How Afghanistan’s Little Tragedies Are Adding Up

There are large-scale civilian deaths in Afghanistan that make headlines, and then there are the small incidents that are barely noticed at all. That was the fate of 12-year-old Benafsha Shaheem. On May 3, she was traveling with family members from her village in western Farah province to a wedding party in the neighboring province of Herat.

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The Scene: The Eternal City challenges ‘Angels’

It’s been three years to the month since Dan Brown’s book "The Da Vinci Code" hit theater screens, becoming a worldwide blockbuster. Now superstar Tom Hanks and director Ron Howard are back with another of Brown’s best-sellers, “Angels & Demons.” Unlike the previous effort in which the Oscar-winning duo went on a shooting spree across several European countries, the new film takes place in just one locale, Rome

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Hunting for the secrets of a happy marriage

No one can truly know what goes on inside a marriage except the two people involved, but researchers are getting increasingly good glimpses at what makes couples tick, how relationships are stressed and what factors can keep the spark alive. (CNN) — No one can truly know what goes on inside a marriage except the two people involved, but researchers are getting increasingly good glimpses at what makes couples tick, how relationships are stressed and what factors can keep the spark alive. The goal: To find out what keeps love alive and couples together.

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The McConaughey Mystery: King of Hunks

The obligatory Matthew McConaughey scene — as crucial to his fans as a Miley Cyrus song or a Seth Rogen penis joke is to theirs — is the ritual removing of his shirt, to reveal a torso that could have been sculpted, or certainly caressed, by Michelangelo. The gesture is not so much an act of narcissism as a votive offering to his core constituency.

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Lawyer in 2007 TB scare sues CDC

An Atlanta, Georgia, lawyer, whose well-publicized bout with tuberculosis caused an international health scare, is suing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for invasion of privacy. In the suit filed this week, Andrew Speaker alleges that the CDC released his name and sensitive medical information to the media in 2007, an act that harmed his reputation, his occupation and led to the ruin of his marriage

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Swine Flu: Mexico’s Lost Weekend

Without traffic, the drive to Mexico City from Cuernavaca usually can take just 50 minutes. Weekends are the exception, when the horrendous jams of vehicles returning from a quick trip outside the capital can snarl the highways for up to three hours. The close of this past weekend, however, was ghostly

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Out-of-wedlock births hit record high

Had she been born a generation earlier, Kim Hoffman might have had a shotgun wedding. As it turned out, she and Steve Miller took the time to plan their dream nuptials — outdoors, on an organic farm, and with their 10-month-old daughter in tow. A pre-marriage birth certainly wasn’t what her father wanted for his only daughter, said Hoffman, of Oakland, California.

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