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Host Bob Edwards talks with Steve Goose, the program director of Human Rights Watch, and editor of a report to be released Thursday from the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. It shows progress since the signing of the 1997 international treaty to ban the use, manufacture or trade of anti-personnel mines.

The way that American elections are financed was a major topic in the presidential primaries, when some candidates saw the subject as a way to cut the frontrunners down to size. But then the frontrunners got nominated, and talk about campaign finances took on a different role in the debate. Now, with Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore the party standard-bearers, the subject is mostly used as a metaphor for issues of character. For NPR News, Peter Overby reports.

Mark Scott reports teachers in Buffalo, New York are walking the picket lines today. After two years without a contract, the teachers voted to strike despite a New York State law that forbids them to do so.

NPR's Linda Gradstein in Jerusalem reports that Palestinian students returned to classes this week with something new in their school bags - textbooks written and published by Palestinians. Predictably, the new books have already stirred controversy over what they say, and what they don't say, about Israel.

Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr notes that the prospects are not good for any progress on Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Soldiers in the Gulf War were exposed to a wide variety of agents including the nerve gas Sarin, vaccines designed to protect them from biological weapons, and the depleted uranium in tank armor. A report published today reviews the evidence linking these and other agents to the unexplained illnesses subsequently reported by Gulf War veterans. NPR News Science Correspondent Richard Harris has this story.

NPR's Jim Zarroli reports oil prices pushed higher again today despite word from Saudi Arabia that it will back another production increase. The price for two popular benchmark crudes rose to more than 34 dollars a barrel. President Clinton, in New York for the U.N. meeting, said he had told Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah that prices were too high and that OPEC should take appropriate action on the issue.

Special Correspondent Susan Stamberg talks to Peggy Salinger, the daughter J.D. Salinger about her new book Dream Catcher: A Memoir. A testimonial about life hidden away with the Salinger family. (6:53) Dream Catcher: A Memoir is published by Washington Square Press ISBN 06710

Republican candidate George W. Bush, the frontrunner for more than a year in the presidential campaign, saw his lead suddenly disappear after the conventions this summer and has yet to recover his edge. So, today in Michigan, Bush said he was ready to make a few changes in his campaign style and negotiate some debate details with the campaign of Democratic rival Al Gore. Steve Inskeep reports for NPR News.

Reporter Chad Swiatecki, of Michigan's Flint Journal uses a wheelchair. He was assigned last weekend to cover the Al Gore visit to his area. But the auto plant Gore was visiting was not wheelchair accessible, and neither was the bus used by the campaign. The Secret Service would not let Chad follow in his own car. Swiatecki comments on the event.