NPR 2010-06-13

State police say the number of people missing after a flash flooding in Arkansas is down to about two dozen. The early Friday floods have killed at least 17 people. NPR's Wade 1 Goodwyn is near the campgrounds in Langley, Arkansas and tells us more than 200 people are part of the search-and-rescue operation.

"You don't know if a car that you find along the river turned upside down was washed away from somebody's residence or would someone camp in that, you know, was that a car that was used or a truck that was used for camping. You began to see, it's gonna be like Sherlock Holmes, I mean, was this a car, where does this car come from and who was in this car?"

That's NPR's Wade Goodwyn reporting from Langley, Arkansas.

The federal government is asking BP to speed up its containment 2 of oil gushing 3 from a ruptured 4 well into the Gulf 5 of Mexico. Coast Guard Rear Admiral James Watson is ordering the company to identify ways to expedite the process in the next 48 hours. President Obama has sharpened his criticism of BP, but the British government says Mr. Obama has reassured 6 Prime Minister David Cameron that his frustration 7 is not an attack on Britain. The two leaders spoke 8 by phone today. Cameron is under pressure to get the president to tone down his language for fear it will hurt the millions of British retirees who hold BP's stock.

German media report Polish authorities have arrested an agent with the Israeli secret service. As Dave McGuire reports from Warsaw, the agent was allegedly involved in the killing 9 of a Hamas leader in Dubai.

According to the magazine Der Spiegel, Uri Brodsky was arrested earlier this month for using a false document when he arrived at Warsaw's airport. He's since been held on a European arrest warrant from Germany for falsifying passports. In January, members of the Israeli secret service, the Mossad, allegedly killed the leader of Hamas in Dubai. The authorities in Dubai provided information on the suspects in the killing, all people who were using authentic 10 passports from Germany, the UK, and other countries but under false identities. The revelation that real passports were being used by Mossad agents caused outrage 12 in many of the counties involved. Brodsky has been accused of providing at least one of the passports to the killers 13. It's now up to the Polish authorities to turn Brodsky over to Germany, but the Israeli Embassy in Warsaw has reportedly intervened to prevent the extradition 14. For NPR News, I'm Dave McGuire in Warsaw. 

A UN committee is reviewing 137 names on the so-called "blacklist" that imposes financial and travel restrictions 15 on people and entities 11 tied to al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The UN's top representative in Afghanistan says the committee will make recommendations to the UN Security Council about whether some names should be removed. Attendees at a national peace conference in Kabul earlier this month recommended that militants 16 who reconciled with the Afghanistan government be removed from the list. De-listing has been a long-standing demand of top Taliban leaders.

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A Californian teenager is safe after being stranded 17 in heavy seas on her sailboat. Sixteen-year-old Abby Sunderland was trying to be the youngest person to sail solo around the world. On Thursday, she set off a distress 18 signal after her mast collapsed 19 and knocked out her satellite communications. A French fishing vessel 20 rescued her today.

"It's been a little bit crazy these past few days. Everything's happened pretty fast, but I'm, you know, really lucky that there was a boat that could come and get me where I was."

Sunderland says she's still dealing 21 with the reality of losing her boat, which is still adrift.

On the one-year anniversary of Iran's disputed presidential election, Iranian activists 22 say they worry the government will take further repressive action to curb 23 dissent 24. As Lisa Schlein reports from Geneva, the activists are calling on the UN Human Rights Council to take action against the Iranian regime.

It's been one of the bloodiest 25 weeks ever in Mexico's increasing drug-related violence. Gunmen stormed a drug rehabilitation 26 center in violence-plagued Juarez Friday, killing 19 people and wounding four others. Police say gunmen also killed 16 people in another drug-plagued northern city.

The House Republican leader says Americans who've had to cut back in tough economic times deserve the same discipline from their government. In the weekly GOP radio and Internet address, Representative John Boehner of Ohio says President Obama should rein 27 in government spending.

Rebecca Sheir, NPR News, in Washington.