News 77

Efforts underway to free British yacht crew held in Iran

The father of a British sailor who was detained along with his four crew mates by the Iranian Navy last month says the five are being held in Iran but being treated well. Their vessel, a racing yacht called the Kingdom of Bahrain, was on its way from Bahrain to Dubai for a race when it was stopped by Iranian navy ships on November 25, according to the British Foreign Office. The boat "may have strayed inadvertently into Iranian waters" when it was intercepted, a Foreign Office statement said.

News 76

Prosecute the White House gate-crashers

 

The gate crashers Michaele and Tareq Salahi want to be famous as stars of reality television. I am all for that. Give them a reality television series and call it "Trial and Jailtime" in the D.C. criminal justice system. This despicable, desperate, duplicitous couple disgraced the Secret Service and embarrassed the president in his home. They totally overshadowed the president's meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the leader of an important ally. The incident made the Obamas' first state dinner, honoring the prime minister and his wife, Gursharan Kaur, fodder for comedians -- and it certainly raises security concerns for other world leaders visiting at later dates. The gate-crashers need to be held accountable and not glorified.

News 75

Conference to explore handing control back to Afghan locals

Britain announced plans Saturday to host an international conference on Afghanistan, a summit designed to formulate plans for transferring power to and bolstering the power of local authorities. The summit is scheduled for January 28 in London, England, said Prime Minister Gordon Brown and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who jointly announced the meeting on Saturday at the Commonwealth summit in Trinidad and Tobago.

News 74

'1428' tells Sichuan quake survivors' stories

It was at 2:28 p.m. on May 12, 2008, when a devastating earthquake shattered the villages of China's Sichuan province, leaving 69,000 people dead and 15 million displaced. Little more than a year after the quake, Du Haibin's film "1428" won the Orizzonti prize for Best Documentary at the 2009 Venice Film Festival. Without judgment but with a deep compassion for their subjects, the filmmakers of "1428" bring us a myriad of individual stories of absurdity, confusion and grief.

News 73

Basketball's Shaquille O'Neal pays for North Carolina girl's funeral

Professional basketball star Shaquille O'Neal paid for the funeral of a 5-year-old North Carolina girl whose body was found last week, O'Neal's team confirmed Thursday. Authorities believe the child, Shaniya Davis, was kidnapped, raped and murdered after being reported missing November 10. Her body was found six days later on a roadside about 30 miles from her hometown of Fayetteville, North Carolina. Her funeral was Sunday.

News 72

Mumbai attack survivor: 'It's like a dead man living'

Corpses piled on top of Apurva Parikh as bullets killed two of his friends, lined up by terrorists against a wall at a hotel in India's financial hub. Just minutes before the attackers had stormed The Oberoi, Parikh and his friends were having dinner. Moments later, they were standing with more than a dozen other guests, captives of a terror squad laying siege on several sites in Mumbai.

News 71

Obama, advisers meet on Afghanistan

U.S. President Barack Obama met Monday night with his national security team on Afghanistan and Pakistan, the White House announced. It was the ninth meeting of the president's war council to consider whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, as requested by the U.S. commander on the ground there. The White House made no statement after the meeting ended at 10 p.m. ET (0300 GMT).

News 70

Fort Hood victim 'died as she lived,' friend says

Huddling under umbrellas in a chilly rain, friends, relatives and comrades gathered at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday to lay to rest another of the victims of the massacre at Fort Hood, Texas. An Army band played "America the Beautiful" as an honor guard folded the flag that covered the casket of Lt. Col. Juanita Warman, a nurse practitioner with the Maryland National Guard.

News 69

'New Moon' banks at box office

"The Twilight Saga: New Moon" grossed an astounding $140.7 million at the box office this weekend, exploding most industry expectations en route to the biggest autumn opening weekend in history and the third biggest three-day debut ever, according to early estimates from Hollywood.com Box Office. ("The Dark Knight" still retains the record for the biggest weekend debut with $158.4 million, and "Spider-Man 3" is second with $151.1 million.)

News 68

Health care debate headed to Senate floor

Health care reform backers won a key victory Saturday night as the Senate voted to move ahead with a floor debate on a sweeping $848 billion bill.

