National / International News

Two leading private schools have been selected as teaching schools to train teachers for the state sector in England.

The number of loans being offered by banks has continued to fall, prompting the business secretary to say its Funding for Lending scheme may need to be improved.

The rodents have been a big problem in Iran's capital for years. Efforts to poison them may have run their course. So, according to local reports, sniper teams have been deployed. Some of their targets are quite large — weighing about 11 pounds.

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Long queues are reported nationwide as Kenyans vote in an election that observers describe as the most important in the country's history

Lawmakers narrowly vote to charge outgoing Czech President Vaclav Klaus with treason over a controversial New Year amnesty.

A man dressed as Batman surprises police in Bradford by handing over a wanted man in the early hours of the morning.

The UK is to increase the amount of "non-lethal" assistance it is giving to opposition forces in Syria, with details to be announced in the coming days.

The Queen returns to Buckingham Palace after being assessed in hospital for symptoms of gastroenteritis, but will not carry out any engagements this week.

A Florida man whose bedroom was engulfed by a sinkhole as he slept is presumed dead. But how do these sinkholes form?

Czech President Vaclav Klaus freed thousands of prisoners. But what really angered his opposition was when he halted the prosecution of some fraud cases.

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Telecommuting is quickly becoming a new normal for the workplace. So why has tech giant, Yahoo, decided to nix it? Host Michel Martin explores whether staying in the office will help the faltering company stay in the game.

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Lawmakers failed to avert across-the-board spending cuts to the federal government, and they officially kicked in last week. Host Michel Martin speaks with NPR senior business editor Marilyn Geewax, and The Wall Street Journal's Sudeep Reddy about what it all really means.

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The wealth gap between white and black families is growing — and that's especially apparent in the housing market. Host Michel Martin talks to Washington Post correspondent Michael Fletcher about the financial disparities facing black families.

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US President Barack Obama nominates new heads for the energy department, the Environmental Protection Agency and the White House budget office.

Shares in department store Debenhams fall 14% after the firm said bad weather in January would dent its profits for the first half of 2013.

The Welsh government is threatening a "zero-tolerance approach" against people who abandoned horses.

A Conservative MP warns the government against arming opposition forces in the Syrian conflict.

More than half of employers say they have trouble finding qualified candidates for job openings, according to an exclusive survey commissioned by Marketplace and The Chronicle of Higher Education.  The survey asked: "How successful are colleges at producing graduates who are prepared for the workforce?" And while a majority of respondents said that colleges are doing a good job or better, nearly a third of employers said colleges are doing just a "fair" to "poor" job of producing "successful employees." 

Employers also said they place more weight on experience, particularly internships and employment, than they do on academic credentials, including college grades and major. Plus, one third of employers place more value on a four-year degree  today than they did five years ago.

So, how would you stack up in today's job market? 

We've taken survey responses from eight different industries, including healthcare and education, and put them into a simulator. You can use this quiz to gauge how your resume and skill set would fare under the scrutiny of hiring managers today.

A psychiatric patient who nearly decapitated a woman six years after killing her own mother is jailed for life for murder, as a report shows police failed to carry out key checks.

More than 90 clinical trials have tested therapeutic vaccines in cancer patients, but the results have been a mixed bag. A recent study in mice suggests that changing a traditional ingredient in the vaccines could make a big difference.

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