National Public Radio News

The cruise ship disaster off Italy's Tuscan coast still poses a threat to the pristine waters and idyllic islands. The local residents and frequent visitors are upset — and they include NPR reporter Sylvia Poggioli.

Some highly improbable events lately have embarrassed the host states in the presidential nominating process, including Nevada, which held its caucus Saturday night.

Unemployment has doubled in Greece in the last two years, nearing 20 percent, and there are many Greeks with jobs who might as well be unemployed — they have not been paid for months. Some still show up for work every day, hoping that things will take a turn for the better.

Mitt Romney was the big winner in Saturday's Nevada caucus, leaving runner-up Newt Gingrich in the dust. Organizers said tens of thousands of people participated in the West's first presidential contest of the year, and some of them were still taking part late into the night. NPR's Carrie Kahn reports.

In the midst of a primary season where every state is trying to outdo the rest, Maine is content to do caucuses its own way. The state's many small towns have long held individual caucuses any time between January and March, and the state Republican Party's efforts to reel them into a single week has had mixed success. Host Rachel Martin speaks with political writer Al Diamon.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney won the Nevada caucus Saturday by a wide margin, with Newt Gingrich in a distant second. Romney soared ahead in part because of the state's large Mormon population, but he was dominant across a broad swath of demographics.

Poet Wislawa Szymborska had an eye for the smallest, the gentlest, the hard-to-notice creatures on Earth and this week she bid them all adieu. Krulwich remembers Wislawa Szymborska.

Russian researchers in Antarctica are on the verge of piercing a hole through two miles of ice into an ancient lake, untouched by the light of day for some 20 million years. But it'll be a delicate process to break through without disturbing the pristine waters. Guest host David Green speaks with Antarctic researcher John Priscu about the process.

A new map from the USDA has some northern gardeners hoping to grow plants that used to be considered too fragile for cold weather zones. The hardiness zone chart is about a half zone warmer than the last one issued in 1990. The USDA says the changes are not due to global warming, but to more sophisticated mapping methods. Seed sellers and buyers say that, whatever the reason, the warmer temperatures expand possibilities for planting this spring.

One employer just starting to come back from the brink is Majestic Yachts Incorporated, a houseboat manufacturer in Kentucky. Guest host David Greene checks back in with the CEO, Jim Hadley. He last spoke to Hadley in February 2009 as part of NPR's First 100 Days Project about the impact of the recession.

In an about-face, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation announced Friday that it is not cutting off funding for Planned Parenthood. Komen is one of the nation's most prominent breast cancer groups. They came under intense criticism for their initial decision to cut off some funding for Planned Parenthood. Guest host David Greene talks with NPR's Julie Rovner and Rob Stein, who have been covering the story.

The Chinese automaker JAC unveiled their latest design this week, and it bears a rather notable resemblance to the Ford F-150. Though the engine is much smaller, the JAC 4R3 will go on sale across China and in Africa and Latin America, after its debut at the Beijing motor show in April.

The beloved storyteller was born on Feb. 7, 1812. He had little formal education, but his novels made him famous in his own time, and continue as classics in ours. His two-dozen works of fiction have never gone out of print.

In 1988, journalist Tom Rose was sent to Barrow, Alaska, to cover the dramatic rescue of three gray whales. His book has been adapted into a movie called Big Miracle — but the real miracle is how this event became a news story at all.

Known to many devoted genre fans for his methodical horror movies, the director of The House of the Devil and Trigger Man talks with Neda Ulaby about his influences and his newest film.

Nothing classes up a Super Bowl party as effortlessly as some high-quality cheese. And nothing goes better with cheese than beer, says brewmaster Garrett Oliver. He shares a list of beers and cheeses that taste great together.

The Susan G. Komen Foundation's decision to remove funding from Planned Parenthood has set off a storm of criticism. Katha Pollit of The Nation says it's pretty shocking that Komen would deprive women of services it has itself admitted they have no other way of getting.

China has been cracking down on dissidents within its country. Sophie Richardson of Foreign Policy argues that foreign governments need to make freedom of expression in China an inescapable topic in all discussions with Chinese officials.