NPR 2010-12-10

In Britain, thousands of students are crowded around Parliament in protest at today's vote to triple university tuition. The plan to cap tuition fees to the equivalent of $14,000 was approved 323-302 in the House of Commons, where supporters said the cost was still far lower than what college students have to pay in the US. That was hardly enough to quell 1 anger outside Parliament, where police in riot gear tussled with some students.

Meanwhile, a huge battle over the budget is playing out at the US Capitol. House Democrats 2 are refusing to consider the current form of the tax bill compromise that President Obama struck this week with Republicans, saying it's much a resolution passed today. They accuse the president of going back on his pledge to do away with the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. President Obama says he still succeeded in protecting cuts for the middle class. And the GOP says the wealthiest taxpayers 3 who are capable of generating jobs should not be penalized 4.

The Senate today put off action on a measure that would give a path to citizenship 5 to some young immigrants in the US illegally. We have more on this from NPR's Brian Naylor.

The Senate voted to delay for now action on the DREAM Act. The bill would give an estimated two million immigrants who came to the country with their parents legal status, if they graduate from high school and go on to attend college or serve in the military for two years. The measure has been a political priority for Democratic leaders and has the backing of the Obama administration and the military. Some Republicans, though, say it's a back-door form of amnesty that would take jobs away from US-born workers. The measure was approved by the House and could come up again for a vote in the Senate, but supporters there have conceded they lack the 60 votes necessary to begin debate on the bill under the rules of the chamber 6. Brian Naylor, NPR News, Washington.

In the latest unauthorized release from Wikileaks, when Somali pirates hijacked 7 a ship filled with Russian tanks last year, the Kenyan government claimed it had ordered them. But as NPR's Frank Langfitt tells us, according to Wikileaks, satellite photos showed that earlier tank shipments had gone to southern Sudan.

It was an embarrassing discovery, the secret shipment of 30 Soviet-era tanks. The pirates made the most of it. They released the Ukrainian freighter and its cargo 8 for more than three million dollars. Ukraine tried to insist the tanks were for Kenya, but the United States apparently 9 knew better and showed the Ukrainians the satellite images according to Wikileaks. The exchange was made public this week by Britain's Guardian 10 newspaper. The United States was worried about an arms race in Sudan. North and South Sudan had fought Africa's longest civil war. Next month, the South is scheduled to vote on independence. The situation is tense and there are reports of a military buildup on both sides of the border, including tanks. Frank Langfitt, NPR News, Nairobi.

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In Iraq, old rules banning alcohol are resurfacing as religious conservatives take aim at a nightclub and restaurant culture in Baghdad. NPR's Deborah Amos has the latest from the Iraqi capital.

Iraq was one of the first predominantly Muslim countries to legalize the sale of alcohol back in the 1930s. In post-Saddam Iraq, the reoccurring ban is a symbol of the struggle between secular 11 Iraq and Islamist political parties. The growing power of the Islamists is bad news for Iraq's Christians 13, says Younadim Kanna, a Christian 12 leader in parliament.

"We'll test to the measures. One is a very bad signal of our freedom of people, freedom."

In Iraq, Christians are the only religious group allowed to sell alcohol, so the ban is an economic hardship, says Kanna.

"Lower jobs for those families."

Deborah Amos, NPR News, Baghdad.

Actor Wesley Snipes is now in federal prison, serving a three-year sentence for failing to file income tax returns. The 48-year-old arrived at a minimum-security prison camp in northwest Pennsylvania today after last-minute appeals fell through. The site houses 300 nonviolent inmates 14.

Parts of Europe are dealing 15 with major travel headaches after heavy snowfall and ice. Paris on accumulation of four inches of snow yesterday; bus service was shut down in the city; many flights were canceled or delayed. Unable to leave Paris, the singer Shakira had to cancel last night's concert in Frankfurt, where 11,000 fans were told to go home.

At last check on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 18 points at 11,355; NASDAQ up seven at 2,616.

I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News.