National News from NPR

The nation's largest private employer will no longer provide a healthcare plan for new part-time employees, according to The New York Times. Walmart is also raising premiums for many full-time staff. The reason is rising costs, according to a company spokesman quoted in the story.

The MTV reality show The Real World posted an ad on Craigslist earlier this week seeking Occupy Wall Street protesters as cast members. The news blog "Talking Points Memo" picked up on the posting, and called the production company to confirm. An executive there said the protest is "something that's in the zeitgeist of young people."

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ARI SHAPIRO, host: This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Ari Shapiro.

RENEE MONTAGNE, host: And I'm Renee Montagne.

Libyans awoke, this morning, to a new dawn, a nation no longer in the grip of a dictator. Moammar Gadhafi was killed yesterday, after being captured in his hometown of Sirte, where fierce fighting had raged for weeks between his loyalists and anti-Gadhafi forces.

For the latest from Libya, Ari Shapiro talks to Vivienne Walt, a correspondent for "Time Magazine," who's based in Tripoli.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, host: The global financial crisis of 2008 has a lot of dramatic potential. It propelled the Oscar-winning documentary "Inside Job" and HBO's movie "Too Big To Fail." Now comes "Margin Call," in theaters this weekend. Kenneth Turan has a review.

KENNETH TURAN: "Margin Call" brings us into the inner sanctum of a top Wall Street investment banking firm in peril. The film opens on what everyone in the firm thinks – erroneously, as it turns out - will be the worst part of their day. A team from human resources arrives intent on terminating folks.

The events in Ohio involving the release of dozens of exotic animals eerily parallel parts of Michael Koryta's latest book: The Ridge. Koryta talks to Ari Shapiro about the challenges of regulating exotic animal ownership.

Ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was killed on Thursday after being captured in his hometown of Sirte. His death marks a spectacular fall from power that began in February when anti-government forces seized the coastal city of Misrata.

France and Germany are trying to come up with a bailout plan for Europe. This isn't the first time they've fought over money.

Like any bickering couple, they've spent centuries fighting over finances. In fact, the history of their relationship is so dramatic — so theatrical — it's best to tell it in song.

(Read the lyrics, and see the credits, here.)

Our story begins in 1870.

At the same time that Gap is closing 20 percent of its stores, a big Japanese clothing retailer called Uniqlo plans to open hundreds of shops in the U.S. Uniqlo is sort of like the Gap of Japan: The low-priced casual clothing retailer has been around since the 1980s, but sales are flattening out in its home market so the company is looking overseas for growth.

The U.S. is at the heart of its strategy, according to the head of Uniqlo's U.S. operation, Shin Odake.

With the nation's student-loan debt climbing toward $1 trillion, it's taking many young people longer than ever to pay off their loans. Two-thirds of college students now graduate with debt, owing an average of $24,000. But some borrow far more and find this debt influencing major life decisions long after graduation.

"I was very naive, and I realize that now," says Stephanie Iachini, of Altoona, Pa. She was the first in her family to go to college and financed it herself. "Basically I was just signing papers because the education part meant a lot to me."