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Allied officials say they will soon pick a council of leading Iraqis to work under U.S. and British occupation forces. It's billed as a small first step in turning power over to Iraqis, but it does not constitute the start of a new government -- that will have to wait for a constitutional convention and elections. NPR's Steve Inskeep talks with NPR's Deborah Amos in Iraq.

In the final report of a four-part NPR/National Geographic Radio Expedition to Mali, Chadwick descends into one of the biggest salt mines in the Sahara Desert, where West African miners still extract salt by hand, the way it's been done for centuries. Such mines have been the destination of camel caravans for at least a millennium.

In the first of a four-part series on the Wal-Mart chain, NPR's Wade Goodwyn reports that the retail giant has its roots in small town capitalism. The company has now developed one of the most sophisticated information management and product distribution systems in the world.

Puzzle master Will Shortz quizzes one of our listeners, and has a challenge for everyone at home. (This week's winner is Rick Pacynski from Gross Pointe Park, Mich. He listens to Weekend Edition Sunday on member stations WDET, Detroit, and WUOM, Ann Arbor.)

The U.S. occupation has liberated the baser instincts of some Iraqis. Public drunkenness, taboo under Saddam, is now a growing problem. And blue movies are drawing big crowds of young men. NPR's Nick Spicer reports from Baghdad.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair defends his Iraq policy under a firestorm of House of Commons criticism from both the opposition and members of his own party. The Blair government is accused of doctoring a dossier that was said to prove Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capability. Members of Parliament are calling for an investigation.

NPR's Jim Zarroli visited a town in southwest Wisconsin where downtown merchants have found a way to compete with the local Wal-Mart. Many store owners say they can coexist because they offer an expertise not easily found in the larger retail chains.

Gunmen armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons attack a U.S. resupply convoy in Iraq, killing one American soldier and wounding others. In another incident, a land mine set on a Baghdad roadway explodes, destroying a U.S. Humvee and injuring the soldiers inside. Hear NPR News.

Jules Vitali has spent the past few years creating sculptures from styrofoam coffee cups. NPR's Scott Simon learns that Vitali has turned more than 2,000 throw-away cups into quite a collection of art.

Film critic David Edelstein reviews Capturing the Friedmans, a new documentary by Andrew Jarecki about a family torn apart by charges of pedophilia and child molestation.