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Allied officials say they will soon pick a council of leading Iraqis to work under U.S. and British occupation forces. It's billed as a small first step in turning power over to Iraqis, but it does not constitute the start of a new government -- that will have to wait for a constitutional convention and elections. NPR's Steve Inskeep talks with NPR's Deborah Amos in Iraq.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair defends his Iraq policy under a firestorm of House of Commons criticism from both the opposition and members of his own party. The Blair government is accused of doctoring a dossier that was said to prove Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capability. Members of Parliament are calling for an investigation.

Illustrator Marjane Satrapi is the author of the memoir, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood. The book is in the form of an illustrated comic. Satrapi was born in 1969 in Iran, and grew up in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution. One reviewer writes, "A triumph... Like Maus, Persepolis is one of those comic books capable of seducing even those most allergic to the genre."

Film critic David Edelstein reviews Capturing the Friedmans, a new documentary by Andrew Jarecki about a family torn apart by charges of pedophilia and child molestation.

NPR's Jim Zarroli visited a town in southwest Wisconsin where downtown merchants have found a way to compete with the local Wal-Mart. Many store owners say they can coexist because they offer an expertise not easily found in the larger retail chains.

A U.S. delegation returns from North Korea, carrying a message from its leaders. The communist country says it has nuclear weapons and plans to build more. But officials doubt whether North Korea has the technology to back up those claims. One American scientist recounts his rare 1994 visit to the country's nuclear facilities, and the questions he was left with. NPR's David Kestenbaum reports.

NPR's Robert Siegel talks with Jon Lee Anderson about his Letter from Baghdad in the May 5th issue of the New Yorker. In his article entitled "Saddam's Ear," Anderson describes two men living a paradox in post-Saddam Iraq. Both were in the inner circle of the Hussein regime and lived in fear and admiration of Saddam. One of the men is Dr. Ala Bashir, plastic surgeon and artist, who knew Saddam as someone who was calm and a good listener, and who would have become a great actor if he'd ever gone to Hollywood. Yet, Bashir says he knows Saddam was a dictator and murderer.

The birds are singing, the flowers are blooming and May Day is soon upon us. But somehow Jim Nayder, the Annoying Music Man, finds a way to spoil the beauty of it all. On Weekend Edition Saturday, Nayder shares some terrible recordings he considers appropriate for May Day with NPR's Linda Wertheimer.

As part of the occasional series "Musicians in Their Own Words," jazz violinist Regina Carter describes her music.

In Baghdad, delegates at a U.S.-led meeting of Iraqi groups agree to meet within a month to select members of an interim government. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says the United States plans to reduce its military presence in the Persian Gulf region and is considering relocating a combat air command center from Saudi Arabia to Qatar. Hear NPR News.