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4:35pm

Fri February 17, 2012
The Salt

Sprouts Growers Say They Need FDA To Set New Safety Rules

Credit Stephanie Phillips / iStockPhoto.com
Clover sprouts look to be the source of the latest e. coli outbreak.

Another week, another outbreak of illness caused by sprouts. The latest troubles come to people who ate sandwiches from Jimmy John's restaurants in five Midwestern states.

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4:20pm

Fri February 17, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

Fight Over Contraceptive Coverage Heats Up In Court

Credit iStockphoto.com

The fight over who pays for birth control isn't confined to Congress or the campaign trail. It's burning in federal court, too.

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4:16pm

Fri February 17, 2012
Around the Nation

Crumbs May Soon Dry Up For New York Subway Rats

A New York lawmaker wants to put the brakes on eating donuts, and anything else for that matter, in the city's subway system. State Sen. Bill Perkins of Harlem says an eating ban would help combat rats and litter. But, the issue is stirring somewhat of a food fight among subway riders.

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3:58pm

Fri February 17, 2012
The Two-Way

Celebration As Improv: In Libya 'We Don't Know How To Celebrate'

Originally published on Fri February 17, 2012 6:01 pm

Credit Gianluigi Guercia / AFP/Getty Images
An elderly man shouts religous slogans as Libyans celebrate the 1st anniversary marking the start of the Libyan uprising against Moammar Gadhafi in Freedom Square in the eastern city of Benghazi.

I've spent the day in the company of Malik L, a Benghazi-based hip hop artist who seems to get stopped every 100 feet by either a friend or a fan. In between these conversations, I asked Malik about what celebrations were scheduled for tonight.

"I have no idea," he replied. "No one does. Libya has never done this before. We don't know how to celebrate an anniversary."

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3:34pm

Fri February 17, 2012
The Two-Way

In Normally Stable Sengal, Police, Protesters Face Off

Credit Rebecca Blackwell / AP
An anti-government protester carries a Senegalese flag as he walks near a central square that protesters had planned to occupy before being rebuffed by police, in central Dakar, Senegal on Thursday.

Police fired tear gas into crowds of demonstrators in Senegal's capital on Friday. NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton was on what is usually a busy street in Dakar and she told our Newscast unit that all day there has been a cat-and-mouse game between police and young protesters.

Protesters are throwing rocks and pieces of concrete and police have responded with tear gas.

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3:32pm

Fri February 17, 2012
Music Interviews

Conor Oberst, Ron Sexsmith Pay Tribute To Leonard Cohen

Who'd have thought a 77-year-old Canadian singer-songwriter would be hovering near the top of the pop charts?

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3:25pm

Fri February 17, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

WHO Panel Supports Publication Of Bird Flu Details, Eventually

The full details of two controversial experiments on bird flu should be published openly, says a panel convened by the World Health Organization.

But information about the studies should remain secret a while longer so that there's time to address public concerns, the group recommends. The experiments should stay on hold, too.

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3:00pm

Fri February 17, 2012
Commentary

Week In Politics: Primaries And Payroll Tax

Melissa Block talks to E.J. Dionne of The Washington Post and Brookings Institution and Ramesh Ponnuru, senior editor at the National Review, about the showdown between Republican presidential contenders Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney in Michigan and Arizona ahead of those states' primaries, and the extension of the payroll tax cut through the end of the year.

3:00pm

Fri February 17, 2012
Election 2012

Santorum Picks Up Momentum In Michigan

Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum gained two endorsements on Friday, including one from Ohio's attorney general who had previously supported Mitt Romney. Santorum and former Massachusetts governor Romney are campaigning in Michigan ahead of its Feb. 28 primary.

3:00pm

Fri February 17, 2012
Politics

Congress Passes Extension Of Payroll Tax Cut

Both houses of Congress approved an extension of President Obama's signature payroll tax cut through the end of the year, two weeks before the actual deadline.

2:54pm

Fri February 17, 2012
U.S.

For Cash, Murderer Leads Police To Victims' Remains

Credit Craig Sanders / AP
San Joaquin sheriff detectives sift for human remains that were excavated from an abandoned ranch near Linden, Calif., on Sunday. Authorities say Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog wantonly murdered an unknown number of victims before their arrest in 1999. Now, one of the convicted killers is leading investigators to burial sites that have yielded hundreds of bones.

In California's Central Valley, authorities are excavating the gruesome remains of an unknown number of murder victims who were buried many years ago by a pair of convicted murderers and drug users.

The search began last week after one of the convicts agreed to lead authorities to the remains in exchange for cash.

But, the case raises some thorny ethical and legal issues: Should convicted criminals be able to benefit from their wrongdoing?

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2:41pm

Fri February 17, 2012
It's All Politics

With Payroll Tax Cut Done, Is It Do-Nothing Congress Time? It Depends

Originally published on Fri February 17, 2012 3:59 pm

Credit Carolyn Kaster / AP
Expect the rest of 2012 to bring more political symbolism like Thursday's House hearing on birth control and religious freedom than actual passage of major legislation that solves Americans' problems.

