NPR 2011-10-18

 All the major US market indexes are down around 2%. They were retreating from last week's gains after Germany downplayed the idea that a solution for Europe's debt crisis might be reached during a summit this Sunday. At last check on Wall Street, the Dow was down 222 points around 2% at 11,422. NASDAQ off more than 15 points at 2,617. S&P 500 down 21 at 1,204.

 
Opponents of a long-term care program included in last year's health overhaul 1 are cheering a decision by the Congressional Budget Office that could make it easier to repeal 2 the program. As NPR's Julie Rovner tells us, the CBO says that wiping the CLASS Act from the books would have no impact on the federal deficit 3.
 
The Obama administration announced last week that it couldn't implement 4 the home-based long-term care program as written because it couldn't figure out how to set premiums 5 low enough to attract enough people to make the program self-supporting. But it stopped short of calling for repeal because officials say, the need for long-term care insurance remains 6 substantial. Republicans want the program scrapped 7 permanently 8, but they faced a budget problem. The program was structured to collect five years' worth of premiums before anyone could collect benefit. That is technically 9 cutting the deficit. But now CBO says with no implementation 10, it won't count repeal as cost to the budget. Julie Rovner, NPR News, Washington.
 
A prisoner swap 11 agreement between Israel and the Palestinians is unfolding. The Israeli Supreme 12 Court has heard petitions to block a deal with Hamas that would have hundreds of Palestinian inmates 13 released in exchange for one imprisoned 14 Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. The BBC's Kevin Connolly says Palestinians in Gaza are already preparing for the release of more than 450 prisoners. 
 
It is a little premature 15 and somewhere, i's are still being dotted and t's crossed, but the sound of celebration already fills the air in Gaza City. This was a wedding party making its way towards the main square, where in less than 24 hours, huge crowds are expected to gather to welcome home their returned prisoners. To Israelis and to many in the wider world, they are men and women of violence but Gaza is preparing to acclaim 16 them as heroes. That's the BBC Kevin Connolly reporting from Gaza.
 
Yemeni authorities are reporting at least 18 deaths and 30 injuries in the latest clashes in the capital Sana'a. Witnesses say people were caught in the crossfire 17 between those for and against president Ali Abdullah Saleh who continues to fight mounting demands for his resignation.
 
The Dow was down more than 200 points at 11,431, down about 1.8%. 
 
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Higher demand for home electronics, vehicles and planes is a big factor behind September's increase in overall factory production. The Federal Reserve finds factory output rose 0.4%, the third straight monthly increase. Chad Moutray, chief economist 18 for the National Association of Manufacture, says US manufactures have overcome earlier troubles caused by natural disasters and resulting nuclear crisis in Japan this year.
 
It's nice to see that we are moving beyond the supply chain disruptions that we had in the spring and you know, the Middle West and the West are doing relatively 19 well and a lot of that is because of increased output in machinery 20 and motor vehicles and honestly in computers. 
 
Industrial production has also risen slightly contributing to a nearly 13% increase since June of 2009.
 
An American Catholic priest at the center of the debate about women's ordination 21 has been detained by police in Rome. As Sherry Nosson from Member Station of WNKU reports, Father Roy Bourgeois 22 traveled to the Vatican in support of his non-conformance belief.
 
Father Roy Bourgeois is facing dismissal from his Maryknoll order because he supports women's ordination. In 2008, after he delivered the homily at the ordination ceremony of Janice Sevre-Duszynska in Lexington Kentucky, the Vatican ordered Bourgeois to recant his support for women priests or risk excommunication. Bourgeois has consistently said he will not recant and calls the issue one of justice.
 
"Who are we as men to say that our call from God is authentic 23 but God's call of women is not?" 
 
Bourgeois and members of the women's ordination conference are in Rome asking the Vatican to lift its ban on women priests. For NPR News, I'm Sherry Nosson.