NPR 2009-06-15

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has for the first time given his endorsement 1 to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, a change the White House is calling an important step forward. But Netanyahu says Israel’s willingness to accept a Palestinian state as a neighbor comes with conditions. The BBC’s Tim Franks reports from Jerusalem.

Until now the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to endorse 2 Palestinian statehood. Now he said that if two preconditions were met, he can envisage 3 a Palestinian state alongside Israel. The first precondition was that the Palestinians recognize Israel as, in the Prime Minister’s words, “the nation state of the Jewish people”. The second precondition was that the future Palestinian state be completely demilitarized. Mr. Netanyahu said that were these criteria 4 met, the prize of a comprehensive peace across the Middle East was within reach. The BBC’s Tim Franks reporting from Jerusalem.

The Palestinian officials wasted no time in rejecting the conditions, especially Netanyahu’s opposition 5 to any right of return for Palestinian refugees to their former homes in Israel and to any division of the city of Jerusalem.

Protesters clashed with police in Tehran today in the second day of unrest following Iran’s disputed presidential election. And the main opposition candidate called for nullifying the vote count which he claims was rife 6 with fraud.

Vice 7 President Joe Biden says he has doubts about the legitimacy 8 of the election, in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner by a landslide 9. NPR’s Brian Naylor has the story.

Biden says the Obama administration has to accept Ahmadinejad’s claim of victory over Mir-Hossein Moussavi for the time being. But speaking on NBC’s Meet The Press, the vice-president says there are an awful lot of questions.

“We don’t have all the details, it sure looks like the way they are suppressing speech, the way they are suppressing crowds, the way in which people are being treated that there is some real doubt about that. I don’t think we are in a position to say.”

Biden said he was surprised by Iran’s assertion that Ahmadinejad won more than 60% of the vote. The Obama administration had hoped to open a dialogue with Iran. Biden was cautious, and said the US doesn’t yet have enough facts to determine the legitimacy of the election. Brian Naylor, NPR News. Washington.

A ship from the Netherlands is slowly towing a hi-tech US Navy listening device through the waters of the Atlantic Ocean in an effort to find the pinging sound emitted by the black boxes from the Air France jetliner that crashed a couple of weeks ago off Brazil’s northeastern coast. But the search area includes some of the Atlantic’s deepest waters, and within the next two weeks, the signals given off by the boxes will begin to fade. Investigators 10 say finding the boxes will be crucial to determining what caused the jet to plunge 11 into the sea, killing 12 all people aboard. This is NPR.

Canada could be facing a national election this summer. And as Dan Karpenchuk reports, it all comes down to whether the country’s liberal party will support the government this week in a crucial vote in parliament.

Michael Ignatieff, the leader of the Liberal Party says he will announce on Monday whether to support Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s latest economic update. The two smaller parties, the Separatist Bloc 13 Quebecois and the New Democrats 14 have already vowed 15 not to support Harper’s minority government. Late in the week, the Prime Minister delivered his update on the economy. He said 80% of the government’s multi-billion dollars stimulus 16 package was being implemented 17 and that 3,000 new infrastructure 18 projects have already been started. But some critics say that view is overly optimistic that very few jobs have been created. The economic update will be put to a confidence vote on Friday. If the liberals don’t support it, the government will fall, and that means Canadians could go to the polls this summer, but Ignatieff says it’s a question of timing 19 and whether an election now is in the best interests of Canadians. For NPR News I’m Dan Karpenchuk, in Toronto.

Gasoline prices are on the rise again, up 17 cents a gallon over the past two weeks. The national average now for self-service regular is $2.66 a gallon. Industry analyst 20 Trilby Lundberg says the main reason for the increase in prices at the pump was a jump in crude oil costs. Lundberg says gas though is still cheaper than it was last summer. “It’s the highest price since late October of last year. It remains 21 $1.34 below its one year ago level. But that won’t feel very consoling to the many unemployed 22 motorists. Lundberg says the highest gasoline prices in the most recent survey were found in San Francisco, the lowest gas prices were in Tusa, Arizona.