NPR 2010-12-15

An appeal from Swedish prosecutors 1 is keeping Julian Assange in a British jail for at least another two days. Sweden is fighting a British judge's decision today to free the Wikileaks founder 2 on bail 3 while he fights extradition 4 to Sweden, where he faces sex crimes charges. Wikileaks has generated global support and condemnation 5 for publishing large amounts of classified documents without US authorization 6.

Retailers 8 have more of a reason to celebrate this holiday season if the latest government report sending indication. NPR's Tamara Keith reports the Commerce Department found sales rose 8/10 in November.

That marked the fifth straight month of gains with sales at clothing and clothing accessories stores doing some of the heavy lifting. Sales at those stores were up nearly 3%. Compare retail 7 spending this November to last, and the difference is even more dramatic, up 7.7%. The numbers exceeded analysts 9' expectations and point to a strong holiday shopping season. In fact, the National Retail Federation 10 says early returns are looking so good. It's revising its holiday spending forecast upwards 11. The Retail Trade Association now projects holiday sales will be up 3.3% this year, one percentage point more than it was expecting earlier in the season. Tamara Keith, NPR News, Washington.

And as the year draws to a close, Steve Beckner of Market News International tells us the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues are maintaining ultra-easy monetary 12 policy.

The Fed's Policy-making Federal Open Market Committee is not planning on hiking interest rates any time soon. Quite the contrary, when the year began, the FOMC was keeping short-term rates near zero. Now, after its final meeting of the year, the committee is not only vowing 13 to keep short-term rates down for an extended period, it is continuing massive Treasury 14 bond purchases to hold down long-term rates and reaffirming its plan to buy 600 billion dollars in longer-term Treasury securities by the middle of next year. The Fed is leaving the door open to doing even more so-called quantitative 15 easing, saying it will regularly review the program and adjust it as needed. In doing so, the Fed says, the economy's growing too slowly to reduce unemployment and inflation is trending downward. For NPR News, I'm Steve Beckner in Washington.

Condolences are pouring in from all over the world for those closest to Richard Holbrooke, a prominent veteran diplomat 16 who passed away yesterday following surgery in Washington D.C. Holbrooke, who served under every Democratic presidents since John F. Kennedy, is credited with engineering the end of the Bosnian War. President Obama and other world leaders are also praising the late diplomat for his work bringing stability to Afghanistan and strengthening ties with Pakistan. Richard Holbrooke was 69 years old.

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US Middle East Envoy 17 George Mitchell has completed his first round of talks today, meeting with the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah. We have more on this from Sheera Frenkel.

Senator George Mitchell said he would persevere 18 in negotiations 19 despite recent setbacks, following his meeting with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas today. Mitchell said that there had been a great deal of obstacles in the negotiations, but that he would persevere until an independent Palestinian state was established. US mediators are currently attempting to hold indirect talks on core issues. But Chief Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erekat said that no real process or direct talks would happen until Israel agreed to curb 20 its settlement building. For NPR News, I'm Sheera Frenkel in Jerusalem.

A YouTube video purportedly 21 of Sudanese police publicly whipping a woman has authorities there pledging out to investigate. As NPR's Frank Langfitt reports, Sudan's Islamic legal code calls for flogging in cases of adultery and indecent behavior.

The two-minute video appears to have been shot with a cellphone camera. Two officers in blue uniforms whip a woman who's covered from head to foot. She screams, yelling on a stone courtyard as a crowd watches. Sudan's judiciary says it's looking into the whipping and suggested the punishment may not have been appropriate under Sharia law. Southern Sudan's expected to vote to secede 22 from the country next month. One of the many issues that has divided Sudan is the North's inherence to Islamic law. Frank Langfitt, NPR News, Nairobi.

At last check on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average up more than 60 points at 11,492.