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Author Mark Helprin's latest novel is a sprawling tale of love, honor and danger in the years just after World War II. Returned soldier Harry Copeland spots a mysterious woman in white on the Staten Island Ferry. She turns out to be an heiress with Broadway dreams and a complicated past that threatens their growing love.

Airs Friday, April 26, 2013 at 10 p.m. on KPBS TV

After a two-hour meeting Friday with the leader of Myanmar's military junta, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announces that "all aid workers" are now being allowed into the country to help with the cyclone recovery effort. The development comes with quite a few questions, including where these aid workers will be allowed.

A retired San Diego architect hopes returning his Eagle Scout badge will add to the building crescendo of opposition to a long running Boy Scout policy. This past summer, the Scouts reaffirmed their opposition to accepting openly gay members.

Scott Simon speaks with British diplomat Paddy Ashdown about the future of the international reconstruction mission in Afghanistan. Ashdown was initially tapped to lead the UN's "super-envoy" to the war-torn country, but his appointment was recently rejected by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has offered its strongest evidence yet that Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Iran condemned the report, and maintains that its nuclear program is entirely peaceful.

U.N. inspectors verify that North Korea shut down its only nuclear reactor. But Western governments want Pyongyang to give up nuclear weapons. Six-party talks are to resume this week. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Christopher Hill talks with Steve Inskeep.

Following a three-day visit to Sudan, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited Libya this weekend. There, he announced that talks aimed at resolving the Darfur crisis would be held in Libya on Oct. 27. However, past efforts to get the combatants together at peace talks have failed, and it was unclear whether all parties to the conflict would attend these talks.

Former teen heartthrob Andrew McCarthy heads around the world to confront his own issues on intimacy and commitment in his new memoir, The Longest Way Home.

Popular movements during the Arab Spring paved the way for democratic elections in Egypt and Tunisia. In Egypt, Islamists are assuming powerful roles. Many women's rights activists fear that a shift toward democratically-elected Islamist rulers will limit personal and political freedom for women.