NPR 2008-02-11

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From NPR News in Washington, I'm Nora Raum.

Illinois Senator Barack Obama swept all the Democratic contests yesterday. He won caucuses¹ in Nebraska, Washington State and the Virgin² Islands and the Louisiana primary. From New Orleans, NPR's Greg Allen reports.

In all the states voting yesterday Obama didn't just win, he beat New York Senator Hillary Clinton by a substantial margin³. In Louisiana, exit polls indicated that half the Democrats⁴ who voted were black and they overwhelmingly supported Obama. Obama spoke⁵ in New Orleans this week. Hillary Clinton did not campaign here but she did send her husband, former President Bill Clinton. Obama also won big in states with fewer minority voters, Nebraska and Washington. Both Obama and Clinton are now turning their focus on Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC, which hold their primaries next Tuesday. On the Republican side although Arizona Senator John McCain appears the likely nominee⁶, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee scored a big win yesterday in Kansas. Greg Allen NPR News, New Orleans.

Huckabee also won the Republican primary in Louisiana but not by enough to pick up the 20 delegates who will be allocated⁷ at a state convention next week. The Associate Press is reporting that John McCain did win the Republican caucuses in Washington State.

Defense⁸ Secretary Robert Gates urged NATO allies today to share more of the burden in fighting Islamist militants⁹ in Afghanistan. Speaking to a security conference in Munich, Gates said the threat of violent Islamist extremists is real and is not going to go away 'Imaging if Islamic terrorists had managed to strike your capitals on the same scale as they struck in New York. Imaging if they have laid their hands on weapons and materials with even greater destructive capability--weapons of the sort all too easily accessible in the world today. We forget at our peril¹⁰ that the ambition of Islamic extremists is limited only by opportunity.' Gates said NATO mustn't become a two-tiered alliance of those willing to fight and those who are not.

The astronauts aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis are taking an extra day to work around a number of problems. The spacecraft docked to the International Space Station yesterday. Pat Duggins of member station WMFE reports.

Astronaut Hans Schlegel was recovering from what NASA describes as a medical issue. He was scheduled to head out on the mission's first spacewalk to help prepare the European-built Columbus lab for installation on the Space Station. That work session is now set for Monday and astronaut Stanley Love will step in Schlegel. The astronaut's illness isn't the only concern. NASA engineers are also troubleshooting a bulky main computer on Atlantis and a tear in a white heat protection blanket on the right side of the Shuttle's tail rudder. A similar rip on a previous shuttle mission was fixed¹¹ by a spacewalker who ventured outside with the surgical¹² stable gun from the astronaut's medical kit¹³. The main goal of Atlantis's flight is to deliver the multi-billion-dollar Columbus module¹⁴. It's the European Space Agency's main contribution to the Space Station. For NPR News, I'm Pat Duggins in Orlando.

This is NPR News from Washington.

Tests on the new coal process at a Pennsylvania power plant show promise for reducing mercury pollution. Fred Kight from member station WOUB has this story.

Take some low grade coal from Wyoming and high sulfur¹⁵ coal from Ohio, mix them together, burn them and what do you get? A cleaner fuel according to the Evergreen¹⁶ Energy Company, which says a recently completed test burn of the blend reduced mercury emissions¹⁸ of the plant nearly 82%. This news came out as a federal court struck down the Bush administration approach to limiting mercury emissions. The proposed rule would have allowed power plants to buy credits from cleaner power plants rather than install their own emission¹⁷ controls. The court decision said the government failed to adequately consider the policy's effect on public health and the environment. For NPR New, I'm Fred Kight in Athens, Ohio.

At least ten people were trampled¹⁹ to death at a concert in Indonesia last night. Authorities say hundreds of people try to leave the punk rock performance at the same time causing a panic and a stampede. Dozens were injured. Most of the concert goers were teenagers.

The military government of Myanmar announced last night they would hold a general election in 2010. It also said they would hold a vote on a new constitution in May, saying the time has now come to change from military rule to democratic civilian²⁰ rule. The last election in the country also known as Burma was in 1990. The National League for Democracy won but the military refused to hand over power. The head of that party Aung San Suu Kyi has been in prison or under house arrest for 12 of the last 18 years.

I'm Nora Raum, NPR News in Washington.