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Mike Shuster

Mike Shuster is an award-winning diplomatic correspondent and roving foreign correspondent for NPR News. He is based at NPR West, in Culver City, CA. When not traveling outside the U.S., Shuster covers issues of nuclear non-proliferation and weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, and the Pacific Rim.

In recent years, Shuster has helped shape NPR’s extensive coverage of the Middle East as one of the leading reporters to cover this region – traveling in the spring of 2007 to Iraq to cover the increased deployment of American forces in Baghdad. He has traveled frequently to Iran – seven times since 2004 – to report on Iran's nuclear program and political changes there. He has also reported frequently from Israel, covering the 2006 war with Hezbollah, the pullout from Gaza in 2005 and the second intifada that erupted in 2000. His 2007 week-long series "The Partisans of Ali" explored the history of Shi'ite faith and politics, providing a rare, comprehensive look at the complexities of the Islamic religion and its impact on the Western world.

Shuster has won numerous awards for his reporting. He was part of the NPR News team to be recognized with a Peabody Award for coverage of September 11th and its aftermath. He was also part of the NPR News teams to receive Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards for coverage of the Iraq War (2007 and 2004); September 11th and the war in Afghanistan (2003); and the Gulf War (1992). In 2003, Shuster was honored for his series "The Middle East: A Century of Conflict" with an Overseas Press Club Lowell Thomas Award and First in Documentary Reporting from the National Headliner Awards. He also received an honorable mention from the Overseas Press Club in 1999, and the SAJA Journalism Award in 1998.

Through his reporting for NPR, Shuster has also taken listeners to India and Pakistan, the Central Asian nations of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan, and the Congo. He was NPR's senior Moscow correspondent in the early 1990s, when he covered the collapse of the Soviet Union and a wide range of political, economic, and social issues in Russia and the other independent states of the former Soviet Union.

From September 1989 to June 1991, Shuster was stationed in England as senior editor of NPR's London Bureau. For two months in early 1991, he was assigned to Saudi Arabia to cover the Gulf War. While at the London Bureau, Shuster also covered the unification of Germany, from the announcement of the opening of the Berlin Wall to the establishment of a single currency for that country. He traveled to Germany monthly during this time to trace the revolution there, from euphoria over the freedom to travel, to the decline of the Communist Party, to the newly independent country's first free elections.

Before moving to London, Shuster worked as a reporter and bureau chief at NPR New York, and an editor of Weekend All Things Considered. He joined NPR in 1980 as a freelance reporter covering business and the economy.

Prior to coming to NPR, Shuster was a United Nations correspondent for Pacifica News Service, during which he covered the 1980 election of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. He traveled throughout Africa as a freelance foreign affairs reporter in 1970 and again in 1976; on this latter trip, Shuster spent five months covering Angolan civil war and its aftermath.

  • There were reports Wednesday of fresh clashes between protesters and riot police in Tehran. Meanwhile, Iran's supreme leader criticized the protesters who are challenging the results of the June 12 presidential election.
  • Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned those protesting the country's presidential election: Accept the outcome or face the consequences. Khamenei dismissed allegations of fraud, saying President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won last week's election decisively.
  • Demonstrators continue to take to the streets in Tehran to protest last week's disputed presidential election. The opposition leader has called for another mass rally Thursday. Although many pictures of the huge crowds have been televised internationally, Iranian state-controlled TV has acted as though only pro-Ahmadinejad supporters were in the streets.
  • Supporters loyal to Iran's supreme leader took to the streets Tuesday at a massive rally organized by the clerical regime. Later, supporters of presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi staged another protest against the election results. Meanwhile, the government said it would recount some disputed ballots, and foreign media were barred from covering rallies in Tehran.
  • Tehran is bracing for more demonstrations after hundreds of thousands of marchers took to the streets to protest against the official results of last week's presidential election. Many in the crowd recalled the street demonstrations of 1978, which eventually forced the Shah of Iran to abdicate in favor of what became the Islamic revolution.
  • The streets of Tehran are quiet Thursday for the first time in days. It's supposed to be a day of reflection before Friday's presidential election. Voters will choose between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a fierce critic of the U.S., and his more moderate rivals.
  • Despite tough talk from President Obama and the U.N. Security Council in the wake of North Korea's latest nuclear test, the options to pressure North Korea to halt its nuclear weapons development are limited.
  • The U.N. protested Israeli fire on its warehouse in Gaza. Israel said Hamas militants were launching rockets from the U.N. compound. Israel also killed a top Hamas leader in its operations in the Gaza Strip. And there was speculation that Israel and Hamas are close to an agreement on a cease-fire.
  • Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip shows no sign of abating. The death toll inside Gaza is now close to 900. Israel stepped up the pace of its airstrikes. And Sunday, the ground offensive saw some of the fiercest fighting so far.
  • Israel and Hamas have ignored a U.N. Security Council call for an immediate cease-fire. Israel continued attacks in Gaza and Hamas kept up with its rocketing of Israel. Meanwhile, U.N. officials said they plan to resume aid to Gaza as soon as practical.