NPR 2008-06-11

A Sudan Airways 1 plane burst into flames while landing in Khartoum today. There are reports that as many as 100 people died. There are more than 200 people on board.

The major presidential hopeful spent some time talking about the economy today. Republican John McCain told small business owners in Washington DC his ideas will be better for them. NPR's Scott Horsley reports.

The economy will be a key battleground between John McCain and his Democratic rival Barack Obama between now and the November election. Obama has launched a two-week road trip to highlight his economic proposals. McCain told a small business summit in Washington he is looking forward to their debate. “On tax policy, healthcare reform, trade, government spending, a long list of other issues, we offer very different choices to the American people.” The heart of McCain's economic plan is making the Bush tax cuts permanent and lowering the tax rate on corporations. Obama would raise taxes on dividends 2 and capital gains while granting a tax credit of up to 500 dollars for every worker. Scott Horsley, NPR News.

Obama told reporters in St. Louis that his plan would cut taxes for 95% of US workers. He was also interviewed today by NPR. He said a tax break would help most Americans cope with the rising price of gasoline. But he said there's not much else the government can do in the short term. “We are not going to be able to immediately lower gas prices in any realistic scenario 3, because demand(s) in China and India keep on going up.” He said the US can lower gas prices in the long term by investing in alternative fuels.

New York state officials have forged an agreement with Verizon, Sprint 4 and Time Warner Cable to block access to child pornography found and created on tens of thousands of newsgroups and user groups. NPR's Margot Adler reports.

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo says that in the past, user groups on the Internet have been hard to police: there are so many of them and because of privacy concerns. He says all three companies have agreed to eliminate child porn from their servers. The companies will also pay more than a million dollars to help fund efforts to remove child porn from the net. There's been a continuing undercover investigation 5 of child porn newsgroups which will continue. Last year, Cuomo announced an agreement with Facebook and MySpace to crack down on sexual predators 6. Combined, Verizon and Time Warner provide Internet service to about 16 million subscribers. Sprint is one of the nation's largest wireless 7 companies. None of these companies are accused of wrongdoing only acting 8 as a portal, and all said they'd taken steps to shut down the newsgroups when concerns were reported. Margot Alder 9, NPR News, New York.

On Wall Street today, the market was mixed. The Dow gained nine points. The NASDAQ lost ten points. And the S&P fell three. This is NPR News from Washington.

The Commerce Department reported today that the trade deficit 10 grew by 7.8 percent in April to 60.9 billion dollars. That's the largest imbalance in more than a year. The US did export more, but those gains were outpaced by crude oil imports which jumped to a record 29.3 billion dollars.

Zimbabwe's main opposition 11 leader charged again today that his country is being run by a military junta 12. He said 66 of his followers 13 have been killed in state-sponsored violence since disputed presidential elections in March. NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reports.

Morgan Tsvangirai warned that Zimbabwe had suffered, what he described as, a "de facto coup 14 d'etat" . It's not the first time he is making such assertions. The opposition leader said since a military plan was uncovered in April, violence continued unabated, with Zimbabweans exposed to brutality 15 at the hands of President Robert Mugabe's security agents. Tvsangirai said 3,000 people were in hospital and 25,000 displaced. Despite what he called “government-sponsored violence” in Zimbabwe, Tsvangirai said his opposition Movement for Democratic Change was destined 16 for victory in the presidential run-off on June 27th, and that they remained firmly focused on that goal. Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, NPR News, Johannesburg.

 The US and the European Union agreed today to impose new economic sanctions on Iran if that country does not verify that it's no longer seeking nuclear weapons. At a summit in Slovenia, President Bush said the leaders of Iran can either face isolation 17 or better relations with the US and the EU. He said the prospect 18 of a nuclear-armed Iran threatens world peace.