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In parts of the Middle East, people drink camel milk for its nutritional value. It boasts more vitamin C and iron than cow's milk and it's lower in fat.

But in Missouri, some people are starting to rub it on their skin: A Jordanian woman is bringing camel milk to the Midwest in the form of a skin care line.

The milk comes from a farm in Jordan, where seven camels produce about five liters a day. The farmer sends the milk to a biotech company in Amman called MONOJO. The scientists there analyze it, looking for three special antibodies.

Antibodies are proteins that help fight off infections, latching on to foreign pathogens and telling the body's immune system, "Intruder alert." Typically, these antibodies degrade in higher temperatures and acidic environments. But antibodies in camel milk are stronger.

"We found that those proteins are very, very stable against temperature, high temperature and against high acidity," says MONOJO founder Penelope Shihab, the woman behind the startup in Missouri.

"Maybe the reason [is] because the camel can tolerate high temperature in the desert," she says. "Some of the scientists say that, but we couldn't confirm any of those suggestions."

Shihab's research team tested these camel milk antibodies on acne. Immunologist Khaled Al-Qaoud, Shihab's research and development manager, says camel antibodies succeed where others fail because they remain intact longer at the site of inflammation, ultimately helping the body's immune system continue to fight the acne.

Al-Qaoud says the results of the study impressed them so much so that they concocted a camel milk treatment for the skin condition.

"We use skin formulas, like for example, gel or cream or serum — any type of formulation — and we put the whey of the camel that contains the antibodies in this formula," says Al-Qaoud.

The creams look similar to the ones you find at the drug store; milky white and floral scented. Shihab says she's commercializing this formula in the U.S. first because Middle Eastern consumers trust American brands.

A colleague directed her to Missouri, a small market where she could learn the ropes of the U.S. biotech industry.

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NPR correspondents Ari Shapiro, in London, and Joanna Kakissis, in Athens, teamed up for this joint look at Olympics economics.

The Winter Olympics in Sochi are just a few days away. Russia has spent $50 billion on everything from construction to security, making these the most expensive games in history.

In his State of the Union speech Tuesday, President Obama stepped up to a podium before Congress and the country and declared that the state of our union was strong.

"Here are the results of your efforts: The lowest unemployment rate in over five years; a rebounding housing market; a manufacturing sector that's adding jobs for the first time since the 1990s," the president said.

“ A lot of the gains of the recovery that we've seen have gone to the people at the very top, particularly the top 1 percent.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's political team is going on the offensive against charges that he knew more than he admits about a plan to use lane closures on the George Washington Bridge as part of a political vendetta.

In an email to donors and journalists headlined "5 Things You Should Know about the Bombshell That's Not a Bombshell," on Saturday, political aides to the governor pushed back on accusations by David Wildstein, a former Port Authority official who oversaw the lane closures.

In a letter from the attorney for Wildstein, who resigned as the scandal broke, the former official claimed that evidence exists to show that Christie knew more. In the email sent Saturday, the governor's aides suggested that Wildstein was grasping at straws: "David Wildstein will do and say anything to save David Wildstein."

The Associated Press says:

"Christie's team denies that Christie knew about the traffic jam or its political motive until after it was over and bashes Wildstein, a former mayor who later became an anonymous political blogger."

"Much of the letter quoted previous newspaper articles that took critical looks at Wildstein, including a 2012 article in The Record of Bergen County [that] says Wildstein 'was a very contentious person.'"

"But the email does not mention other comments about Wildstein in that same story, including from Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak: 'He is there in that job because he is well suited to the task of playing a role in reforming the Port Authority in accordance with the governor's goals,' Drewniak said. 'If he's not liked for that role, and if he's accused of being zealous in that regard, then we plead guilty.'"