Morning Edition from NPR

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne. OK, there's the graffiti artist who will make millions because he opted for stock over cash for painting murals at Facebook's offices. Then there's the contractor in Oshkosh who took Facebook stock for work on the home of Marianne Oleson. She claims she'd acquired the stock because her daughter knew Facebook's founder. But the stock is fake. Oleson is accused of fraud, and the contractor, not in for millions, but out thousands. It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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."

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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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

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.