Bill Chappell

Browsing for a new book at Amazon now has a new meaning in Seattle, where instead of surfing the Web, customers can walk into the online retailer's first permanent storefront. Opening Tuesday morning, the shop shares a block with a Banana Republic and a Pottery Barn.

The news release touting ...

Facing their close rival Australia in the finals of the Rugby World Cup, New Zealand's All Blacks are now back-to-back champions, winning 34-17.

In addition to cementing New Zealand's status as the dominant force in rugby today, the historic win makes the All Blacks the first team to win three ...

Less than two years after being named Alabama's Teacher of the Year, Ann Marie Corgill resigned her post this week, citing her frustration with bureaucracy. After Corgill was moved from teaching second grade to fifth, she was told she wasn't qualified to teach fifth-graders.

In January, Corgill was named one ...

Months after a secular blogger was hacked to death in Bangladesh's capital, a publisher who published the writer's books has been killed. The attack came hours after men stabbed another of the blogger's publishers, along with two other writers.

Both of the publishers had published the writings of Aijit Roy, ...

A crowded club in Bucharest became the scene of tragedy Friday night, after a fire broke out, spreading flames and smoke and causing a panic among the young patrons. Romania's government has announced three days of mourning for the 27 people who died.

The blaze reportedly spread from the stage ...

A Russian aircraft carrying 217 passengers and seven crew members has crashed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, according to Egyptian authorities. The Airbus A321 lost contact with both Egyptian and Russian officials after it took off from Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on a flight to St. Petersburg, Russia.

The Russian Aviation Agency ...

Giving new detail to an operation that has been hinted at in recent days, the White House says President Obama has authorized the deployment of a small number of U.S. Special Operations Forces troops — fewer than 50 — to help fight ISIS in Syria.

The U.S. personnel will be ...

Responding to a U.S. request to turn over film director Roman Polanski to answer charges that he had sex with a minor in 1977, a court in Krakow, Poland, has denied the request. The court held months of hearings over the request; its decision could still be overturned.

The judge ...

For the first time, Iran is joining international talks on Syria's future, sending a team to meet with diplomats Friday in Vienna. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says he's hopeful about a process that he calls "very difficult."

Much of that difficulty lies in finding a solution to the ...

A teenage girl is believed to have contracted bubonic plague from a flea on a hunting trip, according to Oregon health officials. The Crook County girl got sick five days after the trip started on Oct. 16; she's been hospitalized in Bend, Ore., since Oct. 24.

Plague is an infectious ...

The U.S. State Department says it is looking into reports that an Iranian-American businessman has been detained by Iranian security forces, after The Wall Street Journal reported that Dubai-based Siamak Namazi was arrested at a Tehran airport.

Citing a family friend of Namazi's, The Washington Post reports that Namazi ...

Stories about classical music that appeared on NPR's website have been found to include portions of others' work, according to a joint statement by NPR and member station WQXR, where the writer of those reports was based. The 10 articles were submitted over a period of several years.

The stories ...

After more than 35 years, China has rescinded its law banning many families from having more than one child; all of them will now be allowed to have two. The shift comes as China faces low fertility rates and an aging trend in its population.

"China will allow all couples ...

After posting a gain of around $4 billion in the second quarter of 2015, Royal Dutch Shell says it lost more than $7.4 billion in the third quarter. Lower oil prices played a role, as did the costs Shell incurred when it shut down large-scale projects.

Faced with crude oil ...

In a wide-ranging interview, suspended FIFA President Sepp Blatter says the troubles for soccer's world governing body started with his rival Michel Platini — who Blatter says also helped to undermine a push to deliver the 2022 World Cup to the U.S., instead of to Qatar.

"The FIFA World Cup ...

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott has fired Senior Deputy Ben Fields over the white deputy's violent arrest of a black student at a South Carolina high school, which was filmed by several students. Lott said Fields broke department policy in the arrest.

"It's not what I expect from my deputies, ...

Reporting its first quarterly loss in at least 15 years, Volkswagen is adjusting its profits forecast for 2015. The company says its sales revenue rose — but that costs related to an emissions-cheating scandal overwhelmed earnings to finish at a $1.8 billion loss.

That $1.8 billion figure represents the after-tax ...

Drake's song "Hotline Bling" — and its related memes — reached an artistic culmination over the weekend, in a video mashup that pairs the catchy song with scenes of a gung-ho drama teacher performing a suite of interpretive dances for his class.

We'll discuss the video more below, but you ...

Updated 2:32 p.m. ET

Authorities are investigating a classroom incident between a white sheriff's deputy and a black high school student in Columbia, S.C., in which video shows the deputy, a school resource officer, flipping the female student's desk backward and dragging her to the ground.

The FBI agreed to ...

Turkey has acknowledged attacking a Kurdish militia group that has been a U.S. ally in the fight against ISIS, saying fighters had crossed into an off-limits area in Syria. Turkey also says it has attacked ISIS within its own borders.

The attacks underscore the complications the U.S. and its allies ...