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The U.S. government offered former Panamanian Gen. Manuel Noriega exile in Spain before his 1990 surrender to U.S. authorities and arrest on drug trafficking charges, a former high-ranking State Department official tells NPR. NPR's Bob Edwards talks to former Assistant Secretary of State Bernard Aronson, who reveals that Noriega rejected the offer.

Scientists have been watching with alarm as the world's glaciers and arctic regions are showing more and more signs of melting. They suspect that global climate change -- fueled by industrial and vehicle emissions -- are to blame. But as NPR's Eric Niiler reports, this arctic thaw is also revealing a trove of ancient artifacts from people who dropped them thousands of years ago.

The 108th Congress has barely opened but freshman Rep. Max Burns is already running for re-election. The 54-year-old former professor and Fulbright Scholar figures he'll have to work early and hard to keep his seat. NPR's Juan Williams reports on the Georgia Republican's first days on Capitol Hill.

Drugmakers spend billions of dollars each year trying to persuade doctors to prescribe their medicines. One company currently is in federal court, charged with illegally marketing its drug Neurontin for uses not approved by the FDA. And a family in Minnesota is asking why doctors prescribed the epilepsy drug to treat their son Dustin for manic-depression. NPR's Snigdha Prakash reports.

David D'Arcy reports on this year's Sundance Film Festival, widely regarded as the most prestigious showcase for independent films and documentaries, which opens tonight. One film features a handful of the 40,000 Cubans who left their island on rafts in the 1990s.

Veteran newsman Robert Trout has the second of two reports about the history of the Republican party, through his own reporting on the last 17 conventions over a period of nearly seventy years. Today, Trout picks up in the late 1940's and early 1950's, and the fight between moderates and conservatives -- between the forces of Dwight D. Eisenhower and Robert A. Taft. Eisenhower won. But the pendulum swung back in the 1960's with the nomination of Barry Goldwater. Ultimately, Trout points out that the struggle between moderate and conservative still marks party proceedings today.

Legendary jazz singer Abbey Lincoln has been hailed by one critic as the "Last Great Diva", and says herself that she sings in the tradition of Sarah Vaughan, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday.

NPR's Noah Adams travels to Chantilly, Va., for a conversation with Tom DeBaggio, his wife Joyce and son Francesco. Tom DeBaggio was diagnosed in the spring of 1999 with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. This is the fourth in a series of interviews with the DeBaggio family. In today's conversation, Tom describes his loss of familiarity with most of the material in his new book about the growing and the use of herbs, his willingness to give up driving when the time comes, and his acceptance of the need for an identification bracelet. He also tells of a harrowing experience one night when he accidentally took an overdose medication used in his Alzheimer's treatment. Book referenced is The Big Book of Herbs: a Comprehensive Illustrated Reference to Herbs of Flavor and Fragrance, by Arthur Tucker and Thomas DeBaggio Interweave Press, Loveland, Colo. ISBN 1-883010-86-1.

Folklorist Nick Spitzer tells the story of Woody Guthrie's leftist national anthem.

Smokey Robinson wrote "My Girl," recorded in 1964 by The Temptations, for Temptation David Ruffin to sing, knowing he'd be launching a new star.