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(SOUNDBITE OF CLOCK TICKING)

GUY RAZ, HOST:

Just two weeks until we announce the winner of Round Nine of our Three-Minute Fiction contest here on WEEKENDS on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, that's where we ask you to come up with an original piece of fiction that can be read in about three minutes. In this round, we received nearly 4,000 stories.

Now, graduate students from a dozen schools, including from the University of Houston and Indiana University, have read through all of them. And now, our judge this round, Brad Meltzer, is making his decision.

As with food, as with fashion, as with film, there does seem to be a distinct French style when it comes to composition. The much-heralded English pianist Stephen Hough has been studying what makes a piece of music uniquely French. It's resulted in his latest collection: the French Album.

With works by Debussy, Faure, Poulenc and a number of lesser-known composers, Hough says he considers this new album "a sort of musical dessert trolley."

At least 13 people are dead after a car bomb exploded in the Syrian capital of Damascus on Sunday. The attack comes as Syria's President Bashar al Assad gave no commitment for a ceasefire, blaming the violence in his country on outside interference.

Reporter Rasha Elass in Beirut shares details with our Newscast desk:

"The bomb exploded in front of a police station that overlooks a busy square in Bab Touma, which is a historic Christian quarter in Damascus. It is not yet clear who was responsible for the attack.

Sen. George McGovern, who lost the 1972 presidential bid to Richard Nixon yet inspired a new generation of voters, has died. He was 90.

A family spokesman told the AP that McGovern died at 5:15 a.m. Sunday at a hospice in Sioux Falls, S.D., surrounded by family and friends.

Most of us know someone who's had a hard time finding or keeping a job over the past few years. It's an experience that often leaves people feeling defeated and demoralized. In Weekend Edition Sunday's Working It series, hear audio portraits of people whose daily lives are filled with uncertainty.

The latest filing deadline for fundraising reports in the presidential campaigns was Saturday night, and the totals are staggering.

President Obama and the Democratic Party's grand total is just north of $900 million dollars for the current cycle, while Mitt Romney and the Republicans topped $800 million. Both sides are on track to raise and spend $1 billion by Election Day.