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Russia says it will airlift hundreds of its citizens out of Iraq beginning Thursday. The move comes despite the release earlier this week of three Russian and five Ukrainian hostages. Recent kidnappings of foreign nationals have prompted several governments to urge their citizens to leave Iraq. Hear NPR's Nick Spicer.

President Bush's solid performance in recent polls shows support for his handling of foreign policy, according to members of his campaign. Despite criticisms stemming from the Sept. 11 commission hearings and Bob Woodward's book Plan of Attack, Bush's approval rating has remained steady, and he has gained ground on likely Democratic challenger Sen. John Kerry. NPR's Don Gonyea reports.

NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates talks with 21-year old piano prodigy Lang Lang, a featured performer at the Disney Music Hall in Los Angeles, Calif.

Speaking to the nation and the White House press corps at a rare prime time news conference, President Bush says "the consequences of failure in Iraq would be unthinkable." He pledges that a U.S.-led effort there will not fail, but he vows to stick to a June 30 deadline to transfer power to an Iraqi government.

Gun battles continue to mar the cease-fire between U.S. Marines and insurgents in Fallujah, Iraq. The sporadic violence has reportedly led some Marine commanders to becoming impatient with political efforts to defuse the situation. Hear NPR's Melissa Block and KPBS reporter Eric Niiler.

NPR's Susan Stone sends tonight's radio postcard from Iceland, where she went on a hunt for the Aurora Borealis -- the northern lights that are created when a solar wind full of charged particles enters the earth's magnetic field.

Scattered clashes are reported in the region around Fallujah, though a cease-fire declared over the weekend is largely holding. Iraqi officials report 600 civilians have died in Fallujah since U.S. Marines launched an offensive there last Monday. Those fleeing the city accuse U.S. forces of firing randomly, causing numerous civilian casualties. Hear NPR's Philip Reeves.

Sullivan is the author of the critically acclaimed books, The Meadowlands and A Whale Hunt. His new book is Rats: Observations on the History & Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants. One reviewer writes, "in prose worthy of Joseph Mitchell, a... skittering, scurrying, terrific natural history." Sullivan is a contributing editor to Vogue and a frequent contributor to The New Yorker.

Search technology, once relegated to library science departments and remote corners of computer science labs, went mainstream with the Internet, spawning such once-giant brands as Lycos, AltaVista and Yahoo. These engines proved that the Web could be indexed, but they failed when it came to giving users what they wanted.

The Environmental Protection Agency tells officials in 31 states that new air-pollution controls are needed to control smog in counties containing more than 150 million people. The EPA, acting under court order, said 474 counties have air that fails federal standards or contributes to pollution in a neighboring area. NPR's Allison Aubrey reports.