NPR: Korva Coleman

Chances are that at some point you've donned a small pink ribbon supporting awareness of breast health and efforts to fight breast cancer. Chances are you might not recognize one of the women who brought it to universal prominence. Evelyn Lauder died on Saturday. She was a vice president of the cosmetics corporation founded by Estee' Lauder, her powerful mother-in-law. The Estee Lauder Companies says Evelyn Lauder, who was 75, died at home in New York of non-genetic ovarian cancer.

Dakota Meyer, the Marine sergeant who received the Medal of Honor this month from President Obama at the White House, has turned down an opportunity to apply to be a New York City firefighter. The city's application deadline expired on Sept. 19 and Meyer — who was honored at the White House on Sept. 15 — missed the deadline. His attorney asked whether New York could briefly re-open the application process and a federal judge agreed — but only if Meyer was the sole applicant.

That's why Meyer said no thanks.

Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, has died of cancer in a Nairobi hospital. She was 71. Maathai, of Kenya, became a Nobel laureate in 2004 for her work promoting environmental stewardship, empowering women and peaceful resistance to violence.

NASA has updated its news on the pending descent of the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, and here's the headline: the satellite's re-entry has been pushed back. The UARS is now expected to plunge towards Earth late today or early Saturday, EDT.

The main drag on the satellite's speed - solar activity - is no longer the main reason why the spacecraft is slowing down. Its path, speed and spin are now so unpredictable that scientists say they cannot estimate when it will fall.

We know a little bit more about the fate of that falling weather satellite, the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, which is close to its fiery end. NASA now predicts the UARS will plunge into Earth's lower atmosphere "sometime during the afternoon of Sept. 23, Eastern Daylight Time".

House Deputy Whip Tom Cole (R-OK) told NPR's Steve Inskeep today on Morning Edition why he's supporting the now-delayed Republican debt limit plan, championed by Speaker John Boehner (R-OH). Cole needs to help find 218 votes to pass the plan in the chamber and he admits while there are some "challenges" facing him, he believes the vast majority of the Republican conference is behind Boehner's plan. He seems confident that he probably won't need Democratic votes to pass it.

As many as 30 people may have died in Homs, Syria over the weekend. The AP cites one Syrian dissident group that says initially three victims died in apparent sectarian violence - a troubling new development in the mostly secular uprising against the rule of Syrian leader Bashir al-Assad.

North Korea will reportedly free American businessman Jun Young-su, who was arrested last November and accused of 'committing a crime' against that country, according to Yonhap. The Los Angeles Times says Young-su was reportedly charged with illegal Christian missionary activity.

Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military commander, Ratko Mladic, will be extradited to the UN War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague, the Netherlands, to answer charges that he committed genocide and war crimes during the war in the Balkans in the 1990s.

French investigators examining the 2009 crash of Air France flight 447 have released information on the accident taken from the flight data recorders. These were recently recovered from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. The jet apparently stalled after flying into a powerful thunderstorm and fell into the ocean with its nose still up.

All 228 people aboard were killed.

The death toll from Sunday's tornado in Joplin, Mo, is 126, according to the Joplin Globe. As Mark wrote, Missouri officials have compiled a list of 232 people who are unaccounted for; one person has been found safe.

Disaster officials in Joplin, Missouri say they've completed the first of four planned searches through debris and wreckage left by Sunday night's tornado. Missouri state officials say the death toll in Jasper County is now 117 people. There's no estimate on how many people are still missing but the search for survivors has intensified.

The International Air Transport Association says British air traffic regulators are overreacting to the cloud of ash drifting from Iceland's Grimsvotn volcano over Scotland, Britain and now moving toward Scandinavia. Several airlines have cancelled hundreds of flights, such as British Airways, Air France and KLM, according to the Guardian.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon told NPR's Mary Louise Kelly search and rescue crews are still trying to find survivors from the horrific storm that crashed into Joplin on Sunday night. Speaking on Morning Edition, Nixon said crews are clawing desperately through the rubble of houses, apartment buildings and businesses, trying to find anyone left alive. They've had major setbacks because severe storms keep pounding the area.

The National Weather Service has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Jasper County, Mo, home to devastated Joplin, where at least 89 people perished in a late afternoon tornado yesterday. The Joplin Globe warns the storms could produce winds stronger than 60 miles per hour.

Reporter Dan Verbeck of member station KCUR has arrived in Joplin. He found much of the town unrecognizable:

Authorities in Joplin, Missouri say at least 89 people are dead after a huge tornado passed over the town at sunset, yesterday. the city manager delivered the shocking news outside a hospital abandoned because it was so badly wrecked.

