Walid Abu Obeida, a 13-year-old Palestinian farm boy from the West Bank village of Ya'abad, had never spoken to an Israeli until he rounded a corner at dusk carrying his shopping bags and found two Israeli soldiers waiting with their rifles aimed at him. "They accused me of throwing stones at them," recounts Walid, a skinny kid with dark eyes. "Then one of them smacked me in the face, and my nose started bleeding." According to Walid, the two ...

The day after the L.A. County coroner's office completed its autopsy of Michael Jackson, stating that the cause of death had been "deferred" until more tests were done, the pop singer's family requested a second, private investigation of the 50-year-old's body. "We don't know what happened. Was he injected, and with what? All reasonable doubt should be addressed," the Rev. Jesse Jackson told the Associated Press after visiting with the Jackson family. The question is, will a second ...

A reputed drug lord described as one of the biggest heroin suppliers in eastern Afghanistan -- with suspected ties to the Taliban -- appeared in federal court in Washington Monday, where he was ordered detained pending his expected drug trial. The train, traveling from La Spezia to Pisa, was carrying gas tanks and derailed while passing through the station in the coastal town of Viareggio, the official, Antonio Garufi, told CNN. The station and a few nearby buildings caught fire ...

A gas explosion from a cargo train carrying fuel tanks killed at least five people and injured 35 others Monday night in a town in western Italy, a local government official said. The train, traveling from La Spezia to Pisa, was carrying gas tanks and derailed while passing through the station in the coastal town of Viareggio, the official, Antonio Garufi, told CNN. The station and a few nearby buildings caught fire and were evacuated, he said. The five ...

A Yemeni jetliner with more than 150 people aboard has crashed in the Indian Ocean off the island nation of Comoros, aviation officials in Yemen said Tuesday. The jet was en route to Moroni, the capital of Comoros, from Yemen's capital Sanaa when it crashed about an hour before reaching its destination, officials from the national airline Yemenia said. There was no immediate news of the fate of those on board. Yemenia Flight 626 left Sanaa at 9:30 p.m. ...

The Supreme Court on Monday overturned Judge Sonia Sotomayor's ruling in a controversial reverse-discrimination case, prompting a new round of attacks on her by Republicans. By a vote of 5 to 4, the court ruled that the city of New Haven improperly denied promotions to a group of white firefighters who had done better on a test than minority firefighters had. But aside from the ruling's implications for antidiscrimination law, the most intriguing issue raised by the decision ...

Eight years ago, Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna became global pin-ups for the resurgence in Mexican filmmaking after their memorable breakthrough in coming-of-age road movie "Y tu Mama Tambien." Today, Luna and Bernal's on-screen chemistry has once again grabbed the public's attention, this time in Mexico, where their latest film "Rudo y Cursi" made box-office history. It became the fourth highest-grossing film in the country's history when it was released at the end of 2008. "Rudo y Cursi," ...

How do you sell a feminine hygiene product nobody wants to talk about? By making a guy use it. One day a high school boy wakes up and can't find his manhood. Literally. The family jewels have gone missing and been replaced by what girls have. Being a modern lad, he doesn't go to the doctor but rather documents his feelings about this development in an on-line diary, www.zack16.com, complete with video and reader comments. Each day he ...

Tensions mounted between American-led coalition forces and the Afghan government Monday as Afghan President Hamid Karzai demanded U.S. troops hand over private security guards suspected of involvement in the killing of a top Kandahar law enforcement official. The U.S. military responded with a statement denying any involvement of coalition forces in the attack, which occurred at a Kandahar government office. "Such incidents negatively impact the state building process in Afghanistan," Karzai said in a prepared statement. He asked "coalition forces ...

It has been a rocky couple of weeks for the Republican Party as high-profile, traditional-values politicians have faced embarrassing sex scandals. First it was Sen. John Ensign, R-Nevada, who admitted in a news conference two weeks ago to having an affair with a former staffer. Then, last week, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford trumped Ensign. After days in which his whereabouts were unknown by his wife and staff (who thought he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail), Sanford held ...