NPR 2010-06-17

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President Obama's first big meeting with BP executives at the White House reaffirms that BP would be held liable for the Gulf¹ oil spill until communities are whole again.

"BP is a strong and viable² company, and it is in all of our interests that it remains³ so. So what this is about is accountability. At the end of the day, that's what every American wants and expects."

NPR's Scott Horsley says that after the meeting, the chairman of BP formally apologized.

BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg issued his apology in the White House driveway after a face-to-face meeting with President Obama. BP has agreed to set up a 20-billion-dollar fund to help compensate⁴ people who've been hurt by the oil spill. Svanberg says the company has also decided⁵ not to pay dividends⁶ to its shareholders⁷ for the remainder of this year.

"We made it clear to the president that words are not enough. We understand that we will and we should be judged by our actions."

President Obama said the 20-billion-dollar figure does not represent a cap on BP's liability from the oil spill. He told the chairman that for many Gulf Coast residents, the damage is deeper than mere⁸ dollars and cents. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.

The US is pressing other governments to turn up the pressure on Iran to stop enriching uranium with new economic measures on top of the sanctions the UN recently imposed.

"Our actions today are designed to deter⁹ other governments and foreign financial institutions from dealing¹⁰ with these entities¹¹ and thereby¹² supporting Iran's illicit¹³ activities."

Treasury¹⁴ Secretary Timothy Geithner speaking from the White House this afternoon, but the Iranian government appears unfazed by the latest sanctions. It defends its nuclear program is peaceful and Iran's "sovereign right".

In the US, housing starts in May hit a five-month low, plunging¹⁵ 10%. Construction and permits to build were down. Economist¹⁶ Hugh Johnson says that's because the homebuyer tax credit ended.

"Whether we're looking at housing starts or we're looking at other housing numbers like existing home sales or new home sales, they've been a little bit inflated¹⁷ by the tax credit. And so now it's sort of coming back to normal or coming back to, let's just say, a slow recovery in housing."

While the Senate is backing a plan to give home buyers an additional three months to finish qualifying for federal tax incentives¹⁸, the kinds that have bolstered¹⁹ home sales this year, Senate Majority Leader Harry²⁰ Reid moved for an extension until September 30th for anyone wishing to qualify for an $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit.

We see some modest gains on Wall Street. Dow Jones Industrial Average up four points at last check at 10,409. NASDAQ Composite Index largely unchanged. It's at 2,306.

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Fifteen years after being indicted²¹ for genocide, former Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic is still in hiding. Where is he? Teri Schultz reports on the effort by Mladic's family to have the Serbian government's search called off.

Mladic's family says there's no sense looking for the fugitive²² because he is dead. Family lawyer Milos Saljic has told a Belgrade court the last time the former Bosnian Serb army commander was seen alive was in 2003. Saljic says Mladic was very sick and could not have survived this long without medical care, which the family reasons he could not have received while in hiding. They're, therefore, asking the court to have Mladic declared officially deceased. He's accused of involvement in a massacre²³ of thousands of Bosnian Muslims and a three-year siege of Sarajevo. Arresting him and sending him to the international tribunal in the Hague is one of the requirements for Serbian membership in the European Union, and government officials say the hunt will go on. For NPR News, I'm Teri Schultz in Brussels.

Employers, who illegally hire child workers, risk getting slapped with bigger fines in the US. The Labor²⁴ Department is drastically increasing its penalties so that anyone illegally employing 12 and 13-year-olds will pay $6,000 for each violation²⁵. That's a hike from $900. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis says penalties could go up to 11,000 for repeat offenders²⁶ or cases where injuries are involved.

A death row inmate²⁷ scheduled to die by firing squad²⁸ in Utah this Friday is making another appeal to live. An attorney for Ronnie Lee Gardner is trying to overturn a federal judge's ruling yesterday, denying the inmate's stay request. Gardner asked for stay while he pursues a civil rights lawsuit²⁹, challenging Utah's commutation hearing process.

I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News.