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Senate leaders announced a deal on legislation to overhaul how Congress investigates allegations of sexual harassment. The measure makes lawmakers personally liable for settling claims and streamlines the process for filing complaints. Top Republican and Democratic leaders hailed the deal and promised quick action.

Lt. Gen. David Petraeus is expected to take command in Iraq and oversee President Bush's new policy. A graduate of West Point, Petraeus commanded the fabled 101st Airborne Division during the invasion of Iraq and went on to become the top trainer for Iraqi forces.

A company of the 101st Airborne Division in Panjwaii tries to cut Taliban supply lines and win the support of locals. It offers a focused look at the overall U.S. war strategy in Afghanistan. Watching closely are the Taliban -- and the top ranks of the U.S. military command.

The rebels, rule breakers and renegades who rule this year's Top 10 list aren't looking for a Ph.D. in Traditional Cooking. They're pleasure seekers whose books are filled with quirky facts, gorgeous pictures and ingredients deployed in unexpected places.

Kidnappings are the latest scourge in the impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti. Despite the presence of a 6,000-strong U.N. force, Haiti has seen a sharp increase in violence and kidnappings in recent months. The interim government, under Prime Minister Gerard Latortue, is desperate to establish a semblance of order before elections in November.

NPR's Melissa Block reports survivors of the Long Islan Railroad shooting in New York made courtroom statements this past week in th trial of Colin Ferguson. He was convicted of killing 6 people during a shooting rampage on the railroad. Crime victims and their relatives are making their case in court more and more often.

David Culhane reports from Paris on a shakeup in the French defense industry. The government offered the biggest overhaul and the most comprehensive review of French military strategy since World War II. President Chirac announced in an address to the nation today that over the next 6 years military conscription will be replaced by a professional army.

- The astronauts aboard the space shuttle Discovery will be performing an unscheduled space walk to work on the Hubble Space Telescope. Pat Duggins from member statiobn WMFE reports that seven years in orbit has left wear and tear on the 1.6 billion dollar observatory, including rips in its silvery metal skin.

Commentator Reynolds Price has just had his annual MRI to check for cancer. He finds a strange kind of peace inside the close quarters of the 6 foot long tube in the radiology department --reciting the contents of his longterm memory: prayers and poems and sonnets. He was again free of cancer this year.

More than 230 people are dead following Saturday's 7.6 magnitude earthquake in El Salvador. The country is still digging survivors out of a massive mudslide in the suburb of Santa Tecla, but the search is slowly turning into one of recovering bodies. Host Lisa Simeone speaks with reporter Michael Lanchin in El Salvador.

The White House is holding Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) at a distance, pending a Jan. 6 vote that will decide Lott's fate as Senate Republican leader. Political analysts say the focus on Lott's racially insensitive remarks undermines President Bush's efforts to reach out to minorities. NPR's Mara Liasson reports.

The more than two-decade-old investigation into who killed 6-year-old Adam Walsh, the son of America's Most Wanted host John Walsh, in 1981 has come to a close. Police in Florida say Ottis Toole, a serial killer who died in prison in 1996, decapitated Adam Walsh.

Ravneet "Ruby" Kaur came to the United States in 1986 when she was 6 years old. Civil unrest had engulfed the state of Punjab, India, and her family, religious Sikhs, decided to stay in the United States. Ruby has worked as a nurse and is now in her second year at UCLA medical school.

Chelsey Perkins covers politics and government at the Brainerd Dispatch

Unlike most of its neighbors in the top 10, Lenae's slow-burning hit actually sounds like summer, says NPR Music's Stephen Thompson. It's a buoyant R&B throwback with a sugar rush vibe that fits in at pool parties, barbecues and beach hangs.

The president's record on keeping his campaign promises over the last four years: 47 percent, according to the watchdog PolitiFact. A boon to Obama's promise-keeping came from the passage of big-name programs like the economic stimulus package and the education program Race to the Top.

Commentator Captain Rosemary Mariner calls for a return to the concept of "vertical accountability" in the military. Recent allegations of sexual misconduct in in Army training schools violate one of the most basic moral concepts in the military; if these are allegations are true, we should be disciplining people at the top of the pyramid, not the bottom.

Linda Wertheimer speaks with Tim Wirth, Undersecretary for Global Affair at the State Department, about the decision to put environmental issues at the top of the department's diplomatic agenda. Wirth says that cleaning up the environment and controlling population growth around the world are prudent political and economic policies.

As Secretary of State, Retired General Colin Powell will shift from being an advocate for the military to becoming the nation's top diplomat. NPR's Tom Gjelten looks at Powell's past recommendations as one of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about military intervention in hot spots around the world.

NPR's Jack Speer reports President Bush is naming former Goldman Sachs investment banker Stephen Friedman as his top economics adviser. Friedman is being appointed to the White House job despite an aggressive campaign to torpedo his candidacy by some conservative Republicans.