The 60-39 vote to prevent a Republican filibuster against the start of debate on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's legislation broke down along strict party lines. All 58 Senate Democrats -- along with independent Sens. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Bernie Sanders of Vermont -- supported bringing the measure to the floor.

Thirty-nine of the 40 Senate Republicans opposed the motion. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, didn't vote."Tonight's historic vote brings us one step closer to ending insurance company abuses, reining in spiraling health care costs, providing stability and security to those with health insurance and extending quality health coverage to those who lack it," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement.

News 67

Suspected Maoists derail train in India

Suspected Maoists blew up a railway track in eastern India, derailing a train packed with passengers less than a week ahead of regional elections opposed by the powerful rebels, authorities said.

At least one person was killed and 23 people injured, said Sunil Kumar, the most senior official of West Singhbhum district in the state of Jharkhand, where the wreck occurred Thursday night.

The massive blast left a huge crater in the ground and badly damaged more than half a dozen rail cars, according to Kumar.

Less than two weeks ago, India's Home Ministry guaranteed that voters would be able to participate without fear in the elections starting November 25 in the mineral-rich but Maoist-stronghold region.

News 66

Sweeping Pentagon review expected in wake of Fort Hood

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is expected to announce a sweeping review of military procedures and policies that could help avoid another Fort Hood-type incident, a senior Pentagon official has confirmed to CNN. The official emphasized the secretary is still working though final details of how the review will be structured, and the announcement could still be delayed. The official said former military and civilian leaders officials could be called in to lead the review.

News 65

Heidi Klum trying to lose 20 lbs.

Heidi Klum hasn't quite reclaimed her pre-baby body yet, but that's not stopping the supermodel from donning a sexy outfit when she hosts the "Victoria's Secret Fashion Show" on November 19, which airs December 1 at 10 p.m. on CBS.

"I have some great one-of-a-kind latex pieces that were made for me. I figure why not? I embrace that I have more curves right now," Klum, 36, told PEOPLE at the Victoria's Secret Supermodels Take Over Times Square event on Wednesday.

"I'm definitely one of the heaviest of the bunch of the 30 girls in the show. And I still have 20 lbs. to go," she admitted. "But why not? I like my outfit. I like the way it looks on me."

Though she'll be flaunting her curves, the mom of four kids (Leni, with ex Flavio Briatore, and Henry, Johan, and Lou, with husband Seal) said she's happy that the pressure to really bare her body is off.

News 64

Waiting for the end of the world

This is how the world ends -- at least at the multiplex this month. Last weekend's box-office champ "2012" primarily uses an ancient Mayan prophecy to spin a tale of world destruction. "The Road," due out November 25, showcases a father and son navigating a post-apocalyptic world of ash, cold and cannibals. And the indie documentary "Collapse" gives voice to one man's belief that, as we exhaust natural resources, civilization is ready to crumble.

Such concerns have always been with us, says Alexander Riley, a sociology professor at Bucknell University who's incorporated eschatology (the study of the end times) into his courses.

News 63

Republicans heading for a bloodbath in Florida

The Republican fratricide in the November 3 special election in upstate New York may prove just an opening round of an even more spectacular bloodbath in Florida in 2010. In New York, Republican feuding lost the party a seat in the House of Representatives. At stake in Florida is not only a senatorship -- but very possibly Republican hopes for 2012 as well.

News 62

Baby in British court battle dies

London, England (CNN) -- A severely ill toddler at the center of a legal battle between his parents has died days after his father agreed to switch off his ventilator.The 13-month-old boy, known as Baby RB, suffered from congenital myasthenic syndrome, a rare genetic condition that means he cannot breathe on his own.

News 61

Hutchison to keep Senate seat in bid for governor, aide says

Washington (CNN) -- Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who had said she would resign her seat to run for governor of Texas, plans to announce Saturday she will remain in the Senate as she seeks the Republican Party's gubernatorial nomination, a Hutchison aide tells CNN. "She will announce tomorrow at the Texas Federation of Republican Women's Convention in Galveston that she will not be resigning her seat before the primary," said the aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

News 60

Alleged Fort Hood shooter paralyzed from waist down, lawyer says

Fort Hood, Texas (CNN) -- Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the accused Fort Hood gunman, is paralyzed from the waist down, his lawyer said Friday. "It appears he won't be able to walk in the future," said Hasan's civilian attorney, retired Army Col. John Galligan. Hasan also has severe pain in his hands, the attorney said.

