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The culture and music of the west African nation Mali are on display this summer at the Smithsonian's Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. But there's another, far more remote gathering held every year in Mali, outside Timbuktu. Banning Eyre traveled to the Festival in the Desert and sent a report.

The government committee investigating the Feb. 1 space shuttle Columbia disaster says failures in NASA's culture need to be addressed. Investigators ask why a loose piece of foam insulation, now thought responsible for the crash, was not considered a threat. NPR's Richard Harris reports.

Continued hostilities in Iraq complicate efforts to rebuild the country. In Fallujah, insurgents fire two rocket-propelled grenades at American troops. And a gun battle is reported in Ramadi. NPR's Bob Edwards talks to retired Army Maj. Gen. Bob Scales.

A special 11-part weekly series, airing Fridays on Morning Edition, highlights the creation of the American musical traditions that give this country its own unique sound. In the second part, NPR's Paul Brown reports on the origins of the country guitar and how an instrument of the upper crust made it to the hills.

In the northern Iraq city of Kirkuk, nearly 300 invited delegates meet to choose a 30-member municipal council with help from American organizers. A final announcement of the council's composition was delayed until Sunday after objections from some participants. NPR's Ivan Watson reports.

NPR's Nick Spicer in Baghdad reports on the growing number of murders of members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. The U.S. civil administration in Iraq has banned Baathists from key government posts. Many party members are in hiding or have fled into exile amid a campaign of revenge killings in the streets of the capital.

Speaking to Marines at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, President Bush says "a vise is closing" on Saddam Hussein's regime and that the United States "will not stop until Iraq is free." Bush also offers condolences to families of Marines killed in the war with Iraq. NPR's Don Gonyea reports.

David Leeson, senior photographer for the Dallas Morning News, talks about the perplexing question of what not to photograph when reporting on a war. Relatively few images of people who have died in the Iraq war have appeared in American newspapers and magazines. This is the latest installment of NPR's War Diaries series.

Efforts begin to bring life back to normal in the Iraqi city of Kut. Police, schools, and regular paychecks are on the agenda, but some residents of Kut wish the U.S. forces would just go home. NPR's Steve Inskeep reports.

President Bush is expected to name Paul Bremer, a former State Department official, as Iraq's civil administrator. The move could be a sign that Secretary of State Colin Powell's influence over postwar Iraq policy is rising. NPR's Michele Kelemen reports.