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Nigeria is again gripped by deadly religious violence. Friday night, a coordinated series of bomb and gun attacks ripped through the largest city in the nation's Muslim north. The attacks were claimed by a militant sect that seeks to impose Islamic law in Nigeria. Host Scott Simon speaks with NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton.

Last week, we spoke with Clay Johnson, an open-source advocate and digital strategist, about his new book, "The Information Diet: A Case for Conscious Consumption." We looked at the confusing copyrights of karaoke music and the Richard Strauss masterwork, Also Sprach Zarathustra, otherwise known as the film score for 2001: A Space Odyssey. Host Scott Simon reads listener comments on these stories and more.

Debris from the tsunami that hit Japan last March is just now starting to show up on the far northwestern shores of the U.S. Some fishermen are worried the floats and other rubble may tangle their nets and affect their livelihood. Ashley Ahearn of the public media collaboration EarthFix headed out to Washington State's Olympic Peninsula to see what's coming ashore.

The actor's latest character is no Batman. In The Flowers of War, Bale plays a Dust Bowl refugee caught in one of the most horrific events in China's modern history, the Nanjing Massacre. Bale says the role was a rare opportunity to experience a completely different filmmaking culture.

Once the language of Christ, Aramaic is slowly dying. A recent article in Smithsonian magazine outlines what one linguist and his colleagues are doing to document and preserve what was once the lingua franca of the entire Middle East.

Thousands of women were taken into Magdalene Laundries, run by the Catholic Church, and forced to work without pay. The practice went on for decades after Ireland's independence, with the last one closing in 1996. For the first time, the state has acknowledged and apologized for its role in facilitating the practice.

Playing frozen instruments requires lots of improvisation. Norwegian musician Terje Isungset has a new set for every performance, freshly made to get the most sound out of each instrument before it melts.

Singer Etta James died Friday. She started belting out gospel in church as a little girl, made her first pop record as a teenager, became Chess Records' first female R&B star and released her last album just a few months ago. Writer Gwendolyn Thompkins grew up listening to James and has this remembrance.

Clemson University political scientist Dave Woodard has spent the past week polling South Carolina voters ahead of Saturday's primary. Host Scott Simon talks to the former Republican political consultant about South Carolina politics and the results of his Palmetto Poll.

Michael McFaul has been a key figure in the Obama administration's attempt to reset relations with Russia. Now he has become the ambassador, but relations with Moscow are still rocky as the countries differ on several big issues.