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Reporter Jennifer Glasse reports from Kinshasa on U.N. Secretary General Kofi Anan's announcement today that he was withdrawing a team of investigators who have been probing massacres of Rwandan refugees in the Congo. The team has encountered persistent obstacles while attempting to gather information about Hutu refugee killings.

Attorney General Ashcroft praises a new registration system requiring fingerprints and photos of citizens from Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Libya and Syria as they arrive on U.S. soil. Several Arab countries denounce the program as racial profiling. NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports.

NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports that international relief agencies are agonizing over whether to return to Liberia. Most aid groups were forced to abandon the country last month, when renewed fighting shattered the country's fragile peace. Mostly teenage militias ransacked relief agencies' offices and stole their equipment and supplies. Aid workers worry that even if the situation stabilizes and they do return to Liberia, there are no guarantees that things won't deteriorate again.

The ceasefire in Liberia that has kept warring factions peaceful for almost two weeks has been broken. U.S. Marines today killed three Liberians near the American Embassy compound in Monrovia and wounded a fourth. The men were shot after fighting broke out in the capital. An American soldier was slightly wounded in today's fighting. Noah Adams talks with NPR's Jennifer Ludden who's in the Liberian capital of Monrovia.

Jennifer Ludden reports that Zaire's longtime ruler Mobutu Sese Seko returned from a four-month absence today. Tens of thousands of people welcomed him as he returned to the capital, Kinshasa. Mobutu has been receiving treatment for prostate cancer in Europe. While he was away a civil war erupted, and the rebellion threatens to split up one of Africa's largest nations.

Jennifer Schmidt of member station WBUR takes a look at the history of Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound. The potion has been available in the United States for over a century, and its various marketing campaigns over the years have charted a century's changing responses to women's health problems.

Outgoing Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Barak reversed course yesterday and announced he would not join the cabinet of Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon. NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports that Barak's decision deals a blow to Sharon's hopes of establishing a national unity government, and leaves Barak's Likud party in disarray.

NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports from Jerusalem. Israel's Labor Party has voted to accept Prime-Minister-elect Ariel Sharon's invitation to join a national unity government. The decision clears the way for Sharon to start coalition talks with other parties.

Israeli forces launched a second incursion into Gaza today, destroying a Palestinian police station. This incursion was smaller and briefer than yesterday's. Meanwhile, the Israeli press accuses Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of buckling under U.S. pressure because he unexpectedly called off yesterday's incursion when Secretary of State Colin Powell criticized it as "excessive and disproportionate." Robert Siegel talks with NPR's Jennifer Ludden.

More than 200 Iraqi delegates agree during a U.S.-led meeting in Baghdad to meet again within a month to select members of an interim government. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is considering moving a key base for U.S. air operations from Saudi Arabia to Qatar. Hear reports from NPR's Scott Simon and NPR's Jennifer Ludden.