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At first, Michael Mukasey seemed to be a shoo-in for confirmation as the next attorney general. Then the nomination seemed to unravel. On Friday, it got back on track when two Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Charles Schumer and Dianne Feinstein, said they would vote for Mukasey.

Arrests and protests have followed last week's declaration of martial law in Pakistan. Journalist Ahmed Rashid, a regular guest on Fresh Air, tells Terry Gross that president Pervez Musharraf's latest gambit could encourage more civil strife — and greater territorial gains by the Taliban.

Supporters of Pakistan's ex-prime minister rallying near parliament Wednesday were met by police wielding batons and tear gas. Meanwhile, Benazir Bhutto says she wants the United States and other Western democracies to demand that her nation's military leader rescind martial law.

Susan Stamberg, one of NPR's "founding mothers," pays a visit to a painting of another famous mother at the Philadelphia Museum of Art: James Abbott McNeill Whistler's 1871 oil on canvas.

President Bush defends his administration's policies toward Iran even as a new intelligence report shows Iran halted its nuclear weapons program four years ago. Still, the president says, Iran remains a danger. He spoke at a White House news conference.

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.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has led his party to a landslide victory in parliamentary elections. But opposition groups say voter fraud was widespread. They accuse the authorities of rigging the vote to let Putin retain power after his presidential term ends.

News broke Thursday that in 2005, the CIA destroyed at least two videotapes made three years earlier that showed harsh interrogation techniques. Intelligence committee members from both parties say they weren't told about the tapes or about plans to destroy them.

The Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday to decide whether prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have the right to challenge their detention in court, using the constitutionally guaranteed procedure called a writ of habeas corpus.

The new National Intelligence Estimate is raising questions about what the White House knew — and when. The estimate judged that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003. President Bush has recently portrayed Iran as a nuclear threat and pressed for international sanctions.