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Scientists fear that widespread disease will mean that key species of banana will go extinct within a decade. As NPR's Eric Niiler reports, genetically modified bananas that can resist disease have already been created. But growers don't want to plant them because Europe and some other nations are firmly opposed to GM foods.

Many species of shark are in decline, a development some researchers have been slow to note. The shark plays a pivotal role in the health of all marine life, and some fear the population dip could throw the underwater ecosystem out of balance. NPR's Richard Harris reports.

Health care workers in Connecticut are set to be the first U.S. civilians to receive smallpox vaccinations. It's the first step in a new federal program aimed at protecting Americans against a biological attack. NPR's Richard Knox reports.

Tom Ridge is sworn in as the first secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Ridge begins his job amid complaints that homeland security remains underfunded, and that the government has done too little to secure the nation since Sept. 11. NPR's Pam Fessler reports.

The White House apparently has cancelled a poetry symposium after a number of American poets threatened to turn the event into an anti-war protest. The Feb. 12 symposium on Poetry and the American Voice was one of a number of literary gatherings organized by First Lady Laura Bush. NPR's Don Gonyea reports.

A new study challenges the common belief that cerebral palsy is caused by brain injuries to newborns during delivery. Instead, researchers found most neurological damage comes from problems much earlier in pregnancy. NPR's Jon Hamilton reports.

Richard Reid, the al Qaeda follower who tried to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight with explosives hidden in his shoes, is sentenced to life in prison. Reid gets the maximum sentence after declaring himself a soldier of war. NPR's Tovia Smith reports.

The United States has decided Guatemala is not doing enough to fight the illegal drug trade and has decertified Guatemala from the list of countries deemed U.S. allies in combating drugs. But Washington has decided it won't waive penalties against the small Central American nation for national security reasons. NPR's Gerry Hadden reports from Guatemala City.

Northern Wisconsin and Minnesota are missing out on needed tourism revenue due to a lack of snowfall. They get creative and try to attract winter tourists to come for all kinds of indoor winter fun. NPR's David Schaper reports.

In a five-part series for Morning Edition, NPR's Eric Weiner and Michael Sullivan examine the spread of terrorism in Southeast Asia. In Part One, Weiner reports from the Philippines -- a Roman Catholic country that seems an unlikely place for an al Qaeda cell, but where investigators believe the militant Islamist group gained its first foothold in the region.