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LIANE HANSEN

San Francisco based Wells Fargo won its three-month effort to takeover another California based bank today. First Interstate agreed to be acquired in a stock transaction valued at $11.6 billion. If the deal is approved by regulators it will be the largest merger in U.S. banking history. The deal is expected to eliminate as many as 7,000 jobs, half of them in the Los Angeles area, as hundreds of First Intersate branches are closed.

NPR's Mike Shuster reports from Sarajevo that the American Forces in northern Bosnia are still on high alert. There is continuing concern about the threat Islamic fighters might pose to U.S. Forces. The fighters, known as mujahadeen, came to Bosnia in 1992 to help the government army. There is also concern about a threat posed by an American who has been associated with Islamic causes in the past.

the former commander of U.S. troops in Europe, about the U.S. plans to have retired military officers train the Bosnian army within the next two months.

Former Democratic Congresswoman Barbara Jordan of Texas died today after a long illness. Ms. Jordan was one of the most influential blacks on Capitol Hill and reached national stature as an outspoken member of the House Judiciary Committee that recommended the impeachment of President Richard Nixon in 1974. We hear an excerpt from a speech she gave at the 1992 Democratic Convention.

Daniel talks with NPR's Martha Raddatz who is in Bosnia covering the NATO troop deployment. An American soldier was wounded today after stepping on a land mine...not too far from where soldiers are constructing a pontoon bridge into Bosnia.

NPR's Wade Goodwyn reports that, more than nine months after explosion destroying the federal office the mystery of John Doe #2 remains. Immediately after the explosion, the FBI release two sketches, one was ID'd as John McVeigh and, despite a massive manhunt the other was never found. Some federal prosecutors hint that there was no John Doe II, but NPR interviews five people who believe they saw him with McVeigh, and the other defendant, Terry Nichols. (12:30) CUTAWAY 1C 0:59 1D 7. AFRICA POLICY - Linda talks with Thomas L. Friedman, foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times, about his recent trip accompanying Madeleine Albright to African nations on a mission of "preventive diplomacy." Albright is the U-S Ambassador to the United Nations. One country they visited of particular concern is Burundi, where Tutsis have been persecuting Hutus. The Hutu tribe makes up 85 percent of Burundi's population and the Tutsi, 15 percent. The Tutsi control the army and the government. Many observers fear an explosion of violence similar to the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.

Court of Appeals heard arguments yesterday in a case testing the U.S. policy on gays in the military -- the so-called "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. It allows gays and lesbians to serve so long as they don't volunteer information on their sexual orientation or engage in homosexual acts. The Justice Department is appealing a ruling last year that overturned the policy based on the first and fifth amendments.

NPR's Anne Garrels reports from Moscow on the continuing battle between Russians and Chechen rebels. In a southern Russian village, it is the third day of artillery and rocket attacks on Chechens holding hostages. In the Chechen capital of Grozny, 30 workers at a power plant have been kidnapped. And, in the Black Sea, another group of rebels holds 200 people hostage aboard a ferry which they have threatened to blow up.

Robert talks with author Salman Rushdie, who's latest novel is "The Moor's Last Sigh." It is set in Bombay, with characters drawn from different religious groups, and a narrator who is living his life at double speed. (Publisher: Pantheon)