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Sufi Islam is a small sect that is not politically active. And yet Sufi shrines have been repeatedly targeted by radical groups during upheavals in North Africa and elsewhere.

Zhuang Zedong's gift to an American table tennis player paved the way for President Nixon's groundbreaking visit to China. Zhuang was 73.

Kids may not like the idea of extending the average six-hour school day, but some educators and politicians do. They are experimenting with ways to increase enrichment classes and make it affordable for school districts.

Since the Dalai Lama's exile from Tibet in 1958, reincarnated high lamas have been born in, or exposed to, the West at an increasing rate. Journalist Tim McGirk wrote about the effects of that exposure in this month's issue of The Believer.

The more than 2,100 American mosques are facing a challenge. There aren't enough imams, or spiritual leaders, to go around.

Although you can't hear anything in space, scientists can still use sound to understand the solar system by turning data collected by NASA satellites into sounds and music. Listen to how one sonification specialist creates music out of eruptions on the sun.

You have until 11:59 p.m. ET Sunday to send in your original short fiction. The challenge this round is to write a story in the form of a voice mail message. Submit your story here: https://npr3mf.submittable.com/submit

Chagas' disease, which is transmitted by the "kissing bug," occurs mainly in Latin America. But the illness is on the rise in the U.S. Health economists now estimate that Chagas costs the world about $7 billion annually, which is more than the cost of cervical cancer or cholera.

It's the entrepreneurs' dream: tapping into China's market of 1.3 billion people. That dream fueled the efforts of two Chinese-American MBAs to take the soft-pretzel franchise — a staple of U.S. shopping malls — to China. Cultural and financial barriers, however, led to a far more challenging reality.

There are several dimensions to the booming energy market. Steve Inskeep talks to Sarah Ladislaw, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, about energy market trends.