NPR 2010-04-17

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Air travel in Europe is described as the worst since 9/11. More airports across the continent are shutting down because the huge cloud of ash from Iceland’s volcanic¹ eruption² is spreading. NPR’s Eric Westervelt says Germany is among the latest to expand its airport closures.

German authorities today have stopped flights to most of the country’s 16 international airports including Frankfurt, Germany’s busiest airport and a key hub in Europe. Traffic was also stopped at airports in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Hamburg and Cologne. Germany’s air traffic controllers say the airspace over much of northern and western Germany will remain closed today. They added that flights have been so disrupted across Europe that it’s hard to say when air travel will get back to normal. Eric Westervelt , NPR News, Berlin.

NPR’s Rob Gifford is in the thick of it. He and his wife have been traveling back from Shanghai to London, but they’re stuck in Lyon, France where he and many others are trying to board the Eurostar train since flights are off-limits.

Any one who’s trying to get to Britain is converging³ on Lyon, the town where I am now, to try and get on to the Eurostar train. And Eurostar that go underneath⁴ the English Channel, they’ve laid on extra train to try and take the capacity, but there’s a long backlog⁵ and the tickets are very difficult to come by. NPR’s Rob Gifford in Lyon, northern France.

The investment bank, Goldman Sachs, is charged with fraud over the way it marketed a mortgage-backed financial product to investors⁶. From member station WNYC in New York, Eleanor Marriott reports.

The SEC says Goldman failed to inform customers about the true origin of the Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDO) they were purchasing, specifically the fact that this instrument had been created at the request of an outside hedge fund, Paulson & Co., and that Paulson had deliberately⁸ chosen risky⁹ mortgages for collateral⁷. SEC Director of Enforcement Robert Khuzami says Paulson then shorted it or bet against the CDO, and its value quickly deteriorated¹⁰.

“As a result, investors in the CDO lost approximately one billion dollars and Paulson’s positions yielded a profit of approximately same amount.”

A Goldman vice¹¹ president is also charged in the complaint, but Paulson & Co. is not facing SEC action. Goldman Sachs says it will fight the charges. For NPR News, I’m Eleanor Marriott.

In a related issue, President Obama is pledging to veto a financial overhaul¹² bill, if it does not regulate the derivatives¹³ market.

“The devastating¹⁴ recession that we just went through offered a very painful lesson in what happens when we don’t have adequate accountability and transparency and consumer protection.”

Congress is considering a bill that for the first time regulates derivatives which are complex financial tools, such as mortgage-backed securities.

On news about Goldman Sachs, stocks continue to decline. Dow’s down nearly 120.

This is NPR News.

A U.N. commission into the 2007 assassination¹⁵ of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto issued a withering¹⁶ report condemning¹⁷ the then government of General Pervez Musharraf for failing to protect her or vigorously investigate her killing¹⁸. From Islamabad, NPR’s Julie McCarthy has details.

A three-member U.N. commission was charged with investigating the assassination of Pakistan’s popular leader as she was on the verge¹⁹ of a political comeback. Their report called the security arrangements for Bhutto “fatally insufficient”. Bhutto was vocal²⁰ about the dangers that al-Qaeda and the Taliban posed to Pakistan, and the militants²¹ had a motive²² to remove her from the scene. The government’s announcement to 24 hours after her killing that militants have done it was that the commission not only premature²³ but prejudiced any further investigation²⁴. The U.N. report found that the performance of the police lacked both independence and the political will to find the truth. The crime scene had been hosed down within hours of Bhutto’s murder. Washing away evidence of the UN report said was deliberate. The investigators²⁵ also said intelligence agencies and other government officials had hampered²⁶ the U.N.’s own probe. Julie McCarthy, NPR News, Islamabad.

The spreading ash cloud from Iceland’s volcanic eruption this week is complicating²⁷ matters in Poland where President Lech Kaczynski’s state funeral is scheduled for Sunday. His family insist the funeral will move forward as planned, but the airport where world leaders are supposed to arrive on Sunday that is closed because of dangers posed by the volcanic ash. President Kaczynski and many of Poland’s top civilian²⁸ and defense²⁹ chiefs were among 95 people killed in a plane crash last week.