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NPR's Larry Abramson reports on a study that shows fewer people are falling victim to gunshot wounds during the commission of crimes. The Justice Department says the number of gunshot wounds fell almost 40 percent from 1993 and 1997. Experts credit a number of factors, including the aging of the population and longer prison sentences for violent criminals.

Jury deliberations resumed today in federal court in Louisiana in an insurance fraud trial involving former Governor Edwin Edwards. Edwards, the State Insurance Commission, Jim Brown, and a lawyer are accused of corruption and witness tampering. The three are alleged to have created a favorable settlement in 1996 for the owner of a failed insurance company. Earlier this year, Edwards was convicted in an unrelated racketeering case involving the licensing of riverboat casinos. NPR's Debbie Elliott reports.

Host Bob Edwards talks with Reuven Hazan, a professor of political science at Jerusalem's Hebrew University about the violent clashes spreading from the troubled areas of Gaza and the West Bank into the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Kate Seelye in Beirut reports on diplomatic efforts aimed at securing the release of three Israeli soldiers, seized by Hizbollah guerrillas in a border clash last Saturday.

NPR's Wendy Kaufman reports that sponsors and school districts are re-thinking their support of the Boy Scouts. They believe that the Scouts anti-homosexual policies are discriminatory.

Each night this week on All Things Considered, reporter Deborah Amos examines the sixty billion dollar illegal drug trade in this country. Today in the first report from her series, Amos covers the status of America's war on drugs, and the effects on people on both sides of that war. There's more at http://www.npr.org/news/specials/drugwars/.

Why is the sound in cinemas overwhelming these days? Commentator Lenore Skenazy believes it is because digital technology now allows high volume without distortion. She thinks our ears are imperiled by the 110 decibels that can come from movie theaters

John Burnett reports on Mexican billionaire Carlos Hank Rhon. The Fed holds a hearing on Oct. 23 to remove Hank Rhon as the major shareholder in Laredo National Bank in Texas, saying he lied to bank regulators when he acquired majority stock. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration suspects that Hank Rhon is connected to Mexican drug cartels and uses the Texas bank to launder money. Hank Rhon and bank president Gary G. Jacobs deny all wrongdoing. Jacobs is a friend of George W. Bush and has had coffee at the White House with Bill Clinton.

Campaign financing is a big issue in this year's elections, but the biggest spending story isn't coming from the special interests. Jon Corzine, the Democratic senate candidate in New Jersey, is setting new records for spending in a senate race, but most of the money he's using is his own. NPR's Peter Overby reports. (

(Update) Host Bob Edwards talks with NPR's Michael Sullivan in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt, about what hope is left for a ceasefire between Israelis and Palestians. Middle Eastern leaders are still meeting with President Clinton at the resort, but no accord has yet been reached.