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NPR's Madeleine Brand speaks with Eric Watkins from the Baghdad office of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting about reaction in the Iraqi press to the search for a new national leader.

U.S. forces arrest a key aide to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and wage battles with militia loyal to the Shiite leader. The aide, Riyadh al-Nouri, was taken captive at a house in Najaf. He is al-Sadr's brother-in-law. An Army spokesman said a "very large number" of youths -- members of al-Sadr's militia -- were killed in fighting in Najaf and Sadr City. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports.

A suicide car bombing near a U.S. base in Baqubah kills one U.S. soldier and several Iraqis. In Mosul, a car bomb aimed at the area's provincial council kills several Iraqi bystanders. South of Baghdad, six soldiers from Poland, Latvia and Slovakia are killed while defusing mines. Hear NPR's Emily Harris.

American musical icon Ray Charles died of complications from liver disease Thursday at his Beverly Hills home. In a career that lasted more than half a century, Charles defied categorization and brought his soulful stylings to jazz, pop, country and R&B.

Terry Nichols is convicted on 161 counts of murder in the state trial over his role in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Nichols is already serving a life sentence in a federal prison. The jury that convicted him Tuesday will next be asked if he should be put to death. The penalty phase begins Wednesday. Hear NPR's Melissa Block and NPR's Wade Goodwyn.

NPR's Alex Chadwick speaks with Tess Vigeland of Marketplace about a statement Tuesday from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan suggesting higher interest rates could be coming soon.

NPR's Alex Chadwick talks with NPR's Don Gonyea about the agenda of this year's G8 summit at a resort named Sea Island, off the coast of the state of Georgia. This year, leaders from Mideast nations and Afghanistan have been invited to address the summit on the need for democratic reform in the region. Notably, staunch U.S. ally Saudi Arabia has not been invited to the talks.

The Washington Post reports new pictures and short videos show prisoners being physically and sexually abused at Abu Ghraib last year. Sworn statements from detainees describe a range of abuse more brutal than previously reported. Meanwhile, Iraqi officials say they've made several arrests in connection to the beheading of American civilian Nick Berg. Hear NPR's Mary Louise Kelly.

Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, the former U.S. commander of the Abu Ghraib prison, says the decision to abuse detainees was made much higher up the chain of command. Karpinsksi also tells the BBC that the current Iraq prisons chief, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, had suggested Karpinksi alter interrogation techniques at Abu Ghraib and once said prisoners should be treated "like dogs." Suzanne Chislett reports.

Sedaris is the author of the bestselling collections Barrel Fever, Naked and Me Talk Pretty One Day. His new collection is Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. Sedaris essays appear regularly in Esquire, GQ and The New Yorker. His radio pieces can be heard on This American Life. In 2001 he became the third recipient of the Thurber Prize for American Humor.