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Here's something you haven't heard in years: The U.S. economy had a great week, with reports showing jobs being created in several sectors, new-home sales surging and factories humming. Oh, and unemployment is the lowest it's been since 2008.

Officials in China's commercial capital ordered schoolchildren to stay indoors, construction to halt and even delayed flights because of the city's highest-ever pollution levels.

Egyptian cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr was kidnapped in 2003 in Milan, Italy, and transferred to Egypt as part of the CIA's program of extraordinary rendition. He now lives in Egypt and is unlikely to serve any of his six-year sentence.

HBO's new TV special is part biography, part music-appreciation lesson and part performance piece. Critic David Bianculli says it's a superbly compiled work, overseen by two of the people most intimately familiar with the composer himself.

Thursday night's live production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic suffered from limited acting in places, but it offered some Broadway veterans a rare opportunity to shine for larger crowds.

France sends troops to its former colony after clashes between Muslims and Christians left nearly 300 dead.

Mexico's congress is set to pass a controversial plan to open up the country's vast and sluggish oil industry to private investment. The move requires a constitutional amendment since Mexico forbids foreign involvement in the oil industry. Opponents of the plan say the president is selling out the country, but many experts say that without foreign investment, Mexico won't be able to tap all its oil and won't modernize.

Merrill Newman, an 85-year-old veteran of the Korean War who was arrested by authorities in Pyongyang after a tour of the North, reportedly issued an apology for his "hostile acts."

By the time he died, Nelson Mandela was considered one of the few giants on the world stage. As NPR's Scott Simon remembers, Mandela was not alone in offering his life for freedom, so the acclaim justly heaped upon Mandela is also a credit to those who worked, served and led with him.

When writers finish a book, they may think they've had the last word — but sometimes another writer will decide there's more to the story, or more to a background character. NPR's Lynn Neary explores the fine old literary tradition of writing new stories based on existing books.