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Michele Kelemen reports from Moscow that Russia's FSB intelligence service is actively pursuing a growing number of espionage cases, now that its former boss, Vladimir Putin, is president. Journalists, former military officers and defense analysts are held for months, and sometimes years, before going to trial behind closed doors. At least one prominent defense attorney notes, however, that the FSB does not exercise the same unbridled power as its Soviet-era predecessor, the KGB.

Noah talks to Dr. Charles Yesalis, an epidemiologist and expert on performance enhancing drugs at Penn State University, about drug use among the Olympic athletes. Yesalis says the new I.O.C. test for EPO won't detect use by athletes who quit taking the drug a week or so before the games. (5:00) >>> Anabolic Steroids in Sport and Exercise, by Dr. Charles Yesalis, is published by Human Kinetics Publishing, Jan. 2000.

Brigham Young University's athletic teams are training with a new kind of sports drink: pickle juice. Some claim that pickle juice reduces cramps and benefits athletes during play. George Curtis is the head athletic trainer for BYU. He joins Linda from Provo, Utah to talk about the virtues of pickle juice.

Host Scott Simon talks with NPR's Ted Clark about the Middle East summit. Jerusalem appears to be the hardest issue to resolve. Today negotiations are on hold at Camp David because of the Jewish Sabbath. They are expected to resume when President Clinton returns from Japan.

A new book, Peril, says the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was attempting to head off a potential armed conflict when he called his Chinese counterpart twice in Trump's final months in office.

Scott reads letters from listeners. 2:30.

Linda interviews Julie Bell, lead archaeologist for Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado about new sites discovered after a fire last week. Mesa Verde is the nation's largest archaeological preserve, with more than 4000 identified sites.

Linda speaks to Rob Broomby, Berlin correspondent for the BBC, about reaction in Germany to today's Concorde crash in Paris. The flight had been chartered for a German tour group. Broomby discusses what's known about the passengers and the cruise they were scheduled to take, as well as plans for relatives and comments by German authorities.

Commentator Lis Wiehl explains that tribal courts, which operate on many Indian reservations, function separately from the federal court system. These courts have not had to apply the U.S. Constitution directly, leaving out Constitutional guarantees like the right to free legal counsel. But one of the problems with suspending Constitutional protections, is that convictions obtained in tribal courts can be used against defendants later in federal and state courts.

NPR's Joanne Silberner looks at the closure of New York's Central Park, after a report that West Nile virus was isolated from mosquitoes there. Public health officials said they closed the park and initiated spraying for mosquitoes even though the risk of getting the virus was small. People who have immune system disorders or who are elderly may get a brain infection from West Nile virus. Last year, seven elderly New Yorkers died as a result of the infection.