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Michele Kelemen

Michele Kelemen has been with NPR for two decades, starting as NPR's Moscow bureau chief and now covering the State Department and Washington's diplomatic corps. Her reports can be heard on all NPR News programs, including Morning Edition and All Things Considered.

As Diplomatic Correspondent, Kelemen has traveled with Secretaries of State from Colin Powell to Antony Blinken and everyone in between. She was part of the NPR team that won the 2007 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award for coverage of the war in Iraq.

As NPR's Moscow bureau chief, Kelemen chronicled the end of the Yeltsin era and Vladimir Putin's consolidation of power. She recounted the terrible toll of the latest war in Chechnya, while also reporting on a lighter side of Russia, with stories about modern day Russian literature and sports.

Kelemen came to NPR in September 1998, after eight years working for the Voice of America. There, she learned the ropes as a news writer, newscaster and show host.

Michele earned her Bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master's degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Russian and East European Affairs and International Economics.

MORE STORIES BY THIS AUTHOR
  • U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan plans to take disciplinary action against current and former officials involved in the oil-for-food program for Iraq. Mismanagement of the program -- designed to help Iraqis under U.N. sanctions during Saddam Hussein's rule -- has tarnished the U.N.'s reputation.
  • A United Nations-appointed panel has sharply criticized the director of the organization's oil-for-food program for Iraq.
  • NPR's Michele Kelemen examines international reaction to a United Nations report about fighting in the Darfur region of Sudan. The U.N. cites "systematic abuses" by the Sudanese government, but does not characterize government actions as genocide. Ethnic Arab militants have been accused of attempting to "cleanse" black Africans from Darfur, and the violence has spurred a refugee crisis as people try to flee the area.
  • A U.N. panel looking into the conflict in western Sudan said the fighting did not constitute genocide. But it said the Sudanese government and its proxy militia, the Janjaweed, did commit crimes and should be tried for them. The question is how and where, and that's becoming a new source of conflict between the U.S. and the U.N.
  • Newly installed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was on the job Thursday, and received a warm welcome from State Department employees. She enters the job after a testy confirmation process during which Democrats focused on Iraq policy.
  • Secretary of state nominee Condoleezza Rice addresses tough questions from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about the justification for the war in Iraq and an exit strategy. She returned Wednesday to the Capitol for a second round of questioning.