NPR 2009-09-19

As she prepares to head to the annual UN General Assembly, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is warning Iran that she will push for more sanctions soon if the country continues to defy the international community on the nuclear issue. NPR's Michele Kelemen has more.

On the sidelines of the UN meeting, Secretary Clinton will sit down with her counterparts on the Iran issue, the permanent Security Council members plus Germany. They will prepare for the October 1st talks with Iran. Clinton says the US is serious about negotiations 1 and will test whether Iran is too.

There will be accompanying costs for Iran's continued defiance 2: more isolation 3 and economic pressure, less possibility of progress for the people of Iran.

Speaking at the Brookings Institution, Clinton said the US is trying to resolve this issue diplomatically and not just talking for the sake of talking. She said the Obama administration will take stock at the end of the year to see if there is any movement. Michele Kelemen, NPR News, Washington.

A car bomb that exploded in a market south of Baghdad today has killed at least seven people and wounded 21 others. Officials say the bomb was in a parked car exploded just before the end of the day's Ramadan fasting, a time when the market was packed with shoppers buying food for the evening meal. The area where the bombing occurred, twenty miles south of Baghdad, is home to a sizable Shiite community. There's no immediate 4 claim of responsibility, but evening gatherings 5 linked to Ramadan have been targeted by Al-Qaeda in the past.

The unemployment rate rose in 27 states last month, that's according to the Labor 6 Department. NPR's Frank Langfitt reports.

Even as the stock market rises and the economy seems to stabilize 7, the job front remains 8 tough throughout much of the country. That's one of the messages from the Labor Department’s state report for August. Fourteen states had unemployment rates of 10% or more. Michigan, home to the nation's battered 9 auto 10 business had the highest rate at more than 15%. Nevada, one of the epicenters of the housing collapse 11 ranked second with about 13%. The news was not all bad. The unemployment rate declined in 16 states. Some states actually added jobs. They include North Carolina, which added 7,000 jobs and Montana which added 5,000. Economists 12 expect the nation to continue to shed jobs in the coming months even as the economy improves. The national unemployment rate is expected to pass 10% and top out sometime next year. Frank Langfitt, NPR News, Washington.

A government emergency fund that guaranteed as much as three trillion dollars worth of money market assets is being allowed to expire today. Treasury 13 Secretary Timothy Geithner in a statement about the program noted 14 that the risk of catastrophic failure of the financial system has receded 15. Geithner said last week the financial system was healthy enough to begin unwinding some of the programs put in place last year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 36 points. The NASDAQ was up six points today.

This is NPR.

A group of former CIA directors are asking the Obama administration to quash a proposed investigation 16 by Attorney General Eric Holder 17 in the harsh interrogation of terror suspects during the Bush administration. In a letter to the White House, the seven former directors who served under both Republican and Democratic presidents warned the investigation could discourage CIA officers from doing the kind of aggressive intelligence work needed to counter terrorism. Holder announced last month he planned to reopen the investigation into interrogations carried out following the 9/11 terror attacks.

Massachusetts' legislature is expected next week to approve a bill that would allow the governor to appoint an interim 18 replacement 19 to Senator Edward Kennedy's seat. Meanwhile, the race to fill the seat in the special election is heating up. (From) WBUR in Boston, Megna Chakravarti reports.

Massachusetts could have an interim Senator in Washington by next week. The governor says he'll ask the replacement to pledge not to run for the seat in the special election. There are already three Democrats 20 and two Republicans officially in the race. The Democrats include Attorney General Martha Coakley, Congressman 21 Michael Capuano and millionaire businessman Stephen Pagliuca. Pagliuca, a co-owner of the Boston Celtics basketball team, says he'll invest some of his 400-million-dollar fortune to be competitive.

I am running against very seasoned politicians that have been out there for 10-15 years, spent millions of dollars, you know, building their name in image and their brand name.

The Republican challengers both lack name recognition and significant financial backing. For NPR News, I'm Megna Chakravarti in Boston.

Crude oil futures 22 ended the week lower. The price of crude fell 43 cents a barrel today to settle at $72.04 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.