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NPR's Linda Gradstein in Jerusalem reports on a nine-hour gun battle early today between Israeli forces and Palestinian policemen outside a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. It was one of the heaviest rounds of fighting since the confrontation began two and a half months ago. Elsewhere, a Palestinian militant was shot dead in Hebron, apparently the victim of a new Israeli tactic aimed at eliminating those behind armed attacks on Israeli targets.

NPR's special correspondent Susan Stamberg reports this year's awards for the National Medal of Arts have been announced. The Medal honors organizations that have added to the artistic culture of the United States by assisting in the growth or availability of the arts. Recipients include Maya Angelou, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and National Public Radio's own cultural division.

Before departing Texas for Washington, D.C., Bush named Stanford professor Condoleezza Rice his national security adviser and Justice Alberto Gonzales to the White House counsel's job. Rice, who served as a national security aide in the administration of former President Bush, is the second black to be named to George W. Bush's foreign policy team. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports.

NPR's Ina Jaffe reports that civil rights groups and people who've sued the Los Angeles police department over racial profiling want to become monitors of the city's consent decree, which is designed to reform the L.A.P.D. With President-elect Bush on the record opposing such decrees, they are concerned that an appointed federal monitor won't effectively enforce the city's agreement.

NPR's Guy Raz reports from Romania where a former communist politician, Ion Iliescu, beat an ultra-right wing challenger in the run-off for the presidential election yesterday. The nation is trying to move ahead to meet World Bank recommendations and prepare for its application to the European Union, but its leaders are still cautious.

The U.S. Marine Corps has grounded all of its tilt-rotor Osprey aircraft today following a crash in North Carolina that took the lives of four Marines last night. The Pentagon announced today that Defense Secretary William Cohen will appoint a panel of experts to review the entire 40-billion-dollar Osprey program. A crash of an Osprey in April claimed 19 lives. NPR's Steve Inskeep reports.

NPR's Peter Kenyon reports from Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are reacting to yesterday's Supreme Court decision that may have finalized the 2000 presidential election. Members of Congress from both parties anxiously await tonight's speeches from both Vice President Al Gore and Texas Governor George W. Bush, wondering if the bitter divide caused by the post-election controversy will begin to subside.

General Motors announced today that it is phasing out its venerable Oldsmobile division and slashing its workforce by ten percent. The moves are a new indication of weakness in the auto industry. But as NPR's Jerome Vaughn reports, Oldsmobile was in trouble long before the recent economic slowdown. Despite numerous efforts by GM to freshen Oldsmobile's image, the cars never caught on with baby boomers and younger drivers.

NPR's Sarah Chayes reports from Nice, in the south of France, where European leaders finished the four-day European Union summit with an all-night session, but finally agreed on a number of reforms. The EU was trying to balance voting power between large and small countries in preparation for an expected flood of applications from former Eastern Bloc countries. (

Hoping to avoid a repeat of the refugee exodus following the 1991 Gulf War, Turkey plans to establish refugee camps in northern Iraq in case of a U.S. invasion of Iraq. The strategy is being criticized from both sides of the border. NPR's Ivan Watson reports.