diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 147d0822a..21d0af319 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -10,41 +10,43 @@ prerelease, and a full NEWS corresponding to 1.8 -> 2.0.)
 
 Changes in 1.9.3 (since the 1.9.2 prerelease):
 
-** Non-ASCII source code files can be read, but require coding
-   declarations
+** Support for non-ASCII source code files
 
 The default reader now handles source code files for some of the
-non-ASCII character encodings, such as UTF-8.  A non-ASCII source file
-should have an encoding declaration near the top of the file.  Also,
-there is a new function file-encoding that scans a port for a coding
-declaration.
+non-ASCII character encodings, such as UTF-8. A non-ASCII source file
+should have an encoding declaration near the top of the file. Also,
+there is a new function, `file-encoding', that scans a port for a coding
+declaration. See the section of the manual entitled, "Character Encoding
+of Source Files".
 
 The pre-1.9.3 reader handled 8-bit clean but otherwise unspecified source
 code.  This use is now discouraged.
 
-** Ports do transcoding
+** Support for locale transcoding when reading from and writing to ports
 
-Ports now have an associated character encoding, and port read/write
-operations do conversion to/from locales automatically.  Ports also
+Ports now have an associated character encoding, and port read and write
+operations do conversion to and from locales automatically. Ports also
 have an associated strategy for how to deal with locale conversion
-failures.  Four functions to support this: set-port-encoding!,
-port-encoding, set-port-conversion-strategy!,
-port-conversion-strategy.
+failures.
+
+See the documentation in the manual for the four new support functions,
+`set-port-encoding!', `port-encoding', `set-port-conversion-strategy!',
+and `port-conversion-strategy'.
 
 ** String and SRFI-13 functions can operate on Unicode strings
 
-** SRFI-14 char-sets are modified for Unicode
+** Unicode support for SRFI-14 character sets
 
-The default char-sets are not longer locale dependent and contain
-characters from the whole Unicode range.  There is a new char-set,
-char-set:designated, which contains all assigned Unicode characters.
-There is a new debugging function: %char-set-dump.
+The default character sets are no longer locale dependent and contain
+characters from the whole Unicode range. There is a new predefined
+character set, `char-set:designated', which contains all assigned
+Unicode characters. There is a new debugging function, `%char-set-dump'.
 
 ** Character functions operate on Unicode characters
 
-char-upcase and char-downcase use default Unicode casing rules.
-Character comparisons such as char<? and char-ci<? are now sorting
-based on Unicode code points.
+`char-upcase' and `char-downcase' use default Unicode casing rules.
+Character comparisons such as `char<?' and `char-ci<?' now sort based on
+Unicode code points.
 
 ** Removed deprecated uniform array procedures: scm_make_uve,
    scm_array_prototype, scm_list_to_uniform_array,
@@ -152,6 +154,20 @@ For example, the old (lang elisp) modules are meant to be interpreted,
 not compiled. This bug will be fixed before 2.0. FIXME 2.0: Should say
 something here about module-transformer called for compile.
 
+** Files loaded with `load' will now be compiled automatically.
+
+As with files loaded via `primitive-load-path', `load' will also compile
+its target if autocompilation is enabled, and a fresh compiled file is
+not found.
+
+There are two points of difference to note, however. First, `load' does
+not search `GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH' for the file; it only looks in the
+autocompilation directory, normally a subdirectory of ~/.cache/guile.
+
+Secondly, autocompilation also applies to files loaded via the -l
+command-line argument -- so the user may experience a slight slowdown
+the first time they run a Guile script, as the script is autocompiled.
+
 ** New POSIX procedures: `getrlimit' and `setrlimit'
 
 Note however that the interface of these functions is likely to change
@@ -536,9 +552,48 @@ Internally, strings are now represented either in the `latin-1'
 encoding, one byte per character, or in UTF-32, with four bytes per
 character. Strings manage their own allocation, switching if needed.
 
-Currently no locale conversion is performed. Extended characters may be
-written in a string using the hexadecimal escapes `\xXX', `\uXXXX', or
-`\UXXXXXX', for 8-bit, 16-bit, or 24-bit codepoints, respectively.
+Extended characters may be written in a literal string using the
+hexadecimal escapes `\xXX', `\uXXXX', or `\UXXXXXX', for 8-bit, 16-bit,
+or 24-bit codepoints, respectively, or entered directly in the native
+encoding of the port on which the string is read.
+
+** Support for non-ASCII source code files
+
+The default reader now handles source code files for some of the
+non-ASCII character encodings, such as UTF-8. A non-ASCII source file
+should have an encoding declaration near the top of the file. Also,
+there is a new function, `file-encoding', that scans a port for a coding
+declaration. See the section of the manual entitled, "Character Encoding
+of Source Files".
+
+The pre-1.9.3 reader handled 8-bit clean but otherwise unspecified source
+code.  This use is now discouraged.
+
+** Support for locale transcoding when reading from and writing to ports
+
+Ports now have an associated character encoding, and port read and write
+operations do conversion to and from locales automatically. Ports also
+have an associated strategy for how to deal with locale conversion
+failures.
+
+See the documentation in the manual for the four new support functions,
+`set-port-encoding!', `port-encoding', `set-port-conversion-strategy!',
+and `port-conversion-strategy'.
+
+** String and SRFI-13 functions can operate on Unicode strings
+
+** Unicode support for SRFI-14 character sets
+
+The default character sets are no longer locale dependent and contain
+characters from the whole Unicode range. There is a new predefined
+character set, `char-set:designated', which contains all assigned
+Unicode characters. There is a new debugging function, `%char-set-dump'.
+
+** Character functions operate on Unicode characters
+
+`char-upcase' and `char-downcase' use default Unicode casing rules.
+Character comparisons such as `char<?' and `char-ci<?' now sort based on
+Unicode code points.
 
 ** Global variables `scm_charnames' and `scm_charnums' are removed