Search results for

A wave of blasts in the capital targeted Shiite areas. The attacks come as Sunni militants step up their campaign against the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Al-Qaida-linked militants have taken over parts of Ramadi and Fallujah in Anbar province.

While the East Coast is digging out from a major winter storm, California is praying for rain. The state just finished one of the driest years on record, and that has water managers, farmers and others worried.

The Polar Star, a Coast Guard cutter, is expected to take seven days to reach the 123 crew members still stuck on the Russian and Chinese vessels. Meanwhile, the 52 scientists and paying passengers who were trapped aboard the Russian vessel are on their way home.

Certain issues brook no dissent. But how do media outlets decide if and when a strong enough consensus has emerged to safely dismiss other viewpoints?

Senate Democrats will ring in the New Year with a vote on a three-month extension of benefits for the long-term unemployed. Benefits for those jobless for more than six months expired on Dec. 28. Prospects for a revival of benefits are uncertain at best in the Senate, and the measure faces even bigger hurdles in the House.

The U.S. has long opposed an Iranian role in the so-called Geneva II talks later this month, but Secretary of State John Kerry's comments in Jerusalem may be the first sign that opposition is softening. Iran is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose forces are battling a range of rebel groups, some of them backed by the West.

From 1943 to 1944, the Women Air Force Service Pilots flew more than 60 million miles across the U.S. chartering soldiers, test-flying planes and conducting training exercises during World War II.

NPR's Arun Rath talks to Daniel Alarcon, the author of At Night We Walk in Circles, about the new books he is most excited about for 2014.

The Sochi Winter Olympics are on track to being the most expensive games in Olympic history. A $265 million ski jump, 42,000 hotel rooms and a $51 billion budget. It's been called a financial fiasco, as Josh Yaffa of Bloomberg Businessweek tells NPR's Arun Rath.

Two years ago, strange sets of bewildering puzzles appeared on the Internet, with a message encouraging "highly intelligent individuals" to try to break the code. The code led to more clues spanning a global Internet mystery, that has yet to be solved.