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National Security
3:56 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

Breaking Down Obama's New Blueprint For Fighting Terrorism

Credit Larry Downing / Reuters/Landov
At the National Defense University in Washington on Thursday, President Obama outlined plans to limit the use of U.S. drone strikes, and pledged to shut down the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Ever since the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. search for a coherent counterterrorism strategy has revolved around three basic questions:

1. How do we locate suspected terrorists?

2. Once located, how do we go after them?

3. If captured, what do we do with them?

In a major speech at the National Defense University in Washington on Thursday, President Obama addressed all three questions that have been the source of shifting policies and fierce national debates for over a decade.

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The Two-Way
3:53 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

For Second Time, Moore Family Loses Home To A Tornado

Credit Steve Gooch / AP
An aerial photo shows destroyed houses in Moore, Okla., after Monday's tornado. Rena and Paul Phillips, who lost their home in the storm, also lost a house to a tornado in 1999.

The tornado that devastated Moore, Okla., Monday destroyed some 12,000 homes, according to Oklahoma City Police. And for one family, it was the second house they've lost to a tornado in the past 14 years. Rena and Paul Phillips say that the recent loss won't make them move.

The Phillipses told their story to Rachel Hubbard of Oklahoma member station KOSU, who reports on how they're coping with the loss — and the search for belongings in the rubble of their home — for Thursday's All Things Considered.

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The Salt
3:47 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

This 9-Year-Old Girl Told McDonald's CEO: Stop Tricking Kids

Credit Jamie Robertson / Courtesy Jamie Robertson
Hannah Robertson, 9, and her mom, blogger Kia Robertson — with the makings for kale chips, of course.

It's not every day that a 9-year-old girl chastises the CEO of one of the world's biggest fast-food chains.

Yet that's exactly what young Hannah Robertson did Thursday morning at McDonald's annual shareholders meeting in Chicago. When the meeting opened up to questions, Hannah was first up at the mic with a pointed criticism.

"It would be nice if you stopped trying to trick kids into wanting to eat your food all the time," she told McDonald's CEO Don Thompson.

Ouch.

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Around the Nation
3:44 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

In La., Families Still Searching For Storm-Scattered Remains

Originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 7:23 pm

Lionel Alverez is in the Promised Land Cemetery again, taking inventory. He has been coming to this cemetery in Plaquemines Parish, La., all his life. The graveyard is hemmed in between the Mississippi River and the marsh on a lonely stretch of highway.

Promised Land has been the final resting place for the Alverezes for generations. Alverez, 61, points out several graves, one by one. "Albert Alverez. Huey Alverez and Harold Alverez. My brother Allen is near the rear, back there."

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The Two-Way
3:10 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

NOAA Predicts Above-Average Hurricane Season

Credit NOAA
Satellite image of Hurricane Sandy in October of last year.

With memories of last year's Superstorm Sandy still fresh, NOAA is warning East Coasters and those farther inland to brace for another active Atlantic season, predicting that as many as six major storms will develop between the beginning of June and the end of November.

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Movie Interviews
3:03 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

Julianne Moore, Relishing Complicated Characters

In the film What Maisie Knew, Julianne Moore plays a troubled rock star whose young daughter witnesses her parents' volatile behavior as they argue over custody during their rocky separation.

On the surface, Moore's character, Susanna, might seem to be an entirely terrible one — a self-involved person and inappropriate mother who's not paying attention to her child. But Moore makes her more complicated than that.

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Shots - Health News
2:52 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

Researchers Find Bird Flu Is Contagious Among Ferrets

Credit iStockphoto.com
Of ferrets, men and bird flu.

Scientists have completed the first assessments of how readily the H7N9 flu virus in China can pass among ferrets and pigs. The mammals provide the best inkling of how dangerous these bugs may become for humans.

The news is both bad and good. They've found the new bird virus is easily passed between ferrets sharing the same cage.

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The Two-Way
2:37 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

Obama To Limit Drone Strikes, Renew Effort To Close Guantanamo

Credit Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images
President Obama speaks about his administration's drone and counterterrorism policies at the National Defense University on Thursday.

Originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 6:03 pm

President Obama on Thursday unveiled a major pivot in White House counterterrorism policy, calling for a limiting of CIA drones strikes and for a renewed effort to close the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

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National Security
2:37 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

Transcript: Obama Addresses Counterterrorism, Drones

Credit Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images
President Obama waves after addressing his administration's drone and counterterrorism policies, as well as the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, in a speech at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

Originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 5:51 pm

  • Listen To The President's Speech

President Obama's remarks at the National Defense University on Thursday, as released by the White House:

Good afternoon, everybody. Please be seated.

It is a great honor to return to the National Defense University. Here, at Fort McNair, Americans have served in uniform since 1791 — standing guard in the earliest days of the Republic, and contemplating the future of warfare here in the 21st century.

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The Two-Way
2:36 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

Teachers In Moore Gather For 'Sharing And Healing'

Originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 10:06 am

What was billed as an informational meeting for teachers turned into a session of sharing and healing.

"A lot of people in this district will need grief counseling, including myself," said Susan Pierce, the superintendent of public schools in Moore, Okla.

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Shots - Health News
1:43 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

Hardly A Haven: Home Can Be Deadly In Natural Disasters

Credit Paul J. Richards / AFP/Getty Images
Floodwaters from Superstorm Sandy destroyed the first floor of this house in Staten Island, New York. Most of the people who drowned during the storm died in their homes in low-lying areas of New York and New Jersey.

Home can be a refuge. But when natural disaster strikes, hunkering down at home can be a deadly mistake.

All told, 32 of the 53 New Yorkers who died in last fall's Superstorm Sandy drowned, and most of them died at home, according to a report published today in the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

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The Two-Way
1:22 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

In Oklahoma, Praying To A 'God Of Rebuilding'

All that's left standing at Kiaya Roper's house in Moore, Okla., is the bathroom. When a tornado struck the town on Monday, Roper was at work at Central Elementary School, her children were at school and her husband managed to ride out the storm by hunkering down in that bathroom.

"God put his hand down on his head for me," Roper says.

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Television
1:19 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

Douglas, Damon Illuminate HBO's 'Candelabra'

Credit Claudette Barius / HBO
Michael Douglas stars as the flamboyant pianist and entertainer Liberace in Steven Soderbergh's new HBO biopic, Behind the Candelabra.

Originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 5:43 pm

Before you see any of Behind the Candelabra -- when you just consider the concept of the TV movie and its casting — this new HBO Films production raises all sorts of questions: How much will be based on verifiable fact, and how much will be fictionalized? On an anything-goes premium-cable network such as HBO, how graphic will the sex scenes be?

And the most important questions involve the drama's two leading men, playing an ultra-flamboyant piano player and the wide-eyed young man who becomes his behind-the-scenes companion for five years. Michael Douglas? Matt Damon?

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Arts & Life
12:55 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

A Read Down Memory Lane: Lessons From Your Former Self

Writings from childhood — cards, stories and other notes — can hide for decades, like time capsules tucked away in boxes, old bedrooms, attics and journals. Writer Jim Sollisch talks about how old thank you notes from his youth foreshadowed his adult life.

Asia
12:53 pm
Thu May 23, 2013

A Look Ahead To The Flash Point In The South China Sea

Originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 12:54 pm

Beijing continues to pressure its neighbors over strings of disputed areas in the South China Sea that reportedly hold massive deposits of oil and gas. The ongoing disputes raise serious questions about China's goals in the region and how the United States should address escalating tensions.

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