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NPR's Mary Kay Magistad reports on "Comrades, Almost A Love Story," a film by Hong Kong director Peter Chan. As Hong Kong makes the transition to Chinese control, Chan and other filmmakers are coming to terms with new rules regarding artistic freedom. His film follows a young man and a young woman who have recently moved from China to Hong Kong and the social dislocation they face.

Steve Inskeep reports that candidates at both the Presidential and Congressional levels make very different use of radio for their political ads than they do television. Candidates are "narrowcasting" with their radio spots -- tailoring messages to ethnic or Christian voters. And candidates are using radio to wage very negative campaigns, while keeping their television ads more positive.

Carolyn Jack reports from Toronto that the beleaguered chief of Canada's armed forces resigned today....amid widespread calls for General Jean (JAHN) Boyle's removal over his alleged involvement in a coverup of the 1993 torture and murder of a Somali civilian by Canadian peacekeepers. Boyle's decision to step down follows the resignation last week of Canada's defense minister. An official inquiry is continuing into what Canadians call the "Somalia affair."

The FCC today took the first step in a series of actions commissioners say will eventually save consumers billions of dollars in international telephone fees. Today's order will allow American phone companies to negotiate rates directly with foreign carriers. In the weeks ahead, the FCC is expected to announce another policy change that would limit the fees U.S. companies pay their foreign counterparts. NPR's Phillip Davis reports.

Federal officials are warning people in California and other states that have legalized medicinal marijuana-smoking that the federal ban is still in effect. NPR's Chitra Ragavan reports that state proponents of decriminalizing marijuana say they hope the feds will decide not to enforce it. They say that's what happened in the days when states were repealing their liquor prohibition laws, but the federal ban had not, and the practical effect was to decriminalize alcohol.

The National Transportation Safety Board meets this week in Florida to review all data collected about last May's ValuJet crash. Transcripts from cockpit voice recordings reveal that the pilots knew just how much trouble their craft was in. Investigators will also review results of the data analysis to try and repeat the condition that led to the fire that brought down the plane. NPR's Dan Charles reports.

For the first time in Russian history, voters used a referendum election to decide their future. NPR's Andy Bowers reports that they used the referendum ballot to stop plans for a Cerhnobyl-style nuclear power plant. The Russian Atomic Energy Ministry had wanted to finish a plant in Kostroma, 250 miles northeast of Moscow. Residents turned it down by a nine-to-one margin.

NPR's Tovia Smith reports that John Salvi, convicted of killing two health clinic workers in 1994, was found dead in his Walpole, Massachusetts prison cell today, the victim of an apparent suicide. Salvi killed the two people and wounded five others in the most serious anti-abortion violence in US history when he fired shots at 3 different abortion clinics. He claimed he was combatting an anti-Catholic conspiracy.

With improved medical care, disabled children are living longer. Already, a growing number of elderly Americans are caring for children who have never been and never will be entirely independent. NPR's Wendy Schmelzer reports that being a perpetual parent is difficult enough but as these parents grow older, they must also worry about what will happen to their children after they die.

NPR's Vicki Que reports that the group trying to bring the "French abortion pill" to American women is having trouble raising the money it needs. The Population Council, a non-profit group in New York, set up a private, non-profit company to market RU 486 in the United States. But the company is having trouble raising the estimated $20 million it needs, in part because the drug is so controversial.