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Congress is considering changes to the way the Food and Drug Administration handles drug safety. An FDA scientist testified that superiors pressed him to soften conclusions on the safety of profitable drugs... and that at least five drugs on the market have major problems. Hear NPR's Joanne Silberner.

Opening the 109th Congress, the House reelects Dennis Hastert as speaker, and majority Republicans opt not to push certain ethics rule changes that Democrats had claimed would weaken the ethics committee's work. NPR's Andrea Seabrook reports.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge announces he will leave the Bush administration early next year. His successor will face the challenges of securing the nation's borders, transportation systems and airports. The next secretary will also confront a federal bureaucracy still shaken by the Sept. 11 attacks. Hear NPR's Pam Fessler.

President Bush and Sen. John Kerry crisscross the nation from Florida to the Midwest on the last weekend of campaigning before the national election. The two candidates urged their party faithful and independents alike to vote Tuesday. Hear NPR's Andrea Seabrook and Don Gonyea.

President Bush names Treasury deputy secretary Samuel Bodman as his new secretary of energy. Bodman, a chemical engineer and former business executive, was previously deputy secretary of the Commerce Department in Bush's first term. NPR's Brian Naylor reports.

Former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik has withdrawn as President Bush's nominee to head the Homeland Security Department. Kerik cited questions about the immigration status of a housekeeper/nanny he employed. Hear NPR's Scott Simon and NPR's Don Gonyea.

President Bush and Sen. John Kerry answer the most recent video tape released by al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Both pledge an all-out war on terrorism, while their campaigns snipe at each other over their respective responses. Hear NPR's David Welna and NPR's Scott Horsley.

Congress nears an agreement on a bill to restructure the nation's intelligence-gathering operations. The House passed the measure by a wide margin Tuesday night. The Senate is expected to vote Wednesday. However, even some who backed the bill wonder how it will affect civil liberties. NPR's David Welna reports.

In Kuwait, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld takes questions from U.S. soldiers bound for Iraq. Spc. Thomas Wilson of the Tennessee Army National Guard asked the secretary why soldiers have to scrounge around in scrap piles to find material to armor their vehicles.

Thousands of European survivors of last week's Indian Ocean tsunami search for loved ones who disappeared from the popular resort area of Phuket in southern Thailand. At least one-half of the thousands killed in the area were foreign tourists. Doualy Xaykaothao reports.