NPR 2009-11-20

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

President Obama is home from an eight-day trip to Asia after a final round of talks with South Korea's president. NPR's Scott Horsley reports.

"The two presidents talked about how to respond to the nuclear threat from North Korea and how to promote freer trade between South Korea and the United States. South Korea is eager to see ratification 2 of a long-stalled free trade agreement that was worked out during the Bush administration. President Obama said freer trade could be beneficial, but added there're still some differences to work out.

'One of my goals is to make sure that as we work through these issues, that the American people, American businesses, American workers recognize that we have to look at each agreement and each country on its own merits, and make sure that we can create the kind of win-win situation that I know president Lee is interested in seeing as well.'

South Korea's president said the two men agreed to redouble their efforts towards finalizing 3 a trade pact 4. Scott Horsley, NPR News, traveling with the president."

Air travelers across the country found themselves grounded and scrambling 5 today to revise their plans after a computer glitch 6 caused widespread cancellations and flight delays. The Federal Aviation Administration says it appears the problem started with a circuit board in a piece of networking equipment in the computer center in Salt Lake City. The failure which lasted some four hours prevented air traffic control computers in different parts of the country from talking to one another. That forced controllers to type in complicated flight plans by hand. Delays lasted even longer were specially 7 bad at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, the world's busiest along with airports in Chicago, Washington DC and New York.

The chairman of the board of Oversee 8 Stimulus 9 Spending says the administration's claims about jobs created by the stimulus probably are not accurate. NPR's Martin Kaste reports.

“The administration points to 640,000 jobs saved or created so far. That comes from reports filed by thousands of stimulus recipients 10. But it turns out many of these reports contain errors. Earl Devaney, chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, has now told the congressional oversight 11 committee that the 640,000 figure isn't reliable.

'I have no doubt that there's a lot of jobs being created. I think it could be above or below 640. I think missing reports might drive the job numbers up, and I think there's enough inaccuracies yet to question the 640 number.  It might go down.'

Devaney says many stimulus recipients seem confused about how to count jobs saved or created while others simply haven't filed proper reports. Martin Kaste, NPR News.”

A economic forecasting gauge 12 was up in October. A New York-based conference board says its index of leading economic indicators 13 rose three tenths of one percent. The index is designed to predict the direction of the economy 36 months down the road.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 93 points. The NASDAQ was down 36 points today.

This is NPR.

A bomb blast has claimed the lives of two police officers in Peshawar, Pakistan. The latest attack comes just a day after a suicide bomber 14 killed at least 18 people outside a courthouse in northwestern Pakistan. The bombing is now bringing to eight the number of militant 15 attacks carried out in and around Pakistan's largest city in the past two weeks. The attacks have claimed a total of more than 80 lives.

The World Health Organization says a small number of people have died after being vaccinated 16 against swine flu. But so far no death has been linked to the vaccine 17. NPR's Richard Knox reports.

“The WHO says at least 65 million doses of the new H1N1 vaccine have been given in 16 nations. Side effects are occurring in one out of every ten thousand doses. The vast majority are things like temporary soreness. Only five vaccinations 18 in a million involve serious events. There have been 30 deaths. Doctor Marie-Paul Kieny of the WHO says so far investigations 19 have ruled out the vaccine as a cause of these deaths.

'Reporting so far reconfirms that the pandemic flu vaccine is as safe as seasonal 20 flu vaccines 21.'

Kieny says WHO knows of a dozen cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome 22, a nerve disorder 23. A few of them may be linked to the vaccine. All patients have recovered. The report involves all types of vaccines including those containing immune-boosting chemicals not used in the US. Richard Knox, NPR News.”

Two of the space shuttle Atlantis astronauts carried out the spacewalk today outside the International Space Station, moving through a laundry list of chores, including the installation of a spare antenna 24. The astronauts also greased some mechanism 25 outside the space station. Atlantis' crew is scheduled to head home today before Thanksgiving.

I'm Jack Speer, NPR News in Washington.