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Tavis Smiley and Cornel West have made a traveling road show out of their roles criticizing President Obama. As the 2012 campaign begins in earnest, the duo seem to be moderating their tone.

A late relative left the husband-and-wife duo with two precious gifts: a creaky old farmhouse to record in and a wealth of woodsy songs to sing.

You can see some progress in Haiti two years since the 7.0-magnitude quake hit. But Port-au-Prince is a tour of unrelenting misery and often disturbing images. NPR's Carrie Kahn and Marisa Penaloza report that you can tell the pace of progress by looking into people's eyes — emptiness looks back at you.

France was among nine European countries that saw their sovereign debt ratings cut Friday. The move could boost borrowing costs in Paris and undermine a plan to contain the European debt crisis. But the loss of France's AAA rating is also likely to play a role in President Nicolas Sarkozy's re-election bid.

As Otto Perez Molina takes office Saturday, one of his top priorities is regaining U.S. military aid, which the U.S. banned because of alleged abuses during Guatemala's civil war. Experts say exactly how Perez will tackle the current wave of violence — or if his approach is effective — remains to be seen.

There is something truly winning about a politician who doesn't just talk the talk but jumps the jump. Zambia's tourism minister Given Lubinda jumped off a bridge this week and popped up smiling.

We received hundreds of comments after we aired a story by NPR's Scott Horsley about how President Obama's political fortunes may be tied to the unemployment rate. We also heard from listeners about Gloria Hillard's piece on Native Americans who moved off reservations into major cities. Host Scott Simon reads listener letters about these stories and more.

Late Friday the U.S. credit rating agency Standard & Poors downgraded nine European countries. S&P suggested Europe's single-minded focus on austerity to solve its sovereign debt problem is just not working. Host Scott Simon speaks with NPR's John Ydstie about the downgrades.

Haiti has long been regarded as a special challenge for international aid organizations. Scott talks with Laurent Dubois, author of the upcoming book Haiti: The Aftershocks of History, about the effect, or lack thereof, of aid money sent to Haiti in the wake of the earthquake two years ago.

On the one hand, Mitt Romney's landslide win in New Hampshire put him solidly on a course to focus on the general election last week. On the other hand, a new series of attacks on his years as a venture capitalist forced him to engage more directly than before with his primary rivals. NPR's Ari Shapiro reports from Aiken, S.C.