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What makes a firework work? We ask an expert!

2: Actress ANGELA BASSETT. She recently had the intimidating job of playing Tina Turner in the new film, "What's Love Got to Do with it." Her performance has been widely praised. BASSETT's other roles include the mother of a troubled teenager in "Boyz N the Hood," and the wife of the black Muslim leader in Spike Lee's "Malcolm X."

- Danny speaks with Walter Adams, Distinguished Professor of Economics at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, about corporate mergers and takeovers. This week, Lee Iacocca and Kirk Kerkorian mounted a bid to takeover the Chrysler Corporation, an effort that recalls the merger mania of the 1980's. Adams says corporate takeovers, by and large, don't do the country any good, for they don't as a rule add to the productivity and creativity of the economy.

What does the "Wind Chill" factor tell us? Is it useful information? Danny talks with (Pennyslvania State University) meteorologist Lee Grensci (GREHN-see), who tells us what the Wind Chill factor does and DOESN'T tell us about the weather. He says everyone feels cold differently - so in most cases it is not useful information. Wind Chill means more in below-zero temperatures.

Lee Malvo, one of the suspects in the Washington, D.C.-area sniper attacks, may have confessed to police that he pulled the trigger in more than one of the shootings, The Washington Post reports. NPR's Larry Abramson reports.

Commentator Mike Thoele (TAY-lee) waits for the call in the night from his daughter or son, telling him they are off to fight yet another Western fire. Both are members of elite groups of firefighters -- the daughter is a smokejumper and the son is on a "hot shot" crew. Each summer they join 50,000 other seasonal firefighters in what Thoele calls "a summer rite of passage."

The statues of Robert E. Lee and General Stonewall Jackson were removed Saturday.

Robert talks with Martin Malia (MAY-lee-ah) about Russian President Boris Yeltsin's commitment to democracy. Malia is a professor emeritus of history at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of "The Soviet Tragedy: A History of Socialism in Russia 1917-1991" (NY: Free Press, 1994). Malia says Yeltsin is committed to democratic reform, but falls back on authoritarian impulses when it's convenient.

The new film Brokeback Mountain, directed by Ang Lee, stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger. Based on a short story by Annie Proulx, it describes the relationship between two young men in the West in the 1960s.

Adapted from the bestselling novel by Min Jin Lee, the story follows generations of a Korean family over the course of the 20th century.

Alan Cheuse reviews Country of Origin by Don Lee, a mystery whose main character is a young American woman who was born in Japan under mysterious circumstances and returns to the country of her birth to find out her true origins.

Actor Clive Owen co-stars with Oscar winners Denzel Washington and Jodie Foster in the new Spike Lee film Inside Man. His previous films include Closer, Sin City, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead and Croupier. (This interview was originally broadcast July 12, 2004.)

Some high-profile black film directors, led by Spike Lee, have come together to create Miracle's Boys, a television series for teens about growing up in New York City's Harlem district. NPR's Ed Gordon speaks with two of the directors, Ernest Dickerson and Bill Duke.

Min Jin Lee's debut novel Free Food for Millionaires tells the story of a young Korean-American woman whose Ivy League education exposes her to a glitzy, glamorous lifestyle she can't afford to maintain.

WILL's Lee Gaines takes us into some classrooms that are working to bridge the political divide.

After careful study of preserved specimens and observing individual birds in the wild, Dr. Bob Kennedy of the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History and Science has identified a new species of bird. Lina's (LEE-nuhz) sunbird is a brightly colored bird that lives in an isolated region on the Phillipine island of Mindanao (MIN-duh-now). Noah talks with Dr. Kennedy about his expeditions to the Phillipines, and the process of capturing and preparing specimens.

Roh Moo-hyun, a former labor and human rights lawyer, wins South Korea's presidential election. Opponent Lee Hoi-chang has conceded defeat. Roh, 56, supports engagement with North Korea, and has questioned the presence of U.S. troops in South Korea. NPR's Eric Weiner reports.

Chinese novelist, playwright, and critic Gao Xingjian won this year's Nobel prize for literature, the first Chinese writer ever to do so. Book reviewer Alan Cheuse notes that in the wake of that prestigious award, Gao's 1990 novel Soul Mountain has been published here, translated by Australian academic Mabel Lee. (2:00)Soul Mountain is published by Harper Collins.

Actress Michelle Yeoh. Shes been called Asias foremost female action star. Shes the lead in Ang Lees Crouching Tiger, hidden Dragon. Yeoh has starred in many films including Supercop with Jackie Chan and the 007 thriller Tomorrow Never Dies. Yeow is also a film producer. She is a native of Ipoh, Malaysia, and in fact was once Miss Malaysia.

Virginia conservators opened a copper box from 1887 found this week in the pedestal of a monument to Confederate general Robert E. Lee.