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NPR's David Kestenbaum reports on a promising form of solar energy which uses a mirror, a glass pipe, and a kind of oil to produce electricity that costs about five cents a kilowatt- hour. It's being researched now, but the new budget from the Bush administration would cut its funding.

Commentator Danielle Crittenden says Laura Bush is just the kind of first lady she had in mind.

NPR's Vicky O'Hara reports on how the spy-plane incident may affect longer-term relations between China and the United States. The two countries are still working out rules about trade between the two countries and potential U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.

When composer George Gershwin died in July 1937 at age 38, doctors said the cause was brain cancer. But a new examination of Gershwin's autopsy slides has cast doubt on that diagnosis. Host Bob Edwards talks to pathologist Dr. Gregory Sloop, who says his findings show the tumor that killed Gershwin may have been benign and easily operable, had it been properly diagnosed.

NPR's Richard Harris reports on the health of Dr. Ronald Shemanski, the resident physician for a group of 50 people at the South Pole. Shemanski has developed gall stones, and if he is not rescued soon, planes will be unable to reach him during the long Antarctic winter.

A coordinated series of worldwide parties commemorates the first human space flight by Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on this date in 1961. NPR's Alex Chadwick talks to George Whiteside, the organizer of the event, and Tony Watson, a deejay who will link the parties with the music he plays on the Internet.

NPR's Jack Speer reports that many investors are learning they owe taxes on losing mutual funds.

NPR's Kenneth Walker reports on the disastrous soccer game in South Africa yesterday. Tens of thousands of fans over-packed a stadium in Johannesburg. Forty-three people died and some 250 were injured when a section of bleachers collapsed and the crowd stampeded to get away.

Sir Harry Secombe, the popular British comedian of both television and radio, has died. A star of Oliver and The Goon Show passed away in Surrey, England, on Wednesday, at the age of 79.

NPR's Martin Kaste reports from Lima on the trial of Lori Berenson, a New York woman accused of collaborating with a Peruvian guerilla organization. Five years ago, Berenson was sentenced to life in prison by a military court, but she's now being re-tried by civilian judges.