Kathy Little and Debbie Walker stand in Walker’s front yard, 50 feet from the ash landfill at Louisville Gas & Electric‘s Cane Run plant. They watch as heavy machinery backs up, pushing ash from one pile to another.Both women have lived in the neighborhood for decades—Little for 33 years, Walker for 23. Walker says she used to be able to see Indiana from her window. Now, she just sees the mountains of coal ash.

Now that the U.S. has recognized the rebel government in Libya, the Transitional National Council, as it is known, wants access to the country's frozen assets. The rebel representative in Washington, D.C., also wants his office back; until earlier this year, Ali Aujali was the Libyan ambassador, but he hasn't been able to get back into his office for months.

When the Taliban controlled Afghanistan a decade ago, they were fanatical about eliminating everything they considered un-Islamic.

Their biggest targets — literally and figuratively — were the two monumental Buddha statues carved out of the sandstone cliffs in central Afghanistan. One stood nearly 180 feet tall and the other about 120 feet high, and together they had watched over the dusty Bamiyan Valley since the sixth century, several centuries before Islam reached the region.

Fourth of a five-part series

In Baltimore, the vast majority of kids who never finish school drop out because of extreme poverty, homelessness and a drug epidemic that has left some neighborhoods desolate and dangerous.

In the toughest neighborhoods, kids miss lots of school days, and that puts them at risk of dropping out. Now, Baltimore's efforts are driven toward reaching these children early.

U.S. track star Jesse Owens made history at the 1936 Berlin Olympics 75 years ago, when he destroyed Adolf Hitler's myth of Aryan supremacy by winning four gold medals. But his feat also set in motion a decades-old mystery, about a unique gift Owens and other Olympic champions received from Hitler.

Despite the prospect of U.S. debt default if an Aug. 2 deadline isn't met, lawmakers continue to wrangle over competing proposals to increase the debt limit and cut spending. The House is working on a plan put forward by Speaker John Boehner; awaiting a vote in the senate is Majority leader Harry Reid's rival plan.

Both Republicans and Democrats have their own plan to end the debt standoff. But neither party thinks a grand deal is in their interest.

McDonald's is using social media and mom bloggers to reach people it considers to be "influencers." It's developing an invite-only community for the most influential bloggers — inviting them to behind-the-counter tours, visits to headquarters and trips to farms that supply the restaurant chain's food. NPR's Allison Aubrey reports.

As the center of the political whirlwind that toppled President Hosni Mubarak earlier this year, Cairo's Tahrir Square became synonymous with revolution in Egypt.

Now, the protesters have returned: Nearly three weeks ago, demonstrators unhappy with the pace of change in Egypt began camping out in the square, hoping to revive the spirit that shook the country six months ago.

NPR's Steve Inskeep sat down Tuesday with Bill Daley, President Obama's chief of staff, and asked him about the president's address on cutting the deficit and raising the debt ceiling. The following is the transcript of the interview:

Steve Inskeep: Why does the president seem to be advocating this week for a bill that doesn't exist, that's not being considered in either the Senate or the House?