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NPR's Ted Clark reports on the United States' reaction to the crumbling situation in the Middle East in the face of recent terrorist acts in Yemen against the U.S. and Britain and increasing violence in Israel.

Commentator Richard Rosenfeld talks about how the issue of religious tolerance was an issue in the Presidential campaign two hundred years ago. Then the candidates John Adams and Thomas Jefferson battled over the formation of an official state religion. Today the role of spirituality in public life is again being debated.

NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr takes a look at the evolution of George W. Bush's foreign policy positions, in light of last night's debate.

Linda and Robert read letters from All Things Considered listeners. (2:45) Send e-mail to: atc@npr.org or traditional mail to: Letters, All Things Considered, National Public Radio, 635 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20001.

The second debate between Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore was more polite than the first, but there were contentious moments. Gore criticized the Texas governor's record on health care and hate crime legislation, citing statistics from Bush's home state. Robert talks to Dave McNeely, political columnist for the Austin American Statesman. He joins us by phone from Austin, Texas.

Los Angeles film critic Kenneth Turan reviews the new movie Meet the Parents. It stars Ben Stiller as a prospective son-in-law who needs to win over his girlfriend's over-protective father before he can propose. Turan says both Stiller and Robert De Niro, who plays the father, turn in solidly comic performances in a film that has wide appeal.

Ev Ehrlich comments on the Nobel Prize in Economics. Economic theory has changed over the years to reflect contemporary conditions, and the choices for recent prizes reflect those shifts.

Violence also erupted elsewhere in the Middle East today. Israeli helicopter gunships launched attacks against Palestinian targets. Among the targets: the headquarters of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Gaza City. Arafat was not injured. Israel says the attacks are in retaliation for the killing of Israeli soldiers. Three soldiers had made a wrong turn into Palestinian territory, and sought refuge at Palestinian police station. But a mob of hundreds of Palestinians surrounded the building, and beat at least two of the soldiers to death. Mike Shuster of NPR News talks to host Robert Siegel about the incidents.

NPR's Jack Speer reports on the current state of the Stock Market. Yesterday, the Dow hit its fifth worst single-day decline ever. Turmoil in the Mideast and a major spike in oil prices are two culprits in the market's dive.

NPR's Jim Zarroli reports that two of the nation's largest oil companies are merging. Chevron is acquiring Texaco in a stock swap valued at more than 35-billion dollars. The deal announced today is seen as an answer to other recent mergers in the oil industry, including the mergers of Exxon and Mobil and British Petroleum with Amoco. The new company will be called Chevron Texaco and will be headquartered in San Francisco.

The "NPR Players" react to the constant stream of mergers in our society. In a series of commercial spoofs, they attempt to capture the constant transformations of companies and company names.

Robert talks with Edward Wessex, the youngest son of Queen Elizabeth, about his new project Crown and Country III. It's a 6-part series that begins airing this evening on public television. Edward Wessex wrote, produced and directed the series which explores British sites and their relation to the monarchy through the ages. (7:30) Find more information on the internet at http://www.pbs.org/whatson/press/fall/crown_city.html

Like many states, California is turning up the heat on its public schools with tough new policies designed to force them to improve. In the first of a series of stories, Richard Gonzales looks at one San Francisco Bay-area school's struggle to turn itself around.

In the Port of Aden, Yemen, divers are searching water-filled areas of the U.S.S. Cole for bodies of the crew members caught in last week's explosion. They're using metal cutters to clear their way through the wreckage. The Defense Department says a small boat armed with explosives rammed the side of the Navy Destroyer in a terrorist attack, killing 17 sailors. Noah talks to John Burns of The New York Times, who is stationed in Yemen, about the ongoing search for victims, the investigation into the attack, and the cooperation of the Yemeni government.

Noah talks with Sam Web, Chairman of the Communist Party USA about Gus Hall, who has died at the age of 90. Hall was Chair of the Communist Party in the U.S. for many years, and he ran for president on the party ticket four times. Web says Hall never lost his optimism and hope for Communism in America, and recently was happy to see so many young people involved in protests against the World Trade Organization, World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

NPR's Michael Sullivan reports from the Egyptian resort of Sharm al-Sheikh, where the Israeli and Palestinian leaders are meeting with President Clinton and other world leaders in a bid to halt the continuing violence in the West Bank and Gaza.

Thousands of people responded to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan's call to the Million Family March today on the National Mall in Washington. The gathering marks the fifth anniversary of the Million Man March. Unlike the previous event, organizers invited women, as well as people of all races and religions. The audience listened to speakers address the glories of family life and the dangers to families, including drug abuse and racism.

Kate Seelye in Beirut reports Lebanon's Hizbollah guerrillas are now holding another Israeli captive, in addition to the three soldiers seized earlier this month in a border ambush. Hizbollah's leader says the fourth captive is an Israeli intelligence agent. The Israeli government says he is a businessman.

(Update) Host Bob Edwards talks with NPR's Ted Clark about the emergency summit trying to revive the Middle East Peace process. President Clinton is extending his stay in Egypt as the talks enter their second day.

NPR's Rob Gifford reports on a controversy over the design of a new national theater building in Beijing. Building a national theatre is a matter of great pride to the people of Beijing. The Chinese capital has no such facility and lags far behind the city of Shanghai in theatre arts. But many are upset over the design, by a French architect. It calls for something resembling a huge titanium egg, surrounded by the monolithic, very square Stalinist buildings that rim Tiananmen Square, the spiritual heart of the city.

Commentator James Ponewozik says that the biggest innovation of the TV season isn't a show that's new this fall - it's the long life of one of the biggest hits of the summer. Survivor is still going strong - with cast members showing up in many CBS TV. shows this fall. It will keep the buzz about Survivor going until the next show - Survivor in Australia - goes on the air in January. In its brilliant efficiency, CBS is sort of like the Plains Indian tribes who used every part of the buffalo: from ads to books to soundtrack CDs, CBS has figured out how to sell every part of Survivor.

NPR's John Nielsen reports on the plan by several of the largest multi-national corporations to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. The newly formed "Partnership for Climate Action," aims to identify gas emissions and voluntarily cut back on them. The plan is based on the idea of 'emissions trading systems,' which allow manufacturers to buy and sell the right to emit certain global warming gases. The plan will be monitored by the watchdog group, Environmental Defense. Other environmental groups are skeptical about such market-based methods of reducing pollution.

Elysa Gardner reviews the new CD by The Wallflowers, Breach. The Wallflowers' front man in Jakob Dylan - son of Bob Dylan - and Gardner says that Jakob is a strong musical presence in his own right. (4:00) Breach, by The Wallflowers is on Interscope Records.

NPR's Alex Chadwick has the last of three reports on the megatransect: a year-long journey across part of Africa undertaken by field scientist Michael Fay. Fay is walking from the northern Congo basin to the Atlantic coast, following animal trails where there are no roads, foot paths, or villages. Today, he talks with Chadwick by satellite phone as he camps out in the mountains of southwestern Gabon .

Claire Doole reports from Geneva on a World Health Organization (WHO) initiative to control the trade and distribution of tobacco and related products. The WHO is meeting to push for a coordinated worldwide policy to address the massive public health problems linked to tobacco use. The proposal would allow WHO member states to set their own specific national policy on trade and distribution of tobacco products, but still encourage them to cooperate in curbing the problems related to the tobacco marketing and consumption.