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Iraq's interim government unveils new security laws aimed at curbing the country's deadly insurgency. The new powers would allow the interim government to impose emergency rule in trouble spots. On the same day the new measures were announced, insurgents battled U.S. troops in the heart of Baghdad. NPR's Philip Reeves reports.

President Bush had hoped the No Child Left Behind Act would help him counter the view that Democrats care more about public education than Republicans. But growing criticism of the law makes it unclear if the president's record on education will give him an edge against John Kerry. Bush's stance on education has polarized residents in West Virginia, a state that's up for grabs in the November presidential election despite its Democratic majority. NPR's Claudio Sanchez reports.

NPR's Mike Pesca reports on the resignation of Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, who was threatened with impeachment by the state legislature. His resignation, however, will not end a federal probe into state contracts he awarded and gifts he received while in office.

When former President Bill Clinton met with George W. Bush before leaving office, he told his successor that Osama bin Laden, the Middle East and North Korea posed more of a threat to U.S. national security than Iraq, Clinton says. In the first part of a two-part interview, Clinton also tells NPR's Juan Williams that bin Laden dominated intelligence discussions at the White House.

NPR's Alex Chadwick talks to Peter Hahn of The Los Angeles Times, reporting from Baghdad, about the reported beheading of a South Korean man captured and held hostage by Islamic militants in Iraq. The Arabic TV network Al-Jazeera reports contractor Kim Sun-il, 33, was killed even as negotiations were underway to free him. The hostage has been threatened with death unless South Korea reconsidered plans to send thousands of troops to bolster the U.S.-led military coalition in Iraq.

Producer Julian Crandall Hollick ends his three-part series on life in India with a sound portrait of the dawning day in a Bombay neighborhood.

NPR's Alex Chadwick talks to Tess Vigeland of Marketplace about the expected Congressional confirmation of Alan Greenspan to serve a fifth term as chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has nominated a four-star general to take command of U.S. forces in Iraq. Gen. George W. Casey, Jr. would replace Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez. Colleagues say Casey has demonstrated the ability to work closely with U.S. diplomats, a skill that will be needed in Iraq when the U.S. embassy goes into business in July. NPR's Michele Kelemen reports.

A group of 26 former senior diplomats and military officials, calling themselves Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change, plan to release a joint statement arguing that President George W. Bush has severely damaged America's national security and should be defeated in November. Several of the signatories were appointed by Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. NPR's Tavis Smiley speaks with Kiron Skinner, a member of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's civilian Defense Policy Board, and Phyllis Oakley, who served as the deputy spokesperson for the State Department under the first President Bush.

Eric Niiler reports on Wednesday's final hearing of the commission investigating the government's response to terrorism before and after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Among other findings, the commission concludes there is no credible evidence linking deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein with the al Qaeda terrorists who hijacked commercial airliners and crashed into the World Trade Center and Pentagon.