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President Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta both talked this week about bringing the Afghan War to a close. But the U.S. will maintain at least several thousand troops in the country once combat comes to an end at the end of 2014. The U.S. will spend billions of dollars financing the Afghan security forces.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez won't be back for Thursday's inauguration. He's too sick after undergoing surgery for cancer in Cuba. If, in the end, he doesn't return, Chavez has said his successor should be Nicolas Maduro, who went from bus driver to union leader to vice president.

President Obama will nominate his Chief of Staff Jack Lew to be the next Treasury Secretary. Lew is a budget expert who could hit the ground running as the treasury tries to cope with a looming debt ceiling, automatic spending cuts and the ongoing push for long-term deficit reduction.

A dispute over an editorial in a Chinese newspaper has widened into calls for more freedom of expression. Hundreds of people protested Monday calling for an open news media.

Chuck Hagel would be the first Defense secretary to have worn the uniform of an enlisted man, and also the first to have fought in Vietnam. Hagel won two purple hearts, and still carries some of the scars and shrapnel from that war. Obama says that makes him the kind of Pentagon leader that U.S. troops deserve.

Harold Robbins' 1966 novel The Adventurers featured the lethal and stunning man of mystery, Dax. Author Manil Suri writes that Robbins' novel was his first glimpse into an adult world. What was your first "adult" novel? Tell us in the comments.

Writer, director and producer Amy Sherman-Palladino creates television shows, like Gilmore Girls, that draw a loyal female following. That's because her ensemble of female characters are smart, witty, offbeat and sympathetic. Her latest show is Bunheads. For our occasional series "Watch This," Steve Inskeep talks to Sherman-Palladino about what she's watching on TV and video.

Hedge fund and private equity managers came out of the "fiscal cliff" agreement with a better tax setup than many affluent taxpayers. It largely keeps in place a practice that allows them to have their earnings taxed at a capital gains rate rather than at a higher rate for ordinary income.

French President Francois Hollande has vowed to improve his country's competitiveness. But to better compete, France has to overhaul its labor market, and some hard-earned workers' rights and privileges could be lost.

For more about the week ahead in politics, Renee Montagne talks to regular Morning Edition contributor Cokie Roberts.