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NPR's Tom Gjelten reports from the Pentagon that the United States is not considering sending troops to Macedonia or increasing its deployment in neighboring Kosovo. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld discussed the crisis today with his British counterpart, Geoffrey Hoon. Gjelten reports that the Bush administration seems unprepared for this latest Balkan crisis.

The president of the International Flat Earth Society has died in Lancaster, Calif. Charles Johnson believed the Earth is actually as flat and circular as a phonograph record, with the North Pole right in the middle. Johnson and his fellow believers have rejected NASA and space exploration as an elaborate hoax perpetrated by the government. He was 76 years old.

NPR's Richard Harris reports on a new fossil skull, perhaps the most complete ever from a crucial period 3.5 million years ago. It was a period when the pre-human line was branching in several evolutionary directions. A member of the Leakey family found the skull. The Leakeys have been discovering fossils for three generations.

Commentator Frank Deford says in a world with an increasingly destabilized economy, the choice between athletics as entertainment and more basic needs will mean tough times for major league sports.

NPR's Margot Adler reports on what some are decrying as the "suburbanization" of New York City. She talks to one design critic who laments that national franchises are replacing the city's local greasy spoons, coffeehouses and boutiques, and taking over street-life. (6:40

He directed the new HBO movie Wit based on the Pulitzer-prize winning off-Broadway play about a college professor dying of ovarian cancer. (It premieres on HBO Saturday, March 24 at 9PM). Nichols is also the director of The Graduate (for which he won an Oscar for Best Director), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Silkwood, Working Girl, and Primary Colors. Before he became a film director NICHOLS was known for his popular comedy improvisations with Elaine May.

Classical Music Critic LLOYD SCHWARTZ reviews a series of concerts by Pierre Boulez and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

For the first time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has taken blood samples from a cross-section of Americans to look for a number of toxic substances. These substances show up in pollutants from industry and in products like cigarettes. NPR's John Nielsen reports some good news; chemicals from second-hand smoke seems to be appearing in blood less frequently. There's worrisome news too; there are lots of other chemicals in our blood about which we know very little.

The Bush administration's decision to halt standards for arsenic levels in drinking water is giving local water companies a bit of a reprieve. Under the new standards a municpal water company would have to increase its standards from 50 parts per billion to 10 parts per billion. In most cases that would have meant building new water filtration systems. George Hansen is the general manager of Chesapeake Ranch Water Company in southern Calvert County, Md. Noah Adams speaks with him about the changes he would have to make under new standards and what they are doing now to treat arsenic.

The Bush administration's decision to throw out new rules limiting arsenic in drinking water has angered environmentalists. Industries that emit arsenic and small water suppliers who would have had to rebuild purifying plants are relieved. As NPR's Larry Abramson reports, the new rules were proposed by the Clinton administration. Now the EPA says the present limit is good enough and that better health research is needed before a new standard can be written.