It takes seven minutes to execute a death row inmate, according to the state of Texas. At that rate, Mike Graczyk has spent about 40 hours of his life watching men -- and a few women -- die. Graczyk, a correspondent for The Associated Press, is believed to hold a macabre record. He's almost certainly watched more executions than anyone else in the United States. "I can't possibly imagine there's been someone present at more than Mike," said Michelle Lyons, ...

Like white picket fences and perfectly manicured lawns, garden gnomes — those colorful residents of front yards the world over — are icons of the suburban ideal: quaint, cheerful and totally inoffensive. But in Germany, one little gnome is stirring up big trouble. In a case that pits art against the country's anti-Nazi laws, prosecutors in the south German city of Nuremberg launched an investigation last week after a gnome giving the Hitler salute was put on display in ...

In the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator, "Shoot the Chinese" is spray-painted on a brick wall near a movie theater. A pair of swastikas and the words "Killer Boys ...! Danger!" can be read on a fence in an outlying neighborhood of yurt dwellings. Graffiti like this, which can be found all over the city, is the work of Mongolia's neo-Nazis, an admittedly implausible but often intimidating, and occasionally violent, movement. Ulan Bator is home to three ultra-nationalist groups claiming ...

Need some social etiquette advice for the digital age? Brad Pitt's got your back in this month's cover story from Wired Magazine. So Brad, should people talk on the phone while they're using the restroom "No, you can't talk on the phone!" Pitt tells the magazine. "Do you want the guy next to you to hear your entire conversation "That's why you should only text in the bathroom. Just be sure you don't hit the wrong button and ...

The Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday it is conducting a safety review of the asthma drug Xolair after data from an ongoing study suggested an increased number of heart attacks and strokes among patients who use it. Shirley McGill, 55, was found dead in her cabin on the Carnival Elation on Tuesday as the ship, after a five-day cruise to Cabo San Lucas, was heading back to its origination point of San Diego, California, authorities said. Robert McGill, who ...

A Los Angeles-area man has been charged with murder in the death of his wife while on a cruise along the Mexican coast, An FBI spokesman told CNN sister network HLN. Shirley McGill, 55, was found dead in her cabin on the Carnival Elation on Tuesday as the ship, after a five-day cruise to Cabo San Lucas, was heading back to its origination point of San Diego, California, authorities said. Robert McGill, who is in his mid-50s, is charged with ...

Michael Jackson's songs and albums went to the top of the charts in the days and weeks following his death --and there may be plenty more hits to come, if his rumored plethora of unreleased songs find their way to the public. Since his death, rumors have surfaced about a mountain of unpublished material from the King of Pop,­ including recent collaborations with artists such as will.i.am and Akon, as well as unused tracks from studio sessions dating back to ...

A former South Korea president who won the Nobel Peace Prize for fostering better relations between North and South Korea has been placed on a respirator in a hospital, a news agency reported Thursday. Kim Dae-jung "became short of breath on Wednesday night and was put on a respirator around 3 a.m. this morning," Park Chang-il, chief of Severance Hospital in Seoul, was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency. "His condition has improved since. He is conscious, and his ...

Given its long history of warfare, the United Kingdom is not squeamish about fatalities in time of war and yet a debate has been ignited by the deaths of 15 British soldiers in Afghanistan over the last few weeks. The question now is whether this profound soul-searching results in a more efficient policy towards the war-torn country. The West became involved in fighting in Afghanistan principally because the Taliban government allowed a non-state actor to carry out acts of ...

Hannah Clark is a 16-year-old with a shy laugh and a love of animals. She likes to go shopping with friends and dreams of a career working with children. But Hannah Clark is no ordinary teenager and her normal life today could not have been possible without a unique, life-changing heart surgery. In 1994 when she was eight-months-old, Hannah was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy -- an inflammation of the heart muscle which impairs the heart's ability to work as it should. ...