NPR News

Transcript

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Linda Wertheimer. Picture this: A woman in Britain felt a lump in her throat. She tried to take a closer look with a mirror and a pen, but slipped and fell and swallowed the pen. It sounded so improbable, her doctor and her husband did not believe her.

Twenty-five years later, they're eating their words. The woman just had the pen removed. She is in good health - and the pen still works. Doctors scribbled "hello" on a piece of paper.

It's MORNING EDITION. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Mince pies are a centuries-old Christmas tradition. And this year, a six-year-old boy in England won the most expensive mince pie in the world. A London pie maker raffled it off. To make the $4,7000 dessert, he used rare ingredients. And, buried in the holiday treat was a solid platinum coin worth nearly $1,000.

More consumers are turning to buffalo meat as a healthier choice that's often better for the environment. South Dakota is the biggest producer of buffalo, and ranchers there say their biggest challenge is keeping up with the demand.

Transcript

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

It was a reversal for CNN celebrity interviewer Piers Morgan yesterday. He had to answer questions about journalists in Britain hacking into phone messages and bribing police. A scandal about press practices has struck at the heart of Rupert Murdoch's media empire in the UK and has led to more than 20 arrests.

NPR's David Folkenflik reports that Morgan insisted he had no involvement in or knowledge of any of it back when he was a high profile tabloid editor in London.

There's a spirited debate going on between GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. A Super PAC called Restore Our Future is running negative ads against Gingrich on Romney's behalf. Gingrich called on Romney to get the ads off the air. Romney responded by saying the law does not allow him to communicate with a Super PAC.