Joplin Globe sports writer Ryan Atkinson estimates the twister's path begins at the destroyed hospital and stretches down through the center of town where a number of shoppers were out.

Ryan was at work last night at Globe headquarters when he and colleagues noticed the bad storm beginning.

At least 30 people are dead after a powerful tornado smashed through Joplin, Mississippi late Sunday afternoon, according to Reuters. The Joplin Globe reports coroners of two counties are setting up a temporary morgue on one street corner while officials fear the death toll could soar to 100 people.

Thousands of people have turned out in cities and town across Syria, again demanding increased freedom from the government of President Bashar al-Assad. AFP says Syrian security forces fired into a crowd in Homs, apparently killing at least five people.

Al Jazeera is liveblogging reports of violence in Damascus, Deraa, Sanamin, Baniyas and Midan.

Thousands of people have jammed dozens of Spanish cities, including Madrid, protesting the country's skyrocketing unemployment rate; it jumped to more than 21 percent at the beginning of the year, according to AFP. But Spanish law requires a 'day of reflection' before a vote, meaning no political demonstrations may be held. Election officials have ruled the massive demonstrations must end before Sunday's local and regional elections.

The flooding Mississippi River has crested lower than expected in Vicksburg, Miss., but the Army Corps of Engineers warns it will be days before the surging waters recede, according to AP. Now the water is surging downstream to the Gulf of Mexico.

A second agreement between Yemen's leaders to transfer government power has collapsed. The head of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, who was brokering an agreement that would ease President Ali Abdullah Saleh out of power, left Yemen yesterday after the accord fell apart. Several reports inciated President Saleh and opposition groups would sign it.

The U.S, Army Corps of Engineers has opened a 17th bay at the Morganza Spillway, just north Baton Rouge, Louisiana and an estimated 114,000 cubic feet of water per second is pouring through the structure. There are 125 bays on the Spillway, built in 1954 to divert Mississippi River flooding into the nearby Atchafalaya Basin and take the pressure off cities downstream, like New Orleans.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn is quitting as managing director of the International Monetary Fund. He'll briefly leave his jail cell today to again ask a judge to free him on $1 million dollars bail while he fights charges he sexually assaulted a hotel maid. NPR's Joel Rose tells NPR's Newscasts a grand jury heard testimony yesterday from the woman about the alleged assault.

Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria, says Syrian security troops have made mistakes in the past several weeks as officers crush a civilian uprising, according to AP, which obtained the comments from the Syrian al-Watan newspaper.

The UN estimates at least 850 people have died in the bloody crackdown against those protesting the Assad government and thousands of others have been arrested, many without charge.

Yemen's President, Ali Abdullah Saleh has apparently agreed with opposition leaders to leave power under a transition plan. Al-Arabiya reports the agreement, negotiated with the help of Western mediators and the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (or GCC), is supposed to be signed today by Saleh and the opposition leaders, who say there are no more obstacles. But:

American novelist Philip Roth is the winner of the 2011 Man Booker International Prize. The chairman of the judges, Rick Gekoski, says Roth's work "stimulated, provoked and amused an enormous, and still expanding, audience", according to Reuters. In a video statement, Roth thanks the judges, and hopes the prize will draw more readers to his work.

But one member of the three-judge panel wasn't happy with his win.

The surging Mississippi River is next expected to crest in Vicksburg, Mississippi tomorrow, according to CNN. It'll reach nearly one foot above previous records set in 1927. But the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers warns river water will remain very high for several more weeks. The U.S. Coast Guard has reopened river traffic near Natchez, Louisiana. It was closed yesterday to prevent barges from running into levees.

Pakistan says its intelligence agency has arrested Muhammed Ali Qasim Yaqub, a senior al-Qaida official. The statement says he's from Yemen and has been working closely with al-Qaida militants along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

His alias is reported to be Abu Sohaib al Makki and the BBC reports an individual with that name was once listed by a jihadist website as leader of a group of Arab Afghans in Afghanistan.

There's no sugar-coating it: the Commerce Department says during April, builders got started on fewer homes in the U.S. Housing starts, as they're called, were down 10.6% from March's report, and they're 23.9% lower than what they were a year ago at the same time.

Jerry Lewis says he'll croon his song, "You'll Never Walk Alone" for the last time this year as host of the Muscular Dystrophy Association's annual telethon. He released a statement saying this Labor Day Weekend Telethon will be his last. Lewis will continue to serve as the organization's national chairman.