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Liane reads letters from listeners, and calls on an expert to clarify a question about last week's story on Cole Porter's classic song, Night and Day.

The death of a young black man in southern Mississippi has police and community trying to determine if the teen took his own life, or was lynched. 17-year-old Raynard Johnson was found hanging from a tree in his family's front yard last month. But two autopsies showed no signs of struggle or harm prior to his death. Jacki talks to John DeSantis of the Biloxi Sun Herald about why authorities believe it was a suicide, and why many in the community think investigators haven't taken the case seriously enough.

In the first of a four part series, NPR's Mike Shuster reports on the debate in Congress over whether the proposed national missile defense system is realistic. The 60-billion-dollar system is designed to intercept a missile aimed at the United States, but as a test failure over the weekend showed, it's far from reliable.

NPR's Jack Speer reports on the record setting sales of J.K. Rowling's latest Harry Potter book. By the time Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire went on sale at bookstores at midnight Friday, it already was a best seller on the Internet. Online booksellers sold more than 700-thousand advance copies to eager fans.

Scott Horsley of member station KPBS reports on an attempt to make fast food even faster. Companies such as McDonalds, Burger King and Wendy's are turning to technology to increase the efficiency of their drive-thru windows, which now account for two-thirds of their business.

NPR's Linda Gradstein reports that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak faces a potential collapse of his government on the eve of a peace summit sponsored by the United States. Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat are expected to meet tomorrow at Camp David to try and seal a final peace treaty.

NPR's Howard Berkes reports that staffing problems with the U-S Geological Survey could leave the agency unable to properly respond to volcanic eruptions. Many experienced geologists are retiring after long tenures, and few replacements are ready to take their place.

Liane Hansen speaks with percussionist Eddie Bobe. His new cd, Central Park Rumba (Piranha Musik CD-PIR1365) takes its inspiration from the spontaneous Sunday afternoon rumba sessions that have taken place there for years.

Liane speaks with author and regular Weekend Edition essayist Tim Brookes about his book A Hell of a Place To Lose a Cow: An American Hitchhiking Odyssey (National Geographic). In 1998 Brookes retraced the steps of a hitchhiking journey he first undertook in 1973 aged 20, shortly after he arrived in the United States from England.

Liane talks with NPR's Joe Neel from the opening today of the thirteenth annual AIDS conference, in Durban, South Africa. This is the first time the conference has been held in Africa, a continent that is fighting a desperate battle against the disease.