NPR 2008-08-24

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama appeared at a rally in Illinois this afternoon with his new running mate Senator Joe Biden of Delaware. Obama said Biden is a man who can stare down dictators, but also reach across the aisle 1 to work with Republican lawmakers when necessary in Congress. NPR's Jim Zarroli reports.

Hours after announcing he'd chosen Biden to run with, Obama appeared alongside him at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield. Obama described Biden as a powerful critic of President Bush's foreign policy, and a statesman who doesn't have to stand behind bluster 2 to keep America strong. "He's uniquely suited to be my partner as we work to put our country back on track. " For his part, Biden said he is a friend of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, but he said McCain can't bring real change to Washington, because by his own admission he agrees with virtually all of President Bush's policies. Biden said Americans are up to the challenges the country faces, but only if they have real leadership. Jim Zarroli, NPR News.

And McCain considers Biden a friend as well as a Senate colleague and he made a congratulatory phone call to him today. But McCain's campaign wasted no time in rolling out an ads citing critical statements Biden made during the Democratic primary campaign about Obama, for instance, indicating that Obama was not ready to be president.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy who helped broker 3 the ceasefire in Georgia is calling on Russia to withdraw its forces from the strategic Black Sea port city of Poti. The BBC's Humphrey Hawksley says a senior Russian general is saying Russian troops will stay there as part of what he called a peace keeping operation.

Asked why, he said simply that Russian troops would not sit back and watch while the Georgian military, as he put it, drove around in American-made humvees. Western and Georgian leaders have condemned 4 Russia for violating the French-brokered agreement and the announcement about Poti will reinforce accusations 5 that Russia is planning to create an economic stranglehold on the country. Russia insists that its action is preventing further bloodshed with claims that Georgian forces plan to carry out more attacks. The BBC's Humphrey Hawksley in Moscow.

Tropical Storm Fay made its fourth landfall in Florida today, leaving behind a trail of widespread flooding in communities such as Del-Tonald where people slosh through flood water to stack sandbags in an effort to protect homes from damage. Sandbags were also handed out today in Biloxi and Gulfport, Mississippi which lie in the path of the slow moving storm. Fay is finally easing out of Florida and headed westward 6. The storm has been blamed for at least 11 deaths in Florida so far.

A new tropical storm has formed in the Pacific Ocean. Tropical storm "JULIO", it's called. It's churning toward Mexico's Baja Peninsula with sustained winds of 40 miles an hour.

This is NPR News from Washington.

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has condemned a coalition 7 attack that he says left more than 76 civilians 8 dead, half of them children. The US military has not acknowledged that any civilians were killed but has launched an investigation 9 into the incident.

Predictions that airline fares would keep rising in this era of high fuel prices may have been premature 10. As Larry Miller 11 reports from London, there is a full scale price war going on among the world's largest airlines.

Last month, the head of British Airways 12 warned the cost of soaring fuel prices would need to be met by higher airfares, however the opposite is happening. In the last week, Virgin 13 Atlantic cut up to 40% from the price of a long haul economy ticket. British Airways is also having a seat sale, knocking up to 36% off. Lufthansa has reduced the price of economy tickets by 20%. American Airlines is running a cut price promotion 14. And next week Air France and KLM get into the competitive fray 15. Some of the airlines are selling tickets for well into 2009, and are left with as little as 100 dollars for a trans-Atlantic flight after taxes and fuel surcharges are deducted 16. A Virgin Atlantic spokesman said there is ferocious 17 competition out there which is very good news for consumers. For NPR News, I'm Larry Miller in London.

The US women's basketball team has won the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics, defeating Australia by 27 points. The matchup and the outcome have been the same for three straight Olympics. The US men's team plays Spain for the gold tomorrow. The US women's volleyball team took the silver medal after losing to Brazil today. American runners took the gold in both the men's and women's 4X400 meter relays today.