NPR 2009-04-23

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack 1 Speer.

General Motors, already under the gun to retool 2 ahead of a government deadline, apparently 3 is planning a major summer shutdown to a number of US factories. According to sources familiar with the plan, GM will close most of its US plants, some for as long as nine weeks. Its company seeks to deal with slowing sales in the mounting backlog 4 of unsold vehicles. Beck Leman is an analyst 5 of Global Insight. She says the shutdowns would have only a modest effect on hourly employees. “They do tend to get the majority of their salaries, um, anywhere from, from, it can be from 70 to 90 percent of their salary. So the actually union workers would not be negatively, really negatively impacted by this.”  The exact timing 6 of the plant closures is not known, though Leman says it's likely to occur around GM's normal two weeks summer shutdown in July. GM has already received more than 13 billion dollars in government loans but has to meet a government deadline to restructure further or possibly file for bankruptcy 7.

The International Monetary 8 Fund or IMF today cut its forecast for the global economy, saying the world wide recession will be deeper and longer than previously 10 thought. NPR's John Ydstie reports.

The IMF predicts the world economy will shrink 1.3 percent this year. That's the worst decline since World War Two. The forecast does predict a global recovery starting later this year and positive growth of nearly 2 percent in 2010. Among the reasons for the gloomier report, a slower than expected stabilization 11 of the world financial system. And IMF chief economist 12 Olivier Blanchard says there are risks things could get even worse if governments don't continue to take strong action especially in cleaning up their banking 13 systems. The IMF predicts the US economy will shrink 2.8 percent this year. It says Japan will have the sharpest decline, a contraction 14 of 6.2 percent while China continues to grow but more slowly at a 6.5 annual rate. John Ydstie, NPR News, Washington.

The Obama administration is rejecting a proposed FAA regulation that would keep secret information about collisions between airplanes and birds. NPR's Brian Naylor has more.

The FAA proposed last month to keep data on airplane bird strikes secret, fearing that publicizing it will discourage airports and airlines from voluntarily reporting it. The issue came to the fore 9 after a US Airways 15 jet made an emergency landing in the Hudson in January after striking a flock of birds. But Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is overruling the FAA. According to a spokeswoman, LaHood believes at a time when the CIA is releasing sensitive information about torture, the FAA can release data about birds. Brian Naylor, NPR News, Washington.

On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 82 points, to close at 7,886. The NASDAQ was up 2 points, the S&P 500 fell 6 points today.

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An attack by a suicide bomber 16 at a Sunni mosque 17 north of Baghdad has left at least 5 people dead today. According to Iraqi officials the attacker appeared to be mingling 18 with worshipers just before he detonated an explosive belt. A dozen others were reported to be injured in the blast. The bombing took place in a mosque some 45 miles north of Baghdad.

An internal investigation 19 by the Israeli military into the conduct of Israeli troops during the GAZA offensive has found no evidence of serious misconduct. Human rights groups are protesting the findings, NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro reports from Jerusalem.

According to the report, Israel operated under “international law and according to a very high standard of professionalism and moral standards". The report said investigators 20 did not find one incident where Israeli soldiers intentionally 21 harmed innocent civilians 22. A group of prominent Israeli human rights groups immediately called for an independent investigation, saying the findings were problematic. Israel launched its offensive into Gaza in December with the aim of stopping rocket attacks on Israeli coastal 23 towns from the Hamas controlled territory. Palestinian groups say the death toll 24 was over 1,400, among them 947 civilians. The Israeli government says the bulk of those killed were armed militants 25. Ten Israeli soldiers and three Israeli civilians were also killed in the fighting. Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, NPR News, Jerusalem.

Law enforcement officials in Boston say they’ve now linked the items in the apartment of a Boston medical student to the two victims in the so-called Craigslist case. Authorities yesterday charged 23-year-old Philip Markoff with the killing 26 of one woman and the assault of another, both women apparently advertised their services as masseuses on the popular online site. Law enforcement officials are looking into robbery as a possible motive 27 in the case, saying Markoff is a frequent visitor to the Foxwood Casino.