While most of us are accustomed to seeing women play soccer and none of us bat an eye at women running, men are still prohibited from competing in some sports — specifically synchronized swimming. An all-male synchronized swimming team in London has petitioned the International Olympic Committee to change that.

Although this morning the focus is on Egypt, right across the border Ariel Sharon is also in this "not dead" state. For two leaders that once went head to head, now they are so alive that when they are dead, they are still alive. In this audio essay, John Hockenberry asks: Can they ever die?

When people think of music as art they may think of a piano sonata by Mozart or a thrilling piece of be-bop by Charlie Parker, but a new documentary suggests that the title of "art" should also be bestowed on hip hop. Legendary rapper Ice T is the director of a new film called "Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap," which opens in limited release today.

SpaceX and Orbital will be the first private companies to fly missions to the International Space Station. The two companies have multi-billion dollar contracts to supply cargo to the station after the NASA shuttle program shut down. BBC's science reporter Neil Bowdler was granted exclusive access to Orbital's launch facilities in Virginia.

In Iraq, the Christian community continues to suffer from intimidation and threats of violence, and the number of Christians in the country has dropped drastically following the U.S. invasion nine years ago in 2003. Rami Ruhayem is a correspondent for our partner the BBC, who has found that even though the levels of violent attacks have dropped recently, there is still a climate of fear.

Earl Scruggs, the man who reinvented the banjo as a solo virtuoso instrument, has died at the age of 88. Scruggs invented a style, the three finger picking style of banjo playing distinct from the ancient Clawhammer technique. Scruggs style is precise, rhythmic, dizzyingly fast and took the banjo from the back of the band and brought it down front. The Takeaway pays tribute to Scruggs, who played his instrument like no one had ever before played it and changed music forever.

The Senate voted yesterday to overhaul transportation programs and keep aid flowing to thousands of construction projects while strengthening highway and auto safety. Todd Zwillich gives the nuts and bolts of the transportation bill and explains the politics behind its delay.  

In poet Kevin Young's new book, "The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness," Young offers a remarkable, encyclopedic essay on the history of African-American culture. Young explores how African-American culture and American culture have affected one another. The book, part prose and part essay, also explores how African-American culture has become an essential and inextricable part of American culture.

The battle for the New Hampshire primary plays out on TV screens, newspapers, and the internet as results come in throughout the night. One way to tell the story of this event is through Twitter, by seeing how pundits, politicians, pranksters and across the country reacted to the results. Takeaway co-host John Hockenberry tells the story of the New Hampshire primary according to tweets.

Misogynistic and homophobic lyrics are part and parcel of mainstream rap music's hyper-masculine culture. But over the last year, as part of a larger conversation about homophobia and bullying, more and more stars have spoken out against the community's anti-gay attitudes. 

In music, there are few things more insane than an amateur going and trying to sit down with a real player. But that's just what John Hockenberry did earlier this week, when he went to the house of comedian, author and banjo aficionado Steve Martin. A documentary called "Give Me the Banjo" airs tonight, and is narrated by Martin. But in the comedian's New York City apartment, talking about the banjo — as well as Martin's long career in comedy and interest in music — was augmented by some performance and a lesson or two. 

Common rose to fame as a rapper in the 1990s, and his childhood and teenage years clearly influenced his music. He's also found success as an actor, and now as a writer — his new memoir, "One Day It'll All Make Sense," which shares the title of his 1997 album, came out yesterday.

With the deadline quickly approaching for Congress to make a decision on whether or not to raise the debt ceiling, President Obama warned that failing to come to a negotiation could significantly impact the nation's economy and investors' confidence in the United States. Beyond that, some experts say Congress's slowness in developing a plan to face the debt crisis may be symbolic of something more—namely that America is in denial over the gravity of its debt problem. 

About two weeks from now, the State Department will randomly draw 50,000 names from the fifteen million entries for U.S. visas, as part of the Diversity Visa Lottery Program. The Diversity Visa program garnered attention recently, after news that a computer glitch invalidated a drawing in early May, obligating the State Department to nullify 22,000 visas it had previously awarded. 

After many months of speculation and political pressure, President Obama laid out his plans for U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan last night. His plans signal a shift in strategy, with Obama pulling troops out of Afghanistan at a faster pace than top military generals had initially recommended. Some senior officials have said on the record that rapid troop withdrawal will make it difficult for the remaining American forces in Afghanistan to complete their mission. 

This morning, reports have surfaced linking Bin Laden's death to intelligence gathered at the notorious Guantanamo Bay holding facility in Cuba. If keeping prisoners detained has resulted in the death of America's most-wanted tourist, what does that mean for how we'll treat prisoners in the future? We speak about this with Richard Perle, Assistant Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan.

For years, the CIA hunted Bin Laden in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Michael Hurley, senior counsel to the 9/11 Commission and a former CIA officer who served in Afghanistan after 9/11, helped lead the search. He speaks with us about the significance of Osama Bin Laden's death. 

The military carried out the attack on Osama Bin Laden, which resulted in his death late last night. Former Assistant Secretary of Defense and defense analyst at the Center for American Progess Larry Korb speaks with us about how the military carried out this operation. 

President Obama gave a statement last night, with little advance warning, on the dramatic U.S. attack on Osama Bin Laden. His statement confirmed rumors that had been swirling around Twitter and elsewhere for hours beforehand. 

Hip hop is filled with young artists who appear to live the Horatio Alger dream, ascending from impoverished urban neighborhoods to international fame and wealth.

But few of them have transformed themselves so often, and remained popular for so long, as Ice-T. An orphan turned family man and thief turned superstar, he famously went from singing about killing cops to playing a cop on the long-running and popular series “Law and Order SVU.”  He chronicles his rise from poverty to fame in “ICE: A Memoir of Gangster Life and Redemption — From South Central to Hollywood.”