NPR 2010-10-06

US stocks hit the 200-mark, reflecting sharp gains all day. University of Maryland Professor Peter Morici says the gains are due in large part to a rise in the service sector 1 and news out of Japan that the central bank moved to lower interest rates to near zero.

“There's pent-up demand for stocks. The profitability of American equities 2 has been moving up, but values haven't. Now, this is an excuse to buy, with the Bank of Japan cutting interest rates and the Fed likely to follow with quantitative 3 easing. It means stocks will be more attractive. Hence, stocks will rise.”

And at last check on Wall Street, the Dow was up 187 points, falling back a bit; it's at 10,938. NASDAQ up 55 at 2,400.

The man who planted a car bomb in New York's Times Square will serve life in prison without the possibility of parole. NPR's Carrie Johnson reports on the fate of Faisal Shahzad.

A federal judge in New York has sentenced Faisal Shahzad to spend the rest of his life behind bars. Shahzad is a US citizen born in Pakistan. He pleaded guilty to terrorism and weapons charges this summer weeks after he left an SUV filled with dangerous chemicals parked in New York's Times Square. The FBI arrested Shahzad days after the incident as he tried to leave the country. Authorities say his car bomb could have killed dozens of people. Shahzad remained defiant 4 in the courtroom and he denounced the US. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington.

French police are detaining 12 people who were picked up in raids on suspected Islamist terrorist networks today. The Interior Ministry 5 says the suspects are directly connected to a stepped-up terror alert in Europe. Authorities say the raids stem from two separate counterterrorism investigations 6.

What happened in the critical moments before and after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf 7 of Mexico is the subject of a hearing in New Orleans this week. NPR's Debbie Elliott reports federal investigators 8 are trying to piece together what went wrong and how to keep it from ever happening again.

This is the fifth round of hearings conducted by a joint 9 panel of the Coast Guard and the Bureau of Energy Management. Yesterday, the president of a salvage 10 firm testified that in the hours after the April 28th disaster, BP interfered 11 with efforts to lower an undersea robot to stop the spill. He said that company was concerned about heat buildup from the burning rig, but he thought the robot should be immediately deployed 12 to try to activate 13 the well's blowout preventer. The device never worked to stop the underwater gusher 14. Officials with Transocean, the company that owned the Deepwater Horizon rig, are testifying today about emergency procedures and what happened when the rig exploded, killing 15 11 workers. Debbie Elliott, NPR News.

Here's what's happening from Wall Street. The Dow's up 193 points at 10,945.

From Washington, this is NPR News.

Six months ago today, 29 coal miners perished in the nation's worst mine disaster in 40 years. But as NPR's Howard Berkes reports, investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the accident.

It took nearly three months just to make the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia safe for investigators, who couldn't get into the mine until the end of June. Above ground, close to 240 witnesses were interviewed, but about 20 remained and most of those are managers at mine owner Massey Energy. Several managers are resisting subpoenas 16 compelling their testimony 17. Massey has sparred with Federal Mine Safety officials over the evidence gathered and what it might mean. The company suggests the blast was triggered by a natural infusion 18 of methane 19 gas. The mine safety agency says even that would not have been so serious if the mine was properly managed for safety. The agency also says the mine was lined with excessive amounts of explosive coal dust. A federal criminal probe is also under way. Howard Berkes, NPR News.

The 33 Chilean miners trapped underground for two months may be rescued earlier than expected within the next couple of weeks. Engineers have been drilling an escape tunnel since the miners became trapped August 5th.

A remote part of India delivers an unexpected gift to linguists 20. You've just heard what some linguists are calling a dying language called Koro. Researchers announced today they had uncovered the previously 21 unreported language. Koro's spoken by only about 800 people, most of them elderly in northeastern India's Arunachal Pradesh state, largely farming region borders Bhutan and China.