National and World News from NPR

Nothing about what happens during today's Republican presidential primaries in five states is expected to change the fact that Mitt Romney is the presumptive/expected/presumed/inevitable (pick your favorite word) nominee.

Polls are open in Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. There are 209 convention delegates at stake and Romney could pull off a five-state sweep.

But — and there's always a but — there's this:

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

General Motors is making a bigger effort in what's become the world's biggest car market. At the Beijing Auto Show this week, GM said it plans to open 600 new dealerships in China this year. GM is trying to grow Chinese sales while they still can.

NPR's Frank Langfitt reports from Shanghai.

Victoria Beckham has teamed up with Range Rover to produce a special edition Evoque luxury SUV. The former Spice Girl, married to soccer star David Beckham, has designed fashion lines before, but says this is her first foray into automobiles.

Wal-Mart could face significant legal liability following a report accusing the company of systematic bribery in Mexico. A report in The New York Times claims Wal-Mart officials in Mexico paid more than $20 million in bribes to help the company open more stores there. The story also says top Wal-Mart executives in the U.S. looked the other way. The company's stock price fell nearly 5 percent Monday.

News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch and his son James are to appear this week before a panel investigating the practices, culture and ethics of British press. The Murdochs are expected to be asked about the extent of their knowledge of phone hacking by their newspapers.

Police in Bahrain are accused of using excessive force on anti-government protesters in the days leading up to the Formula 1 Grand Prix. Steve Inskeep talks to John Timoney, a former police chief in Miami and Philadelphia, who now advises the Bahraini police force.

Weeks ahead of its initial public offering, Facebook released its first quarter profits Monday, and they are down 12 percent from a year ago. At the same time, company expenses have nearly doubled. Facebook attributes some of that to market expansion, which requires more employees and infrastructure.

Former Prime Minister Geir Haarde was the first leader to be put on trial for his role in the global financial crisis. Renee Montagne talks to Michael Stothard, a correspondent for the Financial Times, about Haarde being found guilty of negligence for his handling of the financial crisis. He was cleared of three other charges.

President Obama sets off on a two-day tour of college campuses Tuesday to tout a plan to keep student loans more affordable.

The trip is billed as official business, but it has a political flavor. Stops include: North Carolina, where Democrats hold their national convention this summer; Colorado, where Obama accepted his party's nomination four years ago; and Iowa, where his White House campaign was launched in 2008.

All three states are expected to be hard-fought battlegrounds in November.

There's some soul-searching going on in the military these days.

The latest scandal to hit U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan surfaced last week when The Los Angeles Times published photographs showing smiling American soldiers holding up body parts of a Taliban suicide bomber.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta addressed the latest incident during a trip to Brussels.

"That behavior that was depicted in those photos absolutely violates both our regulations and, more importantly, our core values," he said last week after a NATO meeting.