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Satirists Kluger and Slavin come up with a line of movie merchandising for the older Star Wars fans. Since the franchise is now over 25 years old, the veteran fans don't need action figures, they need Depends.

A new Maine initiative seeks to change the culture of competitiveness for student athletes, especially at the middle and high school level. The project urges coaches and parents to acknowledge negative behaviors surrounding school sports, and make a public pledge to change them.

Newsweek says it is retracting its report that a copy of the Quran was flushed down a toilet by U.S. personnel at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during an interrogation. The original report drew significant criticism from the U.S. government and was blamed for deadly protests in Afghanistan.

In its semi-annual report to Congress, the Treasury Department urges China to overhaul its currency system. Critics accuse Beijing of keeping the value of the yuan artificially low to boost exports.

One year ago today, Massachusetts became the first and only state in the nation to allow same-sex couples to marry. Since then, more than 6,000 gay and lesbian couples across the state have taken their marriage vows.

Slate contributor Daniel Engber offers an explainer on the fate of a U.S. Supreme Court case that focused on legal restrictions against a man who had allegedly defamed attorney Johnnie Cochran. Cochran, who shot to fame as the lead attorney for O.J. Simpson at the football star's murder trial, died one week after the case was heard. The status of the case is now in doubt.

Israel masses tanks and troops on the border with the Gaza Strip and is threatening to invade if Palestinian militants continue rocket attacks on Israeli settlers. On Monday, militants launched more rocket and mortar fire, which Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has vowed to stop.

Musician Milt Hinton snapped more than 60,000 photos in his life, providing an insider's view of jazz and 20th-century America. His work is the subject of a new documentary called Keeping Time.

Recent comments by two Roman Catholic cardinals have some scientists wondering if the church is changing its position on evolution. For more than half a century, the Vatican has said evolution is compatible with Catholic theology. But now what was thought to be settled doctrine doesn't seem so settled.

A panel of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Wednesday the law violates the right to bear arms.

U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings says the Bush administration will adjust the No Child Left Behind Act in response to opposition from educators and state lawmakers. The most significant change allows schools to exempt more students with disabilities from state testing programs.

Rumors and urban legends have been flying around the Internet at an accelerated rate since Sept. 11. The most popular is the "Nostradamus Prophecy" of "two brothers" -- i.e. the twin towers -- falling and leading to World War II. There's also an allegation that CNN aired 10-year-old footage of Palestinians celebrating. Most have been debunked to one extent or another but NPR's Rick Karr reports that some offer us a kind of truth.

All Things Considered host Robert Siegel speaks with Sari Nusseibeh, the newly appointed top political representative for the Palestinian Authority in Jerusalem, on the path for peace and the need for moderation and reason in the Middle East.

NPR's Joe Palca reports on a global warming study by Stanford University scientists in today's issue of the journal Science. The study relied on gambling records from an annual guessing game in Anchorage, Alaska. The game began in 1917 when engineers building a railroad bridge had to stop because of ice. The engineers then passed their time by placing bets on when the ice would break up.

Frank Gasparro, the man who designed the back of the Lincoln penny -- the side that displays the Lincoln Memorial -- died this past weekend at the age of 92. Linda Wertheimer talks with Christina Hansen, daughter of Frank Gasparro, about her father's work.

Radio producer Marika Partridge sent us this audio postcard. It's comprised of audio tapes recorded in Afghanistan in 1969. The tapes were made when Marika's mom and dad took her and her brother on a one-year journey from India to Europe by car. We hear her family's impressions of the country more than 30 years ago, which at the time seemed to be a place of promise - where modern mixed with ancient, and a place filled with bright friendly people with an admirable spirit of independence.

NPR's John Burnett visits a school on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border where Afghan women and girls are learning to read and write. The classes are sponsored by the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan and they would be illegal in the Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan. Some of the women describe their treatment under the harsh Taliban rule.

NPR's Daniel Zwerdling reports on how public health and law enforcement officials might respond in case of a large chemical or bioterrorism attack. Laws vary greatly as to how much power officials have to quarantine people who have contagious illnesses. There's also disarray when it comes to taking over buildings or confining large numbers of people at public events.

Every day in Texas, more than a hundred people walk out of the state's prison headquarters as free men. The Walls Unit in Huntsville, Texas is where all male prisoners are processed for release. Producer Dan Collison went to Huntsville to talk to some inmates just about to make their return to the outside world.

NPR special correspondent Susan Stamberg asks artists to select a piece of music that they'd like the country to hear right now.

The Sept. 11 terror attacks have had a profound effect on Muslim Americans. In the first of a three-part series, NPR's Duncan Moon talks to Muslims in the 'Little Mecca' area of Falls Church, Va. about how racial and religious profiling is impacting their civil liberties -- and their faith.

Mitch Teich of member station KNAU reports on a public elementary school in Flagstaff, Arizona, that has its own observatory.

The MacArthur Foundation is probably best known for its "genius grants," $500,000, no-strings-attached awards given every year to exceptionally creative people. Lisa Simeone talks to David Wilson, founder and curator of the wonderfully offbeat and esoteric Museum of Jurassic Technology.

Slavery remains a fact of life in some isolated parts of Africa. The Mauritanian government outlawed slavery more than two decades ago, but slavery, in some forms, exists to this day.

Organizers also said that Russians and Belarusians who live elsewhere will still be able to run, just not under their countries' flags. The marathon and 5k are planned for the weekend of April 16.