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NPR Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep is taking a Revolutionary Road trip across North Africa to see how the countries that staged revolutions last year are remaking themselves.

Inskeep and his team are traveling some 2,000 miles from Tunisia's ancient city of Carthage, across the deserts of Libya, and on to Egypt's megacity of Cairo.

The growing awareness about the abuse of prescription painkillers hasn't kept the problem from skyrocketing. In 2008, 14,800 people died of an overdose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than overdose deaths from cocaine and heroin combined.

Under rain clouds, thousands of people turned out in Moscow to protest newly (re) elected President Vladmir Putin and his new efforts to quash dissent.

Before the huge rally even got off the ground, Russian authorities searched the apartments of opposition leaders and demanded they show up for questioning today, one hour before the demonstration was supposed to start, notes VOA.

Elinor Ostrom, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, died this morning at Indiana University's Health Bloomington Hospital.

The university says that the 78-year-old distinguished professor succumbed to cancer.

Ostrom shared the 2009 Nobel. As the prize committee said at the time:

Americans who fear the economy is losing steam would like to see the Federal Reserve turn up the heat.

That might happen when the central bank holds its next meeting June 19-20. The Fed could take steps to drive interest rates even lower, or create fresh piles of cash to stimulate growth.

But with the election season gearing up, the Fed's ability to act boldly may be restrained. That's because the monetary policymakers want to preserve the Fed's credibility as a nonpartisan entity.

Fighting has escalated in western Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, between stateless Rohingya Muslims and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, who are the country's predominant religious group. President Thein Sein has declared a state of emergency and sent in army troops.

Bret Michaels has given Tom Cruise the thumbs-up for Cruise's performance in Rock Of Ages. So that's one thing you don't have to worry about today. [L.A. Times]

Note: This post was updated to add audio from Morning Edition.

Jestina Clayton learned how to braid hair as a girl growing up in Sierra Leone. When she was 18, she moved to America. Got married, had a couple kids, went to college.

When she graduated from college, she found that the pay from an entry-level office job would barely cover the cost of child care. So she decided to work from her home in Utah and start a hair-braiding business.

"Some top JPMorgan Chase executives and directors were alerted to risky practices by a team of London-based traders two years before that group's botched bets cost the bank more than $2 billion," The Wall Street Journal is reporting.

A coroner in Australia has agreed that the dingo did in fact take the baby — "settling a notorious 1980 case that split the nation and led to a mistaken murder conviction," as The Associated Press writes.

And Australia's ABC News says Michael Chamberlain and his ex-wife Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton on Tuesday (in Australia) heard words for which they've waited 32 years:

It's the epic quest of campers everywhere: How do you get the perfectly toasted marshmallow? In our inaugural installment of NPR's Summer Science series, we gave some guidance on the first key ingredient: how to build the campfire. (Later this summer, we'll attempt to answer the vexing question of how to stave off brain freeze.)

Good morning, here are some of the top stories we're following:

Syrian Children Are Being Killed, Tortured And Used As Shields, U.N. Says.

Special And Primary Elections Today in Six States. (ABC)

Renee Montagne has a remembrance of fashion designer Nolan Miller, who died last week at the age of 79. Miller was best known for his costume design for the 1980s prime-time soap opera Dynasty.