NPR 2012-04-29

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"We began trying to engage in conversation with the person in the bunker. Then we received a response, and at that point our TAC 30 team used an explosive to breach⁵ the roof of the heavily fortified⁶ bunker, and then that allowed us to enter the bunker.”

 

She said the apparent cause of death was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

 

There are reports a blind Chinese legal activist⁷ managed to escape house arrest in his village, and he’s currently under the protection of the US embassy in Beijing. As the BBC’s Martin Patience tells us, dissident Chen Guangcheng is now worried about his family.

 

Neither the American nor Chinese government has publicly commented on this case. But yesterday a prominent dissident told the BBC that Chen Guangcheng had been taken to the US embassy. After his dramatic escape from his home in Shandong province, Mr. Chen released a video calling for China’s premier⁸ to ensure the safety of his family. There are reports that the activist’s brother and a nephew are among those who've been detained by the police for helping⁹ him to flee. 

 

The BBC’s Martin Patience.

 

Congressional Republicans have passed a bill preventing increases in student loans. But as NPR’s David Welna reports, the White House is not satisfied.

 

The bill extending the Stafford college loan subsidies¹⁰ costs nearly six billion dollars. House Republicans paid for that by abolishing a preventive health fund of the new health care law. Democrats¹¹ said that will harm the health of women and children. House Speaker John Boehner disagreed. 

 

“People want to politicize this because it’s an election year, but my God, do we have to fight about everything?”

 

The measure narrowly passed. But Connecticut Democratic Joe Courtney said as far as the bill will go, “this measure is dead. It will be vetoed. It’s not going anywhere.” Senate Democrats next month take up a similar loan extension bill. But it’s paid for by closing tax loopholes. David Welna, NPR News, the Capitol.

 

It his weekly address, the president is reminding soldiers and veterans of a crackdown on unscrupulous for-profit educational institutions seeking to benefit from GI education benefit dollars.

 

"The sad truth is that there are people out there who are less interested in help our men and women in uniform in getting ahead and more interested in making a buck¹².”

 

The program was introduced to a military base in Georgia this Friday. The program is called “Know Before You Owe.” 

 

This is NPR News in Washington.

 

Spain is stepping up security ahead of the European Central Bank meeting in Barcelona next week. Lauren Frayer has details from Madrid.

 

With a single visa, you can normally travel freely within the so-called Schengen zone, 26 countries that make up most of mainland Europe. But now Spain has temporarily revoked¹³ the Schengen treaty, allowing officials to check passports along the border with France and the international airport in the country’s northeast. Those are the ones closest to Barcelona, where the European Central Bank convenes¹⁴ a board meeting Thursday. Spain wants to thwart¹⁵ protesters who might demonstrate outside the ECB meeting. Spain has Europe’s highest unemployment rate, and people here are angry about austerity measures imposed partly under pressure from the ECB. Last month, protesters set fires and clashed with police during a general strike here. For NPR’s News, I’m Lauren Frayer in Madrid.

 

Over a six-month period ending in March, thousands of unaccompanied child immigrants crossing the Texas border were rounded up by the US Office of Refugee Resettlement, this according to an AP review of the Department of Human and Health Services statistics. And all 5,000 children round up in US custody¹⁶ without a parent or guardian¹⁷. Government and nonprofit agencies have been working to expand shelter and reunification services as well as getting legal representation for the children.

 

The streets of Rome were filled with bicyclists today in a demonstration¹⁸ calling for more respect and safety for people traveling by bike. At one point, the protesters got off their bikes and laid down in the streets to symbolize¹⁹ cyclists and pedestrians²⁰ struck by cars.

 

I’m Louise Schiavone, NPR News, Washington.

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