NPR 2010-08-15

The First Family is in Florida for a 27-hour-visit that combines a vacation with a sales pitch. The president said he wants everyone to know that Gulf 1 Coast beaches are clean and open for business following the BP oil spill. The president also wanted to reassure 2 local residents.

"Today, the well is capped. Oil is no longer flowing into the Gulf. It has not been flowing for a month. I'm here to tell you that our job is not finished, and we’re not going to anywhere until it is."

BP is being told to come up with ways to relieve pressure that may develop during the final phases of killing 3 its well. Eileen Fleming of member station WWNO reports the government still wants the well permanently 4 plugged by more mud and cement pumped in from the bottom.

National Incident Commander Thad Allen says he's ordering BP to come up with a plan, if pumping during the "bottom kill" cranks up pressure on the capping system, holding back the oil from the top.

"We're still dealing 5 with part of the well that we can't see and only know from pressure readings and external indications. What the condition is and we will not know until we actually intercept 6 the well."

Allen says there may be 1,000 barrels of oil stuck in the well that's been choked by mud and cement pumped in from the top earlier this month. He says he wants BP to make sure that oil doesn't leak into the Gulf, when the "bottom kill" begins possibly next weekend. For NPR News, I'm Eileen Fleming, in New Orleans.

Police in Buffalo 7, New York are asking for witnesses to come forward to help in the investigation 8 of a shooting early this morning. Gunfire erupted outside a restaurant, killing four people and wounding four others, two critically. Chief of Detectives Dennis Richard says one man who died was in town to celebrate his first wedding anniversary.

"That couple was going to have a party today with their local friends and Buffalo friends and families to celebrate their one-year anniversary. I can confirm that in fact the husband—the groom 9, if you will, from a year ago, is one of the victims."

Richard says it appears that shortly before the shootings, there'd been some kind of verbal altercation 10 in the restaurant, and at least one person had been escorted outside.

Authorities in Nevada say rescuers have found human remains 11 at the bottom of a gold mine shaft 12. They say they appear to be those of two missing miners. The men were being lowered into the mine cage Thursday morning, when a pipe broke loose from a wall and struck the cage, trapping the miners about 1,300 feet below the surface. The mine is owned by Barrick, the largest gold company in the world. Nevada is the fourth largest gold producer in the world behind South Africa, Australia and China.

Rescuers in northern Chile are still searching for 33 miners trapped in a gold and silver mine. There's been no contact since they were trapped on August 5th. 

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Authorities in Pakistan say some 20 million people have been displaced by the worst floods in decades. That's nearly 12% of the country's population. Relief efforts have yet to reach about six million people, more than two weeks after the flooding began. At least 1,500 people have died. Authorities fear the death toll 13 may rise. The Pakistani government is being accused of responding too slowly to the crisis. The prime minister said today the disaster is so huge that the government help looks insufficient 14, saying rescue workers are doing their best to reach all those in need.

China is making tomorrow a national day of mourning for those who died in a huge landslide 15 in the northwest last weekend. NPR's Louisa Lim reports the death toll is now more than 1,200; more than 500 people are missing.

Chinese flags will be lowered and public entertainment activities suspended. This (is) to remember those who died, when a massive wave of mud engulfed 16 Zhouqu in Gangsu province. Seven thousand rescuers are still working to remove debris 17 from the river that now inundates 18 one third of the town, amid the threat of further rainstorms over the coming days. Clean drinking water is a concern and state media have reported cases of dysentery. Elsewhere, heavy rain has caused landslides 19 in a part of Sichuan province that was hit by a massive earthquake two years ago. Dozens of people have been killed and 4,000 stranded 20 by the downpours. Louisa Lim, NPR News, Beijing.

Hundreds of wildfires continue to burn in central and western Russia. Hundreds of people have been put out of their homes during the worst heat wave on a record. The drought has also destroyed about a third of Russia's wheat crop.