
Ed Koch, New York's feisty mayor, dies at 88
When Ed Koch was mayor, it seemed as if all of New York was being run by a deli counterman. Koch was funny, irritable, opinionated, often rude and ...

Texas woman's execution halted; DA won't appeal
The first woman scheduled to be executed in the U.S. since 2010 won a reprieve Tuesday, mere hours before she was scheduled to be taken to the Texas ...

Chelsea player criticized after ball boy kicked
Just when it seemed Chelsea's reputation couldn't sink any lower, along came "Ballboygate." The Football Association's disciplinary body will review ...

Beverage industry, NYC lawyers duel over drinks
The city defended its groundbreaking size limit on sugary drinks Wednesday as an imperfect but meaningful rein on obesity, while critics said it would ...

Steve Harvey to host Feb. 1 NAACP Image Awards
Steve Harvey is hosting next month's NAACP Image Awards. The organization said Tuesday that presenters will include "Django Unchained" nominees Samuel ...

Smithsonian curators scout for Obama artifacts
As crowds descended and the inauguration unfolded, a few museum curators in Washington kept watch for symbols and messages that would make history.

US pays tribute to King as Obama begins new term
The youngest daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. hailed the inauguration of the nation's first black president to a new term as one of the ...

Nation honors King on day of Obama inauguration
Commemorative events for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. slid seamlessly into celebrations of the swearing-in Monday of the nation's first black ...

Obama's Inauguration Day is a day for MLK Jr., too
Monday's inaugural may be President Barack Obama's big day, but Martin Luther King Jr. will loom large over the festivities. A quirk in the calendar ...

King 'content of character' quote inspires debate
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content ...

Inauguration Day marks rare intersection with King
President Barack Obama plans to use a Bible that belonged to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as he takes his oath of office on the holiday honoring ...
Report: Miss. school discipline too hard on kids
Civil rights advocates say harsh disciplinary practices at many Mississippi schools lead to children being expelled and even incarcerated for minor ...

Japanese film director Oshima dies at 80
Nagisa Oshima, a Japanese director internationally acclaimed for his films "Empire of Passion" and "In the Realm of the Senses," has died of pneumonia
Delta Sigma Theta Sorority celebrates centennial
The nation's capital is swarming with women wearing crimson and cream, as one of the country's largest African-American sororities gathers to ...

South African musical creates a 1950s fantasy
Do you remember your first kiss? If you have a few years under your belt, maybe you stole it in the back of the movie theater, the projector whirring ...

Sheriff thinks Conn. tragedy a factor in bomb plot
An Alabama teenager who called himself a white supremacist is accused of plotting to attack classmates and a teacher with small homemade explosives, ...

Second time with Obama not as thrilling as before
Four years and one re-election after Barack Obama became America's first black president, some of the thrill is gone. Yes, the inauguration of a U.S.

BCS Championship: Tale of the tape
Everything about the BCS championship between No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 2 Alabama seems larger than life. Not only do these schools stand among the ...

Criminal probe expected after racist soccer chants
A public prosecutor is set to open a criminal inquiry after an exhibition match between AC Milan and lower division club Pro Patria was abandoned ...

NC governor signs pardons for Wilmington 10
Outgoing North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue issued pardons Monday to the Wilmington 10, a group wrongly convicted 40 years ago in a notorious Civil ...

South Africa: Mandela convalesces, legacy secure
South Africa's agonizing past swept over Alex McLaren, who stepped into sunlight with tears in his eyes after a tour of the Apartheid Museum, an ...

Watch Nights mark Emancipation Proclamation 150th
As New Year's Day approached 150 years ago, all eyes were on President Abraham Lincoln in expectation of what he warned 100 days earlier would be ...

Urban advocates say new gun control talk overdue
For years, voices have cried in the urban wilderness: We need to talk about gun control. Yet the guns blazed on. It took a small-town slaughter for ...

Final goodbye: Roll call of some who died in 2012
Neil Armstrong would always be taking that first step onto the moon, and Dick Clark was forever "the world's oldest teenager." Some of the notables ...

Rep. Tim Scott picked to replace DeMint in Senate
Gov. Nikki Haley appointed Rep. Tim Scott to the U.S. Senate on Monday, making him the South's first black Republican senator since Reconstruction in ...