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Terrorism concerns prompt Britain's Queen Elizabeth to order extraordinary security precautions at Buckingham Palace.

Last week we asked listeners to phone in their questions concerning the standoff between the U-S and North Korea. Today we answer some of those question with the help of Ambassador Wendy Sherman who is the former special advisor on North Korea during the Clinton administration. She's now a partner at the international consulting firm -- the Albright Group. Also joining the conversation: Donald Oberdorfer, a professor at Johns Hopkins Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. He's also the author of "Two Koreas: A Contemporary History." (12:30) Oberdorfer's book is published by Basic Books, 1999.

Drugmakers spend billions of dollars each year trying to persuade doctors to prescribe their medicines. One company currently is in federal court, charged with illegally marketing its drug Neurontin for uses not approved by the FDA. And a family in Minnesota is asking why doctors prescribed the epilepsy drug to treat their son Dustin for manic-depression. NPR's Snigdha Prakash reports.

NPR's Robert Siegel talks with Tom Juravich, professor of labor studies and director of the Labor Center, at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst about rising insurance costs nationwide, and employees shouldering more of the costs.

A hearing begins for two U.S. military pilots who bombed a Canadian unit last year in Afghanistan, killing four and wounding eight. At issue is whether the pilots' actions merit the criminal charges they face -- or constitute a mistake that should be treated less harshly. NPR's Michele Norris talks with Derek Stoffel of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

NPR's Ivan Watson reports on the Islamist movement that now controls the local government in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province, along the border with Afghanistan. The new provincial government has launched a crackdown on what it terms immoral entertainment, including Western music and movies. Some in the region are comparing the government to the Taliban.

In his book Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, author Ross King says the artist saw his commission to paint the Sistine Chapel as an attempt by enemies to set him up for failure. NPR's Michele Norris talks to King.

NPR's Patricia Neighmond reports on a new study of Medicare patients that shows elderly patients are getting better care than they did just three years ago. On a wide range of measures, those enrolled in Medicare showed significant improvement -- everything from getting the right treatment after a heart attack to getting pneumonia and flu vaccines.

Prosecutors in Northern Virginia ask a juvenile court to rule that John Lee Malvo, 17, should be tried as an adult for the murder of FBI employee Linda Franklin. Malvo is one of two suspects in sniper-style shootings -- most in the Washington, D.C. area -- that left 13 people dead. NPR's Brian Naylor reports.

Robert Siegel talks with Ross McSwain, retired regional editor for The San Angelo Standard-Times about Sam Lewis a promoter of armadillos. Mr. Lewis has died at the age of eighty. McSwain says when Lewis took his armadillos to London, the Queen Mother was quite taken with them.