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In Afghanistan, governors are not elected, they are selected — and more often than not due to family or political connections. But in an attempt to curb graft, the country has just sworn in a batch of governors — including the first female district governor — selected through a new merit-based program.

The Republican leadership has installed immigration hawks to chair the House Judiciary Committee and a subcommittee that would be charged with drafting immigration bills. And a veteran Democrat has left another coveted committee to join the judiciary panel and help push through possible changes.

The Venezuelan president remains in Cuba, receiving treatment for cancer. His supporters — with the backing of the Supreme Court — say that he can be sworn in at a later date.

The owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig where 11 men died in April 2010 has agreed to pay criminal and civil penalties to resolve Justice Department allegations over its role in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Saturday, less than a year after the death of Moammar Gadhafi, Libyans are electing a new parliament. But in the months since the dictator was killed by a mob, life in Libya has been troubled. Host Scott Simon talks with Reuters reporter Hadeel Al-Shalchi, who is in Tripoli.

In a Philadelphia courtroom Thursday, jurors will hear closing arguments in a historic case involving the Catholic sex abuse scandal. William Lynn, a monsignor in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, is the first high-level church official to be tried for his involvement in covering up child abuse.

Stock car racing is one of America's favorite spectator sports. For the drivers at Airborne Park Speedway in Plattsburgh, N.Y., racing's an all-consuming passion that defines them and their families. Drivers from the Adirondacks, Vermont and southern Quebec head to the track on Saturdays to race cars they've built themselves.

In the new movie Albert Nobbs, Close brings to life the painful loneliness of a woman living as a man in 19th-century Ireland. For Close, who is also a producer and screenwriter on the film, it's a passion project years in the works.

Alice Eastman, a single mother living in Wheaton, Ill., tried to make ends meet on unemployment while she hunted for a job in her field after being laid off in 2010. After a long, fruitless search, Eastman, a once highly paid professional, took a minimum-wage job at Target.

Researchers in Baltimore are tracking the way the character of a neighborhood — its violence, its vacant houses, its appearance of obvious drug use — can affect an addict's decision to use drugs.