Europe

Love At First Sound: A Romantic Story From World War II

4:15pm December 05, 2013

British couple Steve and Maureen Stevens are celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary. The young RAF pilot was returning from a World War II bombing mission over Germany when a lovely voice came on his cockpit radio guiding him down. Rushing up to the control tower he found a glamorous member of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force.

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People line up outside a government unemployment office in Madrid on Oct. 5. Spain has an unemployment rate of 26 percent.

Help-Wanted Ad Shows Depths Of Spain's Unemployment Problem

4:05pm December 05, 2013

by Lauren Frayer

Having trouble wrapping your head around southern Europe's staggering unemployment problem? This week, Ikea advertised for 400 jobs in a new megastore on Spain's Mediterranean coast. It got more than 20,000 online applicants in 48 hours, before the retailer's computer servers crashed.

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The fifth century Byzantine Stoudios monastery in Istanbul housed a church and was later turned into a mosque and then a museum before falling into disrepair.

World News

Some Turkish Churches Get Makeovers — As Mosques

8:11pm December 03, 2013

by Peter Kenyon

A fifth century Byzantine monastery in Turkey is finally slated for renovation. But the government wants to turn it into a mosque. It's just one of several conversions of historically Christian sites that the government is considering, a move the country's dwindling number of Greeks decry.

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Swedish Inmate Escapes To Go To The Dentist

1:27pm December 02, 2013

The prisoner complained of a toothache but says he couldn't get anyone to help him treat it. So, according to Swedish media, the 51-year-old man escaped, and went to a dentist. He had his tooth pulled and then turned himself in to authorities.

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Cyclists negotiate rush hour traffic in central London on Nov. 15. Fourteen London cyclists have died so far this year, all in accidents involving heavy goods vehicles.

World News

Londoners Urged To Cycle, But Commute Can Be Treacherous

7:30pm November 19, 2013

by Vicki Barker

The London mayor has been urging people to get around by bike for years. And this year, 14 London cyclists have been killed — a higher casualty count than that of the British military in Afghanistan. In each fatal accident, a heavy truck was involved.

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Happy Birthday Prince Charles

7:12am November 14, 2013

The heir to the British throne turns 65 on Thursday, making him eligible for his government pension. The prince plans to donate his $175 a week to charity.

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Duke Will Be 'Crowned' For Foreseeable Future

7:39am November 13, 2013

Crowning the Duke of Wellington with a traffic cone is a tradition in Glasgow, Scotland. Frustrated officials wanted to raise the 1844 statue to a height that could keep the cones off the duke's head. Removing them costs the city $160 each time. But the effort to elevate the duke was stopped by a petition.

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Russian Subway Promotion Counts Deep Knee Bends

6:58am November 11, 2013

Riders are being offered a 30-ruble, one-ride ticket if they perform 30 squats. A machine counts your deep knee bends and dispenses a ticket, if you finish 30 in two minutes. It's a promotion ahead of the winter Olympics in Russia.

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Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat boards a helicopter in Ramallah, the West Bank, for the start of his journey to a hospital in France on Oct. 29, 2004. He died 2 weeks later.

Lighting Up The Investigative Path With Polonium-210

6:58pm November 10, 2013

by NPR Staff

Conspiracy theories continue over the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, and polonium is suspected as the weapon of the alleged assassin. Whatever happened to Arafat, there is a case from 2006 that shows just how destructive the radioactive element can be. It all started with a sip of green tea.

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View of a destroyed Jewish shop in Berlin on Nov. 11, 1938, after the anti-Semitic violence of Kristallnacht. The pogrom unleashed Nazi-coordinated attacks on thousands of synagogues and Jewish businesses.

World News

Bearing Witness To Nazis' Life-Shattering Kristallnacht

2:26pm November 10, 2013

by Esme Nicholson

On Nov. 9, 1938, the Nazis burned down synagogues, destroyed Jewish businesses and arrested more than 26,000 Jews. Germans and Jews alike are still grappling with the legacy, 75 years later. Margot Friedlander is one survivor, who has returned to Berlin after decades of exile.

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