One project that will receive a boost from Sarah Palin's plan to step down as the governor of Alaska is her much-touted autobiography, for which it will provide a hotly anticipated chapter. In May, HarperCollins announced that it had signed Palin to write a tell-all memoir. Unusual for a high-powered celebrity autobiography, there was no auction or bidding on the book; Palin negotiated only with HarperCollins, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, the same media company ...

The U.S. military in recent weeks has resumed flying unmanned reconnaissance drones over Pakistan's tribal regions to help provide critical intelligence to Pakistan's security forces, two U.S. military officials confirmed to CNN Tuesday. The two worked together on the "Heal the Kids" charitable initiative and stayed in touch until the middle of the decade, when they drifted apart, Boteach has said. He talked with CNN's Campbell Brown about his impressions of the late entertainer, including his abilities as a father ...

Michael Jackson died Thursday, and my family gathered by telephone from Florida, Texas, California and Georgia to mourn and remember. But we began mourning long ago. LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson died Thursday, and my family gathered by telephone from Florida, Texas, California and Georgia to mourn and remember. But we began mourning long ago. I was 17 when the "Motown 25th Anniversary Special" aired in 1983, and my parents, sisters and I first saw Michael Jackson moonwalk ...

There's a photo of the Jackson family on the cover of the September 24, 1971, issue of Life magazine. In it, Joseph and Katherine Jackson stand at the foot of a set of stairs, their star children -- known as the Jackson 5 -- arrayed behind them. They appear to be the all-American clan, gold records arranged behind them, the boys loose and smiling, the parents more awkward and serious in their demeanor. Over the years, that façade crumbled. The ...

Right now we could all use a selective memory wipe — a magical eraser to remove all the misery Michael Jackson endured and caused. Just for a minute, we'd like to have pure recollections of the thrilling dancer and singer who dominated '80s music, created the all-time best-selling album of new songs and seemed the very model of the cool dude with the sensitive soul. And we wouldn't mind feeling some uncomplicated warmth for the young Jacko who, ...

Thirty years after his father was overthrown by a popular uprising, the former crown prince of Iran has a unique perspective on the demonstrations gripping Iran these days. On Monday, at a Washington press conference, Reza Pahlavi, the onetime heir to the peacock throne, condemned Iran's controversial presidential election of June 12 as "an ugly moment of disrespect for both God and man" and called on the Tehran regime to allow for "freedom, democracy, human rights [and] the ...

North Korea may be preparing for a new atomic bomb test a month after its last test, a U.S. official said Thursday. The official, who is not authorized to speak on the record, told CNN that Washington has "indications" that North Korea may be planning another test, which would be its third since 2006. The official would not provide any details, however. The possible preparations come as the U.N. Security Council debates whether to impose additional sanctions on the communist ...

Brazil's highest court said Wednesday it does not have jurisdiction over who should have custody of a U.S.-born 9-year-old boy -- his Brazilian stepfather or his father in the United States. The high court's ruling sends the ongoing case back to an appeals court in Rio de Janeiro. In the unanimous vote, Brazil's Supreme Federal Court said it could not rule over The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, of which Brazil is a signatory. Brazil ...

A Brazilian supreme court judge on Tuesday suspended a lower court's order that would have given custody of a 9-year-old boy to the U.S. consulate in Rio de Janeiro, where he was to be reunited with his American father. Judge Marco Aurelio argued against taking Sean Richard Goldman from what has been his home for almost five years to the United States "in an abrupt manner." Doing so, he wrote in his order published on the supreme court's Web site, ...

Fifteen years after his death, and after his family fought a very long bureaucratic battle with the government, Enrique Valdez's name was added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Valdez was a Marine gunnery sergeant wounded by shrapnel in August 1969, combat that left him a quadriplegic. Since his death in 1994, his family has been waiting for the Defense Department to answer their requests that Valdez be included on "The Wall." On Memorial Day, his family finally got ...