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When oil prices go up, so do natural gas prices, and both increases have a ripple effect on the economy. Shampoo bottles, pantyhose, buttons — you name it, and it requires oil or gas to make it.

In Zimbabwe, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew Sunday from the upcoming runoff election. Tsvangirai, leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, said he's stepping down because he can no longer watch his supporters being killed for the sake of power.

The FBI says it has arrested more than 400 people in the last three months on charges related to mortgage fraud. Agents have arrested real estate agents and others. On Thursday, the FBI arrested two Bear Stearns investment fund managers. NPR's Dina Temple-Raston and Michelle Norris discuss the arrests.

Numerous levees have already failed to hold back floodwaters in parts of the Midwest this week. The federal government says many more are likely to be topped. Engineering experts agree the nation's levee system needs a second look. Adriene Hill of Chicago Public Radio reports.

Customers of IndyMac faced closed doors Friday after federal regulators took over the California bank. Risky lending practices and a $1.3 billion bank run were part of IndyMac's demise. Banking consultant Burt Ely talks about how the failure happened and what it signals for the broader economy.

The American Medical Association (AMA) is apologizing for years of discriminatory practices against African-Americans within the medical community. Dr. Ronald Davis, immediate past president of the organization, discusses what inspired the apology. Davis is joined by Dr. Carl Bell, a black doctor, who says the AMA still has a long way to go.

Federal regulators seized IndyMac Bank Friday, one of the nation's largest lenders, because of questions about its viability. The bank is now being run by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Karen Shaw Petrou, managing partner at Federal Financial Analytics, about what that means for the financial sector, speaks with NPR's Liane Hansen.

Congress this week passed — by a veto-proof margin — legislation to cancel a 10.6 percent pay cut to doctors who care for Medicare patients. But President Bush says he'll veto it anyway, because the bill also reduces funding to private insurance plans that participate in Medicare.

Sudan's president has been charged with genocide by the International Criminal Court's prosecutor after an investigation into atrocities in the country's western Darfur province. Judges in The Hague are expected to take months to study the evidence against Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke called on Congress Tuesday to write new laws that would expand the Fed's role in preventing financial crises, such as the collapse of Bear Stearns last March. He also indicated the Fed may keep its discount window lending open to big financial firms longer.