NPR 2009-07-11

President Obama has arrived in Ghana on his first visit to Sub-Saharan Africa since taking office. Obama, whose father was Kenyan, is expected to receive a warm welcome as he visits Africa on the heels of his recent attendance at the G8 Summit in Italy and an earlier visit to Russia. The President is slated 1 to meet President John Atta Mills and address Ghana’s Parliament. Earlier today, Mr. Obama sat down with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican.

 A leaner General Motors has emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy 2 just 40 days after falling under court supervision 3. The unusually quick exit from bankruptcy creates a new GM with fewer brands, diminished debt and less onerous 4 contracts. However, for management, the question remains 5 whether a new more nimble company can do what the previous GM failed to do: boost the US car and truck sales. Maryann keller is an independent auto 6 industry analyst 7.

 “Coming out of bankruptcy, though have a much more competitive costs structure, but at the end of the day, their biggest challenge has been and will continue to be how to get people to consider buying a General Motors brand vehicle and that is not changed by bankruptcy.” The new GM will be majority-owned by the US and Canadian governments.

 Treasury 8 Secretary Timothy Geithner is proposing strong new regulations on dealers 9 in financial instruments called derivatives 10. The free-wheeling market has been blamed in part for the worldwide financial crisis. NPR’s Paul Brown reports.

 Trading in derivatives has been almost entirely 11 without regulation. And when those underlying 12 assets including subprime mortgages lost value, they contributed to disaster in financial markets. Treasury Secretary Geithner told a joint 13 Congressional committee that he wants derivatives traders to prove they have capital to cover their investments and to keep much better records. Changes in derivatives regulation would be one small part of the Obama administration’s plan to overhaul 14 the financial system which is facing months of consideration in Congress. Paul Brown, NPR News, Washington.

 A new government report shows President Bush’s secret eavesdropping 15 programs were much more widespread than previously 16 thought. NPR’s Ari Shapiro reports.

 In 2005, the New York Times revealed that the President was eavesdropping on Americans without court oversight 17. This new report says that was just one aspect of a much larger secret spying program. The other parts remain classified. This report says only the President was allowed to decide who could learn about the program. When Attorney General John Ashcroft asked to have his deputy and his chief of staff briefed, the White House said no. Eventually, many top officials at the Justice Department threatened to resign because they believed the program was illegal. It was eventually modified to address their concerns. This report also concludes that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales did not intentionally 18 lie to Congress under oath. However, “his testimony 19 was confusing, inaccurate 20 and had the effect of misleading those who were not knowledgeable 21 about the program.” Ari Shapiro, NPR News, Washington.

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 According to China’s state-run news agency, the death toll 22 from ethnic 23 rioting in the country’s western Xinjiang region has now risen to at least 180. The Chinese news agency reported today the death toll includes 137 Han Chinese and 46 Uigurs. Since ethnic rioting that broke out this past Sunday in the capital of Urumchi, security has been tight with thousands of troops patrolling the streets there.

 Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador pulled ahead of his American teammate and rival Lance Armstrong in today’s seventh stage of the Tour de France. It was the first mountainous leg of the tour. Jerome Socolovsky reports from Madrid.

 The race began in the Spanish city of Barcelona on the Mediterranean 24 seashore and ended at an elevation 25 of 7,350 feet in the Principality of Andorra in the Pyrenees. The decisive moment in the 140-mile leg came near the end. Alberto Contador, the 2007 winner made a move with a little over a mile to go. He crossed the line in ninth place, but still a full 21 seconds ahead of the seven-time American champion. The winner of the stage was Frenchman Brice Feillu, but Italian Rinaldo Nocentini now leads overall with a six-second lead on Contador and with Armstrong two seconds behind the Spaniard in third place. For NPR News, I’m Jerome Socolovsky in Madrid.

The nation’s trade shortfall, the difference between what US manufacturers send abroad and foreign companies ship to the US, narrowed in May. The government says the trade deficit 26 fell to its lowest level in some nine years as exports grow slightly while weak demand, as a result of the ongoing 27 recession, pushed down imports.

On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 36 points.