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For the first time in decades, interest rates for jumbo home loans are lower than rates for a typical mortgage. And because of that, the luxury market is the fastest growing sector of home loans. In Phoenix, sales of homes that cost more than $500,000 are up 64 percent.

Two recent operations in Libya and Somalia offer a vivid example of how members of U.S. Special Operations are being deployed around the world to go after terrorists. Renee Montagne talks to author Jeremy Scahill about his newest book, Dirty Wars, which is about the rise of special forces.

A snorkeler off the coast of California found more than she bargained for on the ocean floor Sunday, when she saw the large eyes of an 18-foot fish staring back at her. It turned out to be a dead oarfish, a mysterious creature known to live in waters thousands of feet deep.

The actress spoke with NPR's Robert Siegel about playing the icon in BBC America's Burton and Taylor. The movie follows the preposterously famous '60s and '70s couple as they reunited for a 1983 Broadway production of Private Lives.

The rollout of the health care exchange has been plagued by a host of technical problems. Entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley likely would have approached the website differently from the beginning — one former startup employee says that has to do with how projects are funded.

By wide margins in both the House and the Senate, Congress voted Wednesday night to end a 16-day partial government shutdown. The measure also delays the debt ceiling deadline until early February. House and Senate Budget committees have until Dec. 13 to reconcile competing budgets.

A Swedish newspaper reports that a prominent businessman, Percy Nilsson who owns a hockey team, confessed to drilling holes in the tires of an ice cream truck. Nilsson said he was infuriated by the teenage driver blowing the horn. The driver admits to blowing the horn almost 100 times per hour.

I bought a Treasury bill on Tuesday, before Congress made the debt-ceiling deal. It was unclear whether I would get paid back on time.

Starr Cookman and Kylee Moreland Fenton have been the closest of friends for decades. The pair grew even closer when Starr's infant son seemed ill. It's because of Kylee's insistence, Starr says, that 8-day-old Rowan received the heart surgery that saved his life.

The federal shutdown had economists worried, but consumers have had something to smile about. Gasoline prices are the lowest in three years — under $3 a gallon in some places. Analysts credit greater supplies, lower demand, the easing of Middle East tensions and even a slow hurricane season.