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DNA is not just an instruction book for the present and something to pass on to future generations -- it is also a record of our genetic past. No longer do researchers look for clues to human history merely in fossil bones and stone tools, they also seek "genetic fossils" in the DNA of living peoples. NPR's David Baron talks to University of Maryland researcher Sarah Tishkoff, who, by studying DNA and mitochondrial DNA, has revealed some of the most detailed clues yet to humankind's origins.

On a Navy hospital ship in the Persian Gulf, the USNS Comfort, American doctors often need translation help to understand their injured Iraqi charges. Lt. Ramzey Azar, an environmental health officer on the Comfort, is of Lebanese origin and often assists in translating. This is Lt. Azar's NPR War Diary.

As the war in Iraq progressed, NPR's Anne Garrels was the only U.S. network reporter to continue broadcasting from the heart of Baghdad. Her reports, delivered on a smuggled satellite phone, took listeners through some terrible times. Now safely back home in Connecticut, Garrels recalls her time covering the war in an interview with NPR's Susan Stamberg. Hear an extended version of the interview.

The Bush administration says Iran is sending agents into Iraq to influence the development of a postwar government. Iran and Iraq are bound by religion but often in conflict over culture and politics. Hear NPR's Melissa Block and Owen Matthews of Newsweek.

Anti-American, antiwar protests decrease across the Arab world, but the anger persists. Many Arabs say they're suspicious of U.S. intentions for Iraq. But some Arab pundits say the U.S. victory can lead to positive changes -- not just in Baghdad, but feasibly across the Middle East. NPR's Deborah Amos reports from Cairo.

The Centers for Disease Control issues a health alert for travelers visiting Toronto, where the deadly respiratory disease known as SARS has killed at least 14 and infected more than 300. The SARS outbreak is having a major impact on the local economy, 10 percent of which comes from international tourism. Hear NPR's Susan Stone.

An important Iraqi intelligence official is in U.S. custody. Farouk Hijazi was accused of planning a plot to assassinate the first President Bush in the early 1990s. A Pentagon official says Hijazi met with Osama bin Laden in 1996. Defense officials hope his capture will produce valuable new information. NPR's Tom Gjelten reports.

Chinese health officials report seven more deaths from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, raising China's SARS-related deaths to 122. In Beijing, a second hospital is sealed off and 4,000 residents are under quarantine. Disease experts urge people to heed travel advisories. Hear NPR's Rob Gifford and NPR's Linda Wertheimer.

NPR's Linda Wertheimer talks with Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Fauci says SARS is a particularly dangerous disease because it passes directly from person to person. He urges people to follow travel advisories issued in response to the epidemic.

Our observance of National Poetry Month concludes this week with poems from two armed conflicts. Linda Hughes of Texas Christian University reads Alfred Lord Tennyson's "The Charge of the Light Brigade," written during the Crimean War in 1854. Niall Ferguson of New York University and Jesus College, Oxford, reads a selection of poems from the First World War: A.E. Housman's "Grenadier" and "Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries"; Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est"; and John McCrae's "In Flanders Fields."