Formed by four Peruvian high-school friends in 2001, Novalima has been making traditional music sound sultry and modern ever since. In the past decade, the group has grown to a nine-piece band that's helping change the way the world thinks about world music.

President Obama's plan to overhaul the nation's corporate tax system would sharply cut the taxes that U.S. companies pay. But it would also eliminate many of the loopholes that help them pare down what they owe.

White House spokesman Jay Carney says the proposal unveiled Wednesday should appeal to both Democrats and Republicans, by doing what both sides "say is important to do ... which is lower the rate, broaden the base [and] eliminate the underbrush of unnecessary subsidies and loopholes and special provisions that complicate the tax code."

Friday, February 24th, it's American Heart Month, and Pam Bunch will speak with Melinda Postal of the Carolinas Center for Medical Excellence about the Million Hearts Campaign.

It has been a bit of a sour week for drinkers of raw milk.

Yesterday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said a federal court had granted it a permanent injunction to keep a Pennsylvania raw milk maker from distributing across state lines to raw milk buying clubs. The decision was the latest in an escalating battle between the federal government and producers and consumers of raw milk.

Jeremy Lin has yet one more thing to celebrate today: After his meteoric rise from benchwarmer to superstar, the 23-year-old now has a Manhattan condo to call his own.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Lin signed a contract to rent a condo on the 38th floor of the W New York Downtown Hotel.

The Journal adds:

We arrived nearly an hour late, our taxi drivers lost in the potholed, half-flooded streets of Tripoli. Our Libyan host, who would never have fathomed an on-time start anyway, invited us upstairs, where he had managed to arrange an impressive array of hors d'oeuvres and beverages on such short notice.

People arrived in groups of three or four at a time. Everyone knew almost everyone else. They hugged each other as if it could be their last time, struggled to hold back the tears, occasionally finding a way to evince a smile from each other.

A United Nations panel says it has evidence that top Syrian officials "bear responsibility for crimes against humanity and other gross human rights violations" during the nearly year-long crackdown on dissent that has left thousands of civilians dead.

Americans have learned to carefully craft their Facebook postings, and edit and spell-check e-mails. But apparently we don't give text messages much thought, and they're providing abundant and effective fodder for divorce attorneys.

It's been a weird winter. It's warm when it should be cold. There's mud where there should be snow. Flowers are blooming way ahead of schedule. Wildlife seems confused.

Well, here's one more weirdness: The flu season seems to be largely M.I.A.

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- Dozens Killed, Hundreds Wounded In Iraq; Attacks Blamed On Al-Qaida.

-- Report: Two U.S. Troops Killed In Afghanistan; Quran Burnings Backlash?