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Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion charges. Wednesday, Abramoff will appear in a Miami court and is to enter a guilty plea there on separate charges of fraud and conspiracy.

College football's national championship will be decided Wednesday when Texas faces defending champion Southern California in the Rose Bowl. Six games on Monday offered a wild series of warmups, while in a final preliminary on Tuesday night, Penn State and Florida State meet in the Orange Bowl.

The president defends his domestic surveillance program as a vital and necessary tool to fight terrorism. But Sen. Dick Durbin Dick Durbin (D-IL) echoed many in Congress, when he praised hearings looking into the administration's controversial policy.

Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom halts natural gas sales to Ukraine, after Kiev refuses to agree to a four-fold price hike. The move has affected the flow of gas to other European countries and raised worries about Russia's use of energy as a political weapon.

Puzzle master Will Shortz quizzes one of our listeners, and has a challenge for everyone at home. (This week's winner is Kathy Emerson from Brunswick, Maine. She listens to Weekend Edition on member station WMEA in Portland.)

Mike Heidingsfield spent 13 months in Iraq as the top civilian commander in charge of training Iraqi police. He tells Linda Werteimer that Iraqi police are now a more visible presence, but that makes them targets for insurgents, too.

Folk-music legend Odetta was a force in the 1960s push for social justice. Her passion inspired fellow musicians and activists such as Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and Harry Belafonte. Odetta died Dec. 2, 2008, at the age of 77. Hear a 2005 interview.

There are 35 presidential candidates and 44 parties running in Haiti's first elections since former President Jean Bertrand Aristide's ouster last year.

Florence Nightingale once warned about a major cruelty inflicted on sick people: unnecessary noise. And despite advances in medicine, researchers say today's hospitals are still as noisy as bus stations. But at Johns Hopkins Hospital, engineers are trying to create some peace and quiet.

P.D. James is considered one of the greatest living writers of detective fiction. Steve Inskeep talks with the British mystery writer about her new book, and how the mystery novel has changed over the years.