NPR Topics: World Story of the Day Podcast: Episodes
A U.S.-led task force recently closed the notorious Bagram prison north of Kabul, Afghanistan, and has begun releasing detainees it no longer deems a threat. The U.S. hopes the efforts build trust with local Afghan communities, but the reality is more complicated.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reiterated that the U.S. is committed to Israel's security. But in a speech to a pro-Israel lobby, she also repeated U.S. concerns about Israeli building projects on land also claimed by the Palestinians, which she said undermine U.S. peace efforts.
The Chilean capital, Santiago, withstood last month's 8.8 magnitude earthquake remarkably well. But mental health experts say the earthquake and the powerful aftershocks that followed it are having strong psychological effects, particularly on children.
All of the 33 children that U.S. missionaries tried to take out of Haiti after the deadly January earthquake have been returned to their parents. But at least one mother says that she would consider giving up her children for a better life elsewhere than subject them to the desperate living conditions in Haiti.
The chief minister of India's most populous state came from humble origins, but Mayawati, as she is known, has not been shy about displaying her wealth. Recently, the show of opulence at a political rally — where she accepted a garland made entirely of money — seems to have gone too far, ...
The opium trade in Afghanistan is a key source of income for the Taliban. The group uses the money to carry out suicide bombings and other attacks. But a team of Afghan police commandos is working around the clock to cut off this dangerous funding source.
The child and sex abuse scandals that rocked the Catholic Church in Ireland harmed the church's standing in the eyes of many Irish. But the church is so deeply woven into the fabric of Irish life, it is difficult for many people to distance themselves from it.
In the throes of a vicious drug war, Mexico's border city of Juarez — with its endless wave of kidnappings and executions — has become one of the most violent places on earth. The city is shouldering unfathomable sorrow, and its mothers are the most public face of that suffering.
NATO forces, who took the southern Afghan region of Marjah last month, are now trying to establish their hold on it by winning the confidence of local people. That includes paying for damage to businesses and farms from battle and paying condolences to families of civilians who were killed. A U.S. ...
A dozen ancient shipwrecks have been discovered in the Baltic Sea, just east of Sweden. The well-preserved ships are hundreds of years old. The oldest wreck may date back 800 years.
Ahead of regional elections later this month, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing coalition is facing a storm of accusations over alleged corruption. Beyond politics, many Italians report a "feeling of decay" amid a culture of fraud. An estimated one-third of Italians evade their taxes.
To show support for schoolchildren devastated by the earthquake, fifth-graders in Northridge, Calif., sent the kids letters that included poems, comic strips and stickers. The students in California and those in Haiti say they'd like to be pen pals for life.
U.S. Marines are now trying to build relationships with local people after gaining ground in the southern Afghanistan area of Marjah. But after two years of Taliban control, the group's presence is still deeply felt — especially the threats sent in "night letters" to those who cooperate with foreigners.
UNICEF estimates that more than 20,000 children lost their parents in the Jan. 12 quake and its aftermath. Relatives or neighbors are caring for many of these children. Others, such as a group of boys in a Port-au-Prince park, are fending for themselves.
Voters in Iceland have rejected a referendum that planned to spend billions of dollars to repay Britain and the Netherlands for debts spawned by the collapse of an Icelandic bank. Britain's treasury secretary said he expects to get back several billion dollars that Iceland owes, but he admitted it could ...
Europeans are debating the overall reach of the Internet into their lives. An Italian court recently convicted three Google executives for privacy violations after a clip was posted on Google Video showing a disabled student being bullied by classmates in Turin. The ruling highlights a deep trans-Atlantic ...
When great movies are ignored by the Motion Picture Academy, the reasons are often institutional. <strong>Check Back Sunday:</strong> Our live coverage includes Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! goes Hollywood, plus play-by-play coverage from Linda Holmes & friends.
During the Vietnam War, the U.S. military dropped more bombs on supply routes in Laos than it did on all of Europe during World War II. Laos is paying the price, as the countryside is still riddled with unexploded bombs — many of which look like harmless metal spheres. Bomb disposal units are trying ...
Crime is low in Chile, a country considered Latin America's most politically and socially stable. So the widespread looting that has followed last weekend's earthquake astonished many Chileans — and has people questioning just how much progress Chile has really made.
Many towns and villages along Chile's long Pacific coast took a double hit. First there was the massive earthquake on Saturday, then there was the powerful ocean surge. Dichato was one of the beach towns that was hit the hardest.