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Late President Hugo Chavez helped out ideological peers in Latin America, as well as key U.S. allies in the Caribbean. But with Venezuela's own financial challenges and an upcoming presidential election, many of those countries are worried their vital oil lifeline is about to be shut off.

A plague of locusts has recently moved from the Sinai Peninsula into southern Israel. Host Scott Simon talks with NPR's Larry Abramson about the swarms that have arrived just a few weeks ahead of the Passover holiday.

Washington Post food editor Joe Yonan took a bit of a professional risk this week by publicly declaring his vegetarianism. He's not alone: Many Americans say they've cut back on meat in recent years, and like Yonan, they cite health as a primary concern.

With Chavez gone, his handpicked successor is in the spotlight. Nicolas Maduro has adopted Chavez's style and anti-imperialist rhetoric. That should help boost his appeal as he faces opposition leader Henrique Capriles in a special election April 14.

The mascot for Arizona State is Sparky the Sun Devil, who wore a red costume with horns and a pitchfork. After Disney helped update Sparky, some students found his new look — with big eyes and bulging muscles — creepy.

Some Syrians in the U.S. are wracked with guilt that they can't do more to help their countrymen. Others are taking action. One Syrian-American gun enthusiast is doing his part to arm and train the rebels, and a Syrian doctor hopes to help train civilian doctors in conflict zones on trauma medicine. (This piece initially aired March 5, 2013 on All Things Considered.)

Host Scott Simon speaks with NPR's Juan Forero about Venezuela's mourning period for its late president, Hugo Chavez.

Steve Inskeep speaks with Akbar Ahmed about his book The Thistle and the Drone: How America's War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam. In the late 1970s, Ahmed was in charge of the tribal area of Pakistan known as South Waziristan — a region he says is the most dangerous place in the world.

Artist Llyn Foulkes has been an underground force on the Los Angeles art scene for more than 50 years. His work is in the permanent collections of the Whitney in New York and L.A.'s MOCA. He's won first prize at the Paris Biennale, and he's been on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, as a musician. Carolina Miranda has a profile of a very unusual man.

Host Scott Simon talks with reporter and author John Thavis about the divisions among cardinals voting at the conclave to select a new pope for the Catholic Church. Thavis is the author of The Vatican Diaries.