NPR News

Video game makers want their products to be as realistic as possible. Often, that means modeling virtual weapons on real ones, then buying permission to use real brand names. For gun makers, that brand placement is worth a lot more than the licensing fees they collect.

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Pork producers looking for more financial stability than the commodity market affords are trying their luck with specialty hog breeds. These pigs, raised on small farms, with limited antibiotics, cost more to raise but fetch more at market. And many say they make for tastier pork.

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The space tourism company says the vehicle hit Mach 1.2 and reached 56,000 feet in its first rocket-powered test.

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A veteran of 12 seasons in the league, the basketball player says he's going public now because he's confronted "who I really am and what I really want." While some players from major team sports have come out after retiring, he's the first to do so while still planning to play.

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Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is the sole dissenter in a case that sought to reinstate the law that would have allowed police to check a driver's immigration status.

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J. Everett Dutschke, 41, is accused of sending tainted letters to President Obama and other government officials. Dutschke was arrested Saturday, several days after another Mississippi man, former suspect Paul Kevin Curtis, was released.

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At Fenway Park in Boston, Fox Sun Sports' Kelly Nash turned her back to the field to take a photo of herself. Just as she clicked, a baseball flew past the back of her head. The photo's amazing.

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On the museum's 20th anniversary, a Nobel laureate and a former president say coming generations must preserve the Holocaust's awful history. We all needed to be reminded, Clinton said, that "no matter how smart a people are, if you have a head without a heart, you are not human."

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Queen Beatrix plans to abdicate on April 30, a national holiday known as Queen's Day. When Crown Prince Willem-Alexander is sworn in, he'll become the first Dutch king in 122 years.

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The army, which is leading the rescue, says there's little hope of finding anyone else alive. The news comes as the factories owners and managers are arrested by police.

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Also: The CIA continues to send bags full of cash to the Afghan leader, The New York Times reports; an explosion, possibly due to a gas leak, injures dozens in Prague; Syria's prime minister survives a bombing; and the last spire is to be placed above new World Trade Center tower.

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Last year, Congress and President Obama passed a law providing insurance coverage for abortion for military women in the case of rape or incest. Will the Peace Corps inspire a similar truce on the same issue?

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,In two years he's gone from being the hottest name in the NFL to being out of a job. He's had problems passing the ball. Experts say that if he would accept a different role, perhaps as a running back, Tebow might be able to land with another team. But he reportedly still wants to be a quarterback.

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Some of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's relatives have alleged that a mysterious man may have turned him toward radical Islam. That man — known as Misha — has told a writer for The New York Review of Books that he'd had no contact with the bombing suspect for three years and that "I wasn't his teacher."

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Also: Photographing the library at Guantanamo Bay; authors annotating their own work; and the best books coming out this week.

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The explosion in the center of the Czech capital heavily damaged one building and shattered windows in nearby structures. There were fears that at least a few people might be trapped in rubble.

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The West Virginia Democrat says there was "some confusion" about the gun legislation when it failed to get enough votes in the Senate. So he's going to reintroduce the bill. It would expand background checks to sales made at gun shows and online.

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Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi was unhurt in the attack in Damascus' western neighborhood of Mazzeh, state TV said. The TV showed footage of heavily damaged cars and debris in the area of the blast as firefighters fought to extinguish a large blaze caused by the explosion.

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After at least three years of red ink, most states have budget surpluses. It's a sign of a recovering economy and leaves states with a new dilemma: how best to spend the money.

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Roughly one in four cell phone towers in the path of Hurricane Sandy went out of service. It was a frustrating and potentially dangerous experience for those customers without a landline to fall back on. Now, local officials and communications experts are pushing providers to improve their performance during natural disasters.

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