President Barack Obama is thanking the U.S. combat troops during a visit to Ft. Bliss, Texas today and he will address the nation tonight as the country marks the end of combat operations in Iraq. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says one phrase you won't hear today is "mission accomplished," but President Obama has already said he's keeping a campaign promise with the withdrawl of combat forces. We start our coverage in Baghdad, with Anthony Shadid, of the New York Times.

When the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003, the Kurds in the north celebrated. The semi-autonomous region that had been brutalized under Saddam Hussein quickly began to prosper, experiencing relatively little violence, and an influx of refugees who fled Kurdistan under Hussein made their way home. Sazan Mandalawi was one of those refugees. She was only five when her parents relocated to Australia in the mid-90's, and in 2006 at the age of 17, she returned with her family, attended university, and graduated with a degree in politics and international relations. Sazan is now a journalist, and she says the Kurds are anticipating President Obama's speech tonight even more than the Americans, as the region braces for an uncertain future without U.S. protection.

The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse visits a U.S. military base in Kirkuk, in northern Iraq. The base will remain open, but with fewer troops. Gatehouse speaks with troops about the mission in the post-combat phase of operations in Iraq.

In the 1960's about half of all children rode their bikes or walked to school. Today, that's dropped to 13 percent. Peter Flax, editor in chief of BICYCLING Magazine, wants to change that. He joins us with tips on how parents can help their kids get safely back in their bike saddles again.

Fox News commentators have been suggesting that a radical Saudi prince is funding the Islamic community center to be built two blocks from Ground Zero in New York. Not only is that assertion not true, but they've also failed to mention that the same Saudi prince is a major shareholder in Fox News. We speak with Sam Gustin, senior writer at AOL's DailyFinance news blog.

When film director Eve Annenberg stumbled upon a weekly gathering of young, Orthodox Jews in New York, she was intrigued by the men dressed in their traditional black suits and fedoras and their long hair curls. To her, the look was "Shakespearean" and it got her thinking: "Why not retell the Shakespearean classic Romeo and Juliet with Chasidic sects substituting for the warring Montague and Capulet clans?"  The result is "Romeo and Juliet in Yiddish," a film which stars first-time actors who left their close-knit Chasidic communities. From New York, Jon Kalish reports on an improbable collaboration.

• The Album Leaf, "Thule"
• Jeff Beck, "Suspension"
• The T.V. Theme Players, "Leave It To Beaver"
• Jack Johnson, “Wrong Turn”
• Bill Laswell, “Asiyah Dub”