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Annan Says Iran Should Be Consulted In International Plan For Syria

Credit Sebastien Bozon / AFP/Getty Images

Arab League and UN Special Envoy for Syria, Kofi Annan, listens to journalists' questions during a press conference on Friday.

By editor

Originally published on Fri June 22, 2012 2:05 pm

Kofi Annan is trying to rally the international community to bring the violence in Syria to an end. Annan even suggested that Iran should be consulted, an idea the United States doubts.

NPR's Michele Kelemen filed this report for our Newscast unit:

"The joint UN and Arab league envoy, Kofi Annan, is trying to convene a meeting next weekend in Geneva. He told reporters there it is time for countries with influence to increase the pressure on the parties in Syria to stop the killing and start talking.

2:02 pm

Fri June 22, 2012

Richard Adler, Broadway Composer And Lyricist, Dies

Credit Bob Gomel / Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

Celebrated composer and lyricist Richard Adler has died at the age of 90.

By Neda Ulaby

Originally published on Fri June 22, 2012 4:11 pm

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1:54 pm

Fri June 22, 2012

A Trailblazing Black Architect Who Helped Shape L.A.

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Credit Copyright Benny Chan

The Degnan residence was built as a weekend retreat in La Canada Flintridge — a Los Angeles suburb reachable by freeway in 40 minutes (in light traffic) today, but that took a couple of hours' drive in 1927, before major freeway construction began in Southern California. This Spanish Colonial Revival home was Williams' first commission as an independent practitioner.

Credit Copyright Benny Chan

Williams thought a home's entrance should make a statement. In this Colonial Revival residence, designed in Beverly Hills for the Landis family in 1955, the narrow foyer has large double doors that swing open to reveal a high ceiling covered in a trompe l'oeil sky, and a lavish chandelier hung from a starburst medallion. The medallion's design is repeated on the marble floor.

Credit Copyright Benny Chan

The staircase of the French Normandy-style Sensenbrenner residence, built in Beverly Hills in 1933, features a Williams trademark cherished by his homes' owners: a beautiful, sinuously curving staircase that was the focal point of the foyer. "He did the most beautiful entry halls I've ever seen," said real estate agent Bret Parsons.

Credit Copyright Benny Chan

This Spanish Colonial Revival-style home is an example of how Williams worked with the existing landscape to make a home part of its natural surroundings. The window placement allows for views of the city skyline and the Hollywood Hills.

Credit Copyright Benny Chan

In recognition of Williams' creation of some of the Beverly Hills Hotel's most iconic spaces — the Polo Lounge, the Fountain Coffee Shop, the Crescent wing of the building — the hotel's owners named a suite in the hotel after him. Williams designed it to be a home away from home for long-term guests. Talk show host Jimmy Fallon declared it "the best hotel room I've ever stayed in."

Credit Copyright Benny Chan

Another view of the Historic Paul Williams Suite. Originally designed in the late 1940s, the suite was moved to the second floor during a renovation in the 1990s, and re-created just as Williams designed it. It contains the same use of stone, curved walls and marble that are found in many of his permanent homes.

Credit Copyright Benny Chan

Williams was a great believer that the mild Southern California climate should be taken advantage of whenever possible. He created an "outdoor living room" on the patio of this home, with a fireplace and furniture that would encourage alfresco meals. The large patio doors also help diminish the demarcation between outdoors and indoors.

Credit Courtesy of Karen E. Hudson

Architect Paul Williams (in a photo thought to be from the 1940s or '50s) developed the ability to sketch buildings upside down to accommodate white clients who might not want to sit next to him.

By Karen Grigsby Bates

Originally published on Fri June 22, 2012 6:37 pm

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Paul Revere Williams began designing homes and commercial buildings in the early 1920s. By the time he died in 1980, he had created some 2,500 buildings, most of them in and around Los Angeles, but also around the globe. And he did it as a pioneer: Paul Williams was African-American. He was the first black architect to become a member of the American Institute of Architects in 1923, and in 1957 he was inducted as the AIA's first black fellow.

1:36 pm

Fri June 22, 2012

Locrian And Mammifer: Affirmation Through Controlled Chaos

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Credit Courtesy of the artist

Faith Coloccia of Mammifer.

Credit Courtesy of the artist

Locrian and Mammifer.

By editor

Originally published on Fri June 22, 2012 8:05 pm

"Why music?" It comes off like a Philosophy 101 essay question at first, but the more I twist my head around it, the more it causes a volcanic hurl of thought: Why do I love music? Why do I write about it? Why do I care what other people write about it? Do I love a song for the story or for itself? Does that matter? What if I go deaf? Am I going to miss my deadline?

