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Africa
3:41 pm
Mon October 8, 2012

Uganda's Leader: 26 Years In Power, No Plans To Quit

Originally published on Thu October 11, 2012 2:19 am

Rebel leader Joesphy Kony, head of the infamous Lord's Resistance Army, has achieved greater notoriety than any other Ugandan in the world today.

Idi Amin, who ruled the country through most of the 1970s, still stands as a symbol of African dictators who abused power and inflicted gross human rights abuses.

Yet as Uganda celebrated 50 years of independence on Tuesday, the man who has most shaped the country is far less known, at least in the West.

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Business
3:41 pm
Mon October 8, 2012

Plucky Former Poultry Farmer Goes Wild For Gators

Credit jganser / iStockphoto.com
A group of baby gators basking in the sun.

Originally published on Mon October 8, 2012 8:29 pm

Just outside of Camilla, Ga. — about four hours southwest of Atlanta — up a dirt road called Alligator Lane, is one of the largest alligator farms in the country.

"We've got about 20 chicken houses, and we've got about 100,000 alligators on the farm," says owner Mark Glass.

That's right, 100,000 alligators, and they are in big demand in Europe's high-fashion industry.

Right now it's hatching season.

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Solve This
3:41 pm
Mon October 8, 2012

Obama's Jobs Plan Focuses On Federal Investment

Credit Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP
President Obama speaks during a campaign event at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., on Friday.

Originally published on Tue October 9, 2012 6:48 am

In the next two installments of Solve This, NPR's series on the major issues facing the country, we'll examine each presidential candidate's approach to boosting employment. First, President Obama's strategy, then Mitt Romney's.

Job creation is the centerpiece of President Obama's campaign speeches.

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Presidential Race
3:41 pm
Mon October 8, 2012

Romney Paints Obama As 'Weak Leader' In Middle East

Originally published on Sun October 14, 2012 7:28 am

Transcript

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel. Later this month, President Obama and Mitt Romney will meet for a debate focused exclusively on foreign policy, but the Republican is not waiting until then to confront the issue. Today, in a speech at the Virginia Military Institute, Romney attacked the Obama administration's policies, especially in the Middle East.

MITT ROMNEY: It's clear that the risk of conflict in the region is higher now than when the president took office.

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From Our Listeners
3:41 pm
Mon October 8, 2012

Letters: The Enduring Line Of Inigo Montoya

Originally published on Mon October 8, 2012 4:38 pm

All Things Considered host Robert Siegel reads letters from listeners inspired by Mandy Patinkin's famous line from The Princess Bride.

It's All Politics
3:22 pm
Mon October 8, 2012

Romney's Debate Performance Swings Polls In His Favor

Credit David Goldman / AP
Mitt Romney and President Obama wave to the audience during the first presidential debate at the University of Denver, on Wednesday.

Originally published on Mon October 8, 2012 9:10 pm

In the five days since Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was declared by many the winner of the first presidential debate, political watchers have waited to see if polls would shift in response to his performance. And, they did.

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Around the Nation
3:21 pm
Mon October 8, 2012

In Pumpkin Regatta, It's Toothy Grins All Around

Originally published on Mon October 8, 2012 7:37 pm

The typical jack-o'-lanterns that don front stoops this time of year pale in comparison to their multihundred-pound brethren: the giant pumpkin. Every year in Damariscotta, Maine, people hollow them out, climb inside and race them in the annual pumpkin regatta. There are two divisions — paddleboat and powerboat — and thousands gather to see whether it will be sink or swim for the contestants.

Topher Mallory bolts a wooden frame onto the flesh of his 550-pound pumpkin powerboat. The stern is large enough to mount a 10 horsepower engine — double that of most competitors.

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Shots - Health Blog
8:14 am
Mon October 8, 2012

Nobel Winners Unlocked Cells' Unlimited Potential

Originally published on Mon October 8, 2012 2:28 pm

The two scientists who won this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine discovered that cells in our body have the remarkable ability to reinvent themselves. They found that every cell in the human body, from our skin and bones to our heart and brain, can be coaxed into forming any other cell.

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The Salt
7:03 am
Mon October 8, 2012

Honey, The Americans Shrank The Apple Trees

When Zarrina Mulloboeva got invited to go apple picking the other day, she thought it would be a taste of home. She's an exchange student from Tajikistan, in central Asia — a country close to the ancestral homeland of apples. Her uncle has a small orchard. In fact, when Mulloboeva came to the United States six weeks ago, she brought with her a large bottle of homemade dried apple slices.

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Latin America
6:46 am
Mon October 8, 2012

Chavez Wins Another Term As Venezuela's President

Credit Fernando Llano / AP
President Hugo Chavez waves a Venezuelan flag as he greets supporters at the Miraflores presidential palace balcony in Caracas on Sunday. Chavez won re-election and a new endorsement of his socialist project Sunday, surviving his closest race yet after a bitter campaign against opposition candidate Henrique Capriles.

Originally published on Mon October 8, 2012 8:00 am

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has beaten his most serious political challenge in years. He defeated a young former governor handily in Sunday's presidential election. With this victory, Chavez has another six years to consolidate his socialist system in the country with the world's largest oil reserves.

