All Things Considered

Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation. President Obama spent part of his youth living in the nation and residents cheered him in 2008. This election, with a focus on U.S. economic policy and its role in the region, they are watching the U.S. election campaign — and the fate of Obama — closely.

When the sun goes down, Cairo bursts to life. Men play backgammon and smoke water pipes. Young fashionistas meet friends for midnight coffees. Families go shopping with small kids in tow.

Life in the Egyptian capital is lived at night. Last year, one study rated Cairo the "most 24-hour city" in the world. New York City trailed far behind at No. 32.

Russell Means, who was best known for his movie roles and his unrelenting and oftentimes controversial protests in favor of Native Americans, died this morning at his ranch in Porcupine, S.D.

Means starred in a number of Hollywood films including the Last of the Mohicans. South Dakota Public Broadcasting's Charles Michael Ray filed this report for our Newscast unit:

Transcript

(SOUNDBITE OF CLOCK TICKING)

GUY RAZ, HOST:

Just two weeks until we announce the winner of Round Nine of our Three-Minute Fiction contest here on WEEKENDS on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, that's where we ask you to come up with an original piece of fiction that can be read in about three minutes. In this round, we received nearly 4,000 stories.

Now, graduate students from a dozen schools, including from the University of Houston and Indiana University, have read through all of them. And now, our judge this round, Brad Meltzer, is making his decision.

As with food, as with fashion, as with film, there does seem to be a distinct French style when it comes to composition. The much-heralded English pianist Stephen Hough has been studying what makes a piece of music uniquely French. It's resulted in his latest collection: the French Album.

With works by Debussy, Faure, Poulenc and a number of lesser-known composers, Hough says he considers this new album "a sort of musical dessert trolley."

Round 9 of Three-Minute Fiction is in full swing. Readers from all over the country have made their selections, and now judge Brad Meltzer is close to making his decision. Meltzer is best-selling author of The Tenth Justice and The Inner Circle. He tells host Guy Raz about his favorite stories in Three-Minute Fiction so far. You can read the stories at www.npr.org/threeminutefiction.

Friday, Twitter agreed to pull racist tweets after a French organization threatened to sue. The company has resisted efforts to police its content. But hate speech is illegal in many European countries, and anti-hate groups there are grappling with how to deal with the challenge of social media.

With the final presidential debate on Monday tackling foreign policy issues, surely China will be a familiar topic. It seems every four years, the U.S. relationship with China takes a beating during campaign events. Host Guy Raz speaks with James Fallows of The Atlantic about why candidates attack China yet presidents always balance their rhetoric.

Death Cab for Cutie is known for bittersweet love songs, stirring melodies and frontman Ben Gibbard's unmistakable voice, soft and sincere. After 15 years in the band, Gibbard is releasing his first solo album, Former Lives.

"Over the years, I've accrued a number of songs that I've always been very fond of but didn't fit tonally, lyrically, musically in with the palette of songs that were in front of us for a Death Cab for Cutie record," Gibbard tells NPR's Guy Raz.