NPR 2010-04-13

President Obama is set to give an official welcome to open an nuclear summit in Washington. The focus of the gathering 1: to get participating nations to secure enriched uranium and plutonium stockpiles, to keep the potential bomb-making material out of the hands of terrorists. Prior to the start of the gathering, the White House is saying Ukraine has pledged to get rid of its supply of enriched uranium within the next two years. NPR’s Scott Horsley reports nearly four dozen world leaders are in Washington for the summit.

Mr. Obama’s also taking the opportunity to hold one-on-one meetings with many of the leaders over here, including Chinese President Hu Jintao. Hu’s participation 2 is seen as a sign of warming relations between the U.S. and China. The Obama administration needs China’s cooperation to impose sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program. U.S. officials also hope China will allow its currency to appreciate. That could help reduce America’s big trade deficit 3. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.

Search crews are back in a West Virginia coal mine looking for the remaining nine bodies of the 29 men who were killed by an explosion there last week. High levels of methane 4 gas in the mine forced to halt the search efforts yesterday. A team of federal investigators 5 has arrived at the mine to look into what caused the explosion.

The Vatican, in a new online guide for lay people, says bishops 7 and other church officials should report any allegations of sexual abuse by Catholic priests to police, if required by law. NPR’s Sylvia Poggioli says the Vatican insists this has long been the church’s policy.

Vatican spokesman Father Ciro Benedettini said the rule has been in effect since 2003. But at a press conference in Rome in February, a group of Irish bishops said there had always been confusion on exactly what they should do in cases of sexual abuse by priests. And in 2002, Cardinal 8 Tarcisio Bertone, second-in-command at the department dealing 9 with the issue, said in an interview there’s no bases for demanding a bishop 6 report a confessed priest pedophile to civil authorities. The guidelines do not clarify at which stage of a church investigation 10 the bishop in charge should contact the police. Abused victims are not likely to be satisfied with the guidelines. They’re demanding more accountability. Sylvia Poggioli, NPR News.

President Obama is set to be considering about ten people as potential nominees 12 to replace Supreme 13 Court Justice John Paul Stevens who’s retiring this summer. The White House is not saying who is on the list, but Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says one person who is not is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“I think the president has identified in Secretary Clinton a capacity in which she’s doing a wonderful job and the president is gonna keep her as his secretary of state.”

Gibbs was asked about Clinton after GOP Senator Orrin Hatch said he’d heard her name floated as a possible nominee 11.

Stocks are holding on to some modest gains just before the closing bell on Wall Street. The Dow currently up ten points at 11,007. The NASDAQ is up four.

This is NPR News from Washington.

Investigators looking into the plane crash that killed Poland’s president and other top leaders of that country appear to be focusing on why the pilot tried to land in bad weather after air traffic controllers advised he wave off. Poland’s Ambassador to the U.S., Robert Kupiecki, says as tragic 14 as the accident was, it does not pose a threat to Poland’s stability.

“There is no danger whatsoever 15 to democracy and stability for our political system in Poland. Poland is a mature democracy, a solid member of international community, and a great ally of the United States.”

Relatives of victims of the crash are arriving in Russia to try to identify remainings recovered from the crash site.

A new study finds that people who eat more fish and less fat have less risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. NPR’s Jon Hamilton says the research is in the online edition of the Archives of Neurology.

The finding comes from researchers at Colombia University who followed more than 2000 people aged 16 65 and older for an average of four years. They found that people were less likely to develop Alzheimer’s, if they reported having a diet that included more salad dressing 17, nuts, fish, tomatoes, poultry 18, fruit, and vegetables. People were more likely to get Alzheimer's, if they ate a lot of high-fat dairy products: red meat, organ meat, and butter. The researchers say nuts contain a lot of vitamin E which may protect against Alzheimer's because it is a powerful antioxidant. Fatty foods, on the other hand, may make the brain more vulnerable by contributing to clogged 19 arteries 20. Jon Hamilton, NPR News.

Former ‘Tonight Show’ host Conan O’Brien is going to be hosting a late-night talk show on cable network TBS. The program could debut 21 in November. O’Brien’s negotiations 22 with the FOX network reportedly hit a snag.