NPR 2011-07-06

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh.

With less than a month left to raise the debt ceiling, Congress is back at the negotiating table this week. NPR's Ari Shapiro reports the Senate had to cancel its 4th of July break to push on with the talks.

The official deadline for raising the debt ceiling is August 2nd. After that, the country defaults. The White House says it takes time to write and pass legislation. So they say the real deadline is July 22nd. Democrats 1 insist they're willing to make deep cuts. But they say a deal must also include an increase in revenue. The GOP has opposed any plan that includes tax hikes. Now, some Republicans suggest they could go along with an agreement that raises taxes as long as they get a balanced budget amendment 2 as part of the deal. Economists 3 fear that if lawmakers do not raise the debt ceiling, it could harm the economy. As the deadline gets closer, a "mini" deal seems more likely. That could buy negotiators more time to keep haggling 4. Ari Shapiro, NPR News, the White House.

In a dramatic turn in the trial of Casey Anthony, a jury has found her not guilty of first-degree murder and of manslaughter in the death of her two-year-old daughter. The young mom who for weeks showed little emotion while listening to testimony 5 about her two-year-old Caylee's 2008 disappearance 6 burst into tears and hugged her lawyer when she was acquitted 7 of murder. Her attorney Jose Baez says despite all the speculation 8, today's verdict proves the justice system can work.

"You cannot convict someone until they've had their day in court."

State Attorney Lawson Lamar says the publicity 9 surrounding the trial really hurt the case.

"The pretrial publicity generated by others has led to the great expense of having to seek a jury outside of our media market."

Now, Casey Anthony was found guilty of lying to investigators 10. Her sentencing is scheduled for Thursday.

Another big story in central Florida today is Atlantis. The countdown is under way to the shuttle's historic final launch from Florida. As Judith Smelser reports from member station WMFE, this last mission means big job losses at Florida's Kennedy Space Center.

More than 4,000 Florida space shuttle workers have already lost their jobs. The total layoff 11 number is expected to approach 9,000. State officials have been scrambling 12 to attract private employers to the area. But so far, fewer than 1,600 new aerospace 13 jobs have been created. Frank DiBello heads the state-funded agency in charge of growing the space industry in Florida.

"I believe that this area has too long identified so solely 14 with what NASA was doing."

Many shuttle workers are moving out of state, some landing jobs with Boeing's new plant in South Carolina. For NPR News, I'm Judith Smelser in Orlando.

At last check on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 13 points at 12,570 in trading of just over three billion shares; NASDAQ was up before the close 10 points at 2,826.

From Washington, this is NPR News.

Former Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic is under indictment 15 in The Hague for allegedly masterminding the massacre 16 of some 8,000 men and boys in Srebrenica. But now, as Teri Schultz explains, the Dutch government is being held responsible for some of those killings 18 as well.

A court in the Netherlands has ruled that Dutch soldiers working for the UN and Bosnia were legally responsible for the deaths of three Muslim employees in 1995, and that the government must compensate 19 relatives of the victims. The men were among those Dutch peacekeepers allowed to be taken away by Bosnian Serb troops commanded by Mladic, who now faces genocide charges for the killing 17 of thousands of Srebrenica men and boys. The appeals court said that with what the Dutch soldiers had seen up to that point, they should have known the Bosnian Muslims were being killed and intervened. The Dutch government at the time later resigned over the implications. Monday marks the 16th anniversary of Srebrenica, the worst massacre in Europe since World War II. For NPR News, I'm Teri Schultz.

Yemen's state news agency is reporting the deaths of 40 suspected insurgents 21 in air strikes on southern Yemen in the past two days. Authorities say militants 22 were killed as they tried to storm a military camp in the province of Abyan. At least two troops were killed, and 20 others were injured in the insurgent 20 attack.

In the US, new signs today that the economic fallout from Japan's nuclear crisis may be close to over. Factory orders in the United States rose in May by 0.8%. The Commerce Department says much of the increase was bolstered 23 by orders for more planes, automobiles 25, auto 24 parts, as well as oil drilling equipment. Without transportation, factory orders still rose 0.2%. May's increase followed a downwardly revised decline in April of 0.9%.