World Audio/Video - NPR

Car-crash victim Rom Houben says in Belgium that years of being unable to move or communicate left him feeling "alone, lonely, frustrated, but also blessed with my family." An expert using a specialized type of brain scan provided him with the equipment to communicate.

Documents unsealed Monday in a Minnesota investigation allege a broad and effective recruitment campaign to persuade Somali-Americans to join an Islamist insurgency in Somalia.

An inquiry investigating Britain's role in the Iraq war kicked off Tuesday with top government advisers testifying that some Bush administration officials were calling for Saddam Hussein's ouster as early as 2001 — long before sanctions were exhausted and two years before the U.S.-led invasion.

President Obama and his top military and national security advisers gathered once again at the White House Monday night. The subject was troop levels and strategies for the war in Afghanistan, and there was also the question of how to deal with neighboring Pakistan. Sources say plans are underway for a possible announcement in a prime-time speech by the president next week.

Sanjaya Baru knows India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh well. He is the prime minister's former media adviser, and is now editor-in-chief of India's leading business newspaper the Business Standard. Baru tells Renee Montagne that he would describe Singh as a "consensus man" because the prime minister learned early that he was leading a very fractious coalition, so he spent a lot of time listening to people who disagreed with him.

The White House hosts India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the first formal state visit of Barack Obama's presidency. There are talks between the two leaders Tuesday, and later a state dinner. India is becoming a major player in global affairs — one that the U.S. needs on its side when it comes to issues like climate change, trade and countering extremism in South Asia.

China executed two people Tuesday for their roles in a tainted milk powder scandal in which at least six children died and more than 300,000 became sick. Zhang Yujun was executed for endangering public safety and Geng Jinping was executed for producing and selling toxic food, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

Huang Qi, founder of a human rights Web site, had been charged with illegally possessing state secrets. The veteran dissident cast a spotlight on poorly built schools that collapsed and killed thousands of children during China's massive earthquake last year.

President Obama is expected to outline his strategy in Afghanistan in a televised appearance next Tuesday. The announcement is expected to be followed soon by testimony on Capitol Hill by senior Obama administration officials.

The president is likely to address the nation Dec. 1 to outline strategy for the way ahead in Afghanistan, sources tell NPR. The announcement of a troop increase would be followed by testimony on Capitol Hill by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be the guest Tuesday at President Obama's first White House state dinner. Arvind Sumbramanian, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, says Singh's visit comes amid fears in India that its relationship with the U.S. is playing second fiddle to U.S. ties with China.

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 second inaugural last week, President Hamid Karzai called on militants to lay down their arms and return to their homes.

Russia has seen an explosion in the number of Orthodox convents in the decades since the end of communist rule. There are now more than 240. Most of the renovated convents — many in remote areas — are based on their distant history and devotion to their particular icons. But for many reasons, reviving the past is far from easy.

Israeli President Shimon Peres confirms progress in negotiations to free 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for captured soldier Sgt. Gilad Shalit, who has been held for more than three years by the Islamic militant group Hamas.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees reports an increase in asylum seekers from several African countries to South America. Among countries seeing a spike in asylum seekers from Africa are Brazil and Argentina. Guest host Jennifer Ludden discusses the trend with journalist Anil Mundra, who has reported on African immigration to Argentina. Mundra is joined by Professor Clarence Lusane, of American University. Lusane works closely with African rights organizations in Brazil.

Prosecutors allege that the suspects provided financial support to young men from the Somali community in Minneapolis to go to Somalia and fight on behalf of al-Shabab, a group on the State Department's list of terrorist organizations. Five of the Minnesotans have been killed.

One of the most popular programs on Iraqi TV these days is Hotline, a call-in show that allows viewers to take their problems directly to the highest government officials. It offers an unprecedented chance for ordinary Iraqis to confront their government.

