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A bomb explodes outside a police station in southwestern Baghdad, killing at least nine people and wounding dozens more. The bombing comes as Iraq's new interim government tries to work out differences with opposition groups and stem insurgent attacks. Hear NPR's Philip Reeves.

Manmohan Singh, a 71-year-old economist, is slated to become India's new prime minister after Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi stunned supporters by declining the job. A former finance minister and member of India's Sikh minority, Singh oversaw the liberalizing reforms of India's economy in the early 1990s. Hear NPR's Philip Reeves.

Sonia Gandhi, heir to India's Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, gives up her chance to become prime minister, reportedly to protect her Congress Party's new government from attacks over her Italian birth. Manmohan Singh, architect of the country's financial reforms, is now seen as the favorite to become prime minister. NPR's Philip Reeves reports.

Reconstruction efforts in Iraq are being hampered by the soaring cost of construction materials. Lack of security on the highways has driven up the cost of transporting the supplies. In addition, the U.S. occupation has brought higher prices from American commanders buy up bricks to fortify their bases. NPR's Philip Reeves reports.

Patti Smith hit the 1970s music scene with an ecstatic blend of poetry and rock. She credits that signature sound to lessons in free-verse defiance from Arthur Rimbaud and Bob Dylan.

Spanish-led troops in Iraq exchange fire with armed militiamen amid a large demonstration near Najaf, killing at least 14 and leaving more than 100 wounded. Four Salvadoran soldiers also died in the shooting. Protestors had gathered at a Spanish base to express anger over the arrest of an aide to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Hear NPR's Liane Hansen and NPR's Philip Reeves.

Pakistani officials say they believe there are about 600 al Qaeda militants along the mountainous frontier with Afghanistan. Many are Arabs and their families who first settled in the region in the 1980s, when they came to wage a Jihad against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. NPR's Philip Reeves speaks with two women of Arab origin who hid in the hills along the frontier.

Did William White break baseball's color line, 68 years before Jackie Robinson? NPR's Robert Siegel talks with The Wall Street Journal sportswriter Stefan Fatsis about White, who may have played one major-league game in 1879.

NPR's Melissa Block talks to syndicated columnist Crispin Sartwell about how his son's Google search for Tito Puente yielded hits for both the musician and Yugoslavian leader Marshal Tito. Sartwell pondered the amazing career of this multi-talented combined man. We take it further to explore the musical stylings of Don Ho Chi Minh, Lil' Kim Jong Il, and Ray Charles Taylor.

Joe Bussard's record collection — perhaps the largest of its kind — sends listeners back in time. "The truest form you'll ever hear in American music is on these records," he says.