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Commentator Lydia Nayo (NI-o) recalls when during her childhood, her father would barter an old mantle clock for food at the local grocery. And he always came home with cornflakes. She has come to associate cornflakes with the mental and spiritual weight of poverty, and even though she is much more prosperous now, she still can't eat them. Nayo has come to believe that as long as she keeps them out of her cupboard, she will keep the wolf from the door.

NPR's Anne Garrels reports from Moscow on why President Boris Yeltsin gets only grudging support from Russians. With only a few days left before the election on Sunday, June 16th, voters appear to be favoring Yeltsin over his communist rival Gennady Zyuganov (gehn-NAH-dee zyoo-GAH-noff). Yeltsin supporters back him because they think he is the lesser of two evils. They worry he has garnered too much power, that he hasn't done enough to protect Russians from the hardships caused by the fall of the Soviet Union, and that he might embarrass the nation through some personality flaw.

Auto talks between the United Auto Workers union and Ford, Chrysler and General Motors began this week as they prepare to negotiate a new U.A.W. contract. NPR's Don Gonyea reports that the talks will be difficult, particularly concerning the issue of outsourcing. The union wants auto companies to hire new workers and to increase job security.

In the first of two reports, NPR's Michael Skoler reports on the escalating ethnic violence in the central African nation of Burundi. The United Nations is worried that fighting between the minority Tutsis and majority Hutus could erupt into the sort of mass killing that gripped neighboring Rwanda two years ago. A weak coalition government has been unable to stop the violence, as the Tutsi-dominated army battles Hutu rebels. Many average Burundians are losing hope that their political leaders can find a way out of the conflict.

NPR's Melissa Block profiles the New York Police Department's new cold case squad, set up this past February to investigate unsolved homicides. So far, they've closed 27 cases. Some of the work involves tracking down known fugitives, trying to figure out where they've gone. And for those cases WITHOUT a known perpetrator, the detectives start from scratch: lots of phone work, knocking on doors, digging around. The head of the unit calls it the "purest police work you can do."

NPR's Anne Garrels reports from Moscow on the presidential campaign in Russia, where opinion polls indicate that the leader of the Communists...Gennady Zyuganov ((Gen-NAH-dee zyoo-GAHN-off))...is trailing President Boris Yeltsin. Zyuganov, who has positioned himself as the candidate for the "forgotten voters," is wooing voters who are disenchanted with the economic reforms and other social changes that have taken place under Yeltsin's government. Zyuganov's followers say they don't believe the polling data which gives Yeltsin the lead in the race. Over the weekend, Zyuganov and his supporters staged one last big rally before the election scheduled for next Sunday.

Commentator Andrei Condrescu is upset about the service he gets on airplanes these days. In the last few years he has been delayed, starved, squeezed, and subjected to bad jokes during air travel.

- NPR's Adam Hochberg reports that later this month, the oldest textile mill in the south will be closing. It's the Rocky Mount mill in North Carolina. The mill opened in 1818, and its closing mirrors the fate of other mills in the U.S.

Commentator Mike Thoele (TAY-lee) waits for the call in the night from his daughter or son, telling him they are off to fight yet another Western fire. Both are members of elite groups of firefighters -- the daughter is a smokejumper and the son is on a "hot shot" crew. Each summer they join 50,000 other seasonal firefighters in what Thoele calls "a summer rite of passage."

about the resignation of the Turkish Prime Minister.