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The Labor Department on Friday said the nation's unemployment rate fell to 7 percent, a five-year low, as U.S. employers added 203,000 jobs to payrolls in November. In October, the unemployment rate was 7.3 percent.

At home and abroad, mourners remembered Nelson Mandela as the father of South Africa. In front of his home in Johannesburg, hundreds gathered to sing in praise of the departed anti-apartheid leader.

Also: Ursula K. Le Guin on being called a "sci-fi writer"; new poems from John Ashbery; Richard Brody on Eichmann in Jerusalem.

This week — inspired by our brand new book app — we're sharing some of our hosts' and journalists' favorite books of the entire year. Audie Cornish, David Greene, Michel Martin and Deb Amos are just a few of the app's staff contributors.

Former South African President Nelson Mandela is universally admired but there was a time when he was caught up in controversy. Steve Inskeep talks to Bill Keller, a columnist for The New York Times, about Mandela's controversial past.

"A major icing event is forecast through Friday across portions of the southern Great Plains toward the Lower Ohio Valley," the National Weather Service says. Some are saying an ice storm Friday and Saturday will be the nation's worst since 2009.

Food as a symbol of politics, diet, gender roles, technology, isolation, gluttony and blatant commercialism has been with us for ages and in many forms. A massive exhibit explores how American artists, from Pilgrim times to Andy Warhol, used paintings of food to shape and reflect our national identity.

Politics in Minnesota and Wisconsin historically have been pretty similar, but that's no longer the case. Wisconsin is now advancing conservative policies and lending a Midwestern face to the Republican Party, while Minnesota's agenda has been among the most liberal.

When bees disappeared from central China years ago, Chinese apple farmers had to pollinate by hand. Embarrassing — people doing bees' work, but then came the big discovery –- a surprise that still haunts the conservation movement. What if people outperform bees?

President Obama ordered that U.S. flags be flown at half-staff until Monday — a symbolic gesture of a nation in mourning. It's a tradition observed by countries around the world, one that began as early as the 17th century.