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Pharmaceutical giant Merck will pay $4.85 billion to end thousands of lawsuits over its painkiller Vioxx. The amount, to be paid into a settlement fund, is believed to be the largest drug settlement ever. Claims must meet certain criteria to qualify for payment as the settlement is not a class action.

Author Robert Kuttner writes in The Squandering of America that many of the economic policies and regulations established during the New Deal have since been replaced by a more business-friendly free market system. Kuttner is the founder and co-editor of The American Prospect.

The National Endowment for the Arts has released a study on reading trends in the U.S. The study shows "startling declines" in "how much and how well" Americans are reading.

Next week, the African National Congress will choose its next leader. An intense rift between the candidates — South African President Thabo Mbeki and his one-time deputy Jacob Zuma — is causing many to question the party's future.

What new information could lead 16 intelligence agencies to change their conclusions on Iran? New York Times reporter Mark Mazzetti talks with Melissa Block about how the NIE came together — and what the new estimate says about changes in the intelligence community.

Officials in New York are on track to spend $1 billion taxpayer dollars refurbishing 40-year-old Winter Olympic sports and tourism sites near Lake Placid. Critics doubt it will pay off.

Caroline Kennedy's new Christmas anthology opens with her 1962 letter to Santa. In it, she wished for skates, dolls and a "pet reindeer" for herself and "some noisy thing" for her brother John. But a family tradition shunned toys for oranges and walnuts.

The latest intelligence report on Iran seems to be an obstacle to policies of President Bush. The report's main conclusion that Iran ceased a nuclear weapons program in 2003 may raise barriers to the possibility of using military force against Iran and questions economic sanctions.

A tape of a September shootout in Baghdad involving Blackwater USA leaves Iraqis unable to distinguish between U.S. military personnel and private security contractors. The Blackwater shootout left 17 Iraqis dead.

Nearly 20,000 people convicted of drug offenses could find out Tuesday if they'll be spending less time in prison. The U.S. Sentencing Commission may reduce the extra punishment that's given for crimes involving crack, as compared to powdered, cocaine. The Supreme Court ruled that federal judges may give lighter sentences to crack cocaine defendants than has been required.