The 54-year reign of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party is expected to come to an end on Sunday in the country's first general election in four years. The main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan , has little experience leading on a national level, but there are strong indications that voters will overwhelmingly support the party and its ambitious platform of reforming Japan's broken system. After half a century Japan, it seems, is finally clamoring for change. The ...

Jon Gosselin says that, while it was over between him and wife Kate last October, he did try counseling in an effort to save their 10-year union. "I worked on my marriage," the reality star, 32, told PEOPLE outside his Pennsylvania home on Wednesday. "I went to therapy. I have huge bills so [detractors] can't denounce that ... For [Kate] to say she'd been working on it -- well, I'd been working on it too, and at one point ...

The American man who swam to Aung San Suu Kyi's home in Myanmar said Thursday he still believes he did the right thing, even though his visit led to an extension of the pro-democracy leader's house arrest. John Yettaw, 53, swam across a lake to Suu Kyi's home in May and stayed for two days before authorities arrested him along with Suu Kyi and two of her staff. His presence violated the terms of Suu Kyi's house arrest -- which ...

Edward M. Kennedy's death was one of those rare events that can pause politics — but nothing can stop politics. Massachusetts now has an open Senate seat for the first time in 25 years, and the maneuvering over succession has already begun. The first question is when that succession will happen. A 2004 law calls for the seat to remain vacant until an election in five months. At the time the law was formulated, the Democratic-dominated legislature wanted to ...

Correction appended: Aug. 16, 2007 "Psycho." "Freak." "Jason from the horror movie." These are the answers that counselor Habsi Kaba gets from Miami police officers when asked to describe people with mental illness. Such stereotypes are surprisingly common, says Kaba, and not just within law enforcement. But these misconceptions are especially dangerous when they're held by police, who are often forced to make split-second, life-or-death decisions about mentally ill suspects. "The worst thing you can have is power and lack ...

Jesse Ray Beard said he was constantly in trouble, even when he behaved. It took being accused of the racially charged attempted murder of a white classmate in the Deep South to turn his life around. Beard, 18, now interns at a New York law firm as he prepares for his senior year next month at Canterbury School, a Connecticut prep academy where Beard is highly regarded among peers and teachers. "I didn't change the way I act. I didn't ...

The hot wind swirls around the human bones and cracked skulls that litter the forsaken desert lands in Western Iraq. We are standing in the middle of what was an al Qaeda execution site, just outside an intricate bunker complex that the organization used to torture and murder its victims, the bodies left to rot or be eaten by animals. From the back of the police truck the opening to the first bunker is barely discernible in the distance. "Al ...

A Malaysian model, who was set to become the first woman to be caned in the southeast Asian country for drinking beer in public, was inexplicably spared her sentence Monday, her father said. Authorities had picked up Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, 32, from her father's house Monday morning and were taking her to a prison in the eastern state of Pahang when the car turned around and brought her back. "They sent her back to the house. They said the ...

Facing a recent erosion of public support for health-care overhaul, President Obama lashed out at his opponents Saturday for spreading "outrageous myths" on the Internet, television, and at town hall forums. Republican leaders, in turn, said it was Obama who is guilty of playing "fast and loose with the facts." They repeated their assertion that the president's proposed government-funded public health insurance option would destroy the current private insurance-based system. "I'm glad that so many are engaged," Obama said in ...

As President Obama struggles to regain control of the health care debate, he's finding himself caught in a game of tug of war with members of his own party. The conservative Blue Dog Democrats don't want a bill with a government-sponsored, public health plan, and liberal Democrats have said they won't pass legislation without one. Despite strong majorities in both chambers of Congress, Democrats have been unable to reach an agreement on the legislation. And the administration has acknowledged ...