NPR News

President Obama will ask Congress to allow FBI Director Robert Mueller to remain in his job an extra two years, a rare exemption that would give the U.S. government continuity in a time of change atop the national security team, the White House announced Thursday.

The news comes as a surprise for an administration that had been seriously vetting candidates to replace Mueller, whose term is set to expire on Sept. 4 under a law that caps the service of FBI directors at 10 years.

[Note: If graphic descriptions of fatal wounds bother you, this post might be disturbing.]

The first member of Congress to be shown post-mortem photos of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden tells Politico that "it was hard to tell if the bullet went through his ear and out the eye socket or vice versa. ... There was head matter, appearing to be brains, coming out of the socket."

Mitt Romney knew Thursday would be brutal, and it was.

Even before it started.

On the morning of his much-touted health care speech Thursday at the University of Michigan's Cardiovascular Center in Ann Arbor, Romney woke up to a spanking on the conservative editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal, followed by a fusillade of criticism from Democrats as eager
as the Journal to undermine his presidential aspirations.

Nobody likes being called a fatty, but if you're a particular kind of rat, maybe it's not so bad.

The Zucker Fatty Rat has been bred specifically as a genetic model for obesity in humans. Loads of researchers buy them, stuff them full of rich gourmet rat food, and then run tests. One study might help explain why these fat rats (and humans) may not be inclined to go out and play.

Uganda's parliament is expected to vote Friday on a bill that would impose harsh punishments on homosexuals. The Associated Press reports that the original bill requires the death penalty for "serial offenders," life imprisonment for those convicted of homosexual acts, and a seven year prison sentence for those aiding and abetting homosexual acts. Host Michel Martin speaks with the author of Uganda's anti-gay bill, David Bahati, about the bill's potential impact in Uganda if it passes.