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David Culhane reaports that an Arabic daily newspaper is reporting a massacre in Algeria that may have left at least 63 people dead. The London-based "Al-Hayat" says Muslim militants armed with rifles, daggers and axes attacked two buses over the weekend on a highway southeast of the capital Algiers. The attackers reportedly rounded up all passengers from one town and killed them.

NPR's Tom Gjelten reports that the Bosnian Serbs appear to be trying to undermine and destroy the Dayton Peace Accord. Muslim political parties have lodged complaints against them with the international organization running the election. They say the Bosnians Serbs are trying very hard to create the Republika Srpska as a complete, separate entity...working against the elections this Saturday that are designed to create a unified government.

Retired U.S. military officers are training and equipping a joint Muslim and Croat army in Bosnia to defend their territory against a possible attack by the Bosnian Serbs. But NPR's Tom Gjelten reports that U.S. officials are concerned that the program may not prepare the Bosnian Federation for the most likely dangers it is expected to face: infighting between the Croat and Muslim sides, and militancy among the hard-line Muslim nationalists.

Billionaire Ross Perot is making his second bid for the presidency...this time as the Reform Party candidate...but he has not campaigned extensively, even with only nine weeks left until the election. He has $29 million in public funding for his campaign, but so far has spent little except on half-hour infomercials that profile the candidate. NPR's Steve Inskeep reports.

Robert talks with Kenneth Crutchlow about his friend Peter Bird. Bird was the first to row a boat solo across the Pacific Ocean, and during another recent attempt, Bird went missing, and is now presumed dead. A German sea captain has reported finding the remains of the boat about 900 miles off the coast of Japan. It appears there was a freak accident -- a log floating in the sea crashed into Bird's boat and destroyed it.

Ann Elise Henzl (ANN-uh-LEESE HEN-zul) of member station WUWM reports that Wisconsin is set to initiate the country's first statewide program that requires all welfare recipients to perform some work in exchange for benefits. Folks who can't find work will receive grants in exchange for community service work. Some critics of the "W-2" program say this provision will lock people into low-wage jobs, with little chance for advancement to self-sufficiency.

Gillian (JILL-ee-un) Sharpe reports on testimony before the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague. A survivor of the killing fields of Bosnia says he saw Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladic ((rat-koh MLA-ditch)) watching the killings. The testimony came as the Tribunal considers issuing international arrest warrants for Mladic and Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic ((RAH-doh-vahn KARE-ud-jitch)).

Oliver North, key figure in the Iran Contra affair, radio talk show host, and failed Senate candidate, was out today trying to interest a convention of law enforcement professional in his company's spring line of protective gear. He's marketing something called Gold Shield - a composite of the latest technologies - said by North, to be the strongest material there is for such use. NPR's Art Silverman reports.

For the third time since last fall, much of the federal government faces a shut-down on Friday. Legislation to appropriate funding for the rest of the year is on the Senate floor today, and the House has already passed its own bill. But President Clinton, who wants more spending for social programs, is threatening a veto. Senate Republicans say they will probably extend funding for two weeks while both sides work out a compromise. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports.

NPR'S Ted Clark reports that the White House is mulling what to do about Saturday's planned flotilla at the site of last weekend's downing of two planes by Cuba. The administration wants to protect U.S. citizens engaged in the flotilla and also wants to prevent them from setting U.S. policy by provoking another confrontation with Cuba. Meanwhile, the White House and Congress continue to negotiate a bill that would further tighten U.S. sanctions on Cuba.