October 22, 1998 All Things Considered (entire program) Requires the RealAudio Player

An index of the day's stories:

UN-IRAQ -- NPR's Mike Shuster reports that Iraq is increasingly restricting the work of United Nations arms inspection teams. Since Iraq banned all further inspections at new sites last August, they have systematically moved to limit the work of inspection and created fears that they are seeking to reconstitute their weapons of mass destruction. (5:00)

THATCHER & PINOCHET -- NPR's Michael Goldfarb reports on former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's call for release of former Chilean military dictator Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet is under police custody at a private London clinic, pending the outcome of a Spanish extradition request charging him with terrorism, torture and genocide. In a letter to the London Times newspaper, Thatcher said Pinochet had saved British lives during the 1982 Falklands war, when Chile supported Britain, and should be released from custody immediately. But a spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair says Thatcher's appeal will have no effect on the extradition process. (2:00)

JOSHKA FISCHER -- NPR'S Edward Lifson profiles Joschka Fischer, the Green Party leader who is set to become Germany's next foreign minister. The 50-year-old Fischer began his political career in the 1960s as a left-wing radical, demonstrating in the streets against NATO and American imperialism. But over the years, he has moderated his views. Fischer's political transformation was evident during a recent visit to the White House, where he signed on to NATO's use of force against in Yugoslavia. (5:00)

DEMOCRAT EXIT INTERVIEW -- Linda speaks with Senator Dale Bumpers of Arkansas. He's leaving the Senate this year after 4 terms in office. He tells Linda what he's found good and not so good during his public service. He fears the enormous amount of money needed to be in politics today. He hopes politics never becomes as bad a field as most people think is. Despite its worst features, he says, politics is better than most people realize. (5:15)

LETTERS -- Robert and Linda read from listeners letters. Topics this week include the murder of Matthew Shepard and Makah whaling. You can write to All Things Considered at:

All Things Considered Letters
635 Massachusetts Avenue Northwest
Washington D.C. 20001

To contact us via the Internet, the
address is: atc@npr.org. (4:00)

TRUTH COMMISSION: STUDENTS -- In part four of her series on South Africa's Truth Commission, NPR's Charlayne Hunter-Gault meets with a group of white and black college students in the town of Potchefstroom to hear their feelings about the Commission's work. In the rare encounter, an Afrikaner student talks about the resentment of his generation at being blamed for the sins of apartheid. Black students focus on the need to change entrenched racist attitudes among whites; one says the country will not achieve reconciliation until it ends the economic inequality between blacks and whites. (7:30)

LIVING WILL -- Linda talks with Jim Towey, president and founder of Aging with Dignity, about the "Five Wishes" living will that was unveiled today. For the first time ever, a document has been constructed that's legal in 33 States -- and it accomplishes this in clear, plain english. It also acknowledges that end-of-life decisions involve more than medical issues -- emotional and spiritual values are included. Listeners can obtain a copy of the document on the web: www.agingwithdignity.org. (4:45)

MONKEYS CAN COUNT -- NPR's Christopher Joyce reports on new findings in this week's issue of Science magazine that show monkeys can count. Some type of numerical understanding in monkeys, apes, even racoons and rats is not unusual. But in this case, two rhesus monkeys were able to understand an abstract mathematical concept... ordinal numbers, that is, which comes first, five or six? Yet to be determined is exactly how they do this, and whether they use the same rules of thumb that humans do. (4:00)

YANKEES LABOR MANAGEMENT -- Robert talks with Sam Davis, a business strategy consultant with Praxis Partners in Richmond, Virginia about this year's World Series winning manager Joe Torre of the New York Yankees. Davis says Manager Torre has the perfect style for the age of the free-agency player because he understands how to work with various personalities and how to get them to work as a team. (4:00)

MIDEAST ENDGAME -- NPR's Ted Clark reports that on the eighth-day of peace talks in Maryland, President Clinton has rejoined the negotiations in a last ditch effort to hammer out an interim peace accord between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The key issue of an agreement on security, that had held up the talks for seven days, was reported to have been agreed upon and the negotiations are now centering on other issues. (3:30)

SECURITY ISSUES -- NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports that the security guarantees sought by Israel in exchange for a further pullout of its troops from occupied territories is no simple affair. Nowhere are the problems of security after a pullout more evident than in the city of Hebron, where some 400 militant settlers live in the heart of a Palestinian city of 100,000. (5:00)

FCC & TELEPHONE MERGERS -- The Federal Communications Commission met today to discuss proposed mergers in the communications industry and their possible effects on competition. NPR's Larry Abramson reports. (3:30)

TEXAS GOVERNOR'S RACE -- Republican Texas Governor George W. Bush is apparently headed towards a worry-free bid for re-election. The state's economy is good, and his popularity is high. But, as NPR's Wade Goodwyn reports, the only uncertainty is whether Bush makes the plunge into presidential politics for 2000. (7:30)

CHRISTIAN VOTERS -- NPR's Debbie Elliott continues her series of conversations with voters in middle America. She spoke with songwriters and patrons of a Christian music coffee house outside Nashville about their feelings about government and politicians. (5:00)

FELONS AND VOTING RIGHTS -- Robert talks with Marc Mauer, assistant director of the Sentencing Project, on a report his group has released today. Mauer found that 4 million Americans are denied the right to vote each year. One million of these Americans are behind bars. The remaining people are former felons who have completed their sentences but still denied the right to vote forever because of state laws. (7:30)

EPA & AUTO POLLUTION -- Authorities at the Environmental Protection Agency are near a one billion dollar settlement with the makers of diesel engines that stem from accusations that the companies violated emissions standards with their engines. NPR's Dan Charles reports. (3:00)

APPALACHIAN HIKER -- Linda talks with 79- year old Earl Shaffer who's walked the entire Appalachian Trail twice this century. The first time was fifty years ago... he accomplished the feat again yesterday. Shaffer is noted as being the first hiker to complete the entire Appalachian Trail. He talks about the reason he hiked the trail in 1948, and why he did it again this year.(4:30)