NPR 2009-06-04

President Obama is spending the night in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia after a day of meeting there with King Abdullah. Tomorrow, the president heads to Cairo for the most important speech of his trip. NPR's Don Gonyea reports.

The speech will be delivered before an invited audience at Cairo University, but the real audience is the one and a half billion Muslims around the world. It’s a recognition of how the US image among Muslims has suffered since the Iraq war. White House adviser 1 David Axelrod. "There's been a breach 2, an undeniable breach between the American and Islamic world, and that breach has been years in the making. It is not gonna be reversed with one speech." White House aides said the goal is to bring a positive, constructive 3 tone to the dialogue. The Cairo speech will be translated into 13 languages and posted on the internet in both video and text forms and on social networking sites. Don Gonyea with the president in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The White House is responding to the release of a new audio recording 4 attributed to Al-Qaeda leader Usama Bin 5 Laden 6, saying the timing 7 appears to be designed to shift attention away from the president's trip to the Middle East. Bin Laden accuses the president of planting the seeds of "revenge and hatred 8 toward the US in the Muslim world,” and he warned Americans to prepare for consequences. Bin Laden's remarks were aired today by Al Jazeera television.

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke warned members of the House Budget Committee today Congress and the White House need to formulate 9 a plan to rein 10 in huge budget deficits 11 once the recession is over. More from NPR's John Ydstie.

With budget deficits predicted to average well over a trillion dollars for the next three years, Bernanke pointed 12 out that the government debt will jump from 40% of the economy's annual output to more than 70% by 2011. He warned that a continued rise is unsustainable.

"At some point, you’ll hit a point where you’ll have to have both very draconian 13 cuts and very large tax increases which is not something we want. So in order to avoid that outcome down the road, we need to begin now to plan how we are gonna get the fiscal 14 situation into a better balance.”

Bernanke repeated the Fed's view that the economy is stabilizing 15 and should turn up later this year. He cautioned that growth would likely be slow so that unemployment is likely to rise well into next year. John Ydstie, NPR News, Washington.

Orders to the nation's factories picked up a bit in April. The Commerce Department says factory orders rose 0.7%, however the government sharply revised down the March number, indicating a 1.9% drop in orders. It shows the nation's manufacturing sector 16 remains 17 under intense pressure. US manufacture has been suffering through the longest recession since World War Two.

 On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 65 points to close at 8,675. The NASDAQ lost 10 points. The S&P 500 fell 12 points today.

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A federal judge today tossed out dozens of lawsuits 18 filed against the nation's telecommunications companies in connection with so-called warrantless wiretapping. It allegedly carried out on behalf of the US government. NPR's Martin Kaste says the dismissal was widely anticipated.

The decision was based on the fact that Congress gave the telecom companies retroactive immunity 19 for whatever they may have done illegally in their cooperation with the Bush administration's wiretapping program. So that was pretty expected because Congress had accredited 20 them that immunity. NPR's Martin Kaste.

Former President Bush signed the measure into law that would include immunity from lawsuits for telecom companies. They received presidential orders telling them wiretaps are needed to help to detect or prevent a terror attack. The warrantless surveillance program was put into effect after September 11th.

Small particles in the air increase the risk of death from heart attack more than previously 21 thought. That's according to a new study. NPR's Richard Harris reports.

Several studies of the years have found that people who live in places with more soot 22 in the air are more likely to die of heart attacks. The findings have been used to create new federal limits for pollution like diesel 23 exhaust and particles from coal plants. But they've also been controversial. The effect is small, so it's hard to measure. But because so many people are exposed, even a small risk can mean a lot of excess deaths. A non-profit called the Health Effects Institute in Boston has now reanalyzed the biggest of those controversial studies. The institute concludes that those previous results are valid 24 and in fact the health effects of soot appear to be bigger than previously measured. Richard Harris, NPR News.

Crude Oil futures 25 took a breather today. The price of crude for July dropped $2.43 a barrel today to end the session at 66.12 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

I'm Jack 26 Speer, NPR News in Washington.