All Things Considered

Robert Siegel speaks with Daoud Kuttab, director general of a Palestinian media organization and the Community Media Network in Amman, Jordan, about the unity agreement between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.

Egyptian authorities have released details of the charges against 43 people, including 19 Americans, who worked for democracy-building NGOs around the country. Cairo says the suspects were carrying out political, not civil society activities, particularly after the revolution began just over a year ago.

As a candidate and as president, Barack Obama has disparaged the role of big money in politics. At his 2010 State of the Union address, he even called out the Supreme Court for a ruling that opened the door to unlimited personal and business contributions. But, faced with a Republican opposition that's raising millions from a handful of sources, President Obama let his fundraisers loose to play the game too.

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has joined the chorus criticizing President Obama over a controversial policy that would require most employers, including Catholic hospitals and universities, to include birth control in their employees' health insurance.

Catholic opinion leaders have denounced the policy as an assault on their religious freedom.

Welsh composer Paul Mealor, who scored the music for Prince William and Kate Middleton's royal wedding, has a new composition in the works. For it, he's seeking a rich and low singing voice — one capable of reaching the "low E" note. And as he's learning, reaching the low E is no easy feat. To find a singer up to the task, Mealor has had to embark on an international search. Robert Siegel catches up with Mealor to hear how his search is going.

For the second time in four years, New Yorkers celebrated a Super Bowl win by the Giants with a tickertape parade through Manhattan's "Canyon of Heroes" on Tuesday.

Roger Boisjoly was a booster rocket engineer at NASA contractor Morton Thiokol in Utah in January, 1986, when he and four colleagues became embroiled in the fatal decision to launch the Space Shuttle Challenger.

Boisjoly was also one of two confidential sources quoted by NPR three weeks later in the first detailed report about the Challenger launch decision, and the stiff resistance by Boisjoly and other Thiokol engineers.