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President Bush's public approval rating lags those of other recent second-term presidents, a new pre-inaugural poll shows. NPR's Robert Siegel talks to Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

With her deep and smoky alto, singer-songwriter Dayna Kurtz defies the boundaries of blues, jazz and folk. Her eclectic new album, Beautiful Yesterday, evokes feelings of nostalgia.

Taipei 101, the world's tallest building, will be officially inaugurated in Taipei, Taiwan, on Dec. 31. Designing the 1,666-foot skyscraper in the earthquake- and typhoon-prone region presented engineers with quite a challenge. Hear NPR's Melissa Block and structural engineering consultant Dennis Poon.

Students in the United States trail many of their peers in Europe and Asia in math and science scores, according to the newly released results of an international standardized test.

President Bush says Social Security is in "crisis," but polls show a majority of seniors think the system needs only minor fixes. Retirees in Arizona and Pennsylvania weigh in on the issue.

President Bush taps Alberto Gonzales to succeed John Ashcroft as attorney general, calling the man who currently serves as White House counsel "a calm and steady voice in times of crisis."

India must cut back its imports on Iranian oil by June 28 or face U.S sanctions. A new law targets Iran's central bank, which is used for oil transactions, and it penalizes foreign countries that ignore the sanctions.

The British music press is hailing a new band, the Arctic Monkeys, as being as big as the Beatles — or at least as big as Oasis. The first-week release of the band's debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, sold over 118,000 copies.

A "super-max" is the highest security prison in the penitentiary system. It's here the worst offenders -- or the most endangered ones -- serve their time in near isolation. There is only one federal super-max in the United States, located in Florence, Colo.

The National Security Archive is a repository for intelligence documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Its contents include papers related to the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Iran-Contra affair --and, more recently, to pre-9/11 warnings about Osama bin Laden. It is led by Tom Blanton.