The Salt
5:30 pm
Mon November 28, 2011

Food Giant Unilever Says Restaurants Need To Cut Food Waste

Credit Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
A prep cook drops apple skins into a food scrap recycling container in San Francisco.

Originally published on Mon November 28, 2011 9:14 pm

Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch conglomerate that makes blockbuster food products like Hellmann's mayonnaise and Skippy peanut butter and supplies thousands of food-service companies in 74 countries, is a Fortune Global 500 company. If it decides it wants to do something about food waste, it could keep a lot of perfectly tasty morsels out of the garbage heap.

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It's All Politics
5:29 pm
Mon November 28, 2011

Woman Claims 13-Year Affair With Herman Cain; He Denies It

Credit Greg Bluestein / AP
Ginger White near Dunwoody, Ga. on Monday, Nov. 28, 2011.

Originally published on Tue November 29, 2011 9:33 am

An Atlanta woman claimed Monday that she has had long-term affair with Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain and has the records to prove it, an accusation that delivers another blow to the former corporate CEO's campaign.

Cain vehemently denied the allegation during an interview on CNN before the woman's story aired on an Atlanta television station.

He described her as a "friend," but said their relationship was not sexual. "I have nothing to hide," he told CNN.

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Presidential Race
5:26 pm
Mon November 28, 2011

Atlanta Woman Accuses Cain Of Affair

An Atlanta woman has told a local TV station that she had a 13-year-long sexual relationship with GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain. For several weeks now, Cain's campaign has been dogged by several accusations of sexual harassment. Melissa Block talks with NPR national political correspondent Don Gonyea.

The Two-Way
5:00 pm
Mon November 28, 2011

U.N. Accuses Syria of 'Crimes Against Humanity'

Credit FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP/Getty Images
Chairperson of the Commission of Inquiry on Syria, Professor Paulo Pinheiro gestures during a press conference in Geneva today.

A U.N. commission accused security forces loyal to Syria President Bashar Assad of killing hundreds of children and committing other "crimes against humanity" since the government began its crackdown on protesters back in March.

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The Two-Way
4:20 pm
Mon November 28, 2011

Herman Cain: Another Accuser Is Coming Forward

"I just wanted to give you a heads up and your audience a heads up that here we go again," Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said on CNN a few moments ago.

Cain told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that another accuser would come forward and say they were involved in a long-term extramarital affair. Cain said he knows the accuser and he thought "we were friends."

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Asia
3:46 pm
Mon November 28, 2011

Airstrike Puts New Strains On U.S.-Pakistan Alliance

A NATO airstrike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers over the weekend has brought U.S.-Pakistani ties to a new level of strain, but experts say it's unlikely to produce a permanent rift in the relationship.

Barely a month ago, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Islamabad hoping to cement greater Pakistani cooperation to eliminate Taliban safe havens inside its territory. After Saturday's attack, that kind of cooperation appeared to be on indefinite hold.

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Tovia Smith is an award-winning NPR News National Desk correspondent based in Boston.

For the last 25 years, Smith has been covering news around New England and beyond. She's reported extensively on the debate over gay marriage in Massachusetts and the sexual abuse scandal within the Catholic Church, including breaking the news of the Pope's secret meeting with survivors.

Smith has traveled to New Hampshire to report on seven consecutive Primary elections, to the Gulf Coast after the BP oil spill, and to Ground Zero in New York City after the September 11, 2001 attacks. She covered landmark court cases — from the trials of British au pair Louise Woodward, and abortion clinic gunman John Salvi, to the proceedings against shoe bomber Richard Reid.

Through the years, Smith has brought to air the distinct voices of Boston area residents, whether reacting to the capture of reputed Mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger, or mourning the death of U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy.

In all of her reporting, Smith aims to tell personal stories that evoke the emotion and issues of the day. She has filed countless stories on legal, social, and political controversies from the biggies like abortion to smaller-scale disputes over whether to require students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in classrooms.

With reporting that always push past the polemics, Smith advances the debate with more thoughtful, and thought-provoking, nuanced arguments from both –or all— sides. She has produced award-winning broadcasts on everything from race relations in Boston, adoption and juvenile crime, and has filed several documentary-length reports, including an award-winning half-hour special on modern-day orphanages.

Smith took a leave of absence from NPR in 1998, to launch Here and Now, a daily news magazine produced by NPR Member Station WBUR in Boston. As co-host of the program, she conducted live daily interviews on issues ranging from the impeachment of President Bill Clinton to allegations of sexual abuse in Massachusetts prisons, as well as regular features on cooking and movies.

In 1996, Smith worked as a radio consultant and journalism instructor in Africa. She spent several months teaching and reporting in Ethiopia, Guinea, and Tunisia. Smith filed her first on-air stories as a reporter for local affiliate WBUR in Boston in 1987.

Throughout her career, Smith has won more than two dozen national journalism awards including the Casey Medal, the Unity Award, a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award Honorable Mention, Ohio State Award, Radio and Television News Directors Association Award, and numerous honors from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Public Radio News Directors Association, and the Associated Press.

She is a graduate of Tufts University, with a degree in international relations.

The Two-Way
3:18 pm
Mon November 28, 2011

Lana Peters, Stalin's Last Surviving Child, Has Died

The Associated Press and The New York Times report that Lana Peters, Josef Stalin's only daughter and his last surviving child, died last week at age 85. Peters was mainly known as the daughter of the Soviet tyrant, but her life was anything but simple: The evolution of her name says much about her efforts to escape the ignominy of her father. Peters was born Svetlana Stalina then changed her last name to Alliluyeva and later became Lana Peters.

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Music News
2:23 pm
Mon November 28, 2011

A Carnegie Hall Debut, Inspired By Trout

Credit Bill Keefrey
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich took her inspiration for the piece from Franz Schubert's famous Trout Quintet.

The Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio — pianist Joseph Kalichstein, violinist Jamie Laredo and cellist Sharon Robinson — will celebrate its 35th anniversary as one of the world's finest chamber-music ensembles this January. For the past 25 years, one of the group's frequent partners has been Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. She says it's always great fun to hand over a new piece.

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Africa
2:22 pm
Mon November 28, 2011

In Egypt's Vote, Islamists Expect Strong Showing

Dozens of veiled women tried to squeeze past each other Monday and into a polling station in the working-class neighborhood of Raml in the northern Egyptian city of Alexandria.

They were eager to cast ballots for a clean-shaven man in a crisp blue suit and matching tie.

His name is Sobhi Saleh and he heads the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party ticket in three of Alexandria's districts. The party is considered the best organized in Egypt and is expected to do well in the country's first election since President Hosni Mubarak was toppled in February.

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