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Jerome Vaughn of member station WDET reports on the surprise announcement today that Detroit's mayor Dennis Archer won't seek a third term. The popular Archer told reporters he won't seek re-election because of the demands of the office. "I have no life," he said.

Reviewer Alan Cheuse tells us about a new novel by Allegra Goodman: Paradise Park.

In Pretoria this week, court action resumes in a lawsuit that pits 39 major pharmaceutical companies against the South African government and AIDS activists. The drug companies hope to block a law that allows South Africa to import or manufacture cheaper generic medications. NPR's Jon Hamilton reports on what's at stake for each of the major players in the case.

NPR's Ivan Watson in the city of Cotonou in the West African country of Benin reports on the mystery of the whereabouts of nearly 200 slave children. They were thought to have been on board a cargo vessel. But when the ship docked at Benin's main port, there was no sign of the child slaves.

NPR's Adam Hochberg reports that the 2000 census reveals a boom in growth in America's coastal areas. Demographers say the population explosion is driven by relatively cheap housing prices, desire to live near water, and technological advances that allow telecommuting. Environmentalists worry that the development boom threatens fragile coastal ecological systems.

the lead singer of the punk band The Ramones. He died on Sunday at the age of 49. He had lymphoma. From their start in 1974, the Ramones combined fast, deafening guitar with precise drumming to create a hurricane of sound. Their songs had titles like Beat on the Brat, Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment and Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue.

NPR's Jennifer Ludden in Gaza reports on the Israeli army's thrust into Palestinian-ruled territory. Israeli forces withdrew Tuesday from small areas of the Gaza Strip they seized Monday after an attempt to end Palestinian mortar attacks on Israeli towns and settlements.

Grace Spruch has a thousand stories about the squirrels she's been inviting into her fifth floor Greenwich Village apartment. She shares some of those stories -- and squirrel time -- with NPR's Margot Adler. (6:00) Squirrels at My Window: Life With a Remarkable Gang of Urban Squirrels, by Grace Marmor Spruch, is published by Johnson Books. ISBN # 1555662579.

NPR's Brooke Gladstone reports on the information war waged by the Pentagon since the collision between a U.S. Navy surveillance plane and a Chinese fighter jet. The Pentagon released video of previous reconnaissance craft encounters with Chinese fighters. In doing so, they've steered the discussion toward the cause of the crash -- rather than the right of the U.S. plane to conduct its surveillance.

Debbie Elliott reports that the trial of a former Ku Klux Klansman in the 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham has stirred memories and resentments of that turbulent time, even as the city tries to project a new image. The Klansman's attorney says there is no way his client can get a fair trial in Birmingham, which is seeking redemption for its racist past.

Commentator Stephen Kuusisto is a blind writer who was recently invited by a primate researcher to visit with a pair of young chimpanzees. The chimps, a boy and a girl, each about a year old, took instantly to the man with the white cane. They allowed him to touch and play with them, and he in turn allowed them to climb and jump from his cane. The experience has changed the way he feels about his cane.

NPR's Larry Abramson reports on the inexact science of audio recovery and storage.