Search results for

Senate hearings cast light on systemic problems within the U.S. military structure that may have contributed to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Testimony from top U.S. officials and military commanders suggests a lack of defined leadership, poor communication within the chain of command and confusion over rules for interrogating prisoners. Hear NPR's Jackie Northam.

U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who was tasked with leading the formation of Iraq's new interim government, says he did not get his choice for candidates to fill some top spots. But he says comments he made Wednesday calling U.S. civilian administrator Paul Bremer "the dictator in Iraq" were in jest. Brahimi talks with NPR's Steve Inskeep.

A new book about Howard Lutnick, the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, shows the personal and financial damage the Sept. 11 attacks caused the company. On Top of the World discusses how the brokerage firm survived after losing most of its employees in the terrorist attacks. NPR's Juan Williams reports.

College baseball players and fans head to Omaha, Neb., for the NCAA 2003 Men's College World Series. Organizers expect to sell more than 250,000 tickets as the country's top eight college baseball teams compete for the national championship. Hear Deborah Van Fleet.

An artist in Cologne, Germany, is working to memorialize individual victims of the Nazis. He's embedding thousands of small concrete blocks, each topped by a brass plate, in sidewalks across the country. Each of these so-called "stumbling blocks" bears the name, and fate, of one person killed by Adolph Hitler's regime. Kyle James reports.

Camp Alpha, a U.S. military base in Iraq, was built directly on top of the ancient temple area of Babylon. The base's location was chosen to protect the archeological site from looters. Instead, the base has resulted in damage that some antiquities experts characterize as "horrifying." Hear NPR's Renee Montagne and archeologist John Russell.

Last night's Oscar ceremony drew surprisingly strong ratings, though the evening itself was free of upsets. In a movie season that began amorphously, with no blockbusters in contention and no clear front-runner, Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby took four awards in top categories, including best picture.

An enormous work of art opens Saturday in New York's Central Park. The Gates Project is the brainchild of artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The husband-and-wife team's work consists of 7,500 squared arches topped with orange flags.

Filmmaker Michael Moore's documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 arrives in U.S. theaters, after winning the top prize at the Cannes film festival and being shelved by the Disney Co., its original backer. The film, which criticizes President Bush's response to the attacks of Sept. 11, is being released independently. NPR's Bob Mondello has a review.

In Kansas City, home to some of the nation's top sports architects, a competition is unfolding to build a new downtown sports arena. The local firms' competition comes from acclaimed California architect Frank Gehry, who's better known for designing museums. NPR's Greg Allen reports.