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NPR's Gerry Hadden reports Mexico's President Vicente Fox has proposed an ambitious plan for economic development in the south of Mexico. NAFTA -- the North American Free Trade Agreement -- has so-far only benefited the northern part of the country. In the south, Fox has proposed building a trade corridor to attract factories and investment. But workers in the south are worried about being exploited. And Zapatista Indians say the plan will disrupt their way of life.

President Bush heads to Quebec City today for a meeting North and South American leaders. Commentator Andrew Malcolm says the United States is so focused on a global foreign policy agenda that it often takes its nearer neighbor Canada for granted.

President Bush flew to Quebec City today for the weekend Summit of the Americas. Every leader in the hemisphere except Fidel Castro will be there in an effort to promote free trade throughout North and South America and the Caribbean. Protesters have gathered in Quebec City to espouse "fair trade" instead of free trade and to promote a variety of other causes. Canadian authorities have erected a fence around the area where the summit will be held. There has been violence. Robert Siegel speaks to Jason Beaubien in Quebec City about the scene.

Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan reviews a new French movie, Bad Company. Based on a true story, the film gives a glimpse of the frenzied intensity of teenage love in a strikingly accurate way, that Turan claims, only the French can do.

NPR's Joe Palca reports from Plum Island which, by law, is the only place in the United States allowed to handle Foot and Mouth Disease.

Anthony Kuhn reports American negotiators from the U.S. - China talks on the April 1 midair collision returned home as Chinese President Jiang Zemin met with the family of the Chinese fighter pilot who died in the collision. Adding to U.S. - China tensions are the continued arrests of Chinese-Americans who are visiting China and next week's decision on U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.

NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports after a week of intense Israeli-Palestinian violence in the Gaza Strip, some Palestinians are beginning to question whether their armed rebellion will succeed against the overwhelming firepower of the Israelis. But many Palestinians still say there's no alternative.

NPR's Eric Westervelt reports that last night, Cincinnati's streets were relatively calm. The social unrest of the last several days gave way to just a couple-dozen arrests for breaking curfew.

Commentator Austin Bay calms any fears that America's recent spy scandals with Russia and China signal a return to the Cold War.

Host Bob Edwards speaks with Noah Adams, a host of NPR's All Things Considered and author of a new book, Far Appalachia: Following the New River North. Adams spent a year travelling the course of the New River through North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia, and writes of its people, history, and the $5 plane rides one old-timer offered over the rivers' deep gorge.

NPR's Ketzel Levine reports on the haggling over checkered lilies, striped bark maples, and double-primroses at the spring plant sale at Portland's Hoyt Arboretum. (3:44) Check out Talking Plants.

NPR's Susan Stamberg speaks with commentator and author Mary Sojourner about her new book of stories about women in the Arizona desert. The book is called Delicate: Stories of Light and Desire.

NPR's Don Gonyea reports as the American crew returned to U.S. soil in Hawaii, President Bush made a statement from the White House welcoming them home. He pointedly said that the incident had not advanced constructive relations with China. And Mr. Bush stressed that the U.S. had done nothing to cause the accident with a Chinese fighter that led the American plane to make the emergency landing on Hainan Island.

Steve Hirschberg of member station WVXU reports on the state of emergency declared by Cincinnati Mayor Charles Luken today. It's the fourth day of protests and vandalism sparked by the shooting of an unarmed black man by a white police officer last weekend. The mayor has also asked police to enforce an 8:00 p.m. curfew and is considering calling in the Ohio National Guard.

NPR's Kathleen Schalch reports that environmental groups and organized labor have suffered some setbacks in recent weeks -- as the Bush Administration has moved to block or undo Clinton era regulations. President Bush wants the federal government to do a much better job examining the costs and benefits of proposed regulations. The man he selected as the chief regulatory gatekeeper for his administration is an expert in the field of risk analysis.

NPR's Jennifer Ludden in Jerusalem reports the Israeli army is calling up large numbers of reservists to deal with the ongoing violence in the West Bank and Gaza. Some reservists complain that too many Israelis are successfully evading their national duty while others question the morality of serving in occupied territories.

NPR's Gerry Hadden reports on a human rights trial underway in Guatemala that will test the independence of the country's judiciary system.

NPR's Emily Harris reports that descendants of Thomas Jefferson are publishing a report that attempts to disprove Jefferson fathered children with Sally Hemings, one of his slaves. They're trying to counter recent DNA tests which tied a descendant of Jefferson to the family of Hemings.

From member station WHYY, Fred Mogul reports on the debut of composer Stephen Paulus's Voices of Light by the New York Philharmonic. Based on the work of two little-known medieval poets, this new sacred choral piece draws more on a "spiritual element" than evangelical tradition.

The numbers are hard to estimate but as many as 25,000 or even more transgender people live in the United States. For those males redefining themselves as women the voice can be a difficult part of the transition. From member station KUOW in Seattle Cathy Duchamp reports on a voice therapy program designed to help them sound more feminine.

NPR's Barbara Bradley reports on a federal judge's ruling that felons have a constitutional right to DNA evidence testing. The Virginia case involves James Harvey, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence for a 1990 rape he says he did not commit. He asked the state to do DNA testing on items of evidence, but Virginia refused. The judge ruled that the state must do the tests, as part of Harvey's right to due process. The ruling is believed to be the first of its kind in the federal courts.

NPR's Adam Hochberg reports that the 2000 census reveals a boom in growth in America's coastal areas. Demographers say the population explosion is driven by relatively cheap housing prices, desire to live near water, and technological advances that allow telecommuting. Environmentalists worry that the development boom threatens fragile coastal ecological systems.

The Bush administration plans to uphold regulations issued in the last weeks of Bill Clinton's presidency requiring thousands of more businesses to report their releases of toxic lead into the environment. NPR's John Nielsen reports on the details of the announcement by the Environmental Protection Agency's administrator, Christie Whitman.

Cisco Systems grew in breathtaking fashion to become one of the world's most valuable companies during the technology investment boom of the late '90s. But now Cisco is being hit hard by the economic slowdown. NPR's Jack Speer reports.

Linda Wertheimer talks with Jeremy Siegel, professor of finance at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, about the recent fluctuations of the stock market, and what's to be expected in the future.