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NPR's Jon Hamilton reports on a new trend in medicine -- using extreme treatments for diseases that aren't immediately life-threatening. We look at how doctors are using bone-marrow transplants and other treatments traditionally reserved for severe cancer cases in patients with diseases like arthritis and multiple sclerosis. It's a controversial approach and effectiveness studies are only now getting started. But it's helping some people return to normal, disease-free lives.

NPR's Cheryl Corley reports on a lawsuit filed by the estate of Margaret Mitchell, author of the epic Gone With the Wind. The estate objects to a novel by Alice Randall, scheduled to be published this June. Randall says the book, titled The Wind Done Gone is a parody of the classic novel, told from the perspective of a young slave girl. Lawyers for the Mitchell estate argue it's an unauthorized sequel. (8:00) (Post broadcast correction: The name of the attorney for Houghton Mifflin is Joseph Beck.)

Eric Engleman reports from Moscow on today's reaction from Russia to President Bush's speech yesterday outlining proposals for a missile defense system. The Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov repeated Moscow's view that the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty is a cornerstone of global arms control, and not a relic of the Cold War, as President Bush sees it. At the same time, Ivanov welcomed the president's desire to consult with other governments on the matter.

President Bush this afternoon announced he would proceed with developing a missile shield that would protect the United States from at least some forms of missile attack. The president said the system would be designed to stop a limited number of missiles that had been fired by minor powers, by terrorists or by accident. He said he thought this could be done without withdrawing from the 1972 treaty that banned anti-ballistic missile systems. NPR's Don Gonyea reports from the White House.

Robert Siegel speaks with Megan Twohey, welfare reporter for the National Journal, about how welfare reform has affected the lives of people like Maria Lopez. Twohey says welfare reform and a booming economy have succeeded in getting many former recipients into jobs. But, she says, those jobs are often low-paying and dead-end. Twohey also says that it remains difficult for welfare recipients to pursue higher education, an issue that will likely come up when Congress looks at reauthorization in 2002.

Joshua Levs reports that authorities in DeKalb County, Ga., are conducting their largest investigation ever into the murder of Derwin Brown. Brown was the sheriff-elect when he was gunned down in his driveway in December, three days before he would have taken office. Brown had promised to overhaul operations at the county jail, which he called a cesspool of corruption. Thirty-six detectives are on the case, but so far no murder suspects have been named. Three men have been charged with lying to investigators.

NPR's Julie McCarthy reports from Maidstone, England, on the trial of Dutchman Perry Wacker, the truck driver charged in the deaths of 58 illegal Chinese migrants who suffocated while being smuggled in his truck into Britain. Wacker took the stand yesterday to insist he didn't know he was carrying human cargo. In its cross-examination, the prosecution sought to show he knew full well and closed the vent on his truck to make sure no one heard the illegal migrants inside.

NPR's Van Williamson reports from Chestertown, Maryland, on tomorrow's launch of the schooner, "Sultana" onto the Chester River. Professional builders and volunteers spent four years constructing the vessel, which is more than 50 feet long and weighs 52 tons. It's modeled after a cargo vessel, built in 1768, that the British Navy used to patrol for smugglers. At the time, Chestertown was a deepwater port, 20 miles up the Chester River from the Chesapeake Bay. Today it's a tourist destination.

NPR Legal Affairs Correspondent Nina Totenberg reports on a case before the Supreme Court that tests how law enforcement can use the technique of thermal imaging. Using a special machine, police can detect the amount of heat radiating from the exterior walls of a building, which can help them catch people who are growing large amounts of marijuana in their homes. But one man who was arrested after police used thermal imaging argues that the technique is an invasion of privacy.

Linda Wertheimer talks wtih Vikram Parekh, Researcher on South Asia for Human Rights Watch about Human Rights Watch's lastest report, Massacres of Hazaras in Afghanistan, which gives eye witness accounts of a massacre in January in the central highlands of Afghanistan, as well as new evidence related to an earlier massacre last May. During both events, the victims were primarily Hazaras, a Shia Muslim ethnic group, previously targeted by Taliban forces for abuse. Afghan humanitarian aid workers were also killed.