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Americans who got a quarter of their daily calories from sugar were twice as likely to die from heart disease as those who limited their intake to much lower levels, fresh research finds. Unfortunately, most of us have a sugar habit that puts us in the danger zone.

Those opposed to taxes and big government are putting their money where their mouths are in the state. A food drive there was put together by libertarians and anarchists, and they say they privately funded, voluntary charity is superior to the welfare system.

Goldman Sachs has invested $9.6 million in a new initiative for juvenile offenders in the New York City prison system. While the Department of Corrections needs the money, some wonder if private investment has a place in government agencies.

The condition of the nation's roads, bridges and other kinds of infrastructure has actually improved over the past few years, but only slightly, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. It gives the U.S. a D-plus on its annual report card.

German Catholics are facing a stark choice: Pay a church tax or forget about receiving the sacraments, including baptisms, weddings and funerals. Germany taxes registered Catholics, Protestants and Jews. In 2011, the tax raised $6.5 billion for the Catholic Church alone. Many progressives and conservatives are up in arms over the German bishops' decree.

Though former MI5 director Stella Rimington knows better than anyone that Ian Fleming's From Russia With Love is not a realistic portrayal of life in the intelligence services, she still loves this tale of sex and violence. Which is your favorite Bond book? Tell us in the comments.

The Labor Department on Friday reported a jobless rate of 7.6 percent as employers added 175,000 jobs and more people began to look for work last month. That's up from April's rate of 7.5 percent.

In France, residents go to the polls Sunday in the first round of a two-part presidential election. The top two vote-getters from Sunday's balloting go to a runoff on May 6. As NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports, incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy is trailing Socialist candidate Francois Hollande.

If lawmakers can't come to an agreement, the federal Stafford loan interest rate will jump from 3.4 to 6.8 percent on July 1, adding an average of $1,000 to the cost of a year of college. Students from across the country visited Capitol Hill on Tuesday to ask Congress to keep that from happening.

More than 6,000 original stories were submitted to this round of Three-Minute Fiction. 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: Exercise by India DeCarmine of Babylon, N.Y., and Letting Go by Graham Sanders from Oregon City, Ore. To see these stories and others go to npr.org/threeminutefiction.