Alana "Laney" Gwinner, a 23-year-old accounting student at the University of Cincinnati, had a lot to celebrate Tuesday, December 9, 1997. She had just aced an exam and received a promotion at work. So, that night, Gwinner and friends met up about 10 p.m. at a bowling alley in nearby Fairfield, Ohio. After midnight, Gwinner left to drive to her boyfriend's house, about 2 miles up the road. She never made it. Her boyfriend and relatives soon went to the ...

He arrives in the early morning hours, when the downtown streets here are empty and quiet. An electric gate jerks to life as the black sedan with tinted windows pulls into a parking lot protected by an iron fence. It's five blocks from the local county jail to the U.S. Federal Courthouse of Western Kentucky. Not even a five-minute drive. This is the only freedom Steven Green knows. He's ushered from the car by a contingent of U.S. marshals. It's ...

Defense lawyers trying to save their client from the death penalty argued Tuesday that former U.S. soldier Steven Green exhibited clear symptoms of acute stress disorder in Iraq and that a military psychiatric nurse-practitioner failed to diagnose the troubled infantryman and pull him out of combat. Green was convicted last week in U.S. District Court in Kentucky of murder, rape, conspiracy and obstruction of justice. A jury found Green guilty of a raping a 14-year-old girl, then killing her and ...

The family of a Seattle, Washington, woman is searching for answers after her mysterious death at a resort hotel in Thailand. Steven Green was convicted Thursday in a civilian court in Kentucky and will be sentenced Monday. After more than 10 hours of deliberations, a jury found the former soldier guilty of murder, rape and obstruction of justice, CNN affiliate WPSD-TV in Paducah, Kentucky, reported. Green, 23, was accused of leading a group of soldiers that committed the ...

A former U.S. soldier could face the death penalty after being convicted of raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killing her and her family. Steven Green was convicted Thursday in a civilian court in Kentucky and will be sentenced Monday. After more than 10 hours of deliberations, a jury found the former soldier guilty of murder, rape and obstruction of justice, CNN affiliate WPSD-TV in Paducah, Kentucky, reported. Green, 23, was accused of leading a group of soldiers ...

Madonna took her effort to adopt a 3-year-old girl before Malawi's highest court Monday, as a man claiming to be the girl's father said he was fighting for custody of the child. The 50-year-old singer had filed a petition to adopt Chifundo James, whose first name means "mercy" in Chichewa, the country's national language. Her adoption was denied last month because Madonna did not meet a residency law that requires applicants to have lived in the country for some time ...

Michigan authorities are investigating whether foul play led to the death of a 9-year-old quadriplegic girl whose body was found inside a public storage facility. "This is a very sad and tragic case that hurts all of us involved in the ongoing investigation," Genesee County prosecutor David Leyton said at a news conference Wednesday. Shylea Myza Thomas of Flint, Michigan, hadn't been seen in six weeks, and relatives reported her missing Tuesday, Leyton's office said. Her adoptive mother, who is ...

The head of the U.N. Children's Fund has expressed concern over a Saudi judge's refusal for a second time to annul a marriage between an 8-year-old girl and a 47-year-old man. "Irrespective of circumstances or the legal framework, the marriage of a child is a violation of that child's rights," said Ann Veneman, executive director of UNICEF. "The right to free and full consent to marriage is recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Consent cannot be free and ...

While much of the country spends the day after Easter sweeping up plastic grass and nursing a Peeps overdose, the White House welcomes an invasion of children. Thousands of young people will stream onto the South Lawn this Easter Monday for the White House Easter Egg Roll, one of the oldest presidential traditions and the largest annual event held at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The daylong celebration transforms the presidential yard into official Washington's version of an amusement park, with food, games, ...

The clicking of dozens of news cameras drowned out the sobs of the 13-year-old girl, but her face explained what was happening in the departure hall of Japan's Narita International Airport. Noriko Calderon, wearing her school uniform, was being forced to make one of the most wrenching choices of her young life: To stay in the country of her birth rather than join her parents being deported to the Philippines. The scene was the emotional climax to a story a ...