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NPR's Vicki O'Hara reports that a hardline Muslim group known as the Taliban, or students, has taken control of Afghanistan's capital and has executed the country's former president. Neighboring Pakistan says it is sending a delegation to recognize the new government but Western governments are trying to determine how to respond to what appears to be the world's newest Islamic state.

Michael Kennedy reports that Palestinian merchants in East Jerusalem are being hurt by the Israeli closure of the West Bank. With West Bank Palestinians unable to travel to East Jerusalem to do their shopping, Palestinian shopkeeprs say business has dropped in some cases by more than half.

Hurricane Fran slammed into the Carolina coast overnight. The tidal surge washed away beaches and flooded homes. The storm is stil moving up the East Coast, leaving flooding and power outages in its wake. Aileen LeBlanc of member station WHQR in Wilmington, North Carolina reports.

NPR's MaryKay Magistad reports that Wang Li, an ally of Chinese leader Mao Zedong, died Monday from stomach cancer in Beijing. He was 75. Wang Li has been blamed for some of the worst excesses of the Mao regime, including the imprisonment and torture of government opponents.

- Since September 30th, a volcano has been erupting beneath a glacier in southeastern Iceland. The subsequent heat has melted parts of the ice cap, sparking fears of massive flooding in the region. Jackie speaks with NPR's David Baron, who reports from a road overlooking the potential floodplain.

As Russian President Boris Yeltsin prepares for a coronary ypass operation, NPR's Andy Bowers reports that such operations are fairly ommon in this country, but rare in Russia. A dilapidated health system in the ormer Soviet Union prevents all but the richest hospitals from undertaking hese operations.

Scott reports that a team of specialists at the Univeristy of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics has developed a procedure which helps them identify key parts of the brain before brain surgery. The procedure involves Charlton Heston reading Nietzsche (NEE-chee), and a Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine. Scott ponders some other possibilities for this unique procedure.

Owen Bennett-Jones reports from Geneva on the opening of a meeting to update international copyright law for the digital age. The United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization has proposed three draft treaties to protect the rights of authors and performers in the era of the Internet.

NPR's Vicki O'Hara reports on allegations that campaign contribuitions to President Clinton by a wealthy Indonesian family may have been illegal. In Indonesia, the contributions would be perceived as business as usual. But in the U-S, they have prompted renewed calls for campaign finance reform.

Scientists have now found hundreds of genes that either cause disease directly or predispose people to develop certain diseases. This information has enormous implications for health and life insurance industries, but some worry it will be used to discriminate against people because of the genes they were born with. NPR's Joanne Silberner reports.