NPR 2009-04-11（在线收听）

Wild weather continues to plague the Middle West and the South today. Weather officials in central Tennessee said at least two people are dead, 30 others are injured after a twister touchdown there today. Officials said the Blackman community in Murfreesboro was the hardest hit; meanwhile three people were killed by a tornado that struck the Mountain Community of Mena, Arkansas just after 8:00 pm last night. Resident Debt Hails says the town took direct hit.
“A big tornado comes through and just raid us, half of destruction, like you wouldn’t believe.”
Tornado also touched down in southwestern Kentucky today, injuring two people, damaging homes and then knocking down trees and power lines. That happened in an area some 120 miles to the southwest of Louisville.

The waiting game between the US navy and Somali pirates who are holding an American captain hostage continues. As NPR’s Dina Temple-Raston reports, both sides are between a rock and hard place.

One FBI official familiar with the investigation said that the US navy and the pirates are facing a high seize-Dog Day Afternoon. If the US navy moves in, the pirates have said they will kill their hostage, American Richard Phillips. If the pirates actually kill Phillips, what little leverage they have disappears. In 2006, the US navy and Somali pirates were in a similar standoff. In that case, the pirates had 16 Indian hostages. They exchange shots with the US navy and eventually they gave up. All the hostages were released unharmed and the pirates were put on trial in Kenya. They are still in jail today. FBI negotiators are working with the US navy to try to talk these Somalis into giving up. Dina Temple-Raston, NPR News.

Five US soldiers were killed and another was wounded today when a suicide bomber rammed his truck into a wall outside an Iraqi police complex in the northern city of Mosul. Two Iraqi policemen were also killed and 17 others were hurt. According to US military officials the American soldiers were not targeted in the attack but just happened to be on the street when the incident occurred. It’s the deadliest attack on US forces in Iraqi in more than a year.

Financial crisis is causing the Federal budget deficit to soar towards record levels. NPR’s Giles Snyder reports.

For last month alone the government posted a more than 192-billion-dollar deficit. That’s a record for March and as nearly four times that capped this time last years. When you totaled up the first six month of the budget year that started October 1st, the deficit is well on its way to the more than 1.7 trillion dollars. The Obama administration is projecting for the hole of fiscal 2009. For the first half of fiscal year, the Treasury Department says the deficit totals more than 956 billion dollars. The government has handed out billions primarily to troubled banks, but also to the insurance giant American International Group, Detroit auto companies, and housing finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The government is also paying more in unemployment benefits and food stamps. Giles Snyder, NPR News, Washington.

Wall Street is closed today.

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Wild fires have destroyed more than 100 homes in Oklahoma and are being blamed for three deaths in Texas, along with their destruction of at least 30 homes there. Oklahoma’s governor has declared a state of emergency while the governor of Texas is asking the federal government to issue an emergency declaration for 199 counties. The wild fires driven by high winds have scorched more than 100,000 acres in Texas alone. Montague county’s sheriff department official says a couple died when fire overtook their home. A woman died en route to the hospital possibly from a heart attack.

In Washington D.C., the Corcoran Gallery of Art has announced it is cutting 18 jobs in its museum and art school. NPR’s Kitty Adam has more.

The Corcoran was founded in the 1869. Representatives say it is the second oldest art gallery in the country. Paul Greenhalgh is the director at the Corcoran; he said professors were not among those laid-off. The museum didn’t want to risk loosing students. “The students obviously are the great students, are central to our, you know, laid a lace to our institution. And so we have to protect it that very carefully.” Greenhalgh says despite economic problems, applications to the graduate and undergraduate programs at the school are at record highs. The Corcoran is not the only museum that’s been affected by the ailing economy. The Smithsonian and the museum, also in Washington D.C., recently announced layoffs. New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art has done the same. Kitty Adam, NPR News, Washington.

Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong said today a French anti-doping agency could prevent him from riding in this year’s race. The 37-year-old Armstrong in a video aired on his anti-cancer website said he violated protocols during a recent drug test.