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NPR's Peter Kenyon reports on the last hurdle to normalizing trade relations with China. Tennessee Republican Senator Fred Thompson has sponsored a bill that would authorize sanctions against China for assisting in nuclear proliferation. The Clinton administration is critical of this attempt to legislate foreign policy mandates, and says it threatens to undermine the relationship between the U.S. and China.

Host Bob Edwards talks with NPR's Richard Knox about findings presented yesterday at the International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa. Studies from several countries have shown that it is feasible to give anti-AIDS treatment to poor populations and to people with high levels of viral infection...but the cost of these treatments still poses a problem.

Host Bob Edwards talks to reporter Maryann MaGuire who is in Belfast about political tensions in Northern Ireland. Protestants in the British ruled province today celebrate Orange Day, which commemorates the victory of Protestant King William of Orange over his Catholic foe in the 17th century.

In the third part of a series on development of a national missile defense system, NPR's Mike Shuster examines the effect such a system could have on U.S. relations with Russia and China. Both of those countries have objected to the deployment of any U.S. missile defense system, saying it would reduce their own nuclear deterrence. The Clinton administration says missile defense is intended to protect the United States against potential attacks from countries such as North Korea and Iraq, not China and Russia.

Host Bob Edwards talks to Bioethicist Arthur Caplan about the suspension of all federally funded clinical trials involving humans at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine in Tulsa. The government said researchers at the medical college and a university oversight board, repeatedly violated federal regulations and endangered patients in a cancer study. Arthur Caplan is Director of the Center of Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania.

NPR's Ted Clark reports on the Camp David peace talks between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. President Clinton met with each leader separately yesterday, then brought both delegations together for a half-hour discussion. So far, all parties have agreed to a news blackout concerning the talks, and no official deadline has been set to end the summit.

NPR's Michele Kelemen reports on the Russian launch today of a component for the International Space Station. The service module contributed by the Russians has been delayed by financial problems, which concerned some of the other countries working on the project -- including the United States.

NPR's Allison Aubrey reports that a new study has renewed concerns about the effects mercury may have on human development. The study, conducted by the National Academy of Sciences, states that even trace amounts of the metal may cause learning disabilities in children.

Commentator Jeffrey Tayler visited the village of Tarasawka in southeastern Belarus, near where the Chernobyl disaster occurred. There he meets one of the "old believers"-- a woman who has tried to maintain traditions extending back to the earliest days of the Russian Orthodox Church. In spite of all she has seen and experienced -- World War I, the Bolshevik Revolution, civil war, Stalin's famine, World War II, the Chernobyl disaster, and the collapse of the Soviet Union -- it is the deathof her son she cannot forget.

Israeli Prime-Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat have joined President Clinton for peace talks at Camp David outside Washington DC. The two leaders left sharply divided public opinion at home -- Prime Minister Barak narrowly survived a no-confidence vote in the Parliament yesterday -- to attempt to make progress in their negotiations, which have been stalled for some time. Linda talks with NPR's Ted Clark who is at the media center near Camp David.