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Two members of the Duke University lacrosse team were named in sealed indictments handed down form a Durham, N.C., grand jury, according to reports. The charges stem from a night in March, when a dancer at a house party thrown by team members told police she was sexually assaulted by three men.

The Army interrogation manual, which was supposed to be released in May 2005, will set the standard for all services and include a classified annex with approved interrogation techniques. Sources say that the White House and Pentagon would like to have a two-track process with the techniques, one for legal combatants and another for illegal combatants. The latter would presumably be more "strenuous."

The Sept. 11 Commission issues a follow-up report on how the White House and Congress have responded to the their recommendations. The panel issued advice last year on how to avoid another terrorist attack, but members say the results have been disappointing.

Joyce DiDonato is a young American mezzo soprano who has taken London by storm. She is appearing at the Royal Opera House as Rosina in Barber of Seville. DiDonato, who is from Kansas, admits that when she was a child, she cared little about opera — her musical world revolved around Shaun Cassidy and Billy Joel.

The city will change the iconic Hollywood sign on Mount Lee. The temporary reconstruction started Monday, and when the makeover is complete, the sign will read: Rams House.

Pentagon officials acknowledge that extending the combat tours of some U.S. soldiers in Iraq will cost several hundred million extra dollars. The White House's 2005 budget curently includes no funding request for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Concerns are growing among members of Congress from both parties about the overall cost of military operations in Iraq. NPR'S Eric Westervelt reports.

National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice briefs House and Senate Republicans on the situation in Iraq. The closed-door briefing comes near the end of a series of Congressional hearings examining troop deployment extensions, military costs and the planned June 30 transfer of power to an Iraqi government. Rice also met with some Senate Democrats in a meeting that was arranged at the last minute. NPR's Andrea Seabrook reports.

In the third and final story in our series profiling California's Inland Empire, NPR's Scott Horsley reports that this sprawling region east of Los Angeles and north of San Diego has one of the fastest-growing economies in the nation. Affordable housing has drawn commuters from the coast, who in turn attracted small businesses. Then good highways and railroads turned the Inland Empire into a major distribution center. Now the question is whether it can climb the economic ladder by attracting high-paying jobs.

U.S. forces arrest a key aide to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and wage battles with militia loyal to the Shiite leader. The aide, Riyadh al-Nouri, was taken captive at a house in Najaf. He is al-Sadr's brother-in-law. An Army spokesman said a "very large number" of youths -- members of al-Sadr's militia -- were killed in fighting in Najaf and Sadr City. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports.

A few weeks ago the media reported that the last widow of a Civil War veteran had died. The news surprised the family of Maudie Celia Hopkins, who stepped forward to say that she, too, married a civil war veteran, and she's still alive. The Arkansas woman is 89 years old. The United Daughters of the Confederacy confirmed her story. As a teenager, Hopkins married an 86-year-old veteran who'd hired her to clean his house.