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When United Airlines and US Airways announced that they wanted to merge, the plan included the creation of a new airline - DC Air - which would be owned by Media Mogul Robert Johnson, of Black Entertainment Television. Commentator Leon Wynter says the prospect is a windfall for Johnson, who Wynter contends has turned his media empire into America's official black brand.

The Pentagon conducted a test of an anti-missile system last night. It failed. NPR's Steve Inskeep reports.

Scott speaks with gardening guru and doyenne of dirt Ketzel Levine about her move. Ketzel's moved to a new house in Portland, Oregon and, therefore, on to a new garden.

cott talks with Paula Wheeler who is organizing the first annual North American Wife Carrying contest in Bethel, Maine. More information on this event is available at www.wifecarrying.com.

The new hi-tech industry is changing the much revered music scene in Austin, Texas. NPR's John Burnett reports.

NPR's Tom Gjelten reports from Cuba on Fidel Castro's "doctor diplomacy." Since 1963, Cuba has sent some 25,000 doctors to work in the developing world. But lately Havana seems to be changing its approach: it has opened a special school to train medical students from across Latin America. Cuba is footing the bill for the more than three thousand students in the initial class. After they graduate, they will return to their countries to work in underserved areas.

A brief summary of some of the other news on today's program.

From Gainesville, Texas, Janet Heimlich reports on a juvenile prison that has begun teaching inmates computer networking to give them a useful skill when they get out. The Justice Department is eyeing the program as a model to use at other juvenile facilities to keep youth from returning to crime.

NPR's Richard Knox reports from the International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa that a widely used spermicide, once thought to prevent the spread of HIV, may actually increase the risk of transmission. New research suggests nonoxynol-9 can increase the likelihood that some women will be infected with HIV. The study was presented today.

The African Methodist Episcopal Church has elected its first female bishop. Reverend Vashti Murphy McKenzie, the Pastor of Payne Memorial A.M.E. Church in Baltimore, Maryland, was elected along with three other Bishops at A.M.E. convention in Cincinnati last night. She talks to Linda Wertheimer about her new role in the church.