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Fifteen Years After A Vaccine Scare, A Measles Epidemic A measles epidemic in Wales that has infected more than 1,000 people is the fallout from a fraudulent paper linking the vaccine and autism published almost 15 years ago, health officials say. Many of the children and teenagers sick with measles were never vaccinated. |
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How Genomics Solved The Mystery Of Ireland's Great Famine Although scientists have known that a funguslike organism caused the potato blight that triggered the Great Famine in Ireland in the 1840s, they didn't know which strain was the culprit. But they do now, thanks to the genes in some 19th century potato samples. |
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Why Apple (And Lots Of Other Companies) Wound Up In Ireland It goes back to a single page in a report written decades ago by U.S. consultants, and funded by the U.S. State Department. |
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West Bank Businesses Seek Growth Amid Uncertainty Political unpredictability in the region hampers all kinds of businesses: from stone-cutters and shoemakers to IT. Business owners in the West Bank say Secretary of State John Kerry's commitment to remove barriers to commerce might go further than actual cash. |
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Two Key Candidates Barred From Seeking Iran's Presidency The Guardian Council, which vets all candidates, approved eight names, but left out an influential former president and a top aide to the current president. Their exclusion gives establishment-friendly candidates a clear path to the presidency in the June 14 election. |
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Discovering A Family Member's Lost Time In Amsterdam When Margot Adler learned that a cousin had hidden from the Nazis in Amsterdam, she was stunned. Adler started digging around and discovered that like Anne Frank, 25,000 Dutch Jews hid, and two-thirds of them survived. Her cousin was one of them. |
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African Cities Test The Limits Of Living With Livestock Hipsters may just be discovering the joys of backyard chickens, but in African megacities, people have been bringing their animals into the slums with them for decades. That's creating a new ecosystem of animals and huge numbers of people living closely together like never before. |
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Gandhi Artifacts Could Fetch Steep Prices At Auction A pair of sandals, a shawl and a drinking cup that were used by the Indian independence leader are among the objects going under the hammer in the U.K. |
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Far-Right Historian Commits Suicide In Notre Dame Cathedral Dominique Venner, a well-known French historian who embraced and wrote about ultra-conservative causes for decades, committed suicide today in front of the alter at Notre Dame Cathedral. He had left a post on his blog decrying the legalization of same sex marriage in France. "An infamous law ... can always be repealed," he wrote. "It will require new, spectacular and symbolic actions to rouse people from their complacency." |
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Court Backs Withholding 'Potent' Images Of Bin Laden's Body The government has argued that the classified images could spark violence against Americans abroad. |
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China Builds Museums, But Filling Them Is Another Story China has been building museums with abandon, opening about 100 annually in recent years. Two of the biggest opened on the same day last fall on opposite banks of Shanghai's Huangpu River. But filling these museums — with both art and visitors — is proving more challenging. |
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Socks Are Optional As Pakistan Grapples With Power Cuts You are a poor country with chronic power shortages. The summer is blazing hot. What do you do? In Pakistan, the prime minister has banned air conditioners in government offices — but says it's OK for workers to go without socks. |
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Border Collies Protect Scientsts' Research From Geese Scientists in Canada were working at an experimental research farm, testing crops like corn and barley. But packs of Canada geese had been swooping in and destroying the crops. Two border collies were hired to chase away the geese. |
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Now's Your Chance To Own A Little Bit Of Gandhi The late Indian leader Mohandis Gandhi, who became known as Mahatma, or venerated one, had an appendectomy decades ago. Afterward, doctors took samples of his blood. Two microscope slides bearing that blood are being auctioned in London. |
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Young People Cast Out Of Italy's Welfare System In Italy, the youth jobless rate is nudging 40 percent, a record high in post-war history. Demographer Stefano Rosina says the Italian welfare system has always been skewed toward the middle-aged and elderly, leaving Italian youths with no political or trade union representation. |
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The Global Afterlife Of Your Donated Clothes The deadly collapse of a textile factory in Bangladesh has heightened awareness about cheap clothes. Many Americans have become used to inexpensive clothing, but the garments are also discarded at a remarkable rate: Billions of pounds of clothing are recycled each year; nearly half is exported. |
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An Ancient Religious Pilgrimage That Now Draws The Secular The 1,200-year-old European pilgrimage route known as the Way of St. James is undergoing a revival. Tens of thousands of people are walking across France to the Spanish coastal city of Santiago de Compostela, and the relics of St. James. Once a religious affair, it's now a cultural and social phenomenon as well. |
