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Pediatricians Recommend HPV Vaccination For Boys

Credit Richard Knox / NPR

Connor Perruccello-McClellan, a senior at Providence Country Day School in Rhode Island, has been vaccinated against HPV, something less than 1 percent of U.S. males can say.

By Scott Hensley

The leading group of U.S. pediatricians says it's now time for boys, as well as girls, to be vaccinated against human papillomavirus.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has updated its guidance to parents and doctors in favor of routine immunization for boys against the virus.

2:22 pm

Mon February 27, 2012

Red Cross Reaches Hama, Homs, Delivers Food, Medical Aid

By editor

A spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross tells NPR's Newscast Unit that ambulances from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent were able to evacuate three people from the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs, which have been heavily shelled in recent days.

One of the people evacuated was "a pregnant woman in urgent need of care," said Simon Schorno, who added the ambulances "also brought in emergency medical supplies to be distributed immediately."

2:11 pm

Mon February 27, 2012

To Get Out The Vote, Evangelicals Try Data Mining

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Credit Steve Brown / WOSU

Kay Clymer spends hours each day urging fellow Christians to vote. She finds their phone numbers through a database created by the company United In Purpose.

Credit Steve Brown / WOSU

Clymer knocks on doors in Ohio in an attempt to encourage Christians to register to vote.

By Barbara Bradley Hagerty

Listen

When Bill Dallas first heard that 15 to 20 million Christians in the U.S. are not registered to vote, he couldn't believe it.

"Initially, it surprised me. And then I thought to myself, 'Wait a minute, I'm not registered,' Dallas says. "Why wasn't I registered? Well, because I didn't think my vote made a difference."

Identifying Christians With Data Points

1:52 pm

Mon February 27, 2012

Violence Exposes Crisis In Latin American Prisons

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Credit Esteban Felix / AP

In Honduras, female relatives of inmates killed during a fire at a prison argue with soldiers as they try to enter the morgue in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, on Feb. 20. The fire at Comayagua prison on Feb. 14 killed more than 300 inmates.

Credit Julio Cesar Aguilar / AFP/Getty Images

In northern Mexico, relatives of inmates at Apodaca prison outside Monterrey attack the security fence, Feb. 21. Violence at the prison on Feb. 19 left 48 inmates dead; the transfer of three prisoners to another criminal center prompted more violence two days later.

Credit Daniel Becerril / Reuters/Landov

The warden and guards of the Apodaca prison are escorted away after a press conference in Monterrey, Mexico, Feb. 22. The director, deputy director and the chief of security along with 26 guards are under arrest for allegedly assisting members of the Zetas drug cartel orchestrate an escape and the killing of members of the rival Gulf cartel.

By Jason Beaubien

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A series of fatal riots inside Mexican prisons last week and a deadly blaze at a penitentiary in Honduras are prompting calls for major penal reform in Central America.

Violence at three different penitentiaries in Mexico last week left 48 inmates dead, while the inferno in Honduras earlier this month killed 360 prisoners.

These deadly events underscore the problems of corruption, overcrowding, prison gangs and crumbling infrastructure that prisons face throughout the region.

1:38 pm

Mon February 27, 2012

From Cell Phones To Cigarettes: The Long Arm Of The Chinese Government

Credit Ed Jones / AFP/Getty Images

How many government-owned businesses do you see in this picture?

By David Kestenbaum and Jacob Goldstein

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The streets of Beijing and Shanghai feel like an entrepreneurial free-for-all, full of mom-and-pop stores and street vendors selling snacks and cheap toys.

But when you pull back the curtain, you see a different picture: a country where the government still controls huge swaths of the economy.

When you're in China, there's a good chance you're doing business with the government every time you:

make a call on your cellphone (the government owns the country's biggest cellphone network)

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2:36 pm

Mon February 27, 2012