Europe

Locket Leads To Identity Of Unknown Soldier

4:27pm November 11, 2014

He fell on the fields of France in 1918 along with a locket containing a strand of hair and inscribed with the name of his sweetheart in Canada. He will now get a full military funeral.

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The president of Catalonia's regional government, Artur Mas, casts his ballot Sunday in a symbolic vote on whether to break away from Spain. Some 81 percent of voters opted for independence, but Spain says the vote was illegal and will not be recognized.

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Catalonia Votes For Independence; Spain Says It Won't Happen

1:07pm November 11, 2014

by Lauren Frayer

Spain's northeast region voted overwhelmingly in favor of breaking away. But the result won't be recognized by Spain, which says the vote was illegal.

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Fraught U.S.-Russia Relationship Could Undermine Nuclear Security

7:08pm November 10, 2014

by Michele Kelemen

A former head of the Los Alamos National Laboratory has worked with Russia for years on securing loose nukes and upgrading facilities in the former Soviet Union. Siegfried Hecker is now writing a book about two decades of of nuclear cooperation.

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Hasso Herschel, shown in this undated photo, escaped from East Germany in 1961 by using a borrowed passport. Over the next decade, he helped more than 1,000 people flee by smuggling them through tunnels and hiding them in cars.

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The Cold War 'Mole' Who Smuggled 1,000 East Germans To The West

3:07pm November 10, 2014

by Emily Wasik

Hasso Herschel fled East Germany in 1961 on a false passport. Over the next decade, he helped more than 1,000 East Germans flee by smuggling them through tunnels or by hiding them inside cars.

A section of a bike path that uses solar cells to produce electricity is opening for full-time use Wednesday.

Solar Bike Path Opens This Week In The Netherlands

12:39pm November 10, 2014

by Bill Chappell

Integrating solar panels into a bike commuter path, a special roadway outside Amsterdam will generate power that's then funneled into the national energy grid.

Video footage of passport control — staffed by the notorious East German Stasi — when the Palace of Tears was a functioning border crossing between East and East.

World News

Berlin's 'Palace Of Tears,' A Reminder Of Divided Families, Despair

12:12pm November 10, 2014

by Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson

The Berlin Wall separated many German families, and their anguish was visible at the former Berlin railway station — now a museum — that was the main crossing between East and West.

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A man wearing a Catalan Nationalist flag T-shirt casts his ballot in a symbolic independence vote in Barcelona on Sunday.

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Binding Or Not, Catalans Express Themselves In Referendum Vote

11:48pm November 09, 2014

by Scott Neuman

People in the wealthy northeastern region of Spain, many of whom harbor ambitions of independence, cast ballots in a symbolic statement. The majority voted for independence, but turnout wasn't high.

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25 Years Later: Looking Back On The Fall Of The Berlin Wall

6:21pm November 09, 2014

NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates talks to Berlin correspondent Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson about the festivities marking 25 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, and Mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit, 3rd from left, place candles to commemorate the victims of the Wall at the Berlin Wall memorial site at Bernauer Strasse in Berlin, Germany, on Sunday.

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Germany's Merkel: Fall Of Berlin Wall Shows Dreams Come True

4:41pm November 09, 2014

by Scott Neuman

Chancellor Angela Merkel, marking the 25th anniversary of the event, said the destruction of the Wall showed that "nothing has to stay as it is."

Unmarked military vehicles parked on a road outside the separatist rebel-held eastern Ukrainian town of Snizhne, 50 miles from Donetsk on Saturday. Ukraine has accused Moscow of sending in more weapons and supplies to the rebels.

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Despite Truce, Heavy Shelling Resumes In Donetsk

4:20pm November 09, 2014

by Scott Neuman

In the fiercest fighting in weeks, pro-Russian separatists appear to have renewed a push to seize the city's airport.