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The White House is close to nominating someone to replace Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense. Several other top candidates withdrew their names from consideration in the past week.

Stocks in Japan and Australia hit highs not seen in more than four years after Tuesday's big rally on Wall Street. The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average hit an all-time high — topping a record set in the fall of 2007, just before the financial crisis hit.

A top Palestinian official says he's hopeful that a "small window" of opportunity exists for peace with Israel in the wake of this month's cease-fire agreement. But Nabil Shaath, foreign minister for the Palestinian Authority, says Israel is moving too slowly on several issues.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair visits Iraq's new prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, in Baghdad. British officials say the leaders spoke about the eventual departure of foreign forces from Iraq. Maliki has said his top priority is halting insurgent attacks and stemming sectarian violence that has wracked the country.

This Sunday, two of the world's top solo explorers will attempt to do what no one has ever done: travel 620 miles on an unsupported mission to the North Pole in the total darkness of Arctic winter.

Secretary of State of Condoleezza Rice is making her first trip to Iraq as the nation's top diplomat. NPR's Peter Kenyon is in Baghdad, and he talks to host Liane Hansen about Rice's visit and the United States' efforts to combat insurgents along the Syrian border.

Syrian President Bashar Assad's Instagram account includes images of his smiling first lady. It makes no mention of the country's civil war. Instead, it show his wife helping out in a soup kitchen, and congratulating top achieving students.

The dating site Cupid.com has released a survey rating regional accents. The most attractive accent in North America is the Southern drawl. The New York accent came in second. Rounding out the top 5: the New Jersey, Boston and Western accents.

A monkey took a fall right on top of a transformer at a power station. This tripped the transformer and caused a blackout. The monkey is fine, being cared for by the Kenya Wildlife Service.

Oklahoma tops the list of the states most vulnerable to human-caused quakes. Some areas are now as earthquake-prone as California.