Bachelet won 62% of the vote according to the official result. That was the highest percentage since the country returned to holding democratic election in 1982 after a decades-long dictatorship. Bachelet has promised to make 50 reforms in her first 100 days after taking the oath of office in March. Many are aimed at narrowing the gap between rich and poor in Chile. Bachelet intends to raise corporate taxes to pay for education reforms, rewrite the constitution and legalize abortion under certain circumstances. In a victory speech, Bachelet reclaimed I am happy with the result and victory and I shall be a president for everyone in Chile. For NPR News, I am John Nielsen.

 

Ireland says it is leaving the international bailout program. The BBC’s Joe Lynam reports the move restores Ireland’s control over its economy and allows it to borrow on international markets.

 

In a rare live television address, Ireland’s Taoiseach loud the role played by the Irish people over the past five years in enduring what he has described as the worst crisis since the great fame of the 1850s. Enda Kenny warns that austerity was not at the end though and that focus most remains on growth. The economy has shrunk by almost a fifth over the past five years and immigration has soared. But exports are now booming. GDP is rising again and thousands net new jobs are being created every week. Ireland’s success is being hailed in Brussels and Frankfort as prove that austerity can work.

 

The BBC’s Joe Lynam.

 

Senator John McCain is in Ukraine where he says he is supporting protestors who are angered by the refusal of their president to sign a cooperative agreement with European Union. They are calling for Victor Yanukovich to step down. McCain addressed to thousands gathered in Kiev today, saying he supports what he calls their just cause. He also says the US senators prepare to sanction Ukrainian officials responsible for violence against protestors.

 

Democratic Senator Charles Schumer says the federal government does not have the funds to oversee the safety of US railroads. At a news conference in New York City’s Grand Central Terminal today, Schumer says the commuter train that derailed in Bronx earlier this month and killed four people is evidence.

 

We sort of surmised over the last few weeks after Spuyen Duyvil that the MTA was not doing enough and now it is clear that the federal agency in charge of making sure they did enough did not have the resource to do it and did not do it. 

 

Also at today’s news conference, Senator Richard Blumenthal of New York who says the Federal Railroad Administration only has enough resources to inspect 1% of the nation’s rails.

 

This is NPR.

 

Opposition activists say Syrian military aircraft dropped barrels packed with explosives on rebel-held areas of the contested city of Aleppo. The British-based Syrian observatory for human rights says at least 36 people many of children were killed.

 

The attempted terrorism case against the Kansas man goes to federal court this week. The suspect is accused of trying to detonate what he thought was a bomb at Kansas airport Friday morning. From member station KMUW Aileen LeBlanc reports court documents say the FBI recorded the suspect for many months before the incident. 

 

Terry Loewen began communicating online with undercover FBI agent in earlier summer. Documents provided by the US attorney indicated that Loewen was hesitant to engage in operation at first, saying he was just donating money to needy Muslims, later been asked the operation would be more than them. The agent requested at a tour of the airport and Loewen said that he was just the access guy at that point. But Loewen soon agree to help with obtaining and wiring explosives. He left a suicide note saying that most Muslims in this country will hate him for what he had done. This is one of several FBI operations implemented since 9/11 which have been criticized for appearing to be entrapment. For NPR News, I am Aileen LeBlanc in Wichita.

 

NASA engineers are still trying to regulate temperatures in one of the cooling loops on the international space station after control valve malfunctioned last week, the problem for some of stations support systems to be shut down. NASA is considering sending two astronauts on a series of space walks to replace a faulty pump.