NPR 2010-03-15

The State Department is warning Americans to be extra careful about traveling to Mexico, the day after three people, two of them US citizens, were gunned down in Ciudad Juarez. NPR’s Sonari Glinton has the story.

Drug cartel violence, especially along the US-Mexico border, that’s what’s prompted the State Department to issue a travel warning for Mexico. The cartels are battling among themselves and with Mexican law enforcement over profitable drug-trafficking routes. Three people associated with the United State’s consulate 1 general in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico were killed in a drive-by shooting this weekend: a consulate employee, her husband, both US citizens, and the husband of a Mexican citizen employee. In a statement, the president is expressing outrage 2 over the killings 3. The State Department is also allowing consulate workers in Northern Mexico to send their families out of the area. The State Department says US citizens should exercise caution when traveling throughout Mexico. Sonari Glinton, NPR News, Washington.

House Democrats 4 are predicting victory for the healthcare bill they hope to bring to the floor this week. But as NPR’s Allison Keyes tells us, optimism is tampered 5 by a GOP threat to block that bill.

South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn in the House Whip concedes that as of today Democrats do not have the 216 votes they need to pass President Obama’s healthcare overhaul 6. He told NBC's “Meet the Press”.

“No, we don’t have them as of this morning, but we’ve been working this thing all weekend. We’ll be working it, going into the week. I’m also very confident that we'll get this done.”

Clyburn says Democrats have the will to pass the measure, but the House Republican leader John Boehner told CNN's “State of the Union” if the Democrats had the votes to pass the legislation, they would have already done so.

“I’m doing everything I can to prevent this bill from becoming law.”

Boehner says President Obama and the Democrats have refused to work with Republicans, and that the only bipartisanship in Washington right now is opposition 7 to the healthcare bill. Allison Keyes, NPR News, Washington.

A lot of northeasterners are spending the weekend doing storm clean-up. David Ferguson who lives in Englewood, New Jersey 8 tells WABC that tree parts certainly didn’t miss his home.

“The wind was blowing really, really hard. I was hanging in the sun, and the next thing I know, I see tree parts falling onto our house.”

The storm unleashed 9 heavy rains, floods and wind gusts 10 of up to 70 miles per hour in the Mid-Atlantic. Several people have been killed. The storm's moving into New England and could stick around through tomorrow.

The search continues for survivors 11 of yesterday’s avalanche 12 in British Columbia. Authorities are using helicopters to survey the area near Revelstoke. Authorities believe that at least three people have been killed. They say more than 20 people have been injured. They say as many as 200 may have been on the slopes of Boulder 13 Mountain when large mass of snow came crashing down.

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Egypt’s calling off plans to celebrate the reopening of a synagogue in Cairo that the government spent seven months restoring. NPR’s Peter Kenyon reports the decision was triggered by people’s behavior at an earlier rededication ceremony the government's calling “provocative”.

The cancelation announced in a statement from Egypt’s Antiquities 14 Chief Zahi Hawass has no practical effect on the 12th-century bin 15 Maymun synagogue which has already been reopened and was rededicated at a closed ceremony last week attended by Israeli and Jewish religious leaders, diplomats 16 and others. According to Hawass, it was at that earlier ceremony that acts such as dancing and drinking alcohol took place which Hawass called “provocative to the feelings of hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world”. The statement went on to say that “Muslims sanctuaries 17 in occupied Palestine are subject to aggression 18 by the occupation authorities”. An apparent reference to security measures taken by Israel at the Al-Aqsa Mosque 19 compound in Jerusalem known to Jews as the Temple Mount. Peter Kenyon, NPR News, Cairo.

The Taliban’s behind the latest suicide attacks in southern Afghanistan. The militant 20 group says on its Web site that the strikes in Kandahar yesterday were just a warning to NATO forces. Troops are widely expected to launch an offensive in that city later this year. Yesterday’s coordinated 21 attacks killed at least 35 people and wounded dozens more.

In Pakistan, the Taliban are under fire by local forces. Today, fighter jets pounded suspected militant hideouts near the Afghan border. Officials say they have killed at least 16 insurgents 22. The operations are part of Pakistan’s crackdown on the Taliban’s part of a broader global battle against terrorism.

I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News.