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Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testified before the Senate Banking Committee Tuesday about the $700 billion rescue plan for the financial sector. They stressed that it was urgent that lawmakers pass the bill this week. Many committee members were not swayed.

As foreclosures continue to rise, regulators and others are questioning the role of credit agencies, which gave top ratings to risky mortgage-backed securities. Critics say the system, in which firms are paid by the companies they rate, is inherently flawed.

Scientists are predicting that average sea levels could rise as much as 3 feet by the end of the century. However, the country's deep religious beliefs have residents of the tiny island nation in the Pacific Ocean torn between God and science.

The future of Kosovo again tops the agenda of the United Nations Security Council. The U.N. has been running the region ever since NATO helped end a Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanians there eight years ago. But Kosovo's Albanians are planning to declare independence, a move resisted by Serbia.

In the 1960s, European musicians began to reinvent the occasionally strident sounds of American avant-garde jazz to suit their own ideas. Norway, in particular, produced its own distinct regional aesthetic — no doubt influenced by its icy landscape.

A "declaration of principles" that sets the foundation for the future of America's involvement in Iraq is raising questions on Capitol Hill about how long the U.S. commitment there will last.

Arrigo Boito's 'Mefistofele' retells the familiar legend of Faust, with the devil at the center of the action.

Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, President Bush's choice for top U.S. military commander in Iraq, meets with the Senate Armed Services Committee. But Tuesday's confirmation hearing mostly gave senators a chance to voice their own opinions on the conflict.

The Senate has approved and sent to the White House a bitterly contested rewrite of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. The bill overhauls disputed rules on secret government eavesdropping. It also shields phone companies from lawsuits for their role in the administration's warrantless eavesdropping program.

The Justice Department and the CIA's Inspector General are both investigating the agency's 2005 destruction of videotapes of the interrogations of top al-Qaida operatives. The Justice Department has already started what it calls a "preliminary inquiry" into the matter.

Microsoft has made a $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo, an aggressive move by the software giant to gain market share on the Internet and compete with Google. Microsoft and Yahoo have talked about merging for years. This time, a hostile but very rich offer could seal the deal.

As a librarian and a reader, Nancy Pearl scours the shelves in search of hidden treasures — titles you may have missed. Her findings include two chilling thrillers, one exquisite 1960s memoir, a lively biography of George Orwell, an example of historical fiction at its very best, and much more fiction, nonfiction and poetry.