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At the 77th annual Academy Awards, director Martin Scorsese's The Aviator won the most Oscars -- five, but Clint Eastwood's film Million Dollar Baby took prizes for best picture, best director, best supporting actor, Morgan Freeman, and best actress, Hilary Swank. Jamie Foxx won the Oscar as best actor for his portrayal of Ray Charles in Ray.

Arthur Miller, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright whose six-decade career gave America some of its most memorable stage dramas died Thursday night. Miller was best known for his 1949 play, Death of a Salesman, the tragic story of an American working man at the end of his rope.

Pulitzer Prize winning author Annie Dillard offers a commentary on the unimaginable number of lives claimed by last week's tsunami. She asks how can we remind ourselves that the thousands of victims were individuals with lives and loved ones and not just faceless statistics.

NPR's Jacki Lyden reads from Nobel prize-winning author Pearl S. Buck's children's book The Big Wave — a story of a tsunami and its aftermath, set in Japan.

A new anthology of fiction was published on World AIDS Day in response to the global epidemic. Conceived and edited by Nobel Prize-winning novelist Nadine Gordimer, Telling Talesfeatures stories from 21 distinguished authors. All profits will go to medical and advocacy programs on AIDS. NPR's Jennifer Ludden speaks with Gordimer.

Lily Tuck's novel of 19th century Paraguay wins the National Book Award for fiction. Tuck, awarded the prize for her novel The News From Paraguay, was one of five New York women authors nominated for the fiction award. Kevin Boyle won the nonfiction prize for Arc of Justice and Jean Valentine's Door in the Mountain won in the poetry category. Hear NPR's Lynn Neary.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died Thursday in a French hospital at age 75. Arafat helped found the Palestine Liberation Organization and dedicated much of his life to fighting for an independent Palestinian homeland. Arafat's funeral will be held Friday in Egypt. He'll be buried Saturday in Ramallah. Hear NPR's Jennifer Ludden.

Yasser Arafat, who for four decades symbolized the struggle for a Palestinian homeland, has died in a hospital near Paris. The Palestinian leader was 75.

Wangari Maathai, a little-known environmental activist from Kenya, was awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize. It was a surprise, but Maathai says the Nobel committee was able to see the connection between her work with the Green Belt Movement and the pursuit of peace. NPR's Jason Beaubien reports.

This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry will be split by two scientists from the Israel Institute of Technology and an American from the University of California, Irvine. They discovered how living cells carefully select the materials inside them that need to be broken down and recycled. NPR's Renee Montagne talks to NPR's Richard Harris.