The band played, floats lined the streets, a mob jammed the station and cheered. South Bend, Ind. was out in force to greet the NBC Opera Company as if it were a conquering football team. When the curtain opened on Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro in the new $2,500,000 arts center of St. Mary's College, the house was packed; when it closed, the audience was happily enthusiastic. It was a rousing send-off for a costly experiment by NBC —to send its opera company barnstorming across the country ...

So what took al-Qaeda so long to replace Osama bin Laden? It's been over six weeks since a U.S. Navy SEAL team killed the terrorist chief, and only now has al-Qaeda decided on his successor — Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, an acerbic Egyptian physician who was bin Laden's longtime deputy. Even for the likes of al-Qaeda, an organization not known for its warm and fuzzy side, al-Zawahiri has a reputation for obnoxiousness. One ex-militant describes al-Zawahiri, 60, as "sharp-tongued" ...

In February, the English cricket team — virtual demigods in their country after defeating Australia last summer — were attending a reception amid the Rembrandts and Rubenses in the Picture Gallery of Buckingham Palace. Queen Elizabeth had just pinned medals on the athletes' chests signifying their new status as Members of the Order of the British Empire, and was strolling among them, chatting and laughing with their proud families. She was the star of the show, making ...

On April 20, Major League Baseball took control of the Los Angeles Dodgers, a team whose overleveraged owner is going through a humiliating public divorce and steering the franchise towards bankruptcy. The Dodgers' financial situation had been so dire that last week Frank McCourt, who is fighting for ownership of the team with his estranged wife, Jamie, needed a $30 million loan from Fox, the team's television partner, to make payroll. That's right, the Dodgers, one of ...

In another part of the world, it would have been a straightforward public-works project. A highway was too narrow to handle the increasing flow of traffic, so the authorities brought in heavy equipment to widen it. Partway through the job, however, a road-leveling tractor uncovered the opening to a cave no one knew was there. Work came to an immediate halt, and within hours a scientific swat team descended on the site to study it. That's the law in Israel, ...

All sports are competitive, but they are competitive in very different ways. Team sports pitch two groups of players against each other in direct combat. Racket and fighting sports involve individuals going at it against each other. In racing—whether power-assisted or not—each individual competes against the field. But some sports—target sports such as archery and shooting, ice-skating, bowling, classic ski racing—are different. An individual competitor in these sports can't directly affect how a rival does; he ...

When the Army flew home the body of Spc. Stephan Mace from Afghanistan, his mother climbed aboard a small jet with the flag-draped coffin for the last leg of his trip. Vanessa Adelson would not let her 21-year-old son make his final journey home alone. "I brought him into this world, and he was my baby," she said. "I thought it was my responsibility as a mother to bring him home." Mace and seven other soldiers were killed ...

President Obama will again huddle with his national security team on Wednesday to decide how many more troops — if any — to send to Afghanistan. But making the decision will be the easy part, the real challenge will be getting those extra boots onto the ground. If he ends up embracing Army General Stanley McChrystal's call for 40,000 more soldiers, deploying them in Afghanistan will take up to a year. The first bottleneck between the Oval Office ...

Just like Vegas, what happens on the Internet, stays on the Internet. How that affects your job search is up to you. (CareerBuilder) -- Just like Vegas, what happens on the Internet, stays on the Internet. How that affects your job search is up to you. Gone are the days when all you were concerned with was whether or not your rsum and cover letter were error-free. Now, you've got bigger things to worry about -- like what kind ...

David Beckham looks set to rejoin AC Milan on loan after the vice-president of the Serie A giants claimed it was "very probable" that a deal would be reached to secure the services of the soccer icon. Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder Beckham sparked controversy last season when he extended his loan with Milan until June and missed the start of the Major League Soccer season in the United States. When he returned to play for the Galaxy he received a ...