NPR 2008-05-15

John Edwards has made it official. The former presidential contender and one-time challenger to Barack Obama, announcing that he will throw his support behind the current front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination 1. Edwards made the announcement at this hour at a campaign event in Grand Rapids, Michigan with Obama at his side, an endorsement 2 the former North Carolina senator has stayed mum about for four months.

"There is one man who knows and understands that this is a time for bold leadership. There is one man that knows how to create the change, the lasting 3 change, that you have to build from the ground up. There is one man who knows in his heart that it is time to create one America, not two. And that man is Barack Obama. "

Edwards started his remarks by praising Obama's rival for the nomination, Hillary Clinton. The endorsement by Edwards comes just one day after Clinton defeated Obama by a more than two-to-one margin 4 in West Virginia's primary.

President Bush is visiting Israel to mark the 60th anniversary of the creation of the Jewish state. Speaking at a gala celebrating the anniversary of Israeli-US friendship, the president said the two countries share democratic values.

"We believe that the surest way to defeat the enemies of hatred 5 is to advance the cause of hope to the cause of freedom, liberty as the great alternative to tyranny and terror."

Meanwhile, as President Bush visited Israel to help mark the state's anniversary, a rocket fired from Gaza exploded in a shopping center in southern Israel, wounding at least ten people. NPR's Linda Gradstein reports.

An Israeli police spokesman said the 122-millimeter Katyusha rocket hit the third floor of a shopping center in downtown Ashkelon, about nine miles from Israel's border with Gaza. Among those wounded were a woman and her eight-year-old daughter, both of whom suffered head injuries. A small group, The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, took responsibility for the attacks. The rocket strike came as President Bush wrapped up talks with the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Speaking before the rocket attack, Olmert said Israel will not tolerate continuous attacks on innocent civilians 6. Meanwhile in Gaza, hospital officials said Israeli troops killed two Hamas gunmen and two civilians in an incursion and an air strike earlier today. Linda Gradstein, NPR News, Jerusalem.

Rescuers in China, for the first time, are reaching the area at the epicenter of this week's massive 7. 9 magnitude earthquake. In one area located near the quake's center, Chinese media reports rescuers found just 2, 300 survivors 7 in a town of 10, 000 people. Authorities today up the death toll 8 in the wake of the devastating 9 earthquake to 15,000. Though, it's expected that number will go much higher.

On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 66 points to close at 12, 898. The NASDAQ was up 1. 5 points today. The S&P 500 added five points.

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House lawmakers, by a strong, veto-proof majority, have passed a 290-billion-dollar farm bill. That measure would offer additional subsidies 10 to the nation's farmers as well as food stamps to the poor and special projects lawmakers would be able to bring home to their districts in an election year. The House signed off on the bill on a 318-to-106 vote despite President Bush’s promised veto. Mr. Bush has said the measure is too expensive and provides too much aid to wealthy farmers.

Astronomers 11 say they've discovered the aftermath of a spectacular stellar explosion that happened only about 100 years ago. It is the youngest supernova known in our galaxy 12. NPR's Richard Harris has the story.

We are all made from carbon and similar atoms that were cooked up in supernovas. So, astronomers are naturally drawn 13 to these extraordinary celestial 14 events. Judging by how common they are in deep space, our own Milky 15 Way galaxy should produce two or three of them per century. So far though, astronomers haven't found nearly that many. The youngest supernova known from the Milky Way was about 340 years old. But now, astronomers say they've found the remnant of a supernova that may be only 100 years old. Skywatchers didn't see it at the time it exploded because it's near the center of the galaxy, so it was hidden by gas and dust. But it was sleuthed out, using the modern tools of astronomy: a radio telescope on the ground and an X-ray telescope in orbit around the earth. Richard Harris, NPR News.

Labor 16 Department reported today the Consumer Price Index, the government's broadest inflation gauge 17, was up a scant 18 two-tenths of one percent last month. Excluding volatile 19 food and energy, the so-called core rate of inflation rose just one-tenth of one percent.

Once again, repeating this hour's top story: John Edwards has made it official. He is endorsing 20 Barack Obama in the Democratic race.