NPR 2009-09-05

A NATO airstrike in northern Afghanistan has killed or wounded at least 90 people, most of them believed to be Taliban fighters. NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson has more from Kabul.

 NATO says its aircraft targeted two fuel tankers 2 that Taliban fighters had hijacked 3 overnight in the northern province of Kunduz. Afghan officials say the tankers were carrying fuel for NATO forces. They were hijacked on a main highway to Kabul. A senior Taliban commander and four Chechen fighters were believed killed, so were an unknown number of civilians 5 who were helping 6 the militants 7 unload the fuel when the tankers became stuck in a riverbed. President Hamid Karzai's office said it’s sent a team of police officers and intelligence agents to the scene to investigate. The president expressed concern over the prospect 8 of NATO having killed Afghan civilians. NATO says it is also investigating what happened although it believes no civilians were in the area at the time of the airstrike. Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, NPR News, Kabul.

 According to a spokesman of the US Embassy in Afghanistan, eight security guards there have now been fired as a result of allegations of lewd 9 behavior and sexual misconduct while two others have resigned. Embassy spokesman also said the private contractor 10 to providing the guards for the State Department has been replaced. The guards all of whom are reportedly to have now left the country appeared in photographs showing them and supervisors 11 drinking alcohol and in various stages of nudity. Nearly a thousand US diplomats 12, staff and Afghan nationals work at the embassy facility there.

 The Obama administration sees some encouraging signs in today's jobless report though the nation's unemployment rate jumped to its highest level in more than a quarter century. NPR's Scott Horsley has more.

 Job losses in the US have been slowing. The 216,000 jobs that disappeared in August represent the smallest drop in the last year, a slightly better figure than economists 13 have been expecting. Vice 14 President Joe Biden notes the country was shedding three times that many jobs earlier this year. But even though the economy is less bad than it was, Biden says, it's still not good enough. "We’re not gonna be satisfied until we start adding, not losing thousands of jobs per month."

Administration officials say the government's economic stimulus 15 plan has helped to cushion job losses. But economists warn the unemployment rate is likely to keep climbing, possibly into next year. Scott Horsley, NPR News, the White House.

 Senate lawmakers are working to hammer out a health care initiative held what has been described as a productive discussion today with further talks slated 16 for next week. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus said that the six Senators who held a telephone conference today will meet again on Tuesday to try to determine how to best pass a health care overhaul 17 plan. Congress will soon return from its summer recess 18 next week. President Obama has scheduled a joint 19 session of Congress to talk about what he would like to see in a health care measure for Wednesday.

 On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 96 points to close at 9,441. The NASDAQ was up 35 points today.

 This is NPR.

 The space shuttle Discovery astronauts along with those aboard the International Space Station dodged 20 something of a space bullet today. NASA officials say the astronauts were still sleeping when a 15-foot section of an old rocket whizzed by the space station and the docked shuttle, passing within a mile of the astronauts. NASA says it has been monitoring the trajectory 21 of the piece of space junk and decided 22 to determine no action was necessary to move the space station or the shuttle out of the way. The astronauts last night carried out a spacewalk to install a new cooling tank on the space station.

 Firefighters near Los Angeles held a private memorial service today for two of their colleagues who died earlier this week while fighting a huge wildfire that continues burning. Steve Julian of member station KPCC has more.

 Hundreds of weary firefighters stood in a group holding their caps and helmets in their hands in remembering Ted 1 Hall and Arnie Quinones, whose truck went over a cliff Sunday afternoon. Some wore black bands on their arms, others around their badges. A public memorial will be held for the two firefighters at Dodger 23 stadium a week from tomorrow. The station fire grew by only 900 acres overnight, the slowest rate of growth all week, thanks to higher humidity and temperatures in the 60s. With more than 148,000 acres burned, only six homes remain under mandatory 24 evacuation. They’re on the western flank in Corral Canyon 25. Another fire broke out early this morning along the Orange-Riverside county line in the Cleveland National Forest. It's under 50 acres, but a female firefighter's being treated for a broken leg. For NPR News, I'm Steve Julian in Los Angeles.

 Crude oil futures 26 were up slightly on the final trading day ahead of the Labor 27 Day weekend. The near-month contract for benchmark crude rose six cents a barrel to settle at $68.02 a barrel in New York.

 I'm Jack 4 Speer, NPR News in Washington.