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Earlier this week, All Things Considered asked you to submit your questions about the shutdown, then assembled a crack team of NPR reporters to answer them. Find out what the government shutdown means for food safety, military pay and more.

Britain's Conservative-led government has unveiled proposals to change the social benefits system, moving ever closer to workfare. One measure under the plan requires the long-term jobless to do community work. Another plan would ax automatic housing and other benefits for unemployed Brits under 25.

Reading literary fiction improves people's ability to recognize other people's mental states, while popular fiction and nonfiction do not, a study says. That may be because literary fiction tends to focus on the psychology and inner lives of the characters.

This means the larger-than-life Italian politician and media mogul, is one step closer to the end of his political career. It is expected the full Senate will follow suit and strip Berlusconi of seat, opening him up to arrest.

What has already been a strange and scary work week in the nation's capital, came to a close with a shocking incident on the National Mall: For reasons we don't yet know, witnesses say a man doused himself with gasoline and then set himself on fire.

Herman Wallace, 71, survived 40 years in solitary confinement for the killing of a guard. A judge overturned his conviction and set him free on Tuesday, saying he had not received a fair trial.

Back in 1973, Erica Jong was tired of the silent, seething housewife, so she introduced a new kind of female protagonist: one who loved sex and wasn't ashamed to admit it. Jong joins NPR's Susan Stamberg to talk about hook-ups, Fifty Shades of Gray, and of course, the "zipless f - - - ."

Even as hundreds of thousands of federal workers stay home, some members of Congress have kept most or all of their own staffs working. With no end to the government shutdown in sight, that's put Republicans on the defensive.

One month each fall, residents of interior Alaska don chest waders and splash through the clear, frigid waters of the Chatanika River. With large homemade lanterns hanging from their necks and spears in hand, the fishermen keep their eyes peeled for whitefish.

Labor disputes engulfed the Minnesota Orchestra. Bankruptcy shuttered the New York City Opera. Even Carnegie Hall had to cancel its opening-night gala. What gives?