Representatives from 191 countries are meeting in Durban, South Africa, this week for United Nations climate change talks. One of the biggest questions is what will become of the Kyoto Protocol — a climate treaty signed in 1997. Key provisions of that expire next year and its future hangs in the balance. Another major question is whether nations can agree to a timeline that would lead to a new treaty that would include the world's biggest greenhouse-gas emitters, including the United States and China. The U.S.

December marks the beginning of the end of the U.S. war in Iraq.

The withdrawal has already begun as hundreds of U.S. troops are leaving Iraq every day; military vehicles, personnel and weapons are being shipped out of the country, and by Dec. 31, all U.S. troops will be gone after a conflict that started nearly a decade ago.

NPR is taking a look back at the last eight years of the war: the turning points, the costs and expectations about what comes next.

The Beginning

In case you haven't heard yet:

Republican Herman Cain effectively ended his presidential campaign this afternoon, as the toll from allegations about sexual harassment and an affair (all of which he has denied) combined to effectively end his chances at getting the GOP nomination.

Here's how the story is playing:

-- "Campaign Over, Cain Vows To Go With 'Plan B'." (NPR.org)

Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud are known as the fathers of psychoanalysis, but they focused on different things. Freud on the sexual underpinnings of — well, almost everything — and Jung for his mystical bent and dream theories.

For years, the two were close friends and collaborators but they had a falling out that ultimately ended their relationship. And turns out, there was a woman involved. Her name was Sabina Spielren.

The stories of all three are woven together in a new film called <em>A Dangerous Method.</em>

He added 9-9-9 to the national lexicon and slipped lyrics from a Pokemon movie into his stump speeches. Now that Herman Cain has suspended his presidential campaign, we look back at just a few of its most memorable — and excruciating — moments:

1. His brain freeze on Libya. His editorial meeting with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Nov. 14 made for painful YouTube watching.

To this day, Jim Morrison is one of the most significant frontmen to grace the rock stage. His band, The Doors, was unpredictable, mysterious, thrilling — even frightening.

In his new book,The Doors: A Lifetime of Listening to Five Mean Years, music writer Greil Marcus explores how the rock group came to define an era yet remain relevant today.

When rock 'n' roll legend Chuck Berry navigated his music career, he didn't rely on agents or record labels; he drove himself to his own business meetings and concerts in his fleet of Cadillacs.

Now Berry has donated one of those cars, a candy-apple red 1973 Eldorado, to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, set to open its doors in 2015. NPR's Rachel Martin went with curator Kevin Strait to watch Smithsonian fleet manager Bill Griffiths restore the car in Suitland, Md.

It wasn't supposed to end this way for Herman Cain.

His improbable run for the GOP presidential nomination should have served to burnish his CEO credentials, sell his books and enhance the fee the Baptist lay minister charges for motivational speeches and appearances.

This fall, the simplicity of Cain's 9-9-9 tax-reform plan propelled him to the top of a volatile field. Soon other candidates were rushing to introduce their own versions of a flat tax.

Endless hours of waiting on platforms and riding in train compartments are a recipe for conversation. And with a parliamentary election in Russia on Sunday, Trans-Siberian travelers seem more than willing to talk politics.

"The country has been going its way — down, down," said Nina Kuzmina who, like other travelers, spoke through an interpreter. The 35-year-old was bundled up in the cold at Yaroslavsky train station in Moscow, ready to board a train back to the industrial city of Perm, in the Ural Mountains, where she is raising three children.

Businessman Herman Cain drops out of the race for Republican Presidential nomination. Cain has spent the past month defending himself against accusations of sexual harassment. This week, an Atlanta woman stepped forward to claim that she and Cain had an affair for 13 years. Saturday in Atlanta, Cain continued to deny all allegations against him but said he is suspending is campaign "because of the continued distraction — the continued hurt — caused on me and my family." Weekends on All Things Considered guest host Rachel Martin talks with NPR's Kathy Lohr in Atlanta.