Morning Edition on 90.5 WKAR

Police in Wisconsin have charged a woman with theft over accusations she tried to profit from Facebook's initial public offering. Authorities say she sold fake stock in the social media giant.

Police have apprehended a man accused of stealing five tons of ice from a glacier in Chile. The Guardian reports police nabbed him with the illicit ice in his refrigerated truck. They believe he planned to sell it as designer ice cubes to the trendy bars of Santiago.

Poet Wislawa Szymborska of Poland died this week at the age of 88. Renee Montagne talks to Lawrence Weschler about her death. He covered Poland in the 1980s and '90s as a staff writer for The New Yorker. And Weschler has written about her in his books including his latest Uncanny Valley.

Some believe America is in decline. But author Robert Kagan disagrees. He talks to Steve Inskeep about his new book The World America Made." President Obama recently discussed an article Kagan wrote for The New Republic called "The Myth of American Decline."

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne. Where else would it start but San Francisco? Yoga has joined the food courts and massage stations as a pre-flight experience. San Francisco International Airport is now offering a yoga room. Travelers can stretch and de-stress before squeezing into those painfully crowded planes. It's equipped with mats, warm lights kept low and walls painted a serene blue. But if that's not what relaxes you, there is always the bar. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.

Americans drank more than 100 million liters of tequila in 2010. It's no wonder then, that a little-known spirit from Mexico is trying to make its name in the United States. Introducing Sotol — a smoky smooth liquor distilled in the Mexican state of Chihuahua.

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In a few minutes, we're going to hear about how wealth and debt in Europe flowed from the invention of banks. In Florence, Italy, merchants came up with the banking system that encouraged international trade at the dawn of the Renaissance.

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These days, of course, a debt crisis has wiped out many European banks, forced countries to seek bailouts, and toppled governments.

Carol Sikler has spent years repaying a debt. Her husband needed blood during treatment before he died in 2003. Since then, she has donated more than 140 units. Now she gets a reward. The Indiana Blood Center gave her tickets to the Super Bowl in Indianapolis.

Director Martin Scorsese got 11 Oscar nods for his film Hugo. He's requesting in the Los Angeles Times for a write-in campaign for an actor who's been snubbed. Blackie, the vicious doberman wasn't nominated for a Golden Collar — awarded by Dog News Daily.

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Fighting in Syria has intensified within a few miles of the capital city. Damascus has remained under firm government control, but in the suburbs, the army has sent in tanks to retake areas that had been under the affective control of rebels. Activists inside Syria say more than 60 people have been killed in the past day. NPR's Kelly McEvers is monitoring the situation from Beirut. She's on the line. Hi Kelly.

KELLY MCEVERS, BYLINE: Hello.

INSKEEP: How did this fighting develop in the suburbs?

Facebook will file the paperwork on Wednesday for what's widely expected to be one of the biggest initial public stock offering debuts, according to The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times. Facebook could raise as much as $10 billion. A Facebook IPO was rumored for much of last year, but the company's been tight-lipped.

Ron Sowder has driven delivery trucks and tractor trailers for UPS for 50 years. Last week, UPS honored Sowder for driving all that time without an accident.

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The Republican Party holds its fourth presidential nominating contest tomorrow in Florida. Renee Montagne talks to NPR News Analyst Cokie Roberts about the week in politics.

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The transport minister in Australia denounced a political opponent. He said the opponent wasn't interested in fixing a problem, only in making people "afraid of it" and telling them "who's to blame for it." Critics note Michael Douglas used that line in Aaron Sorkin's movie The American President.

Egyptian authorities are preventing six Americans, including the son of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, from leaving the country. They work for non-governmental agencies that were raided by Egyptian security forces last month.

Steve Inskeep has business news.

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In Europe, there's a movement to provide better protections for Web users. The European Union has outlined tough new data privacy recommendations that it wants to become law. Among its targets, the American companies Facebook and Google. Google just announced a new privacy policy that would track all the Web movements of its registered users.

Teri Schultz is in Brussels and reports on EU efforts to strengthen online protections of personal information.

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And today's last word in business is say it ain't so - or actually, say it ain't Joe.

A Los Angeles restaurant famous for its nine cent cup of coffee is raising the price to 45 cents - 50 cents with the tax. Management at Philippe the Original told the L.A. Times they can no longer keep up with the cost of coffee. The family-run restaurant has been serving French dip sandwiches since 1908, along with eight-ounce mugs for less than a dime.