From NPR News in Washington, I’m Lakshmi Singh.
President Obama is spending this day in Indonesia, where he's looking to shore up relations between the US and the world’s most populous Muslim nation. This trip to Indonesia was long delayed, but as NPR’s Scott Horsley reports, the White House is now cutting the trip short, because of fears that Mount Merapi might erupt again.
This was always gonna be a short trip to Indonesia sandwiched between his visit to India and the G20 summit, which is going on in South Korea, but the short trip has become even shorter, because the White House is worried about being grounded by a cloud of volcanic ash. And as a result, the president is planning to leave.
That’s NPR’s Scott Horsley reporting.
Cholera is spreading in Haiti. It’s now being reported in the capital Port-au-Prince, where NPR’s Jason Beaubien says investigators are studying at least 100 cases so far.
Relief agencies are preparing for a wave of cholera that could sweep through the squalid refugee camps throughout the Haitian capital. The more than a million people left homeless by the January earthquake are extremely vulnerable to the deadly waterborne bacteria, says Dr. Lambert Wesler with Partners in Health“Port-au-Prince is the most vulnerable place in Haiti right now, because of the situation in the camps. Like, you know, there's a real issue of hygiene and sanitation."Aid groups are building special cholera treatment areas at some of the camps in Port-au-Prince to isolate and triage residents with severe diarrhea. Health officials say that after a low, the number of cases across the country appears to be increasing. Over the weekend at a hospital in the central Artibonite Valley, the number of patients suspected of having cholera more than doubled to 230. Jason Beaubien, NPR News, Port-au-Prince.
The 34-year-old Pakistani man accused of plotting to bomb Washington, DC's rail system has pleaded not guilty to terror-related charges. Farooque Ahmed was arraigned today. His trial is due to begin in April. Ahmed was arrested last month in a sting operation. Authorities say Ahmed, a US citizen, thought he was working with members of al-Qaeda who wanted to bomb DC Metrorail systems.
Thousands of 9/11 rescue and recovery workers who sued New York City over their exposure to toxic dust are waiting to find out whether they'll get any money from a big settlement in the case. A midnight deadline came and went for Ground Zero workers to decide whether to join the deal. It would pay at least $625 million to people who developed illnesses after working in the ashes of the Twin Towers. Related settlements could raise the total compensation package to $815 million.
We continue to see losses in US stocks today. At last check, the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 45 points at 11,362; NASDAQ off 11 at 2,569.
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The French government may be clear of its final legal battle to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62. Eleanor Beardsley reports France’s constitutional watchdog is endorsing the bill and she brings us the latest from Paris.
The council’s decision, which says the pension overhaul does not violate the French Constitution, paves the way for Sarkozy to sign the bill into law sometime this month. France was disrupted by months of strikes and protests, when unions and the Socialist opposition rallied the public against the pension overhaul. Train and air travel was disrupted and there were gas shortages, when all of the country’s 16 oil refineries were blocked by strikers. France’s pay-as-you-go system is in debt and Sarkozy stood firm, saying the only way to save it was to work longer, but unions say the pension overhaul puts the burden of the reform on the working class. Despite the inevitability of the law, several trade unions have called for another day of work stoppages and protests on November 23rd, but the protest movement has clearly lost momentum. For NPR News, I’m Eleanor Beardsley in Paris.
Help is on the way to thousands of people aboard a cruise ship that has been stranded off the coast of Mexico since yesterday morning. Tugboats and an aircraft carrier headed out earlier today to the Carnival Splendor to tug it to the Mexican port of Ensenada. The vessel stalled after a fire broke out in the engine room. Authorities say no one was hurt. However, airconditioning, phones and other services were knocked out.
Here’s what’s happening from Wall Street. Dow Jones Industrial Average down now 52 points at 11,355; NASDAQ down ten at 2,570; S&P500 off seven at 1,216. |