September 30, 1998 All Things Considered (entire program) Requires the RealAudio Player

An index of the day's stories:

Kosovo Massacres -- All Things Considered host Noah Adams talks with Guy Dinmore, a reporter for the Washington Post in Kosovo. Dinmore describes the massacre of 19 ethnic Albanians -- including women and children -- who are thought to have been executed by the Serbian police, in the worst single incident since fighting in the Serbian province began seven months ago. This incident, which happened last Friday, could add to the pressure that is building upon NATO to intervene militarily in Kosovo. All of the people who were murdered in the incident are believed to have been from a single extended family...and it is suspected that some of the young men in the family had ties to the Kosovo Liberation Army. (5:30)

Bosnia Elections -- NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports that recent elections in Bosnia were a big disappointment for Western hopes that the people living there could re-create a multi-ethnic society. Ultra-nationalist parties still have the most power. International concern has focused on extremism in the Bosnian Serb Republic, but ethnic divisions in the Croat-controlled area, Western Herzegovina, are just as wide. (6:30)

Munich Pact Anniversary -- NPR's Neal Conan reports on the Munich Pact -- an agreement forged sixty years ago between the leaders of France, Britain, Germany and Italy that was designed to provide "peace for our time." Essentially, French, British, and Italian leaders gave Adolf Hitler exactly what he wanted. Soon, the Munich Pact was recognized as an unmitigated disaster, and bad memories of the Pact helped define American foreign policy throughout the Cold War. (5:00)

New Evidence on WWII Massacres -- NPR's Dan Charles reports on a discovery by forensic researchers suggesting that a mass murder thought to have been committed in 1945 by Nazis in Germany was actually the work of Soviet troops. The evidence for the revelation is pollen that was recovered from the nasal cavities of the victims. (2:45)

Mentally Ill in China -- NPR's Mary Kay Magistad reports that China is trying to come to terms with an increase in mental health problems among its huge population. The country's mental health facilities are very limited and sub-standard compared to those of the West. That's largely due to Chinese society's traditional attitude toward mental illness, something to be shunned or at the very least, ignored. (7:00)

An Ugly American -- Commentator Peter Trachtenberg has a story of a visit to Borneo, where he ended up singing karaoke with a member of the Indonesian secret police and trying to keep his "Ugly American" friend Flipper under control. (5:15)

Champion Duckpin Bowler Dies -- Elizabeth "Toots" Barger died on Monday at the age of 85. She was a champion duckpin bowler -- a kind of bowling using small, squat pins -- and was rated number one in the nation thirteen times over the course of her career. Noah talks with Cliff Kidd, a championship duckpin bowler who knew and bowled with Toots Barger. Kidd says that her accuracy and concentration made her a champion., and these qualities showed off what makes duckpin bowling a more challenging game than regular ten-pin bowling. (3:30)

Van Gogh Crowd Control -- NPR's Special Correspondent Susan Stamberg reports on the new Van Gogh exhibit at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The exhibit does not open to the public until Sunday, but all 200,000 advance passes were reserved weeks ago. The Gallery will release up to 2,500 additional passes every day, but lines for these daily passes will likely be long. The exhibit features seventy paintings on loan from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. It will remain in Washington until January 3, 1999 and will open again at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on January 17. (5:00)

Hurricane Cleanup -- Winds from Hurricane Georges did relatively little damage to homes and businesses on Mississippi's Gulf Coast. But rain was another story. Many people whose homes were untouched by the hurricane found their homes inundated with water from nearby rivers. NPR's John Burnett has one family's story. (4:00)

Aid in the Dominican Republic -- All Things Considered host Linda Wertheimer talks with Ed Kaydunc, the country mission director in the Dominican Republic for USAID, the United States Agency for International Development. They discuss the devastation left behind on the island of Hispaniola by Hurricane Georges. Crops in the Dominican Republic were about to be harvested when the hurricane hit, and were completely destroyed. The tremendous amounts of rain that fell as a result of the storm caused catastrophic flooding, and this has aid workers worried about the welfare of the Dominicans. (4:00)

Interest Rates -- NPR's Jim Zarroli reports U.S. financial markets continued to feel the effects of turmoil abroad today as investors around the world transferred money out of stocks and into the relative safe-haven of U.S. government bonds. The interest rate on the benchmark 30 year U.S. treasury bond dropped below 5% for the first time ever today. (3:30)

Budget Surplus -- We'll hear tape from a White House ceremony today at which President Clinton announced that the government will post a seventy billion dollar surplus this year, the first surplus since 1969. (2:00)

IMF and Brazil -- NPR's Kathleen Schalch reports that economists are worried that Brazil's faltering economy could collapse, dragging the rest of Latin America with it. They say that the recent collapse of Russia's economy would pale in comparison. U.S. banks are particularly worried, since they are more exposed to risk in Brazil than in any other emerging market. Of particular concern is the possibility that Brazil's leaders will have to devalue the nation's currency, which would lead to an inflationary spiral and trigger problems with other Latin American currencies. To help head off any problems, which should come to a head after this Sunday's presidential election in Brazil, International Monetary Fund officials are trying to put together money now to help prop up the Brazilian economy in the event that a worst-case scenario comes to pass. (5:30)

Free Campaign Ads -- NPR's Andy Bowers reports that the Daniels Cablevision system in Southern California is offering candidates for federal office free ad time during regular programming, up to 54 free ad slots per week. Daniels Cablevision covers three of the state's 52 congressional districts in San Diego and Palm Springs. (4:15)

Public Access Cable -- NPR's Margot Adler reports from New York on the public access cable channels in Manhattan. It's possible to see all sorts of peculiar, out-of-the-ordinary programming on these channels, at all hours of the day and night. She visits the production facilities of the Manhattan Neighborhood Network -- which administers four different public access cable channels in Manhattan -- to find out just how some of the hosts of these shows got on the air. (6:15)

TV Dinners -- Commentator Lenore Skenazy meditates on the American institution of the Swanson's frozen TV dinner. (2:00)

Streetcar Opera -- A new opera based on the Tennessee Williams play "A Streetcar Named Desire" premiered at the San Francisco Opera on September 19th. The opera was written and conducted by Sir Andre Previn. Performances in San Francisco continue through October 11th. The opera was one of the most highly-anticipated classical music events in years. The results received mostly lukewarm reviews, though -- and the ghost of Tennessee Williams often overshadows Previn's effort. David Wright reports from San Francisco. (7:45)