Roundup

Sino-Japanese relations (52min)

Economic ties between China and Japan are growing stronger. But political tensions over how to remember World War Two and rising nationalism are straining the relationship. Is East Asia big enough for both of them? Historian Mark Selden and political scientist T. J. Pempel join Chicago Public Radio's Gretchen Helfrich for the discussion.Mark Selden is a professorial associate in the East Asia Program, Cornell University; coordinator of the online journal Japan Focus; and aut

Effects of Watts Riots still linger (7min)

Tim Watkins, president of the Watts Labor Community Action Committee, talks about the riots' lingering effects on his area of Los Angeles. Watkins' father founded the organization in the aftermath of the 1965 riots.

A look back at the Watts Riots (5min)

Adolfo Guzman Lopez of NPR member station KPCC in Pasadena, California reports on what began 40 years ago in the Watts section of Los Angeles.

Decades after L.A. Riots, Watts still suffers (8min)

On a red-hot August night in 1965, the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles exploded with racial frustration. Six days later, 34 people were dead, hundreds more injured and a wide swath of South-Central L.A. was scarred with burned-out buildings and looted stores.The unrest began with a routine traffic stop by CHP officer Lee Minikus. He arrested 20-year-old Marquette Fry for suspicion of driving under the influence, and things got out of hand when Fry's mother arrived at the s

Watts Riots shook Los Angeles 40 years ago (8min)

Veteran BBC correspondent Charles Wheeler re-visits the Watts riots which shook Los Angeles 40 years ago with Rabbi Alan Freehling of the LA Human Relations Commission.

August 11th 1945 (4min)

In the 9th of a 12-part series marking the 60th anniversary of VJ Day, reporter Chris Lowe says that British forces in South East Asia and Soviet troops in Manchuria seem close to victory.

Intelligent Design (47min)

Robert Boston, Assistant Director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, and Mat Staver, President of Liberty Counsel, discuss "intelligent design."

Voting Rights Act (2hr 18min)

Dr. Dorothy Height from the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, Dr. Joseph Lowery from SCLC, and others participate in a symposium on the Voting Rights Act in Washington DC.

Harvard museum's indispensable specimens (6min)

With collections dating to the late 1700s, Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology is one of the country's oldest museums. Displays drawn from the collection range from the skeleton of an extinct dodo bird to more than 300 different hummingbirds. But the back rooms are filled with millions of items that will never be displayed. In this installment of the Hidden Treasures Radio Project, Harriet Baskas explains why curators at Harvard just can't throw anything away.

Uighurs pose challenge in Guantanamo (4min)

Among the detainees being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are Uighurs, Turkic Muslims from northwest China. But the Bush administration is reluctant to return to China those who have already been declared non-enemy combatants, citing China's oppression of the Uighur minority and fears that they would be persecuted were they to return to China. All Things Considered co-host Michele Norris talks with Ellen Bork, deputy director of the Project for the New American Century.

"Defining the Wind" & the Beaufort Scale (17min)

Writer Scott Huler talks about the "poetry" of the Beaufort wind scale and its inventor, Sir Francis Beaufort. Huler is the author of Defining The Wind: The Beaufort Scale, And How a 19th-Century Admiral Turned Science Into Poetry.

Time has not healed war wounds Japan inflicted in Asia (6min)

This month marks 60 years since the end of World War II in the Pacific, but Japan's neighbors say the country has yet to fully accept its role in starting the conflict and the suffering it inflicted in the nations it occupied. Japan's stance continues to cause problems in its relations with most of the rest of Asia. The mix of spiritual and martial music from a ceremony at the Yasukuni Shinto shrine in Tokyo is an echo of an era when state religion was intertwined with militarism.

"Temple Mount" or "Noble Sanctuary"? (5min)

Tempers are flaring in the archeological world concerning an area in Jerusalem known to Jews as the "Temple Mount" and to Muslims as the "Noble Sanctuary." The World's Aaron Schachter has the story.

Archaeologica week in review (10min)

(1) Genetic technology teaches about Native American past. (2) Evidence of the Roman emperor Constantine has been found in the Forum. (3) X-Ray technology is being used to help read illegible ancient stone inscriptions. (4) Evidence from pottery shards found in Mexico indicates that the Olmec were not the region's sole wellspring of civilization.

Stalking celebrity graves (8min)

Sure, who wouldn't want to hang out in a cemetery in the middle of the night, looking for the grave of someone rich, famous, and dead? A group devotes lots of free time to doing just that. Tom Goldman's report continues our series on Americans with unusual hobbies, some bordering on the obsessive.

August 9th 1974 (2min)

Vice President Gerald Ford has been sworn in as the 38th president of the United States following Richard Nixon's decision to stand down. The unprecedented transition of power under the 25th amendment officially occurred when Mr Nixon handed a letter of resignation to Secretary of State Dr Henry Kissinger at 1135 local time (1635 BST). He announced his departure last night in the face of an imminent impeachment trial - and possible removal from office - over the Watergate affair. Mr Ford became

Peter Jennings interview from December 2nd 1998 (61min)

C-SPAN founder and CEO Brian Lamb starts his 1998 interview of Peter Jennings, by asking him why he and his co-author (Todd Brewster) of The Century ask us to read it like a novel.

August 10th 1964 (5min)

The United Nations has brokered another ceasefire in Cyprus, defusing the growing crisis between Greek and Turkish Cypriots and heading off the threat of invasion by Turkey. Fighting on the island has been steadily escalating in recent days. The Greek-led Cypriot government said Turkish jets had dropped 750lbs (340 kg) of bombs and napalm on their strongholds in north-west Cyprus. "The whole area is on fire," said a spokesman for the Cypriot government. "We cannot estimate casualt

August 9th 1969 (5min)

Actress Sharon Tate has been found brutally murdered in her Los Angeles home, along with three high-society friends and a fifth, as yet un-named, victim. All five died from shooting and multiple stab wounds. Sharon Tate, 26, was the wife of film director Roman Polanski and was eight months pregnant. In what police said appeared to be a "ritualistic" murder, she was found tied together with her former fiancé, hair stylist Jay Sebring.Police said both had nylon noose

August 9th 1945 (2min)

American forces have dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki -- the second such attack on Japan in three days. The bomb was dropped by parachute from an American B29 Bomber at 1102 local time. It exploded about 1,625 ft (500m) above the ground and is believed to have completely destroyed the city, which is situated on the western side of the Japanese island of Kyushu.In a statement issued from Guam, General Carl A Spaatz, Commander of the US Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific, s