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Occupying Iraq is costing the United States nearly $4 billion a month, but nearly one-third of that total is going to private contractors. The largest beneficiary is Halliburton, the company once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney. The Pentagon has expanded civilian contracts as reconstruction demands escalate in Iraq. NPR's Kathy Schalch reports.

Reese Erlich reports on the growing trend in Spain of fusing traditional flamenco music with hip-hop rhythms. Purists are aghast, but the musicians who play flamenco fusion are discovering that they're introducing the art form to many of the kids in Spain's biggest cities.

On this Labor Day, we pay tribute to the librarian. Librarians feed our hunger for knowledge, they steer us down the proper research path, they find us sources and dig out obscure facts. And though their efforts often go unheralded, now librarians are represented by an action figure. NPR's Melissa Block talks with the model for the figure, Nancy Pearl.

With the recent attack on the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, it's clear that U.S.-led forces in Iraq face a "growing threat" of terrorism, the chief U.S. civilian administrator in Iraq says. Paul Bremer says it will take two years to train an Iraqi police force, and postwar reconstruction will cost billions more. NPR's Juan Williams speaks with Bremer on Tuesday's Morning Edition.

Recent attacks on oil pipelines and on U.S. soldiers in Iraq were the work of Saddam Hussein loyalists, criminals and "jihadists who came in from Syria for the most part," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says. Hear Rumsfeld's interview with NPR's Steve Inskeep.

Puzzle master Will Shortz quizzes one of our listeners, and has a challenge for everyone at home. (This week's winner is Karen Kinnier from Lynchburg, Va. She listens to Weekend Edition on member station WVTF in Blacksburg, Va.)

Melissa Block talks with Shashi Tharoor, United Nations under-secretary general, about Tuesday's bomb blast in Baghdad that killed Sergio Vieira de Mello, the U.N. special representative to Iraq.

U.S. Iraq administrator Paul Bremer says that despite Tuesday's bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, the country is not in chaos. Investigators theorize the attackers were either Saddam loyalists or outside militants who infiltrated Iraq. The FBI says it has found evidence suggesting the attack was a suicide bombing. Hear NPR's Anne Garrels.

Alfred Matthew Yankovic is the king of pop parody. You know him better as "Weird Al." NPR's Steve Inskeep caught up with the 43-year-old funny man on tour to promote his latest CD, Poodle Hat.

NPR's Jacki Lyden talks with author Jill Jonnes about her new book, Empires of Light, a history of the men who pioneered the electrification of America.