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The Salt
4:41 pm
Wed December 19, 2012

Mealworms Beat Meat For A Place On The Menu In Environmental Study

Credit Ed Oudenaarden / AFP/Getty Images
A woman takes a bite of a mealworm pie in the Hague, Netherlands.

Originally published on Thu December 20, 2012 8:04 am

Want to eat sustainably? Then eat bugs.

That's the word from the Dutch, who are doing their best to make a scientific case for the environmental benefits of insect proteins. Reduce greenhouse gases? Check. Produce more edible protein while using less land than more traditional livestock? Check.

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The Two-Way
4:36 pm
Wed December 19, 2012

Newtown Teacher And Students Remembered For The Light They Brought

Mourners attended funerals for three children and a first-grade teacher in Newtown, Conn., Wednesday, the third day of services for the victims of a mass shooting that has reignited debate over gun control in the U.S.

Victoria Leigh Soto, 27, is the first Sandy Hook Elementary School teacher to be laid to rest.

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Around the Nation
4:00 pm
Wed December 19, 2012

What Are The Odds Of Gun Control Changes?

Credit Elaine Thompson / AP
A clerk peers out from a gun shop in Seattle on Wednesday.

Originally published on Wed December 19, 2012 6:35 pm

Advocates of stricter gun control legislation are hoping that history will not repeat itself.

Last Friday's shootings at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., have shaken the country, but it's unclear whether the intense feelings of the moment will translate into legislative action. Many times in the past, outrage over gun violence has dissipated before Congress has chosen to act.

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It's All Politics
3:42 pm
Wed December 19, 2012

Robert Bork's Supreme Court Nomination 'Changed Everything, Maybe Forever'

Originally published on Wed December 19, 2012 7:31 pm

Robert Bork, whose failed Supreme Court nomination provoked a lasting partisan divide over judicial nominations, died Wednesday at age 85.

A former federal judge and conservative legal theorist, he subsequently became a hero to modern-day conservatives. And as solicitor general in the Nixon administration, he played a small but crucial role in the Watergate crisis. In what came to be known as the Saturday Night Massacre, he fired Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox after the attorney general and deputy attorney general refused President Nixon's firing order and quit.

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Shots - Health News
3:35 pm
Wed December 19, 2012

How The U.S. Stopped Malaria, One Cartoon At A Time

Originally published on Thu December 20, 2012 12:28 pm

Planet Money
3:31 pm
Wed December 19, 2012

Without Magic, Santa Would Need 12 Million Employees

Credit Lam Thuy Vo / NPR

Originally published on Fri December 21, 2012 3:31 pm

There are 760 million Christian children in the world, according to the Pew Research Center. Suppose Santa delivers one gift to each child. What kind of delivery workforce would Santa need?

We couldn't get an interview with Santa. But we did get Paul Tronsor from FedEx and Mike Mangeot from UPS. They helped us go through the numbers.

Here are just a few of the positions Santa would need to fill to pull off Christmas. (Note: For the complete list, see the graphic at the bottom.)

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World
3:29 pm
Wed December 19, 2012

In Pakistan, Tax Evaders Are Everywhere — Government Included

Credit Kenzo Tribouillard / AFP/Getty Images
An investigative report found that less than a third of Pakistani lawmakers filed tax returns for 2011. The report said Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari, photographed in Paris in December, did not file a return, though his spokesman says he did.

Originally published on Wed December 19, 2012 7:32 pm

Tax evasion is a chronic problem in Pakistan — only about 2 percent of the population is registered in the tax system, and the government collects just 9 percent of the country's wealth in taxes, one of the lowest rates in the world.

But now a new investigative report is making headlines. It says that just a third of the country's 446 federal lawmakers bothered to file income tax returns last year.

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Commentary
3:06 pm
Wed December 19, 2012

When Someone You Know Loses A Child

Originally published on Fri December 21, 2012 8:21 pm

Amid the aftershocks of the senseless shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., our ever-more-complex society goes on to publicly discuss what happened and how to avoid such tragedy in the future.

But there are also private considerations and quieter questions of how to respond — on a personal level — to suffering parents.

What can you say to parents who have lost a child? What can you do?

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The Two-Way
1:51 pm
Wed December 19, 2012

South Korea To Get Its First Woman Leader

Credit Kim Jae-hwan / AP
South Korea's Park Geun-hye claimed victory Wednesday in the country's presidential election. Park, the daughter of a former military dictator, will be the first female leader of the country. Here, she greets supporters at party headquarters.

Originally published on Thu December 20, 2012 5:47 am

Conservative candidate Park Geun-hye claimed victory Wednesday in South Korea's closely contested presidential election, an outcome that will make her the first woman to lead the Asian nation.

In addition, Park boasts a fascinating personal history that's deeply intertwined with South Korea's evolution in recent decades.

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The Two-Way
1:29 pm
Wed December 19, 2012

Death Penalty Possible In Court Martial Of Army Sgt. Accused Of Afghan Killings

Credit Spc. Ryan Hallock / AFP/Getty Images
Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales during an August 2011 training exercise at Fort Irwin, Calif.

The Army staff sergeant accused in the March 11 murders of 16 Afghan civilians and shooting of six others could be given the death penalty if he's convicted of all the charges officially filed against him this week, a General Court-Martial Convening Authority announced Wednesday.

Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, 39, prosecutors say, attacked two villages near his base in southern Afghanistan. Among the 16 people killed, nine were children.

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