Obama outlined the next phase of counterterrorism efforts, detailing tighter standards for the use of unmanned drone strikes and making the case for closing Guantanamo Bay.

The Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River at Mount Vernon in Washington has collapsed, dumping vehicles and people into the water.

The author of “Where’d You Go, Bernadette” calls Franzen her “big daddy” — “My favorite kind of book is a domestic drama that’s grounded in reality yet slightly unhinged.”    

A new film recalls how, 50 years ago, Hannah Arendt’s “Eichmann in Jerusalem” set off furious debates and coined the phrase “the banality of evil.”    

Janet Frame was saved from undergoing a lobotomy when a book of her stories won a local literary prize.    

In the eyes of Patrick White’s two refugee children, most Australians are horrible and very few are kind.    

The National Institute of Mental Health has distanced itself from the “D.S.M.,” the so-called bible of psychiatry, the fifth edition of which is published this week.    

The poet Christian Wiman ruminates on his incurable illness and his return to Christian belief.    

Amid entanglements between Russia and young Americans, a first novel explores the sense of betrayal in the loss of family and friends.    

Gail Godwin’s novel is populated almost exclusively by orphans of various stripes.    

Paperback books of particular interest.    

Recently reviewed books of particular interest.    

Some Russians say literature had more political power when it was forbidden.    

Walter Mosley is never better than when he’s got a juicy cut of history to chew on — this time the late ’60s.    

Curator Emily Braun advised Leonard Lauder on the cubist collection he just donated to the Met.

The Boy Scouts of America have decided to allow gay youth to openly join its ranks, reversing a longtime ban.

William Dalrymple seeks contemporary lessons in Britain’s disastrous 19th-century invasion of Afghanistan.    

Amanda Knox tells her story of being charged with murder in Italy.    

Insured losses from the tornadoes and severe storms that struck a large swath of the U.S. this week could reach $5 billion, according to the disaster-modeling company Eqecat.

The online exhibit “What Jane Saw” allows viewers to peruse a London gallery as Jane Austen saw it in 1813.