Bill Chappell

We can't resist passing along the phenomenon that is Noah Ritter, a young man who's taking the Internet by storm. The 5-year-old's interview at Pennsylvania's Wayne County Fair is a wonder of stream-of-consciousness, sprinkled heavily with one word: "apparently."

Cutting a striking figure with his red hair and a green-and-white ...

The NBA now has its first full-time female assistant coach, as the San Antonio Spurs have hired WNBA star Becky Hammon to join their bench for the upcoming season. The move comes as Hammon says she'll retire after her current season playing for the San Antonio Stars.

"I'm just thrilled ...

Nearly three weeks after reports surfaced that Twenty-First Century Fox had made a spurned offer to purchase fellow media giant Time Warner, Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch confirms that the deal is off. The rejected price had been reported as $80 billion.

Instead of buying Time Warner, Twenty-First Century Fox ...

This post was last updated at 7 p.m. ET.

An attacker wearing an Afghan military uniform opened fire at service members of the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing a U.S. major general.

The officer's family has been notified of his death; his name is Harold Greene.

Army Chief ...

Good morning, here are our early stories:

-- As Truce Takes Effect, Israel Withdraws Troops From Gaza.

--Following Industry Trend, Gannett Will Split Newspaper, Broadcasting Divisions.

-- In U.K., A Cabinet Official Quits Government In Conflict Over Gaza.

And here are more early headlines:

Algae Problem That ...

Extremist group the Islamic State have seized small oil fields and several towns, in a successful push against Kurdish forces in northern Iraq. There are conflicting reports that they've also taken control of Iraq's largest dam. The militants are hoping to cement control of the border area between Iraq, Syria ...

It was early May 2007. Two friends, 16-year-old Christopher Horton and 20-year-old Brian Dean, were sitting on a porch on 23rd Steet and Orcutt Avenue in Newport News, Va., in the city's downtown neighborhood.

Someone walked up to the porch where they were sitting and opened fire with a handgun, ...

Months after a girl took the company to task for its female toy figures, Lego has released the Research Institute, a play set created by a "real-life geophysicist, Ellen Kooijman," the company says.

The set will let kids take on the roles of paleontologist, astronomer and chemist, using three female ...

Newport Folk Festival programmers like to close their lineups on a note of uplift; to send fans to the exits feeling elated and moved. On that front, they couldn't have done much better than the great Mavis Staples, whose titanic career has spanned more than 60 years. From ...

The National Guard is making water deliveries in Toledo, Ohio, where officials say the tap water isn't safe to drink even if it's been boiled. Gov. John Kasich has declared an emergency in the area, as officials await tests on levels of toxins that can cause flu-like symptoms and liver ...

Google has taken on its fair share of ambitious projects — digitizing millions and millions of books, mapping the whole world, pioneering self-driving cars. It's a company that doesn't shy away from grand plans.

But one recent effort, despite its rather lofty scope, has escaped much notice. The company is ...

This post was updated at 5 p.m. ET.

A 6.1-magnitude earthquake hit Yunnan Province Sunday afternoon, leveling buildings and rippling roads near the city of Zhaotong. News media in China are saying at least 367 people died in the quake, which struck in an area with old and vulnerable buildings.

An Israeli airstrike outside a U.N.-run school in Gaza killed at least 10 people Sunday, Palestinian health officials say. The attack came as Israel declares that a soldier believed to have been captured had actually died in battle.

Update at 7:35 p.m. ET: U.S. And U.N. Condemn Attack

Ray Guy, a gifted athlete who became the prototype of an NFL punter in the 1970s and 80s, is officially being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this weekend, becoming the first full-time punter ever invited into the institution in Canton, Ohio.

At 64, Guy's enshrinement ends more ...

The first of two American aid workers infected with the deadly Ebola virus in Liberia reportedly arrived in Atlanta today to begin treatment. Dr. Kent Brantly has been living in quarantine conditions since realizing he had been infected with the disease last month.

"The medical plane transporting American Ebola patient ...

Tired of seeing their neighborhood portrayed in news reports as a desolate and violent place, fifth-graders in Chicago's South Shore area wrote what their teacher calls a "counternarrative." Their op-ed for The Chicago Tribune includes this line: "This isn't Chi-raq. This is home. This is us."

The students attend ...

A day after they were to begin a cease-fire, Israel and Hamas are still firing at one another, in a conflict that has killed at least 1,650 Gazans, 63 Israeli soldiers and 3 Israeli civilians, according to tallies from the respective sides.

Those numbers surpass the estimated fatalities from the ...