NPR 2009-06-09

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack 1 Speer.

The Supreme 2 Court has put the sale of Chrysler on hold. The court granted a temporary stay in the bankruptcy 3 proceeding 4 that would allow the company be acquired by the Italian automaker Fiat 5. NPR's Adam Hochberg has more.

Fiat had hoped to complete its acquisition of Chrysler by June 15th. But the deal was challenged by Indiana State Treasurer 6 on behalf of three state pension funds. The challenge contends that the sale of Chrysler is unfair to the company's investors 7 because it puts the rights of several creditors 8 including the US government ahead of the rights of investors. The challenge also says Congress should not have used TARP money to finance Chrysler's restructuring. The emergency request to stop the deal ended up before Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who issued a one-sentence order staying the bankruptcy case pending 9 further review. It’s not immediately clear when that review will take place. Fiat has said it would back out of the deal if it’s not completed by June 15th. Adam Hochberg, NPR News.

The decision by North Korea to sentence two American journalists to 12 years of hard labor 10 will be appealed through "all possible channels" by the Obama administration. Administration officials said today the president is deeply concerned by the sentence handed down to reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee. The sentences were in connection with North Korea's, what make North Korea maintains was an illegal border crossing by the pair. The White House says the sentencing should not be linked to the current dispute of Pyongyang's nuclear program. President Obama will meet with South Korea's president later this month to discuss recent actions by the North.

Pentagon has completed its investigation 11 into an airstrike in Afghanistan that killed dozens of civilians 13. Pentagon spokesman says review shows the US troops did not follow all the proper procedures during the incident on May 4th. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly reports.

Defense 14 Secretary Robert Gates has now been briefed on the results of the investigation which show that there were problems with the way airstrikes against Taliban fighters were carried out. In particular, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell cited a B-1 bomber 15 that got permission to launch an attack, but then broke away and did not reconfirm its target before dropping a bomb. But Morrell says the investigation found that overall US troops took great pains to limit civilian 12 casualties. And Morrell stressed that the number of Taliban militants 16 killed in the May strikes "greatly outnumbered the number of civilians who died". The full investigation is expected to be released in the coming days. Mary Louise Kelly, NPR News, Washington.

Members of the Boston Globe's biggest union will be voting today on a package of deep wage and benefit cuts designed to prevent the possible closure of the paper. Officials said the vote from the Boston Newspaper Guild 17 comes as the paper owned by the New York Times Company is losing more than a million dollars a week. Times has said it needs at least 20 million dollars annual savings 18 in order to keep the money-losing 137-year-old newspaper afloat.

On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained a point to close at 8,764. The NASDAQ fell seven points today.

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South Carolina governor Mark Sanford has followed through on a promise to drop legal challenges in his fight over millions of dollars in federal stimulus 19 funds. Republican governor's lawyers today asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit 20 that had tried to prevent Attorney General Henry McMaster when enforcing a law requiring Sanford to request 700 million dollars for the state's schools. Sanford, a former Congressman 21, objected to the federal government's stimulus program on several levels, claiming the states accepting the money will raise the national debt while devaluate the US dollar.

Search teams continue gathering 22 debris 23 from an area of the Atlantic Ocean some 600 miles east of Brazil where Air France Flight 447 crashed last week. Sixteen bodies have been recovered by French-Brazilian teams. Frank Browning reports.

French investigators 24 say they are encouraged that having located the place where the airbus A330 hit the sea, thereby 25 increasing the promise that subsurface craft may be able to find the voice and data recording 26 devices that were affixed 27 to the tail of the airplane. Preliminary analysis continues to focus on the likelihood of faulty speed readings from monitors attached to outside of the plane. Analysts 28 say that the altitude of the plane, mixed with heavy humid stormy weather and false speed readings, could well have caused the plane's auto-pilot to malfunction 29, leading to loss of control.  French submersible capsules are expected in the area tomorrow. So far none of the recovered bodies has been identified. For NPR News, I'm Frank Browning in Paris.

Major price drop for Apple. The Cupertino, California based company said today it will cut the price of its least expensive model of its popular Iphone from 199 dollars to 99 dollars. Apple said it will also introduce two new versions of the Iphone.

I'm Jack Speer, NPR News in Washington.