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Lisa talks with NPR's Ivan Watson, who is in the West African country of Benin, about the boat full of children that still has not returned to the country. The rusted, aging ship left the capital city of Cotonou on March 30th, and was believed to be taking the children to work as forced laborers. It tried to dock at two different ports in Africa and was turned away. Now there is fear that it may never return to Benin.

Quinn Klinefelter of member station WDET reports on a class action lawsuit that accuses the Detroit Police Department of routinely arresting witnesses in murder cases in an effort to get them to testify. Detroit police arrest an average of three people in every homicide case, a rate that's much higher than the national average. Yet fewer than half the city's murder cases are solved.

NPR's Melissa Block has a remembrance of Roscoe Conkling, a political powerhouse of the late 19th century, who has faded into obscurity. He died 113 years ago today. Conkling was a New York Republican who skipped college but went to law school. He was a staunch abolitionist, and a reputed womanizer. His statue in New York City is being restored.

In many U.S. cities, there are communities of Ukrainian Americans who are now watching the crisis in Eastern Europe unfold.

In Indonesia's Aceh province, efforts to rebuild after the Indian Ocean tsunami are underway. In many parts of the provincial capital of Banda Aceh, the water and the electricity are back. In certain parts of Banda Aceh, you would not know the city had been struck by a tsunami. But in the worst affected areas, reconstruction programs have a long way to go.

Aug. 21 would have been the 100th birthday of the influential bandleader Count Basie. He's credited with taking the Kansas City style of jazz to a national and international audience. He helped launch the careers of Lester Young, Buck Clayton, Harry Edison, Helen Humes, and Jimmy Rushing, among others. Tom Vitale reports.

The U.N.-organized Iraqi National Conference adds a day, reflecting uncertainty over violence in the Shiite city of Najaf. Delegates gathered in Baghdad to appoint an assembly to organize national elections have so far been distracted by the situation in Najaf. NPR's Ivan Watson reports.

Major League Baseball announces that the Montreal Expos will move to Washington, D.C., in time for the 2005 season. The city, chosen over finalists including Las Vegas and Northern Virginia, has not had a baseball team since the Senators left in 1971. A publicly financed stadium is to be built along the Anacostia River south of the Capitol. NPR's Brian Naylor reports.

Gen. Mark Hertling spent a year leading operations in the Iraqi city of Najaf. In the first of an occasional series on national service, NPR's Steve Inkseep speaks with Hertling and his wife Sue, who spent that year alone at a U.S. military base in Germany.

Iraqi insurgents have upped their attacks in the northern city of Mosul, where bodies of dozens of Iraqi security forces have been found. U.S. troops are trying to counter the insurgents' attempts to prevent the creation of Iraq's new security forces. NPR's Philip Reeves reports.