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Robin Urevitch reports on efforts by the U.S. Border Patrol and private citizens in San Diego, to supply water to desert migrants along the U.S. Mexico border. Since the Immigration and Naturalization Service beefed up enforcement in 1994, more than 500 migrants have died in the deserts north of the U.S.-Mexico border.

NPR's Phillip Davis reports from Miami that the eight Cubans rescued at sea are now in the US for "medical reasons" and may be allowed to stay. The group commandeered a old Russian-built crop duster yesterday and crashed into the Gulf of Mexico. One died, two others are in the hospital for medical treatment, while the remaining seven have been released into Immigration and Naturalization Service custody.

Midwestern singer-songwriter Greg Brown is both a road poet and a keen observer of the natural world. He says that he likes to think about his work as stories sanded down into songs. His new CD is called Covenant; it's his 17th album. He talks to Jacki from his home in Iowa City. (Red House Records 2000)

Noah Adams speaks with Lawrence Krauss, professor of physics at Case Western University and author of "The Physics of Star Trek," about matter and antimatter. Physicists at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics announced yesterday that they had created the first complete atoms of antimatter ever made by humans or seen in nature.

Today's issue of the scientific journal Nature reports that crows reshape twigs and leaves to get to insects that the birds normally couldn't reach. The clever crows live on the island of New Caladonia, northwest of Australia.

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.

- Daniel visits the Forensic Documents Lab at the U-S Immigration and Naturalization Service. Analysts in the lab use high tech equipment to study questionable immigration documents. They are specialists in detecting counterfeit techniques, including alterations impossible to detect with the naked eye. The Atlanta Committee on the Olympic Games asked the lab to design the Olympic visa which has numerous security features.

NPR's David Kestenbaum reports on the Queen's English. Today Queen Elizabeth delivers her annual Christmas address and according to the journal, Nature, her accent is not what it used to be. Her vowels are closing and she's starting to sound a bit more like a commoner. It is unlikely that her accent will slip much further but whether the Queen's English will be retained for future generations is still unclear.

Brooklyn artist Nina Katchadourian has a novel solution to noise pollution caused by the tones of common car alarms. She's created a new kind of alarm that blares bird songs that more or less follow the same familiar sonic pattern of most alarms, but with a "natural" twist. NPR's Rick Karr reports.

If you are listening while brushing your teeth, here's a story for you: Colgate-Palmolive is buying Tom's of Maine, the leading maker of natural toothpaste. It's just the latest example of a big corporation acquiring a company that succeeded by selling organic or health-oriented products.