It was the toughest challenge to his rule that he'd received in years — a young, vigorous candidate whose election would have ended Chavez's self-proclaimed revolution.

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The Two-Way
5:48 am
Mon October 8, 2012

British, Japanese Researchers Win Nobel Prize In Medicine

Credit AFP/Getty Images
John B. Gurdon (left) and Shinya Yamanaka will share the prize, worth about $1.2 million.

Originally published on Mon October 8, 2012 8:07 am

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded this morning to a British and a Japanese researcher who discovered that mature and specialized cells "can be reprogrammed to become immature cells capable of developing into all tissues of the body," according to the Nobel committee.

This year's honorees are John B. Gurdon of the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge, England, and Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University in Japan. They will share the prize, worth about $1.2 million.

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Around the Nation
4:20 am
Mon October 8, 2012

Pipe Labeled 'Kaboom' Causes City Hall Evacuation

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

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Around the Nation
4:01 am
Mon October 8, 2012

Thieves Steal Gorilla Wearing Sunglasses, Shorts

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

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Business
3:35 am
Mon October 8, 2012

What's Going Wrong With China's Solar Industry?

Steve Inskeep talks to Beijing-based economist Patrick Chovanec about too many subsidies in China's solar energy industry. It is resulting in money-losing companies. One company, Suntech, could soon be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange because it is performing poorly.

Business
3:35 am
Mon October 8, 2012

Business News

Originally published on Mon October 8, 2012 5:28 am

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

NPR's business news starts with slower growth in East Asia.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

INSKEEP: That prediction comes from a World Bank report released today. The bank warns of a deeper and longer slowdown in the region caused by weak exports and weak domestic demand.

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Sports
3:35 am
Mon October 8, 2012

Major League Baseball Playoffs Update

Originally published on Mon October 8, 2012 3:49 am

Major League Baseball finished its first weekend of divisional play. A couple of teams have already been eliminated thanks to baseball's new single-elimination, wild-card round.

Shots - Health Blog
2:08 am
Mon October 8, 2012

For Families Of Medicare Recipients, Insurance Choices Are Tricky

Credit Sarah Varney / KFF
Bruce Osterweil, 59, of San Francisco has long relied on his wife's employer-sponsored health plan for coverage, but she recently turned 65 and signed up for Medicare. She's going to retire in January and now Bruce is on his own to find a plan on the individual insurance market.

Originally published on Mon October 8, 2012 11:23 am

Bruce Osterweil is a lucky man to live just a short walk from where San Francisco's Golden Gate meets the cold, rough waters of the Pacific Ocean. He is also a lucky man to have married his wife, Patricia Furlong, who has long provided the family's health insurance through her job at a small financial consulting firm.

But last month, Osterweil's wife turned 65 and decided to retire, and although she may walk away with a crystal bowl or a golden watch for all those years of service, she will also walk away from her company's generous health insurance benefits.

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National Security
2:07 am
Mon October 8, 2012

Predicting The Future: Fantasy Or A Good Algorithm?

Originally published on Mon October 8, 2012 10:47 am

After failing to predict the Arab Spring, intelligence officials are now exploring whether Big Data, the combing of billions of pieces of disparate electronic information, can help them identify hot spots before they explode. The intelligence community has always been in the business of forecasting the future. The question is whether tapping into publicly available data — Twitter and news feeds and blogs among other things — can help them do that faster and more precisely.

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World
2:07 am
Mon October 8, 2012

Piecing Together 'The World's Largest Jigsaw Puzzle'

Originally published on Mon October 8, 2012 3:35 am

When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, East Germany's secret police, the Stasi, frantically tore up millions of files gathered during decades of spying on its own citizens.

More than two decades later, the vast array of secret papers collected by the Stasi is still in huge demand. So far this year, 70,000 people have applied for access to the Stasi archives.

Many are young Germans — some searching for information about relatives, others just eager to know more about their country's past.

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Shots - Health Blog
2:06 am
Mon October 8, 2012

When Should Seniors Hang Up The Car Keys?

Credit Martin Novak / iStockphoto.com
More elderly drivers will hit the road in the next decade, but family members wonder: When is it time for elderly loved ones to move to the passenger seat?

Originally published on Mon October 8, 2012 3:35 am

With a growing population of baby boomers, officials are bracing for a surge in senior drivers. Statistics tell us that accidents increase after the age of 65, and fatal accidents are more likely after the age of 75.

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Music Interviews
1:03 am
Mon October 8, 2012

Kenny Rogers: 'I Take Great Pride In Not Writing Hits'

Originally published on Mon October 8, 2012 3:35 am

In the mid-1970s, a man approached singer Kenny Rogers after a performance in the lounge at the Las Vegas Hilton. The mysterious stranger simply said, "Hey, man, I really like your music." Rogers learned later that the fan at the dressing-room door had been Elvis Presley.

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Presidential Race
6:44 pm
Sun October 7, 2012

Presidential Politics: Does Likeability Matter?

