Sylvia Poggioli
Sylvia Poggioli is senior European correspondent for NPR's International Desk covering political, economic, and cultural news in Italy, the Vatican, Western Europe, and the Balkans. Poggioli's on-air reporting and analysis have encompassed the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, the turbulent civil war in the former Yugoslavia, and how immigration has transformed European societies.
Since joining NPR's foreign desk in 1982, Poggioli has traveled extensively for reporting assignments. These include going to Norway to cover the aftermath of the brutal attacks by a right-wing extremist; to Greece, Spain, and Portugal reporting on the eurozone crisis; and the Balkans where the last wanted war criminals have been arrested.
In addition, Poggioli has traveled to France, Germany, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Sweden, and Denmark to produce in-depth reports on immigration, racism, Islam, and the rise of the right in Europe.
She has also travelled with Pope Francis on several of his foreign trips, including visits to Cuba, the United States, Congo, Uganda, Central African Republic, Myanmar, and Bangladesh.
Throughout her career Poggioli has been recognized for her work with distinctions including the WBUR Foreign Correspondent Award, the Welles Hangen Award for Distinguished Journalism, a George Foster Peabody, National Women's Political Caucus/Radcliffe College Exceptional Merit Media Awards, the Edward Weintal Journalism Prize, and the Silver Angel Excellence in the Media Award. Poggioli was part of the NPR team that won the 2000 Overseas Press Club Award for coverage of the war in Kosovo. In 2009, she received the Maria Grazia Cutulli Award for foreign reporting.
In 2000, Poggioli received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Brandeis University. In 2006, she received an honorary degree from the University of Massachusetts Boston together with Barack Obama.
Prior to this honor, Poggioli was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences "for her distinctive, cultivated and authoritative reports on 'ethnic cleansing' in Bosnia." In 1990, Poggioli spent an academic year at Harvard University as a research fellow at Harvard University's Center for Press, Politics, and Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government.
From 1971 to 1986, Poggioli served as an editor on the English-language desk for the Ansa News Agency in Italy. She worked at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy. She was actively involved with women's film and theater groups.
The daughter of Italian anti-fascists who were forced to flee Italy under Mussolini, Poggioli was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She graduated from Harvard College with a bachelor's degree in romance languages and literature. She later studied in Italy under a Fulbright Scholarship.
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Italy holds a funeral for the intelligence officer killed in Iraq last week when U.S. forces fired on the car transporting a freed hostage, journalist Giuliana Sgrena. Sgrena has suggested Americans may have deliberately targeted her; the U.S. has rejected that claim.
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Pope John Paul II is resting following a tracheotomy and is eating normally, according to a Vatican spokesman. The pope was rushed to the hospital Thursday morning with flu symptoms and breathing difficulties.
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President Bush heads to Brussels to begin attempts to repair trans-Atlantic relations, severely damaged by divisions over the U.S.-led war in Iraq. The first international trip of Bush's second term will include meetings with French President Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
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An agreement to fight global warming goes into effect Wednesday in much of the world. The Kyoto treaty was ratified by 140 nations, with some notable exceptions -- the United States and Australia did not sign the treaty. Signatories are legally committed to meeting emissions targets by 2012.
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Pope John Paul II reportedly had a restful night after being rushed to a hospital Tuesday, suffering from breathing problems brought on by the flu. Church officials say the move was precautionary.
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Pope John Paul II was rushed to the hospital Tuesday night with breathing problems following a bout of the flu. The 84-year-old pontiff has a history of health problems. Hear Alex Chadwick and Sylvia Poggioli.
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Pope John Paul II's fragile health has stabilized after Tuesday night's urgent hospital treatment for breathing difficulties. The Vatican says there is no cause for alarm, but the 84-year-old pontiff will remain hospitalized for the time being.
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An exhibit in Rome sheds new light on Leonardo da Vinci's versatility as architect, engineer and a visionary, many of whose inventions were precursors of today's technological achievements.
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Just after World War II, the Vatican instructed French Catholic authorities not to hand baptized Jewish children back to their parents, according to a recently revealed document. The discovery has re-rekindled disputes over the wartime role of Pope Pius XII.
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While Paris has been the favored destination for visitors seeking clues to the Holy Grail, Rome has drawn new attention. The book Angels and Demons has tourists seeking hidden meanings in the city's art and religious symbols.