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Stephanie Griffith reports on the newfound popularity of American spirituals and gospel music in Paris. But there is some controversy over whose music it really is and whether it can be sung by just anyone. Say some, the color of one's skin or the country of one's origin does not make a difference in this matter - the despair, the "blues", that accompanies heartfelt spirituals and gospel is a human condition.

Noah talks with Ned Jarrett, a former four-time NASCAR champion who is now a color analyst for CBS and ESPN, about the late stock car builder and driver Banjo Matthews, who died earlier this week. He says Matthews was a tough competitor, but always fair. Matthews stressed safety in his designs; an aspect of his work triggered by the death of a close friend and fellow driver. Matthews drew on his experience behind the wheel to create winning designs for race cars.

Commentator Joyce Maynard makes a list of the qualities she finds appealing in a man... and finds that actor Steve Martin fits the bill. Then she ends up meeting him. This is the story of their meeting.

In northern Wisconsin, Chippewa Indians still harvest wild rice by hand. Nick Van Der Puy [PIE] from member station WXPR in Rhinelander, Wisconsin visited one rice-harvesting camp, where family traditions and cultural heritage mix with economic opportunity.

NPR's Richard Harris and Martha Raddatz talk with Noah about the possible health consequences for soldiers who were inadvertently exposed to chemical weapons during the Gulf War. Some have suggested that this exposure may explain the ailments known collectively as "Gulf War Syndrome." Harris also discusses the possible health effects of vaccinating all troops against anthrax.

The BBC's David Willey reports from Rome on a decision by Italy's highest court that Erich Priebke must be re-tried. Priebke, a former Nazi officer, has been accused of killing civilians in a 1944 massacre. He's in jail awaiting retrial.

The Senate race in Massachusetts promised everything voters want in an election: two smart, popular candidates...the incumbent Senator, John Kerry, and the current governor of Massachusetts, William Weld; seven issue-oriented debates; and a voluntary limit on campaign spending. But the race has been tight for months and as election day draws near, the mud is flying and the voluntary spending caps both candidates had imposed are off. From member station WBUR, Patrick Cox reports.

NPR's Vicki Que reports that the group trying to bring the "French abortion pill" to American women is having trouble raising the money it needs. The Population Council, a non-profit group in New York, set up a private, non-profit company to market RU 486 in the United States. But the company is having trouble raising the estimated $20 million it needs, in part because the drug is so controversial.

President Clinton said today he wants to expand NATO by 1999, admitting former Soviet bloc states. NPR'S Mara Liasson reports Mr. Clinton told a Detroit campaign audience today that the U-S should prepare to think of its former enemies as allies, and to defend them if necessary. Republican challenger Bob Dole told supporters in Frankenmuth, Michigan, today that the president has been dragging his feet on admitting new NATO members. Dole says the alliance could welcome Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic by 1998, a year earlier than the Clinton proposal.

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NPR's Michael Goldfarb reports that Kurdish leader Mahmoud Barzani's alliance with Baghdad one week, followed by reconciliation talks with American officials the next week, can be explained by a long history among Kurds of pitting one regional power against another in their aborted effort to carve out their own Kurdish nation from parts of Turkey, Iraq and Iran.

Democrats are brimming with optimism about their prospects in the presidential race, but the battle for control of Congress remains tight. The four open Senate seats in the Deep South complicate the picture for them. NPR's Peter Kenyon traveled to Alabama, where Republican Attorney General Jeff Sessions is facing Democratic state Senator Roger Bedford in an increasingly negative campaign.

The BBC's Elizabeth Blunt reports on the slaughter of 200 elephants at a salt marsh in the Congo. Although elephant poaching decreased after harvesting ivory was banned by international agreement, the world's shrinking stocks of ivory are making poaching increasingly profitable.

NPR'S Mary Kay Magistad (MAGG-stad) reports that the Cambodian government says it has sent troops to help the Khmer Rouge breakaway faction retake a village it lost yesterday to hardline members of the group. This caused hundreds of Khmer Rouge soldiers and civilians to flee into Thailand.

NPR's Mara Liasson reports that President Clinton today addressed the delegates of the National Baptist Convention in Orlando, as he began the second day of a two-day campaign swing through Florida, a state he hopes to win in November. He talked to the crowd about new Labor Department figures showing the lowest unemployment rate in seven years, but also asked the church representatives to offer jobs to people trying to get off welfare.

Budapest's renovated Dohany Street Synagogue reopened yesterday after five years of renovation. It is Europe's largest synagogue. In 1989 commentator Andrei Codrescu visited the house of worship, quite by accident, and wrote an essay from there about how moved he was by the service. He says he has roots on his mother's side in the culture and could feel the emotional tie.

- Host Cory Flintoff speaks with NPR's Michael Goldfarb, who is in northern Iraq in the aftermath of Iraqi forces' move into the region. Goldfarb says Iraqi forces are dug into position just inside the Kurdish safe-haven zone and that United Nations officials are concerned about Turkish plans to establish a security zone in another portion of northern Iraq near the Turkish border

NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports from Turkey on new government efforts to shift policy toward the Kurds. A 12-year-long battle with Kurdish insurgents has created millions of homeless refugees...most of them are pouring into Turkish cities. Although the new pro-Islamic government is trying to return these refugees to their homes, the Kurds are suspicious.

The FBI has been warning about an increased danger of terrorism in the U-S, but other experts say domestic terrorism incidents are actually on the decline. NPR's Chitra Ragavan reports.

Commentator Mickey Edwards discusses the Lexington, North Carolina story involving a first-grade boy who kissed a little girl at school...and who got in a lot of trouble. He thinks that the grownups involved in the story are the ones who should stand in the corner.