NPR World News

The report by the Bipartisan Policy Center's National Security Preparedness Group also says al-Qaida doesn't have the ability to launch an extraordinary operation on the scale of Sept. 11 anymore. Instead, it must content itself with attacks that kill dozens or hundreds at a time.

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Edgar "La Barbie" Valdez Villarreal was one of Mexico's most wanted men until his recent arrest. The U.S. citizen is one of the highest-ranking drug cartel suspects captured alive in Mexico's increasingly violent drug war -- and so far, he has been a fountain of information.

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North Korea watchers are hoping a rare political conference in Pyongyang will yield clues about the secretive country's future leadership. Ruler Kim Jong Il is expected to name his youngest son to key jobs that could pave his way to power.

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A world wide survey ranks countries in how charitable they are. Near the top, Australia and the U.S. The bottom? China and Madagascar.

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The monumental statues of Easter Island draw tourists from around the world. But the modern-day descendants of the people who made those ancient figures, the indigenous Rapanui, have a conflict with the Chilean state. They want to recover ownership of their island.

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An official with the Culture Ministry says one of the Americans will be released Saturday morning at a hotel near Tehran's Evin prison, where Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal have been held in Iran since July 2009. It wasn't clear which of the three will be freed.

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US Secretary of State compares the ongoing drug violence in Mexico to an insurgency. Mexico not so pleased with comparison.

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Four alleged Al Qaida members escape US custody in Iraq. They escaped from the same prison that used to hold Saddam Hussein.

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U.S. Marines boarded and seized a commercial German vessel in the Gulf of Aden that had been attacked and boarded by Somali pirates. A group of 24 marines took control of the ship, Magellan Star, from nine pirates.

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The trade deficit narrowed significantly in July as exports climbed to the highest level in nearly two years, reflecting big gains in sales of U.S.-made airplanes and other manufactured goods while imports declined. The lower trade deficit should give a boost to overall economic growth.

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At least 15 people, including the suicide bomber, were killed and 133 were wounded in the explosion

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The Iraqis escaped from the American-controlled part of a maximum-security prison in Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. The U.S. has handed over control of detention facilities to the Iraqi government but has retained custody of some of the most dangerous prisoners.

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With delegates from the Workers' Party believed to be gathered in the capital Pyongyang for a political conference, North Korea watchers are saying a leadership change could be in the works. But the meeting is cloaked in secrecy, making it difficult for outsiders to determine where the nuclear-armed country is headed.

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Nine months after the quake in Haiti, Haitian-born author Edwidge Danticat is sharing the earthquake story with an audience that was largely shielded from it -- children. Eight Days is a book about a boy who gets buried in the rubble and is not rescued until eight days later.

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For more than month, the West Bank city of Hebron has been running dry -- roughly 70 percent of its residents have received no water for five weeks. Some say it is because Israel controls the water resources, but others blame it on unscrupulous Palestinian businessmen.

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NPR News/ProPublica Investigation: Army commanders have routinely denied Purple Hearts to soldiers who have sustained mild traumatic brain injuries in Iraq, despite regulations that make such wounds eligible for the medal.

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The first Purple Heart was created by Gen. George Washington in 1782 to recognized meritorious service in combat. But it quickly fell into disuse. Revived in 1932, the medal was changed into a recognition of combat injuries and deaths.

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Conservative radio and television host Glenn Beck earlier this week wrote in an Internet blog posting that burning the Quran is like burning the flag or the Bible -- something people can do in the United States, but shouldn't. It was unclear whether Ambassador Husain Haqqani was aware of the posting.

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Four of the suspects were arrested after a Sept. 3 gunbattle with marines, and the other three were captured days later. Marines found the bodies of the migrants Aug. 24 at a ranch in the northern state of Tamaulipas.

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The strikes were in North Waziristan, a lawless region home to insurgents battling foreign troops just across the border in Afghanistan, al-Qaida leaders plotting attacks in the West and extremists behind bombings in Pakistan. At least 14 suspected militants were killed.

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