The men first ordered Ken Cordier to strip naked. They then forced him face-down to the ground and pinned his arms and legs. One of them grabbed a fan belt from a truck and began flogging Cordier. When it was over, they returned another day with a new approach. They slung a rope around Cordier's neck, pulled him back like a bow and beat him with their fists. "You could tell they enjoyed it," Cordier says. "They had that look ...

In 1998, Death Cab for Cutie was just another tenderhearted indie rock band signed to a minor record label, playing empty clubs for $50 a night. But after two years of soul-crushing obscurity, something strange happened: people started coming to their shows. The crowds were small but enthusiastic and each person told the same story: they'd found the band's songs on the Internet. Then in 2003 the producers of The O.C. called — the group didn't even have a ...

Is John Yettaw crazy, or just eccentric? The answer's not quite clear, as the Missouri man remains in a Burmese prison charged with a head-scratching nighttime swim that's imperiled one of the world's best-known democracy figures. Yettaw, 53, is accused of strapping on homemade flippers and illegally swimming to the Rangoon home of Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader held under house arrest for 13 of the last 19 years. Relatives say he made the same swim last ...

Sex in marriage does not need to be practiced with lights off; it can be "saucy, surprising and fantasy-packed" and at the same time without sin, says a monk in a book that has become a best seller in predominantly Catholic and conservative Poland. In Sex As You Don't Know It: For Married Couples Who Love God, published in April, Franciscan Father Ksawery Knotz offers theological and practical advice for married couples who want to spice up their sex ...

Just so you know, Bart Ehrman says he's not the anti-Christ. He says he's not trying to destroy your faith. He's not trying to bash the Bible. And, though his mother no longer talks to him about religion, Ehrman says some of his best friends are Christian. Ehrman, a best-selling author and a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is a biblical sleuth whose investigations make some people very angry. Like the fictional ...

CNN's Larry King sat down with Elizabeth Edwards on Tuesday to discuss her new book, her personal tragedies and the power of resilience. Here is a portion of their interview. LARRY KING, HOST: It's a great pleasure to welcome to "Larry King Live" -- known her quite some time now, always great seeing her -- Elizabeth Edwards. Here in Los Angeles, "The New York Times" best-selling author. Her new book is "Resilience: Reflections on the Burdens and Gifts of ...

The problem with the credit-card industry isn't just the credit-card companies — it's you, too. This week the Senate takes up a bill that would seriously clamp down on some of the industry's most unsavory practices, a piece of legislation that President Obama has said he wants on his desk by the end of the month. The bill, which builds on rules issued by the Federal Reserve Board and other agencies at the end of last year, would do away ...

Controversial British sprinter Dwain Chambers has set his sights on a world championships showdown against Usain Bolt in Berlin later this summer. Chambers tested positive for the anabolic steroid Tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) in 2003 as part of the BALCO scandal in the United States, but has re-launched his track and field career after serving a two-year ban. By winning the European 60 meters indoor title earlier this year in the second fastest time in history, Chambers showed he is in prime ...

For many young Christians, the moment they first notice discrepancies in the Biblical tales they've faithfully studied is a rite of passage: e.g., if Adam and Eve were the first humans, and they had two sons — where did Cain's wife come from? The revelation that everything in the Bible may not have happened exactly as written can be startling. And when the discovery comes along with scientific evidence of evolution and the actual age of planet Earth, it can ...

Is your boss a bully who needs to feel important and boosts his ego by withholding important information from you? Or maybe you work with someone who is so fearful of argument or criticism that problems go unsolved because she won't discuss them. And then there's that guy down the hall who's constantly annoying everybody with his dumb practical jokes and loud banter. As the recession sends stress levels into the stratosphere, does your colleagues' weird behavior seem to ...