NPR News

Update at 7:35 p.m. House Passes Measure

The U.S. House of Representatives voted Tuesday to approve $50.7 billion in aid for victims of Superstorm Sandy.

The vote was 241-80; the measure now goes to the Senate, which is expected to take it up next week.

Here's more from The Associated Press:

"Northeast lawmakers from both parties have been pressing for the aid for more than two months.

Researchers have found that graphic anti-smoking images may be more powerful than words alone in warning people from different income and racial groups about the dangers of smoking.

"The news that the [country's] Supreme Court had called for the arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf ran through Pakistan like an electric current Tuesday afternoon," The Christian Science Monitor writes from Islamabad.

At Sunday's Golden Globes, Ben Affleck looked genuinely surprised and delighted twice toward the end of the evening: first when he won Best Director for Argo, and then again when the film won for Best Motion Picture/Drama.

The film, which Affleck produced and in which he also stars, is the mostly true story of the CIA operative who helmed the rescue of six U.S. diplomats who managed to escape at the outset of the 1979 Iran crisis that held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days after militants took over the American Embassy in Tehran.

Saying that "hiring a veteran can be one of the best business decisions you make," Wal-Mart U.S. CEO Bill Simon confirmed this morning that the retail giant is launching a plan to hire more than 100,000 recently discharged veterans over the next five years.

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- Lance Armstrong Admits Doping, Oprah Winfrey Confirms.

-- White House Plan On Guns To Include 19 Executive Actions, Lawmakers Say.