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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning, I'm David Greene.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep.

Again and again, President Obama's administration tries to pivot attention toward East Asia. Administration officials believe China and its neighbors are where the economic future lies.

GREENE: And yet it's the Middle East that keeps demanding the president's attention. It brings to mind that line from F. Scott Fitzgerald's: So we beat on boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Now a story of "Impossible Odds," that's the title of a new book by Jessica Buchanan. She's an American aid worker who was kidnapped in Somalia back in 2011. Her new book recounts the terrifying experience. It's co-written with her husband and fellow aid worker, Erik Landemalm. The couple was based in northern Somalia, considered the safer part of a country that to this day they feel an affection for.

Google Glass isn't even for sale yet, but it's already facing backlash.

As a Republican senator from Maine, Olympia Snowe was known for her willingness to stand alone. A moderate with independent views, she had substantial influence in the health care debate as both sides vied for her vote. Earlier this year she left the Senate, out of frustration, she says, with the inability to get anything done.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Steve Inskeep.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

And I'm David Greene. Let's get an update now on one of this year's major policy debates. There is an immigration bill under consideration. The law, if passed, has the potential to be a major success story for President Obama and for the bipartisan group of lawmakers who drafted it. Opponents of the bill have major concerns about how it treats people who came to the U.S. illegally, and also about how much the law would cost.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Good morning. I'm David Greene. The Social Security Administration has put out its list of the most popular baby names from last year. Topping the list for girls: Sophia. For boys, it's Jacob. As for fast rising contenders, Aria is becoming popular for girls. It seems parents are inspired by "Game of Thrones." Boys names gaining popularity: Major, King and Messiah.

A few other names of interest: David is hanging on at number 19, and Steve, where is Steve? Oh, 762.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

It's a little too exotic.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Good morning, I'm Steve Inskeep.

Police in Pinellas County, Florida pulled over Bryan Zuniga at a traffic stop. The man ran away but his already bad day got worse, because as he fled he was attacked by an alligator. Police later arrested him at the hospital where he was being treated for his wounds. You may have seen those TV commercials, on for years, where a dog urges you to take a bite out of crime. This is not precisely what the crime dog meant, but close enough.

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DAVID GREENE, HOST:

All right, prosecutors are calling it the biggest bank heist in New York City since the 1970s. They say a gang of cybercriminals drained $45 million from ATMs around the world.

Here's NPR's Joel Rose.

JOEL ROSE, BYLINE: United States Attorney Loretta Lynch says the eight men charged in New York were able to withdraw $2.8 million in cash in just one day, in February.

LORETTA LYNCH: This was a 21st century bank heist. But instead of guns and masks, this cybercrime organization used laptops and malware.

Ambassador Robert Ford crossed into northern Syria on Wednesday. The secret visit was confirmed by Syrian activists at the media office at the Bab al-Salama crossing on the Turkish frontier.

Anthropologists, sociologists and biologists have explored over several decades many factors that shape the likelihood of sexual coercion of women by men.

The Internet has managed to disrupt many industries, from publishing to music. So why not lending?

Google is teaming up with the nation's largest peer-to-peer lender. The search and tech giant is investing $125 million in Lending Club, which gets borrowers and lenders together outside the conventional banking system. Google's move and the actions of other big players reflect a growing interest in peer-to-peer lending.

On cable TV, there's a whole truckload of reality shows that make fun of working-class, white Southern culture. They are some of the most popular and talked about new shows, too, such as Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and Duck Dynasty.

MTV tried cashing in on the redneck TV trend with its own hyped-up platform for young Southern kids behaving badly, Buckwild. It played like a Southern-fried version of Jersey Shore. Its stars were a dimwitted crew of young people in West Virginia drinking hard and riding pickup trucks through ditches filled with mud.

Mike Tyson tells the New York Daily News he would like to play Othello. Reviews of his acting have been mixed, but Tyson says he could do it, given time to prepare. "They say my skills are horrible," he says, "but I have the natural timing."

A natural gas company in Great Falls, Montana, wanted to educate consumers. So it printed 25,000 scratch-and-sniff cards to show how a gas leak would smell. Then the company tossed some of the cards. As they were crushed in a garbage truck, the gas smell filled the town.