The youngest person to sail solo around the world returned home Thursday from his 30,000-mile, 282-day ocean journey. Mike Perham, 17, sailed into Lizard Point in Cornwall, the southernmost point in Britain, at 9:47 a.m., his race team said. "It feels absolutely brilliant," Mike told CNN by phone hours before crossing the finish line. "I'm really, really excited to be going across the line at last. It doesn't feel like long since I crossed it first." Mike ...

You've probably heard the bad news about homework: kids are working longer hours than ever before, and it's driving them nearly insane. At least one major book has made this argument, as have numerous news articles like this one and this one. But now a research team at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln has come forward with a new study reporting that most parents actually don't find their children's homework loads to be monstrous. In fact, according to the ...

Natural death did not come naturally to the Kennedy family. Two siblings brought down in flight; two others slain. But now two more siblings have modeled the death that most Americans say they want and fear they'll miss; both Edward Kennedy and his sister Eunice died within weeks of each other, at home, at peace, surrounded by family, after a race well run. For an eternally public clan that could not rise or fall or sin or stray without every move recorded, even ...

Their families were longtime friends, and she had once interned in the mailroom of his Senate office. Still, Ted Kennedy and Vicki Reggie were a most unlikely match. When their paths crossed in June 1991, he was a hard-partying politician whose indiscretions and appetites had become a national joke. She was a whip-smart single mom, more than 20 years his junior, who had little time for a social life as she balanced the needs of her two small children ...

A sampling of reactions to the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy, who died Tuesday night at age 77: Harry Reid, Senate majority leader: "Because of Ted Kennedy, more young children could afford to become healthy. More young adults could afford to become students. More of our oldest citizens and our poorest citizens could get the care they need to live longer, fuller lives. More minorities, women and immigrants could realize the rights our founding documents promised them. And more Americans ...

Van Thy says the government evicted her from her home in the Cambodian capital and trucked her and others out to a town an hour away where she now lives in a hot green metal shed with no running water and dim prospects. Before the move, she had a job as a dishwasher, but now the 36-year-old woman is unemployed, penniless and her health has taken a turn for the worse. She has AIDS like many of the others in ...

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 ...

A man who was obsessed with the Columbine High School massacre was found guilty of murder Friday and sentenced to life without parole for gunning down his father before opening fire at a North Carolina high school three years ago. Alvaro Castillo, 21, has been medicated during the trial and showed little reaction as the first verdict was read -- guilty of the first-degree murder of his father. He also was convicted of multiple assault and weapons offenses in ...

In Pennsylvania, Tyler Dix, a 16-year-old movie buff, is wide awake by 7 a.m. to cook breakfast for his younger siblings. In Georgia, Tucker Simmons, a 14-year old novice guitarist, prepares ice packs for his mother whenever her chronic lower back pain kicks in. In California, Kaylei Deakin, an avid 17-year old rock climber, disciplines her little sisters when they act out. Tyler, Tucker and Kaylei are three teenagers from across the country who have very different interests, but one ...

A 14-year-old boy allegedly beaten at a boot camp in China for young Internet addicts was in critical condition Thursday, less than three weeks after a youth at a different camp died, Chinese state media reported. Internet use has skyrocketed in China, especially among teens. And Chinese parents have turned to hundreds of training camps that offer to wean their children -- mostly teenagers -- from excessive Internet use. There are at least 400 private rehabilitation clinics or camps in ...