News From NPR

As Myanmar Reforms, Old Tensions Rise To The Surface

Credit Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

A Myanmarese girl carries away a tin roof in Meiktila, Myanmar. Violence between Buddhists and Muslims in March destroyed large areas of the town and left thousands of Muslims homeless.

Credit Ye Aung Thu / AFP/Getty Images

A boy shows the torn pages of a Quran at his home after sectarian violence spread through Zeegone, about 90 miles north of Yangon, in late March. More than 100 people were killed in similar incidents in the country's west last year.

Credit Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

Myanmarese look for anything to salvage from the destruction in Meiktila. Local media reports say the violence began over a dispute involving a Buddhist couple who tried to sell a hairpin to the Muslim owners of a jewelry store.

Credit Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

Men wait by an officer near their destroyed home. U Win Htein, who represents Meiktila in Parliament, says armed mobs initially prevented police and firefighters from approaching burning buildings. The crowds let them pass, he says, only after Buddhist monks climbed onto the fire engines.

Credit Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

A man walks through town in April. While Myanmar's president, Thein Sein, declared a state of emergency during the riots, 1,500 homes had been destroyed by the time the violence stopped.

Credit Paula Bronstein / Getty Images

A Myanmarese girl carries away a burned tin roof from ruins in Meiktila, Myanmar. Sectarian violence between Buddhists and Muslims in March left more than 40 people dead, with large areas of the town completely destroyed by fires and looting.

Credit Nyein Chan Naing / EPA/Landov

Vijay Nambiar (left), special adviser to the United Nations secretary-general, talks with a Muslim man at a temporary camp for displaced people in Meiktila in March. Muslims account for about one-third of the town's 10,000 residents; many are now homeless.

Credit Yangon / Xinhua/Landov

Firefighters try to extinguish a fire during the riots in Meiktila in March. More than 40 people died during three days of violence in the town.

By Anthony Kuhn

Originally published on Thu April 25, 2013 4:57 pm

Listen

The town of Meiktila in central Myanmar presents a tranquil scene on a hot April day: A woman presses juice from sugar cane while customers loll around in the midday heat. The town is right in the center of the country, on a broad and arid plain where white cows graze among palm trees and pointy pagodas. It's a bustling trading post on the road between the capital, Naypyidaw, and the country's second-largest city, Mandalay.

5:33 pm

Wed April 24, 2013

Giffords Group's Radio Ads Hit McConnell, Ayotte On Gun Vote

Credit Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images

Former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, at an April 16 ceremony naming a Capitol Hill conference room for her aide Gabe Zimmerman. Zimmerman died in the same Tucson, Ariz., shootings that Giffords wounded.

By Frank James

Originally published on Wed April 24, 2013 5:58 pm

After the Senate failed to pass bipartisan legislation to expand background checks for gun purchases, the superPAC created by shooting victim and former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, onetime astronaut Mark Kelly, vowed to remind voters of which lawmakers voted against the plan.

5:09 pm

Wed April 24, 2013

Redesigned $100 Bill To Go Into Circulation After Long Delay

Credit Newmoney.gov

The new Ben Franklin.

By Scott Neuman

Originally published on Wed April 24, 2013 8:30 pm

The redesigned U.S. $100 bill will begin appearing after October with new security features that will make it "easier for the public to authenticate but more difficult for counterfeiters to replicate," the U.S. Federal Reserve said Wednesday.

4:13 pm

Wed April 24, 2013

Philadelphia Case Exposes Deep Rift In Abortion Debate

Credit AP

Dr. Kermit Gosnell is an abortion provider who was charged with killing a patient and seven babies.

By Julie Rovner

Originally published on Fri April 26, 2013 12:15 pm

Listen

This is the sixth week of the trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, the physician charged with five counts of murder in the deaths of a woman and infants at the Philadelphia abortion clinic he owned and operated.

4:12 pm

Wed April 24, 2013

Rand Paul Elaborates: Armed Drones Not OK For 'Normal Crime'

By S.V. DÁTE

Remember when Rand Paul held the Senate floor for 13 hours last month because of his concern that President Obama would use drones to target alleged terrorists on American soil?

That concern, apparently, does not always extend to alleged common criminals on American soil.

News From NPR		RSS
All Content	closeNews podcasts Use iTunes Use a different player	RSS
View all podcasts & RSS feeds

Now Playing

Podcasts & RSS Feeds

News From NPR

Pages

World

5:48 pm

Wed April 24, 2013