Now that Congress has passed the extension of the payroll tax cut and jobless insurance benefits for the long-term uninsured, as well as a fix that prevents cuts in Medicare reimbursements to doctors, there's the sense that not much else will get done on Capitol Hill, it being a general-election year and all.

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2:35pm

Fri February 17, 2012
The Two-Way

A Passion To Bear Witness: Why War Correspondents Take The Risk

Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 11:01 am

Credit Steven Senne / AP
Shadid won two Pulitzer prizes for international reporting, in 2004 and 2010. Here, he poses on the campus of Brown University in the year of his second win.

Journalists don't talk about the danger. They don't usually recount the moments of agonizing terror that come after a bad decision to continue on down the road as the faint sound of mortar shells grows louder.

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2:27pm

Fri February 17, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

WHO Affirms Use Of Birth Control Injections After Weighing HIV Risks

Credit MCT / MCT via Getty Images
A health worker injects a woman with a shot of Depo Provera, a quarterly contraceptive injection, at a health clinic in Busia, Uganda, in 2009.

Women living with HIV, or at high risk of infection, should continue to use hormone injections to prevent pregnancy, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

But the advice stressed that couples should use an additional protective method, like condoms, to prevent HIV transmission between partners.

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2:12pm

Fri February 17, 2012
The Two-Way

Reports: In Sting, Feds Arrest Man Plotting Suicide Bombing In Washington

Multiple news outlets are reporting that federal authorities have arrested a man who thought he was about to undertake a suicide bombing attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Fox News, which broke the story, reports the man was arrested in Washington on Friday, after a lengthy investigation by the FBI. At the time the man was wearing a vest he thought was packed with explosives but was really provided by FBI agents he thought were al-Qaida associates.

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1:54pm

Fri February 17, 2012
The Two-Way

Murdoch Promises Sunday Edition At Besieged Sun Tabloid

News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch isn't backing down.

In an email to staff of the besieged Sun tabloid, where ten current and former senior staff have been arrested since November, the 81-year-old media tycoon promised to "build on the Sun's proud heritage by launching the Sun on Sunday very soon.

The email came as Murdoch visited the paper's U.K. headquarters for a meeting with staff. According to the BBC:

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1:25pm

Fri February 17, 2012
Election 2012

'Sugar Daddies' And Debates Changing All The Rules

By the time Rick Santorum showed up in Michigan, he was already out in front.

Thursday's speech before the Detroit Economic Club amounted to the former Pennsylvania senator's political debut in the state, coming less than two weeks before Michigan votes in a Feb. 28 Republican primary.

Nonetheless, Santorum arrived in the state sitting at the top of the polls. It's a big break from the way things used to be.

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1:20pm

Fri February 17, 2012
World

Azerbaijan: Where East Meets West, Spy Meets Spy

Originally published on Fri February 17, 2012 11:58 pm

The small Central Asian country of Azerbaijan has found itself caught up in the rising international tensions over neighboring Iran and its nuclear program. Despite traditional ties with Iran, the former Soviet republic has increasingly aligned itself with the West, and with Israel.

An incident at a recent soccer match in the Iranian city of Tabriz is still a point of pride in Azerbaijan. In the middle of the match, hundreds of ethnic Azeris in the crowd broke out their national flags and began to chant that the city belongs to them.

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1:17pm

Fri February 17, 2012
Sports

As Ivies Boost Financial Aid, Teams Up Their Game

Credit Mel Evans / Getty Images
Harvard University forward Kyle Casey in an NCAA game against Princeton on Saturday. Casey says financial aid from Harvard makes the school more attractive to student athletes.

New York Knicks guard and Harvard University alumnus Jeremy Lin may be a sudden NBA sensation, but the men's basketball team at his alma mater is making its own mark on the national scene.

Harvard is currently on top of the Ivy League basketball standings. And with a 21-3 overall record and some impressive nonconference wins, the Crimson spent part of the season in the Top 25 in national polls for Division I.

There's a palpable buzz about the team, as well — even a late January road game against the struggling squad from Brown University was a sellout.

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12:47pm

Fri February 17, 2012
The Salt

Is That A Plastic Baby Jesus In My Cake?

Credit John Rose/NPR
Sucre in New Orleans is one of many bakeries that leaves the plastic baby out of the king cake.

If you've been in New Orleans for carnival season, or if you're lucky enough to taste a cake that has arrived in the mail from there, there's a pretty good chance that yes, there is a plastic baby that comes with your cake.

The baby, meant to represent Jesus, has become a fixture of the king cake (galette des rois in France or rosca de reyes as it's called in Mexico). It's a frosted yeast dough cake that New Orleans bakeries churn out between King's Day, January 6th, and Fat Tuesday, the last day of indulgence before Lent.

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