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With the election over, attention in Washington has turned to the nation's debt and deficit challenges — most immediately $600 billion worth of expiring tax breaks and automatic spending cuts. Both the president and congressional leaders are signaling a willingness to work together to avoid a fiscal disaster.

In historic moves, Colorado and Washington state voted to legalize recreational use of marijuana on Tuesday. Its sale will be regulated and taxed, with some of the money going for drug education.

Spain's slumping economy has sent thousands of people, many of them immigrants, scrounging in trash bins. Some scour the garbage for food, but many others are involved in a black-market trade for recycled materials.

Members of Congress say they'll investigate why the FBI and Justice Department didn't tell them earlier about an investigation involving former CIA Director David Petraeus. But the legal authority for reporting such sensitive information to lawmakers is murky.

In Mexico City's most prominent tree-lined park, you can find statues to such international heroes as Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King and now Heydar Aliyev. He's the Soviet-era autocrat of Azerbaijan. Its government paid for the park's latest statue and restoration of a nearby plaza. The gilded gift has upset many in the capital and is causing headaches for Mexico City's outgoing mayor.

Refugees are crowding the borders at the end of the bloodiest month since the anti-government uprising began. Many are abandoning their homes in rebel-held towns. Although the rebel brigades have grown bolder, they are mainly powerless against bombardment from Syria's air force.

The stock market hasn't been kind to 401(k) plans in recent years. At an annual economics retreat in Maine, some experts offer up a word of caution: Watch out for fees.

Some farmers growing shrimp in Midwestern ponds say they do it for love, not money. Despite recent advances in feed and efforts by several states to make shrimp-farming here a viable business, it's still fraught with too much economic risk to attract many growers.

Gov. Mitt Romney started his campaign calling for big tax breaks for the middle class. Over time his goals for those breaks have expanded to maintaining the government's flow of income and creating jobs. In the end, will a middle-class tax cut still be possible?

In Pakistan, anti-war marchers led by Pakistani cricket star-turned politician Imran Khan, are hoping to enter the tribal territory of South Waziristan Sunday to protest against U.S. drone attacks on Islamist militants there. NPR's Philip Reeves reports.