In Northern Ireland, a 400-pound car bomb failed to detonate over the weekend. It was placed outside police headquarters in Belfast, and that has residents wondering if dissident factions of the IRA are intent on stepping up violence.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has denounced the actions of some Israeli soldiers who support Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Some Israelis say the soldiers are heros. Palestinians demand Israel freeze all settlement activity as a condition for restarting peace talks. The international community views the settlements as illegal.

Iran on Sunday began large-scale air defense war games aimed at protecting its nuclear facilities from attack, state TV reported, as an air force commander boasted that the country could deter any military strike by Israel.

Irish Republican Army dissidents left a 400-pound car bomb outside police reform headquarters in Belfast but the homemade device failed to detonate, Northern Ireland's police commander said Sunday.

Rescuers worked in frigid cold to reach 21 miners trapped underground Sunday as the death toll from a huge gas explosion in a northern Chinese mine jumped to 87 — the deadliest blast to hit the beleaguered industry in nearly two years.

Dr. Chris Coppola was a pediatrician in the U.S. before he shipped off to Iraq. As a military surgeon, he expected to treat soldiers, but he found himself helping war-ravaged Iraqi children as well. Host Liane Hansen speaks with Dr. Coppola about his memoir, Coppola: A Pediatric Surgeon in Iraq.

Iranian media reported this week that five people arrested in the protests following Iran's presidential election have been sentenced to death. Tehran says the prisoners had connections to "counter-revolutionary groups," but activists say Iran is going too far in persecuting dissenters. Host Scott Simon talks to Hadi Ghaemi, director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

This week, the Senate faced a crucial vote on health care. The Obama administration fended off criticism over Sept. 11 trials in New York, and Hamid Karzai was sworn in for another term as president of Afghanistan. Host Scott Simon reviews the week in the news with NPR Senior News Analyst Dan Schorr.

While President Obama weighs his options on Afghanistan, one thing is clear: The U.S. is beefing up its civilian presence there. The aid effort has been hobbled from the start, and many experts consider it a weak link in the struggle to build a stable society in the conflicted country. Deputy Secretary of State Jack Lew insists that the U.S. is now recruiting the right kind of people, but before those people head to Afghanistan, they get trained to work with the military at a base in Indiana.

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 world's largest hydropower project, and what it might mean for the Yangtze River.

Two fingers and a tooth removed from Galileo Galilei's corpse in a Florentine basilica in the 18th century and given up for lost have been found again, a Florence museum said Friday.

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 children and views education as an equalizer.

When the Marines of "America's Battalion" first arrived in Afghanistan, they were eager to get into the fight against the Taliban. Now, as they wrap up their seven-month deployment — and after the loss of a dozen comrades — they see warfare in a different light.

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 political causes.

Raging floods engulfed northern England's Lake District on Friday, killing a police officer and trapping dozens in their swamped homes. In Ireland, more than 3 feet of water shut down the center of the country's second-largest city, Cork, and more than a dozen other towns and villages.

Police arrested three members of a gang in the Peruvian jungle that allegedly has been killing people and draining fat from the corpses to sell on the black market for use in cosmetics. Medical experts expressed doubt about an international black market for human fat, though it does have cosmetic applications.

Two children and a policeman were among those killed in the blast, which wounded at least 23 others when the motorcyclist detonated the explosives in a busy city square in western Afghanistan, officials said.

Another man has been indicted on terrorism charges in a federal investigation into the recruitment of Minnesota Somalis to fight in Somalia.

Trade commissioner Catherine Ashton of Britain was selected as the EU's new foreign policy chief and Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy was picked for president. Their appointments suggested the need for compromise outweighed the desire for big names like former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Two police officers were killed by a suicide bomber a day after 19 people were killed outside a courthouse in Peshawar. The bombings brought to eight the number of militant attacks in less than two weeks in the city on the Afghan border.

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 second term of office amid a growing Taliban insurgency and a cloud of corruption allegations.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai was inaugurated in Kabul on Thursday for a new term amid tight security and ceremonial flourishes. But his second term is already beset by severe doubts that he will be any more effective at tackling the country's rampant corruption.