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Fresh data signal that the labor market is at least holding steady and that inflation remains in check. In other major economic news Thursday, Janet Yellen's nomination to head the Federal Reserve is expected to be OK'd by the Senate Banking Committee.

NPR photographer David Gilkey has photographed in extreme situations — from the surge in Afghanistan, to bombings in Gaza, to the tsunami in Japan, but nothing could have prepared him for what he saw in the village of Barangay 68 in Tacloban City, Philippines.

If confirmed by the full Senate in December, Janet Yellen would become the first woman to lead the central bank. She's currently the Fed's vice chairman. Analysts do not expect major policy shifts after the departure of current Chairman Ben Bernanke.

The Saudis accounted for a quarter of all sales by Germany. It's part of an emerging pattern of weapons purchases by Saudi Arabia and its neighbor United Arab Emirates. Both countries are major customers of the U.S., the world's No. 1 arms seller.

Merrill Newman of Palo Alto, Calif., was about to leave after a tour of the communist country. But he hasn't been seen since Oct. 26, when a military officer asked him to get off a plane that was about to take off.

What would it take for people to like using condoms? Inventors say it's all about the fit and feel. The 11 winners in a competition sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation include one condom made from beef tendons, and another that's heat-activated for a glove-like fit.

Police suspect that a couple held three women against their will for three decades, forcing them to do domestic work. A Scotland Yard detective says he's "never seen anything of this magnitude."

The change makes it much harder for Republicans to filibuster many of President Obama's nominees.

The state's parole board approved Thursday a posthumous pardon in the 1931 rape involving the three black men who were not pardoned in the infamous case. Nine black men were falsely accused of raping two white women on a train. All but one got the death penalty. Five convictions were overturned, and a sixth accused was pardoned before his death in 1976.

For the first time, three women were among the Marines who graduated Thursday from the two-month combat training course. The U.S. lifted the ban on women in combat earlier this year. Now, the Marines are conducting tests to see if women have what it takes to actually serve in the infantry.