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Passing mentions of the U.S. government during this week's international CityLab gathering of mayors, city planners and urban experts in New York City sent knowing chuckles rolling through the audience.

Diplomacy on Syria shifts to the United Nations, where the Security Council on Monday will hear what chemical weapons inspectors found when they visited the scene of last month's deadly gas attack. At the same time, Secretary of State John Kerry is in Paris to talk to allies about the U.S.-Russian agreement on getting rid of Syria's chemical weapons arsenal.

Drawn-out fights over spending bills are nothing new for Congress. But before a 1980 ruling by President Carter's attorney general, the rest of the country barely noticed. That's because when lawmakers reached a budget stalemate back then, the federal workforce kept on working.

If President Obama's newly recalibrated counterterrorism strategy demonstrates anything, it is his penchant for nuance.

Melissa Block talks with lexicographer Peter Sokolowski, editor at large for Merriam-Webster, about the derivation of the word "bee" in "spelling bee." It turns out it has nothing to do with the insect.

A video tribute to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last weekend convinced New Yorker Editor David Remnick that Clinton is planning to run for president — despite all claims to the contrary.

The attack at a Black Sea resort town last July killed five Israeli tourists and one Bulgarian citizen. In response, the White House called Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, a "real and growing threat not only to Europe, but to the rest of the world."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is meeting in the capital with Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi in efforts to help Israel and Hamas reach a cease-fire.

Aleksandar Hemon's first book of nonfiction, The Book of My Lives, is a collection of essays about a shifting sense of home and displacement. Reviewer Ben Percy says these stories, which balance despair with hope and anger with humor, slashed through his defenses.

Secretary of State John Kerry touched down in Baghdad Sunday on an unannounced trip 10 years after the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein. On his agenda is urging Iraqi leaders to stop overflights of arms and supplies from Iran to Syria. Host Rachel Martin speaks with NPR's Michele Kelemen, who is traveling with Kerry.