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Today marks the last installment -- for now, anyway -- of the National Story Project with writer Paul Auster and NPR's Jacki Lyden. But eventhough the National Story Project is on hiatus from broadcast we welcome your story submissions on-line. You can email those to nationalstoryproject@npr.org.

Seismologists who have been studying tectonic plates beneath India were surprised by the location of the earthquake, because it happened in an area where fault lines had not been detected. As a result of the earthquake, the new seismographic information could have both scientific and political consequences. Host Lisa Simeone speaks with Jeffrey Park, professor of geology and geophysics at Yale University.

Voters began lining up four hours early to hear Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush give a speech in Saginaw, Michigan this afternoon. Most had heard about the news about Bush's arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol 24 years ago. But NPR's Don Gonyea reports, for Bush supporters, the news made little difference.

Attorney General John Ashcroft took office amid controversy over his hard-line social conservatism. But events have conspired to give him unusual public exposure -- and popularity. NPR's Mara Liasson reports for All Things Considered. Also, in a Web-exclusive analysis, NPR Washington Editor Ron Elving puts Ashcroft's remarkable tenure into a historical context.

Ten coordinated explosions tear through trains and stations along a commuter line in Spain, killing at least 190 people and wounding 1,200 others at the height of Madrid's morning rush hour. Spain's interior minister says a van has been found near Madrid that contained seven detonators and a tape in Arabic. Jerome Socolovsky reports from Madrid.

If you're confused about how the former Yugoslavia dissolved after the fall of communism, you're not alone. The country was melded together after World War I from six major Slavic groups and its post-communism breakup has largely followed ethnic lines. Michele Norris has a primer on the new states created in the Balkans since 1989.

Almost every sports fan has filled out a bracket before the NCAA men's basketball tournament. What if instead of a tourney of college hoops teams, you had a bracket of memorable speech lines, or greatest Jewish baseball players or, well, just about anything? What you get is The Final Four of Everything by editors Mark Reiter and Richard Sandomir.

There they are, up on the power line, side by side by side by side by side. Starlings, each one like the other — rubber-stamped birds, a mob (or murmuration) of indecipherably similar critters, always the same, sitting or flying. But wait! What if there's such a thing as an Exceptional Starling? I think I've found one (or maybe ... four!), hiding in a video.

NPR's Robert Siegel interviews Kurdish Regional Government Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani about how the drop in oil prices, the influx of refugees and the fight against ISIS is causing economic devastation for the Kurdish population in Iraq. Kurdish forces were holding the line across a 650-mile front against ISIS, but have not been paid for the last five months.

E.S.T.'s Esbjorn Svensson, who died June 16, blurred the line between jazz and classical music, sometimes even leaping over both genres. Here, the forward-thinking group plays a three-song set at the North Sea Jazz Festival, recorded by Radio Netherlands, with guitarist Anton Goudsmit's Latin-influenced Ploctones opening.

Work is nothing more than eight hours of stress, with a lunch break in the middle. You find it's getting easier than ever to fly off the handle, even when the cause is as benign as a lack of hazelnut creamer in the coffee line. Don't reach for the Alka-Seltzer or Prozac. Instead, these five tunes will ease your toughest day on the job just fine.

Closing arguments in the Department of Justice's lawsuit to block AT&T from buying Time Warner were heard Monday. The trial marks the first time in 40 years the Justice Department has sued to block a merger between companies in different lines of business. NPR's Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Wall Street Journal telecom reporter Drew FitzGerald.

As senators campaign hard for positions in the new Senate leadership line-up, members of both parties are pessimistic about their ability to achieve any substantive legislation in the rest of this Congress. There's no indication that the squabbling over the minimum wage and the gas tax will be resolved, while legislation on welfare, Medicaid, immigration, campaign finance reform, and insurance reform remains unfinished. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports.

Linda talks to Jacob Weisberg, Chief Political Correspondent for the on-line magazine "Slate," about the production values of the convention -- how the message is packaged and produced, with music and videos and other techniques designed for the television viewers. He says the Republicans offered a sleek production. The Democrats are always a little more chaotic. (4:30) The internet address for Slate is http://slate.msn.com/

Oliver North, key figure in the Iran Contra affair, radio talk show host, and failed Senate candidate, was out today trying to interest a convention of law enforcement professional in his company's spring line of protective gear. He's marketing something called Gold Shield - a composite of the latest technologies - said by North, to be the strongest material there is for such use. NPR's Art Silverman reports.

NPR's Guy Raz reports that this past weekend some ten thousand European fans converged on Berlin for a country/western music festival. Germans -- long fascinated with the American West -- are among Europe's most avid devotees of country/western. {The festival this weekend featured German language bands, line dancing, and performers in Indian headdresses attempting to re-create Native American dances.}

A leading figure in Iraq's interim governing council dies five days after she was wounded by gunmen outside her home. Aquila al-Hashimi died Thursday of organ failure at a U.S. military hospital in Baghdad. A Shiite Muslim, she was one of three women on the 25-member council, and was in line to represent Iraq at the United Nations. Hear NPR's Emily Harris.

The Airborne Toxic Event's self-titled debut is extremely catchy and energetic guitar rock filled with hooks and radio-ready melodies. The music falls in line with that of fellow new wave and post-punk revivalists such as Interpol, Hot Hot Heat, and Franz Ferdinand. The group's aggressive, jagged rock sound keeps the music edgy while harnessing elements of dance and brit-pop to be immediately accessible.

Where is the line between what is real and what is imaginary? It seems like an easy question to answer: if you can see it, hear it, or touch it, then it's real, right? But what if this way of thinking is limiting one of the greatest gifts of the mind? This week, we meet people who experience the invisible as real, and learn how they hone their imaginations to see the world with new eyes.

With its moody progressions and strange, melancholic lyrics, You Can Have What You Want is certainly darker and more otherworldly than its 2007 predecessor. In the very opening lines, Jason Quever, the driving force behind Papercuts, refers to Earth as a "distant dream," which establishes a pervading ethereal mood that is a perfect match for Quever's hazy, melodic vocals and the distantly dreamy instrumentation