ONE OF THE BEST kept secrets of the American elite has been that its prison policies have not been tough love but, at best, massive negligent manslaughter

Just when you're certain you've heard about and explored every conceivable crime to which President Clinton has been a party, another bombshell drops.

New Jersey ended its death penalty this week with the stroke of a governor's pen. Whether that decision signals the beginning of the end for capital punishment elsewhere is a topic now being debated by legal experts and death penalty proponents and foes.

LONDON, Dec. 8 -- British police filed fraud charges Saturday against a man who was declared dead after he disappeared on a canoeing trip in 2002 but last week walked into a police station claiming amnesia.

Fisherman Eugene Courterielle, in his cabin outside the remote Indian village of Fort Chipewyan, blames the oil industry for a spate of sick fish.

It may be possible to use a blood test to detect lung cancer, according to a Duke University Medical Center-led study.

A Chinese man whose son died from bird flu also has the virus, raising concerns of possible human to human transmission.

Despite the fantastical scenery, talking armor-wearing polar bears and even a swarm of flying witches, "The Golden Compass" is getting more attention not for its use of fantasy, but instead for something very real: Religion.

When California adopted its criminal sentencing code 30 years ago, a state appeals court marveled that it was virtually incomprehensible, comparing it to income tax forms and insurance policies.

In 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court reestablished that capital punishment was constitutional. Since that date, 13 states have put to death 123 criminals.