NPR 2008-11-23

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President-elect Barack Obama says he has directed his economic team to develop a sweeping¹ economic stimulus² plan that will be broader in scope than proposals he spoke³ of during the campaign. "There'll be a two-year nationwide effort to jumpstart job creation in America and lay the foundation for a strong and growing economy. " Mr. Obama in the Democrats⁴' radio address today said the goal of the plan is to create 2. 5 million new jobs. He pledged to sign the measure soon after taking office. Economist⁵ Peter Morici at the University of Maryland Business School says Mr. Obama will need more than a stimulus plan. "He has to fix the banks. He has to get sound banking⁶ practices again on Wall Street. He's gotta replace those speculators on Wall Street with good old fashion Midwestern bankers that make loans and know how to get repaid. " Mr. Obama is slated⁷ to announce some of the top people in his economic team on Monday, including his expected choice for Treasury⁸ Secretary New York Fed Reserve Bank President Timothy Geithner. The president-elect confirmed today that his longtime spokesman Robert Gibbs will serve as White House Press Secretary.

US automakers are scrambling¹¹ to complete financial plans over the next week as demanded by Congressional leaders as a prerequisite¹² for consideration of request for 25 billion dollars in federal loans. Automakers with facilities in Europe are also seeking help as Larry Miller¹³ reports from London.

European Union rules ban state subsidies¹⁴ to companies and the EU Competition Commissioner¹⁵ Neelie Kroes warned France and Germany not to start in auto⁹ industry subsidy¹⁶ race with the US. New car sales in Europe fell nearly 15% in October. Honda is closing its Welsh plant for two months. BMW and Daimler have issued severe profit warnings. General Motors wants state aid from Germany where it manufactures OPEL - it's European brand. Europe's car makers¹⁰ are reportedly looking for up to 15 billion dollars in low-interest government loans. Meanwhile, the EU Commission urged its 27 member governments to boost public spending and give tax breaks to industry. For NPR News, I'm Larry Miller in London.

Former President Jimmy Carter, former UN Chief Kofi Annan and Nelson Mandela's wife have canceled a planed trip to Zimbabwe after being denied travel visas. More from NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton in Johannesburg.

A senior official from President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF Party said Kofi Annan was not welcome, because during his time as UN Secretary General, he had allowed targeted international sanctions to be imposed on Zimbabwe. That's what the Mugabe camp is saying. The trip was to assess the humanitarian¹⁷ crisis in a country in the group of political and economic paralysis¹⁸. The elders, as they called, will remain here in South Africa this weekend and hope to be fully¹⁹ briefed about the situation in Zimbabwe and the region before calling another news conference on Monday. Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, NPR News, Johannesburg.

This is NPR News from Washington.

A suspected US missile attack has reportedly killed five people in northwest Pakistan. Pakistani officials say the dead include British Islamist militant²⁰ Rashid Rauf who’s accused of being involved in a plot to bomb trans-Atlantic jetliners. He escaped from custody²¹ in Pakistan nearly a year ago. The BBC's Daniel Sandford reports.

Unconfirmed reports today say Rauf was killed along with other senior Jihadists by an American missile attack on a house in the North Waziristan region of Pakistan. Pakistani Intelligence officials gave some backing to the reports of Rauf's death, but a Taliban spokesman said all those killed were local to the area. Rauf was arrested in August 2006, at the same time, with the destruction of the alleged²² plot to destroy trans-Atlantic airliners²³ with liquid bombs. Security officials claimed he was a link man between the British end of the operation and Pakistan. The BBC's Daniel Sandford reporting.

Two astronauts from the space shuttle Endeavor are conducting a space walk outside the International Space Station at this hour to clean and lubricate a rotary²⁴ joint²⁵ that allows large solar arrays to pivot²⁶ and face the sun. There was yet another malfunction²⁷ today in the orbiting outpost’s new recycling system that supposed to convert urine into drinking water. Space station commander Mike Fincke said such problems are common when flight testing new equipment and he insisted that he trusted the system. "It's just the water that's taken out and it's really clean and purified water, in fact, it's probably more pure than most people's tap water. So I'm not afraid to drink it. " The water recycling system has to work properly for NASA to be able to double the size of the space station crew next year.