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NPR's Rick Karr reports that Napster, the controversial online music-sharing service, has upped its profile in D.C.: It's retained a prominent GOP lobbying firm, hired as its chief counsel a former staffer for GOP copyright stalwart Orrin Hatch, courted right-libertarian think tanks, and encouraged users to call their members of Congress. Can the electoral power of 70-million Napster-users be harnessed to trump the established lobbying clout of the (mostly-Democratic-leaning) recording industry?

The Swiss Army is eliminating its bicycle brigade -- which has been a part of the Swiss force for 110 years. Noah Adams talks with Major General Christian Schlapbach, deputy chief of the Swiss Army and the former head of the bicycle regiment.

The White House has so far refused to apologize to the Chinese for the reconnaissance plane incident, a stance that pleases conservatives in the president's own party. But NPR's National Political Correspondent Mara Liasson reports that some want the president to take a still harder line.

Researchers have found a way to take stem cells from fat pulled from liposuction patients -- and to use them to grow everything from human muscle to bone. This method of harvesting stem cells avoids the ethical issues associated with embryonic stem cell research. Linda Wertheimer talks with Dr. Patricia A. Zuk, a researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine, who is the primary author of the study published today in the journal, Tissue Engineering.

NPR's Michele Kelemen reports from Moscow on a recent performance by an unusual ballet troupe from the Siberian city of Perm. The company, calling itself the Fat Ballet, features hefty ballerinas weighing, on average, 200 pounds.

People from the drug industry, the World Health Organization and the World Trade Organization are among those meeting in Norway today to talk about ways to make life-saving drugs more readily available to people around the world. NPR's Richard Knox reports.

NPR's Margot Adler reports that more than a dozen states have joined a push against telemarketing. New York just enacted its law -- and more than a million people have signed up.

NPR Special Correspondent Susan Stamberg talks with David Carley, a developer who made, then lost, some $40 million. He says his downfall was over-ambition and under-attention to details. This is part two of Susan's series of discussions about money, airing Tuesdays in April.

Host Bob Edwards talks with NPR's Rob Gifford in Beijing and NPR's Tom Gjelten, about this morning's announcement by both the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the White House that they have reached an agreement. This will result in the return home of the 24 Navy personnel held on the southern island of Hainan.

Host Bob Edwards talks with Kenneth Leiberthal, China scholar at the University of Michigan. They discuss the impact of this situation on Bush's future foreign policy decisions.

Writers may go on strike in Hollywood. Representatives of the Writers Guild of America will sit down to negotiate with producers on April 17, two weeks before the Guild's threatened strike deadline. Meanwhile, the fall season for new TV shows and feature films are in a holding pattern. Noah Adams speaks with Entertainment Weekly writer Daniel Fireman.

Book Reviewer Alan Cheuse just finished reading Inspired Sleep, by novelist Robert Cohen. (1:30) Inspired Sleep is published by Scribner.

Daft Punk is a French music duo known for their electronic dance beats. They released a big smash dance floor CD in 1997. Their new release is the first thing since. The CD is called Discovery. Writer Will Hermes has a review. (3:30) The CD Discovery by Daft Punk is on the Virgin label.

NPR's Ivan Watson reports on illegal logging of rainforests in Liberia. Since the end of the country's civil war in 1997, the export of timber has been the government's main source of revenue. But now conservationists are worried that under the current rate of depletion, the forests may not be there 10 years from now.

Linda Wertheimer talks to Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press about the attitudes of the voters toward the Bush administration's plans to give federal money to faith-based charities.

Attorney General John Ashcroft went to Oklahoma City today to meet with survivors and relatives of victims of the 1995 Murrah Federal Building bombing. Ashcroft said he wanted to talk with the people about the calls from some of them for closed circuit television of the execution of bomber Timothy McVeigh. NPR's Brian Naylor reports.

Judicial Watch, a conservative citizen watchdog group long known as the nemesis of the Clinton administration, today announced it is training its guns on a new target. The group has accused Congressman Tom DeLay of Texas, the third ranking Republican in the House, of fraudulent fundraising. NPR's David Welna reports.

Linda Wertheimer talks to Tim Boggan, historian for the United States Table Tennis Association. Boggan was a member of the U.S. table tennis team that made the historic visit to China in 1971. He recounts the team's reception in China and the matches against the Chinese players.

NPR Diplomatic Correspondent Vicky O'Hara reports on today's White House meeting between President Bush and Jordan's King Abdullah. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict topped the agenda.

NPR's Jennifer Ludden in Jerusalem reports the Israeli government is going ahead with plans to expand some of its settlements in the occupied West Bank despite strong international criticism.

Astrophysicist Erika Hamden spent 10 years building FIREBall, a telescope that reaches the stratosphere and looks for clues to how stars form. Launching it was more challenging than she ever imagined.

David D'Arcy profiles Irwin Young, this year's recipient of a George E. Sawyer Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Young, who has been a mentor to several independent and documentary filmmakers, runs the Du Art Lab which has processed many award-winning films.

mRNA vaccines are groundbreaking—but the mRNA inside them is fragile. Kathryn Whitehead explains how scientists have created the right "packing material" to safely deliver these to the right cells.

President Bush is changing his approach to banning U.S. government funding for groups that provide abortion related services overseas. NPR's Julie Rovner reports.

The U.S. Senate is entering its second week of debate over how election campaigns are funded. Robert Siegel talks to David Corn, Washington editor of The Nation, and David Brooks, senior editor at The Weekly Standard about the debate -- including tension between President Bush and Senator John McCain, and possible defections among Democrats who have supported reform in the past.