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5:50 pm
Wed February 20, 2013

Georgia Death Penalty Under Renewed Scrutiny After 11th-Hour Stay

Originally published on Wed February 20, 2013 6:05 pm

A Georgia inmate's execution was halted Tuesday night with less than an hour to go. Prison officials had already given Warren Lee Hill one of the drugs when a federal appeals court stepped in.

Hill has an IQ of 70 and his attorneys have long claimed that he's mentally impaired. His case is now raising questions about Georgia's law, which makes it difficult for defendants to prove they should be exempt from execution.

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Shots - Health News
4:53 pm
Wed February 20, 2013

Print Me An Ear: 3-D Printing Tackles Human Cartilage

Credit Lindsay France / Cornell University Photography
Larry Bonassar shows off an ear that he and his colleagues at Cornell University built out of living cartilage cells with the help of a 3-D printer.

Originally published on Fri February 22, 2013 6:34 am

An ear, unsurprisingly, is difficult to make from scratch. Ear cartilage is uniquely flexible and strong and has been impossible for scientists to reproduce with synthetic prostheses.

If a child is born without one, doctors typically carve a replacement ear out of rib cartilage, but it lacks the wonderfully firm yet springy qualities of the original ear. And it often doesn't look so good.

So why not print one?

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The Two-Way
4:46 pm
Wed February 20, 2013

Cool Photo: A Black Spot, The Size Of Six Earths, Appears On The Sun

Credit NASA/SDO/AIA/HMI/Goddard Space Flight Center
The bottom two black spots on the sun, known as sunspots, appeared quickly over the course of Feb. 19-20, 2013.

Originally published on Wed February 20, 2013 8:42 pm

Over the course of two days in February, scientists watched something amazing happening on the surface of our sun: A giant black spot grew to over six Earths in diameter.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center released a picture of the sun, which shows the spots in deep black.

NASA explains that it's hard to know the full extent of the spots, because it's on a sphere "not a flat disk." NASA adds:

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Middle East
4:33 pm
Wed February 20, 2013

A West Bank Story, Told Through Palestinian Eyes

Originally published on Sun February 24, 2013 7:49 am

The Academy Award-nominated documentary 5 Broken Cameras tells the story of Bil'in, a modest Palestinian village perilously close to an Israeli settlement in the West Bank.

After the Israeli government began putting up its West Bank separation barrier, Bil'in resident Emad Burnat picked up a video camera, and in 2005 began a multiyear documentary project.

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The Salt
4:15 pm
Wed February 20, 2013

Smaller But Better? Organic Tomatoes May Pack More Nutritional Punch

Originally published on Thu February 21, 2013 1:05 pm

A new study published in the journal PLOS ONE finds that tomatoes grown on organic farms were about 40 percent smaller than conventionally grown tomatoes. The upside? They pack more of a nutritional punch. The researchers found the organic tomatoes had significantly higher levels of vitamin C, sugar and lycopene.

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Media
4:12 pm
Wed February 20, 2013

New York Times Plans To Sell 'Boston Globe'

Originally published on Wed February 20, 2013 5:11 pm

Transcript

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.

The Grey Lady is shedding more of its assets. This afternoon, The New York Times Company announced that it intends to sell The Boston Globe and other properties it owns in New England.

For more on this, NPR's media correspondent David Folkenflik joins me from our bureau in New York. And, David, what can you tell us? Why this sale, and why now?

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It's All Politics
4:01 pm
Wed February 20, 2013

Republicans Make 'Benghazi' A Frequent Refrain

Credit J. Scott Applewhite / AP
Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., confer at the start of a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last week on the appointments of military leaders. McCain and Graham have been among the Republicans pushing the Obama administration for answers about the Benghazi attack.

Originally published on Thu February 21, 2013 5:02 pm

The White House hopes the Senate will confirm Chuck Hagel next week as defense secretary.

Republicans delayed the vote for the same reason they scuttled Susan Rice's bid to be secretary of state: Benghazi.

The attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, last September killed four Americans, including the ambassador to Libya. And Benghazi has since become a rallying cry for Republicans.

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Business
3:41 pm
Wed February 20, 2013

For The Publicly Traded, Going Private Can Be Risky Business

Credit Paul Sakuma / AP
Dell's founder and another tech company have announced plans to take the computer giant private. While companies can benefit from withdrawing from the stock market, there are potential pitfalls as well.

Originally published on Wed February 20, 2013 5:11 pm

It's been a busy month for corporate America.

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Book Reviews
3:20 pm
Wed February 20, 2013

'The Dinner' Offers Food For Thought

Originally published on Wed February 20, 2013 5:11 pm

Food doesn't matter much in novels. Years will pass in a person's life without a single description of a snack. Not a moment between adverbs for a taco. No wonder so many characters in contemporary fiction are glum: They're not hopeless; they're hungry.

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The Two-Way
3:11 pm
Wed February 20, 2013

Lance Armstrong Will Not Cooperate With USADA Doping Probe

Credit George Burns/Oprah Winfrey Network / Getty Images
Lance Armstrong, during the interview with Oprah Winfrey that was recorded Monday and began airing Thursday night.

Lance Armstrong will not cooperate with a United States Anti-Doping Agency probe into doping in the cycling world.

Bloomberg reports Armstrong missed a deadline set by USADA today. Armstrong's lawyer said he would not cooperate because the probe was too narrow.

Bloomberg adds:

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