Search results for

The Chinese detention of a U.S. spy plane and its crew is affecting every aspect of the two nations' often fragile relationship. And that may create an opportunity for supporters of Taiwan, the offshore island state that China considers a wayward province. The budding crisis may be a boon to members of Congress who want the U.S. to sell state-of-the-art weapons to Taiwan. NPR's Steve Inskeep reports.

In an effort to stabilize their economies, a number of South American countries have fixed the value of their currencies to the American dollar. In Argentina, for example, bank customers can get their money in either pesos or U.S. dollars. They're worth the same amount. But there's a downside to the move -- those countries have essentially ceded control over their economies. Some of them are now reconsidering the idea. NPR's Martin Kaste reports.

NPR's Emily Harris reports organized labor is disturbed about several Bush administration decisions and is preparing to oppose Republican congressional candidates next year. Organized business, on the other hand, is taking its issues to the administration, especially at the regulatory level of federal agencies.

Commentator Lenore Skenazy offers a satire about a moneyless high-tech investor who gets offered a sleazy retirement plan full of perils to replace her once sizeable portfolio.

NPR's David Welna reports on today's action in the House of Representatives on the proposed repeal of estate taxes. The plan would reduce the top rate of 55 percent to 39 percent by 2010, and then phase it out altogether in 2011. It's a move that is expected to cost $193 billion over the next 10 years.

The idea of one nation publicly apologizing to another is a relatively recent development in international diplomacy. Robert Siegel talks about it with Elazar Barkan, chair of the cultural studies department at Claremont Graduate University and author of The Guilt of Nations: Restitution and Negotiating Historical Injustices. (4:00) The Guilt of Nations is published by W.W. Norton & Company.

From member station WCPN in Cleveland, Janet Babin reports on the serious consequences of the latest U.S. Census for a small suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. (4:00) For more, check out NPR coverage of Census 2000.

NPR's Beijing Correspondent Rob Gifford talks with host Lisa Simeone about today's mid-air collision between a U.S. Navy surveillance plane and a Chinese aircraft. The Chinese plane went down, and the pilot is missing. The U.S. plane made an emergency landing; all 24 members of the crew are reported safe.

NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports from Belgrade on the surrender and arrest early this morning of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic.

Israel has arrested several members of Yassar Arafat's elite Force 17 bodyguard unit, accusing them of carrying out attacks against Israeli civilians. On the West Bank today, funerals took place for two young victims of violence. NPR's Eric Weiner reports from Hebron.

Lawyer and satirist Kevin Underhill presents his new translation of Dante's epic Inferno. Read the translation.

Poet Peter Balakian has a new book out, June-Tree: New and Selected Poems. Rebekkah Presson Mosby reports on Balakian's perennial concerns with history and his interpretation.

Noah Adams speaks with Zoran Kusovac, Balkans correspondent for Jane's Defense Weekly. The army of Macedonia is fighting Albanians rebels in the hills above the town of Tetovo. Kusovac explains the inherent difficulty of defeating an insurgent rebel group -- particularly in this situation. The Macedonian army is an old vestige of the former Yugoslav military and depends on one-year conscripts (some of whom are Albanian) to fight the rebels. Kusovac says this kind of battle requires small, well-armed and trained mobile army units to penetrate guerilla territory.

NPR's Eric Weiner in Jerusalem reports Israeli military authorities are questioning a scholar about a book he wrote on Israel's nuclear weapons program. Avner Cohen's book Israel and the Bomb was published three years ago in the United States after Israeli censors refused to allow its publication in Israel. Cohen, back in Israel on a visit, could face prosecution for violating the country's Military Secrets Act.

Conservative author David Horowitz sought to place ads in college newspapers across the country denouncing calls for reparations to African-Americans for slavery. Most papers declined to run the ads. Many of those that did sparked protests on their campuses. Av Harris reports from Providence -- Brown University was one of the schools whose paper ran the ad.

John T. Edge tells the story of Georgia Gilmore, who sold food to finance the bus boycott -- and whose kitchen was a safe haven and source of good Southern cooking for civil rights leaders. She died March 9, 1990 as she was preparing food to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Selma-Montgomery March; the food was served to her mourners instead.

Cartoon creator William Hanna died yesterday at age 90. Host Bob Edwards talks about the much loved cartoons Hanna created with his partner Joseph Barbera. They include Scooby Doo, The Jetsons, The Flintstones, Tom and Jerry, and many others.

NPR's Larry Abramson reports on last night's burn-down of the Russian space-station Mir. Some sky-watchers in Fiji were able to see a burning fire in the sky as the station entered the Earth's atmosphere.

Host Bob Edwards talks with George Stevens, San Diego Deputy Mayor, who introduced a resolution to eliminate the word "minority" from all official city documents and discussions. Stevens, an African American, suggests "minority" is a word of subtle discrimination employed by whites. The resolution was approved by the San Diego City Council this month.

New numbers from the American Public Transportation Association say that public transportation use rose 3.5 percent in the past year, the highest level in more than four decades. Americans also drove 2.7 trillion miles last year, the same amount as in 1999. Linda Wertheimer speaks with James Hughes about the figures and what they mean for public transportation. Hughes is the dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.

In a rare defection from China, a senior officer of the People's Liberation Army has taken refuge in the United States (as of December). He is said to know a lot about China's strategic plans regarding the United States and Taiwan. Beijing takes defections seriously but this case apparently has NOT disrupted U.S.-China relations too much. Both sides were aware of it this week as President Bush and his aides met with Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen. Those talks were regarded as successful.

The Senate has now spent five days debating a bill designed to reduce the flow of money into federal election campaigns. The bill would outlaw so-called "soft money" contributions, large amounts of unregulated cash that go not to candidates but to the political parties. So far, the amendments that might have crippled the bill have been turned back. And although the bill has been turned back repeatedly in the past, this spring it seems to be building momentum. NPR's Peter Overby reports.

British investigators trying to track the source of the catastrophic foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in the UK are focusing on the idea that it may have come into the country with smuggled meat products. Robert Siegel talks to Lester Crawford, director of the Georgetown Center for Food and Nutrition Policy, and former president of the American Veterinary Epidemiology Society.

NPR's Patricia Neighmond reports many parents of autistic children are experimenting with treatments for autism and working to speed up research on the disorder.

Writer Ann McBride Norton says in China, basketball is becoming a craze. The NCAA playoffs were broadcast live in China last year. And knock-off NBA gear can be found everywhere. Courts on universities and playgrounds are filled with kids playing and parents cheering them on. It is so popular, says Norton, that the sport seems to be creeping into the most unexpected places.