Science & Health

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney softened his tough primary-campaign tone on immigration, if not his positions, during a speech Thursday to national Hispanic leaders.

In comments to thousands gathered at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials in Orlando, Fla., the former Massachusetts governor criticized President Obama's failure to take action on comprehensive immigration reform.

Iran's intelligence minister says his country has uncovered a "massive cyber attack" he says was launched by the United States, England and Israel to coincide with nuclear negotiations that happened in Moscow.

Press TV, Iran's official, English-language news outlet, reports that Heidar Moslehi said Iran had "taken necessary measures" to protect itself against the attack.

Moslehi added:

Anyone and everyone can now look in the journal Science and read about how to make lab-altered bird flu viruses that have been at the center of a controversy that's raged for months.

But in the eyes of some critics, the details of these experiments are effectively the recipe for a dangerous flu pandemic.

Last week, NPR Special Correspondent Susan Stamberg revealed a streak of "steamers" she managed to check out from her neighborhood library at age ten for our take on NPR Books' PG-13 series, where NPR staffers look back on the Young Adult novels that inspired their own coming-of-age moments.

Turns out, Susan isn't the only one around here guilty of giving in to the gripping pages of Young Adult fiction. NPR Senior Washington Editor Ron Elving shares this week what he found among the scholarly books on his father's book shelf:

California is known as the land of fruits and nuts, but it also happens to be the country's largest milk-producing state. So it's no surprise that its dairy farmers are front and center in the debate over reforming the milk marketing system, which hasn't really changed much in 30 years.

All Things Considered continues its "Mom and Dad's Record Collection" series with singer Santi White, who's best known by her stage name, Santigold.

White says her father steered her artistic development by introducing her to the music of Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti at a young age.

Transcript

NEAL CONAN, HOST:

This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. Over the past 25 years, the number and percentage of prisoners held in isolation has exploded at both state and federal penitentiaries. At a Senate subcommittee hearing this, Senator Richard Durbin argued that the dramatic expansion of the use of solitary confinement is a human rights issue we can't ignore.

A United Nations investigator on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions says the United States drone strikes may challenge international law.

The Guardian reports that Christof Heyns made the comments in a meeting organized by the American Civil Liberties Union in Geneva.