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Ahead of Friday morning's much-anticipated report about the nation's unemployment rate and how many jobs were (hopefully) added to payrolls in May, economists are expecting to hear:

— That the jobless rate was unchanged from April's 7.5 percent.

— That there were about 170,000 more jobs, a modest increase.

In other words, as NPR's Yuki Noguchi said on Morning Edition, it's likely to be a more-of-the-same kind of report.

Bloomberg News says U.S. stock futures are little changed as the 8:30 a.m. ET release of the employment news approaches — a sign that the markets are also thinking that the report will be yet another sign that job growth remains sluggish.

A month ago, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said that 165,000 jobs were added to payrolls in April (a figure that could be revised in Friday's report).

We'll update with news from the May report once it's released.

Police in India say they've arrested three men in connection with the alleged gang rape of an American woman in northern India earlier this week.

The unidentified suspects, aged 22 and 23, were arrested Thursday near Manali, police officer Vinod Dhawan was quoted by The Associated Press as saying.

As we reported on Tuesday, the woman, whose identity has not been made public, was reportedly attacked when she accepted a lift from a group of men near Manali, a resort town in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh about 335 miles north of the capital, New Delhi.

According to the AP, the woman's complaint alleges that after accepting the ride, she was driven to a secluded spot and raped. Reuters quotes local police as saying the incident occurred Monday night as she was hitchhiking back to her guest house after being unable to find a taxi.

The suspects were being questioned by police and their truck has been impounded, a police statement said.

Attorney General Eric Holder has been a lightning rod for the president's fiercest critics during his four years in office. Lately, he's been back on the hot seat with a crisis of his own making: the Justice Department's aggressive stance toward reporters in national security leak cases.

Holder heads to the Senate on Thursday, where lawmakers are sure to demand an explanation.

Being in the center of the storm is nothing new for Holder. Even before he was confirmed by the Senate in 2009, Republicans in Congress singled him out for criticism, says former spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler.

"I think with some members of Congress — particularly some Republicans — the attorney general has been a favorite target of theirs, partly because he is the perfect proxy for the president," Schmaler says.

Schmaler says Holder has drawn all that attention because he's one of the more left-leaning members of the Cabinet, and he's personally close to President Obama and the first lady.

Meanwhile, over the past couple of decades, the job of attorney general has become more politicized. That's something that makes Holder uncomfortable every time he goes to Capitol Hill, says onetime prosecutor and Senate lawyer Stephen Ryan.

"The question is," says Ryan, "Is the attorney general ready for people who punch wildly and below the belt on occasion, and land some blows that are quite honest and above the belt? And so I think he's got some problems that in the second term are hard to deal with."

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Babylon, like many favelas, is located a short distance from the most affluent areas of Rio, where property is among the most expensive in the world. Shoup lives only a few hundred feet from the tourist beach at Leme. She says the main reason she moved to a favela was because it was cheap, but the low cost isn't why she stays.

"I always say I feel a lot safer at night walking here than I do in Copa or Leme," she says. "I like sprint through Copa or Leme when I get off the bus. When I get here, I say whoa, OK."

That feeling of security in favelas like Babylon is the result of a government project called pacification. In the past, police used to raid the favelas, battle with the drug gangs and then withdraw.

Now a specially created cadre of police called Police Pacification Units live and work in certain favelas full time, providing a permanent security presence. It's been a success in places like Babylon; the drug gangs have been driven out and now foreigners are moving in.

It's a similar story across town in the favela called Vidigal where 23-year-old Kate Steiker-Ginzberg lives.

"I have 180 degrees of ocean views living here in Vidigal," she says.

It's one of the ironies of Rio that its poor have the best views in the city. Many of Rio's favelas crawl up the city's verdant cliffs. The makeshift cinder-block homes sprout from the creases in the hills, overlooking the long white beaches and tourist hotels where the affluent come to play. In Vidigal, in particular, the views are breathtaking.

But it's not just the vista that attracts Steiker-Ginzberg.

"I think there are a lot of young people and a lot of students who come here with this idea of: How can we come and live here and really try and learn from a place?" she says. "How can we really try and insert ourselves in the community?"

Business Is Booming

There's another reason why many foreigners and Brazilians with means are coming to the pacified favelas these days — money.

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