NPR 2010-05-19

Federal prosecutors 1 say the man accused of trying to bomb Times Square in New York City will appear in court today. Faisal Shahzad has been detained since he was arrested May 3rd and charged with five counts related to the bombing attempt. It will be Shahzad's first court appearance.

Energy company BP has released new video of the undersea oil spill in the Gulf 2 of Mexico to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The video can be used to measure the true magnitude of the oil spill. NPR's Richard Harris reports.

Scientists were able to get a ballpark figure for the size of the leak last week after BP released a few short video clips of the spewing oil and gas. Scientists reviewing these clips at the request of NPR concluded the official estimate of 5,000 barrels a day was way low. That quick bit of science also showed it's possible to use video to make good measurements of the flow despite BP's assertion to the contrary. But the original video clip provided just a glimpse of the spill and doesn't tell the whole story of how much oil and gas has shot up into the Gulf of Mexico. Scientists will soon have much more material to go on. Democratic Senators Bill Nelson of Florida and Barbara Boxer 4 of California asked BP to turn over all the video, and the company has started to comply. Richard Harris, NPR News.

Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter is facing a tough challenge from Congressman 5 Joe Sestak in today's Democratic Senate primary. Scott Detrow of member station WITF in Harrisburg has more.

Specter is the longest-serving senator in Pennsylvania history. And today, he is hoping to win a spot on the fall ballot 6 for a sixth term. But this is the first time Specter has run as a Democrat 3. The 80-year-old switched parties last year after his vote for President Obama's stimulus 7 package caused his popularity with Pennsylvania Republicans to plummet 8. Specter received the endorsement 9 of Mr Obama, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and the rest of the Democratic establishment right after his switch. But he’s facing a stiff challenge from suburban 10 Philadelphia Congressman Joe Sestak. Sestak served 31 years in the navy and was first elected to Congress in 2006. Recent polls show the two in a dead heat, and both have spent millions of dollars on increasingly negative television ads. For NPR News, I'm Scott Detrow in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Connecticut Democratic Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal says he misspoke when he previously 11 claimed to have served in the military in Vietnam.

"I may have misspoken. I did misspeak on a few occasions out of hundreds."

The New York Times has reported Blumenthal served six years in the Marine 12 Reserve but none of it overseas. He received several deferments between 1965 and 1970. In today's news conference, Blumenthal said he regretted misspeaking but would not allow his record to be impugned 13.

On Wall Street before the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 109 points at 10,515. The NASDAQ was down 36, and the S&P was down 13.

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Authorities in China have sentenced a former retail 14 tycoon 15 to 14 years in jail for economic crimes. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports from Guangzhou the case is one of  several instances of Chinese billionaires who've got in trouble with the law.

A Beijing court found Huang Guangyu guilty of insider trading in shares of his own company, China's largest electronics retailer 16. The court also fined him $88 million. State media report that Huang paid more than half a million dollars in bribes 17 to five officials, which, according to some reports, was to win approval for a Hong Kong stock market listing. A high-ranking police official is awaiting sentencing for taking bribes from Huang. As of 2008, Huang ranked No.1 on a local rich list before falling to No.17 last year with a net worth of $3.4 billion. Analysts 18 see the case as an example of cozy 19 ties between tycoons 20 and officials and pervasive 21 corruption 22. Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Guangzhou, China.

A car bomb killed at least 18 people in the capital of Afghanistan today. Five of them were American troops; more were Afghan civilians 23. The bomb exploded on a major street in Kabul just as a NATO convoy 24 passed. The Taliban is claiming responsibility for today's attack.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the United States has come up with a draft resolution to impose new sanctions on Iran. Members of the UN Security Council are meeting today to discuss it. Clinton says the five permanent members of the Security Council have agreed on the plan. It imposes consequences for Iran's behavior over its nuclear program even though Iran's decided 25 to send some of its nuclear material out of the country for processing.