Dina Temple-Raston

Adding to the coverage of NPR's national security team, Dina Temple-Raston reports about counterterrorism at home and abroad for NPR News. Her reporting can be heard on NPR's newsmagazines. She joined NPR in March 2007 fresh from a two year sabbatical in which she completed two books, learned Arabic and received a Master's Degree from Columbia.

A long-time foreign correspondent for Bloomberg News in Asia, Temple-Raston opened Bloomberg's Shanghai and Hong Kong offices working for both Bloomberg's financial wire and radio operations. She also served as Bloomberg News' White House correspondent during both Clinton administrations and covered financial markets and economics for both USA Today and CNNfn.

Temple-Raston is an award-winning author. Her first book, entitled A Death in Texas and about race in America, won the Barnes' and Noble Discover Award and was chosen as one of the Washington Post's Best Books of 2002. Her second book, on the role Radio Mille Collines played in fomenting the Rwandan genocide, was a Foreign Affairs magazine bestseller. She has two books related to civil liberties and national security. The first, In Defense of Our America (HarperCollins) written with Anthony D. Romero, the executive director of the ACLU, looks at civil liberties in post-9/11 America. The other, The Jihad Next Door (Public Affairs), is about the Lackawanna Six, America's first so-called "sleeper cell" and the issues that face Muslims in America.

Temple-Raston holds a Bachelor's degree from Northwestern University and a Master's degree from the Columbia University's School of Journalism. She was born in Belgium and French was her first language.

After Fighting To Go To School, A Pakistani Woman Builds Her Own

Next image Previous image

Credit Courtesy of Humaira Bachal

Bachal recently starred in a documentary series which featured her efforts to educate children in her Karachi neighborhood of Moach Goth.

Credit Courtesy of Humaria Bachal

Humaria Bachal initially recruited students in her Karachi neighborhood for a small private school she had opened. She now runs a school with 22 teachers and 1,200 students.

By Dina Temple-Raston

Originally published on Wed March 20, 2013 9:32 am

Listen

6:02 pm

Fri January 4, 2013

Pakistani Military Hopes Rehab Will Lead Men To Paralympics

By Dina Temple-Raston

Listen

Transcript

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Audie Cornish.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

10:01 am

Wed January 2, 2013

The Tony Soprano of Karachi: Gangster Or Politician?

Next image Previous image

Credit Dina Temple-Raston

Baloch has been the most powerful figure in Karachi's Lyari neighborhood since 2009. His armed men control the area, and police stay away. He's shown here at his home.

Credit Dina Temple-Raston

Uzair Baloch is known as the don of Karachi's Lyari Town slum. He is pictured here at his home.

Credit Akhtar Soomro / Reuters/Landov

Uzair Baloch (center), 32, controls an impoverished section of Karachi and commands a large armed force. He is routinely described as a gangster, though he calls himself a politician and a social worker. He's shown here at a rally in Karachi in November 2011.

By Dina Temple-Raston

Originally published on Wed January 2, 2013 6:56 pm

Listen

Gangsters have been part of life in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, for decades. And nowhere is their rule more notorious than in the slums of Lyari, a dusty warren of low-slung tenement houses in the south central part of Karachi.

2:49 am

Wed January 2, 2013

Pakistan's 'Patriot Act' Could Target Politicians

Credit Ahmad Kamal / Xinhua/Landov

A policeman stands guard at the Parliament building in Islamabad, Pakistan, in June. The Lower House recently passed a bill similar to the United States' Patriot Act, touching off a debate about privacy in the country.

By Dina Temple-Raston

Originally published on Wed January 2, 2013 10:16 am

Listen

Earlier this month, Pakistan's powerful Lower House of Parliament passed what analysts have dubbed Pakistan's Patriot Act. Its name here is "Investigation for Fair Trial Bill."

It has been presented to the Pakistani people as a way to update existing law and usher the rules for investigation in Pakistan into the 21st century. Among other things, it makes electronic eavesdropping admissible as evidence in court.

