NPR 2008-08-10

A delegation 1 of US and European diplomats 2 is reportedly heading to the former Soviet 3 Republic of Georgia to try to broker 4 a truce 5 in the escalating 6 conflict with Russia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia. Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili has proposed a cease-fire while accusing Russia of seeking to destroy his country. Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev says Russia is trying to force the Georgian side to peace. The UN Security Council has been discussing the conflict today. The council's current president, Jan Grauls of Belgium, says civilians 7 are feeling the brunt of the fighting. "The humanitarian 8 situation which is deteriorating 9, which is worsening now very quickly, will turn increasing number of casualties and refugees. " Grauls also said the conflict is expanding. Hundreds of people have reportedly been killed, most of them civilians. Reporter Lawrence Sheets is in Georgia's capital Tbilisi. He says officials there are claiming the Georgian forces have shot down at least 10 Russian aircraft.

We do know that Russian warplanes hit, at least four residential 10 buildings. These are multistory apartment buildings in the city of Gori. There are many dead and wounded but we don't have any precise numbers at this point. The Georgians say that other Georgian cities have been hit, including Poti which is a Black Sea port. The Russian military now says openly that it is moving its Black Sea Fleet in the direction of the Republic of Georgia. So, things are getting more complicated as we speak. Lawrence Sheets reporting from Tbilisi.

A memorial service was held in Frederick, Maryland today for Bruce Ivins. The Army scientist the government says was behind the anthrax attacks of 2001. Ivins died of an apparent suicide late last month. NPR's Allison Keyes has the story.

The church in the charming little town was packed and through the doors as people entered one could see many flowers at the head of the church. The media wasn't allowed into the ceremony, but Ivins' longtime neighbor Alan Brooks 11 said the service was beautiful. "It's very positive and people talked about the many things, good things he did in his life. " Brooks says people told funny stories about Ivins who was well-known for his kindness and sense of humor. "People couldn't say enough for him they were just saying all the good things he's done; how he's helped so many people and how he mentored 12 people scientifically; how many contributions he made to vaccines 13. " Brooks says like others who know Ivins, he can't reconcile the scientist the FBI calls the "killer 14" with the man who lived five doors away. Allison Keyes, NPR News, Washington.

Syria says it will not allow United Nations nuclear investigators 15 to revisit a site destroyed by Israeli jets last fall on suspicion it was a secretly-built nuclear reactor 16. Syrian officials say they will answer questions posed by UN investigators about the site however.

This is NPR News from Washington.

Internationally-acclaimed Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish has died after undergoing heart surgery in Houston today. He was 67. His poetry was popular among Palestinians who cite as giving voice to their experience of exile, occupation and suffering. The BBC's Magdi Abdelhadi remembers his work.

Mahmoud Darwish leaves behind more than 30 volumes of poetry and several prose works. Lyrical and epic 17 are some of the most common adjectives used to describe his output. For decades he was the most eloquent 18 poetic 19 voice of Palestinian pain and aspiration 20 for statehood. The loss of a homeland, the brutality 21 of the occupation and life in exile are frequent themes in his early work. But in his latter years he became more preoccupied 22 with universal themes. The Palestinian Diaspora became almost a metaphor 23 for the human condition.

The BBC's Magdi Abdelhadi reporting.

A Chinese man stabbed to death the father-in-law of the US men's volleyball coach in Beijing today, and seriously injured his wife and their tour guide. The attacker then committed suicide.

On this first full day of competition at the Summer Olympics, defending gold medalist Mariel Zagunis of the US led a gold-silver-bronze sweep of the women's saber event. Former President George H. W. Bush watched that competition. American swimmer Michael Phelps set an Olympic record in preliminary heats of the men's 400 individual medley 24. "I wasn't expecting that the heats to be that fast, but you know, after seeing the first two heats, I kind of wanted to be the top seed going into tomorrow, and that's all I went out and did. " Phelps is hoping to break Mark Spitz's mark of seven gold medals at the Games.