The Two-Way
12:42 pm
Fri May 24, 2013

Ex-Guatemalan President Extradited To U.S.

Credit AFP/Getty Images
Former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo speaks with journalists in Guatemala City before boarding a plane for the U.S. on Friday.

Former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo has been extradited to the United States, where he faces charges of laundering tens of millions of dollars through U.S. banks.

Portillo, who served as president from 2000 to 2004, was snatched from a hospital bed in Guatemala City, where he was recovering from liver surgery. He was placed on an airplane bound for New York, according to his lawyer, Mauricio Berreondo.

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Shots - Health News
12:21 pm
Fri May 24, 2013

Heart Failure Treatment Improves, But Death Rate Remains High

Credit Brian Evans / Science Source
Heart with congestive heart failure showing an enlarged left ventricle.

Originally published on Fri May 24, 2013 1:12 pm

This is one of those "good news, but" medical stories.

New treatments for heart failure have made it much less likely that people with this chronic condition will die suddenly.

But an analysis by researchers at UCLA finds that the death rate for people with advanced heart failure remains stubbornly high, with 30 percent of people dying within three years.

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The Two-Way
11:52 am
Fri May 24, 2013

Google Reportedly Faces FTC Antitrust Probe Over Display Ads

The Federal Trade Commission is in the early stages of opening an antitrust probe into how Google runs its online display advertising business, according to a report by Bloomberg News, citing sources who want to remain anonymous because the FTC has not announced the probe.

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Music + Culture
11:41 am
Fri May 24, 2013

The Cocktail Party Guide To Igor Stravinsky

Credit Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Don't be caught "Stravinsky deficient" as the big centennial of his Rite of Spring approaches.

Originally published on Fri May 24, 2013 1:21 pm

The Two-Way
10:56 am
Fri May 24, 2013

News Corp. Board Approves Company Split

Credit Pascal Le Segretain / Getty Images
The head of News Corp., Rupert Murdoch, arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in February.

Originally published on Fri May 24, 2013 11:12 am

Media empire News Corp., parent of Fox and The Wall Street Journal, will be cleaved into two businesses starting June 28: a publishing arm and one for entertainment.

The plan was first announced a year ago. As we reported at the time:

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The Two-Way
10:40 am
Fri May 24, 2013

New Jersey Shore Is Ready For Visitors, Gov. Christie Says

Credit Jeff Zelevansky / Getty Images
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie earlier this month.
The Two-Way
10:05 am
Fri May 24, 2013

Amphibians' Population Decline Marked In New U.S. Study

Credit Karen Bleier / AFP/Getty Images
Populations of frogs and other amphibians are declining at an average rate of 3.7 percent each year, according to a new U.S. Geological Survey study.

Originally published on Fri May 24, 2013 10:37 am

Populations of frogs, salamanders and other amphibians are declining at an average rate of 3.7 percent each year, according to a U.S. Geological Survey study released this week. Researchers say the study is the first to calculate how quickly amphibians are disappearing in the United States.

"If the rate observed is representative and remains unchanged, these species would disappear from half of the habitats they currently occupy in about 20 years," according to the USGS.

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The Two-Way
9:22 am
Fri May 24, 2013

There's No Place For Sex Assaults In Military, Obama Says

Credit Larry Downing / Reuters /Landov
President Obama delivering the commencement address Friday at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

Saying that "those who commit sexual assaults are not only committing a crime, they threaten the trust and discipline that make our military strong," President Obama on Friday urged Naval Academy graduates to help bring an end to a disturbing series of such offenses.

"They've got no place in the greatest military on earth," Obama said during the commencement address he delivered at the academy's Annapolis, Md., campus.

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Movie Reviews
9:13 am
Fri May 24, 2013

Two New Stories With A New-Wave Vibe

Originally published on Fri May 24, 2013 9:31 am

Lately I've been re-watching vintage Truffaut movies, and I've been struck by the resurgent influence on American independent films of the French New Wave of the late '50s and '60s.

The Truffaut borrowings are fairly explicit in Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha, while Richard Linklater's Before Midnight takes its cues from Eric Rohmer's gentle but expansive talkfests. That's not a criticism: With mainstream movies seeming ever more machine-tooled nowadays, the impulse to reach back to an age of free-form filmmaking feels especially liberating.

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I-5 Bridge Collapse
9:10 am
Fri May 24, 2013

I-5 Bridge Collapse: Update

By first light this morning, investigators were sorting through twisted steel girders and interviewing drivers to piece together exactly what brought down the Interstate-5 Skagit River Bridge in Mount Vernon. More now from Northwest Public Radio’s Lucrezia Cuen.

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