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NPR's Julie McCarthy reports from London that the Royal National Theatre is currently presenting a feat never before undertaken. It is staging -- simultaneously -- Alan Ayckbourne's twin plays House and Garden. Actors move back and forth between two theaters, racing from one stage to the other to hit their cues. Audiences, though, can view only one play at a time. Ayckbourne calls the twin farces "a modern morality play."

NPR's Tom Gjelten reports that the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Sierra Leone is testing the UN's ability to carry out such operations. Yesterday, the Security Council approved another two months for the 13-thousand member force and tabled Secretary General Kofi Annan's proposal to increase the number of UN peacekeepers deployed in Sierra Leone. The UN operation there has proven to be costly and dangerous.

NPR's Phillip Davis reports that civil rights groups in Florida are trying to free a Muslim academic who is seeking admission to the United States. He has been held in jail by the Immigration and Naturalization Service for the past three years. The INS claims the man has links a Middle-eastern terrorist group, but refuses to reveal evidence, saying to do so would threaten national security. Civil rights groups say his constitutional right to confront his accuser is being violated.

Jon Miller reports from Lima that concern over the country's political crisis has abated somewhat now that the military has issued a statement. In the communiqui, the leaders of the armed forces said they still support the government of President Alberto Fujimori. The crisis was precipitated by release of a videotape showing Fujimori's intelligence chief handing a wad of money to an opposition member of Congress. In response to the bribery scandal, Fujimori has announced plans to step down and call for new elections. He also has announced the de-activation of the intelligence service.

Track and field gets underway at the Olympics Friday, with American sprinters Marion Jones and Maurice Greene competing in qualifying rounds. But the big track news was made OFF the track. As NPR's Howard Berkes reports, the mysterious French runner Marie-Jose Perec left Sydney a day before her first heat, claiming an intruder forced his way into her hotel room and threatened her. Perec, the defending Olympic champion in the 200 and 400 meters, avoided all public appearances in the weeks before the Games, communicating only through her Website.

The first American to win a gold medal in weightlifting in 40 years hardly fits the sport's image. She's a 105-pound former gymnast named Tara Nott. As NPR's reports, Nott was awarded the gold when it was stripped from a Bulgarian lifter who tested positive for a banned diuretic. In other Olympic action, Americans won twin gold medals today when they tied in swimming's mad dash, the 50 meters, breaking a run of victories by Dutchman Pieter van den Hoogenband.

From member station WXXI in Rochester, New York Brenda Tremblay reports on a new biography about Martha Matilda Harper, one of the most successful and innovative female entrepreneurs of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She is credited with inventing the concept of the Franchise. (3:09) Martha Matilda Harper and the American Dream : How One Woman Changed the Face of Modern Business (Writing American Women by Jane R. Plitt is published by Syracuse Univ Pr (Trade); ISBN: 08156

NPR's Ted Clark reports thaT Venezuela's nationalistic President Hugo Chavez is set to be the first elected head of state to visit Iraq's Saddam Hussein since the Gulf War. U-S officials are clearly displeased and have sought to pressure him not to visit Baghdad. Chavez, who was just re-elected under a new constitution he helped draw up, is touring OPEC countries to urge a summit and appears to be enjoying showing his independence from US policy.

NPR's Jack Speer reports on questions surrounding the future of Amtrak, the national passenger rail service. Almost 30 years after it was created from a group of bankrupt railroads, Amtrak still receives large federal subsidies. Even though there are more passengers on the rail service, it's still losing money and shows little sign of becoming profitable. Amtrak also is being criticized for delays in starting high-speed passenger rail service along the busy Northeast corridor.

Co-Host Renee Montagne reports on the issue of family values and blues. Montagne talks with guitarist John Cephas, about the lascivious nature of blues music. Party leaders blocked a planned fund-rasier at the Playboy Mansion this week; instead, the Hispanic Unity event was moved to B.B. King's Blues Club in Universal City. Cephas says many blues songs don't seem to go well with the concept of "family values."