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In a series of reports for Morning Edition, NPR Beijing correspondent Rob Gifford profiles five people from across China who symbolize the massive changes the country is undergoing as it makes its transition away from communism. The series debuts with Henry Li, who owns one of Beijing's hippest night spots.

Secretary of State Colin Powell addresses the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, seeking congressional support for a possible war with Iraq. Powell's testimony comes a day after he presents the U.N. Security Council with a report detailing evidence against Iraq. NPR's Bob Edwards and NPR's Michele Kelemen.

Thirty years ago, the Flatlanders released their first record to almost universal indifference. Now, with the release of their second album, Now Again (New West Records), they're one of the nation's most talked about country bands, thanks to nationally syndicated radio host Don Imus. From member station KUHF in Houston, Ed Mayberry reports.

British actor Terence Stamp is best known for his roles in the 1960s films Billy Budd and The Collector. He also was in Far from the Madding Crowd. After working with Fellini in Italy and with other Italian directors, he took a nine-year hiatus. He returned to the screen in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and recently in The Limey and Star Wars: Episode One. His latest film is My Wife Is an Actress.

In a bare-bones cabin on Walden Pond, Henry David Thoreau wrote a bible for people who want to live in harmony with nature. On Morning Edition, Jill Kaufman explores the origins of Thoreau's Walden as part of NPR's Present at the Creation series on American icons.

Writer Gary Shteyngart. His debut novel, The Russian Debutante's Handbook, is receiving critical acclaim. The main character of the book, like Shteyngart, is a Russian-American Jew who emigrated to the United States as a child. In a New York Times Magazine cover article, Daniel Zalewski wrote, "Gary Shteyngart has rewritten the classic immigrant narrative -- starring a sarcastic slacker instead of a grateful striver. And after all his parents have done for him!"

Korva talks with Fred Hay about his new book, Goin' Back to Sweet Memphis: Conversations with the Blues. As a college student in the early '70s, Hay recorded the stories and songs of several Memphis blues legends. All of them have passed on, but their stories remain in Hay's book. (Goin' Back to Sweet Memphis University of Georgia Press; ISBN: 0820323012)

Weekend Edition Sunday has been talking with several notables from various professions about their reading habits, their favorite books, and what they are reading this summer. This week: writer/actor/comic Amy Sedaris, lately of the TV show Strangers with Candy.

NPR's Ina Jaffe reports on the impact of the immigrant community on the labor movement in California, the state with the largest immigrant population in the country.

Pedro Rivera is a one-time undocumented immigrant who now owns his own record label in Los Angeles. As NPR's Mandalit del Barco reports for All Things Considered, his story exemplifies the new California -- where the diversity of the population is often a reason for entrepreneurial success, not a barrier to it.