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Iran's 'Zahra' Tells Alternate Tale Of Presidential Campaign What do you do when you can't openly wage a campaign for the presidency? Some Iranians inside and outside the country have turned to the heroine of an online graphic novel who has embarked on a virtual campaign. |
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British Aircraft Carrier HMS Ark Royal Heads For Scrap Yard The former Royal Navy flagship fell victim to a 2010 defense review that recommended scrapping the vessel and selling its Harrier jump jets. |
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White House Again Raises Possibility Of Closing Guantanamo President Obama is scheduled to give a major address on national security Thursday, and the Guantanamo Bay prison is expected to feature prominently. Obama had promised to shutter the facility when he first took office, but that has proven more difficult than he expected. |
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Former U.S. Ambassador: 'Don't Go In Blind' To Syria Robert Siegel talks with Ryan Crocker, former U.S. ambassador to both Iraq and Afghanistan, about how lessons learned in those conflicts could inform how the U.S. deals with Syria today. Crocker is now a fellow at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs at Yale University. |
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Beijing Angry Over North Korea's Seizure Of Chinese Fishermen North Korea's capture of a Chinese fishing boat and its crew of 16 has angered Beijing, adding to its concern over Pyongyang's recent provocations. |
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Pope Francis Puts The Poor Front And Center Shunning the formalities of his office and focusing on poverty, Pope Francis is drawing a sharp contrast between his 2-month-old papacy and those of his predecessors. |
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Life In Argentina's 'Little School' Prison Camp During Argentina's so-called Dirty War, thousands were abducted and taken to secret prisons like a place known as "the little school," where many were tortured and killed. Guest host Jennifer Ludden talks to a former prisoner, Alicia Partnoy, about her disappearance and her time there. |
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After Nearly 50 Years, Burmese Leader Comes To Washington It's been a while since the last visit by a head of state from Myanmar. The last time was 47 years ago, when the country was still known as Burma. As President Thein Sein arrives at the White House Monday, some will hail him as a reformer who set his country on the path to democracy. Others may protest his arrival, as excessive recognition for a head of state that has presided over continuing human rights abuses. |
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Children Of China's Wealthy Learn Expensive Lessons Some super-rich Chinese are sending their kids to weekend classes in order to learn how to deal with money. The lessons include things like a charity sale designed to teach the children compassion, sharing and the value of money. |
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Seeing The (Northern) Light: A Temporary Arctic Retirement Inspired by a TED talk, Winston Chen quit his software job and moved from Boston to a tiny Norwegian island with his wife and kids. He spent the year enjoying the outdoors with his family and writing an iPhone app, something he would never have done without his self-imposed sabbatical. |
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Syrian Troops Target Key Rebel-Held Town Qusair is a strategically important town that lies between Homs, where the Syrian uprising began two years ago, and the Lebanese border. If President Bashar Assad's troops - reportedly backed by Hezbollah fighters — regain the town, they would control an important route from the coast to the capital, Damascus. |
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Young Kenyans Build Mobile Apps For Local Use College students and recent graduates crammed the top floor of a tech hub in Nairobi for a competition built around the theme "Solutions for the Next Billion Mobile Users." Africa has more than 600 million mobile phone users (approximately 11 percent of the global total) - and the number is growing. |
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Russian Lawmakers: Don't Criticize Soviet Actions In WWII Don't mess with Soviet history, especially when it comes to World War II. That's the message coming from some hard-line Russian legislators who are angry with an opposition lawmaker who criticized Josef Stalin's World War II counterintelligence agency, SMERSH, and likened it to Adolf Hitler's Gestapo. |
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Afghans With Disabilities Fight For The Right To Rights Their country isn't an easy place for anyone to make a living, but it's a downright hostile environment for those with disabilities. Support has mostly come from nonprofits, but activists are pressing the government to take action. |
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Spaniard's Song Brings YouTube Fame ... And Maybe A Job   Enzo Vizcaíno looks like a busker, strumming away on his ukulele as he roams a Barcelona metro car. But he sings of his bachelor's degree and postgrad diploma. "I'm the King of Microsoft," he croons. He's not looking for a handout. He just wants a job. And his creative approach may be paying off. |
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Bashar Assad: A Political Solution In Syria Is 'Unreal' The Syrian president also left no room for his departure. "The captain of a ship doesn't flee when faced with a storm," he said during an interview with an Argentine newspaper. |
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In Zimbabwe, Will Next Election Be More Peaceful? Host Scott Simon talks with NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton about Zimbabwe's upcoming presidential election and efforts to alleviate its international isolation. |
