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Once exiled for 12 years, the Uruguayan author now spends his days at his hometown cafe, writing about themes that have preoccupied him for a lifetime. His latest book, Mirrors, is an unofficial — and unconventional — history of the past 5,000 years.

Both major candidates for president of Afghanistan claim to be leading the vote count, as stories of violence and intimidation at polling places continue to emerge. Guy Raz speaks with Jean MacKenzie, a correspondent for GlobalPost.com and the director for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting in Afghanistan, about the election and its aftermath.

In the winter of 1077, German King Henry IV trudged through a snowy mountain pass in the Italian Alps. Historian Tom Holland, author of a new book about the turn of the millennium, calls the journey "an episode as fateful as any in Europe's history."

The Taliban in Pakistan appear to be on the defensive. The challenge for Pakistan's government and military is how to consolidate some recent gains. The U.S. is urging Pakistan to press ahead, but the Pakistanis say that's not as easy as it sounds.

Books about music are notoriously poor at describing the abstraction and subtlety of a melody, but these three books sing like the real thing.

Leaders in Pakistan are watching the presidential election in Afghanistan on Thursday very closely. The two countries are neighbors, but they've not always been friends. That's largely because of the activities of Taliban insurgents in the mountains that straddle their border.

Getting ready for one last trip to the beach? Have a long plane ride coming up? Or are you just ready to become engrossed in a good book? Try these mysteries you may have missed.

On a remote fjord in northwest Greenland, traditional Inuit hunting techniques are being used to stick tiny, high-tech satellite tracking devices onto narwhals — a kind of Arctic whale famous for its long, spiral unicorn horn.

A disciplinary trial could end the career of Texas Court of Appeals Judge Sharon Keller who refused to keep her court open past 5 p.m. for a last-minute appeal by a death row inmate. The inmate was executed hours later. Chuck Lindell, a reporter for the Austin American-Statesman who is covering the trial, offers his insight.

Newspapers are in trouble, and many Web sites, blogs and cable news shows have opinionated hosts at the helm. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Alex Jones talks about his book, Losing the News, and the crisis facing impartial reporting.