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As a child, Deirdre Sullivan learned from her father to always pay her respects at funerals. Now, this NPR listener believes those simple acts of human kindness are as important as the grand gestures.

In the past two days, police in Baghdad have found the bodies of more than 80 men -- some shot, some strangled, most with their hands bound -- raising fears that Shiite militias are running death squads to avenge Sunday's bombing in the capital's main Shiite district.

Dr. William H. Seitz, an orthopedic surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic, is a specialist in a bone-lengthening technique that develops useful fingers, hands and even elbow joints in children born with malformed limbs. Recent advances have made the process far less painful than before.

Coretta Scott King, who turned a life shattered by her husband's assassination into one devoted to enshrining his legacy of human rights and equality, has died. She was 78.

Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers withdrew from the confirmation process Thursday morning after heavy criticism from both Democrats and Republicans, including far-right conservatives looking for a candidate that shares their views. Noah Adams speaks with Slate legal analyst Dahlia Lithwick about Miers' decision and its political implications.

The city of Harbin, China, has its water supply back after a major chemical spill. But the presence of benzene in Songhua River creates potential dangers. Sheilah Kast speaks with Rolf Halden, a professor of Environmental Health Sciences at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

Evangelical Christian groups are lobbying members of Congress and the Air Force to make sure their views are represented in new religious tolerance guidelines. Specifically, they want to make sure government-paid military chaplains still have the right to evangelize troops. Opponents are also lobbying. They say paying chaplains to evangelize violates the establishment clause of the Constitution.

The U.S. economy is strong -- but faces a crisis if the growing deficit is not reined in, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan says. Speaking at a policy forum in Philadelphia, Greenspan highlighted health care and defense spending as two main challenges to fiscal restraint.

Saddam Hussein, the former president of Iraq, testified for the first time on Wednesday at his trial in Baghdad. He called the proceedings a "comedy." The judge closed the session to the public when Saddam refused to follow orders.

Nanotechnology is finding a home in beauty products. Some skin-cream makers, for instance, say buckyballs can prevent premature aging of the skin by acting as an anti-oxidant. But some experts wonder about the safety of these highly engineered nanostructures.

Slobodan Milosevic, the former president of Yugoslavia, was found dead Saturday in his detention cell at The Hague. He was charged with crimes against humanity related to the wars of the 1990s in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. New York Times reporter Gregory Crouch and Dejan Anastasiejevic offer their insights to Debbie Elliott.

The auction process for Knight Ridder, one of the largest newspaper chains in the country, starts Thursday. The company announced last fall that it was putting itself up for sale. The move is an effort to satisfy shareholders, who want better returns on their investment in the company.

On Lumiere, Bob Brozman is the orchestra. He plays the National Tricone, charango, ukulele, baritone guitar and, well, everything else. Brozman has spent decades traveling and collaborating with musicians all over, which he synthesizes into his own music.

The soul singer's new album, The Real Thing: Words and Sounds Vol. 3, is generating quite a buzz. The award-winning singer talks about the events of her seven-year, singing career, including a new film in the works.

The highly influential band has been crazy on stage for decades, but its members lead a surprisingly normal real life, according to David Browne, author of Goodbye 20th Century: A Biography of Sonic Youth.

NPR's Ari Shapiro speaks with Sri Lankan journalist Marlon Ariyasinghe about the country's protest movement.

Tell Tale Signs, the eighth collection of rare and unreleased Dylan recordings, is devoted to the music Dylan made between 1989 and 2006. According to critic Tom Moon, the collection offers rare glimpses into Dylan's artistic process.

When recording its latest album, Snowflake Midnight, Mercury Rev turned to publicly created and shared electronic instruments and software to create ethereal and deeply textured layers of sound. The band's members discuss their process of incorporating technology and losing themselves in music.

The Washington, D.C., band These United States writes novelistic songs packed with dense narratives and loose, ragged-edged folk, rock and Americana. While Jesse Elliott is the main creative foundation, the group is known to rotate in any number of musicians it picks up. The band discusses and performs songs from its new album, Crimes.

Global health meetings are often held in the West — and that's an obstacle for scientists, doctors and advocates from lower resource countries. Which means their voices aren't being heard.

Backspacer is Pearl Jam's first studio album since the musicians became free agents, finally fulfilling a seven-album contract with Sony. That process took 15 years. The band is now on its own, striking distribution deals with major corporations, a turnaround for the once very anti-corporate band.

An astronomy teacher said the images will change the way space is both taught and studied — inside the classroom and out.

When Heap composes a song, you never know what she might decide is an instrument. For Ellipse, she used every piece of her elliptical-shaped house as a sound. Her fans followed along online as she wrote the album.

Blue Highway founding member and 10-time IBMA dobro player of the year Rob Ickes has just released an album of jazz duets with pianist and grade-school music teacher Michael Alvey, titled Road Song.

The experimental rock band based in New York draws on early vocal music, modern soul and other sources, defying categorization in the process. According to critic Will Hermes, the band's new album, Bitte Orca, is a breakthrough.