NPR 2011-10-11

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EU President Herman van Rompuy says he wants to give the bloc² an extra week to examine a new International Monetary³ Fund report on Greece's budget-cutting process, before deciding whether to approve the next loan payment of almost $11 billion. The IMF’s audit⁴ on Athens is due Tuesday. And Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou is expected to make a trip to Brussels this week, saying he expects the new date to help finalize⁶ a comprehensive strategy on the eurozone crisis. Van Rompuy notes that rules governing the re-capitalization of banks and boosting the EU bailout fund are also issues that will be on the table when leaders do convene⁷ October 23rd. For NPR News, I'm Teri Schultz.

 

In Libya, the town of Sirte, anti-Gaddafi forces say they've made significant inroads in the battle for control of the ex-dictator's hometown. Revolutionary forces say they have loyalist forces surrounded after days of fierce battles with tank, rocket and machinegun fire echoing through the streets around the convention center there.

 

A new UN report says prisoners at some detention⁸ centers in Afghanistan are often tortured. NPR's Quil Lawrence reports that NATO has stopped transferring detainees to those prisons.

 

The UN report details cases of torture, especially prisons run by Afghanistan's intelligence agency, the NDS. Almost half of the NDS prisoners interviewed reported abuse. Victims complained of beatings, the use of electric shocks, and being suspended by their wrists for a long period of time. Some detainees reported sexual assault was used as torture. A NATO spokesman said a process has been set up with the Afghan government to stop torture during interrogations. He said battlefield operations have not been affected⁹ by the change in policy. The UN said Afghan authorities were cooperating to address the problem. Quil Lawrence, NPR News, Kabul.

 

It's against the law now in California to openly carry handguns in public. Governor Jerry Brown has signed that ban into law amid heavy opposition¹⁰ from gun enthusiasts¹¹. The measure makes it a misdemeanor to carry an exposed and unloaded gun in pubic or in vehicles, with violators facing up to a year in prison or a potential fine of $1000 when that law takes effect on January 1st. 

 

Pre-orders of its iPhone 4S have topped one million according to Apple, breaking the record set by last year's model. 

 

Wall Street, the Dow up 304 at 11,407. NASDAQ up 79. This is NPR.

 

Goodbye, Qwikster! The new website announced by Netflix to separate its DVD and video streaming services is no more. The earlier move met with such hostility¹² that as NPR's Ted⁵ Robbins says it has been reversed in less than one month.

 

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings summed up both reaction to the separate website and the action to end it when he posted this on his blog. It is clear that for many of our members, two websites would make things more difficult, then this means no change: one website, one account, one password, in other words, no Qwikster. The ill-received idea came after Netflix separated streaming video from its DVD-by-mail service and began charging separately for both. The new charges remain but there'll be bills through a customer's single Netflix account. When the cost went up, Netflix lost customers and its stock price got pummeled. Ted Robbins, NPR News.

 

Netflix stock down five points today.

 

Two Americans sharing the Nobel Prize for Economics, Thomas Sargent of New York University and Christopher Sims of Princeton have been honored for their work on how economies respond to intervention¹³ by central banks and government institutions.

 

The Sunday Telegraph of London is citing engineers' documentation that Big Ben, the British parliament's clock tower is listing slightly. The tower has been off slightly since the 19th century. But documents drawn¹⁴ up by engineers noted¹⁵ it underwent a new and so far unexplained shift in 2003. One official responsible for the tower says it's very, very minor¹⁶.

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