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Why Music Played An Important Role In Mandela's Life

10:49am December 06, 2013

Morning Edition reports on the music that sustained Nelson Mandela and other members of the anti-apartheid movement while they were in a South African prison. Many of them were huge reggae fans.

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For Much Of His Life, Mandela Was A Controversial Figure

10:49am December 06, 2013

Former South African President Nelson Mandela is universally admired but there was a time when he was caught up in controversy. Steve Inskeep talks to Bill Keller, a columnist for The New York Times, about Mandela's controversial past.

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Songwriter Clegg On Mandela, South Africans' 'Bridge'

10:49am December 06, 2013

Renee Montagne talks to South African musician Johnny Clegg about his relationship with Nelson Mandela, who died Thursday at age 95. Clegg says his banned 1980s song that named Mandela and became an anthem came to him one day when he woke to gunshots and wondered "who can bridge you and me, every South African."

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Near Mandela's Soweto Home, A Gathering Of Mourners

10:49am December 06, 2013

NPR's Gregory Warner speaks with Renee Montagne about the scene near the family home of Nelson Mandela in Soweto, South Africa, where people are gathered to mourn the former president's life.

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A well-wisher uses his phone to take a picture of a banner of photos of Nelson Mandela outside the Mediclinic Heart Hospital in Pretoria, where the former South African president is being treated.

World News

South Africans Ponder A Nation Without Mandela

7:10pm December 05, 2013

by Jason Beaubien

The anti-apartheid hero has been a unifying force in South Africa, particularly for the ruling African National Congress. There's concern, however, that xenophobia, racism and political infighting may grow once the "father of the nation" dies.

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People line up outside a government unemployment office in Madrid on Oct. 5. Spain has an unemployment rate of 26 percent.

Help-Wanted Ad Shows Depths Of Spain's Unemployment Problem

4:05pm December 05, 2013

by Lauren Frayer

Having trouble wrapping your head around southern Europe's staggering unemployment problem? This week, Ikea advertised for 400 jobs in a new megastore on Spain's Mediterranean coast. It got more than 20,000 online applicants in 48 hours, before the retailer's computer servers crashed.

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Syrian boys line up to get the polio vaccine at a refugee camp in Sidon, Lebanon, on Nov. 7. The Lebanese government plans to vaccinate all kids under age 5 for the virus, including Syrian refugees.

As Polio Spreads In Syria, Politics Thwarts Vaccination Efforts

9:31am December 05, 2013

by Deborah Amos

The polio outbreak in Syria has spread to four cities, and new cases are suspected each day. But U.N. agencies responsible for combating the outbreak can work only with the Syrian government. This limitation has hobbled vaccination efforts in rebel-held regions, where the virus was first detected.

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Auliya Atrafi in his office in Nad Ali, next to a selection of the books he had shipped from England. His library is one of his prized possessions, and he shipped them because he's unlikely to find these books in his native Afghanistan.

World News

There And Back Again: One Afghan's Journey To Find Home

9:28pm December 04, 2013

by Sean Carberry

In 2000, Auliya Atrafi paid thousands of dollars and risked his life to escape Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. He spent 12 years in England, but recently returned to his homeland, where he is trying to readjust to — and change — life in a conservative society.

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Nothing Says Christmas Like 700 Screaming Faces

7:20pm December 04, 2013

by NPR Staff

Every year, as a gift to the American people, the Norwegian Embassy decorates the Christmas tree at Washington, D.C.'s Union Station. This year's tree is decorated with 700 reflective ornaments featuring the man from the painting The Scream by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. This month marks the 150th anniversary of Munch's birth.

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PLANET MONEY MAKES A T-SHIRT: The Lives Of The Workers Who Made Our Shirt

'Our Industry Follows Poverty': Success Threatens A T-Shirt Business

6:26pm December 04, 2013

by Marianne McCune

Colombia's economy has been growing, and wages have been rising. That's good for the country as a whole, but it may wind up driving away the T-shirt industry.

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