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Joe Gutierrez, a 41-year veteran of the steel mills, has some stories to tell. He's one of the writers in a new book of short stories and poems penned by steelworkers.

It turns out that migrating birds like to fly in a V-formation because they get more miles per gallon that way. NPR's David Kestenbaum reports that scientists writing in this week's Nature studied the aerodynamics of tame pelicans. The birds liked to fly along behind the researchers' boat.

NPR's Gerry Hadden reports from Honduras on the effect that the severe drought in Central America has had on crops. The government's help has been minimally effective, and even with support from aid groups like the Red Cross, peasants are pressed to figure out how to survive until the next harvest.

In the last installment of our series on Emerging Southern Artists, Melanie Peeples profiles 37-year-old writer Melanie Sumner. Ambivalent about growing up in the south, Sumner recently completed a comic novel, The School of Beauty and Charm. The book satirizes life in small towns, including organized religion, and lampoons many values that Sumner's parents instilled in her as she was growing up.

Women make up 90 percent of patients needing foot surgery -- and fashionable shoes may be the biggest cause. NPR's Lisa Simeone reports on two women who are working to close the gap between style and sensible shoes.

The caste system remains in India, even though "untouchability" is banned by the Indian constitution. The estimated 160 million dalits, or untouchables in India still face discrimination.

The Iraqi Interior Ministry is investigating the case of 22 men dressed in Iraqi police commando uniforms and holding a Sunni prisoner who said they were going to execute him. The incident follows numerous reports of abductions throughout Iraq of Sunnis by men dressed in police uniforms.

Tensions between the United States and Mexico remain high after the shooting death of an illegal immigrant at the border last month. The incident comes as the U.S. Congress prepares to debate a proposal to build a new 700-mile fence along the border.

Protests continue against the rule of the King Gyanendra of Nepal. The king's announcement last week that he's willing to turn over power to a prime minister has done little to quiet demands for democracy and a new constitution for the Himalayan kingdom.

Lee Boyd Malvo testifies at the trial of sniper John Allen Muhammad. Malvo was previously convicted as Muhammad's accomplice in a series of 2002 Washington-area sniper killings. He tells the court how Muhammad trained him to commit the crime. Muhammad is on trial in Maryland on six murder charges. He has already been sentenced to death in Virginia.