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Meredith Ochs reviews Satellite Rides, the new release by the promising alternative country band, Old 97s. Ochs says the band and its leader Rhett Miller have been writing wonderful pop music with clever lyrics. (4:30) Satellite Rides by Old 97s is on the Elektra Records label. Their Web site is www.old97s.com.

In a rare defection from China, a senior officer of the People's Liberation Army has taken refuge in the United States (as of December). He is said to know a lot about China's strategic plans regarding the United States and Taiwan. Beijing takes defections seriously but this case apparently has NOT disrupted U.S.-China relations too much. Both sides were aware of it this week as President Bush and his aides met with Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen. Those talks were regarded as successful.

The high-tech boom that transformed Ireland from one of Europe's poorest countries into the feisty Celtic tiger has begun to show some rough side effects. Dublin residents talk about assaults, congestion and a heightened sense of aggressiveness in the streets. The gap between rich and poor is rising, and heart disease is up. All of this worries public health specialists who see their mission as addressing the social conditions underlying today's chronic diseases. One growing approach in Europe began in the mid-1980s with the support of the World Health Organization. It engages citizens in examining their health concerns and helps them to find their own solutions. In his second report on European Health Promoting Schools, Frank Browning visits a working class school on the edge of Dublin where students identify rape, murder, and mugging as their biggest health worries.

NPR's Rob Gifford reports that the Chinese government has reported it is investigating the case of a military official who they say "left China and did not return." U.S. officials have acknowledged that the man, a colonel in the People's Liberation Army, has defected from China to the United States.

Nancy Solomon, of member station KLCC in Oregon, reports on an extradition battle for 70-year-old Robert Lee Burns. He's been living in Oregon for 20 years, but now California says it wants him back, so he can complete his sentence for the 1963 murder of a highway patrolman.

NPR's Lynn Neary reports on e-books and their growing popularity. The first "Independent E-book Awards" will be given this weekend at "The Virginia Festival of the Book."

NPR's Guy Raz reports Macedonian security forces ended a 24-hour cease-fire today and launched a new round of attacks against positions held by ethnic Albanian rebels around the city of Tetovo. Soon after the assault began, two Albanian men were shot dead by security forces at a checkpoint. The European Union's Javier Solana was in the capital, Skopje, for the second time this week and expressed hope the crisis will soon be resolved.

Conservative author David Horowitz sought to place ads in college newspapers across the country denouncing calls for reparations to African-Americans for slavery. Most papers declined to run the ads. Many of those that did sparked protests on their campuses. Av Harris reports from Providence -- Brown University was one of the schools whose paper ran the ad.

John T. Edge tells the story of Georgia Gilmore, who sold food to finance the bus boycott -- and whose kitchen was a safe haven and source of good Southern cooking for civil rights leaders. She died March 9, 1990 as she was preparing food to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Selma-Montgomery March; the food was served to her mourners instead.

John discusses the week's news with John Hielmann of Wired Magazine.