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On Monday, eight months after Hurricane Katrina, the city of New Orleans may give some residents of devastated Ninth Ward the go-ahead to return to their homes. The long-awaited decision will depend on the results of water-purity tests. Also Monday, displaced residents can begin casting ballots at satellite polling stations around Louisiana in the run-off mayor election.

The federal government reports that far more underwater pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico were damaged by hurricanes last year than they realized. Weather and the pressure to find divers and oil-rig workers have overtaxed available resources.

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki presented a 24-point national reconciliation plan Sunday. It outlines terms under which some insurgents would be given amnesty. It also puts forward other initiatives, like a reconstruction campaign. But the specifics of the plan haven't been worked out.

The House of Representatives passes a measure to address lobbying scandals that have tarnished the reputation of Congress. Opponents criticize the bill as too weak. But the majority of Republicans say it is a first step toward meaningful reform.

Beverage makers and the William Clinton Foundation announce a plan to stop the sale of full-calorie sodas at public schools nationwide by 2010. Under the deal, only water, unsweetened juice and low-fat milk will be sold in lower grades and only diet sodas will be sold in high schools.

Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) announces that he will seek treatment at a rehabilitation center for addiction to prescription drugs. Kennedy, who ran his car into a barrier near the Capitol early Thursday morning, admits that he took the popular sleeping drug Ambien. No one was injured in the incident.

Despite the box office success of Pirates of the Caribbean, and last year's Chronicles of Narnia, Walt Disney Studios is cutting back on its production schedule, and staffing. The company is also planning to return much of its focus to family friendly films.

Iraq's Prime Minister has called for an independent Iraqi investigation into the alleged rape and murder of a teenage girl and the murder her family, reportedly at the hands of U.S. troops in the town of Mahmoudiya. The call for the investigation comes as it was revealed that the girl is a minor -- 14 or 15 years old.

In the past eight months, a video of a young guitarist playing a modern version of Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D Major has become a sensation on the Internet. The video has been viewed on YouTube.com more than 7.6 million times -- but nobody knew the identity of the guitarist. Recently, that changed.

Kenneth Lay, founder and vilified former chairman of scandal-ridden Enron Corp., died of a heart attack Wednesday morning. He was 64.