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While some of the music created in the mid-20th and early 21st centuries has never found an audience, there are contemporary composers who have achieved both critical acclaim and commercial success. Musicologist Richard Taruskin discusses the current era of music.

The music of Mikhail Glinka earned him credit for launching Russian nationalism. But his most famous opera, "A Life for the Tsar," is filled with the music of Poland, not Russia. Musicologist Richard Taruskin explores national identity in music.

A car bomb in Baghdad kills at least 14 people and injures 40. The blast came as worshippers left a Shiite mosque. Insurgents have been targeting Shiites as part of a campaign to disrupt the country's Jan. 30 national elections.

Researchers in England are exploring a potential new breast cancer treatment that would take advantage of a genetic weakness in cancer cells that normal cells do not have. The new discovery could lead to more effective and easier treatment for millions of people affected by the disease.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan plans to take disciplinary action against current and former officials involved in the oil-for-food program for Iraq. Mismanagement of the program -- designed to help Iraqis under U.N. sanctions during Saddam Hussein's rule -- has tarnished the U.N.'s reputation.

Get ready for some high-energy hijinx from this 11-member Romanian Gypsy group. The band was discovered by two Belgian world music fanatics in 1989 in the rural town of Cjelani, 25 miles outside of Bucharest.

Iraq's Christian community was rocked by a series of nearly simultaneous explosions Sunday that targeted five different churches in two Iraqi cities. The U.S. military says at least 11 people were killed and more than 47 injured in the highly sophisticated coordinated attack. NPR's Ivan Watson reports.

More than 30 people are killed in blasts targeting U.S. military convoys in the Baghdad area. A car bombing outside the mayor's office in the Abu Ghraib area, west of Baghdad, kills two Iraqis and one U.S. soldier. In Fallujah, three Iraqis are reported killed in a U.S. air strike. Hear NPR's Paul Brown.

Thousands of U.S. troops launch a much-anticipated offensive against Iraqi insurgents in the town of Fallujah, west of Baghdad. Hear NPR's Michele Norris and NPR's Philip Reeves.

For a second day, insurgents in Iraq target Shia Muslims as they observed the holy day of Ashoura. At least 30 people were killed. Despite the violence, tens of thousands of Iraqis took part in religious processions to commemorate the death of Hussein, grandson of the prophet Mohammed.