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The U.S. unemployment rate surged far higher and has remained higher than in other major industrial countries. It's now at 9.6 percent. The big shift came when American companies cut workers more aggressively than foreign firms in the face of the financial crisis.

In 2011, Jessica Buchanan, an aid worker in Somalia, was kidnapped by land pirates. For 93 days she fought off despair while her husband, Erik Landemalm, wondered if he'd ever see her again. In a two-part interview, Buchanan and Landemalm recall Buchanan's capture and her dramatic rescue by Navy SEALs.

In November, Maine voters will decide on a ballot initiative that would legalize same-sex marriage. Canvassers are trying to drum up support for the initiative, though opponents say they are sure they have enough support to vote it down.

In Peter Heller's debut novel, The Dog Stars, a man named Hig survives a superflu that kills most of humanity. Heller, a travel and adventure writer, says that when his novel took a post-apocalyptic turn, he found himself relying on his real-life scrapes and survival skills.

A powerful earthquake struck Christchurch, one of New Zealand's biggest cities, Tuesday at the height of a busy workday, toppling tall buildings and churches, crushing buses and killing at least 75 people in one of the country's worst natural disasters.

Michael Charry's new biography captures the power Szell brought to the Cleveland Orchestra, as well as his tempestuous personality.

Author Hortense Calisher once called the short story "an apocalypse in a teacup." Critic Jane Ciabattari presents her favorite mini-apocalypses of 2012, from veteran authors like Sherman Alexie to newcomer Claire Vaye Watkins, who combines a unique voice and a shadowed family history in her debut collection.

The Lee bothers, Matt and Ted, have written two cookbooks about Southern cuisine, but now they've turned their attention to a more specific region: Charleston, the city they grew up in. Their new book contains recipes and stories from a seafood-centric community with a rich culinary history.

Michigan's demographics and recent polling suggest there is a real possibility that Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney will each get 15 of the state's 30 delegates.

The vaccination rate for measles, mumps and rubella fell about 3 percentage points for 2-year-olds in 2009. Insurers said paranoia about side effects are to blame for the decline. Still, more than 90 percent of the children got MMR shots.

Who says humor books can't be serious? Critic Heller McAlpin recommends some light but not weightless reads on mostly modern dilemmas: the pitfalls of class snobbery, what to do with those expensive higher degrees, the challenges of long marriages, and why otherwise rational women wear high heels.

It's a strategy some countries have adopted to boost falling fertility rates. Here's why it often fails.