Amid concerns about setbacks in the fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan, the White House has nominated a new commander of international forces in the country.

Lt. Gen. John "Mick" Nicholson, now a top NATO officer in Turkey, has been chosen to take over from the current commander, Gen. John ...

The twisted saga of the police officer who staged his suicide to look like a murder continues.

On Wednesday, the already complicated case of suburban Chicago police Officer Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz, who killed himself because he feared his embezzlement of city funds was about to be uncovered, took another ...

In a sign the armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge may be winding down, the FBI announced late Wednesday that eight people had left the compound. Five were released and three arrested.

The FBI said in a statement:

"All [three] were in contact with the FBI, and each ...

So, a Twitter spat between astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and rapper B.o.B over the flat Earth theory has turned into a full-blown rap battle (and it's way better than Drake vs. Meek Mill).

B.o.B, whom you might know from his hits "Airplanes," "Nothin' On You" and "Strange Clouds," kicked things ...

Abe Vigoda, the sunken-eyed character actor known for playing the treacherous Mafia boss Tessio in The Godfather and Detective Phil Fish in the TV series Barney Miller, died Tuesday at age 94.

Vigoda's daughter, Carol Vigoda Fuchs, confirmed that he died Tuesday morning in his sleep at her home in ...

The Doomsday Clock remains unchanged this year, at three minutes to midnight.

Managed by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the clock symbolizes how close humanity is to destroying itself, with midnight representing global apocalyptic disaster.

Despite the progress represented by the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris ...

On Monday, President Obama announced changes to the federal prison system that include banning solitary confinement for juvenile offenders and for prisoners who have committed low-level infractions, calling the practice overused and potentially devastating.

In an op-ed in The Washington Post, Obama invoked the case of Kalief Browder, a ...

A Texas grand jury investigating Planned Parenthood took no action against the abortion provider, but it indicted two anti-abortion activists involved in making covert videos of the organization.

According to a statement from Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson, the 232nd Grand Jury extensively reviewed the joint investigation into allegations ...

Florida State University has settled with Erica Kinsman for $950,000, after she accused former FSU quarterback Jameis Winston of raping her in late 2012 when they were both students. He now plays for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The settlement, which also commits the university to five years of sexual assault ...

The National Football League signed a five-year, $400 million contract with Microsoft in 2013 that gives teams custom Microsoft Surface tablets to use in training and, more importantly, on the sidelines during nationally televised games.

Coaches and players use the tablets to review plays and analyze data in real ...

#NPRreads is a weekly feature on Twitter and on The Two-Way. The premise is simple: Correspondents, editors and producers from our newsroom share the pieces that have kept them reading, using the #NPRreads hashtag. Each weekend, we highlight some of the best stories.

From Morning Edition editor Chinita Anderson:

Prompted by a recent death in South Carolina, federal regulators have recalled five million vehicles with defective Takata air bags, which have injured more than 100 U.S. drivers.

The brands recalled include Ford, Volkswagen, Audi and Mercedes Benz.

NPR's Sonari Glinton reported on what happened: "It was an accident in ...

Following criticism over the lack of diversity in this year's Oscar nominations, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has voted to approve changes aimed at doubling the number of women and people of color in its membership by 2020.

The board of governors unanimously approved a series of ...

We've all seen a police car chase that ends with a fiery crash, but what about one that ends with a flock of sheep?

In Queenstown, New Zealand, police got some unexpected help as they chased a car full of purported thieves. Flashing lights and road spikes failed to stop ...

Florida's Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys was a horror tale come to life.

"There's just too many stories," Roger Kiser, who was at the school in the 1950s, told NPR in 2012. "I know of one [boy] that I personally saw die in the bathtub that had been beaten ...

Grace Coddington, the longtime creative director at American Vogue, will be shifting to a new role at the magazine — creative director at-large — as she pursues outside projects. The 74-year-old stylist began her career in fashion as a model and was hired by Vogue editor Anna Wintour in 1988 ...

Nearly all of Detroit's public schools were closed Wednesday after teachers called in sick, en masse, to protest poor school conditions. The latest "sickout" comes a day after Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's State of the State address, in which he did not directly address teachers' protests or school conditions.

Teacher ...

New satellite images of St. Elijah's Monastery, located in the ISIS-held city of Mosul, no longer show a neatly chiseled, square parcel of land, complete with walls and buildings built into a hill.

All that can be seen of the Christian monastery, parts of which are 1,400 years old, is ...

Embattled Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said Tuesday of the water contamination crisis in the city of Flint, "I am sorry; we will fix this." Snyder addressed the debacle in his State of the State address.

Snyder is facing calls for his resignation over claims that he mishandled the crisis, in ...

No. 5 seed Rafael Nadal lost in the first round of the Australian Open to fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco in a five-set thriller on Tuesday. It's only the second first-round loss in a major tournament for the former world No. 1, and the upset was the headline of the tournament ...