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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has suffered a startling defeat in a referendum that would have greatly enhanced his power, including ending presidential term limits. Voters rejected the referendum, 51 percent to 49 percent. Opponents said the country was hurtling toward dictatorship.

"Depending on the outcome, it will either be viewed as genius or the dumbest political move in history," political science professor Patricia Crouse told NPR.

Merck agrees to pay nearly $5 billion to settle lawsuits from consumers contending the painkiller Vioxx caused heart attacks and strokes. The safety problems of Vioxx and the withdrawal of Vioxx from the market was a watershed event in regulating prescription drugs in the U.S.

PGA Tour leaders argued a deal would allow expensive legal fights and fracturing player and fan base to end. But lawmakers caution against too much involvement with the Saudi government.

The country's toll makes up nearly a third of the world's 619,000 malaria deaths each year. Now Nigeria has approved a new vaccine. Will it get into the arms of those who need it most?

A string of riots in suburban Paris is making headlines following the death of two teenage boys. Emma Charlton, a reporter for Agence France-Presse (AFP), talks about the ethnic and cultural tensions that have led to the violence and what efforts are being made to restore order.

President Vladimir Putin's party looked set to win a resounding victory in Sunday's parliamentary election. Early results give the United Russia party about 63 percent of the vote in an election Putin turned into a referendum on his rule.

A new U.S. intelligence report on Iran says Tehran may be able to develop a nuclear weapon between 2010 and 2015. But the National Intelligence Estimate finds that Iran halted its development program in the fall of 2003 — contradicting claims by the Bush administration.

As Democratic presidential candidates debated at a forum Tuesday sponsored by NPR and Iowa Public Radio, they sometimes raised more questions than they answered. NPR reporters following along kept track to provide a reality check.

Fort Payne, Ala., the world's sock capital, doesn't like competition from Honduras, which has enjoyed duty-free sock exports to the U.S. The tariff is set to be reinstated soon, but some say the town should move away from socks if it wants to compete globally.