Foreign Dispatch

This week we hear about Sao Paolo through the eyes of its artists, brides in China now choosier in picking husbands, European horse trainers criticizing drug use in American horseracing, Egypt's own Jon Stewart, and Ford overtaking GM in China.

This week, North Korea closes a last link to the South, the Alawites of Syria, and making fun on the rich in Mexico.  

This week, we hear about Alawites turning against Syria's dictator, reminders of the prominent role women played in the early Christian church, and a comeback in Spain for the ancient ritual of hunting wild boar on horseback.

This week we hear about Islamists offering government services in Egypt, women-only carriages in New Delhi, and restoring the Palace of Versialles in France.

This week a former military dictator in Guatemala goes on trial accused of genocide, two sisters in Iraq with two very different destinies following the war, a musician from Mali explores the violence of religious extremists in a new album, smuggling timber in Afghanistan, and the Swiss reconsider their liberal gun laws.

This week, we hear about political corruption in China, providing security for foreigners in Algeria, and the "feel good factor" in Mexico.

This week, Syrians take refuge from the civil war in an ancient burial site, Egyptian police are accused of collective punishment, traveling with John Kerry on his first overseas trip as Secretary of State, the young woman who was raped and murdered in India is remembered and honored, Chinese farmers rise up against their own village chief, and a new airline aims to make travel among African cities convenient at last.

This week, we hear about the Islamists fighting in Syria's civil war, packing up in Afghanistan, and why people are drinking less beer in Germany.

This week we hear about unseen casualities of Mexico's drug war, sexual violence against Egyptian women, desperate Syrian refugees in Lebanon, building an amusement park near Osama bin Laden's final hide out, and graffiti artists hoping for calm elections in Kenya.

This week, we hear about a young woman in Aleppo, Syria whose life has been turned upside down by the civil war there, how Turkish wrestlers are reacting to the sport's elimination from the Olympics, and the story of Israeli women who are fighting for the right to worship at Judaism's holiest site.

This week we hear about political violence on the rise in Greece, Iranian dissidents trying to elude the cyber police, the long lost bones of King Richard the Third, women in rural India facing the pervasive threat of rape, and an American woman strikes a blow against domestic violence in China.

This week we hear what's next for Mali, how some Chinese people spy on each other, and about the rejection of ultra-conservative Islam in Egypt.

This week we hear what's next for Mali, how some Chinese people spy on each other, and about the rejection of ultra-conservative Islam in Egypt.

This week we hear about an early success for the French in Mali, searching for Spitfires in Myanmar, and the Friends cafe in Beijing. 

This week, we hear an eyewitness account by NPR's Kelly McEvers of Aleppo, Syria — a city at war.