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Are United States hospitals equipped to handle a flu pandemic or a major terrorist attack? Stephen Flynn, author of The Edge of Disaster, sizes up the United States medical system and finds it sorely lacking.

America is not ready for the next big catastrophe, according to Stephen Flynn, a former Coast Guard commander. Flynn is concerned that California's earthen levees won't hold in the event of an earthquake.

Poet W.H. Auden was born in England 100 years ago today. Edward Mendelson, Auden's literary executor, marks the occasion with a new collection, Selected Poems.

Ishmael Beah has written a memoir about his years as a child soldier in Sierra Leone. Orphaned by the civil war there, he was carrying an AK-47 by the age of 12. Pumped up by drugs, he was forced to kill or be killed.

In the last six months alone, extra-judicial executions, suicide bombings and fighting have claimed many hundreds of lives in Sri Lanka. The death of a Hindu Tamil priest underlines the sheer viciousness of the conflict.

Composer and writer Allen Shawn is the author of the new memoir, Wish I Could Be There. The book documents his many phobias. Shawn is deathly afraid of a lot of things, including heights, water, fields, parking lots and unknown streets.

From the outside, India's swift economic growth can be misleading. Will the wealth be spread around to address daunting poverty? Edward Luce, author of In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India offers some clues.

America is unprepared for the next big catastrophe, whether it's like Sept. 11 or like Hurricane Katrina, the author of a new book says. Stephen Flynn, a former Coast Guard commander, says ports like the giant facility in Los Angeles, are especially vulnerable to attacks or natural disasters.

An explosion on a train in India has killed at least 66 people. Authorities think a crude bomb started a fire as the train headed to Pakistan. India's railway minister says the explosion was aimed at undermining the peace process between the nuclear-armed neighbors.

Brothers Chip and Dan Heath examine why some ideas spread around the globe, while others are forgettable, in their book, Made to Stick. They say most people don't know how to frame their ideas in a clear and compelling way.