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a new government took power. In Freetown, Sierra Leone. There was a handover of power by the military, to the new civilian president -- Ahmad Tejan Kabbah [ah-med TEE-jin KAH-bah], is the first democratically-elected leader in Sierra Leone since the late 1970's. The rebels agreed earlier this week to extend a two-month cease-fire. The BBC's West Africa correspondent David Bamford reports.

Drummers...maybe hundreds...are filling the town of Santa Cruz, California, with rhythm...lots of rhythm...non-stop rhythm. The drummers are exorcizing the spirit of Robert Bly...they're energizing their bodies; freeing their spirits; celebrating the joy of being alive. They're also REALLY making the people of Santa Cruz mad. Tonight, the city council votes on an ordinance to ban drumming between the hours of 8PM and 10AM. The drummers are bummed. Kathy MacAnally reports.

NPR's David Welna reports that life for Cuba's beleaguered dissident movement has gotten even harder in recent weeks. Since shortly before last month's downing of two American planes by Cuban jets, Fidel Castro's police have stepped up their harassment and arrests of the Cuban leader's opponents. Castro has not chosen to completely crush the dissidents, however; he apparently feels he must tolerate a certain amount of dissent as part of his effort to attract foreign investment.

NPR's Mike Shuster reports on the measures President Clinton will take against Cuba in response to Havana's shooting down of two unarmed civilian planes this weekend. Clinton says he is asking Congress to pass legislatin that allow the administration to compensate the families of the victims with money from Cuban assets frozen in the United States. He says the United States also will step up the embargo and the propaganda war against Cuba and cancel all charter flights between the United States and the island nation.

Chris Nuttall ((NUT-uhl)) reports from Ankara, Turkey, that a chasm has opened between the United States and Europe over arming the Bosnian government. Thirty countries had come to Turkey at the request of the United States to talk about helping the Bosnians build an effective fighting force. Studies show the Bosnians need 800-million-dollars. The U.S. will contribute a hundred-million-dollars in military stocks. Not one European Union country made an immediate pledge.

NPR's Linda Gradstein reports Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has authorized construction in Jewish settlements on the occupied West Bank at a pace that exceeds that of his predecessor, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayhu. Palestinians and peace groups had hoped that in his stated quest for peace, Barak would freeze settlement building. The US has called settlement building an impediment to peace. But in his first three months in office there has been no freeze.

The airport is looking for 25 grazing animals to clear out overgrown bushes surrounding the airport, according to a report in the Sun Times. Those bushes attract birds which are dangerous to aircraft.

The New York Post reports that Brooklyn-based Wonton Food is nixing its slightly suggestive fortunes after parents complained about children reading them.

NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports from Jerusalem on Israeli reaction to a planned U.S.-Israeli-PLO summit next week. The National Religious Party and the immigrants party both oppose the far-reaching land concessions Prime Minister Ehud Barak is prepared to make, and they say they will leave his coalition government. The two ruling parties say Barak is circumventing his own government in order to negotiate a peace deal.

NPR's Kathleen Schalch reports that the World Bank will not make a controversial loan to China to settle 58,000 poor farmers on land that Tibetans consider sacred. Pro-Tibetan activists hail the decision as a victory. The resettlement project was opposed by human rights groups as well as the United States. Bank directors let the loan die after refusing a recommendation from Bank president James Wolfensohn to further assess the project's social and environmental impact. China said it would finance the resettlement on its own.