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North Korea says rocket launch was successful

North Korea defied international warnings with the launch, and the US said it had detected an object in orbit.

Free Syrian Army fighters were seen in Fafeen village, north of Aleppo province on Tuesday.

US recognizes Syria’s main rebel group

President Obama declared Syria’s main opposition group the sole ‘‘legitimate representative’’ of its country’s people.

Obama, Boehner trade offers to avert ‘fiscal cliff’

President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner spoke by phone and exchanged proposals as each side blamed the other for the deadlocked talks.

State hits utilities with major fines over 2011 storms

The state has levied $24.8 in fines on National Grid, NStar, and Western Massachusetts Electric Company for their response to two storms in 2011.

Heather Schmidt (center left), founder of City Chicks, and confectioner Caitlin Barry (center right) teaching a cooking class in Somerville.

Aram Boghosian for The Boston Globe

exclusive wednesday preview | food & dining

A 21st-century home ec class

City Chicks, founded last August by Heather Schmidt, offers a range of classes that help apply traditional skills to modern life.

exclusive wednesday preview | g cover

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2012/11/28/BostonGlobe.com/Lifestyle/Images/13desserts_14.jpg Christmas desserts in the Provencal tradition

The consul general of France in Boston brings Provencal flavors to a holiday spent in America.

Math even mathematicians don’t understand

An article on a Japanese mathematician who claimed to have solved one of the great problems in math brought word of a mathematician in Maine who may have done something similar.

Justice in the shadows | Part 3 — Secret courts

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2012/07/05/BostonGlobe.com/Metro/Images/wiggs_lumpkin_3met.jpg Courts inside prisons, far from public view

Thousands of immigrants find themselves at the mercy of a legal system that, for many, amounts to an assembly line toward deportation.

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//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2012/12/10/BostonGlobe.com/Arts/Images/p.jpg See a pre-screening of Promised Land

Win tickets for you and a guest to see the new Matt Damon movie before it opens to the public.

Globe exclusives

WesWelker cradles the ball as he hits the deck inside the 5-yard line after giving Houston defensive back Kareem Jackson (25) the slip. The play set up the Patriots’ first touchdown.

Dan Shaughnessy | Patriots 42, Texans 14

Patriots look like they’re heading to Super Bowl
“State and local policy matters . . . can have a powerful influence in advancing or slowing educational progress,” US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said.

Mass. pupils near top
“L’EMINENCE GRISE”

Frame By Frame

Artfully poking fun at the powerful
Marybeth Mills Muldowney (right) wants the mortgage deduction unaltered.

Mortgage deduction loss would hit hard

Meet the Fall All-Scholastics

Diversity Boston Roundtable

Boston diversity status check
Dean Zulich’s “Mask 1.”

Exhibit celebrates creativity and talent in Bosnia
Dwayne Moore entered Suffolk Superior Court in Boston.

Mattapan juror sent home
Among those who have significantly influenced the contemporary television landscape (from top): director Robert Altman, “Twilight Zone” creator Rod Serling, author Charles Dickens, mockumentary filmmaker Christopher Guest, “Candid Camera” creator Allen Funt, vaudevillians like Fannie Brice, author Edgar Allan Poe, screenwriter Nora Ephron, “Sherlock Holmes” creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and founding Surrealist, Andre Breton.

The towers of TV
Director Peter Jackson.

‘The Hobbit’ emerges
Marilyn Riseman has rubbed elbows with the connected since her youth.

Marilyn Riseman central to Boston’s chic society

Assembly Row developer buying Ikea property

Sports

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Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has now played more than a season’s worth of games on “Monday Night Football”.

Once again, Tom Brady looks like an MVP

Brady’s four-touchdown performance against the Texans has triggered many to say he’s poised to collect another MVP award.

Metro

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A tollbooth on Interstate 90 in Allston.

Mass. will eliminate toll plazas, collectors

The state plans to switch to a $100 million all-electronic system that would remove toll plazas.

Columnists

Opinion | Farah Stockman

Food aid fattens up lobbyists
Texans quarterback Matt Schaub tries to hide but he can’t escape the sack by Rob Ninkovich (50) in the first quarter.

Christopher L. Gasper

Dominant Patriots defense earned the spotlight

Boston Capital

Mass. biotechs glitter in new golden age

Joanna Weiss

For parents, where to draw the line on risk?
WesWelker cradles the ball as he hits the deck inside the 5-yard line after giving Houston defensive back Kareem Jackson (25) the slip. The play set up the Patriots’ first touchdown.

Dan Shaughnessy | Patriots 42, Texans 14

Patriots look like they’re heading to Super Bowl
Denise Jackson, a Salvation Army bell ringer, outside the Stop & Shop at Vinnin Square in Swampscott.

Opinion | Kevin Cullen

Stop and hear the bells

Juliette Kayyem

Qatar arms deals expose limits of US

Tech Lab Plus

Cheap Nikon Coolpix takes classy shots
Matt Schaub and the Texans enter Monday’s game with an 11-1 record.

Dan Shaughnessy

Texans have no chance

Adrian Walker

Worthy battle ends in victory

John E. Sununu

Best energy policy? None

James Carroll

Israel must not dismiss outrage over settlements

Nation & World

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As the Syrian conflict has spilled into Lebanon, soldiers patrolled in Tripoli after clashes there killed at least 17 people.

Syrian rebels capture part of massive army base

The rebels captured part of a military base near the northern city of Aleppo, strengthening their hold near the Turkish border.

Politics

President Obama brought his pressure-Congress campaign to the heart of industrial America.

In Michigan, President Obama affirms tax stand

Obama warned Monday that he ‘‘won’t compromise’’ on his demands that the wealthiest Americans pay higher tax rates.

Business

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Bank of America gets low customer ratings in survey

The bank’s customer satisfaction level fell to its lowest in more than a decade.

Arts

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Book Review

Some pieces the late John Updike wrote between 1990-2008 have been turned into his third book of art reviews.

‘Always Looking: Essays on Art’ by John Updike

The posthumous volume of art criticism vividly gambols through three centuries.

Lifestyle

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“The message transmitted through these [works] is that you are now a link in a chain that protects maternal and child health in Mexico,” says Neil Leifer, (above) with a bowl made by a Mexican artisan.

Nonprofit helps artisans in Mexico get the lead out

Neil Leifer founded a nonprofit that helps ceramic artisans from rural Mexico convert from lead-based to lead-free glazes.

Magazine

The cover for the December 9 2012 issue

The drug lab scandal: Who’s cleaning it up?
The cover for the December 2 2012 issue

5 inspired rooms
The cover for the November 25 2012 issue

Cambridge’s Bluefin Labs decodes social media chatter
The cover for the November 18 2012 issue

7 holiday styles that shine

Opinion

“The question is where we draw the line between wise precaution and paralyzing fear.”

Joanna Weiss 

Ideas

“Gift-giving has long been a topic of fascination for experts on human behavior...Their work has produced insights that cast an analytical--and helpful--light on the trials of our yearly quest to delight family and friends.”

Leon Neyfakh on the analyzed gift 

“There are a lot of people who have no idea about the possibility of the mortgage deduction going away. This is a serious issue and it’s real money out of their pockets.”

Marybeth Mills Muldowney,  a Norwell real estate agent