Morning Edition

Renee Montagne has business news.

Standard and Poor's has downgraded the credit ratings of nine Euopean countries including France. They face exposure to financial troubles in Greece among other places. Zanny Minton Beddoes, global economics editors at The Economist, talks to Steve Inskeep about the latest European financial troubles.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning.

The civilian government of Pakistan has been under absurd amounts of pressure ever since it won election about four years ago. It's squeezed by the army - which reluctantly surrendered power - by the United States, by a host of insurgents and also by Pakistan's Supreme Court.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

And our last word in business today is the doctor is out. Over the summer we told you about a soft drink called Dublin Dr. Pepper. It's a slightly different version of the popular Dr. Pepper soda, made with pure cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. It was produced by Dr. Pepper Bottling Company in Dublin, Texas, which had been a family-owned business for more than 110 years.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

NPR's business news starts with efforts to streamline the federal government.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

GREENE: President Obama is asking Congress, today, to give him the power to consolidate certain U.S. agencies. Doing that, he says, will reduce the number of federal jobs and make government more efficient.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: The government we have is not the government that we need. We live in a 21st Century economy, but we've still got a government organized for the 20th Century.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Good morning. I'm David Greene.

We've all heard the rule: Turn off your cell phone. Well, someone broke it this week at a performance of the New York Philharmonic.

(SOUNDBITE OF CELL PHONE RINGING)

GREENE: The iPhone Marimba ring tone had not been written into Mahler's Ninth Symphony. But there it was, chirping from the front row of the audience. The conductor was so incensed, he cut off the performance and waited for the iPhone to stop. The audience member was apparently not offered an audition.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep, with a milestone for immigration. Warina Zaya Bahou becomes a U.S. citizen today in Sterling Heights, Michigan. She's an immigrant from Iran. What makes the ceremony remarkable is the birth date of the new citizen. She was born in 1900. Back then, Iran still had kings and William McKinley was president of the United States. Now at age 111 she becomes the second oldest person to be naturalized as an American. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.

Each year, thousands of companies converge on the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas hoping to generate buzz for their gadgets. Companies that succeed need luck, good PR and a product that seems cool or useful. HzO, a small company that makes waterproof coatings for phones and tablets, has broken through in a big way.

David Greene has more on the comedy host's announcement.

David Greene talks with NPR's Mike Pesca about this weekend's NFL match-ups. Tim Tebow will lead the Denver Broncos against the New England Patriots in the marquee game Saturday night.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is touring Latin America this week, meeting with the heads of Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Cuba. Steve Inskeep talks to NPR's Juan Forero about the Iranian leader's goals in the region, and how his trip positions him back home.

On Twitter, News Corps. Chief Rupert Murdoch confessed: "We screwed up in every way possible." He added the company learned a lot of valuable and expensive lessons from the purchase of the social networking site.

As Newt Gingrich campaigned in South Carolina yesterday, there were signs he was beginning to soften his critique of the private equity career of rival Mitt Romney. Gingrich had come under fire this week from fellow Republicans for his attack on Romney.

For almost 70 years, New York City has been home to two opera companies: the well-heeled Metropolitan Opera and its scrappy younger sibling, the New York City Opera. But City Opera has fallen on hard times, and a bitter labor dispute might mean curtains for this beloved institution.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The job-search site CareerBuilder has released a survey on the most outrageous excuses for coming in late. Employers across the country submitted gems like: I thought I won the lottery.

Fresh off his big wins in New Hampshire and Iowa, Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney took his campaign to South Carolina. That state votes a week from Saturday. The other Republicans are trying to throw up road blocks.

While GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney savored his second consecutive win in the Republican nominating process, those who finished behind him in New Hampshire also continued on to South Carolina. They are hoping that it is in the Palmetto state where they can get his campaign to to stumble before it becomes unstoppable.

Over the next three years, RBS will cut 3,500 jobs. That's in addition to more than 30,000 layoffs that happened over the last two years. In the U.S., RBS runs Citizens Bank with branches in about a dozen states.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And today's last word in business is plastics.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "THE GRADUATE")

WALTER BROOKE: (as Mr. McGuire) Just one word.

DUSTIN HOFFMAN: (as Ben Braddock) Yes, sir?

BROOKE: (as Mr. McGuire) Are you listening?

HOFFMAN: (as Ben Braddock) Yes, sir. I am.

BROOKE: (as Mr. McGuire) Plastics.

INSKEEP: That's a character in the movie "The Graduate," offering career advice to a young Dustin Hoffman.