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For many wheat farmers, a financial loss is the only thing they expect to reap this year. Persistent drought has parched wheat stands in the western parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, places where wheat was once one of the most reliable cash crops.

In December, many families send out annual update letters to all their friends. It's a way to let everyone know who got a new car, who finally retired after 40 years at the same company, who finished kindergarten. Generally, parents write these letters. But what, if given the task, would the kids say? Jeff Horwich of Minnesota Public Radio finds out.

Since it was invaded three years ago, Iraq has lost more than $10 billion in oil revenues. Corruption and sabotage are largely to blame. And U.S. and Iraqi officials say insurgents are benefiting. But many say the Oil Ministry's own militia is at the heart of the problem.

The Italian city of Pompeii is one of the best-known reminders of how deadly volcanoes can be. Mt. Vesuvius' eruption in 79 A.D. buried the city, entombing many of the dead in casts of hardened ash. Now, scientists say the destruction was even worse in an earlier incident 4,000 years ago.

Apple Computers announces a new feature many thought would never happen: the ability to use Windows on a Macintosh. Apple, which now uses chips from Intel, a top provider for Windows-based machines, says its Boot Camp software allows users to install Microsoft Windows XP.

Storyteller Mitch Myers recalls an encounter on a subway platform with singer/songwriter Kathleen Mock. While he was waiting for a train, she was playing her song, "Waiting on a Train."

Of the many things thrown into the energy bill being considered in the Senate are billions in tax breaks for energy companies. Critics say the bill is meant to help only the energy industry, not consumers hit by high fuel prices.

In the first of a five-part series on South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, NPR's Charlayne Hunter-Gault talks with victims of apartheid-era abuses who are frustrated with the Commission at the end of its two-and-a-half years of work. More than 20,000 victims submitted statements, but only a few got the chance to testify in public. Victims were promised reparations, but many have not yet received any money. Some feel the Truth Commission acted more speedily to rule on amnesty for perpetrators of political crimes than it did in responding to victims' needs.

Some of the world's poorest countries in Africa and Latin America owe billions of dollars to the World Bank and IMF. For some nations, the debt is so large that paying it off seems impossible. Over the past few years, a movement has been growing calling for the large financial institutions to forgive debt to Third World countries. A new CD called Drop the Debt is one such effort. African and Latin American artists, many of whom are stars in their own countries, contributed songs about debt to the CD. NPR's Elizabeth Blair reports.

Twenty years ago, tons of toxic gas escaped from a Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, India. It was one of the worst industrial accidents in history, with a death toll of more than 15,000. Many survivors say they have yet to receive compensation. Hear Miranda Kennedy.