NPR 2011-05-24

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Vast areas of Joplin, Missouri are said to be unrecognizable, a day after a tornado¹ plowed² through downtown with up to 165-mph winds. People in the southwestern Missouri city are finding entire neighborhoods reduced to twisted metal and rubble³. Strips of clothing can be seen wrapped around tree branches or scattered⁴ far across the terrain⁵. The death toll⁶ stands at 89. That number may rise as the search for the missing continues into the night. For survivors⁷, such as Larry Bruffy, the frustration⁸ with police is growing.

"Try to go and get food and water, and they all won't let you back in on the streets and get to your house. We have emergency here for some medicine. If it weren't for that, my kids couldn't get back to our house."

Reporter Dan Verbeck of member station KCUR says police are trying to keep the area clear for mainly emergency personnel.

The firefighters are going through neighborhood by neighborhood. Right now, there is a 70-square block. There a collection of firefighters from places like Kansas City and suburban⁹ Kansas City and places in Kansas are going through house by house. They have to do it with a great deal of care because some of the houses are in danger of collapse¹⁰, but they have dogs with them, and if a dog indicates there may be someone alive in a house, they go in.

Reporter Dan Verbeck. Now, more storms are on the way for parts of Missouri and several other Midwestern and Southern states just beginning to recover from devastating¹¹ storms in recent weeks.

There's always been a little green behind the red, white and blue, those words from President Obama moving thousands of people in Dublin, Ireland to thunderous cheers today as Mr. Obama laid out the connections between the US and the homeland of his great, great, great grandfather.

"My name is Barack Obama, of the Moneygall Obamas. I've come home to find the apostrophe that we lost somewhere along the way."

The president is scheduled to leave Ireland after dinner earlier than initially¹² planned because of the cloud of ash from an Icelandic volcano, much like the one that caused huge disruptions across Europe about a year ago, but some Americans, such as tourist Rebecca Anderson, who's passing through Amsterdam, seem to be taking the ash cloud threat in stride.

"Perhaps suddenly have to stay. I wouldn't be upset about it, and we're on vacation. It's a beautiful country. We want to see, see the place, and if we have to stay an extra week, I'm OK with that."

All dense¹³ cloud was being blown toward Scotland and forced two airlines to cancel their flights. Other parts of the UK and Ireland may be affected¹⁴ later this week.

Before the close on Wall Street, the Dow was down more than 1% at 12,381 in trading of just over three billion shares; NASDAQ down 1.5% at 2,759.

This is NPR News.

The French government confirms it's sending an aircraft carrier with 12 attack helicopters to the waters off Libya. Details from NPR's Martin Kaste.

France was the first country to come to the aid of Libyan rebels when it bombed Muammar Gaddafi's military back in March. NATO soon followed suit and has been hitting Gaddafi's military almost daily, but it hasn't been enough to end the conflict between government and rebels, so France is uping the ante again. The attack helicopters allow for more precise air strikes, but they're also more vulnerable to counterattack from the ground. The Libyan rebels have been calling on NATO to step up attacks and push Gaddafi from power, but some NATO member countries are reluctant to endorse¹⁵ a military mission of regime change. Martin Kaste, NPR News, Benghazi, Libya.

"Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" drawing the biggest crowds domestically. We have the latest from NPR's Trina Williams.

Preliminary ticket sales of 346.4 million dollars helped "On Stranger Tides" set the record as the highest-grossing movie around the world, and while domestic earnings¹⁶ make "Pirates" the best opening of the year, it falls short of some projections¹⁷ and fails to surpass its last two predecessors¹⁸. Those pirate movies debuted¹⁹ above the 100-million-dollar mark. Johnny Depp returns as the seedy but lovable Jack²⁰ Sparrow for this fourth installment²¹. Geoffrey Rush also reprises his role as the now one-legged Barbossa.

"What has become of my beloved Pearl?"

"Taken. Blackbeard."

Penelope Cruz and Ian McShane are newcomers to the franchise²². "Bridesmaids" remains²³ No.2 on the domestic chart, while last weekend's champ "Thor" dropped to third place. "Fast Five" is fourth, and "Rio" continues to hold steady in No.5. Trina Williams, NPR News.

I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News in Washington