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Washington lawyer Clifford Sloan is expected to be President Obama's pick to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, NPR has confirmed.

The Associated Press, which first reported the news, said Sloan will reopen the Office of Guantanamo Closure, which was shut in January. A formal announcement is expected Monday.

Sloan is a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom LLP law firm. His bio on the firm's website says:

America's privacy concerns go back to the origins of the country itself.

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It's WEEKENDS on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Jacki Lyden.

Coming up, the posthumous release of a book by the man known as the deadliest sniper in U.S. history who was killed earlier this year at a shooting range.

But first, small drones are coming to U.S. airspace. Drone manufacturers, police departments, farmers and many businesses are eager to begin using unmanned aerial vehicles here.

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From the cutting edge of modern aviation to a 76-year-old aviation mystery deep as the ocean. This month, the son of the late philanthropist, Paul Mellon, filed suit against an aircraft recovery group. Timothy Mellon says the group withheld underwater photos of what could be the wreckage of Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Electra plane. The suit alleges that the group duped Mellon to the tune of a million dollars just to drag on the exploration. The organization denies the claim.

Pope Francis blessed a thundering parade of thousands of bikers on Sunday as Harley-Davidson riders descended on Rome to celebrate the motorcycle maker's 110^th anniversary.

The Associated Press reports that the Harley's patented super-loud engines nearly drowned out the Latin recitation of "Our Father."

The AP writes:

The World's Smallest Office competition is over. But will the Smoffice create jobs?

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

The White House says it's open to "senior-level" talks proposed by North Korea, but only if Pyongyang lives up to its U.N. obligations to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.

National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said Sunday that North Korea must meet "its obligations to the world." The U.S. will judge Pyongyang by "its actions and not its words," she said.

Earlier Sunday, Pyongyang proposed the high-level discussions with the U.S. just days after its direct talks with rival South Korea fell apart.

The conflict in Syria may be first and foremost a civil war, pitting the Shiite-dominated regime of President Bashar Assad against mostly Sunni insurgents. But the region's turbulent geopolitics have turned it into a proxy fight that has drawn in the rest of the region as well as the U.S and other global powers.

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Colorado is often the site of devastating forest fires, but the city of Colorado Springs has been hit particularly hard as of late. In the span of just one year, more than 800 homes have been destroyed from wildfires in and around the city. This time last year, it was the Waldo Canyon fire, and now it's the Black Forest fire. NPR's Kirk Siegler spent the week in Colorado Springs and sent this report.

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This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin.

President Obama leaves tonight on a quick trip to Europe. He'll attend a G8 Summit of industrialized nations in Northern Ireland. He'll also pay a visit to Germany, where his plans include a public speech at the historic Brandenburg Gate.

NPR's Scott Horsley will be traveling with the president. He joins us now. Hi, Scott.

SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: Good to be with you, Rachel.