NPR 2009-10-25

President Obama has declared the H1N1 flu a national emergency, a move that opens the way for hospitals, doctors and local governments to get legal waivers so they can better cope with any surge of people with the swine flu virus. NPR's Richard Gonzalez has more.

The president's declaration directs Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to remove bureaucratic 1 roadblocks hampering 2 the federal response to the emerging pandemic. That means, bypassing rules affecting Medicare, Medicaid and health privacy regulations. So far more than 1,000 Americans have died from H1N1, also known as the swine flu. The government originally expected to have as many as 120 million doses of vaccine 3 available by now, but production delays have forced the government to cut back expectations, and only 11 million vaccine doses have been shipped thus far. Officials say they hope to distribute about 50 million doses by mid-November and 150 million by December. Richard Gonzalez, NPR News.

President Obama is calling on banks to lend more money to small businesses, many of which have been unable to get credit despite government efforts to boost lending.

"The goal here is to get credit where it's needed most - to businesses that support families, sustain communities, and create the jobs that power our economy. That's why we enacted 4 the financial stability plan in the first place."

Mr. Obama speaking in his weekly radio and Internet address. He said small businesses are responsible for nearly 2/3 of the new jobs created in the US over the past 15 years.

Pakistani forces have captured the hometown of the head of the Taliban in that country after heavy fighting as part of the government's ongoing 5 offensive in the border area near Afghanistan. Also, a suspected US missile strike killed at least 15 militants 6 at a senior Taliban commander's hideout. From Islamabad, NPR's Julie McCarthy reports.

The target of the drone strike is thought to have been Taliban commander Maulvi Faqir. He is reported to have narrowly escaped, leaving the compound ten minutes before it was struck while a son-in-law and nephew were killed. The US has shown no sign of easing the drone attacks even as Pakistan wages a major offensive against the Taliban in the tribal 7 agency of South Waziristan where the army says it killed 21 militants in the past 24 hours. At a briefing, the army spokesman was asked if the drone attacks were a distraction 9 or an asset. Major General Athar Abbas said Pakistan would prefer to go it alone and denied that the US was assisting in the Waziristan operation. Pakistan publicly calls the US strikes a violation 10 of its sovereignty, but it's widely believed that the two sides have a tacit agreement that allows the US to strike militants on Pakistani soil. Julie McCarthy, NPR News, Islamabad.

One Egyptian passenger train slammed into the back of another just outside Cairo today, killing 11 at least 15 people and injuring more than two dozen others. Emergency crews have been struggling to get the dead and injured out of the wreckage 12.

This is NPR News from Washington.

Police in Zimbabwe have raided an office used by executives of the Prime Minister's political party. The move comes a week after Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change announced that it was suspending cooperation with President Robert Mugabe's party in Zimbabwe's power-sharing government. NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton has the story.

The Secretary General of Prime Minister Tsvangirai's party Tendai Biti said police arrived at the premises 13 in the capital Harare with a warrant to search for weapons. Biti, who is the current Finance Minister in Zimbabwe's national unity 14 government, said about 50 police ransacked 15 the premises Friday night and forced a guard to dig with his hands in the yard around the property hunting for arms. Biti said the police left with valuable party strategy documents but no weapons. Tsvangirai has warned that his party is being bullied 16 by President Mubage's ZANU-PF, which he described as an unreliable and dishonest power-sharing partner. The police raid came a week after the Prime Minister announced he was boycotting 17 government business in Zimbabwe. Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, NPR News, Dakar.

Taliban militants in Afghanistan are threatening voters with violence if they cast ballots 18 in the country's upcoming presidential runoff election. The Taliban called that election a failed American process.

A team of UN inspectors 19 has traveled to Iran and is expected tomorrow to visit the site of that country's recently revealed uranium enrichment facility. Iranian officials insist that site is for peaceful nuclear power purposes. Western experts believe the facility was designed to produce nuclear fuel for an atomic weapon. President Obama spoke 8 by phone today with France's President and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to discuss the situation in Iran.