NPR NEWS 2008-02-08

From NPR news in Washington, I'm Paul Brown.

Officials say the strong storms and tornadoes 1 that killed 55 people this week in several states including Tennessee and Arkansas were the deadliest in more than two decades. Dozens of tornadoes swept across the region late Tuesday and early yesterday. From Hendersonville, Tennessee, NPR's Kathy Lohr reports.

The tornadoes splintered houses and tore down power lines. Cars were turned over and flattened 2. In Tennessee alone, at least 31 people died, many of them in rural areas northeast of Nashville. Pam Rideger lived in Lafayette in Macon County, in a trailer that was destroyed. She says so many people volunteered to help the injured and anyone who needed aid. 'I mean people, these done tremendous things, everybody helped in everybody. And as bad as it was, nobody got left out.' Teams searched door to door for the missing on the ground while Tennessee's governor surveyed the damage from the air. FEMA teams were dispatched to the region and an emergency center was set up in Georgia. Kathy Lohr, NPR news. Hendersonville, Tennessee.
Flooding is the bad news in much of Ohio after days of snow and rain. East Lake resident Kierly Fox was helping 3 her parents leave their house yesterday. 'Very very scary. You never really know if it's gonna get so high, there's gonna flood somebody's house. You just never know.' Flood warnings were also issued in Illinois, Indiana and parts of New York State. Heavy snow in the north central and Midwest region is prompting school closures and massive flight delays.

Senate Republicans have blocked the proposal by Democrats 5 to expand the economic stimulus 6 package approved by the House. NPR's Brian Naylor reports.

The House passed bill gives rebate 7 checks to individuals and tax breaks for businesses. Senate Democrats wanted to expand that to include checks for seniors and disable veterans living on social security. Ohio Democrat 4 Sherrod Brown said it was a simple choice. 'We can exclude retirees, we can exclude disable veterans or we can include them, obviously, we should include them.' But Senate Republicans said the Democrats' plan was a Christmas tree loaded down with other expensive provisions including extended jobless benefits and tax breaks for renewable energy providers. And Democrats were short of the 60 votes they needed to end the GOP filibuster 8. Democrats still hope to approve a stimulus plan by week's end. Brian Naylor, NPR News, the Capitol.

Israeli troops and tanks entered Gaza today and killed at least 5 Hamas militants 9. Hamas spokesmen also say a school teacher was killed when a missile struck an agricultural school. Israel denies targeting a school and said that it was attacking Palestinian rocket squads 10.

European markets fell at the open today with Tech stocks leading the way after Cisco System issued a pessimistic forecast.

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The countdown is proceeding 11 at the Kennedy Space Center for today's planned lift-off of Space Shuttle Atlantis. NASA chose to start fueling the spacecraft despite a dismal 12 weather forecast. Pat Duggins with member station WMFE reports.

NASA will be watching how Atlantis behaves over the next few hours. The process of pumping a half million gallons of super-cold propellant into the external fuel tank is the first real test of repairs of the full-load fuel sensors 13. The system warns the shuttle when the tank is running low and forced we scrubbed two launch tries last month. If the countdown makes at the T-0, Atlantis commander Steven Frick says it's the lift-off he's most concerned about. 'Just the nature of space flight and how difficult it is to get up successfully into orbit, that's really the challenge once we get up there, most of that challenging there and hopeful their riskiest 14 part is down.' The astronauts will test the 23-foot long Columbus science lab at the International Space Station, three space workshops planed to hook the new module 15 up. For NPR News, I'm Pat Duggins, Illinois.

Pakistani officials say they have arrested two more suspects in the suicide attack that assassinated 16 opposition 17 leader Benazir Bhutto on December 27th. Two other suspects were arrested last month.

Some Taliban groups have said they are beginning a ceasefire with Pakistani government troops. They've been fighting in Pakistan's tribal 18 largely lawless areas near the Afghan border. And Pakistani officials say they held secret talks with Taliban members and tribal elders in South Waziristan leading up to the ceasefire. A 2006 truce 19 collapsed 20 last July and the truce was seen as a setback 21 in the war on terror that gave the Taliban and al-Qaeda more freedom to operate.

The central Asian Republic of Tajikistan has appealed for international aid with power shortages and food shortages.

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