NPR 2010-11-06

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh.

President Obama is calling new employment numbers out today "encouraging". NPR's Ari Shapiro reports on the president's comments at the White House before Mr. Obama left for a trip to Asia.

President Obama commented on the new unemployment numbers just before leaving on a ten-day trip through Asia. He said one key to rebuilding America's economy will be to increase the global demand for American goods and services.

"And that's why on the trip that I'm about to take, I'm going to be talking about opening up additional markets in places like India, so that American businesses can sell more products abroad in order to create more jobs here at home."Economists 1 said the latest jobs report shows that the economy continues to grow but not fast enough to dramatically lower the unemployment rate anytime soon. Unemployment has now been above 9.5 percent for 15 months. Ari Shapiro, NPR News, the White House.

An al-Qaeda group based in Yemen says it was behind a UPS cargo 2 plane crash in Dubai in September. It's also claiming responsibility for a foiled mail bomb plot that triggered global security alerts last week. That's when US-bound explosive parcels were located at cargo sites in Dubai and north of London. Those parcels originated in Yemen.

A powerful explosion leaves another mosque 3 in Peshawar, Pakistan in ruin. At least 71 people were killed in two attacks today. Sadiq, a survivor 4 from the first blast, recounted his ordeal 5 through a BBC interpreter today.

"At that moment, we didn't know what had happened, but then I saw the dead bodies, and there was no sign of anyone. Slowly, I got out of the debris 6, and then people from the area came out of the houses with their voices raised. I shouted out to leave the dead bodies and get the injured out."A bomb survivor speaking to the BBC.

Hurricane Thomas is bearing down on Haiti's Southern Peninsula, generating floods. In one camp, refugees of January's earthquake were forced to seek higher ground. Many more people in the capital have refused to leave the temporary shelters they've been in since the quake. The National Hurricane Center's Chris Landsea says heavy downpours are expected in various parts of Haiti.

"Concern is that we'll get five to ten inches of rain, maybe even 15 inches in some spots of Haiti and Dominican Republic. That kind of rain over hills and mountainous terrain 7 causes flash floods and mudslides."In Costa Rica, people are observing two days of mourning for those killed in a landslide 8 that was triggered by heavy rain. Outside the capital yesterday, a hillside crashed down on homes. At least 20 people were killed; more than a dozen others are still missing.

At last check on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average up nine points at 11,444 in trading of more than four billion shares; NASDAQ up two at 2,579.

From Washington, this is NPR News.

NASA says it won't try to launch space shuttle Discovery at least for another three weeks. NPR's Dan Charles has more.

NASA's been trying to get Discovery into space for the past week, but small mechanical glitches 9 and then bad weather delayed it. Engineers discovered this latest problem when they started filling the shuttle's fuel tanks. They will take at least several days to fix. And then, NASA will have to wait a few weeks longer until the Earth moves along a little further in its orbit, so the shuttle won't be exposed to too much sunlight and overheat. The so-called "launch window" will open again on 30th of November. Dan Charles, NPR News, Washington.

BBC journalists are in the midst of a 48-hour strike. As Larry Miller 10 reports from London, many TV and radio new shows have been canceled, curtailed 11 or hosted by managers.

The National Union of Journalists has more than 4,000 members of the BBC on picket 12 lines outside studios, famous faces, reporters, writers and producers. The BBC has a pension hole of up to three billion dollars and wants to change pension terms. The union's general secretary, Jeremy Dear.

"Effectively what it means is everybody on has to work longer, pay more, or get less, and in some cases, all three of those."After the strike, the journalists will work to rule, taking their full breaks and working just the hours contractually agreed. If there's no deal, another strike is planned for later this month. For NPR News, I'm Larry Miller in London.

MSNBC has suspended TV host Keith Olbermann until further notice after he donated to Democratic campaigns. The donations were first reported by the website Political.

I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News, Washington.