Visitors to the Basilica of the National Shrine in northeast Washington often do a double take when they see Newt Gingrich and his familiar shock of white hair slip into a pew for the noon Mass on Sundays. The former Speaker of the House is known for many things, but religious zeal is not one of them. In fact, the social conservatives who fueled his Republican revolution in 1994 often complained about Gingrich's lack of interest in issues like ...

The tragedy of Michael Jackson's death at age 50, reportedly from cardiac arrest, pales in comparison to the tragedy of his life. To understand all that Jackson had and lost requires wiping away three decades of plastic surgeries that deformed him, erratic behavior that made his name synonymous with the warping powers of fame, and a 2005 trial for sexually abusing a child that, even though he was spared of any finding of wrongdoing, made him a pariah to ...

The tragedy of Michael Jackson's death at age 50, reportedly from cardiac arrest, pales in comparison to the tragedy of his life. To understand all that Jackson had and lost requires wiping away three decades of plastic surgeries that deformed him, erratic behavior that made his name synonymous with the warping powers of fame, and a 2005 trial for sexually abusing a child that, even though he was spared of any finding of wrongdoing, made him a pariah to ...

Blind photography: the very concept sounds like an oxymoron. But an intriguing and often striking exhibition of photographs in Riverside, California, argues that it emanates from the core of contemporary art. The show "Sight Unseen," at the California Museum of Photography until Aug. 29, features everything from underwater scenes off Catalina Island, transvestites in New Orleans and Braille-enhanced black-and-whites as well as portraits, nudes, landscapes, travel shots, abstracts, collages, and everything else you might expect from a "sighted" photographer. ...

Just five months after Pakistan banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa over its links to the terrorist organization blamed for last November's Mumbai massacre, the Islamist charity group's flags are flying high over a relief effort for refugees fleeing the fighting in the Swat Valley. The banned group's signature black-and-white banner bearing a scimitar flew in the heart of Mardan as tens of thousands of refugees poured into the northwest garrison town, fleeing the military campaign to oust the Taliban from ...

Recovering all the bodies from Thursday's deadly passenger plane crash may take four days as investigators work through freezing temperatures and piles of wreckage, a federal transportation official said Saturday. "The medical examiner believes that three to four days are going to be required to recover the victims of this crash, and they're in the process of doing that," Steve Chealander of the National Transportation Safety Board said. "They've already pulled some of the folks out of there, but they've ...

A Continental Airlines plane crashed into a home near Buffalo, New York, late Thursday, killing 44 passengers and four crew members on board, according to New York State police. Authorities also said one person on the ground was killed. It is not yet known whether that person was in the home at the time of the crash. Continental Connection Flight 3407, operated by Colgan Air, was en route from Newark, New Jersey, when it went down, said Bill Peat with ...

A Continental Airlines plane crashed in suburban Buffalo, New York, late Thursday, killing 49 people. There were 44 passengers and four crew members killed on board and one on the ground, according to authorities. Continental Connection Flight 3407, operated by Colgan Air, was en route from Newark, New Jersey, when it went down, said Bill Peat with New York State Emergency Management in Albany. The crash took place about seven miles from Buffalo Niagara International Airport in Clarence Center, ...