Search results for

NPR's Cheryl Corley calls the "Europe Direct" hotline in Brussels and gets answers from a multi-lingual operator about what EU membership will really mean for people living in the ten new member states.

Reports of detainee abuses in Iraq have focused on Abu Ghraib prison, west of Baghdad. But now, a Canadian civilian has filed a lawsuit claiming he was tortured by U.S. troops at the Camp Bucca detention center in southern Iraq, and witnessed the abuse of other prisoners. Camp Bucca officials deny abuses ever took place. NPR's Ari Shapiro reports.

Sen. John Kerry launches a $25-million TV ad campaign focusing entirely on his record of service -- in Vietnam, as a prosecutor and in the Senate. The ads, which include testimonials from Kerry's wife and daughter, are designed to introduce Kerry to voters and counter a barrage of negative ads from the Bush campaign. Hear NPR's John McChesney.

While The Washington Post's bureau chief in West Africa in 2001, Douglas Farah discovered al-Qaeda's diamond smuggling operations there. His coverage for the Post angered his hosts in West Africa and embarrassed U.S. intelligence officials. Forced to leave Africa and to defend his findings back in the United States, Farah continued his investigation. He's just published a book, Blood from Stones: The Secret Financial Network of Terror, that details his findings.

American Thomas Hamill, who escaped from his Iraqi captors over the weekend, is on his way home by way of Germany, where he will be checked by doctors. After learning Hamill was safe, residents of Macon, Miss., began celebrating the U.S. civilian contract worker's escape. Melanie Peeples reports.

Scientists in Japan prove that it is possible to get a live, fertile mouse by activating an egg containing only DNA from female mice. The process of getting an unfertilized egg to start dividing is called parthenogenesis. Although many non-mammalian species reproduce this way, the Japanese mouse is the first known incidence in mammals. NPR's Joe Palca reports.

NPR's Anne Garrels reports on one Iraqi family grateful for American help in establishing a school for children with Down Syndrome.

President Bush visits an estuary in Wells, Maine, to mark Earth Day, an event observed since 1970 to highlight environmental-conservation efforts. The president said his administration is tough on polluters but friendly to industry as well. Democratic challenger John Kerry took a far dimmer view of Bush's environmental record. NPR's Don Gonyea reports.

The Houston suburb of Katy, Texas, is home to an exotic but little-known attraction: the country's only replica of China's Forbidden City. Known as the Forbidden Garden, the attraction opened in 1996 and features a huge burial pit representing the tomb of China's first emperor. Sarah Richards reports.

She wrote the screenplay for the new movie Mean Girls. It's based on the book, Queen Bees and Wannabes, by Rosalind Wiseman. Fey also co-stars in the film, along with Lindsay Lohan, Tim Meadows, Amy Poehler and Ana Gasteyer. Fey is co-head writer and writing supervisor for Saturday Night Live. She is the show's first female head writer. She also co-hosts SNL's Weekend Update. She and the writing staff won an Emmy Award for their work in 2002. Before SNL, Fey wrote and performed for the famed Second City in Chicago.