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Now And Then: Rephotographing Iraq

Credit Maya Alleruzzo / AP

Ten years ago on live television, U.S. Marines memorably hauled down a Soviet-style statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdous Square — photographed in 2003 by Jerome Delay of AP. Today, that pedestal in central Baghdad stands empty. Bent iron beams sprout from the top, and posters of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in military fatigues are pasted on the sides.

Credit Maya Alleruzzo / AP

Today, Iraqi policeman Ahmed Naji stands on the grounds of the Iraqi National Museum — which was guarded by U.S. soldiers in the 2003 photo taken by Anja Niedringhaus. Tens of thousands of artifacts chronicling some 7,000 years of civilization in Mesopotamia are believed to have been looted from Iraq in the chaos the followed the the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Credit Maya Alleruzzo / AP

Saddam Hussein commissioned the crossed-sword archways during Iraq's nearly eight-year war with Iran. They stand defiantly in the fortified district for the U.S. Embassy and other government offices. Iraqi officials began tearing down the archways in 2007 but quickly halted those plans and then started restoring the monument two years ago. Captured originally in 2008 by Karim Kadim.

Credit Maya Alleruzzo / AP

Hussein, 3, poses in Firdous Square in Baghdad with a 2003 photograph taken by Jerome Delay — showing the statue of Saddam Hussein being pulled down by U.S. forces and Iraqis.

Credit Maya Alleruzzo / AP

Today, shoppers pass through Baghdad's busy Karrada shopping district. The 2008 photo, taken by Hadi Mizban, shows the scene after a bombing that killed 22 people. Bloody attacks launched by terrorists who thrived in the post-invasion chaos are still frequent, although less so than a few years back.

Credit Maya Alleruzzo / AP

Street photographer Raad Mohammed poses with a photograph taken by photographer Khalid Mohammed in Baghdad's Tahrir Square. The 2006 image shows an Iraqi soldier manning a checkpoint. It was taken after Baghdad was subjected to a vehicle ban — an effort to prevent reprisal attacks from suicide car bombs after the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Credit Maya Alleruzzo / AP

Today, motorists fill the main street in Baghdad's busy Karrada shopping district. The 2008 image was taken by Hadi Mizban after a bombing that killed 53 people and wounded 130.

Credit Maya Alleruzzo / AP

Abu Nawas park in Baghdad, the site of a 2003 photograph taken by Maya Alleruzzo, shows Iraqi orphans playing soccer with a U.S. soldier from the 3rd Infantry Division.

Credit Maya Alleruzzo / AP

Abdullah, 8, poses with a 2003 photograph taken by Niko Price, showing a U.S. soldier visiting the newly opened zoo. The zoo was destroyed during the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Only a handful of animals survived, and later the grounds were used as a holding facility for looters detained by U.S. soldiers. It reopened later in 2003 and today houses more than 1,000 animals.

Credit Maya Alleruzzo / AP

The park that runs along Abu Nawas Street in Baghdad, named for an Arabic poet, is now a popular destination for families who are drawn by the manicured gardens, playgrounds and restaurants famous for a fish called mazgouf. Ten years ago, the park was home to a tribe of children — like Fady al-Sadik in Alleruzzo's 2003 photo — orphaned by the war and was rife with crime.

By Claire O'Neill

A lot of photographers are revisiting 2003 this week — the year the U.S. invaded Iraq — and sharing photos from the years of war that followed. Even more literally, Associated Press photographer Maya Alleruzzo revisited various sites photographed during the war to see what has changed and what hasn't.

One scene speaks volumes: Today, shoppers pass through a busy shopping district in Baghdad. But in the 2008 photo, taken by Hadi Mizban for AP, the sidewalk is covered in fresh stains from a bombing that killed 22 people.

10:49 am

Wed March 20, 2013

On Australia's Great Barrier Reef, There's A Turf Battle Raging

Credit Richard Harris / NPR

Guillermo Diaz-Pulido from Griffith University in Brisbane grows bits of seaweed attached to pieces of coral in tanks at the research facility on Australia's Heron Island.

By Richard Harris

Originally published on Fri March 22, 2013 11:02 am

NPR Science Correspondent Richard Harris traveled to Australia's Great Barrier Reef to find out how the coral reefs are coping with increased water temperature and increasing ocean acidity, brought about by our burning of fossil fuels. Day 2: The good news is life could get better for seaweed.

Picture a coral reef and the first things likely to come to mind are brilliantly colored fish swimming among stout branches of coral. Let your mind wander a bit more and you might imagine some sea turtles, stingrays and sharks.

10:44 am

Wed March 20, 2013

Chinese Solar Panel Maker Suntech Goes Bankrupt

Credit Peter Parks / AFP/Getty Images

Workers at a Suntech plant in Wuxi last month.

By Scott Neuman

Originally published on Wed March 20, 2013 2:25 pm

The future doesn't look so bright for China-based Suntech, one of the world's largest makers of solar panels: On Wednesday, it was forced into bankruptcy after missing a $541 million payment to bondholders.

10:40 am

Wed March 20, 2013

President Obama Predicts Indiana Will Win NCAA Tournament

Credit Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images

Christian Watford of the Indiana Hoosiers moves against Frank Kaminsky of the Wisconsin Badgers during a semifinal game of the Big Ten Basketball Tournament at the United Center on March 16, 2013.

By Eyder Peralta

Originally published on Wed March 20, 2013 11:21 am

10:30 am

Wed March 20, 2013

The Stream Of Syrian Refugees Strains Lebanon

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Credit Nicole Beemsterboer / NPR

Um Ahmed, her husband, Abu Ahmed, and their two children sit inside a United Nations refugee registration center in Tripoli, Lebanon. They fled the northern Syrian city of Aleppo a month ago. "There was a lot of shelling," said Um Ahmed. "I wasn't thinking. I was just thinking of my children."

Credit Nicole Beemsterboer / NPR

Um Ahmed and her infant daughter wait to register at a U.N. center in the town of Al Mina, in northern Lebanon near the border with Syria.

Credit Nicole Beemsterboer / NPR

Syrians fleeing their country register with U.N. centers like this one in Al Mina, Lebanon, in order to receive monetary assistance for food and rent, medical care and items like blankets, mattresses and basic kitchen kits.

By editor

Originally published on Wed March 20, 2013 3:43 pm

Um Ahmed holds her infant daughter outside a United Nations registration center for Syrian refugees in Al Mina, a northern Lebanese city near the Syrian border. She is among a group of dozens of Syrians waiting for their names to be called.

Um Ahmed tries to coax her screaming infant daughter to take a bottle. The baby is hot — the slight brown curls of her hair are matted to her head with sweat, and the bottle offers no comfort. She keeps crying. She's been here before.

"The first time I came they didn't accept us," Um Ahmed says. "They told us I need documents."

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12:03 pm

Wed March 20, 2013