美国国家公共电台 NPR 2015-12-30

 From NPR news in Washington, I'm Barbara Klein.A grand jury in Cleveland Ohio has decided 1 not to indict 2 the two Cleveland police officers involved in last year's shooting death of a 12-year-old boy. As Brian Bull of member station WCPN reports the cases sparked outrage 3 and scrutiny 4 over how Cleveland police handled deadly force cases. Cuyahoga County prosecutor 5 Timothy McGinty says review of the evidence shows neither officers had criminal intent, calling the situation a perfect storm of human error and miscommunication. He says the officers were responding to reports of an active shooter situation and there was no way that the responding officers knew rises of tensions when they pulled next to him. Rice had been waiving 6 an airgun round with his orange safety tip removed. McGinty says he shared the news with Rice's mother Samaria before before going public. 'It's a tough conversation. We again express the condolences of our office to share detectives and everyone who has worked so diligently 7 in this case.'Rice family members and their attorneys have called McGinty to step down from the case. For NPR news, I'm Brain Bull in Cleveland.

 
 
Flooding in Missouri has claimed the lives of 10 people. Four of them were international soldiers, temporarily stationed at a US army base. A fifth is unaccounted for. Thousands of Oklahomans are spending another day without electricity after a winter storm battered 8 the state overnight and early this morning. As Brian Hardzinski of member station KGOU reports emergency officials are working with the governor to extend the state of emergency. Kelly Kein with the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management says they received reports of more than four dozen injuries associated with the storm. 'We've seen mostly fall and transportation related injures but also some carbon monoxide poisoning type injuries'. Flooding is a major concern in eastern Oklahoma where some areas have received nearly a foot of rain in the past week. Governor Mary Fallin previously 9 declared a state of emergency for all 77 counties after a winter storm pounded Oklahoma in late November. That 30-day declaration expires Tuesday. For NPR news, I'm Brian Hardzinski in northern Oklahoma.
 
 
US central command and secretary of state John Kerry say Iraqi forces have retaken the provincial 10 government compound in Ramadi from IS fighters. IS seized this strategically important city in May. Iraqi forces backed by US-led air strikes continue to battle to recapture the entire city. 
 
 
The giant technology company Cisco Systems has been cleared of patent infringement 11. Today's appeal court's decision reverses a nearly 64 million dollar judgement against Cisco and ends 8 years of litigation.
 
 
On Wall Street today, the Dow fell 23 points. The NASDAQ lost 7. The S&P was down 4. This is NPR.
 
 
This year is coming to a close with the distinction of being the biggest ever for mergers 13 and acquisitions. NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports the trend was global but the US saw the biggest number of deals. Worldwide, there were 4.3 billion dollars worth of deals announced during the year while over a half of that came from deals involving US companies. It was a huge year for technological 14 mergers and in particular the semi-conductor industry where the pushed forward mobile is transforming math sector 15. Also drug companies continue their acquisition spree. Pfizer's purchase of Allergan at 116 billion dollars is the second largest merger 12 on record. Experts say companies are not only flush with cash, their leadership teams are also more confident about the economy than any time since the financial crisis. In addition, activist 16 shareholders 17 push companies to consider bigger changes. Yuki Noguchi, NPR news, Washington.
 
 
An assessment 18 of retail 19 sales this holiday season shows an uptick over last year of 7.9 percent excluding cars and gas. Sarah Quinlan of MasterCard Advisors 20 says sales were particularly strong for women's clothes. We rarely saw people you know in double digit 21 take advantage of the promotions 22. And this is interesting because we really hadn't seen a * do well for 6 months now. She says furniture sales were also up sharply. Online sales were 20 percent higher this holiday season. Amazon says it shaped a record number of items the world over. I'm Barbara Klein. NPR news in Washington.