In detective dramas, a dog's powerful sense of smell has become a predictable crime solver: the trusty canine takes a sniff of a suspect object and follows the scent, eventually coming to the perpetrator of the evil deed. But in real life, is this reliable evidence — or is it junk science that has helped put away innocent people? In mid-August, the Innocence Project of Texas plans to unveil a detailed study focusing primarily on the extensive work of ...

Each year, Italians take part in a mid-summer ritual to honor the victims of the Mafia and speak out against the scourge of organized crime. From Palermo to Torino, politicians, church leaders and youth groups gather to mark the July 19, 1992, assassination of anti-mob magistrate Paolo Borsellino, who was killed along with five bodyguards in a meticulously planned car bombing outside his mother's apartment in the Sicilian capital. For this year's anniversary, a most unlikely voice spoke out. ...

The interrogations of two accused Westerners who say they trained and fought with al Qaeda in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region provide an inside view of the terror group's organizational structures. (CNN) -- The interrogations of two accused Westerners who say they trained and fought with al Qaeda in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region provide an inside view of the terror group's organizational structures. Arguably, they shed more light on the state of al Qaeda than any material previously released into the ...

The lawyer for the woman who faces 40 lashes for wearing clothes that Sudan deemed indecent called the law "degrading." "They ought to stop it," Nabil Adib said on Thursday. "It is quite unnecessary and degrading. It is harassment." Lubna Al Hussein -- who writes for a newspaper and, until recently, worked for the media department of the U.N. mission in Sudan -- was arrested, along with 18 other women on July 3. At the time of her arrest, she ...

Dr. Conrad Murray was suffering financially with nearly $435,000 in judgments and liens against him over the past two years, according to court documents. Then he decided to leave his practice and work for Michael Jackson, getting paid $150,000 a month. Before working with the King of Pop, Murray spent most of his time operating clinics in both Nevada and Texas after graduating from Meharry Medical College, a historically black school in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1989. He spent his internship ...

In law enforcement, there are few situations that are clear cut, and disorderly conduct is one of the fuzziest. As Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. now knows all too well, the misdemeanor charge can be used to corral people who are simply uncooperative or rude. State statutes are designed to help police officers maintain authority, and they ...

Opposition candidates are charging fraud in Indonesia's election, which President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono won by a more than two-to-one edge over his nearest challenger. Yudhoyono won 60.8 percent of the vote, compared with 26.8 percent for former President Megawati Sukarnoputri and 12.4 percent for Vice President Yusuf Kalla, according to numbers released Friday by Indonesia's National Election Commission. The votes were counted under heavy security after the terrorist attacks on two Jakarta hotels July 17. Police blocked off the road ...

Texas authorities released court documents Thursday detailing the items seized from the medical office and storage unit of Dr. Conrad Murray, the cardiologist who was with Jackson when he fell ill and died on June 25. Detectives searched both sites in Houston on Wednesday for "evidence of the offense of manslaughter," according to court documents. Murray's attorney confirmed the search Wednesday. Among the items removed from Murray's office were a computer; 27 tablets of Phentermine, a prescription-strength appetite suppressant; 1 ...

Despite a confession by the sole surviving suspect in the Mumbai terror attacks and his lawyer's offer to withdraw from the case, an Indian court said Thursday that it will continue with the trial. Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, 21, stunned the court Tuesday when he admitted his role in the attacks on India's financial capital, which began on November 26 and continued for four days and three nights. Prosecutors said Kasab's guilty plea was an attempt to deflect attention from his ...

It isn't easy to have sympathy for Frenchman Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person convicted in connection with the September 11 terror attacks. During his trial, Moussaoui pledged his allegiance to Osama bin Laden and prayed that al-Qaeda succeeds in its violent jihad against the U.S; he also mocked the families of 9/11 victims and dared the court to inflict the harshest punishment for the crimes which, after veering erratically between denial and advocacy, he finally took responsibility for. In ...