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Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress on Tuesday that stabilizing the financial markets is a top priority for the Federal Reserve as a weak housing market, tight credit and rising oil prices threaten the U.S. economy.

Also: Statue of Liberty reopens; Bolivia's president blasts "North American empire;" South Korea proposes talks with the North; Mandela's grandson ends battle over kin's graves; Boston Celtics hire Butler's Brad Stevens to be coach.

Also: Man arrested with firebombs in Seattle had maps of area colleges; at George Zimmerman's trial, mothers disagree about whose voice is on key recording; NBA's Dwight Howard opts to sign with the Houson Rockets.

Also: IRS's actions add to conservatives' case against Obama; Pakistanis go to polls after campaign marred by violence; astronauts prepared for spacewalk to station's leaks; survivor of Bangladesh building collapse said to be "doing great."

World Cafe features daily interviews and live in-studio performances from seasoned music veterans and new sensations, in genres ranging from rock to blues to folk to alternative country and beyond. From NPR station WXPN, host David Dye chooses his favorite albums of 2006.

President Bush and the U.S. Senate turn their attention to immigration as the president helps to swear in new citizens while a Senate committee writes a bill to control the flow of undocumented workers. The full Senate is expected to debate the issue for the next two weeks.

Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are ramping up their campaigns across Texas and Ohio ahead of the states' March 4 Democratic primaries. But voters are focused on very different issues in the two states.

The city of Chicago has one more thing to boast about: Its hometown orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, has been named America's top orchestra in a new critics' poll published in the venerable British magazine Gramophone.

Also: "Silver Fire" spreads in Southern California; Powerball jackpot winners include 16 county workers in New Jersey; and actress Karen Black dies.

For lovers of jazz music, the year 2005 brought a wealth of reissues by critical artists from Jelly Roll Morton to John Coltrane. The music, the result of exhaustive archival and restoration work, adds new details to one of America's richest musical traditions.