Shots - Health Blog
4:20 pm
Fri February 17, 2012

Fight Over Contraceptive Coverage Heats Up In Court

Credit iStockphoto.com

The fight over who pays for birth control isn't confined to Congress or the campaign trail. It's burning in federal court, too.

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Around the Nation
4:16 pm
Fri February 17, 2012

Crumbs May Soon Dry Up For New York Subway Rats

A New York lawmaker wants to put the brakes on eating donuts, and anything else for that matter, in the city's subway system. State Sen. Bill Perkins of Harlem says an eating ban would help combat rats and litter. But, the issue is stirring somewhat of a food fight among subway riders.

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The Two-Way
3:58 pm
Fri February 17, 2012

Celebration As Improv: In Libya 'We Don't Know How To Celebrate'

Credit Gianluigi Guercia / AFP/Getty Images
An elderly man shouts religous slogans as Libyans celebrate the 1st anniversary marking the start of the Libyan uprising against Moammar Gadhafi in Freedom Square in the eastern city of Benghazi.

Originally published on Fri February 17, 2012 6:01 pm

I've spent the day in the company of Malik L, a Benghazi-based hip hop artist who seems to get stopped every 100 feet by either a friend or a fan. In between these conversations, I asked Malik about what celebrations were scheduled for tonight.

"I have no idea," he replied. "No one does. Libya has never done this before. We don't know how to celebrate an anniversary."

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The Two-Way
3:34 pm
Fri February 17, 2012

In Normally Stable Sengal, Police, Protesters Face Off

Credit Rebecca Blackwell / AP
An anti-government protester carries a Senegalese flag as he walks near a central square that protesters had planned to occupy before being rebuffed by police, in central Dakar, Senegal on Thursday.

Police fired tear gas into crowds of demonstrators in Senegal's capital on Friday. NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton was on what is usually a busy street in Dakar and she told our Newscast unit that all day there has been a cat-and-mouse game between police and young protesters.

Protesters are throwing rocks and pieces of concrete and police have responded with tear gas.

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Shots - Health Blog
3:25 pm
Fri February 17, 2012

WHO Panel Supports Publication Of Bird Flu Details, Eventually

The full details of two controversial experiments on bird flu should be published openly, says a panel convened by the World Health Organization.

But information about the studies should remain secret a while longer so that there's time to address public concerns, the group recommends. The experiments should stay on hold, too.

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U.S.
2:54 pm
Fri February 17, 2012

For Cash, Murderer Leads Police To Victims' Remains

Credit Craig Sanders / AP
San Joaquin sheriff detectives sift for human remains that were excavated from an abandoned ranch near Linden, Calif., on Sunday. Authorities say Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog wantonly murdered an unknown number of victims before their arrest in 1999. Now, one of the convicted killers is leading investigators to burial sites that have yielded hundreds of bones.

In California's Central Valley, authorities are excavating the gruesome remains of an unknown number of murder victims who were buried many years ago by a pair of convicted murderers and drug users.

The search began last week after one of the convicts agreed to lead authorities to the remains in exchange for cash.

But, the case raises some thorny ethical and legal issues: Should convicted criminals be able to benefit from their wrongdoing?

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It's All Politics
2:41 pm
Fri February 17, 2012

With Payroll Tax Cut Done, Is It Do-Nothing Congress Time? It Depends

Credit Carolyn Kaster / AP
Expect the rest of 2012 to bring more political symbolism like Thursday's House hearing on birth control and religious freedom than actual passage of major legislation that solves Americans' problems.

Originally published on Fri February 17, 2012 3:59 pm

Now that Congress has passed the extension of the payroll tax cut and jobless insurance benefits for the long-term uninsured, as well as a fix that prevents cuts in Medicare reimbursements to doctors, there's the sense that not much else will get done on Capitol Hill, it being a general-election year and all.

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The Two-Way
2:35 pm
Fri February 17, 2012

A Passion To Bear Witness: Why War Correspondents Take The Risk

Credit Steven Senne / AP
Shadid won two Pulitzer prizes for international reporting, in 2004 and 2010. Here, he poses on the campus of Brown University in the year of his second win.

Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 11:01 am

Journalists don't talk about the danger. They don't usually recount the moments of agonizing terror that come after a bad decision to continue on down the road as the faint sound of mortar shells grows louder.

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Shots - Health Blog
2:27 pm
Fri February 17, 2012

WHO Affirms Use Of Birth Control Injections After Weighing HIV Risks

Credit MCT / MCT via Getty Images
A health worker injects a woman with a shot of Depo Provera, a quarterly contraceptive injection, at a health clinic in Busia, Uganda, in 2009.

Women living with HIV, or at high risk of infection, should continue to use hormone injections to prevent pregnancy, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

But the advice stressed that couples should use an additional protective method, like condoms, to prevent HIV transmission between partners.

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The Two-Way
2:12 pm
Fri February 17, 2012

Reports: In Sting, Feds Arrest Man Plotting Suicide Bombing In Washington

Multiple news outlets are reporting that federal authorities have arrested a man who thought he was about to undertake a suicide bombing attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Fox News, which broke the story, reports the man was arrested in Washington on Friday, after a lengthy investigation by the FBI. At the time the man was wearing a vest he thought was packed with explosives but was really provided by FBI agents he thought were al-Qaida associates.

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