From NPR news in Washington, I'm Giles Snyder.

Top climate experts meeting in Belgium have agreed on a major United Nations’ report on global warming. Scientists working with government delegates from more than one hundred nations have been in a dispute over language they feared water down the report. The Chairman of the International Panel on Climate Change Rajendra Pachauri says the meeting went non-stop until the report was finalized. "I'm wearing the suit that I wore yesterday morning and I've been sitting in the chair all night and it's been the very productive thought I would say tiring exercise." The report is on the impact of global warming and offers tough warnings ranging from hungry in Africa and Asia to extinctions of wild life. The climate change Panel is offered two more reports this year, a previous one was issued in February.

Some of the captured British sailors and marines detained by Iran in the Persian Gulf were speak publicly today for the first time since arriving back in British. In a joint statement the 15 have issued they said they got through their detention by staying together as a team.

Former First Lady Betty Ford is recovering from surgery that is according to a statement from the office of the late President Gerald Ford. NPR's Anna Jeffy reports. Mrs. Ford underwent surgery earlier this week at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage California. The statement released by the office of late President Ford did not disclose the nature of the surgery, but it said she was recovering well and not further information would be released for several days. Betty Ford is 88 years old. Her birthday is this coming Sunday. Late last December she accompanied her husband's remains to memorial ceremonies in California, Washington DC, and to Grand Rapids Michigan where he was buried on the grounds of his presidential library. Betty Ford was a very popular first lady for the candid way she discussed her breast cancer, for her championing of women's rights, and later for her successful struggle with addiction and the founding of the Betty Ford Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. Anna Jeffy NPR news.



At least 7 Filipinos were nailed to cross today during a Good Friday realignment of Christ Crucifixion. Douglas B reports. In the town of Cutud about 50 miles north of Manila, devoted Christians acted out the ritual completed with men dressed as Roman soldiers leading victims to the cross. 46-year-old Ruben Enaje, a sign painter says he was crucified to express his gratitude to God for a good life. "Face God, what about blessing, like my family with their help for my job." And now he has done this for 21 years. Nails used in the crucifixion are cleaned with alcohol. The ritual includes processions of men beating their bloody backs with bamboo wipes. The event goes back decades and draws large crowds, even though the church in this mostly Roman Catholic nation flaunts on it. For NPR news, I'm Douglas B in Cutud, the Philippines.

And from Washington, this is NPR news.

Iraqi polices were apparently targeted by a suicide bomber in Ramadi today. At least 20 people were killed when the bomb exploded. At least 13 others were hurt. Anbar province has been a stronghold of the Sunni insurgency. A many tribes in the region have reportedly switched to legions with large numbers of men joining the police force and Iraqi army in the B area of Al-Qaeda and Iraq fighters. Meanwhile in Afghanistan a policeman has mugged at least 4 victims of the suicide bomber in Kabul today. At least 4 other people were wounded in the attack at shattered windows of nearby buildings and blasted to the small credo in the road.

To get off a financial crisis Nashville’s Fisk universality, a historically black college has been tying to sell two priced paintings that they were donated to the school by Georgia O’Keeffee. The State's Attorney General has blocked proposal saying the paintings were undervalued. From member station WPLN, Blake Farmer has more. The proposal would have allowed the O'Keeffee museum in Santa Fe to purchase her iconic work Radiator Building, Night New York for a mere seven million dollars. During a moratorium placed on the deal last month though, multiple bit surfaces that $25 million, only they went allowed under O'Keeffee's wishes for the collection. Fisk President Hazel O'Leary says the school is in desperate need of cash, but it's prepared for what would likely be a lengthy court battle to free the paintings. “We can live on a very meager diet and move from month to month and now year to year. I come on my third year in August and that is the way we have been managing ourselves.” O'Leary says the school may have delivered some of its assess to get by, but she vowed not to pull any more money from the already dwindling endowment. From NPR news, I'm Blake Farmer in Nashville.

And from Washington I'm Giles Snyder, this is NPR news.