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Israel's current mission in Gaza has two goals, says Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev: to win the release of an Israeli soldier held hostage in Southern Gaza, and to stop rocket attacks from northern Gaza. A prisoner exchange is not an option, the spokesman said -- but "creative solutions" are still possible. NPR's Robert Siegel talks with Regev.

Recently, a new computer chip called the PhysX was unveiled. It's for video games, and it was designed to make them feel more realistic because it helps the objects you see on the screen follow the laws of real-world physics. The company that makes the PhysX promises things like explosions that cause dust and collateral debris, cloth that drapes and tears the way you expect it to, and dense smoke that billows around objects in motion. In other words, your video game will look even more real. This probably sounds great to a lot of gamers -- but not to commentator Jake Halpern.

Novelist Susan Straight's new novel, A Million Nightingales, was shaped by historical documents that showed a South Carolina owned her own child in the 1800s.

Britain remains on its highest state of alert, a day after the arrest of 24 people suspected of plotting to blow up a number of airplanes heading to the United States. As part of the investigation into the alleged plot, the Bank of England froze the assets of 19 of the suspects.

Thursday morning, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff briefed the media about a suspected British terror plot, in which 21 suspects have been arrested in Great Britain.

Tourists to Lhasa, the ancient heart of Tibetan Buddhism, might find two very different cities — one unchanged by centuries and still clinging to tradition, the other modernizing rapidly along with neighboring China.

On Remember Me, Bill Malone and Rod Moag pay tribute to the Bailes Brothers. The International Bluegrass Music Association has taken note of the self-produced CD.

Jay Waite, an associate director of the U.S. Census Bureau, talks about new methods used to measure demographic change. Surveys conducted once a decade are not sufficient for local planners. So data will now be available that is only a year old, covering everything from Internet access to language issues.

It was written in 1919, and in its bittersweet beauty, many listeners hear an elegy for those who died during WWI. It's the Cello Concerto by Edward Elgar. Our concert performance took place two weeks ago at the Grand Teton Music Festival in Wyoming. Lynn Harrell is the cello soloist, Donald Runnicles conducts.

Commentator Daniel Pinkwater has pretty much cut sugar out of his diet (and lost about 100 pounds). But there is one important exception. In Poughkeepsie, N.Y., a local bakery serves the Italian dessert "sfogiatelle." How non-artificially sweet it is!