NPR News

The conflict between Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces and anti-government rebels runs from East to West along the coastal highway, with much of the fighting located near the oil port of Ras Lanuf. The area between the city and the Gadhafi stronghold of Sirte is the scene of explosions and gunfire, charging rebels and circling fighter jets.

But wander just a short way off the highway, and you sometimes find a semblance of normal life, laced with anxiety for the future.

"Moammar Gadhafi's regime drove out pockets of rebel fighters who were keeping a tenuous hold around oil facilities in a key port city," The Associated Press reports, "showing growing strength Saturday after days of relentless shelling against protesters turned rebels."

How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awfully Famous is a new book we really needed. Author Georgia Bragg has gathered the gory stories behind the last days of 19 famous figures, all in one cleverly illustrated book.

It's not often that a newly elected senator goes rogue and delivers a stinging rebuke of the president of the United States — especially when they're both from the same party. Yet that's exactly what West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin did last week.

On Tuesday, the 63-year-old former governor of West Virginia, who now holds the seat of the late legendary Sen. Robert C. Byrd, rose on the Senate floor and held forth on the partisan battle over federal spending that's tied lawmakers in knots and threatened to shut down the government.

The annual music conference based in Austin, Texas, kicks off this coming Wednesday. It's the festival's 25th year, and some things have changed since it began.

For starters, there are more bands — a LOT more. Over 2000 bands will play on 90 stages. But for those bands, the goal is the same as ever: to play in front of as many hard core music fans as possible and try to make an impression before they overdose on five days of music.