Healthcare on life support. If North Korea's medical system were a person, it would be a barely mobile four-pack-a-day smoker with severe allergies to everything.

To take arms against a sea of troubles. In the U.S., the National Rifle Association expands its mission to take pot shots at all sorts of issues.

Getting away with murder. A year after a Chechen journalist is shot to death, her killer hasn't been identified -- and her colleagues say it's a cover-up.

Answers were sparse -- until the answer had spores. Epidemiologists finally solve the mystery of an annual mushrooming of fatalities in China.

Bold argument, boulder counterargument. A California senator wants to change the state's official rock -- but her opponents want to leave the stone unturned.

And...a game of broken telephone. When the much-vaunted iPhone 4 turns out to be bad at, you know, receiving calls, users accuse Apple of being rotten to the core.

As It Happens, the Thursday edition. Radio that usually gets a warm reception. I said, radio that usually -- can you hear me? Oh, forget it.

At the core of the Hippocratic oath -- the vow doctors take when they enter their profession -- is the vow to not harm patients. It's a pretty straightforward concept. What isn't so straightforward is how to fulfill this vow to if you're a doctor in North Korea, where government-run health care receives less than a dollar per person, per year. It's the most meagrely-funded public health system in the world.

A report released today by Amnesty International outlines just how appallingly unheathy the regime's system is.

Norma Kang Muico is the author of the report. We reached her in Seoul, South Korea.

A year ago today, Chechen human rights activist and journalist Natalia Estemirova was abducted on the streets of Grozny, and shot dead with two bullets to the head.

She was a fearless campaigner for the victims of the on-going conflict in Chechnya, probing abuses committed by both rebels and government forces. A year on, her murder remains unsolved.

Local police say they know who committed the crime -- a dead Chechen rebel. But her colleagues accuse investigators of covering up the assassination.

Today, Russia's president, Dmitry Medvedev said the real killer is known and at large -- and he vowed to track him down.

Elena Milashina is an investigative reporter at the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta. We reached her in Moscow.

Apple's five stages of grief go like this:

First, "Denial": iPhone 4's don't really have a reception problem -- there's just a problem with those cute little bars.

Second, "Anger". Since Steve Jobs is a pretty private guy, we'll just assume he's somewhere in Cupertino, California punching holes through his jeans.

Third, "Bargaining". The company tells its customers to go out and buy more stuff to fix the problem. Or to just, you know, try holding the phone right.

Fourth, "Depression". Fatigue has set in. Now, Steve Jobs is only sleeping two hours a night.

And, finally, "Acceptance". That comes tomorrow when Apple will hold an emergency press conference.

But just how far are Steve Jobs and Apple willing to go to fix the problem with the iPhone 4?

Rob Pegoraro writes the "Fast Forward" column for the Washington Post newspaper. We reached him in Arlington County, Virginia.

Dateline, Madrid, Spain.Anyway you slice it, the future looks bright for Paul Allen, the octopus made famous for his World Cup soccer predictions. Yes, he has a surname.

Spain's victory over the Netherlands last weekend capped off a string of successful prognostications for the unlikely oracle. And with his days as fortune-teller behind him, Paul is happily set to retire behind his pane of glass at Sea Life in Oberhausen, Germany. His keepers seem intent on ensuring that the world is his oyster, providing him with a lifetime supply of fresh mussels, ample shade, and stimulation -- he's even been awarded his very own replica of the World Cup. In short, everything a celebrated clairvoyant cephalapod could want, within easy grasp.

And if some of his countrymen continue to harbour a grudge against him for picking Spain over Germany in advance of their semi-final match, well, it's no skin off his beak. Despite numerous death threats -- which typically make references to marinades and deep-fryers -- Paul is well-insulated from insults and injury in his aquarium home.

But if life is simply wunderbar in Oberhausen, it's nada next to la vida

that could await him in Spain. That's the suggestion, anyway, from a zoo in Madrid, that says it's willing to sink any other offer to acquire Paul. A spokesperson for the Spanish facility said it is prepared to meet any and all demands necessary to complete the transfer. Whatever the cost, be it an exchange of animals, or money, or both, he predicted that Paul would arrive in the Spanish capital within days.

Nevertheless, Paul's German keepers have since emphasized they've had no contact with Madrid's Zoo aquarium, and Paul is not for sale.

Of course, where any of Paul's three hearts lie in all of this is impossible to tell -- perhaps even for Paul himself. Did he have a hand, or a tentacle -- or up to eight even -- in Spain's winning the Cup? Did his forecast in turn assure the team's victory? And by the same token, Germany's -- and ultimately the Netherlands' -- defeat? Does it even matter, now that he's retired?

And doesn't all the love -- or hate -- professed for this professed prophetic mollusk do disservice to the skill and hard work of the human players, who ultimately determined the outcome of the games?

