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NPR's John Ydstie reports that an unemployment report released today suggested that economic growth in the U-S is slowing. There had been concern that the growing economy would spark high inflation.

NPR's Michael Skoler reports from Nairobi that a key Somali militia leader, Mohamed Farah Aideed (FAIR-uh eye-DEED), has died. Aideed died as a result of gunshot wounds he received last week. Aideed was the subject of a massive manhunt led by the American military in 1993, because the United Nations labeled him the main obstacle to peace. But after his militia killed 18 U-S Rangers in a 1993 street battle, the United States pulled out of Somalia. It is unclear whether Aideed's death will create an opportunity for the country's warring factions to finally negotiate a political solution to a five-year conflict which has left the country in a state of anarchy.

- NPR's Wendy Kaufman reports that investigators of the downed TWA Flight 800 are comparing the forensic evidence from that crash to the crash of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and the crash of a French plane over the Sahara Desert, both of which were downed by terrorist bombs.

- NPR's John Burnett spends a morning with a man who has written a book about Hummingbirds.

- Daniel speaks with Dr. Philip Nitchke, about the first ever legal mercy killing, which took place this week in Darwin, Australia. Nitchke run the Voluntary Euthanasia Network in Australia's outback, and he hopes to be able other terminially ill patients end their suffering.

The fate of a resort condominium on one of North Carolina's barrier islands has become a touchstone of sorts for the debate on whether to build on these fragile, constantly shifting islands -- and whether to save the buildings that fall victim to the hurricanes that sweep across the region. Aileen LeBlanc of member station WHQR in Wilmington, North Carolina reports.

Linda interviews New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley, who moderated a panel discussion on race today .... at a meeting Senator Bradley called the "Unconvention," sponsored by the Human Relations Foundation of Chicago. In their conversation, Senator Bradley called for a new kind of engagement on questions of race; he said that confronting race as an issue in America must involve millions of individual acts. He was critical of politicians for not offering real leadership and real change.

The Clinton Administration's chief housing official, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros, has won Republican praise for some of his initiatives to help depressed urban areas. Those programs include elements of GOP housing policies and have alienated some Democrats. But Republican critics in Congress say Cisneros has not gone far enough toward the GOP approach. NPR's John Nielsen reports that the partisan dispute and the choice of former congressman Jack Kemp as the Republican vice presidential nominee have raised the profile of urban issues in the presidential race.

NPR's Eric Weiner reports that there was renewed fighting between Palestinians and Israelis today after Israeli troops stormed the Muslims' holy Temple Mount during Friday prayers, in an incident that left three Palestinians dead and dozens of others wounded. Despite this outbreak of violence, there were signs that both the Palestinians and the Israelis were seeking to avoid the sort of bloody confrontations that had raged for the last two days. Both sides seemed to be trying to step back from the brink of outright war, and to get back to peaceful negotiations about their differences.

leader Ralph Reed to urge the Democratic party to allow their anti-abortion views to be heard.

Robert talks with George Soros about his 50 million dollar donation to assist legal immigrants in the United States. Soros is a billionaire philanthropist and chair of the Open Society Institute. He was born in Hungary and emigrated first to England and then to the United States. As a legal immigrant who was once supported by social services, he says he is sensitive to the issue. He says the effort by lawmakers to deny social benefits to legal immigrants is an act of meanness and runs counter to the American spirit.

Linda went to breakfast this morning with the Florida delegation to the Democratic Convention, and talked with two of the delegates -- the youngest among Florida's group, Jonathan Poverud, who's 19, and one of the oldest, Diane Glasser, who's 68. They discussed different and not-so-different views on social security, fiscal priorities (when to save and when to spend), and each how each demographic group can support the other's ambitions.

The Democratic National Convention has attracted only a smattering of protests and most of these have been held in small ``official'' protest areas, for which groups had to apply for a city permit. It's a far cry from the thousands of angry protesters, whose confrontations with police in Chicago twenty-eight years ago marked the last Democratic convention in the city. NPR's Scott Simon reports.

- Cory visits with the bell ringers at Washington's National Cathedral for a lesson in how the original heavy metal music is played.

Commentator David Brooks discusses the difference between President Clinton's and Bob Dole's views on school choice. Brooks says that Catholic schools have proven to be especially effective at educating at-risk inner city students, and the needs of these kids should outweigh the concerns of the National Education Association.

NPR's Michael Goldfarb reports from Diyarbikir (dee-YARR-buh-keer) in Southeastern Turkey that there are new reports of heavy fighting between rival Kurdish militias in northern Iraq, as Turkey declares the establishment of a buffer zone along its borders with Iraq to prevent attacks from yet another Kurdish rebel group.

NPR's Melissa Block reports from New York City that Ramzi Yousef (RAHM-zee YOO-seff) and his two co-defendants have been found guilty in their trial, which accused them of a scheme to blow up American jets in retaliation against the United States for its policies in the Middle East. Yousef still faces charges that he masterminded the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

Peter Jones reports on the music of "16 HORSEPOWER". Its gothic Western rock is played on antique instruments by a man who could have stepped out of a Walker Evans Dustbowl-era photo. (STEREO)

In the final segment of the series, NPR's Howard Berkes reports on one of the most unusual and hazardous professions--diving for sea cucumbers. An exotic delicacy in Asia, sea cucumbers cling to the bottom of Puget Sound, where divers brave frigid waters, strong currents and gradual bone necrosis to bring them up. No one knows much about these creatures, and measures to protect them have limited the fishery to a few determined divers.

toward the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

. Various estimates say unemployment is somewhere from 40 to 70 percent. Many Palestinians blame new Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the closing of the borders between Israel, the West Bank and Gaza for the economic problems.

In the 1940's operatic soprano Kyra (KEER-uh) Vane's pure toned beautiful voice garnered her leading roles in operas like Mussorgsky's "Sorochintsy Fair" and a coveted spot in Europe's opera houses. But then Vane stopped singing, got rid of her beloved piano, and became a typist. Now in her 80's, Kyra Vane has lived to see recordings of her performances on CD and critics are asking how could she have ever stopped singing. Vera Frankl reports.

One might imagine that being a wedding photographer is a fairly pleasant job, where one is surrounded by happy people. Commentator John Rosenthal discovered, though, that is not always the case. He describes a wedding where the groom's buddies put a ball and chain around his ankle. The groom thinks this is hilarious, until the bride demands he take it off or she will call off the wedding.

some members of Congress are blaming the Small Business Administration for mismanagement as more and more entrepreneurs are failing to pay back their loans.

NPR's Adam Hochberg reports from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, which is expected to be close to the center of the eye of Hurricane Fran when the storm makes landfall. While the coast has been evacuated, many residents are still staying.