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A top official at Iraq's foreign ministry is killed in Baghdad during an ambush by unknown gunmen. Bassam Kubba, who had been a career diplomat, is the first member of Iraq's new interim government to lose his life amid continuing violence and security problems. Hear NPR's Linda Wertheimer and NPR's Emily Harris.

A U.N. envoy meets with Iraq's top Shiite Muslim cleric, seeking to resolve the dispute over the cleric's call to elect a transitional assembly. U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi says he agrees with Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's demand for elections but is unsure whether a vote could be held before a June 30 U.S. deadline for a power transfer. NPR's Deborah Amos reports.

The Justice Department says Jose Padilla, accused of plotting to detonate a bomb containing radioactive material, had conspired with top al Qaeda leaders in his plan. Padilla, a U.S. citizen, has been designated an enemy combatant and held without charge or access to counsel for two years. Officials say he planned to detonate explosives, possibly to destroy apartment buildings in U.S. cities. NPR's Larry Abramson reports.

He's been called the funniest man on television, and Richard Pryor calls Chappelle his favorite comedian. Chappelle himself claims he's "America's No. 1 source for offensive comedy." Chappelle's Show is Comedy Central's top ranked broadcast. Season two is just out on DVD. Dave Chappelle’s movie roles include parts in Half-Baked, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, and Con Air. This interview was originally broadcast on Sept. 2, 2004.

4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, a new film about a young woman's illegal abortion in Ceausescu's Romania, won the top prize at Cannes and has just opened in the U.S. It's a fierce and unsentimental film; Terry Gross talks to Mungiu about growing up in a totalitarian state, and why he wanted to make the movie.

Formed in Dallas, the Old 97's were long pigeonholed as an alt-country band. They never were — just a rocking quartet with a terrific songwriter up top. They've just put out their best album in seven years.

NPR'S Martha Raddatz reports on yesterday's terrorist truck bombing at a military complex near Dhahran, Saudi Arabia which killed 19 Americans and injured hundreds more. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. U.S. President Clinton today vowed to punish those responsible for the 'murderous act', and said he would make the terrorism issue his top priority at this week's G-7 summit. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, travelling in the Middle East, has changed his itinerary and flown to Saudi Arabia to vist wounded servicemen. It is the worst terrorist attack against U.S. interests in the region since the bombing of a U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983.

A cadre of the nation's top television executives met with President Clinton today at the White House and pledged to institute a violence ratings system that could be used along with the so-called violence or "V-chip" that, under the recently passed Telecommunications Act, manufacturers will be obliged to install in all new television sets. The TV execs, whom President Clinton called "the most powerful cultural force in the world", were under pressure to come up with their own voluntary system or else be forced to comply with an FCC-developed ratings system called for under the Act. NPR's Phillip Davis reports.

NPR's Ina Jaffe reports on the testimony in the punitive damages phase of the OJ Simpson civil trial. Lawyers for both sides wrapped up testimony today over how much money OJ Simpson has available to pay punitive damages, on top of the 8.5 million dollars in compensatory damages already awarded to the families of the victims . Witnesses for the plaintiffs contend that Simpson will be able to earn millions of dollars from autograph signings and book deals. But Simpson's lawyers say he is already broke and can't be expected to pay more.

The hostility that has characterized the China-Taiwan relationship for the past year seems to have abated. NPR's Rob Gifford tells Noah Adams that this week Taiwan allowed the first legal direct shipping from Taiwanese-held islands to mainland China. And Taiwan's top policymaker indicated China might be more flexible than in the past on the issue of one China. China always has insisted that Taiwan accept the concept of one China, including Taiwan, with Beijing as the capital. But in an interview yesterday, a high-level official indicated Beijing might consider a broader definition of what constitutes one China.