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For six years, Rob Gifford covered China for NPR News. From Beijing to the North Korean border to the Muslim Northwest, Gifford reported on an extraordinary economic and cultural transformation.

President Bush and German Chancellor Angela Merkel hold their first face-to-face meeting at the White House. They find areas of agreement on restraining Iran's nuclear program but disagree on the U.S. prison camp for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay.

FEMA is having trouble holding on to its best people. Several FEMA staffers have told NPR that people are leaving because the agency is in trouble and no one appears to be addressing the problems.

After months of struggle to repair its campus following Hurricane Katrina, Tulane University welcomed students back Thursday. Workers continue to repair an estimated $200 million in damage, and the school has cut more than two dozen Ph.D. programs.

Laura Tobler, health policy analyst at the National Conference of State Legislatures, discusses legislation passed in Maryland that requires large employers to increase spending on worker health insurance and mainly affects Wal-Mart stores.

The White House has faced questions and criticism in its handling of the hunting accident involving Vice President Dick Cheney. The victim in the mishap, lawyer Harry Whittington, suffered a minor heart attack Tuesday. Cheney's office subsequently issued its first statement on the matter.

In a report released Tuesday, U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman criticizes China and presses it to take steps to improve labor standards and fight copyright piracy. Chinese officials dismiss the report as a show to quiet agitated lawmakers in Congress.

Ben Bernanke is on Capitol Hill delivering his first economic report to Congress since becoming chairman of the Federal Reserve. Bernanke told lawmakers that "economic expansion remains on track" and left open the possibility that interest rates would go up. Renee Montagne talks to David Wessel, The Wall Street Journal's deputy Washington bureau chief.

The White House defends its decision to wait 22 hours to inform the public that Vice President Cheney had accidentally sprayed his hunting partner with birdshot. President Bush found out about the incident Saturday evening, but the media wasn't informed until Sunday.

In Pennsylvania, hunters are pushing for a return to an ancient way of killing their prey. Recently, the state's game commission gave preliminary approval to a deer-hunting season for the atlatl -- a prehistoric weapon once used to bring down woolly mammoths.

Federal crop insurance was created in the dust bowl days of the 1930s to help farmers survive the ravages of nature. But changes in the program have created a new type of farmer: one who farms only for the insurance money.

Sami Abdelshafi, co-founder and senior partner of Emerge Consulting Group, is cautiously optimistic about the new Gaza border-crossing agreement between the Palestinian people and Israel. Abdelshafi's company provides economic analysis to businesses, government groups and non-profits operating in Gaza.

The Clinton Foundation announces a new initiative that will lower the price developing countries have to pay for AIDS drugs. The foundation has been a key force in helping poor countries negotiate with pharmaceutical companies.

President Bush toured the Gulf Coast Thursday, noting improvements since the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. In New Orleans, the president did not tour any of the city's still-deserted neighborhoods, and protesters called for a stronger federal commitment to fortify the city's levees.

Attorneys Douglas Cox and Sarah Haven travel to Yemen, where the families of their clients tell their side of the story -- adding texture and details to a still-partial picture of where the detainees came from, and why they are held as "enemy combatants." One detainee's mother says her tears "are like heavy rain" ever since her son's capture.

Robert Siegel talks with Stephen Cohen, national scholar for the Israel Policy Forum, about the Gaza deal.

Thousands of tourists remain stranded at beach resorts on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula after Hurricane Wilma. Emergency crews are trying to reach outlying areas. In hard-hit Cancun, long lines have formed for water and food as truckloads of army and police try to pass flooded roads to restore security.

Vice President Dick Cheney says he did not know Ambassador Joseph Wilson. But Cheney's life intersected with Wilson's during the first Iraq war. Wilson is the husband of Valerie Plame, the undercover CIA agent whose name was leaked to the press.

Sentencing is expected Tuesday for Chai Soua Vang in the murder of six deer hunters last year. The shooting in northern Wisconsin followed a racially charged trespassing confrontation between Vang, who is Hmong, and the men. The tension lingers as hunters prepare for this year's hunting season. Gil Halsted of Wisconsin Public Radio reports.

Retail giant Wal-Mart is facing criticism over an internal memo that proposes aggressive moves to trim employee benefit costs, such as discouraging unhealthy people from taking jobs at Wal-Mart. The company, whose stock price has dropped over the last year, is under pressure from investors to cut costs.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made an unannounced visit to Iraq Friday in an attempt to ease sectarian tensions before next month's elections. Rice's first stop was the northern, Sunni-dominated city of Mosul. Later, she headed for Baghdad to meet with senior government officials in the capital's Green Zone.

Jordanian officials say three "non-Jordanian" suicide bombers carried out Wednesday's deadly attacks on hotels in Amman. At least 57 people were killed. The Jordanian government says al Qaeda in Iraq is responsible, as the group had claimed.

Crescent City, Calif., a small community of 3,000 just below the Oregon border, was left in shambles after a tsunami hit the town in 1964. Many old-timers say Crescent City never really recovered.

French police have banned gatherings and increased security in Paris this weekend to prevent further violence. NPR's Adam Davidson discusses the impact of increased police presence on some of the communities most affected by the riots of the past two weeks.

As Hurricane Rita barrels into the Gulf of Mexico, NPR's Phillip Davis is watching the storm from the sky with hurricane hunters from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He speaks with host Michele Norris from a jet over the Gulf.