1:02 pm

Fri June 22, 2012

Take A Trip To Downtown L.A. With La Santa Cecilia

Credit Courtesy of the artist

Singer Marisol Hernandez (center) takes listeners from her grandfather's burro cart to La Santa Cecilia's Latin Grammy Award, on Olvera Street in Los Angeles.

By editor

Originally published on Fri June 22, 2012 4:50 pm

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Named for the patron saint of musicians, La Santa Cecilia has deep roots in the immigrant community of Los Angeles. Yet the band's six members draw inspiration not only from their rich heritage, but also from their everyday lives growing up embedded in American culture.

During a short, recent trip to historic Olvera Street in downtown L.A. — "It's a little street with little shops resembling any town in Mexico or Latin America" — singer Marisol Hernandez describes the hopes and dreams the city represents.

12:50 pm

Fri June 22, 2012

Taliban Pick A Soft Target Popular With Families

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Credit Massoud Hossaini / AFP/Getty Images

Responding to a Taliban attack, NATO Black Hawk helicopters fly over the Spozhmai Hotel on Lake Qargha outside Kabul. More than 20 people were killed before the Taliban fighters were shot dead.

Credit Qais Usyan / AFP/Getty Images

A view of the Spozhmai Hotel outside Kabul after an attack by the Taliban on Friday.

By editor

Originally published on Fri June 22, 2012 1:49 pm

Just last month, I was at the same lakeside resort where Taliban gunmen carried out a suicidal attack on Friday, killing more than 20 people before they were gunned down.

My friends and I had gone to Lake Qargha to drink tea after a long hike on a hot day.

The man-made lake, about six miles outside Kabul, is the only large body of water near the capital, and it is extremely popular among Kabul residents seeking to escape the city's pollution, particularly in the summer when temperatures can top 100 degrees.

12:28 pm

Fri June 22, 2012

Jury Finds Philadelphia Monsignor Guilty Of Endangerment In Child Abuse Coverup

Credit Matt Rourke / AP

Monsignor William Lynn exits the Criminal Justice Center on Tuesday in Philadelphia.

By Eyder Peralta

Originally published on Fri June 22, 2012 12:54 pm

A jury found Msgr. William J. Lynn, of Philadelphia, guilty on one count of endangerment stemming from allegations that he helped coverup the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests. Lynn was acquitted of another count of endangerment and one count of conspiracy, the AP reports.

Elizabeth Fiedler of member station WHYY reports that the jury was hung on rape and endangerment charges against Lynn's co-defendant Rev. James J. Brennan.

11:51 am

Fri June 22, 2012

Greece's Incoming Finance Minister Admitted To Hospital

Credit Louisa Gouliamaki / AFP/Getty Images

Newly appointed Greek Finance Minister Vassilis Rapanos attending the new Government's first cabinet meeting at the Greek Parliament in Athens on Friday.

By editor

Originally published on Fri June 22, 2012 12:44 pm

Hours before he was scheduled to be sworn in as Greek's newest finance minister, Vassilis Rapanos fell ill and was rushed to the hospital "complaining of nausea, intense abdominal pains and dizziness," Reuters reports.

Of course this all comes just after Greece elected a new parliament and just after Greece formed a new three-party coalition that has the task of wading through national and Eurozone politics to negotiate a bailout.

11:29 am

Fri June 22, 2012

Pixar's Fast And 'Brave' Female Comedy: 'Delightful'

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Credit Disney/Pixar

In Brave, Merida goes in search of a spell to get back at her mother, who wants to force her to marry a suitor.

Credit Disney/Pixar

Merida's parents, Queen Elinor and King Fergus, try their best to control Merida's wild behavior, with little success.

By David Edelstein

First, I hate the title, and not because it's an adjective. Notorious, Ravenous, Rabid: great titles. Brave? Generic. And with the poster of a girl with flame-red curls pulling back a bow, it looks like yet another female-warrior saga, another you-go-girl action picture suggesting the biggest injustice to women over the last millennium has been the suppression of their essential warlike natures.

10:52 am

Fri June 22, 2012

The Bullied Bus Monitor Gets An Apology, Half A Million In Donations

Credit youtube.com

From the video of Karen Klein being bullied.

By Eyder Peralta

Originally published on Fri June 22, 2012 10:59 am

Two of the middle school kids who brutally bullied a school bus monitor in Greece, New York are apologizing to Karen Klein.

MSNBC says they've sent notes to police who have forwarded them to Klein.

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