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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.

The revelations about U.S. intercepts of terrorist communications might have been intended to reassure the public about the government's vigilance. But they also might have been about providing political cover.

Bananas are the most popular fruit in America, and demand is growing worldwide, too. But growing bananas requires a lot of pesticides. And a new study shows that some of those chemicals are ending up in caimans living downstream from banana plantations in Costa Rica, where many of the bananas that Americans eat are grown.

Want to top your pancakes with something other than maple? The alternatives vary, depending on the types of trees in a region. There's Kahiltna birch syrup made in Alaska, blue spruce pine syrup from Utah and Georgian black walnut syrup.

As the leader of Senate Democrats, Harry Reid has been in a lot of fights — but this one may be different, in that Reid has drawn a line. After a meeting with other congressional leaders and President Obama on Wednesday, Reid said: "The one thing we made very clear ... we are locked in tight on Obamacare."

The Federal Reserve has released transcripts from more than a dozen meetings that took place in 2008, as Fed officials and other regulators struggled to get on top of an unfolding crisis.

The Food and Drug Administration and the White House are expected to unveil a new food label this week. Changed just once since their adoption, these labels need to be less confusing, advocates say.

"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.

Some analysts say that Nintendo's days are numbered because sales of its new console, Wii U, have been lackluster. But since Nintendo still offers some of the most popular game franchises, the love of Zelda and Mario may keep the company going for a long time.

Anti-government activists in Ukraine plan another big demonstration in the capital of Kiev on Sunday — the first major protest since the government introduced new restrictive laws aimed at curbing the protests. NPR's Corey Flintoff talks to NPR's Rachel Martin from the streets of Kiev, where violence has mounted in recent days.