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Track and field gets underway at the Olympics Friday, with American sprinters Marion Jones and Maurice Greene competing in qualifying rounds. But the big track news was made OFF the track. As NPR's Howard Berkes reports, the mysterious French runner Marie-Jose Perec left Sydney a day before her first heat, claiming an intruder forced his way into her hotel room and threatened her. Perec, the defending Olympic champion in the 200 and 400 meters, avoided all public appearances in the weeks before the Games, communicating only through her Website.

The Chinese government also restricted private tutoring in an effort to even the playing field among students.

companies from the Northeast and Middle Atlantic, NYNEX and Bell Atlantic, has been given a green light by the Justice Deaprtment. The companies claim the deal will allow them to improve their services and move into new fields like video, but consumer groups think the merger will reduce competition and raise prices.

David Baron reports on the three U.S. scientists who won the Nobel Prize in physics for the discovery of a form of helium that has shed unexpected light on the first moments of the universe...and a form of helium called Helium-3 has properties called superfludity at extremely low temperatures. the two Texans and the British chemist who won the prize in chemistry for discovery of a carbon molecule that sparked a new field of study.

Lynn Neary talks with Wall Street Journal sportswriter Stefan Fatsis about this Sunday's Super Bowl. The NFL is having a successful year and ABC, which is broadcasting this weekend's game, is selling ads at huge rates and expecting a huge audience. The weekend is also a forum for off-the-field issues and the league, which has been criticized for lagging behind in minority hiring, has had an opportunity to trumpet some advances in that area.

In part two of our series on the "Megatransect", an attempt by wildlife biologist Mike Fay to walk from the center of Africa to its eastern coast, Fay describes his journey through the Congo Basin. The region is filled with dense jungles and swaps. And it harbors some of the deadliest diseases known to man. Through his recorded field diary, Fay relates the difficulty his team faced as it trekked through a part of the world no human has seen in more than a century. (8:49

There was a standing ovation at baseball's Miller Park in Milwaukee this weekend, as a new athlete took the field for the first time. Standing about eight feet tall -- including his sombrero -- "El Picante" was the star of the show during the Brewers' 6th-inning entertainment: the sausage races.

Facing no resistance from forces loyal to Saddam Hussein, Kurdish militia and U.S. Special Forces seize the key northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, one of the country's main oil-producing areas. Kurdish leaders also report advances elsewhere, including oil fields further north. Hear NPR's Ivan Watson.

U.S. forces move to secure cities and oil fields in the north, attacking the city of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's birthplace and base of power. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld says much work remains in Iraq, including recovering prisoners of war, searching for weapons of mass destruction and capturing or accounting for the Iraqi leader. Hear NPR's Scott Horsley.

A small new surveillance aircraft, the Silver Fox, will soon be deployed in Iraq to provide a convenient overview of the field. The craft, weighing around 22 pounds, can be launched by catapult or by hand. The Navy plans to ship the drones, costing $50,000 each, to Marines next month. Hear NPR's Robert Siegel and Capt. John Hobday of the Office of Naval Research.