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Reducing poverty tops the priority list for Brazil's president-elect, Luiz da Silva. Poor Brazilians have high hopes for his administration, but "Lula" faces creditors who demand he not bust the federal budget. NPR's Martin Kaste reports. Oct. 30, 2002.

Raquel Maria Dillon reports Boston area critics of the Roman Catholic Church have turned their sites north, to the Bishop of Manchester, New Hampshire. John McCormack was a top aid to Cardinal Bernard Law, who stepped down last month as a result of the priest sex abuse scandal. The protesters say McCormack is also to blame for the abuse, and they want him to step down.

NPR's Ron Elving profiles Sen. Don Nickles (R-OK), the new chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, who will have a critical role in helping President Bush try to get his budget through Congress. Nickles has been in the Senate since the early years of the Reagan presidency. Sen. Nickles has made elimination of the estate tax a top priority.

U.N. arms inspectors search Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's main palace for evidence of weapons of mass destruction. Meanwhile, top U.N. nuclear monitor Mohamed ElBaradei warns Iraq that it must cooperate more intensely with arms inspectors. NPR's Lawrence Sheets reports.

Internet toy seller E-Toys was supposed to be one of the e-commerce companies with a shot at becoming a retail powerhouse. It had a top-rated Web site, a vast selection of high-end toys and excellent customer service. But as NPR's Elaine Korry reports, E-Toys is having a miserable holiday season. Sales are running way below expectations, cash is running short, and the company is unlikely to survive without a merger or a major sell-off of assets.

Linda Wertheimer talks with Sebastian Rotella, staff writer for the Los Angeles Times in Lima, Peru, about the four-month-old manhunt for Vladimiro Montesinos, Peru's former chief of the National Intelligence Service. He says that top officials fear Montesinos could still threaten the country's fragile democracy as long as he's still at large. Eighty investigators are looking for him.

The two men, who happen to acrobats, walked up 100 stairs together outside a Spanish cathedral. One brother was upside down with his head balancing on top of his brother's head.

A massive heat wave continues to broil many parts of the United States, with temperatures topping 100 degrees for the third consecutive day in many places. And with high humidity and other factors, the heat index shows that the temperatures often feel even hotter.

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.

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.

Bids are expected to top $11 billion in the sale of Univision, the dominant Spanish language media outlet in the United States. But the network's next owners will face big challenges. There is more competition than ever from newer Spanish media. To keep its dominance, Univision seeks to attract and keep, younger, bilingual Latinos.

Iraq's interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi talks about Sunday's elections. He has spent the past week urging Iraqis to vote, while campaigning at the top of the Iraqi List slate. He discusses his legacy as interim leader and his determination to keep the polls open, regardless of security concerns.

North Carolina beat Illinois Monday night 75-70 to capture the NCAA men's basketball championship in St. Louis. After trailing 40-27 at halftime, the top-ranked Fighting Illini rallied to tie, then faltered in the final minute. It's the first national title for UNC coach Roy Williams.

A most unlikely CD has been close to the top of the Billboard charts recently. The Mars Volta, from Texas, somehow missed the news that progressive rock was nearly extinct. Their new CD, Frances the Mute, is a saga based on the diary of a child in search of a birth mother.

President Bush's top strategist, Karl Rove, agrees to testify a fourth time before a grand jury investigating the unauthorized release of CIA operative Valerie Plame's name to reporters. This time, federal prosecutors will not grant Rove immunity -- which could pave the way for an indictment.

Hurricane Rita is gaining strength as it crosses the Gulf of Mexico, with current sustained wind speeds topping 135 miles per hour. Forecasters expect the Category Four storm to hit the Gulf coast of Texas or western Louisiana by early Saturday.

Boeing's former chief financial officer pleads guilty in the growing scandal over the firm's defense contracts with the federal government. A top Air Force officer has also pled guilty in the investigation into favoritism in military acquisitions. NPR's David Schaper reports.

Official Washington had barely caught its breath yesterday over the resignation of Attorney General John Ashcroft, when President Bush announced his new choice for the top law enforcement job: White House counsel and longtime Bush confidant Alberto Gonzales. NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg reports.

The conflict in Iraq, Social Security, and the future of the Supreme Court are among the top issues that will challenge President Bush over the next four years. We also consider the Bush legacy to come, as we look ahead on Inauguration Day.

The Bush administration has made Social Security reform a top priority in its second term. In arguing for partial privatization of the system, the president and his supporters warn of dire consequences unless something is done. Bush's critics say he is arguing for overly drastic measures. NPR Don Gonyea reports.

Producer Ben Shapiro brings us another installment in the New York Works series, about jobs that are slowly disappearing from the city of New York. Today we meet Charlie Zimmerman, who works for Rosenwach Wood Tanks. Rosewach is one of the few companies left that maintains water tanks on top of many New York buildings.

Now on her fourth decade at the top of the country music scene, Dolly Parton recently joined Morning Edition host Bob Edwards in the NPR studios to talk about her childhood, her long, lucrative career and her latest CD, Halos & Horns. Listen to Parton's convincing take on one of rock 'n' roll's sacred cows, Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven."

Insurgents fire grenades at an Iraqi civil defense facility as Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, visits. Abizaid was not hurt in the attack, which caused no American casualties. The attackers escaped. Hear NPR's Melissa Block and NPR's Eric Westervelt.

Testifying before a judicial inquiry, top British intelligence official John Scarlett denies that his office was pressured by Prime Minister Tony Blair's staff to exaggerate evidence showing that Iraq posed an imminent threat to Britain. New polls suggest 67 percent of Britons believe Blair misled the public about the Iraqi threat. Hear NPR's Guy Raz.

Top officials from the Bush and Clinton administrations tell the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks that they had no specific intelligence before the attacks suggesting terrorists might hijack airliners and crash them into the World Trade Center. But last year, Congress published a report saying a number of warnings detailing the attacks were ignored. Hear NPR's Danny Zwerdling.