NPR 2009-04-15

Retail 1 sales fell more than 1% in March, the biggest decline in three months, and a surprise to most analysts 2 who expected sales to increase slightly. According to the Commerce Department, automobile 3 sales fell the sharpest, down nearly 24% from the year before. Consumers also spent less on appliances, furniture and clothing. Meanwhile, President Obama today said his economic efforts are starting to have a positive effect, but he cautioned that 2009 will continue to be a difficult year. NPR's Scott Horsley has more.

President Obama used his speech at Georgetown University to stitch together a variety of economic initiatives he’s taken during his first 12 weeks in office. He said the most urgent task has been to clear away the wreckage 4 from a downward spiral of falling home prices, frozen credit and accelerating job losses.

“And since the problems we face are all working off each other to feed a vicious economic downturn, we've had no choice but to attack all fronts of our economic crisis simultaneously 5.”

Mr. Obama offered a point by point defense 6 to some of the more controversial efforts, to prop 7 up the insurance company AIG, for example, may end an attempt to salvage 8 General Motors and Chrysler. He also outlined plans for longer term efforts to put the economy on a stronger foundation. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.

The White House says North Korea has taken a step in the wrong direction after Pyongyang said today it would reactivate its nuclear facilities. The North Korean move comes after the UN Security Council yesterday condemned 9 Pyongyang’s April 5th’s rocket launch. The European Union is calling on North Korea to stick with the disarmament process. Teri Schultz has more from Brussels   .

Pyongyang reacted furiously to the United Nations Security Council’s unanimous condemnation 10 of its April 5th rocket launch. The 15-member council also said it would take sanctions against the regime for the action that uses technology similar to that needed in a ballistic missile launch which a U.N. resolution bans the country from even testing. European Commission spokeswoman Christina
Hohmann underscored the significance of the unified 11 international reaction to the launch.

“We hope that this message is understood by North Korea and that North Korea is willing to continue working on the basis of dialog in the framework of the six-party talks.”

But Pyongyang is calling the disarmament negotiations 12 "useless" and vowing 13 to restore the nuclear plant that’s partially 14 disabled as part an agreement broker 15 during the talks. For NPR News I’m Teri Schultz, in Brussels.

Anti-government protestors in Thailand have ended their demonstrations 16 in Bangkok. Security forces issued arrest warrants for 14 leaders of the anti-government movement who urged their followers 17 to go home after three weeks of violent protest.

On Wall Street today, the Dow closed down 137 points at
7,920. The NASDAQ was off 27 points at 1,625. The S&P fell 17.

This is NPR News.

The world’s biggest chip maker 18 Intel Corporation says sales of personal computers have bottomed out and the industry is recovering. Intel today reported a first quarter profit of 647 million dollars. Company sales were about 100 million dollars higher than expected.

An appeals court has granted a stay of deportation 19 for accused Nazi 20 war criminal John Demjanjuk. The ruling was made just after immigration officials removed the 89-year–old from his suburban 21 Cleveland home to put him on an overnight flight to Germany. A German arrest warrant accuses Demjanjuk of being an accessory to some 29,000 deaths when he served as a Nazi death camp guard in Poland in 1943.  Demjanjuk denies the claim, saying he was a Ukrainian prisoner of war.

At the White House today, first dog Bo made his official debut 22. NPR’s Julie Rovner has more.

Consider it another campaign promise kept, this one from President Obama to his daughters. Bo is a 6-month-old Portuguese 23 water dog and a gift from Senator Edward Kennedy who owned 3 Potees as they're known, including one of Bo's littermates. Bo was also already proving himself a handful, pulling both first daughter Malia and first lady Michelle Obama around the White House lawn, and resisting efforts to sit when asked. The President was quick, however, to profess 24 pride in his new family member and didn’t apologize for all the attention being lavished 25 on him.

“He’s spectacle and well deserve. He is a star, he’s got star quality.”

Now the first family who are also first time dog owners just have to figure it out how to get Bo to do what they want. Julie Rovner, NPR News, Washington.

Bo proved to be an entertaining though brief distraction 26 from a fair state.