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Colm Toibin reads from his new collection of poetry, "Vinegar Hill," and answers questions from Scott Simon.

Scott Simon speaks with Hal Brands, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, about how the U.S. should handle the emerging alliance between China and Russia.

Ukraine is still reeling from a missile attack at a crowded train station in the eastern part of the country. At least 50 people were killed in the attack and about 100 are injured.

The birds are singing, the flowers are blooming and May Day is soon upon us. But somehow Jim Nayder, the Annoying Music Man, finds a way to spoil the beauty of it all. On Weekend Edition Saturday, Nayder shares some terrible recordings he considers appropriate for May Day with NPR's Linda Wertheimer.

NPR's Robert Siegel talks with Jon Lee Anderson about his Letter from Baghdad in the May 5th issue of the New Yorker. In his article entitled "Saddam's Ear," Anderson describes two men living a paradox in post-Saddam Iraq. Both were in the inner circle of the Hussein regime and lived in fear and admiration of Saddam. One of the men is Dr. Ala Bashir, plastic surgeon and artist, who knew Saddam as someone who was calm and a good listener, and who would have become a great actor if he'd ever gone to Hollywood. Yet, Bashir says he knows Saddam was a dictator and murderer.

In the final of four stories marking the 50th anniversary of DNA's discovery, NPR's Jon Hamilton reports that genetic causes of mental illness have proved illusive to find. As scientists began to understand how genetic material controls the human body, they were confident that such research could help unlock the secrets of the brain, but that hasn't happened.

DNA is not just an instruction book for the present and something to pass on to future generations -- it is also a record of our genetic past. No longer do researchers look for clues to human history merely in fossil bones and stone tools, they also seek "genetic fossils" in the DNA of living peoples. NPR's David Baron talks to University of Maryland researcher Sarah Tishkoff, who, by studying DNA and mitochondrial DNA, has revealed some of the most detailed clues yet to humankind's origins.

On a Navy hospital ship in the Persian Gulf, the USNS Comfort, American doctors often need translation help to understand their injured Iraqi charges. Lt. Ramzey Azar, an environmental health officer on the Comfort, is of Lebanese origin and often assists in translating. This is Lt. Azar's NPR War Diary.

As the war in Iraq progressed, NPR's Anne Garrels was the only U.S. network reporter to continue broadcasting from the heart of Baghdad. Her reports, delivered on a smuggled satellite phone, took listeners through some terrible times. Now safely back home in Connecticut, Garrels recalls her time covering the war in an interview with NPR's Susan Stamberg. Hear an extended version of the interview.

Shoba Narayan has written about her journey from southern India to the United States in her new book Monsoon Diary: A Memoir with Recipes, celebrating food, family ties and Indian culture. View a video of Narayan demonstrating the correct way to cook vegetable dosa, and get recipes for some of the other dishes featured in Lynn Neary's report.