Jakadrien Turner was deported last year to Colombia after she gave a false name to law enforcement. Officials tracked the girl down about a month ago, and she'll return to the US Friday.

The Monitor interviewed young artisans, politicians, educators, entrepreneurs and faith leaders. And they have trenchant suggestions on how to improve the world. We'll serve this smorgasbord in bite-size servings of 3 to 7 profiles per day. Today's lineup of faith leaders includes the Obama administration's leading man, the head of a Christian antipoverty group, and the director of New York University's Islamic center.

The general opinion is that while the economic outlook for Latin America in 2012 is not as rosy as it has been in the past, it's not a bad one. 

AP - The nation added 200,000 jobs in December in a burst of hiring that drove the unemployment rate to its lowest in almost three years. The figures raised hopes that the economy might finally be healthy enough to power an even stronger job market.

AP - Looking beyond an expected win in New Hampshire, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney reached out to South Carolina voters Friday with a two-track argument that President Barack Obama has mishandled the economy and devised an "inexcusable, unthinkable" plan to shrink the U.S. military. His GOP rivals kept up an anti-Romney drumbeat in New Hampshire, hoping to chip away at his support and slow his momentum.