Credit Jewel Samad / AFP/Getty Images
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speaks during a campaign event in St. Petersburg, Fla. Slate Magazine's John Dickerson says likeability doesn't matter as much in a presidential campaign as you might think.

Originally published on Tue October 9, 2012 6:32 am

William Lowndes was a congressman from South Carolina who served in the early part of the 19th century. He was once asked to describe who should serve as chief executive.

"The presidency is not an office to be either solicited or declined," he said.

In 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes didn't even vote for himself. He saw it as unseemly. And in 1916, Woodrow Wilson called campaigning "a great interruption to the rational consideration of public questions."

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Games & Humor
6:43 pm
Sun October 7, 2012

Three-Minute Fiction: 'No Down Time'

Credit iStockphoto.com

Originally published on Sun October 7, 2012 7:11 pm

Round 9 of Three-Minute Fiction. The new judge this round is thriller writer Brad Meltzer. And the new challenge this round, participants had to write a story in 600 words or less that revolved around a U.S. President--fictional or real. Nearly 4,000 storied were submitted. Host Guy Raz presents one of the favorites selected by our readers, "No Down Time" by Fiona Von Siemens of Los Angeles, Calif. You can read the full stories below along with other stories at www.npr.org/threeminutefiction.

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Music Interviews
6:43 pm
Sun October 7, 2012

Anat Cohen Bends The Spectrum On 'Claroscuro'

Credit Jimmy Katz
Anat Cohen's new album, her sixth as a bandleader, is called Claroscuro.

Originally published on Tue October 9, 2012 9:57 am

Born in Tel Aviv, Anat Cohen came to New York two decades ago to study the masters of jazz. In so doing, the clarinetist and saxophonist started a bit of a stampede: Today, Israel is exporting some of the most vital jazz out there.

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World
3:51 pm
Sun October 7, 2012

Cricket Star Imran Khan Leads Anti-Drone March Into Volatile Pakistan Region

Originally published on Sun October 7, 2012 6:43 pm

Transcript

GUY RAZ, HOST:

We turn now to Pakistan where a big motor convoy has been snaking across the map. It was led by Imran Khan, a former cricket star who is now a top politician. Khan and his supporters set out yesterday from the capital Islamabad and headed for South Waziristan in the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan. The plan was to hold a demonstration there against U.S. drones. But as NPR's Philip Reeves reports, it didn't work out that way.

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Latin America
3:51 pm
Sun October 7, 2012

Venezuela Election Critical Test For Divided Nation And President Chavez

Originally published on Sun October 7, 2012 6:43 pm

Transcript

GUY RAZ, HOST:

It's WEEKENDS on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Guy Raz.

Thousands of Venezuelans turned out to vote today in a presidential election that pits longtime leader Hugo Chavez against a younger, more moderate rival in Enrique Capriles. Chavez, the fiery left-wing leader, has irritated Washington with his anti-American rhetoric, but he's also won support among many poor Venezuelans for his social programs.

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Science
3:14 pm
Sun October 7, 2012

New Dinosaur Was A Small, Fanged Vegetarian

Credit Todd Marshall
Pegomastax africanus stood less than two feet tall and sported sharp fangs and a beak.

Originally published on Sun October 7, 2012 10:10 pm

A small, fanged dinosaur called Pegomastax africanus was identified this week, more than half a century after its skeleton was dug up in South Africa. The dinosaur looked like a fierce cross between a chicken and a porcupine, and had long fangs which it used to eat plants and compete for mates. Pegomastax was a diminutive beast, standing less than two feet tall and weighing no more than a small house cat.

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Movies I've Seen A Million Times
1:52 pm
Sun October 7, 2012

The Movie Queen Latifah Has 'Seen A Million Times'

Originally published on Sun October 7, 2012 9:21 pm

The weekends on All Things Considered series Movies I've Seen A Million Times features filmmakers, actors, writers and directors talking about the movies that they never get tired of watching.

For actress Queen Latifah, whose credits include Living Out Loud, Chicago, Beauty Shop and the new Lifetime TV remake of Steel Magnolias, the movie she could watch a million times is 1989's Steel Magnolias.

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Author Interviews
1:38 pm
Sun October 7, 2012

The Wild Adventure Continues in 'Under Wildwood'

Originally published on Tue October 9, 2012 1:04 pm

Colin Meloy is best known as the front man for the band the Decemberists. His music is praised for its lyrical quality and the stories the songs tell, so it may not be a surprise to learn Meloy is also a writer.

His newest book is a collaboration with his wife, illustrator Carson Ellis. The book is intended for young readers, the second in a series called Wildwood Chronicles.

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Music Interviews
1:36 pm
Sun October 7, 2012

Anat Cohen Bends The Spectrum On 'Claroscuro'

Credit Courtesy of the artist
Anat Cohen's new album, her sixth as a bandleader, is called Claroscuro.

Originally published on Sun October 7, 2012 3:58 pm

Born in Tel Aviv, Anat Cohen came to New York two decades ago to study the masters of jazz. In so doing, the clarinetist and saxophonist started a bit of a stampede: Today, Israel is exporting some of the most vital jazz out there.

Read more

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