Former President French President Jacques Chirac was found guilty of misusing public funds while he was the mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995. Chirac will serve a two-year suspended sentence after a court found that he had architected a system in which political allies were handed municipals salaries for fake jobs. The scheme, said the court, cost Paris about $1.8 million.

A federal judge has unsealed a case against a money launderer accused of working with the Zetas drug cartel in Mexico and with Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group labeled a terror organization by the United States. Fronteras Changing America Desk correspondent Michel Marizco reports.

The federal government plans to announce strict air pollution standards this week. From the Fronteras Changing America Desk, Laurel Morales reports that some power plants in New Mexico and northern Arizona may shut down as a result. Power plants are anxiously awaiting additional standards that would reduce particulate emissions.

Border residents who travel to Mexico frequently try to avoid unnecessary run-ins with the law.   Take the case of Shohn Huckabee, a young American from New Mexico. He was arrested in Juarez two years ago and convicted for drug trafficking. As Monica Ortiz Uribe reports for the Fronteras Changing America Desk, Huckabee was later transferred to an American prison.  He was released early when authorities determined he had been tortured.

Joe Simon, who together with illustrator Jack Kirby created the iconic Captain America comic book hero in 1940, has died.

According to The Associated Press, "Simon's family relayed word of his death Thursday, posting a short statement on Facebook and telling The Associated Press through a spokesman that the 98-year-old Simon died Wednesday night in New York City after a brief illness."

The Republican House and Democratic Senate pushed their game of chicken closer to the precipice Thursday, with a government shutdown threat looming at midnight Friday. Both maneuvered to be able to blame the other — should things fall apart and the government actually runs out of money to operate. NPR's Andrea Seabrook joins Lynn Neary with the latest.

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MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

They're just everywhere. That's how a wildlife manager describes the mass casualties of Eared Grebes that crash landed in southern Utah on Monday night. Some 1,500 grebes died, another 3,000 have been rescued. The small water birds were migrating and apparently mistook a Walmart parking lot, highways and football fields covered with snow for bodies of water.

The Republican presidential candidates meet for their final debate of the pre-primary season Thursday. Lynn Neary turns to NPR's Mara Liasson for more.

The founder of a venerable literary institution in Paris has died at 98. George Whitman founded the Shakespeare & Co bookstore, across from the Notre Dame cathedral. The shop was a magnet for English speakers in the French capital.

Google's co-founder Sergey Brin unleashed perhaps the most stinging criticism of the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act that is working its way through Congress.

In a Google+ post, Brin said if the U.S. passed either SOPA, the House version of the bill, or the Protect IP Act, the Senate version, it would put the country in same league as China and Iran as far as Internet censorship is concerned. Brin said the bills were a "threat to free speech."

Brin writes: