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NPR's Beijing Correspondent Rob Gifford talks with host Lisa Simeone about today's mid-air collision between a U.S. Navy surveillance plane and a Chinese aircraft. The Chinese plane went down, and the pilot is missing. The U.S. plane made an emergency landing; all 24 members of the crew are reported safe.

Poet Peter Balakian has a new book out, June-Tree: New and Selected Poems. Rebekkah Presson Mosby reports on Balakian's perennial concerns with history and his interpretation.

Lawyer and satirist Kevin Underhill presents his new translation of Dante's epic Inferno. Read the translation.

Online hate the Duchess has faced was part of a targeted and coordinated campaign originating from just 83 Twitter accounts.

From member station WCPN in Cleveland, Janet Babin reports on the serious consequences of the latest U.S. Census for a small suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. (4:00) For more, check out NPR coverage of Census 2000.

Noah Adams speaks with Zoran Kusovac, Balkans correspondent for Jane's Defense Weekly. The army of Macedonia is fighting Albanians rebels in the hills above the town of Tetovo. Kusovac explains the inherent difficulty of defeating an insurgent rebel group -- particularly in this situation. The Macedonian army is an old vestige of the former Yugoslav military and depends on one-year conscripts (some of whom are Albanian) to fight the rebels. Kusovac says this kind of battle requires small, well-armed and trained mobile army units to penetrate guerilla territory.

NPR's Eric Weiner in Jerusalem reports Israeli military authorities are questioning a scholar about a book he wrote on Israel's nuclear weapons program. Avner Cohen's book Israel and the Bomb was published three years ago in the United States after Israeli censors refused to allow its publication in Israel. Cohen, back in Israel on a visit, could face prosecution for violating the country's Military Secrets Act.

Cartoon creator William Hanna died yesterday at age 90. Host Bob Edwards talks about the much loved cartoons Hanna created with his partner Joseph Barbera. They include Scooby Doo, The Jetsons, The Flintstones, Tom and Jerry, and many others.

NPR's Van Williamson reports from Chestertown, Maryland, on tomorrow's launch of the schooner, "Sultana" onto the Chester River. Professional builders and volunteers spent four years constructing the vessel, which is more than 50 feet long and weighs 52 tons. It's modeled after a cargo vessel, built in 1768, that the British Navy used to patrol for smugglers. At the time, Chestertown was a deepwater port, 20 miles up the Chester River from the Chesapeake Bay. Today it's a tourist destination.

In a rare defection from China, a senior officer of the People's Liberation Army has taken refuge in the United States (as of December). He is said to know a lot about China's strategic plans regarding the United States and Taiwan. Beijing takes defections seriously but this case apparently has NOT disrupted U.S.-China relations too much. Both sides were aware of it this week as President Bush and his aides met with Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen. Those talks were regarded as successful.