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In Cornwall, England, an 83-year-old woman went missing. The search for her came up empty until a passerby heard the woman's cat meowing. The cat was on top of a ravine where the woman had fallen.

Thirty years ago, Pink Floyd's recording The Dark Side of the Moon became the number one album on Billboard magazine's pop music chart. So began the longest streak in music chart history: 741 weeks on the Top 200. No other recording comes close. The album has touched one generation after the next, which is odd because it's such a quirky album of electronic music, sound effects, saxophones, and a famous but unidentified female singer performing scat. Reporter Jad Abumrad of member station WNYC went around New York City to ask likely listeners why Dark Side has lasted.

Mexico's top two presidential candidates are each claiming victory in the country's highly polarized election -- and their parties have accused one another of election fraud. An official tally of the contest, in which 30 million Mexicans voted, isn't expected for days. Though sharply divided by ideology, leftist Andres Manual Lopez Obrador and conservative Felipe Calderon are separated by less than one-tenth of one percent.

Forty years ago, Allan Sherman topped the pop charts by replacing the lyrics of folk songs with satires of Jewish American life. And in doing that, he offered a perfect snapshot of what it meant to assimilate.

The Bangles were a rock phenomenon in the early 1980s, beginning with the chart-topping hit "Walk Like An Egyptian." After a 15-year hiatus, they're back as rock 'n' roll moms. NPR's Neda Ulaby reports.

Steve Martin is at the top of his game. He has just been awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, at the same time that his newest movie, Shopgirl, is winning strong reviews around the country.

His songs include "By The Time I Get to Phoenix," "Up Up and Away," "Wichita Lineman," "Macarthur Park," "Galveston," "Didn't We," "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" and "All I Know." His songs have been recorded by Glenn Campbell, Johnny Cash, Joe Cocker, Linda Ronstadt, Art Garfunkle and the Fifth Dimension. At one point in the 1960s, he had five Top 10 hits within a 20-month period. Webb has a lifetime achievement award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and he's been inducted into the Nashville Hall of Fame. There's a new album, One Life, by singer Michael Feinstein, that pays tribute to him.

Richard Clarke, who served as the top White House counter-terrorism official under three presidents, says George W. Bush's administration did not consider terrorist threats to be urgent in its first seven months, despite Clarke's urgings. Speaking on Capitol Hill to a national commission investigating U.S. policies before Sept. 11, 2001, Clark said terrorism was given extraordinarily high priority in the Clinton administration. Also Wednesday, CIA Director George Tenet told the panel that terrorist intelligence was not properly integrated among different agencies. NPR's Pam Fessler reports.

Judi Dench has won major acting awards on both sides of the Atlantic, including the Oscar, the Tony and six Oliviers (England's top theatrical honor). The British actress is famous for Shakespearean roles, but she's also played spy chief M in James Bond films and currently appears in the Vin Diesel science fiction action flick The Chronicles of Riddick. NPR's Susan Stamberg interviews Dench about the art of acting.

Hezbollah's chief Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday threatened Israel with open war after accusing Israelis of killing one of its top commanders. "Zionists, if you want this type of open war then let the whole world hear: let it be an open war," Nasrallah told mourners at the funeral of Imad Mughniyeh.