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For a brief history of Ivory Coast, Linda talks with Jeanne Maddox Toungara, Professor of History at Howard University in Washington D.C. Toungara lived and taught in the Ivory Coast for fifteen years, and has written extensively on the country. She says Ivory Coast is a former French colony. Its capital city was once thought of as the "Paris of Africa."

NPR's Brian Naylor reports on what's being accomplished in the last days of this Congressional session. A foreign aid bill, which includes more than four hundred million dollars for international family planning assistance, was passed yesterday and sent to the White House. It also includes more than four hundred million dollars in debt relief for poor nations. But immigration reform and tax relief remain in limbo.

Linda talks to Andrew Kohut, Director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press about public opinion on the presidential race. He says after the debates that voters appeared to like Bush better, but had more confidence in Gore. That paradox is keeping the race quite close

NPR's Kenneth Walker reports from Ivory Coast where opposition leader Laurent Gbagbo seized control yesterday after military president Robert Guei fled the capital during massive public demonstrations. But the new government now faces protests by supporters of candidates barred from last week's elections.

Morning Edition's monthly series on the lives of centenarians, One Hundred Years of Stories, continues this morning. Neenah Ellis tells us about Marion Cowen, who worked on Broadway and knew film stars Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. She also tells us about the death of another centenarian, Ruth Ellis, who was featured earlier in the series.

NPR's Jonathan Miller reports on the latest from Peru, where President Alberto Fujimori has announced a nationwide search for disgraced former intelligence chief Vladimiro Montesinos. Montesinos' exposure in a corruption scandal last year weakened Fujimori's control of the country and led him to announce he will resign from the presidency two years early.

Mark Zdechlik of Minnesota Public Radio reports on the Justice Department's attempts to force Northwest Airlines to sell its controlling interest in Continental. The case could impact other pending airline mergers.

NPR's Barbara Bradley reports on attempts to rework the juvenile justice system. After juvenile crime dropped steadily last decade, many people are taking a look at the system and wondering if it's too heavy-handed. Nearly every state has made it easier to charge children as adults. Opponents to this policy say once a youth gets in the adult system, he's more likely to continue committing crimes. Several states are now considering a change in the way they try and sentence juveniles.

NPR's Jon Hamilton reports on efforts to treat heart attacks that occur in public places. In recent years, airports, casinos and other crowded facilities have installed automatic heart-shocking devices and trained workers to use them. They're trying to improve the survival rate after a heart attack by restarting the normal rhythm of the heart as quickly as possible.

Noah talks with Cheryl Stearns, a world-class parachutist from Rayford, North Carolina about her plans for an attempt to break the high-altitude skydiving record. Stearns says she's going up 165,000 feet in a helium balloon to jump. Stearns says there have been several people in the last forty years to experiment with what she calls "high-altitude ejections." She leaves for Austin, Texas tomorrow to start training with her team.