debt limit hostage in their effort to undo his signature health care law. The president says he won't negotiate with the full faith and credit of the federal government. Scott Horsley, NPR News, the White House.

In Colorado, cleanup from days of flooding is being hampered by more oil spills. Floodwaters have swamped and overturned several oil storage tanks. Meanwhile, Nick Christensen of the Larimer County Sheriff's Office says authorities are assessing who’s still missing since the floods hit last week.

“At this point, we were down to 82 unaccounted and continue to tabulate cross-reference data to get that number lower and lower. We're still holding at three parties missing and presumed dead.”

Authorities say they those who are not accounted for could be living alone in the upper reaches of canyons.

Vice President Joe Biden says there is no relationship the US values more than the one with Mexico. NPR's Carrie Kahn reports Biden is in Mexico for a first-ever round of cabinet-level economic talks between the two countries.

Biden says he brought as many US cabinet members as he could fit in Air Force Two for the first annual meetings. With nearly a billion dollars of trade each day between the two countries, Biden says it's time to put economics front and center instead of just talk about security in immigration.

“There is no reason why North America could not be the most prosperous and the most economically viable place in the world in the 21st century.”

For his part, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto welcomed what he called a wide and diverse relationship with the US. Vice President Biden called Pena Nieto's recent push to reform Mexico's education system impressive and offered US assistance for victims of Hurricane Manuel and Ingrid. Carrie Kahn, NPR News, Mexico City.

Pakistan says it's going to free its highest-ranking Afghan Taliban prisoner tomorrow. Pakistani officials say they are making the move to jump-start the reconciliation process with Afghanistan. The Afghan Taliban's former deputy leader was arrested in a joint raid with the CIA in 2010.

On Wall Street today, the Dow fell 185 points; the S&P lost 12. This is NPR.

In a Brazilian courtroom today, a rancher was found guilty of ordering the murder of an American nun, who was killed in Brazil in 2005. From Sao Paulo, NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro reports the rancher is sentenced to 30 years in prison.

This is the latest trial for Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura. He's been in court three times before for allegedly ordering the death of Dorothy Stang. But his convictions have been overturned. Prosecutors say de Moura and another rancher hired a gunman to kill Stang. Justice has been slow and coming for the Ohio nun, who defended Brazil's rain forests. She was killed at close range with six gunshots. Earlier this year, Stang's confessed killer was released from a jail after serving less than nine of the 27 years he was sentenced to. De Moura days he plans to appeal his latest conviction. Lourdes Garcia-Navarro NPR News, Sao Paulo.

The Obama administration is proposing a regulation to limit greenhouse gas emissions from new fossil fuel plants, and it'll have the biggest impact on new coal-fired power plants. The Environmental Protection Agency has to wait a year for public comment on the proposal. But administrator Gina McCarthy is indicating she doesn’t anticipate making any major changes. Power companies say the proposal would drive up the cost of building new coal plants.

The Republican-controlled House passed a bill today to allow for more logging in national forests. The measure passed largely along party lines. The GOP says the bill will create jobs and help reduce wildfires. Opponents are calling it a giveaway to the timber industry that will hurt water quality and the environment.

I'm Barbara Klein, NPR News in Washington.