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From member station KPBS in San Diego Carrie Kahn reports that American authorities detained 45 Iraqi Christians yesterday after they tried to walk across the Mexican border and into the United States. Mexican police are holding about 150 more in a hotel just across the border.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson returned to Capitol Hill today for a grilling by yet another Congressional committee. Today, it was the House Committee on Government Reform. Questions had to do with the high price of gasoline and home heating fuel. NPR's Brian Naylor reports that Richardson -- like Vice President Al Gore -- has warmed up to the idea of releasing some of the national oil reserves as a means of lowering prices.

Mary Ann Akers of NPR News reports that two House Commerce subcommittees today held the latest in a series of hearings to look at the deaths associated with Firestone tire failures on Ford SUV's. Subcommittee members are considering additional regulations, including new penalties for companies that make defective auto products and a requirement that companies alert U.S. regulators when products are recalled overseas.

NPR's Phillip Davis reports from Miami that the eight Cubans rescued at sea are now in the US for "medical reasons" and may be allowed to stay. The group commandeered a old Russian-built crop duster yesterday and crashed into the Gulf of Mexico. One died, two others are in the hospital for medical treatment, while the remaining seven have been released into Immigration and Naturalization Service custody.

Host Bob Edwards talks to Jacky Rowland about Sunday's Presidential elections in Yugoslavia. Yesterday, more than 100-thousand people turned out to cheer Vojislav Kostunica, the man seeking to defeat Slobodan Milosevic in Sunday's elections.

Dave Thompson of North Dakota Public Radio reports that yesterday Democratic gubernatorial nominee Heidi Heitkamp announced that she has cancer. Despite her illness, Heitkamp will continue her campaign.

Jean Battey Lewis reports on the Kennedy Center tribute to the great ballet choreographer George Balanchine, one of the 20th Century's most significant contributors to the art form. Six companies are performing during the celebration in Washington. They include members of the Bolshoi Ballet, the San Francisco Ballet, the Miami City Ballet, and Suzanne Farrell's Company. Conspiculously absent is the New York City Ballet, the company Balanchine created and made famous during his lifetime.

NPR's Ted Clark talks with Host Linda Wertheimer about a candid new report on race relations in the United States. The report was issued by the State Department to comply with a U.N. convention on racial discrimination, ratified by the U.S. in 1994.

Oil shortages in Europe and elsewhere in the world have resulted in price increases in the United States -- where gasoline prices are at a ten year high. The nationwide average price of a gallon of unleaded regular is now nearly a-dollar-sixty -- with prices far higher in some locations. The Presidential candidates have been addressing the issue. Democrat Al Gore today proposed tapping the government's emergency oil reserve as a means of lowering prices before the cold weather arrives. NPR's Madeleine Brand reports.

NPR's John Ydstie reports today is not the first time Al Gore has accused the oil industry of price-gouging. The vice-president first brought up the subject of oil industry profits when gas prices soared earlier this year. Ydstie reports there is scant evidence of oil company collusion, though, and the industry is probably just profiting from OPEC's success in driving up the price of oil.