2011 April | Here & Now

Exiled foreign leaders used to head for sunny, exotic countries where they could relax in retirement. But with an increase in prosecutions by the International Criminal Court, ousted leaders from Egypt’s Mubarak to deposed Ivory Coast leader Laurent Gbagbo are finding fewer places where they can hide from the law.

Clare Gillis is a freelance reporter who was captured with several other journalists while reporting on the intense fighting outside of the key oil town of Brega, Libya, earlier this month. We speak with Gillis’ father Robert Gillis, who is waiting for news of his daughter’s whereabouts.

We get an update from the windy finish line at today’s 115th Boston Marathon, and we speak with David Willey, editor of Runner’s World Magazine.

We speak with Gerald Cox, who was in the Lowe’s home improvement store in Sanford, N.C. with his brother and 4-year-old son when a dramatic tornado hit the building. All employees and shoppers managed to escape, some with injuries.

Four elderly Kenyan citizens are in a British court claiming they were beaten, sexually abused, or castrated by British officers during the anti-colonial Mau Mau rebellion in the 1950s, in what is now Kenya. We speak with Caroline Elkins, a Harvard historian who was an expert witness in the trial and authored a book that uncovered British atrocities to suppress the revolt.

Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain killed himself 17 years ago this month, but his life and music continue to resonate– especially with former bandmate Dave Ghrol.

From Dntel, Paul Simon and more.

Search and rescue teams are still looking for victims after a ferocious storm system swept through the South, killing 45 across 6 states. We speak with Zee Lamb, county manager of North Carolina’s Bertie Country, one of the hardest hit areas.

Coming up today: We’ll have results from the windy finish line at the Boston Marathon, and a remembrance of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain.

The Interior Department has issued ten new deep-water drilling permits, and two rigs are already up and running. But how certain is the government that new fail safe devices can stop another oil disaster from happening.

As part of a five hour music marathon at MIT in Cambridge, Mass., composer Brian Eno’s “Music For Airports” gets a live treatment by the Kronos Quartet and the Bang On A Can All-Stars.

From Volcano Choir to Air and more.

Shrimper Kim Chauvin will testify Monday at a Congressional hearing in Louisiana about the effects on their business one year after the BP spill. She is critical of Ken Feinberg, the oil spill claims czar. We’ll also speak to Mr. Feinberg about the claims process.

On April 15th, 1961, American planes disguised with Cuban markings launched a series of attacks on airfields across the island, starting the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion. The attempt, the following night, by CIA-trained Cuban exiles to overthrow Fidel Castro proved a humiliating defeat.

We look an increasingly prominent group of global business men and women who spend months away from home and often feel more allegiance to each other than their home countries.

Robin Young gives us a look at what’s ahead for today’s show.

The media in Afghanistan is rapidly expanding, with hundreds of newspapers, scores of magazines and dozens of radio and TV stations, all staffed by Afghans. We speak with one woman who has worked in the country for a decade.

With the 2012 Presidential and Congressional elections looming, both Republicans and Democrats are reacting strongly to President Obama’s speech yesterday on cutting the long-term deficit.

From Euphone to Elton John and more.

Later this month, hundreds of millions of viewers around the world are expected to tune in for the marriage of Britain’s Prince William and Kate Middleton. It will be a glamorous occasion, and the guest list –nearly 2,000 are invited to Westminster Abbey– will include some of the world’s most powerful. The BBC’s Economics Correspondent Andrew Walker looks does a cost-benefit analysis on the royal wedding.