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NPR's Eric Westervelt has an update on the war in Afghanistan. An explosion outside a United Nations guesthouse in Kabul yesterday punctuated the U.S. military's sober assessment of the war that came just hours earlier. Instability still seems to plague Afghan cities. The war is now characterized by skirmishes, while coalition forces hunt for Taliban and al-Qaeda operatives along the Pakistani border.

Morning Edition's Bob Edwards gets a sneak preview of the new International Spy Museum now open for business in Washington, D.C. Hear about spy props, including a KGB pistol disguised as a tube of lipstick, a camera that can see through walls and a Soviet shoe transmitter.

Host Brian Naylor talks with Timothy Docking of the Institute of Peace about the Bush Administration's Africa policy. The president has said he will not attend the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development that kicks off in Johannesburg tomorrow. But Secretary of State Colin Powell is to attend. He is expected to announce $4 billion in development aid for Africa.

The confusion of the 2000 presidential election led to calls for more reliable ways to vote -- but federal election reform remains stalled. With the 2002 elections only weeks away, Maryland isn't waiting for the feds to take the lead. NPR's Pam Fessler reports on the state's new high-tech voting machines -- see the machines in use, and view an online simulation.

After two major studies link hormone replacement therapy to serious health risks like heart disease and breast cancer, millions of menopausal women -- and their doctors -- are reconsidering their options. Millions of those women are now reconsidering their use of hormone replacement pills. And doctors around the country are trying to figure out what to tell them. NPR's Joe Palca reports for Morning Edition.

Sitting under glass in Yale University's Beinecke Library is a map faded to the point of near invisibility. It is the oldest known map depicting North America -- unless it is a fake. Scientists and historians have argued over the authenticity of the famous Vinland Map for a third of a century. Now two scientific papers are re-opening old wounds. NPR's David Kestenbaum reports for Morning Edition.

Every summer amateur astronomers around the country hold hundreds of "star parties," inviting the general public to gaze through telescopes at the night sky's wonders. At Stellafane, in rural Vermont, sky watchers have gathered since the 1920s. They'll be there again this weekend. So will Sky and Telescope magazine editor Kelly Beatty, who offers a commentary for Morning Edition.

For millions of Americans with special needs -- the disabled, the mentally ill, ex-offenders, youth leaving foster care -- a home is a vital first step toward a stable life. NPR News explores the subject in a yearlong special reporting project, Housing First. In Tuesday's report, NPR's Ina Jaffe profiles a California program that finds homes for youth who are "aging out" of foster care.

Thomas Reese is a Jesuit scholar and editor-in-chief of America, the national Catholic weekly magazine. He's also the author of the book Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church. He'll discuss the pope's recent tour, the pontiff's health, possible successors and the divide between the church and its parishoners.

Puzzle master Will Shortz quizzes one of our listeners, and has a challenge for everyone at home. (This week's winner is David Yoskowitz from Lexington, Massachusetts. He listens to Weekend Edition on member station WBUR in Boston.)