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Iran's leaders are active on Facebook and Twitter, and frequently reach out in English via social media. Both services remain officially banned in Iran. But journalist Robin Wright, an expert on Iran, calls their online overtures "the most ambitious public diplomacy campaign since Iran's 1979 revolution."

The rise of pornography online has created a new industry of people whose job it is to screen vast numbers of images of exploited children.

Anxious mice calm down when they get an infusion of gut microbes from mellow mice. That has scientists wondering if gut microbes play a role in the human brain, too. Research on that is only just beginning. But it's intriguing to think there could be a real truth to the phrase "gut feelings."

Several states are moving or looking to move to a new primary election system that could force members of Congress to pay more attention to general election voters than to their base voters on the right or left.

Steve Inskeep talks to Robert Cribb, a reporter with the Toronto Star, who for the past year followed a sweeping investigation into a child pornography ring. The three-year investigation, made public last week, began with a Toronto-based website and led to the arrest of dozens of producers and clients and the rescue of nearly 400 children.

The numbers about the superstorm's effects keep getting worse. Officials say that nearly 13 million people were affected by Typhoon Haiyan, with at least 4 million left homeless, and that some haven't been reached yet on remote islands.

Throughout Mexico, shoppers filled malls and department stores in hopes of snatching up deep discounts and pre-holiday savings. If that sounds like the Mexican version of Black Friday, it is. Shop owners and economists alike are hoping consumers spend big and give Mexico's sagging economy a much needed end-of-the-year boost.

Stores are selling more LED lights this year, which use less energy. As these lights grow cheaper, Wal-Mart says it will devote half its Christmas light shelf space to LED's. Costco won't sell anything else.

It takes a real craft-oriented city to experience yarn bombing. The latest soft hit: statues decked out in holiday knitwear. Two dolphin statues now sport red and green sweaters. A deer statue wears a pompom cap and legwarmers.

The robot orbiter will take 10 months to reach the red planet, where scientists hope it will solve an enduring mystery about radical climate change in Mars' distant past.