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Robert Siegel talks with French-born pianist Helene Grimaud about themes of death and transcendence in the work of Frederic Chopin and Sergei Rachmaninov. Grimaud explores their work in a new recording.

Partisan tensions in the House of Representatives appear to have reached a new high. Lawmakers spent hours Tuesday night debating the fallout from a parental-consent bill passed last week. Democrats accused the Republican majority of deliberately misrepresenting amendments offered at a committee voting session on the measure.

The House and Senate have been unable to reconcile differences over a supplemental spending bill, largely because of disagreements over a House-sponsored amendment aimed at curbing illegal immigration. The debate within the Republican Party is a prelude to a broader discussion still to come.

The home of Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner was rededicated this weekend in Oxford, Miss. Rowan Oak, which underwent a $1.3 million restoration, draws more than 20,000 literary pilgrims each year.

Campaigning for Thursday's national election in Britain has proven particularly contentious in areas such as East London's Bethnal Green and Bow constituency, where the Iraq war is a key issue.

British voters go to the polls Thursday in an election that Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party is expected to win. Voters appear ready to back a third Blair term despite anger at his government's support for the Iraq war.

The sentencing phase of Army Pfc. Lynndie England's court martial begins. She testified Monday that she was not coerced into abusing detainees at Abu Ghraib, and she pleaded guilty to most of the charges against her.

In Southern Sudan, the Sudanese People's Liberation Army is no longer a rebel group. Under a peace deal signed earlier this year to end Sudan's 22-year civil war, the former rebels will run the south of the country as a semi-autonomous province -- and must make the transition from guerrilla movement to government.

Thomas Jefferson High School in south Los Angeles recently has been the scene of three huge brawls, involving hundreds of black and Latino students and police in riot gear. Racial tensions plague the massive urban high school, which is also faces overcrowding and lack of resources.

The first dominant big man of professional basketball has died. Basketball Hall of Famer George Mikan, who led the Minneapolis Lakers to five championships, was 80. Melissa Block talks to Tom Heinsohn, currently a commentator for Boston Celtics broadcasts and a former NBA All-Star player and coach.