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The SARS virus hit China hard. Everyday life in the capital has changed dramatically as the government has warned people to avoid large gatherings, closed down nightclubs and karaoke bars, and ordered quarantines. NPR's Rob Gifford reports from Beijing on the changes the disease has brought to people's everyday lives.

From the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, President Bush terms the defeat of Saddam Hussein "one victory" in a continuing war on terrorism. Bush says major combat operations in Iraq have ended, but much work remains to help in the country's reconstruction. NPR's Pam Fessler reports.

Thirty years ago, Pink Floyd's recording The Dark Side of the Moon became the number one album on Billboard magazine's pop music chart. So began the longest streak in music chart history: 741 weeks on the Top 200. No other recording comes close. The album has touched one generation after the next, which is odd because it's such a quirky album of electronic music, sound effects, saxophones, and a famous but unidentified female singer performing scat. Reporter Jad Abumrad of member station WNYC went around New York City to ask likely listeners why Dark Side has lasted.

President Bush names former ambassador Paul Bremer as the new head of the transition team in Iraq. Bremer takes over for retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, who has been leading the post-war reconstruction effort so far. Observers say the appointment is aimed at downplaying the impression that Iraq is under U.S. military occupation. NPR's Michele Kelemen reports.

More than 200 Iraqi delegates agree during a U.S.-led meeting in Baghdad to meet again within a month to select members of an interim government. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is considering moving a key base for U.S. air operations from Saudi Arabia to Qatar. Hear reports from NPR's Scott Simon and NPR's Jennifer Ludden.

The World Health Organization lifts an advisory against traveling to Toronto, Canada, because of SARS infections. Toronto hasn't seen a new case of the respiratory illness in 20 days, and the epidemic appears to be contained to hospital workers there. NPR's Robert Siegel talks to NPR's Richard Knox.

Taiwan reports 39 new cases of SARS, bringing the island's total to 383 cases, 52 of which have been fatal. Ninety percent of the cases were spread in hospitals. Meanwhile, citing success in battling SARS, Chinese officials announce plans to re-open schools in Beijing Thursday. NPR's Richard Harris reports.

Paul Bremer, the top U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq, visits the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in his first official visit outside of Baghdad since arriving in the country last week. Bremer denies reports that the United States plans to postpone the formation of an interim Iraqi government, but does not give a firm date for its creation. Hear NPR's Guy Raz.

U.N. Security Council members have mixed reactions to a resolution on postwar Iraq proposed by the United States and co-sponsored by Britain and Spain. Council members generally agree on ending sanctions on Iraq, but Germany and Russia raise questions over provisions that would give the United States and its allies substantial control over Iraq's oil revenues. NPR's Vicky O' Hara reports.

New U.S. administrator for Iraq Paul Bremer bans up to 30,000 members of the Baath party from working for government ministries. But despite Bremer's insistence that the country's security condition is improving, Iraqis express frustration with ongoing disorder -- and they blame U.S. postwar administrators. NPR's Guy Raz reports.

Paul Bremer, the top U.S. civilian official in Iraq, denies media reports that the Bush administration is postponing the creation of an transitional Iraqi authority. In the northern city of Mosul, Bremer meets with the city council billed as postwar Iraq's first elected body. Hear NPR's Guy Raz.

America 24/7, a photographic collaboration profiling a week in the United States, is the latest project from Rick Smolan and David Elliot Cohen. The pair also shephered the photography project A Day in the Life of America.

The World Health Organization sends a team to a densely populated province in northern China to assess a sudden increase in the number of SARS cases. Doctors believe migrant workers may be spreading the disease. The visit is the first by a WHO team to a Chinese province outside of Guangdong, where SARS broke out in November. Hear NPR's Rob Gifford.

A study on the sex lives of adolescents ages 12 to 14 finds that one in five have had sexual intercourse. A survey of more than 30,000 young teens also raises fears about lack of contraception and increased risk for sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancy. In the first installment of a three-part series, hear NPR's Michelle Trudeau.

The SARS outbreak in Beijing is slowing down, Chinese officials say, dropping from a peak of more than 100 new cases a day to fewer than 50. But officials with the World Health Organization say the outbreak is not under control and say they worry the disease could spread significantly outside the capital city. Hear NPR's Richard Harris.

U.S. forces take into custody one of Iraq's top biological weapons experts, nicknamed "Dr. Germ" for her work in the production of biological warfare agents such as anthrax and botulinum toxin. Rihab Taha, a British-educated microbiologist, was not on the U.S. list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis, but U.S. officials say her capture was still a top priority. Hear NPR's Tom Gjelten.

More than 3,000 bodies have been removed so far from a mass grave found in central Iraq. The bodies are believed to be those of people killed by Saddam Hussein's government during a Shiite uprising following the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Hear NPR's Christopher Joyce.

Two new studies in the New England Journal of Medicine suggest people who follow the low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet advocated by Dr. Robert Atkins can indeed lose more weight than those on conventional low-fat diets. But some researchers say the results do not account for the long-term health effects of a high-fat diet. NPR's Richard Knox reports.

NPR's Chris Joyce reports on a fire burning out of control at one of the main telecommunications centers in Baghdad. U.S. troops have sealed off the area around the blaze but no firefighters have arrived. Few Iraqis are taking notice of the latest blaze in a city badly hit by arson and looting.

Commentator Anne McBride-Norton and her husband live and work in rural China. The SARS epidemic is a danger to them, but because they are Americans, they have options that their Chinese neighbors and friends don't have.

The kitschy, Americanized "tiki" adaptation of island life includes everything from Hawaiian shirts to Hula girls... and don't forget tropical drinks garnished with paper umbrellas. Hundreds of people are gathering under bamboo torches in Palm Springs, Calif., for a third-annual celebration of tiki culture known as the Tiki Oasis. Alex Cohen of member station KQED reports.

Barbara Bodine, the U.S. official assigned to govern central Iraq, will leave her post and return to the United States to take a position at the State Department. The move comes just days after the top civilian administrator in Iraq, retired Gen. Jay Garner, is replaced by L. Paul Bremer, a longtime State Department official. Bodine and Garner have been criticized for being slow to restore services and form an interim government. Hear NPR's Guy Raz.

Host Robert Siegel talks with NPR's Guy Raz about Thursday's re-opening of Iraq's criminal courts. An American adviser says Saddam Hussein and top associates in the Baath Party could be put on trial in Iraq. There have been protests in Baghdad -- most recently Wednesday by a group of Iraqi doctors -- against the rehiring of Baath Party members for government posts.

The Defense Department investigates the contents of a trailer it says may have been used as a mobile biological weapons lab. A U.S. official says the trailer, recovered April 19 near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, has all the equipment of a lab, but that preliminary tests have not turned up any evidence of banned biological agents. Hear NPR's Eric Westervelt.

NPR's Melissa Block talks with Barham Salih, the prime minister of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan about the aspirations of the Kurds.