A year ago, President Obama just said, "the notion of a free Libya" seemed far-fetched.

But today, with the death of ousted dictator Moammar Gadhafi, the "dark shadow of tyranny has been lifted" in that North African nation, the president added.

Nelly Lambert is a PhD student in English at Catholic University. She's writing her dissertation on Emily Dickinson's poetry.

Poet Emily Dickinson withdrew from society for most of her adult life. And yet, she was known to lower a basket full of cakes from the window of the home she rarely left to crowds of expectant children on the street below. Dickinson probably never met these children, yet she connected with them through her baking.

The killing of Col. Moammar Gadhafi will most certainly go down as one of the important chapters of what's come to be known as the Arab Spring, or the popular uprisings across North Africa and the Middle East that have deposed three dictators.

In the region, one big question that will be answered in the coming weeks is how Gadhafi's killing will affect the opposition movements firmly in place in Syria and Yemen.

NPR's Ahmed Al-Omran, a production assistant on NPR's social media desk, has been sifting through social networks to gauge reaction from the region.

Retirement can be an endless golf game or constant trips to the doctor, depending on a whole host of factors, including luck. But either way, it's a stage of life that's usually more difficult and expensive than people expect.

Tell Me More's series on end-of-life issues continues today, with a roundtable discussion at a retirement home in Washington, D.C.

Planet Money has obtained a secret government report outlining what once looked like a potential crisis: The possibility that the U.S. government might pay off its entire debt.

It sounds ridiculous today. But not so long ago, the prospect of a debt-free U.S. was seen as a real possibility with the potential to upset the global financial system.

We recently obtained the report through a Freedom of Information Act Request. You can read the whole thing here. (It's a PDF.)

As news of the killing of Col. Moammar Gadhafi spread, politicians, world leaders and dignitaries have been issuing statements. We've collected some them on this post and we'll add more as we get them:

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said this in a statement at U.N. headquarters in New York:

The Labor Department said today that claims of unemployment insurance dipped by 6,000 to 403,000. That brings the monthly average to to its lowest point in six months.

But careful, says The Wall Street Journal, the number still remains above 400,000, "indicating the labor market still is weak."

Ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was killed Thursday as revolutionary forces overan his hometown of Sirte. U.N. General-Secretary Ban Ki-Moon called it a "historic transition for Libya."

A year after cholera burst upon earthquake-weary Haiti, plans are afoot to begin vaccinating people against the highly contagious disease.

Nearly half a million Haitians — about 5 percent of the population — have already been afflicted and more than 6,500 have died.

But the goal of the vaccinators isn't to stop cholera in its tracks. They can't do that in Haiti with just 200,000 doses — enough for only 100,000 people — that's all the manufacturer can offer.

Moammar Gadhafi ruled Libya with an iron fist for more than four decades. He was an unpredictable, often brutal leader with a grand vision of himself. In the end, he squandered his country's wealth and lost the support of his people.

During his 42 years of rule, Gadhafi reinvented his image many times — from revolutionary to Arab nationalist, freedom fighter and self-styled leader of Africa.