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Two earthquakes, a delayed constitution and unrest on the Indian border: The Year of the Monkey can't come soon enough.

NPR's Kelly McEvers speaks with Matt Johnson, president of the Los Angeles Police Commission, which conducts civilian oversight of the LAPD. He is the sole African-American member of the commission.

Rick Bayless is a master of Mexican fare. He's also a white guy from Oklahoma. Over the years, that's made him the target of criticism. Who gets to be the ambassador of a cuisine?

Where'd the phrase "Snake Oil Salesman" come from? It conjures up images of seedy profiteers trying to exploit an unsuspecting public by selling them fake cures.

When dictionaries add trendy words like "twerk," they're prioritizing the fleeting language habits of the young, says Geoff Nunberg. And our fascination with novel words tends to eclipse subtle changes in the meanings of old ones — "which are often more consequential," he says.

If you demand democracy in China, you can quickly find yourself at odds with the government. So these days, reformers are trying to use the constitution to make the party accountable to the people. But that didn't keep a Shanghai professor from getting suspended.

Two years ago Pakistan's Punjab province was hit with one of the world's worst dengue outbreaks. This year the number of recorded cases has plummeted. Many leaders credit a mobile phone app that tracks mosquito populations and city workers' efforts to contain them.

The Security Council will be asked to approve the use of "necessary measures to protect civilians." The language is aimed at getting the council's OK for strikes on regime targets in Syria. The U.S., U.K. and others want to send Assad a message: That using chemical weapons is unacceptable.

When it comes to military action against Syria, members of Congress are divided by factions rather than party lines. That means the president still has a long way to go to assemble enough votes for a majority.

Rudy Kurniawan, once considered one of the world's most formidable wine collectors, was convicted Wednesday of making cheap wine blends in his house and then passing them off as some of the rarest wines in the world, for thousands of dollars each, at auction.