Search results for

A new wave of fighting breaks out between supporters of a radical Shiite cleric and U.S. and Iraqi government forces. Clashes are reported throughout southern Iraq and the Shiite-dominated Baghdad slum known as Sadr City. An American military spokesman says 300 Shiite militiamen were killed in one city alone. NPR's Ivan Watson reports.

President Bush says he would consider major changes to the nation's intelligence services in response to the report expected this week from a bipartisan commission. The panel has been probing what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, and how it might have been prevented. One idea is to create a cabinet-level chief of all intelligence operations. NPR's Don Gonyea reports.

The Pentagon announces new procedures for investigating the deaths of people in U.S. military custody. The new rules call for every death to be reported to military investigators and the Armed Forces medical examiner, who will decide if an autopsy is required. The guidelines are seen as an attempt to quell criticism of detainee deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. NPR's Michele Kelemen reports.

Earlier this week, NPR's Daniel Zwerdling presented two reports looking at the difficulties some soldiers face getting treatment for mental health issues in the military. He discusses his reports, and Dr. William Winkenwerder, head of the military health system, talks about military efforts to try to take care of the mental health of soldiers.

Six women are suing the University of Southern California, alleging they were victimized by a campus gynecologist who was allowed to practice for decades despite complaints.

In the third report in her series on refugees in the post-Cold War era, NPR's Ann Cooper reports on the political limitations facing the United Nations refugee agency--the U-N High Commissioner for Refugees. In an emergency, the world's powers always turn first to the UNHCR. But in the messy conflicts of the post-Cold War world, the refugee agency often is unable to accomplish a central goal of its work--getting refugees to go home again. This is particularly true in the cases of Bosnia and Rwanda.

NPR's Michael Skoler reports from Nairobi on fears in Africa that the civil war in Zaire could lead to the disintegration of that key nation. Rich in natural resources and bordering nine countries, Zaire is seen as the key to a stable central Africa. There are already unconfirmed reports that neighboring countries are involved on one side or the other in Zaire's conflict. Many fear that an escalation of the conflict could tempt other countries to try to seize parts of Zaire...a move which would throw all of the region's colonially-drawn boundaries into question.

NPR's Michael Skoler reports that as the civil war in eastern Zaire rages on, a large number of Rwandan refugees remain unable, and in some cases unwilling, to return home. Relief groups estimate there are some four hundred thousand Rwandan Hutus stuck inside Zaire, with as many as half of them missing. In one large camp, there are reports of at least thirty deaths a day from malnutrition and disease. Many among the refugees took part in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and do not want to return for fear of arrest.

NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports from Tirana, Albania, on the eerie calm that has taken over the capital. Most residents are waiting to see if President Sali Berisha (solly buh-REESH-uh) will respond to an ultimatum that he resign...an ultimatum that comes from rebels in the southern part of the country. In Tirana, armed police are trying to recover control of the airport in order to re-open it tomorrow. Other cities in Albania are still terrorized by armed gangs. One report said most court houses have been burned or damaged, the judicial files burned. Nearly all the country's jails have been destroyed and the prisoners freed.

Today, the President's Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses commission on Gulf War Syndrome held its final hearing before issuing its report. In the past, the committee has been critical of the Pentagon and CIA's handling of the inquiry into a possible cause of the syndrome. Also today, two articles in The New England Journal of Medicine fail yet again to identify a specific health problem attributable to service in the Persian Gulf. NPR's Richard Harris reports.