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The Bush administration condemns the assassination of a top commander of the Kurdish resistance in northern Iraq. A State Department spokesman says the United States had been working closely with Gen. Shawkat Haji Mushir. Mushir's death is blamed on a Kurdish Islamist movement with al Qaeda ties. NPR's Ivan Watson report.

NPR's Anne Garrels reports from Belgrade that the French foreign minister visited the Yugoslav capital today. He told president Vojislav Kostunica that assistance to Yugoslavia's new leadership is Europe's top priority. The West has been waiting to see some positive signs from Kostunica on Kosovo. The new president today raised the issue of a possible exchange of ethnic Albanian and Serb prisoners. Ironically, Kostunica's easiest task now seems to be dealing with the West. He has yet to consolidate control over the police and governmental bodies in the Serbian republic.

Despite large-scale anti-American violence in Baghdad, President Bush and top American generals assert that the United States is making steady progress in rebuilding Iraq. Citing gains in the nation's economy and overall security, administration and military officials say that Monday's attacks show Hussein loyalists' desperation. NPR's Eric Westervelt reports.

NPR's Christopher Joyce in Baghdad reports the U.S. civil administration in Iraq has again postponed plans to establish an interim Iraqi authority to help govern the country. A conference to create the authority had been expected in June, but the top U.S. official in Baghdad, Paul Bremer, told reporters it will not be held before mid-July at the earliest.

Jack McGuire, interim CEO of the American Red Cross, and Ross Ogden, a member of the Board of Governors for the Red Cross, talk about investigations into the organization's handling of Hurricane Katrina and management behind the massive nonprofit.

Warming temperatures mean that many glaciers are shrinking. A ski company using the Gemstock glacier above Andermatt, Switzerland, has answered this trend by wrapping a critical ski ramp near the top of the glacier in synthetic material. The company hopes that the blanket will slow the glacier's melting over the summer.

Based on a book of the same name by two Texas reporters who knew President Bush before he hit the national stage, the new film Bush's Brain looks at Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove -- the man some call the president's Svengali. Los Angeles Times movie critic Kenneth Turan has a review.

Famous writers and their drinks are inseparable, despite the price some paid for the vice. Hemingway & Bailey's Bartending Guide delves into the drinking habits of America's top writers to reveal their favorite cocktails. Steve Inskeep talks with author Mark Bailey and illustrator Edward Hemingway, the great writer's grandson.

President Bush's three recent Supreme Court nominations reveal the complications and motives involved when politicians choose the nation's top judges, legal observers say. Political science professor David Yalof is an expert on the history and evolution of the Supreme Court nomination process.

What do UFOs, Fireball Cinnamon and a dead snowshoe hare have in common? They all made the list of NPR.org's top stories of the year.