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Pope John Paul II's fragile health has stabilized after Tuesday night's urgent hospital treatment for breathing difficulties. The Vatican says there is no cause for alarm, but the 84-year-old pontiff will remain hospitalized for the time being.

Poet, philosopher, Heidegger scholar and former priest John O'Donohue has written several books on Celtic spirituality. O'Donohue lives in the Connemara region in the West of Ireland, a haunting landscape of stone, sea and rainbows. His latest book is Beauty.

This is Holy Week, when Christians mark the story of the last days of Jesus, culminating on Easter Sunday. This year, Pope John Paul II is conspicuous by his absence from Vatican ceremonies. Commentator James Martin, a Jesuit priest, says that the pontiff's illness is integral to his papacy, and the theology of Holy Week.

President Bush and Sen. John Kerry campaign furiously in key battleground states, exchanging attacks on gun control, Iraq and the economy. Meanwhile, CBS News says it will stand by a disputed story on the president's service in the Air National Guard. NPR's Mara Liasson reports.

NPR's Melissa Block talks to NPR's David Welna about last night's verbal attacks by Zell Miller and Vice President Dick Cheney against Senator John Kerry. A look at how their criticism of Kerry gels with the facts.

President Bush and Sen. John Kerry crisscross the nation from Florida to the Midwest on the last weekend of campaigning before the national election. The two candidates urged their party faithful and independents alike to vote Tuesday. Hear NPR's Andrea Seabrook and Don Gonyea.

The winter solstice occurs this Tuesday. For the past 25 years, musician Paul Winter has celebrated the event with a series of concerts. This year, the event took place at the Cathedral of St. John the Devine in New York City. NPR's Margot Adler spoke with Winter as he prepared for the concerts.

President Bush names the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, John Negroponte, to be the first national intelligence director. The post involves oversight of 15 agencies including the CIA. In a White House ceremony, the president said the director will play a key role in waging the war on terror.

When Ohio native Neil Armstrong landed on the moon 35 years ago this week, Americans gathered around their televisions to watch. John Smith was a teenager in the summer of 1969 and lived about 20 miles from Armstrong's family. He made an audio recording of the landing and offers a personal recollection.

NPR's Robert Siegel is joined by political columnists David Brooks of The New York Times and E.J. Dionne of The Washington Post to talk about Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention Thursday night, and whether the four-day convention was a success.

Former President Bill Clinton ignited the Democratic faithful Monday night at the Democratic National Convention, making a forceful case for presidential candidate John Kerry as a war hero and leader with the strength to make America safer.

Sen. John Kerry's service in Vietnam and his later prominence in protests against that war have both been major elements in his political profile ever since. But only now are these stories entering the consciousness of the nation as a whole. NPR's Melissa Block reports.

NPR's Peter Overby looks at a new, controversial television advertisement that disparages Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry's Vietnam War record. The ad has made national news because of its claims Kerry didn't earn all his medals -- but is it accurate?

President Bush and Sen. John Kerry make contrasting appeals to women voters. Bush focuses on terrorism and its impact on families' sense of security. Kerry hones in on economic issues as they apply to U.S. women. NPR's Scott Horsley reports.

Arizona State University hosts the third and final debate between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry Wednesday. The debate, to focus on domestic policy, is the only meeting between the Republican and Democratic candidates to be held in the Far West. Hear reporter Mark Moran of KJZZ.

Sen. John Kerry makes an aggressive return to the campaign trail after his first debate with President Bush, which polls indicate he won. The president fights back with strong rhetoric of his own. NPR's Scott Horsley reports.

The next pope will be elected at a conclave of 115 Roman Catholic cardinals scheduled to begin Monday. Piety and politics mark the days leading to the conclave, as cardinals consider who among them is a plausible candidate to follow John Paul II.

An older style of acoustic music -- most deeply associated with guitarists John Fahey and Max Ochs -- is being revamped by younger musicians like Jack Rose and others featured on a new compilation, Imaginational Anthem.

Two Democratic congressmen say that Halliburton is overcharging the United States for gasoline it imports into Iraq, citing lower gas prices elsewhere in the country. The company says its price reflects the cost of doing business in a hostile area. NPR's John Burnett reports.

Iraqi intellectuals, persecuted for decades, meet for the first time since the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime. The gathering at the University of Baghdad was called to form a committee on Iraqi cultural life. But it quickly devolved into a raucous, free-wheeling debate. NPR's John Burnett reports.