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In Kuwait, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld takes questions from U.S. soldiers bound for Iraq. Spc. Thomas Wilson of the Tennessee Army National Guard asked the secretary why soldiers have to scrounge around in scrap piles to find material to armor their vehicles.

Congress nears an agreement on a bill to restructure the nation's intelligence-gathering operations. The House passed the measure by a wide margin Tuesday night. The Senate is expected to vote Wednesday. However, even some who backed the bill wonder how it will affect civil liberties. NPR's David Welna reports.

NASA is considering an unprecedented robotic mission to save the Hubble Space telescope. But a final report from the National Academy of Sciences says the robotic mission probably won't be ready on time to save the telescope. It strongly recommends sending astronauts instead. NPR's David Kestenbaum reports.

Bombings in Najaf and Karbala, Iraq, leave dozens dead and wounded, in the latest insurgent attacks. In Fallujah, U.S. Marines and Iraqi forces plan to allow some residents to return to their homes, even as they still encounter insurgents. Hear NPR's Mike Shuster.

President Bush names the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, John Negroponte, to be the first national intelligence director. The post involves oversight of 15 agencies including the CIA. In a White House ceremony, the president said the director will play a key role in waging the war on terror.

President Bush taps a career civil servant and biologist to become the next head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Stephen Johnson has worked at the EPA for 24 years, most recently as the agency's acting head. He will be the first career EPA official to head the agency.

The International Atomic Energy Agency meets in Vienna to examine Iran's recent pledge to freeze its nuclear enrichment program. Washington has repeatedly accused Tehran of plans to develop nuclear weapons. Greg Webb, editor for Global Security Newswire, discusses the IAEA meeting.

President Bush is aggressively touring the country to promote his call for private Social Security accounts. Yet polls show support for the president on this issue has declined in recent weeks. Even backing from some Republicans is in doubt on an issue the president acknowledges is politically risky.

With clean-up efforts underway, relief workers in southern India concentrate on removing corpses and finding potable water. Emergency workers are also trying to get drinking water to tens of thousands of survivors. Health workers worry contaminated drinking water may result in more deaths then the 7,000 the tsunami caused. Laura Womak reports.

According to a Government Accountability Office report, hundreds of injured Army reservists and National Guard members -- including many wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan -- have lost medical care and pay because they were dropped from active duty status.