NPR 2010-02-01

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Carol Van Dam.

President Obama's plan to create more jobs could cost around 100 billion dollars. That's according to White House spokesman Robert Gibbs who appeared on CNN's "State of the Union" today.

"We wanna add infrastructure 1 spending, which we know will create jobs, and another part of the president's plan is to take money that the big banks have paid back through TARP, and lend that money through community banks again to small businesses."

House Minority leader John Boehner of Ohio says the policies coming out of the Obama administration over the past year have caused the country to actually lose more jobs.

"We are gonna change those job-killing policies if we expect the economy to grow again, put Americans back to work."

In his State of the Union address last week, the president called for a 30-billion-dollar program giving tax breaks to small businesses that hire new workers.

The federal government's response to the financial crisis makes future crises more likely according to a report on the bank bailout program issued by a Treasury 2 Department watchdog agency. Steve Beckner of Market News International reports.

The quarterly report to Congress on the 700-billion-dollar Troubled Asset Relief Program, TARP, warns that government efforts to rescue banks and prop 3 up the housing market are paving the way for a more excess risk-taking. TARP Special Inspector 4 General Neil Barofsky wrote "Even if TARP saved our financial system from driving off a cliff back in 2008, absent meaningful reform, we are still driving on the same winding 5 mountain road, but this time in a faster car." In particular, Barofsky had misgivings 6 about efforts to support housing including massive Federal Reserve purchases of mortgage-backed securities to hold down mortgage rates. For NPR News, I'm Steve Beckner.

Ten American church members are reportedly being detained by Haitian police after trying to bus 33 orphan 7 children to Santo Domingo. NPR's Mandalit del Barco has more from Port-au-Prince.

Ten members of Baptist Churches in Idaho are being held at police headquarters in Port-au-Prince after trying to cross into the Dominican Republic with 33 orphan children from Haiti. Sean Lankford says his wife and 18-year-old daughter were among those arrested on charges of child trafficking.

"That's not at all what they were doing. They were down there on a rescue mission for orphan."

Lankford says they picked up the children from an orphanage 8 that had collapsed 9 in the earthquake nearly three weeks ago. They'd hoped to take them to a new orphanage in the Dominican Republic to possibly be adopted. Haitian police say the missionaries 10 did not have the proper documents to take the children out of the country. The arrests were made just days after Haiti put new restrictions 11 on adoptions 12. Mandalit del Barco, NPR News, Port-au-Prince.

Doctors with the Boston-based Partners in Health say they've medevaced three critically wounded children out of Haiti to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, bypassing bureaucratic 13 red tape over who pays for more Haitian earthquake victims. The group's clinical director says the children would have died if they stayed in Port-au-Prince. A five-year-girl with tetanus and a 14-month-old boy with pneumonia 14 were among those children.

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Russian police broke up anti-government protests in Moscow and St. Petersburg today, detaining scores of demonstrators. Several hundred protestors gathered in the central square in Moscow in direct defiance 15 of a government ban. The demonstrators say the ban violates the Russian constitution's guarantee of the right to gather. They denounced President Dmitry Medvedev's policies and those of his predecessor 16 Vladimir Putin.

The UN's Refugee Agency reports the humanitarian 17 crisis in Yemen is deepening. It says a quarter of a million civilians 18 have been displaced since the conflict in northern Yemen flared 19 up in 2004. Lisa Schlein says the report more than doubles the number of homeless people recorded last August.

The UN Refugee Agency reports around 7,000 people every week now are fleeing the fighting between the government and al-Houti rebels. Spokesman Andrej Mahecic says these people can no longer cope or sustain themselves in the areas of conflict.

"Making ends meet is getting increasingly difficult for displaced population as well as to get access to basic services such as health and education. Most of them fled, leaving behind almost all their belongings 20 and cattle, which was the pillar of their livelihoods 21 and primary source of income."

Mahecic says camps for displaced people are becoming overcrowded. Many have fled their homes without any belongings and are unable to make ends meet. He says the UNHCR is distributing supplies including tents, mattresses 22 and blankets to the homeless. For NPR News, I'm Lisa Schlein in Geneva.

Avatar has once again topped all movies at the box office this weekend, earning 30 million dollars. The 3D epic 23 has now raked in more than 594 million dollars. It's already set a worldwide box office record.

I'm Carol Van Dam, NPR News, Washington.