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- Reporter Alex Van Oss reports that the people of Finland consider Santa Claus one of their own...and have a workshop near the Arctic Circle to prove it. Van Oss visits the Finnish Embassy Christmas party where diplomats give their government's official policy on the origins of Santa.

The French jazz bass player Renaud Garcia Fons is making his U.S. debut with a record featuring two basses, accordion, and drums. The music incorporates influences from Spanish flamenco, to Moroccan, to Japanese music.

to Gulf War Syndrome...an assortment of medical symptoms reported among veterans of the Persian Gulf War. A Presidential advisory committee reported yesterday that it found no single cause for the ailments, such as joint pain, memory lapses, fatigue, and depression.

Despite the 3.5 billion dollars that this country spends on substance abuse prevention programs in the nation's schools, drug use is going up sharply among teenagers...especially marijuana and cigarette use among young teens aged 13 and 14. As the Clinton Administration announced these statistics yesterday, government health officials promised new initiatives to try and reverse this trend. But no one believes that doing so will be easy. Experts say drug use among teens is a terribly compex problem, and the view from the street makes that very clear. NPR's Claudio Sanchez reports.

Scott talks to Paul Bierly (BUY-er-lee), the biographer of John Phillip Sousa on the 100th anniversary of the march "Stars and Stripes Forever."

LIANE HANSEN EWSCASTERS: NORA RAUM AND LARRY MATTHEWS PE

about Newt Gingrich's precarious future as Speaker of the House. Republicans are rallying around Gingrich in the aftermath of his admission that he violated House ethics. But a censure from the Ethics Subcommittee would prevent him from re-election to the Speaker's seat.

Commentator David Greenberger thinks the phrase "no problem" is a bad substitute for "you're welcome." It emphasizes the negative -- saying "this kindness I showed you could have resulted in discomfort to me, but lucky for you, it didn't."

Retailers and manufacturers of computer software have turned their attention to girls this year. NPR's Wendy Kaufman reports on what parents can expect to find on the market this holiday season. Little girls can direct their own animated Barbie movie...join a virtual clique to talk about dating; creat invoices for their babysitting businesses; or find out "the hows and whys" of their developing bodies.

The budget of the District of Columbia has been in trouble for years, and President Clinton has made a proposal to help the city in his new federal budget. Under the plan, about three-point-nine billion dollars of federal money would be spent on Washington, D-C over the next five years. Nearly half of that money would go to expand, renovate and operate the city's prisons. NPR's Kathleen Schlach reports on the problems that led to the District's prison crisis.