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New York City will commemorate Central Park's 150th anniversary Monday night with a 1,000-foot-high, 850-foot-diameter halo of light. NPR's Scott Simon speaks with Phil Grucci, the engineer behind the planned pyrotechnic display. See an artist's rendering of what the fireworks spectacle will look like.

Twenty-five years ago today, the leaders of Egypt and Israel signed a framework for peace in the Middle East. President Jimmy Carter, who mediated the Camp David Accords, tells NPR's Bob Edwards the historic agreement holds lessons for the region today.

He won an Oscar this year for his role in Roman Polanski's The Pianist. Brody played Wladyslaw Szpilman, the Polish pianist and Holocaust survivor. Brody's other films include Summer of Sam, The Thin Red Line, Restaurant, and The Affair of the Necklace. He's now starring in Dummy.

She got her start acting in 50s and 60s Westerns, appearing in Gunsmoke and Marlon Brando's One-Eyed Jacks. Though she is from Puerto Rico, she was often cast as a Mexican. Her films include Scarface and All the Pretty Horses. She's now starring in The Blue Diner, which will appear on PBS.

NPR's Senior Foreign Correspondent Anne Garrels was one of the few journalists still in Baghdad during the invasion of Iraq. Often she reported from her room at the Palestine Hotel as bombs flew overhead. In her new book, Naked in Baghdad, she writes about the war and its aftermath. The book also contains the e-mails that her husband Vint Lawrence sent to friends keeping them informed of her daily life in Baghdad. Garrels has also reported from the former Soviet republics, China, Saudi Arabia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Israel, and is the recipient of the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University award and the Overseas press Club award.

Secretary of State Colin Powell wraps up his trip to Iraq with a visit to the northern town of Halabja, where as many as 5,000 Kurds died in a 1988 chemical attack by Saddam Hussein's regime. Powell says he looks forward to a report expected soon from a U.S. team searching Iraq for banned weapons, which have yet to be found. Hear NPR's Emily Harris.

Today we conclude the three-part series, "Art Out of Cataclysm." NPR's Renee Montagne talks to writer Kurt Vonnegut about the firebombing of Dresden, Germany, by British bombers towards the end of World War II. Vonnegut's novel, Slaughterhouse Five, is based on his own experience as an eyewitness to the aftermath.

At 74, he's a reigning ambassador of Latin jazz, and percussionist Ray Barretto is still going strong. NPR's Felix Contreras profiles the artist. Hear clips of the song that inspired Barretto to take up jazz and a track from his latest album, Homage to Art Blakey.

A new publication called Revolve tells the New Testament with the graphics and gimmicks of a teen magazine. Its publishers say the format makes the Bible applicable to a modern girl's life. Read excerpts and see photos.

All Things Considered talks with three people about how their worlds have changed since Sept. 11, 2001. Rick King is the assistant fire chief of Shanksville's volunteer fire department and owner of Ida's Country Store. He talks with us about the change in his small town's character. We also talk with Anna Switzer, principal of City Hall Academy, about downtown Manhattan, and Col. Philip Smith, deputy director of Army personnel, about working in the rebuilt section of the Pentagon.