The U.S. military says it's spending an extra $100 million a month on the war in Afghanistan since Pakistan closed its border to NATO supply convoys. Now, NATO is using a route thousands of miles longer through Russia and Central Asia.

That route passes through Afghanistan's perilous Salang Tunnel, 11,000 feet up in the Hindu Kush mountains. The Soviet-built tunnel was heralded as a marvel of engineering when completed in 1964.

But years of war, neglect and geology have turned it into a dangerous bottleneck.

In Damascus, Syrians now openly speak their minds, but often won't offer a name for the record.

The "wall of fear" is crumbling even in the capital, where the security police have the heaviest presence. Syrians have lived under surveillance and emergency law for years, but after 15 months of anti-government protest and a brutal response by the regime, the killings have changed people.

It's 7 a.m. at the Kimball's Washington, D.C., home. Peter and Leslie Kimball are running up and down the stairs, changing diapers and trying to feed their kids breakfast.

They're packing for a work conference in Orlando, Fla., but they've also planned a surprise for their daughter Lane's birthday: a visit to Disney World.

This summer, more than 200 million people are expected to fly out of U.S. airports. The Kimballs are one of many families flying with their kids.

In Pasadena, Calif., one teacher's devotion is helping kids graduate. Mikala Rahn is the founder of Learning Works, a charter school for kids who have dropped out of traditional schools.

Carlos Cruz is one of the first students she helped graduate. When he started senior year, Cruz realized he was two years behind.

"[I remember] you looking at me and telling me that everything was going to be OK," Cruz tells Rahn, "and me looking back at you, and I'm like, 'How the [expletive] do you think everything is going to be OK?' "

Rahn says it was optimism.

The general presidential election is still months away, but President Obama and presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney are already hammering each other with attack ads.

Obama's most recent ads criticize Romney's time as a so-called "corporate raider," while Romney has released several ads seizing upon the president's statement that the "private sector is doing fine."

On Thursday, the Mexican Navy triumphantly presented a man it said was the son of drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. Today, both Mexican and U.S. authorities are pointing at each other for misidentifying the man who was captured.

The man's name is Felix Beltran Leon, 23, a car salesman, and not Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, the Mexican Attorney General's Office confirmed on Friday, saying "necessary tests" had proved he wasn't the drug lord's son.

When legendary TV producer Norman Lear was young, his father gave him a do-it-yourself radio kit. Lear built it, turned it on and remembers one day hearing a fiery broadcast that spoke kindly of the Nazi movement and ranted against Jews.

"It scared the hell out of me," Lear, who is Jewish, tells weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz. "It was the first time that I learned that I was, quote, 'different.' I started to pay a lot more attention to people who were even more different."