The Swedish Academy awarded the Nobel Prize for literature to novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah. The author of numerous novels who grew up in Zanzibar, Gurnah was selected for his “uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism.” And, many in the US are asking what went wrong in Afghanistan after two decades of war ended with Taliban rule. Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth is calling for a 9/11-style commission to look at the past 20 years of US involvement in Afghanistan.  Also, traffic in Indian cities can get really noisy with car horns and sirens blaring nonstop. Now, India’s transport minister is working on a new law that would replace them with the soothing sounds of tablas and other Indian instruments.