NPR: World Story of the Day Podcast

The International Atomic Energy Agency voted Friday to censure Iran over its suspect nuclear program. With the country still refusing to suspend its uranium enrichment, Friday's rebuke puts Iran and the international community on a course of possible ...

Russia's population has been falling for 16 straight years. The population decline is most dramatic in rural Russia, where villages have withered away from poverty and neglect. But a region in Western Siberia is trying to reverse the trend.

The sensitive New Age man has finally arrived in the land of the salaryman. Known as "herbivores," these Japanese men are drawn to a quieter, less competitive life. But their lack of interest in sex is a worry in Japan, where the declining birthrate is ...

Professional mimics in China used to imitate sounds as a form of entertainment. Not many practitioners are left, but one family is trying to preserve the art. Cheng Jiaqiang, who learned his skills from his grandfather, has a barnyard repertoire but ...

The Afghan government and the U.S. military are pursuing an effort to lure low-level insurgents with job offers and other incentives, and split them from their Taliban leaders. In his inaugural last week, President Hamid Karzai called on militants to lay ...

The massive reservoir behind China's Three Gorges Dam was supposed to be filled to capacity this month. But landslides on the reservoir and water shortages downstream have delayed the process. Questions have been raised about the dam, which is the ...

Brazil's ghettos are poverty stricken and violent. But there are people fighting against the odds to turn things around for the poor children of Rio de Janeiro. Among them is an unusual apostle: a Rio socialite who founded a school for slum-dwelling ...

News from Yemen has been dominated recently by an escalating rebellion along the border with Saudi Arabia. But the country has been making news for decades because of its severe overuse of a rapidly disappearing water supply, the result of natural and ...

Afghan President Hamid Karzai pledged Thursday to prosecute corrupt officials, and said the country would control it own security within five years. Karzai's comments came in an inauguration speech that kicked off his term of office amid a growing ...

Pakistan's army says it has captured most major Taliban bases in South Waziristan. It plans to fan out across the area's rugged countryside to hunt down militants. The tribal area along the Afghan border has been a command center for extremists. The army ...

Since they were founded from the partition of British India in 1947, Pakistan and India have become locked in a relationship rooted in rivalry and suspicion. But many Indians believe the country's biggest foreign policy challenge these days is its ...

The Pakistani army is battling Taliban militants along the northwest frontier. Despite the widening influence of the extremists on Pakistan's soil, many Pakistanis perceive their eastern neighbor India as the biggest security threat. Analysts say ...

About 7,000 British and Australian soldiers died in the muddy fields around the French village of Fromelles during the first World War. A mass grave of 250 of those killed in 1916 was recently found near the town. Experts are now trying to identify the ...

On Nov. 14, Hafez Nazeri will headline at Carnegie Hall. The young Iranian musician has been attracting attention for "Sounds of Peace," an East-meets-West program inspired by a progressive political vision. Or is it?

Former U.S. ambassador Peter Galbraith denies there were conflicts of interest when he advised the Kurdish government about their constitution. He says the Kurds knew about the business relationship he formed with a Norwegian oil company a year later. ...

For decades, the cosmetics industry in India has made millions selling skin-whitening products to women. Now, it's making more money by convincing men that they should be lighter, tapping into a preference that has deep roots in India's history.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is facing heavy criticism for his handling of the war in Afghanistan. In one town, which has begun an unofficial tradition of mourning British soldiers as the coffins are driven through the streets, support for the ...

Two decades after striking shipyard workers in Poland helped to spark the end of communism, many Poles today — especially the young — are enjoying the fruits of capitalism. Since joining the EU in 2004, Poland has developed the most dynamic ...

Twenty years ago, the Berlin Wall that divided the city and served as the symbol of a Europe divided between communist East and democratic West fell. For one young German, that momentous day held both political and personal significance.