Search results for

President Obama told Chinese students Monday that open Internet access strengthens a society. Qian Jin, a former news assistant at NPR's Shanghai Bureau who was in the audience, says Internet access in China is improving, and broader now than it was a few years ago.

Studies show that testing women in their 40s could save a small percentage of lives. But to some public health officials, it isn't worth the possible harm the excess testing causes. Cancer survivors and advocacy groups say the screening tool isn't perfect, but it's worth the risk.

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.

President Obama is gearing up to address the nation Tuesday on how the United States and its allies will proceed in Afghanistan. Michele Norris was among a group of journalists invited to the White House to gain some insight on what Obama will say. She talks to Melissa Block about what she learned.

The Obama administration went to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to sell its new Afghanistan policy to lawmakers. At the witness table before Senate and House committees: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen.

Days after President Obama announced his decision to send 30,000 troops to Afghanistan, U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, who commands American troops throughout the Middle East and South Asia, talks with Steve Inskeep about a country where Obama cannot send more forces: Pakistan.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, spent Wednesday pitching President Obama's revised Afghan strategy to his troops and Afghan officials. McChrystal acknowledged it's going to take more than words to persuade Afghans that Obama's new strategy can bring peace.

Richard Holbrooke, the president's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, says international support for the U.S. strategy is the most he has ever seen. Holbrooke is in Brussels where he is meeting with NATO allies who are discussing President Obama's request for more troops in Afghanistan.

President Obama will commit the U.S. to a goal of cuts in greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade at a climate conference in Copenhagen next month. His goal is to cut carbon dioxide emissions by about 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.

Republicans had accused President Obama of dithering rather than deciding how things should go in Afghanistan. The president took three months and convened many top-level meetings to consider strategy and troop levels. While there is support for the increased troop level, they do not think Obama should have set a timetable for withdrawing.