World News

A poster found in Warsaw shows a QR Code for a website related to the Cicada 3301 mystery.

World News

The Internet's Cicada: A Mystery Without An Answer

6:55pm January 05, 2014

by NPR Staff

Two years ago, strange sets of bewildering puzzles appeared on the Internet, with a message encouraging "highly intelligent individuals" to try to break the code. The code led to more clues spanning a global Internet mystery, that has yet to be solved.

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Conditions are spare at the Window of Hope orphanage in Kabul, but American NGO worker Siavash Rahbari (upper left) says it's still better than how many Afghan children live.

World News

Texas Man Becomes Unlikely CFO Of Ragged Kabul Orphanage

6:14pm January 04, 2014

by Sean Carberry

After decades of war in Afghanistan, the country has thousands of orphans. One home for these children ended up with an improbable benefactor — an Iranian-American who came to Kabul to do rule of law development work, and stumbled into a side project working with disabled orphans.

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Almaz Acha sits with her baby Alentse at her home in the rural community of Sadoye, in southern Ethiopia. Families in rural communities, like this one, have benefited from Ethiopia's health extension program.

Simple, Cheap Health Remedies Cut Child Mortality In Ethiopia

12:48pm January 03, 2014

by Jason Beaubien

A baby born today in Ethiopia is three times less likely to die before age 5 than one born in 1990. This reduction in child mortality isn't due to expensive international aid but rather to an investment in bare-bones health clinics run by minimally trained community workers.

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World News

Corruption Scandal Jeopardizes Turkey's Image Of Stability

7:51am January 03, 2014

A corruption investigation in Turkey has already forced three cabinet ministers to resign. Turkish media reports say the scandal reaches to the top of the government of Prime Minister Erdogan. He's denies wrongdoing, accusing his opponents and foreign governments of conspiring to bring him down.

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Iraq Fights To Quell Uprising By Al-Qaida-Linked Militias

7:51am January 03, 2014

Using airstrikes and ground troops, the Iraqi military is fighting to quell an armed uprising by al-Qaida-linked militias in the country's western Anbar province. David Greene talks to Will Dunlop, a reporter for the French press agency, for an update.

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Chinese 100 yuan bank notes being counted at a bank in Huaibei, in eastern China's Anhui province, in 2013. Undeclared income — sometimes the proceeds of corruption, often just of unclear provenance — is estimated to make up a staggering 12 percent of

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Lure Of China's Gray Economy Reaches Rich And Poor

8:27pm January 02, 2014

by Anthony Kuhn

The proceeds from corruption, and legal and ethical gray areas, are a daily fact of life in China. The practice of gray income, which shows no sign of abating, may make political reforms more difficult.

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Social media is booming in Brazil, which has become a major market for both Facebook and Twitter. But Brazilian law is still in flux, and legislation is only just being created to deal with the rise of social media.

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Brazil's Social Media Boom Sparks Calls For New Privacy Laws

11:59am January 02, 2014

by Lourdes Garcia-Navarro

Brazil is the world's third largest market for Facebook and the fifth largest for Twitter, and it has quickly become the largest market for Lulu, the controversial man-rating app for women. That has highlighted the country's race to pass legislation to keep up with a quickly changing society.

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Saudi Arabia To Give Military Aid To Lebanon

11:29am January 02, 2014

Lebanon has announced Saudi Arabia will give it $3 billion to buy weapons. To explain the significance of this gift, Renee Montagne talks to Aram Nerguizian, a senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

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New Year's Celebrations Move Around The Globe

11:42am January 01, 2014

Renee Montagne reports on how some cities all around the world celebrated the beginning of 2014.

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A November demonstration against Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Designated Secrets Bill drew thousands of protesters. The Japanese Parliament has since passed the law, under which people convicted of leaking classified information will face five to

Japan's State Secrets Law: Hailed By U.S., Denounced By Japanese

8:31pm December 31, 2013

by Lucy Craft

Japan's tough new law protecting state secrets was a victory for Washington, which had long pressured its Asian ally to exert tighter control over classified information. But the controversial law has triggered widespread outrage in Japan and undermined the popularity of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

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