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NPR's Vicki O'Hara reports that a hardline Muslim group known as the Taliban, or students, has taken control of Afghanistan's capital and has executed the country's former president. Neighboring Pakistan says it is sending a delegation to recognize the new government but Western governments are trying to determine how to respond to what appears to be the world's newest Islamic state.

Neal talks with Hugo Gassioles who just completed a 3- and-a-half-year, 12,000 mile, horseback journey from his native Argentina to the U.S.

will hear arguments today about the constitutionality of Arizona's "English-only" law which mandates no other language be used in official state business.

About a half-million elderly immigrants receive assistance under the Supplemental Security Income program. It's an income assistance program that also entitles them to Food Stamps and Medicaid, which pays for nursing home care for thousands. Laws passed by Congress in the last term would make immigrants ineligible for the assistance. NPR's Vicky Que looks at the possible impact of the changes on a Vietnamese couple in Philadelphia, who are too old to work and have no family in the U.S. to help them. (An adopted son is in trouble with the law.) It's not clear that either local and state public service agencies or private organizations can or will step in.

government's ineffectual handling of a disastrous oil spill...and the country's consequent political difficulties.

over a new anti- homeless law aimed at stopping people from living and sleeping in public areas. The law makes "urban camping" illegal and punishable by one year in jail, or a thousand dollar fine. It is part of a growing national trend that cities are trying as a way to clean up their urban centers.

Noah talks to Aleksandr Vasovic, a foreign editor at B-92, an independent radio station in Belgrade. B92 is the only independent station in Belgrade...it is also the only media outlet reporting extensively on the protests against the government. Today, Slobodan Milosevic shut down both Radio B92 and closed down the transmitter of student station Radio Index.

Women taking estrogen may be taking a risk if they also drink alcohol. For reasons yet to be determined, one or two drinks can increase the amount of estrogen circulating in the blood. And high levels of estrogen have been linked to an increase in breast cancer, though that link has never been conclusively proved. NPR's Vicky Que reports.

NPR's Brooke Gladstone offers a progress report on television industry efforts to come up with a ratings system for its programming. The giant telecommunications law passed last year gave television a year to devise a plan of its own or face one imposed by the federal government. Although a final announcement on the ratings system isn't scheduled until later this month, details are filtering out. And some lawmakers and parents' advocates don't like what they're hearing.

Russian President Boris Yeltsin's prospects for the New Year. Bowers says that with Yeltsin's heart bypass surgery behind him, the Russian leader appears to be entering 1997 in a relatively strong political position. But he does have to contend with some enormous economic problems.