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The BBC's Elaine Lester reports on the centuries-old conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. Against the backdrop of recent calm there, the yearly march of the Orange Order seems more heated than in years past.

NPR's Gerry Hadden reports on Mexican president-elect Vicente Fox's plans for restructuring key government ministers in an effort to fight endemic corruption. Fox is stripping the all-powerful Interior Ministry of much of its duties, and creating a new ministry in charge of federal police and intelligence services. He's also taking some powers away from the attorney general's office.

NPR's Kathleen Schalch reports that the World Bank will not make a controversial loan to China to settle 58,000 poor farmers on land that Tibetans consider sacred. Pro-Tibetan activists hail the decision as a victory. The resettlement project was opposed by human rights groups as well as the United States. Bank directors let the loan die after refusing a recommendation from Bank president James Wolfensohn to further assess the project's social and environmental impact. China said it would finance the resettlement on its own.

NPR's Snigdha Prakash reports that money fertilizes everything in Seattle, sprouting important architecture, philanthropy, and new companies. Most of the money comes from the software, telecom and Internet worlds. Prakash reports on an incipient trend: software moguls using some of their millions to attack problems that technology hasn't been able to solve so far -- like a cure for cancer.

NPR's Brenda Wilson has a special report on South Africa's explosive AIDS epidemic. The crisis is rooted in South Africa's history and the movement of its people. Labor migrations have occurred in South Africa since the beginning of the century. In the decade of the 1970's, under Apartheid, three-and-a-half-million black South Africans were forcibly relocated to rural homelands. The number of men who moved to industrial centers for work, living away from their wives and families for months at a time, significantly increased. Then, in the late 1980's, as white South Africans were being forced to relinquish political power, AIDS hit the country. Greater freedom for blacks brought an increase in travel between homelands and industrial centers and the AIDS epidemic moved with the people. Dependence on cheap, black labor and the removal of black South Africans to the homelands is continuing to drive the epidemic. A tenth of the population of South Africa is now infected with the AIDS virus.

NPR's Julie McCarthy reports on a surprising leader in the high tech industry: Finland. Finnish technology companies like Nokia are among the most dominant players today, though the country hasn't always been so forward-thinking.

In the first part of a summer series on celebrity gardens, NPR gardening expert Ketzel Levine visits actor John Spencer at his home in Bel Aire, California and tours his garden. Spencer is a transplant from New Jersey, and he favors roses, delphiniums, hollyhocs, and the like. Levine points out that those plants don't appear as healthy as the ones that are native to Southern California.

NPR's Jim Zarroli reports economic growth is slowing which means that bond prices are on the rise. Economists believe that growth will slow down during the later half of the year.

Commentator Ev Ehrlich says computers and the Internet may allow the economy to reach even greater levels of growth and productivity.

Fewer jobs than expected were added to company payrolls in June. That's further evidence that the U.S. economy is slowing down a bit. The number of new jobs grew by a scant 11,000 during the month -- excluding the number of temporary government workers hired to help with the census. The news gave stock and bond prices a lift. Investors are hoping that the latest report will persuade the Federal Reserve that it no longer needs to raise interest rates. NPR's Jim Zarroli reports.

Democrats charged with writing a platform for their party and their presidential nominee met in St. Louis today to hear ideas and discuss policy. The platform committee is led by elected officials known as centrists within the party, and their mission is to craft a document that Vice President Al Gore will be comfortable talking about. NPR's Anthony Brooks reports.

NPR's Rob Gifford reports that Hong Kong, in response to its experience during the Asian economic crisis is trying to diversify its economy. The city has become rich over the years on the basis of real estate speculation and finance. Now, it is building a huge cyberport in hopes of turning Hong Kong into the internet hub of Asia. The problem is that internet startups are based on speculation and wild speculation is what got Hong Kong into trouble during the Asian economic crisis.