NPR's Morning Edition

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. Good morning, I'm Renee Montagne.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep. Good morning.

Several factors may affect your thinking as you decide how important last night's voting was. Turnout was low, and no convention delegates were awarded as Missouri held a primary, and Minnesota and Colorado held caucuses.

MONTAGNE: Then again, nobody awarded delegates when Iowa voted, either. The fact is, people voted, and Rick Santorum won all three states.

Newt Gingrich has made it clear his GOP presidential aspirations also depend on running a national media race on cable TV and in major newspapers. A study from the Pew Research Center shows the promise that "new media" will dominate the nominating process isn't coming true. The research shows more Americans rely primarily on cable news, and very few on Twitter.

As Western nations increasingly push to end the violence in Syria, tension has reached the capital Damascus. Last June, a woman there who blogs under the pseudonym "Jasmine Roman," described Damascus as a city removed from the demonstrations that were taking place elsewhere in the country. Renee Montagne talks with her again, to see how things have changed 11 months after the anti-government uprising began in Syria.

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney had expected to win at least one nominating contest Tuesday. Instead, rival Rick Santorum swept the Minnesota and Colorado caucuses plus the non-binding primary in in Missouri.

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Starbucks last week announced a plan to open stores in India by the end of the year. Let's follow up on that. This move might certify India as a rising coffee-drinking power, but it also signals a cultural change in a country that is devoted to tea. Elliot Hannon reports from New Delhi.

ELLIOT HANNON, BYLINE: The sound of a barista hard at work may be a familiar one in the U.S. or in Europe.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Cappucino would be fine, ma'am?

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

The deal Greek officials are working on includes several more painful concessions. Among them, reducing the minimum wage.

Joanna Kakissis reports from Athens on how strong unions secured those wages and why some economists say those guarantees have to go.

JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE: The minimum wage in Greece is about one $1,000 a month before taxes. International lenders say it must be reduced to about $780 a month to make the Greek economy more competitive.

Sugar may be our favorite pick-me-up. I know I sometimes get the 4 p.m. urge for peanut M&Ms. But how much is too much?

The American Heart Association says women should not have more than 6 teaspoons, or 30 grams, a day, which is about 100 calories of added sugar (excluding fruit). And men should try not to exceed 9 teaspoons, or 45 grams.

But a lot of us are eating way more.

On Sunday, the New England Patriots lost to the New York Giants in the Super Bowl. The wife of defeated quarterback Tom Brady. supermodel Gisele Bundchen, complained about receivers dropping his passes.

Noah Jeffrey, 3, climbed up the chute at the top of the claw grab game, and into the case of stuffed animals and candy. The Herald Sun reports while he sucked on lollipops, he also handed them to children gathered outside. The boy was coaxed out the same way he went in — lured by the promise of a toy.

Next to Mumbai's bustling international airport, a boy picks through refuse, looking for pieces he can recycle and sell to support his family of 11. He is a resident of Annawadi, a slum built on a patch of reclaimed swampland — now fringed by luxury hotels.

As economists and activists fret over increasing income inequality in America, scenes like this one from journalist Katherine Boo's new book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, are a forceful reminder of the extreme disparity of wealth that exist all over the world — and what people must do to survive.

Activists say dozens of people were killed yesterday in the Syrian town of Homs when government troops opened fire with tanks and machine guns. More than a dozen others were killed elsewhere. Renee Montagne talks to Omar Shakir, a human rights activist, who is in Homs.

New research indicates excessive consumption of sugar leads to an increase in all kinds of chronic diseases. But how much sugar is too much? Would making sugary foods more expensive help to get consumers to cut back?

Steve Inskeep talks to NPR's Tom Goldman about two sports stories that got lost in the Super Bowl hype. They are the closing of the doping investigation into Lance Armstrong and the remarkable one-week turnaround by golfer Kyle Stanley.

Reporter Joanna Kakissis in Athens has the latest on the nail-biting negotiations over the Greek debt.