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There has been good news over the past 24 hours for Baton Rouge and New Orleans.Diversion of rising Mississippi River waters though the Morganza Spillway northwest of the cities and into the Atchafalaya River basin appears to have helped lower the chances that the urban areas will be swamped.Major t

A blog posting on the website of Psychology Today asserted that black women were "objectively less physically attractive than other women" and then, as a backlash built — it vanished.The posting was written by Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychology scholar associated with the London S

More than 500 journalists are descending on Orlando, Fla., this week for the start of a murder trial that could be one of the largest in state history.Casey Anthony, 25, is accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.

A judge convicted two American pilots for their role in a 2006 mid-air collision over the Amazon that killed 154 people.The AP reports Brazilian federal judge Murilo Mendes sentenced pilots Joseph Lepore of Bay Shore, New York, and Jan Paladino of Westhampton Beach, New York, to community service in

President Obama said Tuesday that it is "more vital than ever" for Israel and the Palestinians to restart peace talks, pushing for an outcome that looks more distant than ever as he plunges into an intense period of Middle East diplomacy.Addressing reporters after a White House meeting with Jordan's

Food prices are rising, but the impact is not being felt equally around the world, says environmentalist Lester Brown.Brown, the founder and president of the Earth Policy Institute, argues that food has quickly become the hidden driver of world politics in a piece published in the May/June issue of