Search results for

British Prime Minister Tony Blair visits Iraq's new prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, in Baghdad. British officials say the leaders spoke about the eventual departure of foreign forces from Iraq. Maliki has said his top priority is halting insurgent attacks and stemming sectarian violence that has wracked the country.

The FBI says it has video footage of Rep. Bill Jefferson (D-LA) accepting $100,000 from an FBI informant. Jefferson, who has not been charged with anything, insists that he has committed no crime. NPR's Brian Naylor reports.

The owner of a Los Angeles firm that a supplies legal immigrant farm labor is being fined by federal authorities for allegedly failing to pay 88 temporary workers from Thailand. The owner of the company, Mordechai Orian, was recently profiled by NPR's Carrie Kahn, who has a follow-up report on his problems with the government.

Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) is just the latest in a long line of national politicians to be accused of accepting cash bribes. Steve Inskeep talks to Ken Rudin, political editor at NPR, about the history of corruption among elected officials.

Oil shale is an idea that was tested a generation ago, then abandoned when the price of crude oil plunged. Now, a self-taught inventor is once again eyeing the vast shale deposits of the Rocky Mountains.

In Salinas, Calif., tens of thousands agricultural workers heed the call for a national work boycott by staying away from the fields. As Ben Adler of member station KAZU reports, they had union and industry support for the action, designed to demonstrate immigrant worker strength.

The U.S., EU, Russia and the U.N. have agreed on a deal to create a trust fund for the Palestinian Authority. The authority is in the midst of a deepening financial crisis created when Hamas was voted into power, prompting Western donors to end their support for the government. The four powers now hope to get aid directly to the Palestinian people.

The United Nations Security Council is delaying its formal response to North Korea's July 5 missile tests, as diplomats give China time to persuade its longtime ally to cooperate. The tests are challenging China's credibility as an effective diplomatic broker.

Israeli forces block Lebanon's ports and put its international airport out of commission, while extending a search for two captured Israeli soldiers near the border. The conflict has sparked two days of heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon.

Israeli politicians and commentators, for the moment at least, clearly support the country's military operations in Lebanon. But the goals -- and the final result -- of that operation are less clear.