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National Hockey League management locks out players over a dispute on salaries. The confrontation may not end until players accept that hockey, as a professional sport, is not a top-tier sport like football and basketball. The league, after years of trying to promote itself as another "big time" sport, wants to reduce its ambitions and its economics. Hear Michele Norris and Wall Street Journal sportswriter Stefan Fatsis.

The $200 plate of french fries are made with champagne and truffles and topped with gold dust.

On his new album, Timeless Love, rhythm and blues legend Smokey Robinson sings hits from the American songbook, including "I Can't Give You Anything But Love (Baby)," "Night and Day" and "More Than You Know." Robinson William "Smokey" Robinson recorded dozens of top 40 hits for the Motown label as a solo artist and with The Miracles.

NPR's Robert Siegel talks with Charles Duelfer, who served as deputy executive chairman of the U.N. Special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM) from 1993 to 2000, about the additional $600 million the Bush administration is seeking for the continuing search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The money is part of the $87 billion request that Bush has already put before Congress, and comes on top of the $300 million already spent in the weapons search.

Sen. Joe Biden has been in the spotlight lately because of his work on two panels: the Judiciary Committee, which questioned new Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and the Foreign Relations Committee, on which Biden is the top Democrat.

In Iraq, insurgents conducted attacks across the country Tuesday, killing more than 20 people, including several Iraqi policemen and a U.S. soldier. In Washington, top Pentagon officials encouraged Iraqis to finish work on a new constitution on schedule.

Greece's two top track athletes, both of whom won medals in past Olympics, face expulsion from the Games after missing a mandatory drug test. Konstantinos Kenteris and Ekaterina Thanou have been hospitalized after a motorcycle accident that occurred after the pair skipped out on the test. Hear NPR's Steve Inskeep and NPR's Tom Goldman.

Calling to mind early Radiohead, the Irish band Bell X1 crafts melodic, radio-friendly pop. Flock topped the Irish album charts in 2005, but it's only just been reissued in the U.S., with an ambitious tour to follow. Hear an interview and performance.

On May 19, 1989, a tearful Zhao Ziyang, one of the Communist Party's top officials, addressed student protesters in Tiananmen Square. After that speech, Zhao was put on house arrest, where he remained until his death in 2005. Editor Bao Pu talks about a new book of Zhao's memoirs.

Bacharach's career spanned seven decades and was noted for his collaborations with Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, Tom Jones and many others. He penned more than 70 Top-40 hits.