Mr. Obama will speak at a college campus in downtown Denver where the campaign says the president will lay out a plan to restore economic security for middle-class Coloradans. Independent Denver political consultant Eric Sondermann says a four-stop swing through Colorado was unprecedented for a sitting president.

 

“For the Obama campaign, it's a little bit of a firewall or an insurance policy. If they can hold on to a Colorado and add a Nevada on top of it, they can then afford to lose an Ohio or a Virginia.”

 

Mr. Obama also has campaign events scheduled in Aurora, western Colorado as well as the Republican stronghold of Colorado Springs and the Uniontown of Pueblo. For NPR News, I'm Kirk Siegler in Denver.

 

Earlier, Romney attacked the president's record on the economy again as he campaigned today in Des Moines, Iowa. He promised to make one issue the top priority if elected to office.

 

“My priority is jobs. My priority is more jobs and more take-home pay for middle-income Americans.”

 

He also accused President Obama of stripping work requirements from welfare. 

 

The Syrian prime minister is taking refuge in Jordan. Local officials say Riad Hijab arrived today, completing his defection that has proven to be an embarrassing blow to President Bashar al-Assad's government. The Syrian rebellion says Hijab had been hiding in Syria for the last two days, and Jordanian officials say the prime minister and 35 family members crossed into Jordan at dawn.

 

The United Nations mission in Afghanistan reports that civilian casualties caused both by insurgents and the NATO-led coalition have fallen for the first time in five years. But NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson reports from Kabul that UN officials warned that Afghan civilian deaths and injuries, nevertheless, remain unacceptably high.  

 

The UN mission reports a 53% increase in targeted killings of community leaders, government officials and other civilians. But overall, the mission says civilian deaths and injuries the first half of this year declined by 15%, compared to the same period last year. UN officials add that roadside bomb attacks have also dropped, although they remain the leading cause of civilian casualties. The report found that nearly 30% of the conflict-related deaths and injuries were women and children. Meanwhile, a suicide bomber in eastern Kunar province attacked a NATO patrol on its way to attend a meeting at the governor's compound. Officials say three coalition troops were killed as well as an Afghan civilian. Several others wounded. Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, NPR News, Kabul.

 

This is NPR.

 

The new Egyptian administration is facing its biggest test yet in its handling of a security crisis in the Sinai Peninsula. The Islamist President Mohammed Morsi has fired his intelligence chief and governor of northern Sinai after suspected militants killed 16 soldiers. He’s also dismissed the head of the presidential guards and reshuffled the security hierarchy in Cairo. The decisions were announced hours after Egypt launched its bloodiest air strike in years against militants in Sinai, parts of which plunged into lawlessness after the Mubarak regime was toppled. 

 

The first female film critic at a major American newspaper has died. Judith Crist died yesterday at the age of 90. As NPR's Neda Ulaby reports, Crist was known during her heyday as the most hated critic in Hollywood. 

 

One director called her “Judas Crist.” Billy Wilder, the director of “Some Like It Hot,” said Crist reviewing a film was like getting a neck massage from the Boston Strangler. She could be unsparing, even brutal. She called “The Sound of Music” “Icky-sticky.” But Judith Crist also championed the likes of Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg when they first started out. She became the New York Herald Tribune's film Critic in 1963, a first for a women. Being a film critic had been a dream for her since seeing Charlie Chaplin in “The Gold Rush” as a child. Judith Crist was also the founding film critic for New York Magazine and the first regular movie reviewer for the Today show on NBC. Neda Ulaby, NPR News.

 

Well, Toyota says it may shift some Lexus production from Japan to North America, bringing more jobs. The CEO says in the last eight months, Toyota has announced 3,500 new positions and an investment worth more than 1.5 billion.