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NPR's Michael Sullivan reports that while security remains an issue in the southern port city of Basra in Iraq, the real issue for the city's million residents is water. A month after the war in Iraq began, there still is no running water in Basra and what fresh water there is is being trucked in to be distributed, by the bucket, by British Marines.

Thousands of Shia Muslims throng the streets of Basra to welcome back their exiled leader. Ayatollah Mohammad baqir Hakim had spent the last 23 years in Iran. U.S. officials, intent on a secular government for Iraq, are wary of Baqir's influence. NPR's Guy Raz reports.

The U.S. military searches near Karbala for the pilot of a jet fighter shot down by an Iraqi surface-to-air missile. And the Pentagon is probing conflicting reports on the fate of a downed Black Hawk helicopter crew. Hear NPR's Nick Spicer.

In a further sign the U.S. is shifting its focus in the Persian Gulf from fighting to nation building, Gen. Tommy Franks went to the Iraqi capital for the first time since the start of the war. Meanwhile the Pentagon's comptroller estimates the cost of the Iraq war so far at $20 billion. NPR's Scott Horsley reports.

Iraqi intellectuals, persecuted for decades, meet for the first time since the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime. The gathering at the University of Baghdad was called to form a committee on Iraqi cultural life. But it quickly devolved into a raucous, free-wheeling debate. NPR's John Burnett reports.

The Pentagon now says major combat operations in Iraq are over. Maj. Gen. Stanley McChrystal says the next phase will involve "smaller, but sharp fights." U.S. Marines rolled into Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit encountering little resistance. Two Navy aircraft carriers will leave the Persian Gulf later this week. NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports.

Along the Tigris in Baghdad, locals who are lucky enough to catch a prized river fish, split open the belly, and grill Mazgouf on an open wood fire. It's Iraq's traditional dish and for the past two months, no one was making it. But with life coming back to the city... however slowly... Mazgouf makes a proud comeback. NPR's Guy Raz reports.

Experts assessing Iraq's archaeological losses say the looting of the country's national museum may not have been as extensive as originally believed. But the UNESCO team warns that archaeological sites outside of Baghdad are now in danger. NPR's Christopher Joyce reports.

The recovery effort at the site of the former World Trade Center officially ends Thursday, but the search continues at Fresh Kills landfill, just across the harbor on Staten Island. Officials there are still poring over millions of tons of "Ground Zero" rubble, looking for remains, personal effects and evidence. NPR's Chris Arnold reports.

Africa is littered with the wreckage of international projects that started with pomp and hope, and then died as foreigners lost interest. Now, in Uganda, activists are trying out a model they hope will last: a health care system paid for and run by the people it serves. For All Things Considered, NPR's Joanne Silberner reports.