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Cuban President Fidel Castro, in the United States for the first time since his last U.N. visit in 1995, has kept a generally low profile. Five years ago, he was wined and dined by the business, media, and foreign policy elite in New York. This year has been different. Castro will be the guest of honor this evening at a church reception, but media and business leaders have shown little interest in seeing him. Tom Gjelten reports that the growing U.S. interest in Cuba does not translate into greater eagerness to deal with Fidel Castro, who is increasingly seen as irrelevant to Cuba's future.

Noah talks to Dr. Charles Yesalis, an epidemiologist and expert on performance enhancing drugs at Penn State University, about drug use among the Olympic athletes. Yesalis says the new I.O.C. test for EPO won't detect use by athletes who quit taking the drug a week or so before the games. (5:00) >>> Anabolic Steroids in Sport and Exercise, by Dr. Charles Yesalis, is published by Human Kinetics Publishing, Jan. 2000.

Michele Kelemen reports from Moscow that Russia's FSB intelligence service is actively pursuing a growing number of espionage cases, now that its former boss, Vladimir Putin, is president. Journalists, former military officers and defense analysts are held for months, and sometimes years, before going to trial behind closed doors. At least one prominent defense attorney notes, however, that the FSB does not exercise the same unbridled power as its Soviet-era predecessor, the KGB.

Brigham Young University's athletic teams are training with a new kind of sports drink: pickle juice. Some claim that pickle juice reduces cramps and benefits athletes during play. George Curtis is the head athletic trainer for BYU. He joins Linda from Provo, Utah to talk about the virtues of pickle juice.

As the law now stands, victims of domestic violence can't sue their former partners for the cumulative damage of a long-term abusive relationship. But Commentator Lis Wiehl says the Washington state Supreme Court may change that, opening the door to compensation for victims of domestic violence.

Host Scott Simon talks with NPR's Ted Clark about the Middle East summit. Jerusalem appears to be the hardest issue to resolve. Today negotiations are on hold at Camp David because of the Jewish Sabbath. They are expected to resume when President Clinton returns from Japan.

Linda interviews Julie Bell, lead archaeologist for Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado about new sites discovered after a fire last week. Mesa Verde is the nation's largest archaeological preserve, with more than 4000 identified sites.

Linda speaks to Rob Broomby, Berlin correspondent for the BBC, about reaction in Germany to today's Concorde crash in Paris. The flight had been chartered for a German tour group. Broomby discusses what's known about the passengers and the cruise they were scheduled to take, as well as plans for relatives and comments by German authorities.

Commentator Lis Wiehl explains that tribal courts, which operate on many Indian reservations, function separately from the federal court system. These courts have not had to apply the U.S. Constitution directly, leaving out Constitutional guarantees like the right to free legal counsel. But one of the problems with suspending Constitutional protections, is that convictions obtained in tribal courts can be used against defendants later in federal and state courts.

Commentator Lenore Skenazy tells us how this Hollywood glamour clothing store rose and fell. It's brand of peek-a-boo was very 1940's. Victoria's Secret, and the world at large, is much bolder, she says, and that's why the store has filed for bankruptcy.