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NPR's Martin Kaste continues Morning Edition's week-long series on Latin American cities with a report on the perennial housing shortage in Sao Paulo, Brazil. In Latin America's biggest megalopolis, as many as 3 million of the estimated 18 million residents cannot find or afford housing. So, they take over abandoned buildings and set up outdoor camps.

Commentator Andrei Codrescu tells about an opera called Violet Fire, based on the life of pioneering inventor Nikola Tesla. Tesla lived from 1856 to 1943. While he has been relegated to obscurity, Tesla helped create the bedrock of modern technology.

Five U.S. soldiers are killed in a roadside bombing west of Baghdad. In Fallujah, four civilian foreigners -- including one American -- are killed when insurgents ambush their vehicles in Fallujah, a Sunni stronghold. Cheering crowds drag the corpses through the streets and hang them from a bridge. Hear NPR's Ivan Watson.

Actor Ricky Gervais stars in, writes and directs the hit BBC sitcom, The Office. The show can be seen in the United States on BBC America. Gervais stars as the self-obsessed middle manager David Brent. The satirical The Office is shot in documentary style and follows the goings-on at a suburban paper company where life is stationary. It was just awarded the prestigious Peabody Award. The second season of The Office is available on DVD this month.

The U.S. military calls for a cease-fire in Fallujah, but there are continuing skirmishes between American Marines and insurgents. A firefight north of Baghdad reportedly kills more than 40 Iraqis and wounds many Americans. Hear NPR's Linda Wertheimer and Rajiv Chandrasekaran of The Washington Post.

His new book Little Children is a satirical take on parenthood and suburbia. Perrotta is also the author of the novels Joe College and Election. Election was made into the 1999 movie of the same name.

As pilgrims gather in Karbala for the Shiite Muslim holiday al-Arbaeen, militants loyal to firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr take control of the streets. U.S.-led forces have yet to reassert control. Hear NPR's Cheryl Corley and NPR's Anne Garrels.

Jazz critic Kevin Whitehead reviews the new CD from pianist Bill Charlap Somewhere: Songs of Leonard Bernstein.

At least 12 U.S. Marines are dead as fighting rages in the city of Ramadi, near Fallujah. Dozens of insurgents reportedly attacked a Marine position near a government building, leaving more than 20 wounded. Hear NPR's Eric Westervelt and NPR's Michele Norris.

Former White House counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke says National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice's testimony before the Sept. 11 commission does not change his assertion that the Bush administration's focus on Iraq undermined its capacity to deal with the threat posed by al Qaeda. Clarke speaks with NPR's Robert Siegel.