American author and poet Maya Angelou, who is best known for her groundbreaking autobiography "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," has died at age 86 in North Carolina, her publisher confirmed on Wednesday.  "Dr. Angelou was a national treasure whose life and teachings inspired millions around the world, including countless students, faculty, and staff at Wake Forest, where she served as Reynolds Professor of American Studies since 1982," the university said in a statement.

Jim Brown: A couple of things: First of all, rock 'n' roll had been outlawed in the beginning in the Soviet Union. In a way--and I'm making a larger film about this--rock 'n' roll became a way to protest the government and to stick up for individualism. It gathered crowds, the Soviet Union wasn't into religion or anything that gathered crowds other than their own communist politics.

In his commencement address at West Point, Obama will ask Congress to support a new Counterterrorism Partnerships Fund (CTPF), a White House release said. The United States is setting up a $5 billion “terrorism partnership fund” to help other countries push back against radical extremists, President Obama will announce Wednesday. “It will allow us to pursue a more sustainable and effective approach to combating terrorism that focuses on empowering and enabling our partners around the globe,” the release said.

A model apartment is opening this week at the Baccarat Hotel and Residences, a 50-story tower under development on West 53rd Street and Fifth Avenue, across from the Museum of Modern Art. Singapore-based Pontiac Land Group is joining with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Hines to construct a 72-story condo tower on the same block. Farther east, China Vanke Co., China’s biggest publicly traded developer, is working with Aby Rosen’s RFR Holding LLC on a 61-story building on Lexington Avenue.

The Afghan people have an opportunity now to build on the progress that's been made, to achieve a more secure, more prosperous, and more peaceful future. President Obama has made it clear that as they do, the United States will stand with them.

Each fall, thousands of students from South Korea arrive on American campuses. They come from a culture that views education as the key to success, where mothers and fathers save to send their children overseas. Recently however, after years of robust enrollment increases, graduate applications from South Korea to American colleges have fallen off; and last year the number of South Korean undergraduates in the United States also dropped. Fewer South Koreans study in the United States now than did five years ago.

Recent tensions over cyber espionage and the South China Sea have brought out areas of disagreement in U.S.-China relations.  And yet, even as the U.S. and China trade barbs over these issues, they are stepping up their cooperation on a problem of global significance: climate change

 More than 1,000 teams have been in Knoxville the last four days participating in the world's largest creative thinking and problem solving competition. Kids from 42 states and 16 countries finished the Global Finals 2014 Saturday night, hosted by Destination Imagination. The teams were given challenges and had to find ways to solve them using skills like science, math, technology, and writing, theater arts, writing, and project management.