NPR News

North Korea has announced its leader Kim Jong Il has died at age 69. The state news agency reports that he had a heart attack.

Millions of Americans, who have benefited from a holiday in paying Social Security payroll taxes, cannot count on that being extended beyond the first of the year. House Speaker John Boehner said Sunday that the bipartisan deal worked out by the Senate to keep the tax cut going for another couple of months would not pass muster with House Republicans.

On March 11, 2004, al-Qaida-inspired bombers killed nearly 200 Madrid commuters on rush-hour trains. It was Europe's worst act of Islamist terrorism, and it came just three days before an election that Spain's conservatives were expected to win.

The government quickly blamed the attack on Basque separatists, but hours later, it became clear that it was Islamist militants.

"It got people mad about the government," says political scientist Jose Ignacio Wert.

The evidence of America's obesity epidemic is all around us. But the problem is particularly acute among African-American women.

About half of African-American women in the U.S. are obese, compared to 30 percent of white women. Black women not only carry more weight, but they start piling on extra pounds years before their white counterparts.

So when does it begin, this excess and unhealthful weight? Research suggests the problem starts early, and it may have a lot to do with when girls give up regular exercise.