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NPR's Guy Raz reports from the Macedonian city of Tetovo that fighting escalated today between ethnic Albanian rebels and Macedonian security forces. The two sides exchanged fierce gunfire just outside the city -- Macedonia's second largest. Occasional shells and bullets landed in the central square. Most activity has come to a halt. The government says it's preparing for all-out war. Although Macedonia was the one republic to secede from Yugoslavia without bloodshed and an ethnic Albanian party is included in the ruling coalition, the rebels say they're fighting for greater rights for the Albanian community.

Iraqi police have found at least 85 bodies, killed execution-style, in a Shiite neighborhood in the Sadr City area of Baghdad. Host Alex Chadwick discusses the mass execution and ongoing Shiite-Sunni Muslim sectarian violence in Iraq with New York Times reporter Ed Wong, reporting from Baghdad.

The Italian city of Pompeii is one of the best-known reminders of how deadly volcanoes can be. Mt. Vesuvius' eruption in 79 A.D. buried the city, entombing many of the dead in casts of hardened ash. Now, scientists say the destruction was even worse in an earlier incident 4,000 years ago.

Days after Hurricane Katrina made landfall east of New Orleans, thousands are still stranded in the city. And the city's mayor has issued what he called an "Urgent SOS" for help. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is overseeing the biggest recovery operation in U.S. history.

New Orleans is an iconic American city, from the French Quarter to Lake Pontchartrain. It has seen war, fire and flood, and it has always been rebuilt.

Ben Trokan and Steve Mercado are the driving force behind Robbers on High Street, a pop band born in their hometown of Poughkeepsie, N.Y. They tell Liane Hansen about Tree City, their first full-length CD.

U.S. troops engage in fighting with Shiite militants loyal to rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in Kufa, near the southern Iraqi city of Najaf. The clashes come one day after Sadr agreed to pull his militia out of Najaf, provided U.S. forces withdrew to their bases outside the city. U.S. military officials say the truce remains in place. Hear NPR's Steve Inskeep and NPR's Peter Kenyon.

The U.S. military suspends offensive operations in the Iraqi holy city of Najaf. The move is part of a deal, brokered by Shiite leaders, to have insurgent cleric Muqtada al-Sadr withdraw his militia from the besieged city. Sadr's fighters have suffered heavy casualties in recent clashes with U.S. forces. Hear NPR's Steve Inskeep and NPR's Peter Kenyon.

Nearly two months of running battles between U.S. troops and radical Shiite militiamen in the southern Iraqi cities of Najaf and Kufa may be over. The U.S.-appointed provincial governor says both sides will withdraw from the cities, home to some of the most sacred shrines in Shiite Islam. Hear NPR's Robert Siegel and NPR's Deborah Amos.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani have unveiled a plan to offer free child care for 2-year-olds.