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How can you get young folks to press their elders to solve the debt and deficit crises?

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In Cairo: Several Killed, Hundreds Injured, Tanks Deployed As Clashes Continue.

Syria: Clinton To Meet Russian Diplomat; Sarin Fears Continue.

Sorry, royal fans, we're not planning to follow every bit of news about the Duchess of Cambridge's pregnancy.

But we do want to note that Kate, "holding a bouquet of flowers, left King Edward VII hospital in central London on Thursday morning with her husband, Prince William," the BBC says. "Less than 12 weeks pregnant, she was admitted with acute morning sickness — hyperemesis gravidarum — on Monday."

In one of the sharpest warnings so far to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said today "the whole world is watching" and that if Assad uses chemical weapons against his people, "there will be consequences."

Without saying specifically that the U.S. and its allies would take military action, Panetta said it is "fair enough to say that their use of those weapons would cross a red line."

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When you crack open a pizza box, the heat's released and you get that scent from the dough and cheese and sauce. Pizza Hut in Canada has released that scent in a bottle of perfume. The company made 110 bottles and distributed them to its Facebook followers.

The Pentagon's top lawyer has talked about how the U.S. would deal with terrorism after al-Qaida's core was defeated. But experts say the talk is premature. The Arab Spring has helped al-Qaida affiliates proliferate over the past year. And while they might not be able to pull off large scale attacks, they are still a very real threat.

President Obama is lobbying the CEOs of the nation's largest companies to support him as he tries to reach a budget deal with Republican lawmakers. The president met Wednesday with members of the Business Roundtable. The group urges the extension of Bush-era tax cuts for everyone, including the wealthy.

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And our last word in business today is Trump versus Forbes. The Forbes we're talking about is a Scotsman named Michael Forbes. He has the misfortune of living right next to Donald Trump's new golf course in Scotland. Forbes has refused to sell his property to Trump; and what has ensued is the war of words that you probably would expect between the property magnet, and anyone who gets in his way.

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We begin NPR's business news with possible bank settlements.

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GREENE: One of Britain's largest banks, Standard Chartered, says it expects to pay around $330 million to the United States. This would settle a case with regulators here who accused the bank of failing to comply with sanctions against Iran. Standard Chartered has already paid out $340 million to the state of New York on the same claims.

The Department of Energy projects domestic oil production in the U.S. will grow faster than consumption in coming years. That means the country needs to import much less oil in the future.

Banks have been under increasing pressure to cut costs and eliminate redundancies. The cuts will eliminate about 4 percent of Citi's workforce.

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Let's report, now, on the college scene in Phoenix, which is becoming more crowded. In Arizona, a private college education has long been hard to find. But that is changing now. Eight schools are setting up satellite campuses in the Phoenix suburbs. From member station KJZZ, Peter O'Dowd reports.

PETER O'DOWD, BYLINE: This is Trine University in Peoria, Arizona.

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O'DOWD: Not much, yet; just a door opening to an empty classroom, in an ordinary office park.

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This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm David Greene. Good morning.

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Germany's Cabinet on Thursday approved sending German Patriot air defense missiles to Turkey to protect the NATO member against possible attacks from Syria, in a major step toward possible Western military role in the Syrian conflict.

Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere told reporters that two batteries with a total of 400 soldiers would be sent to the border area under NATO command for one year, although the deployment could be shortened.

The decision must be endorsed by the German Parliament, but approval is all but assured.

It's early afternoon when the sun is bright, and it's finally warm enough to come outside. This tent camp on a hill overlooking the Turkish border, near the Syrian town of Atma, houses more than 14,000 displaced Syrians.

The water here is trucked in, and it's the only source. Women line up with plastic jugs to haul the daily delivery back to the tents. What is striking are the children — in dirty clothes and summer shoes, faces red and raw from the cold.

Lots of scams come by phone or by mail, but when the scam artist is right in front of you, researchers say the clues are in the face.

"A smile that is in the mouth but doesn't go up to the eyes, an averted gaze, a backward lean" are some of the ways deception may present itself, says Shelley Taylor, a psychologist at UCLA.

As President Obama and Capitol Hill lawmakers assess the need for spending cuts and tax increases against the risk of triggering a new recession, they might look across the Atlantic for insights from those who have already grappled with those budgetary questions.

The problem of excessive government debt has swamped economies across Europe and forced countries to take severe measures to cut their deficits. The first lesson from their "fiscal consolidation" experiences: It will hurt.

If I asked you to think of a murderer, what's the image that springs to mind?

If you're like most people, you'll probably think of an evil psychopath, or someone bent on revenge. Perhaps you'll see a criminal mastermind, who eliminates rivals on his way to riches. Or a strung-out drug addict, who kills because she needs money to get high.

All of these images have something in common: As a rule, we tend to associate murder with the behavior of individuals who behave in aberrational ways.

As of this year, the vocal group Anonymous 4 has been introducing modern audiences to medieval music for a quarter century. When the all-female quartet asked David Lang to help mark the occasion by writing them some music, he didn't need any convincing. The Pulitzer Prize-winning composer was already a big fan.

As demonstrations continue to rage in Cairo, nearing almost two years after the revolution's onset, perceived corruption in Egypt and neighboring countries has worsened, according to a newly-released index.

Transparency International's (TI) 2012 Corruption Perceptions index ranks countries from 0 to 100 based on perceived levels of public sector corruption — 100 meaning no perceived corruption. Egypt dropped six places and now ranks 118^th out of 176 countries.

The standoff between Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and his critics escalated today, when more than 100 people were injured in clashes between supporters and detractors.

NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson reports from Cairo that the opposition accused Mori's Islamist government of escalating the situation and they dismissed calls to find a consensus.

Soraya sent this report our Newscast unit:

Tax increases are only a part of what lies ahead if Congress can't come to an agreement to avert the fiscal cliff by the new year. Massive spending cuts will also kick in — and those cuts will be felt throughout the economy.

The current stalemate got under way two years ago when Congress, locked in a bitter partisan battle over whether to extend the George W. Bush-era tax cuts, passed what was known as the Budget Control Act of 2011.