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Russia is angry over the White House's decision to block the sale of ultra-fast supercomuters to Moscow. The Russians say they need the technology to conduct virtual nuclear tests so that they won't have to conduct real nuclear testing, which is forbidden under September's nuclear test ban treaty. NPR's Andy Bowers reports the decision demonstrates the lingering distrust surrounding the nuclear arms race.

Jacki speaks with Paulette Giles, author of "Northern Spirit," (Hungry Minds Press, Doubleday Canada) her account of seven years of living among the Ojibway and Cree Indians in Canada's north woods. Giles says she discovered and learned to appreciate a world apart during her years in the wilderness.

NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports that two months of protest against the Milosevic government in Belgrade Serbia hasn't changed anything in Serbia...but it has caused a ripple effect in the rest of the Balkan peninsula. Demonstrators in Bulgaria and Albania are in the streets protesting against their governments. The reasons aren't exactly the same in each country, but the underlying themes are: improved economies and democratic reforms.

NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports from Belgrade where demonstrators marched through cold, blinding snow to protest the government of Slobodan Milosevic. This is the beginning of the second week of marching. At first the marchers were protesting an annulllment of municipal elections November 17th, but the protest has grown into demands for the ouster of Milosevic.

Convicted murderer John Salvi took his own life last week while in prison for the slaying of two women two years ago at clinics where abortions are performed. His parents want federal officials to investigate the circumstances of his death. A debate is now raging over treatment of mental illness in prisons, and whether Salvi should have been sentenced instead to a mental institution. NPR's Tovia Smith reports.

Mark Jenkins looks at the hit, "I Love You, Always Forever" performed by Donna Lewis. It is a quintessential hit, with breathy delivery and lyrics that have been heard many times before.

- The Museum of the City of New York has organizied an exhibit displaying the toys children played with 100 years ago. Jacki talks with collection curator Sheila Clark, who describes the toys of yesteryear and imagines what might have been on a 19th century Christmas wish list.

Savi Chadri reports on the condition of Mother Teresa, who underwent surgery today for a heart condition. Doctors said the elderly nun would have died without the surgery. Mother Teresa won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her work with the poor of Calcutta.

NPR's Edward Lifson reports on the rebuilding of Bosnia. The area has been quiet for nearly a year and hopes for easing unemployment lies heavily on the reconstruction. The United States has loaned money, as has the Islamic community. Glass is being installed, roofs are being built over burnt out houses. The rush is on to beat the winter weather. But Bosnians know that rebuilding their country will be a long-term struggle.

Linda speaks with Elizabeth Neuffer, the European Bureau chief for the Boston Globe, about the problems facing the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. The Tribunal must serve justice to those who participated in the genocidal attacks on Rwanda's Tutsi people in 1994. More than half a million people were slaughtered. Neuffer says the Tribunal's efforts have been hindered by a lack of funding, staffing, and equipment, as well as corruption inside the Tribunal itself.

Poet and Commentator Andre Codrescu brings us a modern adaptation of an old Romanian fairy tale. Set in modern New Orleans, it is a cautionary tale about a wish for eternal youth. A young couple tries desperately to have a child. Finally when they were about to give up, a supernatural method brings them a baby, but at a cost...they must promise him that he'll never grow old. When the child, nicknamed Almond Joy, turns 18, he sets out on a quest for what his parents can't deliver. He winds up in the Valley of Christmas, but this paradise of eternal youth bores him and he hits the road. But when he arrives in New Orleans, there is nothing there. His home is covered with dust and Almond Joy has become an old man.

Investigators say they are racing to keep up with an explosion of child pornography made possible by computer networks. They say the Internet makes creating and circulating sexually-explicit material easier than ever. Congress has tried to help law enforcement in its crackdown by passing a new law that expands the definition of child pornography. But NPR's Barbara Bradley reports that civil libertarians say the law infringes on the constitutional protection of free speech.

New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani has announced plans to send 1000 poorly-performing students from the city's public school system to local Catholic schools. We visit Bishop Loughlin (LOCK-lin) High School in Brooklyn to talk with students and educators about the differences between the public and parochial school settings. As NPR's Barbara Mantel reports, teachers feel that Catholic schools like Loughlin bring a sense of a mission to the job of teaching -- giving students a greater feeling of belonging than they receive in public schools.

A study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicates that dietary suppliments of the trace element selenium protect against cancers of the lung, prostate and colon. NPR's Vicky Que reports that researchers involved in a 13-year investigation of a possible link between selenium and skin cancer found no protective effect but they did find that the research subjects had a 37 percent reduction in the incidence of lung, prostate and colon cancers after only 4 1/2 years.

Reporter Barbara Mantel (man-TELL) tells the story of the teenaged Garcia girls. They arrived in October from the Dominican Republic and now live with their fatehr in Queens divorced. This is the story of their adjustment to the U.S. They are making good progress in their ESL classes...but the 17 year old is worried about learning the language well enough to attend college. At lunch time they sit with other Spanish speaking kids...although they say confrontations between English speaking kids and Spanish speaking kids are common.

The preliminary results of a new measurement of the so-called Hubble Constant, taken by radio telescopic means at Cambridge University in England is 42. The Hubble Constant determines the speed at which galaxies are receding from each other, and thus tells us the age of the universe from the time of the Big Bang. It so happens that Douglas Adams, in the book and radio series A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in 1978 had a massive computer calculate the meaning of life and the answer was: 42.

We catch up with some of the closest and most contested election results. Neil Tickner of member station WHYY reports on the race in Pennsylvania's 13th congressional district, where a recount is being held because the winner gained victory by only ten votes.

Storyteller Kevin Kling remembers a Christmas from his childhood... when his eager anticipation turned into performance anxiety: he suddenly had to demonstrate his ability to fly a gas-powered model airplane in front of his father -- a real pilot.

Commentator Mickey Edwards wonders whether Republicans will keep up their contentious adversarial relationship with the Democrats, or whether 1997 will bring a new era of cooperation.

Commentator Kristine Holmgren says as a young girl she was taught to remember the poor -- to be generous and share. Now she says there is little respect for the poor...they are seen as evil and the demonization of the poor is breeding cynicism about poverty. She worries that the plight of the poor in general no longer moves us. Rather, we are only moved by an interruption in our own material success.