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At 28, Russian pianist Konstantin Lifschitz is celebrated for his exquisite musical sensibility and nuanced playing. He performs Chopin's Waltz No. 1 and Liszt's Paganini Etude No.6 in NPR's Studio 4.

Allen Toussaint, evacuated from New Orleans after the floods hit, is a songwriter best known for the hit "Working in the Coal Mine." He wrote songs for The Meters, Dr. John, Patti LaBelle and many others, and was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. (This interview was first broadcast on Jan. 6, 1988.)

Actress Lauren Ambrose plays daughter Claire Fisher on the HBO drama series Six Feet Under. Also a classically trained opera singer, Ambrose appeared on stage last year in the Sam Shepard play Buried Child at London's National Theatre. (This interview originally aired July 6, 2005.)

Writer and designer Jennifer Sharpe collects musical oddities. This time, Sharpe shares some selections from an unusual genre she calls "kid funk," including 6-year-old Angela Simpson's 1970s rendition of Langston Hughes poetry.

India is planning its first museum celebrating the writer Rudyard Kipling. A bungalow in Bombay, where Kipling was born and lived until he was nearly 6, is being restored to house a hoped-for collection of associated memorabilia.

Billy Joel doesn't perform on his latest CD, a collection of classical pieces he composed. The 'piano man' explains why — and reveals what he's learned about his craft (6:58-7:45) Billy Joel: Fantasies & Delusions, Op. 1-10. Sony/Columbia.

The Gorillaz' debut album sold more than 6 million copies worldwide, and the group was nominated for MTV awards, Brit awards, even a Grammy. Their recent tour sold out premier venues in North America. Not bad for a bunch of cartoon characters. NPR's Susan Stone goes behind the curtain, Tuesday on All Things Considered.

There are an estimated 6,000 western private security contractors in Iraq. Often times, the line between defense and offense can blur as contractors are drawn into heavy firefights with insurgents. There's no real authority structure to control these contractors, and some U.S. lawmakers worry that it's setting a dangerous precedent in a war zone. NPR's Eric Westervelt reports.

Under pressure from a panel investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the White House Saturday declassified the President's Daily Brief document from August 6, 2001. The briefing, titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.," has been mentioned often in testimony before the panel. Hear NPR's Liane Hansen, NPR's Pam Fessler and New York Times correspondent David Sanger.

Nearly 6,000 teenagers die each year in alcohol-related car accidents in the United States. A program aimed at high-school students forces participants to confront the consequences of drunk driving. Kathryn Baron of members station KQED reports from San Francisco.

The White House released the President's Daily Brief from August 6, 2001 Saturday night. The document, titled "Bin Laden Determined To Strike in U.S.," contains information about possible airline hijackings and al Qaeda sleeper cells in the United States. The Sept. 11 commission members have been pressing the Bush administration for its release. Hear NPR's Pam Fessler.

It's been seven years since detective Jane Tennison last applied her world-weary determination to solving a case on Masterpiece Theatre's Prime Suspect. But on April 18, acclaimed British actress Helen Mirren revives Tennison's character, returning to PBS in Prime Suspect 6: The Last Witness. Mirren speaks with NPR's Lynn Neary.

Toys come to life but the story never does in this lumbering holiday "attraction." Director Zach Helm seems to want to enchant the 6-year-old in all of us, but whimsy has seldom seemed so strenuous.

Rock will host the 2005 Academy Awards, airing Sunday. The comedian spent time on the cast of Saturday Night Live and In Living Color, and his comedy TV specials include last year's Chris Rock: Never Scared and Chris Rock: Bigger and Blacker. This interview was originally broadcast on Feb. 6, 1997.

American cyclist Lance Armstrong wins the Tour de France in Paris, setting a new record with six victories. The final margin between Armstrong and his nearest competitor, German Andreas Kloden, was 6 minutes, 19 seconds. Hear NPR's Brian Naylor and John Wilcockson of Velo News.

On Thursday, Microsoft announced a whooping $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo, a merger that would give Google a run for the money. A deal that combines the second and third largest online search companies is likely to attract antitrust review. Greg Sidak, U.S. editor of the Journal of Competition Law and Economics offers some insight.

A man in Japan wanted to make it into the Guinness book of world records. He considered trying to drink the most hot sauce, but settled on a spikier record. His hairdo — a mohawk — stands 3 feet, 8.6 inches high.

During the Great Depression, the federal government employed 6,000 writers and researchers to fan out across the nation to create a historical document of the country's diversity. Fifty writers were recently deployed for a modern-day duplication of the original project.

Korva Coleman speaks with Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Dean of the nnenberg School for Communication, about a new study on children's television iewing habits. 6:54 . ANSWERING MACHINES: Korva Coleman speaks with Peter Crabb, professor of sychology at Pennsylvania State University in Philadelphia. He's just published study in the Journal of Social Behavior and Personality on the way answering achines have changed the way we interact. The answering machine was patented 25 ears ago this year.

TV critic DAVID BIANCULLI reviewed The Beatles Anthology which is out on video. (This is an expanded 10-hour version of the 6-hour version which aired on television last fall).