4:10 pm

Tue January 1, 2013

'One Pound Fish': A Pakistani Man's Passport To Fame

Credit Hamza Ali / AP

Pakistanis welcome Muhammad Shahid Nazir, center, the singer of "One Pound Fish," at Lahore's airport Thursday.

By Dina Temple-Raston

Originally published on Tue January 8, 2013 1:19 pm

Listen

1:59 am

Tue January 1, 2013

Multiple Feuds Bring A Record Year Of Violence To Karachi

Next image Previous image

Credit Dina Temple-Raston/NPR

Gul Mohammed Khan has lost three sons in sectarian violence during the last two years, in Karachi, Pakistan. He stands here with some of his grandchildren who have lost their fathers. When he looks at his grandchildren, he says, he sees his sons.

Credit Fareed Khan / AP

Men mourn over the deaths of their family members during their funeral procession in Karachi, Pakistan last week. Police said gunmen have wounded a prominent Sunni cleric and killed his guards and his driver in an apparently sectarian attack in southern Pakistan.

Credit Reuters /Landov

Rescuers carry a sheet to collect body parts near the scene of a bomb explosion in Karachi on Saturday that killed at least six people and . wounded 48. The sandals in the foreground are displayed for sale.

By Dina Temple-Raston

Originally published on Wed February 13, 2013 9:35 am

Listen

The sad truth about Karachi in 2012 was that whatever your religion, business affiliation, or political party, someone was willing to kill you for it.

The murder rate in Pakistan's largest city and commercial hub hit an all time high last year. Over 2,500 people died in violent crimes in Karachi in 2012, a 50 percent increase over the year before.

Most of the deaths were attributable to sectarian killings and score settling. Shia Muslims took on the brunt of the violence. But Sunni Muslims were killed in reprisal attacks that added to the tally.

4:10 am

Sun December 30, 2012

Street Signs Intended To Give Pakistani City New Direction

Credit Dina Temple-Raston

Street signs in the city of Lahore, Pakistan, are rare. The few that exist are in disrepair, like the one above. Two entrepreneurs are looking to change that and improve navigation in the city.

By Dina Temple-Raston

Originally published on Wed March 20, 2013 9:31 am

Listen

Landlords built Lahore in a haphazard way over centuries. They didn't concern themselves with city grids or sensible mapping. As a result, Lahore is renowned in Pakistan for being almost impossible to navigate.

And that's where Asim Fayaz and Khurram Siddiqi come in.

3:29 pm

Wed December 19, 2012

In Pakistan, Tax Evaders Are Everywhere — Government Included

Credit Kenzo Tribouillard / AFP/Getty Images

An investigative report found that less than a third of Pakistani lawmakers filed tax returns for 2011. The report said Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari, photographed in Paris in December, did not file a return, though his spokesman says he did.

By Dina Temple-Raston

Originally published on Wed December 19, 2012 7:32 pm

Listen

Tax evasion is a chronic problem in Pakistan — only about 2 percent of the population is registered in the tax system, and the government collects just 9 percent of the country's wealth in taxes, one of the lowest rates in the world.

But now a new investigative report is making headlines. It says that just a third of the country's 446 federal lawmakers bothered to file income tax returns last year.

3:53 am

Wed December 19, 2012

Gunmen In Pakistan Target Polio Vaccinators

Credit Fareed Khan / AP

Rukhsana Bibi (center) mourns for her daughter, polio worker Madiha Bibi, killed by unknown gunmen, at a local hospital in Karachi on Tuesday. Gunmen staged additional attacks Wednesday.

By Dina Temple-Raston

Originally published on Thu December 20, 2012 4:44 am

Listen

Pakistani gunmen staged new attacks Wednesday on health workers carrying out a nationwide polio vaccination program. Six workers were killed Tuesday as they went house to house to administer the immunizations to area children in Karachi and the northwest city of Peshawar.

Although there were additional attacks, the Pakistani government vowed to continue the vaccination campaign — and eradicate the disease — even if there is bloodshed.