NPR News

Bal Thackeray, one of India's most polarizing politicians and leader of the right-wing Hindu nationalist party, died Saturday at the age of 86. Robert Siegel speaks with Vikas Bajaj, Mumbai correspondent for New York Times.

As all eyes turn to the fighting between Israel and fighters in Hamas-controlled Gaza, another long-simmering conflict has reemerged with full force.

For more insight into the state of affairs in Gaza, Robert Siegel talks with Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University.

Israeli war planes bombed the center of Gaza City again on Monday, as the Palestinian death toll neared the 100 mark. At least one Palestinian journalist was killed in an air strike on a building that housed media organizations, including those affiliated with Hamas and other militant groups. Israeli officials, meanwhile, say they are still hoping for a ceasefire agreement that would make a ground offensive into Gaza unnecessary. Audie Cornish talks to Sheera Frenkel.

A massive research project in California is beginning to show how genes, health habits and the environment can interact to cause diseases. And it's all possible because 100,000 people agreed to contribute some saliva in the name of science.

Among the places hardest hit when Sandy made landfall last month was the small, working class community of Union Beach, N.J., just across the Raritan Bay from New York City. The powerful storm surge flooded much of the town, gutting buildings along the waterfront and destroying hundreds of homes and businesses.

Critic Alan Cheuse says Canadian short story writer Alice Munro's new collection, Dear Life: Stories, is both arresting and worth reading.

According to scientists, the Earth is about 4.5 billion years old. Most of the people who vote in presidential primaries aren't scientists, however.

Indeed, a Gallup poll this year reported that 46 percent of Americans (58 percent of Republicans, 41 percent of Democrats and 39 percent of independents) held a nonscientific belief in creationism, the religious-based view that humans were divinely created within the past 10,000 years.