August 10, 1998 All Things Considered (entire program) Requires the RealAudio Player

An index of the day's stories:

Washington View -- NPR's Ted Clark reports on the reaction at the State Department in the wake of the bombings of two of its African Embassies. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright announced a $2 million reward for information leading to the capture of those responsible for the bombings and said she would fly to Ramstein Air Base in Germany to accompany the bodies of the dead US diplomats home. (4:30)

Congo -- NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports on the ongoing roundups of Congolese Tutsi in the capital Kinshasa. A foreigner who was mistaken for a Tutsi tells of being arrested and held for a few days at a military base with more than a hundred others in poor conditions. From time to time soldiers would take a group of prisoners out, supposedly to give them water, but the detainees would never return. The former detainee says once he heard shouts and gunfire after a group of prisoners was taken out. (3:00)

New Jersey Water -- Noah Adams talks with Eric Evenson District Chief for the US Geological Survey about radium levels found in some wells in New Jersey. Some are reportedly up to six times the level considered safe by the Environmental Protection Agency. (4:00)

How Clean is Our Water? -- NPR's John Nielsen talks with Noah Adams about the state of the nation's drinking water and whether it's as safe as authorities say. Reports of radium at unacceptable levels in New Jersey have raised questions about other toxins in water supplies. Nielsen reports that although point sources like factories now pollute drinking water less than before, there are new kinds of threats that the federal government must now address (3:30)

Diary of a Retirement Home -- Residents of Presbyterian Homes in Evanston, Illinois talk about home, friendship, love and loneliness. This is the first installment of "American Diaries", a new series produced by Joe Richman. (22:00)

Investigation So Far -- NPR's Martha Raddatz reports that US officials say they have leads on possible suspects and the nature of the bombs that ripped through two embassies in two different countries at virtually the same time. The professionalism of the actions and their coordination indicate these are well organized groups, perhaps with foreign government support. (4:30)

Latest From Dar Salem -- Linda Wertheimer talks with Washington Post correspondent T.R. Reid who's in Dar Salem, Tanzania about the latest information on the powerful bomb that exploded Friday outside the US Embassy. Reid says the police in Tanzania have detained about a dozen people for questioning about Friday's bombing that killed ten people. (4:15)

History of Bombings -- NPR senior news analyst Daniel Schorr says that administration promises of swift justice in last week's embassy bombings may be impossible to keep. (3:15)

Microsoft -- NPR's John McChesney reports that Microsoft responded to the government's antitrust charges against the software maker by asking for a federal judge to dismiss the charges. Microsoft is scheduled to go to trial in September for it's alleged anti-competitive practices in the battle for internet supremacy by including a free internet browser on it's new Windows software to drive its chief competitor, Netscape, out of business. In it's filing today, Microsoft hopes to prove that Netscape was not a prominent player when they chose to begin work on including a browser in their new software. (4:30)

Bell Atlantic Strike -- NPR's Margot Adler reports on the first day on the picket line for about 73,000 striking Bell Atlantic workers from Virginia to Maine. The employees, members of the Communications Workers of America, are striking over the company's nonunion hiring practices. And they say they want to make sure that the union has a share of the new jobs that emerge as the industry expands into Internet services and data networking, for instance. Meanwhile, many Bell Atlantic consumers had a tough time today getting directory assistance. (3:30)

Opposition Research -- A mainstay of American political campaigns is the opposition researcher....the person who a candidate hires to look into his or her opponent's background. The candidate can use the information to shape the campaign message, or to find vulnerable areas for attack. Opposition researchers are also hired by opposing sides on ballot initiatives and for local races. NPR's Steven Rosenfeld reports. (6:15)

Russian Tax Collection -- From Moscow, reporter Alastair Wanklyn takes a look at the growing pressure on the Russia government to improve tax collections. In a high-profile operation they hope will impress foreign lenders, Russian authorities announced they were seizing the assets of three big oil companies. Some economists, however, feel that to close the budget gap, the government must also go after small business tax delinquents. (3:30)

Russian Language -- Commentator Andrei Codrescu ponders his dislike of non-Romantic languages. In particular, he makes the case and point about Slavic dialects; languages he says he'll never understand. The reason, he thinks is genetic: too many of his ancestors were slaughtered by Slavs. (2:45)

Gays and Georgia Arts Funding -- On August 10, 1993, the Commissioners of Cobb County, Georgia, passed a resolution condemning homosexuality. The action received world-wide attention. Because of it, the 1996 Olympics boycotted Cobb. Shortly after that vote, the Commissioners also voted to cut all funding to the arts because of controversy over a Terrence McNally play produced at Theatre in the Square in Marietta, the county seat. Last year, the commissioners quietly backed down on the anti-gay resolution. But there is still no arts funding. How have arts organizations fared over the past five years? Some say better than ever. Steve Lickteig speaks with Cobb. (7:30)