NPR 2010-11-19

General Motor's back to being publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, a major milestone 1 in GM's quest for independence from government ownership. We have the latest from Michigan Radio's Tracy Samilton.

GM CEO Dan Akerson says he's pleased by the initial result of the IPO. About 90 percent of the stock was purchased by investors 2 in North America. Akerson held a media conference call after ringing the opening bell on the stock exchange and says the IPO should not change the government's role, which so far has been to let management run the company.

"They've, they stayed out of the boardroom to put it bluntly."Akerson does expect to continue his bimonthly updates with auto 3 task force head Ron Bloom. He says it's up to the US Treasury 4 when to sell more of its GM stock. The IPO brought the government's stake in GM down to about 33 percent. For NPR News, I'm Tracy Samilton in Ann Arbor 5.

The University of California is hiking its student fees again by eight percent, effective next fall. The UC Board of Regents also decided 6 today to expand financial aid to more students. The increase comes on the heels of a 32 percent increase UC imposed this year to raise an estimated $180 million in annual revenue. Students protest that it is becoming difficult to afford an education, make that more difficult to afford an education. And yesterday, a student demonstration 7 led to 13 arrests.

In Port-au-Prince, Haiti, police have broken a protest against the United Nations and the government. Sabri Ben-Achour from member station WAMU reports today's cholera 8 focus protest was the first to reach the capital city.

A group of a couple hundred protestors ran through the streets near Haiti's Ministry 9 of Health this morning, singing songs and slogans, blaming the United Nations for Haiti's cholera outbreak and demanding compensation. Protesters criticized the government for its response. The crowd charged towards UN soldiers, throwing rocks and bottles. Soldiers fired shots into the air. As Haitian police began to disperse 10 the crowd, using tear gas, protesters smashed car windows, threw rubble 11 to block streets and set fire to tires, signs and anything they can grab from the side of the road before dispersing 12. A spokesman for the UN forces in Haiti said he was confident these protests would not become widespread. National elections are still scheduled for the end of this month. For NPR News, I'm Sabri Ben-Achour in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

The head of Ireland's Central Bank says he expects the financially embattled government to receive tens of billions of euros in loans from the IMF and other European countries. Patrick Honohan spoke 13 as officials from the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the IMF started talks on a possible rescue package.

This and GM's reemergence in the market making US stocks go up, Dow's up nearly 180.

This is NPR.

We're seeing an uptick in unemployment claims. Labor 14 Department analysts 15 say the number of people who filed applications for the first time rose last week by 2,000 to a seasonally 16 adjusted 439,000. However, the four-week average, which is less volatile 17, fell for the fourth time in five weeks.

The Australian airline Qantas says as many as 40 Rolls-Royce engines may need to be replaced after an oil leak caused an explosion during one of its flights earlier this month. As Larry Miller 18 reports from London, that's half the engine maker 19's total output.

Rolls-Royce asked Airbus to pull Trent 900 engines off the assembly line to replace those already in service. But with each A380 Airbus selling for $350 million, the European plane maker is unhappy about it. The A380 is the world's biggest passenger jet. It's seven stories tall and carries more than 500 people. The faulty engines cost ten million dollars each. In addition to Qantas, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines use them. Rolls-Royce has said little since the explosion except that it has identified the fault and is fixing it. Since the incident, Rolls-Royce shares have fallen around nine percent. For NPR News, I'm Larry Miller in London.

The number of Americans at risk of foreclosure dropped in the last quarter, but not enough to suggest that the housing market isn't still weak. The Mortgage Bankers Association says just over nine percent of homeowners missed at least one mortgage payment July to September. That's down from 9.9 percent the previous quarter.

Dow's up nearly 180 points at 11,187.