NPR 2011-07-09

Shuttle Atlantis's flight to the International Space Station is unlike any other. This one is historic. This morning, Atlantis lifted off from Florida's Kennedy Space Center for the last time. NASA's ending the shuttle program so it has more resources to work on venturing farther out into the solar system. Today's flight was in the works for a long time. But as Judith Smelser with member station WMFE reports, NASA had to wait until the very last minute to decide if the flight was a go.

Hundreds of thousands of people came to Florida's East Coast, hoping to see a launch, but few really expected it to happen. A tropical wave in the area prompted NASA to give the liftoff only a 30% chance of going ahead. Then when it looked like the weather was going to cooperate, a technical glitch 1 popped up with just 30 seconds left in the counts. After a few breathless moments, mission managers got that straightened out, and the shuttle lifted off for one final time.

"Two, one, zero, and lift off. The final liftoff of Atlantis on the shoulders of the space shuttle, America will continue the dream."

After a 12-day mission to the International Space Station, Atlantis is scheduled to land back in Florida, wrapping up 30 years of space shuttle flights. From NPR News, I'm Judith Smelser at the Kennedy Space Center.

The unemployment rate turns higher as the economy adds even fewer jobs. Today, the Labor 2 Department announced that only 18,000 positions were added to payrolls 3 last month. That pushed the rate up to 9.2%. Mark Zandi, chief economist 4 at Moody's Analytics, points to a number of contributing factors.

"Clearly, the damage to the economy from the surge in oil prices earlier in the year, the Japanese quake effects, a number of other things have taken a real toll 5."

Hours after the report was released, President Obama said the country is still trying to recover from a painful recession, but that the jobs picture will get better. Congress's leading Republicans say the latest jobs report has proved that this is no time to raise taxes. That's been a sticking point in negotiations 6 that come up with a deficit-reduction plan. An agreement is key to raising the debt ceiling by August 2rd before the government defaults on its obligations.

And arrest of the former top editor of the British tabloid 7 at the heart of the scandal besetting 8 Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. More from NPR's David Folkenflik.

London police arrested the former top editor of the News of the World, Andrew Coulson, today on suspicion of illegal phone hacking 9 and corruption 10. Separate criminal investigations 11 are focusing on allegations the paper ordered the interception 12 of mobile voicemail messages and made illegal payments to police officers. Another former editor for the tabloid, who's already served time in jail for hacking, was also arrested today on corruption charges. Coulson stepped down as the paper's editor in 2007, denying any knowledge of such act. He became a top aide to Prime Minister Cameron but resigned earlier this year after a new round of disclosures.

That's NPR's David Folkenflik.

This is NPR News.

French prosecutors 13 have started a preliminary inquiry 14 into a writer's claim that former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn tried to rape 15 her in 2003. Eleanor Beardsley reports that detectives have been assigned to investigate the complaint lodged 16 by the 32-year-old woman this week.

Tristane Banon says Strauss-Kahn assaulted her in her Paris apartment as she attempted to conduct an interview with him for a book she was writing. She went public with the charges shortly after Strauss-Kahn was arrested in New York. Eight years ago, Banon’s mother discouraged her daughter from filing charges because she said it would ruin her daughter's writing career and family relations. Banon was the goddaughter of Strauss-Kahn's second wife and good friend with his youngest daughter. Banon says because of what happened in New York, she has a chance to finally be listened to. She said: "If I want to put an end to this hell that has lasted eight years, there needs to be a trial in court." Under French law, attempted rape carries a maximum sentence of 15 years if the prosecutors' inquiry leads to formal charges. For NPR News, I'm Eleanor Beardsley in Paris.

The search for plane crash victims is under way in the dense 17 forest of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Forty people have been pulled from the wreckage 18; 53 are confirmed dead; nearly two dozens still unaccounted for. Authorities say the Hewa Bora Airways 19 flight crashed in bad weather on its way from Congo's capital to Kisangani.

Montana's governor is telling landowners along the Yellowstone River to take oil samples on their property in case they have to file claims against ExxonMobil. Governor Brian Schweitzer is criticizing the oil company's handling of a pipeline 20 breach 21 last week that dumped tens of thousands of gallons of crude oil into the Yellowstone.

The Dow's down 60 points before the close.