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NPR's Andy Bowers reports from Moscow on the arrival of United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. After visiting western European countries and NATO headquarters, the Secretary has brought new proposals to quiet Kremlin fears about the expansion of NATO eastward. After meetings with the Russian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister today, Mrs. Albright is due to meet Russian President Boris Yeltsin tomorrow before flying on to Asia.

What does a paper mill in North Carolina have to do with Tennessee? Plenty. People in East Tennessee say that Champion International's North Carolina mill is polluting the Pigeon River, which flows into Tennessee, and that the pollution is destroying property values. North Carolinians say they need the mill jobs. Even the Environmental Protection Agency can't resolve the dispute. From member station WUAL, Samuel Hendron reports. (8:45) (S

For 13 years, the Turkish security forces have been fighting the separatist guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK in southeast Turkey. Thousands of people have died, hundreds of people have disappeared, thousands of villages have been destroyed, thousands of Kurds have become refugees. The coming of Spring is the time when Kurds celebrate the New Year. This year, Chris Nuttall reports, the Turkish government is trying to win the hearts and minds of the Kurds.

NPR's Andy Bowers reports from Moscow that President Yeltsin is increasing his activity schedule as proof that he's back in control in the Kremlin. Today, he met with representatives of the European Union. While the Kremlin is trying to stall NATO expansion to the east, it is anxious to expand its association with the E.U. It's Yeltsin's first public appearance this week...a week that will climax Thursday when he delivers a State of the Union speech to the Russian parliament.

A rash of letter-bombs, suspected to be of Middle Eastern origin, have been delivered around the nation including deliveries to an Arab newspaper office in Washington and the federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas. NPR's Ted Clark reports that the FBI is investigating the incidents as a law enforcement matter, but the world-wide intelligence capabilities of the U.S. government's inter-departmental Counter-Terrorist Center are also being mobilized. So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the mystery letter-bombs.

Federal officials announced today that three ounces of plutonium had been left behind when U.S. forces withdrew from Vietnam in 1975. The highly radioactive material was part of a research reactor that had been put in place during the war. The plutonium is missing. A worldwide search has been initiated, according to Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary. NPR's Christopher Joyce reports.

The Department of Energy has reached settlements with 17 families of radiation experiment victims, and President Clinton has strenthened protection of people who participate in government research, even though the govt says no such research is going on right now. The is the final response of the presidential advisroy committee on human radiation experiments, but its critics say it doesn't go far enough in providing for the victims or identifying others. NPR's Richard Harris reports.

NPR's Ted Clark reports that President Clinton offered mixed reviews of Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axeworthy's visit to Cuba this week. Clinton was skeptical that the visit would promote change, but said he was pleased that Axeworthy raised the issue of human rights in Cuba. Ostensibly, the visit was a Canadian show of defiance and independence, in view of the United States' controversial Helms-Burton law, which was designed to isolate Cuba and penalize individual companies doing business with the Castro regime.

A former Clinton administration official who is being investigated for possible illegal fundraising activities now faces new allegations. John Huang appears to have raised more than 150-thousand dollars for the Democratic National Committee while he was on leave of absence from his job at the Commerce Department. That would violate the Hatch Act, which forbids political fundraising by federal employees. NPR's Peter Overby reports.

NPR's Don Gonyea reports on President-elect George W. Bush, who today resigned from the only political office he has ever held -- governor of Texas. The emotional speech by Bush ended 6 years at the helm in Austin and comes less than a month before he is to move to his new home at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Meanwhile, jockeying continues to go on behind the scenes for filling the remaining Cabinet slots.