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Syrian President Bashar Assad's Instagram account includes images of his smiling first lady. It makes no mention of the country's civil war. Instead, it show his wife helping out in a soup kitchen, and congratulating top achieving students.

The Global Language Monitor's Top Word of 2014 is not a word, it's an emoji of a heart. The company says the spread of pictures in place of words reflects a broader transformation of English.

By Ashley HassettAmherst, NY – A local supermarket chain is trying to provide better nutritional assistant to consumers. Tops Markets introduced an easy…

Oil prices were higher after a top Iranian official threatened to block a considerable part of the world's oil supply, if new economic sanctions are imposed on his country. The official spoke of blocking oil tankers from moving through the Straits of Hormuz.

While the financial world keeps grappling with losses, the industry's leaders have raked in annual pay raises averaging nearly 12 percent. The Financial Times found JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was among the top earners, with a pay package of more than $23 million last year. That's an 11 percent increase over the previous year.

NPR's David Welna reports on the very different perceptions in Havana and Washington of the Helms-Burton bill, signed into law today by President Clinton. Backers of the bill in Congress say it will hasten Fidel Castro's downfall by tightening the US embargo. But Cuban officials, while denouncing the bill, say they don't expect it to have much economic impact. In Washington, President Clinton's top adviser on Cuba says the bill gives the president less room to maneuver in dealing with Castro.

NPR's Tom Goldman reports on the economics of small-market baseball. Unlike major league football, professional baseball revenues aren't widely shared among franchises. Teams like the New York Yankees and the Atlanta Braves earn significant money from TV contracts, and that allows them to afford the sport's top talent. But smaller-market teams must rely on fan loyalty to fill the ballpark. And while they may nurture young, rising stars, these teams know that talented players are likely to go where the money takes them.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg mounts a campaign against noise pollution, the top complaint on a police "quality of life" hotline. New Yorkers are annoyed by the racket from car horns and personal stereos -- and from loudspeakers coaxing people into bars and restaurants. NPR's Margot Adler reports.

Jackie Kennedy Onnasis' estate has been drawing top dollars all week long at Sotheby's auction house. Noah Adams talks with Michael Marsden, dean of the College of Arts and Science at Northern Michigan University in Marquette who has written about popular culture, about this estate sale. Marsden says he's not surprised by the amount of money people have paid for Jackie O's belongings being auctioned. Rather, Marsden says, people attach a kind of profound value to memorabilia that can be very high. He says this dates back to the Middle Ages when people begin to collect the relics of saints.

Tess Vigeland of member station WBUR reports that the Boston Latin School has settled out of court with a family that sued the school to protest a special entrance provision for minority students. As part of the settlement, the city's school board will drop special racial admissions categories for the city's prestigious Boston Latin School, and for two other top schools. The student and her family sued after she was denied admission despite receiving higher test scores than some minority students who were admitted.