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A U.S. military transport helicopter crashes in the desert of western Iraq Wednesday, killing 31 U.S. Marines. The helicopter was about 220 miles west of Baghdad, carrying personnel from the First Marine Division. A U.S. military spokesman says there were no survivors and that the cause is still being investigated.

Commentator Sandip Roy was a boy in India when a gas leak in Bhopal killed thousands of men, women and children. He collected pictures of the victims for his scrapbook, and found the photo of one little girl particularly harrowing. On the 20th anniversary of the tragedy, Roy, now an editor with New California Media in San Francisco, recalls the image.

CBS and NBC refuse to air a TV commercial for the United Church of Christ, saying the ad is too controversial. The commercial shows two bouncers standing in front of a church refusing to let some people in, including a gay couple. NPR's Lynn Neary reports.

President Bush formally announces the selection of former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik to succeed Tom Ridge as head of the Department of Homeland Security. Kerik would be the second person to head the two-year-old agency. NPR's Pam Fessler reports.

Author Paul Auster reads "Auggie Wren's Christmas Story." The short story has no Santa Claus, no Christmas tree, and no brightly wrapped packages. And yet there's plenty of giving.

Author Susan Sontag died Tuesday in Manhattan, after a long struggle with cancer. Sontag was the author of many essays and 17 widely translated books. She wrote about photography and AIDS, film and choreography, Vietnam and the Sept. 11 attacks. Her novel In America won the National Book Award for fiction. Sontag was 71. Hear NPR's Kim Masters.

North Carolina is home to some 4,000 Vietnamese Montagnard refugees. For most of the recent arrivals, this Christmas will be their first chance to celebrate openly. Hear reporter Jessica Jones of member station WUNC.

A new anthology of fiction was published on World AIDS Day in response to the global epidemic. Conceived and edited by Nobel Prize-winning novelist Nadine Gordimer, Telling Talesfeatures stories from 21 distinguished authors. All profits will go to medical and advocacy programs on AIDS. NPR's Jennifer Ludden speaks with Gordimer.

Amid new and often confusing revelations about painkillers currently on the market, the Food and Drug Administration issues an interim advisory while it compares data on pain relievers. NPR's Joanne Silberner reports.

Baseball superstar Barry Bonds tells a grand jury that he used substances prosecutors say were undetectable steroids, according to a newspaper report. Bonds reportedly testified he was unaware the substances were performance-enhancing drugs. NPR's Tom Goldman reports.