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Japan steps up pressure on North Korea, warning Sunday that "all options are on the table" if the communist state test-launches a long-range missile. The last North Korean missile launch in 1998 sparked a debate about Japan's national defense and strengthened its nationalist sentiment.

A draft flu-pandemic response plan from the federal government says a worst-case scenario could kill as many as 2 million people in the United States. The draft Bush administration plan is an update to the $7.1 billion in pandemic preparations that it proposed last fall. The plan outlines exactly which government agency is responsible for about 300 tasks.

A new survey shows a significant decline in the incomes of primary care doctors between 1995 and 2003. During that same period, the U.S. was trying to get more medical students to go into primary care. The drop was largely the result of reduced payments by insurance companies. One Washington, D.C., family doctor is trying to reverse the trend.

The deadline to enroll in Medicare's new prescription drug plan is Monday, but millions of seniors have yet to decide whether they plan to join the government program. It's the largest expansion of the Medicare program in more than 40 years -- and for many, the most confusing. Michele Norris talks with Alan Julius, a pharmacist in Cherokee, Iowa.

Babe Ruth gave the home run its status as a potent weapon in the game of baseball, the author of a new biography says. "Before [he] came along, the home run was kind of a mistake...," Leigh Montville says.

Brazilian oil company Petrobras officially opens its latest deep-water oil platform. The new rig is expected to end decades of Brazilian dependence on foreign oil, and protect the country's economy from oil-price shocks.

President Bush stops the purchase of crude oil this summer for the government's emergency reserve, making more available for public consumption. He is also suspending and easing some environmental rules in hope of increasing refining capacity.

April 25 is Yom Hashoah, an annual remembrance of the Holocaust. It is still used as a touchstone for modern-day genocide. For NPR's Jeffrey Katz, it is more than a day of remembrance

Many of those waiting to immigrate to the United States legally are hoping to join relatives already in America. But the system is so overwhelmed that some families, like the Lobos of the Philippines, end up being divided for years while they wait for visas to become available.

On Wednesday, demonstrators are coming to Washington to urge helping black farmers, many of whom were left out of an Agriculture Department settlement. A recent study by the Government Accountability Office noted problems, but the USDA shows no inclination to revisit the claim.