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Shoko Asahara, the leader of Japan's doomsday sect Aum Shin Rikyu, goes on trial tomorrow on murder charges for the nerve gas attacks on Tokyo's subways last year. As NPR's Julie McCarthy reports, the attacks have shattered the image of Tokyo as a peaceful place and cast doubts on the abilities of the city's world-renowned police department.

NPR's Adam Hochberg reports that North Carolina's legisture will meet in special session to decide what to do with a billion and a half dollar surplus in state's unemployment insurance fund. Due to strong economy and low unemployment, state has accumulated surplus. Republicans want to give cut rate, or refund tax to businesses that pay it.

Frank Browning reports on the debate among health professionals at San Francisco General Hospital over how that institution should respond to the competition from HMOs. Public hospitals used to be able to devote a lot of time and public money to taking care of the poor. But with for-profit HMOs now offering to care for the poor at a lower cost, public hospitals are being forced to reorganize.

NPR's Joe Neel reports that the Food and Drug Administration today released statements from three former Phillip Morris employees. The FDA says the statement support the agency's contention that tobacco companies purposefully manipulate the nicotine in cigarettes to keep smokers addicted. The FDA has proposed widening its jurisdiction over tobacco products to try to keep young people from smoking.

The United Auto Workers strike at two General Motors parts plants in Dayton, Ohio continues...as do talks between the union and the automaker. All of G-M's assembly plants in the United States have been closed due to the strike. NPR's Don Gonyea reports on how Dayton and surrounding communities hav been affected by the strike.

NPR's Tom Gjelten reports from Sarajevo that another suburb that was once home to Serbs has been handed over to the Muslim-Croat Federation. Muslims from Sarajevo are slowly moving back to Ilidza (ill-EE-juh), returning to homes they abandoned four years ago. Security is provided by by NATO troops along with Muslim and Croat police.

A survey in today's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association indicates that it's not unusual for terminally ill patients to ask doctors to help them die. Nor is it that rare for doctors to comply. NPR's Wendy Kaufman reports that the survey comes on the heels of a controversial decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, holding physician-assisted suicide to be a constitutional right.

Tristan Clum of member station KNAU reports on documenting dendroglyphs...tree carvings...near Flagstaff, Arizona. Starting in the late 1800's, sheepherders, many of from the Basque region of Northern Spain, carved basic messages or elaborate images into the bark of aspen trees in this area. Now the trees are dying, and historians are trying to compile information before it's too late.

Scott Horsley of member station KPBS in San Diego reports the first region in California to completely deregulate its electric industry is now facing sky-rocketing electricity bills. Consumer advocates in San Diego have asked state officials to re-impose price controls after the price of electricity more than tripled this year.

NPR's Gerry Hadden reports on Mexican president-elect Vicente Fox's plans for restructuring key government ministers in an effort to fight endemic corruption. Fox is stripping the all-powerful Interior Ministry of much of its duties, and creating a new ministry in charge of federal police and intelligence services. He's also taking some powers away from the attorney general's office.