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  • Same-sex marriage is legal in Minnesota, but not in Illinois. That has Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak on a mission to attract gays and lesbians to spend their wedding dollars in his city.
  • The International Olympic Committee chose Tokyo over Istanbul and Madrid to host the Summer Olympics and Paralympic Summer Games in 2020. This will be a repeat for Tokyo, which hosted the Summer Olympics in 1964.
  • It might seem that members of minority groups never call out other members of the groups they belong to. But that's because we don't often hear each other's conversations.
  • Not all the victims of the chemical attack in Syria on Aug. 21 were Syrian. The al-Hurani family in the West Bank city of Jenin counts 11 members of its extended clan among the dead.
  • For Prince Andrew, a stroll in the garden of Buckingham Palace turned into a confrontation with police, after officers ordered the prince to show ID. "We are grateful to the duke for his understanding," police say in apology.
  • Sheri Fink's Five Days At Memorial, describes the horrific conditions at a New Orleans hospital shortly after Hurricane Katrina. Facing floodwaters and corporate mismanagement, some staffers euthanized sick patients. Fink's judgment of those actions is admirably — and frustratingly — nuanced.
  • Baghdad has an incredible tradition of libraries and learning, but the war in Iraq left many of its libraries burned and looted. Now, there will be a new library in the Iraqi capital. Weekends on All Things Considered host Jacki Lyden Jacki Lyden talks with architect Amir Mousawi, whose firm drew up dramatic design plans for the new Baghdad Library.
  • China runs the largest censorship machine in human history, researchers say. But Harvard studies of Internet postings in China suggest that even vitriolic criticisms of leaders and state policies are not what officials want to censor.
  • As the deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops from Afghanistan approaches, Afghans have taken over the lead combat role in places like restive Helmand province. But U.S. forces are still engaged in major training efforts to make sure the Afghan-led security is sustainable.
  • Trillions of microbes live on and in the human body, tucked into very different ecosystems. Some like the dark, warm confines of the mouth. Others prefer the desert-dry skin of the forearm. The biggest and most active collection of microbes hangs out in the gut.
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