A Dutch Court will decide the fate Friday of 13-year-old Laura Dekker, either making her a potential world-record-breaking sailor, or returning her to school. Welfare services in the Netherlands have taken legal action to try to stop the teen from attempting to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world because they believe the voyage will be too dangerous. The Dutch Council for Child Protection has applied to the District Court in the city of Utrecht for Dekker ...

It is midday and girls are flooding out of school, but Nujood Ali is not among them. We find her at the family's two-room house in an impoverished suburb of the city where Nujood is angry, combative and yelling. Tension surrounds the home like a noose. After much arguing with family members, Nujood finally grabs her veil and agrees to sit down with CNN. Her presence is grudging, although CNN had got permission in advance to see how the girl ...

Dressed in fancy clothes, she applies eye liner, dabs her nose with a powder puff and the director shouts, "Silence, rolling!" On cue, the star of the show delivers her lines. Meet Anandi, the main character of "Balika Vadhu," an Indian television serial. Twelve-year-old Anandi is a child bride who was married off at the age of eight. She now lives with her husband and in-laws, bound by customs and traditions in their home. The daily soap is just over ...

President Obama took his health care message to talk radio Thursday, telling listeners of Philadelphia-based host Michael Smerconish that he wants to overhaul the nation's ailing health care system out of necessity rather than politics. Appearing with Smerconish for 30 minutes on a broadcast from the White House, Obama faced some of the persistent questions of conservative Americans and others concerned that overhauling the nation's health care system will unnecessarily expand government authority and drive up the deficit. The questions ...

The son of a Florida couple known for adopting special-needs children was in his parents' room when they were slain in a home invasion last month, according to documents released by prosecutors. A nurse who works with special-needs children interviewed the boy, who has autism and speech issues, regarding the deaths of Byrd and Melanie Billings. The nurse told police that the child said "two bad men" were wearing black masks when they knocked on the door. They woke Byrd ...

The young man's call echoed throughout the remote village in northern Nigeria -- the marriage ceremony was about to begin. Under the dusty sun, the fathers of the bride and groom agreed to the marriage and this ancient Muslim tradition proceeded as it has for hundreds of years. But unknown to the gathered villagers, the couple is hiding a modern secret. Both bride and groom are HIV-positive and marrying with the support of a local government program that encourages ...

In her first television interview since Mel Gibson went public with their relationship in April, his girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva, made it clear to CNN: "I'd like to be known for my music." Still, the 39-year-old singer was willing to talk about her beau and her pregnancy, as well as her new album, "Beautiful Heartache." "Beautiful Heartache" was released to iTunes on July 23 by Icon Distribution, Gibson's company, which up until now has handled only soundtracks for his ...

A deadly typhoon that slammed into China's coastal provinces and Taiwan over the weekend has displaced nearly one million people and left dozens missing, state-run media reported Monday. High winds and torrential rain from Typhoon Morakot hit coastal provinces Fujian and Zhejian hardest, and caused the worst flooding in decades in Taiwan -- where flood waters as high as seven feet were reported, China Daily said. The typhoon swept across the Philippines and Taiwan's Hualien region before crashing into eastern ...

North American movie theaters served as the field of combat for two action figures from '60s TV: the Hasbro toy soldier G.I. Joe and the animated "French chef" Julia Child. The raw box-office count suggests an overwhelming victory for the would-be blockbuster. Behind the numbers, though, was evidence of a standoff, with each side able to claim victory. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra took in $56.2 million, according to ...

Becky Cohn has worried about her daughter's weight since she was a toddler. Molly would eat "anything and everything," her mother says. "She would eat salads, but she would want three salads. She would eat broccoli but want seconds." The child was completely unlike her older siblings that way — and once she hit school age, Mom felt powerless to control the problem. "She'd go to school and eat her lunch and everyone else's," Cohn says. "I went to ...