NPR 2009-09-30

A major earthquake in the South Pacific spawned 1 a tsunami 2 that crashed the shore in American Samoa today. There are reports of damage but it’s unclear whether there are casualties. NPR’s Richard Harris reports.

The US Geological Survey says a magnitude eight quake struck early this morning about 120 miles from American Samoa. The quake triggered a wave estimated at 10 to 15 feet tall which washed into Pago Pago Harbor on American Samoa. Eyewitnesses 3 say they saw a significant damage to resorts and villages in and around that island but so far there are no confirmed deaths. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued warnings and watchers for large swathes of the South Pacific including New Zealand, but the size of the wave was expected to diminish as it moved away from American Samoa. Witnesses in Fiji said they didn’t notice anything unusual at the time the wave was supposed to pass there. Richard Harris, NPR News.

Toyota will carry out what is being described as the largest vehicle recall in US history. The automaker says it will recall upwards 4 of 3.8 million of its Toyota and Lexus models to immediately remove driver-side floor mats that can stick under accelerator pedals, causing the vehicles to speed up and possibly lose control. Unusually large recall by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration follows an accident in which a California highway patrol officer and three members of his family were killed after their loaner car’s accelerator became stuck beneath an all weather floor mat Toyota had installed in the 2008 model Lexus.

President Obama met today with the leader of NATO as he begins a week of strategy sessions on Afghanistan. More from NPR's Scott Horsley.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen assured the president the alliance’s forces would stay in Afghanistan as long as it takes to finish the job there. Mr. Obama said he and Rasmussen agreed it’s critical to succeed in dismantling 5 the al-Qaeda network. “This is not an American battle. This is a NATO mission as well and we are working actively 6 and diligently 7 to consult with NATO at every step of the way.” Mr. Obama is also consulting this week with military and diplomatic leaders as part of a reassessment to the US strategy in Afghanistan. The counterinsurgency strategy the president spelled out in March could be adjusted. Scott Horsley, NPR News, the White House.

US consumers were a bit less confident this month amid concerns over mounting unemployment. Conference Board, a New York-based business research group, said today its consumer confidence index fell by just over a point from its August reading. However the reading, a 53.1 was well below the reading of 57 that most analysts 8 had been forecasting.

On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 47 points to end the session at 9,742. The NASDQ lost seven points, closing at 2,124. The Standard & Poor's 500 dropped two points today to close at 1,061.

 This is NPR.

Swiss diplomats 9 say they were able to see three American hikers who have been detained in Iran. The Swiss Foreign Ministry 10 said today that Swiss officials had access and direct contact with the three but provided no further details. The group has been held by Iran since straying across the border from Iraq at the end of July. US State Department officials today welcomed the step by Iran. The three hiker students at the University of California Berkeley have said to their families they entered the country by mistake.

Iran’s nuclear chief has said the country’s newly revealed uranium enrichment facility was built inside a mountain and next to a military site to ensure its continuity in case of an attack. More from NPR's Dale Gavlak.

Ali Akbar Salehi told the news conference that the site near Qom would be protected by Iran’s elite 11 Revolutionary Guard against possible attack. The disclosure of the secretly built facility has served to heighten suspicion among western nations due to meet Iran in Geneva on Thursday over its disputed nuclear ambitions. They fear that Iran’s nuclear program is aimed at producing weapons, something Tehran has long denied. Salehi said the site will be open soon to inspections 12 by the UN nuclear watchdog. According to a leading defense 13 consulting group in London, a satellite image shows a well-fortified facility built into a mountain about 20 miles northeast of Qom, the ventilation shafts 14 and a nearby surface-to-surface missile site. For NPR news, I’m Dale Gavlak in Amman.

Chair of Senate Banking 15 Committee says he’s taking a look at the idea of creating a super regulator that would oversee 16 the banking sector 17. Democrat 18 Chris Dodd’s plan would consolidate 19 the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the U.S. Office of Thrift 20 Supervision 21 into one regulator while striping some of the powers of the Federal Reserve and of the FDIC over banks.