NPR 2011-05-13

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh.

President Obama wants two more years out of FBI Director Robert Mueller, whose 10-year term expires this September 4. He plans to ask Congress to let Mueller stay on the job longer because of what he described as ongoing 1 threats from terrorism. The Bush administration appointee started just one week before the 9/11 attacks. The al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin 2 Laden 3 was killed in a US raid nearly two weeks ago. Republican Senator John McCain says torture was not a factor in tracking down bin Laden.

"Because under torture, a person will say anything he thinks his captors want to hear, whether it is true or false, if he believes it will relieve the suffering."

McCain speaking today on the Senate floor against waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques. The lawmaker from Arizona spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam.

The Obama administration is laying out its long-awaited plan to protect the nation's computer networks. The White House aims to boost the security of the computer systems that underlie 4 power plants, water systems, oil refineries 5 and other parts of the country's critical infrastructure 7. More from NPR's Tom Gjelten.

Cyber security experts have long cautioned that the nation's critical infrastructure from its financial networks to its power and transportation grids 8 is highly vulnerable to cyber attack. The problem is more than 90% of the infrastructure is in the hands of private industry, and the role the government should play in protecting those systems has been vigorously debated. The new White House plan centers on the principle of public-private partnership 9. The administration is proposing incentives 10 for companies to voluntarily improve their computer security. The federal government could provide assistance, but only if the companies ask for help. Tom Gjelten, NPR News, Washington.

A German court declares John Demjanjuk guilty of accessory to mass murder. The retired 11 US autoworker served as a guard at a Nazi 12 death camp during World War II. NPR's Eric Westervelt reports today's verdict ends the latest chapter of a 30-year-old legal odyssey 13.

The court found the 91-year-old Ukrainian native guilty of being an accessory to murder in the death of some 28,000 Jews and Soviet 14 soldiers, who were killed during his seven months when he was a guard at the Sobibor death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. The presiding judge today said Demjanjuk was part of the Nazi's machinery 15 of destruction. Demjanjuk, sitting in a wheelchair, showed no emotion. His lawyer vowed 16 to appeal the verdict and the five-year prison sentence. The case broke new legal ground here as the prosecution 17 successfully argued that if Demjanjuk was at Sobibor, he was an accomplice 18 to mass murder. Eric Westervelt, NPR News, Berlin.

Before the close on Wall Street, the Dow was up 66 points or 0.5% at 12,696; NASDAQ up more than 0.5% at 2,863.

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Water from the rising Mississippi River overtops a man-made levee in downtown Vicksburg despite desperate attempts to plug the holes, and Mississippi Public Broadcasting's Jeffrey Hess is monitoring another levee which also faces a rising threat.

It's 15 feet deep and nearly at the top of this levee, just solid water as far as you can see. They're concerned now that the water still has another three or four feet to go, and it's gonna overtop this levee. The levee was designed to be overtopped, but just to make sure that it doesn't get washed out from behind as that water flows over. The Army Corps 19 put down about five miles of heavy plastic sheeting. That way the water will just run on top of the sheeting instead of taking the rocks and the sand and the dirt that make up the levee itself.

Jeffrey Hess reporting.

For the second year in a row, golfer Tiger Woods is out of a prominent players championship. He withdrew today because of an injury. Details from NPR's Tom Goldman.

The pain began from the start of Thursday's first round. On his opening tee shot, Tiger Woods' four-time surgically 20 repaired left knee acted up, he says, starting a chain reaction in his Achilles and calf 21. By the time Woods cut short his round after nine holes, he was six strokes over par 6. Woods strained his left knee and Achilles at the Masters last month. From then until this week, he didn't hit balls or play any practice rounds. Woods gears his season to the major championships. The next one, the US Open, is a little over a month away. Woods has been retooling 22 his swing and needs to play more to get it locked-in for competition, but he also needs to rest his leg, meaning more uncertainty 23 as Woods tries, in the aftermath of a scandal and in the midst of injury, to reclaim 24 his spot as the world's best golfer. Tom Goldman, NPR News.