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Daniel talks with Dr. Philip Nitschke with the Voluntary Euthanasia Network in Australia's Northern Territory. Recently, the Northern Territory Assembly voted that a measure legalizing euthanasia would go into effect July 1st. After the law was passed last year, several people travelled to the Northern Territory hoping to take advantage of legalized physician assisted suicide. But upon arrival, they discovered the law had not actually taken effect and several ended up taking their lives illegally. With this pending enactment, Dr. Nitschke says there's about 10 people he knows of who are planning to travel to the territory in order to die there, legally.

NPR's Claudio Sanchez reports that some key decisions against affirmative action in higher education have stunned educators who've spent the past 25 years working on improving diversity. At a recent meeting of the National Conference of Blacks in Education, many educators say that they're comfortable with the prospect that affirmative action may be scaled back at the nation's colleges and universities, and they're looking for other ways to improve admissions for minorities.

NPR's Richard Harris reports that an Italian researcher has calculated that a huge asteroid could, theoretically, be knocked off its orbit and eventually collide with Earth. But, according to a paper being published in the journal Nature, the asteroid, called Eros, would not hit for at least 100,000, and there's only a 50-50 chance it would hit Earth in the next 100 million years.

NPR's John Nielsen reports on the latest skirmish over welfare reform. Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole is planning to give a speech atttacking the president's record on welfare reform this week. But in a speech this weekend, the president tried to beat him to the punch by praising a radical reform plan championed by Wisconsin's Republican governor.

Daniel talks with Boston Globe reporter Daniel Golden about a recent investigative report he wrote. He found that 11.5 billion dollars worth of unclaimed property is being held by the federal and state governments with little effort to find the owners. Golden says this is a growing trend as governments become more strapped for funds. He argues that governments have a responsibility to do more to return these funds. In his investigation, Golden was able to locate the owners of over $200,000 dollars worth of unclaimed property.

Phillip Davis reports on the FCC's lucrative auctioning of licenses for the next generation of wireless phones. San Diego-based NextWave Telecom made the highest offer in an auction that the FCC plans to generate $10.2 billion for the federal treasury.

SUNDAY MAY 12,

Liane Hansen discusses U.S. efforts to quell the latest round f violence in the West African nation of Liberia. Her guests are George Moose, ssistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, and Leonard Robinson, the eputy assistant Secreaty of State for African Affairs during the Bush dministration.

Marius Benson reports from Pretoria that South Africa's government today postponed for a third time provincial elections for the violence-torn region of KwaZulu-Natal (kwah-ZU-LU nah-TALL). Many feared such a move would touch off a political crisis, as the Inkatha Freedom Party had threatened to quit the government of national unity if the vote were put off again. But Inkatha's leader, Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi (man-go-SOO-too booduh-LAY-zee), grudgingly accepted the move, which delays the May 29 vote for up to a month. The postponement grew out of concern that escalating violence between Inkatha and the African National Congress would make it impossible to hold the election without significant bloodshed.

What's behind the "discount" in a "discount airline" like ValuJet? NPR's Jim Zarroli reports on how the growing number of no-frills airlines cut their expenses, and whether an airline can lower operating costs without raising questions about safety.