As the defenders of a besieged Bosnian town prepared to retreat, the prisoners of war held captive in the local jail feared the worst. "The prisoners were saying, 'If the town falls they will shoot us before they leave,'" recalls Charlotte Lindsey, a Red Cross field worker in the Balkans during the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. "We went to the prison authorities and we said, "Look, you cannot let this happen. You are responsible for these prisoners." Forty-eight hours ...

The little number on the tag on a pair of pants that indicates size can mean a lot to a person, and retailers know it. That's why, in recent years, as the American population has become generally more overweight, brands from the luxury names to the mass retail chains have scaled down the size labels on their clothing. "You may actually be a size 14 and, according to whatever particular store you're in, you come out a size ...

A number of filmmakers have looked to golf for inspiration for their movies -- but it is not often a professional golfer does the reverse. Three-time major winner Padraig Harrington has broken the mould after experimenting with a devastating ice-hockey swing as used in the cult U.S. comedy sports film Happy Gilmore. The film's plot centers of the fortunes of failed ice-hockey player Happy Gilmore, played by Adam Sandler, who masters a powerful and dangerous slap shot which he converts ...

On June 15, the German army's General Wolfgang Schneiderhan found himself in front of an audience of politicians and senior officers defending military policy — on sleeping bags. Many German soldiers "are whingeing to high heaven," Schneiderhan said at a reception thrown by the parliamentary army ombudsman, complaining about everything from being sent on yet another overseas tour of duty to the "unsuitable" sleeping bags they are given for their deployment in the Congo. Then Schneiderhan did some complaining ...

The following is roundup of reactions to the death of actress Farrah Fawcett, as compiled by The CNN Wire. Fawcett died Thursday, after battling cancer. She was 62. • Ryan O'Neal, Fawcett's longtime companion: "After a long and brave battle with cancer, our beloved Farrah has passed away. Although this is an extremely difficult time for her family and friends, we take comfort in the beautiful times that we shared with Farrah over the years and the knowledge ...

Is Maurice Greenberg a liar? That seems to be the multibillion-dollar question in an ongoing court battle that pits Greenberg and his firm Starr International against his former employer AIG. The deeply troubled insurance giant claims Greenberg, through Starr International, improperly gained control of hundreds of millions of shares of AIG stock when he was booted from the company in 2005. In a trial that started on June 15 in U.S. District Court in New York, AIG contends that the shares ...

It was billed as tragedy — an insurrection that would topple the Labour Party's flawed hero, Gordon Brown — but it played out like a Marx Brothers farce. The June 8 meeting that would determine Brown's fate attracted so many Labour MPs and members of the House of Lords that a House of Commons committee room quickly filled to capacity. And still they came, squeezing their way into the mass of bodies politic. When a clutch of tardy ministers ...

Women's top seed Dinara Safina reached her second successive French Open final with a straight-sets semifinal victory over Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova on Thursday. The world number one posted a 6-3 6-3 success in an hour and 41 minutes and is now just one more victory away from a first-ever grand slam title. Safina lost to Ana Ivanovic in last year's Roland Garros showpiece, and also to Serena Williams in the Australian Open final earlier this year, but she will ...

Rick Steves, perhaps America's most accomplished European tourist, was looking for a cheap but charming steak place in the ancient Tuscan town of Montepulciano last month. Following a local lead, he ducked into an osteria he'd never noticed before: a vaulted medieval cellar jammed with locals sitting at a common table. A man worked an open fire at the back of the room. He carved chops from a huge side of beef lying on a gurney, presented them in ...

A pea-sized seahorse, the world's longest insect, a "ghost slug" and the world's smallest snake were among the top 10 species discovered in 2008, a committee of scientists said Friday. These unusual critters were among thousands of species found last year, many in remote or tropical regions of the planet, that hint at the breadth of the Earth's undiscovered biodiversity. "Most people do not realize just how incomplete our knowledge of Earth's species is," said Quentin Wheeler, director of the ...