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Writer and reviewer Will Hermes shares his favorite albums of the past year. Hermes is a frequent contributor to NPR's All Things Considered and writes for Spin Magazine, The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly. He's also the co-editor of Spin: 20 Years of Alternative Music.

Former White House adviser Karen Hughes is appointed as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, where she will be charged with remaking the United States' image abroad.

All Things Considered music reviewer Will Hermes shares his picks for the 10 best CDs of 2005, from the "wonderfully strange" world of Animal Collective to the "gorgeous hymn rock" of Sigur Ros.

Ten albums released this year that you absolutely, positively won't want to miss — from marquee artists like Cecilia Bartoli and Michael Tilson Thomas to fresh discoveries, including American composer Michael Harrison, Denmark's Vagn Holmboe and a forgotten Baroque man of mystery.

In the liner notes to his 2012 trio album Accelerando, the pianist and composer Vijay Iyer wrote: "[T]his album is in the lineage of American creative music based on dance rhythms." Dancing in rhythm and exemplifying creativity, here are 10 records which belong to that great lineage.

The Communist Party chooses 59-year-old Hu Jintao as its new general secretary, in effect taking the helm of the world's most populous nation. Hu is not expected to stray far from the path of outgoing President Jiang Zemin, who has pushed economic but not political reform. Hear more from NPR's Rob Gifford.

Hear the delectably scandalous, dance-floor-ready anthems of the year.

Robert Siegel sits down with a group of students from Tel Aviv University for a conversation about their expectations for the future. The students are politically divided, but they agree that their main concern, even more than security, is the Israeli economy.

At our desks, in nightclubs, and over bedroom speaker systems, these are the tracks that made us move.

Simon is one of music's most venerated icons: His career started 50 years ago, when he and Art Garfunkel and began writing pop songs tinged with folk, rock and world music. As a solo act, Simon has found critical and commercial success with the likes of Graceland and the recent Surprise.

A group of leading Shiite clerics are holding talks to resolve the U.S. standoff with radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose anti-American rhetoric touched off a wave of attacks on U.S.-led forces in several Iraqi cities. Al-Sadr's militiamen have withdrawn from police and government buildings they had occupied, but the security situation remains unstable. Hear NPR's Anne Garrels.

From a straight-up death metal record by a bunch of lifers to a bluegrass 'n' black metal hybrid (really!), these are the records that hurt so good in 2012.

Cher recently spoke with NPR's Scott Simon about her first holiday music album. "DJ Play a Christmas Song" has since hit Number 1 on two Billboard charts.

With something like 400 scores to his credit, covering virtually every genre of film, the Ennio Morricone canon is extensive. This is Andy Trudeau's list of his 10 personal favorites.

Discover a broad range of the year's best classical albums, from groundbreaking teenage percussionists and innovative opera singers to fierce orchestral composers and brainy pianists.

Despite penguins, lions and gorillas battling for Hollywood supremacy, 2005 will go down as a box office disappointment. But NPR critic Bob Mondello says the year's films were high on quality.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot recently fired the city's police superintendent. Now, residents will get to have a say about who should lead the country's second-largest police department.

For all the jazz albums to be universally hailed as classics, many more deserve to be recognized as such. Here, arranger and Grammy-winning record producer Bob Belden picks five slept-on jazz classics.

While six retired military generals have come out in the past weeks calling for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to step down, no active generals have followed suit. Time magazine reporter and commentator Douglas Waller offers some historical perspective on speaking out against a senior official.

NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with Retired U.S. Navy admiral James Stavridis about Ukraine claiming to have killed the commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.