Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson
Special correspondent Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is based in Berlin. Her reports can be heard on NPR's award-winning programs, including Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and read at NPR.org. From 2012 until 2018 Nelson was NPR's bureau chief in Berlin. She won the ICFJ 2017 Excellence in International Reporting Award for her work in Central and Eastern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Afghanistan.
Nelson was also based in Cairo for NPR and covered the Arab World from the Middle East to North Africa during the Arab Spring. In 2006, Nelson opened NPR's first bureau in Kabul, from where she provided listeners in an in-depth sense of life inside Afghanistan, from the increase in suicide among women in a country that treats them as second class citizens to the growing interference of Iran and Pakistan in Afghan affairs. For her coverage of Afghanistan, she won a Peabody Award, Overseas Press Club Award, and the Gracie in 2010. She received the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award from Colby College in 2011 for her coverage in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
Nelson spent 20 years as newspaper reporter, including as Knight Ridder's Middle East Bureau Chief. While at the Los Angeles Times, she was sent on extended assignment to Iran and Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. She spent three years an editor and reporter for Newsday and was part of the team that won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for covering the crash of TWA Flight 800.
A graduate of the University of Maryland, Nelson speaks Farsi, Dari and German.
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This year, 59 civilians have been killed and 280 injured as fighting continues in a 3-year-old war between Russian-backed separatists and government forces. Residents despair of ever seeing peace.
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Lawmakers have showed interest of working across party linesies on improving health insurance markets. Also, Brazil's Congress votes on corruption charges against the president.
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Germany and comedy have not been synonymous, to say the least, since World War II. But, now, German comedy is making a comeback.
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President Trump will visit Poland on Wednesday. Although Trump is unpopular in much of Europe, he can expect a warm welcome in Warsaw. The White House says Poland is a potential energy partner.
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Hungary is sending all people seeking asylum to a camp on its border with Serbia to temporarily live in converted shipping containers. Hungary's government says it's to keep out terrorists.
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Vice President Mike Pence and Defense Secretary James Mattis talked at the Munich Security Conference this week. They reinforced the U.S. commitment to NATO and asked other countries to spend more.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel talked with President Trump Saturday. The two discussed NATO, Russia and security cooperation during the 45-minute call.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the most important voice for liberal democracy in Europe, announced on Sunday that she will run for another term in 2017.
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France says the unofficial migrant camp on the north coast of the country will be demolished "within days." That means up to 10,000 asylum-seekers are being resettled at centers across France.
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Angela Merkel's approval ratings are plummeting over her government's disjointed refugee policy. Voter anger over the issue led to a stinging rebuke in the state where she has her political base.