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In the latest Radio Expedition from NPR and the National Geographic Society, Alex Chadwick examines how an ore used in the production of electronics has been linked to the massacre of wildlife at a national park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Coltan is a metal used in computers and cell phones. The miners who extract coltan have killed thousands of elephants and gorillas for food. (8:39)(S

The bell at First Congregational Church in Woodbury, Connecticut rings every hour. It's been doing that for 150 years. Now, the town council is considering putting a stop to the bell's ring between 6 p.m. and 10 a.m. Residents are complaining the bell is keeping them awake. Noah Adams talks with Mark Heillishorn, pastor of First Congregational.

Linda Wertheimer talks with NPR's Melissa Block about the federal government's closing arguments in the trial of four men charged in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The prosecution argued today that it has proven the bombings were carried out as part of a plot by followers of Saudi exile Osama bin Laden to wage Jihad -- or holy war -- against America. If convicted, two of the defendants could face the death penalty.

Legislators in North Carolina and throughout the Southeast and Midwest are proposing cuts in higher education to deal with their budget shortfalls. North Carolina has called for a 7 percent reduction in higher education. NPR's Adam Hochberg reports the proposal has met with student protest rallies and prompted administrators to say they will have to cut course selections and lay off faculty.

NPR's Debbie Elliott reports on the defense of former Ku Klux Klansman Thomas Blanton Jr. in the Birmingham, Alabama church bombing trial. Blanton is charged with murder in the 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Fours girls died in the blast. The defense says prosecutors have produced nothing that directly links Blanton to the crime.

NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr offers his thoughts on former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey's revelation that he was involved in a raid that resulted in the killing of women and children as a Navy SEAL during the Vietnam War.

Maura Ferrelly of Georgia Public Radio reports that residents of Savannah, Georgia are divided over a statue that would commemorate slaves and their contribution to the city. The focus of the controversy is an inscription on the proposed slave memorial by poet Maya Angelou describing the horrors of the "middle passage," the voyage slaves took from Africa to the New World. Opponents say the inscription is divisive, others believe it is an accurate reflection of the voyage.

NPR's Guy Raz reports from Berlin on a controversial exhibit that is drawing huge crowds. The artist -- German anatomy professor Gunther Von Hagens -- mummifies human and animal organs and bodies by immersing them in a polymer solution. He then poses and displays the bodies. Von Hagens says his exhibit is intended to "enlighten" the public, and indeed many visitors see it as educational. The Roman Catholic Church, however, sees it as a perversion.

Yesterday's scheduled auto race -- the Firestone Firehawk 600 -- at the Texas Motor Speedway was postponed after it became clear that drivers practicing on the course were experiencing dizziness. Noah Adams talks with Dr. Steve Olvey, the medical director for Championship Auto Racing Teams, Inc. in Miami, Florida about the course and the "G" forces involved.

Commentator Stacy Horn has learned her mother has a terminal disease. She finds some comfort in an unlikely place -- an episode of television's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, called The Body.

NPR's Vicky O'Hara reports a team of American engineers is on its way to the island of Hainan where they will inspect the U.S. surveillance plane that was forced to land there after a midair collision with a Chinese jet fighter on April 1. The team will evaluate how best to move the plane and bring it back to the United States. U.S.-China cooperation on this matter is seen as a positive development in the often troubled relationship.

NPR's Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr provides some historical perspective on the President's first 100 days.