NPR 2011-01-10

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords remains 1 at the University Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona after being shot in the head yesterday. As we hear from NPR's Jeff Brady in Tucson, doctors say Giffords has responded to some simple commands, but she's still in danger.

Representative Giffords remains in critical condition. The big concern right now is how her brain is going to react to this injury. They're specifically concerned about swelling 2 of the brain. They've actually removed a part of her skull 3, and they're preserving that in another part of the hospital so that they can allow the brain to expand and constrict 4, so that it won't be damaged further.

The investigation 5 continues into the shootings with FBI Director Robert Mueller in charge. The alleged 6 gunman is in federal custody 7, but law enforcement is searching for another man who may have been involved, and they've released a picture in an effort to identify him, though they now say they're increasingly doubtful he was involved.

Meanwhile, Buzz Conover of member station KUAZ reports local police are sounding off about gun laws.

Jared Loughner fired 31 shots and managed to reload his weapon before being wrestled 8 to the ground. Some in Arizona, including Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, are now questioning the state's gun laws.

"Well, I think we're the tombstone of the United States of America."

In Arizona, residents do not need a specific permit in order to carry a concealed 9 weapon, and some in the state legislature are also trying to allow weapons to be carried on university campuses. For NPR News, I'm Buzz Conover in Tucson, Arizona.

If you're traveling in the South, today or tomorrow be prepared. NPR's Allison Keyes reports meteorologists are predicting a winter whammy from Texas to the Carolinas.

They're flocking to supermarkets in Birmingham, Alabama and Nashville, Tennessee. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has already declared a state of emergency, anticipating power outages and broken water pipes, and Mississippi officials are warning drivers of dangerous icy roads. National Weather Service lead forecaster Bob Oravec says it's gonna be a freezing mess in the South.

"We do expect heavy snow anywhere from four to eight inches across those regions, and to the South of that area, we do expect the potential for a significant icing, anywhere from a tenth to a quarter of inch across northern Louisiana, parts of Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia."

Hundreds of flights have already been canceled in the area. Allison Keyes, NPR News, Washington.

Defense 10 Secretary Robert Gates says China has developed a stealth fighter jet much more quickly than US military intelligence had predicted. On his way to Beijing for meetings with Chinese leaders, Gates says he's concerned some of China's military advances have the potential of putting some US capabilities 11 at risk. Gates' visit to Beijing comes a week ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to the US.

This is NPR.

Thousands of demonstrators are marching in the streets of Pakistan's largest city, Karachi. They're protesting efforts to change the country's blasphemy 12 laws that make insulting Islam an offense 13. Demonstrators are also praising the man charged with assassinating 14 the governor of Punjab province, who supported changing the law.

Bulldozers have moved into East Jerusalem and are razing 15 the Shepherd Hotel, a contentious 16 project opposed by Palestinian and the international community. As NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro reports, Israel plans to build housing for Jewish settlers.

Three massive bulldozers began their work in the early morning. The Shepherd Hotel has a long and controversial history. It was built in the 1930s for the Grand Mufti. The hotel was declared "absentee property" by Israel after it captured and annexed 17 East Jerusalem in the 1967 war. The title was transferred to an Israeli firm, which sold it in 1985 to ideological 18 Jewish American millionaire Irving Moskowitz. The Palestinian family that claimed ownership of the building fought for its return through the courts, but last year, final approval was granted to build apartments for settlers. The international community views East Jerusalem as occupied territory whose status should be determined 19 through negotiations 20. The current Israeli government says Jerusalem is the undivided capital of the Jewish state, and Jews have a right to build in any part of it. Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, NPR News, Jerusalem.

Voters in Southern Sudan are casting ballots 21 on whether to become independent from the North. The weeklong referendum is part of a peace deal that ended a more than twenty-year civil war. The North is largely Muslim, the South mostly Christian 22 and animist.

I'm Barbara Klein, NPR News in Washington.