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U.S. Worries Afghan Forces Will Divide Along Ethnic Lines

8:11am June 04, 2013

by Tom Bowman

The American combat mission in Afghanistan will end in 2014. One concern for U.S. officials is the possibility that Afghan security forces will splinter along ethnic lines. The worry then is that those troops will start taking orders from warlords.

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Mired In Recession, EU Eases Some Austerity Measures

3:39pm June 03, 2013

by John Ydstie

This week, the European Union gave some of its member nations more time to meet deficit-reduction targets — in other words, to ease back on austerity. The programs have crushed growth and sent European unemployment to a record high 12 percent.

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Sushi Chef Was Confidant To North Korea's Kim Jong Il

1:36pm June 03, 2013

Little is known about the men who have led North Korea. But one person with great insights into Kim Jong Il and his successor Kim Jong Un is a Japanese sushi chef. He provided Kim Jong Il both sushi and loyalty for many years. Renee Montagne talks to novelist Adam Johnson about his encounter with the chef, which he writes about in the latest issue of GQ magazine.

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Rio's Operations Center brings together more than 30 agencies and allows them to coordinate on daily issues such as traffic, as well as on emergencies such as the frequent flash floods in hillside slums.

World News

Rio Goes High-Tech, With An Eye Toward Olympics, World Cup

10:27am June 03, 2013

by Lourdes Garcia-Navarro

New technology is changing the way cities are run, with cutting-edge urban innovations around the globe. Sprawling, chaotic Rio de Janeiro has built a state-of-the-art operations center as it gears up for two major events.

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Fight For Homs Fades From Headlines As War In Syria Rages

10:23am June 03, 2013

by Steve Inskeep

The civil war in Syria is expected to become the focus of peace negotiations in the coming weeks. The city of Homs became famous early in the conflict. While not as many reports are being filed from there, the fighting between rebels and government troops continues.

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As Hezbollah Vows Support, The New Calculus In Syria

8:41am June 02, 2013

The leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah made a public commitment to support Syria's president in a fight to the end. Hezbollah's involvement raises serious questions about the future of Syrian rebels, and whether the civil war could spill into other countries in the Middle East.

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Grace Aber stands in the shade of a mango tree with her children in the remote village of Tumangu in northern Uganda. Four of Aber's nine children have been diagnosed with nodding syndrome, starting with Partick (front), who first showed symptoms in 2002.

After Years Of War, Ugandan Children Face New Deadly Threat

8:27am June 01, 2013

by Matthew Kielty

Uganda has lost one generation to a brutal, decades-long war. Now, a second generation is jeopardized by a strange disease known as nodding syndrome, which affects only children in parts of Africa and has no known cause.

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Manning in 1945. She and dozens of other nurses were freed by U.S. forces earlier that year.

Army Nurse Mildred Manning: An 'Angel' POW With A Job To Do

9:23pm May 31, 2013

by NPR Staff

Along with six dozen fellow U.S. Army nurses, Manning was captured while treating soldiers in the Philippines in 1942. The nurses, held prisoner for 33 months, were known as the "Angels of Bataan and Corregidor."

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This photo shows a heavily logged concession affiliated with Asia Pulp and Paper, or APP, one of the world's largest papermakers, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, in 2010.

Battling Deforestation In Indonesia, One Firm At A Time

8:57pm May 31, 2013

by Anthony Kuhn

Environmentalists are focusing on big corporations to prevent the destruction of rain forests cut down for paper products. With help from some unlikely characters, they've scored a success against one of the world's largest paper companies.

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People walk struggling for space between public transport buses and trucks at the burstling Oshodi bus stop in Lagos 06 February 2006. Lagos is reputed as one of the mostly densely populated city in the world with population more than 14 million. AFP PHOT

World News

How Recalculating GDP Can Help App Designers In Nigeria

2:34pm May 31, 2013

by Marianne McCune

Pledge 51 creates applications for Nigeria's low-tech cellphones. The company thinks it could grow its business with help from foreign investors, but Nigeria's low GDP has made that difficult. If the country changes the way it calculates this figure, that could help Pledge 51 bring in new investment.

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