NPR News

Brazil's economic boom has driven the demand for births by caesarean section. Some 80 to 90 percent of women in private hospitals deliver this way. Proponents say it allows mothers and doctors to better organize their time. Critics say the procedure drives up costs and may cause complications.

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Defense attorney Judy Clarke routinely faces an enraged public, top-notch prosecutors and difficult, often disturbed clients. Now, she is soon to face those things again with another high-profile client, alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

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Despite widespread violence, Pakistanis came out in droves Saturday to vote in historic parliamentary elections. At one polling station in Lahore, voters contrasted sharply in their support of the two main candidates.

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The crisis at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp keeps growing in size and intensity. According to the military's own count, 100 of the 166 men held in the prison there are now on hunger strike. The strike has brought renewed attention to the issue of closing the prison, but some wonder if that's even possible.

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How much hospitals around the country bill for 100 top procedures became public this week. Though insurance or Medicare may not actually pay the sticker price, some hospitals in Alaska are considering how they'll respond to more knowledgeable consumers.

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Two car bombs exploded in a Turkish town near the border with Syria on Saturday, killing around 40 people and wounding 100 others, officials said. Turkey's deputy prime minister said Syria's intelligence and military were "the usual suspects" behind the bombings, but said authorities were still investigating the attacks.

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From The Plain Dealer: A gripping account of the moments just before and during the rescue of three young women and a little girl from the home where they had been held captive.

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The thieves hacked back-end computers and cloned prepaid debit cards, but their synchronized ATM withdrawals were even more extraordinary.

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Tamerlan Tsarnaev's body was taken to a cemetery in central Virginia. It took about two weeks to find a place willing to bury him. Now, some in Virginia are raising objections and concerns.

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Though the campaign was marred by violence and there were more attacks on Saturday, voters turned out in large numbers.

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There's a move in Congress to name a science laureate. Astronomer Mike Brown hopes that person would do much more than visit schools to encourage kids to consider careers in science. He'd like to see a laureate reach out to the public in all sorts of ways.

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NASA sent two astronauts on a spacewalk Saturday to fix an ammonia leak in one of International Space Station's power systems.

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The leak in a cooling system was discovered Thursday when "snowflakes" of ammonia were seen flying away from the station. Engineers on Earth were up overnight plotting an impromptu spacewalk.

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A former emergency services volunteer in West, Texas, is under arrest for allegedly possessing an explosive device. But investigators say they have not tied him to the April 17 fire and explosion at a fertilizer plant that devastated the community.

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Efrain Rios Montt was found guilty of ordering more than 1,700 people's deaths. His conviction is a boost for those who push for respect for human rights in the region.

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Also: IRS's actions add to conservatives' case against Obama; Pakistanis go to polls after campaign marred by violence; astronauts prepared for spacewalk to station's leaks; survivor of Bangladesh building collapse said to be "doing great."

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Saturday is the opening of the walleye fishing season, and it's usually one of the busiest weekends for the state's resort communities. This year, many of the lakes in northern Minnesota are still iced over, putting a chill on the season.

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Microscopic bugs called cheese mites are responsible for the distinctive rind and flavor of the bright orange French cheese Mimolette. But now, the FDA has blocked more than a ton of Mimolette from entering the country, because the agency says the mites left on it make it unfit for consumption.

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The extensive coverage of Nelson Mandela's fading health has sparked intense debate in South Africa. Many say the African way views the twilight years as a final journey, a time of peace and respect, and that journalists should be more sensitive.

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To know how elephants are faring, they need to be counted. But how do you count them when they're hidden under thick forest canopies? A conservationist in the 1980s started to count their poop, and that helped to create a model of elephants' numbers and movement through the forest.

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