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Daniel Serwer, vice president and director of Peace and Stability Operations for the U.S. Institute of Peace, explains the complex process of electing a 275-member national assembly for Iraq. The assembly's first job will be to write a constitution by Aug. 15, 2005.

The soldier who asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld about the shortage of armored Humvees is a national guardsman from Nashville. Tennessee residents talk about Army Spc. Thomas Wilson, and what people there think about his audacity. Hear NPR's John Ydstie.

Only 25 percent of the medium and heavy military trucks hauling fuel, supplies, etc. along Iraq's dangerous highways have armor protection. The military is working to remedy this using steel plates, but the weight of the plating can slow down trucks, making them an easier target. NPR's Vicky O'Hara reports.

A reputed Ku Klux Klan member is charged with the murders of three civil rights workers in Mississippi in 1964. NPR's Michele Norris talks about the case with Jerry Mitchell, a reporter for the Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Miss.

Correspondent Cheryl Devall talks with New York Times reporter Jason DeParle about the struggles of women who have gotten off welfare — a seven-year odyssey he chronicles in his new book American Dream: Three Women, Ten Kids, and a Nation's Drive to End Welfare.

Secretary of State Colin Powell has resigned from President Bush's Cabinet, according to State Department officials. Powell is said to be planning to stay at the agency until his successor is confirmed.

The discovery last month of a tiny skeleton dubbed "Hobbit" was proclaimed by its discoverers as part of a newly discovered human species. But that claim has met with skepticism from others in the scientific community. NPR's Richard Harris reports.

In northern Sri Lanka, tsunami survivors are going back to their regular jobs, schools are reopening, and people are struggling to resume normal lives. NPR's Jason Beaubien reports.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat remains in critical condition at a military hospital outside Paris, amid disputes over the specific nature of his illness and the status of his health. Scores of well-wishers continue to wait outside the hospital, while Palestinian officials pledge unity. Hear Eleanor Beardsley.

Earlier this month, President Bush appointed Kansas City, Mo. attorney Gerald Reynolds to take over as chairperson of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The advisory panel had been led for more than half its 47-year existence by Mary Frances Berry, an activist who became a polarizing figure. NPR's Don Gonyea reports.