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From NPR news in Washington, I'm Carl Kasell.

A powerful nor'easters pounding the east coast from Virginia to Maine this morning with record-breaking rains gale force wind and inland heavy snow. National weather service forecaster Brian Curran says the center of storm is just to the east of New York City and it will battle the area all day. "Heavy snow continuing in parts of central New York, stay into the mountains of Easter New York into northern New England, but mostly rain across urban areas of the northern Maiden land, then came to Southern New England." Residents of low land areas along the northern coast have been evacuated. Thousands of homes and businesses are without power and hundreds of flights have been cancelled at major airports.


The Justice Department has released the written testimony that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' plans to deliver for Congress tomorrow. The Senate Judiciary Committee has a hearing into the dismissal of 8 US attorneys. NPR's Ari Shapiro reports.
The Attorney General has a lot writing on this testimony in Tuesday's hearing. Many lawmakers have called on Alberto Gonzales to resign. The Senate Judiciary Committee's top Republican Arlen Specter criticized the version of the statement published in the Washington Post as lacking sustenance. “He’s got a state appeal acclaim and he's gotten be successful. In my opinion only if he deals with the facts. Specter spoke on ABC. The written statement includes a lengthy apology and the defense of the dismissals. Gonzales will tell the Committee that he should have handled the firings better and that he should have been more precise in his comments describing his role in the process. But he insists he never intentionally misled anyone and he says no one was fired for improper political reason. Ari Shapiro NPR news Washington.


Palestinian security officials in the Gaza Strip and British’s foreign office were investigating unverified claims by an unknown Islamist group that they have killed a BBC reporter who has been missing in GAZA for 5 weeks. NPR's Eric Westervelt has details.
An unknown Palestinian faction calling itself M and holy warrior issued a statement to news organizations in Gaza claiming they have killed Alan Johnston, the 44-year-old Gaza-based BBC radio and TV correspondent who has abducted by mass gunmen in the costal strip on March 12. The BBC expressed deep concern of the claim, but stressed there is no evidence to support it. Palestinian security officials also said they are not able to verify the claim. The militant group said they would issue a video of the alleged execution, but none has been released. Johnston's parents in Scotland issued another urgent plea saying quote “Our son has lived and worked among the people of Gaza for the last three years to bring their story to the outside world and we ask everyone of them to help end this ordeal." Eric Westervelt NPR news Jerusalem.

Oil prices were higher in Asian trading today as the market looked for direction, ahead of the expected restarts of US refineries. US light crude for May delivery rose 14 cents to $63.77 a barrel.

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The Tour De Georgia begins today. The 7-day bicycle race serves as a prelude to the Tour De France. From Georgia Public Broadcasting in Atlanta, Susanna Capelouto reports.
15 international teams will race over 600 miles through Georgia this week. The 5-year-old race is big in cycling cycles because it is a tune-up for European races, like the Tour De France and Giro d`Italia. The most famous state of the race is the climb-up Georgia's highest mountain Brasstown Bald on Friday. It's considered one of the steepest climbs in cycling. Last year's winner Floyd Landis is fighting doping allegations and will not be in the race, but cycling fans will be watching American Tyler Hamilton who is coming off of a 2-year doping suspension. He will race with the Russian-own team. Georgians can cheer for a local team sponsored by Jittery Joe's, an Athens Georgia coffee roaster. The Tour De Georgia will finish Sunday in centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta. For NPR news, I'm Susanna Capelouto in Atlanta.

Anti-government protest took place in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg yesterday. Riot police beat and detained dozens of demonstrators in the second day of protest aimed at challenging the country's widely popular President Vladimir Putin. A day earlier in Moscow, only a few thousand turned out to criticize the government, but opposition leaders called that a heartening response in the face of the huge police force massed against both rallies. Putin's foes say the heart-handling of demonstrators who included many elderly people or few are growing sense that Putin is strangling democracy, ahead of parliamentary elections in December and the presidential vote next spring.

I'm Carl Kasell, NPR news in Washington.