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It's now widely agreed that steering away from the fiscal cliff — the combination of spending cuts and tax increases set to hit at the start of the year — will require some combination of revenue increases and spending cuts. The central sticking point could well be whether President Obama and Congress can agree on the definition of revenue.

Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter, is changing the way the Chinese communicate and has become a major source of news. Its more than 300 million users are, among other things, using it to criticize government policies, stop official injustice and help ordinary people — but only up to a point.

Najaf in southern Iraq is beginning to feel the pain of neighboring Iran's economic woes. Business around Shiite sites, which usually draw scores of Iranians for the holy days of Ashura, is way down.

Author Hortense Calisher once called the short story "an apocalypse in a teacup." Critic Jane Ciabattari presents her favorite mini-apocalypses of 2012, from veteran authors like Sherman Alexie to newcomer Claire Vaye Watkins, who combines a unique voice and a shadowed family history in her debut collection.

Now married and a mother, the Grammy-winning songwriter says she's more aware than ever of the habits that allow her to stay productive.

For the first time in eight years of doing surveys of Afghans, the Asia Foundations reports that more than half say the country is headed in the right direction. But some respondents might have been saying what they thought pollsters wanted to hear.

To honor the memory of Porterhouse, who died at the age of 8, IPR presents a feature story broadcast during his heyday as Drake's top dog, when he was the…

Vaccination campaigns have erased polio in almost every country in the world, but the disease persists in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria. Obstacles in each country, including religious extremism, difficult terrain and transient populations, make eradication efforts difficult.

Russia announced this week that it would no longer work to disarm nuclear and chemical weapons under the U.S. program known as Nunn Lugar. This was a very successful program that reduced Russia's stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction over the past 20 years. U.S. money and expertise drove the program, but now the Russians believe they have plenty of both to continue the job on their own. NPR's Mike Shuster reports.

The next 24 hours are critical for the 15-year-old, who fought for the education of girls.