NPR correspondent Lourdes Garcia-Navarro is most at home when she's on the move. Garcia-Navarro was born in London, and has lived in the United States, Colombia, Afghanistan, Israel and Mexico City.
Recent Stories
Since the Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007, it has become increasingly difficult for Palestinians in the strip to get out because of tight restrictions by Israel and even Egypt. That has led to a flourishing trade in visas bought through thousands of dollars in bribes. Most though can't afford the now exorbitant prices and are stuck in what they say is an open-air prison.
Palestinian leaders are struggling with the aftermath of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' announcement that he does not intend to run for re-election in a vote scheduled for January. There is no clear-cut successor, and the uncertainty has rattled both Palestinians and Israelis.
In the West Bank, Palestinian relatives of the alleged Fort Hood shooter are shocked and saddened by the mass killings in Texas. Born in Virginia, Nidal Malik Hasan made his first visit to the Palestinian territories a dozen years ago, and had been in touch with relatives in the town of El Bireh on numerous occasions since then.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas has been consolidating its power more than two years after it took over the Gaza Strip. But the recent conflict with Israel and Gaza's continuing isolation are taking a toll on the group's popularity.
It's a tactic extremist settler groups are calling "the price tag." Each time settlers are evicted from an illegal outpost, they retaliate with an attack on Palestinian land. "It's smart but evil," a lawyer with an Israeli human rights group says. "Security forces will have to divert manpower energy to deal with the new problem."
There are increasing tensions between Israel and Turkey. On Thursday, Israel summoned a Turkish diplomat to protest a series on Turkish state television that dramatizes Israeli soldiers murdering unarmed palestinian children. Earlier this week, Turkey refused to participate with Israel in a NATO war exercise.
For years, the kibbutz movement in Israel has been struggling. Now, fewer than 5 percent of Israelis live in the communal settlements. But from the ashes, some Israelis are trying to take the old movement in a new direction.
In Israel, ultra-orthodox families tend to be really large, but this one may be a record: A 99-year-old rabbi has an estimated 1,500 living descendents. His great-great-grandson just had a child, marking six generations of a single family.
While official reaction to the Nobel Peace Prize announcement from Palestinian and Israeli leaders was positive, on the streets both sides took a different view. Meanwhile, U.S. envoy George Mitchell met the Israeli and Palestinian leaders Friday, but he seems no closer to reviving formal peace talks.
Israeli police mobilized reinforcements from across the country Tuesday to secure volatile Jerusalem. Thousands of officers were deployed on city streets for fear that days of clashes with Palestinian protesters would escalate.
Country on a String is unusual in the Arab world — a comedy sketch show that takes aim at Palestinian leaders on the TV channel they control. The popular show debuted during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
A summit in New York between Israeli and Palestinian leaders is over, and each side blames the other for failing to accomplish much beyond a handshake. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met in the presence of President Obama, who urged them to stop wasting time. Peace negotiations have not officially resumed and there was no obvious progress.
Israel's reaction last week to a U.N. report that criticized its actions in the Gaza Strip was swift and harsh. Since the Gaza war, and a series of unfavorable reports by human rights organizations about the Israeli military's actions there, the Israeli government and its allies have been calling into question the impartiality of international and local organizations.
The town of Alerta, on the Interocenianic Highway, is near the Brazilian border. Most of the people there are either engaged in illegal logging or in the 100-year-old tradition of Brazil nut harvesting by hand. Conservationists say it is eco-friendly, but the areas are being invaded by poor farmers who slash and burn to grow crops.
They are engaged — Amani from the Gaza Strip and Basheer of the occupied West Bank. But even though they are both of the same religion and the same nationality, they cannot get married. She needs government approval to move, and she's been waiting for years.
