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A Senate panel will unveil the details of a bipartisan plan that provides prescription drug coverage to Medicare recipients and calls for the creation of new private health plans. Supporters say the new plans will provide better and more cost-effective health care, but critics say Congress should find ways to add new benefits to the traditional Medicare program instead. Hear NPR's Julie Rovner.

Chinese epidemiologists believe SARS may have reached humans through food handlers who prepared wild game for restaurant use in southern China. An official ban has put a dent in wild animal trade, but has not completely wiped out black-market operations. NPR's Rob Gifford reports.

U.S. forces in Iraq conduct more than 20 raids and detain at least 60 men in an attempt to crush armed resistance and halt a recent spate of deadly attacks on American troops. Operation Sidewinder comes a day after two American soldiers were found dead in a region north of Baghdad. Hear NPR's Kate Seelye.

The U.S. military will soon use bases in Romania and Bulgaria to train and stage forces for quick reaction to potential trouble spots in the Mideast and elsewhere. It would be the first in a series of moves to establish more rapid-reaction forces on smaller bases around the world -- part of the biggest military realignment since the end of the Cold War. Hear NPR's Eric Westervelt.

The U.S. government offers a $25 million reward for either the capture of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein or information confirming his death. The offer comes on a day when 10 American soldiers are wounded in various attacks around Iraq that U.S. officials blame on Saddam loyalists. Hear NPR's Deborah Amos.

Screen legend Katharine Hepburn, who starred in more than 50 films and projected the ideals of independence and intelligence to generations of women, dies at 96. Hepburn won a record four best actress Oscars in her 60-year career, for her roles in Morning Glory, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, The Lion in Winter and On Golden Pond. Hear Pat Dowell.

Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top military commander in Iraq, says the U.S.-led authority is "way ahead of schedule." And U.S. civilian administrator Paul Bremer says U.S. forces are making progress against guerrilla-type resistance from remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime. But some Baghdadis express dissatisfaction with developments in Iraq. Hear NPR's Guy Raz.

The U.S. military launches Operation Desert Scorpion, sending soldiers to regions northwest of Baghdad to confiscate illegal weapons and to detain suspected Baath Party loyalists. In Fallujah, where coordinated attacks on American troops have increased in recent weeks, U.S. forces conducting house-to-house searches arrest at least eight suspected militants. Hear NPR's Nick Spicer.

Gunmen pretending to seek emergency medical care kill an American soldier in western Iraq. The death marks the 29th U.S. military fatality in Iraq since President Bush declared an end to hostilities on May 1. U.S. officials report an increase in coordinated attacks carried out by men they describe as trained military professionals. NPR's Ivan Watson reports.

The White House releases an intelligence assessment from October 2002. It concluded that left unchecked, Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq would have developed nuclear weapons by the end of the decade. But a footnote from the State Department raises doubts, calling reports suggesting Iraq had tried to purchase uranium from Africa "highly dubious." Hear NPR's Don Gonyea.