Search results for

In the Horn of Africa, a drought is killing livestock across a wide swath of Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia. The United Nations estimates that more than 6 million people in the region are at risk of running out of food and water as a result of the drought if aid doesn't arrive soon.

The Supreme Court rules that one-time stripper and Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith can pursue part of her late husband's oil fortune. Justices gave new legal life to Smith's bid to collect millions of dollars from the estate of J. Howard Marshall II. His estate has been estimated at as much as $1.6 billion.

Joe Rosenthal, who took the iconic photo of six U.S. servicemen raising the flag over Iwo Jima in World War II, has died in California. He was 94. Rosenthal got his picture at the end of a bloody five-week battle that left 6,800 American troops dead.

Fisk University plans to sell an iconic Georgia O'Keeffe painting donated by the artist in 1949. The sale, designed to raise money for the cash-strapped Nashville university, could break an O'Keeffe sale record of $6.3 million. It also may violate the terms of O'Keeffe's gift, which specified the modern art collection of her late husband Alfred Stieglitz not be broken up.

A manuscript in Ludwig van Beethoven's own hand was discovered in a Philadelphia seminary in July. It is expected to fetch $1.7 to $2.6 million at auction next month.

NPR's Jack Speer reports on another disappointing jobs report. The U.S. Department of Labor reported Friday that business payrolls rose by 21,000 in February -- much weaker than the 125,000 new jobs economists were expecting. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.6 percent, but it was the number of workers who gave up on finding a job that kept the unemployment rate from going up.

The Barnes collection is perhaps the most famous private art collection in the world, worth more than $6 billion. The art is now on the verge of leaving its longtime home in the suburbs for a location in downtown Philadelphia. Critics call the plan a corporate takeover and a play for tourism dollars. And a group of students is asking a judge to let them argue their case in court. Hear Joel Rose, of member station WHYY.

The executive director and CEO of the Screen Actors Guild, Robert Pisano, has been sued by some members of the union because Pisano is also on the board of directors of the DVD rental company Netflix. Some wonder how he can accurately represent actors who are trying to negotiate DVD residuals when Netflix is so cozy with the studios. Iris Mann reports (6:15)

A federal judge rules that a sex-discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart can become a class-action suit, encompassing 1.6 million current and former female employees. Wal-Mart said it would appeal the decision. The class-action status makes the suit the largest discrimination case ever brought against a private employer in the United States. NPR's Elaine Korry reports.

Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) says he will step down as Senate Republican leader following a furor over remarks that seemed to endorse America's segregated past. Lott faced a Jan. 6 vote on his status as incoming majority leader and a challenge for the post from Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN). Hear from NPR's Alex Chadwick and NPR's David Welna.