News From NPR

Pages

The Picture Show
4:35 am
Fri January 11, 2013

Haiti Then And Now: 3 Years After The Earthquake

Originally published on Fri January 11, 2013 4:07 pm

Evidence of loss remains even three years after a massive earthquake claimed the lives of as many as 200,000 people in Haiti. In the middle of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, there is a cathedral whose sun-washed walls reach into the sky where a roof used to be.

A lone flagpole marks the spot where the National Palace, a symbol of Haiti's government, once proudly stood.

And on a downtown street that once bustled with storefronts, there is now a row of vendors who sell their wares under tent poles and umbrellas.

Read more
Planet Money
3:46 am
Fri January 11, 2013

Black Market Pharmacies And The Big Business of Spam

Credit Dave Keck
Acne medicine, in Turkish.

Originally published on Fri January 11, 2013 8:35 am

An apparent feud between two black market pharmacies has shed light on a shady global industry.

"Rx-Promotion and SpamIt probably are responsible for upward of 50 or 60 percent of spam that you and I got in our inboxes over the last five years," said Brian Krebs, a cyber-security reporter who chronicled the alleged feud on his website. "It's just a ridiculous amount of problems that these two guys cause for everybody."

Read more
Economy
3:44 am
Fri January 11, 2013

Geithner Began With 'Smoldering' Economy; What Does He Leave?

Originally published on Fri January 11, 2013 8:35 am

Outgoing Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has had a bruising four years. He took office when the U.S. economy was plunging into the worst recession since the Great Depression.

Nominating Jack Lew as Geithner's successor Thursday, President Obama praised his departing Treasury secretary for helping to get the economy back on track.

Read more
The Salt
3:34 am
Fri January 11, 2013

This Butter Sculpture Could Power A Farm For 3 Days

Originally published on Fri January 11, 2013 9:49 pm

For more than a week, it was the belle of the ball, the butter with no better: a giant 1,000-pound dairy sculpture that occupied the place of honor at the annual Farm Show in Harrisburg, Pa.

Read more
Latin America
3:33 am
Fri January 11, 2013

After 50 Years, Cuba Drops Unpopular Travel Restriction

Credit Dwamons Boylan / Reuters/Landov
A traveler stands at the check-in lobby at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport last year. On Jan. 14, Cuba scraps a much-reviled, decades-old exit permit requirement, easing most Cubans' exit and return.

Originally published on Fri January 11, 2013 8:35 am

For the first time in five decades, Cubans will no longer need an "exit permit" to travel. The change, which takes effect Monday, is part of a broader immigration reform by President Raul Castro making it easier for Cubans to go abroad — and also to return.

But critics say the communist government continues to treat travel as a privilege, not a right, and a useful tool to punish dissent.

Read more

Pages