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Officials at the World Health Organization say that an outbreak of the deadly Ebola disease in the African nation of Gabon seems to be coming to an end. Twenty-six cases of the disease have been diagnosed there since July, and at least 17 people have died. As a result of the outbreak in Gabon, two cases of Ebola have been diagnosed in Johannesberg, South Africa. That has created a great deal of concern in that huge metropolitan area, though public health officials say the disease does not appear to be spreading there. NPR's Richard Harris reports.

The Clinton Administration's chief housing official, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros, has won Republican praise for some of his initiatives to help depressed urban areas. Those programs include elements of GOP housing policies and have alienated some Democrats. But Republican critics in Congress say Cisneros has not gone far enough toward the GOP approach. NPR's John Nielsen reports that the partisan dispute and the choice of former congressman Jack Kemp as the Republican vice presidential nominee have raised the profile of urban issues in the presidential race.

NPR's Gerry Hadden reports Mexican authorities have begun evicting some foreign residents, including Americans, from their homes on a disputed piece of the Baja peninsula, a coastal area just south of California. The Mexican Supreme Court has ordered that the land be returned to a Mexican company, saying that the company was wrongfully stripped of the land almost 30 years ago. The high court acknowledged that the foreign residents were unaware of the title problem when they built their homes, but said they still must vacate. Authorities gathered in force to carry out the order and changed the locks as soon as the foreign residents had left. The U.S. Consul General in Tijuana says some 350 households have received eviction notices.

Steven Dudley reports from Bogota that Colombia's President Andres Pastrana has ordered an investigation of the military's involvement in an attack that resulted in the deaths of six schoolchildren. It took place 40-miles from Medellin. The children, aged 6-to-12, were on a school hike when gunfire erupted. The regional army commander initially said the children had been caught in crossfire between military forces and guerrillas. But survivors said that there were no guerrillas in the area and the children were pinned down for 45 minutes by military fire. The killings occurred just two months after the U-S Congress approved one-point-three billion dollars of mostly military aid to help Colombia fight the drug trade and guerrilla movements.

NPR's Nina Totenberg reports on today's Supreme Court decision limiting the scope of the federal Clean Water Act. The court split along its familiar ideological lines, 5-4, in ruling that the Army Corps of Engineers can't use the law to forbid the building of a landfill in a migratory bird habitat. The area, near Chicago, contains abandoned gravel pits that flood with water and attract birds for nesting and breeding. The court majority ruled that Congress intended the Clean Water Act to apply to large or navigable bodies of water.

Laurie Neff reports from Jerusalem on Israel's decision today to go head with the construction of a large housing project in disputed east Jerusalem. That decision was made despite U.S. misgivings and a Palestinain warning of violence. The Har Homa project will place 6,500 homes for Jews in an area claimed by Palestinians as their future capital. Paelstinians see the move as Israel's attempt to solidify its claim over all of Jerusalem before final status talks on the future of the city can be held. Israel says it simply needs more housing for all the people who want to live in Jerusalem, and has pledged to build 3,000 units of arab housing near Har Homa as well.

Health officials in Houston, Texas, have discovered mosquitoes carrying the virus that causes St. Louis encephalitis in seven areas of the city. NPR's Wade Goodwyn travels with one of the health department's "mosquito men" as he makes his way through Houston's extensive sewer system, trapping mosquitoes and sending them back to the lab for testing. (6:15) CORRECTION, aired on All Things Considered Sept. 6, 2001: Wade Goodwyn's report about a mosquito surveillance officer in Houston brought out the science police in the audience. Dr. Victor Sloan of Scotch Plains, N.J., writes this: "In Wade Goodwyn's excellent story on Houston's mosquito hunters, he said 'when the dry ice melts.' Melting is the act of a solid becoming liquid. Dry ice does not melt, it sublimes. That is, it goes directly from a solid to a gas, without ever becoming liquid. When I was about 10, my father tried to explain this to me. It took me years to believe him."

Commentator Jim Culleny lives in a depressed area of Massachusetts where the residents are tempted to accept casino gambling as an answer to a slow economy. But as he watches a man play a "scratch and win" game at his local convenience store, Culleny is struck by how gambling is kind of like the myth of Sisyphus, the participant alwys ends up back where he started. In this country of innovation, he says, we can do better than to count on casinos and blind luck for our personal fiscal salvation.

Linda Wertheimer talks with Dr. Jeanne-Marie Col of the United Nations about the Great Tangshan (tang-SHUN) earthquake which occured in northeast China 20 years ago this week. Col recounts how the citizens of Qinglong (Ching-long) were able to accurately predict the quake, take precautionary measures, and thereby prevent any loss of life. By contrast, in the city of Tangshan and other nearby areas where people did not take such measures, it is estimated that 240-thousand people died and over 600-thousand were injured.

