Scott Neuman

Scott Neuman works as a Digital News writer and editor, handling breaking news and feature stories for NPR.org. Occasionally he can be heard on-air reporting on stories for Newscasts and has done several radio features since he joined NPR in April 2007, as an editor on the Continuous News Desk.

Neuman brings to NPR years of experience as an editor and reporter at a variety of news organizations and based all over the world. For three years in Bangkok, Thailand, he served as an Associated Press Asia-Pacific desk editor. From 2000-2004, Neuman worked as a Hong Kong-based Asia editor and correspondent for The Wall Street Journal. He spent the previous two years as the international desk editor at the AP, while living in New York.

As the United Press International's New Delhi-based correspondent and bureau chief, Neuman covered South Asia from 1995-1997. He worked for two years before that as a freelance radio reporter in India, filing stories for NPR, PRI and the Canadian Broadcasting System. In 1991, Neuman was a reporter at NPR Member station WILL in Champaign-Urbana, IL. He started his career working for two years as the operations director and classical music host at NPR member station WNIU/WNIJ in DeKalb/Rockford, IL.

Reporting from Pakistan immediately following the September 11, 2001 attacks, Neuman was part of the team that earned the Pulitzer Prize awarded to The Wall Street Journal for overall coverage of 9/11 and the aftermath. Neuman shared in several awards won by AP for coverage of the December 2004 Asian tsunami.

A graduate from Purdue University, Neuman earned a Bachelor's degree in communications and electronic journalism.

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The Two-Way
10:38 am
Tue April 30, 2013

New Arizona Law: Guns From Buybacks Can't Be Destroyed

Credit Joe Raedle / Getty Images
Detective Enrique Chavez logs weapons from a gun buyback in Miami. Arizona's new law requires municipalities to re-sell weapons recovered in such programs.

Cities in Arizona that conduct buyback programs to get guns off the street will now be required to re-sell those weapons, according to a new law signed by the governor.

Gov. Jan Brewer signed the legislation late Monday "preventing local governments from melting down the weapons obtained from these popular civic events. Before the new law, the state had allowed such firearms to be destroyed," according to Reuters.

The news agency says:

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The Two-Way
9:21 am
Tue April 30, 2013

Bombing In Syrian Capital Kills At Least 13 People

Credit Louai Beshara / AFP/Getty Images
Syrian government security officers after a blast in the Marjeh district of Damascus on Tuesday.

Originally published on Tue April 30, 2013 10:15 am

Syrian state TV is reporting that a bomb blast in Damascus has killed at least 13 people, a day after the country's prime minister narrowly escaped a car bomb.

The Associated Press reports:

"The bombings appear to be part of an accelerated campaign by opposition forces seeking to topple President Bashar Assad to strike at his heavily protected seat of power. ...

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The Two-Way
4:23 pm
Mon April 29, 2013

Iceland Elects Three Pirate Party MPs

Credit Adam Berry / Getty Images
Supporters of the German Pirate Party attend a meeting in Berlin in February.

Originally published on Mon April 29, 2013 5:07 pm

Iceland has become the first country to elect members of parliament from the Pirate Party — an international online freedom movement.

Three Pirate Party MPs will take seats following historic polls in Iceland that saw a new coalition come to power on a promise of easing economic austerity measures.

According to The Associated Press:

"The conservative Independence Party and rural-based Progressive Party — who governed Iceland for decades before the 2008 [economic] crash — each had 19 seats in Iceland's 63-seat parliament, the Althingi. ...

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The Two-Way
3:40 pm
Mon April 29, 2013

Afghan President Says CIA Cash Payments Were Small And Legit

Credit Heikki Saukkomaa / AFP/Getty Images
Afghan President Hamid Karzai with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto (center) and Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen on Monday.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai acknowledged on Monday that for the past decade or more, his office has been receiving secret cash payments from the CIA, but that it's only small amounts used for "operational" purposes.

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The Two-Way
1:54 pm
Mon April 29, 2013

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Passes First Rocket Test

Originally published on Mon April 29, 2013 4:02 pm

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo — designed to carry paying passengers beyond Earth's atmosphere — passed a key test Monday, shooting past the speed of sound under its own rocket power.

