Search results for

NPR's Allison Aubrey reports that a new study has renewed concerns about the effects mercury may have on human development. The study, conducted by the National Academy of Sciences, states that even trace amounts of the metal may cause learning disabilities in children.

Host Bob Edwards talks to Bioethicist Arthur Caplan about the suspension of all federally funded clinical trials involving humans at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine in Tulsa. The government said researchers at the medical college and a university oversight board, repeatedly violated federal regulations and endangered patients in a cancer study. Arthur Caplan is Director of the Center of Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania.

NPR's Ted Clark reports on the Camp David peace talks between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. President Clinton met with each leader separately yesterday, then brought both delegations together for a half-hour discussion. So far, all parties have agreed to a news blackout concerning the talks, and no official deadline has been set to end the summit.

Host Bob Edwards talks to reporter Maryann MaGuire who is in Belfast about political tensions in Northern Ireland. Protestants in the British ruled province today celebrate Orange Day, which commemorates the victory of Protestant King William of Orange over his Catholic foe in the 17th century.

NPR's Renee Montagne talks with Bosnian writer Aleksandar Hemon about his book The Question of Bruno, written in English. The stories play with the English language, using unconventional words or normal words in unusual ways.

Commentator Jeffrey Tayler visited the village of Tarasawka in southeastern Belarus, near where the Chernobyl disaster occurred. There he meets one of the "old believers"-- a woman who has tried to maintain traditions extending back to the earliest days of the Russian Orthodox Church. In spite of all she has seen and experienced -- World War I, the Bolshevik Revolution, civil war, Stalin's famine, World War II, the Chernobyl disaster, and the collapse of the Soviet Union -- it is the deathof her son she cannot forget.

Linda talks to Samuel Lewis, Senior Policy Advisor to the Israel Policy Forum, about the peace talks at Camp David between Israel and the Palestinians. They compare today's talks with talks between Israel and Egypt at Camp David in 1979. Lewis was US Ambassador to Israel 1977-1985 and Policy Planning Staff Director for the State Department, 1993-1994.

Commentator Matt Miller says, he has an idea that will save Television executives from airing boring programs and serve a societal purpose. If death penalty fans consider capital punishment to be a deterrent, he says, airing executions should persuade people not to kill one another.

NPR Special Correspondent Susan Stamberg profiles painter Ed Ruscha. The California artist is the subject of a retrospective at the Hirschorn Museum in Washington, D.C.

Israeli Prime-Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat have joined President Clinton for peace talks at Camp David outside Washington DC. The two leaders left sharply divided public opinion at home -- Prime Minister Barak narrowly survived a no-confidence vote in the Parliament yesterday -- to attempt to make progress in their negotiations, which have been stalled for some time. Linda talks with NPR's Ted Clark who is at the media center near Camp David.