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Linda Wertheimer talks to Linda Nochlin, professor of modern art at the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU about the painter Balthus. The artist whose real name was Balthasar Klossowski died in Switzerland yesterday at the age of 92.

NPR's Ina Jaffe reports on the wallop California's power crisis has given to small energy producers - who make electricity from renewable resources.

NPR's Howard Berkes explores the rush to harness energy from wind during a visit to the town of McCamey, the Wind Energy Capital of Texas, where hundreds of wind turbines are going up on every available mesa.

Linda Wertheimer talks with New York Times reporter Al Baker about four young men who've been charged as eco-terrorists in New York. The FBI believes that the four burned down houses in new developments to protest sprawl and that they are apart of the Earth Liberation Front. A question remains whether they are terrorists or teenage vandals.

The West may not be best when it comes to selling products in Russian. As NPR's Anne Garrels reports from Moscow there's a trend to advertise that products are made at home.

NPR's Ivan Watson reports on vigilante justice in southeastern Nigeria. A provincial government has hired a machete-toting militia called "The Bakassi Boys" to deal with a spate of armed robberies. The results have been bloody but immensely popular, and the crime rate has dropped sharply.

Robert Siegel talks with Robert Matthews, a physicist at Aston University in Birmingham, England and the world's foremost expert on Murphy's Law. Matthews is part of a six-week experiment across Britain that begins today. Up to 150,000 primary and secondary school pupils are dropping buttered toast. If the results prove that the toast is more likely to fall butter-side down, Murphy's law will be validated.

Today, according to statements from the Taliban in Afghanistan, ancient Buddhist statues carved into a mountain have been destroyed despite attempts by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to prevent it. Host Lisa Simeone talks with Humanities Professor Crispin Sartwell who says that destruction of idols has a long tradition in Western history. (5:00).

Host Lisa Simeone talks with NPR's Gerry Hadden about the end of the Zapatistas' trek to the capital to push for legislation that will guarantee the rights of indigenous people.

NPR's Steve Inskeep joined a dozen U.S. senators who are working on a Habitat for Humanity project in Capitol Heights, MD.

Host Lisa Simeone talks with KUNC station manager Neil Best about the recent sale of the public radio station in Greeley, Colorado. The University of Northern Colorado sold the station to the "friends of KUNC" after a battle for control with Colorado Public Radio, based in Denver.

NPR's Mike Shuster reports that jury selection begins today in Los Angeles in the federal trial of Ahmed Ressam , the Algerian man who's accused of trying to smuggle bomb making materials into the United States. He was arrested in December of 1999, while crossing from Canada into Washington State. Prosecutors will argue that Ressam was part of a conspiracy to blow up public facilities during the Year 2000 celebrations.

Host Lisa Simeone talks with the translators of a new English edition of Leo Tolstoy's classic novel, Anna Karenina (Viking Penguin/2001). Larissa Volokhonsky and Richard Pevear are a husband and wife translating team. She's Russian, he's American. They talk about the delicate art of translation.

Joshua Levs of member station WABE in Atlanta takes us to the Everett family barn in Suwanee, Georgia. Every Saturday night since 1964, folks from all over come to the Everett Barn to listen to bluegrass music.

NPR's Sarah Chayes reports on today's municipal election in Paris. Because of recent government corruption scandals, Parisians may select liberal candidates for the first time in100 years.

An explosion in a rural school house in China last Tuesday is believed to have been caused by children making fireworks to supplement the teachers' income. Host Lisa Simeone speaks with NPR's Rob Gifford in Beijing about child labor in China.

NPR's Michael Sullivan reports on U.N. Secretary Kofi Annan's unsuccessful appeal to leaders of Afghanistan's Islamic Taliban government to stop the destruction of two huge Buddha statues. Secretary Annan was told that the statues, which are carved from a rock cliff near the central Afghan town of Bamian , are mostly destroyed.

In the first of a series of conversations with members of President Bush's cabinet, host Bob Edwards talks to Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi. They discuss some of the problems confronting his department. Secretary Principi says one of his priorities is eliminating the backlog of claims for veterans benefits. He says the Department of Veterans Affairs provides medical care to more than four million veterans a year and that more money is needed to improve the quality of that care. President Bush is requesting one billion dollars for the department for next year.

Vice President Cheney went home from the hospital today, one day after undergoing an operation to reopen an artery to his heart. The angioplasty was performed at George Washington University Hospital, not far from the White House. Doctors there canceled plans for a briefing today on the vice president's condition. Mr. Cheney is expected to return to work later this week, although White House staff were not discussing any details of his case. NPR's White House correspondent Don Gonyea reports.

NPR's Robert Smith reports that students of Princeton University and their parents are gasping in relief -- over tuition. The university plans to bolster its financial aid so that undergraduates won't have to take out student loans. This will likely give Princeton a keen edge in attracting the best students, and it has other Ivy League schools scrambling.

NPR's John Nielsen reports on a new report from a U.N. panel on global climate change. It says that extreme weather events, like huge snowstorms and floods, are becoming more frequent, and may be signs of the slow process of global warming.

Amateur weatherman Steven Fybish shares some unusual knowledge -- Fybish can recite from memory exactly how much snow has fallen in New York City for each of the last 130 years.

Commentator Ev Ehrlich says census data reflect millions more people in the U.S. than population projections suggest. He thinks foreign workers are factoring into the head-count, and that they are exercising a powerful influence on the U.S. economy.

The court case brought by the world's pharmaceutical companies against the South African Government has been postponed until mid April. The companies are trying to block a law that allows South Africa to import generic drugs or authorize their manufacture. The postponement gives the companies time to respond to the inclusion in the case of testimony by the country's leading AIDS activists. Brenda Wilson reports from Pretoria.

A rapidly growing number of Fortune 500 companies offer employees with same sex partners the same benefits once reserved for married couples. And half of the biggest coprorations have written policies against discrimination based on sexual orientation. The changing busines climate is making it easier for many gays and lesbians to be open at work about their sexuality, but fear and uncertainty still keep others in the closet.