World

Transcript

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MARTIN: It was early 2003: Doctors reported the first known case of the SARS virus; the musical "Chicago" won the Oscar for Best Picture; and Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice and President George W. Bush made their case for war.

DICK CHENEY: There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE: We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.

Sunday is the final day of a week-long Russian festival that celebrates folk traditions, heroic eating and the distant promise of spring. NPR's Corey Flintoff reports on Maslenitsa, or "pancake week," the last culinary blow-out before the austerity of Lent.

Transcript

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin.

A Swiss woman cycling with her husband in India was allegedly beaten and gang-raped, police say. It's the latest high-profile sexual assault in a nation that's facing intense pressure to increase its protections for women.

The couple was on a cycling tour from Mumbai to New Delhi when they were attacked Friday night. The New York Times continues the story:

Pope Francis held a press conference Saturday, addressing the thousands of journalists who have been at the Vatican to cover his election. Host Scott Simon talks with NPR's Sylvia Poggioli in Rome.

Last year, Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was greeted by adoring crowds during triumphant tours of Asia, the U.S. and Europe. She eclipsed President Thein Sein, who remained in Burma, as the country is also known, and managed a series of domestic crises.

Host Scott Simon talks with a 29-year-old Iraqi refugee who now lives in the U.S. She worked for the U.S. Army in Baghdad but had to flee Iraq because it was too dangerous to stay.

The eyes of the world were fixed on St. Peter's Square this week as Roman Catholic cardinals elected a new pope. Host Scott Simon reflects on the rituals and the silence that followed Pope Francis's call for prayers.

Host Scott Simon talks to MIT professor of music and media Tod Machover about his work with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He crowdsourced street sounds gathered by local Torontonians and blended them with traditional instruments to create an orchestra.