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Guest host John Ydstie talks with Alberto Almeida, who has devised an index to measure fear among residents of nine major cities in Brazil. Almeida is the head of opinion research at Brazil's leading business school, the Fundacao Getulio Vargas, in Rio de Janeiro.

An Afghan physician based in Paris is taking new measures to get sick Afghan children the medical attention they need. She's flying many of them to Paris, where doctors perform a range of operations unimaginable in Kabul's basic medical facilities. Medical teams in Paris are struggling to raise money to improve medicine in Afghanistan, and hope the children will bring a message of modernity back to their villages. The BBC's Emma Jane Kirby reports.

The U.S. Supreme Court today upheld a 1998 law that extends copyright for 20 years. Internet publisher Eric Eldred maintains a website where he posts out-of-print literature that's in the public domain for free. He and his lawyers had argued that the founding fathers intended creative works to eventually revert to the public domain for the benefit of all. The Supreme Court ruled that Congress was within its Constitutional powers to extend the length of copyright. NPR's Neda Ulaby reports.

The Supreme Court reviews a 1996 law that orders non-citizens convicted of some crimes to be held without bond while a court decides whether to deport them. Opponents say it violates due process. The government says it's needed for public safety. NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports.

Today's transgenic (genetically modified) crops contain have been tinkered with in a relatively simple way. And there is no evidence that they pose any health risk. But scientists are now working on the much more complex modifications needed to enhance the nutritional value of food crop -- by increasing their vitamin content, for example. This could have unpredictable consequences. NPR's Eric Niiler reports.

In the new film About Schmidt, Kathy Bates plays Roberta Hertzel -- an aging hippie and free spirit. Jack Nicholson plays the repressed insurance salesman Warren Schmidt. In one scene Bates strips nude in front of Nicholson. It's the scene everyone is talking about. NPR's Michele Norris talks with Kathy Bates about the scene and about her career in film.

NPR's Andy Bowers reports that naturalist John Muir is back. Or so it seems. A man who has played Muir on stage for decades has just become a California county supervisor representing the Yosemite Valley... where he plans to take up Muir's environmentalist causes against a slate of property rights advocates.

U.N. arms inspectors search two outbuildings of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's primary palace. Meanwhile, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency consults with Russian officials on Iraq. Hear NPR's Michele Norris, Rajiv Chandrasekaran of The Washington Post and NPR's Lawrence Sheets.

The computer and recording industries join up to try and stop digital copying of CDs and unauthorized file sharing on the Internet. Both agree they don't want government intervention, specifically legislation mandating a technological solution to piracy. NPR's Neda Ulaby reports.

Michele Norris talks with NPR's Julie Rovner about today's arguments before the Supreme Court on the Family and Medical Leave Act. At issue is whether the law applies to state employees. States -- as they have in other cases in recent years -- argue the Constitution forbids the federal government from imposing certain worker protection measures on them.