NPR 2011-04-03

Three hundred Southwest Airline's flights have been canceled as the company and federal officials review a sudden mid-flight Boeing 737 fuselage tear. A passenger aboard the afternoon flight out of Phoenix 1 yesterday said, "You could see the sky." Seventy-nine Southwest Airline's Boeing 737s have been grounded for safety checks. The FBI says there's no evidence of foul 2 play. Craig Williams is the airport director at the military airbase in Yuma, where the Southwest flight touched down.

"This is rare, but it's not unheard of. It required them to make an emergency landing at the nearest airport. That was us. So they landed here. The landing was uneventful."

Federal safety officials are investigating the cause. Metal fatigue 3 and lightening strike are the common explanations, but meteorologists say the weather was clear. The Boeing 737 was 15 years old.

Libyan rebels have suffered setbacks as they tried to hold on to battlefield gains against government troops. NPR's Eric Westervelt has details from Brega.

Fighters we've talked to come from the front in Brega say that they're trying their best to be better organized and more disciplined, trying to break up units into distinct fighting. Forces were the chain of command, but it's also still very much in flocks. They are disorganized at their core, and these attempts are still very much a working progress. Often when they take fire from Gaddafi forces, that discipline breaks down, people flee and panic, and they've been working for weeks to try to get fighters to hold their ground to stay in fight and to be a more coordinated 5 efficient fighting force.

NPR's Eric Westervelt in Libya. This week, NATO air strikes intended to slow Gaddafi's forces, accidentally killed several anti-Gaddafi fighters.

A terrorist bombing in Northern Ireland has taken the life of a 24-year-old policeman. Correspondent Larry Miller 6 reports from London that there are concerns these types of attacks could spread.

The policeman was killed when a bomb exploded under his car in Omagh, about 70 miles from Belfast. He completed training just three weeks ago. Although there's been no claim of responsibility, since 2007 dissident republicans have planted dozens of bombs under the private cars of police officers. Two years ago, the group, the Continuity IRA, said it shot and killed a policeman not far from this incident. Politicians across the political and religious divide in both the UK and Ireland immediately condemned 7 the attack. Six months ago, the British government and security officials warned that dissident republicans angry that the IRA accepted peace could strike mainland Britain. For NPR News, I'm Larry Miller in London.

Four people are dead after this morning's crash of a test aircraft at an airport in Roswell.

This is NPR News.

Nigeria's election chief has announced that legislative 8 elections set for today are off until next week. NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reports this is a major setback 4.

The head of Nigeria's Independent Electoral Commission Attahiru Jega had pledged to reduce past election-related problems. But this time around, basic election materials went missing, as long lines formed outside polling stations when Jega dropped a bombshell.

"In order to maintain the integrity of the elections and retain effective overall control of the process, the commission has taken the very difficult but necessary decision to postpone 9 the National Assembly elections to Monday, April 4."

Political thuggery, organized violence, voter intimidation 10, vote-rigging and general disorganization have characterized previous elections since Nigeria returned to democratic rule in 1999. Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, NPR News, Accra.

The Associated Press is reporting that President Obama will file 2012 campaign papers with the Federal Election Commission as early as this week. The formal step will allow him to start raising money for the campaign expected to be based in Chicago.

On Capitol Hill, time's running out on budget negotiators. In the GOP weekly address, House Speaker John Boehner is warning that congressional uncertainty 11 about how to fund the government is creating economic instability. He says Congress needs to cut spending, block tax increases, reduce bureaucracy and eliminate regulations. He says getting spending under control will restore confidence in the economy.