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Melissa Block talks with Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, about plans for hearings on the intelligence presented by the Bush administration on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the war.

Her new book, Highsmith: A Romance of the 1950's, is about her two-year affair with the writer Patricia Highsmith. They met at a Greenwich Village bar and were both writing lesbian pulp novels under pseudonyms. Meaker wrote Spring Fire (1952) under the pen name Vin Packer. It sold 1.5 million copies. She also wrote under the name Ann Aldrich. Meaker writes young adult novels under the name M.E. Kerr. Highsmith is known for her classic novels Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Fifty years ago -- and two years before the famed bus boycott in Montgomery, Ala. -- black citizens in Baton Rouge, La., staged what's believed to be the first-ever organized protest of Jim Crow laws in the South. NPR's Debbie Elliott reports on the anniversary of the Baton Rouge bus boycott.

The Bush administration drafts a plan to investigate mass murders allegedly committed by the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq. The plan calls for an international effort to exhume mass graves and collect forensic evidence for possible prosecutions. NPR's Christopher Joyce reports.

The U.S. administration in Iraq is coming under mounting criticism for the slow pace of its efforts to hand over authority to Iraqis. While U.S. officials focus on plans to establish a grass roots political process in Iraq, many Iraqis demand a greater role in governing the country. NPR's Kate Seelye reports.

In a series of closed hearings, House and Senate committees examine whether U.S. intelligence about possible illegal weapons in Iraq were exaggerated to justify war. Meanwhile, U.S. officials say they expect 20,000 to 30,000 troops from other countries, including the Netherlands, Slovakia, Denmark and the Ukraine, will be in Iraq by August. Hear Dana Priest of The Washington Post and NPR's Michele Kelemen.

NPR's Lynn Neary talks with Jacques Perrin, the director of the film Winged Migration, which tells the story of the seasonal migration of birds from a bird's eye view.

Forensic experts conduct DNA tests on the remains of people killed last week in a U.S. airstrike on an Iraqi convoy. The New York Times and a British newspaper, citing military sources, say U.S. forces believe former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his two sons may have been traveling with the convoy. Hear NPR's Deborah Amos.

Scientists at the National Institutes of Health are attempting the first test of an HIV vaccine that could stop the global spread of AIDS. But as NPR's Joe Palca reports, finding volunteers willing to get innoculated with an unproven and possibly harmful vaccine is proving difficult. Learn more about the vaccine program.

The 24-year-old Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback died early Saturday after being struck by a dump truck while walking on a South Florida interstate, the Florida Highway Patrol said.