Let's suppose, just for a moment, that Paul was capable of presaging the fates of the teams at the World Cup. Is it not an insult to his legacy to suggest that as a psychic, he was anything but pure and impartial? To imply that he might somehow be petitioned, with promises or prayer, to favour one team for another?

If he was a genuine medium, then he wasn't a manipulator. Because the medium is the message. And nothing but.

That's it for the first part of the program. The news is next, but we'll be back in just a few minutes with more "As It Happens". When we return:

Trigger unhappy. The NRA isn't just worried about guns any more -- it's taking aim at a host of other government policies.

One man's mushroom is everyone's poison. Scientists finally discover the tiny culprit for an annual increase in deaths in remote China.

Their lacrosse to bear. Or rather, not to bear -- the highly-ranked Iroquois Nationals lacrosse team is not allowed to travel to the World Championships.

Stay tuned. I'm HM.

And I'm CH.

For members of the National Rifle Association, the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is as good as gospel. That's the ever-contentious line about the right to bear arms. For N.R.A. members, it's an idea to live by. But lately, the N.R.A. has been setting its scopes on other issues. Things like health care and credit card regulations. And, earlier this week, the group bought ad space encouraging U.S. Senators to oppose the appointment of Elena Kagan, the solicitor general Barack Obama has nominated as a Supreme Court Justice.

All of this has some U.S. politicians feeling a little bit like it's open season in Washington.

Carolyn McCarthy is a Democratic Congresswoman from New York State and a long-time advocate of gun control. She's in Washington.

For years now, villagers in a remote corner of China have been dying mysteriously at the height of summer. So many, that the annual tragedy has a name -- Yunnan Sudden Death Syndrome.

But what was making people, both young and old, drop dead was a mystery. Now, after years of difficult investigation, a group of Chinese and American scientists think they've finally discovered the cause: a tiny, innocuous-looking mushroom.

Dr. Robert Fontaine is an epidemiologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We reached him in Beijing.

ISLAND AMIDST SKY AND WATER

ALBUM: SOUND BETWEEN SKY AND WATER

TRK 1 RUNS: 5:25

PRODUCER: HUANG SHIH

DISTRIBUTOR: KWANG HWA MASS COM.

Dateline: California.If you know anything at all about Superman, you know about Kryptonite -- the fictional green rock that saps him of his super strength.

Well, this is kind of like that. Except it has nothing to do with Superman. Or super strength. It does however, have to do with a green rock that may very well be the downfall of a powerful figure.

The green rock is something called serpentine, and it's very real. It happens to be California's state rock. It has a kind of waxy texture when you touch it, which you may not want to do -- because it often contains small amounts of asbestos.

The powerful figure is Gloria Romero, a Senator who recently introduced a bill to remove serpentine as California's state rock. Her point is that asbestos is bad -- and because California has the highest rates of asbestos-linked lung cancers in the U.S. -- it seems a little odd to give it such a celebrated place in the state's pantheon of Official Things.

And here's where the downfall part comes in: Senator Romero has unleashed a force to be reckoned with -- a powerful army of nerds. That is, geologists. Now I'm not using the term "nerds" in the pejorative sense. You see, soon after Senator Romero announced the bill, it quickly became the subject of a heated Internet debate. Critics accused her of proposing the bill because it would profit lawyers who make a their living filing asbestos-related suits.

Alarmed at the backlash, Senator Romero was quoted as saying :"This is not about being anti-rock, but why do we need a rock?"

To which a group of geologists Tweeting under the Twitter name "CASerpentine" responded by writing: "Dear Gloria Romero, you have picked the wrong nerds to mess with!"

All of which goes to show what Superman knew all along: it isn't easy being the good guy. Right about now, Senator Romero probably envies Superman his Fortresss of Solitude.

Usually, the travelling isn't the hardest part of an international lacrosse tournament. It's usually the lacrosse. But the members of the Iroquois Nationals Lacrosse team, ranked fourth in the world, find themselves still stuck at JFK airport in New York. They were on their way to the World Lacrosse Championships in England.

On Tuesday, we spoke with Ansley Jemison, the team's general manager. Many of the team's players are travelling with Iroquois-issued passports, which are not recognized by the British government.

We reached Ansley Jemison at Battery Park in New York -- a respite from his stay at JFK airport.

When it comes to treasure-hunting, it seems many of you felt Nova Scotian wreck diver Alex Storm was talking out of his booty.

Last night, we interviewed Mr. Storm about Nova Scotia's repeal of the Treasure Trove Act. During that conversation, he questioned the province's rationale for protecting certain historical artefacts.

Well, we received a wealth of Talkback from people who found Mr. Storm's comments about Canada's heritage -- or the lack of it, in his opinion -- just a bit rich. Here is Sheila Sanders from Ottawa: