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Neil Innes is a singer and songwriter who also was the guiding musical force behind the comedy team Monty Python. His humorous songs carry that peculiar British blend of absurdity and intelligence. Music journalist Ashley Kahn caught up with Innes on his recent American tour.

Producer David Harvey's new bluegrass album pays tribute to British '70s pop icons The Moody Blues. Bluegrass stars from Tim O'Brien and Alison Krauss to Stuart Duncan and Aubrey Haynie interpret "I'm Just a Singer in a Rock and Roll Band" and "Nights in White Satin," among others. Hear NPR's Steve Munro.

Harry Stephen Keeler wrote stupefyingly bad mystery novels in the first half of the 20th century. Now he's something of a literary cult figure. Hear "Keeler-head" Paul Collins and NPR's Scott Simon.

Refined Elizabethan music might not come to mind when you think of Sting. Think again. The rock star has released Songs of the Labyrinth, a new CD of songs for voice and lute by John Dowland, one of that era's most important composers.

The UPN TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer has its share of rabid fans. But it also enjoys a special following among academics, some of whom have staked a claim in what they call "Buffy Studies," analyzing the characters and underlying themes of teens battling supernatural monsters and their own human passions. NPR's Neda Ulaby reports on the future of "Buffy Studies" after Buffy's off the air.

Some rights activists have voiced concerns that the ban could increase Islamophobia in a country where violence and hate speech against Muslims have increased in recent years.

More than 500,000 copies of The Da Vinci Code have been sold in China. In particular, the book has been a hot item in Beijing.

Amid ongoing clashes between the army and militiamen in the Democratic Republic of Congo, thousands of people have taken refuge on two islands in a remote lake. Though life on the islands is difficult, the residents say they feel safer than in the villages where they were attacked.

A new book skewers today's mindless corporate culture via the e-mails of Martin Lukes, a fictitious, ambitious, forty-something middle manager who works for a company that makes nothing in particular.

In New York City, construction has begun on one of the most unusual and innovative parks in the nation. The High Line project will transform an abandoned railroad overpass that spans 22 blocks on Manhattan's West Side into an urban promenade of green parkland.