Washington, D.C.

National Public Radio receives $200 million gift

Billionaire philanthropist Joan B. Kroc left more than $200 million to National Public Radio, a bequest more than double the network’s annual budget.

NPR President Kevin Klose said Thursday it was the biggest event for the network since it broadcast its first show in May 1970.

Kroc died of cancer Oct. 12 at the age of 75.

Kroc, the widow of McDonald’s restaurant founder Ray Kroc, was known for giving away hundreds of millions of dollars to promote world peace, education, health care and the arts. She was a longtime donor to her local NPR member station, KPBS in San Diego.

Sri Lanka

Prime minister arrives home amid political confrontation

Sri Lanka’s prime minister returned home today to a big welcome from supporters and Cabinet colleagues as he faced his toughest-ever political confrontation against an increasingly hostile president.

Meanwhile, a government official said President Chandrika Kumaratunga was lifting the state of emergency order she imposed a day earlier.

Kumaratunga — who has broad constitutional powers — had fired three of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Cabinet colleagues, suspended Parliament and stationed additional armed military personnel around the capital.

Oklahoma

Judge, FDA rule against cheaper drugs from Canada

A federal judge granted the government’s request Thursday to shut down a U.S. company that helps customers buy cheaper prescription drugs from Canada.

The decision is a blow to customers who use Rx Depot’s 85 storefronts nationwide to buy less expensive medicine.

U.S. District Judge Claire Eagan wrote that the Tulsa-based company, also known as Rx Canada, offers lower prices only because it facilitates “illegal activity determined by Congress to harm the public interest.” The judge found that Rx Depot “openly and notoriously” violated the law.

South Korea

Reactor project’s suspension infuriates North Korea

North Korea threatened Thursday to seize the property of an international consortium that has been developing two light-water nuclear reactors on the country’s east coast in reaction to an announcement out of Washington that the project would be suspended for one year.

An unidentified spokesman for North Korea’s foreign ministry also cast doubts about the future of six-party talks aimed at resolving the nuclear crisis.

The $4.6 billion reactor project is the centerpiece of a now nearly moribund 1994 agreement under which the international community promised North Korea energy assistance in return for a freeze of its nuclear program.