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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Growing numbers of Egyptians are turning against the generals, politicians and youth group credited with sparking the popular groundswell that led to the ouster of President Mohammed Morsi less than a month ago. Some are joining Third Square, a new movement that's emerged as a result of growing discontent. -
Protests in Egypt turned violent Saturday after authorities cracked down on supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi.
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Supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi clashed with authorities in one of the country's deadliest days in years. Though each side tells a different version of what caused the violence, analysts say it signals a change in how the military will handle the Muslim Brotherhood. -
In high-tech Estonia, home of Skype, one group is using the Internet for a different kind of venture: the Bank of Happiness, an online market for good deeds. The concept is that people do nice things for each other, just because 鈥� no payments or products are involved. The bank has more than 500 ads. -
Human Rights Watch says mobs attacked, and in some cases raped, nearly 100 women in and around Tahrir Square during the massive protests this week, but authorities have done little about it. -
Prosecutors say the plan involved at least two men, both of Tunisian origin. Police carried out nine pre-dawn raids in southern and eastern Germany as well as Belgium to gather evidence.
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Police arrested a 57-year-old trucker on Sunday whom they believe is responsible for carrying out 762 shootings over the past five years. Authorities say the suspect blamed road rage for the attacks.
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Revelations that the NSA spied on foreign Internet communications are a particularly sensitive issue in Germany, where memories of privacy intrusions under Communist rule in the East remain vivid. But the German government itself is beefing up existing surveillance in the name of fighting terrorism. -
The Estonian capital is dotted with medieval towers and Soviet architecture that belie its status as one of the world's most technologically advanced cities. Residents use a smart card to ride the bus, and mail packages and pay for parking with their phones. -
Germany's biggest terrorism trial in decades began Monday. The case centers on a 38-year-old woman who is the surviving member of a right-wing extremist group called the National Socialist Underground. The group is accused of killing 10 people, most of them of Turkish descent.
