Latest From NPR

Nigerian Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie might be Africa's best-known young writer, but she's now making a big mark this side of the Atlantic.

A former MacArthur genius, her TED talk "We Should All Be Feminists" was sampled by Beyonce. A film based on her novel Half of a Yellow Sun will be out this summer. And she's just won a prestigious National Book Critics Circle award for her latest novel Americanah.

As increasingly confident Republican leaders predict big midterm election gains, the head of Democratic National Committee put on her game face Tuesday and insisted the party will hold control of the Senate.

The Democrats' grass-roots organization, said Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and what she characterized as the GOP's continuing alienation of women, minority, LGBT and middle-class voters, bodes well for her party this fall.

Many plans sold on the health insurance marketplaces offer a trade-off: lower premiums in exchange for limited choices of doctors and hospitals. But consumers who opt for these plans with the idea that they'll go out of network when necessary may be taking a big financial risk.

The health law generally limits how much consumers can be required to pay out of pocket for medical care (not including premiums). In 2014, the limit for an individual plan is $6,350 and for a family plan, $12,700.

Chechen separatist leader Doku Umarov, whose attacks on Russian civilians earned him the nickname "Russia's Bin Laden," is dead, according to an insurgency website.

However, it's worth noting that this is not the first time Umarov's death has been announced.

The BBC reports via Kavkaz Center, the main website of Russia's Islamic militants, that Umarov "became a martyr," but had no further details.

When the news of a lifetime finally arrived at their door, Stanford physicist Andrei Linde and his wife wondered aloud if one of them was expecting a delivery.

This post was updated at 4:09 p.m. ET.

Old wrongs were righted Tuesday afternoon, as The Associated Press says, when President Obama awarded the Medal of Honor to 24 Army veterans.

Headaches may be the most common human malady, accounting for one-quarter of all doctor visits.

It's almost always just a headache. But what if it's a brain tumor? Shouldn't I get a CT scan or MRI exam just to make sure?

Evidently I'm not alone in that thought. People in the United States get $1 billion worth of brain scans each year because they have a headache, according to researchers at the University of Michigan.

The search continues for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and the 239 people on board. They disappeared on March 8 when the jet apparently turned west while over the Gulf of Thailand. It was on a flight that should have taken it from Kuala Lumpur north to Beijing.

Now, a search that stretches far to the south in the Indian Ocean to far to the north in Central Asia is underway. The area covers more than 3 million square miles.

Tuesday's headlines help highlight the latest developments:

We updated this post as Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke and other leaders reacted.

Wasting no time and showing no sign that he's concerned about Western objections or economic sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea on Tuesday.