NPR 2011-08-15

 Congresswoman Michele Bachmann says her narrow win in the Iowa Straw Poll is the first step in a very long race. Bachmann made the rounds of the network news talk shows today, heralding 1 her victory in the test vote. NPR's Tom Goldman reports.

 
Representative Bachmann's 4,823 votes were 152 more than second-place finisher Texas Congressman 2 Ron Paul. On the CBS show Face the Nation, Bachmann says her recent opposition 3 to raising the debt ceiling resonated with people she met traveling around Iowa before the straw poll.
 
"There hasn't been one time where someone has said to me: Michele, I want my taxes increased, and I want to make sure the government can keep spending more money that we don't have. That's never happened."
 
The straw poll results are non-binding, but they're considered to boost Bachmann's campaign. Conversely, the results have ended the presidential hopes of former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty. He finished a distant third and has dropped out. Tom Goldman, NPR News.
 
Rebels in Libya are fighting for control of the key city of Zawiya. They may have taken the city center but are still battling snipers and taking heavy shelling from Muammar Gaddafi's forces. NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro is in Bengazi. She says if the rebels hold on to Zawiya, they would control the important coastal 4 highway, the main link between Tripoli and the outside world.
 
At this point, Tripoli is effectively cut off from the lifeline border with Tunisia. Zawiya lies on the road that leads there, and the rebels now control part of it. 
 
NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro reporting from Bengazi.
 
Militants 5 in Afghanistan stormed the provincial 6 governor's compound north of Kabul today. NPR's Ahmad Shafi reports at least 22 people were killed. 
 
The attack began at around 11:30 a.m. local time. A suicide car bomb exploded at the southern gates of the governor's compound in Charikar, the capital of Parwan province north of Kabul, soon after five men wearing suicide vests attacked the governor's compound. According to Afghanistan's Ministry 7 of Interior, two of the suicide bombers 8 managed to blow themselves up, while the other three were killed by the police. Local officials say most of the dead are government employees. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack. An Afghan government spokeswoman says a meeting of security chiefs was under way at the time with local police and intelligence chiefs present along with advisers 9 from NATO. But no foreign casualties have been reported so far. Ahmad Shafi, NPR News, Kabul.
 
A bomb exploded in a hotel in southwestern Pakistan today. Police officials say it killed at least 11 people and reduced the two-story hotel to rubble 10. They warn that the death toll 11 could rise as rescue workers surge to the debris 12. No group has claimed responsibility. The attack took place in the province of Baluchistan near Afghanistan and believed to be home to many Taliban militants.
 
This is NPR News from Washington.
 
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has made her first political trip outside the country's main city after more than seven years of house arrest. NPR's Frank Langfitt reports.
 
Suu Kyi spent the day visiting supporters in two towns outside Rangoon. The events were peaceful. People reported plainclothes security agents recorded the proceedings 13 and kept watch. Such trips have not always turned out well. The last time Suu Kyi ventured out for a political trip was 2003. Her convoy 14 was ambushed 15. Several people died, and she ended up in detention 16 for years. Analysts 17 see the current trip as a further sign of the thaw 18 between Suu Kyi and the government of Myanmar, also known as Burma. The regime holds some 2,000 political prisoners and is seen as one of the world's most ruthless. Frank Langfitt, NPR News.
 
Indiana State Police now say five people died after a stage collapsed 19 last night. Forty-five people were injured. They were at the Indiana State Fair, waiting for the country band Sugarland to perform when strong winds toppled the stage scaffolding. Powerful storms brought down trees and power lines in northern and central Kentucky last night. Tens of thousands of homes and businesses lost power. Strong winds in Ohio caused a blimp to slip its moorings early this morning. It drifted from an airport in Columbus. It was later found in a backyard about two miles away. The 94-year-old owner said she heard a bang but hadn't noticed the blimp in her yard until the police knocked on her door.
 
Police in Los Angeles are looking for a stolen Rembrandt. It was lifted from the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Marina del Rey while the curator was distracted by a guest. The judgment 20 is valued at 250,000 dollars.
 
I'm Nora Raum, NPR News in Washington.