NPR 2008-07-31

President Bush today signed a five-year plan to triple the amount of US funding to globally fight AIDS. Mr. Bush called the 48-billion-dollar package " the largest commitment by any nation to combat a single disease in human history". "HIV/AIDS is still one of the world's greatest humanitarian 1 challenges. No question about it, but it is a challenge we are meeting." The president first launched the program to fight AIDS around the world in 2003. The original five-year package was funded at 15 billion dollars.

Barack Obama is campaigning across Missouri today. He told a crowd in a high school gym that economic fears are growing around the country and he promised to offer a stark 2 change from the policies of President Bush. More from NPR's David Greene.

Obama told a crowd in Springfield that he's ready to debate John McCain over how best to help working Americans. Obama said his opponent may offer tax cuts, but he said they’d mostly benefit wealthy Americans. Obama also warned that McCain would continue President Bush's economic agenda. "He thinks it's okay the way things are going right now. Let me tell you we can't afford to keep on doing more of the same, and that's why I'm running for President of the United States of America." Obama recently finished a week-long trip abroad and several days of meetings in Washington. But Obama is now sending a message that he's back on the stump 3. He planned to finish his day in Missouri flipping 4 burgers with residents at a barbecue. David Greene, NPR News, traveling with the Obama campaign.

John McCain is campaigning in America's heartland today. This morning, he held a closed-door meeting with the Archbishop of Denver before heading out to Kansas City. Before leaving Denver, he once again said Congress has done nothing to improve the country's energy problems. "I spoke 5 up against this administration and Congress who just gave us another energy bill with more giveaways to big oil, but with nothing, nothing to free us from our dangerous dependence 6 on foreign oil.” McCain will travel to Milwaukee this evening.

Nissan says it will offer buyout packages to some of its workers in the US. Detroit Public Radio's Jerome Vaughn has more.

Nissan says about 6,000 workers will be offered the buyout packages at two facilities in Tennessee. Employees will be eligible 7 for lump sum payments of 100,000 or 125,000 dollars, depending on their tenure 8. Some car purchase and medical benefits will also be available. Technicians and salaried workers can choose now whether to take the buyout this year, next year or in 2010. Employees will be offered the same option in 2009 and 2010, but the benefit packages will be reduced. The automaker says high gas prices and a sluggish 9 economy have hurt sales of trucks and sport-utility vehicles. As a result, the Smyrna Tennessee plant will eliminate its night-time truck production shift. For NPR News, I'm Jerome Vaughn in Detroit.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 186 points to close at 11,583. From Washington, this is NPR News.

The House Judiciary Committee voted today to cite former White House aide Karl Rove for contempt. Rove has refused to appear before the panel to discuss allegations of White House influence over the Justice Department. Today's vote was 20-14 along party lines. Republicans unanimously opposed the measure. Rove has denied any involvement with justice decisions.

The Food and Drug Administration says it has made a key breakthrough in tracking down the source of salmonella that resulted in a nationwide outbreak. The FDA's doctor David Acheson told a congressional hearing that a strain of salmonella has been found in irrigation water and a serrano pepper at a Mexican farm.

The International Olympic Committee said today that it had previously 10 cut a deal with China that some Internet information would be censored 11 in China during the Olympics. China had pledged that foreign media would be free to report during the Games. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports from Beijing.

IOC press chief Kevan Gosper said he regretted the announcement by Beijing that some websites would not be accessible during the Games. He said that this was the result of negotiations 12 between IOC officials and the Beijing Games Organizing Committee. He added that the censored information would not be directly related to the Games. China routinely blocks websites about politics, human rights, Tibet and Taiwan. But it has also pledged that during the Olympics, foreign reporters would have freedom to report not just on the Games but on the rest of China. Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Beijing.

And the International Olympic Committee has cleared the way for some Iraqi athletes to participate in next month's Games in Beijing. The IOC originally banned all Iraqi athletes after determining that the Iraqi government was attempting to interfere 13 with that country's Olympic body.