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Levison Wood, who previously walked the length of the Nile River, has now trekked 1,700 miles, from Afghanistan to Bhutan, along the Himalayan mountain range.

Naomi Alderman's new novel imagines a world in which women suddenly pose a physical threat to men. Alderman says it was gratifying to imagine how characters might use that power to fight back.

Tom Daschle, President Barack Obama's pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services, withdrew his nomination Tuesday amid a controversy over his taxes. Also Tuesday, Nancy Killefer withdrew her nomination for the post of chief performance officer after bungling payroll taxes.

Co-host Steve Inskeep talks to NPR's Frank Langfitt about Monday's earthquake in China. Langfitt has covered China and spent more than five years in the country as a correspondent for the Baltimore Sun.

New numbers out Wednesday are expected to show the inflation rate in June was just over 3%. That's a big improvement from this time last year, when inflation topped 9%.

Roland Burris, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's pick to fill President-elect Barack Obama's Senate seat, will be seated in the Senate. The Senate's two top Democrats, Harry Reid and Dick Durbin, dropped their opposition to Burris being seated.

Sen. Hillary Clinton is scheduled to testify Tuesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which will decide whether to recommend to the full Senate that she be the next secretary of state. Clinton is expected to face tough questions from the committee's right flank, but not any major hurdles to confirmation.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testified before the Senate Banking Committee Tuesday about the $700 billion rescue plan for the financial sector. They stressed that it was urgent that lawmakers pass the bill this week. Many committee members were not swayed.

Researchers analyzing recent drug spending in the U.S. say that high-priced drugs for rare diseases aren't having a widespread or significant effect on overall health care spending.

Hospitals have been fighting to block the rankings, but Medicare released them Wednesday. Of the 102 hospitals that got a five-star rating, few are among those generally praised for great care.