NPR 2008-08-19

Key West weathered the wind and rain of Tropical Storm Fay today. The storm is now moving into the Gulf 1 where it's expected to pick up strength as it makes its way toward Florida's west coast. At least eight people died in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. From Miami, NPR's Greg Allen reports.

So far, most of the damage has come from flooding. In the Florida Keys, Monroe County police asked residents to stay off the roads because of standing 2 high water. Fay is now expected to intensify 3 to hurricane strength by the time it makes landfall on Florida's southwest coast late tonight or early tomorrow. Florida Governor Charlie Crist said residents should be alert for flooding and tornadoes 4. "Floridians should not focus on the, as we've talked about the center line of where the storm is predicted to go. It's a pretty wide cone 5. Everybody should be ready and everybody should be prepared." Forecasters say Fay should weaken after it hits land, but that it may drop up to 10 inches of rain over some parts of south and central Florida. Greg Allen, NPR News, Miami.

And last word, the storm was about 140 miles from Fort Myers, Florida moving north-northwest at 12 miles an hour.

Amid intense speculation 6 he was prepared to leave, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf made it official today. In an emotional televised address, speaking through an interpreter, Musharraf said he's stepping down without conditions. "I'd resign from my post today. I do not want anything from anyone, nothing from anyone. I hand over my future into people's hand. And let them be the judges and let them do the justice." Musharraf's departure from the president's post follows almost nine turbulent years in office and intense pressure from rivals who took office in February. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today said Musharraf has "our deep gratitude 7" for joining the US fight against terrorists.

NATO foreign ministers will consider whether to cut off cooperation with the Russian government as a promised pullout of Georgia appears to be going slowly. As Teri Schultz reports, the US says there should be no business as usual between NATO and the Kremlin as long as the Georgian situation remains 8 unresolved.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will urge her NATO colleagues to agree at a minimum to hold off on high-level meetings with Russian officials for the time being, and to reassess whether other projects and meetings with Moscow should be canceled too. A US official, who insisted on remaining on background ahead of ministers' negotiations 9, says the US is not looking to break off NATO's relationship with Russia, but that Washington simply can't go forward under the circumstances, namely, Russian troops remaining on Georgian territory. Foreign ministers' meeting at Rice's request will also look at what can be done to help Georgia rebuild after what this official called "serious, serious damage deliberately 10 inflicted 11 on the Georgian military". He confirmed that Washington had repeatedly warned Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili not to respond to provocation 12 by Moscow, but insisted that Russia had a very well and long-planned attack. For NPR News, I'm Teri Schultz in Brussels.

On Wall Street, the Dow was down 180 points.

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Auto 13 parts maker 14 Delphi said today it's eliminating around 600 jobs from its electronics and safety division. The cuts involving salaried workers are part of an ongoing 15 cost-cutting plan to Michigan-based company. Delphi blames the layoffs 16 on falling orders due to the current slowdown in auto sales. A Delphi spokesman said the job-cuts would reduce cost within the 3, 200-employee division by 25%. Most of the jobs being eliminated are in Kokomo, Indiana in business and engineering.

Although housing prices continue to fall in Southern California, there is one silver lining 17. Sales are up as NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates reports.

Home sales in Southern California were at their highest level in a year, according to San Diego-based real estate monitoring service, MDA DataQuick. Over 20, 000 new, resold and condominium homes sold last month in several Southern California counties, up more than 16% from the previous month. John Walsh, MDA-DataQuick's president, says the uptick in numbers reflects "a fire sale of properties" in newer affordable 18 neighborhoods. Walsh went on to say these homes were bought or re-financed near the price peak with lousy mortgages. Some of those bad mortgages have resulted in foreclosures which account for over 43% of all re-sales in the Southern California market. Karen Grigsby Bates, NPR News.

Genuine Risk, one of only three fillies to ever win the Kentucky Derby has died. The 1980 Derby winner reportedly died early this morning in Newstead Farm in Virginia at the age of 31. Genuine Risk was the oldest living Kentucky Derby winner and the only filly to finish in the top three, in each of the Triple Crown races that year ridden by jockey Jacinto Vasquez. She was inducted into the Racing 19 Hall of Fame in 1986.