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U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon says Bashar Assad has committed crimes against humanity, given his attacks on civilians. The U.S., Britain and France say a U.N. report on the use of chemical weapons that killed more than a thousand people proves that Assad's regime was responsible. So far, though, only a few voices are calling for war crimes tribunals.

The partial government shutdown is now in its eighth day, and experts say the closure could be siphoning as much as $300 million out of the economy every day. St. Louis is home to around 25,000 federal workers, and just like in other cities across the country, many of those workers are wondering when they'll get back to work.

The WNBA's biggest star, Tina Thompson of the Seattle Storm, has just retired. She played in each of the league's 17 seasons. She won four championships and two Olympic gold medals. Steve Inskeep talks to Thompson, who never dreamed of becoming a professional basketball player.

Britain's Peter Higgs and Belgium's Francois Englert were cited by the Royal Swedish Academy for the "theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles."

Ann Leckie's debut novel, Ancillary Justice, is the tale of former starship AI Breq. Now an autonomous human, Breq is out to kill the devious dictator who rules her corner of the galaxy. Reviewer Genevieve Valentine says Ancillary Justice is "a space opera that skillfully handles both choruses and arias."

Also: Sleuthing the first story by Edgar Allan Poe; the merits of YA literature; Atavist Books launches.

A tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, one of the most complete in existence, was to head to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum this week. But with the museum closed because of the partial government shutdown, the T. rex will stay in Montana until spring.

Large foreign holders of U.S. debt warn Congress and President Obama to get their acts together... White House and Senate Democrats' unified message momentarily appeared less so... Senate Democrats are moving ahead with debt-ceiling legislation that Republicans may filibuster.

Police have identified John Constantino, 64, of Mount Laurel, N.J., as the man who died after setting himself on fire on the National Mall last week. His family says Constantino had struggled with mental illness.

A second team of international inspectors is being deployed to Syria, where the process of destroying chemical weapons-producing facilities began Sunday. Syria faces a November deadline for demolishing its production equipment.