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NPR's Andy Bowers reports from Moscow on fears that old Soviet habits are creeping back into Russia. Human Rights groups cite as example the case of Alexander Nikitin (neh-KEE-tuhn). Nikitin wrote a report on nuclear waste contamination by the Russian Navy. He was arrested and charged with espionage and high treason.

NPR's Elaine Korry reports that the Oakland, California school district has declared "Ebonics" or black English to be a second language as a way of addressing the low performance of some black students. The school district says the move is intended to help black students the same way that English as a second language programs help new immigrants. But opponents of the idea say calling black English a distinct language simply validates bad grammar and won't help black students succeed.

about the unexplained events nearly four years ago in the Australian outback. Was the huge explosion, felt hundreds of miles away, a small earthquake, a meteorite crashing or worst of all, a nuclear blast?

committee responsible for investigating such allegations of improper fundraising. The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee split directly along party lines this week on its first vote: how much money to spend on the investigation. Republicans supported the six-point-five million dollar supplemental budget request. Democrats opposed it as too expensive.

and their possible effect on election results. Again this year, there is widespread concern in western states that voters will refrain from voting in local, state, and Congressional elections, once television networks project the winner of the Presidential election, based on exit polling.

2: Recently the Food and Drug Administration conditionally approved the sale of RU486, the French abortion pill, in the United States. The drug won't be available widely until mid next year. DR. ELIZABETH NEWHALL (pronounced "NEW-HALL") works in a clinic in Portland, Oregon, where they have been testing the drug with their patients.

A massive irrigation and hydropower project in Turkey is alarming Syria and Iraq. They fear that around half their current supply of fresh water could be cut off by their neighbor. NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports from Turkey that its plan to build 22 dams has the region realizing that water is as strategic a resource as oil has been to the area's politics and economies.

Julian Crandall Hollick reports on the Shidhis, Pakistanis whose skin color and features are distinctly East African. Many are descended from slaves that were brought across the Arabian Sea to Pakistan. They say they are discriminated against because of their color; they say they are treated as second-class citizens in Pakistan. And many, still, are essentially slaves, sold as parts of dowries from family to family.

has stirred up a row within the governing Conservative Party on European monetary union by suggesting that unless Britain joins the single European currency, it won't invest any money in new plants.

They discuss one of this season's top players, Center Tim Duncan of Wake Forest, who has resisted offers to go professional before finishing college. Wake Forest is ranked number two in the nation, largely because of Duncan. Tomorrow, he and his teammates take on the University of Maryland, which is ranked number five.