NPR 2009-12-27

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A 23-year-old Nigerian man has been charged with attempting to destroy a Northwest Airlines plane. In a statement released by the Justice Department, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly boarded Flight 253 with a device attached to his body and tried to ignite it as the plane prepared to land in Detroit yesterday. According to the complaint affidavit² filed today, the suspect set off the device which resulted in a fire and an apparent explosion. The man was subdued³ by passengers and crew.

 Homeland security officials say holiday travelers may notice tighter screening in light of the attempted attack on the Detroit airliner⁴. Most passengers seemed to be taking it all in stride. NPR’s Jennifer Ludden spoke⁵ with some at Washington Reagan National Airport outside Washington D.C.

 Some said they had arrived early to allow for additional measures, though at Reagan National lines were short and moving smoothly⁶. Others said the alleged¹ terror attack did undermine their confidence in the system. But more people said they accepted that security screenings are imperfect and were not changing their plans at all. Carlo Reiley and her husband had just flown in from Florida. “I feel like that the security is pretty good most of the time. It’s probably just a fluke.”

 The day after Christmas is a light travel day in the holiday season. A bigger test security screenings may come Sunday and beyond as holiday travelers return home. Jennifer Ludden, NPR News, Washington.

Parts of the Upper Midwest remain under severe winter weather advisories⁷ as a massive winter storm continues to wreak⁸ havoc⁹ across the region. Wisconsin Public Radio’s Bryant Ball has more.

Heavy snow is causing wide out conditions in the far northern parts of the Midwest, and motorists have been warned to put off any unnecessary travel. Wide snow is expected to continue in southern Minnesota and west central Wisconsin. One of the deaths blamed on the storm involved an 81-year-old Iowa man who tried to lock home after his pickup¹⁰ truck got stuck. His body was found in a ditch Thursday. Authorities said he died of exposure. Meanwhile, residents in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota continued to dig out. Snow, rain, freezing rain, ice and wind gust¹¹ up to 30 to 40 miles per hour of some parts made holiday travel treacherous¹². Flush weather warnings remained in effect in parts of Illinois. Of temperatures expected to stay below freezing well until next week, officials warn that many roads that crews haven’t reached are still hazardous¹³. For NPR News, I’m Bryant Ball in Madison.

Israeli forces killed six Palestinians, making this one of the deadliest days in Israeli-Palestinian conflict since the Gaza war a year ago. In the West Bank, soldiers killed three members of al-Aqsa Martyrs¹⁴ Brigades. In Gaza, Israeli troops shot and killed three Palestinians as they approached the Israeli border. The army says the men ignored warning shots. Palestinian authority President Mahmoud Abbas criticized the shootings.

This is NPR.

The World Health Organization reports the situation in Southern Sudan is far worse than in the conflict-ridden province of Darfur. It says hundreds of thousands of people in Darfur continue to receive international aid while Southern Sudan is all but forgotten. Lisa Schlein

reports from Geneva.

WHO says little attention has been paid to Southern Sudan since it signed a peace agreement with the North in 2005, ending more than 20 years of civil war. WHO expert Irshae Shaikh says this is tragic¹⁵ as Southern Sudan is the world’s worst humanitarian¹⁶ crisis. “But at this time, there is increasing violence over 350,000 people disadvantaged and displaced, 1,500,000 in need of humanitarian assistance.”

Southern Sudan has some of the grimmest health statistics in the world. For example, WHO reports 2,000 out of every 100,000 women die in childbirth and infant mortality runs over 150 per 1,000 births. For NPR News. I’m Lisa Schlein in Geneva…