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NPR's Tovia Smith reports from Boston on ethics complaints against the Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor. Jane Swift may have violated the state's conflict-of-interest law by asking her staff to babysit and move her family to a new house. But some say Swift is being made a scapegoat by conservative groups, who would have applauded a male official for the same things for which she is being criticized.

Film director ANG LEE. He grew up in Taiwan, but studied theater and film production in the United States. His second feature film, "The Wedding Banquet," was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, as was his next film, "Eat Drink Man Woman." LEE's films often portray family relationships with poignancy, respect, and a light comic touch. His latest film is "Sense and Sensibility," the film based on the novel by Jane Austen

At the San Francisco Zoo, six new penguins have had the rest of the group swimming in circles for the past month. The newcomers appear to have sparked a "migration" trend after the rest of the flock had enjoyed 19 years of sedentary life. The behavior is rare in captivity. NPR's John Ydstie speaks with zookeeper Jane Tollini.

Carolyn and Mary Jane DeZurik grew up on a Minnesota farm, but they rose to musical fame in the 1930s. Their special talents included yodeling and imitations of birds and barnyard animals. Their story is told again by writer John Biguenet in the music issue of Oxford American magazine.

Our summer reading series profiles Azar Nafisi, author of Lolita in Tehran. She is currently the director of the Dialogue Project at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. She has just finished Diane Ravitch's The Language Police, and lists Address Unknown by Kathrine Taylor as one of her favorite books. Nafisi also regularly revisits Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God.

Novelist Carol Shields won a Pulitzer Prize for her best-selling novel, The Stone Diaries. Her books are often about middle-class people leading quiet lives. Her other novels include Larrys Party, which won Britains Orange Prize, The Republic of Love and Swann: A Mystery. She also wrote a biography of Jane Austen as well as plays, poetry and story collections. In 1998 Shields was diagnosed with breast cancer. She is now in a late stage of the disease. Her new novel, Unless (Fourth Estate), was written after her diagnosis.

Film director Ang Lee. His new movie is Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, starring Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh. He also co-produced the film. Lee is best known for his English-language dramas such as Sense and Sensibility, the Jane Austen novel adaptation, as well as the Chinese-American themed Eat Drink Man Woman and The Wedding Banquet. In Crouching Tiger, Lee brings an art-house sensibility to the Hong Kong martial arts genre.

The attack threatens to increase the already high tension between the U.S. and Iraq over Iranian-backed militias in the country. Iraq's prime minister condemned the attack.

Two oil tankers were attacked Thursday in the Gulf of Oman, and the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet is helping out. Tensions in the region are high.

Egypt's authoritarian leader was among the first of several hardline figures to give President-elect Donald Trump a victory call. NPR takes a look at what this says about how these leaders see Trump.