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NPR's Peter Kenyon reports on Senate confirmation hearings for Donald Rumsfeld to be Secretary of Defense, a position he held in the latter stages of the Gerald Ford administration. Rumsfeld is expected to win support from the Senate Armed Services Committee and go on to become confirmed with little difficulty. But some Democrats want to question him about his advocacy of a missile defense system.

When President-elect George Bush takes office later this month, he'll have to consider new aggressive posturing by Russia. Russian jets recently buzzed a US aircraft carrier, and moved nuclear weapons to the western most point of the country. NPR's Michele Kelemen reports.

LA-Z Boy and Microsoft have come together to produce a product perfect for the Web-surfing couch potato in your home. It's a recliner they call The Explorer. It was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas yesterday. The chair's arm contains a wireless modem and a 110 volt outlet, and comes with a build-in keyboard. Robert talks with Don Willmott, technology editor for Yahoo Internet Life about it.

NPR's Jim Zarroli reports that American Airlines made it official today. It will acquire financially-troubled TWA. In a separate deal, American also announced that it is buying some of US Airways assets and will take a major stake in a startup airline, DC Air. American's parent corporation, AMR, gets TWA's 190 planes and 175 gates at airports around the country. American has also agreed to provide employment to almost all of TWA's 20,000 employees.

NPR's Mary Ann Akers reports on the public debut of the National Zoo's new pandas. The pandas arrived from China on December sixth, but their keepers gave the animals a few weeks to get used to their new surroundings before opening the exhibit to the public. The National Zoo paid China ten million dollars for a ten year loan of the pandas.

NPR's Guy Raz reports from Pristina on the reaction of NATO-led peacekeepers and the United Nations administration in Kosovo to reports that peacekeepers in the Balkans have become ill, because of contact with depleted uranium weapons. Spokespeople for the peacekeepers and U.N. say that until now, troops have not roped off sites where the weapons were used. They note a lack of resources and say there is still no proof that residue from the depleted uranium weapons poses a health risk. Kosovar Albanians are skeptical of the reports about high cancer rates among peacekeepers, suggesting the claims are intended to undermine international support for the Kosovo peacekeeping operation.

NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr says that the Chavez implosion is another example of a cover-up gone awry.

NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Adrian Ma of the The Indicator from Planet Money podcast about the "billionaire tax" being proposed by Democrats to help fund the Build Back Better legislation.

Military leaders in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, have been holding direct talks with democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi (ahng sahn soo chee). In 1990, Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won elections overwhelmingly, but the military government wouldn't allow the party to govern, and has kept Suu Kyi under house arrest. Noah talks with Bertil Lintner, Correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review, and author of Burma in Revolt: Opium and Insurgency Since 1948. Lintner says these talks are not unprecedented, and that they are usually for show for the outside world. Suu Kyi remains under house arrest and her travel restrictions have not been loosened at all. (4:30)Burma in Revolt: Opium and Insurgency Since 1948, by Bertil Lintner is published by Silkworm books, 2000.

NPR's Rob Gifford reports that China today announced the launch of an unmanned rocket it hopes eventually will carry astronauts into space. Currently, only Russia and the U.S. are capable of manned space flight. China says three or four more test flights will be needed before it attempts a manned flight. The Long March rocket blasted off from a launch center in the Gobi Desert and Chinese officials say it will be used to conduct experiments on the effects of space on life forms.