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NPR's Michele Kelemen reports that opposition leaders in Ukraine are claiming the country's president ordered the decapitation of a dissident journalist. They hope the controversy building around their president will lead to his resignation or removal. But to date, the opposition hasn't been able to muster enough support to pose a threat.

NPR's Phillip Martin reports on the struggle for understanding between the African-American community and the growing number of black African immigrants in Nashville, Tennessee. This story is part of NPR's ongoing series, The Changing Face of America.

Host Bob Edwards talks with sports commentator John Feinstein about the college basketball season. Louisville's coach, Danny Crumb is under pressure to retire, and speculation is already high about his replacement. With the ensuing NCAA tournament, Feinstein says the ACC will have at least five bids, though Stanford is the favorite to win.

Though he says he's no big fan of auto-racing, commentator Frank Deford defends NASCAR as a sport. He says fans are not attracted to NASCAR because they want to see accidents or death, and he points out that many of the sport's northern detractors are fans of an equally dangerous sport, boxing.

Charlene Scott of member station WFCR reports on a new play written by actress Lynn Redgrave. Redgrave, daughter of esteemed British actor Michael Redgrave and sister of actress Vanessa Redgrave, began writing for the stage in 1993 with Shakespeare for my Father. She says her new work The Mandrake Root is not autobiographical although the main character, an elderly British woman named Rose, was inspired by her mother. The play is making its world premier in New Haven, Connecticut.

British novelist A.S. Byatt. Her novel Possession was a bestseller, and her novella Angels & Insects was turned into an arthouse film. Byatts new novel is The Biographers Tale (Knopf). This interview was recorded before a live audience at the Free Public Library in Philadelphia.

NPR's Legal Affairs Correspondent Nina Totenberg reports on a case before the U.S. Supreme Court today that could determine how political parties may spend their money. The case involves contributions to parties for specific candidates -- and how those contributions are spent. (7:22) Check out more NPR News coverage of the Supreme Court.

NPR's Don Gonyea outlines the content of President Bush's speech, which emphasized his proposal for $1.6 trillion in tax cuts over ten years. The president promised to protect Social Security and proposed more spending on defense, education, and conservation.

Today, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported that 12.7 percent of high-schoolers in grades 9-12 have tried the drug Ritalin at least once in their lives without a prescription. Every three years the department surveys thousands of Massachusetts students about substance abuse; for this survey, for the first time, they asked about the drug Ritalin - which is widely prescribed for Attention Deficit Disorder and Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder, ADD and ADHD. Robert Siegel travels to Boston and to one its suburbs, Newton, Mass., to talk with high-school students about their experiences with Ritalin. Robert also talks with substance abuse counselors, child psychologists and psychiatrists about this phenomenon. Ritalin abuse is not as alarming to the health care professionals Robert met as the rising use of ecstacy or the persistent use of marijuana and alcohol. But many said that they have concern about the overdiagnosis of ADD and ADHD, and the overprescription of the drug to treat it.

Linda Wertheimer talks with John Huntington, professor of art history at Ohio State University, about the decrees by Taliban clerics in Afganistan to destroy all Buddha statues in the country. The professor describes the statues, and talks about why they are important. Pictures of Buddhist art in Afghanistan may be found at kaladarshan.arts.ohio-state.edu