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On Friday, workers at the Duro plant just across border inside Mexico voted overwhelmingly not to join an independent union. The outcome is seen as further evidence of Mexico's harsh treatment of independent labor organizers. The election was preceded by intimidation by the company and the state-controlled union, which is considered very corrupt. President Vicente Fox has indicated he wants independents to be protected, but the vote doesn't reflect any change in Mexico. NPR's John Burnett reports.

A consortium of AIDS drug makers is suing the South African government, trying to block a law they say will erode their patent rights...and their profits. The law would allow the government to import generic drugs or authorize their manufacture, if needed drugs are priced too high. AIDS activists want the government to implement the law, so that the estimated four million infected with H-I-V will have access to life-sustaining drugs. NPR's Brenda Wilson reports from Johannesburg.

NPR's Barbara Bradley reports that President Bush has decided to end a five-decade tradition of the American Bar Association screening potential federal judicial candidates. White House Counsel Al Gonzales has written to the ABA, informing the group the White House will no longer provide names before they are made public. The ABA has a special committee that has screened candidates since the Eisenhower administration. The panel gave potential judges the ratings of "well qualified," "qualified" or "not qualified." Some conservatives opposed ABA screening, saying they believed the ABA had a liberal bias.

Noah Adams talks with reporter Tom Gibb about a massive fire which has crippled an enormous 40-story offshore oil rig located 75-miles off Brazil's Atlantic coast. Officials are trying to prevent a spill of the 400,000 gallons of oil on board. The rig may sink within 48 hours. Three explosions on Thursday damaged a pillar supporting the rig; the explosions killed one worker and left nine others missing and presumed dead. The offshore rig was Brazil's top oil producer in the rich Campos Basin.

The six-year-old girl has myotonic dystrophy and can't walk. The Detroit Free Press reports a family friend, an engineer at Ford, built her a tiny car modeled on De Ville's distinctive Panther.

NPR's Jon Hamilton reports on today's seizure of a flock of Vermont sheep that some suspect may have been in contact with mad cow disease. The owners of the flock maintain that the sheep do not have the disease and have not been exposed to it. Nevertheless, federal officials arrived at the farm today and removed the sheep. The flock was quarantined in 1998 after being imported from Belgium. Federal offiicials maintain that the sheep ate contaminated feed while there. Since then, the Agriculture Department says tests show four sheep have a form of disease related to mad cow.

NPR's David Welna reports on the Democratic tax-cut proposal. Led by Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, Democrats are pushing for a $300 rebate to every taxpayer (and a $600 rebate to every couple), using about $60 billion from the budget surplus. They are also proposing an immediate cut in the lowest tax rate. Their proposal would be separate from President Bush's signature $1.6 trillion tax-cut plan, and Republicans fear that such a proposal would take the momentum away from Mr. Bush's program.

In the first of a five-part series on immigration in Western Europe, NPR's Sylvia Poggioli reports that Italy has become a final destination for illegal immigrants from Eastern Europe, Asia, and North Africa, as well as a port of entry. Thousands of illegal immigrants -- many Albanians, Kurds, and North Africans -- are smuggled by sea into Italy each year, trying to make their way to a better life in Europe. In the past, Italy was just a way station on the route to Germany or Switzerland. Now immigrants are staying.

Two months ago, we reported on the Web video phenomenon of Mentos and Diet Coke. When the mint candies are combined with the soda it creates a geyser of Diet Coke. A new video on the Internet takes that concept and turns it into a highly choreographed routine complete with music. Melissa Block talks with Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz, the two men who created the video.

Mike Leavitt, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, has received substantial tax breaks thanks to a charitable foundation he and other family members created in 2000. But in its first years of operation, the foundation did little charitable giving. NPR's Ari Shapiro reports that it's all within the law -- but some question the law's fairness.