NPR's Morning Edition

Saudi Arabia is considering Egypt's request to restore diplomatic ties after the kingdom recalled its ambassador over the weekend. Relations between the two Arab countries are at their lowest point in three decades.

The International Labor Organization issued a report Monday warning that austerity measures imposed in many countries are hurting the job market, as well as failing to effectively reduce deficits. The major European economies received the brunt of the report's criticism. The report predicts a 3 percent rise in the global unemployment rate for 2012.

Steve Inskeep talks to John Peet, Europe Editor of The Economist about eurozone economies, and the backlash against austerity measures.

The structure will open in Tokyo next month. The building is nothing but a tower of steel and concrete — no offices, no apartments.

Robert Caro writes obsessively about power. Fittingly, it's Lyndon Johnson — catapulted suddenly into the presidency "in the crack of a gunshot" — who consumes him.

The Passage of Power, the fourth volume of Caro's massive biography of Lyndon Johnson, is released this week. Caro has dedicated decades to meticulously researching Johnson's life, and the previous books in the series have been almost universally hailed as a significant achievement in American letters.

A fad that has been sweeping through middle-class India might look familiar to some Americans — it's a craze for fancy gym equipment. But when commentator Sandip Roy visited India's first Mr. Universe (who is known as the "Pocket Hercules") he found that the body builder has little patience for the new trend.

Michael Jordan, one of the greatest players in basketball history, has one more record. It's not likely a record he wanted. He's the owner of the NBA's worst team ever. The Charlotte Bobcats have seven wins and 59 losses.

William Lawlis Pace died in California this week. He holds the record for the person alive the longest with a bullet in his head. Back in 1917, his brother accidentally shot him with a rifle. Doctors left the bullet in place, feeling it would do more damage to remove it.

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

NPR's business news starts with impressive earnings for Amazon.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

INSKEEP: Amazon released its first-quarter earnings for 2012, which far exceeded Wall Street expectations. As NPR's Steve Henn reports, that sent Amazon's stock price soaring.

Sales of previously owned homes are up more than 10 percent from last year, according to The Wall Street Journal. At the same time, the number of homes for sale is at the lowest levels in years. The result, say many real estate firms, is that most of the offers being made these days come with competing bids.

It's been a busy week in politics including Mitt Romney's five primary wins — making him the de facto Republican presidential nominee. Newt Gingrich, however, has still not pulled out of the GOP presidential race.

Lawmakers in the House plan to vote Friday on a measure that would prevent a doubling of the student loan interest rate on July 1. The House would pay for the decreased revenue by raiding the new health care law's fund for preventive care.

Stop motion animation, where physical objects are manipulated literally frame by frame to give the illusion of movement, is one of the oldest movie techniques, but it's being used in a brand new film called The Pirates! Band of Misfits.

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Now f or Jessica Evers Jones, the anniversary of the LA riots is also a birthday. Jessica entered the world dramatically. On that first day of the riots, her pregnant mother, Elvira Jones, was shot in the stomach outside her home. Elvira was rushed to the hospital and Jessica was delivered by emergency C-section. Surgeons removed a bullet from her elbow. She was famous before she was a week old.

A controversial biography of TV and music impresario Simon Cowell came out on both sides of the Atlantic this week. Cowell showed up at the London launch of the unauthorized biography entitled, Sweet Revenge: The Intimate Life of Simon Cowell.