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Russia is preparing for the 2014 Winter Games — turning a sleepy valley in the Northern Caucasus Mountains into an Olympic village, with brand-new facilities for every Alpine sport. Officials say it will be a world-class destination for winter-sports enthusiasts long after the Games are over. Environmentalists say it's an ecological disaster in the making.

David Greene speaks with NPR's Don Gonyea, Scott Horsley and Brian Naylor about The Des Moines Register's Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa. The three reporters are riding in the event, also known as RAGBRAI, to explore the Iowa they didn't see on the presidential campaign trail.

"When we pull back the curtain now, the mess is disturbing," says House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., of the latest revelations. These documents call into question whether contractors can fix the website as promised by the end of November.

Agents at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have spent months testing new plastic weapons, and report that the guns can be lethal and hard to detect. The findings come just as a federal law that requires guns to be composed of at least some metal to help people in schools and airports detect them is set to expire.

China's ruling Communist Party has announced that disgraced senior politician Bo Xilai has been expelled from the party and faces criminal charges. His fall began when a local police chief told authorities about the murder of a British businessman.

The ongoing European debt crisis is expected to pose major challenges to the next U.S. administration.

It's a mobile gadget lover's dream week. Nokia, Microsoft and Google's Motorola introduce new smartphones. Amazon will show off a new Kindle. And all these companies are positioning themselves in advance of Apple's new iPhone 5, which comes out next week.

The Barcelona star has broken several records this year — and many say the 25-year-old still hasn't peaked.

President Obama started the first round of talks Friday about how to avoid fiscal calamity. He has been pushing to end Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy, a plan strongly opposed by some House Republicans. But in the end, a deal with the House may come down to Speaker John Boehner and the president.

For more than 150 years, a charity auction has kicked off the wine season in France's Burgundy grape-growing region. It's turned into an A-list rendezvous for international industry players — this year attracting former supermodel and first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and record prices.