The spacecraft developed by Sir Richard Branson's space tourism venture dropped from its mother ship over the Mojave Desert and then, for the first time, fired its engine. It hit Mach 1.2 and reached an altitude of 56,000 feet before gliding to a landing.

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The Two-Way
12:18 pm
Mon April 29, 2013

Justices Let Stand Block On Alabama's Tough Immigration Law

Credit Mark Wilson / Getty Images
People lined up to enter the U.S. Supreme Court building last week.

Originally published on Mon April 29, 2013 4:57 pm

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to review a lower court ruling that effectively bars Alabama from enforcing an anti-immigration law that was considered one of the toughest in the nation.

In an 8-to-1 vote, the justices let stand the lower court decision that prevents the state from enforcing the 2011 law. Justice Antonin Scalia was the sole dissenter, and did so without comment.

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The Two-Way
9:20 am
Mon April 29, 2013

Bangladesh Rescuers Give Up On Finding Survivors From Collapse

Credit Kevin Frayer / AP
Bangladeshi rescue workers take a break Friday on the rubble of a building that collapsed Wednesday in Savar, near Dhaka, Bangladesh. By Friday, the death toll reached 300 as rescuers continued to search for injured and missing.

Originally published on Tue April 30, 2013 7:57 pm

Several arrests have been made in connection with the collapse of an illegally constructed garment factory in Bangladesh last week that killed at least 380 people outside the capital, Dhaka. Meanwhile, rescuers say they have given up hope of finding anyone else alive.

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The Two-Way
7:13 pm
Fri April 26, 2013

Driver Hijacked By Tsarnaev Brothers Helped Police Trace Them

Originally published on Mon April 29, 2013 7:19 am

A lucky escape and quick thinking by the man who says he was carjacked by Boston Marathon bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev may have helped police catch the brothers, according to Eric Moskowitz, a Boston Globe reporter who got an exclusive interview with the driver.

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The Two-Way
2:05 pm
Fri April 26, 2013

Dutch Authorities Nab Suspect In 'Unprecedented' Cyberattack

Authorities say they have arrested a Dutch national in Spain in connection with a March cyberattack widely described as the largest in Internet history.

According to The Associated Press, Dutch prosecutors say the 35-year-old suspect, who is identified only by his initials, S.K., was taken into custody on Thursday.

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The Two-Way
10:15 am
Fri April 26, 2013

South Korean Workers To Leave Industrial Zone In North

Credit Jung Yeon-je / AFP/Getty Images
South Korean soldiers stand beside barricades as cars drive on the road leading to North Korea's Kaesong industrial complex on Friday.

Originally published on Fri April 26, 2013 1:44 pm

South Korea has ordered the withdrawal of its workers from a jointly run industrial zone in North Korea, in a further sign of how relations have gone from bad to worse between the two countries in recent weeks.

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The Two-Way
9:25 am
Fri April 26, 2013

Rescuers Still Hope For Survivors In Bangladesh Collapse

Credit AFP / AFP/Getty Images
Bangladeshi volunteers and rescue workers at the site of the factory on Friday.

Originally published on Fri April 26, 2013 10:20 am

Rescue workers are still hoping to find survivors from the collapse of an eight-story garment factory in Bangladesh that has killed more than 300 people and left hundreds missing.

Meanwhile, angry relatives of the missing have clashed with police, blaming authorities for the catastrophe at Rana Plaza in Savar, an industrial suburb of the capital, Dhaka.

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The Two-Way
5:37 pm
Thu April 25, 2013

Texas Town Honors Dead From Fertilizer Plant Blast

Credit Jewel Samad / AFP/Getty Images
President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama attend a memorial service at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, on Thursday, for those killed in the April 17 explosion of a fertilizer plant.

West, Texas, said goodbye to 14 people, including 10 firefighters and first responders, who were killed in the April 17 explosion of a fertilizer plant that leveled part of the town.

President Obama attended a memorial service on Thursday to console the grieving families. He said the "tragedy has simply revealed who you've always been."

He told the audience of about 10,000 gathered at Baylor University's Ferrell Center in Waco that the country would help the community rebuild.

