CNN 2009-10-23（在线收听）

Good morning, I’m Melissa Long here at the CNN center in Atlanta. It’s a Thursday, 22nd of October. Here’s a look at some of the stories making news today.

The Obama administration is ordering the nation’s biggest bailed-out companies to severely cut pay packages to the top executives. Salaries are expected to be slashed by an average of 90%. President Obama’s pay czar Kenneth Feinberg has been reviewing salary packages to get the companies in the position to pay back the bailout loans as soon as possible.

A judge has declared a mistrial on John Travolta’s extortion case. She says she believes the jurors somehow communicated with someone outside the court. That’s after the rumors circulated about the verdict before deliberations were done. A paramedic and a former Bahamian Senator have denied trying to extort millions of dollars from Travolta after his son’s death.

Police are now treating the disappearance of a Virginia Tech student as a criminal investigation. 20-year-old Morgan Harrington was last seen Saturday night at a Metallic concert in Charlottesville, Virginia. She had left the arena on the campus of the University of Virginia during the show, but wasn’t allowed to reenter because of the arena policy. Harrington’s purse and cellphone were found in a nearby parking lot. Police say there were no signs of struggle in that area.

The H1N1 virus is spreading from coast to coast, a lot faster than many had expected. The hardest hit areas are in the southeast, the Great Lake region, and in out west. The Department of Education is saying the H1N1 has forced 198 schools across 15 different states to shut down. That is a huge increase from just a few days ago and more than 65,000 children were out of school yesterday because of the swine flu or swine flu symptoms, that’s up from around 28,000 Monday.

The Olympic torch in Greece has been lit. From Greece, the torch will be brought to Canada, and it’s going to be carried across country in a 160-day journey, starting the 30th of October. The Olympic flame will be carried by 12,000 torch bearers. The 2010 Winter Game will be held in Vancouver and the Games start in 130 days.

You’re up to date. Those are the headlines for you this hour, do stay with CNN and CNN.com for more on these news or other news that develops today.