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Noah Adams and Linda Wertheimer read from listeners letters. This week subjects include our series on the Oil Century, the Paper Clip Project in Tennessee and the destruction of Buddha statues in Afghanistan. (Please send comments to Letters, ATC, 635 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 2001; or by E-mail to atc@npr.org.)

NPR's Kathy Schalch reports on the last days of the U.S.-Canadian softwood lumber agreement. The agreement expires at the end of the month, to the relief of many who argued it subsidized Canadian lumber and hurt American businesses and consumers. Environmentalists hated it as well. But a new agreement regulating lumber trade is likely to create as much controversy as the old agreement.

Brenda Tremblay of member station WXXI reports that many people in the city of Rochester, New York, are reading the same book. People in supermarkets and malls wear pins that say they're reading, A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines. Its the story of a young black man wrongly sentenced to death. Rochester's mayor says its allowing residents to talk about race relations in a way they'd usually avoid.

NPR's Michael Sullivan reports on a bribery scandal that is tearing at India's government. The president of the main governing party has resigned, and the scandal has put in jeopardy the administration's coalition government.

Commentator John Ridley is a self-proclaimed 'tactionist.' He's on a mission to touch interesting people and things, and gather fascinating stories in the process. Next on his 'touch-list:' a nuclear warhead. Unfortunately, the officials at Los Alamos are unimpressed by his unique hobby.

NPR's Brian Naylor reports on a new program instituted in Maryland by which the state pays farmers to stop growing tobacco. Some farmers are switching to other crops, while others have no intention of changing.

Commentator Judy Muller says she winces when she hears words such as 'efforting,' and she wonders how so many nouns are being turned into verbs.

Host Melissa Block talks with Houston singer/songwriter Eric Taylor, whose country-folk songs have been called "little movies." He's got a new album out, Scuffletown, and he says he enjoys writing songs like stories -- as long as he doesn't give too much away to the listener.

NPR's Jason Beaubien reports that a plaque was erected in the New Hampshire State House to honor the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. The 12-member group fought in the Spanish civil war to support the Loyalist government. But some say the plaque is memorializing Communists and Communist sympathizers.

Fighting has flared up again in the Balkans, in a demilitarized zone between Kosovo and Macedonia. NATO troops in the area are attempting to suppress that violence between ethnic Albanians and Macedonia security forces. But even as the region heats up, the Bush administration is moving to trim the ranks of Americans now on a peacekeeping mission in neighboring Bosnia. President Bush has said he wants the European Union to shoulder more of the burden in the region. NPR's Tom Gjelten reports.