April 6, 1998 All Things Considered (entire program) Requires the RealAudio Player

An index of the day's stories:

The Language of Denial -- All Things Considered host Robert Siegel talks with Ze'ev Chafets, a columnist for the Jerusalem Report. They discuss the kind of language being used by Israel in its denial of responsibility for the death of the chief bomb maker for the Islamic militant group Hamas. In the past, official denials were often a tacit means of admitting responsibility for assassinations or violence. This time, Chafets says, the Israeli government has been making an extra effort to make everyone believe that it was not responsible for this death. (4:30)

Turtles and Shrimp -- NPR's John Nielsen reports on a ruling by the World Trade Organization that declares a U.S. embargo on shrimp caught in turtle-deadly nets a restraint of international trade. Most nations use nets that allow trapped turtles, most of which are endangered, to escape. Several nations do not and successfully argued that efforts to make them use the nets were unfair. (3:30)

Wenatchee Sexual Assault Cases -- NPR's Wendy Kaufman reports on the reexamination of a series of child sexual abuse cases that, in 1994-95, shook the small town of Wenatchee, Washington. More than a dozen people are in prison following some 25,000 charges of child sexual abuse. (8:00)

Citicorp, Travelers to Merge -- NPR's Jim Zarroli reports that Citicorp and Travelers Group, Inc. announced a merger worth more than $70 billion today. The move combines the second-largest U.S. bank with the fast-growing American financial services company that bought Salomon Inc. last year. (4:30)

PC Prices -- NPR's John McChesney reports that many computer makers are caught in a profit squeeze these days. Prices keep falling, but the market isn't expanding quickly enough to make up for the loss in revenue. (7:30)

Microsoft and Justice -- The Justice Department may bring new antitrust charges against Microsoft before the release of its Windows 98 operating system, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The paper, citing sources within the department, said a federal court could be asked to order the company to offer Windows 98 to computer makers with a choice of whether or not to install Microsoft's Internet browser Explorer. The software is scheduled for public release June 25. NPR's Elaine Korry reports. (2:00)

Hedwig and the Angry Inch -- The new off-Broadway sensation "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" all began with musings on Plato's "Symposium." The notion of divided souls led playwright and actor John Cameron Mitchell to think about the divided city of Berlin -- and about transvestites. Frank Browning reports. This item is unavailable due to copyright issues.

Breast Cancer Drug -- NPR's Joe Palca reports on findings that a drug called Tamoxifen reduces the risk of breast cancer in women at highest risk for the disease. The National Cancer Institute halted a study of the drug prematurely after it found the dramatic lowering of breast cancer rates in these women. (4:00)

Tobacco Documents -- Laura McCallum of Minnesota Public Radio reports that tobacco companies turned over nearly 40,000 internal industry documents to lawyers for the state of Minnesota today. The state and Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Minnesota are suing the tobacco companies to recover the public health costs of smoking-related illnesses. The tobacco companies had fought their release all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming they were protected under attorney-client privilege. (2:30)

Assault Weapons Ban -- President Clinton used an executive order today to ban the importing of 58 kinds of foreign-made assault weapons. Most of the guns had been modified for sport use to escape a 1994 ban on assault weapons. NPR's Brian Naylor reports. (3:00)

Peña Resigns -- NPR's Steve Inkseep reports. Energy Secretary Federico Peña is stepping down in June. Pena is the highest-ranking Hispanic in the Clinton administration. He also served in Clinton's first term, as transportation secretary. (2:30)

The Hadj -- Robert talks with Sayyid Muhammad Syeed, the secretary-general of the Islamic Society of North America. They discuss how the numbers of people able to attend the Hadj--the annual pilgrimage that Muslims make to Mecca -- have increased dramatically. Syeed says this is due to socio-economic, political, and geographical changes on an international scale. (3:45)

Girls, Boys and CDs -- All Things Considered host Noah Adams talks with Don Jeffrey, the Merchants and Marketing Editor for Billboard magazine. They discuss a new study from the Recording Industry Association of America, which shows that females are buying more records than males for the first time since the association began keeping records of these transactions in 1985. (3:45)

China Dissidents -- NPR's Ted Clark reports that China's pattern of releasing imprisoned political dissidents and then forcing them into exile represents a dilemma for the United States. China often releases dissidents in response to American pressure, but the United States, in accepting the exiled activists, becomes complicit in a practice that it considers a human rights violation. (6:00)

Kosovo Youth -- NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports that since the Serbian government stripped Kosovo province of its autonomy in 1989, a whole generation of young people has grown up isolated in rival ethnic communities. Efforts at dialogue between Serbian and Albanian youth are running into resistance from nationalist forces. (6:30)

'Teletubbies' -- Robert reports on the new Public Broadcasting Service television series called "Teletubbies." The show, which is targeted at children between the ages of 1 and 4, began airing in England one year ago, and today made its debut in the United States. It's been the subject of some controversy, about the wisdom of directing programming at children who have not yet acquired language skills. (8:00)