In 2011, during his long five-year vigil, waiting helplessly at home while his son was held by Taliban extremists half a world away, Bob Bergdahl made a personal video for the Pakistani government that he hoped would be delivered to his boy, Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.“These are my thoughts. I can remain silent no longer,” the father began...

Maureen Dowd is off today, recovering...

Astronomers have discovered a surprising planet, a rocky world with 17 times the mass of Earth. There have been “Super-Earths” discovered before, but this one is in a league of its own. The scientists call it a “Mega-Earth.”...

That evening, more than a hundred poetry fans — most of them in their 20s, most of them clutching cans of bargain beer — crowded into a corner of a 12,000-square-foot wood-and-metal shop as Lockwood began a 12-minute romp of a poem called “The Father and Mother of American Tit-Pics."

Lockwood is all large eyes, apple cheeks and pixie haircut — like an early Disney creation, perhaps a woodland creature; one of her fans recently rendered her as a My Little Pony...

A 33-foot-high statue became a mute yet powerful actor in the final drama on Tiananmen Square in 1989, reinvigorating the student protests and infuriating Communist Party leaders who crushed the demonstrations, and the statue, five days after its birth...

So how did the Rangers get to where they are? For a long time, the general manager Glen Sather’s idea has been that you put together a decent season and make the playoffs, and then it’s anyone’s chance to win, since you can’t predict injuries or bad luck or team dyspepsia. This is parity hockey...

While the bookseller and publisher are battling over mundane business specifics, the state of publishing hangs in the balance...

Over the past several months, what started as a quiet trade dispute has intensified and become public as the largest bookseller in the world, Amazon, and one of the biggest publishers, Hachette, battle over their next contract...

You already know that Dr. Maya Angelou's life was too rich and vibrant to be summarized -- indeed, her vast wealth of experiences filled seven iconic memoirs. But her journey was more fascinating than you could ever imagine. Here are just a few of the moments that made up her life...

Seeking ever-higher payments from publishers to bolster its anemic bottom line, Amazon is holding books and authors hostage on two continents by delaying shipments and raising prices. The literary community is fearful and outraged — and practically begging for government intervention.

“How is this not extortion? You know, the thing that is illegal when the Mafia does it,” asked Dennis Loy Johnson of Melville House, echoing remarks being made across social media...

No matter how many troops President Obama keeps in Afghanistan, or how fast they leave, it’ll be the Afghan forces that keep the country together—and its special operations troops that provide the teeth. These troops have learned to perform the hard way: under fire by insurgents—and sometimes by their own government—for working alongside the Americans. Those combined stresses have ironically forced the elite forces to become more independent faster....