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The Two-Way
1:25 pm
Thu April 25, 2013

White House: Evidence Syria Used Chemical Weapons

Credit Pool / Getty Images
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel speaks with reporters on Thursday in the United Arab Emirates after reading a statement on chemical weapon use.

Originally published on Thu April 25, 2013 5:55 pm

Update at 5:45 p.m. ET. 'All Options' On The Table

A White House official reiterated much of what was in the letter sent to Capitol Hill, but added that "all options were on the table in terms of our response."

The official said that reports of the use of chemical weapons in Aleppo in March was one of the incidents being examined.

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The Two-Way
11:22 am
Thu April 25, 2013

Google Agrees To Change Display Of Search Results In Europe

Credit Adam Berry / Getty Images
Google makes a deal with the EU.

Originally published on Thu April 25, 2013 12:16 pm

Google has agreed to modify the way it displays search results in Europe as part of a deal to end a probe by the EU's antitrust body. But rivals Microsoft, Nokia and Oracle will first have to sign off on the changes, reports say.

As ZDNet writes:

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The Two-Way
11:00 am
Thu April 25, 2013

Fire Out After Fuel-Barge Explosion In Alabama

Originally published on Thu April 25, 2013 12:09 pm

A huge fire triggered by explosions aboard two fuel barges moored in Mobile, Ala., has been put out, but three people have been left with critical burns, The Associated Press reports. The blaze forced the evacuation of a nearby cruise ship.

Mobile Fire-Rescue spokesman Steve Huffman said in a statement that the cause of the fires, which broke out Wednesday night on the east side of the Mobile River, had not been determined.

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The Two-Way
10:12 am
Thu April 25, 2013

Anger Rises Along With Death Toll At Bangladesh Factory

Credit AFP/Getty Images
Volunteers use a length of textile as a slide to move victims Thursday from the rubble of a collapsed building in Savar, Bangladesh.

Originally published on Thu April 25, 2013 11:31 pm

Update at 11:28 p.m. ET: Toll At 275

Authorities said early Friday that 275 bodies have been recovered from the site.

Brig. Gen. Mohammed Siddiqul Alam Shikder, head of the rescue operation, said 61 people had been rescued since Thursday afternoon, according to The Associated Press. More than 2,000 people have been rescued since the building's collapse on Wednesday.

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The Two-Way
4:44 pm
Wed April 24, 2013

Redesigned $100 Bill To Go Into Circulation After Long Delay

Credit Newmoney.gov
The new Ben Franklin.

Originally published on Wed April 24, 2013 8:30 pm

The redesigned U.S. $100 bill will begin appearing after October with new security features that will make it "easier for the public to authenticate but more difficult for counterfeiters to replicate," the U.S. Federal Reserve said Wednesday.

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The Two-Way
3:11 pm
Wed April 24, 2013

1960s Satellite Images Add To Evidence Of Shrinking Sea Ice

Credit NASA
An artist's rendering of the Nimbus 1.

Originally published on Thu April 25, 2013 7:30 am

Scientists have digitized and analyzed imagery taken by one of the first U.S. weather satellites to create a montage showing the extent of polar sea ice in 1964 so they can compare it to more recent satellite photos.

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The Two-Way
11:40 am
Wed April 24, 2013

China Calls Planned U.S.-Japan Drills 'Provocative'

Credit Uncredited / Associated Press
File photo from China's Xinhua News Agency, of one of the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands that are in dispute.

China says Japan's decision to participate in joint military exercises with the United States will not dampen its resolve to defend its claim to a disputed island chain that has been a recurring source of tension between the Asian neighbors.

In reference to the joint drills, planned for June, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said "foreign pressure" cannot sway China from protecting its territorial sovereignty in the East China Sea.

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The Two-Way
10:06 am
Wed April 24, 2013

NTSB Grills Boeing, FAA Over 787 Battery Failures

Credit Alex Wong / Getty Images
NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman during Tuesday's hearing.

Originally published on Wed April 24, 2013 11:11 am

Update at 10:50 a.m. ET: Boeing to resume deliveries of 787s

Boeing, which had delivered about 50 of its new passenger aircraft before battery failures in January grounded the plane, says it will resume deliveries to airline customers in early May, The Associated Press reports.

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