Search results for

Defense officials ask Congress to approve new dual-use satellites that can distinguish between "airbursts" caused by random asteroids sneaking into the atmosphere and exploding warheads. NPR's Eric Niiler reports.

Investigative journalist Bob Woodward is assistant managing editor of The Washington Post. He's the author of eight nonfiction bestsellers, including All the President's Men and The Final Days -- both on Watergate and President Nixon -- and The Brethren, about the Supreme Court. For his newest book, Bush at War, he had behind-the-scenes access to the Bush administration in the first 100 days after the Sept. 11 attacks.

A gang is demanding millions of dollars in ransom for 17 kidnapped missionaries. Faith-based humanitarian groups say their work demands balancing risk with the need to serve the most vulnerable.

Vocational education programs such as shop and auto repair have disappeared from school offerings in recent years. But Ukiah High School north of San Francisco still has a wood shop, allowing students to experiment with hand tools and learn basic skills. NPR's Elaine Korry reports.

In Prague, President Bush asks NATO allies to stand with the United States in the effort to disarm Iraq's Saddam Hussein. Meanwhile, relations between Bush and German Chancellor Schroeder, who opposes military action against Iraq, remain strained. NPR's Don Gonyea and Guy Raz report.

Snigdha Prakash reports on the recipe behind the diet drug Metabolife's billion-dollar -- and possibly deadly -- success.

In January 1940, Irving Berlin, the most popular songwriter in America, raced into his office and asked his musical secretary to take down a new song. NPR's Susan Stamberg reports on the history of "White Christmas," a song Berlin said was the best he — or anyone — ever wrote.

The city council in Holyoke, Mass., fights a federal plan to house Somali war refugees there. Council members argue Holyoke lacks the resources to handle the refugees, but many townspeople are working to help the newcomers to stay. Karen Brown of member station WFCR reports.

As the terms of NAFTA gradually reduce protective tariffs on agricultural goods sent to Mexico, small farmers south of the border feel the effects. Many say NAFTA is destroying their livelihood. NPR's Gerry Hadden reports.

Musicians Joe Hunter and Jack Ashford were part of the group of musicians known as the Funk Brothers whose sound defined Motown in the 1960s and 70s. They worked with such legendary performers as Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Temptations, Marvin Gaye, The Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, The Miracles and many more. The Funk Brothers are the subject of the new documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown.

On Weekend Edition Saturday, Bryan Gruley, colleague of slain reporter Daniel Pearl, talks with John Ydstie and plays a song he wrote with Pearl's son in mind for a planned benefit concert.

In Anouar Brahem's native Tunisia, the oud is known today mainly in the context of loud and large ensembles that leave it all but buried in a dervish of sound. But Brahem highlights the stringed instrument in a delicate, often introspective context. On his new CD, Le pas du chat noir, the oud is part of an unlikely trio including piano and accordion. He talks with Liane Hansen on Weekend Edition Sunday.