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The United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan is calling for an immediate halt in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah guerillas in Lebanon. Annan told the U.N. Security Council that a cessation of hostilities would "give diplomacy the chance to work out a practical package of actions."

An anti-tank mine in Iraq blew up Sgt. Joe Fowler's Humvee, leaving him with broken bones and burns over 50 percent of his body. His recovery at the Pentagon's only burn treatment center is painful and frustrating. But he has goals: to stay strong for his family, and to get back on his mountain bike.

Silenceofthecity.com is a Web site that accepts rejected submissions to The New Yorker magazine's Talk of the Town section. Mac Montandon is the sites founder. He's also a writer, editor, and longtime Talk of the Town reject himself. Montandon talks to Scott Simon.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour has criticized the rising civilian death toll in the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel. She talks to John Ydstie about the suggestion that killing on both sides may involve war crimes.

New techniques are allowing companies to create big, brilliant white diamonds like the kind found in a traditional engagement ring. But the traditional diamond industry is fighting back with technology they say that can distinguish a man-made gem from the real thing.

We should all look as good as Nora Ephron does at 65, but she's not crazy about getting older. The good news is that she expounds upon aging and other issues with trademark dry wit in a new book of essays: I Feel Bad About My Neck.

Naheed Phiroze Patel's debut novel Mirror Made of Rain is out in the U.S. this week.

The Syrian government and people have welcomed Lebanese evacuees from the Israel-Hezbollah fighting with open arms, despite a strained relationship between the two countries. For the moment, their differences has been forgotten as Lebanese stream into Damascus.

The Saudi government has condemned Hezbollah for fomenting the latest round of violence, but many Saudis disagree with their government's position. Saudis vacationing in Zabadani, Syria, weigh in on the latest Mideast crisis and their government's diplomatic position.

During WWII, hundreds of prisoners in the Terezin concentration camp in Czechoslovakia performed Verdi's Requiem as a way to passively defy their Nazi captors. On Sunday, American musicians performed the same requiem in the former Nazi camp as a tribute to Terezin's victims and survivors.