World

Pope Francis blessed a thundering parade of thousands of bikers on Sunday as Harley-Davidson riders descended on Rome to celebrate the motorcycle maker's 110^th anniversary.

The Associated Press reports that the Harley's patented super-loud engines nearly drowned out the Latin recitation of "Our Father."

The AP writes:

Sometime in 1975, in the first few months after my family moved from Athens, Greece, to Rapid City, S.D., my father bought a junky, gigantic gold Oldsmobile that cost $200.

My sister and I called the car Old Goldie, a name meant to evoke a tough old broad with a glamorous past. My father loved her. It was behind her oversized wheel that he learned — at 40 — to drive.

The White House says it's open to "senior-level" talks proposed by North Korea, but only if Pyongyang lives up to its U.N. obligations to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.

National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said Sunday that North Korea must meet "its obligations to the world." The U.S. will judge Pyongyang by "its actions and not its words," she said.

Earlier Sunday, Pyongyang proposed the high-level discussions with the U.S. just days after its direct talks with rival South Korea fell apart.

Jordan's King Abdullah says his country stands ready to respond to any threat from a spillover of the civil war in neighboring Syria, a day after the U.S. announced it would leave fighter jets and Patriot missiles in his country after joint military exercises end this week.

"If the world does not help as it should, and if the matter becomes a danger to our country, we are able at any moment to take the measures to protect the country and the interest of our people," Abdullah said, speaking to graduating military cadets.

Hasan Rowhani's stunning presidential election victory in Iran has opened the door for improved relations with the West, but the U.S. and Israel remain cautious about making progress on their key demand — dismantling Iran's nuclear program.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said the international community "must not give in to wishful thinking or temptation and loosen the pressure on Iran for it to stop its nuclear program."

Weekend Edition Sunday Host Rachel Martin speaks with Karim Sadjadpour, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, to learn more about new Iran's president-elect, cleric Hassan Rouhani.

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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Google scientists have been testing a way to link computers to the internet in rural, war torn or disaster areas where high speed internet does not exist. We hear from Steven Levy, a senior writer with Wired magazine who was embedded with the Google team.

Weekend Edition Sunday Host Rachel Martin talks to Baghdad businessman Haider al-Jumaili about the growing violence in Iraq, where more than a thousand people died in May.

Transcript

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin.

President Obama leaves tonight on a quick trip to Europe. He'll attend a G8 Summit of industrialized nations in Northern Ireland. He'll also pay a visit to Germany, where his plans include a public speech at the historic Brandenburg Gate.

NPR's Scott Horsley will be traveling with the president. He joins us now. Hi, Scott.

SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: Good to be with you, Rachel.

Weekend Edition Sunday Host Rachel Martin talks to Michael Young, the opinion page editor of the Daily Star newspaper in Beirut, about the spillover of Syria's conflict into Lebanon.

Middle East analyst Andrew Tabler talks to Weekend Edition Sunday Host Rachel Martin about the U.S.'s decision this week to arm the Syrian rebels.

Note: Our friends at Tell Me More recently started a series marking the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. Here's an update:

A string of deadly attacks that appeared to be coordinated car bombings and shootings killed at least 30 people and left many more wounded across Iraq on Sunday, the Associated Press reports.

The AP has more:

"Most of the car bombs hit Shiite-majority areas and were the cause of most of the casualties, killing 26. The blasts hit half a dozen cities and towns in the south and center of the country.

Each week, Weekend Edition Sunday host Rachel Martin brings listeners an unexpected side of the news by talking with someone personally affected by the stories making headlines.

Ryan Crocker is a long-time U.S. diplomat who served as ambassador in six Muslim countries. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian award, from President George W. Bush.

Born into a military family, Crocker says he was drawn to the foreign service because he grew up overseas and spent time traveling in the Middle East.