James Young still remembers the Ku Klux Klan tormenting his neighborhood. He can still see his father holding a gun on the living room couch ready to shoot anyone who threatened his family. Nothing about Young's childhood ever made him think he could be the mayor of Philadelphia, Mississippi, the town best known for the killings of three civil rights workers in 1964. That's the way it was for black kids growing up in this crucible of racial ...

Co-pilot Rebecca Shaw traveled all night as a passenger aboard FedEx planes before she got on the commuter plane that nosedived into a house near Buffalo, New York, killing all 49 passengers on an icy February evening. The 24-year-old, with a year of experience, was living in Seattle, Washington, and commuting to Newark, New Jersey -- where the fatal Continental Flight 3407 operated by Colgan Air Inc. originated, according to investigators at the National Transportation Safety Board hearings this week. ...

A Taliban spokesman issued threats and ultimatums against Pakistani officials this week as the country's military continued its offensive against the militant group in the Swat Valley.

In a move that could reignite tensions with liberals in his own party, President Obama is planning on Friday to resume the Bush administration's highly controversial military tribunal system -- which Obama suspended his first week in office -- for some Guantanamo detainees, according to three administration officials. Some of the high-profile terror suspects who are being charged in the tribunal process include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-confessed mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. The administration officials stressed that the updated ...

More than a dozen TV series sign off for the summer this week -- or, in the case of "Prison Break," forever -- but none has as much riding on it as the final two hours of this mojo-recapturing season of "Lost." Among the burning questions we hope -- nah, demand! -- are answered by the two-hour season finale (Wednesday, May 13, ABC, 9-11 p.m. ET): Will Jack (Matthew Fox) negate all of "Lost" history by exploding a hydrogen bomb ...

Pirates off the eastern coast of Somalia picked the wrong target this week when they tried to attack a U.S. Navy ship, the Navy said Thursday.

Nick Stevens was supposed to be spending Saturday night eight stories above the Texas Motor Speedway, partying with classmates at Guyer High School's senior prom. Instead, the senior class president is going paintballing, trying to make the best of a disappointing situation, after school officials decided earlier this week to postpone the prom due to concerns over swine flu. "I thought it was an extremely unwise decision. There are a lot of different ways they could have handle it," said ...

It's hard to read Reyna Hernandez's distress behind her blue surgical mask. But you can hear it. "This is a very difficult time especially for our children," the Mexico City housewife says as she waits outside the National Institute for Respiratory Diseases on the metropolis' south side. Inside the hospital, her 38-year-old husband, a taxi driver and father of their three kids, lies in a bed, unconscious and barely alive, she says, battling what doctors have told Hernandez ...

Pakistan's military killed at least 55 militants over the past 24 hours as part of its week-long crackdown on Taliban militants, an army spokesman said Friday. This week's military operation resulted in more than 230 militant casualties since Sunday, while the military suffered two deaths and eight injuries, according to spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas. He has said he hopes the operation will be completed by the end of the week. The operation is part of the Pakistani army's intensified ...

Pakistan's military continued its assault Thursday on militants in Taliban-held areas, its chief spokesman told reporters. So far, 14 militants have been killed in the past 24 hours, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said. The operation is still ongoing in the districts of Dir and Buner, which was recently seized by the Taliban in violation of an agreement with Pakistan's government. Pakistani forces have completely secured Daggar, the main town in Buner and the scene of heavy fighting on Wednesday, Abbas ...