Add NEWS item for new string methods.
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index f9f1855..44cf065 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -3,6 +3,31 @@
Core
+- Strings now have a new method .decode() to complement the already
+ existing .encode() method. These two methods provide direct access
+ to the corresponding decoders and encoders of the registered codecs.
+
+ To enhance the usability of the .encode() method, the special
+ casing of Unicode object return values was dropped (Unicode objects
+ were auto-magically converted to string using the default encoding).
+
+ Both methods will now return whatever the codec in charge of the
+ requested encoding returns as object, e.g. Unicode codecs will
+ return Unicode objects when decoding is requested ("äöü".decode("latin-1")
+ will return u"äöü"). This enables codec writer to create codecs
+ for various simple to use conversions.
+
+ New codecs were added to demonstrate these new features (the .encode()
+ and .decode() columns indicate the type of the returned objects):
+
+ Name | .encode() | .decode() | Description
+ ----------------------------------------------------------------------
+ uu | string | string | UU codec (e.g. for email)
+ base64 | string | string | base64 codec
+ zlib | string | string | zlib compression
+ hex | string | string | 2-byte hex codec
+ rot-13 | string | Unicode | ROT-13 Unicode charmap codec
+
- Some operating systems now support the concept of a default Unicode
encoding for file system operations. Notably, Windows supports 'mbcs'
as the default. The Macintosh will also adopt this concept in the medium