U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has lunch with engineering cadets at the Chinese military academy in Beijing on Wednesday. Just before Panetta's arrival for talks with top leaders, China released photos of a new stealth fighter under development.
Ahead of high-profile talks in China by U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, there was a high-impact leak. Photos emerged of a second Chinese stealth fighter jet — one that had been rumored but never seen before.
The J31, as analysts call it, shows how fast China is moving.
This pro-Tibet mural in downtown Corvallis is at the center of a dispute between the town's mayor and the Chinese government.
Credit Chris Lehman for NPR
Businessman David Lin stands in front of a mural depicting a self-immolating monk he commissioned in Corvallis, Ore. The Chinese consulate in San Francisco sent a letter to Corvallis' mayor requesting the mural's removal.
The mural in downtown Corvallis, Ore., is big: 10 feet high and 100 feet long. One side shows a peaceful countryside setting in rural Taiwan. The other shows police beating protesters in Tibet and a Buddhist monk setting himself ablaze in protest.
A lot of medicine's direst emergencies come down to one problem: lack of oxygen.
Cardiologist John Kheir started thinking about that when a little girl in his care, drowning from lung hemorrhages, died before she could be hooked up to a heart-lung machine that would have kept her blood oxygenated while the damage was repaired.
Scientists have known for a long time that rice — often babies' first food and the staple of much of the world's diet — is good at absorbing inorganic arsenic from soil during the growing process.
Two separate analyses, one by Consumer Reports and one by the Food and Drug Administration, have raised concerns that we might be getting too much of this known human carcinogen in our diets.
Albert N. Gore Jr., a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, speaks at the Neshoba County Fair in Philadelphia, Miss., on Aug. 2. Gore is running against incumbent Republican Roger Wicker. He says there should have been younger people interested in taking on Wicker — "but they didn't want to fight."
Credit Danny Johnston / AP
Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe speaks to delegates at the Democratic Party of Arkansas state convention in North Little Rock on Aug. 18.
It can be lonely being a Democrat in the Deep South. Just ask Steve Wilson.
The young lawyer was a first-time delegate at the Democratic National Convention, but it's not something he brags about back home in Meridian, Miss.
"I don't talk about it," he says. "It's the elephant in the room, so to speak. Most of my friends are Republican, I think, but I just don't bring it up."
That climate can make it hard to recruit viable Democratic candidates in the Deep South — once a solidly Democratic region that is now reliably Republican.
Dwight Yoakam persists in mixing genres in a way that may leave him out of the country mainstream, but puts him in a good position to make a personal album with some of his best music.
Originally published on Wed September 19, 2012 1:02 pm
President Obama leads Republican Mitt Romney by 8 points nationally — 51 to 43 percent among likely voters — as the race heads into the final stretch, according to a new Pew Research Center poll released Wednesday.
Obama's advantage, particularly among women, blacks and voters younger than 30, puts him "in a strong position compared with past victorious presidential candidates," Pew reported.
Originally published on Wed September 19, 2012 1:19 pm
The abuse allegations against U.S. Olympic short track speedskating coach Jae Su Chun have escalated with a demand for arbitration and an "open and ongoing investigation" by police.
But while a large group of skaters charge Chun with abuse, another set has issued a statement in support of the coach.
As many of you have no doubt noticed, within the past few hours our technology team has introduced a brand-new commenting system.
The transition should be painless — meaning that there is nothing to do on your end to continue participating in the comments.
The good news is that this new system allows for many modern amenities the other system lacked. Those include: Threaded comments and the ability to use HTML formatting. The new system also allows you to delete your own comments.
Originally published on Wed September 19, 2012 12:43 pm
Republicans scrambling to turn Mitt Romney's videotaped aspersions cast on 47 percent of Americans into a campaign opportunity are hoping for a "Chick-fil-A moment."
Originally published on Wed September 19, 2012 12:54 pm
Update at 2:01 p.m. ET. 14 U.S. Officials Cited For Possible Discipline:
The Justice Department's Inspector General has released the results of an investigation into the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosive's failed gun-walking operation known as "Fast and Furious."
Originally published on Wed September 19, 2012 10:31 am
Tens of thousands of students are back in school this morning in Chicago.
As we told you yesterday, the Chicago Teachers Union voted to end the seven-day walkout. This morning, reports The Chicago Sun-Times, everyone was excited to get back to normal — the teachers, the students and even the mayor.
I'm Michel Martin and this is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. Now, we're going to focus on a new study about the people who decide what you see on America's television news. The National Association of Black Journalists, or NABJ, has just released its latest diversity census. The group says the picture is bleak for journalists of color who hope to get into television newsroom management. That's journalists who belong to all different ethnic groups.
