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More than 6,000 original stories were submitted to this round of Three-Minute Fiction and we're on the quest to select just one winner. Until then, we'll be reading a few of the stories that catch our eyes. Weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz presents this week's stand out stories: Pilgrims by Catherine Carberry from Metuchen, N.J., and Fireflies, by Delia Read from Fairfax, Calif. To see these stories and others go to npr.org/threeminutefiction.

French voters chose their next president, Socialist Francois Hollande. He defeated incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in a runoff to become France's second socialist president since the end of World War II.

Hazing is in the news again this week, and researchers say there might be more of it than there used to be. But New Hampshire Public Radio's Dan Gorenstein reports it is also getting more attention, and that could be a very good thing.

Somewhere on the path to the White House this year, a powerful set of ideas began to creep into the mainstream debate over which direction the country will take. These are ideas that not too long ago were written off as marginal, or even worse, a little kooky. Now Libertarian ideals are becoming more mainstream and are influencing the Republican Party.

Some experts recommend taking 10,000 steps a day for optimal health — a number that can be hard to get to on a busy day. Taking a work meeting to the sidewalk is one way to get more daily exercise. But how much walking do we really need?

In her new book, MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow invokes Thomas Jefferson to argue for limited government — at least in the case of the military. She argues that sometimes we got to war because we've invested so much in military strength.

Comic artist Daniel Clowes never expected to see his cranky, rebellious characters in a museum — in fact, he often uses them to poke fun at the world of fine art. But that didn't deter the Oakland Museum of California, which is now hosting an exhibition of Clowes' work.

In France Sunday, Socialist Francois Hollande defeated conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy. Hollande has railed against austerity measures and urged national unity.

In Greece, where dire austerity measures are in place, angry voters punished the two main parties that have dominated politics for decades. No party won enough votes in Sunday's parliamentary elections to form a new government. Negotiations will be held to form a coalition government.

Cash-strapped states are embracing the millions of dollars in new tax revenue coming from shale oil and gas development. But there aren't enough inspectors to make sure the sites aren't polluting. The problem seems especially apparent in Colorado, which now has more than 47,000 active oil and gas wells but the state employs just 17 inspectors.