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The latest issue of Blender magazine includes a piece titled "White House DJ," which features lists of the top 10 favorite songs of presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama. Jonathan Schwartz talks about the candidates' selections, as well as their only commonality: Frank Sinatra.

NPR's Jim Zarroli reports Wall Street's top brokerage firms agreed to pay nearly $1.5 billion in fines to settle conflict-of-interest charges. Regulators accused the firms of continuing to recommend stocks they privately had turned against. Besides fines, the firms agree to spend several hundred million dollars in coming years buying research from independent firms that don't mix stock research with investment banking.

President Elect George W. Bush named two of his top campaign aides to new jobs today, completing the transfer of his "Texas Iron Triangle" from Austin to Washington. Senior strategist Karl Rove will become senior adviser to Bush in the White House, where he will handle public liaison and strategy as well as politics. Joe Allbaugh, who has been Bush's campaign manager, will become the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Don Gonyea reports from Austin.

NPR's Michelle Kelemen reports on new developments in U.S.-Yugoslavia relations. A top Yugoslav official, meeting with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright yesterday, said his country is interested in stronger economic ties with the U.S., and might be willing to allow an international war crimes tribunal to try former President Slobodan Milosevic. The U.S. has set aside 100 million dollars to help Yugoslavia...on the condition that war criminals be tried.

The top prizes in science this year recognize inventions that have changed our lives and that could shape the future. The physics award will be shared by people who developed the computer chip and figured out surprising new ways to get semiconductors to do other tricks, such as emitting light. The prize in chemistry goes to researchers who developed plastics that can conduct electricity. NPR's Richard Harris reports. (4:00) Note: The words god damn appear near the end of the third actuality of this piece.

National Hockey League management locks out players over a dispute on salaries. The confrontation may not end until players accept that hockey, as a professional sport, is not a top-tier sport like football and basketball. The league, after years of trying to promote itself as another "big time" sport, wants to reduce its ambitions and its economics. Hear Michele Norris and Wall Street Journal sportswriter Stefan Fatsis.

The $200 plate of french fries are made with champagne and truffles and topped with gold dust.

NPR's Robert Siegel talks with Charles Duelfer, who served as deputy executive chairman of the U.N. Special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM) from 1993 to 2000, about the additional $600 million the Bush administration is seeking for the continuing search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The money is part of the $87 billion request that Bush has already put before Congress, and comes on top of the $300 million already spent in the weapons search.

Secretary of State Colin Powell will meet with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to discuss improving security within Iraq. The meeting comes two days after an explosion at the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad killed more than 20 people, including the top U.N. envoy in Iraq. Hear retired Gen. William Nash and Nancy Soderberg, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N.

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.