LATEST FROM NPR

Pages

6:22am

Sat April 21, 2012
Europe

Emerging Markets Promise IMF Financial Firepower

Originally published on Sat April 21, 2012 10:46 am

Credit Charles Dharapak / AP
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde announced Friday that the IMF had raised $430 billion, surpassing its stated goal.

International Monetary Fund officials and members of the G-20 nations announced Friday that member countries have pledged $430 billion to add to the Fund's crisis-fighting arsenal.

The Fund's managing director Christine Lagarde came into the annual World Bank-IMF spring meetings in Washington, D.C., with a goal of raising $400 billion from member states. She was clearly happy and relieved as she announced a number larger than that.

Read more

3:08am

Sat April 21, 2012
Interviews

Fresh Air Weekend: Carl Zimmer, The Three Stooges

Originally published on Sat April 21, 2012 11:58 am

Credit Peter Iovino / Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
After they leave their orphanage for the first time, Curly (Will Sasso) bears a heavy burden — his fellow Stooges, Moe (Chris Diamantopoulos, left) and Larry (Sean Hayes).

Fresh Air Weekend highlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, and new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interviews with writers, filmmakers, actors, and musicians, and often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week:

Read more

6:17pm

Fri April 20, 2012
The Disappearing Coast

Two Years Later, BP Spill Reminders Litter Gulf Coast

It's been two years since the Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 rig workers and unleashing the worst oil spill in U.S. history. The oil has long stopped flowing and BP spent billions of dollars to clean up oiled beaches and waterways, but the disaster isn't necessarily over.

Oil fouled some 1,100 miles of Gulf Coast shoreline, but today, in most spots, you can't see obvious signs of the spill. In Orange Beach, Ala., the clear emerald waters of the Gulf roll onto sugar-white sand beaches.

Read more

6:14pm

Fri April 20, 2012
The Two-Way

Reports: More Agents Involved, More Expected Dismissals In Prostitution Scandal

Originally published on Fri April 20, 2012 6:37 pm

Update at 6:19 p.m. ET. Three Secret Service Agents Step Down:

The Secret Service confirmed that three "additional employees have chosen to resign" and a twelfth employee has been implicated.

"At this point, five employees continue to be on administrative leave and their security clearances remain suspended pending the outcome of this investigation," the agency said in a press release.

The three dismissals today brings the total number of agents forced out of the agency because of the scandal to six.

Read more

4:33pm

Fri April 20, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

Couples Should Get Tested For HIV Together, Treated Right Away, WHO Says

Originally published on Mon April 23, 2012 10:05 am

Credit iStockphoto.com
What do you say we go get HIV tested together?

The World Health Organization is telling couples around the world to get tested together to see if either is infected with HIV.

If one of them is, that partner should start treatment with anti-HIV drugs – even if it's not yet medically necessary.

Read more

4:31pm

Fri April 20, 2012
The Two-Way

In First Test For Racial Justice Act, Judge Commutes Man's Death Sentence

A North Carolina judge commuted the death sentence of convicted murderer Marcus Robinson saying racial bias tainted his trial and sentencing. Instead, Robinson will serve life in prison.

Read more

4:31pm

Fri April 20, 2012
It's All Politics

Presidential Fundraising Numbers Poised To Skyrocket

Originally published on Mon April 23, 2012 5:11 pm

The latest financial numbers are coming out Friday from the campaigns of President Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney — along with the superPACs that love them.

First, the easy numbers: $53 million was raised in March to re-elect Obama and $12.6 million was raised by the Romney campaign to win the Republican primaries.

But those easy numbers don't give a complete picture.

Read more

4:28pm

Fri April 20, 2012
'Radio Diaries'

The Artful Reinvention Of Klansman Asa Earl Carter

Originally published on Fri April 20, 2012 6:11 pm

In the early 1990s, The Education of Little Tree became a publishing phenomenon. It told the story of an orphan growing up and learning the wisdom of his Native American ancestors, Cherokee Texan author Forrest Carter's purported autobiography.

Read more

3:36pm

Fri April 20, 2012
Deceptive Cadence

To Russia, With Musical Love — After 22 Years' Absence

Originally published on Fri April 20, 2012 6:06 pm

Credit Todd Rosenberg / Courtesy of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
An advertisement in Moscow for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's first concerts in Russia in more than two decades.

This week, music is bringing Americans and Russians together in a way that policy discussions never can. And don't call that a cliche in front of the music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

If U.S. relations with Russia have hit a sticky patch over Syria and other issues lately, that didn't stop the Chicago Symphony from thrilling a Russian audience this past Wednesday night, just as it did on its last visit — to the then-Soviet Union in 1990.

Read more

3:34pm

Fri April 20, 2012
Asia

Slowly, Myanmar Dares To Believe Change Is Real

Originally published on Fri April 20, 2012 6:06 pm

In Myanmar, there are signs in the most unlikely places that people are starting to believe recent political reforms are for real, and aren't just a trick.

