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The northern Iraq city of Mosul sits astride the Tigris River on the main road south to the Sunni heartland and the capital, Baghdad. As a result, it is considered a key prize in the Iraq war and an intense struggle to control the streets is under way. Philip Reeves is embedded with U.S. forces in Mosul.

Author Marina Lewycka discusses her debut novel, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian. The novel, about Ukraine's dark political past, has made the shortlist for the prestigious Orange Prize for Fiction.

Writer David Reynolds is the author of the new biography John Brown: Abolitionist: The Man who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights. Reynold's book is considered to be a sympathetic look at the man who he says framed the issue of slavery in stark, uncompromising terms.

Every April 20, groups of teens gather to smoke marijuana to mark Four-Twenty, or Stoner's Day. But author and commentator David Marcus says parents shouldn't get mad. Rather, they should use this day as a reason to talk to their kids about what's going on in their lives. Marcus is author of What It Takes To Pull Me Through: Why Teenagers Get in Trouble and How Four of Them Got Out.

President Jalal Talabani says the bodies of more than 50 people have been hauled out of the Tigris River, and a provincial governor says more than 15 Iraqi Guardsmen have been discovered shot dead in a soccer stadium.

Some fans don't wait until opening day for baseball season. They indulge their sports fantasies year-round. Many play video games with splashy graphics. But the most enduring baseball diversion is a humble board game called Strat-O-Matic with an influential and devoted following.

Robert Siegel talks with Robert James Shiller about the current situation with the financial markets, interest rates, and the future of the real estate boom. Shiller is a professor of economics at Yale University's International Center for Finance and author of Irrational Exuberance, Redux: Including the Real Estate Market Bubble and the Rise of the Ownership Society.

Confusion surrounds reports that Sunni militants have taken more than 100 Shiite hostages in Madaen, south of Baghdad. Searches by Iraqi forces found no evidence of kidnappings. The kidnapping reports -- carried on Iraqi television -- highlight how quickly rumors spread in a country plagued by daily violence and sectarian tensions.

Brian Burrell, author of Postcards from the Brain Museum, discusses efforts to understand Einstein's intellect through the study of his brain.

Some Catholics have called for the immediate canonization of Pope John Paul II. But according to the rules, that can't happen for at least five years. Father Richard McBrien, professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame, describes the road to sainthood.