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-- N-P-R's Kathleen Schalch (SHALK) reports on President Clinton's decision to add a statue to the Franklino Delano Roosevelt memorial, that would depict F-D-R in a wheel chair. The memorial is scheduled for dedication along the Washington Tidal Basin on May 2nd. Advocates for the disabled have been calling for the addition for more than two years.

Robert talks to R. Jeffrey Smith, an investigative reporter for the Washington Post. Smith says that the CIA has dropped about 1000 paid informants from its roster in an effort to clear their payroll of terrorists, smugglers and people involved in human rights abuses. In the process, the agency also dismissed sources who had not produced much useful information.

NPR's Ted Clark reports on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat meeting with President Clinton to discuss the next steps in the U.S. sponsored peace process. The president was sympathetic to Arafat's criticism of Israel's latest plans to build new Jewsish settlements in Arab East Jerusalem and said such a move built mistrust instead of the confidence needed to make the peace process work.

, a reporter for the Moscow Times, about this week's murder of the head of Russia's Ice Hockey Federation. The National Hockey League pays the Federation a great deal of money to allow Russian players to play in North America...this wealth may have attracted the attention of the Russian mafia and led to this killing.

NPR's Richard Harris looks at a controversial new study that suggests there may be an up and down in the universe, after all. Until now, physicists and astronomers have based their theories on the idea that there is NO directionality in the universe -- that it is spread out evenly. But the new report analyzed radio waves from 160 distant galaxies and concludes that there is a kind of north-south axis in the universe.

NPR's Mandalit Delbarco reports that the L.A. Police Commission is scheduled to vote soon on whether to authorize LAPD officers to carry more powerful weapons. The move comes in the wake of last Friday's shootout between heavily armed bank robbers and the police. Police have complained they've long been outgunned by well-trained, well-armed bad guys.

NPR's Adam Hochberg reports on another blow to the tobacco industry today. A federal judge in North Carolina ruled that the Food and Drug Administration has legal jurisdiction to regulate tobacco sales and distribution. However, the judge sided with the tobacco industry when he ruled that the FDA jurisdiction did not extend to cigarette advertising and promotion. Tobacco companies plan to appeal the ruling.

N-P-R's Patricia Neighmond reports that doctors have announced that a 63-year-old Californian had a child last year, making her the oldest woman to ever give birth. This provides scientists with new ideas about the aging of the reporductive systems, but may add to the ethical dilemmas of fertility technology.

-- NPR's Peter Kenyon reports on how work at the Labor Department is being affected by the fact that there is no secretary. Senate Republicans are blocking a confirmation vote on Alexis Herman, President Clinton's nominee to succeed Robert Reich, who left the administration four months ago and work is backing up at the Department.

Cliff Island, Maine. Its population is small and getting smaller. Next year the one room schoolhouse may be down to one student, a situation islanders fear could soon lead to its closure. To counter the trend, year-round residents are actively recruiting outsiders to move to the island. Andrea de Leon of Maine Public Radio reports.