Search results for

South Korean President-elect Roh Moo-hyun's proposed summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il would be the latest effort at serious talks between the bitter rivals. Sandwiched between China and Japan, Koreans on both sides of the DMZ have a long history of negotiating from a position of relative weakness. Their strategies reflect that history. NPR's Eric Weiner reports.

The big drugmaker Pharmacia will allow generic versions of its AIDS drug Rescriptor to be sold in poor countries. But only in poor countries. In a new approach to AIDS treatment, Pharmacia says generic manufacturers can make copies of its drug, but in a different shape and color. The company hopes that distinction would make it difficult for illegal shipments of the generic versions to be sold on the black market in the U.S. and other wealthy countries. NPR's Snigdha Prakash reports.

U.S. officials say satellite intelligence hints that North Korea might be reviving its nuclear weapons program that was frozen in 1994. Intelligence officials say the North may already have atomic bombs from earlier projects. The Bush administration continues to push diplomacy in an effort to stop new arms development. NPR's Mike Shuster reports.

With U.S. troops closing in on his position in Tora Bora, Afghanistan in 2001, Osama bin Laden used a simple trick to escape. That's according to a report in the Washington Post, which says bin Laden passed the satellite phone the Americans were tracking to one of his guards. The guard then led U.S. troops one way while bin Laden went another. NPR's Robert Siegel talks with Washington Post correspondent Peter Finn in Casablanca, Morocco.

NPR's Julie Rovner reports that with Republican control of the federal government, abortion opponents are looking forward to several victories this year. The first issue expected to pass both houses and to be signed into law is a ban on late abortions, which abortion opponents call "partial-birth" abortions. Other issues that will be debated include proposed laws to protect fetuses injured during violent crimes against pregnant women; a law barring adults from taking adolescents across state lines for abortions; and a law that would make it easier for hospitals and providers to decline to offer abortion services.

A new, $100-million plant in Tampa, Fla., converts seawater into fresh drinking water, making the city the first in the country to get a substantial portion of its drinking water from the sea. But some fear the salty concentrate left over from the filtering process will harm the region's rich marine life. NPR's Phillip Davis reports.

In 1936, Edward, Prince of Wales, forfeited his role as King Edward VIII to marry the twice-divorced Wallis Simpson, who was originally from Baltimore. NPR's Lynn Neary talks with Cahal Milmo, a reporter with London's Independent newspaper, about secret documents recently released to the public that reveal that Simpson was having an affair while Edward was courting her, and that she continued to have affairs with other men after her marriage to Edward.

Investigators continue to gather clues that might help explain what went wrong when the space shuttle Columbia broke up Saturday morning, killing all seven crewmembers. Today's memorial service with President Bush will offer NASA officials rare pause in an otherwise tedious examination of flight videos, computer data, and debris. NPR's Richard Harris reports that while NASA is making strides in piecing the accident together, officials say they're far from any conclusions about what caused the disaster.

NPR's Jim Zarroli reports on the reactivation of the Space Shuttle Children's Trust Fund, which will solicit donations from the public to provide for the 12 children whose parents died in the shuttle Columbia shuttle disaster. The fund was started 17 years ago after the shuttle Challenger explosion. While the federal government provides death benefits to the children of astronauts, the money is only a fraction of what their parents would have earned had they survived. (The Space Shuttle Children's Trust Fund, P.O. Box 34600, Washington, D.C. 20043-4600)

NPR's Vicky O'Hara reports that the U.N. Security Council has between now and next Friday to decide what, if anything, to do about Iraq, based on the newly declassified intelligence information that U.S. Secretary of State Powell presented yesterday. Powell used satellite photos and intercepted telephone communications to buttress the U.S. position that Saddam Hussein has and continues to develop chemical and biological weapons. Britain continues to support the United States, but other European allies are reluctant to approve possible military action.