Syria's brutal repression of an anti-government movement that began in March continues — even outside its borders. In neighboring Lebanon, the disappearance of an elderly government critic underscores the long reach of the Syrian regime.

Until recently, 89-year-old Shibli al-Aisamy spent most of his time in the United States. As a founder of the pan-Arab Ba'ath Party in the 1960s, Aisamy had once served as a vice president of Syria. He later broke with then-Syrian President Hafez Assad, the father of the current president, Bashar Assad.

After two years of record payouts, Wall Street bonuses will take a hit this year, a new report says. The report finds that on average Wall Street workers will get an end-of-year bonus check worth 20 to 30 percent less than last year.

NBC News reports:

The thought of eating roadkill is likely to roil your stomach if you're an urbanite picturing a flattened skunk covered in flies.

But what about a perfectly marinated venison tenderloin charring on the grill?

School buses have been disappearing in Indiana in large part because districts can no longer rely on a steady funding stream to pay for them.

As many as a dozen Indiana districts are threatening to cut back on busing.

In Franklin Township, near Indianapolis, the school district is already charging families monthly fees for their kids to ride the school bus. It can all be traced back to property taxes.

Forced To Cut Transportation

In a report (pdf) released today, the International Atomic Energy Agency says it has enough "credible" evidence that Iran has worked and may currently be working on producing nuclear weapons.

On today's All Things Considered, Robert Siegel poses an important question to Bob Costas, one of the authors of a new book about the greatest moments in football: With football so popular and beloved and money-making, why is baseball still considered our national pastime? What does football have to do to get a little love?

"Hey, leave baseball something," Costas says of the special, nostalgic language with which we often speak of it. "In every other measurable way, football has surpassed it."

Attorney General Eric Holder spent almost three hours on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, getting a grilling from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee about a flawed gun-trafficking operation that let hundreds of guns flow across the Southwest border.

But even after the Justice Department oversight hearing, Republican lawmakers say there are lots of questions that remain unanswered.

Transcript

GUY RAZ, HOST:

Budget cuts are showing up on the streets of another Midwestern city. In Rockford, Illinois, they're turning out the lights. The city is in the middle of removing 2,300 streetlights, all in an effort to save money. That's about 15 percent of all the lights in town.

Corina Curry has covered the story for the Rockford Register Star and joins us now. Welcome to the program, Corina.

CORINA CURRY: Thank you very much.

"I can categorically say I have never acted inappropriately with anyone, period," Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain just told ABC News' Jonathan Karl on a live ABC/Yahoo webcast.

Responding to the latest accusation by a woman — Sharon Bialek of Chicago — who says he sexually harassed her in the late 1990s, Cain said the charge is "baseless, bogus and false" and that Bialek is lying.

"An appeals court judge appointed by President Ronald Reagan just wrote an opinion affirming the constitutionality of the federal law overhauling health care," our colleague Scott Hensley writes over at the Shots blog.