Take a recent performance of the Moustache Brothers vaudeville troupe in the northern city of Mandalay.

The troupe performs in the family home — it's not allowed to perform in public. Its biting political satire, aimed at the generals and their cronies, has made the troupe a favorite of Western tourists and diplomats.

Read more

3:17pm

Fri April 20, 2012
NPR Story

Week In Politics: Election, GSA And Secret Service Scandals

Originally published on Fri April 20, 2012 6:06 pm

Melissa Block speaks with our regular political commentators, E.J. Dionne of The Washington Post and Brookings Institution, and David Brooks of The New York Times.

3:17pm

Fri April 20, 2012
NPR Story

Strange Time To Be A Governor

Originally published on Fri April 20, 2012 6:06 pm

If the rule of threes holds, it's a strange time to be a U.S. governor. From bears in bird feeders to snoozing to Springsteen, Melissa Block recounts a trio of oddball things governors from Vermont, North Dakota and New Jersey have had to deal with in the last week or so.

3:17pm

Fri April 20, 2012
NPR Story

Bill Could Complicate U.S.-Russia Relations

Originally published on Fri April 20, 2012 6:06 pm

Republicans and Democrats don't agree about much on Capitol Hill these days, but there is one bill gaining bipartisan support. It's legislation that would punish human rights violators in Russia by naming them and denying them visas to the U.S. But the Obama administration is not on board yet. U.S. diplomats worry it could complicate relations at a time when the U.S. needs Russia's support most.

2:53pm

Fri April 20, 2012
The Salt

For Most Of Human History, Being An Omnivore Was No Dilemma

Credit Ted S. Warren / AP
Gorillas are fine with being herbivores, like this one at a Seattle zoo. But humans evolved as omnivores. Is diet destiny?

If diet is destiny, then modern humans should thank our ancestors for their ability to eat just about anything.

Two new studies peek into the distant past to try to figure out just how big a role food played in human evolution. One says that eating meat made it possible for early human mothers to wean babies earlier and have more children.

Read more

2:42pm

Fri April 20, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

Dutch Government Set To Reconsider Restrictions On Bird Flu Study

Originally published on Mon April 23, 2012 10:07 am

Credit Aaron Tam / AFP/Getty Images
Chickens were killed in Hong Kong last December in an effort to halt the spread of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.

A Dutch virologist is considering his full range of legal options if his government refuses to lift the restrictions it has put on his controversial bird flu research, and matters could quickly come to a head after a meeting next Monday that will be attended by U. S. observers.

Read more

2:17pm

Fri April 20, 2012
World Cafe

Of Monsters And Men On World Cafe

Originally published on Wed June 20, 2012 10:58 am

Credit Hörður Sveinsson / Courtesy of the artist
Of Monsters And Men are an Icelandic folk-rock band.

Of Monsters and Men is an Icelandic sextet specializing in catchy folk-pop. The group came together in 2009 when singer Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir began recruiting backups for her acoustic solo act. In 2010, Of Monsters and Men gained national fame when it won an annual Icelandic battle of the bands; since then, the buzz has only grown.

Read more

2:16pm

Fri April 20, 2012
The Two-Way

Bus Crash In Mexico Leaves 43 Dead

There's another bit of tragic news to report today: 43 people are dead after a truck crashed into a passenger bus in eastern Mexico today. Authorities told the AFP that the incident happened after a trailer came loose and hit a bus carrying agricultural workers headed to work.

The AP reports:

Read more

2:08pm

Fri April 20, 2012
Europe

In France, Fiery Leftist Candidate Strikes A Nerve

Originally published on Fri April 20, 2012 6:06 pm

1:46pm

Fri April 20, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

Exercising Even A Little Bit Makes It Easier For Smokers To Quit

Originally published on Mon April 23, 2012 10:16 am

Credit Paul Gilham / Getty Images
A competitor stops for a cigarette after he broke down during the Enduropale race at Le Touquet Beach on February 22, 2009 in Le Touquet, France.

Smoking is bad. Quitting smoking is hard. But exercising can make quitting easier, and make sliding back into smoking less likely.

That's the word from a big new study, which tracked the health and habits of 434,190 people in Taiwan from 1996 to 2008. Smokers who got just 15 minutes of exercise a day were 55 percent more likely to quit than were people who weren't active at all. And those active smokers were 43 percent less likely to relapse when they did quit.

Read more

1:45pm

Fri April 20, 2012
The Two-Way

The Pineapple And The Hare: Can You Answer Two Bizarre State Exam Questions?

Originally published on Fri April 20, 2012 7:09 pm

A story and two questions on the New York state English exam taken by eighth-graders this week has stumped many — including Jeopardy! star Ken Jennings.

The story — titled The Pineapple and the Hare — was included in a New York Daily News story about the consternation the questions have caused.

Read more

Pages