NPR 2011-11-13

 For the first time in 46 years, Penn State is playing football without Joe Paterno coaching from the sidelines. The sex abuse scandal involving former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky cost Paterno his job. At the start of today's game against Nebraska, players from both teams gathered at midfield and knelt together for a moment of silence. NPR's Jeff Brady is in State College.

 
Several Penn State fans told me the feel of this game is different. The atmosphere's more somber 1. There's certainly more security, but it is the last home game of the season, and they want to have fun after a really rough week. A man told me that the week was the worst of his life other than when his father died ten years ago.
 
Last night, a vigil was held at Penn State for the boys whom Sandusky is accused of molesting 2 and several students are selling bracelets 3 outside the stadium to raise money for abused victims.
 
In Germany, thousands of people in Frankfurt and Berlin are expressing their frustration 4 with the banking 5 system. They are banging drums and forming a human chain. The protesters are calling for an end to what they call the excesses of financial speculation 6. They want the government to dismantle 7 big banks.
 
Occupy demonstrators in several US cities, including Oakland, California, are vowing 8 to stay in place today despite threats of arrests if they don't disband. NPR's Allison Keyes reports.
 
In Salt Lake City, where a man was found dead yesterday in a tent at the Occupy camp in a park, demonstrators say they are not leaving despite an order from police to get out by sundown today. Police Chief Chris Burbank told protesters, "We can no longer tolerate individuals camping on our streets." In Oakland, where demonstrators and police have clashed before police and city officials asked the group to leave their encampment near City Hall, where a man was shot and killed Thursday. But protester Aaron Delly says, "even if the cops coming in here and raid and riot through and sweep all the tents out, we're just gonna come back again." And in Portland, Occupy demonstrators say they will defy an order to clear out by midnight. Allison Keyes, NPR News.
 
Wilson Ramos is describing his fear yesterday when Venezuelan security forces launched an airborne attack on a mountain hideout to rescue him from kidnappers 9. The 24-year-old catcher for the Washington Nationals' Major League Baseball team had been seized by gunmen Wednesday. Ramos, speaking in his native Spanish, thanked all those involved in the case. Venezuelan authorities say six people are in custody 10 in connection with the kidnapping; four others are being sought.
 
Italy's parliament is giving its approval to a financial stability law that clears the way for the resignation of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The economic reforms include increasing the retirement 11 age, starting in 2026, but do nothing to open up Italy's inflexible 12 labor 13 market. Berlusconi is expected to step down anytime today.
 
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The Arab League is suspending Syria from the organization and is calling for economic and political sanctions. NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson reports from Cairo the measures are in response to Syria's failure to adopt the league plan to end the violence against anti-government protesters.
 
In addition to suspending Syria from the Arab League, members called on Arab nations to withdraw their ambassadors from that country. But the league stopped short of calling for international intervention 14 to end the violence. League officials said they would approach the United Nations Security Council for help, but only on the humanitarian 15 basis. Syria, its neighbor Lebanon and Yemen, which is in the middle of its own violent uprising, voted against the measures. Saudi Arabia led the group of states, seeking to bring pressure to bear on Syria, which is an ally of their enemy Iran. Outside the League headquarters, scores of protesters shouted slogans against the Arab League and demanded to take more drastic steps to end the Syrian crackdown. Some 150 people have been killed in Syria since Assad's government agreed last week to the league plan to end the violence there. Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, NPR News, Cairo.
 
The Arab League suspension of Syria takes effect next week.
 
It wasn't a typical basketball game last night between the nation's top-ranked team North Carolina and Michigan State. The game dubbed 16 "the Carrier Classic" was played on the flight deck of the USS Carl Vinson. Among the fans and the audience, President Obama and wife Michelle.
 
"How are you guys? Nice to see you."
 
Carolina won the game - 67 to 55.
 
They will be going mad this weekend in Savannah, Georgia. The senior class of MAD magazine's so-called :usual gang of idiots" is getting together for a cartoonist reunion at the Savannah College of Art and Design.
 
I'm Nancy Lyons, NPR News.