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NPR's Ted Clark reports on the United States' reaction to the crumbling situation in the Middle East in the face of recent terrorist acts in Yemen against the U.S. and Britain and increasing violence in Israel.

Commentator Richard Rosenfeld talks about how the issue of religious tolerance was an issue in the Presidential campaign two hundred years ago. Then the candidates John Adams and Thomas Jefferson battled over the formation of an official state religion. Today the role of spirituality in public life is again being debated.

Los Angeles film critic Kenneth Turan reviews the new movie Meet the Parents. It stars Ben Stiller as a prospective son-in-law who needs to win over his girlfriend's over-protective father before he can propose. Turan says both Stiller and Robert De Niro, who plays the father, turn in solidly comic performances in a film that has wide appeal.

The second debate between Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore was more polite than the first, but there were contentious moments. Gore criticized the Texas governor's record on health care and hate crime legislation, citing statistics from Bush's home state. Robert talks to Dave McNeely, political columnist for the Austin American Statesman. He joins us by phone from Austin, Texas.

This year's Miss America Pageant is undergoing an overhaul. The stage sets, the swimsuit competition and the selection of the judges is all new. One of the most radical of changes is the music. There She Is, the song made famous by Bert Parks, has been redone in a techno style. Robert talks with Jeff Margolis, the producer and director of this year's pageant, about the changes to this year's show.

NPR's Don Gonyea reports from the road with the AFL-CIO. The labor federation has its leaders on a nation-wide bus tour this fall to help elect pro-union candidates. The trip started in West Virginia with stump speeches at union halls and cook-outs to get out the vote.

NPR's Anne Garrels reports from Belgrade that Yugoslavia's new president Vojislav Kostunica met with a special U.S. envoy, James O'Brien, today and expressed hope for a normalization in relations. In Washington, President Clinton announced a lifting of sanctions against Serbia, including an oil embargo and flight ban. His moves were welcomed not only by president Kostunica but by ordinary Serbs, who will face a long, cold winter without help from the international community.

NPR's Sarah Chayes reports from Paris on the Chinese-born writer Gao Xingjian, who was honored today with the Nobel Prize for Literature. Gao -- the first Chinese writer ever to win the literature prize -- has been living in self-imposed exile in France since 1987. The Swedish Academy honored him for his novels and plays about the struggle for individuality in mass culture.

NPR's Jennifer Ludden in the Gaza Strip reports on some of the victims of the past two weeks of clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian protestors. Even in grief, many of the families of the slain Palestinians say the uprising must continue.

Deborah Amos continues her series on the multi-billion-dollar illegal drug trade in America. Today's report focuses on controversial law enforcement practices, including the seizure of drug money and assets such as cars to help fund the war on drugs. In some cases undercover informers are paid with percentages of drug money that they help seize. Critics, including some law enforcement officers, say the procedures are ripe for corruption. There's more at http://www.npr.org/news/specials/drugwars/.

Host Bob Edwards talks with Rami Khouri, an Amman-based journalist and an expert on the Middle East, about the latest situation in the region.

In the past ten years, one third of the executions in the United States have been carried out in the state of Texas. Since 1924, executions in Texas have taken place in the Walls Unit in Huntsville. The Warden of that prison, Jim Willett, narrates a documentary titled Witness to an Execution. It includes first hand accounts from the men and women who participate in and witness executions as part of their jobs. Guards, chaplains and reporters talk about their work -- detailing what occurs in the minutes before, during and after the execution. The prison employees say they do the job because the vast majority of citizens want it done. Most are affected by the work. Some reach the breaking point and find they can no longer work in the system.