Be careful of strangers and hurry home, says a mother to her daughter, knowing that the world is a frightful place but not wishing to swaddle a child in fear. Girls grow up scarred by caution and enter adulthood eager to shake free of their parents' worst nightmares. They still know to be wary of strangers. What they don't know is whether they have more to fear from their friends. Most women who get raped are raped by people they ...

When you look at the third generation of Kennedy men, much of what remains of a once powerful dynasty is good teeth, good hair and the best public relations a trust fund can buy. Some of the boys grew from being spoiled and bratty--belittling the help, once chasing the cook up a tree at Hickory Hill--into full-blown debauchery, driving fast, drinking hard, club hopping like wild men. Most of this got spun by family retainers into the playful high jinks ...

Thomas Hardy lived to be 200 years old, or so it must have seemed to his literary competitors. He reached prominence in 1872 with his second novel, Under the Greenwood Tree, and was going strong half a century later. His last / book, a volume of poems titled Winter Words, appeared in 1928, shortly after his death at 87. In his introduction to Winter Words, Hardy crowed that he was the "only English poet who has brought out a new ...

With 85 million baby boomers and 50 million Gen Xers, there is already a yawning generation gap among American workers--particularly in their ideas of work-life balance. For baby boomers, it's the juggling act between job and family. For Gen X, it means moving in and out of the workforce to accommodate kids and outside interests. Now along come the 76 million members of Generation Y. For these new 20-something workers, the line between work and home doesn't really exist. They ...

It's Christmas Eve, 1903, in St. Louis, and some members of the Smith family are anguished about leaving their home for Mr. Smith's new job in New York City. The six-year-old, Tootie

He's already served the time, but lawyers Thursday argued to clear his name as onetime U.S. Army Sgt. Michael Smith appeals a conviction for the torture of detainees once held at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Disturbing snapshots and video portraying sexual humiliation and physical intimidation against the detainees tarnished the image of the United States as it fought to stabilize Iraq after the American overthrow of Saddam Hussein. A military panel found Smith guilty in March ...

Support for abortion rights has fallen sharply in the past year, with Americans now split roughly 50-50 between those who back legal access to abortion and those who oppose it, according to a new survey. The findings mark a dramatic shift in public opinion, supporters of abortion rights have outnumbered opponents for many years, with one brief exception, studies have shown. But only 47 percent of Americans now feel abortion should be legal in all or most cases, a drop ...

A huge water main burst under a road in the suburban Baltimore community of Dundalk, Maryland, Friday, sending muddy water erupting over neighborhood streets and down highway ramps, officials said. The 72-inch main was shut about two hours after it ruptured, Baltimore County Chief Executive Jim Smith told CNN. No injuries were reported, Smith said, but he urged residents to "shelter in place" and not to go into the knee- to chest-high water under any circumstances. "This is ...

A campaigner for a British grandmother on death row in Texas made a unique plea for her life Thursday -- from atop a plinth in London's Trafalgar Square. Linda Carty, 51, recorded the message this week from the prison in Gatesville, where she is serving her sentence. A man stood on the plinth and played Carty's message aloud while standing in front of her picture. "Linda Carty's speech to Trafalgar Square shows that she is a terrified woman, and with ...

Services for Sen. Edward Kennedy will be Saturday morning at a Boston church before his burial in Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington, his office announced Wednesday. President Obama, who called Kennedy an "extraordinary leader," will deliver a eulogy at the funeral, according to several sources. Kennedy died Tuesday night at his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, after being ill for 15 months with brain cancer. He was 77. Obama, on vacation at Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, said Wednesday that Americans knew ...