Baghdad, A Decade Later

In this Wednesday, March 13, 2013 photo, traffic drives through Tahrir Square in central Baghdad, Iraq. Ten years after the start of the war, bullet holes still pockmark buildings, and towers wrecked by U.S. missiles and tank shells have not fully been rebuilt.
Hadi Mizban/AP In this Wednesday, March 13, 2013 photo, traffic drives through Tahrir Square in central Baghdad, Iraq. Ten years after the start of the war, bullet holes still pockmark buildings, and towers wrecked by U.S. missiles and tank shells have not fully been rebuilt.Hadi Mizban/AP
Ten years after the U.S.-led war in Iraq, NPR is looking at where the country stands now. NPR's Kelly McEvers recently visited Baghdad and offered this take on how the Iraqi capital feels today.
I think the single word that would best describe Baghdad these days is traffic. It can take hours just to get from one place to another. And I guess that's both good and bad.

E.U. Tax Proposal On Cypriot Bank Deposits Riles Russia

There has been angry reaction in Russia and Cyprus to the E.U.'s proposal to seize nearly 10 percent of large deposits in Cypriot banks, and roughly 7 percent of smaller deposits. That would force Russian oligarchs and ordinary citizens to bear much of the cost of the bank bailout in Cyprus.

Has The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Been Downgraded?

With President Clinton presiding, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, left, and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, right, signed an interim peace accord at the White House in 1993. Twenty years later, President Obama is heading to the region with peace efforts in the deep freeze.
Ron Edmonds /AP With President Clinton presiding, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, left, and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, right, signed an interim peace accord at the White House in 1993. Twenty years later, President Obama is heading to the region with peace efforts in the deep freeze.Ron Edmonds /AP
Every American president since Harry Truman has wrestled with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to no avail. Yet they keep trying based on the notion that the Middle East will never be calm until there's peace between these protagonists.
But as President Obama heads to Israel and the West Bank, expectations could hardly be lower. What's more, this long-standing feud, often seen as the Holy Grail of American diplomacy, no longer seems to hold the same urgency, according to many analysts.
The U.S. goal remains a two-state solution that provides security for Israel and a state for the Palestinians. And a new round of fighting could reverberate throughout the Middle East.

Dueling Claims In Syria After Unconfirmed Reports About Chemical Weapons

While state-controlled media in Syria are claiming that opposition forces are responsible for what may have been a chemical weapon attack Tuesday in the city of Aleppo, rebel spokesman Qassim Saadeddine is telling Reuters that the opposition was "not behind this attack."

As often happens when news such as this breaks, it's not possible at this point to confirm just what — if anything — has happened. Syrian state media are claiming that at least 15 people were killed in Aleppo by some sort of rocket. The watchdog Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is telling Reuters that as many as 26 people were killed.

American officials have said that President Bashar Assad's regime has prepared chemical weapons for use, and President Obama has warned the Syrian leader that "if you [Assad] make the tragic mistake of using these weapons, there will be consequences and you will be held accountable."

We'll watch for developments.

Update at 12:15 p.m. ET. No Evidence The Weapons Have Been Used, White House Says:

The Associated Press reports that "the Obama administration has no evidence to back up a claim by Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime that the U.S.-backed Syrian rebels used chemical weapons, the White House said Tuesday. A U.S. official went further and said there was no evidence either side had used such weapons Tuesday in an attack in northern Syria, disputing a competing claim by rebels that it was regime forces who fired the chemical weapon."

Pope Francis Thrills Crowd Ahead Of Installation

Pope Francis thrilled tens of thousands of people on Tuesday gathered for his installation Mass, taking a long round-about through St. Peter's Square and getting out of his jeep to bless a disabled man — a gesture from a man whose papacy is becoming defined by concern for the disadvantaged.
The blue and white flags from Francis' native Argentina fluttered above the crowd that included princes, sheiks, rabbis and presidents. Civil protection crews closed the main streets leading to the square to traffic and set up barricades for nearly a mile (two kilometers) along the route to try to control the masses and allow official delegations through.
Italian media estimated some 1 million might attend, but the numbers at the start of the Mass appeared to be fewer.
For nearly a half-hour, Francis toured the square in an open-air jeep, waving, shouting "Ciao!" to well-wishers and occasionally kissing babies handed up to him as if he had been doing this for years. At one point, as he neared a group of people in wheelchairs, he signaled for the jeep to stop, hopped off, and went to bless a man held up to the barricade by an aide.
"As an Argentine, he was our cardinal. It's a great joy for us," said Edoardo Fernandez Mendia, from the Argentine Pampas who was in the crowd. Recalling another great moment in Argentine history, when soccer great Diego Maradona scored an improbable goal in the 1986 World Cup, he said: "And for the second time, the Hand of God came to Argentina."