NPR 2009-10-10

President Obama says he's humbled 1 at being selected the winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize. He said he doesn't believe he deserves the award, but will accept it as a call to action for all nations. The Nobel Committee cited Mr. Obama for what it called extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy 2 and cooperation. Several European leaders are urging the president to seize the surprise honor as an opportunity to intensify 3 his efforts. NPR's Rob Gifford has more on that from London.

 The stunning 4 announcement of the award to President Obama is being interpreted by many in Europe as a bid to encourage his diplomatic overtures 5 to Washington's enemies. World leaders as well as former winners of the Nobel Peace Prize said they hoped the honor would spur peaceful dialogue and efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the prize marked "America's return to the hearts of the world's peoples". German Chancellor 6 Angela Merkel said it was an incentive 7 to President Obama and to us all to do more for peace while former UN chief Kofi Annan called it an unexpected but inspired choice. The spokesman for the Taliban in Afghanistan, however, condemned 8 the award, saying President Obama had not taken a single step towards peace in Afghanistan. Rob Gifford, NPR News, London.

 In Pakistan, at least 49 people were killed today by a car bomb in the northwestern city of Peshawar. Police said most of the dead were bus passengers. Pakistan’s security minister said today's attack and one earlier this week in Islamabad could be traced to the Taliban's stronghold of South Waziristan near the Afghan border and he vowed 9 the government would increase force against militants 10 in the region.

 While lawmakers on Capitol Hill try to come up with legislation to overhaul 11 the US health system, a small but significant fix enacted 12 last year has just taken effect. NPR's Julie Rovner reports.

 The new law protects the health insurance of college students who become seriously ill and must drop out of school. In most cases, young adults can't stay on their parents’ health insurance plan after they turn 18 unless they are going to school full time. If they are sick and no longer in school, it can be virtually impossible for them to get health insurance. The new law is named for a New Hampshire college student who was diagnosed with colon 13 cancer in 2004. 20-year-old Michelle Morse was forced to remain a full-time 14 student against her doctor's orders while undergoing debilitating 15 chemotherapy. She died in 2005. Under the new law, students who receive health insurance as dependent on their parents’ plan can take up to a year of medical leave without losing that coverage 16. Julie Rovner, NPR News, Washington.

 On Wall Street today, the Dow climbed 78 points to close at 9,864. The Dow was up 4% on the week. The NASDAQ picked up 15 points today to close at 2,139. It was up 4.5% on the week.

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 The Commerce Department reports the trade deficit 17 unexpectedly shrank in August. The US trade gap fell 3.5% to under 31 billion dollars. Analysts 18 had expected the gap to widen.

 Competitors in golf and rugby now have the chance to add Olympic medals to their trophy 19 cases. The International Olympic Committee returned both sports to the Olympic schedule today. NPR's Howard Berkes has details.

 A week after putting the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the International Olympic Committee added golf and rugby to the Rio Games. That came after golf superstar Tiger Woods told IOC members he’d likely compete in the Olympics along with other champions. And it came despite a warning from IOC member Anita DeFrantz of the United States. She said that adding golf could harm the Olympic image, because some of the sport's major events are held at the clubs that continue to discriminate 20. Golf was in the Olympics more than a century ago. It's been more than 80 years for rugby which returns in a seven-player format 21 conducive 22 to Olympic television coverage. Officials from both sports promised to schedule other major tournaments around the Olympics, so the games' competitions get the spotlight 23. Howard Berkes, NPR News.

 NASA says it’s successfully slammed two spacecraft into the moon early today in search of water. The crash site was a large crater 24 that scientists believe could be hiding deposits of ice. The first rocket struck the crater and exploded sending debris 25 flying. A second spacecraft followed to collect information from the debris and later also crashed into the moon. NASA scientists say they got a lot of interesting data and will be examining it for signs of water in the coming weeks.