News 59

Medvedev wants Russia to go hi-tech

MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- In his annual state of the nation speech Thursday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev painted his vision for the country's future, saying that "modernization" was the key to its "very survival." The term "modernization" was repeated several times in Medvedev's one-hour-and-40-minute-long discourse, which was held in the Kremlin's St. George's Hall. Top government officials and members of both houses of parliament were in attendance, and the address was carried live on Russian television.

News 58

Mementos at the memorial\

Washington (CNN) -- Long before people posted their thoughts and feelings on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, millions of people were doing just that on a different sort of wall. It might have been something as simple as a baseball, a playing card or a walking stick. Or perhaps a more personal item, like a poem, photograph or diploma.

News 57

Obama seeks revisions to Afghanistan plans, sources say

Washington (CNN) -- President Obama told his war council Wednesday that the U.S. troop commitment to Afghanistan is not open-ended, and he asked for revisions to options he previously received for sending more troops, a senior administration official told CNN. The war council -- made up of top Cabinet, Pentagon and administration officials -- met with Obama for the eighth time to discuss a request by the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan for up to 40,000 more troops. The meeting lasted more than two hours, according to the senior administration official.

News 56

Berlin celebrates night that changed world

Berlin, Germany (CNN) -- Thousands of people joined world leaders in the German capital Monday to remember the night 20 years ago when a euphoric wave of people power swept away the Berlin Wall and consigned the Cold War to history. In scenes calmly mirroring the events of November 9, 1989, crowds thronged through the center of the once-divided city, joining German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a symbolic re-enactment of the first crossing of the breached Wall.

News 55

Tropical storm Ida could become hurricane -- again

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Tropical storm Ida could regain hurricane status Saturday night as it heads toward the Gulf Coast. The northern Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico is under a hurricane watch and a tropical storm warning, the National Hurricane Center said.

News 54

Daihatsu Deca Deca concept

The Deca Deca concept was one of three concept cars unveiled by Daihatsu at the recent Tokyo motor show and one of the stars. Called a 'super box' by its maker, the Deca Deca's robust exterior form expresses stability. But beneath the car's boxy exterior proportions and upright stance is a modern, reconfigurable interior that emphasizes functionality.

Ingress and egress into the cabin is facilitated thanks to a low, flat floor and pillarless side-by-side doors that open 135 degrees. The slim fold-away seats, meanwhile, can be arranged in a variety of patterns to work inside the vehicle or stow large items.

See more images of the Deca Deca concept in our photo gallery below and read more about this and other concepts revealed at the Tokyo Motor Show in our Tokyo Motor Show 2009 Highlights

News 53

s Formula One confirms Bruno Senna will drive

runo Senna, the promising nephew of the late, great Ayrton Senna, will be one of the drivers for the new-for-2010 Campos Meta Formula One team. Senna first broke the news himself last week via his Twitter account, but Campos has now confirmed that the 26-year-old Brazilian will race for the team next year.

News 52

The original 'Housewives' return

Bravo's original "Housewives" begin their fifth season with some heady drama and a nod to tough economic times.

This season of "The Real Housewives of Orange County," which kicks off with an opener entitled, "When Times Get Tough, The Tough Go Shopping," features one housewife who could lose her home, one who could send her son to jail and is contemplating divorce and one who will find new love with a man who can't seem to commit. And one housewife will leave the show because of her financial instability.

News 51

Hideki Matsui inspires New York Yankees to win World Series for a record 27th time.

New York Yankees to win World Series for a record 27th time!!

news 50

Louisiana justice who refused interracial marriage resigns



A Louisiana justice of the peace who drew criticism for refusing to marry an interracial couple has resigned, the secretary of state's office said Tuesday.

News 49

America's cool college towns



On a recent afternoon along Church Street in Burlington, Vermont, young aspring actors recited passages from Skakespeare's Henry V as jugglers, breakdancers, and blowers of didgeridoos displayed their skills nearby, creating a visual and aural cacophony . Just another day in a thriving college town -- this one happening to be home to the University of Vermont.

News 48

Parents of California teen raped at school: Stop the violence



The parents of a 15 year-old girl who was gang-raped on a California high school campus urged the community Saturday to channel its anger over the event "through positive action," according to a pastor.