NPR News

"Canadian opposition parties toppled Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government in a no confidence vote Friday, triggering the country's fourth election in seven years," The Associated Press reports.

The Ottawa Sun writes: "Get ready for an election. the federal government has been toppled. ... The final vote on the Liberal motion declaring the Commons had lost confidence in the government was 156 for and 145 against."

Though the Hispanic population in the United States has reached a milestone by surpassing 50 million, analysts say the full impact of the growth — especially on the political front — won't surface for years to come.

Russian authorities will expedite the visa process for the world figure skating championships that Moscow has taken over from earthquake-ravaged Japan, Russia's top Olympic official said Friday.

Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov, who heads the Russian Olympic Committee, told The Associated Press that officials will provide easier access to visas — often difficult to obtain — for the athletes, coaches, officials and fans going to next month's rescheduled event.

Lanford Wilson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright whose work made waves both on and off-Broadway, passed away yesterday at age 73.

Wilson's work was always personal, whether he was writing about characters from his native Missouri or the prostitutes and junkies in the greasy spoon across the street from his New York apartment. In 1965, that coffee shop became the setting for his first major success.

If your teenage athlete is complaining of leg pain, it may be because her Spanx are too tight.

Spanx? Yep. The startling report comes from Dr. Orly Avitzur, medical advisor to Consumer Reports on Health. She saw a 15-year-old girl last week who had been suffering numbness, pain and tingling in her thigh for several months. A worried orthopedist had sent the girl to Avitzur, a neurologist in Tarrytown, N.Y.