NPR 2009-01-02

Israel and Hamas continued their battle in Gaza today. Militants 1 fired more rockets into Israel and Israeli fighter jets bombarded Hamas targets, including a Hamas leader who was killed along with a dozen others. NPR's Eric Westervelt reports.

Nizar Rayan is the most senior Hamas leader to be killed since Israel's bombing of Gaza began last Saturday. The 49-year-old Islamic law scholar and preacher was a central figure in Hamas' political and military wings. He long advocated using any means to fight Israel, including suicide bombings. He was at home in north Gaza's Jabaliya Refugee Camp when Israel dropped a two-thousand-pound bomb on his house. Israeli military said in a statement the house was used as a Hamas communication center and weapon storage site. In addition to Rayan, the airstrike killed at least a dozen other people, including several of his children and some of his four wives. The six-day death toll 2 in Gaza, doctors there say, is now more than four hundred, including nearly one hundred civilians 3. Meantime, rocket fire continued to rain down on several Israeli population centers in the south. No one was seriously injured. Eric Westervelt, NPR News, Jerusalem.

The Iraqi government has taken over control of Baghdad's Green Zone, where most of the American military and diplomatic operations are headquartered. The US handed over responsibility as part of a new security act.

Russia has cut off natural gas supplies to Ukraine after today's deadline to resolve a contract dispute passed with no agreement. Both countries are trying to reassure 4 the European Union that its supplies won't be affected 5.

A new report on government farm subsidies 6 in the US says massive dairy and hog 7 operations are getting a disproportionate share of money compared to small farms. NPR's Howard Berkes has details.

The report from the Campaign for Family Farms and the Environment focuses on the federal Environmental Quality Incentives 8 Program, which pays operators at feedlots in hog and dairy farms to control animal waste, protect water resources, combat erosion and reduce risks to wildlife. The group says more than a third of the program's annual subsidies for hog producers goes to industrial hog operations, but they are close to ten percent of all hog farmers. Industrial dairies get more than half of the dairy payments, but they're just four percent of all dairies. Industry officials say their overall share of subsidies is still a fraction of the six billion dollars available. The report is the latest from private and government groups that criticize subsidies of corporate 9 farming. Howard Berkes, NPR News.

Two of the nation's biggest bank mergers 10 to result from the nation's financial crisis were finalized 11 today. Bank of America has officially combined with Merrill Lynch to become the world's largest financial services company. And western-based Wells Fargo now owns eastern-based Wachovia, extending Wells Fargo's reach coast to coast.

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Nearly 16 million cable TV subscribers from the Carolinas to southern California can still tune 12 in to SpongeBob SquarePants, MTV and Comedy Central. That thanks to a last-minute deal that kept 19 Viacom channels from disappearing from Time Warner's cable service. Viacom had threatened to shut off the channels on Time Warner if negotiators hadn't reached a new fee contract by midnight last night.

In Georgia, two new laws that take effect today give car insurance companies more freedom to raise rates. Georgia Public Broadcasting's John Sepulvado reports.

Beginning in 2009, Georgia's insurance commissioner 13 will no longer have the power to control auto 14 insurance rate increases. The current commissioner fought that change, saying auto insurance rates could spike 15 by 25 percent or more. The industry says the new law will benefit consumers by allowing more rate competition. Also this year motorists will automatically have uninsured motorist coverage 16 rolled into their policy, unless they opt 17 out. Insurance companies say UM, as it's called, offers protection against hit-and-runs. Some consumer advocates say it's a profitable product that offers little real world protection. For NPR news, I'm John Sepulvado, in Rome, Georgia.

Former Rhode Island Democratic Senator Claiborne Pell has died. Pell served six terms in the US Senate and was best known for creating the government's Pell Grant Program that sent millions of Americans to college. A multimillionaire, Pell established himself as the voice for the less fortunate. He left office in 1994 after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Pell died at his home in Rhode Island today at the age of 90.