NPR 2009-10-07

A White House meeting on Afghanistan between President Obama and congressional leaders has wrapped up. The president invited more than thirty members of Congress from both sides of the aisle 1 to discuss current US strategy in the region. Emerging from the session, Republican Senator John McCain called it a positive meeting, saying various viewpoints regarding what to do next there are being heard.

"I think we had a good meeting with the president, and obviously it is his decision to make as commander in chief. We also obviously have a role to play as members of Congress as well."

The meeting follows a call from the top military commander in the region for as many as 40,000 additional troops for Afghanistan. However the White House has repeatedly said no decision on additional troops will be made until President Obama has reviewed all elements of the war there.

Attorney General Eric Holder 2 is the latest official to publicly acknowledge the administration may not meet its January deadline to close the Guantanamo Bay prison. He spoke 3 with reporters today. NPR's Ari Shapiro has more.

Attorney General Holder said, "It’s going to be difficult to make the January 22nd deadline, that doesn't mean we are not going to try". Setting that deadline was one of President Obama's first acts in office and Holder defended it as the right choice. He said whether or not the administration meets the deadline, having a firm date, focused efforts and attention on the project. Holder described transferring detainees to foreign countries as one of the biggest hurdles 4. Around 90 men have been cleared for transfer, but the State Department has only been able to find foreign countries willing to take about twenty. Another major obstacle is domestic political opposition 5. The Obama administration wants to bring some detainees to the United States for trial, but Congress has overwhelmingly opposed that option. Ari Shapiro, NPR News, Washington.

This year's Nobel Prize in Physics goes to scientists who invented some of the technologies we could scarcely live without today. NPR's Richard Harris reports.

News of today's Nobel Prize spread instantly around the world, thanks to fiber 6 optics communications cables. And those are here today, thanks to the work of Charles Kao. He was born in Shanghai and invented the cables that carry the Internet and other telecommunications. Kao will share this year's prize with Willard Boyle and George Smith, who in essence invented digital photography when they worked at Bell Labs in New Jersey 7. One fall day in 1969, they invented something called a charge-coupled device, or CCD. They convert light waves into electronic signals, and CCDs are now at the heart of digital cameras. They are also in medical devices, spy satellites, telescopes and deep space probes. The three scientists will share a prize worth 1.4 million dollars. Richard Harris, NPR News.

On Wall Street today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 131 points to close at 9,731. That was a rise of more than 1.3%. The NASDAQ was up 35 points today.

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American troops are now aiding in the recovery efforts in Indonesia in the wake of the massive earthquake that has left at least 700 people dead there and tens of thousands of others homeless. There were thousands still missing. The death toll 8 there is likely to go higher. US soldiers are joining workers from at least twenty countries who are trying to help the victims of the quake which hit last week. Helicopters have been dropping food to survivors 9 of the 7.6 magnitude earthquake which has caused extensive damage in the city of Padang. Heavy rains since Sunday and thick mud in the area have also made it difficult for aid workers to reach some of the stricken areas.

An unexpected delay in shipments of seasonal 10 flu vaccine 11 is causing hundreds of flu-shot clinics in Colorado to be postponed 12. From member station KCFL in Denver, Eric Whitney reports.

Private companies with plans to offer seasonal flu shots at workplaces, schools and churches in Colorado say promised vaccine shipments have not yet arrived from manufacturers. Joni Reynolds, the state's immunization program director, says strong demand for the vaccine is coming unusually early this flu season.

"Clinics that had been scheduled earlier than that typical season may be canceled around the state as the vaccine shipments still continue to come into Colorado."

Health officials expect more vaccine to arrive soon, in plenty of time, they say, to protect the public against seasonal flu which typically peaks here in December and January. The only flu detected in Colorado so far this season is H1N1, or swine flu. The first doses of vaccine against the H1N1 flu are expected here this week. For NPR News, I'm Eric Whitney in Denver.

Crude oil futures 13 ended the session higher. The contract for benchmark crude rose 47 cents a barrel to close at $70.88 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.