NPR News

The Obama administration is trying to head off a Palestinian effort to seek recognition at the United Nations — the U.S. would rather see a negotiated settlement.

Last year, talks that the Obama administration launched came to a grinding halt over the issue of Israeli settlement-building in the West Bank. The Palestinians' Plan B is to look to the United Nations for help.

Do you take a vitamin or herbal supplement? If not, chances are someone next to you does.

Data just out from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that more than half of Americans take some sort of supplement. To be precise, it's something about 53 percent of Americans do, according to a survey conducted between 2003 and 2006. The proportion is up from 40 percent during a previous study period from 1988 to 1994.

One of the cities in Libya where it's known that fighting has been fierce and that forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi have not spared civilians, is Misurata.

From Britain's ITVNews comes a revealing video report by correspondent John Irvine and photographer Sean Sean. They got to Misurata aboard an aid ship, and were there to see how out-gunned civilians are trying to fight back.

Ivory Coast's president-in-waiting tried Wednesday to restore order to the embattled country even as pockets of fighters loyal to ousted strongman Laurent Gbagbo fought on in the main city of Abidjan.

As periodic bouts of gunfire erupted in Abidjan, Alassane Ouattara, whose forces captured Gbagbo on Monday after a fierce siege of the presidential compound, repeated his call against violence and asked fighters to put down their arms.

"We need to secure the country, notably Abidjan," he said. "It is important for the country to emerge from this crisis on top."

One of the biggest drivers of the federal deficit and debt problems is health care spending. Now the president says the health law passed last year already addresses this problem, to the tune of a more than $200 billion over the next decade. But on Wednesday, he added even more proposed savings on top of that. Melissa Block talks with NPR health policy correspondent Julie Rovner about the competing Republican and Democratic proposals.