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Africa is big business for China. Howard French, author of China's Second Continent, talks to Steve Inskeep about why some African countries are of particular interest to Chinese leaders.

The House GOP's upcoming leadership election to fill Rep. Eric Cantor's majority leader position has opened a new rift: the South versus everybody else.

Ecuador's ambassador to Washington is hoping to turn a page in her country's stormy relationship with the U.S. But it's not easy once your government is branded as left-wing.

President Obama used to say that he wanted to rely more on career diplomats to serve as U.S. ambassadors. But he's been opting for political appointees who are big donors with limited international experience.

The interim Ukrainian president has delayed naming a new government. News of the delay comes as an economic crisis looms, tensions simmer with Russia and talk spreads of separatism in eastern Ukraine.

A potentially landmark lawsuit goes to trial Monday in California. At issue: whether job protections for public school teachers undermine a student's constitutional right to an adequate education. The students and parents who filed the lawsuit see it as a potential model for challenging teacher protection laws in other states. Unions and state officials say the lawsuit demonizes teachers and has no merit.

After four decades on Capitol Hill, the California Democrat plans to step down at the end of the year. He leaves a deep legacy in health and environmental law, including clean-air rules and tobacco restrictions.

This week, the European Union gave some of its member nations more time to meet deficit-reduction targets — in other words, to ease back on austerity. The programs have crushed growth and sent European unemployment to a record high 12 percent.

The largest demonstrations so far against the Egyptian president's year-old government are being held. He says he won't give in to demands that he step down or call new elections. Some protesters, though, think Morsi will suffer the same fate as toppled President Hosni Mubarak.

The U.S. military said in January that it will end its front-line combat exclusion for women; the shift means that women could join elite forces such as the Army Rangers and Navy SEALs in the next three years.