Race
2:00 am
Thu November 17, 2011

Rwanda Genocide Survivor To Sit On Holocaust Museum Board

Renee Montagne talks to Rwandan refugee Clemantine Wamariya about her recent appointment to the board of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Wamariya survived the Rwandan genocide and is now a student at Yale.

Business
2:00 am
Thu November 17, 2011

Labor Department Wants To Make Farming Safer For Kids

The Labor Department has proposed changes that would outlaw farm kids under the age of 16 from driving tractors, branding cattle and handling pesticides. Family farmers are angry about the proposal and accuse the government of encroaching on a sacred part of country life. But statics show kids who work on farms are six times more likely to be killed than children working in other industries. Peggy Lowe of Harvest Public Media reports.

Africa
2:00 am
Thu November 17, 2011

Presidential Candidate Orders Congo Supporters To Stage Jail Breaks

Campaigning in the Democratic Republic of Congo has taken a stormy turn. Veteran opposition politician and presidential candidate Etienne Tshisekedi proclaimed himself president, and ordered his supporters to stage jailbreaks to free their detained colleagues.

Environment
2:00 am
Thu November 17, 2011

EPA Sites Asarco For Toxic Violations

The Environmental Protection Agency says the Asarco copper smelter in Hayden, Arizona, has been continuously emitting illegal amounts of lead, arsenic and eight other dangerous toxins, for the last six years. The agency's finding means Asarco could face millions of dollars in fines and could be forced to install expensive pollution controls. The EPA disclosed the action last week to NPR and the Center for Public Integrity, which were jointly investigating toxic air pollution in the town.

Books
2:00 am
Thu November 17, 2011

2011 National Book Award Winners Announced

Stephen Greenblatt's "The Swerve," a dramatic account of the Renaissance-era rediscovery of the Latin poet Lucretius, won for nonfiction. "Salvage the Bones," set in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, by Jesmyn Ward, won for fiction.

The Two-Way
12:15 am
Thu November 17, 2011

At A Quiet Zuccotti Park, Occupy Wall Street Prepares For Big Protests

Credit Eyder Peralta / NPR
A near-empty Zuccotti Park on Wednesday night.

Late at night on Wednesday, protesters at Zuccotti Park in New York were outnumbered by police. But every now and then a new protester would come into the park and just stare at the space like they were looking at it for the first time.

Jo Robbin, 29, was one of them. One of the first things she did as soon as she made it past the security check point was pull up her sleeves to show the red markings the plastic ties had left her.

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Radio Theater
12:01 am
Thu November 17, 2011

Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers (Part 2)

Sun. 11/27 6p: Continued from Part 1. In the late 1960’s, a classified government study of the Vietnam War revealed that the U.S. had misled the public regarding its intentions in Southeast Asia. Yet the Nixon administration continued to paint an optimistic picture of the war effort while sending more and more young Americans into the conflict. 

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Asia
10:01 pm
Wed November 16, 2011

Asia In Focus As U.S Expands Australia Defense Ties

Credit Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and President Obama hold a joint news conference in Australia on Wednesday. The U.S. is sending some 250 U.S. Marines to the country next year, a number that will later grow to 2,500.

Originally published on Thu November 17, 2011 10:40 am

President Obama traveled early Thursday to the Australian city of Darwin, a base for past U.S.-Australian military cooperation. Now it will be one of several military bases from which the U.S. operates as it seeks to reassert itself in Asia.

Some 250 U.S. Marines will arrive in northern Australia next year, a number that will later expand to about 2,500. U.S. jets and warships will also train with the Australians.

Abraham Denmark, a China specialist at the Center for Naval Analyses, sees the new focus on Asia as a natural evolution of U.S. interests.

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Shots - Health Blog
10:01 pm
Wed November 16, 2011

Why Brain Injuries Are More Common In Preemies

Scientists say they are beginning to understand why brain injuries are so common in very premature infants — and they are coming up with strategies to prevent or repair these injuries.

The advances could eventually help reduce the number of premature babies who develop cerebral palsy, epilepsy or behavioral disorders such as ADHD, researchers told the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington, D.C., this week.

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Newt Gingrich
10:01 pm
Wed November 16, 2011

By Attacking The Media, Gingrich Built A Following

Credit Scott Olson / Getty Images
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has relished attacking the journalists questioning him during the GOP debates.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was once written off as a footnote in the 2012 Republican presidential primaries. But, for the moment, polls now show him among the leaders.

Gingrich may have found his voice, in part, by turning the tables on the political press. Republicans have been doing this for decades — quite explicitly at least since Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew in 1968.

In Gingrich's case, it was a strategy masquerading as a tactic — one that he adopted over the summer at a time of desperation.

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