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From NPR News in Washington, I'm Craig Windham.

President Obama is urging Americans to be patient and as positive as possible in the face of a seemingly endless succession of negative economic news. Mr. Obama says the nation will make it through the current crisis. "This is a moment of challenge for our country. But we've experienced great trials before. And with every test, each generation has found the capacity to not only endure but to prosper, to discover great opportunity in the midst of great crisis." Mr. Obama speaking in his weekly radio and Internet address after a week in which major stock averages fell to their lowest levels in more than a decade, and in which the Labor Department announced the third straight month of sharp job losses.

Mr. Obama said reforming the health care system to restrain costs and widen availability will be a major goal of his administration this year. But although the details of Mr. Obama's health care proposals have yet to be worked out, he's already been criticized by some Congressional Republicans for his willingness to consider some form of government-sponsored health care. Missouri Congressman Roy Blunt delivered the Republicans' weekly address today as NPR's Kate Davidson reports.

Blunt said he's concerned that if the government steps in, it would eventually force out private health care plans. He said employers could simply stop offering coverage, hoping the government would fill in the slack. "Just imagine a health care system that looks like a government-run operation most of us are all too familiar with, the local DMV." Blunt said real competition is the key to health care. In his budget, Mr. Obama asks Congress for more than 600 billion dollars as a down payment on his push for universal health care. Kate Davidson, NPR News, Washington.

Escalating attacks by religious extremists across Pakistan combined with political clashes are fueling international concerns about that country's stability. A remote-controlled bomb exploded today in Peshawar, killing seven policemen and one civilian. NPR's Anne Garrels has more from Pakistan's capital.

Bashir Bilour, a senior minister in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province, had just returned from the funeral for the dead policemen who were lured into a clever trap. You can see, he said, how bad things are here. The Pakistani Taliban and other extremists have overwhelmed the Pakistani military and police in some regions, and even where they aren't in control, they've some fear. Three separate bombings killed more than a dozen people in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday. There are also reports a pilotless US drone crashed along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border where the main Pakistani Taliban leader is based. If these weren't enough, Pakistan's president and his erstwhile coalition partner are locked in an increasingly bitter political battle that will take to the streets next week. Anne Garrels, NPR News, Islamabad.

Sudan's president is calling the foreign relief workers being expelled from his country spies and thieves. The UN is looking into whether those expulsions constitute a human rights violation.