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A powerful explosion rips apart a mosque during Friday prayer services in Najaf, Iraq, killing Shiite leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim. The attack on one of the holiest sites for Shia Muslims took a high death toll. Hear NPR's Ivan Watson.

NPR's Scott Horsley reports that despite the West's growing urbanization, agriculture still uses up to 90 percent of the region's water. In some places, farmers are finding that selling water to cities is a lot more profitable than using it for crops.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair says he would have resigned if a BBC report had been right in claiming his government exaggerated an intelligence report on the threat posed by Iraq's weapons program. Blair's statements came during testimony before a judicial inquiry investigating issues related to the case the British government made for war. Hear NPR's Guy Raz.

A Zogby poll of likely Democratic primary voters in New Hampshire shows former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean is the leading Democratic presidential candidate in the key state, leading his closest rival, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, by 21 points. Hear Rich Killion of the Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communication.

More than a decade after his death, American composer John Cage continues to challenge listeners. When Cage wrote a piece called As Slow As Possible, he expected a performance would last about a half hour. But as NPR's Jeffrey Freymann-Weyr reports, a group of Cage scholars started a performance of the piece in Germany two years ago, and hope that it will last more than six centuries.

Renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma may be as celebrated for his experiments with Appalachian and Mongolian music -- to say nothing of the tango -- as he is for his work on the classical canon. His latest musical journey takes him to Brazil.

Michael Nestor, Liz Thompson and Richard Tierney rode in the last elevator down from Windows on the World in the moments before American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Hear their story.

Artist Gloria DeArcangelis likes moody, thoughtful music in the background while she does her paintings. She's the latest participant in our series "What Are You Listening To?"

Across the country, communities marked the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks with candles, silence, church bells and vigils. In New York City, 200 readers, mostly children, read out the names of the 2,792 people who died in the attacks on the World Trade Center. NPR's Nancy Solomon reports.

Growing criticism of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's postwar planning for Iraq is straining relations between Rumsfeld and the White House. The persistent problems in Iraq may end up changing Rumsfeld's plans to transform the U.S. military into a smaller, more agile force. Hear NPR's Eric Westervelt.