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Afghan Mineral Treasures Stay Buried, Hostages To Uncertainty Afghanistan is believed to be home to world-class mineral deposits, valued at up to $3 trillion and offering hope for the country's economic future. But in the current environment of uncertainty, investors are nervous and it could be many years before Afghanistan strikes pay dirt. |
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French President Signs Same-Sex Marriage Into Law Parliament had passed the legislation in April, but the main opposition party challenged its constitutionality. A ruling by the Constitutional Council on Friday paved the way for President Francois Hollande's official blessing. |
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Toronto Mayor Blames Newspaper For Cocaine Video The Toronto Star says its reporters have seen a video that purportedly shows Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine. |
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Need A Tattoo Translated? Forget The British Foreign Office British consular officials say they've gotten odd requests over the past year, ranging from help in getting Olympic tickets to checking the credentials of an online date. |
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U.N. Tries To Get Syria Peace Talks Back On Track U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, saying it is important not to "lose momentum" in the effort to convene a peace conference on Syria. Ban was only the latest in a string of foreign dignitaries who have come to Russia, seeking Putin's blessing for such a conference, expected to be held in early June. There's a lot at stake. Russia has been a long-time supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and continues to supply weapons to his regime. U.S. officials have said lately that those weapons include advanced missile systems for attacking ships and airplanes. If Assad already has such weapons, they could pose a real threat to international efforts to impose a no-fly zone, to deliver supplies to the rebels, or to maintain a maritime embargo. |
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Architect Of Argentina's 'Dirty War' Dies In Prison Jorge Rafael Videla was a former senior commander in the Argentine Army who was the de facto president of Argentina from 1976 to 1981. He came to power in a coup d'etat that deposed Isabel Martinez de Peron. After the return of a representative democratic government, he was prosecuted for large-scale human rights abuses and crimes against humanity that took place under his rule, including kidnappings or "forced disappearance," widespread torture and extrajudicial murder of activists and political opponents (either real, suspected or alleged) as well as their families, at secret concentration camps. |
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Doctor: 'We Truly Are Failing The Syrian People' Stephen Cornish of Doctors Without Borders was recently in Syria. He talks to Audie Cornish about how medical personnel are managing to reach patients in the war-torn nation where he says there is a lack of respect for doctors on both sides of the conflict. |
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Mother Of India Gang-Rape Victim Faces Suspects In Court Following her brief testimony, she broke down and pleaded with the court, "Please bring justice for my daughter." Meanwhile, lawyers for the accused say their clients have been "tortured" since the beginning of the trial. |
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Former Argentine Dictator Who Oversaw Death Squads Dies At 87 Jorge Rafael Videla ruled Argentina from 1976-1983 and orchestrated a "Dirty War" against opponents that killed as many as 30,000 people. |
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Insects May Be The Taste Of The Next Generation, Report Says A report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization says insects offer a huge potential for improving the world's food security. Peter Menzel, co-author of Man Eating Bugs, describes some insect-based cuisine and the western aversion to creepy-crawly snacks. |
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Young Gazan Men Get Unwanted Haircuts, Courtesy Of Police The Islamic group Hamas runs the Gaza Strip and controls the police force. A number of young men say police plucked them from the street and shaved their heads recently, apparently because the officers didn't approve of their hairstyles. |
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Venezuelans Stock Up On Toilet Paper Amid Shortage The government of President Nicolas Maduro announced this week that it would import 50 million rolls of toilet paper to meet the growing demand. The oil-rich country already suffers from a shortage of medicine, milk and sugar. |
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Select Young Afghans Chosen As Commandoes In Training From the Afghan capital Kabul, Morning Edition's Renee Montagne talks to Gen, Joseph Dunford, the commander of all U.S. and international forces there. They discuss the challenges of the current situation on the ground, and look ahead to the withdrawal of NATO combat troops in 2014. |
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Are Buddhist Monks Involved In Myanmar's Violence? When tightly controlled societies open up, long-suppressed sectarian tensions can flare. That's been happening in Myanmar. And the twist is that Buddhist monks, widely viewed as pacifists, are part of this rising Buddhist nationalism. |
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Gerard Depardieu To Star In Two Chechnya-Based Films The actor accepted Russian citizenship in January after he denounced a proposed new tax on the rich in his native France. The Chechen connection is likely to rile human rights groups that have accused the president of the Russian republic of gross human rights violations. Depardieu will appear opposite Elizabeth Hurley in the first of the films. |
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Brazil Looks To Build A 10,000-Mile Virtual Fence Brazil's economic growth has brought about more illegal immigration and drug trafficking, so the country is hoping to make its borders more secure. But the experience in the U.S. shows that it can be a difficult undertaking. |
