World News

An Afghan laborer works in a firewood yard at a market in Herat on Dec. 11, 2011.

Afghanistan's Forests A Casualty Of Timber Smuggling

2:34pm March 18, 2013

Over the past three decades, the U.N. says Afghanistan's forest cover has decreased by about 50 percent — to just about 2 percent of the country's land. The main reason is the illegal harvesting and trade of timber. A visit to Kunar province, near the Pakistan border, reveals that many people, from top officials down, are involved.

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World News

A Decade Later, What Was Accomplished In Iraq

2:16pm March 18, 2013

In March 2003, U.S. troops crossed from Kuwait into Iraq with the goal of toppling dictator Saddam Hussein. Within weeks, the Hussein regime had fallen. The occupation that followed left U.S. combat forces in the country until December 2011. The legacy of the war is still widely debated.

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The Iraq War: 10 Years Later, Where Do We Stand?

10:32am March 17, 2013

by NPR Staff

The war has cost thousands of lives and trillions of dollars, and there are many who will live with its legacy forever. Now, as it tries to stabilize without U.S. combat troops, the conflict in neighboring Syria could threaten its security.

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Reading The Tea Leaves Of Obama's Mideast Trip

9:57am March 17, 2013

President Obama will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas when he travels to the Middle East next week. Host Scott Simon talks with Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic and Bloomberg View about the president's upcoming trip.

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Dr. Hamad Suleiman Daher, shown here with his youngest daughter, was the first person to receive a kidney transplant in Gaza.

Can Kidney Transplants Ease Strain On Gaza's Health System?

9:54am March 17, 2013

by Larry Abramson

Years of war have overtaxed Gaza's hospitals, making it tough for kidney patients to get good treatment. Thanks to help from British doctors, Gaza surgeons are now being trained to perform kidney transplants. They hope to help ease the huge demand for dialysis, but transplants have their own cost.

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The 12th National People's Congress holds the election for its new president at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Thursday.

World News

From Police Chief To Political Office, Jobs Are For Sale In China

10:15pm March 15, 2013

by Louisa Lim

China's new president has vowed to crack down on corruption. One widespread practice involves paying bribes to get high-level positions in politics or the bureaucracy.

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Vladimir Putin Hobnobs With ... Steven Seagal

6:44am March 15, 2013

First, Russian President Vladimir Putin granted citizenship to French actor Gerard Depardieu. Now, Putin is hobnobbing with the actor Steven Seagal. The star of Under Siege toured a new sports facility with Putin, who used the occasion to call for reviving a Soviet-era fitness program in which kids threw javelins, learned to ski and fired guns.

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Diners eat at Fouquet's restaurant, a landmark on the Champs Elysees in Paris for more than a century. Traditional cafes and shops are steadily giving way to large global chains.

World News

As Global Chains Move In, The Champs Elysees Gets A New Look

6:49pm March 14, 2013

by Eleanor Beardsley

Some Parisians worry that an avenue once considered the most beautiful in the world is starting to take on the character of an American shopping strip.

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An Islamist rebel group in Aleppo called "the Authority for the Promotion of Virtue and Supporting the Oppressed" reviews applications for aid on Feb. 25. In addition to handing out aid, the Islamist group says it is carrying out civilian administration i

World News

Courts Become A Battleground For Secularists, Islamists In Syria

6:49pm March 14, 2013

by Deborah Amos

Islamist brigades are competing with pro-democracy civilians to shape Syria's future. In many areas in rebel-held northern Syria, Islamists have set up religious courts that deliver rulings under Shariah, or Islamic law.

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North Korea's Threats Grow More Ominous

2:38pm March 14, 2013

North Korea scrapped the 1953 armistice agreement that ended the Korean War, escalating fears of a preemptive nuclear attack on the U.S. Tuft University Korean studies professor Sung-Yoon Lee discusses this precarious moment for North Korea, its neighbors and the international community.

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