NPR 2012-02-12

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Syrian state media say say Brigadier-General Issa al-Khouli was killed by three gunmen outside his home in Syria's capital Damascus. Al-Khouli reportedly ran a military hospital. The attack comes a day after twin bombings stuck a security compound in Syria's largest city Aleppo. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but the Syrian government has blamed them on terrorists. Thousands of people have died in a crackdown on protesters since Syria's anti-government uprising began last March. But now analysts³ say the conflict is beginning to look like a civil war. The UN General Assembly may take up a resolution on Syria as early as Monday. Kelly McEvers, NPR News, Beirut.

 

The violence in Syria has spread to Lebanon. Security officials there say pro-Syria and anti-Syria gunmen fired on each other in Tripoli. It started last night and continued until this morning. Officials say one person was killed and several were wounded. The fighting fell along religious lines. The Assad regime is dominated by an offshoot of Shiite Muslims, while the uprising against him has been led by Sunni Muslims.

 

President Obama's new budget proposal forecast a deficit⁴ this year of 1.3 trillion dollars. NPR's Scott Horsley reports Mr. Obama is set to release his spending plan on Monday.

 

The White House blueprint⁵ shows deficit steadily⁶ declining over the next few years, with the federal budget reaching a sustainable point by 2018. But that comes with a big asterisk⁷. The budget includes a variety of tax increases that Mr. Obama has pushed before, so far without success. The budget supplies a detailed⁸ number to support the policies outlined in the president's State of the Union speech. But more than a plausible⁹ spending plan for a divided Congress, it's primarily a political tool. It shows voters how Mr. Obama would like to raise and spend money in advance of the November election. Scott Horsley, NPR News, the White House.

 

The budget won't be out until Monday, but Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell already knows he doesn't like it.

 

"We can expect the president's budget to ignore the growing entitlement crisis in this country. It won't protect the security of Medicare and Social Security, and absent major reforms, it'll continue down the road to bankrupting these programs in the years ahead."

 

McDonnell delivered this week's Republican address. He said Republicans know better how to make government more efficient and to create more jobs.

 

Republican officials in Maine are to announce this evening the winner of weeklong caucuses¹⁰ on the Republican race for president. Mitt¹¹ Romney won the non-binding vote in the last election. But Ron Paul has spent considerable time in the state in hopes to pick up his first victory. Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum have not been actively¹² competing in Maine.

 

This is NPR News.

 

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today his country will soon announce that it's made major nuclear achievements. He did not provide details. Western nations suspect Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran insists its program is for peaceful purposes only, such as energy production. Ahmadinejad spoke¹³ at a rally in Tehran, called to mark the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution that put clerics in power replacing a pro-Western monarchy¹⁴.

 

Thousands of Japanese protesters are marching against nuclear power in Tokyo amid concerns that idled reactors¹⁶ may start backup soon, threatening public safety. John Matthews reports demonstrators are close to getting their wish of a nuclear-free nation.

 

With Japan's last active nuclear reactor¹⁵ scheduled to be offline for maintenance by May, pressure is mounting to reboot before summer amps up the nation's demand for energy. Demonstrators joined by Nobel Prize-winning writer Kenzaburo Oe peacefully marched through the streets of Tokyo, demanding Japan completely abandon its atomic program in the wake of the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. Residents living near the plants are pressuring their local leaders to hold up approval for restarts. But government and utility officials are working to break the impasse¹⁷ with stress tests and plant lifetime restrictions¹⁸. Japan's anti-nuclear movement is the largest in decades for the traditionally protest-averse nation. For NPR News, I'm John Matthews in Tokyo.

 

British police arrested five employees of the tabloid¹⁹ The Sun early this morning. They are suspected of bribing²⁰ police for information. The paper is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Another of its publication, the News of the World, shut down last year after it was disclosed that reporters had hacked²¹ into telephones owned by celebrities²².

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