Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson
Special correspondent Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson is based in Berlin. Her reports can be heard on NPR's award-winning programs, including Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and read at NPR.org. From 2012 until 2018 Nelson was NPR's bureau chief in Berlin. She won the ICFJ 2017 Excellence in International Reporting Award for her work in Central and Eastern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Afghanistan.
Nelson was also based in Cairo for NPR and covered the Arab World from the Middle East to North Africa during the Arab Spring. In 2006, Nelson opened NPR's first bureau in Kabul, from where she provided listeners in an in-depth sense of life inside Afghanistan, from the increase in suicide among women in a country that treats them as second class citizens to the growing interference of Iran and Pakistan in Afghan affairs. For her coverage of Afghanistan, she won a Peabody Award, Overseas Press Club Award, and the Gracie in 2010. She received the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award from Colby College in 2011 for her coverage in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
Nelson spent 20 years as newspaper reporter, including as Knight Ridder's Middle East Bureau Chief. While at the Los Angeles Times, she was sent on extended assignment to Iran and Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. She spent three years an editor and reporter for Newsday and was part of the team that won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for covering the crash of TWA Flight 800.
A graduate of the University of Maryland, Nelson speaks Farsi, Dari and German.
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There's been more heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine, with shelling in the region's major city of Donetsk and government forces reporting more success in their battles with separatists. Meanwhile, both Ukrainian and Russian aid convoys are heading toward the area, though it's unclear how the Russian trucks plan to enter Ukraine.
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The suspect is accused of firing more than 700 shots at other vehicles on German highways over five years. A three-judge panel will determine if he should face attempted murder charges. -
German courts have supported some types of assisted suicide, but the ruling party has vowed to stop doctors and organizations it says are profiting from the practice.
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A generation ago, Israelis and Palestinians routinely rubbed shoulders. But they have become increasingly segregated and the current fighting has only added to the friction between Arabs and Jews. -
Fighting in Gaza took an ominous turn Friday, as a 72-hour humanitarian cease-fire fell apart and the Israeli military announced its belief that one of its soldiers was captured by Hamas militants.
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The day began with Israel's military calling up 16,000 more reservists, stoking fears of a widening offensive in Gaza; it ended with a 72-hour cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
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Hamas militants are using tunnels in and out of Gaza to strike inside Israel. Israelis are questioning how the tunnels grew to be so complex and why the military hasn't been able to shut them down. -
Recent polls show more than 8 in 10 Jewish Israelis support the military operation, even as the death tolls climb. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ratings are soaring.
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Both the government and the people of Israel have been determined to continue the country's ground invasion in Gaza, despite a growing wave of international criticism. Israelis have been shaken by claims that Hamas has a heavily fortified network of tunnels leading from the Gaza Strip into Israel.
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The holy month of Ramadan comes to an end early next week with a celebratory feast, and Secretary of State John Kerry is hoping for a holiday cease-fire in Gaza. He proposed a seven-day truce.
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The West Bank and Gaza are less than 40 miles apart, and many Palestinians have ties to both places. Yet the current fighting has made it even harder than usual to stay in touch, let alone visit. -
In one Jerusalem suburb, some Israelis wonder whether the ground invasion will achieve the results they are looking for.
