Search results for

Condoleezza Rice begins her first foreign tour as secretary of state with visits to London and Berlin, where she said the U.S. had no plans to attack Iran "at this point." But there are still concerns in Europe about America's stance toward foreign policy.

Baghdad was the scene of two more car bombings Monday, as more than 20 Iraqis were killed and some 100 wounded. A third bomb that exploded in the northern city of Mosul killed four. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports.

Opening the 109th Congress, the House reelects Dennis Hastert as speaker, and majority Republicans opt not to push certain ethics rule changes that Democrats had claimed would weaken the ethics committee's work. NPR's Andrea Seabrook reports.

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.

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.

In San Diego, the Navy begins hearings on allegations that two lieutenants in the elite SEALs unit abused Iraqi prisoners. But questions about how to deal with the release of classified material are complicating the proceedings. Hear NPR's John McChesney.

SpaceShipOne becomes the first privately funded rocket plane to complete two trips to the edge of space within a two-week window. The feat makes the craft the apparent winner of a $10-million award known as the X-Prize, designed to encourage space tourism. Hear NPR's David Kestenbaum.

The Senate approves an $87.5 billion aid package for U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Senate Democrats criticize President Bush's Iraq policies, but say they would still vote in favor of the funding. NPR's David Welna reports.

For centuries, the Iraqi city of Najaf was the center of Shiite religious learning. But consistent persecution under Saddam Hussein helped shift the center of Shiite power to Iran. Some think Najaf's growing influence since the fall of Saddam's regime could pose a threat to Iran's more radical clergy. NPR's Kate Seelye reports.

In Baghdad, overburdened hospitals struggle with the absence of electricity and the lack of drugs and sterilization equipment. In the southern Iraqi city of Basra, British forces begin efforts to restore running water to the city's more than one million residents, and to re-establish law and order on the streets. Hear NPR's Anne Garrels and NPR's Mike Shuster.