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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.

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.

In the final of four stories marking the 50th anniversary of DNA's discovery, NPR's Jon Hamilton reports that genetic causes of mental illness have proved illusive to find. As scientists began to understand how genetic material controls the human body, they were confident that such research could help unlock the secrets of the brain, but that hasn't happened.

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.

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.

Ravitch is the author of the new book, The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn. In her book she chronicles the efforts of school boards and bias and sensitivity committees to edit and shape the textbooks that end up in classrooms. Some examples of this include: omitting the mention of Jews in an Isaac Bashevis Singer story about prewar Poland, changing the expression "My God!" to "You don't mean it," and recommending that children not be shown as disobedient or in conflict with adults. Ravitch writes that the process has evolved into a practice that excises "words, images, passages and ideas that no reasonable person would consider biased in the usual meaning of that term."

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."

One of the few major encounters with the Iraqi Republican Guard the U.S. Marine's 1st Division encountered during its drive to Baghdad was at the small Tigris river town of Aziziyah. NPR's John Burnett was with the 1st Division as it moved on to Baghdad. He retraces his steps to see what the battle was all about. He discovers what appears to have been an accidental U.S. bombing of a village near Aziziyah in which 31 civilians were killed as they slept.

U.S. officials take custody of a former Iraqi spy chief. The arrest of Farouk Hijazi comes a day after Tariq Aziz, Iraq's highly visible former deputy prime minister, turned himself in to U.S. officials. Some believe Aziz may be able to disclose information on the status of Saddam Hussein. Hear NPR's Bob Edwards and NPR's Guy Raz.

Shoba Narayan has written about her journey from southern India to the United States in her new book Monsoon Diary: A Memoir with Recipes, celebrating food, family ties and Indian culture. View a video of Narayan demonstrating the correct way to cook vegetable dosa, and get recipes for some of the other dishes featured in Lynn Neary's report.