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The dating site Cupid.com has released a survey rating regional accents. The most attractive accent in North America is the Southern drawl. The New York accent came in second. Rounding out the top 5: the New Jersey, Boston and Western accents.

Gen. Joseph Dunford will be nominated to succeed Gen. John Allen as the top commander in Afghanistan, according to a defense official familiar with the decision. Allen is to become head of the U.S. European Command.

The White House is close to nominating someone to replace Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense. Several other top candidates withdrew their names from consideration in the past week.

Hoping to attract new investors, Kevin Dumont climbed a waterslide and chained himself to the top on Nov 9. By Nov. 25, he didn't have new investors but he did attract pneumonia.

Will Ferrell's Anchorman character is out with an autobiography which wound up in the non-fiction aisle at a Los Angeles area store.The Los Angeles Times first noticed the misplacement Ron Burgundy: Let Me Off At The Top.

Top U.S. intelligence officials confirm that North Korea has an untested ballistic missile believed capable of reaching the western United States. At a Senate subcommittee hearing, CIA Director George Tenet and Vice Adm. Lowell Jacoby, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, also say it's likely North Korea has at least one nuclear weapon. NPR's David Welna reports.

In the 1980's, Ricky Skaggs was one of the top acts in country music with a dozen number one hit singles. But in 1996, he gave up his solo country career to return to his first love, bluegrass. Ricky Skaggs has a new CD called Big Mon a tribute to the father of bluegrass, Bill Monroe. The CD features Bill Monroe's songs performed by artists like John Fogerty, Bruce Hornsby and Joan Osborne. Ricky Skaggs work with the Dixie Chicks on his new CD was recently nominated for a Grammy award.

Host Bob Edwards talks to Richard Allen, National Security Adviser under President Ronald Reagan, about the tape recordings he made in the White House Situation Room the day President Ronald Reagan was shot. Most every top administration official was in the room that day, and the tapes provide a rare glimpse of their private conversations about who was in charge, whether the assassination attempt was part of a conspiracy, and what to do about Soviet subs closer than usual to U.S. shores. Next week marks the 20th anniversary of the attempt on Reagan's life. This interview is the first of two parts.

In the final part of her month long series on money, NPR's Susan Stamberg reports on the question of money in marriage and divorce. She focuses on a highly publicized divorce case involving a stay-at-home mother, whose husband was a top level corporate executive. The net worth of Gary and Lorna Wendt was $100 million in 1995, when he filed for divorce. She contested a settlement of 10 million dollars and was then awarded $20 million, plus $250,000 per year in alimony for life. (7:36) (Lorna Wendt is founder of www.equalityinmarriage.or

Vice Premier Qian Qichen is in Washington. He is the highest ranking Chinese official to visit since the Bush administration took office. Qian will meet with the president tomorrow at the White House. China's top concern right now is a decision Mr. Bush must soon make on U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. Taiwan wants to buy advanced anti-missile technology (Aegis destroyers) but China is adamantly opposed to such a sale. If the sale goes through, some analysts say China will drop the more moderate stance it has recently adopted toward Taiwan. Other analysts say China's views should not be a factor in any U.S. decision to sell weapons to Taiwan.