World

A young man graduates from college. At his father's insistence, he begins interning at a law firm. But when it comes time to pursue the profession, he refuses: He wants to do something more meaningful. He wants to write.

Sound like your son/cousin/roommate/best friend? It was Honoré de Balzac.

That's right – before he became a founder of realism and an unlikely literary sex icon ("Do not suppose," an Italian count wrote to his wife, "that the ugliness of his face will protect you from his irresistible power"), the young Balzac was proofreading legal filings.

Here's a turnabout in Mali: ethnic Tuareg rebels once allied with Islamist militants have captured two militant leaders in the northwestern part of the country as they tried to escape into Algeria.

If you're investing to protect yourself from something that may happen 20 or 30 years down the road, you'd like to be confident that your plan will keep pace with the times.

That's a calculation purchasers of long-term care insurance have to make. But a provision in those policies that people rely on to help ensure their coverage will meet their needs decades hence may fall short.

"Slumping personal computer maker Dell is selling itself for $24.4 billion to its founder and a group of investors that includes Microsoft," The Associated Press writes, in "the largest deal of its kind since the Great Recession dried up financing for risky maneuvers like this."

The wire service adds that "the complex agreement announced Tuesday will end Dell Inc.'s nearly 25-year history as a publicly traded company. Shareholders are receiving $13.65 per share for their stock. ... Founder Michael Dell will remain the company's CEO and largest shareholder."

Good morning, here are our early stories:

Broader Justification Emerges Of When U.S. Can Kill Americans Who Join Al-Qaida.

Dramatic End To Alabama Hostage Standoff Took Careful Planning.

And here are more early headlines:

Natasha Khan of Bat For Lashes presented some intriguing guises for her first two albums, from Fur and Gold's willowy siren to Two Suns' blonde-wigged alter ego. But for 2012's The Haunted Man, Khan stripped herself bare — and not just for the cover of her album.

The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly.

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Abbottabad, Pakistan became world famous in 2011. Osama bin Laden was killed at his hiding place there. Now, the city plans an image makeover. It plans a family-friendly amusement park. The Hazara Heritage Park and Amusement City will include restaurants, mini golf, a butterfly zoo and a lake. A lawmaker tells the Guardian newspapers the park should reassure the world the city is not full of militants and is safe.

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Fiction and nonfiction softcover releases from Nadine Gordimer, Michael Crichton and Richard Preston, Anne Rice, Paul Krugman and Charles Murray.

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

On one level, See Now Then, Jamaica Kincaid's first novel in a decade, is a lyrical, interior meditation on time and memory by a devoted but no longer cherished wife and mother going about the daily business of taking care of her home and family in a small New England town. But it is also one of the most damning retaliations by a jilted wife since Nora Ephron's Heartburn. See Now Then reads as if Gertrude Stein and Virginia Woolf had collaborated on a heartbroken housewife's lament that reveals an impossible familiarity with Heartburn and Evan S.

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The world's most popular sport is under investigation for corruption. European police say they've found evidence of a vast criminal network that fixed hundreds of soccer matches. The conspiracies are alleged to span continents and involve players, team officials, league staff and serious criminals. Investigators say they're looking at teams competing for places in soccer's biggest tournament, the World Cup.

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And our last word in business is: America's pizza crisis solved.

For decades, Pizza Hut has been researching ways to improve the flawed pizza consumption process. Until recent years, Americans were forced to hold the slice two-handed, you know, with the finger up under the point, or fold it in half like Spike Lee in "Do the Right Thing." Pizza Hut has never felt that was good enough, and they're trying for something better.

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NPR's business news starts with a slip for BP.

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The British oil company, BP, announced its 4th quarter earnings today, and its net profit was about a billion dollars lower than a year earlier. BP has been shrinking as assets have been sold off to pay for its liabilities tied to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

A $24.4 billion buyout that would take computer maker Dell private was announced Tuesday. The group negotiating to buy the company includes private equity firm Silver Lake, Microsoft and Dell's founder Michael Dell.

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Across Syria's eastern border, Iraq is nearing the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led international invasion. The war that ended the repressive regime of Saddam Hussein is over but the killing is not. Insurgents sprang up under U.S. occupation and sectarian and ethnic rifts left thousands dead. Though the bloodshed peaked about six years ago, the death toll there is still stunning. Last month across the country it reached 246. And we're learning this morning about more violence in Iraq.

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In New Delhi, prosecutors called their first witness to the stand in the trial of five men accused of a gang-rape and the murder that's horrified India and the world. The victim's male companion, who was beaten and left for dead alongside her, appeared in court in a wheelchair to testify.

Indians are eager to see justice done, but as NPR's Julie McCarthy reports, the realities of government and the courts are dampening expectations.

Parisian women have finally caught up with the 21st century (and the end of the 20th century for that matter): They can now wear pants!

January 31, the 213-year-old ban was officially lifted.

"The repeal of the law... was made by France's Minister for Women's Rights, Ms. Vallaud-Belkacem," Digital Journal reports.