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NPR's Andy Bowers reports on Ulitsa Sezam, the Russian Courtyard that's home to Zeliboba and his friends - Vlas and Yenick, and Aunt Dashe. If this sounds familiar, it is. The Russian version of Sesame Street premiered today, brought to you by the letter Bukva. There was concern before the show made it to Russian airwaves that it might be just another unwanted import of American culture, although it's too soon to tell what public reaction is to the show.

Margot Adler reports that although most of the mainstream media has been debunking the story, a controversial account of the introduction of crack into the streets of Los Angeles... and its connection to the CIA and the war in Nicaragua... has been fueling black talk-radio shows for the past two months. Discussion is particularly strong on this topic on the Internet. It has led to demonstrations, a hunger strike, and even a Senate hearing.

Many of choreographer George Balanchine's important early works are still alive in the memory of dancers who are growing older. One of those dancers is Maria Tallchief, for whom Balanchine choreographed some of his greatest works. Now 71, Tallchief is coaching younger dancers in these roles. This Sunday Tallchief receives an award from the Kennedy Center for her lifetime achievements in dance. Jean Battey Lewis reports.

NPR's Brooke Gladstone reports on a group of renegade advertisers who are breaking with the pack to OPPOSE pitching tobacco to children. Last August, the FDA established new limits on cigarette advertising. The tobacco and ad industries have formed a coalition to fight those limits. Now this breakaway group is launching an ad campaign to convince their advertising compatriots to get behind the government.

Gillian Sharpe reports from The Hague on a pre-sentencing hearing at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal. The only person to have pleaded quilty to war crimes charges, Drazen Erdemovic, (DRAH-zen ur-DEM-uh-vitch) is asking for a lighter sentence in exchange for his cooperation with prosecutors. The three-member panel will be weighing his pleas against his admission that he killed at least 70 Bosnian Muslim civilians.

Former Texaco manager Richard Lundwall has been charged with obstruction of justice...the first criminal charges in the Texaco case. Lundwall is the former human resources officer who tape recorded a meeting of Texaco managers and then turned the tape over to lawyers who were suing Texaco in a discrimination suit. The U.S. Attorney's office says their investigation of other Texaco executives will continue. NPR's Jim Zarroli reports.

NPR's Ina Jaffe reports on the second day of testimony from O.J. Simpson in the civil trial in which he is charged with the wrongful deaths of his ex-wife and her friend. Lawyers for the families of the victims continued to paint Simpson as a man angry enough with his wife to kill her, a characterization that Simpson denies. Yet to come are questions about his whereabouts during the murders and the physical evidence against him.

Even though Republicans were thwarted in much of their effort to reform legal immigration during the last Congress, there is still a great deal of interest in the issue. But it's not clear how much legislation will get to the floor in the 105th Congress, because of changes in the membership of key committees, and because several Republican members of Congress in states with large immigrant populations were defeated in their bids for re-election earlier this month. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports.

NPR's Debbie Elliott reports that oyster harvesting along parts of the Gulf of Mexico, from South Florida to Texas, is in danger because of a large algal bloom, usually called "red tide." The algae can be toxic to fish and other sea creatures...and that toxin cannot be destroyed by cooking, so the area's entire seafood harvest could be destroyed along parts of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana.

NPR's David Welna reports that Mexico's Congress has approved a law which would allow Mexicans who become US citizens to retain their Mexican citizenship. This could spur nearly a million Mexicans living in the US who are eligible for American citizenship to apply for it. The dual citizenship law does not give Mexicans in the US the right to vote in Mexico, but Mexican authorities hope to make that possible sometime next year.