NPR 2011-10-01

 The White House is hailing the death of a prominent al-Qaeda figure today as a significant milestone 1 in the international campaign against terrorism. Anwar al-Awlaki was killed in an air strike in Yemen today. The US says the same military counterterrorism unit that killed bin 2 Laden 3 in Pakistan in May killed al-Awlaki in Yemen. Here's President Obama. 

 
"Awlaki and his organization have been directly responsible for the deaths of many Yemeni citizens. His hateful ideology 4 in targeting of innocent citizens has been rejected by the vast majority of Muslims and people of all faiths."
 
But as NPR's Barbara Bradley Hagerty explains, while some Muslim Americans expressed grim relief that the American-born Muslim terrorist was dead, they had reservations as well about how Awlaki was killed.
 
News that Awlaki had been killed by a drone strike in Yemen brought a mixed reaction from groups such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The group said that it had always firmly repudiated 5 that the cleric's incitement 6 to violence. But it added "while a voice of hate has been eliminated, we urge our nations' leaders to address the constitutional issues raised by the assassination 7 of American citizens without due process of law." A spokesman for the Virginia mosque 8 where Awlaki had once served as imam had no comment. But in the past, the spokesman had said the cleric never preached violence at the mosque, and that he developed his radical 9 ideas when he moved abroad. Barbara Bradley Hagerty, NPR News.
 
Civil servants on strike continued to occupy the Greek Transport Ministry 10 in Athens. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports that has forced international debt inspectors 11 to reschedule talks on government reforms. 
 
When the debt inspectors from the EU, IMF and European Central Bank arrived at their appointment, they found the Transport Ministry occupied by angry civil servants. The words "They shall not pass" were spray-painted on the metal shutters 12. The talks were postponed 13 to evening. A similar meeting Thursday with Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos also had to be moved to another venue 14 due to the occupation of his ministry. Mired 15 in recession and faced with mounting popular anger over the draconian 16 austerity measures, the Greek government has failed to meet all the targets set down in a 150-billion-dollar bailout agreed to last year. Sylvia Poggioli, NPR News, Athens.
 
The market's on track for its worse quarterly loss since the peak of the financial crisis. The three major US indexes are down more than 10% since July 1st, performance not seen since global credit markets froze.
 
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 152 points, more than 1%, at 11,002; NASDAQ Composite Index also down 1.7% at 2,437; S&P 500 down; it's at 1,142.
 
This is NPR News.
 
Canada's highest court has ruled that the only site in North America where it's legal to inject drugs can't continue to operate. Dan Karpenchuk reports the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has wanted to close that site in Vancouver.
 
The Insite clinic had an exemption 17 from Canada's drug laws to operate. But the federal government wanted a legal option to deny that exemption and shut down the site, claiming the facility fosters addiction 18 and goes against its tough-on-crime agenda. Insite is the only place in North America where addicts 19 can legally inject drugs such as heroine or cocaine 20. Earlier, courts in British Columbia had ruled that it's a health issue, which means the province had jurisdiction 21, not the federal government. The nine judges on the Supreme 22 Court were unanimous in their agreement against the federal government's efforts to close the site. The issue will now have much wider legal and political implications across Canada. For NPR News, I'm Dan Karpenchuk in Toronto.
 
An explosion from a car bomb during a funeral procession in Iraq today is responsible for at least 18 deaths. Dozens more people were wounded. The blast went off as mourners gathered for a Shiite funeral in the city of Hillah.
 
Florida's gonna hold its Republican presidential primary on January 31st, a decision that analysts 23 say undermines efforts by both major political parties to delay nominating contests. Today, a special committee appointed by legislative 24 leaders and Governor Rick Scott voted 7:2 on that decision. Supporters say they didn't want to jump ahead of the traditional early voting states but wanted to make sure Florida was fifth in line after Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, and those states are now expected to move their voting dates from February to early January.