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An Indian immigrant allegedly murdered her children to spare them the shame of divorce. The court is weighing whether holding different cultural beliefs mitigates the crime. Commentator Lis Wiehl feels she deserves compassion, but that excusing the murder could open the floodgates for other immigrants to use a similar defense.

David Greenberger reviews the new CD from The Glands, a band from Athens, Georgia. You could classify them as indie-rock, but they like to avoid adhering to any stylistic direction, and are all over the map musically. Some songs sound like LA pop songs from the mid-60s, others are atmospheric psychedelia, and others still have a modern rock sound. (4:00) The Glands' new self-titled CD is on the Capricorn Records label.

The German government is considering whether to ban a radical right-wing party in the wake of violent, Neo-Nazi attacks which have killed four people already this year. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder appealed to Germans this past week in Berlin, saying racially motivated violence is damaging the country. NPR's Julie McCarthy reports from Berlin

Midwestern singer-songwriter Greg Brown is both a road poet and a keen observer of the natural world. He says that he likes to think about his work as stories sanded down into songs. His new CD is called Covenant; it's his 17th album. He talks to Jacki from his home in Iowa City. (Red House Records 2000)

Edward C. Walker, the inventor of the Lava Lamp, has died. Noah talks with Cressida Granger about Walker and his creation. She is the managing director and owner of Mathmos, which now owns and sells Lava Lamps.

New research suggests that transplanted brain cells can help some people whose brains have been damaged by a stroke. As NPR's Joanne Silberner reports the technique has been tried on only a few patients. But the results are promising.

Claudio Sanchez reports on the latest results of a 30-year survey of nine, thirteen, and 17-year old American students. The report, which looks at reading, math and science scores, shows today's students are doing better in math than students did 30 years ago. Performance is mixed in reading and science. The survey finds the academic gap between boys and girls has virtually disappeared. It says the gap between white and minority students closed for a while, but has started to open up again. The report also says a much greater percentage of today's students are taking tough courses, such as calculus, than students did 30 years ago.

NPR's Mike Shuster reports that Mexico's President-elect Vicente Fox is on a two-day visit to Washington to present his proposals on trade, immigration and drug trafficking. Fox defeated the ruling party's candidate, President Ernesto Zedillo, in a July election. He supports opening borders as a way of addressing illegal immigration and helping to develop Mexico's economy. US business and labor leaders are unenthusiastic, but President Clinton has said he wants to hear more about Fox's ideas before expressing an opinion. In addition to visiting President Clinton, Fox met with Vice President Gore and plans a similar session tomorrow with Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush.

Richard Harris reports that scientists in Finland have succeeded in making a chemical compound out of one of the few elements on earth considered to be completely inert -- argon. Argon is a gas that makes up 1 percent of our atmosphere. Until now, argon atoms have been complete loners. In today's issue of Nature, chemists reveal a method to make chemical bonds between argon and other atoms.

Doug McLennan reviews the two CD set entitled "Serenity" by the Bobo Stenson Trio. (4:00) Serenity by the Bobo Stenson Trio is on the ECM label, http://www.ecmrecords.com

Robert talks to California Attorney General Bill Lockyer about settlement in the state's lawsuit against Publishers Clearing House. Lockyer says this is just the beginning -- that he's been talking with other state Attorneys General about closing a similar settlement deal with another major sweepstakes company.

Robert and Noah read letters from All Things Considered's listeners. (3:30) To send a letter write to "Letters," All Things Considered, National Public Radio, 635 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington DC, 20001 or send e-mail to ATC@npr.org.

Akiva Eldar, a political analyst for the newspaper Ha'aretz, joins Robert by phone from Jerusalem to talk about the Middle East peace process. A top Israeli negotiator returned today from a visit to Egypt, and signaled that Israel wants to "build on progress" made at the recent Camp David accords. Palestinians are also showing signs of flexibility in their positions, including the September 13 deadline for an independent Palestinian state.

Bill Zeeble of member station KERA in Dallas reports that the city has a new record -- sixty-one days and counting without rain. The previous record was 58 days set back in 1934 and tied in 1950. The dry spell has hit North Texas farmers hard, and it is starting to occasionally impact the city's drinking water. It is also drying out the soil causing the foundations of many houses to settle and generating business for local foundation repair companies.

NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports that a day after meeting with President Clinton in Cairo, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak met with Yasser Arafat in yet another attempt to get the Middle East peace talks back on track. American mediators are still trying to bridge the gaps between the two sides over Jerusalem in advance of a September deadline for reaching a final peace deal.

Osteoporosis affects some 10 million Americans now, and those numbers are likely to grow as the baby boom generation ages. Wendy Schmelzer reports on a study in this week's New England Journal of Medicine, which finds that a drug treatment used by women to treat osteoporosis works just as well for men. That's important, because men account for 20 percent of those affected.

Alison Richards of NPR News begins a three part series on osteoperosis. Today she details how the disease has become a public health crisis in such a short period of time. No one realized the size of the problem until the accountants took a look at the heath care costs.

Peter Kenyon of NPR News, reports from Erie, Pennsylvania that Texas Governor George W. Bush is defending his state's record in providing health insurance for children. A federal judge in Texas has ordered the state to improve its enrollment in a healthcare program for poor children. Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore has been pressing the Republican candidate for details of his health care plan for the nation. But Governor Bush is not being rushed. He says he'll have details of the plan after the Labor Day holiday. He goes on to criticize the Clinton-Gore administration for being ineffective on this issue for the past seven years.

NPR News Science Correspondent Richard Harris reports that scientists have been surprised by a rapid change in the Arctic Tundra. When the Arctic air warmed up in the 1980s, this delicate ecosystem started venting large quantities of carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere, potentially adding to global climate change. But a study in the journal "Nature" finds that arctic plant life has adapted to the changing climate, and is helping soak up some carbon dioxide.

NPR's Martin Kaste (KAH-stee) talks with host Linda Wertheimer about President Clinton's visit to Colombia to endorse his latest plan to curb drug trafficking. Clinton was meeting Colombian President Pastrana in the coastal city of Cartagena in the wake of a one-point-three-billion dollar package of aid and military support for the Colombian army to help fight guerillas and the drug overlords who support them.