NPR 2009-06-23

Emergency officials in Washington DC are investigating the collision of two subway trains in northeast Washington today. The incident involving two of the city's Metro 1 trains is said to have taken place on Metro's Red Line. DC fire officials say there was at least one death and a number of injuries being reported. Jasmine Garsd is an NPR employee who is on the Metro train.

"We seemed to have collided against something and I fell from my seat. Somebody else was expelled from their seats. It came to a sudden halt as you can imagine and the lights went off. The Metro car was filled with smoke and we people started panicking because the door wasn't opening and it was filling with smoke. Somebody opened, managed to open the door somehow and people then started hopping 2 off the Metro train car."

Officials are still at the scene assessing the situation at this hour. Details are sketchy 3 but it appears one of the trains did collide with another and derail. Once again, there are reports of a collision involving two Metro rail trains on Washington DC's Red Line tonight. At this point there are no details of how many injuries there are.

Riot police again clashed with protesters in Iran and the White House and the rest of the world have been reacting today. President Obama said he's been moved by the television images of people taking to the streets to protest the disputed presidential election there. Meanwhile there's also worldwide reaction to amateur video that shows a young woman identified as Neda Agha-Soltan. It appears to capture her death. The BBC's Jeremy Bowen has more.

Those younger people who communicate via social networking sites and via the internet and so on. I think for them for who've seen the pictures that have gone right around the world on this. Then I think certainly for them she's certainly become a symbol and there have even been some people on some websites talking about her as a martyr 4 and that's a very special status in the world of Shiite, Islam. The BBC's Jeremy Bowen in Tehran.

Iran's security forces today attacked hundreds of demonstrators, firing tear gas and live bullets in the air to break up a rally in central Tehran.

Billed as the nation's strongest ever anti-smoking measure, President Obama has signed the bill today that will give the Food and Drug Administration sweeping 5 new powers to regulate cigarettes. At the bill signing at the White House Rose Garden today, Mr. Obama said it is an ongoing 6 battle with smoking.

"Each day 1,000 young people under the age of 18 become new regular daily smokers 7. And almost 90% of all smokers began at or before their 18th birthday. I know, I was one of these teenagers." In addition to controlling ingredients in cigarettes, the legislation would ban advertising 8 that could attract young people.

On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 200 points to close at 8,339. The NASDAQ lost 61 points today.

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A brokerage firm that served as a middleman for confessed Wall Street Ponzi scheme operator Bernard Madoff has been hit with civil charges by Securities and Exchange Commission. Financial market regulator announced today it has filed civil fraud charges against Cohmad Securities Corporation and its chairman Maurice Cohn, alleging 9 the firm helped Madoff bilk investors 10 and ignored red flags that some of its investment returns were false. Madoff is scheduled to be sentenced later this month after pleading guilty to bilking investors out of as much as $65 billion.

A New Jersey 11 blogger was in a Connecticut court today facing charges of inciting 12 violence against two state lawmakers. Anna Sale reports from member station WNPR in Hartford.

Internet radio host Harold Turner did not comment during or after his arraignment 13 on felony charges of inciting harm against people or property. The charges stemmed from a post earlier this month. Turner urged readers in Connecticut to "take up arms and put down this tyranny by force." He was reacting to a bill that would have given lay people more authority in the Catholic church.  The legislation was pulled a month before after a huge outcry from Catholics. Turner wrote that he would release the home addresses of two Connecticut lawmakers on his show.  He said they should be made an example and added "obey the Constitution or die." The Anti Defamation 14 League calls Turner a white supremacist and an anti-Semite. On his blog, Turner says he was practicing free speech and did not break the law. For NPR News, I'm Anna Sale in Hartford.

For more than 70 years, Eastman Kodak has been cranking out Kodachrome film. However, the Rochester, New York-based company announced their plans to retire Kodachrome, ending a 74-year run for the film. That is as more and more consumers have been turning to digital photography.

I'm Jack 15 Speer, NPR News in Washington.