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NPR's Tom Gjelten reports on Europe's decision to delay its challenge to the United States' Helms-Burton Law, which penalizes some foreign companies for doing business in Cuba. European governments are hoping to work out a compromise with the Clinton administration that will avoid a potentially crippling battle in the World Trade Organization. Some fear a showdown between Europe and the US could threaten the future of the WTO.

on transportation and the environment, NPR's John Nielsen reports on Chicago's struggle to lure commuters out of their cars and into mass transit. Though the city has an extensive system already, it must keep up with changes in commuting patterns as more jobs leave downtown for the suburbs.

NPR's Vicky Que (KWAY) reports on a experimental plan by the federal government to pay New York medical schools NOT to train new doctors. The government says the nation already faces a growing doctor surplus and that medical schools must stop training so many doctors now -- and it's willing to pay them hundreds of millions of dollars to do so.

NPR's Melissa Block reports from New York City, one of the many places where immigrants are perplexed about tomorrow's changes in the immigration and welfare laws. While most immigrants won't be immediately affected by the laws, many are panicking. Some will lose their food stamps privileges, and others could be "excluded" from the country...that is, kept from reentering the country after their visas expire.

For years Americans have gone to the polls every four years trusting that their vote counts. They trust that after coming together to cast their ballots on election day a president will be elected and everyone will come together, at least for a brief honeymoon period, behind that president. What happens when such a fundamental trust in the way things work, is broken? NPR's Lynn Neary has a report if the trust can be restored.

In Detroit unions announced today they're ending a boycott of the city's two daily newspapers. For 5 years strikers have refused to buy the papers or support their advertisers. The labor dispute has been bitter and costly for both sides. Despite dropping their boycott unions are still claiming victory because the newspapers failed to break them, as WDET's Quinn Klinefelter reports from Detroit.

NPR's Guy Raz reports from Leipzig that more than a decade after reunification, many Germans still talk about a mental divide between eastern and western Germans. For the older generation whose sensibilities were shaped by the communist East German state, the adjustment to capitalism has been difficult and frustrating. But young people in the east -- indistinguishable from their western counterparts -- have wholeheartedly embraced the new Germany.

NPR's Peter Overby reports President elect George W. Bush chose Don Evans as commerce secretary yesterday. Evans, an oilman from Texas, Evans was also chairman of Bush's campaign fundraising. The Bush campaign broke records with the amounts of money it raised and Bush has high hopes that Evans sill continue that trend in his new position.

NPR's Rob Gifford reports from northern China that feeding the country's huge population has become even more difficult because of desertification. For years, the government encouraged Chinese peasants to clear more forests and produce more crops and livestock. But this has caused soil erosion, flooding and the spread of the Gobi desert. Now the government is encouraging tree planting, restricting the peasants' freedom to plant... and feed themselves.

NPR's Julie McCarthy reports from Coventry, England, where president Clinton wrapped up his final trip as president to Europe today. The president congratulated President-elect George Bush and pledged his support for a smooth transition of power. Mr. Clinton stayed up late into the night to watch his vice president, Al Gore, concede and President-elect Bush accept the concession.