World News

A portrait of Winston Churchill in 1900, around the time he wrote "Our Modern Watchwords."

World News

Rare Churchill Poem Fails To Sell At Auction

6:23pm April 21, 2013

by NPR Staff

When the only known poem Winston Churchill wrote as an adult went up for auction in London recently, it was expected to fetch a pretty penny. But the poem failed to fetch a buyer, and now its fate is unknown. New Yorker Poetry Editor Paul Muldoon takes a critical look at "Our Modern Watchwords."

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Boston Bombing Manhunt Encompasses Boston Suburb

1:32pm April 19, 2013

For the latest on the Boston Marathon Bombing case, David Greene and Steve Inskeep talk to Fred Bever of member station WBUR and Chechen expert Thomas de Waal of the Carnegie Endowment for International peace

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Supporters of Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles protest in the area of Altamira, in Caracas, capital of Venezuela, on Monday.

World News

Post-Chavez Venezuela Grows More, Not Less, Polarized

8:37am April 19, 2013

by Juan Forero

A divide that began under President Hugo Chavez has grown deeper in the weeks since his death. "The country is simply split in two," says one Venezuelan, in the wake of violent protests after the disputed presidential election that Chavez's hand-picked heir won by a slim margin.

The small squares superimposed on this image of the Milky Way galaxy show where in the sky the Kepler telescope is hunting for Earth-like planets. Kepler, which launched in 2009, has identified more than 100 planets.

Kepler Telescope Spots 3 New Planets In The 'Goldilocks Zone'

10:26pm April 18, 2013

by Joe Palca

The planets orbiting far-off stars are close to Earth-sized and are a distance from their suns that makes their surfaces neither too hot nor too cold. Since launching in 2009, the Kepler telescope has identified more than 100 planets.

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World News

Malala: How A Young Girl Became A World Symbol

2:28pm April 18, 2013

Fifteen-year-old Malala Yousafzai has become a symbol of hope for change in Pakistan and the world. Since her near-fatal shooting in 2012, her voice and reach has grown, as she speaks out against the Taliban's influence, and advocates for education for Pakistani youth.

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Spc. Tad Donoho exhibits a "pink belly," in which soldiers hit a colleague's stomach until it bruises for his birthday. "[Photographer Tim Hetherington] had this tremendous interest in human beings," Sebastian Junger tells NPR's Renee Montagne. "In some w

World News

In 'Which Way,' A War Photographer In His Element

12:22pm April 18, 2013

by NPR Staff

Writer-director Sebastian Junger remembers his friend and colleague Tim Hetherington, killed in April 2011 by mortar fire in the Libyan city of Misrata.

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Photographer Tim Hetherington during an assignment for Vanity Fair Magazine at the Restrepo outpost.

Sebastian Junger: 'Which Way' To Turn After Hetherington's Death

11:53am April 18, 2013

In a new documentary premiering on HBO, the journalist explores the life of his friend, the war photographer Tim Hetherington. The two collaborated on the 2010 documentary Restrepo, and Junger was profoundly changed after Hetherington was killed by shrapnel in Libya in 2011.

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World News

Large Police Presence Surrounds Margaret Thatcher's Funeral

10:22pm April 17, 2013

by Eleanor Beardsley

Margaret Thatcher was laid to rest in a funeral attended by dignitaries from around the globe as well as Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip on Wednesday. It's the first funeral of a British politician attended by the Queen since Sir Winston Churchill's in 1965.

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Is The United States A 'Dispensable Nation'?

2:04pm April 16, 2013

In his new book, The Dispensable Nation, former State Department adviser Vali Nasr explores the state of U.S. foreign policy in Afghanistan and beyond. Nasr says the U.S. "is happy ... to play a less important role, to no longer be the stabilizer."

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North Korean Rhetoric Isn't Out Of The Ordinary

2:48am April 16, 2013

Monday is the birthday of North Korea's founder, and it's always marked by a massive military display. In the run-up to this day, Pyongyang unleashed a round of bellicose military rhetoric, and sparked another round of international anxiety over North Korea's nuclear intentions. Steve Inskeep talks to North Korea scholar Andrei Lankov, a professor at Kookmin University in Seoul, South Korea, and author of the new book: The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia.

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