World News

A couple waits for a high-speed train in the Chinese city of Qinhuangdao. Modern infrastructure and the expanding private sector have greatly increased efficiency and customer service in many parts of Chinese life.

World News

In China, Customer Service And Efficiency Begin To Blossom

7:56pm May 29, 2013

by Frank Langfitt

NPR's Shanghai correspondent Frank Langfitt worked in China in the 1990s when the bureaucracy was crippling. Back then, Westerners hired people to sit in line for hours to pay their bills. Now, you can waltz into convenience stores and take care of such tasks in minutes.

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Syria's Civil War: The View From A Damascus Shrine

10:47am May 29, 2013

by Steve Inskeep

Syria's war has polarized the country. But as in many conflicts, a large portion of the population just wants to keep their heads down and stay out of harm's way. A visit to the Sayida Zeinab shrine offers a look into the complicated nature of the war.

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U.S. Drone Strike Hits Taliban Stronghold In Pakistan

10:47am May 29, 2013

There was a U.S. drone strike Wednesday in a Taliban stronghold of northern Pakistan, killing at least four people. It was the first strike since President Obama's speech last Thursday announcing that the use of drones would be scaled back to limit civilian casualties. It's also the first strike since Pakistan held elections earlier this month.

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Nepalese Climber Gives Up For Now On Regaining Everest Title

10:47am May 29, 2013

Five years ago when he was 76, a Nepalese climber became the oldest person to scale Mount Everest. Last week, an 80-year-old Japanese climber took the crown. The Nepalese climber has had to give up on his attempt to reclaim the title because of bad weather.

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China's Shuanghui Buys Pork Giant Smithfield For $4.7 Billion

10:47am May 29, 2013

A Chinese meat producer plans to buy the U.S. meat company Smithfield, the world's largest pork producer, for $4.7 billion. The Shuanghui company is enticing Smithfield's shareholders by offering $34 a share, about 30 percent more than Smithfield's current stock price.

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After serving in World War II, Tad Nagaki returned to Nebraska to farm corn, beans and sugar beets.

After Long Wait For Combat, Tad Nagaki Became POW Liberator

8:43am May 29, 2013

by NPR Staff

A U.S. parachute team dropped into a POW camp in China to liberate the captives after Japan surrendered in 1945. Tad Nagaki was with that team. Prior to the assignment, Nagaki had spent two years requesting combat duty, only to be denied repeatedly because of his Japanese-American ethnicity.

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A portrait of Italian philosopher, writer and politician Niccolo Machiavelli (Florence, 1469-1527) by Antonio Maria Crespi. Half a millennium after he wrote The Prince, the slim volume continues to play an important role in political thought and evoke str

World News

At 500, Machiavelli's 'Prince' Still Inspires Love And Fear

5:52pm May 28, 2013

by Sylvia Poggioli

Niccolo Machiavelli is synonymous with political deceit, cynicism and ruthlessness. He called his most famous work, The Prince, a handbook for statesmen. An exhibit in Rome celebrates the 500th anniversary of what's still one of the most influential political essays in Western literature.

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The Ummayyid Mosque in Damascus has been a mosque for around 1,400 years. It sits in the center of a city where many people are struggling to live normal lives amid war.

World News

In Damascus, A View Of Syria's War Turned Inside Out

9:41am May 28, 2013

by Steve Inskeep

There's fear and frustration in the capital, but even people who acknowledge President Bashar Assad's flaws often grimly hope for the rebels to go away: They believe the government's description of the rebels as terrorists and foreigners out to destroy the country.

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Sheep used to replace gas-guzzling lawn mowers graze at a truck warehouse at Evry, south of Paris.

World News

Let Them Eat Grass: Paris Employs Sheep As Eco-Mowers

6:02pm May 27, 2013

by Eleanor Beardsley

City officials in Paris are experimenting with an unconventional way to keep urban lawns trimmed. They are using sheep as a "green" alternative to gas-powered lawn mowers.

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Cassia Mendes, who has worked as a housekeeper for more than 20 years, cleans a house in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Feb. 19, 2012. Brazil enacted on April 2 a constitutional amendment to grant domestic workers health insurance and other benefits.

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'We Are Not Valued': Brazil's Domestic Workers Seek Rights

4:57pm May 27, 2013

by Lourdes Garcia-Navarro

Brazil has more household workers per capita than any other country. A new law in the South American nation expanded the rights of domestic workers. But despite the law being on the books now for almost two months, there is still a long way to go in changing the social dynamic in Brazil.

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