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Some are calling it "the trial of century." In New Orleans Monday, dozens of lawyers will pack into a federal courtroom to argue over BP's civil liability from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Millions of barrels of oil fouled beaches from Texas to Florida. Billions of dollars are at stake.

In fiction, Peter Cameron's complicated romance, Mohammed Hanif's tale of unwelcome inheritance, Kathryn Harrison's historical drama, and Stephen Dau's bildungsroman arrive in paperback. In softcover nonfiction, James Fallows documents the rise of China's aerospace industry.

A two term Republican senator from Nebraska, Hagel will become the first Vietnam veteran to head the U.S. Department of Defense.

Outgoing Benedict XVI will be referred to as "His Holiness" and carry the title of "pope emeritus," the Vatican says.

A new study on bullying shows that people who were bullied have higher rates of psychiatric illness as adults. Host Michel Martin speaks with the study's lead author, William Coleman of Duke University, and bullying expert Rosalind Wiseman.

Civilization cannot live on anchovies alone. The ancient Norte Chico people of Peru were long thought to have built a complex society in South America while dining on a diet based on the tiny fish. But archaeologists now say they ate the food that fueled empires throughout the hemisphere — corn.

The House speaker wants senators to act. The top Senate Republican says it's time to work on a compromise. And the Republican National Committee says the cuts would be "negligible compared to Obama's disastrous fiscal record."

Syria is one of the most important backers of the powerful Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. If the Assad regime falls, Hezbollah will face an uncertain future. New Yorker staff writer Dexter Filkins discusses what shifts in Syria could mean for the future of the Middle East.

A government agency in Quebec, Canada, has come under intense criticism after attempting to get pasta stricken from a restaurant's menu. The move had nothing to do with the food: Officials said Italian words such as pasta, calamari, and antipasto should be replaced with French words.

We're living in an age obsessed with authenticity, says linguist Geoff Nunberg, but we often choose to nitpick the wrong details. Whether it's Downton Abbey, Mad Men, Lincoln or Argo, Nunberg argues, a historical novel or screenplay should give us a translation, not a transcription.