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NPR's Mike Shuster in Jerusalem reports the outburst of violence in the West Bank and Gaza over the past few weeks has shocked many people. It came just two months after the Camp David summit talks where Israel and the Palestinians seemed closer than ever before to a final peace settlement. At Camp David, the fate of Jerusalem's holy places was on the table for the first time in the negotiations. The issue proved traumatic, and a catalyst for violence.

With the early resignation last week of Bosnian president Alija Izetbegovic, former-Yugoslavia has now seen the departure of the three major nationalist figures of the nineteen nineties. NPR's Tom Gjelten looks at prospects for the Balkans without Izetbegovic, the late Croatian president Franjo Tudjman and Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic -- the men who led their nations in the wars that accompanied the break-up of the Yugoslav Federation.

Commentator Jeffrey Tayler visited a friend in Russia, and agreed to get a lock on her door fixed while she was away. He took the lock to a local shop, but was laughed out of the store. Men in small Russian towns fix their own locks. They don't have a repairman do it for them.

Laura Haydon reports that as Ireland has been transformed from an impoverished rural society to a booming information economy, the Irish are attending church less and sending fewer young men into the priesthood. This apparent decline in religious devotion is reflected in the falling numbers of pilgrims to Lough Derg, a remote outpost in northwest Ireland, where Saint Patrick is believed to have had a vision of heaven and hell. To draw worshippers back, the Church is now offering pilgrims the option of attending a one-day retreat, rather than the traditional arduous three days of fasting, walking barefoot and going without sleep.

Playwright Arthur Miller talks about his book Echoes Down the Corridor, a collection of his essays ranging from autobiography to commentary. The book spans nearly six decades of writing.

An FAA radar computer system failed today, forcing air traffic controllers to ground hundreds of flights heading into California and Las Vegas. As NPR's Chris Arnold reports, the FAA stopped all flights coming into the region after the computer system failed for a second time. The breakdown was the result of a computer software upgrade Wednesday night.

The growth of the "New Economy" has led to a new debate over how the internet is affecting power consumption in the U.S. Some researchers say there's a growing demand for electricity that threatens to outstrip our supply. Most experts disagree and say the Internet is actually reducing power consumption by making businesses more energy efficient. As Larry Abramson reports, both sides of the debate are finding a home in the current political campaign.

Commentator David Shenk says a major study released today from the University of California in Berkeley aims for the impossible: to quantify how much information the world produces each year. That includes everything in a year's worth of e-mails, phone calls, radio and television broadcasts, Websites, office documents, newspapers, memos, etc. The number is so big that U.C. is coming close to the extreme end of terms that have been invented to measure such volume. (3:00) See the study at http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/how-much-info/

Ethnic Albanians eyeing independence flocked to the polls today in Kosovo's first free election since the end of Yugoslav rule. Minority Serbs boycotted the ballot. Despite the combination of heavy turnout and confusion over election rules, there was no violence at polling stations. NPR's Anne Garrels visited several polling stations in Pristina. She speaks with host Lisa Simeone.

Host Lisa Simeone visits three cities in the state of Kentucky, one of several swing states in this years election to talks to voters about the Presidential election. She talks with voters in Louisville, Lexington and Campbellsville, Kentucky.

When the heat gets too close, every mobster has a hideout. Chicago's Al Capone had plenty. Now one of Capone's get-aways is up for auction, with bids coming in from around the world. NPR's Cheryl Corley reports.

As Israeli-Palestinian violence continues in the Middle East, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is in negotiations with Likud leader Ariel Sharon to form what he's calling a national emergency government. Barak now has 30 votes out of a 120 member Knesset which means his government could easily fall in a vote of no-confidence leading to new elections. NPR's Linda Gradstein reports from Jerusalem.

Commentator Lee Stringer is trying to keep his optimism about American democracy. So this year, he's avoiding coverage of the presidential race.

This year, Peg Collison joined tens of thousands of older Americans in making the move from her home of almost thirty years into a retirement community. She had planned for the move, saving her money and taking out long-term health insurance. Still, her decision to move was difficult for her family, her friends and herself. As part of our series on the Changing Face of America, Peg Collison and her son, radio producer Dan Collison, produced a three part series on her transition. It's called Mom's Good Move.

A sailor who died in the suspected terrorist bombing of the U.S.S. Cole will be buried at Antietam National Cemetery -- a Civil War cemetery that has been closed since the Korean War. The National Park Service agreed to make an exception for Fireman Apprentice Patrick Roy, whose family lives near the site. Noah interviews John Howard, Superintendent of the Antietam National Battlefield, in Sharpsburg, Maryland.

Linda chats with Robert C. Alexander, co-author of Fumbling the Future : How Xerox Invented, Then Ignored, the First Personal Computer, about how the Xerox Corporation squandered an opportunity when the company was the first to build a personal computer which used a mouse and a graphical user interface. (5:00) Fumbling the Future: How Xerox Invented, Then Ignored, the First Personal Computer, by Robert C. Alexander and Douglas K. Smith is available through e-publisher IUniverse.com. See http://iuniverse.com.

Steve Young of Vermont Public Radio reports on the turmoil in that state's politics, since the state legislature voted to approve civil unions. Governor Howard Dean, a once-popular Democrat who had been a shoo-in for re-election, has come under heavy criticism from an anti-civil union movement called "Take Back Vermont." Even if Dean survives, his fellow Democrats in the legislature, who constitute a majority, may not. The anger may last beyond Election Day.

Secretary of State Madeline Albright says six hours of talks with North Korean officials over the past two days produced "important progress," in U.S. relations with the Communist country, but that more work remains to be done. The major issue for the United States is obtaining commitments from North Korea to curb its missile program. NPR's Rob Gifford reports from Pyongyang.

Noah talks with Douglas Broderick of the Wold Food Program in Pyongyang about the famine in North Korea. The threat of famine and starvation has been present in the country since the mid 1990's. Nearly one-tenth of the population died as a result. WFP feeds some eight-million North Koreans, who are still struggling with droughts and the loss of farming support from the former Soviet Union.

The Ivory Coast's military government has decreed a state of emergency and imposed a curfew on the country's main city, after troops clashed with supporters of an opposition candidate from Sunday's presidential election. Military ruler General Robert Guei called off the vote-count and proclaimed himself the victor in the election. But initial returns showed the opposition leader Laurent Gbago with a commanding lead -- and he has also declared himself president. NPR's Kenneth Walker in Abidjan reports.