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High crime rates are holding back economic development in Latin America. One element of the crime is extortion, which cuts into the bottom line for local businesses and ordinary citizens.

President of Ohio State University Gordon Gee, 69, is retiring. The announcement comes a week after a recording surfaced of comments he made about Catholics and Southerners that some found offensive. Gee has apologized for his recent remarks, which were reportedly intended as jokes.

Convicted mobster James "Whitey" Bulger was sentenced Thursday to two life terms in prison plus five years for crimes he committed, which included 11 murders. The 84-year-old Bulger is expected to appeal, but it seems likely that he'll spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Author Doris Lessing died Sunday at the age of 94. Lessing won the 2007 Nobel Prize for literature for a life's work which included around 40 books and collections of essays and memoirs. Her book, The Golden Notebook, has been called the first feminist novel — a characterization Lessing rejected as "stupid."

Fissures in the Republican Party have drawn a great deal of attention over the last year. But this week, the Democrats' economic disagreements came into full view. When it comes to Social Security, not all Democrats think expanding the program is a good idea.

This week, the Justice Department signed a $13 billion settlement with JPMorgan Chase over the bank's mortgage practices. But it's not the first multibillion-dollar deal. Five banks, including JPMorgan, reached an agreement in 2012. Not all of the results are in, but there are some lessons learned — and lingering concerns.

Bridget Jones hasn't aged well. At 51, she's the "geriatric mum" of two small children, and finds herself yearning to plunge back into dating. Critic Maureen Corrigan says if you're looking for jolly feminist cultural commentary, you'd be better off reading a witty "encyclopedia of lady things" from the creators of the website Jezebel.

Solomon Northup, an African-American musician from New York, was kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841. He was eventually freed and wrote about his experience in Twelve Years a Slave, a memoir that has inspired a new film adaptation. But by the end of the Civil War, he dropped off the public record.

SpaceX calls it the "Grasshopper" — it's a rocket that doesn't fall back to Earth haphazardly after launch. It carefully returns itself to the launchpad standing up, right where it started.

House Republicans begin their inquiry into the problem-plagued online rollout of Obamacare, hearing testimony today from the system's contractors who are expected to point fingers at the White House