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A Chinese court has sentenced Bo Xilai, the former Politburo member who was snared on graft charges, to life in prison. The sentence for offenses that include bribery, embezzlement, and abuse of power, completes a shocking fall for Bo, who had been a rising star in China's political system.

"Bribes received directly by Bo or via his family totaled 20.44 million yuan (about 3.3 million U.S. dollars), the court decided," reports state news agency Xinhua.

Some of the charges against Bo also accused him of obstructing an investigation into his wife's murder of a British businessman.

NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports from Beijing:

"Judges at the court in the eastern city of Jinan rejected the vigorous defense Bo had put up at his trial last month.

"In addition to the life sentence, all of Bo's assets will be confiscated and he will be deprived of his political rights for life. That means he won't be able to hold any political office or speak to the media.

"Bo could have gotten the death penalty for his crimes, but China's judiciary is trying to use that penalty more sparingly. Bo did not indicate in court whether he would appeal the verdict. He has 10 days to do so."

Omar Hammami grew up in the small of town of Daphne, Ala., but ended up in southern Somalia on the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorist list. Last week, Hammami was reportedly killed by members of al-Shabab, the al-Qaida-linked militant group, after a falling out with its leadership.

He was known for rapping in an al-Shabab propaganda video and was the subject of an extensive profile in The New York Times Magazine. He also went by the name of Abu Mansoor Al-Amriki, or "the American."

The story of how a young, charismatic kid from Alabama became a self-described terrorist has fascinated many people, including counterterrorism expert J.M. Berger, author of Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go to War in the Name of Islam.

Berger struck up a relationship with Hammami on Twitter, and wrote about it for Foreign Policy in a piece called "Omar and Me: My Strange, Frustrating Relationship with An American Terrorist." Weekend Edition Sunday's Rachel Martin talked to Berger about Hammami's death and their "strange kind of camaraderie."

Updated Sunday 5:46 a.m. ET

The death toll at an upscale shopping mall in Nairobi has increased to at least 52, and civilians are still inside as militants exchange sporadic barrages of gunfire with Kenyan security troops outside.

"The priority is to save as many lives as possible," Joseph Lenku, Kenya's Interior cabinet secretary told AP early today. Kenyan forces have already rescued about 1,000 people, he said.

He said that five to 15 attackers are involved in the standoff, but declined to estimate the number of hostages.

Original Post, Saturday 8:38 a.m. ET

An upscale mall in Kenya was the scene of gunfire and explosions Saturday, after a group of attackers used assault rifles and grenades to strike during lunch hour in Nairobi. At least 39 people have died in the attack, Kenya's president says, along with more than 150 wounded.

American citizens are among the victims of the attack, although it's not yet clear what their status is. The attack shocked people in the mall, which is known for attracting wealthy and foreign shoppers.

"Rob Vandijk, who works at the Dutch embassy, said he was eating at a restaurant inside the mall when attackers lobbed hand grenades inside the building," the AP reports. "He said gunfire then burst out and people screamed as they dropped to the ground."

The AP reports that police arrived at the mall roughly 30 minutes after the attack began. A gun battle ensued; the situation was described as a standoff. Sporadic gunfire is being reported from the scene.

Updated at 7:40 p.m. ET: Some Attackers Still Holed Up In Mall

The Associated Press reported that 12 hours after the attack began, some of the attackers remained inside the mall holding an unknown number of hostages.

The New York Times reported:

Several Western intelligence officials said they suspected that the attack was carried out by the Shabab, an Islamist militant group based in Somalia that has carried out suicide attacks and beheadings inside Somalia and threatened Kenyan malls before. A confidential United Nations report on Saturday described the attack as "a complex, two-prolonged assault" with two squads of gunmen dashing into the mall from different floors at the same time and opening fire immediately.

The Shabab sent out several Twitter messages after the massacre suggesting that its fighters were responsible for an attack they said represented "just a very tiny fraction of what Muslims in Somalia experience at the hands of Kenyan invaders." One message said the Shabab had warned the Kenyan government "that failure to remove its forces from Somalia would have severe consequences." Kenya sent troops into Somalia in 2011 to help fight the Shabab and to prevent violence from spilling over across the border the countries share.

Wadjda, being touted as the first feature film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia — a country with no movie theaters and a relationship with cinema that's complicated at best — tells the story of a defiant 10-year-old pushing back against the social expectations that define her life as a young Saudi woman.

Wadjda's source of independence comes in the form of a green bicycle she wants to buy for herself. But girls in Saudi Arabia don't ride bicycles, so she has to be creative.

Director Haifaa Al Mansour tells NPR's Rachel Martin that she wanted to make a film "that mirrors reality as much as possible."

"I couldn't make a film where women are all innocent and they're all striving to be free and all that; it's not real," she says. "I think a lot of women are the gatekeepers, a lot of women reinforce the values ... For me, it was not making women all the victims, and men are the oppressors."