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Shots - Health News
3:04 pm
Mon December 10, 2012

How A Superbug Traveled The World

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Credit Courtesy of David Goudling/Nature Genetics.
Clostridium difficile bacteria produce a toxin that damages the intestine and causes severe diarrhea.
Credit Courtesy of Trevor Lawley and Nature Genetics.
Over the past decade, two highly virulent strains of Clostridium difficile have traveled from North America to Europe, Asia and Australia.
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Originally published on Wed December 12, 2012 8:06 am

Just as the name implies, Clostridium difficile is a difficult pathogen to beat. It causes a nasty infection in your gut, and it's often resistant to many antibiotics.

But C. difficile got even more troublesome about 10 years ago when a particularly virulent form of the bug cropped up in hospitals across the U.S and was no longer vulnerable to one of the most common classes of antibiotics.

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Asia
2:52 pm
Mon December 10, 2012

Hunger Still Haunts North Korea, Citizens Say

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Credit David Guttenfelder / AP
The U.N. says food supplies in North Korea have increased, but citizens who spoke to NPR say many people are going hungry. In this photo from Aug. 13, workers stand next to a field that was damaged by flooding in Songchon County, North Korea.
Credit David Guttenfelder / AP
North Korean women work on a roadside in North Pyongan province, North Korea, in June. North Korea increased its staple foods production for the second year in a row, but its citizens are still suffering from a serious lack of key proteins and fats in their diets, a U.N. report says.
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Originally published on Mon December 10, 2012 8:44 pm

While North Korea has long struggled with dire food shortages, the United Nations now assesses its food situation as being the best in many years. But NPR has had unusual access to five North Koreans in China, who paint a dramatically different, and alarming, picture.

Even as North Korea mourned its leader Kim Jong Il last December, one surprising thing was on people's minds: fish. State-run television showed people lining up in shops; the dear leader's last wish, apparently, was to provide fish to his people.

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Sports
2:45 pm
Mon December 10, 2012

Russia's Hockey League Glad To Have NHL-Lockout Orphans

Credit Petr David Josek / AP
Erik Christensen, right, from Lev Praha challenges Alexander Ovechkin from Dynamo Moscow during their KHL ice hockey match in Prague, Czech Republic, Tuesday, Oct. 9. Ovechkin is among those NHL players who were signed by European clubs because of the NHL lockout.
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Originally published on Tue December 11, 2012 3:43 am

As the National Hockey League lockout drags into its 86th day, which featured news that more games have been cancelled including the All-Star game, some of the league's biggest stars are getting plenty of action back in their home countries.

In Russia, major NHL players such as Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin are giving a boost to the fledgling KHL—the Kontinental Hockey League.

Russian NHL players are scattered throughout the KHL teams that still carry names from the Soviet era when Russia dominated world hockey.

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The Two-Way
2:20 pm
Mon December 10, 2012

Navy SEAL Killed During Afghan Rescue Is Identified

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Originally published on Mon December 10, 2012 8:44 pm

The member of Navy SEAL Team 6 killed during this weekend's rescue in Afghanistan of an American doctor was Petty Officer 1st Class Nicholas Checque, 28, of Monroeville, Pa.

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The Picture Show
1:35 pm
Mon December 10, 2012

A Black And White 1860s Fundraiser

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Credit Charles Paxson / Library of Congress
Rosa, Charley and Rebecca are three of eight freed slaves who sat for portraits in 1863-1864 that were sold to raise money to fund schools for emancipated slaves in Louisiana. The three were chosen because it was believed their near-white complexions would draw more sympathy — and support — from a country torn apart by slavery and civil war.
Credit Charles Paxson / Library of Congress
Credit Charles Paxson / Library of Congress
Credit Charles Paxson / Library of Congress
Credit Charles Paxson / Library of Congress
Credit Charles Paxson / Library of Congress
Credit Charles Paxson / Library of Congress
Credit Library of Congress
Fannie Virginia Casseopia Lawrence, a freed slave, was adopted by Catherine S. Lawrence. Abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher presented Fannie to his congregation at Plymouth Congregational Church in Brooklyn, N.Y.
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Originally published on Mon December 10, 2012 5:05 pm

They look like any other 19th century vignettes and portraits of children kneeling in prayer or cloaked in the U.S. flag.

But these cartes de visite (a calling card with a portrait mounted on it that was all the rage during the 1860s) featured Charles, Rebecca and Rosa — former slave children who looked white.

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