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The Brazilian state oil company has a new chief executive and her name is Maria das Gracas Foster. Petrobras is the world's fifth-largest oil producer, and Foster becomes the first woman to run a top-five oil company. This comes as the firm looks to double its production by 2020. The company's stocks surged on news of the appointment.

In Las Vegas, the housing market continued to struggle this year, but investors from Asia see opportunity there. They're taking advantage of housing prices that have plummeted in recent years, buying foreclosed homes for less than it would cost to build them.

Host Robert Siegel speaks with Cassee Cain and Ziyuan Liu, who recently won the team portion of the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology. The high-schoolers from Oak Ridge, Tenn., modified the Kinect device for Microsoft's Xbox 360 in order to analyze human gait. Cain and Liu hope to use the device to diagnose and treat medical problems that affect movement.

Arab League monitors visited the central city of Homs, an opposition stronghold, besieged and under bombardment by the Syrian army until the monitors showed up. Syrian army armor was withdrawn from the city streets ahead of the visit, but activists say they expect a resumption of the army offensive as soon as the monitors leave. They also complain that they have not been allowed to meet with the Arab League team.

David Carr, who writes the Media Equation column for The New York Times, says that despite cuts, the future of journalism has never looked brighter. "I look at my backpack that is sitting here and it contains more journalistic firepower than the entire newsroom that I walked into 30-40 years ago," he says.

Of course, the economy is the main issue for voters in Iowa's Jan. 3 caucuses. But as the state's Hispanic population surges, Republican candidates are struggling with how best to deal with voter concerns around illegal immigration.

With more social conservatives in the race this time around, the Romney camp hopes the evangelical vote will splinter, propelling him to a top-two finish in Iowa.

Also: Argentina's president has thyroid cancer; Mubarak's trial resumes in Cairo; hot embers sparked fire that killed five in Connecticut.

The L.A. roots rock band is touring North America with Alison Krauss. Hear an interview and studio session with Dawes on this edition of World Cafe.

The Iowa caucuses will be critical for Rep. Michelle Bachmann and former Sen. Rick Santorum, or a chance for Rep. Ron Paul to steal the national spotlight from Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.