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Senators sharply question federal safety officials during a hearing on one of the nation's biggest mine disasters in 20 years. Labor subcommittee members asked why the Sago mine was not shut down for past violations. They also wanted to know if communications technology could have saved lives.

President Bush meets with Chinese president Hu Jintao to discuss trade and currency issues. He also attends services at one of China's few state-sanctioned Christian churches, and presses the premier to expand religious, political and social freedoms.

House Republicans basked in triumph after razor-thin passage of a sweeping budget cut plan in the wee hours of Friday morning. But intra-party tensions are sure to flare again when negotiations begin next month on a House-Senate compromise measure.

Shortly after Hurricane Katrina struck, the Schultz family of Bayou La Batre, Ala., was in danger of losing their home. But thanks to donations from a church and from strangers, the family is nearly done repairing their home. Their first meal there will be on Thanksgiving Day.

A federal lawsuit against the Massachusetts Department of Education accuses the state of censorship and political interference for using the word "genocide" in its high school curriculum to describe the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of Armenians in Turkey during World War I. Plaintiffs in the suit say that designation is up for debate - but opponents say the evidence of genocide is clear.

Europe is investigating reports that the CIA has been operating secret detention centers in Eastern Europe. Steve Inskeep talks with Tom Malinowski, Washington director of the non-profit group Human Rights Watch. His group has been involved in making the evidence known.

Senators and outside experts testify before a Senate panel on the need to reform rules governing lobbying. A consensus appears to be developing around some areas of reform, such as gift giving and slowing the movement between Congress and the lobbying industry. But other issues are not so clear-cut.

President Ibrahim Rugova is mourned in Kosovo by ethnic Albanians he led and by European and U.S. officials who hailed him as a voice of moderation in the turbulent Balkans. Talks on the future of Kosovo have been delayed until February.

As a hospice volunteer, listener Mary Cook shares in the grief of others. But it was her own loss that taught her how to heal. She believes that recovering from grief requires not a battle, but surrender.

This Sunday, two of the world's top solo explorers will attempt to do what no one has ever done: travel 620 miles on an unsupported mission to the North Pole in the total darkness of Arctic winter.