Economists were expecting 3% growth. What they got, says the Commerce Department, was growth at an annual rate of 2.8%, and much of the increase was businesses restocking inventories. New car and truck sales were up sharply, but otherwise, says economist Hugh Johnson, consumers slowed their spending as the year came to a close.

 

"2012 will be better than 2011, but it's not gonna be anything to write home about."

 

And that's underscored by the Federal Reserve, suggesting interest rates will stay at record lows for another two to three years. Dave Mattingly, NPR News, Washington.

 

Coming off a feisty debate last night, the Republican presidential candidates are campaigning this final weekend before Florida's primary Tuesday. As of yesterday, more than 400,000 Republicans had already voted. NPR's Greg Allen reports from Miami that by Tuesday, as many as one quarter of those expected to turn out may have cast ballots.

 

In most Florida counties, polls opened last weekend for early voting, and because of its liberal absentee ballot rules, anyone who chooses can mail-in their vote. Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the Florida Republican Party, says the early voting numbers surpassed those seen in the 2008 primary.

 

"What it shows is just a high level of engagement by our Republicans in Florida, and we expect that to translate into high turnout numbers."

 

A survey this week shows Mitt Romney with a seven point lead over Newt Gingrich among those in Florida who have already voted. Who wins the early vote can be critical. In the 2008 Republican governor's race, former Attorney General Bill McCollum won among votes cast on Election Day. He lost the race though because challenger Rick Scott beat McCollum in the absentee and early vote. Greg Allen, NPR News, Miami.

 

A 31-year-old man will be executed for the 2007 murders of a Connecticut woman and her two young daughters. Joshua Komisarjevsky now joins accomplice Steven Hayes on death roll for a crime described as so horrific that it halted efforts to outlaw the death penalty in Connecticut. The two paroled burglars tormented Dr. William Petit's family before they killed his wife and left Petit's daughters to die in a fire. Dr. Petit was beaten and tied up, but he escaped.

 

Leading finance ministers meeting in Davos, Switzerland are trying to reassure global business leaders about Europe's ability to handle its debts. They say the financial landscape has changed in the last two months as vulnerable banks got a multi-billion-dollar boost from the European Central Bank and reforms were passed, and they also suggested Greece was close to a deal with private bondholders that would avert default.

 

This is NPR.

 

Syrian activists are now putting the death toll from two days of clashes with troops at at least 50. They say forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad fired on residential buildings and crowds and homes and elsewhere. Activists have been fighting to oust Assad for ten months. The French mission to the UN says the Security Council is holding an unscheduled meeting today to discuss the crisis. The UN estimates more than 5,400 people have died since the uprising began.

 

Holocaust remembrance advocates are hailing Turkish state television's decision to air [口误] a 1985 documentary on the subject. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports from Istanbul that it's the first public airing of the film by a Muslim country.

 

The UN-backed Aladdin Project had the nine-hour documentary subtitled in Turkish, Farsi and Arabic. Executive Director Abe Radkin says he hopes this will contribute to greater understanding between Muslims and Jews.

 

"And that's what we would like to see in this part of the world, where for the past 60 or 70 years the holocaust has been largely ignored except for quarters that denied it."

 

A US satellite channel with some Iranian viewers aired the Farsi version last year, drawing criticism from Tehran, where officials have in the past said the holocaust was exaggerated or didn't happen. Peter Kenyon, NPR News, Istanbul.

 

President Obama’s back from a tour through Nevada, Colorado and Michigan, where he talked about clean energy, robust manufacturing and, most recently, promoting affordable college tuition. He spoke this afternoon at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.