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11:58 am
Tue May 21, 2013

Socks Are Optional As Pakistan Grapples With Power Cuts

Credit Ilyas Sheikh / EPA/Landov
Protesters march against prolonged power outages in Faisalabad, Pakistan, last month. The country faces power outages of more than 18 hours a day in some parts of the country.

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 1:11 pm

Pakistanis have coped with — even rioted — over the country's frequent power cuts. Now, the government is feeling the impact, too. The country's caretaker prime minister has banned air conditioners in government offices and instituted a dress code for civil servants. Among his recommendations: no socks.

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World
7:34 am
Tue May 21, 2013

Border Collies Protect Scientsts' Research From Geese

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 1:54 pm

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Good morning. I'm David Greene. Throw me a bone. - that was essentially the message from some frustrated scientists in Canada. They work at an experimental research farm, testing crops like corn and barley. And recently, packs of Canadian geese had been swooping in and destroying the crops. [POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: The waterfowl were misidentified. They are Canada geese.]

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World
7:28 am
Tue May 21, 2013

Now's Your Chance To Own A Little Bit Of Gandhi

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 11:13 am

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Good morning, I'm Steve Inskeep.

Today is your chance to own a little bit of Gandhi. The quirky, unpredictable and ultimately triumphant leader spent decades leading India to independence. Along the way, Mohandis Gandhi became known as Mahatma, or venerated one, and he had an appendectomy. Afterward, doctors took samples of his blood. Two microscope slides bearing that blood are being auctioned today in London with bids expected over $15,000.

It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Europe
6:30 am
Tue May 21, 2013

Young People Cast Out Of Italy's Welfare System

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 11:13 am

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

We are also following a subtler story of economic devastation, even with all the news about unemployment in Europe, this next number is hard to absorb. In Italy, among younger people, the jobless rate us close to 40 percent. The government is focused on the middle-aged and the elderly leaving little room it seems for their kids

Here's NPR's Sylvia Poggioli.

(SOUNDBITE OF SCREAMING AND SHOOTING)

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Parallels
2:59 am
Tue May 21, 2013

The Global Afterlife Of Your Donated Clothes

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 9:04 pm

On a bright and warm Saturday morning, there's a steady flow of people dropping off donations at Martha's Table, a charity in downtown Washington, D.C. A mountain of plastic and paper bags stuffed with used dresses, scarves, skirts and footwear expands in one corner of the room. Volunteers sort and put clothes on hangers. They'll go on sale next door, and the proceeds will help the needy in the area.

It's a scene played out across the U.S.: people donating their old clothes, whether through collection bins or through large charities, to help others.

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Parallels
5:28 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

An Ancient Religious Pilgrimage That Now Draws The Secular

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 9:00 pm

A 1,200-year old European pilgrimage route is experiencing a revival. Last year alone, some 200,000 followed in the footsteps of their medieval forebears on the Way of St. James, making their way some 750 miles from Paris across France to the Spanish coastal city of Santiago de Compostela, and the relics of the eponymous apostle.

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Middle East
5:28 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Former U.S. Ambassador: 'Don't Go Into Blind' To Syria

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 1:23 pm

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Melissa Block.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

And I'm Robert Siegel.

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U.S.
5:28 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

White House Has Renewed Resolve To Close Guantanamo

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 9:51 am

For the first time in years, the Obama administration appears to be focused on shuttering the Guantanamo Bay prison and – at a minimum — has redoubled its efforts to reduce the number of people held there.

The key, officials familiar with the administration's thinking say, may lie with 56 Yemeni detainees, a group of men who have been at the island facility for more than a decade though U.S. officials cleared them for transfer years ago.

"If we can send the Yemenis home," one official said, "that could get the ball rolling."

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Parallels
4:49 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

Iran's 'Zahra' Tells Alternate Tale Of Presidential Campaign

Originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 1:17 am

Iranians choose a new president next month, and one thing Iran's leaders are intent on avoiding is a repeat of the massive street protests that followed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's controversial re-election in 2009.

The sponsors of those protests, known as the Green Movement, have been effectively silenced inside Iran, but not online. The heroine of a graphic novel about the violent suppression of dissent in 2009 is now launching a virtual campaign of her own.

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The Two-Way
3:46 pm
Mon May 20, 2013

British Aircraft Carrier HMS Ark Royal Heads For Scrap Yard

Credit Kyle Heller / AP
The HMS Ark Royal steams into Portsmouth, England, for the last time on Dec. 3, 2010, in preparation for decommissioning.

Originally published on Mon May 20, 2013 5:22 pm

The people of Portsmouth, England, on Monday turned out to bid farewell to the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, destined for a Turkish scrap yard after its decommissioning two years ago.

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