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The New York Giants and the New England Patriots will meet in next month's Super Bowl. To get to the big game each team had to do something they weren't very good at in the regular season: play defense.

The once sleepy role of secretary of state is rising in profile and controversy as the business of conducting elections has become more and more contentious over the past decade. From Maine to New Mexico, secretaries of state are making activism their trademark.

There are reports Thursday that Texas Gov. Rick Perry will leave the GOP presidential race, and Iowa officials announced final results of the state's Republican presidential nominating caucuses held earlier this month.

Gerardo Naranjo's gripping film about the Mexican drug war is Mexico's submission this year for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Critic John Powers says it deftly illuminates a society plagued with fear.

Prosecutors accuse the former Democratic presidential candidate of accepting and failing to report nearly $1 million that two old friends and campaign donors funneled through intermediaries to support a lavish lifestyle for his mistress. But political and legal observers are shaking their heads at the case.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta travels to Brussels this week to meet with NATO ministers. The U.S. is desperate to get NATO countries to pony up more money for Afghanistan, to keep the security effort from collapsing once NATO pulls out and Afghan forces take over.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is expected to show her support for two big vaccination initiatives in Haiti, including one against cholera. Previously, U.S. health officials were cool to the cholera pilot project .

The Obama administration is making some federal funds contingent on schools using student test scores and classroom observations to evaluate teachers. New York City recently sparked a controversy when it rated thousands of teachers with test scores alone — and then released those ratings to the public.

Some economists say the government-run enterprises should be allowed to help distressed homeowners by lowering their loan principals to reflect today's lower values. But critics of the move say it would cost taxpayers money and encourage strategic defaults.

The World Bank is expected to announce its new president in the next several days. For the past six decades, the bank has been led by an American. President Obama has already nominated Dartmouth College President Jim Yong Kim for the job. But for the first time in its more than 60-year history, there is serious international competition for the job.