Search results for

As Congress prepares to write a budget to guide this year's tax and spending decisions, some Senate Republicans join Democrats in calling for a "pay as you go rule," which would mandate that any future tax cuts be offset by spending cuts. House Republicans vehemently oppose such measures. The dispute reveals a GOP divided over fiscal policy. Hear NPR's Steve Inskeep and Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University.

France, Russia, Germany and China call for major revisions to the draft resolution on the future of Iraq currently before the U.N. Security Council. The nations want the resolution to include a clear timetable for withdrawing international troops from Iraq and to give the Iraqi interim government total control over security. Hear NPR's Steve Inskeep and NPR's Vicky O'Hara.

A day-long hostage standoff in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, ends as government commandos storm a resort building, freeing dozens of hostages and leaving several dead, including an American. Gunmen had taken between 45 and 60 hostages during attacks in the heart of the kingdom's oil region Saturday. An al Qaeda-linked group has claimed responsibility. Hear NPR's Liane Hansen and Thomas Lippman of the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says his nation's intelligence services gave the Bush administration information after the September 11 terror attacks that suggested Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq was planning to strike against the United States. Nonetheless, Russia remained adamantly opposed to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. NPR's Lawrence Sheets reports from Moscow.

Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan's remains will be taken from the Capitol Rotunda -- where tens of thousands have come to pay last respects -- to the Washington National Cathedral for a national funeral service Friday morning. The list of dignitaries attending includes former presidents Bill Clinton, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. NPR's Pam Fessler reports.

About 5,000 members of a National Guard unit in North Carolina will be mobilized to Iraq -- the largest call-up of state guardsmen in decades. It's part of one of the largest troops movements in U.S. history. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers will move in and out of Iraq over the next few months. Jessica Jones of member station WUNC reports.

In an interview on NBC's Meet the Press Sunday, President Bush said the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was necessary because Saddam Hussein had the capacity to develop nuclear weapons. Bush added he was confident he would be re-elected, and rejected charges, recently revived by Democrats, that he had abandoned his position with the National Guard during the Vietnam War. NPR's Pam Fessler reports.

Al-Jazeera and other Arabic-language satellite networks broadcast photographs of American soldiers humiliating Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghuraib prison -- a prison made notorious for torture during Saddam Hussein's rule. Some Iraqis say the photographs prove the Americans are not much better than their former dictator. NPR's Philip Reeves reports.

Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who wrote the report on Iraqi prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, appears Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee. In his report, Taguba chides military intelligence officials for putting under their command poorly trained military police at Abu Ghraib and for involving them in efforts to make detainees more cooperative in interrogation sessions. NPR's David Welna reports.

Confusion continues to surround a U.S. attack in western Iraq that killed more than 40 people. The U.S. military says the target of the air and ground assault early Wednesday was a suspected safe house for foreign fighters infiltrating Iraq from nearby Syria. But Iraqis in the area say the victims were participating in a wedding celebration. Hear NPR's Eric Westervelt.