NPR's David Welna reports that over the past month Mexico has expelled half a dozen foreign human rights workers. Until now, Mexico had always tolerated such visits. The crackdown is raising new questions about Mexico's human rights record, as President Clinton prepares to go there next week. A major US human rights group also issued a report this week condemning what it said are widespread human rights abuses in Mexico, especially in rural areas. NPR's David Welna reports.

George is the name of a four-foot tall wild turkey living in a Newtonville, MA neighborhood. Because of him, mail delivery in the area has become a bit of a problem. Turns out George doesn't like the mail carrier all that much. Tim Hoban is the man who draws George's ire. The bird lunges, squawks and pecks at Hogan while he travels his daily route. He won't attack other carriers, just Hogan. Robert talks with postman about the foul fowl.

Dogs are attacking and killing deer in Southern Minnesota. Attacks are taking place at Myre -- Big Island State Park, which is in Albert Lea, about 15 miles north of Iowa Border. In the past three weeks 25 deer have been killed. Hardened snow packs are making it easy for dogs to chase the deer; a deer can usually outrun a dog in normal conditions. Noah Adams speaks with Jeanine Vorland, an area wildlife manager for the Owatonna region of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, about the problem.

NPR's Elaine Korry reports that the Supreme Courts of California and New York are reviewing cases that could change the way courts handle so-called "move away" cases. In many courts, a divorced parent with custody of a child risks losing that custody if he or she moves out of the area where the non-custodial parent lives, even if the move is for important financial reasons. Non-custodial parents say its unfair for them to lose visitation rights just because the ex-spouse decided to move. Custodial parents, usually women, complain this makes it difficult for them to seek better schooling or a new job just when they need it most.

Linda talks with Vice President Al Gore and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Chief James Lee Witt about what they've seen as they tour the flood-ravaged Ohio River Valley, and what FEMA is doing to help the region recover. Waters levels continued to rise today in what's been the worst flooding along the Ohio River in three decades. Thousands have been forced from their homes and businesses, and President Clinton has declared dozens of counties in Ohio and Kentucky disaster areas.

Noah talks to Steve Delsohn (del-SON), author of 'The Fire Inside: Firefighters Talk About Their Lives.' Delsohn interviewed 108 firefighters for his book. Two of those firefighters, Phillip Buffa of Washington, D.C.'s Rescue 3 and Keith Walker, Jr. of Alexandria, Virginia's Engine 55, met with Delsohn while he was visiting the Washington area. The firefighters talked about their fears of flashovers (when entire rooms ignite all at once) and of being trapped alone in a burning building. Delsohn says that about 100 firefighters are killed in the line of duty every year while another 100,000 are injured. (The Fire Inside: Firefighters Talk About Their Lives' is published by Harper-Collins.)

Kentucky's governor has declared a state of emergency in the eastern part of the state, where sludge from a coal mine spilled into two streams last week. Two-hundred-million gallons of toxic slurry -- a byproduct of coal washing with the consistency of wet cement -- have made the usual sources of drinking water in ten county area unfit for use. Noah interviews Larry Priest, a resident of Martin County, Kentucky, with a mobile home next to Cold Water Creek. Priest calls the spill the biggest black milkshake you've ever seen in your life.

NPR's Rob Gifford reports from Pyongyang that Secretary of State Albright's trip to North Korea this week afforded a rare glimpse of the isolated country and its grinding poverty. Women in a rural area were seen sweeping up precious grains of rice from the roadway, evidence of the country's on-going food shortage. And in the capital, medical personnel in the freezing cold main hospital were forced to use beer bottles to construct intravenous systems. North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il in recent months has been reaching out to western countries, possibly because of the country's need for economic assistance.

Noah talks with Fred Davis, a computer consultant and the author of The Windows '95 Bible. He talks about the latest in computer hardware and software being presented at the Comdex computer show...the technology industry's twice-yearly showcase...being held this week in Las Vegas, Nevada. Some of the most talked-about presentations so far have included IBM's Personal Area Network, which works with a tiny computer on a card and uses the human body...a good conductor of signals and electricity...to transfer small amounts of data. They also talk about the recent improvements to notebook computers, and the development of ultra-thin television sets, which use liquid crystal displays rather than cathode ray tubes, and can be hung on the wall like a picture.

The second largest Native American city in North America may have been in Kansas. In 1601, a group of Spanish conquistadors stumbled on a vast city. By the time French explorers showed up in the area a century later, the inhabitants had been decimated by European diseases and the city was gone. It's in Arkansas City, Kansas, where locals had been pulling "literally tons" of artifacts from plowed fields for years. But it wasn't until a high school kid with a metal detector found a Spanish cannon shot, that a local archaeologist knew he had a match.

Did the snow this past week get you itching to leave the house? If so, there’s something for everyone to do this weekend around the northland. Events cover all corners of the KAXE/KBXE listening area, and you’ll be able to find something whether you’re artsy or crafty, a reader or a writer, indoorsy or outdoorsy. Or do you prefer something a bit more... spicy? Take a look at the lineup of weekend events that are sure to have you forgetting about the weather and enjoying all northern Minnesota has to offer.