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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration today issued new rules designed to reduce fatalities caused by air bags. While air bags save lives by protecting people in traffic accidents, they can cause injuries to children sitting in the front passenger seat, or small people who have to sit close to the steering wheel. NPR's Dan Charles reports.

NPR's Ina Jaffe reports from the courthouse in Los Angeles where O.J. Simpson testifies for the first time about the murders of his ex-wife and her friend last year. Lawyers for the victims' families are expected to press Simpson on some of the inconsistencies in the record of events the night of the murders and the next day.

The Congress President Clinton will work with next year is expected to be quite a different body than its predecessor. Political observers are predicting that the Senate will be more extreme -- on both sides of the aisle -- while the House looks more moderate than the 104th Congress. Congressional leaders are already promising to keep up the pace of investigations of the administration. NPR's Elizabeth Arnold reports.

In what Senator Pete Domenici said was a bow to public pressure, House and Senate leaders have agreed to amendments tacked on to a bill that would provide funding for the Veterans' Administration and the Department of Housing and Urban Development that would expand insurance coverage for mental illness and maternity stays — allowing mothers to remain in the hospital for up to 48 hours. NPR's Joanne Silberner reports.

The Supreme Court heard arguments today in a case challenging limits on abortion protesters. The law requires demonstrators to stay fifteen feet away from people entering and leaving clinics where abortions are performed. NPR's Nina Totenberg reports the U-S Solicitor General defended the law as necessary to prevent intimidation of clinic patients. Protesters argued their free-speech rights are being violated.

Jason Beaubien reports on a controversy emerging in San Francisco between animal rights activists and Chinese food merchants. Often, Chinese merchants will sell living animals to their customers who believe that it's better to eat an animal that's just been slaughtered than one whose been processed and frozen. This cultural custom however makes some uncomfortable because they say the animals are killed in inhumane ways.

The president of Belarus today told the Russian lower house of Parliament he wants closer integration with Russia. NPR's Andy Bowers reports from Moscow that President Alexander Lukashenko wants eventual unification, but many in Russia wonder whether the country can handle the extra costs for 10-million more people.

Tobacco companies are preparing their arguments against new rules curtailing their advertising that reaches teenagers. NPR'S Barbara Bradley reports the companies will file court papers in the next few weeks objecting to the ad limits which they say violate free speech guarantees. The Clinton administration is imposing the restrictions to reduce young people's exposure to the enticements of smoking.

NPR's Julie McCarthy reports that Philippine President Fidel Ramos today met the leader of a Muslim rebel group today to confirm their agreement to end fighting that has troubled the predominantly Christian country for centuries. Both men endorsed a peace plan in which voters will decide whether to enlarge an autonomous region aimed at preserving Muslim religion and culture.

NPR's Jim Zarroli reports from New York, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained more than fifty points today, amid moderate economic growth and low inflation rates. He talks with Robert about what this means for investors and for the nation's economy...and whether or not the market is expected to continue its rise.