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Cuba's President Fidel Castro has resigned, saying he will not seek re-election after 49 years in power. NPR correspondent Tom Gjelten discusses the 81-year-old's reign as the world's longest ruling head of state, and the significance of his resignation.

Pakistanis dealt a crushing blow to President Pervez Musharraf in parliamentary elections Monday, raising questions about the future of the U.S. ally in the war on terror. Early returns indicate that the opposition parties of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif have won enough to command a majority.

The Supreme Court heard arguments in a case testing whether lethal injection is constitutional. Opponents say the three drugs used, and the way they are administered, create the potential for a tortuous death that would amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

President Bush has hit an obstacle in his push to get Ukraine and Georgia on track for NATO membership. However, the president did score a victory in his quest to get more NATO members to send their troops to Afghanistan.

German researcher Gerhard Ertl has won the 2007 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Ertl developed new methods for studying the "surface chemistry" that is critical to everything from catalytic converters for cleaning up auto exhaust, to the chemical reactions that created the hole in the ozone layer.

Finalists for the National Book Awards were announced Wednesday in Philadelphia. Some well-known authors, such as Christopher Hitchens and Edwidge Danticat, are nominated. But the list also includes several debut authors. Winners will be named in mid-November in New York City.

Two companies say the best way to slow global warming is to dump iron into the oceans. The iron would trigger blooms of tiny plants that suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and then keep it trapped deep in the ocean. But scientists are wary.

Rising tensions with Iraq and deteriorating relations with the United States helped send oil prices skyward. Washington, D.C., sent envoys on a surprise visit to Ankara to urge restraint, as Turkey threatens to attack Kurdish separatists in Northern Iraq.

As fires continue to ravage Southern California, few are more destructive than the San Diego County Harris fire. Capt. Martin Johnson, a California Fire spokesman fighting the Harris fire, talks with Michele Norris about what life is like for a firefighter on the front lines.

On Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and FEMA Administrator R. David Paulison visited Ohio to assess the damage in that state, but throughout the Midwest, thousands of residents are trying to recover from the relentless storms.